Glossary of English Grammar Terms

This glossary of English grammar terms relates to the English language. Some terms here may have additional or extended meanings when applied to other languages. For example, "case" in some languages applies to pronouns and nouns. In English, nouns do not have case and therefore no reference to nouns is made in its definition here. Term Definition one of two voices in English; a direct form of expression where the subject performs or "acts" the verb; see also passive voice eg: "Many people eat rice"

Active Voice, Passive Voice

There are two special forms for verbs called voice: active voice 1. Active voice 2. Passive voice The active voice is the "normal" voice. This is the voice that we use most of the time. You are probably already familiar with the active voice. In the active voice, the object receives the action of the verb: subject verb object active Cats eat > fish.

The passive voice is less usual. In the passive voice, the subject receives the action of the verb: subject verb passive Fish < are eaten by cats. object

The object of the active verb becomes the subject of the passive verb: subject active verb object water.

Everybody drinks

passive Water

is drunk by everybody.

Passive Voice
The passive voice is less usual than the active voice. The active voice is the "normal" voice. But sometimes we need the passive voice. In this lesson we look at how to construct the passive voice, when to use it and how to conjugate it.

Construction of the Passive Voice

The structure of the passive voice is very simple: subject + auxiliary verb (be) + main verb (past participle)

The main verb is always in its past participle form. Look at these examples:
subject Water auxiliary verb (to be) is main verb (past participle) drunk employed paid not paid paid by everyone. by this company. in euro. in dollars. in yen?

100 people are I We Are am are they

Use of the Passive Voice

We use the passive when:

we want to make the active object more important we do not know the active subject subject verb object

give importance to active object (President Kennedy) President Kennedy was killed active subject unknown My wallet

by Lee Harvey Oswald.

has been stolen. ?

Note that we always use by to introduce the passive object (Fish are eaten by cats).
Look at this sentence:

He was killed with a gun.

Normally we use by to introduce the passive object. But the gun is not the active subject. The gun did not kill him. He was killed by somebody with a gun. In the active voice, it would be: Somebody killed him with a gun. The gun is the instrument. Somebody is the "agent" or "doer".

Conjugation for the Passive Voice

We can form the passive in any tense. In fact, conjugation of verbs in the passive tense is rather easy, as the main verb is always in past participle form and the auxiliary verb is always be. To form the required tense, we conjugate the auxiliary verb. So, for example:

present simple: It is made present continuous: It is being made present perfect: It has been made

Here are some examples with most of the possible tenses:

infinitive to be washed

present past simple future

It is washed. It was washed. It will be washed.

conditional It would be washed. present past continuous future It will be being washed. It is being washed. It was being washed.

conditional It would be being washed. present past perfect simple future It will have been washed. It has been washed. It had been washed.

conditional It would have been washed.

present past perfect continuous future

It has been being washed. It had been being washed. It will have been being washed.

conditional It would have been being washed.

part of speech that typically describes or "modifies" a noun eg: "It was a big dog."

Adjectives
An adjective is a word that tells us more about a noun. (By "noun" we include pronouns and noun phrases.) adjective An adjective "qualifies" or "modifies" a noun (a big dog). Adjectives can be used before a noun (I like Chinese food) or after certain verbs (It is hard). We can often use two or more adjectives together (a beautiful young French lady). It is sometimes said that the adjective is the enemy of the noun. This is because, very often, if we use the precise noun we don't need an adjective. For example, instead of saying "a large, impressive house" (2 adjectives + 1 noun) we could simply say "a mansion" (1 noun).

Determiners the, a/an, this, some, any Adjective Order beautiful, long, dark brown Comparative Adjectives richer, more exciting Superlative Adjectives the richest, the most exciting Gradable and Non-gradable Adjectives | Quiz see also: Noun as Adjective coffee cup, bus station, research centre

Determiners
Determiners are words like the, an, my, some. They are grammatically similar. They all come at the beginning of noun phrases, and usually we cannot use more than one determiner in the same noun phrase.

Articles:

a, an, the

Possessive Adjectives:

my, your, his, her, its, our, their, whose

Other determiners:

each, every either, neither some, any, no much, many; more, most little, less, least few, fewer, fewest what, whatever; which, whichever both, half, all several enough

Articles: a, an, the

A, An or The?
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When do we say "the dog" and when do we say "a dog"? (On this page we talk only about singular, countable nouns.) The and a/an are called "articles". We divide them into "definite" and "indefinite" like this: Articles Definite Indefinite the a, an

We use "definite" to mean sure, certain. "Definite" is particular. We use "indefinite" to mean not sure, not certain. "Indefinite" is general. When we are talking about one thing in particular, we use the. When we are talking about one thing in general, we use a or an. Think of the sky at night. In the sky we see 1 moon and millions of stars. So normally we would say:

I saw the moon last night. I saw a star last night.

Look at these examples: the

a, an The capital of France is Paris. I have found the book that I lost. Have you cleaned the car? There are six eggs in the fridge.

I was born in a town. John had an omelette for lunch. James Bond ordered a drink. We want to buy an umbrella.

Please switch off the TV when you finish.

Have you got a pen?

Of course, often we can use the or a/an for the same word. It depends on the situation, not the word. Look at these examples:

We want to buy an umbrella. (Any umbrella, not a particular umbrella.) Where is the umbrella? (We already have an umbrella. We are looking for our umbrella, a particular umbrella.)

This little story should help you understand the difference between the and a, an: A man and a woman were walking in Oxford Street. The woman saw a dress that she liked in a shop. She asked the man if he could buy the dress for her. He said: "Do you think the shop will accept a cheque? I don't have a credit card."

Possessive Adjectives:

my, your, his, her, its, our, their, whose

Possessive Adjectives
Warning! These are adjectives. Don't confuse them with pronouns! We use possessive adjectives to show who owns or "possesses" something. The possessive adjectives are:

my, your, his, her, its, our, their whose (interrogative)

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number

person 1st 2nd

gender male/female male/female male

possessive example sentence adjective my your his her its our your their This is my book. I like your hair. His name is "John". Her name is "Mary". The dog is licking its paw. We have sold our house. Your children are lovely. The students thanked their teacher.

singular 3rd

female neuter

1st plural 2nd 3rd

male/female male/female male/female/neuter

singular/plural 1st/2nd/3rd male/female (not neuter) whose Compare: your = possessive adjective you're = you are its = possessive adjective it's = it is OR it has their = possessive adjective they're = they are

Whose phone did you use?

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there = adverb (I'm not going there / look over there / there is a car outside) whose = possessive adjective who's = who is OR who has

Be careful! There is no apostrophe (') in the possessive adjective "its". We use an apostrophe to write the short form of "it is" or "it has". For example: it's raining = it is raining it's finished = it has finished I'm taking my dog to the vet. It's broken its leg. Other determiners:

each, every either, neither some, any, no much, many; more, most little, less, least few, fewer, fewest what, whatever; which, whichever both, half, all several enough

Each, Every
Each and every have similar but not always identical meanings.
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Each = every one separately Every = each, all

Sometimes, each and every have the same meaning:

Prices go up each year. Prices go up every year.

But often they are not exactly the same. Each expresses the idea of 'one by one'. It emphasizes individuality. Every is half-way between each and all. It sees things or people as singular, but in a group or in general. Consider the following:

Every artist is sensitive. Each artist sees things differently. Every soldier saluted as the President arrived. The President gave each soldier a medal.

Each can be used in front of the verb:

The soldiers each received a medal.

Each can be followed by 'of':

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The President spoke to each of the soldiers. He gave a medal to each of them.

Every cannot be used for 2 things. For 2 things, each can be used:

He was carrying a suitcase in each hand.

Every is used to say how often something happens:

There is a plane to Bangkok every day. The bus leaves every hour.

Verbs with each and every are always conjugated in the singular.

Some, Any
Some = a little, a few or a small number or amount Any = one, some or all Usually, we use some in positive (+) sentences and any in negative (-) and question (?) sentences. some + I have some money. any I have $10. example situation

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I don't have any money. Do you have any money?

I don't have $1 and I don't have $10 and I don't have $1,000,000. I have $0. Do you have $1 or $10 or $1,000,000?

In general, we use something/anything and somebody/anybody in the same way as some/any. Look at these examples:

He needs some stamps. I must go. I have some homework to do. I'm thirsty. I want something to drink. I can see somebody coming. He doesn't need any stamps. I can stay. I don't have any homework to do. I'm not thirsty. I don't want anything to drink. I can't see anybody coming. Does he need any stamps? Do you have any homework to do? Do you want anything to drink? Can you see anybody coming?

We use any in a positive sentence when the real sense is negative.

I refused to give them any money. (I did not give them any money) She finished the test without any difficulty. (she did not have any difficulty)

Sometimes we use some in a question, when we expect a positive YES answer. (We could say that it is not a real question,
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because we think we know the answer already.)

Would you like some more tea? Could I have some sugar, please?

Adjective Order beautiful, long, dark brown

Adjective Order
There are 2 basic positions for adjectives: 1. before the noun 2. after certain verbs (be, become, get, seem, look, feel, sound, smell, taste) adj. noun 1 I like big cars. 2 My car is big. verb adj.

In this lesson we look at the position of adjectives in a sentence, followed by a quiz to check your understanding:

Adjective before noun Adjective after certain verbs

Adjective Before Noun

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We sometimes use more than one adjective before the noun:

I like big black dogs. She was wearing a beautiful long red dress.

What is the correct order for two or more adjectives? 1. The general order is: opinion, fact:

a nice French car (not a French nice car)

("Opinion" is what you think about something. "Fact" is what is definitely true about something.) 2. The normal order for fact adjectives is size, age, shape, colour, material, origin:

a big, old, square, black, wooden Chinese table

3. Determiners usually come first, even though they are fact adjectives:

articles (a, the) possessives (my, your...) demonstratives (this, that...) quantifiers (some, any, few, many...) numbers (one, two, three)

Here is an example with opinion and fact adjectives: adjectives deter- opinion fact

noun

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miner two nice

age shape colour old round red candles

When we want to use two colour adjectives, we join them with "and":

Many newspapers are black and white. She was wearing a long, blue and yellow dress.

The rules on this page are for the normal, "natural" order of adjectives. But these rules are not rigid, and you may sometimes wish to change the order for emphasis. Consider the following conversations: Conversation 1 A "I want to buy a round table." B "Do you want a new round table or an old round table?" Conversation 2 A "I want to buy an old table". B "Do you want a round old table or a square old table?"

Adjective After Certain Verbs

An adjective can come after some verbs, such as: be, become, feel, get, look, seem, smell, sound Even when an adjective comes after the verb and not before a noun, it always refers to and qualifies the subject of the sentence, not the verb. Look at the examples below: subject verb adjective

Ram is English.
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Because she had to wait, she became impatient. Is it getting dark? The examination did not seem difficult. Your friend looks nice. This towel feels damp. That new film doesn't sound very interesting. Dinner smells good tonight. This milk tastes sour. It smells bad.

These verbs are "stative" verbs, which express a state or change of state, not "dynamic" verbs which express an action. Note that some verbs can be stative in one sense (she looks beautiful | it got hot), and dynamic in another (she looked at him | he got the money). The above examples do not include all stative verbs. Note also that in the above structure (subject verb adjective), the adjective can qualify a pronoun since the subject may be a pronoun.

Comparative Adjectives richer, more exciting

Comparative Adjectives
When we talk about two things, we can "compare" them. We can see if they are the same or different. Perhaps they are the same in some ways and different in other ways. We can use comparative adjectives to describe the differences. We can use comparative adjectives when talking about two things (not three or more things). In the example below, "bigger" is the comparative form of the adjective "big":
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A1 A2 A1 is bigger than A2. In this lesson we will look first at how we make comparative adjectives, and then at how we use them:

Formation of Comparative Adjectives Use of Comparative Adjectives

Formation of Comparative Adjectives

There are two ways to make or form a comparative adjective:

short adjectives: add "-er" long adjectives: use "more"

Short adjectives

1-syllable adjectives 2-syllable adjectives ending in -y

old, fast happy, easy old older late later

Normal rule: add "-er" Variation: if the adjective ends in -e, just add -r

Variation: if the adjective ends in consonant, vowel, consonant, double the last consonant big bigger

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Variation: if the adjective ends Long adjectives

n -y, change the y to i

happy happier

2-syllable adjectives not ending in -y all adjectives of 3 or more syllables

modern, pleasant expensive, intellectual modern more modern expensive more expensive

Normal rule: use "more" With some 2-syllable adjectives, we can use '-er' or 'more':

quiet quieter/more quiet clever cleverer/more clever narrow narrower/more narrow simple simpler/more simple

Exception The following adjectives have irregular forms:

good better well (healthy) better bad worse far farther/further

Use of Comparative Adjectives

We use comparative adjectives when talking about 2 things (not 3 or 10 or 1,000,000 things, only 2 things).
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Often, the comparative adjective is followed by "than". Look at these examples:

John is 1m80. He is tall. But Chris is 1m85. He is taller than John. America is big. But Russia is bigger. I want to have a more powerful computer. Is French more difficult than English?

If we talk about the two planets Earth and Mars, we can compare them as shown in the table below: Earth Diameter (km) Distance from Sun (million km) Length of day (hours) Moons Mars

12,760 6,790 Mars is smaller than Earth. 150 24 1 228 25 2 -23 Mars is more distant from the Sun. A day on Mars is slightly longer than a day on Earth. Mars has more moons than Earth. Mars is colder than Earth.

Surface temperature (degrees Celcius) 22

Although we use comparative adjectives when talking about two things (not three or more things), in fact one or both of the things may be a group of things.

Mt Everest is higher than all other mountains.

Here, we are talking about hundreds of mountains, but we are still comparing one thing (Mt Everest) to one other thing (all other mountains).

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Superlative Adjectives the richest, the most exciting

Superlative Adjectives
A superlative adjective expresses the extreme or highest degree of a quality. We use a superlative adjective to describe the extreme quality of one thing in a group of things. In the example below, "biggest" is the superlative form of the adjective "big": ABC A is the biggest. In this lesson we will look first at how we make superlative adjectives, and then at how we use them:

Formation of Superlative Adjectives Use of Superlative Adjectives

Formation of Superlative Adjectives

As with comparative adjectives, there are two ways to form a superlative adjective:

short adjectives: add "-est" long adjectives: use "most"

We also usually add 'the' at the beginning.

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Short adjectives 1-syllable adjectives 2-syllable adjectives ending in -y Normal rule: add "-est" Variation: if the adjective ends in -e, just add -st Variation: if the adjective ends in consonant, vowel, consonant, double the last consonant Variation: if the adjective ends in -y, change the y to i Long adjectives 2-syllable adjectives not ending in -y all adjectives of 3 or more syllables Normal rule: use "most" modern, pleasant expensive, intellectual modern the most modern expensive the most expensive old, fast happy, easy old the oldest late the latest big the biggest happy the happiest

With some 2-syllable adjectives, we can use '-est' or 'most':

quiet the quietest/most quiet clever the cleverest/most clever narrow the narrowest/most narrow simple the simplest/most simple

Exception
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The following adjectives have irregular forms:

good the best bad the worst far the furthest

Use of Superlative Adjectives

We use a superlative adjective to describe one thing in a group of three or more things. Look at these examples:

John is 1m75. David is 1m80. Chris is 1m85. Chris is the tallest. Canada, China and Russia are big countries. But Russia is the biggest. Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world.

If we talk about the three planets Earth, Mars and Jupiter, we can use superlative adjectives as shown in the table below: Earth Diameter (km) Mars Jupiter

12,760 6,790 142,800 Jupiter is the biggest. 228 25 2 -23 778 10 16 -150 Jupiter is the most distant from the Sun. Jupiter has the shortest day. Jupiter has the most moons. Jupiter is the coldest.

Dis150 tance from Sun (million km) Length of day (hours) Moons Surface temp. (degrees Celcius) 24 1 22

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When we compare one thing with itself, we do not use "the":

England is coldest in winter. (not the coldest) My boss is most generous when we get a big order. (not the most generous)

Gradable and Non-gradable Adjectives |

Gradable and Non-gradable Adjectives

Adjectives describe qualities (characteristics) of nouns.

Some qualities can vary in intensity or grade (for example: rather hot, hot, very hot; hot, hotter, the hottest). The adjective hot is gradable.

Other qualities cannot vary in intensity or grade because they are: a. extremes (for example: freezing) b. absolutes (for example: dead) c. classifying (for example: nuclear)

The adjectives freezing, dead and nuclear are non-gradable.

Gradable Adjectives
A gradable adjective can be used with "grading adverbs" that vary the adjective's grade or intensity. Look at these examples:

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grading adverbs a little, dreadfully, extremely, fairly, hugely, immensely, intensely, rather, reasonably, slightly, unusually, very

gradable adjectives + angry, big, busy, clever, cold, deep, fast, friendly, good, happy, high, hot, important, long, popular, rich, strong, tall, warm, weak, young

A gradable adjective can also have comparative and superlative forms:

EC Tip: "Gradable adjectives" are also called "qualitative adjectives". "Grading adverbs" are also called "submodifiers".

big, bigger, the biggest hot, hotter, the hottest important, more important, the most important

Look at these example sentences:

My teacher was very happy with my homework. That website is reasonably popular. But this one is more popular. He said that Holland was a little cold and Denmark was rather cold. But Sweden was the coldest.

EC Tip: The adjective dead is non-gradable because it is an absolute. Dead is dead. We cannot be more or less dead. One person cannot be "deader" than another. Other absolutes include: correct, unique, perfect

Non-gradable Adjectives
A non-gradable adjective cannot be used with grading adverbs:

It was rather freezing outside. The dog was very dead. He is investing in slightly nuclear energy.

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Non-gradable adjectives do not normally have comparative and superlative forms:

freezing, more freezing, the most freezing dead, deader, the deadest nuclear, more nuclear, the most nuclear

Often, non-gradable adjectives are used alone:

EC Tip: Don't try to learn lists of gradable and non-gradable adjectives! It's better to understand what makes an adjective gradable or non-gradable. This is a matter of logic and common sense. Most native-speakers have never heard of gradable and non-gradable adjectives. They just "feel" that it doesn't make sense to say "fairly excellent" or "very unique". You probably have the same idea in your language.

It was freezing outside. The dog was dead. He is investing in nuclear energy.

However, a non-gradable adjective can be used with "non-grading adverbs" (which usually just give the adjective extra impact), for example:
non-grading adverbs non-gradable adjectives absolutely utterly completely awful excellent terrified extreme

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totally nearly virtually essentially mainly almost

dead impossible unique chemical digital domestic classifying absolute

Here are some example sentences with non-gradable adjectives:

Her exam results were absolutely awful. She will have to take the exam again. Is there anything like it in the world? It must be virtually unique. It starts an essentially chemical reaction.

Adjectives that can be gradable and non-gradable

Some adjectives may have more than one meaning or sense. It's possible for the same adjective to be gradable with one sense and non-gradable with another sense. For example:
adjective common =

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He's got a very old car. I saw my old boyfriend yesterday. He has some dreadfully common habits. "The" is a very common word in English.

gradable

not young

non-gradable former, exgradable gradable vulgar prevalent

The two countries' common border poses problems. non-gradable shared

Adverbs used with gradable and non-gradable adjectives

The adverbs really (very much) and fairly and pretty (both meaning "to a significant degree, but less than very") can often be used with gradable and non-gradable adjectives:
gradable non-gradable

Please don't forget! It's really important. He was really terrified. He's a fairly rich man. He's pretty tall. It's a fairly impossible job. It's pretty ridiculous when you think about it.

"Quite" with gradable and non-gradable adjectives

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The meaning of the adverb "quite" changes according to the type of adjective we use it with:
adjective It's quite warm today. gradable quite = fairly, rather

Are you quite certain? non-gradable completely, absolutely

Reference
Non-gradable adjectives Although we don't recommend that you learn lists of non-gradable adjectives, here are some for reference. You can decide for yourself whether they are extreme, absolute or classifying. alive, awful, black, boiling, certain, correct, dead, domestic, enormous, environmental, excellent, freezing, furious, gigantic, huge, immediately, impossible, miniscule, mortal, overjoyed, perfect, pregnant, principal, ridiculous, superb, terrible, terrified, unique, unknown, white, whole

Non-grading adverbs Again, no need to learn lists. Here are a few examples. There are many more. Remember that you cannot use all non-grading adverbs with all non-gradable adjectives. Some collocate (go together). Some don't.

