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English Grammar Reference

← Practice Drills

8 Parts of Speech (Cycle 1)

NounNames a person, place, thing, or ideadog, Texas, happiness, teacher

PronounTakes the place of a nounhe, she, it, they, we, who

VerbShows action or state of beingrun, is, think, become

AdjectiveModifies a noun or pronountall, blue, three, this

AdverbModifies a verb, adjective, or another adverbquickly, very, never, here

PrepositionShows the relationship of a noun or pronoun to another wordin, on, at, through, between

ConjunctionJoins words, phrases, or clausesand, but, or, because, although

InterjectionExpresses strong feeling or emotionWow! Oh! Ouch! Hey!

Preposition List (53) (Cycle 1)

aboutaboveacrossafteragainstalongamidamongaroundatatopbeforebehindbelowbeneathbesidebetweenbeyondbutbyconcerningdownduringexceptforfromininsideintolikenearofoffonontooutoutsideoverpastregardingsincethroughthroughouttotowardunderunderneathuntilupuponwithwithinwithout

23 Helping Verbs (Cycle 1)

Forms of "be" (also linking verbs):

bebeingbeenamisarewaswere

All 23 helping verbs:

amisarewaswerebebeingbeenhashavehaddodoesdidshallwillshouldwouldmaymightmustcancould

Pronoun Cases (Cycle 2)

Case	Use	Pronouns
Subjective	Used as the subject of a sentence	I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they
Objective	Used as the object of a verb or preposition	me, you, him, her, it, us, you, them
Possessive	Shows ownership (stands alone, not before a noun)	mine, yours, his, hers, (not used), ours, yours, theirs
Possessive Adjective	Shows ownership (before a noun)	my, your, his, her, its, our, your, their
Reflexive	Refers back to the subject	myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves

Sentence Patterns (Essentials)

S-VISubject-Verb Intransitive

The simplest sentence pattern. The subject performs an action using an intransitive verb (no direct object needed).

Example: "Birds fly."

Birds | fly

S-VT-DOSubject-Verb Transitive-Direct Object

The subject performs an action on something using a transitive verb with a direct object.

Example: "The dog chased the cat."

dog | chased | cat

S-LV-PNSubject-Linking Verb-Predicate Nominative

A linking verb connects the subject to a noun that renames it.

Example: "She is a teacher."

She | is \ teacher

S-LV-PASubject-Linking Verb-Predicate Adjective

A linking verb connects the subject to an adjective that describes it.

Example: "The sky is blue."

sky | is \ blue

S-VT-IO-DOSubject-Verb-Indirect Object-Direct Object

The subject gives/shows/tells something to someone.

Example: "Mom gave me a cookie."

Mom | gave | cookie (me = indirect object)

S-VT-DO-OCNSubject-Verb Transitive-Direct Object-Object Complement Noun

The subject performs an action on a direct object; a noun renames or identifies the direct object.

Example: "Jesus calls himself Master."

Jesus | calls | himself \ Master

S-VT-DO-OCASubject-Verb Transitive-Direct Object-Object Complement Adjective

The subject performs an action on a direct object; an adjective describes the direct object.

Example: "Jesus calls himself holy."

Jesus | calls | himself \ holy

Verb Tenses (Cycle 3)

Tense	Formation	Example
Simple Present	base form (add -s for 3rd person singular)	I walk
Simple Past	add -ed (or irregular form)	I walked
Simple Future	shall/will + base form	I shall walk
Present Progressive	am/is/are + -ing	I am walking
Past Progressive	was/were + -ing	I was walking
Future Progressive	shall/will be + -ing	I shall be walking
Present Perfect	has/have + past participle	I have walked
Past Perfect	had + past participle	I had walked
Future Perfect	shall/will have + past participle	I shall have walked
Present Perfect Progressive	has/have been + -ing	I have been walking
Past Perfect Progressive	had been + -ing	I had been walking
Future Perfect Progressive	shall/will have been + -ing	I shall have been walking

Irregular Verbs (48) (Cycle 3)

Present	Simple Past	Past Participle
be	was/were	been
beat	beat	beaten
begin	began	begun
break	broke	broken
bring	brought	brought
buy	bought	bought
catch	caught	caught
choose	chose	chosen
come	came	come
do	did	done
draw	drew	drawn
drink	drank	drunk
drive	drove	driven
eat	ate	eaten
fall	fell	fallen
fly	flew	flown
forget	forgot	forgotten
freeze	froze	frozen
give	gave	given
go	went	gone
grow	grew	grown
have	had	had
hide	hid	hidden
know	knew	known
lay	laid	laid
lead	led	led
lie	lay	lain
lose	lost	lost
make	made	made
raise	raised	raised
ride	rode	ridden
ring	rang	rung
rise	rose	risen
run	ran	run
see	saw	seen
set	set	set
shake	shook	shaken
sing	sang	sung
sit	sat	sat
speak	spoke	spoken
steal	stole	stolen
swim	swam	swum
take	took	taken
teach	taught	taught
think	thought	thought
throw	threw	thrown
wear	wore	worn
write	wrote	written

Adverb Questions (Cycle 2)

How?

She sang beautifully.

When?

He arrived yesterday.

Where?

They played outside.

To what extent?

She is very tall.

Sentence Types (Cycle 3)

Simple

One independent clause

"The dog barked."

Compound

Two or more independent clauses joined by a conjunction

"The dog barked, and the cat hid."

Complex

One independent clause + at least one dependent clause

"When the bell rang, the students left."

Compound-Complex

Two or more independent clauses + at least one dependent clause

"When the bell rang, the students left, and the teacher cleaned up."