Grammar

A brief introduction to grammar

Grammar is the collection of rules and conventions that make languages go. This section is about Standard American English, but there's something here for everyone.

Parts of speech: the noun

• Welcome to grammar!
• Introduction to nouns
• Types of nouns
• Irregular plural nouns: base plurals and irregular endings
• Irregular plural nouns: mutant and foreign plurals

Parts of speech: the verb

• Introduction to verbs
• Verb tenses
• Linking and helping verbs
• Irregular verbs
• Verb aspect: simple, progressive, and perfect
• Verb aspect and modal verbs

Parts of speech: the pronoun

• Introduction to pronouns
• Possessive and reflexive pronouns
• Relative pronouns
• Subject, object, person, and number
• Indefinite pronouns, pronoun vagueness, and emphatic pronouns

Parts of speech: the modifier

• Introduction to adjectives and articles
• Introduction to adverbs
• Adjective order and commas with adjectives
• Comparative, superlative, intensifiers, and adverbs of degree

Parts of speech: the preposition and the conjunction

• Introduction to prepositions
• Types of prepositions and phrases
• Introduction to conjunctions
• Correlative conjunctions and starting sentences

Punctuation: the comma and the apostrophe

• Introduction to commas
• Commas in space and time
• More ways to use commas
• Apostrophes and contractions
• Introduction to the possessive
• "Its" versus "it's"

Punctuation: the colon, semicolon, and more

• Introduction to colons
• Introduction to semicolons
• Formatting styles
• Hyphens, dashes, and ellipses

Syntax: sentences and clauses

• Introduction to sentences
• Types of sentences
• Subjects and predicates
• Phrases and clauses

Syntax: conventions of standard English

• Subject-verb agreement and pronoun-antecedent agreement
• Fragments and run-ons
• Dangling modifiers and parallel structure

Usage and style

• Frequently confused words
• Common expressions
• Style!