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absolutely, almost, completely, entirely, exclusively, fully, largely, mainly, nearly, perfectly, practically, primarily, utterly, virtually

see also: Noun as Adjective coffee cup, bus station, research centre

Noun as Adjective
As you know, a noun is a person, place or thing, and an adjective is a word that describes a noun:
adjective noun clever small black teacher office horse

Sometimes we use a noun to describe another noun. In that case, the first noun "acts as" an adjective.
noun as adjective noun

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history ticket race

teacher office horse

The "noun as adjective" always comes first

If you remember this it will help you to understand what is being talked about:

a race horse is a horse that runs in races a horse race is a race for horses a boat race is a race for boats a love story is a story about love a war story is a story about war a tennis ball is a ball for playing tennis tennis shoes are shoes for playing tennis a computer exhibition is an exhibition of computers a bicycle shop is a shop that sells bicycles

The "noun as adjective" is singular

Just like a real adjective, the "noun as adjective" is invariable. It is usually in the singular form.
Right boat race boat races Wrong NOT boats race, boats races

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toothbrush shoe-lace

toothbrushes shoe-laces

NOT teethbrush, teethbrushes NOT shoes-lace, shoes-laces

cigarette packet cigarette packets NOT cigarettes packet, cigarettes packets

In other words, if there is a plural it is on the real noun only. A few nouns look plural but we usually treat them as singular (for example news, billiards, athletics). When we use these nouns "as adjectives" they are unchanged:

a news reporter, three news reporters one billiards table, four billiards tables an athletics trainer, fifty athletics trainers

Exceptions: When we use certain nouns "as adjectives" (clothes, sports, customs, accounts, arms), we use them in the plural form:

clothes shop, clothes shops sports club, sports clubs customs duty, customs duties accounts department, accounts departments arms production

How do we write the "noun as adjective"?

We write the "noun as adjective" and the real noun in several different ways:

two separate words (car door) two hyphenated words (book-case) 34

one word (bathroom)

There are no easy rules for this. We even write some combinations in two or all three different ways: (head master, headmaster, headmaster)
How do we say the "noun as adjective"?

For pronunciation, we usually stress the first word:

shoe shop boat-race bathroom

Can we have more than one "noun as adjective"?

Yes. Just like adjectives, we often use more than one "noun as adjective" together. Look at these examples: car production costs: we are talking about the costs of producing cars
noun as noun as adjective adjective

noun costs

production costs car production costs

England football team coach: we are talking about the coach who trains the team that plays football for England
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noun as noun as noun as adjective adjective adjective noun coach team coach football England football team coach team coach

Note: in England football team coach can you see a "hidden" "noun as adjective"? Look at the word "football" (foot-ball). These two nouns (foot+ball) have developed into a single noun (football). This is one way that words evolve. Many word combinations that use a "noun as adjective" are regarded as nouns in their own right, with their own dictionary definition. But not all dictionaries agree with each other. For example, some dictionaries list "tennis ball" as a noun and other dictionaries do not. government road accident research centre: we are talking about a centre that researches into accidents on the road for the government
noun as adjective noun as noun as noun as adjective adjective adjective noun centre research centre

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accident research centre road accident research centre government road accident research centre

Newpapers often use many nouns together in headlines to save space. Look at this example: BIRD HEALTH RESEARCH CENTRE MURDER MYSTERY To understand headlines like these, try reading them backwards. The above headline is about a MYSTERY concerning a MURDER in a CENTRE for RESEARCH into the HEALTH of BIRDS. Note, too, that we can still use a real adjective to qualify a "noun as adjective" structure:

empty coffee jar honest car salesman delicious dog food rising car production costs famous England football team coach

seldom-used term for relative clause adjective clause

Relative Clauses
Content

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How to form relative clauses Relative pronouns Subject pronouns or Object pronouns? Relative adverbs Defining relative clauses Non-defining relative clauses How to shorten relative clauses

We use relative clauses to give additional information about something without starting another sentence. By combining sentences with a relative clause, your text becomes more fluent and you can avoid repeating certain words.

How to Form Relative Clauses

Imagine, a girl is talking to Tom. You want to know who she is and ask a friend whether he knows her. You could say: A girl is talking to Tom. Do you know the girl? That sounds rather complicated, doesn't it? It would be easier with a relative clause: you put both pieces of information into one sentence. Start with the most important thing you want to know who the girl is. Do you know the girl As your friend cannot know which girl you are talking about, you need to put in the additional information the girl is talking to Tom. Use the girl only in the first part of the sentence, in the second part replace it with the relative pronoun (for people, use the relative pronoun who). So the final sentence is:

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Do you know the girl who is talking to Tom?

Relative Pronouns
relative pronoun who which which whose whom use subject or object pronoun for people subject or object pronoun for animals and things referring to a whole sentence possession for people animals and things example I told you about the woman who lives next door. Do you see the cat which is lying on the roof? He couldnt read which surprised me. Do you know the boy whose mother is a nurse?

object pronoun for people, especially in non-defining relative I was invited by the professor whom I met at the clauses (in defining relative clauses we colloquially prefer who) conference. subject or object pronoun for people, animals and things in defining relative clauses (who or which are also possible) I dont like the table that stands in the kitchen.

that

Subject Pronoun or Object Pronoun?

Subject and object pronouns cannot be distinguished by their forms - who, which, that are used for subject and object pronouns. You can, however, distinguish them as follows: If the relative pronoun is followed by a verb, the relative pronoun is a subject pronoun. Subject pronouns must always be used.

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the apple which is lying on the table If the relative pronoun is not followed by a verb (but by a noun or pronoun), the relative pronoun is an object pronoun. Object pronouns can be dropped in defining relative clauses, which are then called Contact Clauses. the apple (which) George lay on the table

Relative Adverbs
A relative adverb can be used instead of a relative pronoun plus preposition. This often makes the sentence easier to understand. This is the shop in which I bought my bike. This is the shop where I bought my bike.
relative adverb when where why meaning in/on which in/at which for which use refers to a time expression refers to a place refers to a reason example the day when we met him the place where we met him the reason why we met him

Defining Relative Clauses

Defining relative clauses (also called identifying relative clauses or restrictive relative clauses) give detailed information defining a general term or expression. Defining relative clauses are not put in commas. Imagine, Tom is in a room with five girls. One girl is talking to Tom and you ask somebody whether he knows this girl.

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Here the relative clause defines which of the five girls you mean. Do you know the girl who is talking to Tom? Defining relative clauses are often used in definitions. A seaman is someone who works on a ship. Object pronouns in defining relative clauses can be dropped. (Sentences with a relative clause without the relative pronoun are called Contact Clauses.) The boy (who/whom) we met yesterday is very nice.

Non-Defining Relative Clauses

Non-defining relative clauses (also called non-identifying relative clauses or non-restrictive relative clauses) give additional information on something, but do not define it. Non-defining relative clauses are put in commas. Imagine, Tom is in a room with only one girl. The two are talking to each other and you ask somebody whether he knows this girl. Here the relative clause is non-defining because in this situation it is obvious which girl you mean. Do you know the girl, who is talking to Tom? Note: In non-defining relative clauses, who/which may not be replaced with that. Object pronouns in non-defining relative clauses must be used. Jim, who/whom we met yesterday, is very nice.

How to Shorten Relative Clauses?

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Relative clauses with who, which, that as subject pronoun can be replaced with a participle. This makes the sentence shorter and easier to understand. I told you about the woman who lives next door. I told you about the woman living next door. Do you see the cat which is lying on the roof? Do you see the cat lying on the roof?

adjunct

word or phrase that adds information to a sentence and that can be removed from the sentence without making the sentence ungrammatical eg: I met John at school. word that modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb eg: quickly, really, very

Adverbs
adverb Adverbs are an important part of speech. They usually answer questions such as how?, where?, when?, how often? and how much? What is an Adverb? What do adverbs do? What's their job? Adverb Form How do we make adverbs?

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Kinds of Adverbs What are the main kinds of adverbs? Adverb Position Where do we place the adverb in a sentence? Adverbs of Frequency hourly, weekly, once a year... always, sometimes, never... See also adverb vocabulary:

Adverbs of Manner List Adverbs of Place List Adverbs of Time List Adverbs of Degree List

What is an Adverb? What do adverbs do? What's their job?

What is an Adverb?
An adverb is a word that tells us more about a verb. It "qualifies" or "modifies" a verb (The man ran quickly). In the following examples, the adverb is in bold and the verb that it modifies is in italics.

John speaks loudly. (How does John speak?) Afterwards she smoked a cigarette. (When did she smoke?) Mary lives locally. (Where does Mary live?)
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But adverbs can also modify adjectives (Tara is really beautiful), or even other adverbs (It works very well). Look at these examples:

Modify an adjective: - He is really handsome. (How handsome is he?) - That was extremely kind of you. Modify another adverb: - She drives incredibly slowly. (How slowly does she drive?) - He drives extremely fast.

Note that adverbs have other functions, too. They can:

Modify a whole sentence: Obviously, I can't know everything. Modify a prepositional phrase: It's immediately inside the door.

Adverb Form How do we make adverbs?

Adverb Form
We make many adverbs by adding -ly to an adjective, for example:

quick (adjective) > quickly (adverb) careful (adjective) > carefully (adverb) beautiful (adjective) > beautifully (adverb)

There are some basic rules about spelling for -ly adverbs. See the table below:

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Adjective ending do this

adjective quick nice sole careful

adverb quickly nicely solely carefully

most adjectives

add -ly

-able or -ible -y -ic

change -e to -y change -y to -ily

regrettable regrettably horrible horribly happy happily economically

change -ic to -ically economic

But not all words that end in -ly are adverbs. The words friendly, lovely, lonely and neighbourly, for example, are all adjectives. And some adverbs have no particular form. Look at these examples:

well, fast, very, never, always, often, still

Note that the form of an adverb can also change to make it comparative or superlative.

Kinds of Adverbs What are the main kinds of adverbs?

Kinds of Adverbs
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Here you can see the basic kinds of adverbs.

Adverbs of Manner
Adverbs of Manner tell us the manner or way in which something happens. They answer the question "how?". Adverbs of Manner mainly modify verbs.

He speaks slowly. (How does he speak?) They helped us cheerfully. (How did they help us?) James Bond drives his cars fast. (How does James Bond drive his cars?)

We normally use Adverbs of Manner with dynamic (action) verbs, not with stative or state verbs.

He ran fast. She came quickly. They worked happily. She looked beautifully. It seems strangely. They are happily.

Adverbs of Place
Adverbs of Place tell us the place where something happens. They answer the question "where?". Adverbs of Place mainly modify verbs.

Please sit here. (Where should I sit?) They looked everywhere. (Where did they look?) Two cars were parked outside. (Where were two cars parked?)

Adverbs of Time
Adverbs of Time tell us something about the time that something happens. Adverbs of Time mainly modify verbs. They can answer the question "when?":

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He came yesterday. (When did he come?) I want it now. (When do I want it?)

Or they can answer the question "how often?":

They deliver the newspaper daily. (How often do they deliver the newspaper?) We sometimes watch a movie. (How often do we watch a movie?)

Adverbs of Degree
Adverbs of Degree tell us the degree or extent to which something happens. They answer the question "how much?" or "to what degree?". Adverbs of Degree can modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs.

She entirely agrees with him. (How much does she agree with him?) Mary is very beautiful. (To what degree is Mary beautiful? How beautiful is Mary?) He drove quite dangerously. (To what degree did he drive dangerously? How dangerously did he drive?)

See also adverb vocabulary:

Adverbs of Manner List Adverbs of Place List Adverbs of Time List Adverbs of Degree List

Adverbs of Manner List

Adverbs of Place List

Adverbs of Time List

Adverbs of Degree List

Adverbs of

Adverbs of

Adverbs of

Adverbs of
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Manner List Place List

Alphabetical list of common single-word manner adverbs
Adverbs of manner form the largest group of adverbs. We make most of them simply by adding -ly to their corresponding adjective. This is an alphabetical list of 130 common single-word adverbs of manner. Adverbs of manner that do not end in -ly are shown in bold. accidentally angrily anxiously awkwardly badly beautifully blindly boldly bravely brightly busily calmly carefully

Time List
List of common singleword time adverbs
points of time (definite):

Degree List
Alphabetical list of common single-word degree adverbs
almost absolutely awfully* badly* barely completely decidedly deeply enough enormously entirely extremely fairly far fully greatly hardly highly how incredibly indeed intensely just least
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Alphabetical list of common single-word place adverbs

about above abroad anywhere away back backwards (also backward) behind below down downstairs east (etc) elsewhere far here in indoors inside near nearby off on out outside

now then today tomorrow tonight yesterday

frequency (definite):

annually daily fortnightly hourly monthly nightly quarterly weekly yearly

The word "bimonthly" is ambiguous and best avoided. Bimonthly can mean "twice a month" or "every two months". The same is true of

carelessly cautiously cheerfully clearly closely correctly courageously cruelly daringly deliberately doubtfully eagerly easily elegantly enormously enthusiastically equally eventually exactly faithfully fast fatally fiercely fondly foolishly fortunately frankly frantically generously gently gladly

over there towards under up upstairs where

Common suffixes

"biyearly"/"biannually".

frequency (indefinite):

-wards or -ward (backwards, downwards, eastward, forwards, homewards, upwards) -where (anywhere, everywhere, nowhere, somewhere)

Note that some adverbs can also be prepositions.

always constantly ever frequently generally infrequently never normally occasionally often rarely regularly seldom sometimes regularly usually

relationships in time She was waiting with a (indefinite):

red scarf on. (adverb) She put the red scarf on the table. (preposition)

already before early earlier eventually finally first formerly

less little lots most much nearly perfectly positively practically pretty* purely quite rather really scarcely simply so somewhat strongly terribly* thoroughly too totally utterly very virtually well *informal

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gracefully greedily happily hard hastily healthily honestly hungrily hurriedly inadequately ingeniously innocently inquisitively irritably joyously justly kindly lazily loosely loudly madly mortally mysteriously neatly nervously noisily obediently openly painfully patiently perfectly

just last late later lately next previously recently since soon still yet

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politely poorly powerfully promptly punctually quickly quietly rapidly rarely really recklessly regularly reluctantly repeatedly rightfully roughly rudely sadly safely selfishly sensibly seriously sharply shyly silently sleepily slowly smoothly so softly solemnly
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speedily stealthily sternly straight stupidly successfully suddenly suspiciously swiftly tenderly tensely thoughtfully tightly truthfully unexpectedly victoriously violently vivaciously warmly weakly wearily well wildly wisely

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Adverb Position Where do we place the adverb in a sentence?

Adverb Position
When an adverb modifies a verb, there are usually 3 possible positions within the sentence or clause: 1. FRONT - before subject 2. MID - between subject + verb 3. END - after verb/object Now I will read a book. I often I read books carefully. read books.

When an adverb modifies an adjective or another adverb, it usually goes in front of the word that it modifies, for example: adverb adjective She gave him a really dirty look.

adverb adverb We quite often study English.

The position of an adverb often depends on the kind of adverb (manner, place, time, degree). The following table gives you some guidelines for placement based on the kind of adverb. Warning: these are guidelines only, and not complete. There are many exceptions.

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sentence kind of adverb manner place definite time frequency verbs We often I nearly degree verbs, adjectives and adverbs It was terribly He works really go to Paris. MID died. funny. fast. MID before adjective before adverb mainly modifies adverb verbs verbs She stroked his hair gently. He was working here. He finished the job yesterday. END END END usual position

Adverbs of Frequency hourly, weekly, once a year... always, sometimes, never...

Adverbs of Frequency
Adverbs of Frequency are Adverbs of Time that answer the question "How frequently?" or "How often?". They tell us how often something happens. Here are some examples: a. daily, weekly, yearly
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b. often, sometimes, rarely You probably see a difference between a) and b) above. With words like daily we know exactly how often. The words in a) describe definite frequency. On the other hand, words like often give us an idea about frequency but they don't tell us exactly. The words in b) describe indefinite frequency. We separate them into two groups because they normally go in different positions in the sentence. In this lesson we will look in more detail at:

Adverbs of Definite Frequency Adverbs of Indefinite Frequency followed by an

Adverbs of Definite Frequency

Adverbs of definite frequency

Examples:

hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly every second, once a minute, twice a year once, twice, once or twice, three times

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Adverbs of definite frequency, like all adverbs of definite time, typically go in END position. Look at these examples:

Most companies pay taxes yearly. The manager checks the toilets every hour. The directors meet weekly to review progress.

Sometimes, usually for reasons of emphasis or style, some adverbs of definite frequency may go at the FRONT, for example:

Every day, more than five thousand people die on our roads.

Adverbs of Indefinite Frequency followed by an

Adverbs of indefinite frequency

Examples:

never, seldom, sometimes, often, always 100% always, constantly

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Adverbs of indefinite frequency mainly go in MID position in the sentence. They go before the main verb (except the main verb "to be"):

usually, normally frequently, regularly

We usually go shopping on Saturday. I have often done that. She is always late.

often 50% sometimes occasionally rarely, infrequently seldom hardly ever 0% never

Occasionally, sometimes, often, frequently and usually can also go at the beginning or end of a sentence:

Sometimes they come and stay with us. I play tennis occasionally.

Rarely and seldom can also go at the end of a sentence (often with "very"):

We see them rarely. John eats meat very seldom.

dependent clause that acts like an adverb and indicates such things as time, place or reason eg: Although we are getting older, we grow more beautiful each day.

adverbial clause

Adverbial clause
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search

An adverbial clause is a dependent clause that functions as an adverb. In other words, it contains a subject (explicit or
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implied) and a predicate, and it modifies a verb.

I saw Joe when I went to the store. (explicit subject I) He sat quietly in order to appear polite. (implied subject he)

According to Sidney Greenbaum and Randolph Quirk, adverbial clauses function mainly as adjuncts or disjuncts. In these functions they are like adverbial phrases, but due to their potentiality for greater explicitness, they are more often like prepositional phrases (Greenbaum and Quirk,1990):

We left after the speeches ended. (adverbial clause) We left after the end of the speeches. (adverbial prepositional phrase)

Contrast adverbial clauses with adverbial phrases, which do not contain a clause.

I like to fly kites for fun.

Adverbial clauses modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs. For example:

Hardly had I reached the station when the train started to leave the platform.

The adverbial clause in this sentence is "when the train started to leave the platform" because it is a subordinate clause and because it has the trigger word (subordinate conjunction) "when".

Contents

1 Kinds of adverbial clauses 2 References 3 Further reading

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4 External links

Kinds of adverbial clauses

kind of clause common conjunctions function example

when, before, after, since, while, as, as long These clauses are used to say when as, until,till, etc. (conjunctions that answer something happens by referring to a time clauses the question "when?"); hardly, scarcely, no period of time or to another event. sooner, etc.

Her goldfish died when she was young.

conditional clauses

if, unless, lest

These clauses are used to talk about a If they lose weight during an possible or counterfactual situation illness, they soon regain it and its consequences. afterwards. They had to take some of his These clauses are used to indicate the land so that they could extend purpose of an action. the churchyard. I couldn't feel anger against These clauses are used to indicate the him because I liked him too reason for something. much. These clauses are used to indicate the My suitcase had become so damaged on the journey home result of something. that the lid would not stay

purpose clauses

in order to, so that, in order that

reason clauses

because, since, as, given

result clauses

so...that

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closed. These clauses are used to make two statements, one of which contrasts with the other or makes it seem surprising.

concessive clauses

although, though, while

I used to read a lot although I don't get much time for books now.

place clauses

where, wherever, anywhere, everywhere, These clauses are used to talk about etc. (conjunctions that answer the question the location or position of something. "where?") These clauses are used to talk about someone's behaviour or the way something is done.

