1. PARTS OF SPEECH Traditional grammar classifies words based on eight parts of speech: the verb, the noun, the pronoun, the adjective, the adverb, the preposition, the conjunction, and the interjection.
Each part of speech explains not what the word is, but how the word is used. In fact, the same word can be a noun in one sentence and a verb or adjective in the next.
1. The verb is perhaps the most important part of the sentence. A verb or compound verb asserts something about the subject of the sentence and express actions, events, or states of being. The verb or compound verb is the critical element of the predicate of a sentence.
2. A noun is a word used to name a person, animal, place, thing, and abstract idea. Some grammar books divide nouns into 2 groups - proper nouns and common nouns. Proper nouns are nouns which begin with a capital letter because it is the name of a specific or particular person place or thing. , Susan, Maple Street, Burger King.. Most nouns are common nouns and do not begin with a capital letter.
Many nouns have a special plural form if there is more than one. For example, we say one book but two books. Plurals are usually formed by adding an -s (books) or -es (boxes) but some plurals are formed in different ways (child - children, person - people, mouse - mice, sheep - sheep).
A noun can function in a sentence as a subject, a direct object, an indirect object, a subject complement, an object complement, an appositive, an adjective or an adverb.
3. A pronoun can replace a noun or another pronoun. You use pronouns like "he," "which," "none," and "you" to make your sentences less cumbersome and less repetitive.
Grammarians classify pronouns into several types, including the personal pronoun, the demonstrative pronoun, the interrogative pronoun, the indefinite pronoun, the relative pronoun, the reflexive pronoun, and the intensive pronoun.
4. An adjective modifies a noun or a pronoun by describing, identifying, or quantifying words. An adjective usually precedes the noun or the pronoun which it modifies. An adjective can be modified by an adverb, or by a phrase or clause functioning as an
5. An adverb can modify a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a phrase, or a clause. An adverb indicates manner, time, place, cause, or degree and answers questions such as "how," "when," "where," "how much".
While some adverbs can be identified by their characteristic "ly" suffix, most of them must be identified by untangling the grammatical relationships within the sentence or clause as a whole. Unlike an adjective, an adverb can be found in various places within the sentence.
6. A preposition links nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in a sentence. The word or phrase that the preposition introduces is called the object of the preposition.
A preposition usually indicates the temporal, spatial or logical relationship of its object to the rest of the sentence as in the following examples:1
The book is on the table.
The book is beneath the table.
In each of the preceding sentences, a preposition locates the noun "book" in space or in time.
7. A conjunction is a word that connects other words or groups of words. In the sentence Bob and Dan are friends the conjunction and connects two nouns and in the Coordinating conjunctions are conjunctions which connect two equal parts of a sentence. The most common ones are and, or, but, and so . Subordinating conjunctions connect two parts of a sentence that are not equal:after ; before; unless; although; if ; until ; as ;since ; because etc.Correlative conjunctions are pairs of conjunctions that work together both . . .and; either . . . or ; neither . . . nor; not only . . . but also
8. An interjection is a word added to a sentence to convey emotion. It is not grammatically related to any other part of the sentence.
You usually follow an interjection with an exclamation mark. Interjections are uncommon in formal academic prose, except in direct quotations.
2. NOTIONAL PARTS OF SPEECH / 3. FUNCTIONAL PARTS OF SPEECH
We distinguish between notional and structural parts of speech. The notional parts of speech perform certain functions in the sentence: those of subject, predicate, attribute, object, or adverbial modifier.
The notional parts of speech are: noun, adjective, pronoun, numeral, verb, adverb, words of the category of state, modal words, interjection.
The structural parts of speech either express relations between words or sentences or emphasize the meaning of words or sentences. They do not perform any independent function in the sentence. Here belong: preposition, conjunction, particle, article.
7. CASE OF ENGLISH NOUN Nouns and pronouns in English are said to display case according to their function in the sentence. They can be subjective or nominative (which means they act as the subject of independent or dependent clauses), possessive (which means they show possession of something else), or objective (which means they function as the recipient of action or are the object of a preposition).
Except for the possessive forms (usually formed by the addition of an apostrophe and the letter s), nouns do not change form in English. (This is one of the few ways in which English is easier than other languages.) Pronouns, however, do change form when they change case; these changes are most clearly illustrated among the personal pronouns. The chart below illustrates the different forms among the cases.
8.TYPES OF GENITIVE CASE
singular noun 's my father's house
plural noun ' my parents' house
irregular plural 's the children's room
We sometimes just add an apostrophe (') to a singular noun ending in -s, especially older and foregin names.
