study bookeskola

English grammar is the body of rules that describe the structure of expressions in the English language. This includes the structure of words, phrases, clauses and sentences. A text that contains more than one sentence is no longer in the realm of grammar but of discourse
The grammar of a language is approached in two ways: descriptive grammar is based on analysis of text corpora and describes grammatical structures thereof, whereas prescriptive grammar attempts to use the identified rules of a given language as a tool to govern the linguistic behaviour of speakers. This article predominantly concerns itself with descriptive grammar.

There are historical, social and regional variations of English. Divergences from the grammar described here occur in some dialects of English. This article describes a generalized present-day Standard English, the form of speech found in types of public discourse including broadcasting, education, entertainment, government, and news reporting, including both formal and informal speech. Although British English, American English and Australian English have several lexical differences, the grammatical differences are not as conspicuous, and will be mentioned only when appropriate.

Grammar is divided into morphology, which describes the formation of words, and syntax, which describes the construction of meaningful phrases, clauses, and sentences out of words.

Word classes and phrase classes

Eight major word classes are described here. These are: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and determiner. The first seven are traditionally referred to as "parts of speech". There are minor word classes, such as interjections, but these do not fit into the clause and sentence structure of English.
Open and closed classes

Open word classes allow new members; closed word classes seldom do.[2] Nouns such as "celebutante", (a celebrity who frequents the fashion circles)" and "mentee," (a person advised by a mentor) and adverbs such as "24/7" ("I am working on it 24/7") are relatively new words; nouns and adverbs are therefore open classes.[2] However, the pronoun, "their," as a gender-neutral singular replacement for the "his or her" (as in: "Each new arrival should check in their luggage.") has not gained complete acceptance in the more than forty years of its use; pronouns, in consequence, form a closed class.[2]
Word classes and grammatical forms

A word can sometimes belong to several word classes. The class version of a word is called a "lexeme".[3] For example, the word "run" is usually a verb, but it can also be a noun ("It is a ten mile run to Tipperary."); these are two different lexemes.[3] Further, the same lexeme may be inflected to express different grammatical categories: for example, as a verb lexeme, "run" has several forms such as "runs," "ran," and "running."[3] Words in one class can sometimes be derived from those in another and new words be created. The noun "aerobics," for example, has recently given rise to the adjective "aerobicized" ("the aerobicized bodies of Beverly Hills celebutantes."[3])
Phrase classes

Words combine to form phrases which themselves can take on the attributes of a word class. These classes are called phrase classes.The phrase: "The ancient pulse of germ and birth" functions as a noun in the sentence: "The ancient pulse of germ and birth was shrunken hard and dry." (Thomas Hardy, the Darkling Thrush) It is therefore a noun phrase. Other phrase classes are: verb phrases, adjective phrases, adverb phrases, prepositional phrases, and determiner phrases.
Nouns

Nouns form the largest word class. According to Carter and McCarthy, they denote "classes and categories of things in the world, including people, animals, inanimate things, places, events, qualities and states."[3] Consequently, the words "Mandela," "jaguar," "mansion," "volcano," "Timbuktoo," "blockade," "mercy," and "liquid" are all nouns. Nouns are not commonly identified by their form; however, some common suffixes such as "-age" ("shrinkage"), "-hood" ("sisterhood"), "-ism" ("journalism"), "-ist" ("lyricist"), "-ment" ("adornment"), "-ship" ("companionship"), "-tude" ("latitude"), and so forth, are usually identifiers of nouns.[3] There are exceptions, of course: "assuage" and "disparage" are verbs; "augment" is a verb, "lament" and "worship" can be verbs. Nouns can also be created by conversion of verbs or adjectives. Examples include the nouns in: "a boring talk," "a five-week run," "the long caress," "the utter disdain," and so forth.
Number, gender, type, and syntactic features

