Phrases

Noun phrases

The noun phrase (NP) is the main construction which can be the object, subject or complement of a clause. It must contain a noun or noun-like word (such as a pronoun) which is the main element, and which is called the head. It may contain other elements, either before or after the head. These could include predeterminers, determiners, postdeterminers, premodifiers and postmodifiers. The examples in the table below show how noun phrases can grow in length, while their structure remains fairly clear.

Noun Phrases
Noun phrase structure						Verb phrase
Predeterminer	Determiner	Postdeterminer	Premodifier	Head	Postmodifier	(not part of noun phrase)
				Buns		are for sale.
	The			buns		are for sale.
All	the		currant	buns		are for sale.
Not quite all	the		currant	buns		are for sale.
Not quite all	the		hot tasty currant	buns		are for sale.
Not quite all	the		hot tasty currant	buns	on the table	are for sale.
Not quite all	the	many	hot tasty currant	buns	on show on the table	are for sale.
Not quite all	the	very many	fine hot tasty currant	buns	which I cooked	are for sale.

Adjective phrases

These are usually formed from an intensifier, followed by the head (an adjective, shown underlined below). Examples include very happy, not too awkward, and cold enough. They may also be formed from an adjective and a verb construction, such as easy to please, loath to do it.

Adverb phrases

These are intensifying expressions formed from an intensifier (optional), followed by the head (an adverb, shown underlined below), followed by a postmodifier (optional). Examples would be: terribly slowly, very happily indeed, exceptionally carefully, completely utterly dangerously, quite often and very soon.

Prepositional phrases (adverbials/adjectivals)

These are formed from the head (a preposition, shown underlined in the examples), followed by a noun phrase. Examples of prepositional phrases are in the teapot, on the toilet, and round the bend.

• They may be called adverbials since their usual function is to qualify a verb in the same way as an adverb does. You can test this by replacing a given prepositional phrase with an adverb - for example: Fred swam in the river and Fred swam swiftly. Both of these are grammatically standard forms.
• They may also function as adjectives: the pirate with the wooden leg.

Pronoun phrases

These are restricted to a small number of constructions, and are sometimes regarded as a minor type of noun phrase. They are formed from a head (a pronoun, shown in bold below) with a pre- or postmodifier. Examples would be: Silly me! You there! she herself, we all, nearly everyone, and such relative clause types as those who knew Fred.

Verb phrases

These are quite simple syntactically, although the verb in them may contain important grammatical information, such as tense, number, active or passive voice and so on. (All of these are explained above in the section on word categories). One or more auxiliaries may precede the head (a verb participle, shown in bold below). Examples would be: has died, may have gone, might have been listening. You may be puzzled by the simplicity of these models. Don't be. In order to explain the more complex function of verbs in the predicates of sentences (what they say about their subject), we use the structural model of the clause.

source: http://babelnet.sbg.ac.at/themepark/grammar/phrases.htm

SUBJECT AND VERB AGREEMENT

How to make verbs agree with their subjects?

1. What are verbs and subjects?

Verbs are what we called action words

example:

run, do, walk, buy, shop, sing
Subjects are the person or thing who are doing the action of the verb.

example:

I walk; The horse runs; Krishna sings Korean songs; They watch Transformers.

The subject of a sentence can be singular (one) or plural (many).

example:  

The shirt is big. (singular)
The shirts are big. (plural)

2. What is verb-subject agreement?

The subject and verb must agree in number: both must be singular, or both must be plural.

example:  

The elevator (singular subject) was (verb) full.
The elevators (plural subject) were (verb) full.
In these sentences each of the verbs agrees with its subject. The correct verb form has been used.

The verb must always agree with its subject.

Single subject = single verb
Plural subject = plural verb.


3. How does this work?

In regular verbs:
                                                       Singular                            Plural
First person                           I like strawberries.         We like strawberries.
Second person                   You like strawberries.       You like strawberries.
Third person             he / she / it likes strawberries.  They like strawberries.

Rhodge likes to walk to work.(correct) 
Rhodge like to walk to work.(incorrect)
They like dancing. (correct) 
They likes dancing. (incorrect)

Note: 's' is added to the third person singular. This is the way most regular verbs in the present tense work.

Syntax

Parts of speech, or word categories, indicate what words usually do, or may be expected to do. Some of these categories - such as nouns and pronouns - make sense when we consider words in isolation. Others - such as conjunctions or prepositions - only make sense within a longer structure, a phrase, clause or sentence.