Socrates' ideas
But 's is more common
Dickens's novels Mr Levis's dog
We can add 's or ' to a whole phrase
the man next door's wife
Paul and Mary's dog
Possessive 's and other determiners
A noun cannot normally have an article or other determiner with it as well as a possessive word. Definite articles are usually dropped when possessives are used.
The car that is John's = John's car (NOT the John's car)
But a possessive word can of course have its own article.
The car that is the boss's = the boss's car
Compound nouns beginning withpossessive words (classifying genitive)are treated differently. Articles belonging to the possessive word are dropped.
He works as a Queen's Messenger. (Not ..a the Q M)
When we want to use a noun with a/an or this/that as well a possessive, we usually use the 'of mine' construction
She is a cousin of John's. (not ...a John'a cousin)
I saw that stupid boyfriend of Angie's. (not ...that Angie's stupid boyfriend)
Possessive without a noun
We can use a possessive without a following noun, if the meaning is clear:
Whose is that? -Peter's.
We often talk about people's houses, shops, firms and churches in this way.The apostrophe is often dropped in the names of shops and firms.
We had a nice time at John and Susan's last night.
I bought it at Smiths.
She got married at St. Joseph's.
In modern English expressions like: the doctor, the dentist, the hairdresser, the butcher are often used without 's
Alice is at the hairdresser('s).
9. ARTICLE AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS
The articles a/an and the belong to a group of words called detrminers. Articles normally come at the beginning of noun phrases, before adjectives.
A/an is called the indefinite article. The is called the definite article. Some/any is often used as the plural form of a/an. And if we have no article, this has a different meaning from all the others. So there are really 4 artisles.
Articles are used to show whether we are reffering to things that are known both to the speaker and to the listener (definite), or that are not known to them both (indefinite)
I've been to the doctor. (you know which doctor)
A doctor must like people. (any doctor at all)
Articles can also show whether we are talking about things in general or particular things.
There are some children in the garden. (some particular children)
Children usually start walking at around one year. (children in general)
Plural nouns cannot be used with a/an because a/an has a similar meaning to 'one', and uncauntable nouns are not generally used with a/an, though there are some exeptions.
10. USE OF ARTICLES WITH COUNTABLE CONCRETE NOUNS
Articles are used in different way with countable and uncountable nouns. Countable nouns are the names of separate objects, people, ideas etc. which we can count:
a cat three cats
a plan two plans
A singular countable noun normally has an article or other dererminer with it. We can say a cat, the cat, every cat, this cat, but not just cat.
In some common fixed expressions to do with place, time and movement, normally countable nouns are treated as uncountables, without articles:
to/at/from/in school
to/at/from university
by day at night
by car/bus/plane/train/tube on foot etc.
With place nouns, similar expressions can have different meanings:
Who smokes in class? (=...in the classroom)
Who smokes in the class? (=Who is a smoker...?)
Many normally uncauntable nouns can be treated as countable to express the meaning 'a type of'' or 'a portion of':
Have you got a shampoo for dry hair?
Three coffees, please.
11.Main functions of the indefinite article:
* An indefinite article (English a, an) is used before singular nouns that refer to any member of a group.
A cat is A mammal.
* an indefinite article is used when we talk about stg. and when we explain what it is
Susan is AN actress. This is A mango.
* an indefinite article is used when we talk about stg. first time (next time we should use the definite article THE)
I'm looking for A job. THE job must be well paid.
12. Use of articles with abstract nouns.
Articles with abstract nouns are not used.
13. Use of articles with non-countable concrete nouns (names of material)
We can't use of indefinite articles with non-countable nouns.
14.Articles with names of seasons and parts of the day.
* Usually articles are not used with parts of the day and names of seasons, but often the definite article is used (THE) : THE Summer, THE afternoon.
15. Articles with names of meal.
When we talk about concrete dishes articles are not used.
16.Articles with names of parts of the body.
With parts of the body are used indefinite articles. A neck, AN ear
18. Use of the definite article before proper names.
* Definite article is used in titles: Henry VIII( Henry THE Eight)
*Before the surnames which have the plural form: THE Clintons
* Before the names of seas, oceans, rivers etc. THE Baltic, THE Alps, THE Sahara
*Before the names of countries which have a plural form or have word "republic", "union", "kingdom" in their names
THE Netherlands, THE United Kingdom, THE Republic of Ireland
* before the names os cinemas, hotels, restaurants, etc. THE Hilton, THE British Museum, THE Beatles
19.Use of the indefinite articles before proper names.
*The indefinite article (A/AN) is used when we talk about unknown person or unidentified person.
There's A Mr.Brown on the phone! Look! A girl is waving to us.
20.Adjective and its semantic characteristic.
