Pharse

A phrase is a group of words used  as a singles part of speech.It does not contailn both a subject and a predicate.


Kinds of Phrases


1.  A prepositional phrase -
 consists of a pre-prosition and its object,which may be a noun or a pronoun.It functions as an adjective or an adverb.
example
                 After the performance,Graham rusell left the concert building in a hurry.
2. An Infinitive phrase -
consists of the word to and the form of a verb.It functions as a noun,an adjective,or an adverb.
example
  To find time for a vacation is very difficult for the hardworking businessman.


3. A participial phrase -
consists of a participle and any accompanying modifier.It functions as an    adjective.
example
                              The item  found in the garage proved to be an antique collection.
4. A gerund phrase -
consists of a gerund and any accompanying modifier. It functions as a noun.
example
                               Jogging around every morning  the school oval helped me lose weight.
5. An appositive phrase -
consists of a noun or pronoun and any accompanying modifier. It adds information to the noun or pronoun beside which it stand. 
example
                             The doctor went to see the patient, a little boy infected with dengue.

subject-verb agreement

In order that a subject and its verb agree,the basics principle to remember is this: a singular subject needs a singular verb, and plural subjects need plural verbs.The pronouns I and You are exceptions;they take the plural form of the verb.

singular                                      Plural

I,you  he,she,it,                         we,you,they
gabriel,gabrielle                        the kids
believe  believes                        believe
come     comes                           come

Subject-verb agreement is generally taken into account only if in the present,present perfect,present progressive, or present perfect progressive tense. The verb is made singular by adding -s or -es. The rule is different when it comes to nouns,which form plural by adding -s or es.


The verbs to be and to have may also indicate whether a verb is singular or plural. They are constructed in a different manner.


Present Tense   Singular                 Plural
                         I     you    he,          we,you,
                                         she,it       they
           to be     am    are     is           are
           to have have  have  has        have

Past Tense             singular                    plural
                          I      you     he,              we,you,
                                           she,it            they
to be                  was    were    was         were
to have               had    had      had          had


These words are considered singular and take the  singular form of the verb: anybody,anyone,each,either everybody,everyone,much,neither,no one,nobody,none,one somebody,someone.
 example
                       everybody needs someone to love.

When the correlative conjunctions neither ....nor and either....or are used,the subject closer to the verb determines the form of the verb to be used.
example
                            Neither gabriel nor the boys are attending kenneth's birthday party.


These words are considered plural and take the plural form of the verb: both,few,many,several.
example
                           Many are called,but few are chosen.

A prepositional phrase that comes between a subject and its verb does not affect the subject-verb agreement.
                           The box of roses was bought in the nearby flower shop.
Glasses,pants,pliers,and scissors are considered plural unless the phrase pair of precedes them,in which case the word pair becomes the subject.
example
                            The pair of t-shirts is in the overnight bag.
Some words ending in -s are considered singular.
Some words ending in -s refer to only one thing but call for a plural verb.

                           My earnings have not increased since I started working in this company.

sentences

SENTENCES

A sentences is a group of words that expresses a complete thought. All sentences must have a subject and a predicate.

The subject is the person,place,thing, or idea doing or being something .The predicate completed the thought of the sentences. It is usually the verb that tells what the person,place,thing or idea is doing or being.

example The children(subject)play (predicate).

Classification of Sentences

1. A declarative sentence

states an idea. It ends with a period.

example:   We saw it when we visited my sister in the united states.

2.  An interrogative sentence 

 asks a direct question. It ends with a question mark. In an interrogative statement, the predicate or part of the predicate usually comes before the subject.

example:  Do you know where gabrielle keeps the keys?

3.  An imperative sentence

ask, requests, or commamds someone to do something.It ends with either a perion or an exclamation point. In an imperative sentence,the subject is usually left out; it is understood to be you.   

example:  come with me.

               run!

               Stella,please turn off the lights.

4. An exclamatory sentence 

conveys a strong emotion. It ends with an exclamation point.

example:  That is wonderful!

                 He is the thief!

Kinds of sentence

1. A simple sentence 

contains a single independent clause. It may contain a compound subject or a compound predicate or both.It may also contain complements and modifiers,but it does not contain any dependent clause.   

example: The cat(one subject)jumps(one predicate).

