8/17/2016 English Grammar

EnglishGrammar
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/EnglishGrammar.htm

TheFarlexGrammarBook>EnglishGrammar

EnglishGrammar
Grammarreferstothewaywordsareused,classified,andstructuredtogethertoformcoherentwrittenorspoken
communication.

ThisguidetakesatraditionalapproachtoteachingEnglishgrammar,breakingthetopicintothreefundamental
elements:PartsofSpeech,Inflection,andSyntax.Eachoftheseisadiscrete,individualpart,buttheyareall
intrinsicallylinkedtogetherinmeaning.

PartsofSpeech
Inthefirstpartoftheguide,wewilllookatthebasiccomponentsofEnglishwords.Thepartsofspeecharethe
categoriestowhichdifferentwordsareassigned,basedontheirmeaning,structure,andfunctioninasentence.

Welllookingreatdetailatthesevenmainpartsofspeechnouns,pronouns,verbs,adjectives,adverbs,
prepositions,andconjunctionsaswellasothercategoriesofwordsthatdonteasilyfitinwiththerest,suchas
particles,determiners,andgerunds.

Byunderstandingthepartsofspeech,wecanbetterunderstandhow(andwhy)westructurewordstogethertoform
sentences.

Inflection
AlthoughthepartsofspeechprovidethebuildingblocksforEnglish,anotherveryimportantelementisinflection,
theprocessbywhichwordsarechangedinformtocreatenew,specificmeanings.

Therearetwomaincategoriesofinflection:conjugationanddeclension.Conjugationreferstotheinflectionof
verbs,whiledeclensionreferstotheinflectionofnouns,pronouns,adjectives,andadverbs.Wheneverwechangea
verbfromthepresenttensetothepasttense,forexample,weareusingconjugation.Likewise,whenwemakea
nounpluraltoshowthatthereismorethanoneofit,weareusingdeclension.

Syntax
Thethirdandfinalpartoftheguidewillfocusonsyntax,therulesandpatternsthatgovernhowwestructure
sentences.Thegrammaticalstructuresthatconstitutesyntaxcanbethoughtofasahierarchy,withsentencesatthe
topasthelargestcohesiveunitinthelanguageandwords(thepartsofspeech)atthebottom.

Wellbeginthethirdpartbylookingatthebasicstructuralunitspresentinallsentencessubjectsandpredicates
andprogressivelymoveontolargerclassesofstructures,discussingmodifiers,phrases,andclauses.Finally,
wewillendbylookingatthedifferentstructuresandcategoriesofsentencesthemselves.

Usingthethreepartstogether
Thebestwaytoapproachthisguideistothinkofitasacrossreferenceofitselfwhenyouseeatermorconceptin
onesectionthatyoureunfamiliarwith,checktheothersectionstofindamorethoroughexplanation.Neitherparts
ofspeechnorinflectionnorsyntaxexistastrulyseparateunitsitsequallyimportanttoexamineandlearnaboutthe
differentkindsofwords,howtheycanchangetocreatenewmeaning,andtheguidelinesbywhichtheyare
structuredintosentences.

Whenwelearntouseallthreepartstogether,wegainamuchfullerunderstandingofhowtomakeourspeechand
writingnotonlyproper,butnaturalandeffective.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/English-Grammar.htm 1/3
8/17/2016 English Grammar

ChapterSubsections
PartsofSpeech
Inflection(Accidence)
Syntax

TheFarlexGrammarBook2016FarlexInternational.Allrightsreserved.

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JayanthieAnnappahReynold
Iwouldliketopurchaseahardcopyofthisbook.HowdoIgoaboutit
LikeReply 2Jul27,20168:00am

TheFreeDictionary
Thehardcopywillbeavailablehereverysoon!
http://www.farlex.com/GrammarBook/
LikeReplyAug11,201610:01pm

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