- denote properties and states, esp. size, shape, colour, age, evaluation etc.
- the properties denoted by them are often scalar, gradable
- primarily carry the inflectional category of grade
-the adjective class contains numerous pairs of gradable opposites/anonyms, eg: good-bad
22) Morphological characteristics of adjectives.
We usually cannot tel whether word is an adjective by looking at it in isolation becouse the form of a word does not necessarily indicate the syntactic function. Some syffixes are found only with adjectives. However many adjectives have no indentyfying form.
Four features are commonly considered to be characteristic of adjectives
They can freely occur in atributive/predicative function, they can be premodified by the intensifier VERY, they can take comperative or superlative form.
Morphologically, the -ly ending indicating "manner" occurs for the most part after adjectives: large-largely, beautiful-beautifully, quick-quickly, eager-eagerly, useful-usefully. (There are a few nouns which can occur before -ly, for example, friend (friendly), bubble (bubbly), love (lovely), but most of the pre- -l y words are adjectives.) The -ly ending itself usually marks an adverb: with a few exceptions like friendly, bubbly, lively, lovely, and deadly-adjectives all-a word ending with -ly is an adverb, but the part before it is an adjective.
Another morphological characteristic of many adjectives is that they can occur before the comparative and superlative suffixes -er and -est, or after more and most (which can be considered allomorphs of -er and -est): larger, largest; more beautiful, most beautiful. However, adverbs can also occur with more and most, for example, more slowly, so this property cannot be taken as definitional. Moreover, there are numerous adjectives which cannot occur with comparative and superlative suffixes: former, fake, financial, economic, and so on. (Expressions like *Mr. Brown is a more former senator than Mr. Green are impossible, although Mr. Brown is a former senator is fine.)
Syntactically (meaning "with respect to sentence structure," or, more generally, "having to do with sequences of words"), many adjectives can occur both between articles and nouns-the large car, a strange forest (attributive position)-and at the end of a sentence after a form of be-The car was large, the forest is strange (predicate position). These slots (individually or in conjunction) are not definitional for adjectives, because some of the same adjectives which do not permit comparison (see above) also do not occur predicatively (*This senator is former is bad) and because there are a few adjectives which only occur predicatively, never attributively (e.g., asleep: The boy is asleep works, but *the asleep boy doesn't). But both are useful indications that the word in question is likely to be an adjective, and privilege of occurrence in both positions is even stronger evidence that the word is an adjective. The slot Article Noun is not hospitable to verbs, adverbs, and minor classes*the reads boy, *a quickly horse, *the of table, *an it chair-but, besides adjectives, it can accept nouns: the stone wall, a coffee bean, the truck tire. It is sometimes said about these constructions that the modifying nouns are "used as adjectives." Indeed they are, if that means "used to modify nouns." However, they are unlike typical adjectives in three ways:
i. They don't occur before -er or -est ( *This tire is trucker than that one), or after more or most (*This wall is more stone than that one; *That wall is the most stone of all),
ii. Many do not occur in the "predicate" position (*This tire is truck), although some do (This wall is stone),
iii. They never occur before -ly (*The countrv wall stood there stonely).
Moreover, the modifying nouns are nouns by our previous definition, in that they can (although not in the contexts exemplified in this paragraph) take possessives and plurals, and occur after articles. Additionally, paraphrases exist, even for the contexts exemplified previously, which strongly suggest that the words in question are nouns: the wall made of stone, a bean of coffee, a tire for a truck. In these paraphrases, the words occur after prepositions, a spot hospitable only to nouns or noun phrases (in which nouns are the head words).
Let's define adjectives with a combination of positive and negative attributes: for our purposes, an adjective will be any word which has at least one of ie following positive attributes:
i. it can occur between Article and Noun
ii. it can occur in the slot (Art) N is____
and in addition has both of the following negative attributes:
i. it cannot occur with a plural
ii. cannot occur with a possessive
23) Syntactic functions of adjectives
Attributive and predicative
The adjective function as the head of an adjective phrase with or without modification. For the sake of simplicity, we refer to the functions of the ?adjective? when strictly speaking we should refer to the functions of ?adjective phrase?. For the same reason we generally exemplify the functions of the adjective phrase with the adjective alone.
In general ,adjectives that are restricted to attributive position, or that occur predominantly in attributive position, do not characterize the referent of the noun directly.
Restrictive Adjectives restrict the reference of the noun exclusively, particulary or chiefly
Adjectives are attributive when the premodify the head of the noun phrase.
Adjectives are predicative when they function as subject complement or object complement.
Adjectives can sometimes be postpositive they can immediately follow the noun or pronoun they modify.
Adjectives with complementation normally cannot have attributive position but require postposition.