Note that these three terms are traditional, and do not easily describe how strings of language work. All are broad categories. The sentence, especially, is much more characteristic of written than of spoken English, and of formal rather than informal usage. Alternatively, we may say that spoken English contains sentence types not usually found in writing.
The internal grammar of phrases, clauses and sentences refers to the principles (sometimes mistakenly called “rules”) of structure and organization. Be aware of the tension between model structures devised for textbooks and guides for learners of the language, and the syntax of real sentences (those you have found in speech or writing), which you are subjecting to analysis.

A phrase is a useful all-purpose name for any short sequence of words (or even a single word, considered as an element in the structure of a clause or sentence), especially a grouping which could be replaced by a single word. A phrase which works like, or equates to, a noun is a noun phrase, one which qualifies a verb is an adverb phrase and so on.
A clause may be short or long, but must contain at least one main, finite verb. A short clause may in fact be identical with a verb phrase: the two terms reflect differences of emphasis or analysis in regard to the language string in question.

• If you are analysing a sentence, you will look first for clauses;
• if you wish to see how words have been combined in simple sequences, you will look for phrases.

Phrases are especially important for analysing spoken data, and some kinds of written text (such as advertisements or information leaflets) where (written) sentence forms are not considered essential.

source:http://babelnet.sbg.ac.at/themepark/grammar/syntax.htm

Prepositions

Prepositions are words or groups of words, that introduce phrases; and these phrases modify some element in a sentence. What follows a preposition is normally a noun, pronoun, or noun clause. A word that follows a preposition is its object, and, in the case of pronouns especially, this affects the form of the word.

• He walked near her (never He walked near she).
• He gave them to her and me (never He gave them to she and I or He gave them to her and I).

One of the problems in spotting prepositions in a sentence is that many of the words that are usually prepositions can also be used as adverbs.

• He never saw them before. (Here before is an adverb).
• They sat before the counter. (Here before is a preposition,and the whole prepositional phrase serves as an adverb, modifying sat). 

source:http://babelnet.sbg.ac.at/themepark/grammar/preposition.htm

Conjunction

Conjunctions are joining words: they connect words, phrases, or entire clauses. There are two general kinds of conjunctive words: coordinate and subordinate.
Coordinate conjunctions join elements that are grammatically the same: two or more words, two equivalent phrases, or two equivalent clauses. The most common coordinate conjunctions are: and, but, or, for, nor, so, yet.

• Red and white (two equal words joined in a phrase).
• Taking walks and looking at nature (two equal phrases in a relative clause).
• She ran to the corner, but she missed the bus (two equal clauses in a complete sentence).

A correlative conjunction is a special kind of coordinate conjunction. It connects equivalent elements, but it works in pairs of words: both, and; either, or; neither, nor; whether, or; not only, but also.

• He wants both money and power.
• Neither money nor power matters.
• Either she will go, or she will stay. 

Subordinate conjunctions. While coordinate conjunctions connect equal grammatical elements, subordinate conjunctions introduce dependent or conditional clauses.

• Although she has money, she buys few luxuries.
• Because he was late, he missed the train.
• After the movie is over, we shall have dinner.

Other word uses. Words that normally operate as conjunctions can often be used in other ways: as adverbs, prepositions, adjectives, or even pronouns.

• We have met before. (Here before is an adverb).
• Before they leave, let us have dinner. (Here before is a conjunction).

There are other words besides conjunctions that serve as connectors (or connectives) in sentences. The relative pronouns who and which are often so used.

• That is the man who was speaking to her.
• The dessert is strawberries, which give him a rash.

Some of the conjunctions work both as adverbs and conjunctions in the same sentence. This is often true of consequently, however, therefore, and nevertheless.

• He was ill; nevertheless he went to work.
• She disliked work; consequently she lost her job.

Note the semi-colon [ ; ]. This is standard here but is non-standard before but or and. (This appears to be changing, as speakers and writers treat words like nevertheless as conjunctions.)
It is possible to make clauses with conjunctions into separate sentences, especially when writing for literary effect.

• He did it. And he was glad.
• Stay away from here. Unless you want trouble.

In the second case the clause is so obviously dependent that it would not stand alone as a sentence and make sense. It can only be written that way for emphasis or some other effect.

source:http://babelnet.sbg.ac.at/themepark/grammar/conjunction.htm

Adverbs and adjectives

Adjectives and adverbs are descriptive words, sometimes called modifiers because they restrict meaning. They add detail to statements. The difference between the two is that

• adjectives modify only nouns, pronouns, and verb forms used as nouns;
• adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.

