Basic grammar and parts of speech

Students who cannot understand grammar are usually poor writers. However, if you memorize enough phrases and patterns, and then apply those patterns to your writing and speech, you can get by without knowing grammar well. You should brush up on your junior high school grammar.

A noun is a person, place, or thing. Singular countable nouns usually require an article or a possessive adjective e.g. "This is a book" or "This is my book".

Definite nouns have been previously introduced, or are unique or understood, and use the definite article. Consider whether nouns are countable and singular in order to determine whether an article is necessary.

Verbs are words of action. Helping verbs come before other verbs. Verbs divide sentences between subject and predicate.

Present tense verbs end in s if they serve a third person, singular noun. e.g. "He likes to read books." The double verbs in the previous sentence are separated by to. A gerund can also be used to change the function of a verb to that of a noun as in "He likes reading the newspaper. He likes reading about horse racing."

Habitual actions use the present tense form. For example "He takes the train to work everyday." Memorize the be verbs am, is, are, was, were, be, been. The past tense is used for one point in history. The past participle form is used for a period in history. Always use the past participle form in a sentence with recently.

Adjectives modify nouns. Adjectives usually come before nouns. In the sentence "My mother is a good cook." good modifies cook. In the sentence "I like my part time job" part time modifies job.

Adverbs modify adjectives, adverbs, or other verbs. In the sentence "I don't speak English very well." The adverb very modifies the adverb well, and the adverb well modifies the verb speak.

Pronouns represent nouns which are present or understood. Memorize the subject pronouns: I, he, she, it, we, you, they.

Use a relative pronoun instead of lengthy or multiple adjectives. "He is the works at my part time job friend." becomes " He is the friend who works at my part time job"

Don't worry about learning rules about propositions; just memorize some phrases and verb idioms which may be used in ordinary conversations. Memorize vocabulary which you can use in normal conversations.