Basics of English Grammer

Definitions

Letter: Letter is the lease part of a word. Letter can be defined as a symbol to express a simple sound.

There are twenty six letters in English alphabet which are furnished below:

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 and z.

Forms of Letters: There are two forms of Letters viz. Capital Letters and Small Letters:-

Capital Letters: 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 and Z.

Small Letters: 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 and z.

Capitals are used only in the following places:

• The first letter of every sentence.


• The title of a book or person; as, My First Book, Ramayan, Mahabharat, His Excellency, Maharaja, Rai Bhahadur etc.


• Proper nouns; as, William Shakespeare, Kalidas, Washington, London, Avanti, Varanasi etc.


• Most adjectives derived from Proper nouns; as Indian, English, Pakistani etc.


• The first word of a quotation; as, you told, “In my opinion Ramayan, written by Maharshi Valmiki is the greatest epic.”


• The personal pronoun “I” is always written in Capitals.


• The names of the Deity and the Persons that refer to Him; as, God, the Almighty, Lord Rama, Goddes Durga, it was His will etc.


• Every line of poetry.


• Single letters forming abbreviations; as, M.A., B.Sc., Ph.D.

Vowels And Consonants

Letters which represent a simple vocal sound are called vowels. In English a, e, i, o and u are vowels.
Note: ‘w’ and ‘y’ are semi vowels as they are treated as vowels when they do no begin a word; as by, syntax etc.

The letter which can be sounded only with a vowel are called consonants; b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y and z are consonants.