He said he was happy where he was.

clauses of manner

as, like, the way

I was never allowed to do things as I wanted to do them.

affirmative affix agreement (also known as "concord") antecedent

statement that expresses (or claims to express) a truth or "yes" meaning; opposite of negative eg: The sun is hot. language unit (morpheme) that occurs before or after (or sometimes within) the root or stem of a word eg: un- in unhappy (prefix), -ness in happiness (suffix) logical (in a grammatical sense) links between words based on tense, case or number eg: this phone, these phones word, phrase or clause that is replaced by a pronoun (or other substitute) when mentioned subsequently (in the same sentence or later) eg: "Emily is nice because she brings me flowers."
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appositive article aspect

noun phrase that re-identifies or describes its neighbouring noun eg: "Canada, a multicultural country, is recognized by its maple leaf flag." determiner that introduces a noun phrase as definite (the) or indefinite (a/an) feature of some verb forms that relates to duration or completion of time; verbs can have no aspect (simple), or can have continuous or progressive aspect (expressing duration), or have perfect or perfective aspect (expressing completion) verb used with the main verb to help indicate something such as tense or voice eg: I do not like you. She has finished. He can swim.

Helping Verbs
Helping verbs are also called "auxiliary verbs".

auxiliary verb (also called "helping verb")

Helping verbs have no meaning on their own. They are necessary for the grammatical structure of a sentence, but they do not tell us very much alone. We usually use helping verbs with main verbs. They "help" the main verb (which has the real meaning). There are only about 15 helping verbs in English, and we divide them into two basic groups:

Primary helping verbs (3 verbs)

These are the verbs be, do, and have. Note that we can use these three verbs as helping verbs or as main verbs. On this page we talk about them as helping verbs. We use them in the following cases:

be
o o

to make continuous tenses (He is watching TV.) to make the passive (Small fish are eaten by big fish.)

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have
o

to make perfect tenses (I have finished my homework.)

do
o o o o

to make negatives (I do not like you.) to ask questions (Do you want some coffee?) to show emphasis (I do want you to pass your exam.) to stand for a main verb in some constructions (He speaks faster than she does.)

Modal helping verbs (10 verbs)

We use modal helping verbs to "modify" the meaning of the main verb in some way. A modal helping verb expresses necessity or possibility, and changes the main verb in that sense. These are the modal verbs:

can, could may, might will, would, shall, should must ought to

Here are examples using modal verbs:

I can't speak Chinese. John may arrive late. Would you like a cup of coffee? You should see a doctor. I really must go now.

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Semi-modal verbs (3 verbs) The following verbs are often called "semi-modals" because they are partly like modal helping verbs and partly like main verbs:

need dare used to

Main Verbs
Main verbs are also called "lexical verbs".

Main verbs have meaning on their own (unlike helping verbs). There are thousands of main verbs, and we can classify them in several ways:

Transitive and intransitive verbs

A transitive verb takes a direct object: Somebody killed the President. An intransitive verb does not have a direct object: He died. Many verbs, like speak, can be transitive or intransitive. Look at these examples: transitive:

I saw an elephant. We are watching TV. He speaks English.

intransitive:

He has arrived. John goes to school.

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She speaks fast.

Linking verbs
A linking verb does not have much meaning in itself. It "links" the subject to what is said about the subject. Usually, a linking verb shows equality (=) or a change to a different state or place (>). Linking verbs are always intransitive (but not all intransitive verbs are linking verbs).

Mary is a teacher. (mary = teacher) Tara is beautiful. (tara = beautiful) That sounds interesting. (that = interesting) The sky became dark. (the sky > dark) The bread has gone bad. (bread > bad)

Dynamic and stative verbs

Some verbs describe action. They are called "dynamic", and can be used with continuous tenses. Other verbs describe state (non-action, a situation). They are called "stative", and cannot normally be used with continuous tenses (though some of them can be used with continuous tenses with a change in meaning). dynamic verbs (examples):

hit, explode, fight, run, go

stative verbs (examples):

be like, love, prefer, wish impress, please, surprise hear, see, sound belong to, consist of, contain, include, need 64

appear, resemble, seem

Regular and irregular verbs

This is more a question of vocabulary than of grammar. The only real difference between regular and irregular verbs is that they have different endings for their past tense and past participle forms. For regular verbs, the past tense ending and past participle ending is always the same: -ed. For irregular verbs, the past tense ending and the past participle ending is variable, so it is necessary to learn them by heart. regular verbs: base, past tense, past participle

look, looked, looked work, worked, worked

irregular verbs: base, past tense, past participle

buy, bought, bought cut, cut, cut do, did, done

One way to think of regular and irregular verbs is like this: all verbs are irregular and the so-called regular verbs are simply one very large group of irregular verbs.

Often the above divisions can be mixed. For example, one verb could be irregular, transitive and dynamic; another verb could be regular, transitive and stative.

bare infinitive

unmarked form of the verb (no indication of tense, mood, person, or aspect) without the particle "to"; typically used after
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modal auxiliary verbs; see also infinitive eg: "He should come", "I can swim" basic form of a verb before conjugation into tenses etc eg: be, speak

Forms of Main Verbs

Main verbs are also called "lexical verbs".

Main verbs (except the verb "be") have only 4, 5 or 6 forms. "Be" has 9 forms. base form
V1 infinitive regular (to) work base work V2 V3

past simple past participle present participle present simple, 3rd person singular worked worked sung made cut done working singing making cutting doing works sings makes cuts does

(to) sing (to) make irregular (to) cut (to) do*

sing sang make made cut cut do did

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(to) have* have infinitive (to) be* base be

had

had

having

has

past simple past participle present participle present simple was, were been being am, are, is

In the above examples:

to cut has 4 forms: to cut, cut, cutting, cuts to work has 5 forms: to work, work, worked, working, works to sing has 6 forms: to sing, sing, sang, sung, singing, sings to be has 9 forms: to be, be, was, were, been, being, am, is, are

The infinitive can be with or without to. For example, to sing and sing are both infinitives. We often call the infinitive without to the "bare infinitive".

At school, students usually learn by heart the base, past simple and past participle (sometimes called V1, V2, V3, meaning Verb 1, Verb 2, Verb 3) for the irregular verbs. They may spend many hours chanting: sing, sang, sung; go, went, gone; have, had, had; etc. They do not learn these for the regular verbs because the past simple and past participle are always the same: they are formed by adding "-ed" to the base. They do not learn the present participle and 3rd person singular present simple by heart - for another very simple reason: they never change. The present participle is always made by adding "-ing" to the base, and the 3rd person singular present simple is always made by adding "s" to the base (though there are some variations in spelling). * Note that "do", "have" and "be" also function as helping or auxiliary verbs, with exactly the same forms (except that as helping verbs they are never in infinitive form).

Example Sentences
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These example sentences use main verbs in different forms.

Infinitive

I want to work He has to sing. This exercise is easy to do. Let him have one. To be, or not to be, that is the question:

Base - Imperative

Work well! Make this. Have a nice day. Be quiet!

Base - Present simple (except 3rd person singular)

I work in London. You sing well. They have a lot of money.

Base - After modal auxiliary verbs

I can work tomorrow. You must sing louder. They might do it. You could be right.

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Past simple

I worked yesterday. She cut his hair last week. They had a good time. They were surprised, but I was not.

Past participle

I have worked here for five years. He needs a folder made of plastic. It is done like this. I have never been so happy.

Present participle

I am working. Singing well is not easy. Having finished, he went home. You are being silly!

3rd person singular, present simple

He works in London. She sings well. She has a lot of money. It is Vietnamese.

Forms of Helping Verbs

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All helping verbs are used with a main verb (either expressed or understood*). There are 2 groups of helping verbs:

Primary helping verbs, used mainly to change the tense or voice of the main verb, and in making questions and negatives. Modal helping verbs, used to change the "mood" of the main verb.

Study the table below. It shows the prinicipal forms and uses of helping verbs, and explains the differences between primary and modal helping verbs. * Sometimes we make a sentence that has a helping verb and seems to have no main verb. In fact, the main verb is "understood". Look at the following examples:

Question: Can you speak English? (The main verb speak is "expressed".) Answer: Yes, I can. (The main verb speak is not expressed. It is "understood" from the context. We understand: Yes, I can speak English.

But if somebody walked into the room and said "Hello. I can", we would understand nothing! Helping Verbs Primary do be have (to make simple tenses, and questions and negatives) (to make continuous tenses, and the passive voice) (to make perfect tenses) Modal can may will shall must could might would should

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ought (to) "Do", "be" and "have" as helping verbs have exactly the same forms as when they are main verbs (except that as helping verbs they are never used in infinitive forms). Primary helping verbs are followed by the main verb in a particular form:

Modal helping verbs are invariable. They always have the same form. "Ought" is followed by the main verb in infinitive form. Other modal helping verbs are followed by the main verb in its base form (V1).

do + V1 (base verb) be + -ing (present participle) have + V3 (past participle)

ought + to... (infinitive) other modals + V1 (base verb)

"Do", "be" and "have" can also function as main verbs.

Modal helping verbs cannot function as main verbs.

Helping verbs are also called "auxiliary verbs". form of a pronoun based on its relationship to other words in the sentence; case can be subjective, objective or possessive eg: "I love this dog", "This dog loves me", "This is my dog" verb that causes things to happen such as "make", "get" and "have"; the subject does not perform the action but is indirectly responsible for it eg: "She made me go to school", "I had my nails painted" group of words containing a subject and its verb eg: "It was late when he arrived" form of an adjective or adverb made with "-er" or "more" that is used to show differences or similarities between two things

case

causative verb

clause comparative,

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comparative adjective complement compound noun compound sentence concord

(not three or more things) eg: colder, more quickly part of a sentence that completes or adds meaning to the predicate eg: Mary did not say where she was going. noun that is made up of more than one word; can be one word, or hyphenated, or separated by a space eg: toothbrush, mother-in-law, Christmas Day sentence with at least two independent clauses; usually joined by a conjunction eg: "You can have something healthy but you can't have more junk food." another term for agreement structure in English where one action depends on another ("if-then" or "then-if" structure); most common are 1st, 2nd, and 3rd conditionals eg: "If I win I will be happy", "I would be happy if I won"

English Conditionals
conditional There are several structures in English that are called conditionals. "Condition" means "situation or circumstance". If a particular condition is true, then a particular result happens.

If y = 10 then 2y = 20 If y = 3 then 2y = 6

There are three basic conditionals that we use very often. There are some more conditionals that we do not use so often. In this lesson, we will look at the three basic conditionals as well as the so-called zero conditional. We'll finish with a quiz

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to check your understanding. People sometimes call conditionals "IF" structures or sentences, because there is usually (but not always) the word "if" in a conditional sentence.

Structure of Conditional Sentences First Conditional Second Conditional Third Conditional Zero Conditional Summary

Structure of Conditional Sentences

Structure of Conditional Sentences

The structure of most conditionals is very simple. There are two basic possibilities. Of course, we add many words and can use various tenses, but the basic structure is usually like this: IF condition result IF y = 10 or like this: 2y = 20

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result

IF condition

2y = 20 IF y = 10

First Conditional

First Conditional: real possibility

We are talking about the future. We are thinking about a particular condition or situation in the future, and the result of this condition. There is a real possibility that this condition will happen. For example, it is morning. You are at home. You plan to play tennis this afternoon. But there are some clouds in the sky. Imagine that it rains. What will you do? IF condition result

present simple WILL + base verb If it rains I will stay at home.

Notice that we are thinking about a future condition. It is not raining yet. But the sky is cloudy and you think that it could rain. We use the present simple tense to talk about the possible future condition. We use WILL + base verb to talk about the possible future result. The important thing about the first conditional is that there is a real possibility that the condition will happen. Here are some more examples (do you remember the two basic structures: [IF condition result] and [result IF condition]?): IF condition present simple result WILL + base verb
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If If If If If

I see Mary Tara is free tomorrow

I will tell her. he will invite her.

they do not pass their exam their teacher will be sad. it rains tomorrow it rains tomorrow will you stay at home? what will you do? IF condition present simple if if I see her. she is free tomorrow. they do not pass their exam. it rains tomorrow? it rains tomorrow?

result WILL + base verb I will tell Mary He will invite Tara

Their teacher will be sad if Will you stay at home What will you do if if

Sometimes, we use shall, can, or may instead of will, for example: If you are good today, you can watch TV tonight.

Second Conditional

Second Conditional: unreal possibility or dream

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The second conditional is like the first conditional. We are still thinking about the future. We are thinking about a particular condition in the future, and the result of this condition. But there is not a real possibility that this condition will happen. For example, you do not have a lottery ticket. Is it possible to win? No! No lottery ticket, no win! But maybe you will buy a lottery ticket in the future. So you can think about winning in the future, like a dream. It's not very real, but it's still possible. IF condition past simple If result WOULD + base verb

I won the lottery I would buy a car.

Notice that we are thinking about a future condition. We use the past simple tense to talk about the future condition. We use WOULD + base verb to talk about the future result. The important thing about the second conditional is that there is an unreal possibility that the condition will happen. Here are some more examples: IF condition past simple If If If If I married Mary Ram became rich result WOULD + base verb I would be happy. she would marry him.

it snowed next July would you be surprised? it snowed next July what would you do? IF condition
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result

WOULD + base verb I would be happy She would marry Ram if if

past simple I married Mary. he became rich. it snowed next July? it snowed next July?

Would you be surprised if What would you do if

Sometimes, we use should, could or might instead of would, for example: If I won a million dollars, I could stop working.

Third Conditional

Third Conditional: no possibility

The first conditional and second conditionals talk about the future. With the third conditional we talk about the past. We talk about a condition in the past that did not happen. That is why there is no possibility for this condition. The third conditional is also like a dream, but with no possibility of the dream coming true. Last week you bought a lottery ticket. But you did not win. :-( condition Past Perfect result WOULD HAVE + Past Participle

If I had won the lottery I would have bought a car.

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Notice that we are thinking about an impossible past condition. You did not win the lottery. So the condition was not true, and that particular condition can never be true because it is finished. We use the past perfect tense to talk about the impossible past condition. We use WOULD HAVE + past participle to talk about the impossible past result. The important thing about the third conditional is that both the condition and result are impossible now. Sometimes, we use should have, could have, might have instead of would have, for example: If you had bought a lottery ticket, you might have won. Look at some more examples in the tables below: IF condition past perfect If If If If If I had seen Mary Tara had been free yesterday result WOULD HAVE + past participle I would have told her. I would have invited her.

they had not passed their exam their teacher would have been sad. it had rained yesterday it had rained yesterday would you have stayed at home? what would you have done? IF condition past perfect if if I had seen her. she had been free yesterday.

result WOULD HAVE + past participle I would have told Mary I would have invited Tara

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Their teacher would have been sad Would you have stayed at home What would you have done

if if if

they had not passed their exam. it had rained yesterday? it had rained yesterday?

Zero Conditional

Zero Conditional: certainty

We use the so-called zero conditional when the result of the condition is always true, like a scientific fact. Take some ice. Put it in a saucepan. Heat the saucepan. What happens? The ice melts (it becomes water). You would be surprised if it did not. IF condition result

present simple present simple If you heat ice it melts.

Notice that we are thinking about a result that is always true for this condition. The result of the condition is an absolute certainty. We are not thinking about the future or the past, or even the present. We are thinking about a simple fact. We use the present simple tense to talk about the condition. We also use the present simple tense to talk about the result. The important thing about the zero conditional is that the condition always has the same result. We can also use when instead of if, for example: When I get up late I miss my bus.

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Look at some more examples in the tables below: IF condition present simple If If If If result present simple

I miss the 8 o'clock bus I am late for work. I am late for work people don't eat you heat ice my boss gets angry. they get hungry. does it melt? IF condition present simple if I miss the 8 o'clock bus. I am late for work. they don't eat. you heat it?

result present simple I am late for work

My boss gets angry if People get hungry Does ice melt if if

Summary

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Conditionals: Summary
Here is a chart to help you to visualize the basic English conditionals. Do not take the 50% and 10% figures too literally. They are just to help you. probability 100% 50% 10% 0% conditional zero conditional first conditional example If you heat ice, it melts. If it rains, I will stay at home. time any time future future

second conditional If I won the lottery, I would buy a car. third conditional

If I had won the lottery, I would have bought a car. past

to show the different forms of a verb according to voice, mood, tense, number and person; conjugation is quite simple in English compared to many other languages eg: I walk, you walk, he/she/it walks, we walk, they walk; I walked, you walked, he/she/it walked, we walked, they walked

conjugate

Basic Tenses: Regular Verb

Regular verbs list This page shows the basic tenses with the regular verb work. It includes the affirmative or positive form (+), the negative

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form (-) and the interrogative or question form (?). The basic structure is: + subject + auxiliary verb + main verb negative: - subject + auxiliary verb + not + main verb question: ? auxiliary verb + subject + main verb
positive:

These are the forms of the main verb that we use to construct the tenses: base verb past work past participle present participle -ing working past SIMPLE do + base verb (except future: will + base verb) + I did work I worked present I do work I work I do not work Do I work? I have worked I have not worked Have I worked? I am working future I will work I will not work Will I work? I will have worked I will not have worked Will I have worked? I will be working

worked worked

- I did not work ? Did I work? + I had worked

SIMPLE PERFECT have + past participle CONTINUOUS

- I had not worked ? Had I worked? + I was working

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be + ing

- I was not working ? Was I working? + I had been working

I am not working Am I working? I have been working

I will not be working Will I be working? I will have been working

CONTINUOUS PERFECT - I had not been working I have not been working I will not have been working have been + ing ? Had I been working? Have I been working? Will I have been working? word that joins or connects two parts of a sentence eg: Ram likes tea and coffee. Anthony went swimming although it was raining.

Conjunctions
A conjunction is a word that "joins". A conjunction joins two parts of a sentence. conjunction Here are some example conjunctions:
Coordinating Conjunctions and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so Subordinating Conjunctions although, because, since, unless

We can consider conjunctions from three aspects.

Form

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Conjunctions have three basic forms:

Single Word for example: and, but, because, although Compound (often ending with as or that) for example: provided that, as long as, in order that Correlative (surrounding an adverb or adjective) for example: so...that

Function
Conjunctions have two basic functions or "jobs":

Coordinating conjunctions are used to join two parts of a sentence that are grammatically equal. The two parts may be single words or clauses, for example: - Jack and Jill went up the hill. - The water was warm, but I didn't go swimming. Subordinating conjunctions are used to join a subordinate dependent clause to a main clause, for example: - I went swimming although it was cold.

Position

Coordinating conjunctions always come between the words or clauses that they join. Subordinating conjunctions usually come at the beginning of the subordinate clause.

In this lesson we will look in more detail at:

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Coordinating Conjunctions Subordinating Conjunctions

Coordinating Conjunctions

Coordinating Conjunctions
The short, simple conjunctions are called "coordinating conjunctions":

and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so

A coordinating conjunction joins parts of a sentence (for example words or independent clauses) that are grammatically equal or similar. A coordinating conjunction shows that the elements it joins are similar in importance and structure: + Look at these examples - the two elements that the coordinating conjunction joins are shown in square brackets [ ]:

I like [tea] and [coffee]. [Ram likes tea], but [Anthony likes coffee].

Coordinating conjunctions always come between the words or clauses that they join. When a coordinating conjunction joins independent clauses, it is always correct to place a comma before the conjunction:

I want to work as an interpreter in the future, so I am studying Russian at university.

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However, if the independent clauses are short and well-balanced, a comma is not really essential:

She is kind so she helps people.

When "and" is used with the last word of a list, a comma is optional:

He drinks beer, whisky, wine, and rum. He drinks beer, whisky, wine and rum.

The 7 coordinating conjunctions are short, simple words. They have only two or three letters. There's an easy way to remember them - their initials spell: F
For

A
And

N
Nor

B
But

O
Or

Y
Yet

S
So

Subordinating Conjunctions

Subordinating Conjunctions
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The majority of conjunctions are "subordinating conjunctions". Common subordinating conjunctions are:

after, although, as, because, before, how, if, once, since, than, that, though, till, until, when, where, whether, while

A subordinating conjunction joins a subordinate (dependent) clause to a main (independent) clause:

+ Look at this example: main or independent clause subordinate or dependent clause it was raining.

Ram went swimming although subordinating conjunction

A subordinate or dependent clause "depends" on a main or independent clause. It cannot exist alone. Imagine that somebody says to you: "Hello! Although it was raining." What do you understand? Nothing! But a main or independent clause can exist alone. You will understand very well if somebody says to you: "Hello! Ram went swimming." A subordinating conjunction always comes at the beginning of a subordinate clause. It "introduces" a subordinate clause. However, a subordinate clause can sometimes come after and sometimes before a main clause. Thus, two structures are possible:

+
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Ram went swimming although it was raining.

