Word Classes and so on

Some notes I wrote, perhaps around early 2000s...

Nouns: Words that name things, people, places, feelings, etc.
             E.g. ruler, woman, beach, pain, etc.

Verbs: Words that express action, being, having, movement, change.
           E.g. run, am, has, flow, melt, etc.

Adjectives: Words that tell us more about a noun.
                   E.g. plastic ruler, old woman, sandy beach, less pain, etc.

Adverbs: Words (or phrases) that tell us when, how often, how, why, where, etc.
                E.g. tomorrow, every day, carefully, because, nowhere, etc.
               
               They may tell us more about a verb, an adjective, another adverb or a whole sentence. 
               E.g. drive carefully, very careful, extremely carefully, tomorrow we shall arrive, etc

Determiners: Words that come before a noun, and tell us how many, which, how much, etc.
                      E.g. Two flies, this fly, etc

Pronouns: Words used instead of nouns, often to avoid repetition.
                 E.g. he, she, etc

Prepositions: Words or phrases that link two parts of a sentence, usually a verb and a noun phrase.
                     E.g. kick off the match (phrasal verb), climb up the hill, sit under the roof, etc

Conjunctions: Words or phrases that link two clauses or other parts of a sentence.
                        E.g. She is tall and skinny.

Subject: Word or phrase (often a noun or noun phrase) that usually comes before a verb (active voice)
                It tells us what or who the sentence is about.

Predicate: Everything that comes after the subject (active voice)
                It is the verb plus its objects, complements and adverbials
                that tell us what the subject does or is or have.

Impress or impressed?

Do we say "I'm not impress" or "I'm not impressed"?

In response to the above query, we say "I'm not impressed". 

This is because it can be seen as answering the question "Are you impressed?" 

So we would answer in the same way using the adjective "impressed":

"Yes, I am impressed."

Or 

"No, I am not impressed."

On the other hand, if we are asked the question "Does that impress you?", we would answer using the verb "impress":

"Yes, that impresses me."

Or 

"No, that does not impress me."

Do we say "what would it look like?" or "what would it looks like?"

"What would it look like?"
OR
"What would it looks like?"

We use "look" instead of "looks" because of the auxiliary verb "would" in front of the main verb "look".

For example, when we answer the question, we say "It would look like..." instead of "It would looks like...".

Do we say "show interest" or "show interests"?

For example:

"Seven schools have shown interest"

OR

"seven schools have shown interests"?

We use "interest" because "interest" is an uncountable noun.

Do we say "three's a company" or "three's company"?

I would say that "three's a company" is more appropriate as an idiomatic expression. It is a short form of saying "three is a company". 

According to this website, the original idiom is "two's company, three's a crowd".

Then again' "three's company" may be correct too, since in the original idiom, it says "two's company", meaning "two is company".

So, "three's company" can be read as "three is company".

I think both are correct. However, to be closer to the original idiom, maybe we can stick to "three's company".

What's the difference between "assume" and "presume"?

My dictionaries say both words have similar meanings as they are synonyms.

I googled about it and learnt there is a slight difference between the two:

When we assume, we may not need any evidence to prove it is true. 

When we presume, we are saying it is probably true based on past happenings.

References:

http://grammarist.com/usage/assume-presume

http://www.vocabulary.com/articles/chooseyourwords/assume-presume/

http://www.grammarly.com/answers/questions/1073-what-is-the-difference-between-assume-and-presume/

Hello - a short introduction

I am starting a new blog called "Your friendly neighbourhood (aspiring) grammarian" because I get asked from time to time by friends and colleagues about English grammar. I am by no means an expert or "authority" on grammar myself, and I do make mistakes or overlook grammar rules every now and then, being human. I thought it would be good to use this online platform to record or archive the grammar tidbits that I have come across when helping my friends to check their grammar or edit their writing, and in the process, I get to learn something new or reinforce my own knowledge and understanding about grammar too.

So, this blog is more for my own reference, especially if I need to refer back to the relevant extracts or excerpts from other sources, such as English discussion forums, in future regarding grammar rules, and sometimes other aspects of the English language, such as vocabulary and so on. Of course, if anyone finds this blog useful, I am glad it serves that purpose too.

So, happy learning, even as I am learning myself on this journey of traversing or navigating the labyrinthine world of English grammar and the like.