The essential grammar of the sentence

Wheels within wheels

If you have never studied the grammar of English, you may like to try two areas on this site:

A short Simple Grammar of English is designed for learners of English but that's what you are in this case.
A short language analysis course which will lead you through the basics of phonology, morphology, lexis, phrases, clauses, sentences and text structures.

This guide is concerned with the sentence which, sooner or later, forms the basis of most classroom analysis.

The term 'grammar' describes the whole system of a language and includes two important areas: syntax and morphology. We'll take them one at a time.

Syntax

How words work together to make well-formed, meaningful utterances.

As our example for this we'll take a simple sentence in English:

This man wants some coffee

We can break this sentence down into its three main parts and look at each one separately. Each of those parts can also be broken down, like this:
this man

This is called parsing a sentence. Later in this guide, you'll learn how to do it for yourself. For now, we'll just explain a little:
The three main parts are:

This man:
this is the subject of the sentence and its theme (what it concerns). It is a noun phrase made up of two parts, man (a common noun) and this (a demonstrative determiner which tells us which man and limits the noun).
wants:
this is the verb which tells us what the subject is doing. In this case, it's a single word but can be a phrase such as would like. The verb type is mentioned, transitive, so we know that it takes an object. The ending on the verb, -s, tells us that it is singular and that the subject is the third person (he, she, it).
some coffee:
this is the object of the verb wants and tells us what the verb refers to. It is a noun phrase made up of two parts, coffee (a common mass noun) and some (a quantifying determiner which tells us how much and limits the noun).

Each main part can be broken into two smaller parts (in this example):

This:
is a determiner and tells us something about the man (in this case that it is a particular, single man near to the speaker). It could be a range of other determiners such as her (showing a relationship), that (showing that he is further away from the speaker), the (showing that it is a man both the speaker and listener are aware of) and so on.
man:
is a common singular noun (with an irregular plural, men). Because both speaker and hearer are operating in English, the meaning is clear – an adult male human.
want:
is the base form of the verb.
-s:
comes at the end because in English, this is how we change, or inflect, the verb to show a singular third-person form.
some:
is another determiner, called a quantifier and tells us how much. It could be a range of other quantifiers such as two (but we'll change the noun to a plural form), lots of, a cup of and so on.
coffee:
is a noun which usually has no plural but can in this case because it is used to stand for a cup of coffee. Usually, we don't say coffees in the same way that we don't say furnitures or informations and so on because the noun is considered uncountable in English.

Subjects, Verbs, Objects and Complements

In the English sentences:

The man kissed the woman
The woman kissed the man

we only know who did what to whom by the order of the words.

The subject comes first in both sentences so we know that is the doer of the action. The object follows the verb so we know that is the receiver of the action. If we reverse the order, we reverse the sense.

In sentence 1	the man is the subject of the verb kiss	the woman is the object of the verb
In sentence 2	the woman is the subject of the verb kiss	the man is the object of the verb

Usually, of course, we can understand what is the subject and what is the object of a verb by the meaning of the sentence:

Peter drank the water

Cannot (sensibly) be changed to:

The water drank Peter

However, in English, there are many times when the word order alone gives the sense of what or who is the subject and what or whom is the object. For example:

The delay caused the problem
The problem caused the delay

Here's a little test.
Identify the subjects and the objects of the verbs in this story and then click on the story for the answers.

case structure 1

Notice that:

The subjects are in black and the objects are in red.
All verbs have subjects.
Not all verbs have objects. Some verbs do not (or don't always) take an object. For example, in John drove the car, we have a verb with a subject (John) and an object (the car) but in he came back, he is the subject of came and there is no object.
In the first sentence we have a bit in green. This is not the object of the verb because it's a clause. It is called the complement of the verb knew.

