Easy English Grammar

English grammar can be easy! Read this for simple and easy English grammar explanations and exercises.

Click Here for Step-by-Step Rules, Stories and Exercises to Practice All English Tenses

What does GRAMMAR mean?

Grammar is simply the way we combine words together so that other people can understand us.

For example, if I want to say this:

Then I should say: "She is drinking a bottle of water."

What happens if I say: "She is bottling a drink of water"?

The listener can understand that she is doing this action:

And this is not true!

This is why grammar is important.

So as time went by, people made rules about how to use the words together. They made rules about how these words change to show different things. For example, "is drinking" shows the action happens now, and "drank" shows that the action happened in the past.

All these rules are important because they help us communicate our ideas and understand the ideas of other people.

But, if you don't know these rules, then grammar can seem quite complicated.

This is why we are here! 

First of all, an excellent book on the subject: Grammar and Communication for children/English learners

Now, in this section you will find many English grammar exercises and simple English grammar explanations.

Furthermore, you can get this free English grammar test for download.

Online English grammar lessons

English Verb Tenses
Simple tenses, progressive (continuous) tenses, perfect tenses, perfect progressive (continuous) tenses.

Examples of English Tenses
Example sentences.

Active and Passive Voice
Active: "The ball hit Janet."
Passive: "Janet was hit" / "Janet was hit by the ball."

English Grammar Articles (a, an, the)
"I need a chair."
"I want an apple."
"I want the red apple."

English Conditionals: First Conditional, Second Conditional, Third Conditional and Zero Conditional
"If he catches a fish, he will be very happy."
"If I met a genie, I would ask for infinite wealth..."
"If I had any money, I would give you some."
"If I had paid more attention, I wouldn't have hit myself..."
"If the sun sets, it becomes night."

English Moods: Indicative Mood, Imperative Mood and Subjunctive Mood
"We finished the project on time."
"Get plenty of rest!"
"I wish I had some cheese..."

Commands in English
"Clean your room, boys."
"Angela, answer the phone, please."
"Don't forget to call me after work."
"Let's not watch television tonight."

Subject-Verb Agreement
Correct: "Bob, not his wife, is doing the cooking."
Incorrect: "Bob, not his wife, are doing the cooking."

Asking Questions in English
Direct questions, indirect questions, yes/no questions, WH questions, alternative questions, tag questions.

Tag questions
"You like kittens, don't you?"
"Brenda is sad, isn't she?"

Direct Speech and Reported Speech (Indirect Speech)
"I am sorry." => "He said he was sorry."

Capitalization Rules in English
Which words should you capitalize and when, and how do you capitalize titles?

English parts of speech

English verbs

English Parts of Speech Overview
Nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections.

Learn English Verbs
Examples: sing, drive, write, love, know, have.

Regular Verbs and Irregular Verbs
Regular: open, opened, opened
Irregular: take, took, taken

Main Verbs, Auxiliary Verbs (Helping Verbs) and Compound Verbs
be + eat => We are eating

Stative Verbs and Dynamic Verbs (Action Verbs)
Stative verbs: be, seem, love, own, want, sound, have, know, understand.
Dynamic (active) verbs: jump, catch, write, call, sleep, hit, open, speak.

Dynamic Verbs and Stative Verbs – Further Examples and Exercises

English Transitive Verbs and Intransitive Verbs
Transitive: "She is drinking a glass of water."
Intransitive: "She is standing."

English Linking Verbs
"I am a singer."
"He became angry."
"Amy turned red."

English Phrasal Verbs
Run into, make up, put up with.

English Modal Verbs
Can, could, may, might, must, ought to, shall, should, would.

The Verb To Be: forms, examples and exercises
Be, am, are, is, was, were, will be, being, been.

Learning English Verb Conjugation
Take, took, will take, is taking, have taken, had been taking

Other parts of speech

English Nouns
Sarah, lady, cat, New York, Canada, room, school, football, reading.

English Pronouns
I, you, he, she, it, we, they, what, who, me, him, her, it, us, you, them, whom, each other, one another, this, that, these, those, which, what, whose, whoever, whatever, whichever, whomever, mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs, its, myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves, anything, everybody, another, each, few, many, none, some, all, any, anybody, anyone, everyone, everything, no one, nobody, nothing, none, other, others, several, somebody, someone, something, most, enough, little, more, both, either, one, neither, much, such

English Adjectives, Determiners and Order of Adjectives in a Sentence
Big, pretty, expensive, green, round, French, loud, quick, fat.

