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FREE SPELLING/GRAMMAR LESSONS
Or: How to be Taken Seriously

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Table of contents:
Lesson 1: English Language Basics. By SpazLink.
Lesson 2: Sentence Structure. By SpazLink.
Lesson 3: Parts of Speech - Nouns. By Spazlink.
Lesson 4: Parts of Speech - Verbs. By SpazLink.
Lesson 5: Punctuation and Contractions. By SpazLink.
Lesson 6: Parts of Speech - Pronouns. By SpazLink.
Lesson 7: Parts of Speech - The Copula. By SpazLink.
Lesson 8: Subject-Verb Agreement. By Catch-22.

References:
Reference 1: Often Misused Words.
Reference 2: Correct Punctuation Usage.
Reference 3: Gender-ambiguous Pronoun Usage.

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Lesson 2: Sentence Structure

All sentences have a subject and a verb. The only exception is when you use an interjection independently.

Some sentences do not show the subject. In these sentences, the verb is in the imperative mood, and the subject is understood to be "You". Example: (You) Don't run with scissors.

The subject and verb numbers must match. Plurality is a major factor in this. It should also be noted that pronouns have their own way of matching verbs. Examples: I run. You run. We run. S/He runs. A cow runs. Cows run.

Verbs can be divided into two groups: Transitive and intransitive. Transitive verbs require a direct object. Intransitive verbs do not. Transitive example: Jack punched John. Intransitive example: Jack punches.

English is very loose with its word placement, but that does not mean it is right to use unusual word placements. For instance, Object-Subject-Verb sentences are allowed; Jack John punched. Using auxiliary (helper) verbs, it is possible to also rearrange that sentence like so: Punched John did Jack. It should be repeated that while correct, these are hardly reasonable ways of wording such a sentence.

Auxiliary verbs are most commonly used in question formation. The auxiliary verb is placed first in the sentence, followed by the sentence as it would normally be written. In speech, the last syllable is generally spoken with a rising tone. Example: Did Jack punch John?

Thank you.

Any ideas for Lesson 3? I was planning on parts of speech, starting with nouns.

Lesson 3: Parts of Speech - Nouns

Nouns are people, places, or things. John, New York, and an apple are all nouns.

Some people, places, and things (names, mostly. e.g. John Doe, New York, Gaia Online) are proper nouns. Proper nouns follow their own special capitalization scheme, which is generally such that the first letter of each word, except articles, is capitalized. This, however, allows for the exception noted in lesson one, where a sentence might not begin with a capital letter. Take, for instance, the website eBay. eBay is a proper noun, so its capitalization is special. The sentence just then was an example of the exception.

Since there are very few articles [3] in the English language, and they are always used with nouns, I shall discuss them here. The three articles are a, an, and the. A and an are indefinite articles; they refer to any given object. The proper use of them is debatable. I prefer to go by vowel sound; if the first sound of the following word is a vowel, use an; otherwise, use a. Examples: an hour, an eon, a fist, a hand. For more information, please see Catch-22's post here. "The" is a definite article; it refers to either something there is only one of (e.g. the English Language) or a specific object of which there are many (e.g. the apple, referring to a specific apple although many exist in the world.)

There are 2 rules and several exceptions for pluralizing nouns. If the noun ends in anything besides x or s, just add an s; otherwise, add es. If it ends in y, take off the y and add ies. Exceptions include: child/children, deer/deer, goose/geese, ox/oxen, mouse/mice, and many others. Borrowed words generally still follow their language's rules. The Latin nominative masculine ending -us has a plural of -i. Note, however, this does not apply to all words; a notable exception is "virus", whose plural is "viruses".

Feel lucky that English noun use is infinitely more forgiving than some languages, such as Latin. Latin possesses 5 declensions for nouns, as well as 6 cases and two numbers [singular/plural] for each. That alone is 60 endings, but there are still exceptions. Not fun.