Capitalization Rules in English Grammar

Capitalization refers to a writing skill where the first word is written in uppercase and rests of the words are written in lower case. There are few rules defined as mentioned below which govern the use of capitalization.

1. The first word of the document or the first word after the period should be always written in Capital or uppercase. For example, Children have completed their homework. They are playing in the ground now.

The capitalization should not be done if the title immediately follows or precedes a name. For example, Dhoni is the only captain to win two world cup matches.

If the title comes before the name, then it should be capitalized.  For example, I saw Captain Dhoni in the mall today.

2. First word in direct speech should be capitalized. For example, My dad asked “Have you completed the homework?”

3. Brand names should always be capitalized, but the noun following it should not be capitalized. For example, I like Audi Q6 model.

4. Geographical features should be capitalized if they point to a specific attribute.

5. Proper nouns should always be capitalized. For example, names of person, cities, planets, animals, countries, mountains.

6. If an independent clause begins after a colon, then the first letter should be capitalized.

7. Common nouns should not be capitalized. For example cat, church, etc. are common nouns which should not be capitalized.

8. Occupations before full name should not be capitalized. For example, chef Tommy or actress Angelina Jolie.

9. Nicknames should always be capitalized.

10. First word in a complete quotation should be always be capitalized.

11. Relative’s family name should always be capitalized if it precedes a personal name or if they are used in place of personal names.

12. Historical events, specific era should be capitalized always since that will differentiate between the normal regime and special events.

Different Types of Determiners

Determiner is a grammatical form and a type of noun modifier that precedes and followed by the noun. In simple words, it is used in a sentence to give additional information about the noun. These are used before a noun or a noun phrase so as to point out a specific thing, object, place or a person. The role of determiners is to express reference. In other words, determiners clarify what a noun is referring to. For example, He saw the actress (Here, ‘the actress’ means a particular actress) or His father is a doctor (Here, ‘a doctor’ refers to a particular person).  Let us understand different types of determiners in detail.

1.  Articles:  Articles are the most popular determiners. A, an and the are the articles that are used in a sentence to specify a noun. ‘A’ and ‘an’ are indefinite articles as they indicate a group of noun in the sentence. ‘The’ is a definite article that specifies a particular noun in the sentence.

For example:

• The statue of liberty is the symbol of freedom.

• He is an artist.

• She has a famous writer.

2.  Quantifiers: The quantifiers are used to define the quantity like a little, a few, more, most, much, enough, many, much, any, etc.

For example:

• I have enough chocolates.

• He has many friends.

3.  Possessives: Possessives are one form of determiners that shows ownership or possession of a noun. My, our, his, her or there are possessive determiners.

For example:

• This is my dress.

• His mobile phone is very expensive.

4.  Demonstratives: These determiners describe the location and position of a noun from the speaker’s point of view. These, that, this and those are demonstrative determiners.

For example:

• This car is mine.

• These books are good for test preparation.

5.  Interrogatives: Interrogative determiners are used in the sentence for asking questions. Whose, what and which are interrogative determiners.

For example:

• Which fruit do you like the most?

• What would you like to have for dinner?

Kinds of Subjunctive Mood in English Grammar

In English grammar, the mood indicates the attitude of the writer. There are different types of mood in English grammar such as imperative mood, indicative mood and subjunctive mood. The subjunctive mood is a verb form that is used in a situation which is not factual or doubtful. In simple words, when the verb is in the subjunctive mood, then it expresses different states of unreality or unreal situations, including wish, opinion, emotion, judgment, action, possibility, demand, regret, proposal, etc. It starts with the word ‘if’ and commonly found in a clause.

Uses of Subjunctive Mood

• It is used after a wish, if, as if.

• It is used after the different types of verbs such as recommend, ask, suggest, command, insist, propose, etc.

• It is used after the expressions such as it is important, it is necessary, it is desirable, etc.

