The Basics of Grammar

What Is Grammar? Grammar describes where we put words in a sentence (the word order) and what we do to those words so that they convey meaning accurately. How does word…

What Is a Word? Words are the fundamental building blocks for languages. They represent the smallest unit of speech to have some conventional agreed meaning among a group of speakers of…

What Is a Sentence? A sentence consists of at least one main clause and can include further related subordinate clauses to form a group of words that conveys a completed thought…

What Is a Noun? A noun is a word that gives a name to either an object, person or place (such as a ‘table,’ ‘queen’ or ‘London’) or an idea or…

What Is an Article? An article is used to determine whether a noun in a sentence is either known to the audience (the definite article) or non-specific and general (the indefinite…

What Is a Determiner? A determiner is a type of word that goes directly in front of a noun to provide more contextual information about it. It can tell you something…

What Is an Adjective? Adjectives are describing words. They tell us more descriptive information about a noun, such as the word ‘red’ in ‘a red car.’ Adjectives may be attributive (placed…

What Is a Verb? Verbs refer to actions or states. For example, ‘to eat,’ ‘to sing ‘ and ‘to play’ are all verbs describing actions. The verbs ‘to be,’ ‘to seem’…

What Is an Adverb? Adverbs provide more information about a verb, an adjective or another adverb that can relate to manner, degree or place. Let’s take a look at adverbs using…

What Is a Pronoun? To avoid repetition, we often replace nouns in sentences with pronouns. Therefore, the following saying holds true: “Where there’s no noun, there’s a pronoun.” For example, it…

What Is a Preposition? A preposition tells you where something is in relation to something else or when something happened. In terms of expressing where something is, prepositions can relay a…