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Clauses in English Grammar

Look at the sentences below
When I heard the disturbance, I dropped the files that I had been examining, then ran out into the
corridor.
I let the door slip from my fingers and it closed behind me.

In the first sentence it appears that there are as many as four separate segments which look like partial
sentences connected to each other in different ways:
When I heard the disturbance,
I dropped the files
that I had been examining,
then ran out into the corridor.
In the second sentence there are two segments:

I let the door slip from my fingers

and it closed behind me.
We can call these segments clauses. Many sentences are short they contain only one segment or clause.
These single-clause units are called simple sentences. Examples of simple sentences might include:
She has already read this book.
The policeman asked me for some identification.
The postman didnt arrive.
No one knew the way.
Why did he do it?
Where did you last see your father?
How much does this cost?
Have you put the cat out?
Will Bill be staying?
Did they finish painting the house?
As you can see, it is not possible to divide any of these up into smaller segments that look like sentences.
However, many sentences, both in the spoken and the written language, are often longer and more
complicated than this simple type; such sentences are called multiple sentences. Sentence 2 (above) is an
instance of a sentence which can be broken down into smaller segments or clauses.

Main clauses

Look at the three multiple sentences below:

Harry put the phone down and he stood up.

I gave him my address, but he didnt contact me.
 We could go to the cinema or we could stay at home.
The sentences can be divided into clauses as follows, and the main clauses are in bold.

Harry put the phone down

(and) he stood up.
I gave him my address,
(but) he didnt contact me.
We could go to the cinema
(or) we could stay at home.
In all three sentences each of the main clauses (those without the connecting words and, but andor) can
stand on its own as an acceptable sentence they all act as complete sense units in their own right.
Clauses which can stand on their own in this way and have equal importance are referred to as main
clauses; this will, of course, also include simple sentences, which contain only one clause. Sentences which
are constructed using the linking words and, but, or and the few words which can be used in the same way,
like also, too, yet, are called compound sentences. These linking words for compound sentences are
known as coordinators since they serve to connect main clauses on an equal footing.

Subordinate clauses

The construction of compound sentences is essentially quite straightforward since we only have to take
two or more simple sentences and insert a basic coordinatingword like and, but and or. There are, however
many more ways in which clauses can be connected to each other to form longer sentences. The following
are just a few examples of how clauses can be conjoined. The main clauses are in bold.
After he left work, he headed straight for the hotel.
Were going to have to take the train because the cars broken down.
If you heat water, it boils.
Although shes the best in the class, she did badly in the exams.
While Im out, could you tidy up a bit?
If you examine the sentences carefully, you will notice that only one of the clauses in each sentence can
stand alone as a complete idea; these are shown in bold. The remaining clause in each sentence feels
unfinished when used on its own. For example a native speaker would find the sense of a lthough shes the
best in the class to be incomplete without a second clause expressing an unexpected contrast, in this case
she did badly in the exams. The clause which can stand alone is called a main clause, while the clause which
depends on the main clause is said to besubordinate.
The range of linking words used with subordinate clauses is much wider than with the linkers in compound
sentences. A short list would include:

Time : after, before, as soon as, while, when, as

Cause : because, since, as,
Condition : if, provided that, as long as, unless
Concession : although, though, even though
Relative : which, who, that, where, whose
These different types of sentence structure will be examined in more detail in other sections of this guide.
Sentences which are made up of clauses joined in this way are known as complex sentences. Here is an
example:
When I heard the disturbance,
I dropped the files
that I had been examining,
then ran out into the corridor.
The main clause here is b since this can be used on its own as a complete sense unit.

Note that every sentence needs a subject telling us who or what is doing the action. In these sentences the
subject is in bold:
The man was clearly in pain.
The child was sitting beside the door of my old car.
The old olive tree was still producing wonderful olives.
The man wearing the old red hat was walking slowly down the road.
One feature of the levels of sentence and clause is that they both need to include a person(s) or thing(s)
carrying out some sort of action. The word denoting the action in a sentence or clause is called a verb,
while the person or thing performing the action is typically a noun acting as the subject. The presence of
this structure subject + verb, indicates that the collection of words is either a sentence or a clause; without
this structure, a string of words is referred to as a phrase.

PHRASES IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR

A phrase can consist of just one word, but usually it will contain more than one. Examples include:

the unseen intruder

the files that I had been examining
the chance to clear my name
couldnt believe
had lost
Quite carelessly
about midnight
from my fingers
Because of this one stupid mistake
The most important point about phrases is that they do not include verbs that can change according to the
time reference and in many cases they do not have a subject either. Unlike clauses, they cannever stand
alone as sentences.
Phrases are often classified into four basic types, taking their names from what is considered to be
the class of themost important word in the phrase. There are seven word classes; these are:
the verb
the noun
the adverb
the preposition
the adjective
the pronoun
the conjunction
The respective phrase types are named, unsurprisingly, the verb phrase, noun phrase, adverb
phrase and prepositional phrase. The adjectival phrase and pronoun phrase are of minor interest to
us here since the former usually comprises short, simple phrases like, very sad, old enough, too sudden,
while the latter are used in only a small number of expressions like, they all,almost no one, I myself etc.
The conjunction (words like and, but, so) is a special case in that it does not form a phrase, but helps to
connect clauses into larger structures.
The class of the most important word in any phrase will decide what type of phrase it is. This important
word is often referred to as the head of the phrase. In the following examples, the head word is given in
bold:
 a. the unseen intruder
b. the files that I had been examining
c. the chance to clear my name
d. couldnt believe
e. had lost
f. Quite carelessly
g. about midnight
h. in the blue suit
i. of the table
The first three extracts have a noun as their head word; they are all, therefore, noun phrases (from this
point on I will refer to them as NP).

In d. and e. the head word is a verb (believe and lost), so they are verb phrases (VP).
Extract f is an adverb phrase (AP) with two adverbs the second is the main adverb, while quitequalifies it.
The last three are all prepositional phrases (PP) as they start with prepositions.

WORD CLASSES IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR

A group of words cannot be described as a sentence or a clause unless at least one of the words is a verb.
In some ways, we can describe it as the most important part of speech because it is the action word that
tells the listener or reader what is happening in the sentence. Verbs can be action words
like run, initiate, judge, throw, but they can also denote less active notions and have more to do with mental
processes and perceptions, like see, know, think and so on.

The noun

A noun is a word which is used to denote a person (traffic warden, woman, Prime Minister, pianistetc.), a
concrete or abstract entity (binoculars, fork, field, truth, incoherence etc.) or a place (office, garden, railway
station). These are all common nouns; there are also proper nounswhich are the names of a specific
person, place, event etc., usually starting with a capital letter, for example, York , John, Christmas, Saturday.
A noun can be extended to a noun phrase. In the example phrases given below, the noun (in the first
example) and the noun phrase (in the remaining examples) is in bold. Note how much the noun phrase
can be extended by adding extra information each time.

Dogs can be vicious

Some dogs can be vicious
Some of the dogs can be vicious
Some of the bigger dogs can be vicious
Some of the bigger dogs in the dog pound can be vicious

The adverb

The traditional approach to adverbs has been to assign mainly those words which are made from
adjectives by the addition of the ending ly (quickly, hopelessly), plus certain other words which are difficult
to classify, like not, just and soon. Their main function is to qualify the action of the verb in the clause in
some way, but they can also be used to add more information to an adjective or other adverb
e.g. awfully good, incredibly slowly. The class of adverbs is very wide-ranging in form and is used to add
comments to many of the other word classes.
The preposition

Prepositions allow us to talk about the way in which two parts of a sentence are related to each other. They
include words like in, on, under, beside, through, inside, before, opposite. More often than not, these
relationships are to do with either time or space, but other types of relationship, such as possession, cause
and effect and method can be expressed by using prepositions. The words themselves are generally short
and simple but some prepositions are multi-word units; for example, out of, by means of, in spite of, instead
of, up to etc. Unless they are part of a verb (getin, pick up, switch of), prepositions are always followed by a
phrase containing a noun at school, in the summer, over the moon and so on.

The adjective

An adjective gives the reader or speaker extra information about a noun or delimits it in some way. It can
occur in two positions in a phrase:

before the noun as in clear water, beautiful beaches, a terrible decision. The adjectives in these
examples are said to be attributive,
following any form of the verb be (e.g. am, is, was, been) and similar verbs (seem, appear,become) as
in the water became clear, the beaches are beautiful. These adjectives are inpredicative position.

The pronoun

Pronouns are usually treated as a special sub-class of nouns. This is because they stand in for a noun or
group of nouns. They are limited in number and belong to what is called a closed set, that is, a group of
words to which new members are, for practical purposes, not allowed. Some examples of pronouns
are: I, you, he, she, our, its, something, anyone and so on. Thus, instead of saying, Bills arrived. Bills in the
lounge, we prefer Bills arrived. Hes in the lounge. Or a person called for you; better would be someone called
for you. There are several other words which fall into this class; for example (the) one(s), when used to
replace dishes in the example: pass me the dishes the ones on the top shelf.

The conjunction

It would be very unusual for anyone to either speak or write completely in simple sentences; instead we
tend to use a mixture of simple, compound and complex sentences. One way to create longer, more
complicated sentences is to use conjunctions. As we have already noted in the section on types of clause,
conjunctions serve to connect two or more clauses, phrases or words together to make longer
constructions. In the following examples, the conjunction is in bold:

The coffee was strong, but sweet.

We can go to the match or watch it on TV.
She has a dog and two cats.
When I arrived home, they had already eaten.
I had to stop driving because the rain was so bad.
Can I have a word with you, if youve got the time?
Although he cant swim, he goes sailing.
There are two types of conjunction. The first is the coordinating conjunction; examples of this can be seen
in sentences a to c above. This type is always used to connect elements that share the same grammatical
status, that is, main clause to main clause, verb to verb, noun to noun, adjective to adjective and so on. In
sentence a two adjectives, strong and sweet, are conjoined, in b two verbs, go and watch and c two
nouns, dog and cats.
The second type is the subordinating conjunction, which most often joins two or more unequal clauses to
one another. Typically a main clause will be connected to a subordinate clause as we saw in the section on
clause types. So in sentences d to g above, the subordinate clause (which you will remember cannot stand
on its own, but needs another more important clause to complete the meaning) begins with a conjunction,
here when, because, if and although.

Word class membership

Although the description above may give the impression that any one word within a single meaning
belongs exclusively to one word class, you should note that this is not the case. Study the words in bold in
the following examples:

I couldnt give her an immediate answer .

I was surprised when he answered my letter.
Do not write on the front of the answer sheet.
In the first sentence, answer is being used as a noun note the attributive adjectiveimmediate and
the word an, both indicative of a following noun.
In the second, answer is a verb the subject he and the ending ed show this.
While in the third, answer tells you what kind of sheet is being talked about and is, therefore, an
adjective.
This flexibility in word class membership is a peculiar feature of English among the European languages,
many of which would require different endings to show the class of the word.

Words and morphemes in English

grammar
What is a word?

What precisely is a word? At first glance you may find it easy to find many examples of what would
unambiguously constitute a word, for instance: you, the, those, some, hers, them, luck, irritation, large,
conspicuously, hide, chemical, preference, of, at, from and similar examples.
Are these English words?

dilly-dally
rose-tinted
eavesdropper
glockenspiel
splendiferous
supacalifragilisticexpialidocious

If I were to say The girl over there is frakusiling with the gambanger could you replace any words you dont
know there with other words of a similar type? Does that make the words you replacedwords?
Are all the words in this sentence acceptable? Applying a stochastic production frontier to sector-level data,
this paper examines the extent to which industrial countries R&D contributes to East Asian economies TFP
growth.
What about this one? Hence, our analysis addresses foreign technology spillovers as sources of TP in an
endogenous framework in addition to autonomous enhancement captured by the time trend as formulated by
neoclassical theory.
Once we start to think about words seriously, things dont look so clear!
Lets think for a moment about how words are put together. There are two major ways:

1. Inflection
As soon as a new word comes into current use, it invariably takes over a whole range of other forms.

microbe microbes
house houses
large larger largest
fit fitter fittest
(to) progress progresses progressed progressing
qualify qualifies qualified qualifying
2. Word formation
Words can be joined in a number of different ways.

foot + ball = football

fox + trot = foxtrot
ham + burger = hamburger
dress + maker = dressmaker
house + husband = house-husband
hyper + inflation = hyper-inflation
in + flexible = inflexible
The last example uses the word in to mean the opposite of the main noun. This is a very common way to
produce a meaning that is the opposite of the base word.
in + excusable = inexcusable
in + vertebrate = invertebrate
in + experienced = inexperienced
There are a very large range of these additions. When they are at the front of a word, they are
called prefixes. When they are at the end of a word, they are called suffixes. Here are some examples of
prefixes:
defrost, defuse, deskill
disapprove, disappear, dislike
downsize, downturn, downtrodden
endanger, enslave, enrich
extraordinary, extra-curricular, extravagant
handbag, handkerchief, hand-held
improbable, impenetrable, imperfection
illegitimate, illegible, illiterate
lowlife, low-grade, low-level
midnight , mid-term, mid-life
misunderstood, misjudge, misplace
newsworthy, newspaper, newsagent
off-shoot, off-hand, off-colour
outside, outrun, outclass
 post-war, post-haste, posthumous
reply, recover, re-site
unfair, unkind, unhealthy
There are just as many suffixes, if not more! Here are some of them:
American, Mexican, Tanzanian
alcoholic, workaholic, chocoholic,
freedom, stardom, kingdom
audible, flexible, visible
breakdown, splashdown, comedown
carefree, interest-free, rent-free
clearly, sweetly, smoothly
fattish, lightish, boyish
hostess, authoress, stewardess (note: these are less common today)
largest, smallest, fattest
manhood, priesthood, brotherhood
management, employment, development
muddle-headed, cool-headed, curly-headed
pregnancy, fluency, clemency
readable, dependable, portable
snowbound, outward-bound, housebound
started, ended, tumbled
tradecraft, witchcraft, stagecraft
trainee, trustee, employee
Watergate, Irangate, Blairgate (Note: a fairly new addition to the language)
weakness, lightness, kindness
How many other prefixes and suffixes can you think of?

But we not only add prefixes and suffixes, we also take things away. Think about the original words:

auto
bus
demo
fridge
lab
phone
piano
pram
TV
Just for good luck, we also make names into everyday words ( Hoover ), we borrow from other languages
(bungalow from Hindi) we join things together because they sound neat (easy-peasy) and if we cant do
anything else, we just sit down and make up a new word (Internet).

Putting words together

Now that we have the more useful notion of what a word is, we can move on to consider in what ways
words occur together to create longer stretches of language. One common view of language is that, as a
text develops, at any point the speaker or writer is free to select whatever lexical item he or she desires,
provided that the item conforms to the grammar rules of English. This has been called the open choice
principle, where, following a grammatical unit a clause, phrase or word a wide range of options is
available to the speaker/writer. However, this cannot be true for English. In fact, many words attract
options from a very limited list. This tendency for certain lexical items to appear together (co-occur) is
called collocation and the lexical items themselves are calledcollocates.
One example which attracts a very restricted choice of noun would be lukewarm, which will only co-occur
with words for liquids (water, beer) and, strangely enough, reception. It would be very unusual to find any
other words or word-types occurring with it. The collocates for lukewarm are narrow. Even more restricted
is the word unedifying, which will automatically attract only one noun,spectacle or closely related nouns
such as sight or prospect; this has become an almost fixed expression and we would be surprised to hear it
followed by anything else. Many commonly used phrases are constructed in a very similar way, so that the
moment of should automatically triggertruth as a response. Note that common collocations often vary in
different parts of the English-speaking world.
This idea can be extended further to include not just single lexical items, but also lexical items of a
particular range or type. For example, the verb cause has a very strong tendency to co-occur with
unpleasant events like mayhem, heartbreak, damage, havoc, but not with nicer feelings. Try using notions
like happiness and goodwill after cause and see what the effect is.
One method of recording collocations is through a semantic grid. Look at the semantic grid below and put
a cross in the boxes where you feel the lexical items are compatible. A few have already been done as
examples.

ma woma vie villag fac wal scen

n n w e e k e

handsome X X

beautiful X

nice

regal

distinguished

ugly

pretty
Subjects and Objects in a Sentence
We will now look more closely at the ways in which words and phrases are grouped together and ordered
within clauses and sentences to convey a particular meaning.

