Adapted in part from A Writer’s Reference by
Diana Hacker.
1. The –s ending
·
The –s ending
is attached to many nouns in their plural form.
·
If the noun is
singular, there is no –s ending.
o
a lot of
·
Phrases such
as a few indicate that the noun following it is going to be plural, so
more often than not, the –s ending will occur.
o
a few cookies
·
One tricky
exception to this rule is the phrase, one and a half. This phrase is always followed by the plural
form of the noun.
o
one and a half inches
·
The phrase one
of the is
always followed by the plural form of the noun.
o
one of the best friends, one of the girls.
·
Note: The –s
ending goes on the noun, not the adjective.
o
one of the others, one of the other boys
2. Articles
·
If you are
talking about a specific thing, use the.
o
the
book over there, the
·
If you are
talking about something singular that you can count, use a
or an.
o
a book
from the shelf, a tower in
·
If you are
talking about something that you cannot count or that is abstract, there is no
article, but you can use some, any, or more
o
some
advice, any water, truth, English, more traffic, love, politics
·
If you are
talking about something when you mean all or in general, there is
no article.
o
Fountains are beautiful.
o
In some parts of the world, rice is preferred to
all other grains.
·
There are
certain idioms in English that always take either the
or a/an, and others that take no article at all.
o
the
story of your life, a few, at first
o
most names of cities, states and countries do not
take articles
§
§
exceptions: The
3.
This/that/these/those
·
This and that refer to singular nouns, while these
and those refer to plural nouns.
o
this
bag, these bags
·
Use this
or these when referring to something nearby, and use that or those
when referring to something far away.
·
Hint: to
determine which one fits, try using the words here and there to
show where the item is. If you can say here,
use this or these; if you can say there, use that or
those.
o
this
book here, those books there
4. Word order
·
In English,
adjectives always come before the noun.
o
the blue suede shoes, a big cat
·
Adverbs
usually come directly after the verb.
o
she walked quickly, they talked noisily
·
When using an
adverb to modify an adjective, the adverb comes before the adjective.
o
a very large dog
o
the extremely noisy girls
·
When using
lots of adjectives, there is a specific way to arrange them in the sentence: determiner,
evaluation or opinion, physical description (size, length or
shape, age, color), nationality, religion, material, noun.
o
four nice,
big, round, young, brown, Vietnamese, Catholic, silk dogs
o
Obviously there is no such thing as a Vietnamese,
Catholic, silk dog, and you should generally avoid using this many adjectives
between a determiner and a noun, but from this you get an idea of the order in
which the adjectives you have should come.
o
Note also that when using more than one adjective
to describe something, commas come between all adjectives but NOT after the
determiner or before the noun.
·
When
determining where to place parts of a sentence after the subject
and verb, you should be able to answer who, then
what, then where, then when, then why.
o
We gave Judy a
pair of slippers at the party on Sunday because it
was her birthday.
·
Of course,
sometimes the where, when, or why, or a
combination of these, comes at the beginning of the sentence. In these cases, the rest of the sentence will
behave in the usual way.
o
At the party on Sunday, we gave Judy a
pair of slippers because it was her birthday.
o
Since it was her
birthday, we gave Judy a
pair of slippers at the party on Sunday.
·
On certain
occasions, you might come across a sentence that doesn’t easily lend itself to
these rules. In such cases, it is simply
a matter of listening to the way people talk to figure out what is right. Unfortunately, this is true in many
languages.
5. Verb forms
·
In most cases,
you can tell from the other words in the sentence which tense the verb(s)
should be in. If the other words indicate
that something took place in the past, the verb(s) should be in the past tense;
if they indicate that something is still taking place, the verb(s) should be in
the present perfect tense, etc.
o
I studied French all day yesterday.
o
I have been studying French for seven years.
o
I had been studying French for years until I
quit last year.
6. Prepositions
·
Preposition
rules are largely idiomatic, but there are some guidelines to help you decide
which one goes where.
·
It is always on
a certain day
o
on
Friday, on November 12
·
It is always in
a certain month
o
in
January, in October
·
It is always in
a certain year
o
in
1995, in the year 2000
·
It is always at
night, or at a certain time
o
at
9:15pm
·
It is always in
the morning, the afternoon, or the evening
·
Something is always
on the surface of something
o
on the
water, on the street
7. No, not
8. Interrogative words
·
Who replaces words and phrases referring to people
o
The girl
with the flowered hat wrote the
poem à Who wrote the
poem?
·
Whom always goes
with a preposition, and replaces words and phrases referring to people.
o
She gave the
flowers to John. à To whom did she give the flowers?
·
Whose replaces words and phrases referring to people
when they are possessive (the girl’s, the tall man’s)
o
The book is his. à Whose book is this?
o
The skis belong to the woman with curly hair.
à Whose skis are these?
§
Note: whose
is often confused, by ESL students and native speakers alike, with who’s. Remember that who’s is a contraction
of who and is, and does not fit where you should use whose.
·
What replaces nouns that do not refer to people, as
well as noun phrases.
o
They went to the zoo. à What did
they do?
o
The dog
was on the bed. à What was on the bed?
·
Which replaces nouns when there are more than one
involved.
o
Joe, Susie, and Laura went to the beach. à Which of your friends went to the beach?
o
The brown
cat fell out of the tree. à Which cat fell out of the tree?
·
When replaces words or phrases referring to time.
o
I went to bed at 3 o’clock. à When did you go to bed?
·
Where replaces words or phrases referring to place.
o
I put it on the table. à Where did you put it?
·
Why replaces phrases referring to reasons.
o
I didn’t do my homework because I was sick. à Why didn’t you do your homework?
·
How replaces phrases referring to methods.
o
She rode the bus to school. à How did she get to school?
9. Pronouns
·
I, you, he,
she, it, we, you, and they
all replace nouns that act as the subject in the sentence.
o
The girls gave the teacher an apple. à They gave the teacher an apple.
o
The
caterpillar is green and wriggly. à It is green and wriggly.
·
Me, you,
him, her, it, us, you, and them
all replace nouns that act as the object in the sentence.
o
My sister gave Paula the flowers. à My sister gave her the flowers.
o
Lisa distributed the papers to Luke, Maria, and
Henry. à Lisa distributed the papers to them.
·
My, your,
his, her, its, our, your, and their
all indicate possession.
o
That is my book; Its hair is
straight.
·
Mine,
yours, his, hers, its, ours, yours, and
theirs all indicate possession when no noun follows the pronoun.
o
The book is hers; Theirs are the dogs
with no hair.
10. Some, any, no,
every in compound words
·
Use some
in addition to thing, body, one, etc. to form a compound word
when you are referring to something indefinite that you know exists.
o
I don’t know
who, but someone took my stapler.
·
Use any
in addition to thing, body, one, etc. to form a compound word when you
are referring to something indefinite that you’re not sure exists, or that
you’re indifferent to.
o
Is anything
left of the cake?
o
Anybody can come to my party.
·
Use no
in addition to thing, body, one, etc. to form a compound word
when you are referring to something indefinite that you know, or you think,
does not exist, or no longer exists.
o
There is nothing
there.
o
Nobody has the same fingerprints as I do.
·
Use every
in addition to thing, body, one, etc. to form a compound word when you
are referring to all things, people, etc.
o
Everything in the house was saturated during the flood.
o
That guy seems
to know everybody in the school.