English Grammar & Usage Notes

English Language Grammar Notes

English is the most prominent language in the international arena. English is one of the 6 official languages of the United Nation. Others are French, Russian, Chinese, Spanish, and Arabic. Along with French, English is the working language of the United Nations. A significant population of the world prefers to speak English. Especially in those countries where English is not the native language, people are interested to learn this language for various purposes. Some learn this language for better job opportunities. Higher education becomes easy in the English language. Some people like Punjabis in India learn this language to pass the IELTS( International English Language Testing System) so that they can go to Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc for better job opportunities. In every competitive exam, English Grammar and English usage are common topics in almost every country including India. This is the reason why the English Language is becoming a prominent language now. In this scenario, we can understand the essence of the statement given by the first prime minister of the Indian Republic, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, as he rightly said, “English is the window Language.” That means, through the window, we can see the outside staying inside the room. Similarly, through the English Language, we can reach the outside world. So the comparison between the window and the English language seems justified nowadays.

Like every other language in the world, the English language will have also some sort of rules to follow to have expertise in this language. We call them English Grammar and English usage. To speak and write flawless English, We should have a good command of English Grammar and usage. Now come to the Grammar part and later we go to the usage part.

English Grammar

Generally speaking, English Grammar is of Five types. These are Orthography, Etymology, Syntax, Punctuation, & Prosody. But before going to them, we need to understand the most basic part of English Grammar i.e English Tenses.

There are two tenses in English and one time. These are Present tense, past tense, and future time. Now come to the most basic question i.e what is tense?

What is tense?

The answer is the change of verb is known as tense. Let’s understand it by taking an example,

‘I am going to New Delhi.’

This sentence is in the present tense because of the helping verb, ‘am’. If I change the ‘am’ to ‘was’, then the new sentence will be, ‘ I was going to New Delhi’. That means, only the change of verb from ‘am’ to ‘was’ changed the tense of the statement from the present tense to the past tense. That is why I said, tense is nothing but the change of verb only. Now another question comes to mind i.e what is a verb then?

What is a verb?

Let’s try to understand the verb. The verb is of two types i.e Helping verb or Auxillary verb & main verb. In the above statement, I am going to New Delhi, ‘am’ is a helping verb, and ‘going’ is the main verb. In going, the original verb form is ‘GO’. It has been attached with ‘ing’ according to the rules of grammar.

The main verb is of two types i.e the strong verb and the weak verb. Now the question arises, what are strong verbs and weak verbs? Before answering these questions, we should know that the main verb has three forms. These are

present form
past form
past participle form

Now take the example of the verb, ‘Go’

The present form of Go = Go

The past form of Go= went

The past participle form of Go= Gone

Now take another example of the verb i.e Work.

The present form of ‘Work’ = Work

The past form of Work = Worked

The past participle of work= Worked.

Now we can answer the question of strong verbs and weak verbs.

The verbs which don’t take ‘ed’ in their past participle form are strong verbs but which take ‘ed’ in their past participle form are weak verbs. So accordingly GO is a strong verb and WORK is a weak verb.

Now let’s discuss the Helping verb or Auxillary verb

Auxillary verbs or Helping verbs come before the main verb in the statement. In the above statement, I am going to New Delhi, the helping verb ‘am’ comes before the main verb ‘going’. But Auxillary verbs are of two types. These are

Primary Auxillary Verbs
Modal Auxillary Verbs

Again Primary Auxillary verbs are of three types. These are

Do verb
Be verb
Have verb

The significant difference between the Primary Auxillary verb and modal Auxillary verb is that

The Primary Auxillary verbs have all three forms i.e present form, past form, & past participle form but Modal Auxillary verbs have only present form and past form. They do not have past participle form.
Primary Auxillary verbs can act as the main verb in the sentence sometimes but Modal Auxillary verbs can not be used as the main verb in the sentence.

Let’s understand this point from an example.

I am a boy. In this sentence, there is a single verb i.e AM. AM is a primary Auxiliary verb. It is the main verb in the sentence also. Unlike primary Auxillary verbs, Modals can not be used as the main verb in the sentence, They always come with the main verb in the sentence. Modal Auxiliary verbs, commonly known as modals are more important as far as competitive exams are concerned. Every year, questions are asked about their usage. In other articles, we will understand them more clearly.

Now come to the primary Auxiliary verbs. As I said before, Do, Be, and Have are the primary Auxiliary verbs. These verbs have the present form, past form, & past participle form.

The present form of Do= Do, Does. Does is used in the third person singular number subject like HE, SHE, IT, etc. and in other cases, Do is used.

The past form of DO = DID

The past participle form of DO= Done.

Be is another primary Auxiliary verb.

The present form of Be= is, am, are

IS is used in the third person singular number subject like HE, SHE, IT, etc. & AM is used in the first person singular number subject like I. In other cases ARE is used.

The past form of Be= WAS, WERE.

WAS is used in the third person singular number subject and the first person singular number subjects. In other cases, WERE is used.

The Past Participle form of Be = BEEN.

HAVE is another primary Auxiliary verb.

The present form of Have= HAVE, HAS.

HAS is used in the third person Singular number subjects like HE, SHE, IT, etc. In other cases HAVE is used.

The past form of HAVE= HAD

The past participle form of HAVE= HAD

Plz comment if you like this series of English Grammar & Usage, We will proceed ahead with other articles.