The main elements of sentences

To begin this section, we will, first of all, examine the two most vital parts of the clause structure and then
move on to the other elements. Again, it will be useful to use a few examples to illustrate the grammatical
ideas.

He sneezed.
Accidents happen.
Speed kills.
Yvonne left.
Snakes crawl.
These clauses are all simple sentences consisting of only two words each. The first element in each
sentence is called the Subject, while the second is the Verb. (Notice that I am using a capital letter here to
talk about the verb as a clause element as opposed to the verb as a word class.) The Subject and the Verb
are the minimum requirements for constructing a basic English clause (with the exception of directives
like sit! and go!) and appear in that order in the vast majority of positive and negative statements. Although
single words have been used to fill the Subject and Verb slots in the examples above, much more
complicated phrases can, of course, be made:

Subject Verb

The tall, dark stranger was singing

The retail prices index has been rising

Shouting and screaming in arguments doesnt help

The newly-arrived refugees werent able to understand

Being rejected by work mates hurts

The poor grasshopper couldnt sleep

The Subject

As noted earlier, the subject of a positive or negative statement is usually the first element of a clause or
sentence. The Subjects in the following sentences are in bold and the type of Subject is given in brackets:
The tall, dark stranger was singing. (noun phrase)
She stood still.(pronoun)
To err is human. (verb)
What he told me turned out to be a lie. (subordinate clause)
By far the most commonly used types of Subject are the noun phrase and the pronoun (I is the most
frequently occurring word in the spoken language), while the verb more correctly the
verbinfinitive with to is seldom used in modern English. A subordinate clause as Subject is quite
common both in speech and writing and usually begins with what(ever), the fact that or that:
The fact that he likes skiing doesnt interest me at all.
That Jane failed her exam is a great disappointment.
Whatever I hear about him surprises me.
The way to test whether a clause is functioning as the Subject is to try replacing it with a simpler
grammatical element such as a pronoun or basic noun phrase and then checking the grammaticality of the
clause. Applying this test to the sentences above would give:

It doesnt interest me at all.

It is a great disappointment.
It surprises me.
all of which are grammatically acceptable. Notice that, although the Subject may consist of several
words, a long phrase or even a subordinate clause, there can only be one grammatical Subject per clause.

Up to this point we have been discussing only positive and negative statements where the Subject is the
first element of the clause. However, there is one very common situation where this word order is not used
namely, in questions. Here the Subject and part of the verb phrase constituting the Verb element
are inverted. From some of the examples above we get:
Was the tall, dark stranger singing?
Has the retail prices index been rising?
Doesnt shouting and screaming in arguments help?
Werent the newly-arrived refugees able to understand?
Couldnt the poor grasshopper sleep?
The Verb has a pivotal role in sentence structure. As with the Subject, the Verb can, and often does, consist
of more than one word, but is treated as a single unit expressing not only the basic meaning of the main
word (run, decide, imitate etc.), but also, among other things, the time that the action took place, whether
the action is finished or not and the certainty of the action. In the examples below, the Verb is in bold:
The cat sleeps all day.
He is talking rubbish.
We will be seeing each other next week.
The wallet might have been lost at the party.
So, although there may be up to four, possibly even five words in the verb phrase of a clause, they are
usually analysed as one Verb as an element of the clause. To demonstrate the importance of the Verb in a
clause, try omitting the verb phrases from the examples above. Having done that, now omit each of the
other elements in turn and see how the sense of the clause is affected.

The choice of the verb itself will often largely dictate what other elements may or may not be used in the
clause. Verbs like yawn, sleep and scratch would seem to require an animate Subject,
whilelaugh, talk and read usually need human Subjects (although the actions of animals are sometimes
described in the same terms). Some verbs need only a Subject to make a complete clause (he yawned, the
cat is sleeping, Barry jumped), while others appear to need some more elements *he hit, *they like,
*cars cost; we will look at these other elements in the next section.

Other elements in the clause

Apart from the two main clause elements, Subject and Verb, there are three others which may or may not
appear in the clause. These are the Object, the Complement and the Adverbial. The following sentence
contains examples of each of these:
 The agency considered Harry indispensable for most jobs.
Using the definitions from the previous section, the agency is the Subject and considered is the Verb. The
remaining elements are: Object Harry, Complement indispensable, Adverbial for most jobs. We will now
examine these in turn.

The Object

Here are some more examples of both people and things as Objects:

He loves football.
The dog bit the postman.
The police have arrested three people.
Sally opened the door to the dining room.
The company sacked one hundred of its employees.
Fifteen children from the school choir will be singing African folk songs.
As with the Subject, the Object can be anything from a single word (football) to a phrase (the door to the
dining room). You will notice that the Object in each case directly follows the Verb. This is by far the most
common position for the Object element in English, although, again, there are exceptions. English is,
therefore, usually referred to as an SVO type language, meaning that the expected and most natural order
of clause elements is Subject + Verb + Object. If you are a native speaker of English, this might seem so
obvious as not to be worth comment. However, there are many languages in the world that do not follow
this pattern; for example, Welsh and Irish are bothVSO languages, while Japanese and Turkish are SOV. It
appears that this latter type is more common than the English SVO.
The examples given so far contain what is usually called a direct object; that is, there is only one object in
the clause and this is the main focus. But how do we analyse the Objects in the following sentences?
A young boy showed her the way here.
Several friends have told me the same story.
The shop is sending my father a replacement.
You gave them no warning.
The direct object is shown in bold; but that still leaves us with an extra element immediately following the
Verb in each sentence which we have not accounted for. While the direct object is the main focus of the
verb action, the remaining elements (her, me, my father, them) seem to be the recipients of the direct
object. So, in the third
example, my father will be receiving the replacement. All of these sentences can in fact be rewritten to
illustrate this idea of recipient with very little change in meaning:
A young boy showed the way here to her.
Several friends have told the same story to me.
The shop is sending a replacement to my father.
You gave no warning to them
The preposition to indicates the target of the action of the verb. These targets, given in bold, are referred to
as indirect objects. Notice that in the second set of examples the indirect object is formed by using a
prepositional phrase with to and also follows the direct object, whereas in the first set the indirect object
precedes the direct object without to.

Complements in English Grammar

The Complement can often be confused with the Object. While the Subject and Object of a clause, in the
vast majority of cases, refer to different entities, the Complement gives more information about either the
Subject or the Object. As with the Subject and Object elements, there is only one grouping or phrase which
is considered to be the Complement of a clause.

The Subject Complement

Lets begin by looking at some pairs of sentences where this information centres on the Subject.

Bill hit Harry.

Bill is a policeman.
The camel carried the load.
The camel smells awful.
A car hit the lamp post.
A car was what she wanted for her birthday.
So, in the preceding examples the first sentence of each pair contains an Object Harry, the load, the lamp
post. These are clearly not the same entities as the Subjects of the sentences. However, the same cannot
be said for the second sentence of each pair where there is a strong connection between the Subjects and
the phrases a policeman, awful and what she wanted for her birthday. These phrases act to identify the
Subject more precisely. These are known as Complements; more specifically they are subject complements
because they define the Subjects of the clauses, in this case Bill, the camel and a car.

In most sentences where the Complement defines the Subject, you will find a particular type of verb being
used. The most usual is the verb be and its forms (e.g. am, are, was, have been) followed by a noun phrase
or an adjective phrase, often as a single word. In the instances above, a policeman is a noun phrase and
awful is an adjective phrase. Other examples are:

Noun phrase as Subject Complement:

Love is a drug.
This is her pen.
He is the father of three.
Time is the great healer.
Those animals were very rare Siberian tigers.
The Earth is 150 million kilometres from the Sun.
Adjective phrase as Subject Complement:

The weather is hot.

All the passengers were Russian.
The little cottage was nice and cosy.
Her teeth were pearly white.
The argument became more heated.
The weather gradually got hotter and hotter.
In all of these cases, the phrases after is, was and were define the Subject. You should notice that, although
two of the Complements in the first set of examples contain adjectives (great, very rare Siberian), these are
still treated as noun phrases because the main words in the groups are themselves nouns (healer, tigers).

Earlier I commented that a particular type of verb is often used in clauses with a subject Complement and
that verb is usually be. However, there is a small number of other verbs either closely connected with be or
to do with sensing that frequently occur in this type of clause. A short list with examples might include:

Be type: seem, appear, become, turn out, grow, remain

The sky seems clearer today.

He turned out to be a bad influence.
His client became more and more angry.
Sense type: look, sound, feel, taste, smell (all followed by like with a noun)

Her voice sounds lovely.

That sounds like heaven.
The tea tastes foul.
There is still one type of subject Complement that we havent looked at yet this is the subordinate clause.
The example from the original sentences is:

A car was what she wanted for her birthday.

Here a car is the Subject, the Verb is was and the Complement defining the Subject is what she wanted for
her birthday, which is a clause since it has its own Subject (she) and Verb (wanted). Other examples of
clauses used as subject Complements are:

Justice is what were looking for.

The first thing I did was open all the windows.
The remaining problem is where to find the money.
Our only option is to run away.

The Object Complement

In all the instances in the previous section the Complement gave additional information about the Subject
of the clause. Additional information can similarly be given about the Object. Look at the examples below:

Everyone thought him an idiot.

The accusation made me livid.
The whole town wanted the outlaw dead.
The board has made him manager.
I find it difficult to believe.
Here, the phrases in bold are giving extra information about the Objects of the clauses which are him, me,
the outlaw, him, it. The object Complement usually follows the Object of the clause as in all the examples
above and the choice of verb is not so restricted as it is with the subject Complement clauses.

ADVERBIALS IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR

Normally there can be only one Subject, one Verb, one Object and one Complement per clause. This is not
the case with Adverbials, however, which can occur an indefinite number of times in one clause. The
Adverbials in the sentence below are shown in bold:

Fred had climbed /with some difficulty/ /into the train/ /on Friday night/.
This sentence could, in theory, be extended indefinitely simply by adding adverbials, but more than five per
clause would perhaps be unusual. Adverbials serve a wide range of functions since they can give us
information about notions such as place, movement, result, time, attitude, reason and so forth.

Adverbials more often than not consist of two or more words in a phrase as in the example above, while
the term adverb is reserved for single words like then, now, yesterday, here, warmly, easily etc. To illustrate
the breadth of the uses of Adverbials and adverbs further, look at the passage from Under the Volcano
below the Adverbials and adverbs are in bold and separated from each other by slashes:

The Consul sat /helplessly/ /in the bathroom/, /watching/ the insects which lay /at different angles from
one another/ /on the wall/, /like ships/ /out in the roadstead/. A caterpillar started to wriggle /towards him/,
/peering/ /this way and that/ /with interrogatory antennae/. A large cricket, with polished fuselage, clung
/to the curtain/, /swaying/ it /slightly/ and cleaning its face /like a cat/.

As you can see, Adverbials crop up everywhere, although they may not be quite so common in everyday
speech. Many of the Adverbials in the extract above tell how something was done (helplessly, peering, like
a cat), or where (in the bathroom, on the wall, to the curtain); there is also one of movement, towards him.
Other Adverbials can answer questions like why, when, how much, to what extent, about what, with what
result as well as allowing the speaker/writer to give his/her opinion of or attitude towards something e.g.
fortunately, sadly, frankly, thankfully, even more important and so on.

VERBS IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR

In the previous sections we noted that the verb is central to the English clause and that it is a word which
describes an action of some sort. But there are also other types of verbs. Would you, for example,
categorise become, smell, resemble and possess as action verbs? Clearly we need a more accurate and
extended definition of a verb so that we can identify this word class with more precision. One common
classification of the main types of verb is given below with examples:
Activity: play, speak, run, telephone, bathe, organise, read, raise, look at, listen to, refuse, scratch. The
vast majority of verbs are included in this class and are what we normally understand an action
word to be.
Process: ripen, change, strengthen, grow, deteriorate, become, die, go, come, fall. This class of verbs is
used to indicate a change from one state to another.
Sensation: hurt, ache, sting, smart, itch. This is a small class of verbs that are used to refer to bodily
sensations.
Momentary: knock, beat, tap, nod, hop, jump. These verbs, although closely related to the first
category, have a shorter duration of action.
 Cognition: know, remember, perceive, prefer, want, forget, understand. These verbs have less to do
with an overt action since they involve mental or cognitive processes.
Perception: see, smell, feel, taste, hear. This small class of verbs is closely linked with verbs of
cognition, but centre on the senses rather than cerebral activity.
Relational: be, consist of, own, have, seem, resemble, appear, sound, look (good), belong to . This
category of verbs is used to connect two closely related concepts, usually either through
equivalence or possession.
These seven categories cover, by and large, the main verb types in English and also constitute the sub-
classes of a broader grammatical division of verbs into dynamic verbs and stative verbs. In the list above,
categories 1 to 4 consist of dynamic verbs, while 5 to 7 contain stative verbs. Lets look at a few examples
to illustrate what is meant by the dynamic/stative contrast. Study the following pairs of sentences:
1. I stay with friends every year.
2. I am staying with friends at the moment.
3. He eats sandwiches for lunch.
4. He is eating a sandwich.
5. We listen to Radio 1 in the morning.
6. We are listening to Radio 1.
All of the sentences contain dynamic verbs taken from category 1 in the list above. The oddnumbered
sentences are all examples of the Present Simple tense which, in these cases, indicates an activity that
occurs with regular frequency, namely every year, every lunchtime, and every morning. The even numbered
sentences, however, limit the time of the activity to the moment of speaking and are therefore temporary
in nature. The verbs are, therefore in the Present Continuous tense. Dynamic verbs, then, can be found in
both simple and continuous tenses.
Now look at the following pairs of sentences which contain stative verbs taken from categories 5 to 7:
I want to go home.
*I am wanting to go home.
We all love chocolate.
*We are all loving chocolate.
This bag belongs to me.
*This bag is belonging to me.
The first sentence of each pair, with the Present Simple tense is grammatically acceptable, but the second
sentence of each pair is not. As a general rule, then, stative verbs are not found with the continuous
tenses, but there are specific times when most of the stative verbs can be used with a continuous tense.
However, these situations are limited to specific uses or entail a change in the basic meaning of the verb,
for example: I think youre right and Im thinking of you. In the first example I am giving you my opinion and
so the verb refers to cognition, whereas in the second, the thinking is much more akin to an activity. You
will probably find that this kind of distinction can be made for most of those stative verbs that can be used
with both simple and continuous tenses.
How is the verb incorporated into larger grammatical structures, and how is its meaning and function
extended?

The Verb Phrase

The following sentences help to illustrate the possible range of structures in the English verb phrase (in
bold).

I play the piano.

The family left early.
He is talking rubbish.
Sarah can sing opera.
 We used to have kippers for breakfast.
I have been painting the lounge.
We might be seeing each other next week.
You should have been watching the baby.
The wallet might have been lost at the party.
The report must have been being prepared by the boss.
From these examples we can see that there may be up to four, possibly even five, separate words in the
verb phrase of a clause and they all have a particular part to play in the overall meaning.

So, what are the individual elements of the verb phrase and how does each of them contribute to the
meaning? Lets first analyse some of the sentences above as an illustration:

Modal Primary
Subject Main verb Object
auxiliary verb auxiliary verb(s)

I play the piano.

He is talking rubbish.

Sarah can sing opera.

I have been painting the house.

You should have been watching the baby.

