Study English Grammar » singular

When to Use A, An Or The?

Study English Grammar — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 08:15:25 +0000

English grammar is easy and you can easily form a correct sentence if you know the basic differences on what are they, how are they used and when are they used. Truly speaking, grammatically correct sentences sound more thoughtful than incorrect sentences.

What is article?

Articles are adjectives which are generally used to describe a noun. There are mainly two types of articles in English language. One is ‘the’ the other ‘a/an’

What is ‘The’ in English grammar?

In English grammar ‘The’ is called the definitive article. It is generally used to refer to a particular noun.

What is ‘A/An’ in English grammar?

In English grammar ‘A/An’ is called the in-definite article. In order to specify a non-specific and non-particular noun we generally use the term.

Lets know about the basic difference between the use of definite article ‘The’ and indefinite article ‘A/An’. Then we can understand what we mean by definite article and indefinite article.

Example

The Perfect Use of Collective Nouns

Study English Grammar — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 19:03:21 +0000

It is sure you like to speak in English, write in English and even dream in English. But you probably do not know if you don’t grasp English grammar you are sure to flop. English grammar is such a thing that is not hard, very flexible and though often scary is of great interest if the simple rules are assimilated quite well. What you need first is not to continue reading the ‘heavy weight’ English grammar day and night. You only have to follow some simple rules with great care and you are sure to hit the bull.

I think you may have been aware of the use of noun. It is one of the parts of the parts of speech. Without the use of noun, we can not name our ideas and dear ones or anything under the sun.. Collective nouns of which I am going to offer you a bit idea are nouns and if they are not used properly with much care may be confusing. You have to take care if the verbs are singular or plural and the particular collocation to suit the nouns perfectly.

Actually collective nouns hint at the group of things or people such as team, family, army, committee, group etc. Actually collective nouns can easily be used as ... Read more...

Nouns & Pronouns

Study English Grammar — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:29:13 +0000

Nouns:

Noun is nothing but a word or a group of words used as the name of a class of people (E.g. Teacher, Englishman, Sarah), places (E.g. Park, library, India), things (E.g. Cup, book, milk) of a specific person, place or thing. A noun can either be singular (i.e.) a pen or plural (i.e.) two pens.

Classification of nouns:

Noun can be classified into common nouns and proper nouns, countable and uncountable nouns, collective nouns and concrete and abstract nouns.

Common and Proper nouns:

Common nouns are those which denote a class of entities like city, person and planet as against Proper nouns which denotes unique entities like India, John, and Jupiter. Common nouns are generic and proper nouns are more specific.

Countable and uncountable nouns:

Countable nouns are those which can take a plural word and can combine with quantifiers and numerals for example, one, four, every, most and several. A countable noun can take an indefinite article (a or an). Examples for countable nouns are nose, occasion and chair. Uncountable nouns are also called as mas... Read more...

The Top 5 English Writing Tips

Study English Grammar — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:53:32 +0000

There are numerous things that can go wrong when you are writing, ranging from the isolated word that is spelt incorrectly to an entire sentence that fails ;o make sense. Some of the most common problems, however, are problems usage, of being unclear about, for example, the difference between flaunt and flout, or whether hanged or hung is correct. Writing is all about paying attention to detail, which means making sure that you always get the right words in the right order. But if you do not know the conventions if usage, you are almost bound to come unstuck. We have, therefore, listed below, in alphabetical order, a Top 30 of the niggling little queries about usage.

1. Agree to, agree with

Agree to means that you accept what someone proposes (although you might, of course, agree to differ). Agree with means that one person or thing is in accord with another: agree to that suggestion-, I agree with you about the need for more trees.

2. All right

All right is two words, and means that everything is correct: The spellings were all right Alright is used to mean ‘well’, ‘unhurt’: The s... Read more...

Past Progressive (Past Continuous)

Study English Grammar — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:32:50 +0000

The past progressive tense baffles just about everyone attempting to learn the English language. The form is as follows: the verb “to be,” whether it’s plural, singular, first, second, or third person will use either one of the following two words: “was” or “were, ” plus the “infinitive” the verb ending in “ing.” Here’s a simple example of the past progressive at work: “I was tossing a Frisbee, or you were tossing a Frisbee.” Or, “They were tossing a Frisbee,” and he or she was tossing a Frisbee.

The past progressive describes the past and the ongoing action that occurred within that past. Typically, most students stumble over the past progressive, not the basic past tense. In regard to past tense, which also expresses action (typically words ending in “ed”), and a state of being in the past, the past tense does not refer to the ongoing actions in the past like the past progressive tense; therefore, novices should learn the simple past tense first, then they can take on the more difficult tenses. Moreover, the past tens... Read more...

Grammar – The Possessive and Plural Nouns and Proper Names

Study English Grammar — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 04:49:25 +0000

The difficulty over the apostrophe starts when we move on to plural nouns. The problem arises from thinking that the apostrophe has something to do with making words plural. It does not. To repeat the point we made earlier: adding’s has nothing to do with making words plural.

We usually make nouns plural by adding s; so, for example, cat becomes cats; student becomes students. There are, though, some words which make their plurals differently: the plural of child is children; leaf becomes leaves; kiss becomes kisses; mouse becomes mice. Most nouns, however, form plurals simply by adding s to the singular.

Where students usually get in a muddle – if this applies to you, read slowly at this point – is with the apostrophe when there is a plural noun. There is, though, no need for confusion. The basic rule is that you adds to form a possessive. Thus:

The children’s party had to be cancelled.

This means that the party of the children had to be cancelled: the plural noun is children. With this example we can compare the following, all adding’s: George’s essay, France’s... Read more...