+ Although it was raining, Ram went swimming.

word that has meaning in a sentence, such as a verb or noun (as opposed to a structure word, such as pronoun or auxiliary verb); content words are stressed in speech eg: "Could you BRING my GLASSES because I've LEFT them at HOME"

Sentence Stress in English

Sentence stress is the music of spoken English. Like word stress, sentence stress can help you to understand spoken English, especially when spoken fast. content word Sentence stress is what gives English its rhythm or "beat". You remember that word stress is accent on one syllable within a word. Sentence stress is accent on certain words within a sentence. Most sentences have two types of word:

content words structure words

Content words are the key words of a sentence. They are the important words that carry the meaning or sense.

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Structure words are not very important words. They are small, simple words that make the sentence correct grammatically. They give the sentence its correct form or "structure". If you remove the structure words from a sentence, you will probably still understand the sentence. If you remove the content words from a sentence, you will not understand the sentence. The sentence has no sense or meaning. Imagine that you receive this telegram message:
Will you SELL my CAR because I've GONE to FRANCE Click here to hear

This sentence is not complete. It is not a "grammatically correct" sentence. But you probably understand it. These 4 words communicate very well. Somebody wants you to sell their car for them because they have gone to France. We can add a few words:
Will you SELL my CAR because I've GONE to FRANCE Click here to hear

The new words do not really add any more information. But they make the message more correct grammatically. We can add even more words to make one complete, grammatically correct sentence. But the information is basically the same:
Content Words

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Will you SELL my CAR because I've GONE to FRANCE. Structure Words Click here to hear

In our sentence, the 4 key words (sell, car, gone, France) are accentuated or stressed. Why is this important for pronunciation? It is important because it adds "music" to the language. It is the rhythm of the English language. It changes the speed at which we speak (and listen to) the language. The time between each stressed word is the same. In our sentence, there is 1 syllable between SELL and CAR and 3 syllables between CAR and GONE. But the time (t) between SELL and CAR and between CAR and GONE is the same. We maintain a constant beat on the stressed words. To do this, we say "my" more slowly, and "because I've" more quickly. We change the speed of the small structure words so that the rhythm of the key content words stays the same.
syllables 2 1 3 1

Will you SELL my CAR because I've GONE to FRANCE.

t1

beat t1 beat

t1

beat

t1

beat

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Sentence Stress Rules >

Rules for Sentence Stress in English

The basic rules of sentence stress are:
1. content words are stressed 2. structure words are unstressed 3. the time between stressed words is always the same

The following tables can help you decide which words are content words and which words are structure words:
Content words - stressed Words carrying the meaning Example main verbs nouns adjectives adverbs negative auxiliaries SELL, GIVE, EMPLOY CAR, MUSIC, MARY RED, BIG, INTERESTING QUICKLY, LOUDLY, NEVER DON'T, AREN'T, CAN'T

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Structure words - unstressed Words for correct grammar Example pronouns prepositions articles conjunctions auxiliary verbs he, we, they on, at, into a, an, the and, but, because do, be, have, can, must

Exceptions

The above rules are for for what is called "neutral" or normal stress. But sometimes we can stress a word that would normally be only a structure word, for example to correct information. Look at the following dialogue: "They've been to Mongolia, haven't they?" "No, THEY haven't, but WE have. Note also that when "be" is used as a main verb, it is usually unstressed (even though in this case it is a content word). To make progress with sentence stress fast, try the world's #1 pronunciation program, Pronunciation Power.

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See also: Word Stress I am a proFESsional phoTOgrapher whose MAIN INterest is to TAKE SPEcial, BLACK and WHITE PHOtographs that exHIBit ABstract MEANings in their photoGRAPHic STRUCture.

continuous (also called "progressive")

verb form (specifically an aspect) indicating actions that are in progress or continuing over a given time period (can be past, present or future); formed with "BE" + "VERB-ing" eg: "They are watching TV." shortening of two (or more) words into one eg: isn't (is not), we'd've (we would have)

Contractions
We often "contract" or shorten words in English. For example, we may say "he's" instead of "he is". Note that we usually insert an apostrophe (') in place of the missing letter or letters in writing. Here are some example sentences: contraction

I haven't seen him. (I have not seen him.) Who's calling? (Who is calling?) They're coming. (They are coming.)

We do this especially when we speak. We do not contract words so much in writing These pages show the most common contracted forms.

Positive Contractions Negative Contractions Other Contractions

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Informal Contractions

Contractions are very common in spoken English. They are not so common in written English. We may use contractions in a friendly letter, for example, but they are not usually correct in more formal texts such as business letters or essays. If you have to write an essay in an exam, do not use contractions. The only exception to this would be when you quote somebody within your essay, for example spoken dialogue.

Positive Contractions

Positive Contractions
Notes Be careful. Some contractions can have two or three meanings. For example, he'd can be he had or he would. It depends on the rest of the sentence. Look at these examples:

He'd like to go. (He would like to go.) He'd finished when I arrived. (He had finished when I arrived.)

The contraction 's (= is or has) is not used only with pronouns. It can also be used with nouns, names, question words and words like "here" and "there", for example: The train's late. John's arrived. Where's the phone? Here's your change. There's a policeman. Short form Long form I'm I've I am I have

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I'll I'd you're you've you'll you'd he's he'll he'd she's she'll she'd it's it'll we're we've we'll we'd

I will/I shall I would/I should/I had you are you have you will you had/you would he has/he is he will he had/he would she has/she is she will she had/she would it has/it is it will we are we have we will we had/we would

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they're they've they'll they'd

they are they have they will they had/they would

Negative Contractions

Negative Contractions
Notes With the verb "to be", two negative forms are possible - we aren't or we're not etc. In questions, am not is contracted to aren't, for example: I'm late, aren't I?

Short form Long form aren't can't couldn't daren't are not cannot, can not could not dare not
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didn't doesn't don't hasn't haven't hadn't isn't mayn't mightn't mustn't needn't oughtn't shan't shouldn't wasn't weren't won't wouldn't

did not does not do not has not have not had not is not may not might not must not need not ought not shall not should not was not were not will not would not

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Other Contractions

Other Contractions
Here are some more examples showing some very common contractions. It is possible, and common, to contract three words, for example: I'd've thought so = I would have thought so. Short form Long form here's there'll there's that's that'll how's what'll what's when's where's here is there will there is that is that will how is? what will? what is? when is? where is? Example Here's your meal. There'll be nobody here tomorrow. There's a taxi! That's my car! That'll be $10, please. How's your wife? What'll people think? What's the matter? When's the wedding? Where's the cinema?

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who's who'd who'll

who is?

Who's your teacher?

who would? Who'd like ice-cream? who will? Who'll be there?

Informal Contractions

Informal Contractions
Informal contractions are short forms of other words that people use when speaking casually. They are not exactly slang, but they are a little like slang. For example, "gonna" is a short form of "going to". If you say "going to" very fast, without carefully pronouncing each word, it can sound like "gonna". Please remember that these are informal contractions. That means that we do not use them in "correct" speech, and we almost never use them in writing. (If you see them in writing, for example in a comic strip, that is because the written words represent the spoken words or dialogue.) We normally use them only when speaking fast and casually, for example with friends. Some people never use them, even in informal speech. It is probably true to say that informal contractions are more common in American English. Also note that, unlike normal contractions, we do not usually use apostrophes (') with informal contractions when written. Listed below are some common informal contractions, with example sentences. Note that the example sentences may be a little artificial because when we use a contraction we may also use other contractions in the same sentence, or even drop some words completely. For example:
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What are you going to do? >> Whatcha going to do? >> Whatcha gonna do?

or

Do you want a beer? Do you wanna beer? D'you wanna beer? D'ya wanna beer? Ya wanna beer? Wanna beer?

These informal contractions are not "correct" English. Do not use them in a written exam, for example, except in appropriate situations.

ain't = am not/are not/is not I ain't sure. You ain't my boss. ain't = has not/have not I ain't done it. She ain't finished yet. gimme = give me Gimme your money. Don't gimme that rubbish. Can you gimme a hand? gonna = going to Nothing's gonna change my love for you. I'm not gonna tell you. What are you gonna do?
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gotta = (have) got a I've gotta gun. I gotta gun. She hasn't gotta penny. Have you gotta car? gotta = (have) got to I've gotta go now. I gotta go now. We haven't gotta do that. Have they gotta work? kinda = kind of She's kinda cute. lemme = let me Lemme go! wanna = want to I wanna go home. wanna = want a I wanna coffee. whatcha = what are you Whatcha going to do? whatcha = what have you Whatcha got there? ya = you Who saw ya?

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thing that you can count, such as apple, pen, tree (see uncountable noun) eg: one apple, three pens, ten trees

Countable Nouns
Countable nouns are easy to recognize. They are things that we can count. For example: "pen". We can count pens. We can have one, two, three or more pens. Here are some more countable nouns:

countable noun

dog, cat, animal, man, person bottle, box, litre coin, note, dollar cup, plate, fork table, chair, suitcase, bag

Countable nouns can be singular or plural:

My dog is playing. My dogs are hungry.

We can use the indefinite article a/an with countable nouns:

A dog is an animal.

When a countable noun is singular, we must use a word like a/the/my/this with it:

I want an orange. (not I want orange.) Where is my bottle? (not Where is bottle?)

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When a countable noun is plural, we can use it alone:

I like oranges. Bottles can break.

We can use some and any with countable nouns:

I've got some dollars. Have you got any pens?

We can use a few and many with countable nouns:

I've got a few dollars. I haven't got many pens.

"People" is countable. "People" is the plural of "person". We can count people:

There is one person here. There are three people here.

Uncountable Nouns
Uncountable nouns are substances, concepts etc that we cannot divide into separate elements. We cannot "count" them. For example, we cannot count "milk". We can count "bottles of milk" or "litres of milk", but we cannot count "milk" itself. Here are some more uncountable nouns:

music, art, love, happiness advice, information, news

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furniture, luggage rice, sugar, butter, water electricity, gas, power money, currency

We usually treat uncountable nouns as singular. We use a singular verb. For example:

This news is very important. Your luggage looks heavy.

We do not usually use the indefinite article a/an with uncountable nouns. We cannot say "an information" or "a music". But we can say a something of:

a piece of news a bottle of water a grain of rice

We can use some and any with uncountable nouns:

I've got some money. Have you got any rice?

We can use a little and much with uncountable nouns:

I've got a little money. I haven't got much rice.

Uncountable nouns are also called "mass nouns". Here are some more examples of countable and uncountable nouns:

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Countable Uncountable dollar song suitcase table battery bottle report tip journey job view money music luggage furniture electricity wine information advice travel work scenery

When you learn a new word, it's a good idea to learn whether it's countable or uncountable. Nouns that can be Countable and Uncountable

Nouns that can be Countable and Uncountable

Sometimes, the same noun can be countable and uncountable, often with a change of meaning.

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Countable There are two hairs in my coffee! There are two lights in our bedroom. Shhhhh! I thought I heard a noise. There are so many different noises in the city. Have you got a paper to read? (newspaper) Hand me those student papers. Our house has seven rooms. We had a great time at the party. How many times have I told you no? Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's greatest works. hair light

Uncountable I don't have much hair. Close the curtain. There's too much light!

noise It's difficult to work when there is too much noise. paper I want to draw a picture. Have you got some paper? room Is there room for me to sit here? time Have you got time for a coffee?

work I have no money. I need work!

Drinks (coffee, water, orange juice) are usually uncountable. But if we are thinking of a cup or a glass, we can say (in a restaurant, for example):

Two teas and one coffee please.

dangling participle declarative sentence defining relative clause (also called

illogical structure that occurs in a sentence when a writer intends to modify one thing but the reader attaches it to another eg: "Running to the bus, the flowers were blooming." (In the example sentence it seems that the flowers were running.) sentence type typically used to make a statement (as opposed to a question or command) eg: "Tara works hard", "It wasn't funny" relative clause that contains information required for the understanding of the sentence; not set off with commas; see also non-defining clause eg: "The boy who was wearing a blue shirt was the winner"
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"restrictive relative clause") pronoun or determiner that indicates closeness to (this/these) or distance from (that/those) the speaker eg: "This is a nice car", "Can you see those cars?"

Demonstrative Pronouns
demonstrate (verb): to show; to indicate; to point to A demonstrative pronoun represents a thing or things:

demonstrative pronoun demonstrative adjective

near in distance or time (this, these) far in distance or time (that, those) near far that those

singular plural

this these

Here are some examples with demonstrative pronouns, followed by an illustration:

This tastes good. Have you seen this? These are bad times. Do you like these? That is beautiful.
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Look at that! Those were the days! Can you see those? This is heavier than that. These are bigger than those.

Do not confuse demonstrative pronouns with demonstrative adjectives. They are identical, but a demonstrative pronoun stands alone, while a demonstrative adjective qualifies a noun.

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That smells. (demonstrative pronoun) That book is good. (demonstrative adjective + noun)

Normally we use demonstrative pronouns for things only. But we can use them for people when the person is identified. Look at these examples:

This is Josef speaking. Is that Mary? That sounds like John.

dependent clause

part of a sentence that contains a subject and a verb but does not form a complete thought and cannot stand on its own; see also independent clause eg: "When the water came out of the tap..." word such as an article or a possessive adjective or other adjective that typically comes at the beginning of noun phrases eg: "It was an excellent film", "Do you like my new shirt?", "Let's buy some eggs" saying what someone said by using their exact words; see also indirect speech eg: "Lucy said: 'I am tired.'" noun phrase in a sentence that directly receives the action of the verb; see also indirect object eg: "Joey bought the car", "I like it", "Can you see the man wearing a pink shirt and waving a gun in the air?" question that is not in normal question form with a question mark; it occurs within another statement or question and generally follows statement structure eg: "I don't know where he went," "Can you tell me where it is before you go?", "They haven't decided whether they should come" verb form that has a specific tense, number and person eg: I work, he works, we learned, they ran "if-then" conditional structure used for future actions or events that are seen as realistic possibilities
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determiner direct speech direct object

embedded question

finite verb first conditional

eg: "If we win the lottery we will buy a car" fragment incomplete piece of a sentence used alone as a complete sentence; a fragment does not contain a complete thought; fragments are common in normal speech but unusual (inappropriate) in formal writing eg: "When's her birthday? - In December", "Will they come? - Probably not" purpose or "job" of a word form or element in a sentence eg: The function of a subject is to perform the action. One function of an adjective is to describe a noun. The function of a noun is to name things. tense* used to describe things that will happen in the future at a particular time; formed with WILL + BE + VERB-ing eg: "I will be graduating in September."

function

Future Continuous Tense

I will be singing

future continuous (also called "future progressive")

How do we make the Future Continuous Tense?

The structure of the future continuous tense is:
subject + auxiliary verb WILL + auxiliary verb BE + invariable will invariable be main verb present participle base + ing

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For negative sentences in the future continuous tense, we insert not between will and be. For question sentences, we exchange the subject and will. Look at these example sentences with the future continuous tense:
subject auxiliary verb + I + You - She - We ? Will ? Will will will will will you they auxiliary verb main verb be be not be not be be be working lying using having playing watching at 10am. on a beach tomorrow. the car. dinner at home. football? TV?

When we use the future continuous tense in speaking, we often contract the subject and will:
I will you will I'll you'll

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he will she will it will we will

he'll she'll it'll we'll

they will they'll

For spoken negative sentences in the future continuous tense, we contract with won't, like this:
I will not you will not he will not she will not it will not we will not I won't you won't he won't she won't it won't we won't

they will not they won't

We sometimes use shall instead of will, especially for I and we.

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How do we use the Future Continuous Tense?

The future continuous tense expresses action at a particular moment in the future. The action will start before that moment but it will not have finished at that moment. For example, tomorrow I will start work at 2pm and stop work at 6pm:
At 4pm tomorrow, I will be working. past present future 4pm At 4pm, I will be in the middle of working.

When we use the future continuous tense, our listener usually knows or understands what time we are talking about. Look at these examples:

I will be playing tennis at 10am tomorrow. They won't be watching TV at 9pm tonight. What will you be doing at 10pm tonight? What will you be doing when I arrive? She will not be sleeping when you telephone her. We'll be having dinner when the film starts. Take your umbrella. It will be raining when you return.

future perfect

tense* used to express the past in the future; formed with WILL HAVE + VERB-ed
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eg: "I will have graduated by then"

tense* used to show that something will be ongoing until a certain time in the future; formed with WILL HAVE BEEN + VERB-ing eg: "We will have been living there for three months by the time the baby is born"

Future Perfect Continuous Tense

I will have been singing

How do we make the Future Perfect Continuous Tense?

future perfect continuous The structure of the future perfect continuous tense is:
subject + auxiliary verb WILL + auxiliary verb HAVE + auxiliary verb BE + invariable will invariable have past participle been main verb present participle base + ing

For negative sentences in the future perfect continuous tense, we insert not between will and have. For question sentences, we exchange the subject and will. Look at these example sentences with the future perfect continuous tense:

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subject auxiliary verb + I + You - She - We ? Will ? Will will will will will you they

auxiliary verb auxiliary verb main verb have have not have not have have have been been been been been been working travelling using waiting playing watching for four hours. for two days. the car. long. football? TV?

When we use the future perfect continuous tense in speaking, we often contract the subject and auxiliary verb:
I will you will he will she will it will I'll you'll he'll she'll it'll

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we will

we'll

they will they'll

For negative sentences in the future perfect continuous tense, we contract with won't, like this:
I will not you will not he will not she will not it will not we will not I won't you won't he won't she won't it won't we won't

they will not they won't

How do we use the Future Perfect Continuous Tense?

We use the future perfect continuous tense to talk about a long action before some point in the future. Look at these examples:

I will have been working here for ten years next week. He will be tired when he arrives. He will have been travelling for 24 hours. 116

tense* used to describe something that hasn't happened yet such as a prediction or a sudden decision; formed with WILL + BASE VERB eg: "He will be late", "I will answer the phone"

Simple Future Tense

I will sing

The simple future tense is often called will, because we make the simple future tense with the modal auxiliary will.

How do we make the Simple Future Tense?

future simple The structure of the simple future tense is:
subject + auxiliary verb WILL + main verb invariable will base V1

For negative sentences in the simple future tense, we insert not between the auxiliary verb and main verb. For question sentences, we exchange the subject and auxiliary verb. Look at these example sentences with the simple future tense:

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subject auxiliary verb + I + You - She - We ? Will ? Will will will will will you they

main verb open finish not be not leave arrive want the door. before me. at school tomorrow. yet. on time? dinner?

When we use the simple future tense in speaking, we often contract the subject and auxiliary verb:
I will you will he will she will it will I'll you'll he'll she'll it'll

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we will

we'll

they will they'll

For negative sentences in the simple future tense, we contract with won't, like this:
I will not you will not he will not she will not it will not we will not I won't you won't he won't she won't it won't we won't

they will not they won't

How do we use the Simple Future Tense?

No Plan

We use the simple future tense when there is no plan or decision to do something before we speak. We make the decision spontaneously at the time of speaking. Look at these examples:

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Hold on. I'll get a pen. We will see what we can do to help you. Maybe we'll stay in and watch television tonight.

In these examples, we had no firm plan before speaking. The decision is made at the time of speaking. We often use the simple future tense with the verb to think before it:

I think I'll go to the gym tomorrow. I think I will have a holiday next year. I don't think I'll buy that car.

Prediction

We often use the simple future tense to make a prediction about the future. Again, there is no firm plan. We are saying what we think will happen. Here are some examples:

It will rain tomorrow. People won't go to Jupiter before the 22nd century. Who do you think will get the job?

Be

When the main verb is be, we can use the simple future tense even if we have a firm plan or decision before speaking. Examples:

I'll be in London tomorrow. I'm going shopping. I won't be very long. Will you be at work tomorrow?

Note that when we have a plan or intention to do something in the future, we usually use other tenses or expressions, such as the

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present continuous tense or going to.

genitive case

case expressing relationship between nouns (possession, origin, composition etc) eg: "John's dog", "door of the car", "children's songs", "pile of sand" noun form of a verb, formed with VERB-ing eg: "Walking is great exercise"

Gerunds (-ing)
When a verb ends in -ing, it may be a gerund or a present participle. It is important to understand that they are not the same. When we use a verb in -ing form more like a noun, it is usually a gerund:

Fishing is fun.

gerund

When we use a verb in -ing form more like a verb or an adjective, it is usually a present participle:

Anthony is fishing. I have a boring teacher.

