Agasan, Lyre Joy N.

English Grammar
MW 4:00-5:30 Portfolio

English grammar is the way in which meanings are encoded into wordings in the English
language. This includes the structure of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences, right up to the
structure of whole texts.
There are historical, social, cultural and regional variations of English. Divergences from the
grammar described here occur in some dialects of English. This article describes a generalized
present-day Standard English, the form of speech and writing found in types of public discourse
including broadcasting, education, entertainment, government, and news including both formal
and informal speech. There are differences in grammar between the standard forms of British,
American, and Australian English, although these are minor compared with the differences in
vocabulary and pronunciation.
Preposition
A preposition is a word used to link nouns, pronouns, or phrases to other words within a
sentence. Prepositions are usually short words, and they are normally placed directly in front of
nouns. In some cases, you’ll find prepositions in front of gerund verbs.
Examples of Prepositions
Please sign your name on the dotted line after you read the contract.
Go down the stairs and through the door.
Verb-Preposition
A prepositional verb is an idiomatic expression that combines a verb and a preposition to make a
new verb with a distinct meaning. Some examples of prepositional verbs in English are care for,
long for, apply for, approve of, add to, resort to, result in, count on, and deal with.
Prepositional verbs consist of a transitive verb plus a preposition with which it is closely
associated.
Example:
He stared at the girl.
She finally decided on the blue car.
Prepositional verbs do not take the particle movement rule. The verb and the following
preposition can be separated by an adverb, and the preposition can precede a relative pronoun
and appear at the beginning of a wh- question.
Example:
He stared intently at the girl.
The girl at whom he was staring was strikingly beautiful.

CONJUNCTIONS
Conjunctions are words used as joiners. Different kinds of conjunctions join different kinds of
grammatical structures.
The following are the kinds of conjunctions:
A. COORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS
For, and, nor, but, or, yet, so
Coordinating conjunctions join equals to one another
Coordinating conjunctions usually form looser connections than other conjunctions do.
Coordinating conjunctions go in between items joined, not at the beginning or end.
Punctuation with coordinating conjunctions:
When a coordinating conjunction joins two words, phrases, or subordinate clauses, no comma
should be placed before the conjunction.
A coordinating conjunction joining three or more words, phrases, or subordinate clauses creates
a series and requires commas between the elements.
A coordinating conjunction joining two independent clauses creates a compound sentence and
requires a comma before the coordinating conjunction
B. CORRELATIVE CONJUNCTIONS
either. . .or neither. . . nor
both. . . and not only. . . but also

These pairs of conjunctions require equal (parallel) structures after each one.
C. CONJUNCTIVE ADVERBS
These conjunctions join independent clauses together.
The following are frequently used conjunctive adverbs:
After all Also As a result Besides
In addition Incidentally Indeed In fact
Next Nonetheless On the contrary On the other hand
Consequently Still Meanwhile However
In other words For example Therefore Nevertheless
Otherwise Likewise Hence
Finally Then Moreover
Instead Furthermore Thus

Punctuation:
Place a semicolon before the conjunctive adverb and a comma after the conjunctive adverb.
D. SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS
These words are commonly used as subordinating conjunctions
After When Now that Before Than
In order As far as Wherever Since If
(that)
Lest As though Why That
Unless
Whenever Once Even if Inasmuch as
Although
As soon as Whether So that Though
Insofar as
No matter Because Even though In case (that)
Until how
Provided Supposing Till
As Where (that) (that)
In that As if While How

Subordinating conjunctions also join two clauses together, but in doing so; they make one clause
dependent (or "subordinate") upon the other. A subordinating conjunction may appear at a
sentence beginning or between two clauses in a sentence. It usually provides a tighter connection
between clauses than coordinating conjunctions does.
Loose: It is raining, so we have an umbrella.
Tight: Because it is raining, we have an umbrella.
Punctuation Note:
When the dependent clause is placed first in a sentence, use a comma between the two clauses.
When the independent clause is placed first and the dependent clause second, does not separate
the two clauses with a comma.
Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers
Modifiers
A modifier is a word or phrase that describes another word or phrase. Two common types of
modifiers are the adverb (a word that describes an adjective, a verb, or another adverb) and the
adjective (a word that describes a noun or pronoun). However, though all adjectives and adverbs
are modifiers, not all modifiers are adjectives and adverbs. Many modifiers are entire phrases.
For example:
Responsible for representing students to the faculty and overseeing student organizations, the
Student Council plays an important role in campus life.
The modifying phrase (in italics) provides additional information about the subject of the
sentence: the Student Council.
Clarity with Modifiers
Above all, it should always be clear to the reader which words an adjective, adverb, or modifying
phrase is describing. By paying attention to placement and making sure that if you want to
modify a verb you use an adverb instead of an adjective, you will make it much easier for your
reader to pick up on your intended meaning. In situations where modifiers are used incorrectly,
the result is a dangling modifier, a misplaced modifier, or a squinting modifier.
Dangling Modifiers
A dangling modifier occurs when the modifying phrase is too far away from the word it is
supposed to describe. As a result, the modifier appears to refer to something else, causing
confusion for the reader. Dangling modifiers can be corrected by restructuring the sentence.
Verbal’s: Gerunds, Infinitives, and Participles
The three verbal— gerunds, infinitives, and participles—are formed from verbs, but are never
used alone as action words in sentences. These verbal are important in phrases.
The gerund ends in -ing and functions as a noun.
Jumping is fun. He had a unique way of whistling
He liked skiing.

