Grammar Central
PARTS OF SPEECH:
A. NOUNS
A noun is a word that can be used to refer to a person, place, thing, quality, idea or action.
8 Kinds of Nouns:
1. Common Nouns: These are nouns in general which often does not start with a capital letter.
Example: Person: man, woman; Animals: cat, dog; Places: city, country; Things: soap, car
2. Proper Nouns: These are nouns which are specific like names of people, places (geographical names), institution, books and films and also brand names.
Example: Person: Anna, Mr. Smith; Places: Asia, Empire State Building; Institution: UCLA, European Union; Books and Films: My Fair Lady, Tuesday's with Morrie, Brand Names: Coca Cola, Levi's.
3. Count Nouns: These are nouns which is used to refer to things that can be counted.
Example: woman, store, glass, pencil, money
4. Mass Nouns: These are nouns that cannot be counted.
Example: grass, water, rain, sand, sugar
5. Collective Nouns: These are nouns that are singular in form but refers to a group of people or things.
Example: a school of fish, a pride of lions
6. Concrete Nouns: These are nouns that denotes a tangible or material person, animal, place, substance, thing, or phenomenon that physically exists (or could exist)
Examples: cat, pen, glass
7. Abstract Nouns: These are nouns that denotes and idea, emotion, feeling, quality or other abstract or intangible concept.
Examples: honesty, justice, happiness
8. Possessive Nouns: These are nouns that shows ownership which are formedby adding and apostrope and an 's' or just an apostrophe.
Examples: Mark's, child's, Johns'
***Forming Possessives of Nouns***
**To know if you need to make a possessive, make it a phrase "of the". For example, 'the girl's coat' = 'the coat of the girl'. If the noun after 'of' is an object, a building, or a piece of furniture, an apostrophe is not needed. For example, 'door of the car' = 'car door'.**
a. Add { 's } to the singular form of the word (even if it ends in { -s })
Example: the owner's car, James's hat
b. Add { 's } to the plural forms that do not end in { -s }
Example: the children's game, the geese's honking
c. Add { ' } to the end of plural nouns that end in { -s }
Example: two cats' toys, three friends' letters
d. Add { 's } to the end of compound words
Example: my brother-in-law's money, office-in-chief's
e. Add { 's } to the last noun to show joint possession of an object
Example: Todd and Anna's apratment, Tom and Jerry's cartoons
***Noun Phrase***
A noun phrase consists of a pre-modifier (adjectives, verbs, pronouns, articles) that are present and the noun. For example, white house, the house (noun) is being modified by the word white (adjective)
Pre-modifiers that signals the beginning of a noun phrase:
1. Order: first, second, third, fourth
2. Location: bedroom, upstairs, southern
3. Source or Origin: Canadian, German, Thai
4. Color: red, dark, light
5. Smell: acrid, scented, pungent
6. Material: metal, plastic, wood, oak
7. Size: small, large, 2-inch
8. Weight: heavy, light
9. Luster: shiny, dull
10. Specification: a, the, every
11. Designation: this, that, these, those
12. Ownership/Possessive: my, your, its, their
13. Number: one, many
***Post modifiers of nouns are usually a prepositional phrase. They commonly answer the 5 W's (who, what, when, where and why) and an H (how).
Forms of post modifiers:
1. Prepositional phrase
2. -ing phrase
3. -ed phrase
4. wh clauses
5. that/which clauses
**ARTICLES:**
An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English language are the, a and an.
2 Kinds of Articles:
a. Indefinite Articles { a and an }: These articles are used to refer to non-specific or non-particular member of the group. It signals that the noun that is being modified is indefinite, referring to ANY member of a group.
THINGS TO REMEMBER:
1. { a } + singular noun beginning with a consonant
Examples: a boy, a car, a bike, a zoo, a dog
2. { an } + singular noun beginning with a vowel
Examples: an egg, an elephant, an apple, an orphan
3. { a } + singular noun beginning with a consonant
Examples: a user, a unicycle, a university
4. { an } if the letter 'h' is pronounced like a vowel or in some cases it is pronounced
Examples: an hour, an honor, an historical
b. Definite Article: This is an article that is used before a singular or plural nouns when the noun is specific or particular.
**ARTICLES AND ITS USES:**
1. Count and Noncount Nouns:
The can be used with noncount nouns or the article can be omitted entirely.
Example: I love to sail over the water. (some specific body of water) or I love to sail over water.(any water)
A / an can be used ONLY with count nouns.
Example: I need a bottle of water. or I need a new glass of milk.
2. Rules for the Geographical Use of THE
a. DO NOT USE BEFORE:
a.1. names of most countries / territories: Italy, Bolivia, Mexico; however, the Netherlands, the Dominican Republic, the Philippines, the United States.
a.2. names of cities, towns or states: Seoul, Monitoba, Miami
a.3. names of streets: Washington Blvd., Main St.
a.4. names of lakes and bays: Lake Titicaca, lake Erie except with a group of lakes like the Great Lakes.
a.5. names of mountains: Mount Everest, Mount Fuji except with ranges of mountains like the Andes or the Rockies or unusual names like the Matterhorn.
a.6. names of continents: Asia, Europe
a.7. names of islands: Easter Island, Maui, Key West except with island chains like the Aleutians, the Hebrides, or the Canary Islands.
b. DO USE:
b.1. names of rivers, oceans and seas: the Nile, the Pacific
b.2. points on the globe: the Equator, the North Pole
b.3. geographical areas: the Middle East, the West
b.4. deserts, forests, gulfs, and peninsulas: the Sahara, the Perseian Gulf, the Black Forest, the Iberian Peninsula
c. OMISSIONS OF ARTICLES
c.1. names of languages and nationalities: Chinese, English, Spanish, Russian unless you are referring to the population of the nation, The Spanish are known for their warm hospitality.
c.2. names of sports: volleyball, hockey, baseball
c.3. names of academic subjects: mathematics, biology, history, computer science