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English Grammar
English grammar is based on its Germanic roots, though some scholars during the 1700s and 1800s attempted to impose Latin grammar upon it, with little success. English is only a slightly inflected language, much lesser than most Indo-European languages. It compensates for this by placing more grammatical information in auxiliary words and word order, through retaining features like:Possessive
He is Alfredo's best friend. -'s
3rd person singular present
Alfredo works. -s
past tense
Alfredo worked. -ed
present participle/ progressive
Alfredo is working. -ing
past participle
The car was stolen. -en
Alfredo has talked to the police. -ed
gerund
Working is good for the soul. -ing
plural
All your sigs are mine. -s
comparative
Alfredo is smarter than Ricky. -er
superlative
Alfredo has the bluest eyes. -est
It must be noted that, unlike other Germanic languages or the Romance languages, English nouns do not take gender and verbs can take the "ing" ending.
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