English grammar
English grammar is a body of rules specifying how meanings are created in English. There are many accounts of the grammar, which tend to fall into two groups: the descriptivist, which describe the patterns through which meanings are typically created in functional speech and writing; and the prescriptivist, which set out pre-existing rules as to how meanings are created (see prescription and description).
No human language's grammar has been fully mapped out. That is, no set of unambiguous rules has been formulated that will always or almost always agree with native speakers on whether any given sentence is grammatical or not. (This is evidenced by the generally poor performance of automated grammar checkers and so on.) The development of a complete grammar is an important goal of natural language processing.
The remainder of this article deals with English grammar as viewed from a linguistic perspective. Therefore, the issues addressed deal mainly with the grammars of natural dialects of everyday speech rather than those of formal writing. Issues common to all languages are not stressed here.

Disputes in English grammar
English verbs

• Conjugation tables
  English irregular verbs
  English modal auxiliary verb
  English passive voice
  English declension
  
  
  
  • English personal pronouns
    English plural
    English compound
    English honorifics
    English relative clauses
    Gender in English Word order
    In English, nouns generally describe persons, places, things, and abstract ideas, and are treated as grammatically distinct from verbs. English nouns, in general, are not marked for case or gender, but are marked for number and definiteness.
    
    Nouns
    
    
    Main article: Gender in English Gender
    The deictic element indicates whether or not a specific subset of a noun is intended; and if so, which subset. A deictic is either (i) specific or (ii) non-specific. The specific deictics are given in the following table.
    The subset in question is specified by one of two possible deictic features: either
    together with the possibility of an interrogative in both of these categories (demonstrative "which?" and possessive "whose?"). All of these have the function of identifying a particular subset of the noun that is being referred to.
    "Proximity to the speaker" refers not only to physical distance, but also to temporal; deictics orient the listener to the 'speaker-now', the temporal–modal complex that constitutes the point of reference of the speech event. So, "this tragedy" refers to one that is current or recent and/or is or was geographically close to the speaker, whereas "that tragedy" refers to one that occurred in the past and/or was less geographically close.
    There is one more item in this class, namely "the". The word "the" is a specific, determinative deictic of a peculiar kind: it means "the subset in question is identifiable; but this will not tell you how to identify it—the information is somewhere around, where you can recover it"; typically, the listener/reader can recover the information from assumed general knowledge, the specific context, or from a specific and recent point in the text. So whereas "this train" means "you know which train: the one near me", and "my train" means "you know which train: the one I own", "the train" means simply "you know which train." Hence "the" is usually accompanied by some other element that supplies the information required: for example, "the long train" means "you know which train: you can tell it by its length."
    Non-specific deictics convey the sense of all, or none, or some unspecified subset. The main categories and main items in each are as follow.
    (a) Total
    (b) Partial
    There are two systems of number for English nouns, one associated with each of the two kinds of deictics. (i) With specific deictics, the number system is non-plural versus plural; mass nouns are grouped together with singular, in a category of non-plural. So "this" and "that" go with non-plural (singular or mass), and "these" and "those" go with plural.
    For example, for non-plural nouns, singular might be "this train" (plural "these trains") and mass might be "this electricity" (no plural equivalent).
    (ii) With non-specific deictics, the system is singular versus non-singular. So "a" and "an" go with singular, and weak "some" with non-singular (mass or plural).
    For example, "a train" is singular (plural "trains" or "some trains"); non-singular mass ("electricity" or "some electricity" has no singular equivalent).
    If there is no deictic element, the noun is non-specific and, within that, non-singular. In other words, a noun may have no deictic element in its structure, but this does not mean that it has no value in the deictic "system", but simply that the value selected is realized by a form having no deictic in the expression.
    
