Grammar is a way of describing how words are combined to form sentences.
SENTENCE: Martin Like Football.
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WORD WORD WORD
Each of the words in that sentence can be used in particular ways to form sentences. So each can be allocated to a WORD CLASS (or ‘part of speech’):
SENTENCE: Martin Like Football.
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NOUN VERB NOUN
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Putting words into classes like this tells us a lot about how words are used, but it doesn’t tell us much about how sentences are constructed. To do that we need to look at sentences in a different way. We do this by looking for patterns in the way that sentences are constructed. For example, we can see that these two sentences follow a similar pattern:
Martin likes Football.
Mary writes books.
If we think a bit, we can see that the sentence below follows a similar pattern, even though it is longer:
Our friends at number 29 are visiting their relatives in Australia.
We can see this more clearly if we set the sentences out in a table:
A B C Martin Likes Football.
Mary writes books.
Our friends at are visiting their relatives in Australia number 29
The first thing to notice is that each cell in the table can contain one word (e.g. likes) or a group of words (e.g. are visiting). But each cell contains a word or words that have a particular job to do in the sentence. The first cell tells us what the sentence is going to be about; it contains the SUBJECT of the sentence. The second cell provides in formation about what the subject does by giving us a VERB. The third then provides further information by giving us an OBJECT; it tells us, for example, what Mary writes.
Each of the sentences above contains three sentence components: subject, verb, object:
SUBJECT VERB OBJECT
Mary writes books.
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For this purpose an A-Z arrangement is the most suitable. The problem with grammar, however, is that in order to understand one term, you usually need to know what one or more other terms mean. For example, if you look up the term ABSTACT NOUN the explanation assumes that you know what a NOUN is. If you look up NOUN, it takes it for granted that you know what a PHRASE is, and so on. Readers who have little or no background knowledge about grammar may find this very frustrating. So the purpose of this brief introduction is to explain the basic terms of English grammar.
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Consider these two sentences:
X. Keep straight on, swerving neither left or right. X. An assistant commissioner said they could neither vouch for the truth nor accuracy of the reports.
What is the matter with each of them? Neither . . . nor . . . is not neither . . . or . . . as in the first example. And the neither . . . nor . . . construction must balance, which it fails to do in the second sentence. The elements that follow neither and nor should be grammatically symmetrical, generally having the same pattern of parts of speech. So the second sentence should read either they could neither vouch for the truth nor confirm the accuracy of the reports or they could vouch for neither the truth nor the accuracy of the reports. But as it stands the sentence does not balance.
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In writing especially, not . . . because can give rise to serious ambiguities. Consider these sentences:
I didn’t go because I was ill. I didn’t go, because I was ill.
The problem seldom occurs in speaking. The first version, without a pause after go, suggests that I did go (to the doctor’s, for instance), but for some reason other than illness. The second reports that I did not go, and then gives the reason for my not going. The sentences would also probably be distinguished by a rising voice pitch in the first and a falling one in the second.
In writing, the distinction hinges – precariously – on a single comma. Many people leave out the comma in sentences with the second meaning. To be on the safe side, you could rewrite both versions. The first could be something along the lines of I went not because I was ill, but to get some jabs or It wasn’t because I was ill that I went. The second could become Because I was ill I didn’t go.
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In the use of only, natural idiom is often at odds with logical word order. It is quite natural to say John only gave his sister 5 dollars. But purists would say that only relates to 5 dollars, and so should go directly before it: John gave his sister only 5 dollars. In the same way, they argue, I only saw Mary yesterday strictly means that I saw her but did not, say, speak to her; the sentence should be I saw only Marry yesterday (I saw Mary, but not her husband Edward or any of her children) or I saw Marry only yesterday (it was only yesterday that I saw her).
In informal Usage, however, the most natural place for only is usually just before the verb. The context usually helps to make the meaning clear, and in speech the intonation does too: in the previous example, a stress on Mary or Yesterday (or saw) would accurately convey the sense intended.
But if ambiguity really does threaten, it is doubly important to position the only as close as possible to the word or phrase it modifies. Suppose you received the following note:
? I shall only send you 5 dollars towards the appeal if you write to me again.
Would you write again, or not? A properly helpful and unambiguous message would position the only either before 5 dollars or before if, depending on the intended meaning.
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If elements in a sentence are proposed as parallel in kind, they should be presented as parallel in structure. The following sentence fails to meet this simple requirement:
X. She is stubborn, selfish and has a sharp temper.
The three elements are not symmetrical here, and should not be organised as though they were. Either rearrange the elements so that they no longer pretend to be equally weighted –
She is stubborn and selfish, and has a sharp temper
– or make them symmetrical in structure:
She is stubborn, selfish, and quick-tempered.
Such failures of symmetry are particularly common with ‘correlative conjunction ‘ such as either . . . or . . . and not only . . . but also . . .
X. Not only is that a very unfair statement, but also quite untrue.
The structures following not only and but (also) should match each other closely. In this example, however, the not only elements contains a verb, whereas the but also element does not.
The sentence can be reconstructed so that both elements have a verb, or neither elements has:
That statement is not only very unfair, but also quite untrue.
Not only is that a very unfair statement, but it is also quite untrue.
Next consider this faulty construction:
X. The actors were criticised both by their friends and their enemies.
Again the correlative conjunctions both and and demand matching constructions. Yet here the both-phrase contains the preposition by, whereas the and-phrase lacks it. The two elements can, theoretically, be brought into parallel in either of two ways:
? The actors were criticised both by their friends and by their enemies.
The second version here remains unsatisfactory, however, since it introduces an ambiguity into the sentence: the phrase both their friends could be taken on its own to suggest that the actors have only two friends.

The top of a mountain is called, as you know, the summit, a word derived from Latin summus, highest, which also gives us the mathematical term sum, as in addition. A consummate artist has reached the very highest point of perfection; and to consummate a marriage, a business deal, or a contract is, etymologically, to bring it to the highest point; that is, to put the final touches to it, to bring it to completion.
[Note how differently consummate, the adjective, can be pronounced, compared with the verb to consummate.]
Nouns are formed from adjectives by the addition of the noun suffix -nes: sweet – sweetness; simple – simpleness; envious – enviousness; etc.
Many adjectives, however, have alternate noun forms, and the adjective consummate is one of them. To make a noun out of consummate, add either -ness or -acy; consummateness or consummacy.
Verb ending in -ate invariably tack on the noun suffix -ion to form nouns: create – creation; evaluate – evaluation; etc.
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‘Widely but unfavourably known’ is the common definition for notorious. Just as a notorious liar is well-known for unreliable statements, so a notorious gambler, a notorious thief, or a notorious killer has achieved a wide reputation for some form of antisocial behaviour. The noun is notoriety.
The derivation is from Latin notus, known, from which we also get noted. It is an interesting characteristic of some words that a change of syllables can alter the emotional impact. Thus, an admirer of certain business executives will speak of them as ‘noted industrialists’; these same people’s enemies will call them ‘notorious exploiters’. Similarly, if we admire a man’s or a woman’s unworldliness, we refer to it by the complimentary term childlike; but if we are annoyed by the trait, we describe it, derogatively, as childish. Change ‘-like’ to ‘-ish’ and our emotional tone undergoes a complete reversal.
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