English Grammar

(The Matrix)

Parts of Speech
Course: INGL. 3021/3022
Oral and Written English
Professor: Aníbal Muñoz
Preview  Interjections
 Determiners
 Definitions  Subordinators
 Nouns  Interrogatives
 Pronouns  Qualifiers
 Verbs  Sentence combinations
 Adjectives  Yes/no questions
 Adverbs  Information questions
 Prepositions  Punctuation rules
 Conjunctions  Capitalization rules
Grammar
 definition
The grammar of a language is a complex of
systems that may be analyzed and studied on
these three levels: (Noam Chomsky’s UG)
 Phonology (set of sounds/ symbols)
 Morphology (combinations of sounds that
carry single units of meaning)
3. Syntax (how single units of meaning are
combined to form words, phrases and
sentences.
 Parts of speech (Nouns)
 Nouns
2. Definition
3. Proper / common
4. Singular / plural (annex)
5. Count / non-count
/abstract (annex)
(how much –how many)
6. Collectible (group nouns)
7. Units of measurement
(Reference: Schramper Azar,
Betty,1996. Basic English Grammar)
Definition
(proper and common nouns)
 Nouns – words used to name
a person, place, thing, object,
A person
quality, idea, concept, or an
Carlos
action. a country a place
Puerto Rico Ryder
Ref. (American Heritage Dictionary, 2001)
Hospital
 Proper Nouns- special or
particular name given to Proper
common nouns to distinguish a pet Nouns a day
them from others of the same Puppy Monday
kind.
a monument
Example: common- woman many
The Statue of
others Liberty
proper Martha
 Proper and common nouns
COMMON PROPER COMMON PROPER
day Saturday associations Members Club

month October movies Titanic

mountain El Yunque planets Neptune

river The Amazon city San Juan

ocean Pacific Ocean historical periods Middle Ages

book Applied language Spanish

Linguistic
newspaper New York Times nationality Puerto Rican

religion Catholic School course English 101

brand of product Cadillac institutions University of

Puerto Rico
Nouns (singular and plural)
 Rule No. 1 (Add –s to the end of noun)
cup cups
student students

 Rule No.2 consonants before “y”

change –y to i and add –es
city -cities party- parties lady-ladies

 Rule No.3 vowels before “y”

add –s

boy –boys key –keys day -days

 Singular and plural (cont.)

 Rule No. 4 (–f and –fe endings)

change the –f or –fe to v and –es
life –lives wife –wives thief –thieves

 Rule No. 5 (sh, ch, x, ss endings) add –es

bush –bushes
match –matches
box -boxes
kiss -kisses

 Rule No. 6 (consonant + o) add –es (vowel +o) –s

tomato –tomatoes radio radios
Practice Exercises
Use the plural form to fill in the blanks. (provided list)

Baby
 They have one girl and two ______.
Boy
 I visited many _______ last year.
City
 Women give birth to _______.
Country
 She lost the _____ of the car and the house!
Lady
 _____ rides horses in Texas.
Party
 Madrid and Paris are beautiful _______.
Tray
 We must bring ______ to the English class.
Key
 Good evening _____ and gentleman.
Dictionary
 On Saturday nights, I like to go to _______.
cowboy
 People carry their food on _____ at the
cafeteria.
Pronunciation of plurals (s / es)
 Group A Final –s is pronounced /z/ after voiced sounds
(taxicabs, beds, dogs, balls, years, days, boys, trees, etc.)

 Group B Final –s is pronounced /s/ after voiceless sounds

(books, cups, groups, cats, students, desks, etc.)

 Group C Final –s, es is pronounced /ez/

after “s” sounds (classes, horses, boxes, faces)
after “z” sounds (sizes, roses, noises)
after “sh” sounds (dishes, bushes)
after “ch” sounds (matches, sandwiches)
after “ge/dge” sounds (pages, ages, bridges, edges)
Irregular plural forms (exceptions)
 Child children
 Foot feet
 Man men
 Woman women
 Mouse mice
 Tooth teeth
 Fish fish
 _____ people
(is always plural) (no s)
 Count and noncount nouns
 Common non-count nouns
 Count nouns
a book books advice, furniture, love, peace,
one book two books homework, luck information,
some books food, mail, music, traffic,
a lot of books weather, work, bread, cheese,
many books coffee, rice, sand, meat, milk,
a few books water, sugar, money, oil,

 Non-count nouns liquids materials (paper)

abstracts general
money food
some money
gases
a lot of money
much money
a little money
Oral Practice (count vs. non-count)

Chair Traffic Music Work

Furniture Cars Coffee Water

Coin Fact Library Jewelry

Money Information Peace Rings

Letters Homework Advice Justice

mail assignment job sugar

Pronouns
 Definition
 Personal pronouns
(subject-object)
 Possessive adjectives
 Possessive pronouns
 Reflexive
 Indefinite
 Interrogative
 Demonstrative
 Relative
 reciprocal
Verbs (verb tenses /conjugation)
 Definition
 Regular
 Irregular verbs
 Spelling / pronunciation
 Conjugation (annex-
practice)
 Auxiliary verbs/ modals
(annex)
 Infinitives
 Gerunds
Verbs
Regular/ Irregular/ verb tenses
Regular verbs (d or ed endings)

/d/ sound pronunciation

/t/ sound pronunciation

/ed/ pronunciation
Irregular verbs
 Three forms

 Two forms

 One form
Verb conjugation
 Simple present tense I Work

You Work

He, she, it Works

We Work

You Work

they work
Verb tenses
 Simple past I Worked

You Worked

He, she, it Worked

We Worked

You Worked

they worked
Verb tenses
 Simple future I will work
 Another way to express
the simple future You will work

He, she, it will work

I am going to work
tomorrow.
We will work
She is going to work next
week. You will work
They are going to work on
Sunday. they will work
Present progressive
I am working right now.

You are working.

He, she, it is working.

We are working.

You are working.

They are working.

Past progressive (continuous)
I was working last night.

You were working yesterday.

He, she, it was working last summer.

We were working a few hours ago.

You were working last week.

They were working last Monday.

Future progressive (continuous)
I will be working tomorrow.

You will be working this afternoon.

He, she, it will be working next weekend.

We will be working tonight.

You will be working next summer.

They will be working next semester.

Adjectives

 Definition
 Articles as adjectives
 Order of adjectives in a series (color, size, origin,
nationalities, shape, age, etc..)
 Past participles / gerunds used as adjectives
 Comparatives and superlatives comparisons (annex-
practice)
Adverbs
 Definition
 Adverbs of frequency (annex)
 Adverbs of time
 Adverbs of location (place)
 Adverbs of mode
Prepositions

 Definition
 IN, ON and AT (annex
–time and location)
 All prepositions
 Transitional
expressions (prep.
Phrases-annex)
Conjunctions
 Definition
 Correlativeconjunctions
 Coordinating conjunctions
 Subordinate conjunctions
 Conjunctive adverbs
 Other subordinators (annex)
Interjections and other words
 Definition and
examples
 Onomatopoeias
 Numerals (cardinals,
ordinals)
 Determiners
 Qualifiers
 Subordinators
 interrogatives
Capitalization Rules (annex)

Punctuation Rules (annex)

Sentence Combinations

YES/NO questions

Information questions