What is grammar?

Here's a good definition of grammar:

a description of the structure of a language and the way in which linguistic units such as words
and phrases are combined to produce sentences in the language.
Sometimes, the term grammar also includes phonology (the study of sounds) but in this course
we will put phonology in a separate section. Grammar also includes the way we change words
and build words from smaller units (morphemes and morphology) but this, too, will be in a
separate section in this course on lexis.
You should be able to understand and use these key concepts:

 grammatical form, grammatical function and inflexion

 context and co-text
 content words
o noun (proper, mass, count), verb (lexical or main, copular, primary auxiliary,
modal auxiliary), adjective (predicative and attributive), adverb (manner, time,
place, frequency, degree), interjection
 function words
o determiner (article, demonstrative, wh-word, possessive, quantifier), preposition
(place and time), pronoun (personal and other), conjunction (coordinating,
subordinating, correlating)
 modification
 tense
 aspect
 phrases

Grammatical form and grammatical

function
Grammatical form refers to how a word or phrase is made in English.  For example:
The base form of the verb is smoke but, when the subject is  he, she or it, the form of the
verb changes to smokes.
The noun is child but when we make it plural, we change the form to children.
With an adjective in English such as happy we can change the form and make it a
noun: happiness.  There is more on how we do that in the guide to lexis.
When we change the form of a word in English, the change is called an inflexion.  For
example:
smoke → smokes: this is the third-person, -s inflexion.
printed → printed: the verb is inflected to show the past tense with -ed.
print → printable: the verb is made into an adjective by the addition of the suffix able.
Inflexion is sometimes spelled inflection, by the way.  Both are correct.
Grammatical function refers to what a word is doing in the language.  For example:
In I cut my finger yesterday, the word cut has the grammatical function of
a verb describing an action.
In I have a bad cut on my finger, the word cut has the grammatical function of
a noun for a thing.
In The English are strange people, the word English is a noun for the people who live in
England.
In Mary is English, the word English is an adjective describing her nationality.  It
is modifying the noun Mary.
It is easy to see that you do not know what a word is doing when you look at it.  You must see or
hear it in a context to know what it means and what sort of word it is.  Where, socially, or in a
text the word is used is referred to as context.  The words around the word in a text, written or
spoken, is referred to as co-text.

Two different sorts of words

There are two kinds of words in English.

1. Content words
When they are alone, these words still have a meaning.  For example:
house, school, beauty, dislike, begin, jump, happy, sad, important, quickly, now,
fortunately
When you see or hear these words you can provide a definition and, often, a translation
into another language.
2. Grammar or function words
These words mean nothing when they are alone but they make the grammar of the
language work.  For example:
in, out, up, the, a, an, this, that, he, she, them, and, when, but
When you see or hear these words you cannot define them or provide a translation until
you know what they are doing in the sentence by looking at the co-text.

ontent words

There are 5 types of content words in English.

1. NOUNS

Nouns are words for people, places, things and feelings.  Here are some examples of the three
types:

1. Proper nouns refer to people and places:

George is in London
Russia is huge
The European Union has lots of members
2. Mass nouns refer things which do not have a plural:
milk is expensive here
sugar is bad for me
the water is very cold
happiness is important
beauty doesn't last long
3. Count nouns refer to things we can have in the plural and most nouns are in this
group:
I have a pencil and two pens
my house is here
dogs are not usually dangerous
I love trees
 my country is beautiful
he's a  Scotsman
2. VERBS

Verbs are words for doing, thinking, speaking and being.  Here are some examples of the
five types:

1. Verbs describing actions, behaviour or feelings.  These are lexical

verbs or main verbs which carry meaning even if alone:
    kick the ball
    don't worry
    the glass broke
    I  am watching TV
    Begin!
2. Verbs describing states and thinking  These are also lexical verbs or main verbs
which carry meaning even if alone:
    I  enjoy walking
    I  hope  she is here
    she  hates  pasta
    it helps me work
    Think!
3. Linking or copular verbs join nouns to nouns and nouns to adjectives and show
the connection between things:
    I  am in London
    she  became the manager
    the car looks wonderful
    she  got  older
    there is a house on the corner
The verbs do not mean anything if they do not connect two things so, e.g.:
    *She got
    *They are
    *It became
all mean nothing.
4. Primary Auxiliary verbs make tenses with other verbs:
    I  have broken the glass
    she  is working in Berlin
    they  got  the car repaired
    we don't visit museums
Again, the verbs do not mean anything if they do not make a form with another
verb so, e.g.:
    *She has
    *They are
    *We got
all mean nothing (unless you have clear co-text so you can fill in the missing
information in your head).
5. Modal auxiliary verbs show how you feel about other verbs.  They do not stand
alone but are always with other verbs:
    I  can  come at six
    she  will go later
    they  must go
    we used to work harder
Again, the verbs do not mean anything if they do not come with a main verb so,
 e.g.:
    *She can
    *They will
    *It must
all mean nothing (unless you have clear co-text so you can fill in the missing
information in your head).

3. ADJECTIVES

one orange pea

4. Adjectives modify (i.e., change) nouns.  They can come before or after the noun they
describe.  For example:
1. It's a  huge  house with a long garden (adjective before the noun: attributive use)
2. The house is tiny and the garden is very small (adjective after the noun, joined
with a linking verb: predicative use)

Some adjectives describe the noun.  For example:

It's a red house
and some tell us what sort of noun it is, for example:
It's a detached house
This is an important difference.
Words which describe the noun are called epithets.  Words which classify the noun are
called classifiers.
For more on adjectives, see the guide on this site.

