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English Grammar
English Grammar
Australian English
English is a West Germanic, Indo-European language.
Phonology
Pulmonic Consonants
Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a voiced consonant.
| Bilabial | Labio- dental |
Dental | Alveolar | Post- alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||||||||||
| Plosive | p pʰ | b | t tʰ | d | k kʰ | g | ||||||||||
| Fricative | f | v | θ | ð | s | z | ʃ | ʒ | ç | h | ||||||
| Approximant | ɹ | j | ||||||||||||||
| Lateral approximant | l | |||||||||||||||
- Aspirated consonants are not distinguished from their non-aspirated equivalent.
Co-articulated Consonants
| ʍ | Voiceless labialized velar approximant |
| w | Voiced labialized velar approximant |
| tʃ | Voiceless postalveolar affricate |
| dʒ | Voiced postalveolar affricate |
Vowels
Unrounded vowel appear on the left of the bullet point, rounded ones on the right.
| Front | n-front | Central | n-back | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | iː • | • ʉː | |||
| Near Close | ɪ • | • ʊ | |||
| Close mid | |||||
| Mid | ə | ||||
| Open mid | ɛ ɛː • | ɜː • | • ɔ | ||
| Near open | æː • | ||||
| Open | a aː • | ɑ • |
Dipthongs and Triphthongs
- Australian English has the following dipthongs: [æɪ], [ɑɪ], [ɔɪ], [æɔ], [əʉ], [ɪə], [ʊə].
- Dipthongs not ending in [ǝ] can take another [ǝ] (or [a]) to form the following triphthongs: [æɪə], [ɑɪə], [ɔɪə], [æɔə], [əʉə].
Tone
- Used to indicate questions
- Used for emphasis
Stress
- First syllable of nouns is stressed.
- Last syllable of verbs is stressed.
Orthography
Alphabet
English uses the 26 character Roman alphabet with no diactrics and ligatures.
| A a | B b | C c | D d | E e | F f | G g | H h | I i | J j | K k | L l | M m |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [æɪ] | [biː] | [siː] | [diː] | [iː] | [ɛf] | [dʒiː] | [hæɪtʃ] | [ɑɪ] | [dʒæɪ] | [kæɪ] | [ɛl] | [ɛm] |
| N n | O o | P p | Q q | R r | S s | T t | U u | V v | W w | X x | Y y | Z z |
| [ɛn] | [ǝʉ] | [piː] | [kjʉ] | [aː] | [ɛs] | [tiː] | [jʉ] | [viː] | [dabl jʉ] | [ɛks] | [wɑɪ] | [zɛd] |
Spelling
| Pulmonic Consonants | |
|---|---|
| m | media, mammoth, numb, hymn |
| n | noon, funny, known, gnome, pneumatic |
| ŋ | sing, sink, tongue |
| p | spit, happy |
| pʰ | pat |
| b | bat, rubber |
| t | stack, thyme |
| tʰ | tick, latter |
| d | dud, ladder |
| k | act, account, skit, quit, acknowledge, chrome, cheque |
| kʰ | key, cat, tack |
| g | gone, bigger, ghoul, guard, exam |
| h | how, who |
| f | free, scuff, rough, sapphire |
| v | voice, savvy, of |
| θ | those |
| ð | then |
| s | sale, mess, century, scythe, psychology |
| z | zoo, fuzz, has, scissors, xylophone |
| ʃ | shin, election, machine, mission, schedule |
| ʒ | treasure, evasion, azure |
| ç | human |
| ɹ | red, parrot, rhino |
| j | yes, onion, vignette |
| l | lime, hall |
| Co-articulated Consonants | |
| ʍ | when |
| w | wow, quit |
| tʃ | chip, nature, batch |
| dʒ | jam, adjective, soldier, usage |
| Simple Vowels | |
| a | undo, son, flood, rough |
| aː | father, alms, sergeant, heart, car |
| æ | bat, plait |
| ɛ | pen, bury, heifer, said, says |
| ɛː | bear, air, bare, prayer, stair, where, mayor |
| ɪ | bit, pretty, build, busy, nymph, sieve |
| iː | seen, receive, evil, magazine, siege, protein, city |
| ɜː | turn, burr, fern, fir, learn, worm |
| ə | taken, eloquent, pencil, nation |
| ʉː | too, do, queue, shoe, spew, true, you |
| ɑ | pot, wasp |
| ɔ | torn, paw, broad |
| ʊ | cook, pull, should, women |
| Diphthongs | |
| æɪ | ape, day, hey, feign, neigh, rain, gauge, grey |
| ɑɪ | hive, cry, eye, benign, aisle, guy, might, rye |
| ɔɪ | boy, oil |
| æɔ | now, croud, bough |
| əʉ | over, tow, dough, hoe |
| ɪə | near, here, beer, tier |
| ʊə | cure, skewer |
| Triphthongs | |
| æɪə | layer |
| ɑɪə | fire, buyer, liar, tyre |
| ɔɪə | lawyer |
| æɔə | hour, cower |
| əʉə | lower |
Morphology
Inflectional
