Introduction
One reason many students have difficulty learning a foreign language is that they never really understood English grammar. Even now, the idea of 'transitive verb,' 'prepositional phrase,' 'direct object,' or 'adverb' is fuzzy to many. Just the thought of having to diagram a sentence can elicit a wide range of feelings, from dislike to dread! Any foreign language textbook assumes a knowledge of grammar terminology. And many students spend as much time trying to figure out what things like 'adjectives' are as they do trying to learn their endings and functions in the foreign language they're studying.

This handout is a review of grade school grammar, supplemented with some linguistics. If students can learn the concepts herein, and learn to ask these same questions of the language they're studying, they will be well on their way to becoming efficient readers.
 

Basic Questions
Our study is formulated in a series of questions--occasionally followed by clarifying comments--that can be asked of every clause or sentence. By learning to ask these questions, the student's understanding of the grammatical relationships of the individual words of the language is greatly enhanced.
 

QUESTION 1 - WHAT, IF ANYTHING, HAPPENED?

Look at this sentence:

(1)	The cat purred.

Ask yourself --what happened? This gives you the verb (labeled V) of the clause. In this sentence, it is purred --'purred' is what happened. That's the verb. This type of verb is called an active verb, because it describes an action. Even a verb like 'sleeping' is an active verb, though it doesn't require much action.

Now, what if nothing happened? Take, for example, a sentence like:

(2)	John is a doctor.

What happened? Nothing! This is called a non-active clause. Instead of stating an action, it gives a condition, state of being, or some other quality; non-actives are basically descriptive. Non-actives always use some form of the verb to be, e.g., is, was, were, etc. Examples of other non-active clauses are John is sick, John is tall, or Ice cream is good.

QUESTION 2 - WHO PERFOMED THE ACTION OF THE VERB, OR WHOM IS THE VERB DESCRIBING?

This gives you the subject (S) of the clause. Look at the sentence (1) again:

The cat purred.

It was 'the cat' that performed the action of the V, so 'the cat' is the subject. In a non-active clause, the noun which the verb describes is the subject. Now look at sentence (2) again:

John is a doctor.

'John' is the one whom the verb describes. So 'John' is the subject. The subject is spoken of as being in the "nominative case." In many Indo-European languages (like English), the S comes first, then the V. So, the word order of English is SV:

	S	V
(3)	The cat	purred.

QUESTION 3 - DID THE SUBJECT PERFORM ITS ACTION ON ANYONE OF ANYTHING (or Did S V anyone or anything?)?

This gives you the direct object (DO). In other words, was anyone or anything acted upon? Take, for example, a sentence like:

(5)	The cat killed a mouse.

What happened? killed. Who killed? the cat. Did the cat kill anyone or anything? Yes! -- a mouse. So, a mouse is the DO. The DO is spoken of as being in the "accusative case."

When a clause contains a DO, it is called transitive. In English, the DO follows the V. So, the word order of transitive clauses is SV (DO) -- the direct object being optional, and thus in parentheses.

	S	V	DO
(6)	The cat	killed	a mouse

What if no one or nothing was acted upon? Look at this sentence:

(7)	John slept.

There is another type of active clause that is neither transitive nor intransitive. Such clauses are called passive. Passive clauses have no DO, yet someone or something is acted upon. Take, for example, a sentence like:

(8)	A mouse was killed by the cat.

What happened? killed. Who killed? the cat. Did the cat kill anyone or anything? Yes -- a mouse. But, note the differences between this sentence and (6) above (The cat killed a mouse.):

1. English word order is SVO, yet the actor (or the "do-ER") of the action (which is normally the S) is last in the sentence, and the do-EE (which is normally the DO) is first.
2. The verb is was killed, not killed--as in sentence (6).
3. The actor (or "doer") is marked with by (by the cat).
   
   These three things mark this as a passive clause. It means that the subject is acted upon, and is a passive participant in the action, while the actor is neither the S nor the DO; hence it is marked with by. In passives, the actor is called the agent.

Passive clauses have no DO. Below is a breakdown of the function of the words in sentence (8)  A mouse was killed by the cat:

	S	V	agent
(9)	A mouse	was killed	by the cat.

