Administrative Assistant / Secretary: The Basics of Grammar

The Parts of Speech
There are nine parts of speech in the English language:

1. Nouns

2. Verbs

3. Adjectives

4. Adverbs

5. Pronouns

6. Prepositions

7. Conjunctions

8. Articles, determiners, and quantifiers

9. Interjections

This guide examines the correct use of these parts of speech.

Nouns
A noun is the name of a person, place, thing, or idea. A proper noun, which names a specific person, place, or thing (Kevin, Atlanta, God, English, Jennifer), is usually capitalized. A proper noun used as someone’s name is called a noun of address. The remaining nouns for everything else are called common nouns and are not usually capitalized.
A group of related words can act like a noun within a sentence. This is called a noun clause, and it contains a subject and a verb. Here is an example of a noun clause:
What he did for the country was unbelievable.
In this example, “What he did for the country” is the noun clause.
A noun phrase consists of a noun with several modifiers that act as a single noun. The following are examples of noun phrases:
Professional football team
Money market account
Grossly exaggerated totals
Abnormally long fingers
Real estate investment trust
There are also groups of words that can form compound nouns. Some examples include:
Son-in-law
Stick-in-the-mud

Other Noun Categories
There are additional categories of nouns:
- Count nouns—used for anything that can be counted, such as five dollars, a dozen, and seven continents.
- Mass nouns—used for naming things that can’t be counted, like water, air, energy, and data.
- Collective nouns—used for naming groups of individuals or things, such as team, class, or jury.
- Abstract nouns—used for naming intangible things, such as love, peace, justice, hope, hatred, and friendship.
Some words can be a count noun or a non-count noun, depending on how they are used. Whether a noun is a count or non-count noun determines whether it can be used with articles and determiners. For example:
- Non-count: “The team got into trouble.”
- Count: “The team had many troubles.”

Noun Case
Nouns can be in the subjective, possessive, and objective case. The case tells you the role of a noun in a sentence. Here are some examples:
The football player (subject) runs very fast.
He selected a car (object).
The football player’s (possessive) jersey was torn.
Nouns in the subjective and objective case are identical. Nouns in the possessive usually require an apostrophe followed by the letter s or es.

Verbs
Verbs are used in a sentence to describe an action or the idea of being. Consider the following:
- Idea of being: I am an administrative assistant.
- Action: The assistant worked late.
There are many different ways to classify verbs. Transitive verbs require an object; for example, “Will you lay the book on the desk?” In this example, “the book” is the object. Intransitive verbs do not require an object, for example: “The dog lies down every day after lunch.” Some verbs can be both transitive and intransitive depending on how they are used in a sentence. Others can be used only one way.
Verbs are also classified as either finite or nonfinite. A finite verb can stand alone as the main verb of a sentence. A nonfinite verb cannot. For example:
- Finite: The car destroyed the mailbox.
- Nonfinite: The broken mailbox . . .

Verb Forms
There are four basic forms of verb inflections (endings):

1. Base form

2. Past form

3. Present participle

4. Past participle
These are used to help determine the tense of the verb. Tense tells you whether an action is happening now, is going to happen in the future, or has already happened in the past. Unlike some languages, English verbs do not form their tense just with the endings. Instead, they use auxiliary words. For example:
- Base form: I write.
- Past form: I wrote.
- Present participle: I am writing.
- Past participle: I have written.

Linking Verbs
A linking verb is used to connect a subject and its complement (a noun or adjective that describes the subject). These are often forms of the verb to be, but they sometimes include verbs related to the five senses (sight, sound, smell, feel, taste) and verbs that relate to a state of being (appear, seem, become, grow, turn, prove, remain). Here are some examples of linking verbs:
These children are all students.
Those clouds look dark.
Rain seems likely.

Mood
Mood in verbs refers to the attitude of the speaker or writer. There are three attitudes that can accompany a verb. The first is indicative mood, which is used to make a statement or ask a question. These are the most common verb moods. The second attitude is imperative mood, which is used to give directions, give orders, or make a strong suggestion. Verbs used in the imperative mood do not need a subject since it is understood to be “you.” For example:
Get out of here.
Go to the store before you come home.
The third attitude is subjunctive mood, which is used (1) with dependent clauses to express a wish, (2) with “if” and a condition, (3) with “as if” or “as though” along with a speculation, or (4) with expressions that begin with “that” and express a demand. For example:
He wishes she were here.
We would have won the game if we played harder.
They acted as if they were hungry.
The letter demanded that membership dues be paid on time.
One of the most important things about a verb’s mood is the ability it gives to distinguish between factual statements and hypothetical statements. Hypothetical statements often use the words could, would, or might.

Phrasal Verbs
Phrasal verbs consist of a verb along with another word or phrase. Usually phrasal verbs are accompanied by a preposition. They are usually casual conversational phrases that are accepted into mainstream language usage. Here are some examples:
The old people were sitting around doing nothing.
He looked up his old teacher in the phone book.
In each case, the word that is joined with the verb is called a particle. The problem with phrasal verbs is that their meaning is often unclear. They can be used in conversation, but it is best to avoid them in formal business writing.

Causative Verbs
Causative verbs are used to describe an action that is necessary to cause another action; for example, “The devil made me do it.” In this example, “made” causes the “do” to happen. There are many other causative verbs, including let, make, help, allow, have, require, motivate, get, convince, hire, assist, encourage, permit, employ, and force. Most causative verbs are followed by an object (a noun or pronoun) and an infinitive (“to” plus a verb). For example:
He allows his dog to sleep all day.
There are three causative verbs that do not follow this pattern: have, make, and let. These verbs are usually followed by an object and the base form of the verb. For example:
She made her associates read the entire report.

