Grammar Foundations
Grammar is the system of rules that governs how words are put together in a language. You already know most English grammar from speaking it — when something "sounds wrong" to you, that is grammar knowledge you absorbed before you knew what grammar was. This chapter makes that knowledge explicit and fills in the gaps.
The parts of speech
Every word in English belongs to a category based on the job it does in a sentence. These categories are called parts of speech.
Nouns name people, places, things, and ideas. Teacher, city, honesty, bicycle. A proper noun names a specific person, place, or thing and is always capitalised: Maria, Texas, Monday.
Pronouns replace nouns to avoid repetition. He, she, it, they, I, we, you, me, him, her, them, us. Maria said Maria was going to Maria's house becomes Maria said she was going to her house.
Verbs express action or state. Action verbs: run, speak, build, think. State-of-being verbs: is, are, was, were, become, seem. Every complete sentence has at least one verb.
Adjectives describe nouns and pronouns: tall, blue, three, heavy, beautiful. They answer questions like which one? what kind? how many?
Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs: quickly, very, often, there, yesterday. Many adverbs end in -ly but not all: fast, well, soon, here.
Prepositions show relationships between words, especially position and direction: in, on, under, over, through, with, before, after, between, among.
Conjunctions connect words, phrases, and sentences: and, but, or, so, because, although, while, when, if.
Verb tenses — when things happen
A verb's tense tells you when the action takes place: past, present, or future.
Present tense describes what is happening now or what is generally true: She reads every morning. Water boils at 100°C.
Past tense describes what already happened: She read for an hour. The water boiled quickly. Most past tenses are formed by adding -ed, but many common verbs are irregular: go → went, run → ran, see → saw, eat → ate, write → wrote.
Future tense describes what will happen: She will read tomorrow. The water will boil soon. Formed with will before the verb.
The most important rule about tense: stay consistent. If you start writing in past tense, stay in past tense. Switching tenses without reason — called a tense shift — confuses readers about when things are happening.
Active and passive voice
A sentence is in active voice when the subject performs the action: The dog bit the man. The dog is doing the biting.
A sentence is in passive voice when the subject receives the action: The man was bitten by the dog. The man is receiving the biting.
Active voice is usually clearer and more direct. Passive voice has its uses — when the person doing the action is unknown (The window was broken) or when you want to emphasise the receiver — but it should be a deliberate choice, not a default. Most good writing is predominantly active.
What this unlocks
With grammar, you can analyse why a sentence works or does not work — not just sense that something is off, but identify the specific problem and fix it. The next step is building beyond individual sentences: paragraphs, which are the units that carry extended thought.