Gerunds are sometimes called "verbal nouns". In this lesson, we look at how we use gerunds, followed by a quiz to check your understanding:

Gerunds as Subject, Object or Complement Gerunds after Prepositions Gerunds after Certain Verbs Gerunds in Passive Sense
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Gerunds Quiz

Many grammarians do not like to use the expression "gerund". That is because there is sometimes no clear difference between a gerund and a present participle.

Gerunds as Subject, Object or Complement

Gerunds as Subject, Object or Complement

Try to think of gerunds as verbs in noun form. Like nouns, gerunds can be the subject, object or complement of a sentence:

Smoking costs a lot of money. I don't like writing. My favourite occupation is reading.

But, like a verb, a gerund can also have an object itself. In this case, the whole expression [gerund + object] can be the subject, object or complement of the sentence.

Smoking cigarettes costs a lot of money. I don't like writing letters. My favourite occupation is reading detective stories.

Like nouns, we can use gerunds with adjectives (including articles and other determiners):

pointless questioning a settling of debts the making of Titanic

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his drinking of alcohol

But when we use a gerund with an article, it does not usually take a direct object:

a settling of debts (not a settling debts) Making "Titanic" was expensive. The making of "Titanic" was expensive.

Do you see the difference in these two sentences? In one, "reading" is a gerund (noun). In the other "reading" is a present participle (verb).

My favourite occupation is reading. My favourite niece is reading.

Hide answer reading as gerund (noun) My favourite occupation My favourite occupation Main Verb is is Complement reading. football.

reading as present participle (verb) Auxiliary Verb Main Verb My favourite niece My favourite niece is has reading. finished.

Gerunds after Prepositions

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Gerunds after Prepositions

This is a good rule. It has no exceptions! If we want to use a verb after a preposition, it must be a gerund. It is impossible to use an infinitive after a preposition. So for example, we say:

I will call you after arriving at the office. Please have a drink before leaving. I am looking forward to meeting you. Do you object to working late? Tara always dreams about going on holiday.

Notice that you could replace all the above gerunds with "real" nouns:

I will call you after my arrival at the office. Please have a drink before your departure. I am looking forward to our lunch. Do you object to this job? Tara always dreams about holidays.

The above rule has no exceptions! So why is "to" followed by "driving" in 1 and by "drive" in 2? 1. I am used to driving on the left. 2. I used to drive on the left. Hide answer

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to as preposition I am used I am used to as infinitive I used I used

Preposition to to Infinitive to drive to smoke. on the left driving on the left. animals.

Gerunds after Certain Verbs

Gerunds after Certain Verbs

We sometimes use one verb after another verb. Often the second verb is in the infinitive form, for example:

I want to eat.

But sometimes the second verb must be in gerund form, for example:

I dislike eating.

This depends on the first verb. Here is a list of verbs that are usually followed by a verb in gerund form:

admit, appreciate, avoid, carry on, consider, defer, delay, deny, detest, dislike, endure, enjoy, escape, excuse, face, feel like, finish, forgive, give up, can't help, imagine, involve, leave off, mention, mind, miss, postpone, practise, put off, report, resent, risk, can't stand, suggest, understand
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Look at these examples:

She is considering having a holiday. Do you feel like going out? I can't help falling in love with you. I can't stand not seeing you.

Some verbs can be followed by the gerund form or the infinitive form without a big change in meaning: begin, continue, hate, intend, like, love, prefer, propose, start

I like to play tennis. I like playing tennis. It started to rain. It started raining.

Gerunds in Passive Sense

Gerunds in Passive Sense

We often use a gerund after the verbs need, require and want. In this case, the gerund has a passive sense.

I have three shirts that need washing. (need to be washed) This letter requires signing. (needs to be signed) The house wants repainting. (needs to be repainted)

The expression "something wants doing" is not normally used in American English.

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gradable adjective grading adverb hanging participle helping verb imperative indefinite pronoun independent clause (also called "main clause") indirect object indirect question indirect speech (also called

adjective that can vary in intensity or grade when paired with a grading adverb ; see also non-gradable adjective eg: quite hot, very tall adverb that can modify the intensity or grade of a gradable adjective eg: quite hot, very tall another term for dangling participle another term for auxiliary verb form of verb used when giving a command; formed with BASE VERB only eg: "Brush your teeth!" pronoun does not refer to any specific person, thing or amount. It is vague and "not definite". eg: anything, each, many, somebody group of words that expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence; see also dependent clause eg: "Tara is eating curry.", "Tara likes oranges and Joe likes apples." noun phrase representing the person or thing indirectly affected by the action of the verb; see also direct object eg: "She showed me her book collection", "Joey bought his wife a new car" another term for embedded question saying what someone said without using their exact words; see direct speech eg: "Lucy said that she was tired"
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"reported speech") infinitive inflection base form of a verb preceded by "to"**; see also bare infinitive eg: "You need to study harder", "To be, or not to be: that is the question" change in word form to indicate grammatical meaning eg: dog, dogs (two inflections); take, takes, took, taking, taken (five inflections) common word that expresses emotion but has no grammatical value; can often be used alone and is often followed by an exclamation mark eg: "Hi!", "er", "Ouch!", "Dammit!" (formal) sentence type (typically inverted) normally used when asking a question eg: "Are you eating?", "What are you eating?" pronoun that asks a question. eg: who, whom, which verb that does not take a direct object; see also transitive verb e.g. "He is working hard", "Where do you live?" any reversal of the normal word order, especially placing the auxiliary verb before the subject; used in a variety of ways, as in question formation, conditional clauses and agreement or disagreement eg: "Where are your keys?","Had we watched the weather report, we wouldn't have gone to the beach", "So did he", "Neither did she" verb that has a different ending for past tense and past participle forms than the regular "-ed"; see also regular verb eg: buy, bought, bought; do, did, done all of the words and word forms in a language with meaning or function another term for main verb

interjection

interrogative interrogative pronoun intransitive verb

inversion

irregular verb see irregular verbs list lexicon, lexis lexical verb

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linking verb main clause main verb (also called "lexical verb") modal verb (also called "modal") modifier mood morpheme multi-word verb negative nominative case non-defining relative clause (also called "nonrestrictive relative clause")

verbs that connect the subject to more information (but do not indicate action), such as "be" or "seem" another term for independent clause any verb in a sentence that is not an auxiliary verb; a main verb has meaning on its own eg: "Does John like Mary?", "I will have arrived by 4pm" auxiliary verb such as can, could, must, should etc; paired with the bare infinitive of a verb eg: "I should go for a jog" word or phrase that modifies and limits the meaning of another word eg: the house => the white house, the house over there, the house we sold last year sentence type that indicates the speaker's view towards the degree of reality of what is being said, for example subjunctive, indicative, imperative unit of language with meaning; differs from "word" because some cannot stand alone e.g. un-, predict and -able in unpredictable verb that consists of a basic verb + another word or words (preposition and/or adverb) eg: get up (phrasal verb), believe in (prepositional verb), get on with (phrasal-prepositional verb) form which changes a "yes" meaning to a "no" meaning; opposite of affirmative eg: "She will not come", "I have never seen her" another term for subjective case relative clause that adds information but is not completely necessary; set off from the sentence with a comma or commas; see defining relative clause eg: "The boy, who had a chocolate bar in his hand, was still hungry"

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non-gradable adjective non-restrictive relative clause noun

adjective that has a fixed quality or intensity and cannot be paired with a grading adverb; see also gradable adjective eg: freezing, boiling, dead another term for non-defining relative clause part of speech that names a person, place, thing, quality, quantity or concept; see also proper noun and compound noun eg: "The man is waiting", "I was born in London", "Is that your car?", "Do you like music?" clause that takes the place of a noun and cannot stand on its own; often introduced with words such as "that, who or whoever" eg: "What the president said was surprising" any word or group of words based on a noun or pronoun that can function in a sentence as a subject, object or prepositional object; can be one word or many words; can be very simple or very complex eg: "She is nice", "When is the meeting?", "The car over there beside the lampost is mine" change of word form indicating one person or thing (singular) or more than one person or thing (plural) eg: one dog/three dogs, she/they thing or person affected by the verb; see also direct object and indirect object eg: "The boy kicked the ball", "We chose the house with the red door" case form of a pronoun indicating an object eg: "John married her", "I gave it to him"

noun clause

noun phrase (NP)

number object

objective case

Pronoun Case
Pronouns (and nouns) in English display "case" according to their function in the sentence. Their function can be:

subjective (they act as the subject)

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objective (they act as the object) possessive (they show possession of something else)

The following table shows the different forms for pronouns depending on case. subjective case objective case personal pronouns singular 1st I 2nd you he 3rd she it plural 1st we 2nd you 3rd they relative/interrogative pronouns who whoever me you him her it us you them whom whomever possessive case mine yours his hers its ours yours theirs whose

which/that/what which/that/what indefinite pronouns everybody everybody everybody's

A problem of case: Mary and I or Mary and me? 1. Mary and I are delighted to be here today. (NOT Mary and me) 2. The letter was addressed to Mary and me. (NOT Mary and I) In 1, Mary and I are subjects, which is why the pronoun takes the subjective case ("I"). In 2, Mary and I are objects, which
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is why the pronoun takes the objective case ("me"). An easy way to check the correct case is to try the sentence without Mary. Would you say "I am delighted to be here" or "Me am delighted to be here"? Would you say "The letter was addressed to me" or "The letter was addressed to I"?

one of the classes into which words are divided according to their function in a sentence eg: verb, noun, adjective

English Parts of Speech

There are thousands of words in any language. But not all words have the same job. For example, some words express "action". Other words express a "thing". Other words "join" one word to another word. These are the "building blocks" of the language. Think of them like the parts of a house. When we want to build a house, we use concrete to make the foundations or base. We use bricks to make the walls. We use window frames to make the windows, and door frames to make the doorways. And we use cement to join them all together. Each part of the house has its own job. And when we want to build a sentence, we use the different types of word. Each type of word has its own job. We can categorize English words into 8 basic types or classes. These classes are called "parts of speech".
Some grammar books categorize English into 9 or 10 parts of speech. At EnglishClub, we use the traditional categorization of 8 parts of speech (see table for more details).

part of speech

It's quite important to recognize parts of speech. This helps you to analyze sentences and understand them. It also helps you to construct good sentences. In this lesson, we have an overview of the eight parts of speech, followed by a quiz to check your understanding:

Parts of Speech Table

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Parts of Speech Examples Words with More than One Job Parts of Speech Table

Parts of Speech Table

This is a summary of the 8 parts of speech*. You can find more detail if you click on each part of speech.
part of speech function or "job" example words example sentences

Verb

action or state

(to) be, have, do, like, work, sing, can, must pen, dog, work, music, town, London, teacher, John a/an, the, 69, some, good, big, red, well, interesting quickly, silently, well, badly, very, really I, you, he, she, some

EnglishClub.com is a web site. I like EnglishClub.com. This is my dog. He lives in my house. We live in London.

Noun

thing or person

Adjective

describes a noun

My dog is big. I like big dogs.

Adverb

describes a verb, adjective or adverb replaces a noun

My dog eats quickly. When he is very hungry, he eats really quickly. Tara is Indian. She is beautiful.

Pronoun

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Preposition

links a noun to another word joins clauses or sentences or words short exclamation, sometimes inserted into a sentence

to, at, after, on, but

We went to school on Monday. I like dogs and I like cats. I like cats and dogs. I like dogs but I don't like cats. Ouch! That hurts! Hi! How are you? Well, I don't know.

Conjunction

and, but, when

Interjection

oh!, ouch!, hi!, well

* Some grammar sources categorize English into 9 or 10 parts of speech. At EnglishClub.com, we use the traditional categorization of 8 parts of speech. Examples of other categorizations are:

Verbs may be treated as two different parts of speech: o Lexical Verbs (work, like, run) o Auxiliary Verbs (be, have, must) Determiners may be treated as a separate part of speech, instead of being categorized under Adjectives

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Parts of Speech Examples

Parts of Speech Examples

Here are some sentences made with different English parts of speech: verb Stop! noun verb John works. noun noun verb verb John is working. verb adjective noun kind people. adjective noun English.

pronoun verb She

noun

loves animals. noun

Animals like

noun verb Tara

adverb

noun verb Tara

speaks English well.

speaks good adverb

pronoun verb preposition adjective noun She ran to the

station quickly.

pron. verb adj. noun She likes big

conjunction pron. verb pron. I hate them.

snakes but

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Here is a sentence that contains every part of speech: interjection pron. conj. adj. Well, she and noun verb prep. noun walk to adverb

young John

school slowly.

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Words with More than One Job

Words with More than One Job

Many words in English can have more than one job, or be more than one part of speech. For example, "work" can be a verb and a noun; "but" can be a conjunction and a preposition; "well" can be an adjective, an adverb and an interjection. In addition, many nouns can act as adjectives. To analyze the part of speech, ask yourself: "What job is this word doing in this sentence?" In the table below you can see a few examples. Of course, there are more, even for some of the words in the table. In fact, if you look in a good dictionary you will see that the word "but" has six jobs to do:

verb, noun, adverb, pronoun, preposition and conjuction! part of speech noun verb conjunction preposition adjective adverb example My work is easy. I work in London. John came but Mary didn't come. Everyone came but Mary. Are you well? She speaks well.

word work

but

well

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interjection afternoon noun

Well! That's expensive! We ate in the afternoon.

noun acting as adjective We had afternoon tea.

participle

verb form that can be used as an adjective or a noun; see past participle, present participle one of two voices in English; an indirect form of expression in which the subject receives the action; see also active voice eg: "Rice is eaten by many people"

Passive Voice
The passive voice is less usual than the active voice. The active voice is the "normal" voice. But sometimes we need the passive voice. In this lesson we look at how to construct the passive voice, when to use it and how to conjugate it. passive voice

Construction of the Passive Voice

The structure of the passive voice is very simple: subject + auxiliary verb (be) + main verb (past participle) The main verb is always in its past participle form. Look at these examples:

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subject Water

auxiliary verb (to be) is

main verb (past participle) drunk employed paid not paid paid by everyone. by this company. in euro. in dollars. in yen?

100 people are I We Are am are they

Use of the Passive Voice

We use the passive when:

we want to make the active object more important we do not know the active subject subject verb object by Lee Harvey Oswald.

give importance to active object (President Kennedy) President Kennedy was killed active subject unknown My wallet

has been stolen. ?

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Note that we always use by to introduce the passive object (Fish are eaten by cats).
Look at this sentence:

He was killed with a gun.

Normally we use by to introduce the passive object. But the gun is not the active subject. The gun did not kill him. He was killed by somebody with a gun. In the active voice, it would be: Somebody killed him with a gun. The gun is the instrument. Somebody is the "agent" or "doer".

Conjugation for the Passive Voice

We can form the passive in any tense. In fact, conjugation of verbs in the passive tense is rather easy, as the main verb is always in past participle form and the auxiliary verb is always be. To form the required tense, we conjugate the auxiliary verb. So, for example:

present simple: It is made present continuous: It is being made present perfect: It has been made

Here are some examples with most of the possible tenses:

infinitive present simple past It was washed. to be washed It is washed.

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future

It will be washed.

conditional It would be washed. present past continuous future It will be being washed. It is being washed. It was being washed.

conditional It would be being washed. present past perfect simple future It will have been washed. It has been washed. It had been washed.

conditional It would have been washed. present perfect continuous past It had been being washed. It has been being washed.

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future

It will have been being washed.

conditional It would have been being washed.

past tense (also called "simple past") past continuous past perfect past perfect continuous

tense used to talk about an action, event or situation that occurred and was completed in the past eg: "I lived in Paris for 10 years", "Yesterday we saw a snake" tense often used to describe an interrupted action in the past; formed with WAS/WERE + VERB-ing eg: "I was reading when you called" tense that refers to the past in the past; formed with HAD + VERB-ed eg: "We had stopped the car" tense that refers to action that happened in the past and continued to a certain point in the past; formed with HAD BEEN + VERB-ing eg: "I had been waiting for three hours when he arrived" verb form (V3) - usually made by adding "-ed" to the base verb - typically used in perfect and passive tenses, and sometimes as an adjective eg: "I have finished", "It was seen by many people", "boiled eggs" verb form (specifically an aspect); formed with HAVE/HAS + VERB-ed (present perfect) or HAD + VERB-ed (past perfect) grammatical category that identifies people in a conversation; there are three persons: 1st person (pronouns I/me, we/us) is the speaker(s), 2nd person (pronoun you) is the listener(s), 3rd person (pronouns he/him, she/her, it, they/them) is everybody or everything else pronoun that indicates person eg: "He likes my dogs", "They like him"

past participle

perfect

person

personal pronoun

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Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns represent specific people or things. We use them depending on:

number: singular (eg: I) or plural (eg: we) person: 1st person (eg: I), 2nd person (eg: you) or 3rd person (eg: he) gender: male (eg: he), female (eg: she) or neuter (eg: it) case: subject (eg: we) or object (eg: us)

We use personal pronouns in place of the person or people that we are talking about. My name is Josef but when I am talking about myself I almost always use "I" or "me", not "Josef". When I am talking direct to you, I almost always use "you", not your name. When I am talking about another person, say John, I may start with "John" but then use "he" or "him". And so on. Here are the personal pronouns, followed by some example sentences: personal pronouns number person gender 1st 2nd singular 3rd male/female male/female male female neuter subject I you he she it object me you him her it

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1st plural 2nd 3rd

male/female male/female

we you

us you them

male/female/neuter they

Examples (in each case, the first example shows a subject pronoun, the second an object pronoun):

I like coffee. John helped me. Do you like coffee? John loves you. He runs fast. Did Ram beat him? She is clever. Does Mary know her? It doesn't work. Can the engineer repair it? We went home. Anthony drove us. Do you need a table for three? Did John and Mary beat you at doubles? They played doubles. John and Mary beat them.

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When we are talking about a single thing, we almost always use it. However, there are a few exceptions. We may sometimes refer to an animal as he/him or she/her, especially if the animal is domesticated or a pet. Ships (and some other vessels or vehicles) as well as some countries are often treated as female and referred to as she/her. Here are some examples:

This is our dog Rusty. He's an Alsation. The Titanic was a great ship but she sank on her first voyage. My first car was a Mini and I treated her like my wife. Thailand has now opened her border with Cambodia.

For a single person, sometimes we don't know whether to use he or she. There are several solutions to this:

If a teacher needs help, he or she should see the principal. If a teacher needs help, he should see the principal. If a teacher needs help, they should see the principal.

We often use it to introduce a remark:

It is nice to have a holiday sometimes. It is important to dress well. It's difficult to find a job. Is it normal to see them together? It didn't take long to walk here.

We also often use it to talk about the weather, temperature, time and distance:

It's raining. It will probably be hot tomorrow. Is it nine o'clock yet? It's 50 kilometres from here to Cambridge.

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multi-word verb formed with a verb + adverb eg: break up, turn off (see phrasal verbs list) NB: many people and books call all multi-word verbs "phrasal verbs" (see multi-word verbs)

Phrasal Verbs
Phrasal verbs are a group of multi-word verbs made from a verb plus another word or words. Many people refer to all multi-word verbs as phrasal verbs. On these pages we make a distinction between three types of multi-word verbs: prepositional verbs, phrasal verbs and phrasal-prepositional verbs. On this page we look at phrasal verbs proper. Phrasal verbs are made of: phrasal verb verb + adverb Phrasal verbs can be:

intransitive (no direct object) transitive (direct object)

Here are some examples of phrasal verbs:

examples phrasal verbs meaning direct object

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intransitive get up phrasal verbs break down transitive phrasal verbs put off turn down

rise from bed cease to function postpone refuse

I don't like to get up. He was late because his car broke down. We will have to put off They turned down the meeting. my offer.

Separable Phrasal Verbs

When phrasal verbs are transitive (that is, they have a direct object), we can usually separate the two parts. For example, "turn down" is a separable phrasal verb. We can say: "turn down my offer" or "turn my offer down". Look at this table:
They transitive phrasal verbs are separable They turned my offer down. turned down my offer.

However, if the direct object is a pronoun, we have no choice. We must separate the phrasal verb and insert the pronoun between the two parts. Look at this example with the separable phrasal verb "switch on":
direct object John switched on the radio. These are all possible.

