Writing well (for the rest of us): No Grammar. No Rules. Just Common Sense. (2 page)

The following is very basic information. But even though it
may be taught in school, it’s not well understood by many. So here is a quick
look at the basic parts of grammar.

You can skip it if you know your grammar well.
You can also skip it if you just don’t care to read it.

Words are like Lego blocks of the language
Words are incredibly cool. The English language is like a giant Lego® set,
where you get to choose what parts you want to use to create the effect you
want.

Let’s imagine we are back in time, when cavemen were trying
to communicate. For example, they wanted to tell each other about someone (
Caveman
John
), what he did (
hit
), and to what or whom his action was
directed (
lion
).

The caveman hit
the lion.

That is a complete, grammatically perfect sentence.

But it’s boring, so the cavemen added a bit more. They added
a word to show where the lion was hit (
on
), and added more about where
the action was directed (
head
).

The caveman hit
the lion on the head.

And now that is a perfect sentence, with more added to it.

What if the caveman said this, instead?

On lion caveman
head hit on.

It wouldn’t make much sense, would it?

Who said grammar should be confusing? It’s not. You use
grammar right now, without even thinking about it.

Confusions
Words can sound alike but have different meanings.
This can make the language confusing. For example, “they’re” sounds like “there.”
These confusions are a source of a lot of mistakes.

Words can also be used together to mean something completely
different than what you would expect. For example, “give it a shot” means to
“try.” These are called
idioms
 and are a source of vast confusion for
people, especially foreigners.

How
words are used is called the
parts of speech
. A word can change from one part of speech to another just by the way it’s used
in the sentence. For example, in “you
run
to the store” and “he had a
good
run
.” “run” is being used in two different ways, even though it’s
the same word.

So, now let’s look at the parts of speech.

Words are used to name things. These are called nouns
“Noun” comes from a Latin word meaning “name.” Nouns name people, places or
things.

fish, house,
man, New York.

If you’re naming something specific, you capitalize it.

Tom, Paris,
Germany

If it’s not specific, you do
not
capitalize it:

man, city,
country

(Incorrectly capitalizing nouns is a common and very ugly
error.)

Nouns can name one thing (singular) or name many things
(plural).

boy
(singular),
boys
(plural)

Words can take the place of nouns
.
These are pronouns
Pronoun comes a Latin word meaning “in place of a noun.”

Pronouns take the place of a noun (words like
I, he, him,
her, they,
or
that
).

You know all the pronouns. You use them all the time. It’s
the word taking the place of a noun in a sentence.

If you didn’t have pronouns, writing would look awkward:

Alex likes cars
that Alex can drive fast.

instead of

Alex likes cars
that
he
can drive fast.

Different pronouns are used in different situations. Not
understanding the pronoun and its different uses is the cause of most major
grammar errors. I’ll get into that a bit later.

Words can show action or existence. These are verbs
Verb comes from a Latin word meaning “to speak.” Verbs show action.

swim, love, run

Verbs can also show how something or someone is
existing
.
These are called
be
verbs because they are all different forms of the
word
be
(
be,
is, were, am, are, was
).

“Hey, how
are
you?”
“I
am
okay.”
“Oh good, I was worried that you
were
not okay.”

Verbs can be used to show that something is happening in the
past or present. This is called
tense
, from a Latin word
meaning “time.”

He
runs
(present).
He
ran
(past).

To show the future, you add another verb that shows
something will happen in the future. Joining two words together creates a
compound
,
which means two or more things combined. So we call it a
compound verb
:

He
will run
(future).
I
am going
to be a rock star (future).

The way a verb changes when it is used in different ways is called
conjugation
.

Words can give more information. These are adjectives and
adverbs
In grammar, “modify” means to give more information about something. Adjectives
and adverbs are
modifiers –
words such as “beautiful.” “ugly.” “fast” or
“faster.”  used to give more information about another word.

An
adjective
modifies a noun. An
adverb
 modifies a verb or another adjective, and often ends with “ly.”

Beautiful
woman (adjective).
Really
beautiful woman (adverb).
She runs
fast
(adverb).

Adjective comes from a Latin word meaning “added to a noun”;
adverb comes from a Latin word meaning “added to a verb.”

Simple.
Prepositions
 show relationships
Prepositions are often misunderstood, but they are
very
simple.

Prepositions show relationship between other words in the
sentence. By “relationship” is meant how other words in the sentence are
connected to each other.

Is the cup
under
the table,
over
the table, or
beside
the table?

Do you see the idea of relationship there? The cup is
related
(connected) to the table by being
under
it,
over
it, or
beside
it.

Preposition means “positioned before” because often (but not
always), they are placed before the word to which they are showing the
relationship.

Words like
on, over, under, beside, above,
and
with
are all prepositions.

 (Yes, it really is that simple.)

Conjunctions
 join
Conjunction comes from a Latin word meaning “joining together.”

