Grammar and vocabulary work together to create meaningful communication. Vocabulary is constantly changing, with loanwords and affixes adding to it. The eight parts of speech are used to combine words in the right arrangement. Syntax varies between languages, but subject/verb agreement is important. Punctuation separates sentences and helps convey meaning.
The relationship between grammar and vocabulary is one of the partners working together to create meaningful communication. Words in a language are known as vocabulary, while grammar provides the methods and rules for combining those words into sentences. Ideas are communicated when grammar and vocabulary work together.
Vocabulary lists are often grouped by root words or source language and are constantly changing. Loanwords are words taken from one language and added to another, following the second language’s grammar and sometimes its pronunciation. In English, for example, “ballet” was assimilated by French and “kayak” by the Yupik people of Alaska.
Affixes are syllables that can be attached to a word. Grammar and vocabulary work together with affixes to transform a word into a different part of speech, add meaning to it, or change the tense. The –ion affix turns a verb into a noun. For example, participating becomes participation and the image becomes imagination.
All vocabulary words can be divided into verbs, nouns, pronouns, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections, collectively known as the eight parts of speech. Grammar and vocabulary come together to combine words, vocabulary, in the right arrangement, grammar, according to these parts of speech. Placing a word in a sentence can change its function. For example, “my dog caught the ball” has a different meaning than “the ball caught my dog”.
The syntax of all Romance languages, as well as English and Arabic, combine parts of speech in a subject-verb-object (SVO) construction. “A girl ate peaches” is a correct sentence of SVO. Other languages use a subject-object-verb construction, such as “a girl ate peaches,” and some use a verb-subject-object order, such as “a girl ate peaches.” While each of these examples uses appropriate vocabulary, only one gives clear meaning in English through the use of correct grammar.
Subject/verb agreement is the term for matching the subject and verb. For example, both “he run” and “they run” are correct sentences, but “he run” and “they run” are incorrect in standard English. Students of any language need to learn how a language’s vocabulary fits into different grammatical constructions.
Punctuations are written symbols, other than letters, that tell you which words belong together. Periods, exclamation marks and question marks separate one sentence from another, showing when a thought is complete. The comma has many roles, from separating items in a list to helping a conjunction combine two sentences into one. In speech, punctuation is indicated by tonal cues, such as raising the pitch at the end of a sentence to show it’s a question.
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