ENGLISH

Grammar

Dharini R
 The Declarative Sentence
• The declarative sentence is the most important type. You
can, and often will write entire essays or reports using only
declarative sentences, and you should always use them far
more often than any other type. A declarative sentence
simply states a fact or argument, without requiring either an
answer or action from the reader. You punctuate your
declarative sentences with a simple period:
• Eg:
Ottawa is the capital of Canada.
The distinction between deconstruction and post-modernism
eludes me.
He asked which path leads back to the lodge.
 The Imperative Sentence
• An interrogative sentence asks a direct question and always
ends in a question mark:
Eg: How many roads must a man walk down?
Does money grow on trees?
• Note that an indirect question does not make a sentence
interrogative:
Direct/Interrogative
Eg: When was Lester Pearson prime minister?
• Indirect/Declarative
Eg: I wonder when Lester Pearson was prime minister.
• A direct question requires an answer from the reader, while
an indirect question does not.
 The Exclamatory Sentence
• An exclamatory sentence, or exclamation, is
simply a more forceful version of a declarative
sentence, marked at the end with an
exclamation mark:

Eg: The butler did it!

How beautiful this river is!
Some towns in Upper Canada lost up to a third of
their population during the cholera epidemics of
the early nineteenth century!
 The Exclamatory Sentence
• Exclamatory sentences are common in speech
and (sometimes) in fiction, but over the last
200 years they have almost entirely
disappeared from academic writing. You will
(or should) probably never use one in any sort
of academic writing, except where you are
quoting something else directly. Note that an
exclamation mark can also appear at the end
of an imperative sentence.
 The Imperative Sentence
• gives a direct command to someone -- this type of
sentence can end either with a period or with an
exclamation mark, depending on how forceful the
command is:
Eg: Sit!
Read this book for tomorrow.
• You should not usually use an exclamation mark with
the word "please":
Eg: Wash the windows!
Please wash the windows.
 The Imperative Sentence
• Normally, you should not use imperative
sentences in academic writing. When you do
use an imperative sentence, it should usually
contain only a mild command, and thus, end
with a period:

Eg : Consider the Incas.

Types of Nouns
• Proper Noun
• Common Noun
• Concrete Noun
• Abstract Noun
• Countable Noun
• Non-countable Noun
• Collective Noun
 Proper Nouns
• Always used with a Capital letter
• name of a specific person, place, or thing.
• names of days of the week, months, historical
documents, institutions, organisations, religions,
their holy texts and their adherents are proper
nouns.
• A proper noun is the opposite of a common noun

Eg: Hindi is a difficult language

Chicago is a beautiful city.
Christmas is celebrated on 25th December.
 Common Nouns
• Refers to a person, place, or thing in a general sense
• It is written with a capital letter only when it begins
a sentence.
• A common noun is the opposite of a proper noun.

Eg: According to the sign, the nearest town is 60 miles away.

All the gardens in the neighbourhood were invaded by beetles this
summer.
The road crew was startled by the sight of three large moose crossing the
road.
Many child-care workers are underpaid.
 Concrete Nouns

• names anything (or anyone) that you can perceive

through your physical senses: touch, sight, taste,
hearing, or smell.
• A concrete noun is the opposite of a abstract noun.
Eg:
The judge handed the files to the clerk.
Whenever they take the dog to the beach, it spends hours
chasing waves.
 Abstract Nouns
• An abstract noun is a noun which names anything
which you can not perceive through your five
physical senses.
• It is the opposite of a concrete noun
Eg : Buying the fire extinguisher was an afterthought.
Tillie is amused by people who are nostalgic about childhood.
Justice often seems to slip out of our grasp.
Some scientists believe that schizophrenia is transmitted
genetically.
 Countable Nouns
• A noun with both a singular and a plural for.
• It names anything (or anyone) that you can count.
• You can make a countable noun plural and attach it
to a plural verb in a sentence.
• Countable nouns are the opposite of non-countable
nouns and collective nouns.
Eg: We painted the table red and the chairs blue.
Since he inherited his aunt's library, Jerome spends every weekend
indexing his books.
Miriam found six silver dollars in the toe of a sock.
The oak tree lost three branches in the hurricane.
 Non-countable Nouns
• a noun which does not have a plural form, and which
refers to something that you could (or would) not
usually count.
• A non-countable noun always takes a singular verb in
a sentence.
• Non-countable nouns are similar to collective nouns,
and are the opposite of countable nouns.
Non-countable Nouns - Examples
1. Joseph Priestly discovered oxygen.
• The word "oxygen" cannot normally be made plural.
2. Oxygen is essential to human life.
• Since "oxygen" is a non-countable noun, it takes the singular verb "is"
rather than the plural verb "are."
3. We decided to sell the furniture rather than take it with us when we
moved.
• You cannot make the noun "furniture" plural.
4. The furniture is heaped in the middle of the room.
• Since "furniture" is a non-countable noun, it takes a singular verb, "is
heaped."
5. The crew spread the gravel over the roadbed.
• You cannot make the non-countable noun "gravel" plural.
• Gravel is more expensive than I thought.
• Since "gravel" is a non-countable noun, it takes the singular verb form
"is."
 Collective Noun
• a noun naming a group of things, animals, or
persons.
• You could count the individual members of the
group, but you usually think of the group as a whole
is generally as one unit.
• You need to be able to recognise collective nouns in
order to maintain subject-verb agreement.
• A collective noun is similar to a non-countable noun,
and is roughly the opposite of a countable noun.
Collective Noun - Examples
1. The flock of geese spends most of its time in the pasture.
• The collective noun "flock" takes the singular verb "spends."
2. The jury is dining on take-out chicken tonight.
• In this example the collective noun "jury" is the subject of the singular
compound verb "is dining."
3. The steering committee meets every Wednesday afternoon.
• Here the collective noun "committee" takes a singular verb, "meets."
1. The class was startled by the bursting light bulb.
2. In this sentence the word "class" is a collective noun and takes the
singular compound verb "was startled."
 Verbs - Classification
There are 4 different kinds of classification

