The Significance of English Grammar
It is crucial to have a strong base in English grammar to be well versed in the global language. Speaking about grammar, one must have a clear idea of the basic English grammar rules. Now, what is grammar? It is often a very tricky question for many the answer to which, on the contrary, is not very difficult if you make it a habit of learning English grammar step by step. Here we will be giving you a glance at the important aspects of English grammar.
When Teaching English grammar for kids, the basic step is to introduce parts of speech into the curriculum. The purpose of knowing parts of speech is to understand how a word is used in a sentence. In English grammar, there are nine major parts of speech; these are- Noun, pronouns, Verb, Adverb, Adjective, Preposition, Conjunction Interjection, and Articles.
We must know the importance of grammar as it is the language that makes us speak or write something meaningful in a language and communicate with others. It defines the word types and groups which make up the sentences in any language and makes them meaningful. Grammar can be associated with correctness and errors and it is the medium by which we can make precise sentences and have clear communication. For example, grammar is seen when students read the sentences written in the poems or prose and they can understand what the writer is trying to convey. The use of grammar in all languages and dialects is followed by the same grammatical patterns. This gives us the knowledge to form the sentence structure and interpret literature. As we learn more about this, we learn to improve our composition and form better compositions ourselves.
Grammar- Parts of Speech
There are certain rules on how one can use them in a sentence. The main types of nouns are Proper Noun (the Taj Mahal), Common Noun (flower), Collective Noun (a shoal of fish), and Abstract Noun (kindness).
Pronouns are further defined by type: Personal, Possessive, Intensive, Indefinite, Demonstrative, Interrogative, Intensive, Reflexive, and Reciprocal. Examples- she, it, mine, them etc. There is a main verb and sometimes one or more helping verbs. Example- "I will eat rice." Eat is the main verb and will is the helping verb. A verb must agree with its singular or plural subject in number. Verbs also take different forms to express tense. When the main verb is followed by an adverb or a preposition the complete phrase together with is known as a phrasal verb. Examples- stand up, fall out, etc.
Adjectives can be of different types like Proper, Descriptive, Quantitative, Numeral, Demonstrative, Distributive, Interrogative, and Possessive. One can use them differently to emphasize the degrees of comparison i.e. positive, comparative, and superlative
degrees. For example: good, better, and best.
Adverbs can be of frequency, manner, place, time or degree. For example: extremely, daily etc.
Conjunctions can be coordinating, subordinating, and correlative.
The article “the” happens to be definite, while the articles “a” and “an” are indefinite.
‘Voice’ in English Grammar
A sentence always contains one subject and an action. Lacking any one of them either makes it a sentence fragment. For example: “today morning” is not a complete sentence but a fragment. There are two voices of the transitive verb when it comes to basic
English learning:
Active Voice: There is a straightforward relationship between the subject and the verb where the subject acts.
Example: She loves to dance.
Passive Voice: The subject here receives the action of the verb which means that the focus is on the action rather than the subject.
Example: Football is played by him.
Tense
The tense of the verb plays a major role in the sentence structure of English grammar. It tells us about what the subject of the sentence has done or will do or will be doing. In English grammar, there are three main tenses i.n. present tense, past tense, and future tense. Each such tense is further divided into simple, perfect, continuous, and perfect continuous tense.
Clause
Clauses are building blocks of a sentence that can be independent or dependent. In basic English grammar, a simple sentence has a subject and a verb used in a complete thought also called an independent clause. Compound sentences have independent clauses joined together with a conjunction. A complex sentence has an independent clause combined with one or more dependent clauses.
To be confident with all the English grammar topics, one must develop a habit of reading books, newspapers and online articles. There is no such thing as ‘different types of grammar in English.’ English grammar is single-type. But just knowing what grammar is not enough; one must regularly speak in English with family and friends to become fluent in it. With regular practice of the above-mentioned topics and a little perseverance, one can improve a lot.
English Grammar
To learn easy English grammar step by step, one must always start with the basic grammar topics.
The basic requirement for writing a grammatically correct sentence is to know the parts of speech. Nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, articles, conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections should be used in the proper sequence to build a meaningful sentence. While using verbs, one must be careful about their agreement with the singular or plural subject.
Writing a sentence in the active voice or passive voice as per the need of the context is of course a crucial step towards learning English grammar. We should be careful about using the same tense of the verb throughout the sentence. A simple sentence is complete with the use of at least one subject and action that defines the subject. When forming a complex sentence, one must focus on using the correct conjunction to join the two clauses.
There is always a logic behind a grammar rule. While writing, reading and listening in English, keep a source of reference handy to understand the logic behind each rule. Nowadays, With easy access to the internet, one can also learn English grammar online. A little effort goes a long way.
FAQs on English Grammar: Essential Rules and Tips for Beginners
1. What are verb tenses?
Verb tenses are of 3 types namely, past, present and future. Past tense as the name suggests is used to define things that have already occurred. For example, yesterday, last week, four years ago, earlier in the day. The present tense is used to define the things that are occurring in the present scenario or that are continuous. Lastly, the future tense is used to describe the events that are yet to occur. For example, next week, tomorrow, 8 years from now, next year etc.
2. What are nouns?
These are the words that are used to describe something. That can be a person’s name, a place, a thing or an idea. They play the role of being the subject, direct or indirect object, complement subject or adjectives. It can be used to describe a person e.g. Albert Einstein was a great scientist. Here, Albert Einstein is the noun. Similarly, in the sentence ‘I am planning to go to New Delhi’, New Delhi is the noun.
3. What are adjectives?
These are the words that are used to modify nouns or pronouns. The use of an adjective is done to define the noun or pronoun and give more information about the words being used. The questions like ‘Which one?’, ‘who does this belong to?’, ‘What type?’ is answered by the use of adjectives.
4. What are connectives in grammar?
These are phrases or words that are used to connect different sentences or clauses to form one sentence together. These can be conjunctions like ‘but’, ‘when’ or ‘because’. They can also be prepositions or adverbs which are used in spoken English and literature. They mainly join the subordinate clauses or the main clauses. When these clauses are joined by the connectives, they form a compound sentence.
5. What are prepositions?
These are words or groups of words that are usually used before nouns, pronouns or noun phrases to define time, direction, place, location, or for the introduction of an object. They are idiomatic. To define the directions, the prepositions that are used are ‘in’, ‘to’, ‘into’, ‘onto’ and ‘on’. Similarly, to define a certain point in time, ‘in’, ‘on’ and ‘at’ are used. To refer to places, ‘in’, ‘at’, ‘inside’ and ‘on’ are used.
6. What is ‘English Grammar’?
English Grammar is a set of rules that helps us to decide the order and use of each word used to make a meaningful phrase or a complete sentence.
7. How to learn English Grammar?
Get hold of a good grammar guide book and refer to online videos, lessons and notes from platforms like Vedantu to get easy access to successful English learning techniques.
8. How to improve English Grammar?
English Grammar is not rocket science. However, one must practice rigorously by writing and proofreading simultaneously. Reading books, newspapers, magazines, and learning new words helps to broaden the horizon of English grammar and vocabulary.
