1st lesson: What is Grammar?

Longman English Dictionary Online defines 'grammar' as the rules by which words change their forms and are combined into sentences, or the study or use of these rules. In another word, grammar is basically how to form a sentence. A sentence, most of the time, will consists of Subject (noun), Verb (verb) and Object (noun) This is called Subject-Verb Agreement (SVA or SVO).

For example:

'Dog' in this case is the subject, 'ate' is the verb and 'homework' is the object.


There are a few rules in SVA. The first rule is:

• Subject must agree with verb, and vice versa, in term of number or quantity (singular/plural).

· If subject is singular, verb must be singular as well (except for I and You)

Ø He likes the cat.

· If subject is plural, verb must be plural as well

ØThey love the principal

• However, this only apply in Simple Present Tense. In Simple Past Tense, the are no helping verbs; you still need to change the main verbs; is-are, was-were, has-have, does-do.

Now, try this exercise.