1.Action & Non-action Verbs

2.Finite & Non-finite Verbs

3.Regular & Irregular Verbs

4.Transitive Verbs & Intransitive Verbs

Action Verbs
• Indicate some action performed deliberately by the
‘doer’.
• Also called Dynamic Verbs.

Eg:
The boys are running.
The goats are jumping over the fence.
Non-action Verbs
• No action is indicated or performed.
• These verbs indicate a certain condition, or state and so
are called Stative Verbs.
Eg: Ahmed is sick.
Seeta looks tired.
Look at these examples:
I think Hindi is a difficult language.
I remember this place well.
I suppose they will come.
• ‘Think’, ‘remember’ & ‘suppose’ refer to mental activities
that go on inside the mind and cannot be seen. We can
therefore call them non-action verbs.
Non-action Verbs
Look at these examples

I see a bird sitting on that tree.

I hear the sound of a gun.
I feel an insect crawling over my leg.

• ‘See’, ‘hear’ & ‘feel’ are called verbs of sensation.

• They refer to things that we can do with the help of the 5
senses. As they do not involve any deliberate action by a
‘doer’, we can call them non-action verbs.
Non-action Verbs
Look at these examples:
A. Look at the bird sitting on that tree.
B. I can’t see anything

A. Listen to the song.

B. I can’t hear anything.

• ‘Look’ and ‘listen’ could be called action verbs, because

they refer to actions that are done deliberately. But,
‘see’ and ‘hear’ do not indicate deliberate actions.
Finite Verbs
• together with an object noun, they form the
predicate of the sentence.
• A sentence cannot be complete unless it has a
finite verb, whose form changes according to
tense, number and person.
Eg: Cows eat grass
The boy eats idlis every day.
I ate some fish yesterday.
Non-finite Verbs
The boy eating mango.
• This sentence is not complete. Something is missing,
instead it should read as
The boy is eating a mango.
• Now this sentence carries a clear meaning. Eating is
called a non-finite verb, or a non-finite form of the verb
‘Eat’.
• When used by themselves, non-finite verbs do no make
the predicate of a sentence complete; they have to be
used with another word. ‘Is’ in the above example is also
callled a helping verb or an auxiliary verb, as it ‘helps’ a
non-finite verb to convey a complete meaning.
Non-finite Verbs
The boy has eaten a mango.
• ‘Has’ is the helping verb here. ‘Eat’, ‘eats’, ‘ate’, ‘eating’,
‘eaten are different forms of the verb ‘eat’.
• ‘Eat’, ‘eats’ and ‘ate’ are finite forms, while ‘eating’ and
‘eaten’ are non-finite forms.
• ‘Eat’ is called the stem form, because all the other forms
are produced from it. ‘Eats’ is called the stem+s form.
The stem form and the stem+s forms are the simple
present tense forms. Ate is the simple past tense form.
‘Eating’ is called the stem+ing form or the present
participle form. ‘Eaten’ is the stem-en form, or the past
participle form.
Regular & Irregular Verbs
• The simple past tense forms of many verbs are formed
by adding ed/d/ied to the stem.
Eg: ask – asked; burn – burned; talk – talked ; cry-cried

• Such verbs are called Regular verbs

• But in many cases the past tense form of the verb is very
different from its stem form.
Eg: see – saw; run – ran; buy – bought; get-got; break-broke
• Such verbs are called Irregular verbs.
 Regular & Irregular Verbs
Stem Past tense form Past participle
form
eat Ate Eaten

See Saw Seen

Break Broke Broken

Get Got got

Transitive Verbs
• Compare the following sentences:
1. Ram laughed - complete sentence
2. Ram saw - incomplete sentence

• In the 2nd sentence, we’re likely to ask ‘what did Ram see?’
The sentence needs 1 more word, as below:
Ram saw a tiger.

• A Verb which must be followed by an object is called a

transitive verb.
More Eg:
Sujit met the doctor.
They are wearing jackets.
You have learnt Tamil.
Rani heard a whistle.
Intransitive Verbs

• The word ‘laughed’ in ‘Ram laughed’ does not

need a noun or object to complete it.
• You cannot ask ‘what did Ram laugh?’
• A verb which does not need an object is called
an intransitive verb.
More Eg:
The plane landed safely.
The baby slept.
The plants wilted.
We live next door.
Transitive & Intransitive Verb
• Many verbs are transitive & intrasitive. They are
sometimes followed by an object, but they can also be
used without an object.
Eg: The mug fell off the table and broke.
He broke the mug.

• In the 1st sentence, the verb ‘broke’ is intransitive,

whereas in the 2nd, it is transitive.
More eg:
The bell rang; Shirin rang the bell
The door opened; Vivek opened the door.