You will notice that the various parts of the verb phrase have been divided into two main
categories:auxiliary verbs and main verb. The former has been further sub-divided into modal
auxiliary andprimary auxiliary.
You may also have noticed that there are a number of different possible configurations of these elements;
e.g. main verb only, modal auxiliary plus main verb, one primary auxiliary plus main verb, two primary
auxiliaries plus main verb and so on. However, the only indispensable element of the verb phrase is the
main verb, because it is here that the basic, unchanging meaning of the verb phrase lies.

MAIN VERBS

Look at the main verbs in the following sentences:

They always wait for the 6 oclock train.

Every day the dog waits for the postman.
I am waiting for a friend.
We waited for three hours.
Notice that there are only four possible forms of the lexical verb wait:
The base form, wait, which is the word you would look up in a dictionary. This is sometimes also
called the bare infinitive (the infinitive of an English verb is usually given as to + V e.g.to wait).
The V+s form waits. This is restricted in use to just the third person singular (he, she, orit) of
the Present Simple tense as in the example the dog (it) waits and in he likes and she looks.
 The V+ing form waiting. This is also known as the present participle and has a wider range of
uses than form 2. In the Verb phrase it is invariably preceded by a form of the
verbbe (e.g. am, is, were, been).
The V+ed form waited. This form has, in fact, not one use, but two depending on how and where it
is used. The first denotes the Past Simple tense as in the example, while the second is used in the
formation of the Perfect tenses (see part 2) and the passive voice(see part 3). In the second use it
is also called the past participle.
English, then, relies on just four forms of the verb. If we know the base form of a verb (which we can find in
the dictionary), we are able to predict the other three forms provided that the verb we are looking for
is regular; that is, it obeys the normal rules for verb formation in English.
These changes to the endings of words are called inflections. There are some languages which have very
few or no obvious verbal inflections (e.g. Chinese, Indonesian), while some can boast a bewildering number
(e.g. Russian, Turkish, German, Finnish, Latin). Other languages have fewer verbal inflections than, say,
Russian, but more than English (e.g. French).
There are, however, a fair number of what are known as irregular verbs in English and you may come
across charts of these which show their various deviations from the regular verb changes. Unfortunately
for students of English many of these verbs are very common and the forms need to be learned by rote if
accuracy in the language is to be achieved. A selection of irregular verbs is given in the table below.

base verb (infinitive) past tense form past participle

tread trod trodden

come came come

take took taken

write wrote written

hit hit hit

swell swelled swollen

read read read

put put put

forget forgot forgotten

understand understood understood

bite bit bitten

Note: in American English dive is an irregular verb (dive, dove, dove), but regular in British English, and the
older past participle of get (gotten) is still retained in American English.

AUXIALIARY VERBS

Besides acting as the main verb of a sentence, verbs are also helpful in a number of other ways, which are
not so obvious. There are also auxiliary or helping verbs that are used in a variety of ways. The main
auxiliary verbs are be, have and do.
They are used with main verbs to make specific tenses:

He is coming. present continuous

She wasnt driving. past continuous
We havent seen an eclipse before. present perfect
She had dropped her keys. past perfect

The verb be + a past participle is also used to make passive forms:

The road is mended once a year.

The engines are made in Germany.
The votes are being counted in the hall.
The whales had been driven onto the shore.

The auxiliary verbs are used to make questions:

Do you want a drink?

Dont you like opera?
Have you finished the work yet?
Which train do you think youll catch?

Auxiliary verbs are used to make exclamations:

Wasnt she awful!

Havent you grown!
Didnt they do well!
Isnt it freezing!

To make questions tags:

Were very happy, arent we?

Its cold, isnt it?
You dont like fish, do you?
You havent had a happy childhood, have you?
Note that the verb to be is the most common verb in English and it is the only one that can operate as both
a main verb and an auxiliary verb. It doesnt need any additional help to make questions or negatives.
I am very happy.
Am I very happy?
Im not very happy.
Compare this with the verbs do and have which need additional help to make questions and negatives.
I have a very large nose. I dont have a very large nose.
I do my piano practice at 6 oclock. I dont do my piano practice.

Whats a modal auxiliary verb?

They are also helping verbs because they are used to express a range of meanings, such as certainty,
probability, possibility, suggestion, permission, instructions, requests, obligations, necessity, ability and so
on. The main modal auxiliary verbs are:

can, could, may, might

shall, should, will, would
 must, ought, to
also need to be able to, have (got) to

The main types of use of modal auxiliary verbs

certainty / probability (must, will, ought to, cant, should)

He must be feeling very unhappy at the moment.
She ought to forget him, and move on.
possibility (may, might, could, can)
She might arrive on the 5 oclock train.
They may come on Sunday, but Im not sure.
suggestion (may, could, shall, might)
Shall we start again?
You may want to read over your essay again.
permission (may, can, could)
Can I connect this wire now?
You may begin the examination.
instructions and requests (would, will, can, could)
Can you explain that in words of one syllable?
Could you close the door, please?
obligations / necessity (must, have to, have got to)
I must send my mother a card on her birthday.
Ive got to re-write this essay.
ability (can, could, be able to)
I couldnt stop laughing!
He wont be able to shift that stone.

VERB TENSES

In this part we will be looking at the various verb forms that we use to talk about present, past and future
time these verb forms are called tenses. We will also be looking at the meanings of these tenses and the
differences between them.
The tenses can be used to refer to more than one time; so, for example, we use the Present Continuous
tense to talk about actions that are happening at the time of speaking (e.g. Its still raining) and are,
therefore, unfinished However, we can also use the same tense to refer to future plans (e.g. Im quitting my
job in a months time).
In the sections that follow, the forms of the tenses are introduced, beginning with the present, and then
their various meanings are discussed. You should bear in mind that the meanings given in the following
sections are not exhaustive and are, in many cases, only a guide to the senses that can be conveyed. You
should also be aware that there are often exceptions to the general rules that are presented below.

The tenses covered in next few pages of these notes include:

Talking about the present:

Present simple
 Present continuous
Present perfect simple
Present perfect continuous
Talking about the past:

Past simple
Past continuous
Past perfect simple
Past perfect continuous
Talking about the future:

Using will
Using going to
Using present continuous for future events
Using present simple for future events
Future continuous
Future perfect simple
Future perfect continuous

These notes cover the following tenses in English grammar:

Present simple
Present continuous
Present perfect simple
Present perfect continuous

Present Simple

Form

The construction of this tense is shown in the table below.

Present Simple

you
look

we do not look (dont look)

they
he looks

does not look (doesnt look)

 she

it

Meanings

In general terms, the Present Simple is used to describe permanent and repeated events or actions. So,
facts, habits and routines are often expressed using this tense.

Fact: Lions live in Africa .

Habit: My brother bites his nails.
Routine: I go to work at 8:00 every day.
With routines we often add adverbs of frequency like always, often, now and again, every week, every
year and so forth.
Other meanings

We can find a common use of the Present Simple to talk about temporary, unfinished actions in sports
commentaries where the speaker, in the heat of a game, will often say things like:

Agassi serves deep and Ferrero returns across court and moves quickly to the net. Agassis backhand goes down
the line
In a similar vein, we often fall back on this tense to create a sense of immediacy when we are describing
past actions or telling jokes and anecdotes this is usually only found in informal speech:

Anyway, this guy comes up to me last Saturday and says I know you from somewhere, dont I? and I reply I
dont think so and he looks surprised.
Note also that we can use will to refer to regularly repeated actions
Every evening my father will finish his dinner and then go off to the lounge where hell sit in front of the TV for
hours watching anything that comes on.

Present Continuous

Form

This tense is made by using the present tense forms of the verb be, which needs to change according to
the subject of the sentence, and the present participle (verb + ing). This tense is sometimes called
the Present Progressive by some grammars and course books.

Present Continuous

am (m) looking
I
am not (m not)
you
are (re)
we
are not (arent)
they
he is (s)

is not (isnt)
 she

it

Meanings

1. We use this tense mainly to refer to temporary events and actions which have begun but are not
yet completed.
Hes washing the dishes at the moment.
Im doing my homework.
2. We can also refer to intermittent actions that happen occasionally.
Shes having lunch at work this week.
Im catching the late train tonight.
3. We can use the Present Continuous with a small number of verbs which describe changes and
developments (for example grow, expand, increase, become, decline) to describe on-going events
such as in a sentence like this:
The world temperature is increasing. His standard of living is declining.
4. Although we normally prefer the Present Simple tense to refer to habits and routines, there are
times when we can use the Present Continuous especially if we want to show irritation with a
repeated action. This is nearly always found with particular time expressions such as,constantly,
forever, always and continually.
Hes always turning up late!
Youre forever complaining about something!
5. There are many occasions when native speakers resort to using the Present Continuous tense to
show the temporariness of a feeling.
Hes feeling unwell.
Youre just being silly!
Are you meaning to stay until after midnight?
Shes thinking what to do.

Present Perfect Simple

Form

We form the Present Perfect Simple with has or have (again depending on the subject of the sentence) and
the past participle of the main verb (e.g. walked, gone, lived, known). Most past participles end in ed, but
there are some irregular verbs, two of which are included in the examples above.

Present Perfect Simple

you
have (ve)

we have not (havent)

looked
they
he
has (s)
she
has not (hasnt)
it
Meanings

We use this tense when we want to refer to an action or event that began in the past and has duration up
to and including the present time. In these cases we often indicate how long the action has lasted by
using for or since with a time expression. We use for with a length of time, whereas we use since with a
point of time. For example:
Weve lived in London for seventeen years.
Ive eaten in that restaurant since I arrived here.
In both instances the action began at a time in the past and is still true at the time of speaking. However,
we need to compare these uses of the Present Perfect Simple with the Present Perfect Continuous which
we will look at next.

Present Perfect Continuous

Form

As with any continuous tense we need the verb be and the present participle. Only this time, because we
are dealing with a Perfect tense we also need the verb have somewhere in the equation. So, the order of
these elements is: has/have + been + present participle.

Present Perfect Continuous

You
have been (ve been)

we have not been (havent been)

looking
they
he
has been (s been)
she
has not been (hasnt been)
it

Meanings

When we are referring to the present time, the Present Perfect Continuous is used to talk about actions
that started in the past and are continuing up to the time of speaking and often need a time phrase with
either for or since.

Weve been seeing each other for a few months now.

My mothers been going to yoga since she was 25.
We tend to prefer the Present Perfect Continuous in contrast to the Present Perfect if the action is not
short-term or if it is repeated frequently.

Weve been living in London for seventeen years.

Ive been eating in that restaurant since I arrived here.
In the first example I want to stress the length of my stay in London and the fact that I do not see it as a
short-term activity; it is, therefore, likely to continue for some time into the future. In the second example I
am trying to emphasise the repetition of the activity.

PAST TENSE GROUP

These notes cover the following tenses in English grammar:

Past simple
Present Perfect Tenses
Past Continuous
Past Perfect Simple

Past Simple

Form
The regular form is verb +ed although of course there are many irregular verbs in English; for
example, think/thought; come/came; drive/drove; spin/spun; write/wrote.
We need to introduce the auxiliary verb did into Past Simple negative sentences and questions, sohe
arrived becomes he did not arrive and did he arrive?

Past Simple

I looked

you

we

they did not (didnt)

look
he

she

it
There is one exception to this the verb be. The following chart shows the positive and negative forms of
this verb in the past. Unlike all other Past Simple verbs, questions are made simply by inverting the subject
and the was/were, e.g. she was late becomes was she late?

Past Simple of be

he
was

she was not (wasnt)

it
 you
were
we
were not (werent)
they
Meanings
The Past Simple is one of the tenses that we use to talk about events, states or actions that have been
completed at some point in the past. To emphasise this completion at a time before the present we often
add expressions such as in 1980, in the last century, many years ago, yesterday, when I was younger, but these
expressions are not of course obligatory.
The Past Simple is also preferred when we want to give more precise detail concerning an event. This is
something that we often hear in news broadcasts where the speaker begins by using the Present Perfect to
indicate that the event happened very recently and then switch to the Past Simple to give a more detailed
account of the event. For example:

The north coast of France has been swept by violent storms. Trees were uprooted, houses were damaged and
cars were blown off the roads. There was, however, no loss of life.
This demonstrates quite clearly the main use of the Past Simple as a tense of narration which is used to
move a story forward and to pinpoint its main events and action. The other past tenses are normally
reserved for setting the scene or giving background information against which the Past Simple highlights
the more important elements of the narrative. Heres an example which should illustrate the point:

Id been out shopping all day and it had just started snowing quite heavily when I decided to head back home. By
the time Id got to the car it was snowing even faster. I got in and set off along the High Street. I was driving really
carefully, but suddenly some idiot pulled out in front of me. I braked hard. But there was no way I couldve
missed him. I ran straight into the side of his car. The guy jumped out and started shouting at me.
The Past Perfect tenses and Past Continuous are used merely as a backdrop to the more exciting action
which is in the Past Simple. However, you need to note that this tense is not only used for single,
momentary actions like those in the story above. It is also used to describe events that occurred over
longer periods of time and actions which were repeated over an extended period, but are now ended. So,

During the 1930s he made several attempts to climb Everest. (repeated)

Our family lived in this house for over 30 years. (extended period)
Thats the boy that hit me! (single action, but compare with)
The old man hit the horse until it collapsed (clearly repeated action)
As we move on to the next past tense, you will need to keep in mind the fact that the Past Simple refers
only to actions, states and events that were wholly completed at some time in the past. This is important as
we will be examining the differences between this tense and the Present Perfect tenses in the next section.

Present Perfect Tenses

We have already met the Present Perfect Simple and Present Perfect Continuous during our discussion of
the tenses that we can use to talk about the present. We noted that these tenses are used to refer to
actions which began in the past and are still true now and that time expressions withfor and since often
accompany them.
I have lived here for 25 years.
I have been working in this factory since I was a boy.
Meanings
Lets begin with the Present Perfect Simple. When referring to the past, we use this tense to talk about
completed events, actions and states in the past which occurred during a time period which is not yet
finished. Often we use time expressions to indicate the time period we are interested in has not yet
finished. This sounds rather complicated so lets look at a couple of examples.

Ive had four cups of coffee today.

Annes been off work three times this year already.
Ive read two books this week.
In each example the implication is that today, this year and this week have not yet finished and that there is
still time for these events to happen again. Sometimes there is no time expression, but it is implied:
Ive never been to Australia. (the listener will understand that the speakers life is the implied time
period)
Note the difference between these two sentences.
I have never met my uncle (Present Perfect)
I never met my uncle (Past Simple)
Both sentences indicate that a meeting between my uncle and myself has not happened at any time in the
past. However, because the Present Perfect refers to an unfinished time period, most native speakers of
English would say that there is still a possibility for me to meet my uncle. In contrast to this, the second
sentence indicates that, for example, a meeting is now out of the question because my uncle died before I
had a chance to meet him.

You will find grammar books and English teaching course books that give short lists of words and
expressions that are used with one tense or the other, but these should really only be treated as rule-of-
thumb approximations since you may find that these rules are often broken by native speakers of English.

Both the Present Perfect Simple and Present Perfect Continuous are used to refer to completed events, but
there are often subtle differences that we need to be aware of:

Ive painted the lounge.

Ive been painting the lounge.
We understand that the actions in both of the sentences have stopped, but in the first example we know
that the painting itself has finished, whereas in the second, the lounge may not yet be ready. So a major
difference here is that the continuous form may be used to show that an action has recently stopped but
may not yet be completed. Also, the action usually took place over an extended period of time.

Both tenses can also be used to denote actions which happened repeatedly, but we would have a
preference for the continuous form in this case, e.g.

Ive tried to get in touch with you.

Ive been trying to get in touch with you.
The use of the second sentence would seem to indicate that the speaker has tried on many separate
occasions to get in touch, while the first may or may not show this.

