Basic English Grammar: By: Ashwini H Asst - Prof of English Department of Humanities Canara Engineering College
Basic English Grammar: By: Ashwini H Asst - Prof of English Department of Humanities Canara Engineering College
GRAMMAR
By: Ashwini H
Asst.Prof of English
Department of Humanities
Canara Engineering College
PARTS OF SPEECH
Different classes or categories into which words are divided to
study language are called Parts of Speech.
There are eight parts of speech:
1. Noun
2. Pronoun
3. Adjective
4. Verb
5. Adverb
6. Preposition
7. Conjunction
8. Interjection
NOUN: NAME OF A PERSON, PLACE, ANIMAL, AND
THING/QUALITY.
Proper noun: Common noun: Collective noun: Material noun: Abstract noun
Name of person or Common to all Collection of Matter/substance Name of some
place. persons or things persons/things of which things quality, feeling or
E.g.: India, Ram of same taken together are made of. an idea.
class/kind. and spoken of as e.g. gold, milk E.g. beauty ,
E.g.: boy, city one whole. kindness
E.g.: army, family
DESCRIPTIVE ADJECTIVES: TELLS US WHAT KIND OF PERSON/THNG IS –Adj of quality. Describe a person or thing- descriptive
ADJECTIVES OF QUALITY adjectives. It answers the question-of what kind?
This child has golden hair.
Restrictive Adjectives: Tells how much of a thing is intended. Answer the question-How much? Little, all, much, whole,
Adjective of quantity enough, great, some, any, sufficient
E.g. He has some rice.
Adjective of number Tells us how many persons/things are meant or order a person /thing stands. Answer the question-
How many? /in what way or order? Ten, sixty, second, many, few….
E.g. We have few seats vacant.
Demonstrative Point out which person, things/places are meant. This, that, these, those, same, such.
Adjectives
E.g. This boy is very polite.
Distributive Shows that the persons/things from a group are taken one at a time. Each, every, either, neither….
Adjectives
Each man has his own opinion.
ADJECTIVE: IS A WORD WHICH ADDS SOMETHING TO THE MEANING OF A NOUN
OR A PRONOUN.
E.G. HE TOLD US AN INTERESTING STORY.
Interrogative Adjectives. What, which, whose and when used with nouns in asking questions.
Which book do you want?
What information has you about it?
Relative Adjectives. What, which and whose are classed as Relative adjectives when they are used with
nouns to relate clauses
A) I know the boy, and B) his father is a police man.
I know the boy whose father is a police man
CORRECT USE OF ADJECTIVES:
Each: used when we speak of two things or the things or persons whose number is
limited, every: is used when the number is far more than two and it is not limited.
E.g. The lightning flashed on each day when it rained.
Every student did his best to win the prize.
Few –negative sense- hardly any , A few-affirmative in sense- at least some
E.g. I have few well-wishers (hardly any)
I have a few friends and well-wishers. They are trust worthy.
Little: negative sense-hardly any , A little – affirmative- some
E.g. There is little milk in the tumbler.
There is a little juice in the glass.
Some: affirmative sense , Any: negative sense
E.g. He has some balls.
They don’t have any balls with them.
Many: indicates number , Much : indicates quantity
E.g. There are many boys in the class.
There is much money in the box
All: indicates number and quantity. Whole : indicates quantity only.
E.g. All students went to Kochi.
They drank up the whole juice.
VERB: IS A WORD THAT DENOTES AN ACTION
OR BEING OR POSSESSION.
VERB The Principal Verb: Complete verb/Main verb.
E.g. They have a cat.(gives complete sense)
Is, am, are, was, were, do, does, did, have, has, had, shall, should,
will, would, can, could, may, might, must, ought, need, dare, used
to, (Modal Auxiliaries)
VERBS EXPRESSING THE PRESENT, PAST AND FUTURE
TENSE PRESENT PAST FUTURE
May/Might/Can
May:possibility, permission, purpose, wish. E.g. You may
come in. May god bless you.
Might is use in the past tense of May.
Can: express power. E.g. I can do this work.
ADVERB: MODIFIES THE MEANING OF THE VERB, AN ADJECTIVE OR
ANOTHER ADVERB.
E.G. SHE SPEAKS LOUDLY.
Adverb Adverbs of Manner: tells how or in what manner an action is done . Answer the question –How/in what manner?
E.g. He ran fast.
Adverbs of Place: tells where or at what place an action is done. Answer the question –where?
E.g. The peon is sitting outside.
Adverbs of Time: tells when or at what time an action is done. Answer the question –when/at what time?
E.g. We shall go tomorrow.
Adverbs of Frequency/Number: tells how often/how frequently an action is done. Answer the question –How
often/how frequently?
E.g. Mr. Sharma rarely comes to our club.
Adverbs of Quantity/Degree: tells how much/to what degree /to what extend a thing is done. Answer the
question-how often/to what extend/to what degree?
E.g. Mohan is too careless.
Preposition of Time (Relationship in (in, at, on, before, after, from, till/ until, by, during, since, between)
time) The meeting will begin at three.(a point of time)
I am going to Meerut on Monday.( used with dates)
Preposition of Movement and Preposition of direction towards : to, towards, into, at, for, against.
Direction We went to school.(reached school)
We went towards school(in the direction of the school)
Preposition of direction from: from, off, out of
From shows departure. Off shows separation.
She had already gone from the office.
He fell off from the horse.
Manner: answer the question How? Agency, instrument : I learnt about it through Ram.
Learn this poem by heart He cut his finger with knife.
Cause/Purpose : answer the question Measure, Rate : Milk is sold by litre.(measure)
Why?
He died of heart attack. Apples are selling at 20rs a kilo.(rate)
Origin, inference, source:
These lines are from Nazrul.(origin)
From her looks I could see she was in trouble.(inference)
We get light from sun.(source)
ERRORS OF PREPOSITIONS
He ordered my dismissal. Correct