In the example above, the subjects, verbs and objects are quite simple but they can be more complicated.
For example, in this sentence:
The old fisherman with the blue hat slowly rowed his ancient wooden boat which he cared for carefully into the middle of the river.

we still have:

the subject noun phrase:
The old fisherman with the blue hat
the verb phrase:
slowly rowed
Strictly speaking, verb phrases contain only verbs and this is a verb phrase plus a modifying adverb.
the object noun phrase:
his ancient wooden boat which he cared for carefully
the prepositional phrase
into the middle of the river

Because the elements of the sentence are groups of words rather than individual items, it makes sense to refer to them as phrases: the subject noun phrase, the verb phrase, the object noun phrase and the prepositional phrase.

In this analysis and in what follows we are taking a small liberty by calling slowly rowed the verb phrase. It is, in fact, an adverb and the modified verb. A verb phrase proper contains only verbs such as rowed, has rowed, will row, may have been rowing etc.

In grammar books, you will often see the term nominative (case) to refer to the subject and accusative (case) to refer to the object. Most learners of English don't need to understand these terms (but you do).
We have now identified two of the three cases in English (the third is the possessive or genitive which does not concern us here).

	Adverbials and complements
He was walking alone in the country last week

Now that we can identify the subject, the verb and the object, we can look at the final bits of the sentences we have used so far. These are the adverbials or complements and they come in different guises.

Complements: The term complement is rather slippery because it is defined in many ways depending on the nature of the grammar you are reading. In this guide, we will use the term in a narrow sense and distinguish it from the subject or object of a verb. It is the part of the sentence which allows us to male sense of the subject and the verb. For example, in:
She is the boss
it is clear that we need to have the boss to make sense of the sentence at all but it is not the object of the verb. It is, in fact another way of saying the subject. In:
Mary seems unhappy
we have a different type of complement (called an attribute) which tells us about the subject of the verb but which is still not acting as the object of it.
Adverbials: Adverbials do not tell us about the subject of the verb, they add information to the verb itself and they come in a variety of forms. For example, in:
    He arrived immediately
we have a simple adverb, immediately, acting as the adverbial and telling us about how he arrived. And in:
    He arrived yesterday
we have a noun, yesterday, acting as an adverbial, telling us when he arrived. In:
    He arrived by bus
we have a prepositional phrase, by bus, acting as an adverbial, telling us how he travelled.
Any item which modifies how we see the verb phrase is an adverbial.

Here are some more examples with the adverbial or complement in black:

He rowed into the middle of the lake
is a prepositional phrase adverbial because it tells us where he rowed
The boat was very expensive
is an adjective phrase complement because it tells us about a noun or pronoun, in this case it tells us about the subject
The hot weather made me tired
is an adjective phrase complement which refers to the object of the verb (me).
He was walking alone
is an adverbial phrase (and an adverb) because it tells us how he walked
He walked back
the is an adverbial phrase (and another adverb) telling us in which direction he walked (and prepositional phrases such as towards the house can do that too)
He was walking in the country
is another prepositional phrase adverbial because it tells us where he walked
He was walking last week
is another adverbial noun phrase because it tells us when he walked (and prepositional phrases such as in the morning can do that too)

As we noted above, here we have a narrow definition of the term complement. In some grammars everything except the verb phrase itself may be referred to as a complement. In others, all adverbials are classified as complement but not the subject and in yet others everything except the subject and the verb (together called the predicate) is analysed as a complement.

Morphology

How we build words and change them grammatically.

We make two kinds of changes to words in English:

We change words to make different forms of the same idea. For example:
1. we can derive the word unwell from the word well (reversing its meaning) by adding un- to the beginning.
2. we can derive the word hopeful from the noun hope, making it an adjective by adding -ful to the end.
We change words to conform with the grammar of what we mean. This is called inflecting and the parts we add or change are called inflexions (or inflections). For example:
1. In the sentence, This man wants some coffee, we add an -s to the verb because singular subjects require that change to the verb in English.
2. We can add -ed to the verb and then we have a past tense: This man wanted some coffee.
If we have more than one man and more than one thing as an object, as in, e.g., These men want some biscuits, we make other changes:
1. this changes to these [this is a determiner: it tells us how many or which]
2. man changes to men, an irregular plural. Usually in English, we make plurals by adding -s or -es to the noun as we do with biscuits.
3. want takes no -s because plural nouns do not demand a change to the base form of the verb (as they do in most languages, by the way). This is called a zero inflexion or an uninflected form.
4. the determiner some stays the same because it can be used for nouns we count and those we don't. Other quantifiers are not so versatile so we can say a few biscuits but not *a little biscuits. (The '*' is the conventional way in analysing language to show that an example is not well formed or accurate.)