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pronouns must go between the two parts of transitive phrasal verbs

John

switched

the radio

on.

John

switched

it

on.

John

switched

on

it.

This is not possible.

Separable or inseparable phrasal verbs? Some dictionaries tell you when phrasal verbs are separable. If a dictionary writes "look (something) up", you know that the phrasal verb "look up" is separable, and you can say "look something up" and "look up something". It's a good idea to write "something/somebody" as appropriate in your vocabulary book when you learn a new phrasal verb, like this:

get up break down put something/somebody off turn sthg/sby down

This tells you whether the verb needs a direct object (and where to put it).

Prepositional Verbs

Prepositional Verbs
Prepositional verbs are a group of multi-word verbs made from a verb plus another word or words. Many people refer to all
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multi-word verbs as phrasal verbs. On these pages we make a distinction between three types of multi-word verbs: prepositional verbs, phrasal verbs and phrasal-prepositional verbs. On this page we look at prepositional verbs. Prepositional verbs are made of: verb + preposition Because a preposition always has an object, all prepositional verbs have direct objects. Here are some examples of prepositional verbs:
examples prepositional verbs meaning direct object believe in look after talk about wait for have faith in the existence of I believe in take care of discuss await God.

He is looking after the dog. Did you talk about me? John is waiting for Mary.

Prepositional verbs cannot be separated. That means that we cannot put the direct object between the two parts. For example, we must say "look after the baby". We cannot say "look the baby after":

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Who is looking after the baby? This is possible. prepositional verbs are inseparable Who is looking the baby after? This is not possible.

It is a good idea to write "something/somebody" in your vocabulary book when you learn a new prepositional verb, like this:

believe in something/somebody look after sthg/sby

This reminds you that this verb needs a direct object (and where to put it).

Phrasal-prepositional Verbs

Phrasal-prepositional Verbs
Phrasal-prepositional verbs are a small group of multi-word verbs made from a verb plus another word or words. Many people refer to all multi-word verbs as phrasal verbs. On these pages we make a distinction between three types of multiword verbs: prepositional verbs, phrasal verbs and phrasal-prepositional verbs. On this page we look at phrasalprepositional verbs. Phrasal-prepositional verbs are made of: verb + adverb + preposition Look at these examples of phrasal-prepositional verbs:

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examples phrasal-prepositional verbs meaning direct object get on with put up with look forward to run out of have a friendly relationship with He doesn't get on with his wife. tolerate anticipate with pleasure use up, exhaust I won't put up with I look forward to We have run out of your attitude. seeing you. eggs.

Because phrasal-prepositional verbs end with a preposition, there is always a direct object. And, like prepositional verbs, phrasal-prepositional verbs cannot be separated. Look at these examples:
We phrasal-prepositional verbs are inseparable We ran out of it. ran out of fuel.

It is a good idea to write "something/somebody" in your vocabulary book when you learn a new phrasal-prepositional verb, like this:

get on with somebody put up with sthg/sby 151

run out of something

This reminds you that this verb needs a direct object (and where to put it).

phrase

two or more words that have a single function and form part of a sentence; phrases can be noun, adjective, adverb, verb or prepositional of a noun or form indicating more than one person or thing; plural nouns are usually formed by adding "-s"; see also singular, number eg: bananas, spoons, trees grammatically correct placement of a word form in a phrase or sentence in relation to other word forms eg: "The correct position for an article is at the beginning of the noun phrase that it describes" basic state of an adjective or adverb when it shows quality but not comparative or superlative eg: nice, kind, quickly adjective (also called "determiner") based on a pronoun: my, your, his, her, its, our, their eg: "I lost my keys", "She likes your car" case form of a pronoun indicating ownership or possession eg: "Mine are blue", "This car is hers" pronoun that indicates ownership or possession eg: "Where is mine?", "These are yours" one of the two main parts (subject and predicate) of a sentence; the predicate is the part that is not the subject eg: "My brother is a doctor", "Who did you call?", "The woman wearing a blue dress helped me" affix that occurs before the root or stem of a word eg: impossible, reload

plural

position positive possessive adjective possessive case possessive pronoun predicate

prefix

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Prefixes
A prefix goes at the beginning of a word. A suffix goes at the end of a word.

A prefix is placed at the beginning of a word to modify or change its meaning. This is a list of the most common prefixes in English, together with their basic meaning and some examples. You can find more detail or precision for each prefix in any good dictionary. The origins of words are extremely complicated. You should use this list as a guide only, to help you understand possible meanings. But be very careful, because often what appears to be a prefix is not a prefix at all. Note also that this list does not include elements like "auto-" or " bio-", because these are "combining forms", not prefixes.
Prefix aalso anMeaning not, without to, towards ain the process of, in a particular state of acompletely abalso absaway, from abashed abdicate, abstract Examples atheist, anaemic aside, aback

a-hunting, aglow

anew

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ad-

also a-, ac-, af-, ag- al-, movement to, change into, an-, ap-, at- as-, ataddition or increase before, preceding opposing, against, the opposite all over, all around completely having, covered with affect with (added to nouns) cause to be (added to adjectives) also co-, col-, con-, cor-

advance, adulterate, adjunct, ascend, affiliate, affirm, aggravate, alleviate, annotate, apprehend, arrive, assemble, attend antecedent, ante-room

ante-

anti-

also ant-

anti-aircraft, antibiotic, anticlimax, Antarctic

bespatter, beset bewitch, bemuse bejewelled befog

be-

becalm

com-

with, jointly, completely

combat, codriver, collude, confide, corrode

contra-

against, opposite

contraceptive

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counter-

opposition, opposite direction counter-attack, counteract down, away descend, despair, depend, deduct denude, denigrate de-ice, decamp diagonal disadvantage, dismount, disbud, disbar engulf, enmesh enlighten, embitter entangle, enrage exit, exclude, expand exalt, extol excruciate, exasperate

de-

completely removal, reversal

diadis-

also dialso di-

through, across negation, removal, expulsion put into or on

en-

also em-

bring into the condition of intensification out

ex-

also e-, ef-

upward completely

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previous extrahemioutside, beyond half beyond, more than, more than normal under also il-, iminalso il-, im-, irinfrainterintranonin, into, towards, inside below between, among inside, within absence, negation not, without

ex-wife extracurricular hemisphere

hyper-

hypersonic, hyperactive

hypo-

hypodermic, hypothermia infertile, inappropriate, impossible influence, influx, imbibe infrared, infrastructure interact, interchange intramural, intravenous non-smoker, non-alcoholic

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ob-

also oc-, of-, op-

blocking, against, concealing surpassing, exceeding

obstruct, occult, offend, oppose outperform outbuilding, outboard overconfident, overburdened, overjoyed overcoat, overcast perimeter postpone

outexternal, away from excessively, completely overupper, outer, over, above peripostround, about after in time or order

pre-

before in time, place, order or pre-adolescent, prelude, precondition importance favouring, in support of pro-African proconsul propulsion

pro-

acting for motion forwards or away

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before in time, place or order resemiagain half, partly at a lower position subalso suc-, suf-, sug-, sup-, sur-, suslower in rank nearly, approximately synalso symin union, acting together across, beyond transinto a different state beyond ultraextreme unnot

prologue repaint, reappraise, reawake semicircle, semi-conscious submarine, subsoil sub-lieutenant sub-tropical synchronize, symmetry transnational, transatlantic translate ultraviolet, ultrasonic ultramicroscopic unacceptable, unreal, unhappy, unmanned

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reversal or cancellation of action or state beneath, below underlower in rank not enough

unplug, unmask

underarm, undercarriage undersecretary underdeveloped

Suffixes
A suffix goes at the end of a word. A prefix goes at the beginning.

A suffix is a group of letters placed at the end of a word to make a new word. A suffix can make a new word in one of two ways:
1. inflectional (grammatical): for example, changing singular to plural (dog > dogs), or changing present tense to past tense (walk > walked). In this case, the basic meaning of the word does not change. 2. derivational (the new word has a new meaning, "derived" from the original word): for example, teach > teacher or care > careful

Inflectional suffixes
Inflectional suffixes do not change the meaning of the original word. So in "Every day I walk to school" and "Yesterday I walked to school", the words walk and walked have the same basic meaning. In "I have one car" and "I have two cars", the
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basic meaning of the words car and cars is exactly the same. In these cases, the suffix is added simply for grammatical "correctness". Look at these examples:
example example original word suffixed word dog ox dogs oxen he likes he worked he has worked he has eaten he is sleeping bigger the biggest

suffix grammatical change

-s -en -s

plural plural (irregular)

3rd person singular present like past tense past participle past participle (irregular) continuous/progressive comparative superlative

-ed

work

-en -ing -er -est

eat sleep big big

Derivational suffixes

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With derivational suffixes, the new word has a new meaning, and is usually a different part of speech. But the new meaning is related to the old meaning - it is "derived" from the old meaning. We can add more than one suffix, as in this example:
derive (verb) + tion = derivation (noun) + al = derivational (adjective)

There are several hundred derivational suffixes. Here are some of the more common ones:
example example original word suffixed word explore hesitate persuade divide nouns teach music god sad exploration hesitation persuasion division teacher musician goddess sadness

suffix

making

-ation

-sion

-er -cian -ess -ness

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-al -ary -ment

arrive diction treat jealous victor accident imagine tax adjectives brother ease sorrow forget adverbs helpful

arrival dictionary treatment jealousy victory accidental imaginary taxable brotherly easy sorrowful forgetful helpfully

-y

-al -ary -able -ly -y

-ful

-ly

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-ize verbs -ate

terror private hyphen

terrorize privatize hyphenate

Note that the suffix -er can convert almost any verb into the person or thing performing the action of the verb. For example: a teacher is a person who teaches, a lover loves, a killer kills, an observer observes, a walker walks, a runner runs; a sprinkler is a thing that sprinkles, a copier copies, a shredder shreds.

part of speech that typically comes before a noun phrase and shows some type of relationship between that noun phrase and another element (including relationships of time, location, purpose etc) eg: "We sleep at night", "I live in London", "This is for digging"

English Prepositions
preposition A preposition is a word governing, and usually coming in front of, a noun or pronoun and expressing a relation to another word or element, as in:

She left before breakfast. What did you come for? (For what did you come?)

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Short List of Common Prepositions A Simple Rule for Prepositions Prepositions of Place at the bus stop, in the box, on the wall Prepositions of Time at Christmas, in May, on Friday Prepositions List - full list with example sentences

Short List of Common Prepositions

English Prepositions List

There are about 150 prepositions in English. Yet this is a very small number when you think of the thousands of other words (nouns, verbs etc). Prepositions are important words. We use individual prepositions more frequently than other individual words. In fact, the prepositions of, to and in are among the ten most frequent words in English. Here is a short list of 70 of the more common one-word prepositions. Many of these prepositions have more than one meaning. Please refer to a dictionary for precise meaning and usage.

aboard about above across

before behind below beneath

following for from in

than through to toward 164

after against along amid among anti around as at

beside besides between beyond but by concerning considering despite down during except excepting excluding

inside into like minus near of off on onto opposite outside over past per plus regarding round save since

towards under underneath unlike until up upon versus via with within without

A Simple Rule for Prepositions

English Preposition Rule

There is one very simple rule about prepositions. And, unlike most rules, this rule has no exceptions. Rule
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A preposition is followed by a "noun". It is never followed by a verb. By "noun" we include:

noun (dog, money, love) proper noun (name) (Bangkok, Mary) pronoun (you, him, us) noun group (my first job) gerund (swimming)

A preposition cannot be followed by a verb. If we want to follow a preposition by a verb, we must use the "-ing" form which is really a gerund or verb in noun form. Quick Quiz: In the following sentences, why is "to" followed by a verb? That should be impossible, according to the above rule:

I would like to go now. She used to smoke.

Here are some examples: Subject + verb preposition "noun" The food is She lives Tara is looking The letter is Pascal is used on in for under to the table. Japan. you. your blue book. English people.
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She isn't used I ate

to before

working. coming.

Prepositions of Place at the bus stop, in the box, on the wall

Prepositions of Place: at, in, on

In general, we use:

at for a POINT in for an ENCLOSED SPACE on for a SURFACE in on

at POINT at the corner at the bus stop at the door

ENCLOSED SPACE SURFACE in the garden in London in France on the wall on the ceiling on the door on the cover on the floor

at the top of the page in a box at the end of the road in my pocket

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at the entrance at the crossroads at the front desk Look at these examples:

in my wallet in a building in a car

on the carpet on the menu on a page

Jane is waiting for you at the bus stop. The shop is at the end of the street. My plane stopped at Dubai and Hanoi and arrived in Bangkok two hours late. When will you arrive at the office? Do you work in an office? I have a meeting in New York. Do you live in Japan? Jupiter is in the Solar System. The author's name is on the cover of the book. There are no prices on this menu. You are standing on my foot. There was a "no smoking" sign on the wall. I live on the 7th floor at 21 Oxford Street in London.

Notice the use of the prepositions of place at, in and on in these standard expressions: at at home at work at school in in a car in a taxi in a helicopter on on a bus on a train on a plane

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at university at college at the top

in a boat

on a ship

in a lift (elevator) on a bicycle, on a motorbike in the newspaper on a horse, on an elephant on the radio, on television on the left, on the right on the way

at the bottom in the sky at the side at reception in a row in Oxford Street

Prepositions of Time at Christmas, in May, on Friday

Prepositions of Time: at, in, on

We use:

at for a PRECISE TIME in for MONTHS, YEARS, CENTURIES and LONG PERIODS on for DAYS and DATES in on

at

PRECISE TIME MONTHS, YEARS, CENTURIES and LONG PERIODS DAYS and DATES at 3 o'clock in May on Sunday

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at 10.30am at noon at dinnertime at bedtime at sunrise at sunset at the moment

in summer in the summer in 1990 in the 1990s in the next century in the Ice Age in the past/future

on Tuesdays on 6 March on 25 Dec. 2010 on Christmas Day on Independence Day on my birthday on New Year's Eve

Look at these examples:

I have a meeting at 9am. The shop closes at midnight. Jane went home at lunchtime. In England, it often snows in December. Do you think we will go to Jupiter in the future? There should be a lot of progress in the next century. Do you work on Mondays? Her birthday is on 20 November. Where will you be on New Year's Day?

Notice the use of the preposition of time at in the following standard expressions: Expression at night Example The stars shine at night.

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at the weekend

I don't usually work at the weekend.

at Christmas/Easter I stay with my family at Christmas. at the same time at present We finished the test at the same time. He's not home at present. Try later.

Notice the use of the prepositions of time in and on in these common expressions: in in the morning in the mornings on on Tuesday morning on Saturday mornings

in the afternoon(s) on Sunday afternoons in the evening(s) on Monday evening

When we say last, next, every, this we do not also use at, in, on.

I went to London last June. (not in last June) He's coming back next Tuesday. (not on next Tuesday) I go home every Easter. (not at every Easter) We'll call you this evening. (not in this evening)

prepositional verb

multi-word verb that is formed with verb + preposition

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eg: believe in, look after

Prepositional Verbs
Prepositional verbs are a group of multi-word verbs made from a verb plus another word or words. Many people refer to all multi-word verbs as phrasal verbs. On these pages we make a distinction between three types of multi-word verbs: prepositional verbs, phrasal verbs and phrasal-prepositional verbs. On this page we look at prepositional verbs. Prepositional verbs are made of: verb + preposition Because a preposition always has an object, all prepositional verbs have direct objects. Here are some examples of prepositional verbs:
examples prepositional verbs meaning direct object believe in look after talk about have faith in the existence of I believe in take care of discuss God.

He is looking after the dog. Did you talk about me?

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wait for

await

John is waiting for Mary.

Prepositional verbs cannot be separated. That means that we cannot put the direct object between the two parts. For example, we must say "look after the baby". We cannot say "look the baby after":
Who is looking after the baby? This is possible. prepositional verbs are inseparable Who is looking the baby after? This is not possible.

It is a good idea to write "something/somebody" in your vocabulary book when you learn a new prepositional verb, like this:

believe in something/somebody look after sthg/sby

This reminds you that this verb needs a direct object (and where to put it).

Phrasal-prepositional Verbs

Phrasal-prepositional Verbs
Phrasal-prepositional verbs are a small group of multi-word verbs made from a verb plus another word or words. Many people refer to all multi-word verbs as phrasal verbs. On these pages we make a distinction between three types of multiword verbs: prepositional verbs, phrasal verbs and phrasal-prepositional verbs. On this page we look at phrasalprepositional verbs.

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Phrasal-prepositional verbs are made of: verb + adverb + preposition Look at these examples of phrasal-prepositional verbs:
examples phrasal-prepositional verbs meaning direct object get on with put up with look forward to run out of have a friendly relationship with He doesn't get on with his wife. tolerate anticipate with pleasure use up, exhaust I won't put up with I look forward to We have run out of your attitude. seeing you. eggs.

Because phrasal-prepositional verbs end with a preposition, there is always a direct object. And, like prepositional verbs, phrasal-prepositional verbs cannot be separated. Look at these examples:
We phrasal-prepositional verbs are inseparable We ran out of it. ran out of fuel.

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It is a good idea to write "something/somebody" in your vocabulary book when you learn a new phrasal-prepositional verb, like this:

get on with somebody put up with sthg/sby run out of something

This reminds you that this verb needs a direct object (and where to put it).

present participle present simple (also called "simple present")

-ing form of a verb (except when it is a gerund or verbal noun) eg: "We were eating", "The man shouting at the back is rude", "I saw Tara playing tennis" tense usually used to describe states and actions that are general, habitual or (with the verb "to be") true right now; formed with the basic verb (+ s for 3rd person singular) eg: "Canada sounds beautiful", "She walks to school", "I am very happy"

present continuous (also called tense used to describe action that is in process now, or a plan for the future; formed with BE + VERB-ing "present eg: "We are watching TV", "I am moving to Canada next month" progressive") present perfect tense that connects the past and the present, typically used to express experience, change or a continuing situation; formed with HAVE + VERB-ed eg: "I have worked there", "John has broken his leg", "How long have you been in Canada?" tense used to describe an action that has recently stopped or an action continuing up to now; formed with HAVE + BEEN + VERB-ing eg: "I'm tired because I've been running", "He has been living in Canada for two years" another term for continuous word that replaces a noun or noun phrase; there are several types including personal pronouns, relative pronouns and indefinite pronouns
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present perfect continuous progressive pronoun

eg: you, he, him; who, which; somebody, anything

Pronouns
Pronouns are small words that take the place of a noun. We can use a pronoun instead of a noun. Pronouns are words like: he, you, ours, themselves, some, each... If we didn't have pronouns, we would have to repeat a lot of nouns. We would have to say things like:

Do you like the president? I don't like the president. The president is too pompous.

With pronouns, we can say:

Do you like the president? I don't like him. He is too pompous.

Personal Pronouns I, me, you, he, him, she... Demonstrative Pronouns this, that, these, those Possessive Pronouns

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mine, yours, his... Interrogative Pronouns who, what, which... Reflexive Pronouns myself, yourself, himself... Reciprocal Pronouns each other, one another Indefinite Pronouns another, much, nobody, few, such... Relative Pronouns who, whom, which... Pronoun Case subjective, objective, possessive

Personal Pronouns I, me, you, he, him, she...

Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns represent specific people or things. We use them depending on:
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number: singular (eg: I) or plural (eg: we) person: 1st person (eg: I), 2nd person (eg: you) or 3rd person (eg: he) gender: male (eg: he), female (eg: she) or neuter (eg: it) case: subject (eg: we) or object (eg: us)

We use personal pronouns in place of the person or people that we are talking about. My name is Josef but when I am talking about myself I almost always use "I" or "me", not "Josef". When I am talking direct to you, I almost always use "you", not your name. When I am talking about another person, say John, I may start with "John" but then use "he" or "him". And so on. Here are the personal pronouns, followed by some example sentences: personal pronouns number person gender 1st 2nd singular 3rd male/female male/female male female neuter 1st plural 2nd 3rd male/female male/female subject I you he she it we you object me you him her it us you them

male/female/neuter they

Examples (in each case, the first example shows a subject pronoun, the second an object pronoun):
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I like coffee. John helped me. Do you like coffee? John loves you. He runs fast. Did Ram beat him? She is clever. Does Mary know her? It doesn't work. Can the engineer repair it? We went home. Anthony drove us. Do you need a table for three? Did John and Mary beat you at doubles? They played doubles. John and Mary beat them.

