Microsoft Word Theoretical Course of English Grammar

Nino Kirvalidze
61
It’s getting dark.
It’s raining
. (atmospheric conditions) 
It’s not very far to New York
.
It’s just one more stop to Toronto
. (distance)
The secondary parts of the sentence (object, attribute, adverbial modifiers) modify either 
the main and secondary parts of the sentence or the whole sentence. The secondary parts of the 
sentence differ from the principal ones inasmuch as they are not capable of forming a sentence 
by themselves. Any of the secondary parts might be removed from the sentence without 
destroying it (
He often studies at the library. He often studies
.), while the removal of the 
subject or the predicate will destroy the sentence (
studies at the library
is not a sentence but a 
word-group).
The syntactical characteristics of the secondary parts of the sentence are not as definite as 
those of the principal ones. Their classification is based on grammatical and semantic criteria. 
The object is typically a noun phrase or a pronoun in the objective case denoting a thing 
or a person which is grammatically connected with the verb modifying it. The object usually 
follows the verb and if both objects are present, the indirect object normally comes before the 
direct object (“Justin poured David some whisky.”). The object may generally become the 
subject of the corresponding passive clause (“David was poured some whisky by Justin.”).
The attribute is a secondary part of the sentence which modifies an entity, expressed by a 
head noun: 
a beautiful girl; a deep river
, etc. 
The adverbials modify the verbal predicate denoting either external relations (of time, 
place, reason, purpose, etc.) or inner qualities of the actions and processes (manner, degree). 
Adverbials of external relations may modify the whole sentence, while objects are grammati-
cally connected only with the verb. Objects make the grammatical structure of the sentence 
complete whereas adverbial modifiers are usually used to make the meaning of the sentence 
complete. The position of the object is fixed in English, it follows the verb, while adverbial 
modifiers (especially adverbials of external relations) are relatively free as to their position in 
the sentence. For example:
I met a friend of mine on the way to the college. 
On the way to the college I met a friend of mine. 

---

Theoretical Course of English Grammar 
Script by prof.