It is important to realize that languages mark the passive in different ways. The three things noted above are specific to English alone. However, a more universal way of marking passives can be seen even in English, if pronouns are used. Say, for example, that my cat Felix killed my pet mouse Rex: Felix killed Rex. Now insert pronouns: He killed him. As mentioned above, the pronoun he marks the S, which is in the nominative case, while him marks the DO -- in the accusative case. But if we describe Felix's killing Rex by using pronouns and the passive we get: He was killed by him. Note that here 'He' refers to Rex the mouse, while 'him' refers to Felix the cat. Here the acted upon is in the nominative case (he), while the actor (which in passives is called the agent) is not in the nominative. This way of marking S and DO -- by their endings, and not by their order in the sentence -- is more universal. This sentence can be broken down like this:

	S	V	agent
(10)	He	was killed	by him.

QUESTION 4 - DID S V THE DO TO ANYONE OR ANYTHING?

This gives the indirect object (IO). Example:

(11)

John

gave

flowers to Mary.

What happened? gave ( = V). Who gave? John (= S). Did John give anyone or anything? Yes! -- flowers (= DO). Did John give flowers to anyone or anything? Yes -- Mary (= IO). In English, the IO is most often marked by to. (NOTE: There is never an IO without a DO. In other words, if you find no DO, you don't need to search for an IO!) So, now we have even more information about the word order of English: S V (DO 'to'  + IO).

	S	V	DO	IO
(12)	John	gave	flowers	to Mary

As always, there are exceptions. In English, the IO can actually precede the DO. When it does, however, it is not marked by to.

The above sentence about John and Mary can also be said John gave Mary flowers. What happened? gave. Who gave?John. Did John give anyone or anything? Yes -- was it Mary? NO! It was flowers. Did John give flowers to anyone or anything? Yes -- Mary. So then, if there are two objects side by side, without to marking either one, the first is the IO and the second the DO. So we can restate the word order as: S V (DO 'to'  + IO) -- like in sentence (12), or S V IO DO:

	S	V	IO	DO
(13)	John	gave	Mary	flowers

This a good place to review adjectives (adj.). Questions 2-4 pertain to nouns (persons, places, or things). S's, Do's, and IO's are always nouns. So we can ask of questions 2-4 What kind of S, DO, or IO does the sentence talk about?

Adjectives tell about nouns. Going back to my old friends Felix and Rex, I could embellish their story a bit and say that after Felix killed Rex, he passed him on to my dog Fido to play with:

(14)	The big, ferocious cat gave the poor, battered, dead, sweet little mouse to smelly, dumb Fido.

What happened? gave. Who gave? the cat. Did the cat give anyone or anything? Yes -- the mouse. Did the cat give the mouse to anyone or anything? Yes -- Fido. Now, are there any words that tell what kind of cat, mouse, or Fido? Yes -- big, ferocious, poor, battered, dead, sweet, smelly, and dumb -- they all tell about the S, DO, or IO. So adjectives tell about nouns, which are the S's, Do's, and IO's in any given sentence.

QUESTION 5 - IN WHAT WAY, IF ANY, DID THE S V?

This gives you the adverb (adv.). After asking questions 1-4, some words are still left. Those that tell about the noun are adjectives. Those that tell about the verb are adverbs. Example:

(15)	Bob reluctantly boarded the airplane.

What happened is Bob boarded the airplane. Now, is there a word that tells me something about the manner in which Bob boarded the airplane? Yes -- reluctantly. That's the adverb. Adverbs usually end in -ly.

Next, a word about prepositions (prep.). Prepositions are usually short words (2-4 letters) that usually answer the question where?. Like adjectives, they tell us about the S, DO, or IO. And, like adjectives, they follow the noun they describe. Prepositions join together with other nouns and their adjectives to form prepositional phrases (PP). The most common use of PP's is to give location. Let's take a non-active clause for our example: The cat on the blue rug is old. The PP is on the blue rug. The preposition is on (a short word which tells 'where'), and the whole PP is on the blue rug.

	S	PP	V	Adj
(16)	The cat	on the blue rug	is	old

Besides location, some PP's are used with motion verbs to tell the direction: The bird flew toward the south. The PP is toward the south. A few other verbs of this type are run, throw, and roll. These still tell where, but more specifically they tell direction -- not location.

Finally, the various parts of speech can often be obtained by asking some simpler questions: Who, whom, or what? These will all be nouns, and thus will be either the S, DO, or IO. Where? This will almost always be answered by a PP. How? This will usually be an adverb. And lastly, What kind? These will almost always be adjectives.