Past Continuous

Form
Perhaps unsurprisingly the form of the Past Continuous closely resembles the Present Continuous except
that the verb be (am, is, are depending on the subject) is used in its past tense form. So, in place
of am and is we use was and instead of are we use were. The main verb is still the present participle
ing form. The full tense looks like this:
 Past Continuous (Progressive)

he
was

she was not (wasnt)

looking
it
you
were
we
were not (werent)
they
Meanings
The Past Continuous is used to describe an action that was happening before a particular point in the past
and was still in progress at that point. The action may or may not have continued after that point.

He was still talking at 4:00. (He very probably continued talking past that time).
I was walking down the street when I saw an old friend from school. (It is not clear at this point whether
I stopped to talk to my friend or whether I carried on without stopping).
The second sentence is an example of this tenses most common use. As we saw above in the discussion
on the Past Simple, the Past Continuous is often used to set the scene or background to a narrative and
the Past Simple action then interrupts this situation. We can also use this tense with time expressions such
as the whole, every day, all day, every minute of to describe events that extend over long periods of time.
We were walking the whole day yesterday.

used to / would

Form
The forms for both of these auxiliaries are used to talk about the past. They are quite straightforward since
neither of them changes for the subject and both are followed by the simple verb form, as you can see in
the chart.

used to/would

I used to look

you did not use to (didnt use to)

he would

she

it
 we

they
Meanings
Both of these can be used as alternatives to the usual past tense to describe habits and to denote actions
which took place over a period of time (not usually given in the same sentence) and which have since
ceased to happen.

I used to smoke 40 cigarettes a day.

We would jump into the car and head for the sea.
As you can see from the examples, both indicate repeated action over an extended period and also
distance from the time of speaking. It would be odd to continue using these forms throughout the rest of
the narrative so speakers will often switch back and forth between used to, would and the Past Simple.
While both used to and would can be used to describe repeated actions in the past, only used tocan be used
for past states which occurred over a long stretch of time. For example, try replacingused to in the following
sentences and see how you feel about the results.
I used to be lonely when I first moved here.
The whole family used to belong to the local tennis club.
I used to know the roads around here really well.
You should have rejected the sentences with would as not being acceptable English. However, look at the
next set of sentences which contain stative verbs and decide how you feel.
He wouldnt realise what had happened until someone pointed it out to him.
I would often feel guilty about not taking the dog for a walk.
She would be angry whenever I didnt finish my homework.
In these examples the states did not occur over a long period of time, but were rather temporary, single
actions repeated at various times in the past. In each case used to can, of course, be substituted.

was going to / were going to

Form
This tense is formed by using was or were (depending on the subject) plus going to followed by the simple
verb.

was/were going to

he
was going to

she was not (wasnt) going to

look
it
you
were going to
we
were not (werent) going to
they
Meanings
We use this tense to describe a past intention that never actually occurred. We often find this form when
someone is trying to give an excuse for not having done something that was expected of them or when
someone feels that they have let another person down. The clause containing was/were going to is
frequently followed immediately by but.
We were going to come last week, but the weather was so awful.
She was going to bring her new boyfriend along (but is understood)
My parents were going to go on holiday this year, but they didnt have enough money.

Past Perfect Simple

Form
The Past Perfect Simple is made by adding the past participle (usually the verb form ending in ed, but
there are irregular verbs) to had, which does not change according its subject.

Past Perfect Simple

you

he

had
she looked
had not (hadnt)
it

we

they
Meanings
The Past Perfect can only be used to refer to something that happened and finished before another point
in the past. You will never see this tense alongside any tense that refers to the present time. More often
than not, this tense will be used in a clause that is connected to another clause containing the Past Simple
the words that connect these clauses are called conjunctions; some examples are: because, that, when, as
soon as, so, after, before and so forth.

FUTURE TENSE GROUP

Talking about the future English

Future Tenses
Expressing the future time in English is particularly fraught with problems not only because there are so
many different forms to choose from, but also because the distinction between them is not always clear.

Will

Form
There should be no problem in making this particular form of the future tense since will does not change
with the subject and the main verb is the form that you would find in a dictionary and so does not change
either.

will

you

he

will (ll)
she look
will not (wont)
it

we

they
Meanings
This is the form that most people immediately associate with the future tense, but it is in fact restricted in
its use. It has two main functions.

the first is to talk about unplanned or spontaneous future events;

the second is for predictions that are not based on current evidence.
Some examples should help to clarify the different meanings:

(The telephone rings) Ill get it.

Ill make us a cup of coffee.
In these two cases the speaker is deciding what to do on the spur of the moment without prior
consideration. You may have noticed that they act as offers. This is also true of promises or threats like:

Ill give you the money back next week.

Ill kill you!
For predictions, we may hear or read sentences like:
I think itll rain tomorrow.
Theres no way that we will lose the game.
You will meet a tall, dark, handsome stranger.

Going to

Form
This is an unusual compound form since it is made up of the Present Continuous tense of the
verbgo with to + the main verb, so it is easy to confuse this with a normal Present Continuous.

am/is/are going to

I am (m) going to look

 am not (m not) going to
you
are (re) going to
we
are not (arent) going to
they
he
is (s) going to
she
is not (isnt) going to
it
MeaningsForm
There are two main functions of this tense; the first is to refer to premeditated intentions. Examples of this
are:

Im going to take a few days off.

Were going to visit my parents at the weekend.
The meaning that the speakers want to get across here is that I/we hope that these events will take place,
but they are always subject to change if needs be or if some unforeseen obstacle arises. There is a sense of
an arrangement, but it has a rather indefinite feel to it.
The second use of this form is for talking about predictions based on present or past evidence. You may
remember we said that will is used for referring to predictions that are not reliant on current evidence
going to, on the other hand, is used for those predictions where we can rely on present evidence or past
experience. For example:
Look at those clouds its going to rain.
Have you heard that Jennys going to have a baby?
Getting up at 4:00 in the morning is going to be a problem.
In the first sentence there is clear, visible evidence that my prediction is likely to come true. It would be, at
best, unusual to use any other of the future forms in this situation and, at worst, incorrect. The prediction
in the second example is based on information that I have heard directly from Jenny herself or from
someone who already had the information. The final sense seems to be based on my past experience of
getting up early in the morning.

Present Continuous

Form
We have already met the Present Continuous when talking about present, temporary events and actions,
so, it is perhaps rather surprising to find that it can also be used to refer to events that have not even
started yet. In fact, this is a very important use of this tense.
Meanings
While the going to future form is often used to discuss intentions (possibly prearranged), the Present
Continuous is used more for referring to solid arrangements and plans. For example, we are more likely to
prefer this form when we have made a booking at a restaurant or theatre or have bought tickets for a
train/plane journey. This tense is often accompanied by a time adverbial such as next month, in July etc.
Next holiday were staying in a five-star hotel. (the reservation has been made)
Theyre all taking the day off on the 7th.
Im spending Christmas in the Bahamas.
Present Simple

Form
Just as the use of the Present Continuous to refer to future time may have been surprising, the Present
Simple may, at first sight at least, seem the most unlikely candidate for talking about future events. The
form is as before:

Meanings
The foremost use of this tense form to indicate future time is almost certainly after time conjunctions such
as after, before, when, if, until, as soon as and so on. A few examples should demonstrate this:
Shell get in touch as soon as she has the information.
If I see Michael, Ill give him the message.
When you finish the report, put it on my desk.
Perhaps not quite so obvious is its use in referring to programmes, timetables, itineraries and public
events that we have no direct control over.

Im spending Christmas in the Bahamas. The plane leaves on the 20th.

When does the film start?
Often precise times are given.

Future Continuous

Form
There are two more commonly used tenses with more complex forms that are used to refer to the future,
the first consisting of will + be + the present participle and the second consisting of be going to + be + the
present participle. The full forms are given in the following tables:

Future Continuous (Progressive) with will

you

he

will (ll) be
she looking
will not (wont) be
it

we

they

Future Continuous (Progressive) with be going to

am (m) going to be looking

I
am not (m not) going to be
you are (re) going to be
 we
are not (arent) going to be
they
he
is (s) going to be
she
is not (isnt) going to be
it
Meanings
There are two basic functions for these two forms and the difference in meaning between them is, for our
purposes, negligible. Firstly, we use the Future Continuous to talk about predicted or planned events that
start at some unspecified time in the future and are still occurring at a given time in the future. In this
sense it is often used with time adverbials beginning this time next or a precisely specified time. Since this
sounds rather complicated it may be better to illustrate this with a diagram and a couple of examples.
This time next week Ill be lying on a beach in Hawaii.
Another example of this is:

Well be watching the TV at 9:00. (It is not known when we will start, but at 9:00 we will be in front of
the TV and we will probably continue to watch after 9:00.)
In their second sense, we can avoid any hint of intention, planning, prediction, willingness or unwillingness
by using these two tenses. The impression is that this is how the future will unfold in spite of everything
else, so it can be used to show that we are not being put out or putting others out or to check on
someones plans before asking a potentially embarrassing favour. For instance:

Would you like a lift? Im going to be heading in that direction anyway.

Will you be dropping by later? (e.g. As a prelude to asking the listener to bring something from the
supermarket on the way.)

Future Perfect Simple

Form
The following two tenses are not used as often as the others that we have looked at, but they still need to
be explained as they are likely to arise in the teaching classroom if only at the more advanced levels. They
are both complex verb forms; the Future Perfect Simple is made with will +have + the past participle.

Future Perfect Simple

I will (ll ) have (llve) looked

you wont have

he wontve

she

it
 we

they
Meaning
We use this tense to look at events or actions from a point in the future after we expect the event or action
to have already finished. It is often accompanied by a time phrase beginning with either byor before. Again,
a diagram is perhaps the best way to demonstrate this tense.
I will have passed my driving test by the end of the year.

Future Perfect Continuous

Form
The Future Perfect Continuous is formed with will + have + been + the present participle.

Future Perfect Continuous

I will have been

you ll have been

he llve been

she will not have been looking

it will notve been

we wont have been

they wontve been

Meaning
Rather like the Future Perfect Simple, this tense is used to view future events that have already happened
from a more distant point in the future The main difference between the two being that by using the
Future Perfect Continuous, we are emphasising the duration of the event. One example of this tense might
be:

My family will have been living abroad for 5 years this September.

Modal auxiliary verbs

Modals auxiliary verbs are a very complex area of English grammar, so in this quick guide we will not be
able to go into much detail, but we will at least get an overall idea of what their function is in a sentence. In
an earlier section of this guide we looked at how the verb phrase can be broken down into its constituent
parts and we noted that one of these parts was called a modal auxiliary verb. Just to remind you of the
previous examples, a section of the chart has been reproduced below:
 Modal Primary
Subject Main verb Object
auxiliary verb auxiliary verb(s)

Sarah can sing opera

You should have been watching the baby

Examples of modal auxiliary verbs

Before we look at some of the possible meanings of modal auxiliary verbs we need to have some idea of
what constitutes a modal in English and where they occur in a sentence. A few more examples should
enable us to answer the second of these points fairly quickly and easily the modals are in bold:

He should be here by now.

I could swim quite well when I was younger.
You mustnt blame yourself for this.
You might have discussed it with me first.
You cant be serious!
Could you open the window please?
Must you make so much noise?
She had to take her brother along with her.
We ought to be going.
It should be clear from these examples that the modal verb occupies the first position in verb phrase,
coming before any other auxiliary verb (like have or be) and the main lexical verb.
In questions the modal verb is simply inverted with the subject of the sentence as in examples 6 and 7 and
it also carries the negative particle not (3rd and 5th examples).
The subject of the sentence has no effect on the form of the modal since almost in all cases they do not
change at all.

So, a modal verb is quite simple as far as its form and position in various types of sentence are concerned;
but what exactly are the modal verbs in English? The chart below lists the main modal auxiliaries that you
are likely to meet and divides them into two categories pure modals and semi-modals, although in most
cases the distinction is merely formal and their meanings are not affected by this division.

Pure modals Semi-modals

can ought to

could has/have (got) to

may be able to

might

shall

should
 will

would

need ***

*** need is a special verb since as an auxiliary it is almost always negative and it is also a lexical verb as in
sentences like he needs to speak to you now, while it acts as a modal verb in sentences such as you neednt
come to work tomorrow where it has the same meaning as dont have to.

The forms of pure modals

The main characteristics of the pure modals are:

they never change their form irrespective of the subject of the sentence
e.g. he can swim, not *he cans swim
following on from the above feature, they do not change to show past tense
e.g. she had to leave not *she musted leave
they all carry the negative of the sentence by the addition of not/nt
e.g. I cant remember not *I dont can remember
they all form questions by inversion with the subject of the sentence.
e.g. should I stay?
they are all followed by the base form of the verb without the addition of to
e.g. he can swim not *he can to swim

The forms of semi-modals

You will notice that this type of modal is made up of two or more separate words, the last one invariably
being to. They are all modal in meaning but not in form as they behave differently in a sentence from the
pure modals. It is perhaps best to think of the semi-modals in the form with the toinfinitive that is given in
the table rather than thinking of them as modals that need to + base form. We need to look at the form of
each individual semi-modal separately.

Be able to

We use this semi-modal to express possibility or the ability to do something, but unlike the pure
modals, be able to has a full range of tenses and also needs to inflect to show agreement with its subject.
For example:
He is able to offer you the best price possible.
We were able to get in to see the film.
They havent been able to find the missing document.
So, you arent able to help.
Notice that the negative is carried either by the be element or the auxiliary verb that is closest to the
subject of the sentence. It can also be accompanied by any of the pure modals:
I will be able to see you after lunch.
They might not be able to put us up for the night.

Has/have (got) to

This is used to express necessity or obligation to do something and shares some of the features of be able
to discussed above. The have element of the form has to change to agree with its subject. Although it is
normally used in the present tense, it also has its own past (had to) and can be used with pure modals to
show the future or the attitude of the speaker:
They have to be more punctual.
He has to take responsibility for the accident.
I had to help my father repair his car.
We will have to put this off until tomorrow.
You shouldnt have to suffer in silence.
You dont have to come if you dont want to.
He didnt have to do all the shopping.
From these few examples it should be clear that the negative not again attaches itself to the auxiliary verb
(modal or main) that comes immediately after the subject of the sentence.

Ought to

It is usually claimed that the meaning of ought to is the same as should whether it refers to giving advice or
making a logical deduction. So, to most native speakers the following sentences withought
to and should feel the same:
You ought to see a doctor.
You should see a doctor.
They ought to have got back home by now.
They should have got back home by now.
In practice, most speakers tend to prefer should for negatives and questions because the ought
toand oughtnt to forms can sound rather clumsy and awkward.
Ought you to be doing that?
They oughtnt to (ought not to) do that.
Oughtnt we to leave now?

Meanings of modal verbs

The main function of modal verbs is to allow the speaker or writer to express their opinion of, or their
attitude to, a proposition. These attitudes can cover a wide range of possibilities includingobligation, asking
for and giving permission, disapproval, advising, logical deduction, ability, possibility, necessity, absence of
necessity and so on. The problem with each modal verb is that it can have more that one meaning and the
interpretation of a particular modal will depend heavily on the context in which it is being used. The
following examples should help to illustrate this point.
It might take more than a week. (possibility)
You might have told me about it! (showing disapproval)
He must take his medicine three times a day. (obligation)
He must be French. (logical deduction)
I cant lift that suitcase by myself. (ability)
That cant be the right answer. (logical deduction)
May I look at the questions now? (asking for permission)
They say it may snow tomorrow. (possibility)
You probably also noticed from the examples that notions like permission and possibility can be expressed
using different modal verbs this, of course, only serves to complicate matters further since one modal
verb can have more that one meaning, and one meaning can be expressed by more than one modal verb.
In the space that we have available here it would be impossible to cover all the meanings of each of the
modals, so as examples we will look at some of the ways thatobligation and logical deduction can be
expressed.