Nouns have singular and plural forms.[4] Many plural forms have -s or -es endings (dog/dogs, referee/referees, bush/bushes), but by no means all (woman/women, axis/axes, medium/media). Unlike some other languages, in English, nouns do not have grammatical gender.[4] However, many nouns can refer to masculine or feminine animate objects (mother/father, tiger/tigress, alumnus/alumna, male/female).[4] Nouns can be classified semantically, i.e. by their meanings: common nouns ("sugar," "maple," "syrup," "wood"), proper nouns ("Cyrus," "China"), concrete nouns ("book," "laptop"), and abstract nouns ("heat," "prejudice").[4] Alternatively, they can be distinguished grammatically: count nouns ("clock," "city," "colour") and non-count nouns ("milk," "decor," "foliage").[5]
[edit]
Noun phrases
Main article: English noun phrase

Noun phrases are phrases that function grammatically as nouns within sentences. Nouns serve as "heads," or main words of noun phrases.[5] Nouns have several syntactic features that can aid in their identification.[5] Nouns (example: common noun "cat") may be
modified by adjectives ("the beautiful Angora cat"),
preceded by determiners ("the beautiful Angora cat"), or
pre-modified by other nouns ("the beautiful Angora cat").[5]

Within the noun phrase, determiners occur at the far left edge of the noun phrase before the noun head and before any other modifiers:
Determiner + Other modifiers + Noun


The head can have modifiers, a complement, or both.

Modifiers which occur before the head are called '"pre-modifiers", and those which occur after the head ("who know what fighting means") are called "post-modifiers".[5] Pre-modifiers can be determiners ("The"), adjectives ("rough", "seamy-faced", "real raw-knuckle", or "burnt-out"), or other nouns ("College").

Complements occur after the head like post-modifiers, but are essential for completing the meaning of the noun phrase in a way that modifiers are not.

Examples of modifiers (heads are in boldface, modifiers are italicized) include:
"The burnt-out ends of smoky days."[7]
"The rough, seamy-faced, raw-boned College Servitor ...
"The real raw-knuckle boys who know what fighting means,

Examples of complements (heads are in boldface, complements are italicized) include:
"The burnt-out ends of smoky days."[10]
"The suggestion that Mr. Touchett should invite me appeared to have come from Miss Stackpole."[11]
"The ancient pulse of germ and birth was shrunken hard and dry."[12]

Within a sentence, a noun phrase can function as the grammatical subject or the object, as well as other uses.[6] Examples (the noun phrase is italicized, and the head boldfaced):
Subject: "Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest."[13]
Object: "Dr. Pavlov ... delivered many long propaganda harangues ..."[14])

Noun phrases can be constructed with the determiner "the" and an adjective. Some examples are:
"The great and the good were present."
"Give to the poor."

Noun phrases can be compound:
"The idle spear and shield ..."[15]

More examples of noun phrases are: the balloon
det noun
Many balloons
det noun
All balloons
Det noun
The big red balloon
Det adj adj noun
Many big red balloons
Det add adj noun
All big red balloons
Det adj adj noun
postdeterminers many and seven can occur in the following
many smart children
seven smart children
the many smart children
the seven smart children

but both many and seven cannot occur in postdeterminer position rendering the following noun phrases ungrammatical: *many seven smart children, *seven many smart children, *the many seven smart children, *the seven many smart children. Additionally, there are often other lexical restrictions. For example, the predeterminer all can occur alone (as the sole determiner) or before a central determiner (e.g., all children, all the children, all these children, all my children); however, the predeterminer such can only occur alone or before central determiner a (e.g., such nuisance!, such a nuisance!).

Predeterminers include words eg all, both, half, double, twice, three times, one-third, one-fifth, three-quarters, such, exclamative what. Examples with predeterminers preceding a central determiner:
all the big balloons
Both his nice parents
Half a minute
Double the risk
Twice my age
Three times my salary
One-third the cost
One-fifth the rate
Three-quarters the diameter
Such a big boy
What a clever suggestion

Central determiners include words eg the, a/an, this, that, these, those, every, each, enough, much, more, most, less, no, some, either, neither, which, what.

