Rules of English Grammar -
March 16th, 2008
Rules of English Grammar
Here is an article which aims to guide you through the rules of English Grammar.
Grammar for any language is a set of rules that helps us to use the language better. The first step while learning a language is to learn the grammar of that language and master it, though there are always some parts of grammar, which cannot be explained logically, but they form only a minor portion of the language. English is a language, which is spoken all across the world by numerous people. Thus being the most popular language there have been major discussions about the basic rules of English Grammar. The need to go into the details of English Grammar has increased because of Globalization, which makes it imperative for people to have a common language, which can be used as a means of communication. Moreover as a result of the fact that most of the European business is being outsourced to Asian countries the need for the knowledge of English has grown manifold. So let us sneak a quick look at the rules of English Grammar.
Basic Rules of English Grammar
Before going into the details of Subject Verb agreement, we would discuss about "subject" and "verb". Subject is the thing or person that you are talking about and Verb as we all know is the doing word.
Example: John is kicking the ball.
In this particular sentence John is the subject and kicking is the verb. Let me tell you that "is" is also a verb. In grammar it is generally referred to as the modal verb which tells us if John is doing the action in Present, Past or Future. Now we will see where the Subject verb agreement comes into play. When we talk about John we are talking about a single person so the modal verb, which is being used, is for a singular noun and that is "is". Now of instead of John if we had two names or two subjects the verb would change to "are" which is the verb for Plural nouns. So this is the most common example of Subject Verb agreement. The most common mistake of Subject Verb agreement is the use of "has" and "have". "Has" is used in case of singular nouns, third person and "Have" is used in case of Plural Nouns.
As we discussed Subject Verb Agreement two other concepts that came up were Number of Subjects and Tense of the action done. So let us first discuss Number here. There can be two conditions in case of numbers; either the number of subjects can be one or more than one. In case of one subject, the subject would be called Singular noun and in case of subject being more than one, it would be called Plural noun. As stated earlier with the number the verb would also alter so here is an example.
Sentence: The boy walks.
Sentence: The boys walk.
Now the obvious difference, apart from the number is the deletion of the "s" from the verb as the subject becomes plural, so that is the case: Whenever the subject is singular and third person the verb would have "s" added to it. In case of modal verbs, the verb would be "has".
Singular Verb Plural Verb
First Person I am, have, was We are, have, were
Second Person You are, have, were You are, have, had
Third Person He, She has, had They have, had
This chart would surely help you to understand the number and the verb concept. Let us now come to the Tenses,
Tense implies the time of the action, which can be past, present or future. If there is a timeline wherein 0 where you stand is present, anything that is to the left side of zero is past and anything that is on the right side of 0 on the time is future. If that was difficult, let me put it this way, whatever happens today or right at this moment is present, whatever has happened yesterday or day before is past and whatever will happen tomorrow or day after is future. Here are a few examples that would make things easier to understand.
Past: I kicked the ball
Present: I kick the ball.
Future: I will kick the ball.
Articles are pointers of nouns being definite or indefinite. "The" is a definite article which is always used when you are referring to a specific noun and most of the times that noun has been mentioned once before. So when it comes to indefinite articles that are "a or an" it refers to any noun in that category. "A" is used when the noun begins with a vowel and "an" is used when a noun begins with a vowel. The following examples would make it much more comprehensible.
John: I saw a monkey yesterday on the parapet.
Smith: Did you? Is it the same monkey, which was on windowsill the other day?
Paul: Ye! Ye! I bought an owl yesterday.
If you are a beginner these are the basic rules of English Grammar, which you have to assimilate before proceeding towards the more complex rules of the language. So all the best and happy learning!!
“Statistics are like a Bikini.
What they reveal is Suggestive,
but what they Conceal is VITAL.”