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Learn Basic English Grammar: Beginners – Part 1

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How do you think about English Grammar?

Do you think about complicated rules, confusing ideas, difficult concepts?

If so, you may be thinking about grammar in the wrong way, and so your learning is going to stressful and ineffective.

Actually, grammar can be fun, if you change how you think about it.

Let me make basic English grammar easy for you.

Table of Contents

Easy english grammar

I think language is like music

Imagine words are like musical notes and the grammar describes which notes go together, like in English it describes which words go together. As simple as that.

Grammar describes the language, but it is not the language. 

It’s a way of talking about it.

You may find that you started to get bored with grammar when your teacher introduced lots of complicated names and labels, like the ‘present perfect conditional’ or ‘possessive determiners’. As well as lots of rules followed by lots of exceptions.

And slowly, the word grammar meant ‘headache’!

You see, I think you need to start with listening to and loving the music, as well as repeating it, but not by first learning the rules about the order of notes. 

Likewise with language. When learning English, start by listening to and loving the language, as well as repeating it. Don’t start with the grammar. 

Listen to English music

As a teenager, I learnt to play the piano by myself. I didn’t buy a music book, I just listened to music and tried to imitate it. 

After some months, I played something to my friend, who had had music classes.

He said, that’s great, you know the major scales, arpeggios and minor blues scales. I had no idea what all that meant, but I could play them.

I was passionate about it and loved it. 

In fact, I then became curious about all these names or labels and what they meant. So I leant them and it helped me. 

In conclusion, I found the best way to learn was to combine learning by listening and repeating, with the discovery of some labels and rules.

I have successfully learnt Chinese and Spanish the same way. First by listening, loving and repeating, and then by learning some names, labels and rules. 

This is how to make English grammar easy.

I believe the grammar should always come second, as a clarification, rather than a basis for learning.

With this in mind, I offer you this lesson as a reference. 

As a way to clarify some basic English grammar you may know, and a way to review and deepen your understanding.

In this lesson, I will look at the following 8 most important parts of speech you should know as a part of basic English grammar for beginners.

Here in Part 1, we will look at the following:

  1. Verbs
  2. Adverbs
  3. Nouns
  4. Articles

In Part 2, we will look at the following:

  1. Adjectives
  2. Pronouns
  3. Prepositions
  4. Conjunctions 

Verbs in english

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INFINITIVES

Verbs are doing words. They describe actions and states. For example, 

drive 

cook 

read 

We sometimes put ‘to’ before a verb, and this is called the ‘infinitive’. It’s just a label to help you recognise it is a verb.  

To drive 

To cook 

To read 

Verbs can exist in different tenses. In the past, the present and the future.

PRESENT TENSE

Let’s look at examples in the present simple tense:

Describing a present habit (present simple)

I usually cook on Saturdays

I drive to work everyday

Notice in the present simple tense we must add an S or ES to the verb after he, she and it

He, she and it are sometimes called ‘the third person’.

Think of it like I am first, you are second and she is third!

He cookS   /kʊks/

She driveS  /drvz/

Past, Present and Future Tenses

PAST TENSE

In the past tenses, verbs can be regular or irregular.

Regular verbs are put into the simple past tense by adding ED

  • I cookED yesterday /kʊkt/

  • I washED my face /wɒʃd/

  • I wantED to go /wɒntɪd/

As for irregular verbs, there are about 200 of them in English, but here are 35 of the most important ones for beginners.

Verb (Infinitive)

Past participle 

Do Did 
Make Made 
Go Went 
Come Came 
Get Got 
Take Took 
Find Found 
Give Gave 
Put Put 
Bring Brought 
 
Say Said 
Tell Told 
Speak Spoke 
Mean Meant 
Know Knew 
Hear Heard 
Think Thought 
Feel Felt 
Understand Understood 
 
Buy Bought 
Spend Spent 
Choose Chose 
Wear Wore 
Eat Ate 
Drink Drank 
Drive Drove 
 
Sit Sat 
StandStood 
See Saw 
Read Read 
Write Wrote 
Draw Drew 
Cut  Cut 

VERBS as NOUNS

Finally, it is useful to know that verbs can become nouns. When we add ‘ing’ to a verb, often known as ‘the gerund’, it can become a noun. 

For example, 

Driving is fun

Cooking is relaxing 

Adverbs in english

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Adverbs are used with verbs to say how, when and where you do something.

Adverbs of manner: HOW

I drive quickly 

Quickly’ (adverb) tells you how I drive (verb) 

  • We make an adverb by adding ‘ly’ to an adjective

Safe             + ly   = Safely 

ADJECTIVE + LY = ADVERB

  • Adverbs come after the verb. For example, 

I                    drive      quickly

SUBJECT + VERB + ADVERB

  • If the verb has an object, then the adverb comes after the object 

I                    read        books        slowly

SUBJECT + VERB + OBJECT + ADVERB

There are some irregular adverbs, but not many. For these adverbs, we do not add ‘ly’ to the adjective. 

The common ones for basic English grammar are the following

Adjective 

Adverb 

Good 

Well 

Fast

Fast

Hard

Hard

Wrong 

Wrong 

Early 

Early 

Adverbs of time and frequency: WHEN 

Adverbs can also describe when and how often you do something. For example, 

I always drive to work  

We call these adverbs frequency adverbs and the most common ones you need to basic English grammar are probably,

  • Always 
  • Usually 
  • Normally 
  • Often
  • Sometimes
  • Rarely 
  • Never

The position of these adverbs can change in spoken English, but normally they go between the subject and the verb.

