Appendix A: Grammar and Punctuation Basics

If you need to review any of the basics, such as parts of speech like nouns and verbs and the difference between a comma and a semicolon, this page provides resources to help you fill in the gaps.

Diagramming sentences

Diagramming can be a useful tool for visual learners to grasp sentence structure and the parts of speech. Some people find that diagramming just makes it all more confusing, though, so skip it if it doesn’t work for you. This article teaches you how to diagram a sentence: https://www.wikihow.com/Diagram-Sentences.

The eight basic parts of speech

• Nouns represent people, places, things, or ideas.

  Dog, computer, Haiti, teacher, dream

• Pronouns are words like he, she, they, it, or who that represent nouns.
• Verbs are action words.

  To run, to swim, to fly

• Adjectives are descriptive words that modify nouns.

  Blue water, big baby, smelly garbage

• Adverbs are descriptive words that modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.

  "Quickly" in "quickly run", "quite" in "quite slowly", and "very" in "very beautiful"

• Participles are words formed from verbs that act like adjectives.

  Working farmers, flying birds, flooded basement

• Conjunctions join clauses or words within the same clause.

  And, but, or, for, nor, so, yet

• Prepositions tell you how nouns in a sentence relate to one another. There are many prepositions.

  Above, on, in, between, through, to

Definite and indefinite articles (the, a, an, some)

An article is a word that is used before a noun to indicate whether we are referring to a definite entity or indefinite entity.

Definite articles: The definite article is the word “the”. It specifies that you are referring to a specific entity.

Indefinite articles: The indefinite articles are the words “a” and “an”. They refer to a general entity.

Let’s look at an example:

A: James talked to the doctor to learn about his wife’s health condition.

B: James talked to a doctor to learn about his wife’s health condition.

By using the article “the” in sentence A, we are saying that James talked to the specific doctor who is treating his wife. But in sentence B, we have made a general statement to indicate that James talked to a doctor who is not the only doctor available, such as if he stopped the first doctor he saw in the hospital and asked about his wife.

Let’s learn more about definite and indefinite articles.

When to use the indefinite article “an”

Use “an” before a word beginning with either a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) or a vowel sound (such as a silent “h”).

With words beginning with a vowel:

An apple a day keeps the doctor away.

Bill Gates is an American business magnate.

WSO2 Identity Server is an IAM offering.

You can quickly create and publish an API with WSO2 API Manager.

With words beginning with a vowel sound:

She was an honorable minister.

The code review will begin in an hour.

When to use the indefinite article “a”

Use “a” before a word beginning with either a consonant (letters other than a, e, i, o, u or silent “h”) or a consonant sound.

With words beginning with a consonant:

Tim Berners Lee is a British computer scientist.

You can add a XACML policy for fine-grained access control.

With words beginning with a consonant sound:

He is a United States senator.

Attach a user role to the newly created user.

When NOT to use indefinite articles:

Do not use indefinite articles with uncountable nouns, which are objects that can’t be counted individually unless a unit of measurement.

• Incorrect: Sally gave me a water.
• Correct: Sally gave me water.
• Correct: Sally gave me a bottle of water.
• Incorrect: The CTO was concerned about a security.
• Correct: The CTO was concerned about security.
• Incorrect: Fill the tables with a data.
• Correct: Fill the tables with data. (any data)
• Correct: Fill the tables with the data. (specific data)
• Correct: Fill the tables with a batch of data. (“batch” is the unit)

When to use the definite article “the”

Use the definite article “the” before singular, plural, or uncountable nouns.

With a singular noun:

The pope is visiting Sri Lanka.

With a plural noun:

The pizzas are fresh.

With an uncountable noun:

The water was clean.

With acronyms not pronounced as words:

The API was throttled out.

When a country is in plural form:

the Philippines, the Bahamas

When a country indicates that it is a group of states, islands, etc.:

the United States

When NOT to use the definite article

There are also instances where you should not use the definite article.

When you are referring to objects in general (countable nouns):

Pandas love bamboo.

APIs are allowing enterprises to collaborate with each other by sharing data in a secure manner.

When you are referring to objects in general (uncountable nouns):

Music is a global language.

Did you have breakfast?

Recent advances in information technology have led to crucial changes in living standards.

When referring to a noun with a number

Harry got onto the train from platform 9¾.

With acronyms pronounced as words:

WSDL is an XML format for describing network services

UNICEF works across 190 countries and territories to reach the most disadvantaged children and adolescents.

With proper nouns like holidays:

Christmas brings cheer.

With proper nouns like countries:

Mary likes to go to Sweden.

With proper nouns like companies:

Sanjiva Weerawarana and Paul Fremantle are co-founders of WSO2.

With proper nouns like universities:

Bella graduated from Harvard.

With proper nouns like languages:

My brother can speak Mandarin quite fluently.

With streets, some locations, and some places:

I have to go to work tomorrow.

She was a brat when she was in high school.

With continents, single lakes, or single mountains:

I’m going to Europe next month for a QSP.

When referring to sports:

Sherene loves basketball.

Using articles before adjectives

You can use an article before an adjective that modifies the noun.

With the definite article:

WSO2 is the largest open source integration vendor by revenue.

With indefinite articles:

WSO2 IS is a uniquely flexible IAM solution.

Identity federation is a convenient authentication mechanism.

Summary

The definite article "the" refers to a specific object. Indefinite articles ("a" and "an") refer to an unspecified object.

Additional references

• https://www.grammarly.com/blog/articles/
• http://www.englishteachermelanie.com/grammar-when-not-to-use-the-definite-article/
• https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/english-grammar/definite-article