Obligation

The two main modals here are must and have to. The difference between them is usually given as
follows: must is used to express an internal obligation that is imposed by the speaker, while have torefers
to rules and regulations that are imposed from outside the speaker. Again, as with many points of
grammar this is only intended as a rough guide.
To express a lack of obligation we cannot just automatically add not to the modal verbs without thinking
more carefully about it first. How do you feel about the following sentences for instance?
He must sing loudly.
He mustnt sing loudly.
In the first sentence you would probably agree that this is obligation originating from, say, a teacher or
someone with authority. The second sentence, however, does not express a lack of obligationbut
a prohibition to do something. The form that we use to express a lack of obligation could be one of the
following:
He doesnt have to get up early.
He doesnt need to get up early.
This lack of balance in the use of modals can cause many problems for people who are learning English
since it is quite illogical.

Logical deduction

This is another area of modal use that is fraught with difficulties for reasons similar to those just discussed
above. Look at the following sentences:

The telephone rings:

Thatll be Frank.
That must be Frank.
That should be Frank.
That could be Frank.
That might be Frank.
That may be Frank.
The modal verbs used here have been listed in what many consider to be the order of likelihood of
something being true. You may or may not agree with this listing, but it gives you some idea of some of the
choices available for drawing logical conclusions from situations. If we look at the negatives of these
sentences, however, you can see just how much more complex it can become:

That wont be Frank.

* That mustnt be Frank.
(To use musnt in this way as logical deduction is incorrect; we use cant instead.)
That shouldnt be Frank.
That couldnt be Frank.
That mightnt be Frank.
Many of these sentences now denote completely different attitudes to the situation and you may even
agree that some of them are either not English or are only marginally acceptable. The sentence which has
probably moved furthest from its original intention is the second one (mustnt) which sounds very odd. In
fact, the negative of must when we talking about deduction is cant one more example of how
complicated and counter-intuitive the system of English modals can be.

Past time with modals

We noted earlier that the pure modals do not change to show tense. Most of these modals do in fact have
either present or future reference, but sometimes we need to refer back to the past. With the semi-modals
there is little problem, but how can we do this for pure modal verbs? You may have picked up from some
of the previous examples that one way to do this is to insert have immediately after the pure modal. But
this is not always the case since can has its own past tense could when it refers to general ability. Some
examples should help:
I can speak German.
I could speak German when I was seven years old.
You should see this film.
You should have seen this film.
Indonesia must be hot.
Indonesia must have been hot.
He could find his wallet.
He could have found his wallet.
Notice that in the third pair of sentences the meaning of must is logical deduction not obligation. If we want
to use must for obligation then the past tense is had to.
o She must visit her mother.
She had to visit her mother.

CONDITIONALS

The most common kind of conditional sentence that you are likely to meet will contain two clauses, one of
which will start with the word if, as in If it rains, well have to stay at home. The clause without the if is the
main clause of the sentence, while the if clause is subordinate. The order of the two clauses is generally not
that important to the meaning of the sentence; so we can switch the ifclause to the end of the sentence if
we want to.
Most grammar books tend to recognise four basic configurations of tenses in conditional sentences which
vary in structure according to the time that we are talking about (past, present or future) and the meaning.
These four types are normally referred to as the zero, first, second and third conditionals; we will look at the
forms and meanings of each of these in turn and also examine some of the alternatives to these four basic
types.

Zero-type conditionals

Form and meaning

The form of the zero conditional causes no problems since the present tenses are used in both clauses.
 Zero-type conditionals

If clause Main or conditional clause

If + Present tense Present tense

If you heat water it boils.

The zero conditional is normally used to talk about facts and to express general truths.

First-type conditionals

Form and meaning

The basic form for this type of conditional sentence can be seen in the chart below. As before, the order of
the clauses can be changed with no change in meaning.

This type refers to future possibilities that are certain or probable.

First-type conditionals

If clause Main or conditional clause

If + Present tense Future tense

If they dont arrive soon well leave without them.

If they are late Im going to be angry.

You will note that on the if side of the sentence any present tense can be used, while in the main clause the
speaker is free to choose any future that helps to express any additional meaning that the speaker wants
to express.
If hes sleeping, he wont wake up until morning. (The Present Continuous in the first part of the sentence
expresses the present temporary nature of the situation and the will in the second part is making a
prediction about the future.)
Alan is going to post me the recipe, if he finds it. (In the first clause I am expressing Alans intention so going
to is the best future to use, while the second clause contains a Simple Present tense.)
If hes staying at the party, Im leaving. (In the first clause I am thinking about the possible current state of
affairs, so I choose the Present Continuous, while in the second I am referring to the future plan that I have
in mind should he decide to stay, so again I choose the Present Continuous.)
If you have finished the essay, leave it on my desk. (By using the Present Perfect tense in the ifclause I am
stressing the completed nature of the action, while in the second clause I have used an imperative, which
has a future meaning.)

Second-type conditionals

Form and meaning

This type is often called the hypothetical or unreal future conditional since it is usually used to speculate
about either very unlikely future situations or present and future impossibilities.
 Second-type conditionals

If clause Main or conditional clause

If + Past tense would + verb

If I had time I would drop you off at school.

If I had wings I would fly.

Other examples are:

If you were coming with us, you would have a great time. (Either I am not expecting you to come or you
have already told me that you do not intend to come, so the situation is very unlikely to happen.)
Im sure my mother would help if you asked her. (I am unsure whether you are going to ask so I hedge
my bets by using an unreal conditional; if I had used Im sure my mother will help instead, this gives
the impression that I feel you are likely to ask.)
If I were you, Id call back later. (This is a fixed expression used for giving advice, but since I can never
be you, I use the future hypothetical conditional; you should note that many people would say if I
was you and this is becoming increasingly common.)

Third-type conditionals

Form and meaning

This type refers to hypothetical situations in the past. In this case we use the Past Perfect tenses in
the if clause and would + have in the main clause.

Third-type conditionals

If clause Main or conditional clause

If + Past Perfect tense would have + past participle

If I had known about his condition I would have phoned for you earlier.

If we had known about the storm we wouldnt have started our journey.
The main uses of the third conditional are for speculating about the past, expressing regrets, excusing our
own actions and criticising others. Some of the uses tend to overlap in practice as the examples below
demonstrate:

If wed taken the first turning, we would have been at home by now.
If Id bought the lottery ticket, we would have won millions.
If Id realised you were going to be so sensitive, Id have kept quiet.
The meeting wouldve finished before 1:00 if youd said less.
There is one other major variation to the form given in the chart above; in place of the more usual

If I had known about his condition

we can use
Had I known about his condition where the if is omitted and the subject and auxiliary verb are inverted.

Mixed conditionals

The four types of conditional sentence discussed above appear to fit into very rigid patterns of form and
meaning but we often find exceptions to these rules. In many cases we may want to talk about events that
happened or did not happen in the past and the present results of those events. Therefore, we will often
need to mix clauses from different conditional types in order to get our meaning across clearly and
unambiguously. Taking one example from above, we might want to say:

If Id bought the lottery ticket, we would be millionaires now.

In this sentence I want to refer to something that I did not do in the past (and probably regret) and the
possible effect that this action might have had on the present so I use a third-conditional ifclause and a
second-conditional main clause. Swapping around these two types we also get:
If he was going to come, he would have arrived by now (with a second-conditional if clause and a third-
conditional main).
This kind of mixing of conditional types is not uncommon.

All of the example sentences that we have considered up to this point have been in what is known as the
active voice. However, this ignores a major type of sentence construction that is sometimes used in
speaking, but is more frequently met in the written language this construction is called the passive.

Contrasting the difference between active and passive voices:

Active sentence
George Bush started the war.
The people grow rice in Asia.
I heated the chemicals to 200 Celsius.
Passive sentence
The war was started by George Bush.
Rice is grown in Asia.
The chemicals were heated to 200 Celsius.
The first sentence uses an active verb because we are saying what somebody (or in other cases,
something) DID: we want to say what Bush did. In the second sentence, we are interested in what
HAPPENED, so a passive verb is used. In the first sentence, Bush is the object; in the second, he is the
subject.

In the second active sentence, the focus is on who grows the rice; in the second passive sentence it is on
the rice. Who grows it is unimportant.

In the third passive sentence, it is not important to mention who the person who heated the chemicals is
and, following the convention of reporting of a scientific experiment, is not stated.

Form
We make the passive with the verb be in the tense that we require, followed by the past participle.
Sometimes, in place of the verb be, we use get often with very little change in meaning, but get is usually
preferred when the action is unexpected, unwelcome, or happens in the face of adversity. Get also tends
to be informal than be. Here are some short examples of passive sentences.
 Rice is grown in China.
My computer is being repaired at the moment.
The thief was arrested.
All mistakes have been rectified.
Harry might have been involved in an accident.
Applications must be received before the end of the year.
The main verb usually ends in -ed but, as we saw earlier, some verbs have irregular past participles as in
the first sentence. In active sentences the order of the elements of a sentence usually follows the pattern
subject verb object, like this:

That man stole my wallet.

I painted this picture.
In these examples the subject or doer of the verb is that man and I respectively, while my wallet and this
picture are the objects. The main purpose of the passive is to change the focus of attention of the
sentence, so it is often used when the more important information is:

what happened to the subject Ive been robbed!

who or what carried out the action Guernica was painted by Picasso.
how the action was carried out the concerto was played beautifully.
when the doer is unknown this house was built in 1845.
If we want to include the identity of the doer, then it has to move to the end of the sentence preceded by
the word by. So, in the second sentence above we obviously need to know the identity of the artist that
painted Guernica otherwise the sentence makes no sense. (The active form of this sentence is Picasso
painted Guernica.)

If you look back to the first set of numbered sentences above you will notice that the doer is missing in
every case and yet the sentences are still logical and complete. The doers are either unknown, unnecessary
or can be guessed from the context, so, for example, in sentence number 3 we can automatically add by
the police.

REPORTED SPEECH

Many grammar books and teaching course books resort to tables of the following kind to show the
differences between what is called direct and reported speech and how the two are connected.

Direct Speech Reported Speech

Im tired, John said. John said he was tired.

My mother said, Ill be late. My mother said she would be late.

He said, I cant ride a bike. He said he couldnt ride a bike.

The most widely used verbs in reported speech that introduce what someone said are say and tell.
Choosing which one to use is a question of whether the person who was originally addressed is important
or not, since with say this person is very rarely introduced into the conversation. The verbtell, requires the
person addressed to be explicit:
They told me that he couldnt come.
The police officer told me to leave.
He told me an interesting story.
Maria told her what she did last week.
The note told us where to wait.
There are, of course, many other reporting verbs that can be used to introduce what someone said or
wrote. Some of these verbs do not convey anything of the attitude of the reporter towards what was said,
while others do. Examples of the first kind are reply, answer, explain, mention, where the reporter is merely
giving information.
Other verbs show the attitude and opinion of the speaker to the words that s/he is reporting; for
example, insist, warn, threaten, promise, complain, claim, demand and so on.
He was complaining that I hardly ever visit him anymore.
They warned me to stay away.
He insisted that I should give him a lift to the station.
The type of grammatical construction that follows reporting verbs depends on the verb itself. There is a
choice from the six following basic types:
question word + infinitive clause He described how to get to his house.
that + a clause (that may be optional) They all denied (that) any one of them had stolen the money.
infinitive clause She asked me to leave the building.
preposition + -ing clause He insisted on seeing the evidence for himself.
question word + a clause Could you please explain howthe accident happened?
-ing clause A friend of mine recommended going to see this film.
You may already have noticed while reading the examples above that the words of the original text
(spoken or written) usually have to be altered when they are being reported. Although there are no hard
and fast rules for transforming the original text into reported speech, some broad general statements can
be made to explain what happens to verb tenses in such cases. It needs to be stressed that these rules are
only guidelines and indicate some of the characteristic changes that native speakers might choose while
relating a past incident. Below you will find some of the more common possible verb changes, with
examples of each; however, the list is not exhaustive.

Original tense Reported tense Example

We enjoy fishing They said they enjoyed

Simple Present Simple Past
fishing

Simple Past Past Perfect He saw it She said he had seen it

Present Perfect Past Perfect Shes gone You said she had gone

Present
Past Continuous Im leaving You said you were leaving
Continuous

Past Perfect
Past Continuous He was reading He said he had been reading
Continuous
 can could I can sing She said she could sing

may might We may stay They said they might stay

must had to I must go He said he had to go

will would Ill buy them You said you would buy them

Of course, any verb that is already in one of the Past Perfect tenses cannot change any further, but there
are several other modal auxiliaries that usually do not change either; these are: could, might, ought to,
should and would.
It might rain tomorrow. He said it might rain tomorrow (or today).
As you can see from the example above, the word tomorrow could be replaced by today. There are a
limited number of words and phrases connected with time and place that may need to be changed in
order for the reported message to make sense. Once more, these are not unbreakable rules, but a range
of possibilities that need to be considered when dealing with reported speech. Some of these words and
phrases are given in the lists below you may be able to think of more.

Place

come go

bring take

this that

these those

here there

Time

today that day/then

tomorrow the next/following day

yesterday the day before

this week that week

next month the following month

now then

When reporting someones words, we also need to think about the pronouns that have been used and
whether it is necessary to change them. Until this point we have been discussing how we report
someones speech, but this is a little misleading since we also frequently report our own and other peoples
thoughts and very often the same rule-of-thumb guidelines that are given above need to be applied.
Typically, first-person and second-person expressions are converted to third-prson; third-person
expressions typically do not need to change the pronoun.
 Pronouns in reported speech

I he/she He said, I am late He said he was late.

he/she/the
you Will you help me? She asked if he would help her.
y

he/she/it he/she/it She said, He hit me She said he had hit her.

we they I said, We are lost He said they were lost.

they they They said, We are hungry They said they were hungry.

John said, She gave us presents John said she had given them
us them
presents.

our their He said, Our jobs are at risk He said their jobs were at risk.

his/hers/it
his/hers/its She said, Its hers She said that it was hers.
s

Note that in cases such as the last example above where the replacement of pronouns might lead to
ambiguity, the sentence may need further adjustment. For example:

She said, She took my purse might become: Mary said that Janet had taken her purse.

NOUNS AND NOUN PHRASES

We gave a loose definition of what a noun is in an earlier section, but we now need to consider this in more
detail taking into account what nouns might look like, what their purpose is, where they occur in sentences
and how they interact with other words. The first thing to note is what spaces they can occupy in a
sentence they can take on the role of:

the subject of a verb: the camera never lies

the object of a verb: the police arrested the criminal
the complement: he became a barrister
It is sometimes possible to spot a noun by its ending:

indication, importance, interference, discernment, suitability, fairness, fatherhood

Quite often nouns will occur with other words, or a combination of other words, to make up noun phrases
some possibilities include:

with an article: the government, an insect

with an adjective: good times, legal wrangle
with a preposition: by car, under duress
with a quantifier: many dangers, loads of friends
with other determiners: your fault, these houses
In some of the examples above, a few of the nouns have an s at the end. Nouns which refer to more than
one of that particular thing are called plural nouns; if the noun refers to only one of that thing then it is
said to be singular. Examples of plural nouns are: dangers, friends, houses. The usual rule for making
plurals is simply to add an s to the noun, but in some cases we need to make other changes first. Look at
the following examples:
opportunity opportunities
success successes
leaf leaves
dish dishes
lunch lunches
box boxes
In addition to these minor alterations that need to be made to some nouns to make a plural, some have no
obvious plural form, for instance, sheep, deer, fish (fishes?), cattle, vermin and so on, while others are almost
always plural: scissors, trousers, shorts, glasses (spectacles), outskirts, headquarters, barracks. There are also
other nouns which have irregular plurals, although they are few in number: mice, teeth, geese, children. To
make matters even more confusing there are a number of nouns that look plural but are treated as
singulars and we can check this claim by looking at the verb agreement:
Im afraid the news is bad.
Physics was my best subject at school.
Billiards is not as popular as snooker these days.
In each case the verb used is the singular form, so we must conclude that the nouns are singular as
opposed to the following where it is clear that nouns are plural:

Where are the scissors?

