PERSON, MOOD AND NUMBER AS GRAMMATICAL PROPERTIES OF VERBS
PERSON Person is the form of the verb which designates the person speaking (i.e. first person; e.g. I am), the person spoken to (i.e. second person; e.g. You are) and the person or thing spoken of (i.e. third person; e.g.…
SEQUENCE OF TENSES
Sequence of Tenses informs us that the tense of a verb in the subordinate clause agrees in a logical sequence with the tense of a verb in the main clause. This implies that verbs in the main and subordinate clauses…
VERB IDIOMS
Verb idioms are variously referred to as group verbs, multi-word verbs or phrasal verbs, or action/being referent idioms. Some begin with verbs and end with adverb particles or prepositions [e.g. get at (reach), get off (escape), get through (succeed), hails…
INTRODUCTION TO VERBS AND VERBALS
When we talk of verbs and verbals in English, we loosely refer to finite and nonfinite verbs respectively. FINITE VERBS are of three kinds – transitive, intransitive and auxiliary. NON-FINITE (or INFINITE) VERBS are also of three kinds – gerunds,…
THE INFINITIVE
(Verb-noun, verb-adjective, and verb-adverb) Form The infinitive, derived from the Latin word infinitus, means infinity, unlimited, without end. It is, therefore, the form of the verb which is not limited by number or person. Although the infinitive form is…
SENTENCE PARTS
THE SUBJECT AND THE PREDICATE Notably, every sentence may be divided grammatically into two broad parts: Subject and Predicate. The subject may be a noun or a noun-equivalent, a noun phrase or a noun clause. The predicate embraces the verb…
RULES OF GRAMMATICAL CONCORD
Concord means agreement, and the rules of grammatical concord are the principles of agreement between words in the sentence. The two major forms of grammatical concord and the most rigorously applied in written English are: Subject – Verb Agreement. Pronoun…
THE ORDER/PATTERN OF PREPOSITIONS AND QUESTION TAGS
The Order of Prepositions Usually, prepositions precede the words they govern. (e.g. Steve spoke to Sandra.) But sometimes, especially in questions, relative or interrogative clauses, idiomatic expressions, or commonly used expressions, prepositions come after the words they govern. He was…
NOMINALS
Nominals are words (such as pronouns and gerunds), phrases, or clauses which perform the functions of nouns. Functions: subject, direct object, indirect object, predicate noun, object complement, object of a preposition, etc. Kinds: There are six kinds of nominals in…
Study Guide
