This blog is aimed at providing a very lucid and simple account to grasp the basic knowledge of Perfect English Grammar.
If someone wants to master the English language, he/she must use this material to become proficient in English language.
This account explains about the basic knowledge to acquaint you with the Perfect English Grammar.
We start learning English language from basics that begins from the very basic information that gradually transcends to the depth and details by explaining grammatical layers one after one to strengthen the grip and hold on the language.
Thus the first post for laying the first brick for understanding Perfect English Grammar covers the following information.
- Letters to Words and Words to Sentence
- Word and Syllable
- Vowels and Consonants
- Distinction between Sentence and Phrase
- Kinds of sentences
- Sentence and Clause
- Eight Rules about sentence and clause
1. Letters to Words and Words to Sentence
In every rich language there are letters which we call the alphabet. The group of letters make words, and the group of words make sentences.
In English there are 26 letters in its alphabet starting from A and ending in Z.
2. Word and Syllable
One may be confused by seeing these terms, but these are the constituents of Basic English Grammar Lessons so there is no need to get confused, they are more than simple, once they are explained.
Word is an articulate/clear sound with some meaning.
for eg. Differ, Suffer, Respect, Regard, Woman
Syllable is as much of a word as it can be sounded at once.
for eg.
Word | Syllable |
Differ | Dif+fer |
Suffer | Suf+fer |
Respect | Res+pect |
Regard | Reg+ard |
Woman | Wo+man |
Question comes into mind, How do you identify syllables? The answer is;
The word may have one or more syllables, but it is necessary that each syllable contains one vowel. This is the rule for syllables.
3. Vowels and Consonants
The third in que in understanding basic knowledge of Perfect English Grammar are 'Vowels & Consonants'.
English Alphabet has 26 letters and these are divided in two categories.
- Vowels
- Consonants
There are 5 vowels in English Alphabet
a,e,i,o,u
Remaining 21 letters of English Alphabet are consonants except (w and y) under certain conditions as elaborated below.
Philosophy of letters 'w' and 'y' in their being consonant as well as vowel is;
If w and y begin the syllable they are consonants.
war, yet, worship, post-war, war-ship
If w and y ends the last syllable of a word, they are considered as vowels.
boy, cow, happy, healthy
If we do not consider it a vowel under such a situation, then the condition for a syllable that requires at least one vowel in every syllable may not fulfill.
See how?
Syllables in word happy
Hap+py (see both syllables contain vowels - ‘a’ in first syllable and ‘y’ in last syllable)
Thus w and y are consonants if they begin a syllable, and they are vowels if they end the last syllable of the word.
4. Distinction between sentence and phrase
Basic knowledge of Perfect English Grammar also includes the description of distinction between sentence and phrase.
Let's not confuse as the distinction between the above two is very easy to remember.
Be it sentence or phrase, both are made with the group of words, but sentence conveys the complete meaning or develops complete sense, however phrase develops the sense but not a complete sense.
for eg.
He laughed at me. (Sentence)
(because it develops complete sense and conveys a message with complete meaning that someone laughs at me).
On the table. (Phrase)
(because it gives an incomplete sense that something is being said about the table, but does not provide the complete sense of what it is meant for).
5. Kinds of sentences
Describing kinds of sentences is also the part of basic insight of Perfect English Grammar.
In English language there are only five kinds of sentences.
a. Assertive Sentences
I go for a walk daily. (Positive)
I do not go for a walk daily. (Negative)
I do go for a walk daily. (Emphatic)
She offers prayers five times a day. (Positive)
She does not offer prayers five times a day. (Negative)
She does offer prayers five times a day. (Emphatic)
They went to school. (Positive)
They did not go to school. (Negative)
They did go to school. (Emphatic)
Emphatic denotes something certain, for sure, obligatory or necessary.
b. Interrogative Sentence
Have you attended the meeting?
Did you dispatch the letter yesterday?
Does he tell a lie?
Shall I see you in the morning?
What is your name?
Where are you from?
When will you arrive?
Why is it so?
How much does it cost?
c. Imperative sentences
Such sentences make commands, advice, request and prohibition.
for eg.
Please give me a ride. (Request)
Respect your elders. (Advice)
You should be careful in future.(Advice)
Do not tell a lie. (Prohibition)
Bring me a cup of tea. (Command)
Go and announce my message. (Command)
Lend me your car please. (Request)
You cannot capture pictures here. (Prohibition)
d. Exclamatory sentence
This kind of sentence is meant for expressing sudden or strong feelings and emotions.
How old you are!
How tall you are!
Alas! We lost the match
How foolish i have been!
e. Optative sentences
These kinds of sentences are meant for expressing wish or desire.
for eg.
May you live a long happy life!
May you live long!
Would that i were rich!
6. Sentence and Clause
While explaining Basics of English Grammar the difference between Sentence and Clause cannot be set aside because it is one of the important topics that represents the basics.
As we discussed earlier, ‘the sentence is the group of words that conveys a complete message with its full meaning and intention.
In other words, a sentence expresses thoughts. And a sentence may express one or more than one thought.
The sentence that expresses single thought is called a simple sentence.
However, if the sentence expresses more than one thought, each of these thoughts is called a clause.
In this way the clause is a simple sentence that forms a part of the longer sentence.
for eg.
He uses an umbrella during the rain.
(simple sentence as it expresses a single thought)
He is true to his salt.
(Simple sentence as it denotes a single thought)
A bad workman quarrels with his tools
(Simple sentence as it denotes a single thought)
If you feel pertinent, I may now leave for the office, because it is time to go to the office.