Task 1: Look again at the sections above and focus on the words in red. They are all terms we use when we are describing grammar.
Click here to test yourself to see if you can remember what the words mean.

Tree diagrams

Tree diagrams are a traditional way of illustrating the structure of a sentence and they can get quite complicated. Here we will deal with fairly straightforward examples.

	Task 2: Look again at how we parsed this sentence using a tree diagram: This man wants some coffee and try parsing this sentence: The driver kindly delivered the car to my door. Click here when you have written your answer.

This is how it should look. What we have done is:

Identified:
1. the subject (the driver)
2. the verb phrase (kindly + deliver + -ed)
  but note what was said above about what really constitutes a verb phrase, properly defined.
3. the object (the car)
4. a prepositional phrase (to my door)
Broken down the subject into:
1. the determiner (the definite article the)
2. a singular common noun (driver).
Broken the verb phrase into:
1. an adverb (kindly)
2. the verb (deliver)
3. its past-tense marker (-ed)
Broken down the object into:
1. the definite article (the)
2. a singular common noun (car).
Broken down the prepositional phrase into:
1. the preposition (to)
2. the preposition's noun-phrase complement also called an object in some analyses (my door)
Broken down that noun phrase into:
1. a possessive determiner (my)
2. a common noun (door)

So what?

So quite a lot. Three important things, in fact:

In order to be able to make grammatically correct sentences in any language, it is important to recognise how they are constructed. To be able to help people to do that, you need to know how to describe and explain the language. Now, for simple sentences at least, you can.
To construct any sentence you have to know where things go. In English we usually put the subject first, then the verb and then the object. We also put the adverb before the verb in many (not all) cases (kindly delivered, not delivered kindly). We also say a beautiful house, not a house beautiful and three cars not cars three. Different languages handle this sort of thing differently.
The other thing you need to know is how words in the language change or inflect:
1. To make present tenses (so we can distinguish between they make and he makes, and between we are going and I am going)
2. To make past tenses so we can distinguish between I come and I came, she smokes and she was smoking)
3. To make future tenses (so we can say things like I will go, I am going to go and I am leaving tomorrow)
4. To make plurals (so we can produce the match-the matches, the car-the cars, the mouse-the mice and so on)
5. To make other words so we can form kindly from kind
6. To insert the right determiner (so we can distinguish between a car, the car, my car and some cars)
7. To use prepositions (so we can distinguish between to my house, on my house, from my house, next to my house) etc.

Some practice for you

Task 3: In this table, try to parse the sentences on the left, identifying all the parts and how the words change.
Click on the

to reveal the answers. Later, there are links to guides to the area of grammar concerned on this site. If the sentence puzzled you, you should go to the guide for some help.
All the guides open in an new tab so simply shut them to return to this page.
OK?

He bought some fresh apples in the market
They were going to open the parcel and look inside
I had an hour to spare so I read the newspaper	Notice that you cannot reverse the clauses without changing the meaning to nonsense (I read the newspaper so I had an hour to spare).
She wants to come to the movie with you
I hate making mistakes
They must go now
When I came, he left	Notice that it is possible to reverse the clauses (He left when I came) but that the conjunction, when, moves with its clause.
The window was broken by the children
Grammatical accuracy is often useful