When we are talking about a single thing, we almost always use it. However, there are a few exceptions. We may sometimes refer to an animal as he/him or she/her, especially if the animal is domesticated or a pet. Ships (and some other vessels or vehicles) as well as some countries are often treated as female and referred to as she/her. Here are some examples:

This is our dog Rusty. He's an Alsation. The Titanic was a great ship but she sank on her first voyage. My first car was a Mini and I treated her like my wife.
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Thailand has now opened her border with Cambodia.

For a single person, sometimes we don't know whether to use he or she. There are several solutions to this:

If a teacher needs help, he or she should see the principal. If a teacher needs help, he should see the principal. If a teacher needs help, they should see the principal.

We often use it to introduce a remark:

It is nice to have a holiday sometimes. It is important to dress well. It's difficult to find a job. Is it normal to see them together? It didn't take long to walk here.

We also often use it to talk about the weather, temperature, time and distance:

It's raining. It will probably be hot tomorrow. Is it nine o'clock yet? It's 50 kilometres from here to Cambridge.

Demonstrative Pronouns this, that, these, those

Demonstrative Pronouns
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demonstrate (verb): to show; to indicate; to point to A demonstrative pronoun represents a thing or things:

near in distance or time (this, these) far in distance or time (that, those) near far that those

singular plural

this these

Here are some examples with demonstrative pronouns, followed by an illustration:

This tastes good. Have you seen this? These are bad times. Do you like these? That is beautiful. Look at that! Those were the days! Can you see those? This is heavier than that. These are bigger than those.

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Do not confuse demonstrative pronouns with demonstrative adjectives. They are identical, but a demonstrative pronoun stands alone, while a demonstrative adjective qualifies a noun.

That smells. (demonstrative pronoun) That book is good. (demonstrative adjective + noun)

Normally we use demonstrative pronouns for things only. But we can use them for people when the person is identified. Look at these examples:

This is Josef speaking. Is that Mary?

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That sounds like John.

Possessive Pronouns mine, yours, his...

Possessive Pronouns
We use possessive pronouns to refer to a specific person/people or thing/things (the "antecedent") belonging to a person/people (and sometimes belonging to an animal/animals or thing/things). We use possessive pronouns depending on:

number: singular (eg: mine) or plural (eg: ours) person: 1st person (eg: mine), 2nd person (eg: yours) or 3rd person (eg: his) gender: male (his), female (hers)

Below are the possessive pronouns, followed by some example sentences. Notice that each possessive pronoun can:

be subject or object refer to a singular or plural antecedent possessive pronouns mine yours

number person gender (of "owner") 1st singular 2nd male/female male/female

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male 3rd female 1st plural 2nd 3rd male/female male/female

his hers ours yours

male/female/neuter theirs

Look at these pictures. Mine is the big one. (subject = My picture) I like your flowers. Do you like mine? (object = my flowers) I looked everywhere for your key. I found John's key but I couldn't find yours. (object = your key) My flowers are dying. Yours are lovely. (subject = Your flowers) All the essays were good but his was the best. (subject = his essay) John found his passport but Mary couldn't find hers. (object = her passport) John found his clothes but Mary couldn't find hers. (object = her clothes) Here is your car. Ours is over there, where we left it. (subject = Our car) Your photos are good. Ours are terrible. (subject = Our photos) Each couple's books are colour-coded. Yours are red. (subject = Your books) I don't like this family's garden but I like yours. (subject = your garden) These aren't John and Mary's children. Theirs have black hair. (subject = Their children) John and Mary don't like your car. Do you like theirs? (object = their car)

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Notice that the following (with apostrophe [']) do NOT exist: her's, your's, their's

Notice that the interrogative pronoun whose can also be a possessive pronoun (an interrogative possessive pronoun). Look at these examples:

There was $100 on the table and Tara wondered whose it was. This car hasn't moved for two months. Whose is it?

Interrogative Pronouns who, what, which...

Interrogative Pronouns
We use interrogative pronouns to ask questions. The interrogative pronoun represents the thing that we don't know (what we are asking the question about). There are four main interrogative pronouns: who, whom, what, which Notice that the possessive pronoun whose can also be an interrogative pronoun (an interrogative possessive pronoun).
subject object

person

who

whom

thing

what

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person/thing

which

person

whose

(possessive)

Notice that whom is the correct form when the pronoun is the object of the verb, as in "Whom did you see?" ("I saw John.") However, in normal, spoken English we rarely use whom. Most native speakers would say (or even write): "Who did you see?"

Look at these example questions. In the sample answers, the noun phrase that the interrogative pronoun represents is shown in bold.
question answer

Who told you?

John told me.

subject

Whom did you tell?

I told Mary.

object

What's happened?

An accident's happened.

subject

What do you want?

I want coffee.

object

Which came first?

The Porsche 911 came first.

subject

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Which will the doctor see first?

The doctor will see the patient in blue first.

object

There's one car missing. Whose hasn't arrived?

John's (car) hasn't arrived.

subject

We've found everyone's keys. Whose did you find?

I found John's (keys).

object

Note that we sometimes use the suffix "-ever" to make compounds from some of these pronouns (mainly whoever, whatever, whichever). When we add "-ever", we use it for emphasis, often to show confusion or surprise. Look at these examples:

Whoever would want to do such a nasty thing? Whatever did he say to make her cry like that? They're all fantastic! Whichever will you choose?

Reflexive Pronouns myself, yourself, himself...

Reflexive Pronouns
reflexive (adj.) [grammar]: reflecting back on the subject, like a mirror

We use a reflexive pronoun when we want to refer back to the subject of the sentence or clause. Reflexive pronouns end in "-self" (singular) or "-selves" (plural). There are eight reflexive pronouns:
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reflexive pronoun

singular

myself yourself himself, herself, itself

plural

ourselves yourselves themselves

Look at these examples:

reflexive pronouns

the underlined words are NOT the same person/thing

the underlined words are the SAME person/thing

John saw me.

I saw myself in the mirror.

Why does he blame you?

Why do you blame yourself?

David sent him a copy.

John sent himself a copy.

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David sent her a copy.

Mary sent herself a copy.

My dog hurt the cat.

My dog hurt itself.

We blame you.

We blame ourselves.

Can you help my children?

Can you help yourselves?

They cannot look after the babies.

They cannot look after themselves.

Intensive pronouns
Notice that all the above reflexive pronouns can also act as intensive pronouns, but the function and usage are different. An intensive pronoun emphasizes its antecedent. Look at these examples:

I made it myself. OR I myself made it. Have you yourself seen it? OR Have you seen it yourself? The President himself promised to stop the war. She spoke to me herself. OR She herself spoke to me. The exam itself wasn't difficult, but exam room was horrible. Never mind. We'll do it ourselves. You yourselves asked us to do it. They recommend this book even though they themselves have never read it. OR They recommend this book even though they have never read it themselves.

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Reciprocal Pronouns each other, one another

Reciprocal Pronouns
reciprocal (adj.): given or done in return; [grammar] expressing mutual action We use reciprocal pronouns when each of two or more subjects is acting in the same way towards the other. For example, A is talking to B, and B is talking to A. So we say:

A and B are talking to each other.

The action is "reciprocated". John talks to Mary and Mary talks to John. I give you a present and you give me a present. The dog bites the cat and the cat bites the dog. There are only two reciprocal pronouns, and they are both two words:

each other one another

When we use these reciprocal pronouns:

there must be two or more people, things or groups involved (so we cannot use reciprocal pronouns with I, you [singular], he/she/it), and they must be doing the same thing

Look at these examples:

John and Mary love each other. Peter and David hate each other.
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The ten prisoners were all blaming one another. Both teams played hard against each other. We gave each other gifts. Why don't you believe each other? They can't see each other. The gangsters were fighting one another. The boats were bumping against each other in the storm.

You probably notice that each other is used in more examples above than one another. That's because in general we use each other more often than one another, which sounds a little formal. Also, some people say that we should use one another only for three or more people or things, but there is no real justification for this.

Indefinite Pronouns another, much, nobody, few, such...

Indefinite Pronouns
That's Not My Job! This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody. An indefinite pronoun does not refer to any specific person, thing or amount. It is vague and "not definite". Some typical indefinite pronouns are:

all, another, any, anybody/anyone, anything, each, everybody/everyone, everything, few, many, nobody, none, one, several, some, somebody/someone

Note that many indefinite pronouns also function as other parts of speech. Look at "another" in the following sentences:

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He has one job in the day and another at night. (pronoun) I'd like another drink, please. (adjective)

Most indefinite pronouns are either singular or plural. However, some of them can be singular in one context and plural in another. The most common indefinite pronouns are listed below, with examples, as singular, plural or singular/plural. Notice that a singular pronoun takes a singular verb AND that any personal pronoun should also agree (in number and gender). Look at these examples:

Each of the players has a doctor. I met two girls. One has given me her phone number.

Similarly, plural pronouns need plural agreement:

Many have expressed their views. meaning example

pronoun singular another anybody/anyone anything each either

an additional or different person or thing no matter what person no matter what thing every one of two or more people or things, seen separately one or the other of two people or things

That ice-cream was good. Can I have another? Can anyone answer this question? The doctor needs to know if you have eaten anything in the last two hours. Each has his own thoughts. Do you want tea or coffee? / I don't mind.

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Either is good for me. enough as much or as many as needed Enough is enough. We can start the meeting because everybody has arrived. They have no house or possessions. They lost everything in the earthquake. "Less is more" (Mies van der Rohe) Little is known about his early life. Much has happend since we met. I keep telling Jack and Jill but neither believes me. I phoned many times but nobody answered. If you don't know the answer it's best to say nothing. Can one smoke here? | All the students arrived but now one is missing. One was tall and the other was short. Clearly somebody murdered him. It was not suicide. Listen! I just heard something! What could it

everybody/everyone all people everything less little much neither nobody/no-one nothing one other somebody/someone something all things a smaller amount a small amount a large amount not one and not the other of two people or things no person no single thing, not anything an unidentified person a different person or thing from one already mentioned an unspecified or unknown person an unspecified or unknown thing

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be? you plural both few fewer many others several they singular or plural all any more most the whole quantity of something or of some things or people no matter how much or how many a greater quantity of something; a greater number of people or things the majority; nearly all All is forgiven. All have arrived. Is any left? Are any coming? There is more over there. More are coming. Most is lost. Most have refused.
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an unidentified person (informal)

And you can see why.

two people or things, seen together a small number of people or things a reduced number of people or things a large number of people or things other people; not us more than two but not many people in general (informal)

John likes coffee but not tea. I think both are good. Few have ever disobeyed him and lived. Fewer are smoking these days. Many have come already. I'm sure that others have tried before us. They all complained and several left the meeting. They say that vegetables are good for you.

none

not any; no person or persons an unspecified quantity of something; an unspecified number of people or things of the type already mentioned

They fixed the water so why is none coming out of the tap? I invited five friends but none have come.* Here is some. Some have arrived. He was a foreigner and he felt that he was treated as such.

some such

* Some people say that "none" should always take a singular verb, even when talking about countable nouns (eg five friends). They argue that "none" means "no one", and "one" is obviously singular. They say that "I invited five friends but none has come" is correct and "I invited five friends but none have come" is incorrect. Historically and grammatically there is little to support this view. "None" has been used for hundreds of years with both a singular and a plural verb, according to the context and the emphasis required.

Relative Pronouns who, whom, which...

Relative Pronouns
A relative pronoun is a pronoun that introduces a relative clause. It is called a "relative" pronoun because it "relates" to the word that it modifies. Here is an example:

The person who phoned me last night is my teacher.

In the above example, "who":

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relates to "person", which it modifies introduces the relative clause "who phoned me last night"

There are five relative pronouns: who, whom, whose, which, that* Who (subject) and whom (object) are generally only for people. Whose is for possession. Which is for things. That can be used for people** and things and as subject and object in defining relative clauses (clauses that are essential to the sentence and do not simply add extra information). Relative pronouns can refer to singular or plural, and there is no difference between male and female. Look at these examples showing defining and non-defining relative clauses: example sentences S=subject, O=object, P=possessive - The person who phoned me last night is my teacher. - The person that phoned me last night is my teacher. S - The car which hit me was yellow. - The cars that hit me were yellow. defining - The person whom I phoned last night is my teacher. - The people who I phoned last night are my teachers. - The person that I phoned last night is my teacher. - The person I phoned last night is my teacher. - The car which I drive is old. - The car that I drive is old. - The car I drive is old. That is preferable

notes

That is preferable

Whom is correct but very formal. The relative pronoun is optional.

That is preferable to which. The relative pronoun is optional.

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- The student whose phone just rang should stand up. - Students whose parents are wealthy pay extra. P - The police are looking for the car whose driver was masked. - The police are looking for the car of which the driver was masked. - Mrs Pratt, who is very kind, is my teacher. S - The car, which was a taxi, exploded. - The cars, which were taxis, exploded. - Mrs Pratt, whom I like very much, is my teacher. - Mr and Mrs Pratt, who I like very much, are my teachers. - The car, which I was driving at the time, suddenly caught fire. - My brother, whose phone you just heard, is a doctor. P - The car, whose driver jumped out just before the accident, was completely destroyed. - The car, the driver of which jumped out just before the accident, was completely destroyed. Whom is correct but very formal. Who is normal.

Of which is usual for things, but whose is sometimes possible

nondefining

Of which is usual for things, but whose is sometimes possible

*Not all grammar sources count "that" as a relative pronoun. **Some people claim that we cannot use "that" for people but must use "who/whom"; there is no good reason for such a claim.

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Pronoun Case subjective, objective, possessive

Pronoun Case
Pronouns (and nouns) in English display "case" according to their function in the sentence. Their function can be:

subjective (they act as the subject) objective (they act as the object) possessive (they show possession of something else)

The following table shows the different forms for pronouns depending on case. subjective case objective case personal pronouns singular 1st I 2nd you he 3rd she it plural 1st we 2nd you 3rd they relative/interrogative pronouns who me you him her it us you them whom possessive case mine yours his hers its ours yours theirs whose

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whoever

whomever

which/that/what which/that/what indefinite pronouns everybody everybody everybody's

A problem of case: Mary and I or Mary and me? 1. Mary and I are delighted to be here today. (NOT Mary and me) 2. The letter was addressed to Mary and me. (NOT Mary and I) In 1, Mary and I are subjects, which is why the pronoun takes the subjective case ("I"). In 2, Mary and I are objects, which is why the pronoun takes the objective case ("me"). An easy way to check the correct case is to try the sentence without Mary. Would you say "I am delighted to be here" or "Me am delighted to be here"? Would you say "The letter was addressed to me" or "The letter was addressed to I"?

noun that is capitalized at all times and is the name of a person, place or thing eg: Shakespeare, Tokyo, EnglishClub.com

Proper Nouns (Names)

proper noun A proper noun is the special word (or name) that we use for a person, place or organization, like John, Marie, London, France or Sony. A name is a noun, but a very special noun - a proper noun. Proper nouns have special rules.
common noun man, boy proper noun John

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woman, girl country, town company shop, restaurant

Mary England, London Ford, Sony Maceys, McDonalds

month, day of the week January, Sunday book, film War & Peace, Titanic

In this lesson we look at the uses of proper nouns, followed by a quiz to check your understanding:

Using Capital Letters with Proper Nouns Proper Nouns without THE Proper Nouns with THE

Using Capital Letters with Proper Nouns

We always use a Capital Letter for the first letter of a proper noun (name). This includes names of people, places, companies, days of the week and months. For example:

They like John. (not *They like john.) I live in England. She works for Sony.

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The last day in January is a Monday. We saw Titanic in the Odeon Cinema.

Proper Nouns without THE

We do not use "the" with names of people. For example: Bill (not *the Bill) Hilary Clinton Gates first names

surnames

full names Hilary Gates We do not normally use "the" with names of companies. For example:

Renault, Ford, Sony, EnglishClub.com General Motors, Air France, British Airways Warner Brothers, Brown & Son Ltd

If the full (registered) name of a company starts with "The", then we use "The" if we use the full name, for example:

The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd

We do not normally use "the" for shops, banks, hotels etc named after a founder or other person (with -'s or -s). For example: shops Harrods, Marks & Spencer, Maceys
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banks hotels, restaurants

Barclays Bank Steve's Hotel, Joe's Cafe, McDonalds

churches, cathedrals St John's Church, St Peter's Cathedral We do not normally use "the" with names of places. For example: towns Washington (not *the Washington), Paris, Tokyo

states, regions Texas, Kent, Eastern Europe countries continents islands mountains England, Italy, Brazil Asia, Europe, North America Corsica Everest

Exception! If a country name includes "States","Kingdom", "Republic" etc, we use "the": states the United States, the US, the United States of America, the USA

kingdom the United Kingdom, the UK republic the French Republic We do not use "the" with "President/Doctor/Mr etc + Name": the president, the king President Bush (not *the President Bush)

the captain, the detective Captain Kirk, Detective Colombo

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the doctor, the professor Doctor Well, Dr Well, Professor Dolittle my uncle, your aunt Uncle Jack, Aunt Jill Mr Gates (not *the Mr Gates), Mrs Clinton, Miss Black Look at these example sentences:

I wanted to speak to the doctor. I wanted to speak to Doctor Brown. Who was the president before President Kennedy?

We do not use "the" with "Lake/Mount + Name": the lake Lake Victoria

the mount Mount Everest Look at this example sentence:

We live beside Lake Victoria. We have a fantastic view across the lake.

We do not normally use "the" for roads, streets, squares, parks etc: streets etc Oxford Street, Trenholme Road, Fifth Avenue

squares etc Trafalgar Square, Oundle Place, Piccadilly Circus parks etc Central Park, Kew Gardens

Many big, important buildings have names made of two words (for example, Kennedy Airport). If the first word is the name of a person or place, we do not normally use "the":
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people Kennedy Airport, Alexander Palace, St Paul's Cathedral places Heathrow Airport, Waterloo Station, Edinburgh Castle

Proper Nouns with THE

We normally use "the" for country names that include "States","Kingdom", "Republic" etc: States the United States of America/the USA

Kingdom the United Kingdom/the UK Republic the French Republic We normally use "the" for names of canals, rivers, seas and oceans: canals the Suez Canal rivers seas the River Nile, the Nile the Mediterranean Sea, the Mediterranean

oceans the Pacific Ocean, the Pacific We normally use "the" for plural names of people and places: people (families, for example) the Clintons countries the Philippines, the United States

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island groups mountain ranges Look at these sentences:

the Virgin Islands, the British Isles the Himalayas, the Alps

I saw the Clintons today. It was Bill's birthday. Trinidad is the largest island in the West Indies. Mount Everest is in the Himalayas.

We normally use "the" with the following sorts of names: hotels, restaurants the Ritz Hotel, the Peking Restaurant banks the National Westminster Bank

cinemas, theatres the Royal Theatre, the ABC Cinema museums buildings newspapers organisations the British Museum, the National Gallery the White House, the Crystal Palace the Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Post the United Nations, the BBC, the European Union

We normally use "the" for names made with "of":

the Tower of London the Gulf of Siam the Tropic of Cancer the London School of Economics the Bank of France
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the Statue of Liberty

standard marks such as commas, periods and question marks within a sentence eg: , . ? ! - ; :

Punctuation
punctuation

Punctuation is the system of symbols (. , ! - : etc) that we use to separate sentences and parts of sentences, and to make their meaning clear. Each symbol is called a "punctuation mark".

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The Value of Punctuation An English teacher wrote these words on the board: woman without her man is nothing The teacher then asked the students to punctuate the words correctly. The men wrote the top line. The women wrote the bottom line.

Summary of Punctuation Marks

Click on the link for each punctuation mark to find out more.
Punctuation Mark Name Example

full stop or period

I like English.

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comma

I speak English, French and Thai.

semi-colon

I don't often go swimming; I prefer to play tennis.

colon

You have two choices: finish the work today or lose the contract.

hyphen

This is a rather out-of-date book.

dash

In each townLondon, Paris and Romewe stayed in youth hostels.

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question mark

Where is Shangri-La?

exclamation mark exclamation point (AmE)

"Help!" she cried. "I'm drowning!"

slash, forward slash or oblique Please press your browser's Refresh/Reload button.

backslash

C:\Users\Files\jse.doc

double quotation marks

"I love you," she said.