Factitive Verbs
Verbs like make, choose, judge, elect, select, and name are called factitive verbs. These verbs can take two objects. For example:
The people elected Mike Jackson president of the homeowners association.
“Mike Jackson” is the object and “president of the homeowners association” is the second complement.

Verb Tenses
A tense shows the time of an action or state of being. There are three tenses that change the endings of verbs. The present tense means that something is happening now, for example: “He is an executive. He wears nice suits.” The simple past tense indicates that something happened in the past: “He was an executive. He wore nice suits.” The past participle is combined with an auxiliary verb to indicate that something happened in the past prior to another action: “He had been an executive. He had worn nice suits.”
Unlike other languages, English does not have a future tense. Instead, future verb forms are created with the use of auxiliaries: “He will be an executive. He will wear nice suits.”

Progressive Verbs
Progressive verbs, which indicate something being or happening, are formed by the present participle form (ending in “-ing”) along with an auxiliary. Here are some examples:
She is crying.
She was crying.
She will be crying.
She has been crying.
She had been crying.
She will have been crying.
The progressive form occurs only with dynamic verbs (verbs that show the ability to change). Stative verbs, on the other hand, are those that describe a quality that is incapable of change. For example, you wouldn’t say, “She is being tall.”

There are a variety of dynamic verbs: activity verbs, process verbs, verbs of bodily sensation, transitional events verbs, and momentary verbs.

Following are some examples:
- Activity verbs—ask, play, work, write, say, listen, call, eat
- Process verbs—change, grow, mature, widen
- Verbs of bodily sensation—hurt, itch, ache, feel
- Transitional events verbs—arrive, die, land, leave, lose
- Momentary verbs—hit, jump, throw, kick

There are two classifications of stative verbs: verbs of inert perception and cognition, and relational verbs. Following are some examples:
- Verbs of inert perception and cognition—guess, hate, hear, please, satisfy
- Relational verbs—equal, possess, own, include, cost, concern, contain

Irregular Verbs
Most verbs form the simple past and past participle by adding “ed” to the base verb; for example: “He walked.” “He has walked.” There are some irregular verbs that do not follow this pattern. For example, common verbs such as “to be” and “to have” have irregular forms.

Sequence of Tenses
There is a relationship between verbs in a main clause and verbs in a dependent clause. The verb tenses do not have to be the same as long as they are accurate about time and order. For example: “My father will have returned, before I leave.”

Verbals
Verbals are words that seem to mean an action or a state of being but do not function as a real verb. They are sometimes called nonfinite verbs. Verbals are frequently used with other words in what is called a verbal phrase.

Participles
A participle is a verb that acts like an adjective; for example, “The running dog chased the speeding car.” A present participle describes a present condition; a past participle describes something that has already happened. For example: “The burned tree fell down in the storm.”

The Infinitive
An infinitive is formed with the root of a verb and the word “to”; for example, “To be, or not to be.” A present infinitive describes a present condition, for example: “I like to dream.” The perfect infinitive describes a time earlier than that described by the verb; for example, “I would like to have slept until nine.”

Gerunds
A gerund is a verb form ending in “-ing” that acts as a noun; for example, “Walking in the street after dark can be dangerous.” Gerunds are usually accompanied by other words that make up a gerund phrase. In the example given, “walking in the street after dark” is a gerund phrase.
Because gerunds and gerund phrases are nouns, they can be used just like nouns.

For example:
- As a subject—“Being president is a difficult job.”
- As objective of a verb—“He didn’t really like being poor.”
- As objective of a preposition—“He read a book about being careful.”

Problems with Split Infinitives
One of the most common grammar mistakes is the split infinitive. An infinitive is said to be split when a word (usually an adverb) is placed between the “to” of the infinitive and the root of verb; for example, “To boldly go where no man has gone before.”
The argument against split infinitives is based on the idea that an infinitive is a single unit and should not be divided. Because it is so easy to spot, many writers try to avoid this construction. However, many dictionaries and word usage books now say that the rule against splitting infinitives can be ignored. To avoid the argument, it is a good rule to avoid split infinitives in business writing.

Infinitives, Gerunds, and Sequence
Although infinitives and gerunds are not really verbs, they describe action. When combined with auxiliary verb forms, infinitives and gerunds can also express concepts of time.
 

