- •Class nouns
- •Names of persons
- •Geographical names
- •Miscellaneous proper names
- •Set expressions
- •Some syntactic relations
- •Parts of the day
- •Names of seasons and names of meals
- •"School, college, bed, prison, jail; sea; town, wind, weather, life"
- •Names of diseases and names of languages
- •Certain adjectives, pronouns and numerals
- •The oblique moods subjunctive I
- •Subjunctive II
- •The conditional mood
- •In complex sentences. Real conditions.
- •The suppositional mood
- •The verbals the triple nature of the participle, its tense and voice
- •The functions of p1 & p2
- •The objective participial construction
- •The subjective participial construction
- •The nominative absolute participial construction, the prepositional absolute participial construction
- •The absolute constructions without a participle
- •Double nature of the gerund, its tense and voice
- •Predicative constructions with the gerund
- •The use of the gerund
- •The functions of the gerund
- •The gerund & the participle. The gerund & the infinitive. The gerund & the verbal noun
- •The double nature of the infinitive, its tense, aspect and voice
- •The functions of the infinitive
- •The objective-with-the-infinitive construction
- •The subjective infinitive construction.
- •Syntax the word order
- •Position of the object, the attribute, the adverbial modifiers
- •The subject
- •"It" as the subject of the sentence
- •The predicate
- •The compound verbal predicate. Mixed types
- •Agreement of the predicate with the subject
- •The object
- •The complex object. The cognate object
- •The attribute
- •The adverbial modifier
- •Detached parts of the sentence. The independent elements
- •The simple sentence
- •The compound sentence
- •The complex sentence
- •Attributive and adverbial clauses
- •The rules of the sequence of tenses
- •Indirect speech (statements, questions)
- •Indirect orders and requests, offers, suggestions and advice, indirect exclamations
The rules of the sequence of tenses
The SOT is a certain dependence of the tense of the verb in a subordinate clause on that of the verb in the PC. If there are several SC in a sentence, the SOT is observed in all of them. The rule also holds good when a past tense is used in a SC to which other clauses are subordinated.
If the past action expressed in the SC is simultaneous with that expressed in the PC, the Past Indefinite or the Past Continuous is used in the SC. If the past action expressed in the SC is prior to that expressed in the PC, the Past Perfect is used in the SC. If the action expressed in the SC lasted a certain time before the action expressed in the PC, the Past Perfect Continuous or the Past Perfect Inclusive is used in the SC. If the action expressed in the SC is posterior to that of the PC the Future in the Past is used.
The SOT is mainly applied in object clauses. It is generally observed in subject clauses, predicative clauses and in appositive attributive clauses. The SOT isn't observed if the OC expresses a general truth and when something is represented as habitual, customary, or characteristic. It is also doesn't concern attributive relative clauses and adverbial clauses of cause, result, comparison, and concession (if the verb stands in the Indicative Mood).
Indirect speech (statements, questions)
IS is a form of utterance in which the words of the speaker are reported. When DS is converted into IS the following changes are introduced: 1) The quotation marks and the comma (or colon) are omitted; 2) The pronouns are replaced by those of the 3rd person (if somebody else's words are reported); 3) If the verb in the PC is in the past tense, demonstrative pronouns and adverbials expressing nearness are replaced by words expressing distance (no changes take place if the speaker speaks in the same place and at the same time as the speaker whose words are reported); 4) If the verb in the PC is in the past tense, the tenses are changed according to the rule of the SOT (if the Past Indefinite in DS denotes an action taking place at a definite moment, it remains unchanged in IS); 5) When sentences containing Subjunctive Mood are converted into IS the form of the verb usually remains unchanged (except for "may" which is turned into "might"); 6) The verb introducing DS is replaced by another verb which shows whether the IS is a statement, a question, an order (request) or an exclamation; 7) IS, unlike DS, is characterized by rigid logic of structure and terseness ("so, such" are replaced by "very, exceedingly", interjections must be replaced by suitable AM, etc.); 8) "Must" remains unchanged in IS if it expresses advice (order) or a supposition bordering on assurance, but it's generally replaced by "had to" if it expresses necessity arising out of circumstances, and it's replaced by "was to" if it expresses arrangement or a kind of order.
ISt are generally introduced by the verbs "to say, to tell, to announce" (in official style also "to inform"). With the verbs "to tell, to inform" the person addressed is always mentioned. If it is mentioned with the verbs "to say, to announce" the preposition "to" is used. The verb "to say" is used to introduce both DS & IS, "to tell" is used to introduce IS only. An emphatic statement tinged with emotion is often introduced by the verb "to declare". Other verbs are "to promise, to remark, to remind, to assure, to admit, to deny, etc."
IQ are generally introduced by the verb "to ask" ("to inquire" in official style, with the preposition "of" if the person addressed is mentioned). Word order in an IQ is the same as in a statement. An indirect general Q is introduced by the conjunctions "if, whether", an indirect special Q is introduced by the same adverb or pronoun that introduces a direct Q, if a direct Q to the subject contains the link verb "to be", the direct word order isn't strictly observed.