The infinitive is the base form of a verb with to. Usually it functions as a noun, although it can
also function as an adjective or adverb.
To jump is fun. (Noun; subject of the verb is)
I like to ski. (Noun; direct object of the verb like)
She had a suggestion to offer. (Adjective modifying suggestion)
 He called to warn her. (Adverb modifying the verb called)
A participle is a verb that ends in -ing (present participle) or -ed, -d, -t, -en, -n (past participle).
Participles may function as adjectives, describing or modifying nouns.
The dancing parrots entertained the crowd.
The wrecked sailboat washed up on shore.
But participles have another function. When used with helping verbs such as to be and to have,
they are action verbs and form several verb tenses.
She is thinking of the children.
The conference room had been cleaned before they arrived.

Basic Sentence Patterns

Subject + intransitive verb
Elizabeth swims. Dolphins leap.
Subject + transitive verb + direct object
John hated lima beans. Books convey ideas.
Subject: + linking verb + subject complement
The sea is beautiful. You seem worried.
Subject + transitive verb + indirect object + direct object
The writer sold his publisher a three-part story.
The pitcher threw the catcher a curve ball.
Subject + transitive verb + direct object + object complement
Samantha called her sister a baby.
The king made Gawain a knight.
Verb + subject + verb… [Questions]
Can Sherry play with us?
Will this train leave on time?
Verb + (other) [commands]
Leave this room immediately.
Give your exams to the proctor.
Subject (working as object) + transitive verb [passive voice]
The queen was laid to rest.
Books were read to the children.
Dinner is served at eight.

Diagramming Sentences

Basic Sentence Parts and Patterns

1. Simple subject and predicate

Samson slept.

2. Understood subject (for commands, directives)

Sit!

3. Questions

Where are you going? What were you reading this morning?

Whose bike were you using? May I postpone this assignment?

4. Compound predicate
the cat howled and scratched ferociously.

5. Compound subject and compound predicate

Juanita and Celso worked hard and then rested.

6. Three subjects
Juanita, Federica, and Celso are working.

7. Direct object
Tashonda sent e-mail.

8. Compound direct objects

Tashonda sent cards and letters.

9. Three direct objects

Tashonda sent e-mail, cards, and letters.

10. Compound predicate with one direct object

Samantha proofreads and edits her essays.
 11. Indirect object
Mrs. Doubt fire gave the children homework.

Perfect Tenses
The three perfect tenses in English are the three verb tenses which show action already
completed. (The word perfect literally means "made complete" or "completely done.")
They are formed by the appropriate tense of the verb to have plus the past participle of the verb.
Present Perfect: I have seen it.
(Present tense of to have plus participle. Action is completed with respect to the present.)
Past Perfect: I had seen it.
(Past tense of to have plus participle. Action is completed with respect to the past.)
Future Perfect: I will have seen it.
(Future tense of to have plus participle. Action is completed with respect to the future.)
Some authorities consider the passive voice of certain verbs that are always intransitive to be the
perfect tense also.
Example: They are gone.
Example: He is raised.
Progressive Form
Use the progressive form (sometimes called the continuous form) in conjunction with any verb
tense (present, past, future, present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect) to express an action
that is ongoing with respect to a point in time or another action. To make the progressive, use a
form of the auxiliary be and the present participle of the following verb.
Do not use the progressive form with states or facts; use the simple present tense or simple past
tense instead. Some verbs that commonly describe states are appear, appreciate, be, believe,
belong, care, comprise, consider, contain, cost, desire, dislike, doubt, entail, envy, fear, feel,
forget, hate, have, hear, imagine, include, know, like, look, love, mean, mind, need, owe, own,
possess, prefer, realize, recognize, remember, resemble, see, seem, suppose, taste, think, trust,
understand, want, and weigh.
Troublesome words
Homonyms in English are strange little words that sound similar but are spelled differently and
have different meanings. These can be tricky, and not just for those learning English as a second
language, even those who have spoken the language since birth can confuse them from time to
time. Here are some common homonyms and examples of each word’s proper usage.
Past vs. Passed
This pair is among the most notorious of homonyms and are regularly–and incorrectly–swapped.
To make the confusion worse, not only do the two words sound similar, they are often used in
similar situations. “Past” is a noun, adjective, and adverb, and “passed” is generally used as a
verb or adjective. To determine the use and meaning, examine the rest of the sentence: read it “in
context”.
Noun: “In the past, television had much fewer commercials.”
Adjective: “Over the past week, Bob has really helped out.”
Verb: “The red car passed the blue car,” or “Because he studied homonyms all night, Fred passed
his English test.”
“The time for action is in the past.”
“The time for action has passed.”
There are lists of homonyms on the web, as English is riddled with words that sound similar yet
have different meanings and/or spellings; some of them are very common and are used in
everyday conversation and writing. There are no quick rules on them, and most are just a matter
of memorization and reading the words in context.