Infinitives, Gerunds, and Sequence
 

Passive and Active Voices
Verbs can either be active (“The assistant used the computer”) or passive (“The computer was used by the assistant”) in voice. In the active voice, the subject and verb relationship is easy to understand. The subject is the do-er or be-er and the verb describes an action. In the passive voice, the subject is not a do-er or be-er. Instead, the subject is being acted upon by something else.
Computerized grammar checkers, such as the one built into Microsoft Word, can detect passive voice construction and suggest a revision. There is nothing incorrect about using passive-voice verbs; however, if you can say the same thing using the active voice, you should do so. Your writing will be easier to understand.
The passive voice does have its uses. When it is more important to draw attention to the person or thing that was acted on, the passive voice can be used; for example, “George was killed while riding a bicycle.” Another situation where the passive voice is more appropriate is when the subject is not important; for example, “The meteor shower can be observed just after dark.”
The passive voice is sometimes required for technical writing, where the do-er or be-er can be anyone, and the process being described is more important. Instead of writing, “I developed a computer program that can print checks,” you would write, “A computer program was developed that can print checks.”
The passive voice is created by combining a form of the “to be” verb with the past participle of the main verb. Other helping verbs are sometimes used.
Only transitive verbs (those that are objects) can be transformed into passive voice. However, some transitive verbs cannot be transformed into passive voice. “To have” is an example. You can say or write, “She has a new computer,” but you can’t say, “A new computer is had by her.” Some other examples of verbs that cannot be used with the passive voice include resemble, look like, equal, agree with, mean, contain, hold, comprise, lack, suit, fit, and become.
Verbals can also be used in the passive voice. An infinitive phrase in the passive voice can perform a variety of functions in a sentence. The same is true for passive gerunds and passive participles.

Adjectives
Adjectives are words that describe or modify a person, place, or thing. Articles such as a, an, and the are adjectives. So are words like tall, solid, and cold.
A group of words containing a subject and verb may act as an adjective. These are called an adjective clause; for example, “My brother, who is much older than I am, is a psychologist.” If the subject and verb are removed from an adjective clause, an adjective phrase results; for example, “He is the man who is keeping my family fed.”
One thing to keep in mind about adjectives is that you should not ask too much of them. Use nouns and verbs to describe something. Sometimes adjectives don’t add much to a sentence in the first place. For example, what do interesting, beautiful, lovely, and exciting really do for a sentence?

Adjective Position in a Sentence
Unlike adverbs, which can go almost anywhere in a sentence, adjectives almost always appear immediately before a noun or noun phrase that they modify. Sometimes adjectives appear in a string, and when they do, they must appear in a particular order according to category. When indefinite pronouns—such as something, someone, and anybody—are modified by an adjective, the adjective comes after the pronoun.
The order in which adjectives are arranged in a sentence is difficult for people learning English. They wonder why we wouldn’t say “red big barn” instead of “big red barn.” Adjectives are ordered as follows:
- Determiners—articles and other limiters, such as a, an, five, her, our, those, that, several, and some
- Observation—post-determiners and limiter adjectives and adjectives subject to subjective measure, such as beautiful, expensive, gorgeous, dilapidated, and delicious
- Size and Shape—adjectives subject to objective measure, such as big, little, enormous, long, short, and square
- Age—adjectives describing age, such as old, antique, new, and young
- Color—adjectives denoting color, such as red, white, and black
- Origin—adjectives denoting the source of the noun, such as American, French, and Canadian
- Material—adjectives that describe what something is made of, such as silk, wooden, silver, and metallic
- Qualifier—final limiter that is often part of the noun, such as rocking chair, hunting cabin, passenger car, or book cover
Sentences that run two or three adjectives together can be laborious to read. In addition, when adjectives belong to the same class, they are called coordinated adjectives and require a comma between them in a sentence. One good rule is to consider whether you could have inserted and or but between the adjectives. If so, then use a comma between them. For example, you could say “inexpensive but comfortable house.” If the but is not in the sentence, you would punctuate it as “inexpensive, comfortable house.”
 

Degrees of Adjectives


Irregular Forms in the Comparative and Superlative Degree



Degrees of Adjectives
Adjectives can express degrees of modification: positive, comparative, and superlative. We use the comparative for comparing two things and the superlative for comparing three or more things. Sometimes the word than accompanies the comparative adjective and the word the precedes the superlative adjective. The inflected suffixes “-er” and “-est” are used to form most comparative and superlatives. Sometimes “-ier” and “-iest” are added when a two-syllable adjective ends in y. 
Some adjectives have irregular forms in the comparative and superlative degree.
You should be careful not to form comparative or superlative adjectives that already describe a unique condition or extreme of comparison. Perfect and pregnant are good examples; a person cannot be more perfect or more pregnant.
Also be careful not to use the word more along with a comparative adjective formed with the “-er” suffix, or the word most along with a superlative adjective formed with the “-est” suffix. You’ll end up with phrases such as more larger and most largest.

Less and Fewer
When making a comparison of quantities, we often have to make a choice between the adjectives less and fewer. When you are talking about countable things, you should use the word fewer. When you are talking about measurable quantities that cannot be counted, you should use the word less; for example, “He has fewer assets, but less worries.”

Than I or Me
When making a comparison between yourself and something else, you’ll often end with a subject form or object form like “taller than I/she.” In the sentence “He is taller than I am,” or “He is taller than she is,” normally we leave out the verb in the second clause (am or is).
Be careful with comparisons such as “I like him better than she” or “I like him better than her.” In the first case, you are saying that you like him better than she likes him. In the second case, you are saying that you like the male person better than you like the female person. To avoid confusion with the word than, you should write, “I like him better than she does” or “I like him better than I like her.”

Capitalizing Proper Adjectives
When an adjective’s origin is a proper noun, it should be capitalized, for example: Christian music, Nixon era, Victorian poet, and Jeffersonian democracy.

Collective Adjectives
When the article the is combined with an adjective describing a class or group of people, the resulting phrase can act as a noun: the meek, the rich, the poor. The difference between a collective noun and a collective adjective is that the collective adjective is always plural and requires a plural verb; for example, “The meek will inherit the earth.”

