Grammar

Tenses in English Grammar – Introduction

7th January 2019 By Edify English Leave a Comment

The word ‘Tense’ is taken from the Latin word “TEMPUS”, meaning time. Tenses indicate the time of an action performed.

Tenses Introduction

There are three types of tenses in the English language. They are:

Present Tense
Past Tense
Future Tense
- - A verb that refers to the present time is said to be in the Present tense.
  - A verb that refers to past time is said to be in the Past tense.
  - A verb that talks about the future time is said to be in the Future tense.

Each tense, in turn, is divided into four types. They are:

Simple
Continuous
Perfect
Perfect Continuous

So, in totality, there are 12 tenses in English.

Hence, in present tense, there are four forms

Similarly in Past tense

In Future tense,

The detailed notes on this topic containing sentence structure of every form of tense, rules to be followed while using them in a given sentence, common errors etc. will be presented in further articles on tenses. Check Here.

Click here for other Grammar Topics

Improve your Vocabulary

Noun – Definition and Classification with examples

7th January 2019 By Edify English 1 Comment

Nouns are the first among the eight parts of speech in English Language. In this article lets discuss the Definition and Classification of Noun. For Introductory article on Parts of Speech Click Here

Nouns : Definition – Classification

Definition of a Noun:

A Noun is simply a naming word. It is a word used to refer the name of

A person (Particular or referred to in common)
A place (Particular or general)
A thing (referred to the same kind or class )
A collection of things
A notion

For example: Joe is a talented boy who lives in Visakhapatnam which is often referred to as City of Destiny

In the above sentence, the Nouns are: Joe- A person, Boy – a class of persons Visakhapatnam – a particular Place, Destiny – a notion.

Classification of Nouns:

Nouns are classified in different ways. The following are some of the common classifications.

Kinds of Nouns:

Proper Nouns
Common Nouns
- Collective Nouns
- Abstract Nouns

Proper Nouns: It is the name of a particular place or a person. It is one’s own. Hence a proper Noun is one’s own name.

Example: Rama is a great King. Here Rama is a proper noun that denotes the name of a particular person.

Remember that Proper Nouns are always written with a capital letter at the beginning.

Common Nouns: It represents a name given in common to every person or thing (the word thing is used to represent anything that we can think of) of the same class or kind.

Example: New York is a beautiful city. Here city is a Common noun.

Sometimes Proper Nouns are used as Common Nouns.

For example, in the sentence Kalidasa is called the Shakespeare of India, Shakespeare is used as a Common Noun whereas Kalidasa is still a Proper Noun. In the sentence Shakespeare doesn’t represent a Person but the common quality or the class of being great dramatists.

Collective Noun: It is the name used to denote a number of persons or things taken together.

Example: The french army was defeated at the battle of waterloo. Here, Army (Collection of Soldiers) is a common.

Some more examples: Crowd, Flock, Herd, Family etc.

Abstract Noun: It is the name of quality, action, or state considered apart from the object to which it belongs.

Example: Hanuman is known for his loyalty. Here the word Loyalty is an abstract noun that shows the quality of Hanuman.

Abstract Nouns are formed from adjectives, verbs and some common nouns. For example, Goodness is formed from the adjective- good.

For example:

Obedience is formed from obey (verb)
Slave is a common noun and the word Slavery is an abstract noun.

Another Classification of Nouns:

Another classification of nouns is whether they are countable or uncountable.

Countable Nouns: Countable nouns are the names of things which we can count.

Example: Book, Pencil, Oranges etc.

Uncountable Nouns: Uncountable nouns are the names of the things which we cannot count. Example : Honesty, Purity, Milk etc. Uncountable nouns denote substances and abstracts.

Countable Nouns have plural forms whereas Uncountable nouns do not.
We can say ‘Pens’ but we cannot say ‘Oils’.

The rules to be followed while using nouns will be covered in the next article.

Also Read Articles In English Grammar

Improve your Vocabulary

Parts of Speech in English Language

3rd January 2019 By Edify English Leave a Comment

Parts of Speech in english language explain different ways words can be used in different contexts. Every word in the English Language functions as at least one Part of Speech. Some words can serve as two or more parts of speech based on the context. The same word can be a Verb in one sentence and a Noun or an Adjective in other sentence. This is an introductory article on Parts of speech.

Parts of Speech

Typically there are Eight Parts of Speech in English language.

Noun
Pronoun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb
Preposition
Conjunction
Interjection

Introduction to the Eight Parts of Speech in English Language

Noun : A Noun is a word used to name a person, animal, place, thing, and an abstract idea or a notion.

Example: Donald Trump, New York, Tiger, Book, Happiness.

Click here to learn more about nouns

Pronoun : A Pronoun is a word that replaces a Noun or a group of words used as a Noun. In other words it acts as a substitute for a Noun.

Example: I, We, You, He, She, It, They

Verb : Verbs are the most important words in a sentence. They denote the action or indicate the state of being or existence of the subject.

Example: My brother is a doctor; The cap looks good; She is playing chess.