4. ADVERBS

Adverbs describe (modify) verbs and some modify adjectives and other adverbs.  There
are five types which answer different questions:

1. How?  Adverbs of manner: he drove quickly, he walked slowly, he

spoke happily
2. When?  Adverbs of time: I'll arrive soon, She left early, I'm flying tomorrow
3. Where?  Adverbs of place: sit here, please smoke outside, come in
4. How often?  Adverbs of frequency: she often works at home,
they frequently take a holiday, we  sometimes play cards
5. How much?  Adverbs of degree: I like it a lot, they really  enjoy their food, he
drove very quickly, she hugely enjoyed the play

Some adverbs also modify adjectives.  For example:

She was very happy.
They were slightly interested
Some adverbs also modify other adverbs.  For example:
She drove very  quickly
He arrived extremely quickly
For more on adverbs, see the guide on this site.

1. INTERJECTIONS (sometimes called exclamations)

 These are words we use, usually in speech, and informally, to show our feelings: surprise,
pain, tiredness, fear etc.  Here are some examples:

2.     Wow!  What a beautiful house!

    Ouch!  That hurts.
    Oh, I didn't know that.
    Yuck!  That's horrible.

Here is the big picture:

Grammar or Function
words

These words mean nothing when they are alone.  They must be part of a sentence for you
to understand them.  There are 4 different kinds of function words.

1. DETERMINERS
 the cat is watching

2. These words change how we see a noun.  For example, we can have:
    she has one cat
    this cat is pretty
    my  cat is not very clever
    some cats are in the garden
    the cat wants food
    a  cat came into the  house
    which cat is your  cat?
and the determiners change how we understand the words cat, garden and house.
Determiners always come in front of the noun and there are five sorts of them:
1. a, an, the.  These are articles and they tell you if you are talking about a special
noun or not.  For example:
    a  cat came in (this is one cat that I don't know)
    the cat came in (this is a cat I know)
2. this, that, these, those.  These are demonstratives and they tell me where the cat
is.  For example:
    This cat here
    Those cats there
    That  cat in the garden
    Those cats are in the garden
3. wh-words.  These words make questions:
    Which cat?
    What cats?
    Whose  cat?
    Who  is that?
4. my, your, his, her, our, their.  These are possessives and show us who has
something.  For example:
    my  cat is in the house
    his  cat is stupid
    their cats are in the garden
5. some, many, a few, two, three, ten, a little, lots of, no, several.  These
are quantifiers and tell us how much or how many.  For example:
    There are  four cats in the house
    Several  cats came in
    Many cats are white
    No  cats are in the garden

2. PRONOUNS

she looks
like her
3. These are small words which stand for things, people or whole ideas.  There are three
sorts:
1. I, me, you, she, he, it, her, him, we, us, they, them.  These are personal
pronouns because they stand for people.  For example:
    I  want a cat
    She wants  it
    We gave them a cat
    Please tell us
2. something, someone, anything, anyone, some, any, nothing etc.
These do not stand for a special person or thing.  For example:
    Do you want something?
    I have nothing to eat
    Can I give you some?
    Is anyone at home?
Notice that adjectives in English always come after these words:
    I want something stronger
    She offered nothing useful
    Have you anything  bigger?
3. this, that, it etc. can also stand for whole ideas.  For example:
    He was working in the garden and that is why he didn't hear the telephone
    I was trying to follow the instructions to install my printer but it was very
difficult.

3. PREPOSITIONS

it's in the corner of the square

4. These words usually tell us when or where (but they can tell us other things).  They join
the verb to the noun or pronoun.  There are two main sorts:
1. Prepositions of place.  For example:
He is waiting at the bus stop
She is sitting in my chair
They have lunch in the square
The restaurant is in the corner
2. Prepositions of time.  For example:
He will wait until 6 o'clock
She came on Sunday
They left after  the film
The train arrived at the right time

4. CONJUNCTIONS

5. These words join ideas together.  There are three sorts.

1. Joining (coordinating) two equal ideas.  For example:
He went to the market and he bought a new hat
I telephoned but nobody answered
2. Making one idea depend on another (subordinating).  For example:
I came because he asked me
She will come if  she has time
3. Double (correlating or correlative) conjunctions put two ideas together.  For
example:
 Both John and Mary came
Whether he comes or not is important

Here's the big picture:

Tense and aspect

There are two concepts to be clear about here.

Tense

Tense in languages refers to the time something happens.  For example:

I came with him (past time)
I will finish before 6 (future time)
I am smoking too much (present time)

Aspect

Aspect refers to how we see an event in relation to other events.  For example:
I have been waiting since 6 o'clock
This is the perfect aspect: I am talking about something which started in the past and is still
happening now.
She was cycling when the accident happened
This is the progressive aspect followed by the simple aspect: I want to be clear that the cycling
was a long event but the accident was short and quick.

If you would like to investigate time, tense and aspect some more, go to the tenses
index on this site.
Phrases

We have seen that, for example, a noun or a verb can be a single word with a single
grammatical function as in, for example:
    He (pronoun) went (verb) home (noun)
    Mrs.
Smith (noun) cooked (verb) that (determiner) wonderful (adjective) dinner (noun)
But very often the grammatical function is filled not by a single word but by a phrase of
more than one word.  Look at this sentence:
    The old man almost certainly had lived through very interesting times