Grammar
Studying grammar will help you write better in two ways. First, because there is never simply one way to write a sentence, but many ways to present the same thought, knowing the parts of speech and how they function in sentences gives you the power to write exactly what you mean. Second, if you understand how words function in sentences, you are better able to identify why a sentence is confused, awkward, or not as clear as you had hoped. Studying grammar, then, allows you to look at sentences in a new light, both when you compose and when you revise.
Parts of Speech
Because English has more than 600 000 words, we group them in categories that share common characteristics in order to make it easier to talk about language. In grammar, these groupings are called parts of speech. English has eight parts of speech: verbs (V), nouns (N), pronouns (PRO), adjectives (ADD), adverbs (ADV), prepositions (PREP), conjunctions (COND), and interjections (INTD). A word may be a member of more than one category, however, depending on its use in a particular sentence:
She had a sound plan. [ADV]
They sailed across the sound. [N]
The driver will sound the car’s horn. [V]