Mood of Verbs
The mood of a verb is the manner in which the action or condition is conceived or intended.
In English there are three verb moods.
1. Indicative, a verb stating an apparent fact or asking a question. This is the way verbs are
normally used in English.
Rain is falling. Is rain falling? Rain is not falling.
It can also state an opinion because opinions are stated as if they were facts.
That is a beautiful painting. Chocolate cookies are the best.
The simple, progressive, and perfect tenses are all indicative in mood. Most of the time we
use indicative mood.
2. Imperative, a verb stating a command or request.
 Do not forget your homework.
(You) do not forget your homework.
Imperative mood uses the base form of the verb (to do without to).

3. Subjunctive, a verb expressing a doubt, desire, supposition, or condition contrary to fact.

I wish school were over. (It's not over.) If school were over, I would take a nap. (It's not
over.) If I were a teacher, I would never give homework. (You aren't a teacher.)

ACTIVE / PASSIVE VOICE

Active voice
In most English sentences with an action verb, the subject performs the action denoted by the
verb.
These examples show that the subject is doing the verb's action.

Because the subject does or "acts upon" the verb in such sentences, the sentences are said to be in
the active voice.

Passive voice

One can change the normal word order of many active sentences (those with a direct object) so
that the subject is no longer active, but is, instead, being acted upon by the verb - or passive.

Note in these examples how the subject-verb relationship has changed.

Because the subject is being "acted upon" (or is passive), such sentences are said to be in
the passive voice.

NOTE: Colorful parrots live in the rainforests cannot be changed to passive voice because the
sentence does not have a direct object.

To change a sentence from active to passive voice, do the following:

1. Move the active sentence's direct object into the sentence's subject slot

2. Place the active sentence's subject into a phrase beginning with the preposition by

3. Add a form of the auxiliary verb be to the main verb and change the main verb's form
Because passive voice sentences necessarily add words and change the normal doer-action-
receiver of action direction, they may make the reader work harder to understand the intended
meaning.

As the examples below illustrate, a sentence in active voice flows more smoothly and is easier to
understand than the same sentence in passive voice.
Parallelism

