Basic Grammar
Grammar is the heart of every language. Students must be able to understand the basic grammar of English language before they are able to write and speak the language.
Subject Verb Agreement
|
Person(s) |
Present |
Past |
Future |
|
I, She, He, It, Abu, Aminah - Singular - verb to be/verb |
am, is, has, verb + s [speaks, eats] | was, had, verb + ed [knocked, lied], change of spelling [sleep--> slept, eat--> ate]
|
will |
| They, We, The students - Plural - verb to be/verb
|
are, have, verb + [no 's' --> drive, sing] | were, had, verb + ed [knocked, lied], change of spelling [sleep--> slept, eat--> ate] | will |
For Example:-
1. She is beautiful.
2. They are very bad.
3. Abu ate a lot of apples.
4. The workers played hockey last night.
#verb-to-be = am, is, are (present) & was, were (past)
Present and Past Continuous Tense
a) The use of present and past continuous tense is determined by several factors:-
b) The form
verb-to-be + verb + ing --> am sleep + ing , were eat + ing
for example: They are sleeping in the house ; Ali was playing football yesterday
Present and Past Simple Tense
a) The use of present and past simple tense is determined by several factors
b) The form
verb + 's'/no 's', verb + 'ed', change of spelling for a verb, has/have/had --> sings, dance, kept, had
for example: Fatimah goes to school at 7.00 a.m. daily; Encik Ahmad and his family stayed in Jalan Kebun a long time ago.
Present and Past Perfect Tense
a) The use of this tense is determined by several factors
when something has just happened a few minutes ago - present time / past time
when something has just happened and the action is short - present time / past time
b) The form
has/have/had + past participle [eaten, written, slept] --> have eaten, had slept
for example: The family has gone fishing in the country; The boys had eaten their cakes last night
Present and Past Perfect Continuous Tense
a) The use of this tense is determined by several factors
when something has just happened a few minutes ago and still in progress - present time
when something had happened in the past took a long time to complete in the past - past time
b) The form
has/have/had + been + verb + ing --> have been sleeping, had been studying
for example: The students have been studying for 2 hours; Salmah had been playing with the toys
Sentences
In English language, students need to know the sentences as the knowledge can help in the writing process. Basically sentences are divided into:
simple sentence - one subject, one verb and/or one object --> She is beautiful
compound sentence - two simple sentences joined by sentence connectors i.e. 'and', 'but' --> She is beautiful but she is stupid
complex sentence
Grammar Notes