Adjectival Opposites
The opposite of an adjective can be formed in a number of different ways. One way is to find an adjective antonym. For example, the opposite of cold is hot. A thesaurus can help you find an appropriate antonym. Another way to form a negative adjective is through use of a prefix. Consider the following pairs:
- Fortunate—unfortunate
- Prudent—imprudent
- Considerate—inconsiderate
- Honorable—dishonorable
- Alcoholic—nonalcoholic
- Filed—misfiled
A third way to form an adjectival opposite is to combine the adjective with less or least. In fact, this method allows for tact and a smoother tone in some cases. For example, “That is the least beautiful girl in the class” is somewhat more tactful than “That is the ugliest girl in the class.”

Good Versus Well
Frequently we have to choose between using well and good in our sentences. Good is an adjective and well is an adverb. Therefore, when describing an action verb, the only choice is the adverb well, for example: “He speaks well.”
When using a linking verb or a verb that has to do with the five human senses, you’ll want to use the adjective good instead, for example: “You smell good today.” Many writers use well after linking verbs related to health, since well is related to wellness. For example: “How are you doing? I am well, thank you.”

Bad Versus Badly
The same rule that applies to well and good also applies to bad and badly. Bad is an adjective and badly is an adverb. Use the adjective bad when referring to human feeling: “I felt bad.” If you said, “I felt badly,” this would imply that there was something wrong with your sense of touch.

A- Adjectives
There are a group of adjectives that follow their own, unique rules. These so-called a- adjectives are ablaze, afloat, afraid, aghast, alert, alike, alive, alone, aloof, ashamed, asleep, averse, awake, and aware. These adjectives are used after a linking verb, for example: “The man was ashamed.”
Sometimes you can use an a- adjective before the word it modifies; for example, “the alert driver.” A- adjectives are sometimes modified with “very much,” for example: “The man was very much ashamed.”

Adverbs
Adverbs are words that modify verbs, adjectives, or another adverb. Adverbs often describe when, where, why, or under what circumstances something happened. Adverbs often end in “-ly”; however, there are many words not ending in “-ly” that serve as adverbs. There are also words ending in “-ly” that are not adverbs. For example, the words lovely, lonely, motherly, and friendly are adjectives.
When a group of words containing a subject and a verb act as an adverb (modifying another verb in the sentence), it is called an adverb clause. Here is an example: “When this game is over, we’re going home for dinner.” When a group of words not containing a subject and a verb act as an adverb, it is called an adverbial phrase. Prepositional phrases frequently have the function of an adverb; for example, “She works on weekends.”
An infinitive phrase can also act as an adverb; for example, “The assistant ran to catch the bus.”
Adjectives cannot modify adverbs, but adverbs can modify adjectives; for example, “The executive showed a wonderfully casual attitude.” Like adjectives, adverbs can have comparative and superlative forms; for example, “You should walk faster if you want to get some exercise.” “The candidate who types fastest gets the job.” Sometimes words like more and most, less and least are used to show an amount; for example, “The house was the most beautifully decorated home on the tour.”
Another construction used to create adverbs is use of as . . . as, for example: “He can’t read as fast as his sister.”
A small group of adverbs have two forms, one that ends in “-ly” and one that doesn’t. In some cases, the two forms have different meanings. For example: “They departed late.” “Lately, they can’t seem to be on time.” In most cases, the form without the “-ly” should be reserved for casual conversation and not business writing; for example, “He did her wrong.”
Adverbs are often used as intensifiers in order to convey a greater or lesser meaning. Intensifiers have three different functions. They can emphasize, amplify, or tone down a verb.

The following are some examples of each type:
- Emphasize—“I really don’t like him.” “He simply ignores me.”
- Amplify—“He completely wrecked his new car.” “I absolutely love fresh fruit.”
- Tone down—“I kind of like this restaurant’s food.” “She mildly disapproved of his smoking.”

Types of Adverbs
There are five main types of adverbs:

1. Adverbs of manner—“He spoke slowly and walked quietly.”

2. Adverbs of place—“He lives there now.”

3. Adverbs of frequency—“He drives to work every morning.”

4. Adverbs of time—“He slept late.”

5. Adverbs of purpose—“He drives his car slowly to avoid getting a ticket.”

Adverbs in a Numbered List
Within normal text, it is usually best not to number items beyond three or four. Anything more than that should be formatted in a vertical numbered list. When you create a numbered list, do not use adverbs with an “-ly” ending (secondly, thirdly, etc). Instead, use first, second, third, and so on.

Adverbs to Avoid
Adverbs like very, extremely, and really don’t intensify anything. They are often too imprecise for business writing. You should avoid using such adverbs.

Positions of Adverbs
Adverbs have a unique ability to be placed in different places within a sentence. Adverbs of manner are unusually flexible in this regard. For example:
Solemnly, the president returned the salute.
The president solemnly returned the salute.
The president returned the salute solemnly.

Adverbs of frequency can appear at the following places within a sentence:
- Before the main verb—“He never gets up before noon.”
- Between the auxiliary verb and the main verb—“I have rarely called my sister without a good reason.”
- Before the verb “used to”—“I always used to talk to him at the bus stop.”

Indefinite adverbs of time can appear either before the verb or between the auxiliary and the main verb:
He finally showed up for the date.
He has recently traveled to France.