My trousers have got a hole in them.
My glasses are broken.
As well as these irregularities, there are words of foreign origin, usually Latin or Greek, which seem to
retain their original plural endings rather than normalising to the English rules for making plurals.
Examples include:

datum data ***

syllabus syllabi
medium media
phenomenon phenomena
criterion criteria
paparazzo paparazzi
bureau bureaux
*** note that although data is the plural of datum, data is also often used as an uncountable/mass noun.
For example:

The data is available from head office.

The data processing department is responsible for the reports.
Although you will sometimes see The data are (sic) unreliable, it would be very peculiar to read
They collected sixty data because although data is plural in origin it is rarely used as a countable.
So far, we have mainly been discussing nouns which can be used in either the singular or the plural form,
but how do we categorise the nouns in the following examples? Try to make the bold nouns plural and see
what effect it creates.
 Milk is good for you.
Have you got the information I need?
Heres the money I borrowed.
Could you put some more wood on the fire?
Its time to tell the truth.
Making these nouns plural would not leave us with a correctly formed English sentence.
In other words, there are two types of nouns; those nouns that can be either singular or plural nouns
called countable nouns and those that (in most contexts) can only be singular calleduncountable nouns.
From now on we will use C for countable nouns and U for uncountable nouns. As a general rule, those
nouns which can either be counted or are separable objects are C (book, chair, tiger, bridge), while those
nouns that denote things like abstract ideas, materials, substances, liquids, granular things and so on
(imagination, formica, glue, oil, sugar) are U.
Its also important to recognize that classification of some nouns is different in different varieties of English.
For example, accommodation in the sense of somewhere to sleep (e.g. hotel accommodation) is always
an uncountable noun in British English. But hotel accommodations is perfectly good in North American
English. Interestingly, the singular form accommodation is used in a different sense as in:
The politicians reached an accommodation so that they could deal with the hurricane emergency
together.
Once more we need to keep in mind that there are exceptions to this general rule, for example, beeris a U
noun, but we can of course ask for three beers, which is a kind of shorthand for three pints/bottles/glasses of
beer. The same can be said for other liquids like tea, coffee, water etc.
English also has a number of nouns which are both C and U depending on the context and the intended
meaning; for example, experience, glass.
Hes had a lot of experience in negotiation.
Ive had several nasty experiences with dodgy sales people.
This ceiling is made of glass.
We need four wine glasses.
If we want to talk about a certain number/volume of an uncountable noun, we have to resort to using
special descriptive words:

a loaf of bread
a bar of soap/chocolate
an item of news
a piece of information
an article of clothing
a bag/cup/kilo of rice
a cup of coffee
One very important and highly productive feature of nouns in English is that they can be put together to
form a new phrase without our having to make any structural changes to the grammar of either noun; for
example:

tea cup, computer screen, dog kennel, government decision, vacuum cleaner, chalk board, dandruff shampoo,
internet facility, garden fence
When two or more nouns combine like this, the first noun is said to modify the second. In a sense, the first
noun is playing the role of an adjective, which is what most people have in mind when we think
about modification, but nouns can do the job equally well.
It is worth mentioning that not every language has this facility, but native speakers of English are quite
happy to invent their own combinations of nouns in order to describe things, events or ideas that they
have not come across before; this is particularly true in the workplace where we need constantly to refer to
innovations and new concepts.
Definite & indefinite articles
It is almost impossible to discuss the noun phrase without referring at some stage to the class of words
known as determiners, since more often than not a noun will occur with one or more words from this
grammatical class. Determiners include articles (a/an, the) and quantifiers.
Determiners consist of a relatively small number of mainly grammatical items that change very little and
tend to serve only one specialised function in a sentence. Unlike verbs, nouns and adjectives as word
classes, it is difficult, if not impossible, to add any new words to the class of determiners and for this
reason it is called a closed set.
What kind of words make up this limited set? The most instantly recognisable is probably
thearticles namely the, a/an. In addition, there are others like: that, those, every, some, several, all, much,
both, no, which can occupy the space before a noun.

Articles

As we noted above, the articles are the, usually referred to as the definite article, and a/an, theindefinite
article. They both constitute part of the noun phrase and usually, provided there are no other determiners
present, occupy the first position in the noun phrase. Here are six examples of articles being used in
conjunction with other word classes:
We noticed a smell.
We noticed a strong smell.
We noticed an unusually strong smell.
I bought the present.
I bought the expensive present.
I bought the most expensive present.
The word unusually in the third sentence begins with a vowel sound, so the a needs to change to anto allow
a more natural speech flow. We have an option not to use an article in front of either plural nouns or
uncountable nouns; so:
Id like steak and chips.
He always gives way to anger.
The table below should make it clear exactly when we can use articles with certain kinds of nouns.

Articles Singular nouns Plural nouns Uncountable nouns

a/an a chair

the the chair the chairs the water

no article chairs water

Its important not to let special cases blur the general rules. For example, it is possible to talk about a
wine meaning a type of wine and similarly the wines of Chile meaning the various types or brands of
wine from Chile. We can refer to the waters of the Ganges because although water is in general an
uncountable or mass noun, the waters has a particular meaning and usage in the context of rivers and
streams.
Although there are only three options when choosing which article to use, the rules governing their use can
be rather confusing for learners. The basic rules are follows:

A/an

This is used when the noun that we wish to refer to is unknown to our listener/reader or is not part of the
common ground that we share. It is most often used to introduce new information.

I saw a UFO yesterday.

Tell me a story.
Have you ever seen a tornado?
The

By using the, we are signalling to our listener that s/he is very likely to know what we are referring to and
that the context of our conversation should help them to identify this. We can use the, therefore, to
refer backwards to something that we have already mentioned
refer forwards to something that we can take for granted will happen
refer to our common ground or shared knowledge
Here are some examples to illustrate each of those contexts:

I was out the other day and I found a ten-pound note on the street. I couldnt decide whether to
keep the money or hand it in. (I have already talked about this money in the previous sentence.)
Well need to take an axe to cut the trees . (i.e. those trees that we find in the place that we are going
to.)
Have you put the cat out? (i.e. our cat)
The is also used with certain fixed expressions where there is often common knowledge, for example
places of entertainment, oceans and seas, hotels etc. the Alps, the cinema, the Pacific Ocean, the Hyatt and
even for some more generic tersms such as the High Street, the open seas.
Note also that the is sometimes (but not always) used with some countries names, such as:
She lives in England, which is part of the UK.
He visited the Czech Republic.
The DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) has experienced strife for many years.
I think the Philippines is a beautiful country.
Jack loves the Netherland and works in the Hague.
In addition, when referring to some named or unnamed organizations, for example:

He was arrested by the FBI.

She works for the BBC.
The U.N. has its headquarters in New York.
He left home and joined the army.
No article

If we want to refer to something general and the nouns that we are using are either plural or uncountable,
we leave out articles.
 I really like funfairs. (funfairs in general; I have no specific funfair in mind.)
Its brought us nothing but trouble. (uncountable noun)
Some of the other times when an article is not needed are:
with proper nouns like peoples names, countries, towns, cities, single mountains, streets, lakes,
and countries (but see note above about certain countries and places).
meals when are we having lunch, I have cereal for breakfast.
certain time expressions next year, last month, this week, on Friday, at five oclock.
in an institution hes in prison, Im at school next week, do you go to university.

Quantifiers
In English grammar, a quantifier is a word (or phrase) which indicates the number or amount being
referred to. It generally comes before the noun (or noun phrase). The chart below shows which type of
noun goes with which quantifier.

However, note that some of the examples in the chart can take on several different roles within a sentence.
For example, any can be used as a quantifier, a pronoun or an adverb:

any as a quantifier: Have you got any tomatoes?

any as a pronoun: I dont want any of you making a noise.
any as an adverb: Cant this car go any faster?
In these notes, we are only considering these words/phrases as quantifiers.

Singular Plural Uncountable

Quantifier
nouns (C) nouns (C) nouns (U)

all Yes Yes

any No, but see note. Yes Yes

both * Yes *

each Yes

enough Yes Yes

every Yes

few/a few/fewer Yes

little/a little/less Yes

lots of / a lot of Yes Yes

many Yes

more Yes Yes

 no Yes Yes Yes

several Yes

some Yes Yes

Quantifiers are used at the beginning of noun phrases:

before a noun on its own: fewer answers

before an adjective and noun: some useful phrases
before an adverb, adjective and noun: every really pleasant experience
Normally two quantifiers cannot be used together before the same noun. However, the
quantifiers alland both are found immediately before the or a possessive pronoun: all my relatives, both the
ministers. You will also see the following combinations of quantifiers:
a little less noise
a few more questions
every few minutes
Many, much, a lot of

These are all used to talk about a large quantity of something; many is used only with C nouns,much with U
nouns and a lot of can be used with both.
Only many and much can be preceded by the words how, to form questions (how many / how much ?). The
word too can be used to express a negative idea (too hot, too cold) and so, to show the speakers attitude to
the quantity (so many that /so much he couldnt ). Many andmuch tend to be rather formal in use and are
therefore often found in legal documents, academic papers and so on; in speech we often use phrases
like a lot of, loads of, tons of, hundreds of.
Few, little

Again, the meaning of these two words is similar since they both refer to small quantities, except that few is
found with C nouns and little with U nouns.
If they are used without the indefinite article, a, they have the sense of not enough and are negative in
feeling (few events, little interest) but these are quite formal and we would normally prefer not many
events and not much interest.
When few and little are used witha they simply mean a small quantity with no extra negative overtones: a
few events (i.e. three or four) and a little interest (i.e. some interest, but not a lot).
Any

Any can be used before countable and uncountable nouns usually in questions and negativesentences:
Are you bringing any friends with you?
Do you have any coffee?
I cant remember any songs.
He isnt taking any chances.
If we stress the word any heavily when speaking, we are suggesting an unlimited choice from a range of
things or an unrestricted quantity; in this case its use is not confined to just questions and negatives:
Help yourself to any sandwiches. (the choice is yours)
Dont you like any Beatles song? (I cant believe you dislike them all)
I cant see any difference. (nothing at all)
Some

Some is usually thought of as the positive counterpart to any in many circumstances.

Im bringing some friends with me.
I have some coffee.
Like any it is used before both C and U nouns, and means an indefinite quantity but not a large amount.
The general rule given above for the use of any in negative sentences and questions does not always hold
in requests and offers where we often use some to mean a small amount of a known quantity:
Would you like some cake? (here is the cake, do you want a piece of it?)
Could I have some biscuits instead? (any would not be possible in this case)
If we stress the word some in positive and negative sentences and in questions, we are suggesting a limited
quantity or number of something:
I like some Beatles songs. (But certainly not all!)
I can see some difference. (But not a lot!)

GERUNDS

People can sometimes get a little confused about what a gerund is and this is perhaps because the same
word can be described in different ways.

Look at these sentences. How is the word driving being used in each case?
We are driving to Bristol in the morning.
We were driving in the rain when the accident happened.
I had been driving for about two hours when I decided to stop for a coffee.
He will be driving for about six hours a day with that freight company.
Driving is something that I have always hated.
I loved the holiday but the driving was exhausting.
In the first four sentences, the word driving is a verb used in a range of different tenses. The word driving
in those first four sentences is a continuous participle form.

Present Continuous tense

Past Continuous tense
Past Perfect Continuous tense
Future continuous tense
However, in the last two sentences, the word driving is not being used to construct a verb tense. It is being
used as a noun. In other words, it is a gerund. The writer or speaker is using the word driving to refer to
the activity itself.

Have a look at these further examples of -ing words being used as gerunds:

Flying is something that Ive always been afraid of.

Cycling is an activity that Ive always enjoyed.
The reading by her brother was definitely the best part of the service.
I enjoy gliding but I dont like parachuting.
I was hungry but eating was the last thing on my mind.
 I saw the danger a warning was impossible.
I like writing but I hate proof-reading.
Suffering is something we all have to do.
Some verbs commonly are associated with gerunds including:

like, love, hate, enjoy, avoid, detest, finish, begin, imagine, practise, stop, start.

Are the -ing words in the sentences below being used as participles or gerunds?

o 1. Was she smiling when you saw her?

o 2. I saw him yesterday and he was working hard.
o 3. I think that grinning looks rather silly.
o 4. We saw him standing by the clock-tower.
o 5. Cooking takes far too much time.
o 6. She said that sleeping is something we do for a third of our lives.
o 7. There he was just lying beside the rusty old car.
o 8. Do you like working?
o 9. Crying is something I never do.
o 10. Cycling is a wonderful sport.
Answers
The following sentences contain gerunds:

3. grinning 5. cooking 6 sleeping 8. working 9. crying 10. cycling

PREPOSITION

Nouns frequently occur in longer phrases with prepositions. These are very common words, but it is
difficult to give a set of features by which we can recognise a preposition in a sentence. They are often
short words like of, at, in, by, over, past, but can also be longer or even a number of separate words, with
regard to, notwithstanding, in the course of, except, in spite of and so on.
They can also be made from a small number of verbs by adding ed or ing (i.e. the past and present
participles): concerning, regarding, granted. Their position in a sentence is, however, limited to immediately
before a noun or the ing form of a verb (at night, by working hard) or before a longer phrase containing a
noun:
In my opinion hes wrong.
Were sitting at the back.
They shouldve spoken to the senior partner.
Shes frightened of flying.
I have some experience in accountancy.
He helped me put out the fire.
I need to put by a bit of money every month.
Prepositions can also appear at the end of a sentence, although there are still some native speakers who
consider this to be poor grammar. However, in many instances avoiding the use of prepositions at the end
of a sentence can lead to grammatically unacceptable results or overly formal language.
 Which one are you thinking of? (? of which one are you thinking?)
The whole audience was taken in.
He was very easy to talk to.
I couldnt understand what he was talking about. (?about what he was talking)
Prepositions are used to refer to many types of relationship within the sentence including

time: in two weeks, during the night, after lunch

place: at the airport, within the city walls, over the table
movement: into the room, towards his house, through a tunnel
cause and effect: due to a strike, because of her illness, owing to the rain
contrast: despite the noise, in spite of his anger
examples: like everyone else, such as the manager
exception: everyone but you, all the people except me
There are, of course, many other prepositions in English with a wide range of meanings and for this reason
prepositions are very difficult for learners to grasp with any certainty. Furthermore, some prepositions
have more than one meaning and these may not be closely related:

I mended it with glue. (by means of)

She went with me to the airport. (accompanying)
She filled the bowl with soup.
He was consumed with anger.
Your order will be ready by Saturday. (on or before Saturday)
The missing child was found by the police.
The stolen goods were found by a tree. (next to a tree)
They went to France by air.
The drapery shop sells fabric by the metre.