some notes

He bought some fresh apples in the market
This is very like the second example in this page. We have a typical Subject - Verb - Object pattern (most sentences in English follow that).
1. some is a modifier which we can put before a plural or a noun which describes a mass (like, sugar, information etc.)
2. fresh is an adjective in the usual place
3. in the market is a simple prepositional phrase. Prepositions are often followed by noun phrases. In fact they serve to link the noun phrase to the verb phrase.
They were going to open the parcel and look inside
This is an unusual tense form. It's called the future in the past. They are going to is the present intention for the future but They were going to refers to a past intention (that didn't happen, usually).
1. going to is usually used to talk about intentions and it's followed by the simplest form of the verb, the infinitive
2. look is a verb here and it is followed by an adverb telling us where.
I had an hour to spare so I read the newspaper
This is called a compound sentence because it consists of two potentially independent clauses.
1. There are two parts:
  I had an hour to spare (the first main clause)
  so I read the newspaper (the second clause)
2. The two clauses are said to be coordinated by the conjunction so. Often, we can reverse the clauses and retain the meaning. In this case, we can't however, because so is used to link cause and effect logically.
  *So I had an hour to spare, I read the newspaper
  is nonsense.
She wants to come to the movie with you and
I hate making mistakes
1. Both of these sentences contain two verbs: want and come and hate and make.
2. The difference is that some verbs in English are followed by the verb with -ing (often called a gerund) and some by the verb with to before it (called the to-infinitive).
They must go now
must is an example of a special kind of verb called a modal auxiliary verb. Modal auxiliary verbs are auxiliaries and do not usually stand alone. For example,
I can
means very little unless we know the context but
I can swim
carries meaning even with no context.
When I came, he left
This is not a simpler version of 3. above. It is an example of subordination, not coordination.
We have two clauses:
1. The main clause: he left
2. The subordinate clause: when I came.
  The second clause tells us about his leaving and cannot stand alone and retain its full meaning.
The window was broken by the children
This is called a passive because we can leave out by the children and it still makes sense. We are focused on the object of the verb break and we may not know (or care) who broke it.
Grammatical accuracy is often useful
This is an example of one way English makes subjects of verbs bigger and more complete. We simply add an adjective before the noun. There are other ways to modify nouns.

Task 4: Look again at the notes above and focus on the words in red. They are 10 more terms we use when we are describing grammar.
Click here to test yourself to see if you can remember what the words mean.

More help

Of course, this short guide can't possibly cover more than a little of this huge subject but it has introduced you to some very important terms and concepts. This site contains lots of grammar guides and the most useful ones for you will be listed in the initial plus index.
You can go there for much more detail but don't try to do it all at once. Do what interests you or what is urgent at the moment (because you are teaching it tomorrow!).

For more about the issues covered above, try:

Related guides
tenses	this will give you a run-down of the forms and names of the tenses of verbs in English
the tenses index	this page contains links to all guides in this area
verbs	this will tell you about the three main types of verb in English and what they do
the sentence	this explains and gives examples of the four main sentence forms in English
prepositions	find out here about the different sorts of preposition English uses
conjunctions	these words join sentences together and are very helpful for making meaning
the passive	this structure is difficult for learners, especially those whose languages are operate differently
word class	This is the essential guide which will help you identify what grammatical functions words perform and what we call them

Grammar books

There are lots of good grammar books and, if you are at all serious about teaching, you'll need one or two.
There are two sorts:

grammar books intended for learners
These will be easier for you to access and will be enough at the beginning. Good examples are:
Foley, M & Hall, D, 1988, Longman advanced learners' grammar, Harlow: Longman
Swan, M, 2005, Practical English Usage (3rd Ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press
books intended for more serious study and for use by teachers
These are the places to go for the inside story but they are more difficult. Good examples are:
Leech, G and Svartvik J, 3rd edition, 2003, A Communicative Grammar of English, Harlow: Longman
Lock, G, 1996, Functional English Grammar, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Parrott, M, 2010, Grammar for English Language Teachers (2nd Ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Thornbury, S, 2004, Natural Grammar, Oxford: Oxford University Press

Click here for a fuller list.

Web resources

You have already found a good one.
There are lots of websites intended to help people understand aspects of English grammar. Many are wrong, many just lists of interesting (or otherwise) facts and some are plain confusing. Beware sites that prescribe by saying That's wrong!, This is right! and so on. They are often written by people who have an axe to grind and are rarely reliable.
Make sure you have a decent grammar book as well so you can cross-check for accuracy.

There are a number of grammar exercises and lessons for learners on this site. Click here to go to them.