Questions & Answers: English Expression and Writing - Grammar Review

Describe general nouns, specific nouns, and collective nouns.
General nouns are the names of conditions or ideas. Specific nouns name people, places, and things that are understood by using your senses.
 

General nouns:
Condition: beauty, strength
Idea: truth, peace
 

Specific nouns:
People: baby, friend, father
Places: town, park, city hall
Things: rainbow, cough, apple, silk, gasoline
 

Collective nouns are the names for a person, place, or thing that may act as a whole. The following are examples of collective nouns: class, company, dozen, group, herd, team, and public.

Describe nouns, common nouns, and proper nouns.
When you talk about a person, place, thing, or idea, you are talking about nouns. The two main types of nouns are common and proper nouns. Also, nouns can be abstract (i.e., general) or concrete (i.e., specific).
 

Common nouns are the class or group of people, places, and things (Note: do not capitalize common nouns). Examples of common nouns:
People: boy, girl, worker, manager
Places: school, bank, library, home
Things: dog, cat, truck, car
 

Proper nouns are the names of specific persons, places, or things (Note: capitalize all proper nouns). Examples of proper nouns:
People: Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Martin Luther King, Jr.
Places: Los Angeles, California / New York / Asia
Things: Statue of Liberty, Earth*, Lincoln Memorial
*Note: When you talk about the planet that we live on, you capitalize Earth. When you mean the dirt, rocks, or land, you lowercase earth.

Describe intensive, relative, interrogative, demonstrative, indefinite, and reciprocal pronouns.
Intensive: I myself, you yourself, he himself, she herself, the (thing) itself, we ourselves, you yourselves, they themselves
Relative: which, who, whom, whose
Interrogative: what, which, who, whom, whose
Demonstrative: this, that, these, those
Indefinite: all, any, each, everyone, either/neither, one, some, several
Reciprocal: each other, one another

Describe pronouns and personal pronouns.
Pronouns are words that are used to stand in for a noun. A pronoun may be grouped as personal, intensive, relative, interrogative, demonstrative, indefinite, and reciprocal.
 

Personal: Nominative is the case for nouns and pronouns that are the subject of a sentence. Objective is the case for nouns and pronouns that are an object in a sentence. Possessive is the case for nouns and pronouns that show possession or ownership.

Singular

Plural

Describe action and linking verbs.
An action verb is a verb that shows what the subject is doing in a sentence. In other words, an action verb shows action. A sentence can be complete with one word: an action verb. Linking verbs are intransitive verbs that show a condition.
Linking verbs link the subject of a sentence to a noun or pronoun, or they link a subject with an adjective. You always need a verb if you want a complete sentence. However, linking verbs are not able to complete a sentence. Common linking verbs include appear, be, become, feel, grow, look, seem, smell, sound, and taste. However, any verb that shows a condition and has a noun, pronoun, or adjective that describes the subject of a sentence is a linking verb.
 

Action: He sings. | Run! | Go! | I talk with him every day. | She reads.

Linking:
Incorrect: I am.
Correct: I am John. | I smell roses. | I feel tired.

Some verbs are followed by words that look like prepositions, but they are a part of the verb and a part of the verb’s meaning. These are known as phrasal verbs and examples include call off, look up, and drop off.

Describe verbs and transitive and intransitive verbs.
If you want to write a sentence, then you need a verb in your sentence. Without a verb, you have no sentence. The verb of a sentence explains action or being. In other words, the verb shows the subject’s movement or the movement that has been done to the subject.

Transitive and Intransitive Verbs
A transitive verb is a verb whose action (e.g., drive, run, jump) points to a receiver (e.g., car, dog, kangaroo). Intransitive verbs do not point to a receiver of an action. In other words, the action of the verb does not point to a subject or object.
 

Transitive: He plays the piano. | The piano was played by him.
Intransitive: He plays. | John writes well.

A dictionary will let you know whether a verb is transitive or intransitive. Some verbs can be transitive and intransitive.

Discuss verb tenses.
A verb tense shows the different form of a verb to point to the time of an action. The present and past tense are shown by changing the verb’s form. An action in the present I talk can change form for the past: I talked. However, for the other tenses, an auxiliary (i.e., helping) verb is needed to show the change in form. These helping verbs include am, are, is | have, has, had | was, were, will (or shall).

Present: I talk Present perfect: I have talked
Past: I talked Past perfect: I had talked
Future: I will talk Future perfect: I will have talked

Describe active and passive voice in verbs.
Transitive verbs come in active or passive voice. If the subject does an action or receives the action of the verb, then you will know whether a verb is active or passive. When the subject of the sentence is doing the action, the verb is active voice. When the subject receives the action, the verb is passive voice.

Active: Jon drew the picture. (The subject Jon is doing the action of drawing a picture.)
Passive: The picture is drawn by Jon. (The subject picture is receiving the action from Jon.)

Explain and give examples of present perfect, past perfect, and future perfect verb tenses.

Present perfect: The action started in the past and continues into the present.
Example: I have walked to the store three times today.

Past perfect: The second action happened in the past. The first action came before the second.
Example: Before I walked to the store (Action 2), I had walked to the library (Action 1).

Future perfect: An action that uses the past and the future. In other words, the action is complete before a future moment.
Example: When she comes for the supplies (future moment), I will have walked to the store (action completed in the past).

Explain and give examples of present, past, and future verb tenses.
Present: The action happens at the current time.
Example: He walks to the store every morning.

To show that something is happening right now, use the progressive present tense: I am walking.
Past: The action happened in the past.
Example: He walked to the store an hour ago.

