A noun is a person, place, or thing. Sometimes you capitalize a noun (like San Jose), but sometimes you don't. Is a noun proper or common, and how does that change how it's used? Here are some resources that will help you if you are uncertain about the grammar rules related to nouns.

Writing Center Resources

• Nouns: the Basics

• Nouns: Advanced

• Nouns: Expert

• Count and Noncount Nouns

• Capitalization

• Pronouns

Knowing which verb tense to use while writing a paper can be difficult. Would you use, "The author stated that," "the author had stated that," or "the author has been stating that"? Here are some resources that can help explain the differences among the English verb tenses.

Writing Center Resources

• Infinitives

• Verb Tenses: Telling Time

• Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

External Resources

• Verb Tenses (UNC at Chapel Hill)

• Verb Tenses (GMU)

• Present Perfect Uses (U of Victoria)

• Verb Tenses (Walden U)

• Verb Tenses (U of Washington)

• Reporting Verbs For English Language Learners (ThoughtCo)

"The swift brown fox jumps over the lazy dog!" Adjectives describe nouns, and they certainly make your sentences more interesting and descriptive. However, they can sometimes be hard to use in the right order. Here are some resources to help you understand adjectives better so you can describe the world around you.

Writing Center Resources

• Adjectives

• Comparative and Superlative Adjectives

External Resources

• Order of Adjectives (Using English)

• Order of Adjectives (VOA Learning English)

• Adjective Order (video) (Khan Academy)

• Order of Adjectives (video) (Extra English Practice)

• Placement of Modifiers in a Sentence (CliffNotes)

Adverbs are descriptive words that modify a verb, an adjective, or even another adverb! (They most typically describe/modify a verb: "walked quickly.") But not all adverbs end in {-ly}. Adverbs tell us how, when, where, why, and much more. Here are some resources that will tell you about the different types of adverbs and how to use them.

Writing Center Resources

• Adverbs

• Conjunctive Adverbs (transition words)

External Resources

• Adverb Placement (ThoughtCo)

• Types of Adverbs (ESL Grammar.org)

• Adverb Placement, Generally, Specifically (Vocabulary.com)

• Position of Adverbs (7ESL)

• Where to Put Only and Just in Your Sentence (English With a Smile)

• Adverbs (Butte College)

• Even (Cambridge)

The words a, an, and the are the three articles in the English language. When should you use a definite (the) or indefinite (a/an) article? Should you use one at all? Here are some resources that might help you figure out when to use a, an, the, or no article.

Writing Center Resource

• Articles (a/an/the)

External Resources

• Articles: UNC at Chapel Hill

• Definite and Indefinite Articles (Texas A&M)

• Articles a/an/the (OWL Purdue)

Conjunctions are used to connect two sentences or ideas. There are also different types of conjunctions (e.g., coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions), which are all used differently. Here are some resources to help you understand how to use them.

Writing Center Resources

• Coordinating Conjunctions (FANBOYS)

• Subordinating Conjunctions and Subordinate Clauses

External Resources

• Coordinating Conjunctions (Khan Academy) (video)

• Conjunctions (Guide to Grammar.org)

So, your friend asks you: "Do you want meet in front of the library, in the library, near the library, or by the library?" If you aren't quite sure what the differences are between all these statements, that's okay! Prepositions show relationships between two nouns, often in time or space, and they can be especially tricky for multilingual writers. Here are some resources to help you better understand them.

Writing Center Resources

• Prepositions 'Of', 'At', and 'For'

• Prepositions of Direction

• Prepositions of Time

• 'In', 'On', 'At': Prepositions of Time and Place

• 'Onto' versus 'On To'

External Resource

• Prepositions (Texas A&M)

Transition words can help you improve the flow of a paper, organize your thoughts, and connect your ideas. These are also called conjunctive adverbs, and here are some resources to help you better understand them.

Writing Center Resources

• Conjunctive Adverbs

• Transition Words

External Resources

• Transitions (ESL): UNC at Chapel Hill

• Adverbs (Butte College)

"If we go to the movies, then we can have popcorn!" You might know conditionals as if-then and if-would statements, but there are more conditionals in English than just those two types. Here are some resources to help you better understand conditionals.

External Resources

• Conditionals (UNC at Chapel Hill)

• Conditionals (English Club)

• All Conditionals - 0,1,2,3 and Mixed Conditionals (video)

• Conditionals (Guide to Grammar.org)

Don't know the difference between who and whom? Or that and which? Here are some resources that can help you better understand relative clauses.

Writing Center Resources

• It's All Relative (Clauses)

• Who, Whom, Whoever, and Whomever

External Resources

• Relative Clauses (UNC at Chapel Hill)

• Relative Clauses (Texas A&M)