Adjective function: An adjective may be a single word: blue, tall, funny, warm. As a single word, it may come before the noun - the blue sky - or after the verb - the sky is blue. Adjectives may be positive (tall), comparative (taller) or superlative (tallest). Adjective phrases usually follow the noun they describe: the girl with blond hair. The phrase with blond hair describes girl. Adjective clauses also usually follow the noun: The child who finds the most Easter eggs wins. The clause who finds the most Easter eggs modifies child.
Adverb function: The most common use of an adverb, of course, is to describe verbs: He ran quickly. Actually, however, adverbs can modify anything but nouns (or verb forms used as nouns). Typically adverbs express:

• time (now, then)
• manner (happily, easily)
• degree (less, more, very)
• direction and place (there, up, down)
• affirmation or negation (certainly, not)
• cause and result (thus, consequently), and
• qualification or doubt (however, probably).

Although many adverbs are formed by adding -ly to adjectives (quick, quickly; happy, happily), adverbs have no characteristic form. They must be identified by the function they perform in a sentence. In the sentence That is a fast car, fast is an adjective. But in He ran fast, it is an adverb.
Certain adverbs (how, when, where, why, whenever, and wherever) are called relative adverbs because they introduce relative clauses in a sentence: The keys are upstairs where you left them. The clause where you left them modifies the adverb upstairs.
Other adverbs are called conjunctive adverbs because they join one clause with another. Some of these adverbs are: therefore, accordingly, besides, furthermore, instead, meanwhile, and nevertheless. In the sentence He was tired; therefore he stayed home, the word therefore modifies the clause of which it is a part and connects that clause to the previous part of the sentence. Note that therefore is not to be used as a conjunction, hence the semi-colon.

source:http://babelnet.sbg.ac.at/themepark/grammar/qualifier.htm

Verbs

Verbs are the action words in a statement. They tell what is happening - what a noun is doing or what is being done to it, or the state of being, becoming, thinking or feeling. A verb with a subject, which will be in a particular tense is a finite verb. Without a subject it will be the infinitive form (for example, to think, to dream) or a gerund (the present participle, used as a noun: smoking is bad for you).
When a verb denotes what a noun is doing, the noun is said to be the subject of the verb: The man speaks. (Here man is the subject of the verb.) When the verb denotes what is being done to a noun, the noun is the object of the verb: The man eats jelly. Here the noun jelly is the direct object of the verb. Verbs can also take indirect objects: Parents give children toys. In this sentence, toys is the direct object, (what is given) and children is the indirect object. The parents do not give children; they give toys.


Verbs that take objects are called transitive verbs, and those that normally do not take an object are intransitive verbs (but note that an intransitive verb may be used transitively in non-standard speech or writing). Some common transitive verbs are: tell, give, show, eat, buy, take, and see. Some verbs can be both transitive and intransitive: Tell a story (transitive), and Time will tell (intransitive). Verbs like sleep, walk, rest, come, and go are nearly always intransitive. The most common verb of all, to be, is intransitive in all of its forms: am, are, is, was, were, and been.





Tenses (time signals): Verb tenses tell the time when an action takes place. Any action or condition may be in the past, present, or future: he was, he is, he will be. Most common verbs simply add an -ed to show the past time, or form the past tense, as it is normally called. Thus walk becomes walked. Other verbs, sometimes called irregular (or strong) verbs, do not add -ed. Instead they undergo an internal change: sing, sang, sung; fly, flew, flown; go, went, gone.
Auxiliary verbs: In the sentence She will sing even though he cannot stay, the verbs will and cannot are called auxiliary, or helper, verbs. Other auxiliary verbs are the incomplete or modal verbs: can, could, may, might, shall, should, and would.
The various forms of the verb to be can also be used as auxiliaries: I am going. He was singing. They have been shopping. The verb have - and its other forms has and had - are also common auxiliaries to indicate past action.
Participles: The verb form used with auxiliaries is the participle. There is a present participle, talking, and a past participle, talked. Thus, a person can say either I talk (present tense) or I am talking (present continuous) to show present action and I talked (imperfect), I have talked (perfect), or I had talked (pluperfect) to show past action. When a present participle is used with an auxiliary verb, the purpose is to show continuing or ongoing action. She is doing the laundry. He was speaking when someone interrupted him. Note that this uses a present participle with a past tense auxiliary verb (was) to indicate continuous past action.





Verb flexibility: Verbs and verb forms can be used in a number of ways in sentences. A verb can be the subject of a statement (To walk is good exercise) or its object (I like to walk). In each case, the infinitive form to walk is used as a noun. Participles can be used in the same way: He likes swimming. Flying is great sport. In the first sentence, swimming is the object of the verb, and in the second, flying is the subject.
Verb forms can also be used as adjectives, or words that describe nouns. In a wrecked car, the word wrecked is a past participle used as an adjective.
Occasionally a verb form or verb phrase can be used as an adverb: He was pleased to meet her. The phrase to meet her modifies the adjective pleased.

source: http://babelnet.sbg.ac.at/themepark/grammar/verbs.htm