Basic English Structure

BASIC ENGLISH STRUCTURE

This post contains the basic information of English structure grammar including parts of speech; helping verbs, forms of be, have and do; forms of main verbs etc.

Parts of Speech

Parts of Speech are kinds of words. They are divided into eight categories based on their usage.

Noun: A noun is the name of a person, animal, thing or place.

E.g.: Ravi is pursuing MBA in HRM..

We saw a group of foreigners in the vehicle.

The crowd was very big.

Always speak the truth.

Our class consists of 20 students.

APEC has many branches in Hyderabad and abroad.

Tenali Raman was famous for his wisdom.

Cleanliness is next to Godliness.

The class is studying grammar.

Lion is called as the king of jungle.

Pronoun: A pro-noun is a word used instead of a noun. Given below are the common pronouns in English.

I	We	You	He	She	It	They
My	Our	Your	His	Her	Its	Their
Me	Us	Your	Him	Her	It	Them

Other Pronouns: This, That, These, Those etc

E.g.: They were going at a speed of 110 kmph.

Here is your book, take it away.

When I saw the child it was crying.

You began the quarrel, not me.

His sister is my colleague.

Some say he is very intelligent.

These are my best friends.

Many of them were Americans.

Did you ask anybody to come?

Somebody has stolen my watch.

Everyone knows his position.

Anybody can participate in the contest.

Adjective: An ad-ject-ive gives additional information of noun; it qualifies a noun. It answers the question how is the subject or the object.

E.g.: She is a slim, beautiful, smart girl.

The screw is loose, tighten it.

The Sun is red, the Earth is blue,

The crazy guy was shouting in the road.

Where are my new shoes?

He was absent last week.

Raju won the second prize.

Main road leads to the station.

Look at that lazy foolish fellow.

The old woman lives in a small hut.

Verb: A verb shows an action or a condition.

E.g.: Krishna was swimming in the river.

Chaitanya was not doing the work.

Fresh batch will begin from March 1st.

You must practice LSRW regularly.

We have an opening in our marketing department.

Do not use cell phones in the lab.

The results have been declared.

He tried again and again.

We will get back to you soon.

T-shirts don’t look good for a professional.

Bajaj bikes give best mileage.

She came to office rather late today.

Adverb: An ad-verb, as its name itself shows describes a verb; It answers the questions like when, how, where an action took place. In English, an adverb normally ends in –ly.

E.g.: She was walking slowly in the road.

Finally, India won the exciting match.

Try again, try again, if you don’t succeed.

We woke up very early.

You are truly a very smart gal.

I surely expect him tomorrow.

The patient is breathing rapidly.

She spoke to me nicely.

Do not walk so fast.

Are you going so immediately?

Preposition: A pre-position is placed before a noun and it shows the relationship between two nouns.

E.g.: The book is on the table.

His cousin lives on Bank Street.

Do not run in the road.

They will reach the venue at 6 O’ clock.

I can do anything for you.

The train travels from Hyderabad to Mumbai.

The trainer has been working here since 2001.

The baby is crying for an hour.

The reception will be on November 22.

They will come to India in January 2010.

Conjunction: A con-junction connects two nouns or two clauses.

E.g.: And, Or, If, But, So, Because etc

E.g.: Jyoti and Swati are Shrikant’s sisters.

Dhoni hit a boundary because it was full toss ball.

Wait here till I come back.

Walk quickly else you will miss the train.

I like him because he is honest.

You will get the prize if you work hard.

I waited till the train arrived.

Harry failed because he was idle.

Work hard otherwise you will fail.

Seeta is tall but Kamala is taller.

Cats can climb trees however dogs cannot.

You must start at once otherwise you will be late.

Interjection: An Inter-jection is a single word exclamation; it takes an exclamatory mark (!) at the end and is a complete sentence in itself.

E.g.: Alas! How poor the child is!

Pity! She is so hungry!

Bravo! Let’s do it man!

Hello! What on Earth are you doing there?

Alas! He is dead!

Hurrah! We have won the game!

Ah! Have they gone?

Hush! Don’t make noise.

Kinds of Sentences

Sentences are of four types, based on the purpose of their use. They can be positive or negative. A negative sentence contains any one word out of: no, not, nobody, no one, none, nothing, never, nowhere, neither- nor etc. In the following examples, starred (*) sentences are negative ones. Normally exclamations are not possible in negative form.

