BASIC GRAMMAR

and ACADEMIC
WRITING

GENERAL ENGLISH
 IDIOMS
PARTICULAR COMBINATION OF WORDS HAVING ITS OWN MEANING OFTEN
UNPREDICTABLE FROM THE INDIVIDUAL MEANINGS OF ITS COMPONENTS
PHRASAL VERB
• Abide by
• Adhere to
• Brag about
• Differ from
• Embark on
• Give back
• Make off
• Pick up
VERB with REFLEXIVE

•Absent oneself
•Avail oneself
•Brace oneself
•Enjoy oneself
•Hurt oneself
 VERB-NOUN

•Catch a cold
•Commit an error
•Hit a note
•Make faces
•See/ watch a movie
PREPOSITION-NOUN
• At bay
• At this point
• At work
• In love
• In order
• In tune
• Off limits
• In good terms
PHRASAL ADJECTIVE
• Abreast of
• Addicted to
• Ashamed of
• Beholden to
• Envious of
• Familiar with
• Fond of
PREPOSITION-NOUN-PREPOSITION

•In behalf of
•In compliance with
•With regard to
•In spite of
•On charge of
PHRASAL ADVERB OF TIME

• At daytime
• In the morning
• In May
• This week
• Week after next
• Next weekend
 EXPRESSIONS

•Birds of feather flock

together
•It remains to be seen
•Sight unseen
•Swan song
 PREPOSITIONS

Express relationships between

parts of speech
 EXAMPLES
• The book on the table is not mine.
• We commute from Manila to
Batangas every day.
• This essay is full of slang.
CLASSIFICATIONS ACCORDING TO MEANING

LOCATION
ABOARD, ACROSS, AFTER, ALONG, AROUND,
BEFORE, BEHIND, BETWEEN, BY, DOWN, NEXT
TO, OPPOSITE

DIRECTION
ACROSS, AGAINST, AROUND, BEYOND, BEHIND,
DOWN, INSIDE, INTO, OFF, ONTO, OUT,
THROUGH, TO, TOWARD(S), UP
CLASSIFICATIONS ACCORDING TO MEANING

TIME
ABOUT, AFTER, AROUND, AS OF, BEFORE,
DURING, PRIOR TO, SINCE, TILL, TIMES, UNTIL

PROCESS
BY MEANS OF, THROUGH, VIA
CLASSIFICATIONS ACCORDING TO MEANING

APPROXIMATION
ABOUT, AROUND

ATTRIBUTION
ACCORDING TO
CLASSIFICATIONS ACCORDING TO MEANING

RELATION
ALONG WITH, APART FROM,
BECAUSE OF,
BESIDES, BUT, BY,
CONSIDERING, DUE TO,
EXCEPT, INCLUDING, LIKE
 ADVERBS
1. Manner- well, automatically, with care
2. Frequency- never, sometime, occasionally,
seldom, often, daily, always, every
3. Place- here, there, inside, outside, near, nearby
4. Time- now, later, tomorrow, earlier, yesterday,
as soon as possible
5. Degree- immensely, completely, partly, mainly,
rather, fairly, too, so
 ADVERBS
6. Interrogative- when, where, how, why, on
what date, in what place, for what reason
7. Affirmation- certainly, surely, assuredly,
by all means
8. Doubt- perhaps, probably, may be, in all
probability
9. Approximation- about, approximately,
sometime
10. Negation- not, by no means
 CAPITALS
14 THINGS TO
REMEMBER
 CAPITALIZE THE FIRST
WORD OF A SENTENCE,
INCLUDING
QOUTED SENTENCES

Linguistics is not as esoteric as you

think. He said, “Music is food for
the soul.”
CAPITALIZE PROPER
NOUNS

Michael Mayo, Isaiah, Zeus.

 CAPITALIZE
GEOGRAPHIC
and
POLITICAL AREAS

…the Cordilleras, Pinatubo.

 COMPASS POINTS as
REFERENCES TO
REGIONS are CAPITALIZED but
NOT REFERENCES
to
DIRECTIONS

The wild West is not a Hollywood

creation.
Go west, young man.
BUILDINGS, BRIDGES,
and other
INFRASTRUCTURES
Folk Arts Theater
Marcos Highway
 ORGANIZATIONS,
BUREAUCRACIES, and
other SOCIAL
INSTITUTIONS
Bureau of Fisheries
Rotary Club of Manila
HISTORICAL PERIODS,
EVENTS,
and
DOCUMENTS
Philippine-American Revolution
Magna Carta for Public School
Teachers
DAYS OF THE WEEK,
MONTHS, HOLIDAYS

National Heroes Day

HEAVENLY BODIES

Andromeda, Milky Way, Venus

COMMERCIAL
PRODUCTS
Coca-cola
Jollibee
LANGUAGE COURSES
and SPECIFIC
ACADEMIC COURSES

The school offers Nippongo.

PROPER ADJECTIVES
(from proper nouns)
A Shakespearean sonnet in three
quatrains and a couplet.
 ACRONYMS
of
INSTITUTIONAL
NAMES
IMF (International Monetary
Fund)
CHED
(Commission on Higher
Education)
 TITLE of a PERSON,
when placed before the
name
Vice President Binay was the
leader of the Speech Test Team.