Conjunctions join words or groups of words.

If we didn’t have conjunctions, writing would look very
awkward.

Bill Tom went to the mall.
Tom went to the mall bought an Xbox.
Heather liked the boat not the car.

Here are the same sentences, with conjunctions:

Bill
and
Tom went to the mall.
Tom went to the mall
and
bought an Xbox.
Heather liked the boat,
but
not the car.

There are different types of conjunctions, such as:
and,
also, either, or, neither, though, yet, but, however, for, that, because,
since, therefore, then, if,
and
unless.

Articles
The word
article
sounds like something incredibly complicated. But
articles are really easy.

Articles
 are used to communicate whether you’re
referring to a
specific
thing or a
general
thing.

If it’s a specific thing, it’s called a
definite article
. If it’s not specific, it’s an
indefinite article
.

A
boy (indefinite article).
An
astronaut (indefinite article).
The
boy (definite article).

There are only three articles in the entire language:
a
,
an
, or
the
.

An
is generally used before words starting with
a,
e, i, o
and
u
.
A
is used before words starting with every
other letter.

Interjection
The final part of speech is the
interjection
, which comes from a Latin
word meaning “placed between.”  It’s a word (or words) placed in your writing
to show emotion. An exclamation mark often follows an interjection, but not
always.

Ouch!
That hurt!
Whoa!
Where did you get that hat?
Oh no.
I forgot my homework.

So, the parts of speech are:

·
        
Noun

·
        
Pronoun

·
        
Verb

·
        
Adjective

·
        
Adverb

·
        
Preposition

·
        
Conjunction

·
        
Article

·
        
Interjection

And that’s all you have to know for now about the parts of
speech.

Possession
In grammar, there is the idea of “possession” (ownership), and it’s often
misunderstood and leads to major mistakes.

Possession can be actual possession, or the
idea
of
possession.

Bob’s
car

Bob owns –
possesses
– the car.

The
house’s
lights were bright.

The house has lights, but it’s more like the
idea
of
possession.

Some more examples:

His
bicycle.
Her
car.
Their
house.

There are two ways to show possession: using a pronoun that
shows possession (such as
his
,
her
,
their
,
your, its
);
or by using an apostrophe (‘). I will explain apostrophes later in this book.

Not understanding possession is the cause of
many
embarrassing writing mistakes.

Right now, I just want you to get the idea of possession.
Later, I’ll discuss in more detail how to avoid these mistakes.

The subject
: who or what is “verbing”
The
subject
is who or what is doing the action in a sentence. This
is a very, very simple concept.

Keep it simple.

Bill
went
to the mall.

Bill is the subject.
Went
is the verb.

Since verbs can also show state of existence (the
be
verbs), you can also have a subject look like this:

Bill
is
happy.

Bill is the subject. The verb?
is
.

More examples:

He
had a great time.
She
had a better time.
They
had a fantastic time.

He
,
she
and
they
are all
subjects
in these sentences.

Not understanding what a subject is
also causes people to make mistakes. More on that later.

What is d
oing
the action and what is
getting
the action
This section might be a bit difficult for some. If you can’t get it, don’t
worry, as I will give you simple rules later to avoid mistakes. However, it’s
worth understanding, so try to follow along with me.

When a noun or pronoun does the action, it’s called the
subject
. When it’s
receiving
action, it’s called the
object
.

              Bill hit
Tom
.

Tom is receiving the action of being hit by Bill. Tom is the
object (poor Tom).

Now, certain pronouns are used when
receiving
action
(
her, him, it, me, them, us,
and
you
). These are called
object
 pronouns
.

Certain pronouns are used when
doing
action (
he,
I, it, she, they, we,
and
you).
These are called
subject
 pronouns
.

Not understanding this fact will cause you to make silly mistakes.
However, you don’t have to learn complicated grammar rules
to figure this out. It’s common sense.

Look at this sentence:

              Bill hit
he.

That looks totally wrong, doesn’t it? You’re using the wrong
pronoun. Instead, it should be:

              Bill hit
him
.

Another mistake:

              John loves
I
.

“I” is used for subjects, like “I love John.” It is never
used as an object.

To make the sentence correct, you would use an object pronoun:

              John loves
me
.

Other examples:
              Bill loved
her.
              Bill hated
them
.

Not understanding where the action is directed explains why
people make this common mistake:

She and
him
went to the mall.

The wrong pronoun,
him,
is being used. She and this
guy, together, are actually the subject, simply joined by a conjunction.

Him
is only used for showing who is
receiving
an action.

It should be:

              She and
he
went to the mall.

If you understand the idea of the “object”
in grammar, you will avoid many mistakes.

But again, if you don’t care or can’t understand this
concept, I have some tricks later on that will help you.

This is a basic overview of grammar and
will give you a foundation on which to build more knowledge in your own time.
It is not complete, but to add more would make this book overly complicated.

Then, no one would read the book, or use the information in
it.