Grammar and Syntax

Contents

I have a test coming up that I feel completely unprepared for. This post is partly my revision, partly so I know where I can find a grammar summary easily. This is not a detailed description of every grammatical definition, but rather a list of what grammatical factors exist.

Grammar influences

Idiom – common language, doesn’t always have a literal meaning.

Usage – word use, evolving language, current understanding.

Register – casual or formal use of language.

Style – grammar practices specific to written text or publisher, style guide/manual.

Noun – people, places, things, ideas, qualities

Common – general things (e.g. song, school, bird).
Proper – particular thing, person or place (e.g. Melbourne).
Collective – groups of things (e.g. flock, class, family).
Abstract – ideas and feelings (e.g. beauty, linguistics).

Count – things we can count (uses fewer and number).

Noncount – things we can’t count, mass nouns, concepts, quantity (uses less and amount).

Number – singular or plural noun form.

Regular plurals – add ‘s’ or ‘es’.
Irregular plurals – need to be memorised.
Forming plurals from loan words – from another language.
Forming plurals from compound words – ‘s’ to either last word or most important word.
Forming plurals from letters, abbreviations, numbers etc. – use apostrophe for clarity.

Gender – feminine, masculine or neutral (most common).

Neutral gender is most common.
Avoid discriminatory use of language.
Noun/pronoun agreement.

Case – based on the noun’s function in a sentence.

Subjective
Objective
Possessive

Possession – preposition ‘of’ for inanimate, or noun changing to possessive form (e.g. person’s) for animate.

Joint possession – something is ‘possessed’ by two or more people/things together.
Adjectival possession – plural possessive used descriptively.

Pronoun – used instead of a noun

Personal – specific animals or things (e.g. I, we, you).
Possessive – personal pronouns in the possessive case (e.g. my, our, your).
Intensive – emphasise a noun or other pronoun (e.g. myself, yourself, herself).
Reflexive – reflect action back to the subject (e.g. myself, themselves).
Relative – relate groups of words to nouns or other pronouns (e.g. which, that, whatever).
Interrogative – ask or introduce questions (e.g. who, which, what).
Demonstrative – identify nouns (e.g. this, that).
Interactive – show an interaction (e.g. each other).
Indefinite – replace undefined things (e.g. any, anything, nobody).

Case – need correct case for personal pronouns.

Subjective – subject of verb, referring to subject, subject complement (e.g. they did).
Objective – object of verb, referring to object, object of infinitive, object of participle, object of preposition (e.g. excited them).
Possessive – possessive case to show ownership (e.g. our books).
Plural with noun – adds emphasis (e.g. we writers).
More than one noun or pronoun – joined by ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘or’, ‘nor’ (e.g. him and her).

Antecedent – the pronoun’s noun.

Clear – don’t start with undefined pronouns.
Correct – pronoun and antecedent must agree.
Close – place the pronoun and noun as close as possible.

Indefinite pronoun-verb agreement – most are singular and take the third person singular verb.

Adjective – describes, modifies a noun/pronoun

Descriptive (e.g. blue, angry, vague).
Demonstrative (e.g. this, that, those).
Numerical (e.g. many, two, few).
Interrogative (e.g. whose?, which?).
Distributive (e.g. each, every, neither).
Possessive (e.g. her, their).
Proper (e.g. Target, Medium).
Indefinite (e.g. few, many).
Quantitative (e.g. some, less).

Attributive adjectives – before the noun being modified (e.g. the blue book).

Predicative adjectives – after the noun’s verb (e.g. the book is blue).

Form – adjectives change form to show quality or amount.

Positive – plain form (e.g. a big book).
Comparative – compares between two things (e.g. a bigger book).
Superlative – compares between two or more things (e.g. the biggest book).
Absolute – can’t be compared (e.g. the perfect book).

Verb – actions, occurrences, state of being

Regular – most common verbs, follow a set of rules.

Irregular – do not follow a set of rules and must be memorised.

Form – variations of a word.

Plain form – dictionary form (e.g. play).
‘s’ form – ‘s’ or ‘es’ added (e.g. plays).
Past tense form – ‘d’ or ‘ed’ added, if regular (e.g. played).
Past participle form – ‘d’ or ‘ed’ added, if regular (e.g. played).
Present participle form – ‘ing’ added (e.g. playing).

Finite – verbs with a subject, every sentence has at least one.