Examples of central determiners preceding adjectival modified noun heads:
The big balloon
A big balloon
This big balloon
That big balloon
These big balloons
Those big balloons
Every big balloon
Each big balloon
No big balloon
Some big balloons
Either big balloon

In addition to the above determiners, noun phrases with a genitive enclitic -'s can have a determinative function like genitive determiners his, her, its, their. These genitive determinative nouns occur in the central determiner position:
[my stepmother’s ] friendly children
Both [ my stepmother’s ] friendly children
[my stepmother’s ] many friendly children
All [my stepmother’s ] many friendly children
Determiners

Determiners constitute a small class of words, including "that", "the", "a", "some", number words like "two" or "three", "some", and "various". They occur in noun phrases.
[edit]
Pronouns

Pronouns are a small class of words which function as noun phrases. They include personal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns and relative pronouns.
Personal pronouns

The personal pronouns of English are the following: Nominative Objective Reflexive Genitive (attributive) Genitive (predicative)
I me myself my mine1
You2 you yourself, yourselves your yours
She, he, it her, him, it herself, himself, itself her, his, its hers, his3
We us ourselves our ours
They4 them themselves their theirs

Verbs
Main article: English verbs

Verbs form the second largest word class after nouns. According to Carter and McCarthy, verbs denote "actions, events, processes, and states."[16] Consequently, "smile," "stab," "climb," "confront," "liquefy," "wake," "reflect" are all verbs.

Verbs have the following features which aid in their recognition:
• They usually follow the (grammatical) subject noun phrase (in italics): "The real raw-knuckle boys who know what fighting means enter the arena without fanfare."
• They agree with the subject noun phrase in number: "The real raw-knuckle boy / boys who knows / know what fighting means enters / enter the arena without fanfare."
• They agree with the subject noun phrase in person: "I / He, the real raw-knuckle boy who knows what fighting means, enter / enters the arena without fanfare", and
• They can express tense:"The boys entered the arena without fanfare."
• Regular and irregular lexical verbs

Verbs are divided into lexical verbs and auxiliary verbs. Lexical verbs form an open class which includes most verbs. For example, "dive," "soar," "swoon," "revive," "breathe," "choke," "lament," "celebrate," "consider," "ignore" are all lexical verbs.[17]

• A lexical verb is said to be regular if its base form does not change when inflections are added to create new forms. An example is:
• Base form: climb
• Present form: climb
• -s form: climbs
• Present participle: climbing
• Past form: climbed
Past/passive participle: climbed.

Irregular verbs are ones in which the base form changes; the endings corresponding to each form are not always unique. Examples are
1. Base form: catch
2. Present form: catch
3. -s form: catches
4. Present participle: catching
5. Past form: caught
6. Past/passive participle: caught

And
• Base form: choose
• Present form: choose
• -s form: chooses
• Present participle: choosing
• Past form: chose
• Past/passive participle: chosen.

The verb "be" is the only verb in English which has distinct inflectional forms for each of the categories of grammatical forms, with even the present form differing from the base form:
 Base form: be
 Present form: am, are
 -s form: is
 Present participle: being
 Past form: was, were
 Past/passive participle: been



Auxiliary verbs
Auxiliary verbs constitute a closed class and their purpose is to add information to other lexical verbs, such as (a) aspect (progressive, perfect, habitual), (b) passive voice, (c) clause type (interrogative, negative), and (d) modality.

The auxiliary verbs "be" and "have" are used to form the perfect, progressive and passive constructions in English: see #Verb phrases below. Examples (the auxiliary is in boldface and the lexical verb is italicized):
Aspect (progressive): "'She is breathing Granny; we've got to make her keep it up, that’s all—just keeps her breathing.
Aspect (perfect): "'Yes, I want a coach,' said Maurice, and bade the coachman draw up to the stone where the poor man who had swooned was sitting.
Passive voice: "When she was admitted into the house Beautiful, care was taken to inquire into the religious knowledge of her children.

The auxiliary verb "do" is used in interrogative and negative clauses when no other auxiliary verb is present:
Clause type (interrogative): (Old joke) Boy: "Excuse me sir, How do I get to Carnegie Hall?" Man on street: "Practice, Practice, Practice."
Clause type (negative): "The loud noise did not surprise her."

For some but not all sources, "used (to)" is an auxiliary verb:
Aspect (habitual): "We used to go there often."

