Most Important Concepts of English Grammar for Beginners
There are many important topics that need to be covered under English grammar for beginners. English Grammar, which holds the most importance in the English Language needs to be completely mastered in order to be able to communicate efficiently both verbally and non-verbally.
Grammar lays down the framework for effective communication. It is like the heart and soul of good communication skills in English. It will help you project your thoughts efficiently with an emphasis on meaning and intent. It will make you more likeable and assist you in your pathway to success!
Let’s take a look at the most important concepts of English Grammar for Beginners!
Important concepts of English Grammar for Beginners
Nouns
A noun refers to a word used for a person, place, or thing. Everything that we can see or talk about is represented by a word that names it. These are also known as naming words.
There are 5 types of Nouns:
- Proper nouns
These are the names of specific people, places, things, or ideas. The first letter of such words should always be in capitals.
For example — Jane, Chennai, England, Blue Kite
2. Common nouns
These name any person, place, thing, or idea. If such a term does not appear at the beginning of a sentence, it won’t begin with a capital letter.
For example — Cat, Boy, Baby, Car
3. Collective nouns
These are used while representing a group of people, animals, or things.
For example — a gang of thieves, a bouquet of flowers, a flock of sheep, a group of people
4. Abstract nouns
These are the ones that are intangible in nature i.e cannot be seen or touched but can be felt.
For example — honesty, truth, friendship, love, thirst
5. Material nouns
These are used to name a particular kind of matter.
For example — iron, gold, water, salt
Pronouns
Pronouns take the place of a noun and we use them so that we don’t have to repeat a noun. This helps to simplify speech and writing by using a word to represent longer passages and ideas.
There are 5 types of Pronouns:
- Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns take the place of people or things. They can be either singular or plural, depending on whether they refer to one or multiple nouns.
For Example — me, we, and us.
2. Possessive Pronouns
Possessive pronouns are personal pronouns that also indicate possession of something. They have singular and plural forms These pronouns often appear before the possessed item, but not always.
For example — both “my car” and “the car is mine” indicate who owns the car.
3. Reflexive Pronouns
When a subject performs an action on itself, the sentence uses a reflexive pronoun after the verb. Reflexive pronouns include myself, himself, themselves, and herself.
For example — “I was at the party all by myself.”
4. Relative Pronouns
A relative pronoun starts a clause (a group of words that refer to a noun). Who, that, and which are all relative pronouns. They can also serve as other types of pronouns, depending on the sentence.
For example — “I loved the pink dress that you own”
5. Demonstrative Pronouns
Demonstrative pronouns point out or modify a person or thing. There are four demonstrative pronouns: this and that (for singular words), and these and those (for plural words).
For example — “She is my wife.”
Verbs
A verb is a kind of word (part of speech) that tells about an action or a state. It is the main part of a sentence: every sentence has a verb.
Classification
- Auxiliary Verbs
Also known as helping verbs, Auxiliary verbs do not imply any specific action per se but bring meaning to another verb.
There are four kinds of auxiliary verbs-
- Verb- To be
Usage- is, am, are, was, were
- Verb- To do
Usage- do, does, did
- Verb- To have
Usage- has, have, had
- Modals-can, could, may, might, etc.
- Ordinary Verbs
Main or ordinary verbs are ones that tell about the main action that the subject is doing or may tell the condition of the subject.
There are two types of main verbs-
- Transitive verb
Transitive verbs require an object to complete their meaning.
For example — “He likes football.”
- Intransitive verb
Intransitive verbs are the ones that do not have a direct object after them.
For example — “The baby smiled.”
Adverbs
Adverbs are words used to add meaning to a verb, an adjective, or any other adverb.
For example — “Bhavya sings smoothly.“
Classification
- Time
Adverbs of time tell us about the time when the action/verb takes place. Adverbs of time mainly modify verbs.
For example — “We had visited the mall yesterday.”
The above example answers the question of when yesterday. Hence, in the given sentence, yesterday can be taken as the adverb of time.
2. Place
Adverbs of place tell us the place where something happens. The verb in the sentence can answer the question of ‘where’.
For example — “Please meet me here at 6 pm.”
3. Manner
Adverbs of manner tell us the manner or way in which something is done. The verbs in the sentence answer the question of how. These are known to modify verbs.
For example — “Raghav speaks slowly.”
4. Degree
Adverbs of degree tell us the degree or extent to which something is done. They answer the question of how much or to what degree.
For example — “He completely agrees with him.”
5. Frequency
Adverbs of frequency tell us how often something happens. These phrases explain how often something happens.
For example — “She always tries to do her best.”
We hope this article helped you!