BASICS OF GRAMMAR
1. LETTER
DEFINITION: - A letter is the shortest form (character) of sound in a language.
All the letters in English ranging from A to Z are also termed as ‘alphabet’.
2. WORD
DEFINITION:- A word is that unit of language which has a clear and fixed
meaning.
eg:- eat, go, man, boy, girl, on, see, are all words.
3. SENTENCE
DEFINITION:- A group of words that makes a complete sense is called a
Sentence.
eg:- (i) I live in Shivmandir.
(ii) What is your name?
(iii) What a beautiful sight!
(iv) Yes. (Single-worded sentence)
A sentence can be SINGLE-WORDED or MULTI-WORDED.
A sentence always ends with FULL-STOP (.), QUESTION-MARK (?) and
EXCLAMATORY-SIGN (!).
4. PHRASE
DEFINITION: -A group of words that makes sense but not complete sense is
called a phrase.
eg:- (i) is going to school
(ii) knows me very well.
A PHRASE can be transformed into a SENTENCE by joining some words.
eg:- (i) Simran is going to school.
(ii) He knows me very well.
5. SUBJECT
DEFINITION: -A subject is the word or words about which something is said.
eg:- (i) Indu is well-versed in the art of painting.
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In the above given example ‘Indu’ is the subject. So, a single word can be a subject.
Let’s see another example ‘This, big, beautiful, black dog barks.’ In this sentence
‘This………barks’ is a subjectgroup. However, there is only a single word ‘dog’ about
which we are really saying something. The other words only tell its qualities. Hence,
we shall label ‘dog’ as subject word. Always remember SUBJECT always responds to
the question beginning with who, what or which.
The SUBJECT of a sentence generally comes at the beginning.
SUBJECT PREDICATE
The boys fly kites.
We have won the hockey match.
Jawaharlal Nehru was the first prime minister
of India.
6. PREDICATE
DEFINITION:-Whatever is said about the SUBJECT is called the predicate.
eg: - (i) We are learning grammar.
(ii) The cat killed the mouse.
TYPES OF SENTENCES
There are five types of sentences :-
(i) ASSERTIVE SENTENCE
[* gives information, states a fact]
eg: - (i) Rita goes to school.
(ii) The Earth moves round the sun.
(iii) I never play cricket.
(iv) Children don’t love green vegetables.
(ii) IMPERATIVE SENTENCE
[*request, order, command, advice (roca)]
eg:-(i) Get out of my class.
(ii) Cease fire.
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(iii) Don’t go out now.
(iv) Never speak out of your turn.
(iii) OPTATIVE SENTENCE
[*wish]
eg :-(i) May god bless you.
(ii) I wish I were a bird.
(iii) May you not fail.
(iv) May you don’t die.
(iv) INTERROGATIVE SENTENCE
[*asks questions, ends with a question mark(?)]
eg :-(i) Where do you live?
(ii) What is your name?
(iii) Aren’t you ill?
(iv) Will you not come?
Interrogative sentences are divided into: -
(a) INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES WITH WH-WORDS: -
who, which, what, when,
how, where, whose, whom,
why.
(b) INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES WITHOUT WH-WORDS: -
is, am, are, was, were,
shall, should, will, would,
can, could, may, might,
has, have, had, etc.
(v)EXCLAMATORY SENTENCE
[*sudden feeling, ends with an exclamatory sign]
eg: - (i) Hurrah! We won the match.
(ii) What a beautiful sight!
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(iii) Oh! she is not present today.
(iv) Alas! He is no more.
Again these FIVE types of sentences are divided into: -
(a) POSITIVE or AFFIRMATIVE SENTENCES
• Sentences without NO, NOT, NEITHER, NEVER, NOR, etc.
(b) NEGATIVE SENTENCES
• Sentences with NO, NOT, NEITHER, NEVER, NOR, etc.
PARTS OF SPEECH
There are EIGHT parts of speech: -
1. NOUN
[*names of person, place, animal, thing]
eg: - Moupali, Shivmandir, dog, pen, etc.
2. PRONOUN
[*words used instead of a NOUN]
eg:-(a) SINGULAR PRONOUN
he, she, it, I, him,
her, his, you, etc.
(b) PLURAL PRONOUN
we, they, our, us,
themselves, their, you, etc.
3. VERB
[*doing words or action words]
eg:- (a) AUXILIARY or HELPING WORDS
is, am, are, was, were,
shall, should, will, would,
can, could, may, might,
has, have, had, etc.
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(b) MAIN or PRINCIPAL VERB
write, go, play, sing, walk, jump, break ,swim, eat, do, sleep, sit, dance, help,
talk, etc.
4. ADVERB
[*adds, changes or modifies the meaning of VERB, ADJECTIVE or another
ADVERB. *Most of the ADVERBS usually end with ‘ly’. Remember ADVERBS
tell how, how often, when and where. ]
eg:- truly, faithfully, sincerely, quickly, politely, rudely, slowly, gently, always,
frequently, often, once, never, after, before, early, today, yesterday, away, here
there, near, etc.
5. ADJECTIVE
[*describing words]
eg:- beautiful, dark, thin, red, clever, intelligent, handsome, etc.
6. PREPOSITON
[*words used before a NOUN or a PRONOUN to show its relation with
other PARTS OF SPEECH.]
eg:- in, on, of, off, over, beside, under, above, behind, in front of, into, below,etc.
7. CONJUNCTION
[*joining words, phrases or sentences.]
eg:- and, or, but, as, because, until, unless, though, although, as well as, either…or,
neither…nor, etc.
8. INTERJECTION
[*sudden feeling, ends with an exclamatory sign]
eg:- Alas!, Oh!, Hurrah!, Wow!, Hush!, Bravo!, etc.
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