Modal verbs form a closed sub-class of the auxiliary verbs, consisting of the core modals ("can," "could," "shall," "should," "will," "would," "may," "might," "must") and semi-modals ("had better", "ought to", "dare", "need").[17] Modals add information to lexical verbs about (a) degrees of possibility or necessity (b) permission or (c) ability.[17] Examples:
Ability: "Before the snow could melt for good, an ice storm covered the lowcountry and we learned the deeper treachery of ice."[24]
Certainty: "Eat your eggs in Lent and the snow will melt. That's what I say to our people when they get noisy over their cups at San Gallo ..."[25]
Expressing necessity: "But I should think there must be some stream somewhere about. The snow must melt; besides, these great herds of deer must drink somewhere."[26]

Modal verbs do not inflect for person or number.[17] Examples:
Person: "I/you/she might consider it." "He dare not go." "He need not go."
Number: "I/we/she/they might consider it"
[edit]
History of English verbs

Some examples of suffixes that have been used to form verbs include "-ate" ("formulate"), "-iate" ("inebriate"), "-ify" ("electrify"), and "-isle" ("realize").[16] These suffixes are not a certain indicator that a given word is a verb: "chocolate" is a noun, "immediate" is an adjective, "prize" can be a noun, and "maize" is a noun. Prefixes can also be used to create new verbs. Some examples are: "un-" ("unmask"), "out-" ("outlast"), "over-" ("overtake"), and "under-" ("undervalue").[16] Just as nouns can be formed from verbs by conversion, the reverse is also possible:
"so are the sons of men snared in an evil time"
"[a national convention] nosed parliament in the very seat of its authority"

 Verbs can also be formed from adjectives:
 "To dry the old oak's sap, and cherish springs."
 "Time's glory is to calm contending kings"
Adjectives

According to Carter and McCarthy, "Adjectives describe properties, qualities, and states attributed to a noun or a pronoun."[30] As was the case with nouns and verbs, the class of adjectives cannot be identified by the forms of its constituents.[30] However, adjectives are commonly formed by adding the some suffixes to nouns.[30] Examples: "-al" ("habitual," "multidimensional," "visceral"), "-ful" ("blissful," "pitiful," "woeful"), "-ic" ("atomic," "gigantic," "pedantic"), "-ish" ("impish," "peckish," "youngish"), "-oust" ("fabulous," "hazardous"). As with nouns and verbs, there are exceptions: "homosexual" can be a noun, "earful" is a noun, "anesthetic" can be a noun, "brandish" is a verb. Adjectives can also be formed from other adjectives through the addition of a suffix or more commonly a prefix:weakfish, implacable, disloyal, irredeemable, unforeseen. A number of adjectives are formed by adding "a" as a prefix to a verb: "adrift," "astride," "awry."
Grad ability

Adjectives come in two varieties: gradable and non-gradable.[31] In a gradable adjective, the properties or qualities associated with it, exist along a scale.[31] In the case of the adjective "hot," for example, we can speak of: not at all hot, ever so slightly hot, only just hot, quite hot, very hot, extremely hot, dangerously hot, and so forth. Consequently, "hot" is a gradable adjective. Gradable adjectives usually have antonyms: hot/cold, hard/soft, smart/dumb, light/heavy.[31] Some adjectives do not have room for qualification or modification. These are the non-gradable adjectives, such as: pregnant, married, incarcerated, condemned, adolescent (as adjective), dead, and so forth.

In figurative or literary language, a non-gradable adjective can sometimes be treated as gradable, especially in order to emphasize some aspect:
"When a man's verses cannot be understood, nor a man's good wit seconded with a forward child, understanding, it strikes a man deader than a great reckoning in a little room."

A non-gradable adjective might have another connotation in which it is gradable. For example, "dead" when applied to sounds can mean dull, or not vibrant. In this meaning, it has been used as a gradable adjective:
"... the bell seemed to sound more dead than it did when just before it sounded in open air."

