- •1. Kinds of nouns
- •2. Gender
- •3. Plurals
- •4. Uncountable nouns
- •5. Possessive case
- •Adjectives
- •1. Kinds of adjectives
- •2. Participles used as adjectives
- •3. Position of adjectives: attributive and predicative use
- •9. Comparison of adjectives
- •Adverbs
- •1. Kinds of adverbs
- •2. Form and use
- •3. Some words are both adjectives and adverbs:
- •4. Comparative and superlative adverb forms
- •5. Constructions with comparisons.
- •6. Position of adverbs
- •3. Uses of the Present Continuous Tense
- •4. Verbs not normally used in the Continuous Tenses
- •5. See, feel, look, smell and taste used in the continuous
- •6. The Continuous and Non-Continuous Uses of Certain Verbs
- •The simple present tense
- •1. Form
- •2. Spelling Notes
- •3. Uses of the Simple Present Tense
- •4. Other Uses of the Simple Present Tense
- •The past and perfect tenses the simple past tense
- •1. Form
- •2. Spelling Notes
- •3. Uses of the Past Simple Tense
- •4. Used to Indicating Past Habit
- •The past continuous tense
- •1. Form
- •2. Main Uses of the Past Continuous Tense
- •3. Other Uses of the Past Continuous Tense
- •The present perfect tense (simple and continuous)
- •1. Form
- •2. The Present Perfect Used for Past Actions Whose Time is not Definite
- •3. The Present Perfect Used for Actions Occurring in an Incomplete Period
- •4. The Present Perfect (Simple and Continuous) Used for Actions and Situations Continuing up to the Present
- •5. Special Structures in the Present Perfect
- •The past perfect tense (simple, continuous)
- •1. Form
- •3. Past and Past Perfect Tenses in Time Clauses.
- •4. Past Perfect Tense in Main Clause
- •The future
- •1. Future Forms
- •2. The simple present used for the future
- •4. The Present Continuous as a Future Form
- •5. The be going to form
- •6. The Future Simple
- •7. The Future Continuous
- •8. The Future Perfect
- •9. The Future Perfect Continuous
- •The passive voice
- •1. Form
- •2. Various Structures Expressed in the Passive
- •3. Active Tenses and Their Passive Equivalents
- •4. Get in the Passive
- •5. Questions in the passive
- •6. Uses of the Passive: Active or Passive
- •7. The Passive is Used:
- •8. Passive Sentences with or without by:
- •9. Passive with the Verbs Having Two Objects
- •10. Special Passive Patterns
- •11. Verbs Which Cannot be Used in the Passive
- •1. Modal Auxiliary Verbs: General
- •2. Modal Auxiliary Verbs With Perfect Infinitives
- •3. Can, could and be able for ability
- •4. May and Can for Permission
- •5. May and Can for Possibility
- •6. Could as an Alternative to May/Might
- •7. Can in Interrogative and Negative Sentences
- •8. Can Used to Express ‘Theoretical Possibility’
- •9. Set Phrases with Can, May, Might
- •10. Must and Have for Deduction and Assumption
- •11. Must and have to: forms
- •12. Difference between have to and have got to Forms
- •13. Difference between must and have to in the Affirmative
- •14. Need not and must not in the Present and Future
- •15. Must, have to and need in the Interrogative
- •17. Needn’t have done Compared with didn’t have/need to do
- •18. Ought and Should for Obligation
- •The infinitive
- •1. Forms
- •2. Infinitive without to
- •3. The Infinitive Represented by its to
- •4. Split Infinitives
- •5. The Infinitive Used as a Connective Link
- •6. Functions of the infinitive
- •7. The Infinitive as Subject of a Sentence
- •8. The Infinitive as Complement of a Verb
- •9. The Infinitive as Object of a Verb
- •10. The Infinitive as Object of an Adjective
- •11. The Infinitive after Interrogative Conjunction
- •12. The Infinitive as Adverbial Modifier
- •A. TheInfinitive as Adverbial Modifier of Purpose
- •B. The Infinitive asAdverbial Modifier of Result
- •13. The Infinitive as Attribute
- •14. Active and Passive Infinitive with Similar Meaning
- •15. Objective-with-the-Infinitive Construction
- •16. Nominative-with-the-Infinitive Construction
- •19. The Infinitive as Parenthesis
- •The gerund
- •1. Form and Use
- •2. Functions of the Gerund
- •3. Verbs Followed by the Gerund
- •Note that:
- •5. Gerunds after Prepositions
- •6. The Verb mind
- •7. Gerunds with Passive Meaning
- •8. The Gerund: Special Cases
- •Infinitive and gerund constructions
- •1. Verbs and Adjectives Which May Take either Infinitive or Gerund
- •M. Accustomed, afraid, ashamed, certain, interested, sorry, sure, used
- •The participles
- •1. The Present (or Active) Participle
- •2. Present Participle after verbs of sensation
- •I saw him enter the room, unlock a drawer, take out a document, photograph it and put it back.
