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| Grammar spelled out
with scrabble tiles. |
Grammar
English grammar is the grammar of the English language.
Grammar is the rules about how to speak and write in a
language. English grammar started out based on Old
English, which is considered to be a Germanic language.
After the Norman French conquered England in 1066, parts
of the Latin language were brought to the English
language by the Norman French.
Dialect grammar
Dialects of English vary not only in pronunciation but
in grammar. For example, people who use what is called
General American English or BBC English might say, I
didn't do anything, while someone who speaks what is
called African American Vernacular English might say, I
didn't do nothing. London working class version: I ain't
done nuffink! The dialect a person uses is usually
decided by where they live.
Even though the dialects of English use different words
or word order, they still have grammar rules. However,
when writing in American English, grammar uses the rules
of General American English. When people talk about
using "proper English", they usually mean using the
grammar of general British English, as described in
standard reference works. The models for spoken English
in Britain are often called Received Pronunciation or
BBC English. |
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Word endings
English makes few changes to its word endings. These are
called ('suffixes'): plurals and possessives (John's)
are the most common. English verbs drop most endings
except one: I love, you love, they love, but she loves.
That final 's' is a remnant of Anglo-Saxon, which had
more suffixes. Verbs do have endings which show changes
in tense: walked, walking.
Word order
Word order is the other big difference. In English,
adjectives usually come before the noun. Most Romance
languages normally put their adjectives after the nouns.
For example, in English, a person may say I like fast
cars, but in Spanish, it is Me gustan los coches rápidos
[coches = cars; rápidos = fast]. The order of the words
has changed: if just the words, without the grammar, are
translated into English, it would mean 'to me they
please the cars fast'. This is because Spanish and
English have different rules about word order. In
German, main verbs often come near the end of sentences,
but in English we usually put them between subject and
object, as: the cat sat on the mat. |
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Parts of speech
Grammar studies the different parts of language. The
parts of language are called "parts of speech." The
parts of speech are nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives,
adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.
Nouns
Nouns are things. They can be a single thing such as an
apple. They can also be plural such as a box of apples.
There is a special kind of noun called a proper noun,
which is a name. For instance, Johnny Appleseed.
Pronouns
Pronouns are special types of nouns. They are not a
particular thing. They can mean many different things.
An example is the word "it." In the sentence "I like the
ball; it is blue," you have to look at what comes before
"it" to know that "it" is talking about the ball. The
noun before a pronoun that the pronoun really means is
called the antecedent.
Verbs
The basic verb form is called the infinitive. The
infinitive for existence is "to be". A famous example is
the speech of Hamlet: to be or not to be? Variations of
the infinitive create verb tenses.
Past tense = was
Present tense = is
Adjectives
Words that tell you about nouns are called adjectives.
When an adjective is used, you learn more about the
noun. An example would be the words "red" and "juicy" in
the phrase "the red apple is juicy." They do not have
any endings. Even if the noun they talk about is plural,
they stay the same. You can see this in the sentence
"the red apples are juicy."
Adverbs
Adverbs are words that tell you about words that are not
nouns. An adverb can describe a verb, like the word
"quickly" in the sentence "He ran quickly." They can
also describe an adjective. The adverb "very" describes
the adjective "sick" in the sentence "The boy is very
sick." Adverbs can even describe other adverbs, as in
the sentence "He ran very quickly."
Prepositions
A preposition is a word that describes how one noun (or
pronoun) relates to another in the sentence as a whole.
The preposition usually comes before the noun that it
adds to the sentence, which is called the object of the
preposition. An example is the word "over" in the
sentence "he walked over the bridge."
Conjunctions
A conjunction is a word that connects other parts of a
sentence. It can connect two words that both do the same
thing in a sentence. "And" in the sentence "the boy and
the girl run" connects the boy to the girl because they
both run. Conjunctions can even connect two clauses that
would normally be different sentences together. The word
"but" in the sentence "I like cats, but he likes dogs"
is a conjunction doing this.
Interjections
Interjections are words that do not fit normal grammar
rules. Interjections can and often do take the place of
an entire sentence, as they can give they meaning of a
whole sentence in a single word. These can be used to
show emotions, such as the word "Hooray," which means
that the speaker is happy or likes something. They are
also used to shorten common phrases that would otherwise
need a full sentence to talk about. For example, saying
the word "yes" is much simpler than saying "what you say
is true," so it is usually used instead. Interjections
like these can be helpful for saving time and making
complex sentences very simple. Often, though,
interjections may have no meaning at all, such as the
word "um." |
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Syntax
Grammar also studies how the parts of language work
together. This is called "syntax." Some common ways in
which the words fit together are sentences, phrases,
clauses, and paragraphs. |
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