Basic English GRAMMAR
Basic
N
ew
Ed
iti
on
New Edition
English
Primary 1 & 2 Primary 3 & 4 Primary 5 & 6
This 3-book series offers a systematic and comprehensive study of
English grammar. The series is specially designed to introduce, explain
and reinforce essential grammar topics and to lay a strong foundation for
good English. The well-organised content structure in this series makes
GRAMMAR
it a handy reference resource suitable for self-study.
The books feature:
• modular organisation of topics that makes it easy for teachers and learners to
align it to topics in the English course and to refer to it as and when required; A systematic introduction to grammar
for beginning learners
Anne Seaton • Y H Mew
• concise and age-appropriate definitions and carefully annotated examples
that make understanding grammar and usage easy;
• short exercises on every topic to check understanding and develop
grammatical accuracy and fluency.
This series, highly regarded by teachers, parents
and learners, has been revised to be even more
comprehensive and user-friendly with the inclusion of
more grammar items and a new layout and features.
Scan this QR code
with your smartphone
for more English
an imprint of learning resources.
www.learners.com.sg
Anne Seaton • Y H Mew
Contents
1 The Capital Letter 7
2 Nouns 12
2.1 Common Nouns 16
2.2 Proper Nouns 22
2.3 Concrete Nouns
24
2.4 Countable Nouns
25
2.5 Uncountable Nouns
26
2.6 Singular Nouns
2.7 Plural Nouns
28
2.8 Collective Nouns 39
2.9 Masculine and Feminine Nouns 42
2.10 Noun Phrases 45
3 Pronouns 47
3.1 Personal Pronouns 47
3.2 Reflexive Pronouns 50
3.3 Possessive Pronouns 51
3.4 Interrogative Pronouns 52
3.5 Demonstrative Pronouns 54
3.6 Indefinite Pronouns 55
4 Adjectives 57
4.1 Kinds of Adjectives: Quality, 58
Opinion, Age, Temperature, Origin,
Colour, Size, Shape, Material
4.2 Nouns Used as Adjectives 65
4.3 Comparison of Adjectives 66
5 Determiners 71
5.1 The Articles 71
5.2 Demonstrative Determiners 73
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5.3 Interrogative Determiners 74
5.4 Possessive Determiners 75
5.5 Cardinal Numbers 77
5.6 Ordinal Numbers 78
5.7 Quantifiers 79
6 Verbs and Tenses 82
6.1 The Simple Present Tense 83
6.2 am, is and are 85
6.3 The Present Continuous Tense 89
6.4 have and has 91
6.5 The Simple Past Tense 93
6.6 was and were 94
6.7 Regular and Irregular Verbs 96
6.8 The Past Continuous Tense 99
6.9 The Future Tense 100
6.10 do, does and did 104
6.11 can and could 108
6.12 may 110
6.13 would and should 111
must
6.14 112
6.15 Infinitives 113
6.16 Transitive and Intransitive Verbs 115
Phrasal Verbs
6.17 117
7 Subject-Verb Agreement 120
8 Adverbs 123
8.1 Adverbs of Manner 124
8.2 Adverbs of Time 125
8.3 Adverbs of Frequency 126
8.4 Adverbs of Place 128
8.5 Comparison of Adverbs 129
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9 Prepositions 131
9.1 Prepositions of Position 131
9.2 Prepositions of Direction 132
9.3 Prepositions of Time 133
9.4 Prepositions with Special Uses 134
9.5 Complex Prepositions 136
10 Connectors 137
10.1 Connectors of Sequence 137
10.2 Connectors of Contrast 138
10.3 Connectors of Reason 139
10.4 Connectors of Purpose 140
10.5 Connectors of Addition 141
11 Sentences 142
11.1 Kinds of Sentences 143
11.2 The Subject and the Object 145
11.3 Positive and Negative Sentences 146
11.4 Questions 147
11.5 Linking Sentences 151
11.6 Direct Speech 153
12 Punctuation 156
12.1 Full Stop 156
12.2 Comma 157
12.3 Exclamation Mark 158
12.4 Question Mark 158
12.5 Apostrophe 159
12.6 Indentation 163
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1
The Capital Letter
The capital letter is also called a big letter or upper-case letter, or
sometimes just a capital.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M
N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
In these examples, you can see how capital letters appear in a sentence.