Subjunctive statements mostly denote an action which is in the future and hence the tenses will be applied in a different manner. In other words, tense of indicative verbs may be changed, but the tense of subjunctive verbs indicating a futuristic action does not change.

For example:

• I wish finance minister could give more tax rebate.

• I suggest he implements the design as given in the magazine.

When ‘if’ clause is used as a subjunctive verb, the statements become trickier. As there is no surety of action being performed, we cannot have any tense. For example, if I were to become VP in next 10 years, I would make changes in the work culture.

People often tend to make an error when they use “to be” in the subjunctive mood. The correct usage would be to use “be” in the present tense and “were” in the past tense irrespective of the subject.

For example:

• It will be good if hearing of the case is postponed.

• If I were rich, I would buy the palatial building and build a swimming pool on top floor.

Basic Elements of Short Stories

A story is a one form of narrative that gives a specific kind of pleasure to listeners and readers. The different characters and their actions make a story interesting for the readers. It is the inquisitiveness of listeners and readers that empower the writer to write an interesting story. Stories have different genre like comic story, tragic story and values in action stories, teaching stories and vision stories. Similarly, short stories are categorized into various types. A short story is small work fiction, which is created with the help of imaginary characters. Let us understand the basic elements of short stories.

1.  Setting: In a short story, a setting refers to the place and time in which the story takes place. Setting plays an important role in many short stories. It illustrates the geographical location, time period and weather condition of the story.

2.  Character: A character is a person or an animal that are identified in the story through their actions and dialogues. In simple words, characters are those persons who are represented in a dramatic work. In the story, the central character is recognized as a protagonist and the person who opposes the central character is known as the antagonist.

3.  Plot: A plot is series of events that are arranged in a proper order by the writer. Usually, a plot consists of a beginning, middle and the end part. A short story normally has one plot.

4.  Conflicts: The conflict refers to the struggle or problems between two characters or things. It is an essential part of a short story and without conflict there will be no plot. In a story, the central character may struggle against other character, society, and natural calamity or against his or her emotions and feelings.

5.  Theme: It is the main idea or belief in a short story. It depends on the writer that how he narrates the story.

What are Kinds of Pronoun and its Uses

In English grammar, a pronoun is recognized as a part of speech. It is a word or phrase that is replaced with a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns can be used as a subject, indirect and direct object and the object of the preposition. A pronoun is used in a sentence to avoid the repetition of a noun. ‘It’, ‘she’, ‘he’, ‘we’, ‘who’ and ‘they’ are widely used pronouns. Besides, these are also used for some adjectives, adverbs and other pronouns. Thus, if you want to describe about a person, place, animal or thing, then you can use pronouns and can make the sentence concise and clear for the readers.

Types of Pronoun

A pronoun is broadly categorized into following types:

1.    Personal pronoun
2.    Possessive pronoun
3.    Reflexive pronoun
4.    Relative pronoun
5.    Demonstrative pronoun

Let us understand the usage of different kinds of pronouns in detail.

1.    Personal Pronoun: Personal pronoun refers to a specific person, thing or group. It represents a thing or a person with the help word like ‘I’, ‘It’, ‘She’, ‘He’, ‘You’, ‘We’, ‘You’ and ‘They’.

For example:

•    He helps aged people.
•    They won the tournament

2.   Possessive Pronoun: Possessive pronoun shows ownership or close possession. Besides, it shows the relationship of a person or thing to another person or thing. ‘Mine’, ‘Ours’, ‘Yours’, ‘His’, ‘Their’ and ‘Her’ are possessive pronouns.

For example:

•    This painting is mine.
•    Her voice is really good.

3.  Reflexive Pronoun: A reflexive pronoun acts with another noun or pronoun when something does something to itself. In other words, reflexive pronoun explains a noun when subject’s action influence the subject itself. ‘Myself’, ‘Herself’, ‘Himself’, ‘Ourself’, ‘Themselves’ and ‘Yourself’ are reflexive pronoun.

For example:

•    They prepare themselves for the match.
•    How do you build confidence in yourself?

