Writers Workshop: Writer Resources
Grammar Handbook
Thank you for using the Grammar Handbook at the Writers' Workshop, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This Handbook explains and illustrates the basic grammatical rules concerning parts of speech, phrases, clauses, sentences and sentence elements, and common problems of usage.
While we have done our best to be comprehensive and accurate, we do not claim to be the final authority on grammatical issues. We appreciate constructive emails with questions, suggestions, or corrections, but please understand we may be unable to respond to all of them.
Handbook Sections
Parts of Speech
Nouns
- Nouns
- Common and Proper Nouns
- Mass and Count Nouns
- Pronouns
- Pronoun/Antecedent Agreement
- Noun and Pronoun Case
Verbs
- Principal Tenses of Verbs
- Auxiliary Verbs
- Perfect and Progressive Verb Forms
- Regular and Irregular Verbs
- Verb Mood
Adjectives and Adverbs
Conjunctions
Other Parts of Speech
Phrases
Clauses
- Independent and Dependent Clauses
- Adjective, Adverb, and Noun Clauses
- Relative Clauses
- Restrictive and Nonrestrictive Clauses
Sentences and Sentence Elements
- Sentence Types
- Subjects and Predicates
- Active and Passive Voice
- Complements
- Direct and Indirect Objects
- Appositives