Grammar Quiz Flashcards
Morphology/Morpheme
The study of the form and structure of words.
The smallest meaningful unit of a word.
Ex: En-able-d
En= intensify
able as root
d= preterite or past participle
Syntax
The order that words occur in.
Subject, Verb, Object: I hate people
SOV: Your mom a child shall have!
VSO: Destroyed London their relationship
OSV: This London yells: …
Verb Second Rule in Old English: Sadly, need I go.
Define noun
Words for persons, places, and things.
From the Latin word “nomen,” meaning name.
Explain the cases for nouns
The relationship a noun has to other words in the sentence.
(Many languages, including Indo-European languages, use “case systems” to “inflect” or “decline” the noun, which alters the morphology of the noun if it is not the subject. “Inflected” languages include “declensions.”)
List the noun cases with examples
Subject (nominative): HORSES provided an important service for their humans.
Direct Object (accusative): Horses provided an important SERVICE for their humans.
Indirect Object (dative, instrumental): Horses provided an important service for their HUMANS.
Possessive (genitive): A RIDER’S most critical tool then was a horse.
Gender (for nouns and adjectives)
The three classes in a noun and adjective that indicate whether they are masculine, feminine, or neuter. This is only a “class/type,” not natural gender.
Number
The expression of one or many countable nouns.
Singular: one
Plural: many (countable)
Uncountable nouns: Neither plural or singular, instead, they are amorphous.
Ex: I need more airS. (Incorrect)
I need more air. (correct)
Noun Phrase/Clause
As subject: KILLING A MAN is uncontrollable to serial killers.
As object: The killer has NO STRENGTH TO KILL HIS SECOND VICTIM.
Define Pronouns
Short cuts for nouns, used in place of the noun.
Person for pronouns
First: I, We, Me
Second: You
Third: She, Him, They
Cases for Pronouns
Subject (nominative): I, You (Thou (2nd person, familiar)), He/She/They, singular. We, You, They, plural.
Direct Object (accusative): Me, You (Thee), Him/Her/Them/It, singular. Us, You, Them, plural.
Indirect Object (dative): Me, You (Thee), Him/Her/It/Them, singular. Us, You, Them, plural.
Possessive (genitive): My, Your (Thy), His/Her/Its, singular. Our, Your, Their, plural.
Relative v. Interrogative Pronouns
Relative: Who, What as object??
Interrogative: Who, What as subject??
Types of determiners
Definite Article: The
Indefinite Article: A
Demonstrative Article: That/This, singular; Those/These, plural.
Demonstrative Pronoun: That/This, singular; Those/These, plural.
Infinitive Verb
With “to” before, unconjugated
The bare infinitive is the same tense and case without the “to”
Gerund Verb
Verb that leads the sentence, perhaps as the subject.
Ex: Complaining would feel awesome right now.
An finite can be a gerund, as in: To complain would feel awesome right now.
Participle, and two types
A verb form that functions adjectively or in a progressive or perfect aspect.
Progressive Participle: The ghost IS HAUNTING me; the HAUNTING ghost
Past Participle: The tree HAS FALL; the FALLEN tree
Verb Regularity
Regular (weak in Germanic): (to) bake, infinitive; bakes, present; bakED, preterite; bakED, past participle.
Irregular (strong in Germanic): (to) eat, infinitive; eats, present; ate, preterite; eaten, past participle.
The irregular variant changes the vowel, the regular just adds -ed/-d, called the Dental Ending.
Verb Tense
The form a verb takes to express the time at which the action occurs.
Present: I eat
Preterite: I ate
Future: I will eat
Conversation fairly exclusively uses the present progressive: I am eating.
The simple present, though, is used to express the habitual: We eat pizza on Sundays.
Verbs of being, perception, and. equation are the exceptions.
Transitivity
The ability of a verb to take a direct object or not.
Transitive: The horse pawed THE GROUND.
Intransitive: London slept ON THE BED.
An intransitive verb needs a prepositional phrase, thus can only take an indirect object.
Some are bi-transitive: I give him the book; I give the book to him.
Verb Aspect
Forms of the verb that convey more nuanced temporality.
Progressive (continuative), action that takes an unspecified amount of time: I am eating.
Perfect (pluperfect), action that has come to an end at a specified time: I’ve eaten already.
Verb Mood
The three classes of verb indicating modality of action.
Indicative, used to identify a simple tense: Y’all arrived.
Subjunctive, express possibility, potential, or contingent action: If I WERE a rich man.
Imperative, issues a command to act: Get a room!
Interrogative, expresses a question: When WILL you ARRIVE? DID you EAT your pizza? He LEFT?
Verb Voice
Active: I STOLE the letter.
Passive: The letter WAS STOLEN.
In passive voice, the subject is the object, the agent is missing.
Auxiliary Verbs
Verb that help create tense, aspect, mood, or the interrogative.
Have
Be
Do
Ex: DID you find Tommy?
Modal Verbs
Auxiliary Verbs that intention, ability, or possibility.
They utilize the Bare Infinitive.
Ex: I WILL go.