Order of Adverbs
There is a basic order in which adverbs can appear in a sentence when there is more than one.
As a general rule, shorter adverbial phrases precede longer ones, regardless of content. For example: “Mike takes a short swim before breakfast every morning in the summer.” Among similar adverbial phrases of kind (manner, place, frequency), the more specific adverbial phrase goes first; for example, “He promised to meet her for coffee sometime next week.” If you move an adverbial modifier to the beginning of a sentence, additional emphasis will be placed on that modifier. This is especially useful with adverbs of manner; for example, “Slowly, ever so carefully, the little boy crept into his parents’ bedroom.”
 

Order of Adverbs


Inappropriate Adverb Order   Modifiers can sometimes attach themselves to the wrong word; for example, “They reported that Leslie Fiedler, a famous literary critic, had won the lottery on the evening news.” It would be better to move the modifier immediately after the verb it is modifying (“reported”) or to the beginning of the sentence: “They reported on the evening news that Leslie Fiedler, a famous literary critic, had won the lottery.”
The adverbs only and barely are often misplaced modifiers; for example, “He only grew to be five feet tall.” This would be better stated as follows: “He grew to be only five feet tall.”

Adjuncts, Disjuncts, and Conjuncts
Adverbs are usually neatly integrated into the flow of a sentence. When this is true, the adverb is called an adjunct. When an adverb does not fit into the sentence flow, it is called a disjunct or conjunct and is usually set off by a comma or a series of commas. A disjunct acts as if it is evaluating the rest of the sentence. Rather than modify the verb, it modifies the entire clause; for example, “Honestly, Bill, I don’t really care.” Conjuncts serve as a connector within the flow of the text, signaling a transition; for example, “If they start talking politics, then I’m leaving.” One variation is the adverbial conjunction. These are words like however and nevertheless. For example: “I love this job; however, I don’t think I can afford to stay.”

Special Adverbial Clauses
Some adverbs have special rules for their placement. For instance, the adverbs enough and not enough usually take a post-modifier position; for example, “Is your food hot enough? This food is not hot enough.” Enough can also be an adjective. When it is used as an adjective, it comes before the noun; for example, “The teacher didn’t give us enough time.” The adverb enough is often followed by an infinitive verb; for example, “They didn’t play hard enough to win.”
The adverb too usually comes before adjectives and other adverbs; for example, “He ate too fast.” “He eats too quickly.” When too appears in a sentence after an adverb, it is a disjunct adverb and is set apart with a comma, for example: “John works hard. He works quickly, too.” The adverb too is sometimes followed by an infinitive verb; for example, “He talks too slowly to keep my attention.” The adverb too can also be followed by the prepositional phrase for plus the objective of the preposition plus an infinitive. For example: “This food is too spicy for Grandma to eat.”

Relative Adverbs
Adjectival clauses can be introduced by relative adverbs: where, when, and why. Although each of these is an adjectival clause and modifies a noun, the relative word itself serves in an adverbial function, modifying the verb within the clause. The relative adverb where begins a clause that modifies a noun of place; for example, “My family now lives in the town where my grandfather used to be sheriff.” The relative pronoun where modifies the verb used to be, but the entire clause modifies the noun town.
A when clause modifies nouns of time; for example, “My favorite day of the week is Friday, when the weekend is about to begin.”
A why clause modifies the noun reason; for example, “Do you know the reason why school is out today?” Sometimes the relative adverb is left out of these clauses and the writer substitutes that instead; for example, “Do you know the reason that school it out today?”

Viewpoint Adverbs
A viewpoint adverb usually comes after a noun and is related to an adjective that precedes the noun; for example, “Investing all our money in technology stocks was probably not a good idea financially.”

Focus Adverbs
A focus adverb is used to limit a specific aspect of the sentence; for example, “He got a promotion just for being there.”

Negative Adverbs
Negative adverbs can create a negative meaning in a sentence without the use of words like no, not, neither, nor, or never. Here are some examples: “He seldom smiles.” “He hardly eats anything since he got sick.” “After the team lost so many key players, rarely did anyone attend the games.”

Pronouns
Usually, pronouns refer to a noun, an individual or a group, or a thing whose identity has been made clear previously. The word a pronoun substitutes for is called its antecedent. “Jeanne accepted Carmelo’s proposal. She knew he was the right guy for her.” Not all pronouns refer to an antecedent. For example, in the sentence “Everyone on this floor charges over one hundred dollars an hour,” the pronoun everyone does not have an antecedent.

Types of Pronouns
There are different kinds of pronouns, which are discussed in the following sections:
- Personal
- Demonstrative
- Relative
- Indefinite
- Intensive
- Reflexive
- Interrogative
- Reciprocal
 

Personal Pronouns   Personal pronouns change form according to their various uses within a sentence. The pronoun I is used as the subject of a sentence, for example: “I am tall.” The pronoun me is used as an object in various ways; for example, “He gave me a car.” The pronoun my is used for the possessive form; for example, “That’s my house.” The same is true for other personal pronouns: the singular you and he/she/it and the plurals we, you, and they. These forms are called cases.
When a personal pronoun is connected by a conjunction to another noun or pronoun, it does not change case; for example, “I am taking a course in Latin.” “John and I are taking a course in Latin.” You’ll notice in the second example that “John” is listed before “I.” The same is true when the object form is used: “The professor gave the Latin books to me.” “The professor gave the Latin books to John and me.”
When a pronoun and a noun are combined, you must choose the case of the pronoun that would be appropriate if the noun were not there; for example: “We teachers are demanding a raise.” With the second person, there’s not as much confusion because the pronoun you is the same for both subject and object form: “You teachers are demanding too much money.”
Among the possessive pronoun forms, there are nominative possessives such as mine, yours, ours, and theirs. Here are some examples: “This new house is mine.” “Look at those houses. Theirs needs work. Ours is in good shape.” “Mine is newer than yours.”
 

