Wendy M. Anderson

Verb tense conveys when the action you’re describing took place — the past, present or future. Here’s a list of the grammatical terms for different verb tenses. Simple present tense: Tells what is happening now. Simple past tense: Tells what happened before now. Simple future: Talks about what has not happened yet.

To make a proper sentence, you need a subject and a verb — all other components of the sentence are just icing on the cake! Here’s how to break down the parts of a sentence: Verb: Expresses an action or state of being. Subject: The person or thing being talked about. Also the person or thing performing or being the verb, so it must match up with the verb.

Punctuation makes a huge difference in the meaning of a sentence, so it’s vital that you understand how to use it correctly. Endmarks, apostrophes and commas are all key to clear communication in English. Endmarks All sentences need an endmark: a full stop, question mark, exclamation mark or ellipsis. Avoid putting two endmarks at the end of the same sentence, unless you’re trying to create a comic effect (for example, ‘She said my cooking tasted like what?

Pronouns are important for many reasons, as outlined by the following tips. You can use pronouns to stand in as subjects or objects, or to show possession. Here are some tips for getting your head around pronouns: Pronouns that may be used only as subjects or subject complements: I, he, she, we, they, who, whoever.

Matching the right subject to your verb can be tricky when you're writing in English. Here are some basic tips to help you work out which verbs are singular and which verbs are plural. Match singular subjects with singular verbs, plural subjects with plural verbs. Amounts of time and money are usually singular (ten minutes is).