What are the top 15 rules of grammar?

What are the top 15 rules of grammar?

Before we tackle the rules of grammar, let us grasp the meaning of the word itself.

So, what is grammar?

Grammar is the art where you place words in the right order according to the work they are intended. In short, grammar is how words are structured to form a sentence, and for a sentence to be grammatically correct, there are specific rules that should be followed.

The most basic rules of grammar fall under the parts of speech and sentence structure.

Parts of speech.

Every grammatical word in the English language falls under a particular part of speech. Parts of speech are divided into eight. These are the nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections, and adjectives, each one with its laws of use.

1. Nouns

Nouns are naming words. They name a person, a place, a thing, an idea, an activity, a quality, or a feeling.

For example;

The book is on the table.

My name is Caroline.

The words in bold are nouns that represent a thing and a person, respectively.

Nouns are usually the subjects in a sentence. To identify the subject in a sentence, we answer the question WHO/WHAT is doing the action.

For example

What is on the table? The book is on the table.

What is your name? My name is Caroline.

2. Pronoun

A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun.  They include I, me, he, she, they, someone, you, it, etc. these words take any form a noun in its place would take.

For example

I am going into town.

I finished reading the book on lions. It was interesting.

The words in bold represent pronouns that have replaced nouns.

3. Verbs

Verbs are an essential element of the parts of speech in a sentence. You cannot form a sentence without the use of a verb.

Verbs are defined as doing words. They express an action.

For example

The boy ran away.

My daughter is dancing.

The train went quickly.

The words in bold are verbs. They show an act that was or is in the act of being performed.

4. Adverb

Adverbs modify the verb by telling us more about it. It tells us how, when, or where the action is taking place.

For example

I was walking hurriedly to the front door.

The choir sang merrily.

Hurriedly and merrily tell us more about their corresponding verbs.

Adverbs are often formed by adding  ‘-ly’ to the adjective.

For example

The adjective quick becomes the adverb quickly.

The adjective merry becomes the adverb merrily.

Note that, when the adjective ends with a ‘y,’ like in the case of ‘merry,’ it changes into ‘i’  when in its adverb form’ merrily.’

Adverbs usually appear after the verb they are to modify.

5. Prepositions

Prepositions are some of the most difficult words to use in a sentence. They are short and tricky. Usually, you will find them used together with nouns or pronouns demonstrating the time, direction, location, motion, manner, reason, or possession. Prepositions include in, over,   through, to, round, into, towards to mention a few.

Examples in a sentence are;

The teacher is at my house.

The bus went over the wall.

At shows where the teacher is while ‘over’ gives us the direction the bus took.

A noun or a pronoun should always follow prepositions.

6. Conjunctions

Conjunctions or conjuncts are words that join two or more words, sentences, or phrases. The act like links to the train wagons. They include the terms and, but and or.

Examples in a sentence are;

The carpenter looked at the saw, and he looked at the hammer.

And he looked at the saw, but he chose the hammer.

Would you like a salad or a bowl of soup?

The conjunctions in bold are used to join phrases and sentences to form one meaningful sentence.

Without conjunctions, there would only exist a series of short, simple sentences whenever we need to pass an idea.

7. Interjections

Interjections are words (and sometimes phrases)used to demonstrate sudden feelings of pain, pleasure, surprise, etc. these words are always followed by an exclamation mark(!). They include; hello! Hurrah! Oh! Good heavens!

Examples in a sentence are;

Good heavens! Did he say that?

Hello! Remember me?

We can say that the first sentence brings out a sense of shock while the second brings out a feeling of excitement and anticipation.

8. Adjectives

Adjectives go hand in hand with the noun. They attribute the noun making the sentence more interesting and specific.

Adjectives usually come before the noun they are describing.

For example

Caroline is wearing a grey coat.

The lemonade is bitter.

The adjectives in bold give us more specific information about the nouns they refer to.

9. Sentence structure.

Sentence structure refers to how the elements of a sentence are physically realized and presented to bring out interest and understanding to the reader.

The elements of a sentence include;

• The independent clause

This is a part of a sentence that can stand on its own since it is a complete sentence. It contains a subject and a verb.

For example

I eat fish.

• Dependent clause

A dependent clause is an incomplete sentence. Also known as a subordinate clause, it needs to be attached to an independent clause for it to make sense.

For example

Although I eat fish……

• Prepositional phrase

This is a phrase that begins with a preposition and modifies a word in a sentence. It answers questions such as where? In what way? And what.

For example

He borrowed many books during the exam.

The preposition during answers the question where.

• Subject

The subject is the noun or pronoun performing the action or being talked about.

For example

He likes to eat bread.

As mentioned before, one of the ways to determine the subject in a sentence is by answering the question “who or what.”

• The verb.

The verb in a sentence determines what is being done

• The object

The object in a sentence is the noun or pronoun that receives the action. It is determined by answering the question, “to whom, for whom or did what?”

10. Use the active voice.

This is the foundation of English grammar. The active voice will be achieved when you use the formula ;

S+V+O

This is the subject + the verb + the object+ sentence.

For example,

The donkey pulled the lad.

11. The use of punctuation.

Punctuation is the use of markings such as the comma, colon, semicolon, full stop or question marks to separate or add meaning to a sentence and its elements.

• Use commas to join two or more sentences.

This usually forms either a simple, compound, or a complex sentence.

In a list, use serial commas.

For example

She bought milk, bread, butter, and some lemons.

• The colon is used in a formal letter or in a list of items to add information after a sentence has been completed.

For example,

Dear sir:

The baker had three kinds of products: cakes, bread, and muffins.

• Semicolons should be introduced to join two ideas.

For example,

John is hyper; he won’t stop jumping up and down.

• The question mark(?) is used to show that a question has been asked. It appears at the end of a sentence.

For example,

Did you go to the market?

• The hyphen

The hyphen joins two words to form a compound noun.

For example,

Decision + making= decision-making.

To mention a few

12. capitalization

• Every sentence should start with a capital letter.

For example,

Brian is a student in middle school.

• Names and other proper nouns should be capitalized.

For example

Diana is a good girl.

The name Diana is a proper noun and should b capitalized.

• Contrary to what people think, you should not capitalize any word after the colon.

For example

The man had four pens: a blue, black, green and red pen.

• All the days of the month, months, and holidays should be capitalized except for the seasons.

For example

I love Fridays.

It is summer.

Friday is a day of the week and has been capitalized while summer, which is a season has not.

13. For habitual actions, use the present simple tense.

When talking about habits that you do regularly, use the simple present tense.

For example

I make dinner every Sunday.

14. When talking of current action, use the progressive tense.

You can spot the progressive tense easily as it ends with ‘-ing’ and is accompanied by a helping/auxiliary verb.

For example

I am running to the shop

In the sentence above, the auxiliary verb is ‘am’ as it answers the question’ to be.’

15. Use the perfect tenses in your grammar.

• Use the perfect present tense for actions that have already happened, but the time of occurrence has not elapsed.

For example

I have jumped on the bed today.

• Use the perfect present progressive tense to show actions that have been happening, but the time and activities are yet to end.

For example

I have been reading since the exams started.

This shows that I have been reading, and I am still learning, even as the exams continue.

• Use the past perfect tense for two activities that happened and ended in the past by showing the action that happened first.

For example

No sooner had I finished cooking than the visitor arrived.

There are many rules of grammar. The above mentioned are the most basic of them all. Mastering these rules will help better your grasp of the English language both in reading and writing without grammatical errors.