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single quotation marks 'I love you,' she said.

apostrophe

This is John's car.

underline

Have you read War and Peace?

underscore

bin_lad@cia.gov

round brackets

I went to Bangkok (my favourite city) and stayed there for two weeks.

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square brackets

The newspaper reported that the hostages [most of them French] had been released.

ellipsis mark

One happy customer wrote: "This is the best program...that I have ever seen."

Although there are general rules for English punctuation, there are differences of style between, for example, British and American English, some publishers and some writers. Anyone seeking guidance at an advanced level is recommended to consult a style guide (often included in good dictionaries) for their particular variety of English or editorial style.

quantifier question tag question word

determiner or pronoun that indicates quantity eg: some, many, all final part of a tag question; mini-question at end of a tag question eg: "Snow isn't black, is it?" another term for WH-word

pronoun that indicates that two or more subjects are acting mutually; there are two in English - each other, one another reciprocal pronoun eg: "John and Mary were shouting at each other", "The students accused one another of cheating"

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Reciprocal Pronouns
reciprocal (adj.): given or done in return; [grammar] expressing mutual action We use reciprocal pronouns when each of two or more subjects is acting in the same way towards the other. For example, A is talking to B, and B is talking to A. So we say:

A and B are talking to each other.

The action is "reciprocated". John talks to Mary and Mary talks to John. I give you a present and you give me a present. The dog bites the cat and the cat bites the dog. There are only two reciprocal pronouns, and they are both two words:

each other one another

When we use these reciprocal pronouns:

there must be two or more people, things or groups involved (so we cannot use reciprocal pronouns with I, you [singular], he/she/it), and they must be doing the same thing

Look at these examples:

John and Mary love each other. Peter and David hate each other. The ten prisoners were all blaming one another. Both teams played hard against each other.
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We gave each other gifts. Why don't you believe each other? They can't see each other. The gangsters were fighting one another. The boats were bumping against each other in the storm.

You probably notice that each other is used in more examples above than one another. That's because in general we use each other more often than one another, which sounds a little formal. Also, some people say that we should use one another only for three or more people or things, but there is no real justification for this. reduced relative clause (also called "participial relative clause") reflexive pronoun regular verb see regular verbs list relative adverb relative clause relative pronoun reported speech

construction similar to a relative clause, but containing a participle instead of a finite verb; this construction is possible only under certain circumstances eg: "The woman sitting on the bench is my sister", "The people arrested by the police have been released" pronoun ending in -self or -selves, used when the subject and object are the same, or when the subject needs emphasis eg: "She drove herself", "I'll phone her myself" verb that has "-ed" as the ending for past tense and past participle forms; see also irregular verb eg: work, worked, worked adverb that introduces a relative clause; there are four in English: where, when, wherever, whenever; see also relative pronoun dependent clause that usually starts with a relative pronoun such as who or which, or relative adverb such as where eg: "The person who finishes first can leave early" (defining), "Texas, where my brother lives, is big" (non-defining) pronoun that starts a relative clause; there are five in English: who, whom, whose, which, that; see also relative adverb another term for indirect speech
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restrictive relative clause second conditional

another term for defining relative clause "if-then" conditional structure used to talk about an unlikely possibility in the future eg: "If we won the lottery we would buy a car" largest grammatical unit; a sentence must always include a subject (except for imperatives) and predicate; a written sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop/period (.), question mark (?) or exclamation mark (!); a sentence contains a complete thought such as a statement, question, request or command eg: "Stop!", "Do you like coffee?", "I work." list of items in a sentence eg: "The children ate popsicles, popcorn and chips" of a noun or form indicating exactly one person or thing; singular nouns are usually the simplest form of the noun (as found in a dictionary); see also plural, number eg: banana, spoon, tree situation where a word or phrase comes between the particle "to" and the verb in an infinitive; considered poor construction by some eg: "He promised to never lie again" "normal" spelling, pronunciation and grammar that is used by educated native speakers of English word that has no real meaning in a sentence, such as a pronoun or auxiliary verb (as opposed to a content word, such as verb or noun); structure words are not normally stressed in speech eg: "Could you BRING my GLASSES because I've LEFT them at HOME" one of the two main parts (subject and predicate) of a sentence; the subject is the part that is not the predicate; typically, the subject is the first noun phrase in a sentence and is what the rest of the sentence "is about" eg: "The rain water was dirty", "Mary is beautiful", "Who saw you?" case form of a pronoun indicating a subject
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sentence

series

singular

split infinitive Standard English (S.E.) structure word

subject subjective case

also called "nominative"

eg: Did she tell you about her? fairly rare verb form typically used to talk about events that are not certain to happen, usually something that someone wants, hopes or imagines will happen; formed with BARE INFINITIVE (except past of "be") eg: "The President requests that John attend the meeting"

Subjunctive
The subjunctive is a special, relatively rare verb form in English.

Structure of the Subjunctive

The structure of the subjunctive is extremely simple. For all verbs except the past tense of be, the subjunctive is the same as the bare infinitive (infinitive without "to"):
be (past) I were you were he, she, it were we were you were they were be (present) I be you be he, she, it be we be you be they be all other verbs (past & present) I work you work he, she, it work we work you work they work

subjunctive

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The subjunctive does not change according to person (I, you, he etc).

Use of the Subjunctive

We use subjunctives mainly when talking about events that are not certain to happen. For example, we use the subjunctive when talking about events that somebody:

wants to happen hopes will happen imagines happening

Look at these examples:

The President requests that you be present at the meeting. It is vital that you be present at the meeting. If you were at the meeting, the President would be happy.

The subjunctive is typically used after two structures:

the verbs: ask, command, demand, insist, propose, recommend, request, suggest + that the expressions: it is desirable, essential, important, necessary, vital + that

Here are some examples with the subjunctive:

The manager insists that the car park be locked at night. The board of directors recommended that he join the company. It is essential that we vote as soon as possible. It was necessary that every student submit his essay by the weekend.

Notice that in these structures the subjunctive is always the same. It does not matter whether the sentence is past or present.

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Look at these examples:

Present: The President requests that they stop the occupation. Past: The President requested that they stop the occupation. Present: It is essential that she be present. Past: It was essential that she be present.

The use of the subjunctive as above is more common in American English than in English, where should + infinitive is often used:

The manager insists that the car park should be locked at night. It was essential that we should vote as soon as possible.

We usually use the subjunctive were instead of "was" after if (and other words with similar meaning). Look at these sentences:

If I were you, I would ask her. Suppose she were here. What would you say?

Why do we say "I were", "he were"?

We sometimes hear things like "if I were you, I would go" or "if he were here, he would tell you". Normally, the past tense of the verb "to be" is: I was, he was. But the if I were you structure does not use the past simple tense of the verb "to be". It uses the past subjunctive of the verb "to be". In the following examples, you can see that we often use the subjunctive form were instead of "was" after:

if as if wish suppose

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Formal (The were form is correct at all times.) If I were younger, I would go.

Informal (The was form is possible in informal, familiar conversation.) If I was younger, I would go.

If he weren't so mean, he would buy one for me. If he wasn't so mean, he would buy one for me. I wish I weren't so slow! I wish it were longer. It's not as if I were ugly. She acts as if she were Queen. If I were you, I should tell her. I wish I wasn't so slow! I wish it was longer. It's not as if I was ugly. She acts as if she was Queen. Note: We do not normally say "if I was you", even in familiar conversation.

Some fixed expressions use the subjunctive. Here are some examples:

Long live the King! God bless America! Heaven forbid! Be that as it may, he still wants to see her. Come what may, I will never forget you. We are all citizens of the world, as it were. 218

subordinate clause suffix superlative, superlative adjective SVO syntax

another term for dependent clause affix that occurs after the root or stem of a word eg: happiness, quickly adjective or adverb that describes the extreme degree of something eg: happiest, most quickly subject-verb-object; a common word order where the subject is followed by the verb and then the object eg: "The man crossed the street" sentence structure; the rules about sentence structure special construction with statement that ends in a mini-question; the whole sentence is a tag question; the mini-question is a question tag; usually used to obtain confirmation eg: "The Earth is round, isn't it?", "You don't eat meat, do you?"

Tag Questions
tag question You speak English, don't you? A tag question is a special construction in English. It is a statement followed by a mini-question. The whole sentence is a "tag question", and the mini-question at the end is called a "question tag". A "tag" is something small that we add to something larger. For example, the little piece of cloth added to a shirt showing size or washing instructions is a tag. We use tag questions at the end of statements to ask for confirmation. They mean something like: "Am I right?" or "Do you

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agree?" They are very common in English. The basic structure is: statement + Positive statement, Snow is white, question tag negative tag? isn't it?

+ Negative statement, positive tag? You don't like me, do you?

Notice that the question tag repeats the auxiliary verb (or main verb when be) from the statement and changes it to negative or positive. A question tag is the "mini-question" at the end. A tag question is the whole sentence.

Positive Statement Tag Questions

Look at these examples with positive statements. You will see that most of the time, the auxiliary verb from the positive statement is repeated in the tag and changed to negative. positive statement [+] subject auxiliary main verb negative tag [-] auxiliary not personal pronoun
notes:

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(same as subject) You We You You They I We He You John will can must should are have do coming, finished, like like help, come, go, try are was harder, coffee, coffee, are have do do wo can must should n't n't n't n't n't 't n't n't n't n't you? we? you? you? they? I? we? he? you?
no auxiliary for main verb be present & past You (do) like...* won't = will not

English, are there, was

he?

*Note that in this example the auxiliary verb do in the statement - "You like coffee," - is understood and not expressed because the tense is normal present simple. But the question tag uses the do auxiliary to make "don't you?" It is also possible to say: "You do like coffee, don't you?"

Negative Statement Tag Questions

Look at these examples with negative statements. Notice that the negative verb in the original statement is changed to positive in the tag.

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negative statement [-] subject It We You They They I We He You You John auxiliary is have do will wo can must should wo n't never n't not n't never n't n't n't main verb raining, seen like help, report do tell drive be are was n't not us, it right, her, so fast, late, English, there, that, coffee,

positive tag [+] auxiliary is have do will will can must should will are was personal pronoun (same as subject) it? we? you? they? they? I? we? he? you? you? he?

Notice that in the tag, we repeat the auxiliary verb, not the main verb. Except, of course, for the verb be in present simple and past simple. form of a verb that shows us when the action or state happens (past, present or future). Note that the name of a tense is not always a guide to when the action happens. The "present continuous tense", for example, can be used to talk about the
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tense

present or the future. third conditional "if-then" conditional structure used to talk about a possible event in the past that did not happen (and is therefore now impossible) eg: "If we had won the lottery we would have bought a car" action verb that has a direct object (receiver of the action); see also intransitive verb eg: "The kids always eat a snack while they watch TV"

Main Verbs
Main verbs are also called "lexical verbs".

Main verbs have meaning on their own (unlike helping verbs). There are thousands of main verbs, and we can classify them in several ways: transitive verb

Transitive and intransitive verbs

A transitive verb takes a direct object: Somebody killed the President. An intransitive verb does not have a direct object: He died. Many verbs, like speak, can be transitive or intransitive. Look at these examples: transitive:

I saw an elephant. We are watching TV. He speaks English.

intransitive:

He has arrived. 223

John goes to school. She speaks fast.

Linking verbs
A linking verb does not have much meaning in itself. It "links" the subject to what is said about the subject. Usually, a linking verb shows equality (=) or a change to a different state or place (>). Linking verbs are always intransitive (but not all intransitive verbs are linking verbs).

Mary is a teacher. (mary = teacher) Tara is beautiful. (tara = beautiful) That sounds interesting. (that = interesting) The sky became dark. (the sky > dark) The bread has gone bad. (bread > bad)

Dynamic and stative verbs

Some verbs describe action. They are called "dynamic", and can be used with continuous tenses. Other verbs describe state (non-action, a situation). They are called "stative", and cannot normally be used with continuous tenses (though some of them can be used with continuous tenses with a change in meaning). dynamic verbs (examples):

hit, explode, fight, run, go

stative verbs (examples):

be like, love, prefer, wish impress, please, surprise hear, see, sound 224

belong to, consist of, contain, include, need appear, resemble, seem

Regular and irregular verbs

This is more a question of vocabulary than of grammar. The only real difference between regular and irregular verbs is that they have different endings for their past tense and past participle forms. For regular verbs, the past tense ending and past participle ending is always the same: -ed. For irregular verbs, the past tense ending and the past participle ending is variable, so it is necessary to learn them by heart. regular verbs: base, past tense, past participle

look, looked, looked work, worked, worked

irregular verbs: base, past tense, past participle

buy, bought, bought cut, cut, cut do, did, done

Here are lists of regular verbs and irregular verbs.

One way to think of regular and irregular verbs is like this: all verbs are irregular and the so-called regular verbs are simply one very large group of irregular verbs.

Often the above divisions can be mixed. For example, one verb could be irregular, transitive and dynamic; another verb could be regular, transitive and stative.

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thing that you cannot count, such as substances or concepts; see also countable nouns eg: water, furniture, music

Uncountable Nouns
Uncountable nouns are substances, concepts etc that we cannot divide into separate elements. We cannot "count" them. For example, we cannot count "milk". We can count "bottles of milk" or "litres of milk", but we cannot count "milk" itself. Here are some more uncountable nouns:

uncountable nouns (also called "mass nouns" or "noncount")

music, art, love, happiness advice, information, news furniture, luggage rice, sugar, butter, water electricity, gas, power money, currency

We usually treat uncountable nouns as singular. We use a singular verb. For example:

This news is very important. Your luggage looks heavy.

We do not usually use the indefinite article a/an with uncountable nouns. We cannot say "an information" or "a music". But we can say a something of:

a piece of news a bottle of water a grain of rice

We can use some and any with uncountable nouns:

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I've got some money. Have you got any rice?

We can use a little and much with uncountable nouns:

I've got a little money. I haven't got much rice.

Uncountable nouns are also called "mass nouns". Here are some more examples of countable and uncountable nouns: Countable Uncountable dollar song suitcase table battery bottle report tip journey job money music luggage furniture electricity wine information advice travel work

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view

scenery

When you learn a new word, it's a good idea to learn whether it's countable or uncountable.

Nouns that can be Countable and Uncountable

Sometimes, the same noun can be countable and uncountable, often with a change of meaning. Countable There are two hairs in my coffee! There are two lights in our bedroom. Shhhhh! I thought I heard a noise. There are so many different noises in the city. Have you got a paper to read? (newspaper) Hand me those student papers. Our house has seven rooms. We had a great time at the party. How many times have I told you no? Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's greatest works. hair light Uncountable I don't have much hair. Close the curtain. There's too much light!

noise It's difficult to work when there is too much noise. paper I want to draw a picture. Have you got some paper? room Is there room for me to sit here? time Have you got time for a coffee?

work I have no money. I need work!

Drinks (coffee, water, orange juice) are usually uncountable. But if we are thinking of a cup or a glass, we can say (in a restaurant, for example):

Two teas and one coffee please.

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usage V1, V2, V3 verb

way in which words and constructions are normally used in any particular language referring to Verb 1, Verb 2, Verb 3 - being the base, past and past participle that students typically learn for irregular verbs eg: speak, spoke, spoken word that describes the subject's action or state and that we can change or conjugate based on tense and person eg: (to) work, (to) love, (to) begin form of a verb that shows the relation of the subject to the action; there are two voices in English: active, passive

What is Tense?
tense (noun): a form of a verb used to indicate the time, and sometimes the continuation or completeness, of an action in relation to the time of speaking. (From Latin tempus = time).

voice

Tense is a method that we use in English to refer to time - past, present and future. Many languages use tenses to talk about time. Other languages have no tenses, but of course they can still talk about time, using different methods. So, we talk about time in English with tenses. But, and this is a very big but:

we can also talk about time without using tenses (for example, going to is a special construction to talk about the future, it is not a tense) one tense does not always talk about one time (see Tense & Time for more about this)

Here are some of the terms used in discussing verbs and tenses.

Mood

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indicative mood expresses a simple statement of fact, which can be positive (affirmative) or negative

I like coffee. I do not like coffee.

interrogative mood expresses a question

Why do you like coffee?

imperative mood expresses a command

Sit down!

subjunctive mood expresses what is imagined or wished or possible

The President ordered that he attend the meeting.

Voice
Voice shows the relationship of the subject to the action. In the active voice, the subject does the action (cats eat mice). In the passive voice, the subject receives the action (mice are eaten by cats). Among other things, we can use voice to help us change the focus of attention.

Aspect
Aspect expresses a feature of the action related to time, such as completion or duration. Present simple and past simple tenses have no aspect, but if we wish we can stress with other tenses that:

the action or state referred to by the verb is completed (and often still relevant), for example: I have emailed the report to Jane. (so now she has the report) 230

(This is called perfective aspect, using perfect tenses.)

the action or state referred to by the verb is in progress or continuing (that is, uncompleted), for example: We are eating. (This is called progressive aspect, using progressive [continuous] tenses.)

question using a WH-word and expecting an answer that is not "yes" or "no"; WH-questions are "open" questions; see also yes-no question eg: Where are you going?

Basic Question Types

There are 3 basic types of question:
1. Yes/No Questions (the answer to the question is "Yes" or "No") 2. Question Word Questions (the answer to the question is "Information") 3. Choice Questions (the answer to the question is "in the question") 1. Yes/No Questions auxiliary verb subject main verb Answer Yes or No dinner? Yes, I do. No, I can't.

WH-question

Do Can

you you

want drive?

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Has Did

she they

finished go

her work? home?

Yes, she has. No, they didn't.

Exception! verb be simple present and simple past Is Was Anne Ram French? at home? Yes, she is. No, he wasn't.

2. Question Word Questions question word auxiliary verb subject main verb Answer Information In Paris. lunch? At 1pm. She met Ram. out? out? Ati has run out. Ati ran out.

Where When Who(m) Who Who*

do will did has

you we she

live? have meet? run ran

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Why

hasn't

Tara

done

it?

Because she can't.

Exception! verb be simple present and simple past Where How is was Bombay? she? In India. Very well.

*When who is subject there is normally no auxiliary verb in past simple and present simple. 3. Choice Questions auxiliary verb subject main verb OR Answer In the question coffee? James? Coffee, please. John.

Do Will Did

you we she

want meet go

tea John

or or

to London or

New York? She went to London.

Exception! verb be simple present and simple past Is your car white or black? It's black.

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Were

they

$15

or

$50?

$15.

WH-word (also called "question word") word order yes-no question

word that asks a WH-question; there are 7 WH-words: who, what, where, when, which, why, how order or sequence in which words occur within a sentence; basic word order for English is subject-verb-object or SVO question to which the answer is yes or no; yes-no questions are "closed" questions; see also WH-question eg: "Do you like coffee?" "if-then" conditional structure used when the result of the condition is always true (based on fact) eg: "If you dial O, the operator comes on"

Zero Conditional: certainty

We use the so-called zero conditional when the result of the condition is always true, like a scientific fact. Take some ice. Put it in a saucepan. Heat the saucepan. What happens? The ice melts (it becomes water). You would be surprised if it did not. IF condition result

zero conditional

present simple present simple If you heat ice it melts.

Notice that we are thinking about a result that is always true for this condition. The result of the condition is an absolute certainty. We are not thinking about the future or the past, or even the present. We are thinking about a simple fact. We use the present simple tense to talk about the condition. We also use the present simple tense to talk about the result. The
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important thing about the zero conditional is that the condition always has the same result. We can also use when instead of if, for example: When I get up late I miss my bus. Look at some more examples in the tables below: IF condition present simple If If If If result present simple

I miss the 8 o'clock bus I am late for work. I am late for work people don't eat you heat ice my boss gets angry. they get hungry. does it melt? IF condition present simple if I miss the 8 o'clock bus. I am late for work. they don't eat. you heat it?

result present simple I am late for work

My boss gets angry if People get hungry Does ice melt if if

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Conditionals: Summary
Here is a chart to help you to visualize the basic English conditionals. Do not take the 50% and 10% figures too literally. They are just to help you. probability 100% 50% 10% 0% conditional zero conditional first conditional example If you heat ice, it melts. If it rains, I will stay at home. time any time future future

second conditional If I won the lottery, I would buy a car. third conditional

If I had won the lottery, I would have bought a car. past

* note that technically English does not have a real future tense ** some authorities consider the base form of the verb without "to" to be the true infinitive

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