Comprehensive Guide to English Grammar Rules

1. Parts of Speech:

- Nouns: A noun is a person, place, thing, or idea.

- Pronouns: A pronoun replaces a noun (he, she, it, they, etc.).

- Verbs: A verb expresses action or being.

- Adjectives: An adjective describes or modifies a noun.

- Adverbs: An adverb modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb.

- Prepositions: A preposition shows a relationship between a noun (or pronoun) and another word

in the sentence.

- Conjunctions: A conjunction joins words, phrases, or clauses.

- Interjections: An interjection expresses strong feeling or emotion (Wow!, Oh!, etc.).

2. Sentence Structure:

- Simple Sentences: Contains one independent clause (subject + predicate).

- Compound Sentences: Contains two independent clauses joined by a conjunction.

- Complex Sentences: Contains one independent clause and at least one dependent clause.

- Compound-Complex Sentences: Contains two independent clauses and at least one dependent

clause.

- Clauses (Independent and Dependent): An independent clause can stand alone as a sentence,

whereas a dependent clause cannot.

3. Tenses:

- Present Tense:

- Simple: I write.
 - Continuous: I am writing.

- Perfect: I have written.

- Perfect Continuous: I have been writing.

- Past Tense:

- Simple: I wrote.

- Continuous: I was writing.

- Perfect: I had written.

- Perfect Continuous: I had been writing.

- Future Tense:

- Simple: I will write.

- Continuous: I will be writing.

- Perfect: I will have written.

- Perfect Continuous: I will have been writing.

4. Articles:

- Definite Article: "The" refers to specific things.

- Indefinite Articles: "A" or "An" refer to general things.

5. Voice:

- Active Voice: The subject performs the action (e.g., The cat chased the mouse).

- Passive Voice: The object receives the action (e.g., The mouse was chased by the cat).

6. Direct and Indirect Speech:

- Direct Speech: "She said, 'I am going.'"

- Indirect Speech: She said that she was going.

- Singular and Plural Agreement: The subject and verb must agree in number.

- Collective Nouns: Singular verb for collective nouns.

- Agreement with 'There is/There are': "There is" is used for singular, and "There are" for plural.

8. Punctuation:

- Periods: Used at the end of a statement.

- Commas: Used to separate items in a list, after introductory words, or before conjunctions in

compound sentences.

- Colons and Semicolons: A colon introduces a list; a semicolon connects related independent

clauses.

- Question Marks: Used at the end of a question.

- Exclamation Marks: Used to show strong feeling or surprise.

- Quotation Marks: Used to indicate direct speech or quotations.

- Apostrophes: Used for possession or contractions.

9. Modifiers:

- Adjective Phrases: A group of words that modifies a noun.

- Adverb Phrases: A group of words that modifies a verb, adjective, or adverb.

- Dangling Modifiers: Modifiers that do not clearly relate to the word they are modifying.

10. Conditionals:

- Zero Conditional: If + present, present (e.g., If you heat water, it boils).

- First Conditional: If + present, will + verb (e.g., If it rains, we will stay inside).

- Second Conditional: If + past, would + verb (e.g., If I had a car, I would drive to work).

- Third Conditional: If + past perfect, would have + past participle (e.g., If I had known, I would
have helped).

- Mixed Conditional: Combines two different conditionals (e.g., If I had studied, I would be passing

now).

11. Prepositions:

- Prepositions of Time: In, on, at.

- Prepositions of Place: In, on, at.

- Prepositions of Direction: To, into, towards.

12. Gerunds and Infinitives:

- Gerund: A verb form ending in -ing used as a noun (e.g., Swimming is fun).

- Infinitive: The base form of a verb, usually preceded by 'to' (e.g., I like to swim).

13. Reported Questions:

- Reported speech for questions (e.g., She asked, "Are you coming?" to She asked if I was

coming).

14. Relative Clauses:

- A relative clause gives more information about a noun (e.g., The man who called you is here).

15. Determiners:

- Words like articles, demonstratives, possessives, and quantifiers that introduce a noun (e.g.,

This, that, my, some).

16. Conjunctions:

- Words that connect words, phrases, or clauses (e.g., and, but, because, although).