Great Socialist People's

Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

English
Grammar`s rules

written by :-Eman Abudra

Class:- 2\2
 Introduction
• Even though most of us either flunked out or fell
asleep during English grammar class in school, it
is an integral part of writing whether you are a
professional writer or just want to write a note to
your son’s teacher. Using good grammar helps
get your point across effectively and focuses the
attention on what you have to say instead of how
you choose to say it. While there are hundreds of
rules of grammar that are laid out in several
style guides such as The Chicago Manual of Style
and The Elements of Style, there are some that
are absolute essentials to good writing that
everyone should master.
• Tense the form taken by a verb to indicate time
(as in past—present—future)
• Agreement the grammatical logic and
coherence between parts of a sentence
• Idiom a sequence of words which forms a whole
unit of meaning
• Punctuation a system of marks used to
introduce pauses and interruption into writing.
 Tenses
• Definition
• The term tense refers to the temporal aspect of a verb in use.
• There are many tenses in English to express past, present, and
future.
• EXAMPLES
• PRESENT tense
• Paul is looking for the cat.
Paris is the capital of France.
The child brings joy into their lives.
• PAST tense
• It was a wonderful day for all of us.
Judith had left the key on the table.
Fred had been about to leave when the telephone rang
• FUTURE tense
• I am going to stop smoking.
The wedding will be a splendid affair.
Stephen goes to college next week.
• USE
• All languages have tenses.
• English is the only modern European language which has no
future tense.
• The future tense in English is expressed by using other tenses
or by the semantic context.
• In the example 'Stephen goes to college next week' the term
'Stephen goes' is present tense. It is the context in this case -
created by the phrase 'next week' - which tells us that we are
being informed about the future.
• There are many tenses in the English Language. They are all
varieties of past, present, and future.
• The following examples have all been placed in a context so
that the complexity and the range of English tenses can be
appreciated.
• The names for tenses vary from one grammar text book to the
next. Don't worry about the exact name. It is more important
to
• assess whether the statement is in past,
present, or future
• Varieties of the PAST TENSE
• I ran
• (so that I could be here at this moment)
• I have run
• (all the way here)
• I was running
• (when I fell over a few minutes ago)
• I had run
• (so that I could arrive on time yesterday)
• I have been running
• (and that's why I'm out of breath now)
• I had been running
• (and that's why I fell over yesterday)
• I used to run
• (but I have walked for some time now)
• Varieties of the PRESENT TENSE
• I run
• (to work every morning)
• I am running
• (and that's why I'm out of breath)
• I have been running
• (for fifteen minutes, and I'm still running)
• Varieties of the FUTURE TENSE
• I shall run
• (so that I'll arrive on time)
• I will run
• (so don't try to stop me)
• I shall be running
• (to work for the foreseeable future to keep fit)
• I shall have run
• (twelve miles by tomorrow morning)
• I shall have been running
• (to work each morning for two weeks by next Friday)
• I run
• (tomorrow because that's the day of the race)
• In some instances of these future varieties 'shall' and 'will' are
auxiliaries deriving from the Old English 'to wish' or 'to want'.
• In order to assess whether an action or a state of existence is expressed
• For example 'I shall have been running' implies a point in
the future from which the past of that time is being
viewed.
• "I run into the house and there's a masked gunman
waiting to rob me!" looks like the simple present, but in
fact it refers to an event in the past. Technically this is
known as the vivid present and is mainly used in speech
to add a sense of drama to an account of an exciting
event.
 Agreement
• Definition
• There must be grammatical logic or coherence in the links
between parts of a sentence.
• This is called 'agreement' or 'concord'.
• EXAMPLES
• The boy is swimming.
[singular subject, singular verb form]
• The boys are swimming.
[plural subject, plural verb form]
• USE
• Agreement may be required in tense, number, or case.
• Problems are more likely to occur in writing than in speech.
• If the subject of a sentence is singular, then the verb form
must be singular as well:
• The shop [singular] opens at nine o'clock.
• On Thursdays the shops [plural] open late.
• Sometimes confusion occurs because a statement begins in
the singular but then drifts into the plural:
• wrong
It can be argued that a person has the right to know when
they are dying.
• The easiest solution to this problem is to make the subject
plural and its verb plural as well:
• correct
It can be argued that people have the right to know when
they are dying.
• Sometimes a singular noun is used to denote a plural or a
collective thing - such as 'government' or 'parliament'.
• Either the singular or the plural verb form may be used - but
the important thing is to be consistent.
• wrong
The government prefers to let matters rest, but events may
make them change their minds.
• correct
The government prefers to let matters rest, but events may
make it change its mind.
• correct
The government prefer to let matters rest, but events may
make them change their minds.
• Agreement is necessary in English because the language is
'uninflected'.
• That is, most words are not given separate endings to
indicate which part of the statement they represent.
• English relies very heavily on grammatical rules and syntax
[word order] to make sense.
• [In some languages – classical Latin, for instance – word order
is not important.]
 Idioms
• Definition
• An idiom is a fixed phrase which is only meaningful as a whole.
• All languages contain idiomatic phrases.
• Native speakers learn them and remember them as a complete
item, rather than a collection of separate words.
• Examples
• IDIOM
• MEANING
• a red herring
• a false trail
• raining cats and dogs
• raining very hard
• fly in the ointment
• spoiling the effect
• Use
• Idioms often break semantic conventions and
grammatical logic – as in I'll eat my hat [I'll be
amazed if ...].
• The object of the verb 'to eat' is conventionally
something edible, but as part of this idiom it is
something definitely inedible.
• Non-native speakers find the idiomatic side of any
language difficult to grasp.
• Native speakers of a language acquire idioms from a
very early stage in their linguistic development.
• Idioms are generally impossible to translate between
languages, although some families of languages use
• In French, for example, the idiomatic phrase 'moon vieux' is
parallel in its meaning with the English 'old chap'.
• Idioms very often contain metaphor, but not always. For
example, 'How do you do' is an idiomatic greeting but it is not
a metaphor.
• Idioms are not always used or recognised by the whole of the
language community. Sub-groups of speakers employ idioms
peculiar to themselves.
• Teenagers, occupational groups, leisure groups, and gender
groups all employ idioms or special phrases. These will mean
something within the context of the group and its
communication. MEDICINE
• I went to the GP for a check-up
• SPORT
• He was caught leg-before-wicket
• GENDER
• She was at her sister's hen-party
• Idiom also determines the way that certain combinations of
words make meaningful statements, but not others.
• For instance, we are 'in a quandry' but 'at a loss'; we are 'out
of sorts' but 'in low spirits'; whereas the expressions 'at a
quandry' or 'in sorts' would have no meaning in English.
•   
 Punctuation
• Definition
• Punctuation is used in writing to show the stress, ryhthm, and
tone of the spoken word.
• It is also used to clarify the meaning of sentences.
• Examples
• There are four common marks of punctuation:
• These represent pauses of increasing length in a sentence. the
comma
• [,]
•           the semicolon
• [;]
• the colon
• [:]
•           the full stop
• [.]
• Use
• The following paragraph uses all the four common marks of
punctation.
•         Punctuation should always be used lightly, even sparingly,
and as accurately as possible. You will discover through practice
that there are three basic rules: the comma, semicolon, and
colon mark increasingly long pauses; full stops are used to
separate distinct sentences; and a new paragraph should always
be employed to begin a new topic or point of argument.
• The four most common marks of punctuation are dealt with in
detail in their own sections: the comma
• [,]
•           the semicolon
• [;]
• the colon
• [:]
•           the full stop
• [.]
• The other common marks of punctuation are described below:
• brackets
• [ these ]
• exclamation mark
• [!]
• dash
• [—]
• oblique stroke
• [/]
• hyphen
• [-]
• question mark
• [?]
• Some miscellaneous remarks on punctuation.
• Brackets (these) are used to insert a remark (like this, for
instance) or a qualification of some sort into a sentence.
• Take care! If they are used too frequently they create a
choppy, unsettling effect.
• Full details in the section on brackets.
• The dash (—) is used to indicate a sudden change of thought,
an additional comment, or a dramatic qualification.
• That was the end of the matter — or so we thought.
• Dashes can also be used in pairs to insert a comment or a
short list:
• Everything — furniture, paintings, and books —
survived the fire.
• They should not be used as a substitute for brackets, or
mixed with them.
• The dash is not the same thing as the hyphen (which is
shorter) but this distinction is rarely made in the UK.
• The exclamation mark (!) indicates surprise, anger, or alarm.
• What a mess!
• Get out of this house at once!
• The ship is sinking! Jump in the lifeboat!
• Exclamation marks should be used with restraint. The more frequently they occur,
the weaker becomes their effect.
• The question mark [?] is used to show that a question has been raised.
• The question mark is always placed at the end of the sentence.
• The following examples are questions:
• What are you going to do?
• How much is that doggy in the window?
• Why is that woman staring at us?
• The following are not questions.
• He wondered what to do next.
• She asked herself the same question.
• What will happen to them is a mystery.

