English Grammar

Rules and Tips & Tricks

for competitive exams!
 PDF-1
Grammar Rules
Made Simple and Easy
The Complete Grammar Guide
English grammar rules Nithra

English Grammar Rules

TABLE OF CONTENT

S.NO CONTENTS

I Grammar Introduction

II Parts of speech

III Articles

IV Gerunds and Infinitives

V Tenses

VI Active and Passive voice

VII Direct and Indirect speech

VIII Degrees of comparison

IX Sentence Pattern

X Modifiers

XI Phrase

XII Clause

XIII Kinds of Sentence

XIV Question Tags

1
English grammar rules Nithra

INTRODUCTION:
Grammar, rules of a language governing the sounds, words, sentences, and other
elements, as well as their combination and interpretation. The word grammar also denotes the
study of these abstract features or a book presenting these rules. In a restricted sense, the term
refers only to the study of sentence and word structure (syntax and morphology), excluding
vocabulary and pronunciation. “Grammar” refers to the way words are used, classified, and
structured together to form coherent written or spoken communication. Grammar is the way we
arrange words to make proper sentences. Word level grammar covers verbs and tenses, nouns,
adverbs etc. Sentence level grammar covers phrases, clauses, reported speech etc.

I. PARTS OF SPEECH

There are Eight parts of Speech in English grammar

● NOUN
● PRONOUN
● VERB
● ADVERB
● ADJECTIVE
● PREPOSITION
● CONJUNCTION
● INTERJECTION

NOUN:

Nouns names a Person, Place, Things, Animals and Ideas. Sometimes they act as the
subject or object of the sentence.

Example:

● He lives in Delhi.
● I Love to play with my cat.

Types of nouns:

Nouns can be classified on the ‘basis of the meaning’ and on the ‘basis of the form’.
According to the basis of the meaning it can be classified as “Proper nouns and common
nouns.”

2
English grammar rules Nithra

PROPER NOUNS
A noun that designates a particular name of a Person, Place or Special names is known
as Proper nouns.

Example:

1. My name is Alex.
2. I love Switzerland.

COMMON NOUNS
The Common noun that names the Specific living or nonliving things, place or ideas.

Example:
1. I am a fan of M.S.Dhoni
2. Arun likes this Restaurant.

Types of Common nouns:

★ Collective Nouns
★ Concrete nouns
★ Abstract nouns

Collective nouns:
The Common noun that denotes a group of persons or objects of the same kind are called
Collective nouns.

Example:

1. Our class took a field trip to the park.

2. A flock of birds flying in the sky.

Concrete nouns:
A concrete noun is a word that denotes something concrete that could be tasted, touched,
or seen, something that exists physically.

3
English grammar rules Nithra

Example:

1. The house at the end of the street belongs to me.

2. My dog likes to eat bread.

Abstract noun:

An abstract noun names a quality or an idea. Abstract nouns are nouns that name abstract
concepts, or concepts that cannot be experienced with the senses.

Example:

1. Man has both good sides and evil sides.

2. Alex has fear for dogs.

Noun: Number

On the basis of the form, all common nouns are divided into Countable and Uncountable.

Countable noun:
The countable nouns that denote things that can be counted.Countable nouns can be
divided into Singular and plural. Concrete nouns are mainly countable.

Example:

Singular countable nouns Plural countable nouns

A student students

A dog dogs

A chair chairs

Uncountable nouns:
The Uncountable nouns that denote things that cannot be counted. Uncountable nouns
have no plural forms and lack singular plural concepts.

4
English grammar rules Nithra

Example:

1. Beauty is truth.
2. Have you got some paper to draw a picture?

Compound nouns:
Compound nouns are nouns that are made up of two or more words. Compound words
can be formed in three ways.

❖ Open form
❖ Closed form
❖ Hyphenated form

Open form - These are kind of compound nouns which function as one unique word but are still
written as two or more words separated by the space between them.

Example:

1. Post office
2. Middle class

Closed form - It’s simply two words coming together form a single word without any
Punctuation or spaces.

Example:

1. Baseball
2. Keyboard

Hyphenated word - In this the two or more words are connected through the Hyphen and form
a compound word.

Example:

1. Eight-pack
2. Brother-in-law

5
English grammar rules Nithra

Ways to form compound words:

Forms Example

Noun + Noun Bedroom, Motorcycle

Noun + Verb Waterfall, Raindrop

Noun + Adverb Hanger-on, Passer-by

Verb + Noun Washing machine, Swimming pool

Verb + Adverb Lookout, Takeover

Adverb + noun Online, Overdue

Adverb + Verb Input, Output

Adjective + Noun Blackboard, Greenhouse

Adjective + Verb Public speaking, Dry - cleaning

Adjective + Adjective Red-orange, Golden yellow

Noun + Preposition Love-in

Verb + Preposition Takeout, check-in

Preposition + Noun Underworld, Bystand

Preposition + Verb Take-in, Drawback

Possessive Nouns:
Possessive nouns are nouns which show ownership or possession.

Rules Definition Example

Rule - 1 If it does not end with “S”, add apostrophe and “s” The puppy’s collar is red.
at the end.

Rule - 2 Add an apostrophe at the end of the word which The companies’ workers are
already contains “s”. given bonuses.