2. A compound sentence

contains two or more independent clauses. The claused may be put together by a coordinating conjunction. They may also be formed with semicolon.

example:

The  south korean football team won their game last night; it was their first win since the season began.

3.  A complex sentence  

contains one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses.

example:

The man who wrote this story is a sensitive person.(is the independent cluase )and who wrote this story( is the dependent clause).

4.  A coumpound-complex sentence

contains two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses.

Appositive and Verbals

An appositive 

      it is a noun,pronoun or phrase placed after the another noun or pronoun to identify,rename, or explain the preceding word.it can be a short or long combination of words.

                Example:  Our television,a black-and-white models that was manufactured in 1973 still functions well

A noneessential appositvie is always separated from the rest of the sentence with a comma. It may be place in the beginning,middle, or end of the sentence.

          Example: 

1.  A beautiful girl from mexico,won the miss universe beauty pageant and becaome  a   popular film    actress.

2. Maria, a beautiful girl from mexico,wont the miss universe beauty pagean and became a popular film actress.

3.  Many men are attracted to maria, a beautiful girl from mexico who won the miss universe beauty pageant and became a popular film actress.

 Verbals

 it is a verb form that is used as another part of speech. they are sometimes called unfinished or incomplete verbs. Verbals are frequently accompanied by other related words in what is called a verbal phrase. 

Kinds of verbals

1. A participle is verb form that acts as an adjective. There are two kinds of participles: present participles and past participles.

    Present participles end in -ing and describe a present condition.

      ex. the rising sun is a beautiful backdrop for the painting

  Past participles may end in -ed,-t or -en (or a different spelling in case of irregular verbs)and describe something that has already happened.

                      ex. the frozen meat was soaked in water.

2. A gerund is a verb form that acts as a noun. It ends in -ing. a gerund  may function as subject ,direct object, or object of a preposition.

   ex. Knowing the answer can work to one's advantage.(as subjetct)

                             The boy hates speaking.(as direct object)

              my sons are all afraid of flying.(as object of a preposition)

3. An Infinitive contains the word to and the root word of a verb . It functions as a noun,adjectives, or adverb.

                         ex. To dream is a waste of time act now (as noun)

                                The person to call is the doctor.(as adjectives)

                                Jogging is easy to do(as adverb)

Watch out for split infinitives. An infinitives is "split when a word (often an adverb) or phrase sneaks between the to of the infinitive and the root of the verb 

                      example to boldly go .it is better to say,

         "gabriel expected his mother not to call" that to say                  "gabriel expected his mother to not call." 

Some experts do not see anything wrong with split infinitives. the rules,however, is that, if it sounds awkward, do not use it.

          

8 part of speech

The eight basic parts of speech are simple.

They are 

1.  verbs
2.  nouns
3.  pronouns
4.  adjectives
5.  adverbs
6.  prepositions
7.  conjunctions
8.  interjections.


All English words fit into one of these grammatical categories. Many English words function
as more than one part of speech.
 Take the word fly for example. When you fly in a plane, it is a verb; when you swat a fly,
 it is a noun; and when you wear fly shades,
it is a slang adjective. English can be confusing because words can mean more than one thing,
 but if you know your eight parts of speech, you will avoid confusion.

1. Verbs are words used to express action, condition, or a state of being. They are used in speech to move the meanings of sentences along.
An action verb expresses an action. Words such as throw, create, and draw express physical action. Mental actions can be expressed by words such as believe, desire,
 and visualize. Verbs such as be and feel are used to show states of being. Helping verbs, or auxiliary verbs, are used to help the main verb express action or create verb phrases.
Some examples of auxiliary verbs are would, might and am.

2. Nouns are words that name a person, place, thing or idea. A few examples of nouns are person, place, thing and idea.
Proper nouns name specific things such as Jeff, California, and English. To change a noun from singular form to plural form an s or es must be added to the end of the word.
 Two examples are thing/things and dish/dishes. Some nouns have irregular plural forms and are a little harder to spell sometimes.
A couple of these nouns are man/men, and reality/realities. To show ownership, one must add an apostrophe s to the end of a singular
noun, or just an apostrophe to a plural noun. Examples of the possessive form are Jeff’s possession and fools’ wisdom.

