English Grammar

120 Rules of Grammer

RULE33: In a sentence depicting
comparison, whenever the word “times” comes up, it is never followed by a comparative degree.

Examples:-

🔵 This book is three times larger than that book. ❌
🟡 This book is three times as large as that book. ✅

120 Rules of Grammer

RULE32: The use of phrase “as… as” and “so… as”:
These blanks are filled up with the adjectives of positive degree.

Examples:-

🔵If we pass on the information, he's as good as dead.✅

🟡I'm not so desperate as to agree to that. ✅


#NOTE: “as… as” can be used to denote both positive and negative sentences while “so… as” can only be used only to denote negative sentences.

Examples:-

🟣He is as good as Ram. ✅
🟡He is not as good as Ram. ✅

120 Rules of Grammer

RULE31: There are certain words which are always followed by the preposition “to”.

These are :

Prefer Superior Inferior
Injurious Junior Ancillary
Addicted Senior Exterior
Known Ulterior Posterior


#NOTE: Any word suffixed with “-ior” will always be followed by the preposition “to”.

Examples:-

🟡For babies, breastfeeding is superior to bottle-feeding. ✅

🟡Too much alcohol is injurious to your health. ✅

#NOTE: The words “marry” and “known” are always followed by the preposition “to” in the Passive voice.

Examples:-

🟡Rama is married to Sita. ✅

🟡I am known to him. ✅

120 Rules of Grammer

RULE30 : Subject-Verb Agreement with Collective Nouns :
When a collective noun denotes that the whole group is working together on the same task, we use a singular verb.

Example:-

🟢The audience is watching the movie. [every audience is watching together] ✅

When a collective noun denotes that the whole group is working on different tasks, we use a plural verb.

Examples:-

🟠The audience are taking the seats. ✅

#NOTE: Words like “police, vermin, cattle, clergy, gentry, poultry, folk, peasantry, people, infantry, cavalry, etc.” are “plural nouns” and not “collective nouns”. Plural noun always takes a plural verb. So these words always take plural verbs.

Example:-

🟢Cattle are wandering in the farm. ✅

#NOTE: Sometimes the word “people” is used in the meaning of “a country” instead of “persons”, in that case we use a singular verb. Peoples means countries or people belonging to different nationalities.“Peoples” in that case is correct.

120 Rules of Grammer

RULE29: There are certain words which are always used in Perfect Tense : “ever, never, yet, already, now, just now, until, now, always, occasionally, often, lately, recently, so far, upto now, upto the present”.

Examples:-

🟠The concert had already begun by the time we arrived. ✅

🟢He had gone there already. ✅

120 Rules of Grammer

RULE28: There are certain verbs which do not exist in “-ing” form.

These are :

Possession Perception Feeling

Own See Love
Belong Smell Know
Have Taste Think
Include Hear Hate
Possess Feel Want
Owe Appear Need
Contain Seem Desire
Compromise Resemble Wish
Consist Notice Like


Examples:-

🟠I am owning a car. ❌
🟢I own a car. ✅

#NOTE: Sometimes the word “loving” is used as an adjective, which should not be confused with a verb.

Example:-

He is a very loving person. [Used as an Adjective] ✅

#NOTE: When “have” is used in the sense of possession or belongingness or ownership, we cannot use “having”.
However, apart from this, we can use “having” as perfect participle
or in other cases.

Examples:-

🟢I have a book.[Possession] ✅
🟠I am having lunch now.[Perfect Participle] ✅

120 Rules of Grammer

RULE27: The use of
Conjunction “although” :

“Although”, meaning “in spite of something”, is a subordinating conjunction.
This means that the clause which it introduces is a subordinate clause, which needs a main clause to make it complete.

Sometimes “although” as a subordinate clause may take “yet” in the main clause.
However, “although” as a subordinate clause never takes “but” in the main clause.[Yet is optional. It can or cannot be used.]

Examples:-

🟠Although she is rich, she thinks twice before spending a penny. ✅

🟢Although she is rich, yet she thinks twice before spending a penny. ✅

🟠Although she is rich, but she thinks twice before spending a penny. ❌

120 Rules of Grammer

RULE26: The use of Adverb “as” :

🟢“as” can be used as an adverb with these given words – “treat, define, regard, describe, respect,depict, portray,view, know, etc.”

🟠However, “as” cannot be used as an adverb with these words – “elect, name, think, consider, call, make, choose, appoint, etc.”

Examples:-

🟣Biology is defined as the science of living beings. ✅
🟡She was elected Chair of the Board of Governors. ✅

120 Rules of Grammer

RULE25: The use of “Enough”:
“Enough” plays the role of both Adverb and Adjective.

🟠When it is used as an Adverb, it qualifies an adjective, verb, or other adverb or a word group.
🟢When it is used as an Adjective, it qualifies a noun or a pronoun.

🎈 When “enough” plays the role of an Adjective, “enough” is placed before the noun or pronoun
i.e. “enough noun”. ✅

🎈 When “enough” plays the role of an Adverb, “enough” is placed after the adjective i.e. “adjective enough”. ✅

🟡He has enough sugar. [Adjective] ✅
🔵She is smart enough. [Adverb] ✅

120 Rules of Grammer

RULE24: Whenever we use “very” with Superlative degree, article “the” is always used before “very”,
i.e. “the very superlative”.✅

“Very” modifies present participle used as adjective, adverb and adjective in positive degree.
eg. It is a very interesting novel. ✅

However, when we use “much” with Superlative degree, article “the” is used before the superlative.
i.e. “much the superlative”. ✅

“Much” is used with comparative degree and past participle.
eg. He is much interested. ✅

Examples:-

🔵He is the very best student of my class. ✅
🟡He is much the best student of my class. ✅

120 Rules of Grammer

RULE23: The use of “Seldom or never”:
The word “Seldom” is an Adverb and when a sentence begins with “seldom”, the law of inversion will be followed.