- •4. Go, come, spend, waste, be busy
- •5. A present participle phrase replacing a main clause
- •6. A present participle phrase replacing a subordinate clause
- •7. The perfect participle (active)
- •8. The past participle (passive) and the perfect participle (passive)
- •9. Participles used as adjectives before and after nouns
- •10. Misrelated participles
- •Reported speech
- •1. Main points
- •2. Statements in reported speech 1. If you want to report a statement, you use a ‘that’-clause after certain verbs. The most useful are:
- •Tense changes
- •Indirect speech is usually introduced by a verb in the past tense. Verbs in the reported clause have to be changed into a corresponding ‘more past’ tense.
- •1. Past Simple and Past Continuous in time clauses do not normally change. The verb in the main clause can either remain unchanged or become the past perfect:
- •5. Time and place expressions in reported speech
- •6. Modals in reported speech
- •7. Reported questions
- •8. Questions beginning Shall I/we…? Such questions can be of different types:
- •9. Reported orders/requests/advice/suggestions, etc.
- •14. Let’s, let him/them in indirect speech 1. Let’s usually expresses a suggestion and is reported by suggest in reported speech:
- •15. Exclamations and yes/no
- •16. Reported speech: mixed types
- •Contents
6. The Continuous and Non-Continuous Uses of Certain Verbs
What are you thinking about? I think you’re right.
I’m feeling fine. I feel we shouldn’t do it.
Why are you smelling the meat? Is it bad? The meat smells bad.
‘What are you doing with my whisky?’ - ‘I’m just tasting it.’
The cake tastes wonderful.
The scales broke when I was weighing myself this morning.
I weighed 68 kilos three months ago - and look at me now!
Why is the man measuring the street?
I measure 75 centimeters round the waist.
The simple present tense
1. Form
In the affirmative the simple present has the same form as the infinitive but adds an s for the third person singular. The negative and interrogative are formed with do/does:
I work I don’t work do I work? Don’t we work?
he works he doesn’t work does he work? Doesn’t he work?
2. Spelling Notes
A. Verbs ending in ss, sh, ch, x and o add es, instead of s alone, to form the third person singular:
I kiss, he kisses I box, he boxes
I wash, he washes I do, he does
I watch, he watches I go, he goes
B. When y follows a consonant we change the y into i and add es:
I carry, he carries I try, he tries
but verbs ending in y following a vowel do not change:
I say, he says I play, he plays
3. Uses of the Simple Present Tense
A. The main use of the simple present tense is to express habitual actions. We use it to say that something happens all the time or repeatedly, or that something is true in general. It is not important whether the action is happening at the time of speaking.
The earth goes round the sun.
I work in a bank. Tom works in a shop.
Nurses look after patients in hospitals.
B. We use the present simple when we say how often we do things. So in this tense we use adverbs or adverb phrases such as: always, never, often, sometimes, usually, every week, on Mondays, twice a year etc.:
How often do you go to church? I go there on Sundays.
I get up at 7 o’clock every morning.
4. Other Uses of the Simple Present Tense
A. We use the present simple instead of future when we are talking about timetables, programmes etc. (for example, for public transport, cinemas, theatres):
What time does the film begin?
Ann is coming from France tomorrow. Her train arrives at 7.15.
B. It is used, chiefly with the verb say, when we are asking about, or quoting from books, notices or very recently received letters
What does that notice say? - It says, ‘No parking.’
What does the book say? - It says, ‘Cook very slowly.’
I see you’ve got a letter from your mother. What does she say?
- She says, she is coming next week.
C.It is common in stories told in the present, in describing the action of a play, opera etc., and is often used by radio commentators at sports events:
When the curtain rises, Juliet is writing at her desk. Suddenly
the window opens and a masked man enters.
D. It can be used for a planned future action or series of actions particularly when they refer to a journey. Travel agents use it a lot.
We leave London at 10.00 next Tuesday and arrive in Paris at 13.00.
We spend two hours in Paris and leave again at 15.00.
E. It must be used instead of the present continuous with verbs which cannot be used in the continuous form, e.g. love, see, believe etc. (see 4 – 6)
F. It is used in conditional sentences after if and unless and in time clauses after when, as soon as, before, while, until/till:
If I see Ann I’ll ask her.
When it stops raining we’ll go out.
Wait here until I come back.