Grammar rules you must know -Grammar rules every English writer must know

Grammar rules you must know -Grammar rules every English writer must know

It might certainly take errors raised to the power of umpteen before you realize English is times as hard as a rock. It goes without a doubt that for every line written by the average English writer, there is a minimum of 3-5 slip-ups and a maximum of the entire length of the train of words.

This is made possible because of the consistent presence of ignorance that has been time jumping from generation to generation, and sadly it dwells with a number of our present English scribes and curators. What, in particular, are grammar rules? And why weren’t we taught this in school?

Well, grammar rules are the body of language governing sounds, words, sentences, and other elements, as well as their combination and interpretation. The word grammar also denotes the study of these abstract features or a book presenting these rules.

In a restricted sense, the term refers only to the study of sentence and word structure (syntax and morphology), excluding vocabulary and pronunciation. With that addressed it would be only fair that I indulge you to engrain with flames the following in your mind, as an average English speaker/learner should be basic to every English composition you want to enact

• Make sure you use adjectives and adverbs correctly
• Pay attention to homophones
• Use the correct conjunction of verbs
• Connect your ideas with conjunctions
• Sentence construction
• Order for questions
• Use of the appropriate past tense of a verb

Is that clear?

As much as there is an elaborate figure of those who don’t punctuate, similarly, there are a choking number of those who act outside all laws encompassing the English language as a conceivable idea, whether abstract, constrained, or liberal. This is a bane, and as a writer, there is a bleating need to avoid such; NEVER IGNORE GRAMMAR RULES

Before reading further, try as much as possible to consent with the fact that as a writer, there must be an agreement between you and English before you can make out comprehendible contents from it, whether spoken words or pen down.

This is because there is no other universal language through which you can express yourself. Aside from poetry, but then again poetry requires you to exhaust an inexhaustible amount of knowledge while expressing yourself in ENGLISH.

So we would stride down the lane of grammar rules crafted not from apriority but rather a copious study and research that has been seamed fitted to appeal to you individually; if there is ever an instance that you are plunged into a state of misperception, endeavour to digest lines individually for clarity, understood?

1.       Use “An” before vowels and “A” before consonants:  of all things to be debunked and refuted, this should be debunked and refuted the most, a lot of accurate English executioners and adepts propose that there should always be a presence of the  “A” article before consonants and an “An” before vowels, but that is not so, even to the barest minimum, the rule instead is to use “A” before words that begin with a consonant sound and “An” with words beginning with vowel sounds. E.g.

• She needs an hour to complete all her chores- correct.
• She needs an hour to complete all her chores- wrong.

2.       Write in active voice: this is one of the foremost grammar rules you should clinch too. Whenever you select a verb, it would be very needing of you to make use of its active tense. The subject of your sentence should be acting upon the verb rather than having acted upon the verb. This is overly contrasted to the passive voice, which can be created when you couple an active verb with a past action verb, take for instance;

• We will visit them- this sentence is laid out in an active voice because the subject is acting upon the verb(visit)
• They will be visited by us- this is typed down in passive voice.

3.       Pay attention to punctuations: it’s already announced that commas should be reserved for specific places, places like;

• between two complete sentences joined by a conjunction like, “and” or “but”
• You should use commas, as it serves as one of its purposes, to pact non-essential descriptive phrases e.g.

Grunkle Smith, the one with the protruding jaw, has just moved in.

Notice that the descriptive phrases interjected in-between the already existing sentence have little to no relevance as even if it was purged out, it wouldn’t alter the message the sentence is trying to convey as opposed to;

“the uncle with the Protruding jaw has just moved in.”

• The use of apostrophes is sorely for contractions and possessions, contractions like don’t, haven’t, haven’t. When such serves a different purpose, it’s quite ascertained that there is a spaz wielding a pen. Note; this doesn’t assume possession in pronouns, so the like of “it’s” is not an indication of possession, but it is simply “it is” is that clear?

4.       Adjective vs adverb:  one of the many underlying factors of English sentences is that adjectives describe a noun or pronoun while an adverb modifies a verb, adjectives, and other adverbs. It has almost become an established ebb that the most common mistake many are susceptive to is using adjectives in place of adverbs.

For E.g. a common English writer or speaker would most likely say; “he sings good”. This is incorrect because good, being an adjective, is used to modify sing, which is a verb, similar to that most would scribe “he sings real well” which also is wrong. The “ly” of adverbs should never be expunged in the comparison form. So instead, it is most appropriate to consider this “he sings really well.” Really is modifying the adverb well- because adverbs modify other adverbs.

5.       Following rules of verbs: this is very fundamental to the construction of every sentence; the verb rules are

• Every sentence must contain an action word or  verb
• The tense of a sentence must come from the verb itself e.g.  the present tense “is moving” signposts  that an action is occurring- “the car is moving at this very instance.”  The tense “is moving” from the sentence “the car is moving at this very instance” came from the verb, “move”. Equally, the past tense “moved” proposes that some time ago, a car moved, while “will move” signifies a future action.
• a verb must be in agreement with a subject, meaning that a singular subject  such as “car” will take a singular form of verb “moves” not plural “move.”

6.       Nouns and pronouns: noun rules, the principal noun rule relays the spelling changes in plural form is

• Consonant “y” changes to consonant “ies”- baby – babies, lady – ladies, sky –skies.

The second rule discusses more on antecedents;

• the pronoun must refer to the antecedent, e.g. “Habakkuk took a bottle of water and after drinking from it, he disposed of it” “It” from the percept in all clearness refers to the antecedent “bottle”

The third rule relies more on whom vs who, it cannot be disputed that a number of people still aren’t abreast with the function of “whom” how it should be applied and where it should be applied.

Whom must be employed when referring to the object of a verb or preposition, while who is used when referring to the subject of a sentence. Does it still prove difficult to wrap around your head? In the grand scheme of understanding this, wherever “he” or “she” appears, such pronouns can be substituted with “who” and likewise, wherever “him” or “her” appears such can be replaced using whom. Here are some examples that can help you go by;

• Who would like to go on a road trip?
• Who made the article on modern-day Polynesian culture?
• To whom much is given,  much is expected
• To whom was this letter directed

It would be appropriate for you to inquire how one can determine when a pronoun is the object of a verb or preposition. Well, substitute whatever pronoun is present with “he” or “she”, “him” or “her”; if the former fits, then the pronoun isn’t the object of the verb or preposition

Who/whom took my pen?

Try substituting the above with “him/her”, “she/her” and see which of them fits.