Grammatical elements/grammatical categories
The grammatical elements or grammatical categories are the words that make up a language, organized in groups or classes. In English, there are nine classes of grammatical elements: nouns, determiners, adjectives, verbs, pronouns, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.
These elements or categories can be variable (nouns, determiners, verbs, pronouns, and adjectives), and invariable (adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections).
Each of these elements fulfills a specific function in language, such as indicating who performs the action (the subject), and the action itself with its complements (the predicate).
Variable grammatical elements
Some grammatical elements are said to be variable because their form can change. For example, nouns can be feminine or masculine, or be singular or plural (Girl or , Girl with , Girl os , jardí n , jardin is ), and verbs vary their endings when conjugated (am or , am as , am a , am masters , am Ais , etc.).
Nouns
They are the words that represent animate and inanimate beings or objects, concepts, and ideas. In English, they can be masculine or feminine, common and proper. The noun or noun is the core of the subject in a sentence, but it can also be present in the predicate.
They must match in number and gender with the articles, adjectives and verbs.
Examples of nouns in sentences:
- Marcela plans to travel to her parents’ house tomorrow (Marcela, home and parents are nouns).
- The cat was looking for the mouse all over the kitchen .
- Paris is the capital of France .
- The red notebook is on the desk .
- The girls will play in the field of football .
Determinants
They are words that go along with the noun, generally preceding it, and determine it by indicating place, number, possession, etc. Determinants are articles (definite and indefinite), demonstratives, numerals, possessives, etc.
Examples of determinants in sentences
- How pretty Maria was that day.
- The boys had three horses in the stable.
- They wait for the boy on the sixth floor.
- These young people don’t want both models.
- Those ladies are victims of the double shift.
Pronouns
They are words that can go instead of the noun, and that we use very often, such as: I, you, he, mine, his, that, etc. There are personal, demonstrative, possessive, numeral, relative, interrogative, exclamatory and indefinite pronouns.
There are words that according to their use can be determiners and pronouns. For example: “is that one , the one in the yellow shirt” (pronoun), and “is that man” (demonstrative determinant).
Examples of pronouns in sentences
- If I was , he would not be with us .
- The bicycle is yours , and it is that .
- I tell you that they will come later.
- Who is not interested, you can go is .
- If you see any , let us know.
Verbs
They are those words that indicate the action, the state, the time or condition in the sentence.
Examples of verbs in sentences
- Mariano washes and dries the clothes.
- They are playing in the garden.
- They spent every afternoon in the bookstore.
- His father left of smoking makes ten years.
- They like to sing and laugh when they are together.
Adjectives
They are words that modify, complement or indicate some quality of the noun, with which they coincide in gender and number (“l as ros as rojas ”). Adjectives can also indicate degrees: positive (the rose is red), comparative (this rose is redder than that one) and superlative (this rose is very red).
Examples of adjectives in sentences
- Helena has a beautiful voice.
- Fast horses ran across the green meadow.
- He is an intelligent person , he will surely do well .
- He was a thin , silent man .
- Laura is taller than Sandra, and she is gorgeous .
Invariable grammatical elements
They are those that maintain their shape and do not need to agree in gender and number with other elements of the sentence (example: they arrive tomorrow , she arrives tomorrow ).
Adverbs
They are words that can modify the verb, an adjective or another adverb. They can be of time (today, yesterday, afternoon, soon, tomorrow, etc.), place (there, here, down, near, far, outside, inside, etc.), mode (bad, good, soft, regular, fast , etc.), quantity (a lot, a little, too much, something, almost, etc.), affirmation (yes, certainly, also, obvious, clear, etc.), negation (no, never, never, either), doubt ( maybe, maybe, maybe, possibly, probably, maybe, etc.).
Although they are invariable words they can be modified with suffixes such as bad ito , good ita , tiny Bit ito , Save the Date ita ).
Examples of adverbs in sentences
- Gisela will be here soon .
- Today they will come to fumigate.
- Marina worked hard to get that position.
- If the book is not here, it must be there , on the table.
- Susana is not well , treat her with affection .
- I liked very much the movie, although it seemed that no would end ever .
- If we pick up the pace, we may be in time.
Prepositions
Prepositions are grammatical elements that serve to establish relationships between two words; this relationship varies according to the preposition used.
They are prepositions: to, before, under, fit, with, against, from, from, during, in, between, towards, until, through, for, by, according to, without, so, on, after, versus, via.
Examples of prepositions in sentences
- Marcos comes from Acapulco via highway.
- A sometimes can not go against the opinion of others.
- During the Middle Ages women and cats lived under suspicion.
- Since years Alfredo works to achieve that goal.
- Tomorrow they play Marinos versus Firefighters, in San José.
- I want to talk to you about what happens between Marcia and Ramón.
Conjunctions
Conjunctions are grammatical elements that act as links between words or sentences. They can be adversative (but, more, but), causal (because, because, like, then), comparative (so, so much, that, like), conditional (yes, unless, whenever), copulative (and, and , nor, not only, not even), disjunctive (o, u), temporary (before, when, while), explanatory (that is, that is, that is), concessive (although, thus, even when, despite that, etc.), consecutive (so, so, so, consequently), final (for, so that, for what).
Examples of conjunctions in sentences
- You are as big as your father.
- We could have won, but things did not go as expected.
- If Laura comes with Carlos, there will be four of us, as long as they have given her permission.
- Carmen and Susana will intervene when the teacher says.
- Either we take the train or we drive, because it is getting dark.
- We didn’t want to go in, but to see when the next show was.
- Despite what has been said, we do not recommend the purchase of these shares.
Interjections
They are terms or grammatical elements that serve to indicate moods or seek to capture the attention of the listener. They are identified by exclamation marks (!).
Examples of interjections in sentences