I                   always   drive to work 

SUBJECT + ADV +  VERB

In addition to individual words, we also have phrases which act as adverbs, these are commonly called adverbials

Some adverbials of frequency you may see or hear as a beginner are the following 

  • Now and again
  • From time to time
  • Once in a blue moon

Adverbials can go at the beginning or at the end of a sentence. 

Once in a blue moon, I drive my wife’s car

I drive my wife’s car once in a blue moon

Nouns in english

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Nouns can represent things, people, or places.

Here are some examples, 

  • Things 

Pen, car, day 

  • People

Friend, teacher, colleague 

  • Places

Classroom, city, kitchen   

When we actually use the name of something, these are known as proper nouns and are spelled with a capital letter. 

Common Noun

Proper Noun 

A friend 

Jack 

A city 

Manchester 

A month 

July 

SINGULAR / PLURAL of NOUNS

Nouns can be either singular (just one) or plural (more than one). To make a noun into a plural we add S or ES

For example 

Singular 

Plural 

Pronunciation 

Book 

Books 

/bʊks/

Car 

Cars 

/kɑːz/

Box

Boxes 

/bɒksɪz/

COUNTABLE / UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS

It is possible to count most things, and if we can, then we can use those nouns in the plural. For example, cars, books and boxes. 

However, there are certain nouns that we cannot count, and so we can never use the plural. 

Some are obvious like liquids (water, coffee, oil), these are difficult to count, and so are rarely put in the plural and don’t take an article (a / an). 

If we do count them, then the meaning changes a little. 

So, for example, when we say ‘I want two coffees’, we are referring to cups of coffee, not coffee the liquid.

Others are less obvious like powder (rain, pepper, salt), and grammatically we cannot put these in the plural.

Likewise, there are other abstract words that are ‘grammatically’ uncountable and so we don’t use the plural or an article (a / an). 

However, we can usually make them countable by adding a unit of measure. Here are some common examples below of uncountable nouns made countable.  

Uncountable Nouns

Countable Nouns

water

A glass of water

coffee

A cup of coffee

sugar

A teaspoon of sugar 

rice

A grain of rice / A bowl of rice 

furniture 

A piece of furniture 

information 

A piece of information 

news 

A piece of news 

advice 

A piece of advice 

English grammar Nouns

NOUN PHRASES

Nouns are not only individual words. They can also be a group of words. In this case, it is known as a noun phrase.

For example, 

The pen in my hand       is          black 

NOUN PHRASE       + VERB  + ADJECTIVE

The woman with blond hair and glasses       is         from London 

NOUN PHRASE                                       + VERB + ADJECTIVE 

It is useful to be aware of these, especially when reading quickly or listening to a long passage, as it can help you identify the different building blocks of a sentence. If you only listen to or look at, individual words, this will really slow you down.

Articles in english

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Nouns can have an article before them, and this help you make it clear if you are talking about a general noun or a specific one.

1) A / AN

We use the indefinite article A or AN when we are talking about something generally. So, if you don’t know which one I mean, I will use A or AN

I saw a cat in your garden.

(You don’t know which cat I mean) 

I’d like an apple, please 

(I am not asking for a specific one, any apple will do)

As you can see, when a noun begins with a vowel, we use AN.

Notice that with plurals, we don’t use A / AN

I love dogs 

In addition, with uncountable nouns, we don’t use A / AN

I’m tired, I need coffee 

2) THE 

We use the definite article THE when we are talking about something specific. So if you know which one I mean – I will use THE

Can you pass me the blue pen?

(You know which pen I mean) 

I am going to the bank

(You know which bank I mean)

3) THIS / THAT

In addition, to indicate if something is near or far, either in distance or time, we can use THIS / THAT.

This book is better than that one. 

THIS gives the feeling that something is near, and THAT gives the feeling it is far away. Here is an example with distance in time.

This story I am going to tell you is interesting 

That story you told me yesterday was interesting

We can also use the plurals as below

Singular

Plural 

This 

These 

That 

Those 

Thanks for reading Part 1 of Basic English Grammar.

Go and read PART 2 here.

Do leave a comment below if you have any questions.

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Keith O'Hare

Trinity Dip TESOL, MSc Digital Education (UK). Helping more than 40,000 students worldwide with my online courses. A lover of languages, teaching and lasagna!

24 thoughts on “Learn Basic English Grammar: Beginners – Part 1”

  1. Thank you Keith for so helpful, useful, and easy going Part 1 and Part 2 of Grammar. I am looking forward for Part 3 and 4 with some of my “old grammar hand-aches” such as Direct and Indirect Speech, Passive Voice, Conditionals and so on.

  2. Pingback: Enhance Your Vocabulary for IELTS Talking with Tales - Ilampk.com

  3. I want to learn english. I have read several sites. I feel that your teaching is marvellous, and when I have finished the free stuff, which is huge in itself I will try to enrole with you for enhancing and fluency in English. I am 76 all I want to have full command on English.

  4. 1. How words like work, early, etc. Can be used in a sentence as adverbs?
    2. How articles come under parts ofspeach?
    3. What about interjections?
    Please explain.

    1. Thanks for your questions.
      ‘Work’ is a noun, not an adverb.
      For ‘early’ you can say, ‘He arrived early for the meeting’ (here it is an adverb describing when he arrived).
      I think the use of articles is a basic part of grammar and that is why they are in this grammar lesson.
      Interjections are another important part of grammar, that I have not covered here. Of course, there are many more areas of grammar to cover, and this lesson just covers a few.

  5. Pingback: Learn Basic English Grammar: Beginners - Part 2

  6. Your classes are excellent. I am always very keen to watch your videos….very informative and useful especially for non-native English users like me….

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