In a general sense, a grammarian is a linguist. One who studies language, in other words. However often grammarian is used in a slightly more restricted sense for a person who writes grammar books and looks only at the way language is put together. In the past,...
A Relative Clause (or Adjectival Clause as it's sometimes known) gives information about a noun and at the same time, works like an adjective. Take a look a this sentence: For the party we bought several bottles of very cheap spirits. The noun spirits has been...
Look at these simple questions: Can you handle the truth? Are you busy? To answer them your students will often give just a Short Answer: Are you rich? No, I'm not! Does he smoke? Yes, he does. Who killed the king? He did. Short Answers & TEFL Sometimes your...
In grammar a complement - not to be confused with a compliment! – is a way to provide more information about the subject or the object of a sentence. He is gorgeous! Did you like the present she gave you? A complement completes an idea, whether this is expressed...
An Utterance is the spoken equivalent to a sentence. As a sentence is bounded by a capital letter and a period or full stop (or other punctuation) so an utterance is often (though not always) bounded by silence or a breath or pause. Having said this, there is no...
The most common sentence structure in English is SVO or {subject} + {verb} + {object} Lucy + baked + a cake. As you can see, it has just one object. However, sometimes a sentence will have two objects which are known as the direct object and the indirect object:...
In English every sentence starts with a Capital Letter (or Uppercase) and usually ends with a period or full stop. For example these are all wrong: * the film has finished. * where is she? * in 1492 Columbus sailed off into the sunset. * an asterisk at the beginning...
A Cleft Sentence (cleft, past participle of cleave = split) is a sentence that has been split into two clauses - a main clause and a subordinate clause - in order to emphasize one part of it. This part is often referred to as the "focus". It is her kindness that I...
A semicolon sits half way between a period/full stop and a comma. It has little or nothing to do with a colon, however. It is used instead of a period/full stop when we want to avoid too strong a break between phrases and instead of a comma when we need a stronger...
A typical English statement has this form: {subject} + {verb} + {object} Churchill + enjoyed + breakfast. We + considered + his answer. The object comes last. If we add a word or phrase to the object to add some more information or describe it further, then this is...
Simply put, Syntax is the collection of rules which go together to form sentences and phrases in a language. For example, the rules of syntax say that an English sentence can be formed thus: {subject} + {verb} + {object} Michael + rowed + the boat The rules of syntax...
Saying or repeating exactly what someone has said is called Direct Speech (which is sometimes also called Quoted Speech). What a person says appears within quotation marks and is exactly what that person says: "Live long and prosper," said Spock. In this example...
Here's a simple statement: Mary Anderson invented the windshield wiper in 1903. It follows the usual pattern of English statements of SVO: subject + verb + object Mary Anderson + invented + the windshield wiper. Often we ask questions about the object of the...
Question tags are used at the end of sentences when we want to check something, when we want someone to do something or when we want to show surprise. They are separated from the main question by a comma: You're English, aren't you? You've got five minutes to spare,...
The past is past and (sometimes unfortunately) it cannot be changed. All we can do is imagine how it might be different now if things had gone differently. To do this, to describe unreal situations in the past, we use the Third Conditional. If I had known the party...
The Apostrophe is a diacritic mark in punctuation. It is used in 2 different ways in English: to show possessive nouns to show omitted letters Possession Generally we add an apostrophe s to the end of a noun to make it possessive: the girl's bike Maggie's farm If...
A Subordinate Clause (aka Dependent Clause) is a clause that doesn’t make sense fully on its own and always needs an independent clause to express a complete thought and make a complete sentence. These, for example, are subordinate clauses: * whenever I see her *...
A conditional usually consists of 2 clauses known as the main clause and the conditional clause. The conditional clause usually begins with words like if or unless: {conditional clause}, + {main clause} if you leave me now, + you will take away the biggest part of me...
To make a verb passive, we use the verb be conjugated in the same tense used in the active voice and change the main verb into the past participle. These are the main patterns used: Simple Tenses {be} + {Past Participle} active Eric kisses Amanda. passive Amanda is...
Declarative Sentences are sentences which convey information; in other words, they make a statement. They do not ask a question or give a command. Declarative sentences are perhaps the most common forms of sentences. Other forms are interrogative, imperative and...
Sentence Connectors are words used to link sentences together. There are several types of connectors. Each one of them is used to express a different relationship between ideas, like: Addition I was in a hurry and I forgot to take my umbrella. John is our chauffeur,...
There are several ways to show ownership or possession in English grammar. The way we use mainly depends on whether the owner is animate (i.e. a person or an animal) or a thing. But as always, there are exceptions to this general rule. Animate Owners Apostrophe To...
In an English sentence usually the subject of a sentence does something to an object. The object is the thing or person which is affected by the subject and the verb. Patricia ate the cake. The subject of this sentence is Patricia. She is the 'star actor'. The...
A statement is a simple sentence which tells us some information (as oppose to asking a question, for example). It is a record of a situation or state, in other words. The most basic statement is made up of a subject (what the sentence is about) and a predicate (what...
Sentences English important words is order of in the. or better: The order of words in English sentences is important. We need to get word order right in English. The arrangement makes all the difference. Get it wrong and it just ends up a mess which no one...
This question is often asked by new or potential TEFL teachers, especially since many schools in the UK and USA do not teach grammar as a matter of course and many high school graduates will not know a verb from a noun. Can you describe language? It's an...
Possessive pronouns are pronouns used to show ownership. They tell us who owns what when we don't want to or don't need to repeat the name of what is owned. As with all pronouns, possessive pronouns replace a noun (the word pronoun comes from Latin and means in place...
In English Grammar we talk about inversion when we change the normal order of the elements in a sentence. In most cases this means swapping the position of the subject and verb of the sentence. For example, this is a common sentence structure in English which...
Verbs have a property known as Voice which allows you to show the relationship between the verb and the subject and object in the sentence. If a verb is in the Active Voice then it shows the subject performing an action: the subject does something If, however, a...
We use possessive adjectives with nouns to show possession or ownership. Like most adjectives they come before the noun which they describe: {possessive adjective} + {noun} your + car his + mother its + food There are seven possessive adjectives in English: my...