6
 PDF-2
GRAMMAR Shortcuts,
Tips and Tricks
500+ Ideas
Grammar tips and tricks Nithra

GRAMMAR TIPS BUNDLES

1
Grammar tips and tricks Nithra

PARTS OF SPEECH
NOUN:

Nouns names a Person, Place, Things, Animals and Ideas. Sometimes

they act as the subject or object of the sentence.
★ If in the end of a Noun there is ‘s’, ‘sh’, ‘ss’, ‘z’ or ‘ch’ then to make it
plural we add ‘es’ in the end of the noun. For example: Ass-Asses ,
Box-Boxes.
★ If a singular noun contains ‘f’ or ‘fe’ in the last of the word, we add
‘ves’. For example:Knife - knives , Leaf - Leaves.
★ If a noun ends with ‘Y’ and before ‘Y’ that contain a consonant then
to make that plural we can remove ‘Y’ with the ‘ies’. For
example:Army - Armies , Lady - Ladies.
★ If a noun contains ‘o’ in the end of the word and before it there is a
consonant then to make that plural we should add ‘es’. For example:
Hero - Heroes , Mango - Mangoes.
★ The noun which is in compound word, they have not hyphenated
between the words then simply we add ‘s’ in the end of the noun. For
example: Cupful - Cupfuls , Handful - Handfuls.

2
Grammar tips and tricks Nithra

★ Noun which is divided by hyphen, to make that plural we add ‘s’ in

the important parts of the word. For example: Tooth- brush - Tooth -
brushes, Pass- book - Pass - books.
★ If the noun which is formed by compound and that has one portion
is preposition then to make that plural we add ‘s’ which comes
before the preposition. For example: Father-in-law - Fathers - in - law,
Passer- by - Passers – by.
★ If the compound noun has man or woman then to make that plural
we need to add ‘s’ in the whole. For example: Man - servant → Men -
servants, Woman - engineer → Women - engineers.
★ If we use Police then it is a plural noun but if we use man in Police
then it will be known as a singular noun. For example: Police are
corrupt. (But the) Police man is honest.
PRONOUNS:
A Pronoun is a word that is used instead of a noun or noun phrase.
❖ Always use the object pronoun after prepositions.
For example:
1. They Send letters to him.
❖ Don’t use a reflexive pronoun unless the noun or pronoun referred to
appears in the same sentence.

CORRECT SENTENCE INCORRECT SENTENCE

Arun bought tickets for Alex and Arun bought tickets for Alex and
himself. myself.
❖ Don’t overuse compound personal pronouns for emphasis. For
example: I myself am personally responsible for the project. (Here
the pronoun “myself” is redundant.)

3
Grammar tips and tricks Nithra

❖ Don’t get confused with the multiple Subject/object. The individual

sentence should make sense even if they are broken.
For example:
1. Mario and me went to the castle to save the princess.
(Incorrect)
2. Mario and I went to the castle to save the princess. (correct)
❖ The nominative case should always follow the verb to be, but this rule
is not usually followed.
For example:
1. It’s me at the door. (Incorrect)
2. It’s I at the door. (correct)
❖ Intensive pronouns are identical to reflexive pronouns. They are used
to emphasize the nouns or pronouns and in most cases are found
right next to them.
For example:
1. He himself will do that.

4
Grammar tips and tricks Nithra

2. They themselves settle down.

❖ Reflexive pronouns are used when the subject and object are one and
the same.
For example:
1. I told myself not to bet all my money on one horse.
VERB:

Verbs are the action words in a sentence that describe what the subject is
doing.
★ Some indefinite pronouns are considered singular and require
singular verb forms.

5
Grammar tips and tricks Nithra

For example:
Everyone wants to watch the movie.
★ After many/a great many/a good many, etc., the noun is always
plural, which is followed by a plural verb.
For example:
A great many girls are following fashion trends these days.
★ After 'the number', the noun is plural but the verb is singular.
For example:
The number of soldiers at the border is large.
★ Some words end in “S” and appear to be plural but are really
singular and require singular verbs.
For example:
The news from across the border is not encouraging.
★ The verb in the subjunctive mood always takes the plural verb,
even if the subject is singular in nature.
For example:
I wish I were a king.
★ Collective nouns may take either a singular or a plural verb,
depending on their use in the sentence.
For example:
An army of soldiers were killed yesterday.

ADJECTIVES:

❖ When adjectives are used together, you should separate them

with a comma or conjunction.
For example:
I’m looking for a small, good-tempered dog to keep as a pet.
❖ Absolute adjectives describe something in its own right.
For example:

6
Grammar tips and tricks Nithra

A mischievous cat I had ever seen.

❖ Coordinate adjectives should be separated by a comma or the word
and.
For example:
Isobel’s dedicated and tireless efforts made all the difference.
❖ Two adjectives appear next to each other doesn’t automatically
mean they are coordinates. Sometimes, an adjective and a noun
form a single semantic unit, which is then modified by another
adjective. In this case, the adjectives are not co-ordinate and should
not be separated by a comma.
For example:
My cat, Goober, loves sleeping on this tattered woolen
sweater.

❖ Adjectives can also act as complements for linking verbs this leads to
incorrectly substituting an adverb in place of a predicate adjective.
For example:
1. I feel badly about what happened. (Incorrect)
❖ A word that is normally used as a noun can function as an adjective,
depending on its placement.
For example:
1. Mario is working on a fundraiser to help the homeless.
❖ Adjectives or predicate adjectives are required by linking verbs that
do not describe actions.