Action verbs – express an action. Transitive = carry across. Intransitive = stay with.
Linking verbs – link a subject to its complement (e.g. ‘to be’, ‘be-substitute’ verbs, five sense verbs). Some verbs are both action and linking verbs.
Auxiliaries – help nonfinite verbs become finite, complete verbs that can’t take a subject on their own. Three primary auxiliaries = have, be, do. Modal verbs (express mood/attitude) = can, could, dare to, must, shall, be likely to, would, be supposed to etc.

Person and number – verbs change form to indicate whether their subject is singular or plural.

First person – noun/pronoun subject is speaking.
Second person – noun/pronoun subject is being spoken to.
Third person – noun/pronoun subject is being spoken about.

Subject-verb agreement – subject number/person must match correct form of finite verb.

Tense – verbs change form to show whether an action took place in the past, present or future.

Simple tenses – present simple tense (I begin), past simple tense (I began), future simple tense (I will begin).
Continuous tenses – present continuous tense (I am beginning), past continuous tense (I was beginning), future continuous tense (I will be beginning).
Perfect tenses – present perfect tense (I have begun), past perfect tense (I had begun), future perfect tense (I will have begun).
Perfect continuous tenses – present perfect continuous tense (I have been beginning), past perfect continuous tense (I had been beginning), future perfect continuous tense (I will have been beginning).

Mood – subject’s attitude to the statement/situation.

Indicative – fact, opinion, questions (e.g. I ate the fruit).
Imperative – command, direction, usually has implied subject (e.g. Stop the car).
Subjunctive – hypothetical, desire, suggestion, recommendation, idiomatic (e.g. If I had been informed, I could have fixed it).

Voice – shows whether someone is doing the action or having the action done to them.

Passive voice – slower, more and longer words, impersonal, subject downplayed to being the object.
Active voice – faster, fewer words, more direct, more personal, subject emphasised.

Nonfinite – verbs without a subject.

Infinitives – plain verb form, usually preceded by ‘to’ (e.g. to scream).
Gerunds – when the present participle functions as a noun (e.g. reading is fun).
Participles – participles acting as adjectives (e.g. the books were beautifully bound).

Adverb – modifies a verb/adjective/adverb/phrase/clause

Manner – how something occurs (e.g. quickly).
Time – when something occurs (e.g. recently).
Place – where something occurs (e.g. here).
Frequency – how often something occurs (e.g. always).
Degree – to what extent something occurs (e.g. quite).

Interrogative adverbs – used to ask questions (e.g. when did they arrive?).

Variable spellings – use either ‘while’, ‘among’ and ‘amid’ or ‘whilst’, ‘amongst’ and ‘amidst’.

Determiner – modify noun, little meaning on their own

Articles – e.g. a, an, the.

Definite articles – point out specific things (e.g. the book).
Indefinite articles – point out one of many things (e.g. a book).

Pronouns – e.g. my, our, this, that, any, all.

Numerals – e.g. two, three, fourth, fifth.

Preposition – placed before noun/pronoun, connects noun/pronoun to other words

Common – about, between, to, like, near, of, since, within, into, instead of, around, among, as, at, behind, before, through, from, in, off, despite etc.
Less common – bar, apropos, circa, minus, notwithstanding, per, plus, via, vis-a-vis etc.

Nouns and pronouns – preposition and noun/pronoun connection.

Prepositional phrase – preposition plus any noun/pronoun and modifier (e.g. under the bridge).
Prepositional object – the noun/pronoun after a preposition (e.g. the letter was mailed to me).

Verbs – preposition and verb connection.

Phrasal verbs – when verbs incorporate prepositions or adverbs (e.g. stand up).
Possible tautologies – preposition has implied meaning that is repeated (e.g. circled around).

Prepositional idioms – no logical or straightforward meaning (e.g. I have a taste for coffee).

Prepositional pairs – describe a range or span (e.g. from/to, between/and).

Common preposition confusions – similar words with different meanings.

Between (two things) and among/st (more than two things).
Beside (by the side of/outside of) and besides (in addition to).

Overuse – too many prepositions can make sentences verbose (e.g. one of the lists of students of the school).

Conjunction – connects words

Coordinating conjunctions – connect things of equal rank or standing (e.g. and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet).
Correlative conjunctions – conjunctions working in pairs (e.g. either/or, not/but, neither/nor, whether/or, not/but).
Subordinating conjunctions – link a subordinate clause to the main clause (e.g. after, although, as long as, as, if, until, unless, when, than).
Sentence connectors (conjunctive adverbs) – bridges to link sentences, only main clauses (e.g. meanwhile, still, consequently, besides, certainly).