Future: The action is going to happen later.
Example: I will walk to the store tomorrow.

Describe the indicative, imperative, and subjunctive mood in verbs.
There are three moods in English: the indicative, the imperative, and the subjunctive.

The indicative mood is used for facts, opinions, and questions.
Fact: You can do this.
Opinion: I think that you can do this.
Question: Do you know that you can do this?

The imperative is used for orders or requests.
Order: You are going to do this!
Request: Will you do this for me?

The subjunctive mood is for wishes and statements that go against fact.
Wish: I wish that I were going to do this.
Statement against fact: If I were you, I would do this. (This goes against fact because I am not you. You have the chance to do this, and I do not have the chance.)

Describe verb conjugation and give an example of a present tense conjugation in the active voice.
When you need to change the form of a verb, you are conjugating a verb. The key parts of a verb are first person singular, present tense (dream); first person singular, past tense (dreamed); and the past participle (dreamed). Note: the past participle needs a helping verb to make a verb tense. For example, I have dreamed of this day. | I am dreaming of this day.

Present Tense: Active Voice

Discuss comparison with adjectives.
Some adjectives are relative and other adjectives are absolute. Adjectives that are relative can show the comparison between things. Adjectives that are absolute can show comparison. However, they show comparison in a different way. Let’s say that you are reading two books. You think that one book is perfect, and the other book is not exactly perfect. It is not possible for the book to be more perfect than the other. Either you think that the book is perfect, or you think that the book is not perfect.

The adjectives that are relative will show the different degrees of something or someone to something else or someone else. The three degrees of adjectives include positive, comparative, and superlative.

The positive degree is the normal form of an adjective.
Example: This work is difficult. | She is smart.

The comparative degree compares one person or thing to another person or thing.
Example: This work is more difficult than your work. | She is smarter than me.

The superlative degree compares more than two people or things.
Example: This is the most difficult work of my life. | She is the smartest lady in school.

Describe adjectives and articles.
An adjective is a word that is used to modify a noun or pronoun. An adjective answers a question: Which one?, What kind of?, or How many?. Usually, adjectives come before the words that they modify.
Which one?: The third suit is my favorite.
What kind?: The navy blue suit is my favorite.
How many?: Can I look over the four neckties for the suit?

Articles
Articles are adjectives that are used to mark nouns. There are only three: the definite (i.e., limited or fixed amount) article the, and the indefinite (i.e., no limit or fixed amount) articles a and an. Note: An comes before words that start with a vowel sound (i.e., vowels include a, e, i, o, u, and y). For example, Are you going to get an umbrella?

Definite: I lost the bottle that belongs to me.
Indefinite: Does anyone have a bottle to share?

Discuss comparison with adverbs.
The rules for comparing adverbs are the same as the rules for adjectives.

The positive degree is the standard form of an adverb.
Example: He arrives soon. | She speaks softly to her friends.

The comparative degree compares one person or thing to another person or thing.
Example: He arrives sooner than Sarah. | She speaks more softly than him.

The superlative degree compares more than two people or things.
Example: He arrives soonest of the group. | She speaks most softly of any of her friends.

Describe adverbs.
An adverb is a word that is used to modify a verb, adjective, or another adverb. Usually, adverbs answer one of these questions: When?, Where?, How?, and Why? . The negatives not and never are known as adverbs. Adverbs that modify adjectives or other adverbs strengthen or weaken the words that they modify.
 

Examples:
He walks quickly through the crowd.
The water flows smoothly on the rocks.

Note: While many adverbs end in -ly, you need to remember that not all adverbs end in -ly. Also, some words that end in -ly are adjectives, not adverbs. Some examples include: early, friendly, holy, lonely, silly, and ugly. To know if a word that ends in -ly is an adjective or adverb, you need to check your dictionary.
 

Examples:
He is never angry.
You talk too loudly.

Describe conjunctions, coordinating conjunctions, and correlative conjunctions.
Conjunctions join words, phrases, or clauses, and they show the connection between the joined pieces. There are coordinating conjunctions that connect equal parts of sentences. Correlative conjunctions show the connection between pairs. Subordinating conjunctions join subordinate (i.e., dependent) clauses with independent clauses.
 

Coordinating Conjunctions
The coordinating conjunctions include: and, but, yet, or, nor, for, and so
Examples:
The rock was small, but it was heavy.
She drove in the night, and he drove in the day.
Correlative Conjunctions
The correlative conjunctions are: either…or | neither…nor | not only… but also
Examples:
Either you are coming, or you are staying. | He ran not only three miles, but also swam 200 yards.

Describe prepositions and name some common prepositions.
A preposition is a word placed before a noun or pronoun that shows the relationship between an object and another word in the sentence.

Examples:
The napkin is in the drawer.
The Earth rotates around the Sun.
The needle is beneath the haystack.
Can you find me among the words?
 

Common prepositions:
about before during on under
after beneath for over until
against between from past up
among beyond in through with
around by of to within
at down off toward without

Describe interjections.
An interjection is a word for exclamation (i.e., great amount of feeling) that is used alone or as a piece to a sentence. Often, they are used at the beginning of a sentence for an introduction. Sometimes, they can be used in the middle of a sentence to show a change in thought or attitude.
Common Interjections: Hey! | Oh,... | Ouch! | Please! | Wow!
Name common subordinating conjunctions and give examples of their use in a sentence.

Common subordinating conjunctions include:
after since whenever
although so that where
because unless wherever
before until whether
in order that when while
Examples:
I am hungry because I did not eat breakfast.
He went home when everyone left.