This chart of the major syntactic forms in English may be helpful when doing an analysis of a
writing sample.
|
FORMS |
CATEGORIES |
EXAMPLE(S) |
|
noun |
common proper concrete abstract count non-count collective |
state, dessert Alabama, Maria, Jon brick, elbow jealousy, heaven bow tie, leaf cement, integrity jury, team |
|
pronoun |
personal nominative objective possessive reflexive demonstrative indefinite relative interrogative |
I, you, he, they me, you, him, them my, your, his, theirs yourself, ourselves this, that, these, those both, many, some that, who, which why, which, what |
|
verb |
simple present past future progressive present past future Perfect present past future active voice passive voice main verb auxiliary verb contractible auxiliary uncontractible auxiliary copula complar verb contractible copula uncontractible copula modal auxiliary prepositional verb transitive verb intransitive verb infinitive gerund participle |
Tom calls. Tom called. Tom will call.
Tom is calling. Tom was calling. Tom will be calling.
Tom has called. Tom had called. Tom will have called. The dog caught the mole. The mole was caught by the dog. The ostrich is eating. The ostrich is eating. He is comingà He’s coming. He was coming The man is sad. arrive, seem, appear We are hereà We’re here. We were here. may, might, shall, must object to, run for, stand for kick, hit, put sleep, dream I love to run. To draw is divine. Swimming is a fun workout. He is running. She was running. |
|
adjective |
simple compound positive comparative superlative descriptive attributive predicate limiting proper possessive demonstrative cardinal ordinal indefinite interrogative
|
ugly dog, dirty mitten ball-point pen, smashed-up car pretty, good prettier, better prettiest, best
a pretty baby, the blue sky That is cool. She seems nice.
English class, IBM computer the man’s coat, Brady’s dog This one’s red. These boots are cool. It’s only two dollars. I’d like three tickets. I won first place. It’s the fourth edition. Some cats eat mice. I asked both girls. Whose house is this? Which color do you prefer? |
|
adverb |
simple compound positive comparative superlative conjunctive adverb manner adverb place adverb time adverb degree adverb number adverb reason adverb affirmation adverb negation adverb |
here, lastly counterclockwise, contra-laterally slowly, angrily more slowly, more angrily most slowly, most angrily thus, additionally, however quickly, particularly, well, slowly here, there, near, outside before, immediately, now much, more, nearly, only first, secondly, lastly because, consequently absolutely, indeed never, no, not |
|
determiner |
article possessive demonstrative quantifier Wh-word |
a, an, the my, his, her this, that, there, those every, each, some, two what, which, whichever |
|
conjunction |
coordinating subordinating correlative simple compound phrasal conjunctive adverb
|
for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so after, though, when, because either/or, neither/nor, whether/or and, after, so, when thereafter, however, nevertheless that is, even if, as such otherwise, however, consequently
|
|
preposition |
simple compound phrasal prepositional adverb prepositional verb time place accompaniment destination means possession relation |
in, on, under, behind without, underneath, nearby as for, in spite of, according to after, below, about, under object to, run for, stand for at, between, during, for against, along, among, on with, without for, to by, with, without of of |
Justice, L.M. and Ezell, H. K. (2002) (Appendix B) The Syntax Handbook: Everything you learned about syntax but forgot. Eau Claire: Thinking Publications.