    (a) demonstratively, i.e., by reference to some kind of proximity to the speaker
    

    
    
    • ("this", "these" = "near me"; "that", "those" = "not near me"), or
      (b) by possession, i.e., by reference to 'person' as defined from the standpoint of the speaker
      
      
      
      • ("my", "your", "our", "his", "her", "its", "their"; also "Mary's", "my father's", etc.)
        positive ("each", "every", "both", "all")
        negative ("neither", "no", i.e. "not any")
        selective ("one", "either", "some", "any")
        non-selective ("a" or "an", "one") Deixis
        
        
        Main article: English plural Number
        A definite article such as "the" is used to refer to a specific instance of the noun, often already mentioned in the context or easy to identify. Definite articles are slightly different from demonstratives, which often indicate the location of nouns with respect to the speaker and audience.
        An indefinite article such as "a" or "an" is used to refer to a generic instance of the noun. Note that "a" is used when preceding a noun beginning with a consonant sound, whereas "an" is used when preceding a noun beginning with a vowel sound.
        
        "Let's look for a good restaurant."
        "What about the restaurant we ate at last week?"
        "That restaurant was terrible. What about this one on the corner here?"
        You should have a drink.
        That building is a university.
        They are being an annoyance.
        He is an heir to the throne. Articles
        Historically, English used to mark nouns for case, and the two remnants of this case marking are the pronominal system and the possessive clitic (which used to be called the Saxon genitive). The possessive is marked by a clitic at the end of the possessing noun phrase. This can be illustrated in the following manner:
        The king's daughter's house fell.
        The first <'s> clitic on king indicates that the daughter in question is the king's. The second <'s> clitic does not attach to daughter, as many people mistakenly believe, but in fact to the entire noun phrase The king's daughter.
        English preserves the old Germanic noun case system in its pronouns. Their forms vary with gender, number, person, and case. The full set of cases is listed below; note that modern use of the second person singular thou, originally the informal form to the formal you, is very rare, and is confined to dialects and religious and poetic functions. In modern Standard English, the second person plural you is used instead.
        See English personal pronouns, for further information.
        
        Some dialects use different forms for the second person plural pronoun: they include you-all or y'all . These forms are generally regarded as colloquial and non-standard.
        The pronoun thou was the former second person singular pronoun; it is considered an archaism in most contexts, although it is still used in some dialects in the north of England.
        Mine (and thine) were also previously used before vowel sounds to avoid a glottal stop. e.g., "Do mine eyes deceive me?", "Know thine enemy." This usage is now archaic.
        Whom is often replaced with who. Case
        Nouns can also be used as verbs, as in "verbing weirds language", or as adjectives, as in "mountain bike". See the following articles:
        
        Verbification
        Adjective: Adjectival use of nouns Nouns as other parts of speech
        
        

        Main articles: English verbs and Conjugation tables Verbs
        Verbs in English are marked in limited fashion for person. Unlike some other European languages, person cannot generally be inferred from the conjugation attached to the verb. As a result, subject nouns and pronouns are generally required elements in English sentences for clarity's sake. Most regular verbs in English follow the paradigm exemplified below for the simple present of the verb "to listen":
        Note: an archaic version of the second person singular is "thou listenest", and of the third person singular "he/she/it listeneth".
        
        Person
        Changes in tense in English are achieved by the changes in ending and the use of auxiliary verbs "to be" and "to have" and the use of the auxiliaries "will", "shall" and "would". (These auxiliaries cannot co-occur with other modals like can, may, and must.) The examples below use the regular verb to listen:
        Auxiliary verbs may be used to define tense, aspect, or mood of a verb phrase.
        As mentioned above "going to" is used for some future pseudo-tenses:
        Forms of "do" are used for some negatives, questions and emphasis of the simple present and simple past:
        
        Present tenses
        

        
        
        • Present continuous (or "present progressive"): "I am listening." This tense expresses actions in the present taking place as the speaker is speaking.
          Simple present (or simply "present"): "I listen." This tense expresses actions in the present on a habitual or repetitive basis, but not necessarily happening at the moment the speaker is speaking.
          Present perfect : "I have listened." This tense expresses actions that began in the past but are still true in the present: "I have known her for six years" (and I still know her).
          All forms of the present tense are often used in place of their future-tense counterparts. In particular, various kinds of subordinate clauses — especially if and when clauses — cannot generally use the future tense, so the present tense is used instead.
          Past tenses
          
