GRAMMAR AND

PUNCTUATION

Name: SHALINI MITTAL

Course: BA ENG(HONS)
Website: www.courseera.com

ABOUT THE ONLINE COURSE:

COURSERA
Coursera is an education platform that partners
with top universities and organizations
worldwide, to offer courses online for anyone to
take.
We can choose from hundreds of courses created by
the worlds top educational institutions.
We can watch short video lectures, take interactive
quizzes, complete peer graded assessments, and
connect with fellow learners and instructors.

INTRODUCTION
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural
rules governing the composition of clauses,
phrases, and words in any given natural
language. The term refers also to the study of
such rules, and this field includes morphology,
syntax, and phonology, often complemented by
phonetics, semantics, and pragmatics.
The practice or system of using certain
conventional marks or characters in writing or
printing in order to separate elements and make
the meaning clear, as in ending a sentence or
separating clauses.

DEFINING A VERB

A verb is a word or phrase that says or asserts

something about a person or thing.
A verb may tell us:
What a person or thing does:
A doctor treats patients.
What is done to a person or thing:
The roads were repaired
The state in which a person or things:
I know your address.
What a person or thing is:
Father is angry.

What a person or thing has:

A spider has eight legs.
A verb is the most important part of a sentence.
In fact, it may be called the heart of a sentence.
We can have a sentence with only the verb in it,
but no sentence exist without verb:
Go! Sit! (Complete sentences)
All the students of this class absent from the
school today (not a sentence because there is no
verb)

KINDS OF VERBS: MAIN AND AUXILIARY

Main verbs (principal verbs): eat, drink, sleep, go,

give, sing, etc.
Auxiliary verbs (helping verbs): be, do, have, can,
may, should, etc.

AUXILIARIES

There are twelve auxiliaries in English: be, have,

do, can, may, will, shall, must, ought to, need,
dare and used to. All verbs that are not
auxiliaries are main verbs.
Auxiliaries are of three kinds:
1. Primary auxiliaries.
2. Modal auxiliary.
3. Semi-modals.

Primary auxiliaries: be, have, do

) Be: is, are, am, was, were
) Have: has, had
) Do: does, did
Primary auxiliaries can be used as auxiliaries as
well as main verbs:
) She is clever. (is- main verb)
) She is taking her dinner. (is- auxiliary)
) He has several pairs of shoes. (Has- main verb)
) He has lost his new pair of shoes. (Hasauxiliary)
1)

2) Modal auxiliary: can (could), may (might),

will (would), shall (should), must, ought to.
3) Semi-modals: dare, need, used to

TRANSITIVE AND INTRANSITIVE VERBS

A verb that needs an object to make complete

sense is called a transitive verb.
Example: Baichung kicked the ball.
A verb that makes complete sense by itself is
called an intransitive verb.
A large number of verbs can be used both as
transitive and as intransitive verbs:
The driver stopped the car. (Transitive)
The car stopped. (Intransitive)

CONJUNCTIONS
Defining a Conjunction
A conjunction is a word used to join words, phrases or
sentences.
Example : Tea and coffee are popular beverages.

COORDINATING
CONJUNCTIONS
A conjunction used to join two independent sentences or
two sentences of equal rank or importance is called a
coordinating conjunction.
Cumulative conjunctions: conjunctions that merely
add one statement or fact to another. And, both... and,
as well as, no less than, not only ...but also are
common conjunctions of this type.
Adversative conjunctions: conjunctions that
express opposition or contrast between two statements.
But, still, yet, nevertheless, whereas, while, only are
conjunctions of this type.
Disjunctive or Alternative conjunctions:
conjunctions that express a choice between two
alternatives. Or, either ...nor,, otherwise, else are
conjunctions of this type.

SUBORDINATING
CONJUNCTIONS

A conjunction used to join two statements, one of

which is dependent on the other, is called
subordinating conjunctions.

TENSES

Tense is a form of verb that is used to show when

an action happened or in other words a tense is a
form taken by a verb to show a time of action.
There are 12 types of tenses:

Present Tense: Simple Present, Present

Continuous ,Present Perfect, Present Perfect
Continuous
Past Tense: Simple Past, Past Continuous, Past
Perfect, Past Perfect Continuous
Future Tense: Simple Future, Future
Continuous, Future Perfect, Future Perfect
Continuous

COMPOUND AND COMPLEX SENTENCES

A compound sentence refers to a sentence made up
of two independent clauses(or complete sentences)
connected to one another with a coordinating
conjunction.
Example: Joe waited for the train, but the train was
late.
A complex sentence is made up of an independent
clause and one or more dependent clauses
connected to it. A dependent clause is similar to an
independent clause, or complete sentence, but lacks
one of the elements that would make it a complete
sentence
Example: While he waited at the train station

MORE COMMAS,
PARALLEL STRUCTURE, AND
SENTENCE VARIETY
The comma is the shortest pause . The use of a
comma is absolutely necessary to bring clarity to
our writing. But the overuse of the comma should
be avoided.
Parallel structure means using the same pattern
of words to show that two or more words or ideas
are of equal importance and to help the reader
comprehend what is being written.
Sentence variety refers to the practice of varying
the length and structure of sentences to avoid
monotony and provide appropriate emphasis.

THANK YOU