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A Grammar Cheat Sheet Just For You
by Nathalie Fairbanks
My inspiration comes from Barry Farber's book "How To Learn Any Language." I saw him at The Learning Annex in New York City in 1999--it seems like ages ago! Although I know there are more efficient ways to learn a language than what he teaches, he's living proof that you'll get there if you follow his advice. Barry can converse in 25 languages! He has a lighthearted way of presenting issues surrounding language learning and his enthusiasm is contagious!
Let's go over some of the basic grammar terms. I made up a silly little story, so we can use some of the items in there as examples. I'll keep it short!
Grandma was in the kitchen making soup when our gray cat jumped on the counter, kicked the bowl and made a big mess. She yelled at the cat, shoved it off the counter and cleaned up the floor with a paper towel.
What grammar terms can you identify in that story?
Here's something to help you out...
GRAMMAR GLOSSARY
NOUN: a person, place or thing. E.g. grandma, kitchen, soup, cat, counter, mess, etc.
PRONOUN: used instead of nouns. E.g. I, you, he, she, we, they, me, him, her, us, them, my, mine, your, yours, his, hers, its, our, ours, their, theirs.
RELATIVE PRONOUNS: who, whose, which, that - The grandma WHO was making soup chased the cat off the counter.
INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS: who, what, which. E.g. WHO jumped on the counter?
VERB: action word. to cook, to jump, to yell, to clean up, to throw away. (Because of the "to," these are all INFINITIVES, as opposed to CONJUGATED verbs, e.g. grandma cooks.)
VERB TENSE/ASPECT: Tells you that grandma cooks on a regular basis (PRESENT TENSE), will cook tomorrow/is going to cook (FUTURE), cooked last week (SIMPLE PAST), has cooked every day of her life (PRESENT PERFECT), would cook if she felt like it (CONDITIONAL), tells you to cook: "Cook the soup!" (IMPERATIVE), etc.
ADJECTIVE: qualifies a noun. E.g. grandma is SHORT, FUNNY, and INTERESTING. The cat is GRAY, FAST and MISCHIEVOUS.
ADVERB: qualifies a verb, adjective or other adverb. E.g. Grandma cooks WELL, walks CAUTIOUSLY and talks SOFTLY. Her soup tastes EXTREMELY good.
ARTICLE: "the" (DEFINITE ARTICLE) and "a/an" (INDEFINITE ARTICLE).
PREPOSITION: shows relationship of its object to the remainder of the sentence. E.g. Grandma put the soup IN the refrigerator. The cat is ON the counter. Grandma cooks AT noon, FROM Monday THROUGH Friday.
Print out this list and use it as a "cheat sheet" when you get grammar explanations in class or when you feel adventurous enough to take a dive into your grammar book!
If you want to dig more deeply into English grammar, here's a good resource for you:
Purdue University Online Writing Lab
Have fun!
© 2008 Nathalie V. Fairbanks
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