ADJECTIVES

We often want or need to give more information about a noun, about its qualities or characteristics, or we
simply want to describe it in more detail. To modify nouns we use adjectives. Adjectives are usually found
in one of two positions in a sentence,
in attributive position directly before the noun:
a tall building
an entertaining night out
the grey skies
in predicative position after a verb:
its becoming difficult to find good service
hes kind
There are a few adjectives like aware, alive, asleep, awake that can only be used after a verb.
If we want to use more than one adjective, the rule-of-thumb is that the general meaning comes before the
specific and opinion before description: a typical British summer, a beautiful silk blouse. If we need to use
more than just two adjectives the table below is a guide (not a strict rule) to the ordering of adjectives.
size shape colour origin material use noun

a round Dutch cheese

 the small square wooden bridge table

some blue silk head scarves

A large number of adjectives in English are linked quite closely or can be derived from nouns by adding on
special adjectival endings.

importance important clock clockwise

intelligence intelligent friend friendly

use useful/less enthusiasm enthusiastic

depression depressive courage courageous

sun sunny transience transitory

articulation articulate centre central

Another very common way of forming adjectives is to use the present and past participles of verbs. There
are many examples of these, including interested, interesting, tired, tiring, excited, exciting, closed, broken,
amusing. As a rule the past participle (usually, but not always, ending in ed) tells us how someone feels
about something, while the present participle ending in ing tells us how something makes us feel, so:
Im excited at the prospect of another change tells you how I feel;
The prospect of another change is exciting (for me) tells you how the prospect makes me feel.
It is also possible to make up adjectives based on a combination of words like:

noun + past participle: wine-soaked, leather-bound

adjective + past participle: round-shouldered, blue-rinsed
adverb + past participle: closely-knit, well-heeled
We also group adjectives under the terms gradeable and absolute. Gradeable adjectives are used to
describe qualities that we can measure or grade in some way, whereas absolute adjectives denote either
extreme qualities or qualities which are not measurable. So, hot, big, certain, interesting, cloudy are
gradeables, while livid, starving, dead, female are absolutes. With gradeables we can use adverbs which
either intensify or reduce the effect of the adjective:
an extremely hot country
a very clever dog
quite nice
rather dull
With absolutes, on the other hand, only the intensifying type of adverb can be used:

utterly wrong
completely insane
absolutely incredible
totally naked
Comparatives and superlatives of adjectives

When we need to compare a thing with one or more things of a similar type or when we want to single out
one particular thing as being very special in relation to others, we use what are known
ascomparatives and superlatives. Examples of these are:

Comparatives

India is hotter than Spain.

This sweater is softer than that one.
This years homework is more difficult.
Ive never seen a kinder gesture. (Compared with all the gestures Ive seen.)

Superlatives

London is the most expensive city in the world to live in.

Hes the best in the class.
Shakespeare is the greatest British playwright ever.
This is the closest Ive ever come to beating him at tennis.
It is possible to intensify and reduce the effect of the comparative and superlative by using a certain range
of words. So, for comparatives we can use, slightly, a little, a bit, considerably, a lot, far, a great deal, much,
and for superlatives, simply/easily the best, altogether, by far, far and away etc.
The question remains, how do we form comparatives and superlatives? With adjectives of three or more
syllables we use more to form comparatives and the most for superlatives: more enthusiastically, the most
interesting, more economical, the most stupendous.
If the adjective has only one syllable, we simply add er for comparatives and -est to make
superlatives: looser, clearer, brave, the loosest, the clearest, the bravest (if the adjective already ends in
an e the just r is added).
With most two-syllable adjectives we have the choice of either adding -er/-est to the end or using the form
with more/the most: happier, more happy, the cleverest, the most clever, sunnier, more sunny.
With adjectives that are formed from the past and present participles of verbs such as bored, thrilling,
fascinating, tired and those adjectives that have the typical adjective endings (e.g. -al, -ic, -able, ful, less, -ive)
shown in the previous table above it is best to use the more/the most form.
As with many other parts of the grammatical system, there are irregularly made comparatives and
superlatives, these are:

good better the best

bad worse the worst
far farther/further the farthest/furthest

RELATIVE CLAUSES

A relative clause gives extra information about nouns how exactly does it do this? Unlike an adjective,
which in English comes before the noun, relative clauses always follow the noun that they are defining or
describing. In the following examples, the whole relative clause is in bold:

I enjoyed the concert that we went to last night.

The book which Im reading comes from the library.
The people who you met at the party are all old friends of mine.
 He hadnt met the man who I was talking about.
The first thing to notice from these examples is that the relative clause can come both at the end and in
the middle of the sentence. The second point of interest is the type of word that can introduce a relative
clause, in these instances, which, who and that in this context these words are known as relative
pronouns.

We can opt to use that where we might sometimes use which or who, as you can see from these sentences
modified from the ones above:

The book that Im reading comes from the library.

The people that you met at the party are all old friends of mine.
He hadnt met the man that I was talking about.
You may also have noticed that there is another relative clause construction that can be applied to all the
above examples the relative pronoun can be left out with no obvious change in meaning.

I enjoyed the concert we went to last night.

The book Im reading comes from the library.
The people you met at the party are all old friends of mine.
He hadnt met the man I was talking about.
But what about the following sentences?

I cant find my notebook that contains all my addresses.

She has never met the lecturer who is leading todays seminar.
The tall man who was standing by the bar is my uncle.
The newspaper which first reported the incident is being sued.
Again, the relative clause can occupy the same positions as before, but try to take out the relative pronoun
this time and compare the results. You should find that they do not produce acceptable English sentences.
Can you see why?

Subject and object relative clauses

The answer is that in the first set of four sentences the relative pronoun is the object of the relative clause,
like this:

I enjoyed the concert. We went to the concert last night.

The book comes from the library. Im reading the book.
The people are all old friends of mine. You met the people at the party.
He hadnt met the man. I was talking about the man.
In each case the sentence which becomes the relative clause is shown second and adds extra information
to the subject or the object of the first (main clause) sentence.

With this type of clause we can choose either to use the relative pronouns or to omit them. In fast
colloquial speech, omission is the norm, whereas in written English we tend to leave them in.
In the second set of four sentences, however, the subject or the object of the main clause is the subject of
the relative clause:

I cant find my notebook. My notebook contains all my addresses.

She has never met the lecturer. The lecturer is leading todays seminar.
The tall man is my uncle. The tall man was standing by the bar.
The newspaper is being sued. The newspaper first reported the incident.
In these cases we cannot leave out the relative pronoun and expect a fully coherent sentence to remain.
However, as with object relative clauses we can use that instead of which or who.

She has never met the lecturer that is leading todays seminar.
The tall man that was standing by the bar is my uncle.
The newspaper that first reported the incident is being sued.
So, when you first see a relative clause it is a good idea to decide whether you are looking at subject
relative clause or an object relative clause.

Reduced relative clauses

Although it is not possible to omit the relative pronoun in the subject relative clauses that we have just
looked at, we can, if we want, omit an even larger piece of the relative clause and still retain a
grammatically acceptable sentence. Using the examples from above, we can say:

I cant find my notebook containing all my addresses.

She has never met the lecturer leading todays seminar.
The tall man standing by the bar is my uncle.
The newspaper first reporting the incident is being sued.
This is usually referred to as a reduced relative clause and can only be applied to subject relative clauses
not object relative clauses.

The most obvious feature of this type of reduced clause is that the relative pronoun is left out and the verb
following the noun always ends in -ing. The second, but perhaps not quite so obvious feature is that the
tense of the verb in the original relative clause is not taken into account. Note how the verb tenses varied
in the original sentences:

o I cant find my notebook that contains all my addresses. (Present Simple)

o She has never met the lecturer who is leading todays seminar. (Present Continuous)
o The tall man who was standing by the bar is my uncle. (Past Continuous)
The newspaper which first reported the incident is being sued. (Past Simple)

These -ing forms of the verb in a reduced relative clause are called non-finite verbs, that is, they are not
marked in any way for tense. Here, the tense is carried only in the verb of the main clause.

So, to sum up so far, subject relative clauses cannot lose their relative pronoun, except when the whole
relative clause is reduced to a non-finite -ing verb form. Object relative clauses can lose their relative
pronoun, but cannot form reduced relative clauses.
Now consider the following set of sentences:

The information given in the brochure is wrong.

The criminal picked up at the airport was taken into police custody.
We saw the new play written by Tom Stoppard at the Old Vic.
The second piece played by the orchestra was very well received.
These are also examples of reduced subject relative clauses, but this time the word immediately following
the noun which is being described is not an -ing type finite verb but a past participle; these are in bold.

The difference here is that those reduced relative verbs ending in -ing (looked at above) stand in for active
verbs, while the past participles replace passive verbs and, as with the former type, they can replace almost
any tense.

However, continuous tenses are usually replaced by being + past participle, so in the last sentence we
might want to bring it into the here and now by saying: The second piece being played by the orchestra
was especially commissioned. Among the possibilities for the full relative clauses for each of the above
examples are:

The information which is given in the brochure is wrong.v

The criminal who was picked up at the airport was taken into police custody.
We saw the new play that was written by Tom Stoppard at the Old Vic.
The second piece which was played by the orchestra was very well received.

Defining and non-defining relative clauses

So far we have looked at subject and object relative clauses, and reduced active and passive subject
relative clauses. There is one more relative clause pair that we need to consider defining and non-
defining relative clauses. Look at the following examples of each type can you find the essential
difference between them?

My sister who lives in London is married to a lawyer.

My sister, who lives in London, is married to a lawyer.
The difference in meaning is that in the first sentence I have more than one sister, whereas in the second I
have only one. The relative clause in the first sentence is crucial to identifying which of my sisters I am
talking about the one in London, not the one in Manchester; this is called a defining relative clause
because it singles out one thing of many. The second relative is not necessary for identifying my sister
since I have only one, but is, rather, just a bit of extra information; this is called a non-defining relative
clause.

In everyday life, it is fairly uncommon to use non-defining clauses if only because we are interested in
giving news rather than repeating what is already known to our listener, so you are more likely to hear and
see defining relative clauses. Non-defining relative clauses are generally confined to academic and similar
types of text where the writer or speaker needs to demonstrate that s/he knows more information about
the topic under discussion. For example:

The koala, which is native to Australia, mainly eats eucalyptus leaves.

 Shakespeare, who was born in Stratford, moved to London.
Relative clauses, which have been the topic of this section, cause many problems for people trying
(who are trying) to learn English.
Refuse collection, which takes place every Friday in this particular district, is paid for out of the local
council tax.
In all four cases, the information inside the commas is only additional; the main clauses could stand on
their own as perfectly grammatical, meaningful sentences in English.

Other relative pronouns

In addition to the relative pronouns which, who and that which we have already looked at, there are two
others that we should mention: whose and where. First of all lets see a few examples of sentences
containing whose.

Do you know the actor whose new show started on TV last night?
Those of you whose names are called out should go to the front row.
My mother, whose father was also a lawyer, married when she was 28.
I heard that a house whose owner had been out of the country for more than a year was
demolished by mistake.
The treaty, whose signatories include all the major industrialised nations, was fully ratified last
night.
It should be clear from these examples that whose is used to talk about possession in relative clauses. This
possession is not restricted to just animate beings, but covers inanimate objects as well (the last two
sentences). You can also see that whose is used in both defining and non-defining clauses the third and
sixth sentences are examples of non-defining clauses.

In relative clauses where is used place of in/at/on which, so:

This is the house where I was born.

This is the house in which I was born. (more formal)
The envelope where the number was written has been mislaid.
The envelope on which the number was written has been mislaid. (formal)
Ill never forget the concert where we first met each other.
Ill never forget the concert at which we first met. (formal)
When talking about places, it is quite easy to confuse this use of where with which, but you need to
remember that where replaces a prepositional phrase usually containing in, at or on. Look at the next two
sentences as an illustration of this:

London, which has been the capital of England for many centuries, is the largest city in the UK.
(London as a thing.)
London, where I was born, is the largest city in the UK. (London as a place in which something
happened.)
ADVERBS IN ENGLISH GRAMMAR

The final section in this short introduction to the grammar of English focuses on the adverb. This is the
most difficult word class to categorise in a simple, clear way. It is perhaps easiest to list, with examples, the
range of things that we can do with adverbs in a sentence and then to look more closely at some of the
special features of adverbs.

Types of adverb Examples

time now, then, presently, soon, already

place there, here

frequency now and again, often, usually

manner slowly, properly, cautiously

degree very, quite, extremely

focus only, especially, just

quantity a bit, a little, a lot

attitude hopefully, unfortunately, sadly

A great number of adverbs are formed by adding the ly to an adjective usefully, swiftly, importantly, but
some words that look like adverbs are in fact adjectives (e.g. costly, friendly) and to use these as an adverb
we have to put the adjective into a phrase like in a friendly way.
There are also several adverbs whose form is the same as the adjective fast and hard are the two most
obvious examples; but many people, especially in the spoken form, also prefer the following adjectival
forms in place of the adverbs quick, loud, separate and tight; for example, he speaks really loud, hold
tight. There is only one completely irregular adverb and that is well which is linked to the adjective good.
Just as trying to identify an adverb can be a problem, so can trying to give simple rules for their positioning
in a sentence. Some adverbs positions are relatively fixed, while others can occupy a number of different
slots in a sentence. Their position will also to some degree depend on the speakers intended meaning and
the part of the sentence that they wish to highlight. General rules-of-thumb are:

before the main verb we often eat out.

after an auxiliary or modal auxiliary they could never understand his accent.
at the beginning of a clause/sentence sometimes I see him at the station.
at the end of a clause/sentence she speaks every now and again.
before an adjective really hot
before an adverbial phrase he did it quickly in his usual way.
before an adverb rather a lot
Two positions where it is unacceptable to place adverbs are as follows: between the verb and object of the
sentence and between the verb and a clause beginning with to + an infinitive or a that-clause e.g.
(remember that the asterisk marks an unacceptable sentence).
*The doctor took quickly the patients pulse.
*He asked indignantly to leave.
One set of adverbs do not follow these guidelines and those are the so-called negative adverbs that occur
at the beginning of a sentence like scarcely, not only, seldom, rarely, never and so on. The whole word order
of the sentence will change to look like the question form:
Scarcely had he walked in, when the argument started.
Never had I seen such devastation.
Not only does she visit me occasionally, but she also phones every week.

Types of adverb

Time

The two most common adverbs of time that can replace adverbial expressions such as on Tuesday, next
week and last year are now and then. These usually appear at the end of the sentence. There are also a
number of time adverbs that express a relationship between the present and some other time in the past
or future; the most common ones are recently, just, currently, afterwards andsoon. The last two usually come
at the end of a clause, while just tends to occur immediately before the main verb or between two auxiliary
verbs. Recently and currently have a more flexible positioning since they can come in any of the three
positions just mentioned and also at the beginning of a clause.
Place

The only two main adverbs of place are here and there and they occur in the same positions
asnow and then.
Frequency

This set of adverbs includes words and phrases like sometimes, never, always, often, now and again, hardly
ever and occasionally. Their position is quite flexible, but the most common position is either before the
main verb or between two auxiliaries;
He hardly ever comes any more.
He has often been arrested for burglary.
At other times, for the sake of emphasis, we can put some of these adverbs at the beginning or the
end of a clause.
Sometimes shes on time, sometimes shes not.
They go out occasionally.
Manner

Adverbs of manner express how the action of the verb is carried out take it quickly! Shes been working well,
and as you can see from just these two examples, the best place for them is at the end of the clause or
sentence. However, the position can vary enormously depending on where we want to put the emphasis of
the sentence. See how many different ways you can say the sentencehe picked up the box using the
adverb gingerly. You should find that the sentence sounds acceptable English if you put the adverb at the
beginning and the end and also before the verb. Again, putting the adverb between the verb and its object
usually results in an unacceptable sentence.
Degree

These adverbs often answer the question how much? to what extent? and they are divided intointensifiers,
which strengthen the verb or adjective that they are qualifying and downtoners, which weaken them.
He was totally exhausted.
She read the document quite carefully.
It was a bit chilly.
He climbed down very steadily.
As we noted in the section on adjectives, we use adverbs like very, quite and extremely with gradeable
adjectives, but completely, totally and absolutely are used with ungradeable adjectives.
Focus

Adverbs of this type can help us to give what we are saying or writing a coherent structure and include
words that highlight specific information (particularly, especially, even), words that restrict (only, just, merely)
and words that refer to other parts of the text (too, also, eitheror). It is impossible to give many guidelines
concerning this range of adverbs since they all tend to have their own special features and grammatical
requirements. Often their meaning will depend on the context that they are used in.
Quantity

The main adverbs of quantity are much, a lot and a little. Much is normally used with negative sentences (I
dont get out much these days), a little with positive (affirmative) sentences (I know him a little) and a lot can
be used with both. The most common position for all of these is at the end of the clause or sentence.
Attitude

Attitude adverbs usually refer to the whole clause or sentence rather than just to a particular word or
phrase. The list of possible attitude adverbs includes: frankly, clearly, obviously, naturally, fortunately,
hopefully, really, surprisingly, astonishingly and apparently. Their position is quite flexible since they can occur
at the beginning and the end of a clause as well as immediately before the verb and before a complement:
Frankly , I dont think well win.
I dont think well win, frankly.
He obviously doesnt want to come.
Shes clearly the best person for the job.
You should note that most adverbs of attitude can also function as adverbs of manner; it depends on how
the adverb is used in a sentence and how it is spoken. The examples should help.

