Grammar Concepts

This page is the master list of grammar concepts by subject.  If you would to see some examples of how to sequence through these concepts, see Sequences.

Relevant punctuation to each lesson is in parentheses. Words in brackets are proper grammatical terms if you wish to search for more information.

Nouns

1. simple; singular plurals
2. common and proper
3. concrete and abstract
4. compound (hyphen)
5. harder plurals
6. compound plurals
7. collective, count, and mass
8. appositives (comma, dash)
9. nouns of address (comma)
10. clauses as nouns

Pronouns

1. personal
2. agreement with antecedent
3. possessive
4. indefinite
5. agreement with antecedent - indefinite
6. demonstrative
7. interrogative
8. relative
9. reflexive
10. intensive
11. possessive case
12. nominative case
13. objective case
14. incomplete
15. unclear

Verbs

1. action
2. simple conjugation with s and ing
3. state of being and linking
4. helping
5. verb phrases
6. contractions
7. verb phrases with contractions (apostrophe)
8. verb phrase order
9. agreement - singular and plural nouns
10. agreement - indefinite pronouns
11. transitive active
12. transitive passive
13. intransitive linking
14. intransitive complete
15. principal parts
16. tricky ones - sit/set, lie/lay
17. verb tense and conjugation
18. progressive forms
19. usage - tense, voice, mood

Adjectives

1. modify nouns
2. common and proper (hyphen)
3. articles
4. comparisons
5. nouns as adjectives [noun adjuncts]
6. possessive nouns (apostrophe)
7. plural possessive nouns (apostrophe)
8. compound plural possessive nouns (apostrophe)
9. possessive pronouns [pronominal adjectives] (apostrophe)
10. indefinite possessive pronouns
11. demonstrative and interrogative pronouns
12. verbs as adjectives [participial adjectives]
13. prepositional phrases as adjectives
14. comma use in coordinate adjectives
15. inanimate vs animate
16. clauses as adjectives

Adverbs

1. modify verbs
2. formation
3. not
4. comparisons
5. common
6. compound
7. prepositional phrases as adverbs
8. modify adjectives
9. modify other adverbs
10. adverb/adjective confusion
11. double negatives and double comparisons
12. "there" and "here"
13. nouns as adverbs
14. clauses as adverbs (comma, semicolon)

Prepositions

1. common
2. compound
3. compound objects
4. dangling
5. introductory phrases (comma)

Interjections

1. interjections

Conjunctions

1. coordinate (comma)
2. correlative
3. subordinate

Subject

1. declarative sentences (period)
2. compound subjects
3. interrogative sentence (question mark)
4. exclamatory sentence (exclamation point)
5. imperative sentences/commands (period)
6. clauses and phrases
7. fragments and run-ons

Predicate

1. direct objects
2. compound direct objects
3. direct objects with compound verbs
4. compound direct objects with compound verbs
5. predicate nouns [predicate nominatives]
6. predicate adjectives
7. indirect objects
8. inverted sentence structure

Verbals

1. gerunds
2. noun infinitives (comma)
3. participles (comma)
4. adverb infinitives

Capitalization

1. initials (period)
2. name suffixes (comma)
3. name prefixes/titles (period)
4. common nouns as names
5. "I"
6. days and months (comma)
7. seasons
8. holidays and events
9. geography (comma)
10. compound common and proper nouns
11. address (comma)
12. small words in compound proper nouns
13. countries, languages, races
14. buildings and structures
15. brand names and products
16. regions and directions
17. religions
18. organizations
19. school subjects and classes
20. officials and offices (hyphen)
21. epithets and personifications

Quotations

1. quotation marks and capitalization
2. end punctuation (period, ?, !, comma)
3. multiple quotes from one speaker (comma)
4. change of speaker
5. multiple paragraphs
6. indirect quotations
7. quotes within a quote
8. end punctuation (colon, semicolon)

Punctuation

Basic punctuation is included in the relevant lesson above.  Here are some punctuation rules that stand on their own.

1. commas with 3 or more words
2. commas with 3 or more numbers
3. commas with 3 or more phrases
4. commas with 3 or more short clauses
5. semicolons with independent clauses
6. semicolons with phrases containing commas
7. advanced comma usage
8. advanced colon usage
9. advanced dash usage
10. parentheses

Reference

May need to add these in to the relevant lessons above.

1. abbreviations (period, slash)
2. time and date (period)
3. money and decimals (period)
4. setting off special words (quotation marks)
5. time - hours and minutes (colon)
6. long, formal quotations (colon)
7. foreign words (italics)
8. figures used as words (italics, apostrophe)
9. emphasis (italics)
10. time, space, amounts (apostrophe)
11. hours and years (apostrophe)
12. slang (apostrophe)
13. numbers, telephone numbers (hyphen)
14. fractions (hyphen, slash)
15. "self" (hyphen)
16. multiple words used as an adjective (hyphen)
17. noun plus prepositional phrase (hyphen)
18. clarify pronunciation (hyphen)
19. show omission of small words (hyphen)
20. numbered or lettered divisions (parentheses)
21. numerals and written numbers (parentheses)
22. acronyms (parentheses)
23. insertions added (brackets)
24. sic (brackets)
25. parts of a choice (slash)