I thought it might be useful to have some advice on basic English grammar.  Not because of any pet hate regarding people's use of grammar, but just because I know that often people are not taught the basics of the English language at school.  I hope this might be

Don't worry if while reading any of these "rules" you can think of a number of examples of when it isn't necessary.  Like all rules, you only know you have mastered them when you know when to break them! 

I owe a debt to my great-great-uncle William Dutton who wrote the book "The Primary Art of English" (now out of print) from which I've borrowed a lot of the ideas expressed in here. 

So starting with the very basics - these are the different types of words that can make up a sentence:

Noun - This is a word used for naming anything. There are two types of nouns - common nouns and proper nouns.
Some examples of common nouns are girl, boy, city, ocean, bat.  Some examples of proper nouns are Mrs Jones, Sydney, Europe, Atlantic Ocean, Tuesday, February.  Proper nouns are special names and so begin with a capital letter.

Pronouns - A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun.  Examples are I, you, me, him, it.  Have a look at this sentence:

        I told Jack that you gave his pen to me, and that I would give it back to him.

In that sentence, "I" and "me" are used for the name of the speaker; "you" for the person spoken to; "his" and "him" for Jack; "it" for the pen.  All those words are pronouns.

Verbs - A verb is a word often described as an "action" word.  Verbs are very important words in sentences and every sentence must have at least one verb.  Examples of verbs are write, be, is, work.

Adjectives - Adjectives are words that describe nouns.  Examples are ten, many, some; wet, green, French; this, that, those.  So you could say: ten boats, many boys, some cents, a wet day, a green leaf, a French city, this rug, that pen, those cows.  Sometimes the adjective is not placed against the noun or pronoun, although it still refers to it.  An example is:  the sun was very hot (hot is the adjective and sun is the noun).

Adverbs - Adverbs are similar but they describe verbs.  They tell how, when or where a thing is done.  Very often adverbs end in "-ly".   A couple of examples are: Mary wrote carefully in her new book.  (The word "carefully" tells how she wrote.)  Then she read what she had written.  ("Then" tells us when she read.)  When she had finished, she put the book on the table and went out.  (The word "out" tells us where she went.  It is an adverb telling something about the verb "went".)

Conjunctions - These are words that join simple sentences together to make longer ones.  Examples are: and, but, when, before, unless, as, because, until, although. 

Prepositions - A preposition is a word that begins a phrase that adds meaning to a sentence.  Examples of prepositions are: on, beneath, after, at, with.  The preposition is in italics in the sentences below:

            A green vase stood on the kitchen table.
           Beneath the tree, we found a smooth white stone.

The next advice will look at putting all these words together!