Sam went to Paris in November.
capital letter
I made my mother a card for Mother’s Day.
capital letter
When do you use a capital letter?
You use a capital letter for the first letter in a sentence:
The dog is barking.
Come here!
Quick Check 1
Underline the letters that should be CAPITALS and write the
correct letter in the space above them.
1. we don’t want to go to school.
2. our teacher didn’t give us any homework.
3. there isn’t any monster under your bed.
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You always use a capital letter for the word I:
GRAMMAR HELP
I am eight years old. You may sometimes need two
capital letters when you are
Tom and I are good friends. writing about what someone says:
The policeman said, “You will
have to come with me.”
Quick Check 2
Underline the letters that should be CAPITALS and write the
correct letter in the space above them.
1. you and i have many hobbies in common.
2. helen and i are good friends.
3. i missed school because i was not well.
You use a capital letter for the names of people:
SPELL IT RIGHT
Alice Tom Kim You use capital letters for names
of people you are related to:
James Snow White I call my mother Mum but my little
sister calls her Mummy.
Does this book belong to you, Alice?
Once upon a time, there lived a lovely princess named Snow White.
Quick Check 3
Underline the letters that should be CAPITALS and write the
correct letter in the space above them.
1. gordon lives with his grandparents.
2. they have named their baby jasmine.
3. robert is sally’s elder brother.
8 The Capital Letter
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You use a capital letter for initials in people’s names:
E.B. White James P. Smith M.H. Chao J.K. Rowling
E.B. White wrote a book called ‘Stuart Little’ about a talking mouse.
J.K. Rowling is the author of the Harry Potter books.
Quick Check 4
Underline the letters that should be CAPITALS and write the
correct letter in the space above them.
1. my brother likes to read the books of j.m. barrie.
2. the stories of winnie the pooh were written by a.a. milne.
3. wile e. coyote is a well-known cartoon character.
You also use a capital letter for titles used with people’s names:
Mr and Mrs Brown Miss Lee King Richard
Captain Wells Queen Elizabeth Princess Daisy
Miss Lee took us to the Singapore Botanic Gardens.
Yesterday, we visited our new neighbour, Mr Brown.
Quick Check 5
Underline the letters that should be CAPITALS and write the
correct letter in the space above them.
1. my teacher’s name is mrs smith.
2. general rogers is leading the army parade.
3. have you met miss jones?
The Capital Letter 9
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You use a capital letter for the names of places:
National Museum Queen’s Road London Singapore
We took our guests to the National Museum yesterday.
My uncle is staying at the Prince Hotel in Singapore.
WATCH OUT!
If the name of something such as a boat has little words in it like ‘the’, ‘of ’,
‘in’, they do not have capitals:
The name of his boat was ‘Pride of the Islands’.
Quick Check 6
Underline the letters that should be CAPITALS and write the
correct letter in the space above them.
1. gary lives on thomson road.
2. we are going to visit japan during the holidays.
3. sally goes to the national library to study.
You use a capital letter for the names of languages:
English French Japanese
Malay Thai Spanish
The people in France speak French.
John can speak English, French and Mandarin.
Quick Check 7
Underline the letters that should be CAPITALS and write the
correct letter in the space above them.
1. he is learning russian in school.
2. mr mew teaches french, spanish and german.
3. the official language of india is hindi.
10 The Capital Letter
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You use a capital letter for festivals, holidays, days of the week and
months of the year:
New Year’s Day Christmas Mother’s Day
Sunday Monday Friday
January May October
We have a test on Friday.
In Australia, Christmas falls in the summertime.
Quick Check 8
Underline the letters that should be CAPITALS and write the
correct letter in the space above them.
1. december is the last month of the year.
2. there is an exciting football match on sunday.
3. molly went to the doctor last thursday.
The Capital Letter 11
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