Modifier – modifies other words

Adjectives modify nouns and pronouns.
Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, adverbs and prepositions.

Misplaced modifiers – suggests an illogical interpretation, modifies wrong part, must move modifier closer to the thing being modified.

Squinting modifiers – makes interpretation ambiguous, could modify words before or after the modifier.

Dangling modifiers – doesn’t connect logically, no clear meaning, must give modifier an appropriate subject, sometimes need to rewrite.

Interjection – exclamation/interruption

Surprised interjection or response.
E.g. ah, gosh, damn, hey.

Sentence – logical connection of words

Simple sentence – single clause, subject then predicate.
Compound sentence – may be numerous clauses/phrases.
Complex sentence – may be numerous clauses/phrases.
Compound-complex sentence – may be numerous clauses/phrases.

Clause – subject and predicate, with finite (subject) verb

Main clauses (independent) – can stand alone as a simple sentence (e.g. the sky darkened).

Subordinate clauses (dependent) – main clause that has been subordinated, begins with a subordinating word (e.g. when, because, if, who, that).

Adjectival clauses – modify nouns/pronouns (usually begin with relative pronoun, e.g. when, where, in which, on which, at which).
Adverbial clauses – modify verbs, adjectives, adverbs and groups of words (always begin with subordinating conjunctions).
Noun clauses – function as a noun (begin with relative pronouns, e.g. when, where, whether, why, how).

Punctuation – for understanding and correct meaning, two key aspects.

Join two clauses – with coordinating conjunction (comma in front of conjunction), with semicolon plus sentence connector (conjunctive adverb), or with semicolon only.
Punctuate restrictive or non-restrictive subordinate clauses – restrictive clause causes limits or restricts meaning, non-restrictive clause provides extra information.

Phrase – two or more words, no finite verb

Prepositional phrases – begins with a preposition, plus object (noun/pronoun) and any modifiers.

Nonfinite verb phrases – begins with a participle, gerund or infinitive (adds variety or extra information).

Participial phrases – begins with a present participle or a past participle, always acts as adjectives.
Gerund phrases – begin with a gerund, always functions as noun.
Infinitive phrases – begin with infinitive or ‘to form’ of a verb, function as noun, adjective or adverb.

Absolute phrases – noun/pronoun and participle, plus any modifiers.

No specific connection to any word.
Always contain a subject.
Do not begin with participles.
Separated from rest of sentence by a comma or commas.

Appositive phrases – single word or noun/pronoun plus modifier, directly next to noun/pronoun, rename or explain.

Restrictive phrases – never set off with punctuation, can’t be omitted without changing meaning.

Non-restrictive phrases – always set off with punctuation (usually commas before and after) except if it’s an introductory prepositional phrase.

Subject – focus of description

Initiates action.
Noun or pronoun.
Can be more than one word.

Subject phrase – more than one word is the subject, can be joined by conjunction (e.g. this old hat).

Implied subject – imperative mood, ‘you’ are the subject (e.g. [you] shut the door).

Dummy subject – introduce/emphasise subject (e.g. it [dummy] was the dog who ate it).

Predicate – everything except subject

A simple sentence/single clause excluding the subject.
Always contains a verb.
Every grammatically correct sentence has one subject and one predicate.

Object – receives the action of the verb

Not all sentences have an object.
Noun or pronoun.
Can be more than one word.

Direct object – directly receive the action of the verb (e.g. the man wrote his lover a letter).

Indirect object – the person/thing that the action is done to/for (e.g. the man wrote his lover a letter).

Complement – completes the subject

A noun (predicate noun) or adjective (predicate adjective).
Complement has no action.
Provides information about the subject.
Can be more than one word.

Paragraph

Style – two basic paragraph styles.

Block – textbooks, some reference books, business writing, web writing.
Indented – newspapers, magazines, trade books (novels and nonfiction works).

Length – varies depending on genre, form, audience, the author’s preference, product (print or screen).

Short – more white space, easier to read, dialogue (common), screen display.
Long – essay, dialogue (rare), develop ideas, expository, argumentative, book.

Unity – paragraph with one main idea, can have a topic sentence.

Coherence – logical flow, smooth transitions, idea organisation.

Parallel structures – similar grammatical syntax to create a pattern.
Repeat key words – emphasise main ideas.
Pronouns – create connection within and between sentences.
Transitional expressions – add or show sequence, compare and contrast, give examples, show time or place, summarise or conclude, show cause or effect.
Organised structure – spatial, chronological, general to specific, specific to general, climactic.

Development – details, examples, reasons, illustration, elaboration, evidence.