English Grammar Rules

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A word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. Examples: teacher, London, freedom, dog.

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A word used in place of a noun. Examples: he, she, it, they, we, I.

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A word that expresses an action or a state of being. Examples: run, think, is, become.

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A word that describes or modifies a noun or pronoun. Example: The tall man wore a blue hat.

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A word that modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb. Example: She runs quickly. He is very smart.

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A word that shows the relationship between a noun and another word. Examples: in, on, at, under, between.

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A word that connects words, phrases, or clauses. Examples: and, but, or, so, because, although.

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A word or phrase expressing strong emotion. Examples: Wow! Oh! Ouch! Well!

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The person or thing performing the action of a verb. In "The cat sat," the cat is the subject.

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The noun or pronoun that receives the action of the verb. In "She read the book," the book is the object.

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A subject and its verb must agree in number. Singular subjects take singular verbs. "She runs" / "She run"

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Use "a" before consonant sounds; use "an" before vowel sounds. a car, a university / an apple, an hour

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"Its" is possessive. "It's" is a contraction of "it is" or "it has." The cat licked its paw. It's a nice day.

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"There" = location. "Their" = belonging to them. "They're" = they are.

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Use "who" as a subject; use "whom" as an object. Who called? / To whom did you speak?

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A group of words containing a subject and a verb. "She left early" is a clause.

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A group of related words without a subject-verb pair. "in the morning," "running fast"

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A clause that can stand alone as a complete sentence. "I went to school."

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A clause that cannot stand alone; it depends on a main clause. "Because I was tired" needs a main clause to complete it.

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Two or more independent clauses joined incorrectly without proper punctuation. "I was tired I went to sleep"

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An incomplete sentence that lacks a subject or verb. "Running down the street."

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Use a comma before "and" when joining two independent clauses: "She sang, and he danced."

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The comma placed before "and" or "or" in a list of three or more items. "I bought apples, oranges, and bananas."

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To join two closely related independent clauses. "She studied hard; she passed the exam."

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To introduce a list, explanation, or quotation. "He had one goal: to win."

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The subject performs the action. "The dog bit the man." — preferred in most writing.

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The subject receives the action. "The man was bitten by the dog."

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Describes a completed action in the past. Formed with verb + -ed (regular). She walked. He ran.

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Describes an action that happened at an unspecified time or started in the past and continues. I have eaten. She has lived here for years.

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A modifying phrase that does not clearly relate to the word it modifies. "Running down the street, the keys fell." (Keys don't run.)

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Using the same grammatical form for items in a series. "She likes reading, writing, and swimming."

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Use "fewer" for countable nouns; "less" for uncountable ones. Fewer students / Less water.

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"Affect" is usually a verb (to influence). "Effect" is usually a noun (the result). The cold affected her. The effect was immediate.

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"Lie" means to recline (intransitive). "Lay" means to put something down (transitive, needs an object). I lie down. I lay the book down.

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A verb form ending in -ing that functions as a noun. "Swimming is fun." "She enjoys cooking."