Basics of English Grammar

1. Basics of English Grammar The English language has a lot of rules to it. That should be a good thing. When you have a language that uses strict rules, you are much more likely to have language uniformity and that leads to more people understanding each other, which is the point of language in the first place. However, with English, there are tons of rules, but we do not always follow them. We have rules of thumb that we have come up with for the language, including one of the common ones, I before E except after C. Now, this is all well and good in theory to help with words like receive and believe, but then you come across a word like society or their and realize that the rule means absolutely nothing unless used in the right context. A rule that requires other rules to specify use is just a bad rule. As much as we try to make the English language easier with those mnemonics, it is just a complicated language. Here are some of the basic grammar rules that you will need to grasp before moving on to the even more insanely complex stuff. Parts of Speech On the most basic level of language are the words and our words are classified into parts of speech. The most common three are nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Nouns are people, places, and things. They are objects and usually the subjects of the sentence. Verbs are actions and also sometimes serve to help you figure out timing, whether the action is currently taking place or it has happened or will happen. Adjectives are descriptors that modify a noun with more specificity. Other parts of speech that further complicate sentences include adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections, and articles. Types of Sentences When you break down how sentences are formed, there are four basic types of sentences that you can use. Declarative sentences are statements, usually declaring a fact. That might be something simple like “He went home.” Interrogative statements ask a question, which likely means that you are looking for a declarative response. In the previous situation, you might first ask the interrogative sentence “Where did he go?” Third are exclamatory sentences, which express a strong emotion. They are similar to declarative sentences, although they can often be more subjective, while declarative statements are more likely objective. In an exclamatory sentence, you might say “His home is boring.” Finally, imperative sentences come with a strong command. If we were wondering why he went home, the answer might be that someone told him “Please go home.”

2. Punctuation People often think that the only punctuation are the symbols that come in the middle or at the end of sentences, but sentences actually begin with punctuation too because capitalization is a part of the process as well. Sentences always begin with a capital letter, as do proper nouns and other titles. After that, we have commas, semi-colons, colons, question marks, exclamation points, periods, and more that affect our sentences. There are too many rules to get into here, but you should learn them all to write properly. source : https://englishreadingandwritingtutor.blogspot.com/2019/09/basics-of- english-grammar.html