Parallel sentence elements in grammar are just like parallel lines in geometry: they face the same
direction and never meet.
More precisely, in grammar, it’s less about meeting and more about balance. Parallelism in
grammar is defined as two or more phrases or clauses in a sentence that have the same
grammatical structure.
The Why
A sentence with parallel construction makes your writing effective, classy, and certain to impress
anyone who reads your stuff.
The How
Here’s a handy trick for testing parallelism: rewrite the sentence for each element that should be
parallel. For example:
A sentence with parallel construction makes your writing effective. A sentence with parallel
construction makes your writing classy. A sentence with parallel construction makes your
writing certain to impress anyone who reads your stuff.
Effective, classy, and certain are all adjectives. Even though “certain to impress anyone who
reads your stuff” is a mouthful compared to the other two, each sentence element is the same part
of speech. That makes the sentence balanced, and therefore, parallel.
The What
Lack of parallelism can happen in a lot of ways, but the mistake is usually clear enough to make
you wince when you hear it. Read on for the most common parallelism problems you’ll
encounter—and how to avoid them.
Verb Forms
Olympic athletes usually like practicing, competing, and to eat ice cream sandwiches.
In this sentence, practicing and competing are gerunds (verbs functioning as nouns) and “to take”
is an infinitive. It sounds pretty awkward—just like being an athlete with a sweet tooth.
Instead:
Olympic athletes usually like practicing, competing, and eating ice cream sandwiches.
Or
Olympic athletes usually like to practice, compete, and eat ice cream sandwiches.
Note that you don’t need to repeat the “to” in each instance of the infinitive form of the verb. As
long as the form of the verb is the same in all three cases, you’re good to go.
Nouns vs. Verbs
For dinner we like lamb chops and to fry Brussels sprouts.
Lamb chops are a noun. Brussels sprouts are a noun too, but to fry is a verb. Tsk tsk.
For dinner we like lamb chops and Brussels sprouts.
Or
For dinner we like to grill lamb chops and fry Brussels sprouts.
Delicious.
Noun Number
Public transit such as buses or a train can help reduce air pollution.
Multiple buses, one train? That’s not going to solve any environmental issues. Here’s a better
solution:
Public transit such as buses or trains can help reduce air pollution.
More Mismatched Parts of Speech
The detective deftly and with pizzazz outlined how the crime had been committed.
What’s the adverb of “pizzazz”? Great question. Both deftly (adverb) and with pizzazz (a
prepositional phrase) need to be the same part of speech for this sentence to be properly parallel.
And if “pizzazzilly” isn’t a word, that means two nouns are needed.
With deftness and pizzazz, the detective outlined how the crime had been committed.
Subject Matter
He decided to cover the gown in sequins, and had a steak for dinner.
Huh? Unless being a fabulous designer is a recipe for steak, these two actions don’t seem to have
much in common. Parallelism in subject matter means that everything discussed in a sentence
should have at least some amount of clarity and relatedness.
He decided to cover the gown in sequins, and to celebrate, he had a steak for dinner.
Or
He was hungry after he covered the gown in sequins, so he had a steak for dinner.
The possible connections are endless, but for proper parallelism, that connection must be clear to
the reader.
References:
Prepositions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_grammar
http://www.gingersoftware.com/content/grammar-rules/preposition/
https://www.thoughtco.com/prepositional-verb-1691667
Conjunctions
https://webapps.towson.edu/ows/conjunctions.htm
Dangling & Misplaced Modifiers
https://www.boundless.com/writing/textbooks/boundless-writing-textbook/overview-of-english-
grammar-parts-of-speech-250/modifiers-adjectives-and-adverbs-292/misplaced-and-dangling-
modifiers-125-1340/
https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides/english/verb/verbals-gerunds-infinitives-and-
participles
Basic Sentence Patterns
https://www.google.com.ph/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=16&cad=rja&uact=8
&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwiOqMDnyabTAhVFpZQKHctcBZUQFghoMA8&url=https%3A%2F%
2Fwww.utoledo.edu%2Fsuccess%2Fwritingcenter%2Fpdfs%2FBasic_Sentence_Patterns_with_
e.doc&usg=AFQjCNE53EWmn-7_6XqbPIkuNb0FUa6jsg&sig2=MSOz7BKkj-A6In-fos2QJw
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/diagrams2/one_pager1.htm
Perfect Tenses
http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000361.htm
http://www.mit.edu/course/21/21.guide/v-prog.htm
Troublesome Verbs & Homonyms
http://www.grammar.net/troublesomewords
Moods of Verb
http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000347.htm
https://www.englishgrammar101.com/module-3/verbs/lesson-12/moods-of-verbs
Voice of Verb
https://webapps.towson.edu/ows/activepass.htm
Parallelism in Writing
ALICE E.M. UNDERWOOD · Handbook Style https://www.grammarly.com/blog/parallelism.
Reflection:

When we are speaking or hearing English, not too many of us take the time to think about
the fact that English grammar is the very thing that allows us to communicate with and
understand one another. It is not so much because we use the same words of the English
language, but it is because we all put our words together in certain ways to form thoughts and
sentences that we can understand each other. English grammar is the mechanics of the English
language that allows for two people who use the same vocabulary to be able to communicate
without misunderstanding. Certainly there will always be some level of misunderstanding that
happens when two people communicate, but so much of our problems will be lessened if we all
take some time to learn grammar.

This subject teaches me about identifying every small detail of grammar, tenses and
sentence structure, its give me effective communication with other people in using the English
language. I’ll learn about the Past, Present and Future tenses, the common mistakes made when
using these tenses, and their correct usage. I also learn the word order of a sentence structure and
how to turn a sentence into a negative or a question. Although some students perceive the
English subject as a hindrance to their success but still we need to study English because it is
very important. By learning and understanding this subject, you would not have any problem in
communicating with other people with the correct usage of grammar. Furthermore in finding a
job especially in the field of communication, it is essential to know how to speak English
because it is the most basic requirement for most jobs.

Being able to speak, understand and write a language is an important part of being
successful no matter what you do in life. And taking the time to learn even the basics of English
grammar will go far in helping people communicate even better. To love English subject is so
hard for me but I am willing to learn from it. Also I am hoping that someday I will look at the
English subject as a plain land that has a beautiful surroundings and not a mountain that is so
hard to reach.