          
          
          • Simple past: "I listened." This is used to express a completed action that took place at a specific moment in the past. (Confusingly, in US English, the simple past may sometimes be used for a non-specific moment in the past
            Present perfect or perfect "I have listened." This is used to express a completed action that took place at a non-specific moment in the past. This tense often expresses actions that happen in the past, yet cannot be considered a past tense because it always has a connection to the present.
            Past continuous (otherwise known as the imperfect or past progressive): "I was listening." This is used to express an incomplete action in the past. (Thus an "imperfect" action, as opposed to a completed and therefore "perfect" action.)
            Past perfect or pluperfect: "I had listened." This expresses an action completed prior to some other action in the past (often expressed by the simple past). The pluperfect is thus expressing an action even more in the past e.g "He realised he had lost his way", "I was going to town because he had spoken to me".
            Present perfect continuous: "I have been listening." This is used to express that an event started at some time in the past and continuing to the present.
            Past perfect continuous or simply "perfect continuous": "I had been listening." Usually used with an explicit duration, this indicates that an event was ongoing for a specific time, e.g. "When Peter entered my room, I had been listening to music for half an hour."
            Future tenses
            
            
            
            • Simple future: "I shall/will listen." This is used to express that an event will occur in the future, or that the speaker intends to perform some action.
              Future continuous: "I shall/will be listening." This is used to express an ongoing event that has not yet been initiated.
              Future perfect: "I shall/will have listened." This indicates an action which will occur before some other action in the future: Normally two actions are expressed, and the future perfect indicates an action which will occur in the future but will, at the time of the main future action expressed, be in the past (e.g. "I will know the tune next week because I will have listened to it").
              Future perfect continuous or future imperfect: "I shall/will have been listening." Expresses an ongoing action that occurs in the future, before some other event expressed in the future.
              "I am going to listen" is a construction using "to go" as an auxiliary. It is referred to as going to future, futur proche or immediate future, and has the same sense as the simple future, sometimes with an implication of immediacy. It is not strictly a tense, and "to go" is not strictly a tense auxiliary verb, but this construction often presented as a tense for simplicity. By varying the tense of the auxiliary "to go", various other meanings can be achieved, i.e. I am going to be listening (future continuous), I was going to listen (Conditional perfect continuous).
              Conditional tenses
              
              
              
              • Present conditional or simply conditional: "I would listen." This is used to express an event that occurred multiple times or was ongoing in the past (i.e. When I was younger, I would listen. [multiple times]), or something that would be done now or in the future when predicated upon another condition (i.e. "If I had the time, I would listen to you." [this condition could be known from context and omitted from the conditional statement.])
                Present continuous conditional: "I would be listening." This is used to express an ongoing event that had not yet been initiated.
                Conditional perfect: "I would have listened." Indicates that an action would occur after some other event.
                Conditional perfect continuous: "I would have been listening": Expresses an ongoing action that would occur in the future in the past, after some other event.
                "Do I listen?" "I do not listen." "I do listen!"
                "Did I listen?" "I did not listen." "I did listen!" Tense
                
                
                Main article: English passive voice Voice
                English has "moods" of verb. These always include the declarative/indicative and the subjunctive moods, and normally the imperative is included as a mood. Some people include conditional or interrogative forms as verbal moods.
                
                Mood
                Examples are most commonly used verb forms, e.g.:
                
                

                
                
                • I think
                
                
                • I thought
                
                
                • He was seen
                
                
                • I am walking home.
                
                
                • They are singing.
                
                
                • He isn't a dancer.
                
                
                • We are very happy.
                