Various Cases for Pronouns


Demonstrative Pronouns   The demonstrative pronouns—this, that, these, those, and such—can be used as either pronouns or as determiners. As pronouns, the demonstrative pronouns identify a noun: “That is marvelous!” “I will never forget this.” “Such is life.”
As determiners, the demonstrative pronouns adjectivally modify a noun that follows. They are used to convey a sense of time and distance. For example: “These [strawberries that are in front of me] look delicious. Those [that are farther away] look even better.”
A sense of emotional distance can also be conveyed through the use of demonstrative pronouns; for example, “You’re going to eat that?” Pronouns used in this way receive special emphasis in a spoken sentence.
When used as subjects, demonstrative pronouns can refer to objects as well as persons, for example: “This is my mother.” “This is my book.”
Relative Pronouns   The relative pronouns—who, whoever, which, and that—relate to groups of words, nouns, and other pronouns. The pronoun who connects the subject to the verb within a dependent clause. Choosing between which and that and between who and whom is difficult for many people. Generally, we use which to introduce clauses that are parenthetical in nature. That means they can be removed from the sentence without changing the meaning of the sentence. For that reason, a which clause is often set apart with a comma or a pair of commas. We use that to introduce clauses that are indispensable for the meaning of the sentence. That clauses are not set apart with commas. The pronoun which refers to things, who refers to people, and that usually refers to things but also refers to people in a general way.

The expanded relative pronouns whoever, whomever, and whatever are known as indefinite relative pronouns. They do not define a thing or person in particular; for example, “The company will hire whomever it pleases.” “She seemed to say whatever came to mind.” “Whoever took the money will be punished.” What can be an indefinite relative pronoun when used in the following way: “He will give you what you need for the trip.”
Indefinite Pronouns   The indefinite pronouns—everybody, anybody, somebody, all, each, every, some, none, and one—do not substitute for specific nouns but act as nouns themselves.
One of the problems with the indefinite pronoun everybody is that it seems to be plural but takes a singular verb, for example: “Everybody is coming.” The indefinite pronoun none can be either singular or plural. It is usually always plural except when something else in the sentence forces it to be singular. Some can be singular or plural depending on whether it refers to something countable or not countable.
Some indefinite pronouns also double as determiners, such as enough, few, fewer, less, little, many, much, several, more, most, all, both, every, each, any, either, neither, none, and some.
Intensive Pronouns   The intensive pronouns—myself, yourself, herself, ourselves, and themselves—consist of a personal pronoun plus the suffix -self or -selves. They are used to emphasize a noun; for example, “I myself didn’t play baseball.”
Reflexive Pronouns   Reflexive pronouns indicate that the subject in a sentence also receives the action of the verb: “People who cheat on their taxes are only hurting themselves.” Whenever there is a reflexive pronoun in a sentence, there must be a person to whom the pronoun can reflect. For example, “Please give the food to myself” is incorrect because there is no other subject such as “I” in the sentence.
There is a tendency to use reflexive and intensive pronouns (those ending in “-self”) when they are not appropriate. For example, “These books will be read by myself” should be “These books will be read by me.”
The indefinite pronoun one has its own reflexive form; for example, “One must trust oneself.” Other indefinite pronouns use either himself or themselves as reflexives.
Interrogative Pronouns   Interrogative pronouns are used to introduce questions, for example: “What is that?” “Who is coming?” “Which dog do you like best?” Which is used for specific reference rather than what. For example, in the sentence “Which dogs do you like best?” you are referring to specific dogs. “What dogs do you like best?” refers to general dog breeds you like best.
Interrogative pronouns can also act as determiners; for example, “It doesn’t matter which road you take.” In this role, the pronouns are called interrogative adjectives.
Interrogative pronouns are used to introduce noun clauses. Like relative pronouns, the interrogative pronouns play a subject role in the clause they introduce; for example, “I already told the salesman what I thought about it.”
Reciprocal Pronouns   The reciprocal pronouns—each other and one another—are used for combining ideas; for example, “My brother and I give each other a hard time.” If more than two people are involved, you would use one another.
Reciprocal pronouns can also take the possessive form; for example, “They borrowed each other’s clothes.”

Pronouns and Antecedent Agreement
A pronoun usually refers to its antecedent, and the two must agree in number. Therefore, if the antecedent is plural, the pronoun must be plural. The same is true if the antecedent is singular; the pronoun must then be singular.
Certain pronouns like anyone, anybody, everyone, everybody, someone, somebody, no one, and nobody are always singular. This is perplexing for some people, because they feel that everyone and everybody refer to more than one person. The same is also true for either and neither. Even though they seem to be referring to two things, they are singular.

One of the most frequently asked grammar questions is regarding the pronoun who (who, whose, whom, whoever, and whomever). The choice of singular or plural is determined by what the pronoun refers to. It can refer to a single person or a group. For example: “The person who broke my window should confess.” “The people who have been without power should complain.” One good way to understand the uses for who is to compare it with the pronouns he and they. 
So one good way to choose between the various forms of who is to think of the sentence in terms of the choice between he and him. If him feels right, choose whom. If he sounds better, pick who. For example:
Who do you think is coming? (Do you think he is coming?)
Whom shall we invite to the movie? (Shall we invite him to the movie?)
Give the money to whomever you please. (Give the money to him.)
Give the money to whoever wants it most. (He seems to want it most).
Whoever guesses my age will win the prize. (He guesses my age.)
 

