I noticed that the recognition of both genitive types has proved to be very difficult to you, so let me help you by giving you 3 steps.

Step 1: Identify the genitive. The noun in genitive case are easily identifiable because they are connected by the preposition ”of” or the apostrophe “s” The idea of these exercises is to find the relation that exists between both nouns connected by these features.

1. The retirement of my father

2. The insertion of viruses.

3. The students’ enrollment.

4. The leg of the table is broken.

5. My sister’s lawyer is disorganized.

Step 2: Once you’ve identified the nouns in genitive case. Ask yourself if any of the nouns selected comes from a verb. If so, you can discard any other option regarding the genitive type. It would be either subjective or objective.

1. The retirement of my father

The noun “Retirement” comes from the verb “To retire”

2. The insertion of viruses

The noun “Insertion” comes from the verb “To insert”

3. The students’ enrollment

The noun “enrollment” comes from the verb “To enroll”

4. The leg of the table is broken. (X) = Inherence.

No noun comes from a verb. It can be neither subjective nor objective type.

5. My sister’s lawyer is disorganized. (X) =Sphere.

No noun comes from a verb. They can’t be subjective or objective type.

Step 3: Once you make sure the noun comes from a verb. You should identify if their relation is subjective or objective. To find it out, you should do a “confirmation test” which is an imaginary sentence.

1. The retirement of my father

What of the words would be the verb of the sentence?

The noun “father” can’t be the verb of the sentence. For instance, you know that the only word that can act as a verb of “retirement” which is “to retire”

My father RETIRES_________ (no object)

The father plays a SUBJECTIVE” function; therefore, the relation between the noun father and the noun retirement according to the confirmation test is subjective.

2. The insertion of viruses

What noun would be the verb of the imaginary sentence?

Answer: The noun Insertion comes from the verb “to insert”

SUBJECT + insert + OBJECT

Ask yourself now by analyzing the context of the sentence.

A) Does the virus insert something? = SUBJECTIVE

B) Does someone insert the virus? = OBJECTIVE

Logically, the second one is correct. Someone inserts the virus.

The relation that exists between “Insertion” and “virus” is OBJECTIVE because the noun virus is acting as the direct object of the verb “insert” in the confirmation test.

3. The students’ enrollment

What noun comes from a verb?

The noun enrollment comes from the verb “to enroll” With this information, you should ask yourself…

What is the relation that exists between “students” and “enrollment?

A) Do the students enroll in something? = Subjective

b) Does something or someone enroll the students? = Objective.

The answer is “A” the students enroll in something” Students is acting as the subject of the verb “enroll” in the confirmation test. Thus, the relation between both is SUBJECTIVE.

Got it? I hope so guys! =)

It is the performer or the doer of the verb. In English every sentence must have at least one subject. The subject could take the following forms:

NOUN OR EQUIVALENT.

a) A subjective pronoun (I, you he, she, it, we, they)

They took the bus at 6:10 am.

I read a magazine everyday.

She combs her hair.

b) A Noun:

Peter is a good student.

Students are not only intellectual but also social and emotional beings.

c) A noun phrase:

The truck is in the middle of the road.

How to do that is difficult to decide.

The studious boy always gets good grades.

d) A noun clause:

What annoys me the most are those noisy parties.

I believe that he sings beautifully.

What Stephen did impressed the audience.

e) An infinitive phrase:

To walk is healthy.

To sing helps you develop your acting skills.

To protect the environment is fabulous.

F) A gerund phrase:

Walking is healthy.

Signing helps you develop your acting skills.

Protecting the environment is fabulous.

G) An adjective:

The rich don’t need more money.

The poor envy the rich.

The involved should turn up in the court.

The affected must confess their crime.

e) A verbal noun phrase:

The singing of the birds is awakened.

The reading of a book without reflection is useless.

The listening of classic music is relaxing to our ears.

Usually both concepts are confused by the students. The difference between them is:

An inflection is an internal change in the form of a Word that shows its grammatical function.

Example:

The suffix –ing is used to express the function of a verb in progressive present tense (Present participle).

Feel – feeling. She is feeling sick.

Jump- Jumping. Mark is jumping over a wall.

If you add the suffix “s” at the end of a verb, you form the third conjugation of a verb in present tense.

Care – Cares. Ericka cares about her brother.

Look – Looks Patrick looks very good today.

Another example of inflection is the use of the suffix “s” at the end of a noun. If you add “s” at the end of most English nouns, the result is the plural form of a noun.

Derivation It is the formation of a new word by the addition of a morpheme at the beginning, in between or at the end of a word.

Unlike the inflection, the derivation applies to the concepts of family – related words which derives from the same origin and are usually different types of words. (Nouns, verbs, adverbs among others)

For example:

Annoy - ance is a noun.

Annoy is a verb.

Annoy- ing is an adjective. (See the difference between participle and gerund)

Annoy – ing- ly is an adverb.

To Annoy means to make someone feel uncomfortable or angry. All this words derive from the same origin. Of course, all these words carry the same family- related meaning.

