Page 120 - How to write effective business English your guide to excellent professional communication by Fiona Talbot

Punctuation and grammar tips 109

An adverb is a word that describes a verb. For example:

fast, happily, later, urgently;
The project manager always delivered on time.

In that last example there is an adverb, ‘always’, and an adverbial
phrase, ‘on time’, which describe the verb ‘delivered’.
A preposition is a word that links a noun to another noun. For
example:

to, on, under, in;
Please put the papers on the desk.

A conjunction is a word that joins words or sentences. For example:
and, but, or, so;

I need a flipchart but that is all.
An interjection is a short exclamation, often followed by an excla-
mation mark (!). For example:
hi! oh!

Some other grammatical points of interest

Commas can separate one group of words in a sentence from an-
other so that the meaning is clear. You will see how they flag up
different meanings in these two sentences:

Sanjay, our vice-president has left the company.
Sanjay, our vice-president, has left the company.

In the first sentence, the writer is telling Sanjay that their vice-president
(somebody else) has left the company. In the second sentence, the
writer is telling somebody (whose name is unknown to us) that
Sanjay (who is the vice-president) has left the company.