The Pronoun Who Compared to He and They


Another related problem is confusing whose with who’s. Who’s looks like it is possessive; however, it is really a contraction of “who is.”

Prepositions
Prepositions are used to describe relationships between other words in a sentence. Prepositions like in, on, or between are good examples because they describe the spatial nature of things.
Prepositions are almost always combined with other words to become prepositional phrases. Prepositional phrases consist of a preposition plus a determiner, along with an adjective or two, followed by a pronoun or noun that is called the object of the preposition. The prepositional phrase takes on a modifying role of its own, acting as either an adjective or adverb to locate something in time and space, or explaining when or where, or understanding under what circumstances something occurred.

Types of Prepositions
Prepositions can be divided into four types: (1) prepositions of time, (2) prepositions of place, (3) prepositions of location, and (4) prepositions of movement.
Prepositions of Time: At, On, In, For, and Since   At, on, and in often serve as prepositions of time. We use at to designate specific times; for example, “Meet me at five o’clock.” We use on to designate days and dates; for example, “I work all day on Saturdays.” We use in for nonspecific times; for example, “He likes to read in the evenings.”
The preposition for is used to measure time; for example, “He worked for twenty years.” The preposition since is used with a specific date or time; for example, “I have known him since January 2003.”
Prepositions of Place: At, On, and In   At, on, and in can also serve as prepositions of place. We use at for specific addresses: “I live at 5203 Legendary Lane.” We use on to designate streets: “I live on Legendary Lane.” We use in for the names of towns, states, and countries: “I live in Acworth.”
Prepositions of Location: At, On, and In   At, on, and in can also be used as prepositions of location. Their usage is specific to certain places. For example, we say: “in the bed,” “in the bedroom,” “in the car,” “in the class,” “in the library,” “in the room,” and “in the school.” We also say “at class,” “at home,” “at the library,” “at the office,” “at school,” or “at work.” Depending on the specific situation, we can say: “on the bed,” “on the ceiling,” “on the floor,” “on the horse,” “on the plane,” or “on the train.”
Prepositions of Movement: To and Toward   The preposition to is used to express movement to a place; for example, “I am driving to work.”
Toward and towards are also used to express movement; for example, “We were working towards a common goal.” They are both the same word with a spelling variation; however, toward is the preferred spelling in the United States while towards is common in British usage.

Preposition Combinations
Some prepositions are so commonly used with particular nouns, adjectives, and verbs that they have almost become one word. The following is a list of nouns and preposition combinations:
- Approval of
- Awareness of
- Belief in
- Concern for
- Confusion about
- Desire for
- Fondness for
- Grasp of
- Hatred of
- Hope for
- Interest in
- Love of
- Need for
- Participation in
- Reason for
- Respect for
- Success in
- Understanding of

The following is a list of adjectives and preposition combinations:
- Afraid of
- Angry at
- Aware of
- Capable of
- Careless about
- Familiar with
- Fond of
- Happy about
- Interested in
- Jealous of
- Made of
- Married to
- Proud of
- Similar to
- Sorry for
- Sure of
- Tired of
- Worried about

A combination of a verb and preposition is called a phrasal verb. The word that is joined with the verb is called a particle. The following is a list of verb and preposition combinations:
- Apologize for
- Ask about
- Ask for
- Belong to
- Bring up
- Care for
- Find out
- Give up
- Grow up
- Look for
- Look forward to
- Look up
- Make up
- Pay for
- Prepare for
- Study for
- Talk about
- Think about
- Trust in
- Work for
- Worry about

Conjunctions
Conjunctions are words that connect parts of a sentence. The simplest conjunctions are called coordinating conjunctions. They include and, but, or, yet, for, nor, and so.
When a coordinating conjunction connects two independent clauses, it is often accompanied by a comma; for example, “John wants to play football for Texas, but he has had trouble with his grades.” It is also correct to use a comma with and when used to attach the list item in a list; for example: “John needs to study harder in math, history, physics, and economics.” When a coordinating conjunction is used to connect all the elements in a series, a comma is not used, for example: “Math and history and physics are the subjects that give John the most trouble.” Commas are also used with but when a sentence expresses a contrast; for example, “John is a great player, but not very smart.”
The most common coordinating conjunctions are and, but, and or. Each has its own unique uses.

Coordinating Conjunction: And
The coordinating conjunction and can be used in the following ways:
- To suggest that one idea is sequential to another; for example, “Steve sent in his application and waited for the response in the mail.”
- To suggest that an idea is the result of another; for example, “Linda heard the thunder and quickly took shelter inside the house.”
- To suggest that one idea is in contrast to another; for example, “Lori is an artist, and her sister is a doctor.” Frequently, the conjunction but is used for this purpose.
- To suggest an element of surprise; for example, “Atlanta is a beautiful city and has symptoms of urban blight.” Frequently, the conjunction yet is used for this purpose.
- To suggest that one clause is dependent; for example, “Drink too much water before the trip and you’ll soon find yourself stopping at every rest area.”
- To make a comment on the first clause; for example, “Horace became addicted to gambling—and that’s why he moved to Las Vegas.”