4.  Relative Pronoun: A relative pronoun is used to explain a noun that has been mentioned before and to give more information about that noun. ‘Which’, ‘Who’, ‘That’, ‘Whom’ and ‘Whose’ are relative pronoun.

For example:

•    The painter who designed this painting is standing outside.
•    The girl whom I met yesterday is my classmate.

5.  Demonstrative Pronoun: A demonstrative pronoun is used to replace certain thing or people, which have been previously mentioned. ‘This’, ‘That’, ‘Those’ and ‘These’ are demonstrative pronoun.

For example:

•    Those are rotten.
•    This is blue.

Classification of Adjectives in English Grammar

An adjective is a part of speech that modifies, describes and quantifies a noun or pronoun in the sentence. Apart from one word, a cluster of words with a subject and a verb also acts as an adjective. In this case, the cluster of words is considered an adjective clause. An adjective is classified into five parts, which includes:

•    Possessive adjective

•    Descriptive adjective

•    Adjective of quantity or numeral adjective

•    Demonstrative adjective

•    Interrogative adjective

Let us understand the different types of adjectives in detail.

1.  Possessive Adjective: a possessive adjective shows possession of a noun by something or someone. It is quite similar to possessive pronoun. ‘His’, ‘her’, ‘my’, ‘our’, ‘your’, ‘their’ and ‘its’ are possessive adjective.

For example:

•    Your mobile phone is lying on the table.

•    Her husband is standing outside.

2.  Descriptive Adjective: A descriptive adjective describes the quality or the type of noun or pronoun.

For example:

•    Sherry is a beautiful girl.

•    Rock is very tall.

3.   Adjective of Quantity or Numeral Adjective: A numeral adjective expresses the number of nouns. This type of adjective is also known as an adjective of quantity, which answers the questions like ‘how many’ or ‘how much’?

For example:

•    Twenty pilgrims injured in a bus accident.

•    She needs more money.

4.  Demonstrative Adjective: This form of the adjective is mainly used to point out nouns or pronouns. A demonstrative adjective always come before the word they are describing. ‘These’, ‘this’, ‘those’ and ‘that’ are demonstrative adjective.

For example:

•    I always prefer to wear this type of dress.

•    That girl is cute.

5.  Interrogative Adjective: Interrogative adjective is used for interrogation. In simple words, it is used to ask questions like ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘which’, etc.

For example:

•    What are you cooking today?

•    Which place would you like visit? 

What are Heteronyms give some examples

Heteronyms are the words that have similar spelling but different meaning and pronunciation. These are also known as homographs, but not homophones. Heteronyms are certain types of homographs that are identified through pronunciation and meaning. Some heteronyms sound as verb and others as a noun. Besides this, most heteronyms have related meanings, but some have totally different meaning. A list of words is mentioned below that are heteronyms.

1.    Alternate (verb) and alternate (adjective)

2.    Affect (verb) and affect (noun)

3.    Bass (voice) and bass (fish)

4.    Close (verb) and close (adjective)

5.    Desert (noun) and desert (verb)

6.    Deliberate (adjective) and deliberate (verb)

7.    Entrance (noun) and entrance (verb)

8.    Invalid (adjective) and invalid (noun)

9.    Lead (metal) and lead (verb)

10.    Minute (noun) and minute (adjective)

11.    Resign (as in resignation) and resign (as in signature)

12.    Row (line) and row (argument)

13.    Sow (noun) and sow (verb)

14.    Tear (verb) and tear (noun)

15.    Wound (past tense of wind) and wound (noun)

Let us understand the heteronyms from below mentioned sentences.

•    She will read the letter that her elder brother read last month.

•    I will resume my job search after updating my resume.

•    I want to present you the best anniversary present.

•    Close the door as the dust storm is getting close.

•    I want you to separate the books and keep it into two separate racks.

•    The guard will permit you to auditorium if you show him a valid permit.

•    They alternate the currency through alternate machine.