Grammar basics, in plain English

A word that names a person, place, thing or idea. Nouns answer the questions who and what.

A proper noun names a specific person, place or thing and is capitalized.

In a sentence: The manager posted the schedule on Monday.

A word that takes the place of a noun in a sentence.

Like nouns, pronouns can be the subject or the object of a sentence.

In a sentence: Lena finished the report, and she sent it to the director.

A word that shows an action or a state of being.

In a sentence: Marcus studies in the library, and he is ready for the exam.

A word that describes (modifies) a noun or a pronoun.

In a sentence: Noor carried a heavy binder to the long meeting.

A word that modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb. Adverbs answer how, when, why and where.

Many adverbs end in -ly, but not all of them do.

In a sentence: Priya answered the email quickly, and the team replied very soon.

A word that works with a noun or a pronoun to make a phrase showing how that noun or pronoun relates to another word, such as where, when or in which direction.

In a sentence: Omar left the folder on the desk before the meeting.

Common prepositions: aboard, about, above, across, after, against, along, amid, among, around, behind, below, down, in, into, of, off, on, through, under, within, without.

The list on the Purdue page runs alphabetically from aboard to without and is longer than this one.

In a sentence: Dana walked through the lab, past the storage room and into her advisor’s office.

A word that joins words or groups of words. There are three kinds, each with its own entry in the next group: coordinating, subordinating and correlative.

In a sentence: Ruth reviewed the notes, and Tomas checked the dates.

A word that expresses an emotion such as delight, surprise or disgust.

An interjection usually stands alone and often takes an exclamation point. A mild one inside a sentence is set off with commas.

In a sentence: Wow, the final schedule came out earlier than we expected.

The seven words for, and, nor, but, or, yet and so. They join equal elements: words to words, phrases to phrases, clauses to clauses. The first letters spell FANBOYS.

Joining two independent clauses takes a comma before the conjunction. Joining just two words or phrases takes no comma. Three or more items take commas between them.

In a sentence: Keisha wanted to study tonight, but her shift ran late.

Words such as after, although, because, if, unless, when, since and while. They make one clause depend on the other, which ties the two more tightly than a coordinating conjunction does.

When the dependent clause comes first, a comma follows it. When the independent clause comes first, no comma is needed.

In a sentence: Because the lab closes at six, Gina arrived early.

Pairs that work together: either…or, both…and, neither…nor, not only…but also. What follows each half needs the same (parallel) structure.

In a sentence: Paul checked both the syllabus and the course calendar.

Subject forms: I, you, he, she, it, we, they. Object forms: me, you, him, her, it, us, them. The object forms are the ones used as objects of verbs or prepositions.

In a sentence: Elias sent the file to us, and we thanked him.

Possessive pronouns show ownership and stand in for a noun: mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs. Possessive adjectives come before a noun: my, your, his, her, its, our, their.

None of these takes an apostrophe: its, hers, ours, yours and theirs are all written without one.

In a sentence: That notebook is mine, and the blue one is hers.

They start a relative clause, a dependent clause that describes a noun. Who is for people as the subject, whom for people as the object, whose shows possession, which is for things, and that can refer to things (or to people) and can replace a subject or an object.

As a general rule, that is used only for essential information (no commas). A clause that is not essential is set off with commas.

In a sentence: The instructor who graded the essays returned the report that Sam wrote.

A pronoun agrees in number with the noun it replaces (singular noun, singular pronoun), stays in the same person (do not switch between I, you and they), and points clearly to one noun.

The Purdue page notes that singular they has become more common.

In a sentence: Unclear: when Noor handed Beth the folder, she smiled. Clear: when Noor handed Beth the folder, Noor smiled.

A group of words with a subject and a verb that expresses a complete thought. It can stand alone as a sentence.

In a sentence: The class starts at six.

A group of words with a subject and a verb that does not express a complete thought. It cannot stand alone; it needs an independent clause. Many begin with a subordinating conjunction or a relative pronoun.

In a sentence: Although the lab was crowded, Noor finished early. (“Although the lab was crowded” is the dependent clause.)

One independent clause, with a subject, a predicate and a complete thought.

In a sentence: Lena reviewed the budget.

Two independent clauses joined together, for example with a comma and a coordinating conjunction.

In a sentence: Marcus wrote the summary, and Priya checked the numbers.

One independent clause plus one or more dependent clauses.

In a sentence: Because the deadline moved, Omar finished the draft on Thursday.

At least two independent clauses plus at least one dependent clause.

In a sentence: Dana filled out the form, and Omar mailed it because the deadline was Friday.

The third principal part of a verb: ring, rang, rung. It is the form used with has, have and had to build the perfect tenses. For many verbs it looks the same as the simple past (walk, walked, walked); for others it differs.

In a sentence: The front desk has rung the bell twice since the class began.

Formed with has or have plus the past participle. It covers an action that began in the past and continues into the present, or whose effect still continues.

In a sentence: Priya has worked at the clinic for six years. (She still works there.)

Formed with had plus the past participle. It shows that one past action was completed before another past action.

In a sentence: The meeting had started when Omar logged in. (The meeting began first.)

Simple present, present perfect, simple past, past perfect, future and future perfect. The Purdue page adds that English has many more once helping verbs are counted.

In a sentence: Simple past: Tomas filed the form. Past perfect: Tomas had filed the form before the office closed.