Clearly, its a question of choice. (attitude its obvious that)

I can see him quite clearly (manner there is no obstruction)
There are some native speakers who still object to the use of hopefully as an adverb of attitude and suggest
it should only be used as an adverb of manner as in its better to travel hopefully but quite why this one
word is singled in this way is not clear since, as we noted above, many of these attitude adverbs can be
adverbs of manner too, for example:
Frankly my dear, I dont give a damn. (attitude)
I would like to speak to you frankly. (manner)
But these examples dont seem to upset some people to the same extent as hopefully.

SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION
 SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION

BUILDING A SENTENCE

WHAT MAKES A COMPLETE SENTENCE?

SIMPLE SENTENCES

COMPOUND SENTENCES

COMPLEX SENTENCES

THE ANATOMY OF A SENTENCE

VERBS

SUBJECTS

PREDICATES

MORE ADVANCED TERMINOLOGY

OBJECTS

TRANSITIVE/INTRANSITIVE

ADVERBIALS

COMPLEMENTS

BUILDING A SENTENCE

A sentence is a group of words which starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop (.), question mark
(?) or exclamation mark (!). A sentence contains or implies a predicate and a subject.

Sentences contain clauses.

Simple sentences have one clause.

Compound sentences and complex sentences have two or more clauses.

Sentences can contain subjects and objects.

The subject in a sentence is generally the person or thing carrying out an action. The object in a sentence is
involved in an action but does not carry it out, the object comes after the verb.
For example:

The boy climbed a tree.

If you want to say more about the subject (the boy) or the object (the tree), you can add an adjective.

For example:

The young boy climbed a tall tree.

If you want to say more about how he climbed the tree you can use an adverb.

For example:

The young boy quickly climbed a tall tree.

The sentence becomes more interesting as it gives the reader or listener more information.

There are more things you can add to enrich your sentence.

Parts of a sentence Description

Adjective Describes things or people.

Adverb Alters the meaning of the verb slightly

a, an - indefinite articles
Article
the - definite articles

Conjunction Joins words or sentences together

Interjection A short word showing emotion or feeling

Noun Names things

Preposition Relates one thing to another

Pronoun used instead of a noun to avoid repetition

Proper noun (subject) The actual names of people or places etc.

Verb Action or doing word

For example:

WHAT MAKES A COMPLETE SENTENCE?

If it helps you, think about a sentence as if it were a skeleton, the skeleton contains various bones and
these bones are put together to form different parts of the body. So are sentences formed by words, the
words are the bones and they are put together in different ways to form sentences.
 But just because you put words together in the right order, it doesn't mean you will have a sentence that
makes sense.

Try this fun sentence generator (it's a computer programme, so there may be some issues. What the heck,
it's clever stuff - see if you can spot them:-

- See more at: http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/sentencetext.html#sthash.x23CQMRi.dpuf

Simple Sentences
A simple sentence contains a single subject and predicate. It describes only one thing, idea or question,
and has only one verb - it contains only an independent (main) clause.

Any independent clause can stand alone as a sentence. It has a subject and a verb and expresses a
complete thought.

For example:

Jill reads.
Even the addition of adjectives, adverbs, and prepositional phrases to a simple sentence does not change it
into a complex sentence.

For example:

The brown dog with the red collar always barks loudly.
Even if you join several nouns with a conjunction, or several verbs with a conjunction, it remains a simple
sentence.

For example:

The dog barked and growled loudly.

What is a Sentence?
A sentence is a set of words that tells a complete thought, typically containing a subject and predicate,
conveying a statement, question, exclamation or command. It starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop
(.), question mark (?) or exclamation mark (!).

Types of sentences
When people form sentences, they do many things.

They make statements or requests.

They ask questions.
They exclaim a powerful feeling or emotion.
There are four types of sentences that are normally used in the English language. They
are declarative (affirmative or positive), interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory. These types of
sentences help us express and convey all our thoughts and feelings to others when used in written as well as
oral communication. Lets learn about the sentences and its general form clearly.

1. Declarative sentences:
Declarative sentences are used to convey information and we always use them far more often than the other of
sentences (interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory). In a declarative sentence, the subject normally precedes
the predicate. It ends with a full stop (.).

Formation:

Rest of the sentence

Subject Verb (object + Adverb + Adjective + Compleme

I learn English at home.

Let us see the negative form.

Negative sentence:
A negative sentence is one indicating something is untrue or incorrect. In English grammar,

negative sentence is created by adding the negative words (no or not) after the auxiliary verb in the positively
stated sentence. It changes based on the tenses that are being used.
Formation:

Rest of the sentence

Subject AV+Not Verb (object + Adverb + Adjective + Com

I do not learn English at home.

2. Interrogative Sentence:
An interrogative sentence is a type of sentence which usually asks a question and it ends with a question mark.
They typically begin with a question words such as what, why, or how, or an auxiliary verb such as do, does, did,
can or would.

Types

There are two types of interrogative sentences.

 Yes/No Interrogatives

Yes/No questions usually will be answered by yes or no.

Formation:

Rest of the sentence

AV Subject Verb (object + Adverb + Adjective + Comple

Do you learn English at home?

Wh- Interrogatives or Information Questions

Information questions are used to ask about specific kinds of information. Information questions are also called
Wh questions because many of the words that are used to ask this type of question begin with Wh-.

Formation:

Rest of the sentence

(object + Adverb + Adjective +
QW AV Subject Verb Complement)?

Where do you learn English?

3. Imperative sentences:
Imperative sentences are the sentences, which express commands, advice, and suggestions. The second
person you is always addressed in the imperative sentences.
For example:

Come here!
it down!

4. Exclamatory Sentence
A type of sentence that expresses strong feelings by making an exclamation. It ends with an exclamation mark
(!). You might use it to show anger, confusion, love, happiness, or any other active emotion.
Here are some examples:

No, you cannot do this! (anger)

I dont want to go to her house! (frustration)
I scored three goals at the soccer game! (happiness)
I cant find the key! (confusion)
I love you! (love)
 I am going to my native! (elation)

Compound Sentences
Compound sentences are made up of two or more simple sentences combined using a conjunction such
as and, or or but. They are made up of more than one independent clause joined together with a co-
ordinating conjunction.

For example:

"The sun was setting in the west and the moon was just rising."
Each clause can stand alone as a sentence.

For example:

"The sun was setting in the west. The moon was just rising."
Every clause is like a sentence with a subject and a verb. A coordinating conjunction goes in the middle of
the sentence, it is the word that joins the two clauses together, the most common are (and, or, but)

For example:

I walked to the shops, but my husband drove.

I might watch the film, or I might visit my friends.
My friend enjoyed the film, but she didn't like the actor.

Complex Sentences
Complex sentences describe more than one thing or idea and have more than one verb in them. They are
made up of more than one clause, an independent clause (that can stand by itself) and a dependent
(subordinate) clause (which cannot stand by itself).

For example:

"My mother likes dogs that don't bark."

Dependent clauses can be nominal, adverbial or adjectival.

THE ANATOMY OF A SENTENCE

The Verb
The verb is the fundamental part of the sentence. The rest of the sentence, with the exception of the
subject, depends very much on the verb. It is important to have a good knowledge of the forms used after
each verb (verb patterns), for example: to tell [someone] TO DO [something]
Here we can see that the verb to tell is followed immediately by a person (the indirect object, explained
later), an infinitive with 'to', and, possibly, an object for the verb you substitute for DO.

Verbs also show a state of being. Such verbs, called BE VERBS or LINKING VERBS, include words such as:
am, is, are, was, were, be, been, being, became, seem, appear, and sometimes verbs of the senses like
tastes, feels, looks, hears, and smells.

For example:

"Beer and wine are my favourite drinks." The verb "are" is a linking (be) verb.
Fortunately, there are only a limited number of different verb patterns. Verbs can descibe
the action (something the subject actually does) or state (something that is true of the subject) of the
subject.

For example:

ACTION: I play football twice a week.

STATE: I've got a car.
Some verbs can represent both actions and states, depending on the context.

For example work:

ACTION: David's working in the bank.

STATE: David works in a bank.

Finding the Verb

When you analyze a sentence, first identify the verb. The verb names and asserts the action or state of the
sentence.

For example:

"Working at the computer all day made David's head ache."

The main verb of the sentence is "made", not working.

Verbs identify our activity or state.

For example:

eat, sleep, run, jump, study, think, digest, shout, walk ....

The Subject
The subject is the person or thing the sentence is 'about'. Often (but not always) it will be the first part of
the sentence. The subject will usually be a noun phrase (a noun and the words, such as adjectives, that
modify it) followed by a verb.
Finding the Subject
Once you determine the verb, ask a wh...? question of the verb. This will locate the subject(s).

For example:

David works hard.

o Who "works hard"?=David does=the subject.
Beer and wine are my favourite drinks.
o What "are my favourite drinks"? Beer and wine are=the subjects.
The subject(s) of a sentence will answer the questions, "who or what."

The Predicate
Once you have identified the subject, the remainder of the sentence tells us what the subject does or did.
This part of the sentence is the predicate of the sentence.

The predicate always includes the verb and the words which come after the verb. For example:

Michael Schumaker drove the race car.

o "Michael Schumaker" is the subject; "drove the race car" is the predicate.

MORE ADVANCED TERMINOLOGY

The Object
Some verbs have an object (always a noun or pronoun). The object is the person or thing affected by the
action described in the verb.

Objects come in two types, direct and indirect.

The direct object refers to a person or thing affected by the action of the verb.

For example:

"He opened the door. "- here the door is the direct object as it is the thing being affected by the
verb to open.
The indirect object refers to a person or thing who receives the direct object.

For example:

" I gave him the book." - here him (he)is the indirect object as he is the beneficiary of the action.
Transitive / Intransitive verbs
Verbs which don't have an object are called intransitive. Some verbs can only be intransitive (disagree). In
addition they cannot be used in the Passive Voice e.g. smile, fall, come, go.

For example:

David disagreed. - intransitive.

Verbs that have an object are called transitive verbs e.g. eat, drive, give.

For example:

David gave her a present.

Some verbs can be transitive or intransitive e.g. sing

For example:

Xavier Nadu sings. - intransitive.

Xavier Nadu sings pop songs. - transitive.
You can read more about transitive and intransitive verbs here.

Adverbials
An 'adverbial' or 'adverbial phrase' is a word or expression in the sentence that does the same job as an
adverb; that is, it tells you something about how the action in the verb was done.

For example:

I sometimes have trouble with adverbs.

He spoke very quietly.
I've read that book three times.
She's gone to the bank.
The first tells us the frequency of the action (sometimes), the second how he carried out the action
(quietly), and the third how many times the action has happened (three).

The fourth is a little different, as in this case the adverbial (gone to the bank) is more or less demanded by
the verb (has).

To remember the form of such verbs use your notebooks to write down the different forms.

For example:

to go [somewhere]
to put [something][somewhere]
This information is also useful when deciding the order of adverbials in a sentence. Unlike the previous
parts of the sentence, a sentence can contain an indefinite number of adverbials, although in practice it's a
good idea to keep them few in number.

Complement
A complement is used with verbs like be, seem, look etc. Complements give more information about the
subject or, in some structures, about the object.

There are various definitions of 'complement', which range from the very general (anything in the predicate
except the verb, including the direct object and adverbs) to the much more restrictive one used here.

A complement is the part of the sentence that gives you more information about the subject (a subject
complement) or the object (an object complement) of the sentence.

The complement to be used, if any, is dependent on the verb used in the sentence. Subject complements
normally follow certain verbs.

For example:

He is Spanish.
She became an engineer.
That man looks like John.
Object complements follow the direct object of the verb-

For example.

They painted the house red.

She called him an idiot!
I saw her standing there.
The complement often consists of an adjective or noun phrase, but can also be a participle phrase, as in
the last example. It is often not very clear whether a phrase is a complement or an adverbial.

- See more at: http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/sentencetext.html#sthash.x23CQMRi.dpuf

The most common writing mistakes in English can be split into three categories:

Grammar
Vocabulary (including spelling)
Register (the level and style of writing, i.e. formal, informal, or neutral)
These can all be minimized with a simple checklist and a bit of care and attention.
 Grammar
Of course some students make grammar mistakes because they don't know every grammar rule and
its exceptions.

But more students make grammar mistakes with things they do know. So here is a simple checklist of
things to do when you are writing:

Say it simply.
If you aren't sure if your grammar is correct, try to find another way to write something.

Check your tenses.

English has a lot of tenses. Are you using the most suitable one?

Check the word order.

Check any verb agreements.

For example: "he has" not "he have."
This is a basic, but common mistake even for high level students.
Think about these while you are writing, and when you have finished, go back and reread your work,
checking all of these items.

ALWAYS check your work after you finish writing, and if you are taking an exam, make sure you leave
enough time to do this at the end.

Vocabulary
This is harder to check, as it is common to misuse words, especially if you don't have a very wide
vocabulary.

If you find spelling difficult, develop some strategies to help you. Check the words you often get
wrong. (For more details read How to Improve Your Spelling a Guide for Students.)

It is a good idea to find lists of easily confused words and review them.

For example, many students confuse "affect" and "effect," but there are many other pairs of words it
would be useful to learn.

Ask yourself if you have used the best word for what you want to say, or is another one more
suitable?

For example, do you want to say "He came in quietly" or "He came in silently"?

Check collocations.

A collocation is a combination of words that is used together frequently. It's actually a common
phrase.

For example:
"Commit a crime" is a typical combination of words in English. You could say "make a crime," and it
wouldn't be incorrect, but many people tend to use these words together. So "commit a crime" is
a collocation.
Here is another example: we say "heavy traffic" not "strong traffic," and so forth.

So do the words you have used go together?

Have you used the correct prepositions? This is another common mistake, and if you are writing
quickly then it is easy to make mistakes here.

Register
Register means the level and style of writing, i.e. formal, informal, or neutral.

Some kinds of writing are always written in formal English. These can include (but are not limited to):

Business letters
Letters of complaint
Some letters of enquiry
Some kinds of essay
Reports
Some writing is usually informal. This can include:

Personal e-mails
Notes
Letters to friends and family
Kinds of writing usually written in a neutral register include:

Some essays
Reviews
Articles
Some letters
The register of the piece you are writing will determine your vocabulary, the structure, and some
grammar.

For example formal writing often doesn't use contractions (don't, doesn't, hasn't, weren't, etc.), and
uses the passive voice much more than informal writing.

This is quite a difficult aspect of writing to get right, but there are many books available, as well as
online guides which can help you.

Check, and then check again

The most important thing to do when you are writing is to check your work.

Most common writing mistakes in English are simple mistakes that you can find and correct with little
attention.

Common writing mistakes a neat tip

Many of you may know that Microsoft Word can check your spelling, and even grammar. But did you
know it can also check your style?

It can check and offer correction for style errors such as:

Words or phrases identified as clichs in the dictionary

Sentences that contain colloquial words and phrases, including "real," "awfully," and "plenty"
used as adverbs

Use of contractions (for example, "We won't leave 'til tomorrow" instead of "We will not leave
until tomorrow.")

Misused words

Unclear phrasing

And much more!