Basic Grammar
What Is A Noun?
A noun is a word used to name a person, animal, place, thing, or an abstract idea. The highlighted words in the following sentences are all nouns:
Tom went to his
school at the Midtown
Ronaldo is a famous
foot-ball player.
Information
Technology is a modern
Science
Jealousy is bad while
applauding is great.
Oxygen is essential to life
Noun Plurals
You can change a singular noun into a plural noun by adding “s” or “es” as described below.
Tom is a bathroom
singer. Tom and Jerry are bathroom
singers
Tom eats a
mango. Tom eats a dozen
mangoes.
I found a
box containing some books in Tom’s room. I found two
boxes containing
books in Tom’s room
Some other forms of plural forms
Scarf - scarves
City - cities
Calf - calves
Mouse - mice
In some cases, the same word acts as a singular and plural noun; in most cases, however they are considered plurals; many of these are the names of animals
Deer
Moose
Sheep
Bison
Salmon
Trout
Fish
Swine
Axis –Axes
Crisis –Crises
Datum- Data
Phenomenon--Phenomena
Types of Nouns: There are various types of nouns as follows.
Proper Nouns
Proper nouns are the specific names of persons or places and they are always written with a capitalized first letter. This list includes days of the weeks, months and also religions and their followers
Examples
Sunday
January
Tom
India
Bengalis
Hinduism
Hindus
Bible
Koran
Baghvad Gita
Common Nouns
A common noun denotes a person, place, or thing in a general sense -- and is not capitalized
According to the weather
forecast, rains are expected next
month.
All the
seats in the MCA stream have been filled up this
year.
Rotis are of several kinds: Suka rotis and an oiled rotis
The
boys are naughty
Countable Nouns
A countable noun or count noun is one that you can count.
Examples
The
cupboard in my
room can hold ten
books
The
cupboards in the hostel
room can hold one only one
book
The
libraries in Chennai are not up to the mark.
One
rupee is too small a tip these days. The waiters expect al least two
rupees.
Non-Countable Nouns
A non-countable noun or mass noun is something that can not be counted. It is usually used with a singular verb in a sentence.
Deceit, information, cunning, honesty, wisdom, beauty, intelligence, stupidity, curiosity, goodness, freshness, laziness, volumetric things such as
milk, air, gas, oxygen etc
Collective Nouns
A collective noun denotes a group of things, animals, or persons. Although the individual units of the group can be counted, still the collective noun representing the group as whole is stated as singular noun.
Example of collective nouns:
The
flock of sheep is taken for grazing by the shepherd every morning.
The
staff at XYZ College is very earnest
The
Cabinet is debating the merits of issues dual passports to NRIs.
What Is A
Verb?
A verb is part of the predicate referring to an action done by the subject of the sentence.
Eg:
Tom
eats mangoes
The dog
bit his owner
The hostess
prepared hot coffee for the guests
Jack and Jill
went up the hill
What Is A
Pronoun?
A pronoun replaces a noun in order to avoid repetition and to make the sentence crisp
Example:
I, we, you, he, she, it, they, my, our, your, his, her, its, their etc.
Which, what, that, who, when where are called relative pronouns
Tom and
I are students of MCA.
Shewag asked for
his old bat
When Jack and Jill were classmates,
she always followed him wherever he went and
they usually went up the hill.
What Is An
Adjective?
An adjective is a descriptive word that modifies a noun or a pronoun . It usually goes before a noun or pronoun, which it modifies. The articles “
the”, “an” and “a” also act as adjectives some times.
Examples:
The
new batch of students is
smart
The
old students have all been placed in the
biggest IT Company of India.
The
tallest building in the world was opened in Dubai recently.
An
attractive, yellow color added to the grace of the IT Park building within the University campus.
The student with the
red shorts is terrific
A song rendered by the
famous vocalist Jesudoss marked the
inaugural function of the
music festival
What is an
Adverb?
An adverb is a descriptive word that denotes the nature of an action such as manner, time or extent of the verb in a sentence. It modifies a verb or an adjective. They are identified by the normal suffix of the letters “ly”
In addition, there are many other conjunctions which also perform as adverbs while connecting two sentences.
They are “
also”," "consequently," "finally," "furthermore," "hence," "however," "incidentally," "indeed," "instead," "likewise," "meanwhile," "nevertheless," "next," "nonetheless," "otherwise," "still," "then," "therefore," and "thus
Examples
The cook
quickly prepared hot coffee for the guests.
The marathon runners
painstakingly ran the cross country race.
The nurse
patiently treated the afflicted children
The government announced some freebie for the poor prior to the announcement of the elections;
eventually they won with massive majority.
Students are very weak in verbal aptitudes;
consequently, they fail to get placed in campus interviews.
What is a
Preposition?
A preposition is a part of speech that points out a position. It is usually found before an object.
The computer is
on the table.
The IT Park is
before the auditorium
In each of the preceding sentences, a preposition locates the noun "computer and the IT Park” in space or in time.
The most common prepositions are
"about," "above," "across," "after," "against," "along," "among," "around," "at," "before," "behind," "below," "beneath," "beside," "between," "beyond," "but," "by," "despite," "down," "during," "except," "for," "from," "in," "inside," "into," "like," "near," "of," "off," "on," "onto," "out," "outside," "over," "past," "since," "through," "throughout," "till," "to," "toward," "under," "underneath," "until," "up," "upon," "with," "within," and "without."
The preposition is relevant to the students of modern communication systems because in idiomatic usage, some verbs take certain specific prepositions.
Examples
His delay is attributed
to the accident he met with
while driving
Shewag is regarded as a frontline batsman
in India
Priestly is credited
with discovering Oxygen
Students may note the verbs consider and comprise do not take any prepositions
Example: Tendulkar is considered the greatest batsman of India
This class comprises fifteen students.
What is a
Conjunction?
A conjunction is a word that links to link words, phrases, and clauses.
The hostess made coffee
and tea.
I wanted to go to Delhi
but actually went to Mumbai.
Staying awake late in the night
and waking up late in the mornings are bad habits
Coordinating Conjunctions
Co-coordinating conjunction such as “
and”, “but”, “or”, “so”, “yet” etc join two equal ideas.
India
and Pakistan are two neighboring nations
Subordinating conjunction such as
because, when, where, after, although, before since, than, that, though, although, even though join a main clause with a dependent clause.
After he got placed in the campus, he felt relieved.
When the bell rang at four p.m, the students vanished from the class.
Correlative Conjunctions
Correlative conjunctions are combination of a coordination conjunction with an adjective or adverb.
Examples:
Either he
or I
Neither Jack
nor Jill
Both x
and Y
Not only India
but also the US
Whether Infosis
or Wipro
He is
not from the US
but from the UK
Batting is
not a science
but an art
The sentence
The sentence is a set of words that gives a completed meaning. It consists of essentially two things namely the subject and the predicate. While the subject is a noun or a pronoun, the predicate consists of the verb essentially; but it may also have other components such as an object or objects together with other parts of speech such as the adjective or adverb, conjunction or preposition.
Example
Tom ate
Tom ate mangoes
Tom ate sweet mangoes
Tom ate sweet mangoes slowly
Tom ate sweet mangoes kept on the table slowly.
Tom ate the mangoes kept on the table slowly because he felt hungry
Tom not only ate the mangoes kept on the table slowly but also drank two glasses of milk because he felt hungry
Tom not only ate the mangoes kept on the table slowly but also drank two glasses of milk and he said that he wanted some more apples because he felt hungry