Coordinating Conjunction: But
The coordinating conjunction but can be used in the following ways:
- To suggest an unexpected contrast; for example, “Tom lost money in his investments, but he still maintained a comfortable lifestyle.”
- To express positively what the first part of the sentence implies negatively; for example, “Tom never invested foolishly but listened carefully to the advice of investment newsletters.”
- To connect two ideas with the meaning “with the exception of”; for example, “Everyone but Tom is making money in the stock market.”

Coordinating Conjunction: Or
The coordinating conjunction or can be used in the following ways:
- To suggest that only one possibility is realistic and excludes the other; for example, “You can sell your investment now or you can lose all your money.”
- To suggest alternatives; for example, “We can go out to eat and to a movie, or we can just stay home and see what’s on TV.”
- To suggest a refinement of the first clause; for example, “The University of Texas is the best school in the state, or so it seems to every UT alumni.”
- To suggest a correction to the first part of the sentence; for example, “There’s no way you can lose money in this investment, or so Eric told himself.”
- To suggest a negative condition; for example, “You have two choices: pay taxes or die.”

Other Conjunctions
The conjunction nor is used occasionally by itself; however, it is most commonly used in a correlative pair with neither; for example, “He is neither rich nor poor.” Nor can also be used with negative expressions; for example, “This is not how I normally dress, nor should you get the idea I have no taste in clothes.”
The word yet sometimes functions as an adverb and has various meanings such as in addition, even, still, and eventually. It also functions as a coordinating conjunction with a meaning of nevertheless or but; for example, “Rosemary is an expert in computer programming, yet her real passion is poetry.”
The word for is often used as a preposition, but it does sometimes act as a coordinating conjunction. When it is used as a coordinating conjunction, it has a meaning of because or since; for example, “For he’s a jolly good fellow.”
The conjunction so can be used to connect two independent clauses along with a comma. It has the meaning of as well or in addition. Many writers would eliminate the so and use a semicolon between the two clauses.

Subordinating Conjunctions
A subordinating conjunction comes at the beginning of a dependent clause and establishes the relationship between the clause and the rest of the sentence; for example, “He spoke Spanish as if he had been born in Mexico.”
Many subordinating conjunctions also serve as prepositions. When they serve as subordinating conjunctions, they introduce the dependent clause (Table 32-7).

Correlative Conjunctions
Correlative conjunctions combine with other words to form grammatically equal pairs. The following is a list of correlative conjunctions.
- Both . . . and
- Not only . . . but also
- Not . . . but
- Either . . . or
- Neither . . . nor
- Whether . . . or
- As . . . as
 

Common Surrounding Conjunctions



Articles, Determiners, and Quantifiers
Articles, determiners, and quantifiers are little words that precede and modify nouns; for example, “the dog,” “a cat,” “those people,” “whatever purpose,” “either way,” “your choice.” Sometimes these words tell you whether the subject is something specific or more general. Sometimes they tell you how much or how many.

The choice of the proper article or determiner is usually not a problem for the native English speaker. The following is a list of determiner categories:
- Articles—an, a, the
- Determiners—articles and other limiters such as a, an, five, her, our, those, that, several, and some
- Possessive nouns—Kevin’s, the worker’s, my mother’s
- Possessive pronouns—his, your, their, whose
- Numbers—one, two, three, etc.
- Demonstrative pronouns—this, that, these, those, such

Articles
The three articles a, an, and the are a type of adjective. The is called the definite article because it tends to name something specific. A and an are called indefinite articles because they refer to things in a less specific way.
The is used with specific nouns and is required when the noun refers to something that is unique; for example, “The earth orbits the sun.” The is also used for abstract nouns; for example, “The city of Atlanta has encouraged the use of mass transit.”
A is used before singular nouns that begin with consonants; for example, “A dog, a cat, a mountain.” An is used before singular nouns that begin with vowels or vowellike sounds; for example, “An apple, an eagle, an invitation.”

Predeterminers
Predeterminers occur prior to other determiners and include multipliers (double, twice, two/three times, etc.); fractional expressions (one-half, one-third, etc.); the words both, half, and all; and the intensifiers quite, rather, and such.
Multipliers precede plural count and mass nouns and with singular count nouns denoting numbers or an amount; for example, “This classroom holds three times the students as my old room.”
Fractional expressions have a similar construction as multipliers and optionally include of; for example, “One-half of the voters favored lower taxes.”
Intensifiers occur primarily in casual speech and are more common in British English than in American English; for example, “This food is rather bland, isn’t it?” “The voters made quite a fuss over the debate.”

Quantifiers
Quantifiers are words that also precede and modify nouns. They are used to communicate how many or how much. Selecting the correct quantifier depends on whether it is used with a count or non-count noun. For example, the following quantifiers can be used with count nouns: many people, a few people, several people, a couple of people, none of the people. The following quantifiers can be used with non-count nouns: not much eating, a little eating, little eating, a bit of eating, a good deal of eating, a great deal of eating, no eating.

Interjections
Interjections are words or phrases used to communicate excitement, orders, or protests. Sometimes they can be used by themselves, but often they are contained within more complex sentence structures; for example, “Wow, I can’t believe it.” “Oh, I didn’t realize you were here.” “No, you shouldn’t have done that.”
Most interjections are treated as parenthetical elements and are set apart from the rest of the sentence by commas or a set of commas. If the interjection is more forceful, it is followed with an exclamation point.