                

                
                
                
                The declarative mood or indicative mood is the simplest and most basic mood. The overwhelming majority of verb use is in the indicative, which may be considered the "normal" form of verbs, with the subjunctive as an "exceptional" form of verbs. (If any other forms are considered a mood (e.g. imperative), they may also be considered other "exceptional" verb forms.)
                I think
                I thought
                He was seen
                I am walking home.
                They are singing.
                He isn't a dancer.
                We are very happy. Indicative, or declarative, mood
                The conjugation of these moods becomes a significantly more complex matter when they are used with different tenses. However, casual spoken English rarely uses the subjunctive, and generally restricts the conditional mood to the simple present and simple past. A notable exception to this is the use of the present subjunctive in clauses of wish or command which is marked in one or two ways: (1) if third person singular, the "-s" conjugation called for by the declarative mood is absent, and (2) past tense is not used. For example, "They insisted that he go to chapel every morning" means that they were requiring or demanding him to go to chapel. However, "They insisted that he went to chapel every morning" means they are reasserting the statement that, in the past, he did attend chapel every morning. The underlying grammar of this distinction has been called the "American subjunctive". On the other hand, other constructions for expressing wishes and commands, which do not use the subjunctive, are equally common, such as "They required him to go..."
                
                The subjunctive mood is used to express counterfactual (or conditional) statements, and is often found in if-then statements, and certain formulaic expressions. It is typically marked in the present tense by the auxiliary "were" plus the present participle (<-ing>) of the verb.
                

                
                
                1. Were I eating, I would sit.
                   If they were eating, they would sit.
                   Truth be told...
                   If I were you... I would do that. Subjunctive mood
                   
                   The imperative mood is used for commands or instructions. It is not always considered a verbal mood per se. It is formed by using the verb in its simplest, unconjugated form: "Listen! Sit! Eat!" The imperative mood in English occurs only in the second person, and the subject ("you") is generally not expressly stated, because it is implied. When the speaker gives a command regarding anyone else, it is still directed at the second person as though it were a request for permission, although it may be a rhetorical statement.
                   
                   
                   
                   1. Let me do the talking.
                      Let us build a bridge.
                      Give him an allowance.
                      Let sleeping dogs lie. Imperative mood
                      Conditional forms of verb are used to express if-then statements, or in response to counterfactual propositions (see subjunctive mood, above), denoting or implying an indeterminate future action.
                      Conditionals may be considered tense forms but are sometimes considered a verbal mood, the conditional mood.
                      Conditionals are expressed through the use of the verbal auxiliaries could, would, should, may and might in combination with the stem form of the verb.
                      Note that for many speakers, "may" and "might" have merged into a single meaning (that of "might") that implies the outcome of the statement is contingent. The implication of permission in "may" seems to remain only in certain uses with the second person, e.g. "You may leave the dinner table."
                      Two main conditional tenses can be identified in English:
                      I would think = Present Conditional
                      I would have thought = Conditional Perfect
                      
                      He could go to the store.
                      You should be more careful.
                      I may try something else.
                      He might be heading north. Conditional forms
                      Interrogative word order is used to pose questions, with or without an expected answer. Most of the time, it is formed by switching the order of the subject and the auxiliary (or "helping") verb in a declarative sentence, as in the following:
                      However, when the information being requested would be the subject of the answer, the word order is not inverted, and the interrogative pronoun takes the place of the subject, as in the following:
                      When spoken, an intonation change is often used so as to emphasize this switch, or can entirely reflect the interrogative mood in some cases (e.g. "John ran?"). The interrogative phrase can further be formed in this manner by moving the predicate of a declarative sentence in front of the helping verb and changing it to a demonstrative, relative pronoun, quantifier, etc. The interrogatives phrase is denoted by ending the sentence with a question mark <?>.
                      Rhetorical questions can be formed by moving the helping verb-subject pair to the end of the question, e.g. "You wouldn't really do that, would you?"
                      