Example:-

Seldom or never does he come to my house. ✅
[ Adverb + Helping V. + Subject + Main V. ]


#NOTE: We can either use “Seldom or never” or “Seldom, if ever”, but we cannot use “Seldom or ever”.


#NOTE : The use of phrase “Little
or nothing”:
The phrase “Little or nothing” means “Hardly anything”. In this case also, we can either use “Little or nothing” or “Little, if everything”, but we cannot use “Little or everything”.

120 Rules of Grammer

RULE22: We use “each other” and “one another” to show that each person in a group of two or more people does something to the others.
There is very little difference between each other and one another. “Each other” is generally used for two people while “one another” is used for more than two people.

Examples:-

🟡 All citizens should love one other. 😀
🔵 Peter and Mary helped each other. 😀


#NOTE: Difference between “other” and “another”:

Other is an adjective meaning 'different' or 'the second of two items'. Other can be used with singular or plural nouns. Other can also be a pronoun to refer to things or people. The plural form is others.

However, When we use ‘an’ before ‘other’, we write it as one word: another. It means 'additional' or 'one more'. Another can be used before a plural noun when that noun is preceded by a number, or words/phrases such as a couple of, few etc.

Examples:-

🟡 Have you got any other questions? ✅
🔵 This cake is delicious. Could I have another slice please? ✅

120 Rules of Grammer

RULE21: Certain words like “separation, excuse, mention, favour, pardon, leave, report, sight, etc.” do not take Possessive case before them.

Example:-

Separation from you pains me a lot and I become sad. ✅


#NOTE: Possessive Case: your, his, her, my, their, our, its, etc.

✔️ Rule 19 : There are three cases of pronouns

The Subject Object Posse Posse
cases ive ive ssive ssive
of Pro Pro Adj. Pro
Perso nouns nouns nouns
nal
Pronoun
First I Me My Mine
Person We Us Our Ours

Second You You Your Yours
Person

Third She Her Her Hers
Person He Him His His
It It Its ---
they them their theirs

✔️ Rule 20 : Who vs. Whom?
“Who” is used as a subjective pronoun,
and, “Whom” is used as an objective pronoun.

Revise once again

✔️ Rule 01 : Difference between “Each” and “Every”. They are always followed by a singular verb.

✔️ Rule 02 : “Both” and “not” cannot be used together.

✔️ Rule 03 : Usage of Relative Pronouns - who, whom, which and that.
Who/Whom 👉 Living things
Which 👉 Non-living things
That 👉 Living & Non-living
(Both)

✔️ Rule 04 : There are three types of conditional sentences -

TYPE IF CLAUSE MAIN CLAUSE
I Simple will-future or
Present (Modal +
infinitive)
shall/can/may/must
+ V1

II Simple would + V1 or,
Past could/might/should
+ V1

III Past would + have +
Perfect past participle
(V3) or,
could/might/ should
+ have + past
participle (V3)

✔️ Rule 05 : The general rule for usage of the phrase "one of the" is -

🔵 “One of the + Plural Noun + + Singular Verb” [ If "One of the Nouns Subject of the verb ]
🔵 “One of the + Plural Noun + THAT/WHO etc. + Plural Verb” [ "One of the Nouns" is not Subject of the verb ]
🔵 “The only one of the + Plural Noun + WHO/THAT etc.”, a Singular verb is required.

✔️ Rule 06 : If there is a combination of “Number + Unit + Noun” or, “Number + Unit + Adjective” in a sentence, we always use the singular form of the Unit.

✔️ Rule 07 : Expressions of time, money, speed, weight, height and distance, when used or covered in one way, usually take a Singular verb.
However, when these expressions are used or covered in various ways, a Plural verb is used.

✔️ Rule 08 : Certain cases of comparisons ( Comparisons are usually done between the same things).

✔️ Rule 09 : Prepositions of Time: “Since” and “For”.
🟡 Since is used to denote “Point of start”
🟣 For is used for “duration”

✔️ Rule 10 : When two actions occurred in past, the action which happened earlier is denoted by using Past Perfect Tense.

And, the action which happened later is denoted by using Simple Past Tense.

✔️ Rule 11 : We use a Possessive Adjective (my, our, his, her, their, your) before a Gerund.

✔️ Rule 12 : Law of Inversion -
Two types of Inversion:
(1)Partial Inversion
[ Adverb + Helping Verb + Subject + Main Verb + … ]

(2)Complete Inversion
[ Adverb + main verb +… ]

✔️ Rule 13 : Whenever we use normal places like school, college, church, bed, table, hospital, market, prison, jail, court, temple, mosque, university etc. for primary purpose
(for which they are being made), the article “The” is not used before them.
But when these places are used for secondary purpose(any other than for which are they are being made), the article “The” is used before them.

✔️ Rule 14 : Whenever adverbs like “No sooner”, “Hardly”, “Scarcely”, etc. are used in the beginning of a sentence, they are always followed by a helping verb.

✔️ Rule 15 : Use of Reflexive Pronoun as the Object of a sentence.

✔️ Rule 16 : There are certain words which are never followed by Reflexive pronoun - hide, keep, stop, turn, shave, bathe, etc.

✔️ Rule 17 : Whenever the two subjects are connected by “as well as, together with, along with, and not, in addition to, like, unlike, with, rather than, except, no less than, nothing but, more than one”, the verb agrees with the first Subject.

✔️ Rule 18 : Difference between Noun and Verb for similar sounding words, like Advice (N), Advise( V).