Grammar Principles Flashcards
Complement versus compliment
Complement something, complete it; a compliment
Discreet v. discrete
Discreet - cautious, careful, guarded; discrete - separate, disconnected
Everyday v. every day
Everyday routine; every (single) day
Faze v. phase
Fazed him; phase of the moon
Forego v. forgo
“Foregone” conclusion, has gone before; do without something
Personal pronouns
Represent people or things: I, me, you, he, him, she, her, it, we, us, they, them
Possessive pronouns
Show ownership: mine, yours, hers, his, theirs, ours
Demonstrative pronouns
Demonstrate or point out someone or something: this, that, those, these
Relative pronouns
Relate one part of the sentence to another: who, whom, which, that, whose
Reflexive pronouns (or “intensive”)
Reflect back to someone or something else in the sentence: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves
Interrogative pronouns
Interrogate: who, whom, which, whose, what
Indefinite pronouns
Refer to a (sometimes definite, contrary to name) person, place, or thing that has already been mentioned in the sentence. Indefinite pronouns include all, another, any, anybody, anyone, anything, both, each, either, everybody, everyone, everything, few, many, most, much, neither, no one, nobody, none, nothing, one, other, others, several, some, somebody, someone, and something
Articles
A special category of adjectives: a, an, & the
Indefinite articles
An & a
Definite article
The
Determiners
A special category of adjectives: make specific sense of a noun; help determine to which particular units the nouns are referring: the country, those apples, seven pencils
Linking verbs
Certain verbs which can act as normal action verbs act as linking verbs if you can substitute a form of “to be” and the sentence still makes sense: appear, feel, look, remain, smell, stay, become, grow, prove, seem, sound, taste
Auxiliary (or helping) verbs
Can join main verb (becomes its helper) to express the tense, mood, and voice of the verb. Common helping verbs: be, do, have, can, may, etc.
The principal parts of verbs
Refers to basic forms verbs can take. In English there are four principal parts: the present infinitive, the past tense, the past participle, and the present participle.
Present infinitive form versus present participle form of the words: turn, scratch, hammer, bring, broadcast, rise
turn v. turning, scratch v. scratching, hammer v. hammering, bring v. bringing, broadcast v. broadcasting, rise v. rising. (Note: the last three are irregular verbs)
Past tense form versus past participle form of the words: turn, scratch, hammer, bring, broadcast, rise
turned v. turned, scratched v. scratched, hammered v. hammered, brought v. brought, broadcast v. broadcast, rose v. risen (Note: the last three are irregular verbs)