It is an internal change in the form of a word that shows its grammatical function

Word	Form	Morph.	Examples
Noun	Plural	-s	Dog-s, house-s, book-s, keyboard-s, camera-s Mugs, animals, kids, celphones.
Verb	3rd present. Conjug. Past simple Past participle Present participle Gerund	-s -es -ed (d) -ing	Sell-s, take-s, speak-s Runs, jumps, pushes. Drill-ed, squell-ed, talk-ed Skied, scattered, listened. Go-ing, feel-ing, stand-ing Participating, advocating.
Adjective	Comparative Superlative	-er -est	Fast-er, strong-er, old-er Fast-est, strong-est, old-est.

NOUNS

Type	Morpheme	Examples
Regular	-s	Dogs, houses, books, buses, kids, sons, grandparents, etc.
Irregular	None Internal irr -en	Deer, sheep, fish, Man-men, foot-feet, woman – women Mouse – mice. Child-children, ox- oxen.
Foreign	-on -a -is -es - ix -ices -um -a -us -Ii	Criterion – criteria, phenomenom – phenomena. Analysis – analyses, crisis – crises Matrix – matrices, index – indices, appendix- appendices. Datum- Data, Erratum – errata, medium – media, effluvium – effluvia. Cactus – Cactii, Terminus – Termini.

Syntax clauses

Clause: a group of words, consisting of a subject and a finite form of a verb (= the form that shows the tense and subject of the verb) which might or might not be a sentence.

Independent clause

A group of words having a subject and verb is an independent clause if it is logically complete. Even though other clauses may be attached to it, the independent clause could express a complete idea by itself. In short, it is a simple sentence.

Dependent clause

A dependent clause is always attached to an independent clause, if it not attached, it appears as a fragment. A change in punctuation or addition of a connective is necessary to restore it to the modifying position to which it logically belongs. There are three kinds of dependent clauses: adverb, adjective and noun clauses.

Adverb clauses: The adverb clause usually is introduced by an adverb such as though, although, unless (expressing place or location); because, since, as, so that (expressing reason) , or any other connective of this kind. These words actually cause the clause to the dependent, and they also show the relationship between the adverb clause and the independent clause to which it is attached. For this reason, they are sometimes called subordinating words. They subordinate the idea of the dependent clause to the idea of the independent clause. It is very difficult to say whether the adverb clause is a precise modifier, for it seems to modify the action, or in general, the verbal idea in the main clause, rather than any specific word.

Adjective clauses: The adjective clause is usually introduced by a relative pronoun which indicates the word in the main clause that is modified by the adjective clause. In effect, the relative pronoun stands for the word that is the logical subject of the clause. For example:

Mary, who was proud of her appearance, spent all her allowance on a pink leather coat.

The dependent adjective clause in this sentence gives us some information about Mary. The relative pronoun Who stands in the place of the subject of the dependent clause, but it also logically stands for Mary. If the adjective clause becomes detached from the word it modifies, it is said to dangle. For example:

Bill ate his sandwich before facing Professor Snerg, who was always hungry in the morning.

The dependent adjective clause was intended to give us information about Bill rather than Professor Snerg, but the logic is greatly confused by misplacement of the clause. To correct, move the clause next to the word or idea it is intended to modify:

Bill, who was always hungry in the morning, ate his sandwich before facing Professor Snerg.

When the adjective clause is Restrictive and cannot be removed from the sentence without damaging the logic, it should not be set off by commas from the rest of the sentence. For example:

The ant which we studied in the ant-colony was much larger than those shown in the textbook.

In the sentence, the dependent adjective clause limits the meaning and is therefore restrictive. No commas are needed.

The nonrestrictive adjective clause provides gratuitous information about the substantive it modifies. For example:

My cocker, Tillie, who lives only to eat, reminded me that she wanted her supper promptly at four o`clock.

The adjective clause, who lives only to eat, is non restrictive and could be removed from the sentence without changing the logic of the independent clause.

Adjective clauses may be said to modify in the same way that single adjectives or adjectives phrases do; that is, they limit, describe, extend meaning, specify an attribute of the word modified, or provide additional information about a substantive in the main clause.

Noun clauses

The noun clause also begins with a relative pronoun but instead of modifying, it provides a substantive idea essential to the meaning of the sentence, for it supplies the place of either a subject or an object. For example:

How you earn your money depends upon your training.

In this sentence, the group of words beginning with how provides the subject idea (or substantive by function) in the sentence, yet it is a true clause with you as its subject and earn as the verb.

Whoever slashed the red curtain backstage must have been in a rage.

The relative pronoun whoever stands for a person who is identified only by his actions. The word stands for the subject of the noun clause, but the whole clause is the subject of the sentence.

The professor said he would reveal who students were.

In this sentence, the relative pronoun who introduces a noun clause that is the object of the verb would reveal.

Although noun clauses are usually introduced by relative pronouns, adverbs sometime are used, as in the first example above. When we locate the clause by function. We can differentiate it from the adjective or adverb clause. The introductory word is only one clue, of course.

Noun clauses are never separated from the rest of the sentence by commas. They often appear in the sentences that have complicated syntax because they can be the objects of prepositions and verbals as well as objects of the verb.

Method of subordination

In constructing sentences expressing closely related ideas, find the main idea among them and deal with it in the independent clause. The subordinate ideas should be attached by making them into adverb, adjective, or noun clauses. Be careful to use the relative pronouns or subordinating words which most clearly show the logical relationship of the clauses to each other.