 3. Pronouns are words used in place of nouns to shorten a repeated noun that has already been mentioned.
The noun that the pronoun replaces is called the antecedent of the pronoun. My girlfriend goes shopping a lot. She spends a bunch of money on garbage.
In these last two sentences, she is the pronoun, and girlfriend is the antecedent.
There are many forms of pronouns, such as personal, possessive, reflexive, intensive, indefinite, demonstrative, interrogative, relative and reciprocal.

4.Adjectives are very useful words. They add information to sentences by telling us more about nouns and pronouns, usually by describing,
identifying, or quantifying those words. Adjectives usually come before the words they modify, but sometimes follow linking verbs.
Here are two examples. She is a nice woman. That woman is nice. Quantifying adjectives come in the form of articles and numbers such as an, and twenty-one.
   

5. An adverb is defined as a word that gives more information about a verb, adjective or other adverbs.

In the sentence: She runs slow, slow describes how sue performs the adjective, runs. In the sentence She runs very slow,
 very describes the adverb slow, and tells how slow she runs. Most, but not all adverbs end in ly, but not all words that end in ly are adverbs.
 Ugly is an adjective. Supply can be a noun. Quickly and not are both adverbs.

6. A preposition is a word, which shows relationships between other words in the sentence. Relationships between words can be in the form of time or space.
She went to the mall again. To is a preposition that shows direction or space. She will find more clothes than you could imagine in thirty minutes.
 In is the preposition that shows time. A preposition always goes with a noun or pronoun, which is called the object of the preposition.

The preposition is almost always before the noun or pronoun and that is why it is called a preposition.
The preposition and the object of the preposition together are called a prepositional phrase.
In the sentence She went to the mall, to the mall is the prepositional phrase.

7. A conjunction is a word that connects words, or groups of words, to tell something about the relationship between these words.

 In the sentence she and I are friends, and connects two pronouns, she and I. Coordinating conjunctions are conjunctions,
which connect two equal parts of a sentence. The most common ones are and, or, but, and so. She is small but strong.
But is used as a coordinating conjunction. Subordinating conjunctions connect two parts of a sentence that are not equal.
Some subordinating conjunctions are whether, though and because. Correlative conjunctions are pairs of conjunctions that work together.
 Both she and I live in San Diego. Both/and, neither/nor, whether/or are all common correlative conjunctions. 

Conjunctive adverbs are adverbs that show a transition between ideas within a sentence.
They normally show comparison, contrast, or cause-effect relationships.
She was sick; however, she still could muster up enough energy to go to the mall.

 8.An interjection is a word, or a short phrase used to express emotion or surprise.
Interjections are often sentence fragments, or stand by themselves.
Interjections are also often used as commands, or as part of a protest.
Interjections are very important, and that’s why they are mentioned last, but not least, in the eight parts of speech.

Thesaurus?

Is like a dictionary except that it groups words within constellations of meaning. Sometimes you need the exact word to express an idea. and the word you have in mind just doesn't sound right. it contains a list of words and their synonyms and antonyms.
Avoid using an unfamiliar word just because it sounds impressive.though.Words even if they have almost the same meanings.have their fine distinctions,too.
Be familiar with the dictionary and thesaurus.it will make your learning easier and faster.

Trivia...Did you that 

             There is no synonym for the word"thesaurus."

Of all the world's languages, English is arguably the richest in vocabulary, The Oxford English Dictionary lists about 500,000 words, and there are half a million technical and scientific terms still uncatalogued.

Some reference grammar tools you can use

These tools will assist in your learning process. They will be useful to you while you are learning the fundamentals and even when you have mastered them.here it is

The dictionary
        In dictionary there are some of the words thay you have read unfamiliar to you?To find out the   meaning of those words, you have to consult a dictionary. it is a reference book that contains a list of words and their meanings. they are arranged alphabetically.knowing them will help improve your skills not only in writing but in speaking as well. example..

1.      It should  be one of the most often used books in your home.
2.       Put it in a place where you do your reading so that you can find it immediately.
3.      If you read in your bedroom and the dictionary is on a shelf in the living room,you may delay     looking up a word because the dictionary is not around.it would just be too tempting to say,
"I'll look it up later."
4.       It should be large enough to contain much more than just spellings. To serve your purpose better,its contents should be like the example of a dictionary .
5. It should contain extensive definitions,usages and if possible,information about word origins.It would also be a good idea to have a small dictionary to carry around so that you can check for a word's meaning wherever you are.