English Adverbs
Home, yesterday, slowly, sometimes, temporarily, surely, very.

English Prepositions
In, on, under, above, beside, behind, before, by, against, through, into, to, up, for, between, at.

Prepositions in English
More on using prepositions in English.

Gender Nouns in English (Grammatical and Metaphorical)
Why are countries and nations like "America" sometimes referred to as she? Why is "freedom" often referred to as she? Why are "time" and "winter" sometimes referred to as a he?

English parts of a sentence

Understanding the English Parts of a Sentence
Subject, predicate, direct object, indirect object, object of the preposition, transitive verbs and intransitive verbs, linking verbs, complements

English Subject
Ronnie finished his homework.
She was hit by a ball.
Spain is in Europe.
Pigs and cows can't fly.
Traveling is fun.

English Predicate
Ronnie finished his homework.
She was hit by a ball.
Spain is in Europe.
Pigs and cows can't fly.
Traveling is fun.

English Direct Object, Indirect Object and Object of the Preposition
He broke the window.
Jack is telling them the news.
The cat is looking at the fish.

English Complements
He is a great singer.
New York and London are big cities.
John used to be the manager.
Her dress is blue.
You are not hungry.
David has become very wise.

Predicate Nouns and Predicate Adjectives
He is a great singer.
New York and London are big cities.
John used to be the manager.
Her dress is blue.
You are not hungry.
David has become very wise.

Gerunds and Infinitives
Going, doing, swimming, reading, buying, running, watching, telling, fighting.
To go, to do, to swim, to read, to buy, to run, to watch, to tell, to fight.

English Participles
They are dancing together right now.
John was painting the wall all morning.
I will be sleeping by the time you come back.
They have danced together in the past.
John had painted the wall before he sold the house.
I will have slept two hours by 8 o'clock tomorrow.

Dangling Participle
After winning the war, the British army left the American colonies.
Growing stronger every day, the doctor observed his healing patients.

Types of Sentences in English
Making statements (declarative sentences).
Asking questions (interrogative sentences).
Giving commands, suggestions, warnings (imperative sentences).
Expressing strong emotions with statements (exclamatory sentences).

Sentence structure and word order

• Basic Sentence Structures in the English Language
• Word Order in English
• Adverb Word Order
• Using Word Order for Emphasis
• Cleft Sentences
• English Adjectives, Determiners and Order of Adjectives in a Sentence
• English Parts of Speech
• Understanding the Parts of a Sentence
• Types of Sentences in English
  

English grammar phrases

English Grammar Phrases
A big room, the blue jacket, finding a job, having fun, to help others,
behind the curtain, next week, being excited.

English Nouns Phrases
All the kids were sleeping.
The boy in the blue jeans says he'll do it.
He bought her a beautiful red dress.

English Verb Phrases
They are waiting for the rain to stop.
Shannon will meet us there.
Why is she staying at home?

English Adjective Phrases
Tom is a man with good instincts.
She brought a cake made of nuts and fruit.
His friends are sailors living on the sea.

English Adverb Phrases
We hurried down the street to catch the bus.
George fell asleep holding his book.
Every now and then they meet and chat.
For now, I would like to ask you to leave.

English Prepositional Phrases
They sat in the old green car.
The men are working for the money.
Every morning we take a walk in the park.

English Appositives
My best friend, Sarah, is moving in with me.
Her first teacher, Mrs. Jones, was a strict person.
The CEO, a very smart man, decided to sell the company.
I was watching my favorite movie, Gone with the Wind.

Syntax

Causes and Effects in English (Vocabulary and Grammar): In this lesson, you will learn the meanings of cause, effect, and affect. You will also learn how to express cause and effect in English.

English grammar overview and advice

Basic English Grammar Rules

Common Grammar Mistakes in British English

English Grammar Tips

English Grammar Books to Help You

Proper English Grammar

Correct Grammar and the Proper Use of Homophones

The explanations may be easy and simple, but they can help you a lot. And really understanding the rules of English grammar is an important step to really learning English.

For English Grammar Exercises, you can visit the English Grammar Exercises section.

For even more exercises, visit GrammarBank.com's English Grammar Exercises section. These are exercises you can do online. GrammarBank.com also has many other cool resources that can help you with your English grammar.

Your Next Steps:

1. Learn English Verbs

2. Read and understand English Verb Tenses

3. Practice, practice, practice with the English Grammar Exercises
   

4. Visit the Learn English Video section
   
   

(For more advanced English learners: if you are looking for tools and techniques to improve your business, personal and academic communications, check out this writing tips site.)

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