Statements: Meant to give information. They have a full stop (.) at the end.

E.g.: Barack Obama is the president of the U.S.A.

Dinosaurs existed a million years ago.

*Reliance GSM is not available in A.P.

*You have to get through I-CET for doing MBA.

Questions: Meant to ask information. They have a question mark (?) at the end.

E.g.: Where is my laptop?

Do you have 1000 Rs. change?

*Why don’t you join a good gym?

*Don’t you know the importance of practice?

Orders: Meant to tell someone to do something; they are order, and request. They have a full stop (.) at the end.

E.g.: Go straight and turn left in third lane.

Please, get me two CDs from the market.

*Never open unknown e-mails on April 1^st.

*Please, don’t tease the poor child.

Exclamations: Meant to express sudden feelings like wonder, love, happiness, joy, anger, pity, sorrow etc. They have an exclamatory mark (!) at the end.

E.g.: Wow! What a great shot!

Alas! The poor girl lost everything!

What a great victory India recorded!

How gracefully the artiste performed!

Helping Verbs

Helping verb, as the name itself shows, helps main verb to make different tenses, without changing their meaning.

E.g.:

1. Rahul came to college on bike. (Simple Present Tense)

2. Rahul was coming to college on bike. (Past Continuous Tense)

3. Rahul can come to college on bike. (Simple Present Tense)

4. Rahul should come to college on bike. (Simple Present Tense)

Be, Have, Can and Do

These are the most important words in English. The verbs like be, have and do are used both as helping verbs and as main verbs. Their forms are as follows:

Be: Be shows a state or a condition. It tells you that something / somebody is in existence. As helping verb, it is used to make Continuous Tenses.

Forms of Be
Tense	Form	Meaning in your Mother tongue	Used with
Present	Am		I
	Is		he, she, it, Singular Noun
	Are		We, you, they, Plural Noun
Past	Was		I, he, she, it, Singular Noun
	Were		we, you, they, Plural Noun
Future	Will Be		All
Perfect	Been		All
Other	Be		All

E.g.: I am an M. Sc. in computer science.

I am working in HCL since January this year.

He is really a very interesting chap.

She is cleaning the dining table.

They are all American citizens.

Cell phone was a very big thing ten years ago.

The cat was sleeping in the gallery.

Little children were ready for drill.

We were traveling to Vizag last Monday.

Tirupati will be our next destination.

The whole of India will be speaking English.

I have been to Pondichery a few times.

He can be a good English speaker by practice.

He should be a good programmer next year.

Have: Have, as helping verb is used to make perfect tenses.

Forms of Have
Tense	Form	Used with
Present	Have	I, We, You, They, Plural Noun
	Has	He, She, It, Singular Noun
Past	Had	All

E.g.: They have gone out since morning.

My cousin has left the job to go abroad.

He has spoken to me about the matter.

I had watched the movie long back.

The internet connection has broken down.

She has settled in her job in Australia.

Do: do, as helping verb is used to make questions and negative sentences, only in simple present and simple past tenses, when there in no Be or Can form in the sentence.

Forms of Do
Tense	Form	Used with
Present	Do	I, We, You, They, Plural Noun
	Does	He, She, It, Singular Noun
Past	Did	All

E.g.: I know. I don’t know. You know. Do you know? He doesn’t know anything.

She went to college. She did not go to college. Did she go to college?

Can: Can group has the words like can, could, should, would, may, might, must, have to, dare, need to etc. See Chapter no. 9 Helping Verbs for more details.

Forms of Main Verbs: Main verbs are action verbs. They need above mentioned helping verbs to make different tenses. Main verbs themselves have different forms used for different tenses as follows:

Forms of Main Verbs
Form	Code	Used with	Example
Simple Present Tense	V1	I, we, you, they, Plural Noun	Go
	Vs	he, she, it, Singular Noun	Goes
Simple Past Tense	V2	All nouns and pronouns	Went
All Perfect Tenses	V3	All nouns and pronouns	Gone
All Continuous Tenses	Ving	All nouns and pronouns	Going

Some Examples all forms of Main Verbs

V1 Vs V2 V3 Ving

Go goes went gone going

Come comes came come coming

Eat eats ate eaten eating

Do does did done doing

Get gets got got getting

Make makes made made making

Speak speaks spoke spoken speaking