The Elements of Grammar in 90 Minutes

Robert Hollander

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9780486310367
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Grammar & Punctuation
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

An eminent scholar explains the essentials of English grammar to those who never studied the basics as well as those who need a refresher course. Inspired by Strunk & White's classic The Elements of Style, this user-friendly guide focuses exclusively on grammar, explaining the individual parts of speech and their proper arrangement in sentence form. A modest investment of 90 minutes can provide readers of all ages with simple but important tools that will improve their communication skills.
Dover (2011) original publication.

PART I: THE PARTS OF SPEECH

The most influential of the early formulators of Latin grammar, Aelius Donatus, wrote toward the close of the fourth century. His Ars Minor, which dealt with the parts of speech, was the essential school text for most European boys in their Latin schools (and some wealthy girls in their homes) from the Middle Ages until the late sixteenth century. Donatus’ grammar begins:

How many are the parts of speech? Eight. What are they? Noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, participle, conjunction, preposition, interjection.

Except that what Donatus called a participle we call an adjective—otherwise his terms are identical with those we use today.

Why is it important to know the parts of speech? Because with them we can divide a language with hundreds of thousands of words (perhaps a million if we include all specialized vocabularies of contemporary English) into eight categories of function. With these few easily mastered categories, we can begin to understand the structure of any sentence, see whether it is working correctly, and repair it if it is not.

The generally accepted names of the parts of English speech are:

Noun	Adverb
Pronoun	Preposition
Verb	Conjunction
Adjective	Interjection

NOUNS AND PRONOUNS

A noun (from the Latin nomen, a name) is the name of a person (Harold), a place (Chicago), a thing (shovel), or a concept (justice).

Names, usually capitalized, are called proper nouns.

I like Ike.

It is hot every summer in Mississippi.

A pronoun functions exactly like a noun. It is a word, usually of few letters, that replaces a noun, usually to avoid repetition.

Bart walks across the stage, scowling at me as he crosses it.

I give him a wave.

He seems unaware of me.

I can see that he wants to give his speech.

Nouns and pronouns identify the actors who perform or receive the actions in a sentence (I and him in the second sentence), or who exist in the state of being the sentence describes (He in the third sentence; in the fourth sentence his is not used as a pronoun, but as an adjective).

Pronouns like I and him are personal pronouns, but there are other kinds of pronouns too, including:

Reflexive (Helen pinched herself.)
Demonstrative (These are my people.)
Interrogative (Whose people are these?)
Relative (He’s the man who can do the job.)
Expletive (It is a lovely day.) (Note that the pronoun here does not stand for a noun but serves only a formal introductory purpose.)

Pronouns vary their form by person and number. There are six persons (not people) in English: first-, second-, and third-person singular, and first-, second-, and third-person plural.

The first-person singular is the speaker: I.
The second-person singular is the person whom the speaker is addressing: you.
The third-person singular is anyone or anything else: he, she, it (referring to “Fred” or “Ginger” or “sandwich”).
The first-person plural includes the speaker, but also others: we.
The second-person plural includes all whom the speaker is addressing. This is also you.
The third-person plural is anyone or anything else, but more than one: they (referring to “Fred and Ginger” or “soup and sandwich”).

As noted, in modern English the second-person singular and plural are identical: you. This can be confusing, as sometimes it is not clear from context which one is meant.

When I called last week, you told me my order would be ready.

Does the speaker mean the specific person to whom he or she is speaking (you singular) or the company (a collective used as a plural)? Sometimes it is necessary to explain this ambiguity. It was not always so; the second-person singular used to be thou (with the related forms thy, thee, thyself, thine), which distinguished it from the plural.

Pronouns also vary by case: subjective, possessive, objective. For more about case, see page 42.

I, mine, me
you [singular], yours, you
he, his, him; she, hers, her; it, its, it
we, ours, us
you [plural], yours, you
they, theirs, them

As will become clear, these six persons also are linked to the varying forms of verbs.

VERBS

A verb is a word that conveys either the action performed by a noun or pronoun, or that noun’s (or pronoun’s) state of being. Verbs are thus either verbs of action or verbs of state.

He hissed at the countess, who was calm at first and then became angry, but said nothing. (Hissed and said are verbs of action; was and became are verbs of state.)

Verbs of action have two voices: the active voice, in which the subject acts, and the passive voice, in which the ...