Adjective : An Adjective is a word that modifies the Noun or Pronoun. It describes the quality, state or action that a Noun or Pronoun refer to.

Example: Ramu is a good boy; He looks ugly in the dress

Adverb : Adverbs are used to say how/ where/ when something happens or even how often something happens. In other words, it enhances the information that we got from the adjective, or a verb or another adverb in a sentence.

Example: He played extremely well in the match.

Preposition : A preposition is a word that begins with a prepositional phrase and shows the relationship between its object and another word in the sentence.

Example: About, On, Beside, Along, For etc.

Conjunction : A Conjunction is a word that joins sentences, words and clauses.

Example: Krishna and Rama play cricket.

Interjection: An interjection is a word used to convey emotions.

Example: Alas! the ex-president is no more.

The detailed explanation on all the Parts of Speech, their classification, usage and related topics will be covered in separate articles.

Also Read Articles In English Grammar

Improve your Vocabulary

Like us on Facebook

Articles (A, An, The) in English Grammar

21st December 2018 By Edify English Leave a Comment

Articles are the most basic words in English and are highly important in English usage. They are used before Nouns and bring accuracy to the sentence. In this article lets learn about Articles in English Language in detail.

What are Articles?

The three words “A”,” An”, and “The” are called articles in English language. “A” and “An” are called Indefinite articles as they not particular in nature, and “The” is called definitive article as it always shows a particular person or a thing. (Hence sometimes ‘the’ also acts as an adjective in the sentence).

The articles ‘A’ and ‘An’ are generally used before singular countable common nouns. ‘The’ is used before singular/ plural countable/ uncountable/ uncountable nouns according to the context.

Rules for the Use of Articles ‘A’ and ‘An’

The usage of ‘A’ or ‘An’ is primarily decided on the basis of sound. ‘A’ is used before the words that begin with the sound of a consonant.

Eg: A boy, A student, A Pen, A Rocket (Words beginning with and having the sound of Consonants).
A European, A University, A Union, A Useful idea (Words beginning with vowel but have consonant sound).

‘An’ is used before the words beginning with a vowel, or with the sound of a vowel or with a mute ‘h’.

Eg: An Elephant, An Umbrella, An American, An hour, An honest person, An MLA, An X-ray.

A/ An is used be used before a common noun when that noun is used for the first time in the sentence.

Eg: A beggar came to my door.

Rules for the Use of the Article ‘The’

Whenever we talk about a particular thing or a person, or any noun that has already been mentioned before, ‘the’ is used before the word. For example,

The cassette is available in that store.
This is the book I want.
The person standing next to him is my brother.

Before proper nouns and any unique objects referring to the names of the following, “The” should be used.

Before the names of Mountain ranges	The Himalayas, The Rocky mountains, The Andes mountains
Before the names of Planets and Stars	The Earth, The Sun
Before the names of Descriptive names of countries	The USA, The UAE, The USSR
Before the names of Holy books	The Bible, The Gita, The Quran
Before the names of Newspapers	The Hindu, The New York Times
Before the names of Historical buildings	The Taj Mahal, The Great Wall of China, The Statue of Liberty
Before the names of Deserts	The Sahara, The Thar desert
Before the names of Musical instruments	The Guitar, The flute, The Harmonium
Before the names of Hotels	The Sheraton, The Grand Central Hotel etc…
Before the names of Castes and Religions	The Hindus, The Rajputs, The Muslims etc…
Before important events in History	The Boston Tea Party, The Cold War, The Quit India Movement, The Non- Cooperation movement, The First World War etc…
Before the names of political parties and Organizations	The Republican Party, The Congress Party, The Communist party, The United nations Organization, The UNESCO etc..

‘The’ is used before an adjective when that adjective is representing a class or a section. For example,

The poor should be uplifted.
The young should take care of the old.

Note: When ‘the’ is used before these classes of adjectives, they will become plural nouns. Eg: The rich, the poor, the deaf, the dead, the dumb, the sick, the poor etc…

“The” must be used before any adjective spoken in the superlative degree.

Eg: Russia is the largest country in the world.
Sachin Tendulkar is the greatest batsman in world Cricket.

Rules for the Omission of Articles

Till now, we’ve seen when and where the articles should be used. Now there are some instances when they shouldn’t be used. Let’s take a look at them.

No article should be used before a proper noun and a material noun.

Eg: Barack Obama (Not “The Barack Obama”), Narendra Modi, Detroit, Mumbai, Shanghai, Gold, Water, Silver etc…

No article should be used before the names of languages, diseases, seasons, sports, parts of the human body etc…

Eg: English is a global language (Not ‘The English’).
Soccer is watched by millions of people (Not ‘The Soccer’).
Cancer is a deadly disease (Not ‘The Cancer’).
Liver is the largest gland in our body (Not ‘The Liver’).

No article should be used before the words ‘man’ and ‘woman’ when they are used in a general sense. However, when they are spoken particularly, ‘the’ should be used before them. For example,

Man is mortal (Not ‘the man’). However,
‘The man’ sitting next to her is my husband.

Click here for more articles on English Grammar