| Inflection | Usage | Spellings |
| -[s/z/əz] | plural | cats / dogs, mazes, rubies / busses |
| -[s/z/əz] | genetive | the cat's / the dog's / the bus's |
| -[s/z/əz] | 3rd person | he wraps / he runs / she rushes |
| -[t/d/əd] | past participle | jumped / slammed / sanded |
| -[n] | past participle | seen |
| -[ɪŋ] | present participle | writing, running |
| -[ɜː/iɜː] | comparative | faster / heavier |
| -[əst/iəst] | superlative | fastest / heaviest |
Derivational
| Affix | From | To | Usage | Example |
| re- | verb | verb | repeat | tie/retie |
| un- | adjective | adjective | opposite | tidy/untidy |
| un- | verb | verb | reverse | tie/untie |
| -able | verb | adjective | can be done | win/winnable |
| -ity | adjective | noun | - | obese/obesity |
| -ly | adjective | adverb | - | quiet/quietly |
| -ous | noun | adjective | - | glamour/glamourous |
Syntax
Basic word order is subject, verb, object.
Simplified Phrase Structure
S : NP VP (conj S)
NP : (determiner) (AP+) noun (PP+)
VP : (aux) (AP+) verb ({NP,S'}) (AP+) (PP+)
AP : (AP) {adjective,adverb}
PP : preposition (NP)
Agreement
- Subject/Verb: Verbs agree with case of subject.
Transformations
- Subject and verb can be inverted to form a question.
- Subject and object can be swapped for passive mood.
Semantics
Vocabulary
Essential phrases
| How do you say .... in English? | |
| What is ... in French? | |
| Do you understand? | |
| How do you spell that? |
Interjections
| hello | |
| excuse me | |
| sorry | |
| please | |
| thank you | |
| okay | |
| goodbye |
Responses
| yes | |
| no | |
| maybe |
Interrogatives
| who | |
| what | |
| when | |
| where | |
| why | |
| how | |
| how much |
Personal pronouns
| case | subject | object | determiner | possessive object | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | singular | I | me | my | mine |
| plural | we | us | our | ours | |
| 2nd | singular | you | you | your | yours |
| plural | you | you | your | yours | |
| 3rd | male | he | him | his | his |
| female | she | her | her | her | |
| neutral | it | it | its | its | |
| plural | they | them | their | theirs | |
Relative pronouns
| that | |
| where | |
| which | |
| who |
Demonstrative pronouns
| this, these | |
| that, those |
Determiners
| a, an | |
| the | |
| this, these | |
| that, those | |
| some |
Conjuctions
| and | |
| or | |
| if | |
| but | |
| because | He speaks English very well because he is English. |
| as | |
| however | |
| since | |
| when |
Prepositions
| at | |
| in | |
| of | |
| for | |
| by | |
| with | |
| without | |
| except | |
| like | |
| on | |
| after | |
| before | |
| against | |
| around | |
| behind | |
| in front | |
| beside | |
| during | |
| inside | |
| of | |
| on top | |
| near | |
| next to | |
| under | |
| until | |
| towards |
Verbs
| ask | |
| be | |
| can | |
| come | |
| do | |
| give | |
| go | |
| have | |
| know | |
| meet | |
| take | |
| think | |
| say | |
| speak | |
| want | |
| will |
Irregular Verbs
| be | |
| can | |
| go | |
| have |
Adverbs
| about | |
| also | |
| always | |
| enough | |
| even | |
| less | |
| maybe | |
| more | |
| never | |
| now | |
| obviously | |
| often | |
| really | |
| several | |
| so | |
| somewhere | |
| sometimes | |
| still | |
| surely | |
| very | |
| yet |
Adjectives
| best | |
| better | |
| new | |
| next |
Cardinal numbers
| 0 .. 10 | zero, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten |
| 11 .. 19 | eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen |
| 20 .. 90 | twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety |
| 10 ^ x | hundred, thousand, million |
Ordinal numbers
| 1 .. 10 | first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth |
| 11 .. 19 | eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, ... |
| 20 .. 90 | twentieth, thirtieth, fortieth, fiftieth ... |
| 10 ^ x | hundredth, thousandth, millionth |
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