English Grammar: The Building Blocks of the English Language

Mastering English grammar is fundamental to the study and comprehension of the English language. Learning the classes of words is essential to speaking and understanding English.

The seven main word classes that make up English grammar are nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and determiners. Nouns are people, places and things and can be singular or plural. Examples of singular nouns are "shoe" or "Chicago". An example of a plural noun is "shoes".

Another main class of words are verbs. A verb is an action word, such as "floated" or "walking". As the example indicates, verbs can be present or past tense.

Adjectives describe nouns or pronouns. Examples of adjectives are "pretty" or "blue".

Adverbs are words that modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs and are commonly recognized because they end in -ly. This happens frequently, but is not always the case. Examples of adverbs include "suddenly" or "lengthwise".

The next class of words is prepositions. Prepositions are used to relate people or things that happened. The class of prepositions include words like "after", "to" or "during".

Conjunctions are essential to language, as they create relationships between phrases or sentences. Conjunctions can be words like "and", "or" or "but".

Determiners are the final class of words. The determiners modify nouns and usually demonstrate possession or quantity. Examples of determiners are "her", "his" or "those".

Learning English grammar is the first step in learning the English language. Once you have learned about grammar and the classes of words, you can begin to construct phrases and sentences properly, and truly begin to understand the language. While there are many rules to remember concerning grammar, mastering the seven word classes is an extremely vital step in becoming fluent in the English language.