                      Are you going to the party?
                      Is he supposed to do that?
                      How much do I owe you?
                      Where is the parking lot?
                      Who helped you with your homework?
                      What happened here? Interrogative word order
                      While many verbs in English follow the relatively simple paradigm illustrated at the beginning of this section, there are some verbs that do not. There are two categories of such verbs:
                      The term "transparently irregular" is sometimes used to describe Jacob Grimm's "strong" verbs that appear irregular at first, but actually follow a common paradigm. This group of verbs is a relic of the older Germanic ablaut system for conjugation. This is generally confined to atypical simple past verb forms, e.g.:
                      I swim ~ I swam ~ I have swum
                      I sing ~ I sang ~ I have sung
                      I steal ~ I stole ~ I have stolen
                      Another category of "transparently irregular" verbs dates back to Middle English. Some verbs, especially those with a stem ending in an alveolar consonant (/t/, /d/, or /s/), formed a geminate consonant or consonant cluster with the -d suffix. In Middle English, vowels before a consonant cluster often became shorter. As the Great Vowel Shift obscured the connection between long vowels and the corresponding short vowels, transparent irregularities such as the following arose:
                      I meet ~ I met ~ I have met
                      I lead ~ I led ~ I have led
                      I read ~ I read ~ I have read
                      I lose ~ I lost ~ I have lost
                      I keep ~ I kept ~ I have kept
                      True irregular verbs have forms that are not predictable from ablaut rules. The most common of these in English is the verb "to be." A sampling of its verbal paradigm is listed below; the majority of other forms are predictable from the knowledge of these four.
                      Irregular verbs include eat, sit, lend, and keep, among many others. Some paradigms are based on obsolete root words, or roots that have changed meaning. Others are derived from old umlaut patterns that changes in phonemic structure and grammar have distorted (keep ~ kept is one such example). Some are unclear in origin, and may date back to Proto-Indo-European times.
                      
                      strong verbs (the "transparently irregular")
                      true irregular verbs. Notes
                      Adjectives are modifiers for nouns and adverbs are modifiers for verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. Not all languages distinguish them, but English does in both grammar and word formation. Grammatically, adjectives precede the noun they modify, whereas adverbs might precede or follow the verb they modify, depending upon the specific adverb (although there are a small number of exceptions). English also has a means of converting adjectives into adverbs: the addition of the suffix <-ly> changes an adjective to an adverb (in addition to moving it to the appropriate place in a sentence).
                      Occasionally, people use adverbs with verbs that require an adjective.
                      The latter is, of course, the meaning most people try to convey. It's unclear whether this example shows the misuse of adjectives/adverbs or the fairly common use of "feel" as a copula verb (whose complement refers to its subject). That is, "feel" is often used with a meaning very close to "be." "I feel sick" is the equivalent of "I am sick" and using "I feel sickly" would be odd, for most native speakers. A better example might be something like: "I drive decent", with a meaning of "I drive decently" or "I drive well."
                      As well, confusion often occurs between good, well (adj.), and well (adv.).
                      There are other ways of changing words from one lexical class to another. Nouns are easily transformed into verbs by moving them to the appropriate position in a sentence, and then conjugating them according to the default paradigm. Nouns can also be changed to other kinds of nouns (<-er>, <-ist>), into adverbs of state/condition (<-ness>), and into adjectives (<-ish>, as in "bullish"). Verbs can be turned into adjectives with <-ing> ("dancing school"), into adverbs with <-ly>, and sometimes even into nouns with <-er> ("dancer", "listener").
                      These processes provide the English language with greater flexibility in choosing words, expanding vocabulary, and re-shuffling words to add subtlety of meaning that might otherwise not be available in an analytic language.
                      
                      "I feel badly" - the speaker has an impaired sense of touch (likewise: "I hear badly")
                      "I feel bad" - the speaker is ill or upset (likewise: "I feel happy")
                      "I feel good" - a good mood
                      "I feel well (adj.)" - good health (though this is often replaced by "I feel good" in everyday speech with little ambiguity in meaning)
                      "I did well (adv.)" - success Adjectives and adverbs
                      
                      Slang
                      
                      Disputes in English grammar
                      Capitalization