• The hyphen [ - ] is a short dash used to connect (parts of) words.

• These might be prefixes:
• re-enter    co-operate    pre-enrol
• They can be compound adjectives:
• multi-storey car park   
• They can be used when when forming compounds such as
• son-in-law    couldn't-care-less
• Full details in the section on hyphens.
• The oblique stroke [ / ] is sometimes used to separate items in a list:
• oil/water mix
•     
• Kent/Surrey boundary
• italic/Roman type
•     
• 1972/73
• It should not be used as a substitute for words such as and, plus, and or.
• Try to avoid the either/or construction and such lazy (and ugly) compounds as
• The oblique stroke might be useful when taking notes, but
it should be avoided in formal writing for the sake of
elegance.
• Miscellaneous remarks on punctuation.
• Many aspects of punctuation are ultimately a matter of
personal preference and literary style.
• The general tendency in most public writing today is to
minimise the amount of punctuation used.
• There are also minor differences in practice between the
UK and the USA.
• The suggestions made above are based generally on
conventions in the UK.
• Double punctuation ["What's the matter!?"] is rarely used,
except in very informal writing such as personal letters or
diaries.
• The combination of colon-plus-dash [: — ] is never
necessary. Some people use this [it's called 'the pointer']
to indicate that a list will follow, but the colon alone should
be sufficient.
• The importance of punctuation can be illustrated by
comparing the two following letters. In both cases, the
text is the same. It's the punctuation which makes all the
difference!