complex than can be contained here, but a skeleton of basics is well within our reach. You wouldn’t use a chisel without knowing how to hold it. In the same way, you really should know the sharp end from the blunt one in everything else you use – including your language. The English language is spoken by more people on earth than any other, after all.
The first thing to know is that there are only nine kinds of words. Nine.
1. Nouns are the names of things. There are three kinds. Proper nouns have capital letters e.g. ‘Newcastle’. Abstract nouns are the things that exist but you can’t touch: ‘courage’, ‘loyalty’, ‘cruelty’, ‘kindness’. Common nouns are the words for everything else: ‘chair’, ‘eyes’, ‘dog’, ‘car’ and so on.
2. Verbs are words for action or change: ‘to become’, ‘to wash’, ‘to dissect’, ‘to eat’ and so on. There are six parts to each verb, known as first person singular, second person singular, third person singular, first person plural, second person plural and third person plural.
Most verbs follow this simple pattern.
| To deliver | |
|---|---|
| First person singular: | I deliver |
| Second person singular: | You deliver |
| Third person singular: | He/She/It delivers – note the ‘s’ |
| First person plural: | We deliver |
| Second person plural: | You deliver |
| Third person plural: | They deliver |
Irregular verbs like ‘to be’ and ‘to have’ are not as … well, not as regular. They must be learned.
| To be | To have |
|---|---|
| I am | I have |
| You are | You have |
| He/She/It is | He/She/It has |
| We are | We have |
| You are | You have |
| They are | They have |
Note that the second person ‘you’ is the same in the singular and plural. In older forms of English, you would have used ‘thou’ as second person singular. In modern English it makes no difference whether you are addressing one man or a thousand, you could still begin as follows: ‘You are responsible for your behaviour.’
3. Adverbs are the words that modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. They are important as there is a huge difference between ‘smiling nastily’ and ‘smiling cheerfully’. Clearly the verb is not enough on its own.
Most adverbs end in ‘–ly’, as with the examples above. If you say, ‘I’ll go to the shops tomorrow,’ however, ‘tomorrow’ is an adverb, because it adds detail to that verb ‘go’. Words like ‘soon’ and ‘often’ also fall into this category. As a group, these are sometimes known as ‘adverbs of time’.
As mentioned above, an adverb can also add detail to an adjective. ‘It is really big’ uses ‘really’ as an adverb. ‘It is very small’ uses ‘very’ as an adverb. He walked ‘extremely quietly’ uses ‘extremely’ as an adverb for an adverb! This is not rocket science. Take it slowly and learn it all bit by bit.
4. Adjectives are words that modify nouns. In ‘the enormous snake’, ‘enormous’ is the adjective. More than one can be used together, thus: ‘the small, green snake’. Note the comma between the two adjectives. Putting a comma between adjectives is correct.
As a general rule, adjectives come before the noun. However, as always with English, rules have many exceptions: ‘That snail is slimy!’, for example.
5. Pronouns are words that replace nouns in a sentence. It would sound clumsy to say ‘John looked in John’s pockets.’ Instead, we say ‘John looked in his pockets’. ‘His’ is a pronoun. Here are some examples: I, you, he, she, we, they – me, you, him, her, us, them – my, your, his, her, our, their.
‘One’ is also used in place of ‘people in general’, as in the following sentence: ‘One should always invest in reliable stocks.’ The informal form of this is ‘you’, but it does sometimes lead to confusion, which keeps this unusual use of ‘one’ alive. The Queen also uses the ‘we’ form in place of ‘I’ during formal announcements.
6. A conjunction is a word that joins parts of a sentence together. ‘I tied the knot and hoped for the best.’ Tying the knot is a separate action to hoping for the best, joined by the word ‘and’. Conjunctions can also join adjectives, ‘short and snappy’, or adverbs ‘slowly but surely’.
Examples: and, so, but, or, if, although, though, because, since, when, as, whilst, nor.
The general rule is: ‘A sentence does not begin with a conjunction.’ Yes, you will find examples where sentences do begin with a conjunction. Professional writers do break this rule, but you should know it to break it – and even then do it carefully.
The examples above are fairly straightforward. It does get a little trickier when a conjunction is used to introduce a subordinate clause. (Clauses are covered in Grammar Part Two.)
‘Although he was my only friend, I hated him.’ (Although)
‘As I’m here, I’ll have a drink.’ (As)
In these two examples, the sentences have been rearranged to change the emphasis. It would have been clearer, perhaps, to write, ‘I’ll have a drink as I’m here’, or ‘I hated him although he was my only friend.’ It’s easier to see ‘although’ and ‘as’ are being used as joining words in that way, but many sentences begin with a subordinate clause.
7. Articles are perhaps the easiest to remember: ‘a’, ‘an’ and ‘the’. That’s it.
‘A/an’ is the indefinite article. Used when an object is unknown. ‘A dog is in my garden.’ ‘An elephant is sitting on my father.’
‘The’