BASIC GRAMMAR

TERMS
LEARNING OUTCOMES:

Use students’ prior knowledge in

understanding grammar
terminologies.
 WORD
LEXICAL WORDS AND GRAMMATICAL WORDS
A lexical item (lexical word) is what we recognize as "the ordinary
word." It can be a part of a word or a chain of words. Lexical items are
the basic building blocks of a language's vocabulary.
• cat (single word)
• traffic light (two words which means one thing)
• take care of (verbal phrase)
• by the way (idiomatic phrase)
• it's raining cats and dogs (chain of words)
 WORD
GRAMMATICAL WORDS
A grammatical word (function word) is a word that in itself has either:
(1) little or no actual meaning (lexical meaning) or
(2) ambiguous or uncertain meaning, but functions to indicate grammatical
relationships with other words in a sentence. The usual grammatical
words are:
• auxiliaries (am, are, be, do, got, is, have, etc.)
• conjunctions (and, although, or, that, when, while, etc.)
• determiners (a, either, more, much, neither, my, that, the, etc.)
• particles (as, no, nor, not, etc.)
• prepositions (at, between, in, of, without, etc.)
• pronouns (i, you, he, she, it, we, they, anybody, one, etc.)
 WORD

LEXICAL WORDS AND GRAMMATICAL WORDS

Lexical words are ordinary words to denote things
whereas, grammatical words are the words that operates the
grammar.
 PHRASE
A phrase is a group of words without a subject-verb
component, and is used as a single part of speech.

Examples:

• best friend (this phrase acts as a noun)

• needing help (this phrase acts as an adjective
• with the blue shirt (prepositional phrase acts as an adjective
• for twenty days (prepositional phrase acts as an adverb)
 CLAUSE

A clause is a group of words containing a subject and verb.

It has two types:
1. Independent clause
Is a simple sentence. It can stand on its own.

Example:
She is hungry.
I am feeling well today.
 CLAUSE
Dependent Independent

Although she is hungry, she will give him some of her food.

Whatever they decide, I will agree to.

A dependent clause cannot stand on its own. It needs an

independent clause to complete a sentence. Dependent clauses
often begin with such words as although, since, if,
when, and because.

Example:
Although she is hungry …
Whoever is hungry …
Because I am feeling well …
 BASIC SENTENCE
PARTS OF SENTENCE: SUBJECT, PREDICATE,
OBJECT, INDIRECT OBJECT, COMPLEMENT

Every word in a sentence serves a specific purpose within

the structure of that particular sentence. According to rules of
grammar, sentence structure can sometimes be quite
complicated. The two most basic parts of a sentence are
the subject and predicate.
 BASIC SENTENCE

SUBJECT
A person or thing that is being discussed, described, or dealt
with.
Example:
John went home.
The girl dances gracefully.
 BASIC SENTENCE

PREDICATE
The part of a sentence or clause containing a verb and stating
something about the subject.
Example:
John went home.
The girl dances gracefully.
Questions?