Articles
a, an, and the
NOUN
a person, place, or thing. Can be the subject or object of a sentence. Ex: cat, horse, mother, Denmark
PRONOUN
a word that replaces or stands for ("pro" = for) a noun. Ex: he, she, it
VERB
an action word. Ex: sit, laugh, screw
ADJECTIVE
a word that describes or modifies a noun. Answers the questions "how many," "what kind," etc. Ex: happy, suicidal, red, dangerous
ADVERB
a word that describes or modifies a verb. Ex: carefully, quickly, wisely. Also sometimes modifies an adjective. ("She was very tall." 'Very' is an adverb modifying 'tall')Adverbs usually, but not always, end in "-ly". (However, not every word ending in "ly" is an adverb)
PREPOSITION
(literally "pre-position") a word that indicates the relationship of a noun (or noun phrase) to another word. Examples of prepositions are to, at, with, for, against, across.
PHRASE
an expression (can be a single word, but usually more) which contains a single thought but is not necessarily a complete sentence. Words make up phrases; phrases make up sentences. By some definitions, a phrase cannot contain a verb.
SENTENCE
the basic unit of writing. A sentence should have a subject and a predicate. The subject is the noun to which the sentence's verb refers; the predicate is the verb plus whatever other parts modify or elaborate on it.
DECLARATIVE (type of sentence)
The majority of sentences are declarative. A declarative sentence makes a statement.
INTERROGATORY (type of sentence)
An interrogatory sentence asks a question. Ex: Do you understand that?
IMPERATIVE (type of sentence)
An imperative sentence gives a command. Ex: "Shut up and kiss me." (Note that an imperative sentence does not require a subject; the pronoun "you" is implied)
TENSES
Past, present and futureFor example, "I eat" is present, "I ate" is past and "I will eat" is future.
THE BASIC PARTS OF A SENTENCE
the subject, the verb, and (often, but not always) the object. The subject is usually a noun--a word that names a person, place, or thing. The verb (or predicate) usually follows the subject and identifies an action or a state of being. An object receives the action and usually follows the verb.