Gradable adjectives can occur in comparative and superlative forms.For many common adjectives, these are formed by adding "-era" and "-est." to the base form:[31] cold, colder, coldest; hot, hotter, hottest; dry, drier, driest, and so forth; however, for other adjectives, "more" and "most" are needed to provide the necessary qualification: more apparent, most apparent; more iconic, most iconic; more hazardous, most hazardous. Some gradable adjectives change forms atypically:good, better, best; bad, worse, worst; little, less, least; some/many, more, most.
Adjective phrases
Forms

An adjective phrase may consist of just one adjective, or a single adjective which has been modified or complemented.[34]

Adjectives are usually modified by adverb phrases (adverb in boldface; adjective in italics):[34]
"... Placing himself in a dignified and truly imposing attitude, began to draw from his mouth yard after yard of red tape ..."
"Families did certainly come, beguiled by representations of impossibly cheap provisions, though the place was in reality very expensive, for every tradesman was a monopolist at heart."[36]
"... of anger frequent but generally silent,”

An adjective phrase can also consist of an adjective followed by a complement, usually a prepositional phrase, or by a "that" clause.[34] Different adjectives require different patterns of complementation (adjective in italics; complement in bold face):[34]
"... during that brief time I was proud of myself, and I grew to love the heave and roll of the Ghost ..."[38]
"... her bosom angry at his intrusion, ..."
"Dr. Drew is especially keen on good congregational singing."

Examples of "that" clause in the adjective phrase (adjective in italics; clause in boldface):
"Was sure that the shrill voice was that of a man—a Frenchman."
"The longest day that ever was; so she raves, restless and impatient."

An adjective phrase can combine pre-modification by an adverb phrase and post-modification by a complement, as in (adjective in italics; adverb phrase and complement in boldface):
"Few people were ever more proud of civic honors than the Thane of Fife."
Attributive and predicative

An adjective phrase is attributive when it modifies a noun or a pronoun (adjective phrase in boldface; noun in italics):
"Truly selfish genes do arise, in the sense that they reproduce themselves at a cost to the other genes in the genome.
"Luisa Rosado: a woman proud of being a midwife"

An adjective phrase is predicative when it occurs in the predicate of a sentence (adjective phrase in boldface)
"No, no, I didn't really think so," returned Dora; "but I am a little tired, and it made me silly for a moment ..."
"She was ill at ease, and looked more than usually stern and forbidding as she entered the Hales' little drawing room."
Adverbs
Main article: English adverbs

Adverbs typically modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. They perform a wide range of functions and are especially important for indicating "time, manner, place, degree, and frequency of an event, action, or process. Adjectives and adverbs are often derived from the same word, the majority being formed by adding the "-lye" ending to the corresponding adjective form. Recall the adjectives, "habitual", "pitiful", "impish", we can use them to form the adverbs:
"Habitually": "... shining out of the New England reserve with which Holgrave habitually masked whatever lay near his heart."
"Pitifully": "The lamb tottered along far behind, near exhaustion, bleating pitifully."
"Impishly": "Well and he grinned impishly, "it was one doggone good party while it lasted!"

Some suffixes that are commonly found in adverbs are "-ward(s)" and "-wise":
"Homeward": "The plougman homeward plods his weary way."
"Downward": "In tumbling turning, clustering loops, straight downward falling,”
"Lengthwise": "2 to 3 medium carrots, peeled, halved lengthwise, and cut into 1-inch pieces."

Some adverbs have the same form as the adjectives:
"Outside":
Adverb: "'You'd best begin, or you'll be sorry—it's raining outside."
Adjective: "It would be possible to winter the colonies in the barn if each colony is provided with a separate outside entrance; ..."
"Straight"
Adverb: "Five cigars, very dry, smoked straight except where wrapper loosened, as it did in two cases."
Adjective: "Numbering among the ranks of the "young and evil" in this text are ... straight women who fall in love with gay men,”

Some adverbs are not related to adjectives:
"Quite": "Mr. Bingley was obliged to be in town the following day, and ... Mrs. Bennet was quite disconcerted."[59]
"Too": "... like a child that, having devoured its plum cake too hastily, sits sucking its fingers,
"So": "... oh! ... Would she heave one little sigh to see a bright young life so rudely blighted,

 Some adverbs inflect for comparative and superlative forms:
 "soon"
 "O error, soon conceived, Thou never comets unto a happy birth, ..."
 "Merissa: 'superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer."
 "'Least said, soonest mended!' "[64]
 "well"
 "Valdosta well deserved its name, for in that climate of perpetual summer roses blossomed everywhere."
"'I'm afraid your appearance in the Physiological Quarterly was better deserved,' said Mrs. Arkwright, without removing her eyes from the microscope ..."
"Who among the typical Victorians best deserved his hate?"