(This sentence has three thoughts (or three simple sentences) and each of these thoughts is called a clause).
Hope the clause is clear now and if it is so, we may proceed to further details about basics of Perfect English Grammar.
(Again this sentence has three thoughts and each of these thoughts is called a clause).
So now mind it that a sentence with single thought is called simple sentence.
and a sentence with more than single thought contains clauses as clause is the simple sentence that forms a part of the longer sentence.
What we have learnt so far is simple sentences and clauses.
Now we discuss complex and compound sentences that forms relation with Clause and are useful in giving more details about Clause.
Now as the clause is the simple sentence that forms the part of the longer sentence, what do we call that longer sentence that comprises two or more clauses in it?
So here it is.
If a sentence expresses more than one thought then it may either be a complex or a compound sentence depending on the thoughts - all except one - interdependent or independent or in other words complex sentence has one principal clause and one or more subordinate clauses and compound sentence has two or more coordinate clauses.
Principal clause:
stands independently.
Subordinate clause:
can’t stand independently.
Coordinate clause:
stands independently like the principal clause.
The difference between the two is that the first independent clause in a sentence is called principal clause and the other independent clauses are called coordinate clauses.
If we make it simpler, a complex sentence has one independent thought (Clause) and the remaining all are interdependent thoughts (Clauses).
While a compound sentence has one interdependent thought (Clause) and remaining all are independent.
for eg.
If you work hard, you will achieve in life, because God helps those who help themselves.
(This is a complex sentence because it has four thoughts or clauses)
Now see how it is a complex sentence. Recall what we learned earlier about complex sentences.
It has one independent and one or more interdependent clauses.
So the above example falls in the category of complex sentence because it has four thoughts or clauses, and the clause # 2 is independent however clause # 1, 3 and 4 are interdependent.
Clause # 1: If you work hard
(it cannot stand independently thus it is an interdependent clause)
Clause # 2: You will succeed in life
(It can stand independently and does not need any other clause to elaborate it, thus it is an independent clause)
Clause # 3: Because God helps those
(can’t stand independently and cannot convey complete sense without the fourth clause, thus it is interdependent)
Clause # 4: Who helps themselves
(can’t stand independently without the third clause, thus interdependent)
If you work hard | You will succeed in life | Because God helps those | Who help themselves |
Subordinate | Principal clause | Subordinate | Subordinate |
Interdependent | Independent | Interdependent | Interdependent |
So now hopefully the complex sentence is clear that it consists of one independent and remaining all interdependent clauses or in other words it contains one principal clause and one or more subordinate clauses.
Now we will describe compound sentences.
Dogs bark, cocks crow but lions roar.
(It is a compound sentence having three thoughts or clauses)
As we discussed earlier, a compound sentence is one that contains one interdependent thought (clause) and others independent thoughts (clauses).
In this way the above example falls in the category of compound sentence because clause # 3 is the only an interdependent clause and the rest of all (clause # 1 and 2) are independent clauses.
Clause # 1: Dogs bark
(can stand independently, does not need support of any other clause for meaning, thus it is independent clause)
Clause # 2: Cocks crow
(can stand independently like clause # 1, thus it is an independent clause)
Make it simpler.
Dogs bark | Cocks crow | But lions roar |
Coordinate clause | Coordinate clause | Subordinate clause |
Independent | Independent | Interdependent |
First coordinate clause is the principal clause and the second is the coordinate clause.
This topic of Clause is quite important to understand. The best possible and the simplest way is adopted in this blog to explain it.
7. Eight (8) Rules to remember about sentences and clauses
These are 8 general rules of what we learnt above in basics of Perfect English Grammar that are necessary to be understood and followed while speaking or writing in English language.
1. Full stop (.) is used at the end of Assertive and Imperative sentences
- Do not tell a lie.
- Respect your elders.
2. Question mark (?) is used at the end of Interrogative sentence.
- Did they play hockey?
- Have you brought my car?
- Where do you live?
3. Mark of exclamation (!) is used at the end of exclamatory sentence and optative sentence and after an Interjection.
- May you live a peaceful life!
- Alas! We lost the match
- How tall the building is!
4. Sentence structure
A sentence has a subject and a predicate.
- I eat mangoes in the evening.
- He gave me a book
# | Subject | Predicate |
a. | I | Eat mangoes in the evening |
b. | He | Gave me a book |
5. A simple sentence has only one finite verb.
(Finite verb is said to be a verb that is limited to the same person(1st, 2nd and 3rd person) and the same number (singular or plural) as that of its subject.
a. He plays hockey.
b. We play hockey.
(The verb ‘play’ is in first person and plural in number because its subject ‘we’ is first person and singular).
6. A complex sentence has a principal clause and one or more subordinate clauses.
Example: All is well that ends well.
7. A compound sentence has two or more coordinate clauses. But the first of these coordinate clauses is called the Principal clause.
Example: Life is short and time is fleeting.
8. A sentence must begin with a capital letter and never with an arithmetic figure.
Thus
36 girls are enrolled in the classroom. (Incorrect)
Thirty-six girls are enrolled in the classroom. (Correct)
Conclusion
We have made an effort to explain the topics covered in basics of Perfect English Grammar.
Hope, the way it is explained would be surely simple, helpful and useful for the readers to understand.
As the topics involved in basics of Perfect English Grammar have been covered thoroughly. Now the further grammatical layers will be explained in subsequent blogs.
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