BPCC Fundamentals of Grammar ENGLISH -097

07.04.15

Module 1 Fundamentals of Grammar

• Noun:  A word that names a person, place, thing or an idea. Can function as a subject, object and possessive.
• Example(subject):  Ted  lifts weights.
• Example(object): The coach trained Ted.
• Example(possessive):  Ted's coach always arrives early.
• Four types of nouns:
• Common  noun: names something general.
• Example: Actor, soda, pen
• Proper  noun:  Names something specific.
• Example: Ted, Pepsi, Parker
• Concrete  noun: Things that we can sense.
• Example: cat, air, ball
• Abstract  noun: 
• Example: Justice, loyalty, honesty

• Pronoun: Takes place of a noun.  Can function as a subject, object and possessive.
• Example(subject):  He lifts weights.
• Example(object): The coach trained him.
• Example(possessive):  His  coach always arrives early.
• Verb: Expresses action and tells a noun or pronoun what it is. It also expresses time.
• Verb Tenses:
• Example(Past Tense):  She danced yesterday.
• Example(Present Tense): She is dancing.
• Example(Future Tense): She will dance.
• 3 types of verbs: 
•   Action  verb:  expresses action.
• Linking  verb: Expresses state of being.
• Helping  verb:  Helps the main verb express a particular meaning.
• Adverbs: Describes or Modify a verbs,adjective and adverbs. Answers "what", "where", "How" and "to what extent".
• Preposition: Connecting dependent words and showing relationship between them.
• Parts of a Prepositional phrase:
• Preposition: the word that starts the phrase.
• Object: the last word in a Prepositional phrase. A noun that is not the subject
• Conjunction: They connect a dependent clause and an independent clause and establish a relationship between them. They happen at the beginning of a sentences (with a comma in the middle separating the clauses) or in the middle of a sentence with no comma.

Module 2:

Finding the subject and verb

• Sentence -  is a group of words that express a complete thought. It's  also known as a dependent clause.
• Example: The Team went to a local restaurant after the game.  
• Subject with prepositional phrase:
• In finding the subject, must remember that prepositional phrases start with a preposition and ends with a noun. The subject cannot be the prepositional object. Enclose the prepositional phrase to avoid confusion.
• Example: She puts half (of her paycheck) (in her college fund).
• Subject and compound sentences :
• Sentences may be compound, which means it may have multiple verbs and prepositions.
• Follow the same instructions  just like finding the  Subject with prepositional phrase.
• Example: Military men and women have patience and dedication.
• Example: Sue and Nancy jumped and skipped.

Module 3:

Subject/Verb agreement

• Is one of the most common as well as the most costly mistakes that students make in their academic writing.
• Subject and verb must agree in two ways:
• First: They must agree in number. It if they take a singular form, they must take a singular verb.
• The singular form of all regular verbs (Except: be and have)  are formed by adding -s,  replacing with -ies or attaching -es.
• Singular verb  forms are used in when the subject is "He","She","It","Anyone", "Everyone" or a Singular Noun.
• Plural verbs: Don't end like singular verbs.
• Example: I play in the beach.
• Example: They go to work everyday. 
• Trouble spots in subject/verb agreements:
• These examples are mistakes only:
• Be - often replaces am, have and do.
• Have - often used in singular form.
• do -  often used in plural form.
• -s,-es,-ies -used in plural.
• "Is" - used in plural.
• Indefinite Pronouns - used in plural instead of singular.

08/02/15

Module 4

Pronoun Usage:

• Personal pronouns:
• A personal pronoun is a pronoun that is associated primarily with a particular person, in the grammatical sense. When discussing “person” in terms of the grammatical, the following rules apply:
  
  •  Refer to specific individuals.
  •  Can be classified as subjective, objective and possessive.
  •  Can be classified by gender.
  •  Can be plural or singular
• Possessive pronouns: 
• Reflexive pronouns are used when a person or thing acts on itself, for example, John cut himself. In English they all end in -self or -selves and must refer to a noun phrase elsewhere in the same clause. Reciprocal pronouns refer to a reciprocal relationship (each other, one another). They must refer to a noun phrase in the same clause. An example in English is: They do not like each other. In some languages, the same forms can be used as both reflexive and reciprocal pronouns.
• Demonstrative pronouns:
•  Demonstratives are often deictic words (they depend on an external frame of reference) that indicate which entities the speaker refers to and distinguishes those a specific object or person from others. Demonstratives are employed for spatial deixis (using the context of the physical surroundings of the speaker and sometimes the listener). The demonstratives in English are this, that, these, those, along with this one or that one as substitutes for the pronoun use of this or that.
• Interrogative pronouns: 
• An interrogative pronoun often stands for something that we are asking about it. We use these pronouns to ask questions. These pronouns are special because they all start with “Wh”, which makes them easy to remember.
• Indefinite pronouns:
•  Indefinite pronouns can represent either count nouns or non-count nouns and include a number of sub-categories: universal such as everyone, everything, assertive existential such as somebody, something, elective existential such as anyone, anything, and negative such as nobody, nothing. They are associated with indefinite determiners sometimes called indefinite adjectives of a similar or identical form such as every, any, all, some. A pronoun can be thought of as replacing a noun phrase, while a determiner introduces a noun phrase and precedes any adjectives that modify the noun. An indefinite pronoun is a pronoun that refers to non-specific beings, objects, or places.
• Relative pronouns:
• They are used to connect a clause or phrase to a noun or pronoun. You see them used everyday with the most common relative pronouns being: who, whom, which, whoever, whomever, whichever, and that.
• Reflexive and Reciprocal pronouns: 
• A relative pronoun is used to connect a clause or phrase to a noun or pronoun. You see them used everyday with the most common relative pronouns being: who, whom, which, whoever, whomever, whichever, and that.

09/13/2015

Module 5

Subject/Pronoun Agreement
* A pronoun must agree in number with its antecedent. 
Example: Some viewers will decide if they will watch the new TV show

Rules for pronoun/number agreement:

1.  Use singular pronouns to a singular antecedent.
1. Example: Everyone is responsible for making in his or her bed.  
2. Antecedents joined by and usually take place of plural pronouns.
1. East and West Germany voted to unite their peoples in 1990.
3. Collective nouns take singular pronouns if the group is regarded as a single unit.
1. The faculty was recognized for its research.
4. Two or more antecedents joined by either or or nor, the pronouns should agree with the nearer antecedent.
1. Neither the defendant nor the witnesses changed their testimony.    
5.  Demonstrative pronouns that are used as adjectives agree in number with the modifying noun.
1. Pronouns by person:
1. First Person: I, me, mine, we, ours, our
2. Second Person: you, yours, your
3. Third Person: he, she, them, theirs, their, etc...

12/6/15

Module 6: Compound and Complex

Two types of Clauses
Dependent Clauses	Begins with a subordinating conjunction
	Cannot stand alone, and doesn’t express a complete thought
	Also known as fragment
Independent Clauses	Has a subject, verb, and expresses a complete thought.
	Could stand alone, because it is a complete sentence.

Three Types of Sentences
Simple Sentences	Consists of one independent clause.
	Can have more than one subject.
	Can have more than one verb.
Compound Sentences	Consists of two or more independent clauses.
	Can be two simple sentences
Complex Sentences	Consists of one independent clause and at least one dependent clause.