English Grammar

Summary:

The note covers different parts of speech and their categories, including nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, phrases, sentences, and clauses. It explains the different types and functions of each part of speech and provides examples. The chapter on nouns discusses categories such as countable, concrete, abstract, common, proper, and collective nouns. It also covers number in nouns, articles in English, genitive case in nouns, noun derivation, gender-sensitive words, and functions of nouns in sentences. The chapter on pronouns discusses personal, possessive, reflexive, interrogative, demonstrative, and relative pronouns. The chapter on verbs covers lexical and auxiliary verbs, verb tense, transitive and intransitive verbs, question tags, participles, phrasal verbs, and idiomatic expressions. The note also covers adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, phrases, sentences, and clauses, including their definitions, categories, and usage.

Excerpt:

English Grammar

CHAPTER ONE: NOUNS

A noun is a naming word. Nouns refer to names of things, ideas, or situations.
There are several ways of classifying nouns.
(a) Countable and uncountable nouns
(b) Concrete or abstract nouns
(c) Common or proper nouns
(d) Collective nouns
(e) Compound nouns

(A) Countable and uncountable nouns

Look at the lists below
List A                                              List B
Pen                                                  Water
Man                                                 Ink
Poem                                              Wool
Son                                                  Mud
Pin                                                   Darkness

The items in list A can be described using numerals, e.g. one pen, five men, six poems etc.
List B consist of items that would be impossible to quantify numerically.
We cannot say one water, five muds etc.

The items in List A are countable, and those in B are uncountable.
Nouns for materials such as glass, wood, etc. and those for liquids, e.g. milk, oil, etc., are usually
uncountable. Other uncountable nouns are the class called abstract nouns. These include such nouns as
love, excitement, concern etc.

…..

C. COMMON AND PROPER NOUNS
Common nouns are names that are shared by common classes of things. For instance, the term ‘boy’ is a
noun that refers to ‘male youth’. All male youths share this common term.

Proper nouns are specific names of people, things or places. All abstract nouns are common nouns unless
they are given names for certain stylistic purposes.