Adjectives can function as head noun phrases which can be subject of the sentence, complement, object, and propositional complement .
Adjectives as noun-phrase heads do not inflect for number or for the genitive case and they usually require a definite determiner.
Adjectives can function as the sole realization of a verbless clause or as the head of an adjective phrase .
Adjectives (especially those that can be complement when the subject is eventive eg. That?s excellent) can be exclamations
Some adjectives are derived from nouns by means of suffixes. Adjectives that are rescricted to predicative position are most like verbs and adverbs
25) Morphological composition of adverbs. Some adverbs are formed from an adjective ly. When an adjective already ends in ?ly we do not add ?ly to it to make an adverb. Instead we use prepositiona phrase with fashion manner and way. Most participle adjectives ending in ?ed do not have an adverb form and we can use a similar preposition phrase. However some do have an adverb form with ?ly .
Some adverbs have two forms, one ending ?ly and the other not. We can sometimes use either of the two forms of the adverb without changing the meaning, although the form ending in ?ly is more usual in formal style.
In other cases there is a difference in the meaning of the adverb with and without ?ly.
26) Morphological characteristics of adverbs Morphologicaly we can distinguish three types of adverb of which two are closed classes (simple and compound), and one is an open class(derivational)
A) simple adverbs (just, only, well) many simple adverbs denote position and direction
B) compound adverbs (somehow, somewhere)
c) derivational adverbs the majority of derivational adverbs have the suffix ?ly by means of which new adverbs are created from adjectives.
Other less common, derivational suffixes are: e.g. wise ?clokwise, wise- sideways
27) Syntactic characteristics of adverb
The adverb functions as the head of an adverb phrase, with or without modification. For the sake of simplicity, we refer to the functions of the adverb when strictly speaking we should refer to the function of the adverb phrase. Becouse of its great heterogeneity, the adverb class is the most nebulous and puzzling of the traditionall word classess.
B. FUNCTIONS OF ADVERB PHRASES
The most usual syntactic functions of adverb phrases are the following:
(1) On a sentence or clause level adverb phrases can have the following syntactic function:
? Adverbial: They did it systematically.
(2) You can also find adverbs or adverb phrases within other phrases, most often modifying an adjective or an adverb:
? Premodifier of an adjective: We?re [very good].
? Premodifier of an adverb: We did it [very well].
? Premodifier of a preposition: They were standing [(right by) the door].
? Premodifier of a pronoun: [(Virtually all) of my friends] were there.
? Premodifier of a determiner: The results have [(virtually no) meaning].
? Premodifier of a numeral: [The chaps around forty to forty-five] are all?
? Premodifier of a noun: [The then managing editor]?
? Postmodifier of a noun: So you arrived [the day before].
? Postmodifier of an adjective: That?s [fair enough] then.
? Postmodifier of an adverb: [Oddly enough], it?s not raining.
? Complement of a preposition: You should?ve completed that [by now].
28Morphological composition and categorical characteristics of pronoun Syntactically, most pronouns function like like noun p. Rather than nouns. They combine in only a limited way with determiners and modifier. We can say, indees, that most pronouns, being intrinsically either definite or indefinite, incorporate their own determiner. In addition, some pronouns have morphological characteristics that nouns do not have: a)CASE: there is contrast between subjective and objective cases: I/me) PERSON: there is contrast between 1st 2nd and 3rd persons c) GENDER: there are overt grammatical contrast between personal and non personal gender and between musculine and feminine gender D) Number there morphologically unrelated number forms, as in I/we.. as opossed to the typical regular formation of noun prulars.
Case forms: Most pronouns in english have only two case form (common case and genitive case). However the five personal pronouns: I, we, he , she, they and the wh-pronoun who have a distinction between subjective and objective cases.
Personal, possesive and reflexive pronouns have (unlike nonus) distinctions of person. The three person may be defined as foolows:
1st person pronouns:I, me my mine, myself, we, us our, ours, ouerselves. The reference of these prononus includes the speaker(s)/ writer(s) of the messaage
2nd perrson pronouns: you, your, yours, yourself, yourselves
the reference of these prononus includes the addressee(s), but excludes the speaker(s)/ writer(s).
3rd person prononuss: he, him, his, himself.she, her.hers, herself, it, its , itself, they, them, their.theirs themselves. The reference of these pronouns excludes both speakre(s)/ writer(s) and addreesse(s)
Musculine and feminine gender:
The choice between musc. and femin. pronouns is primarily based on the sex of the person or animal reffered to.
The personal, reflexive and possesive pronouns have singular and plural forms which are morphologically unrelated.
The personal pronouns usually have definite meaning, and resemble the noun phrases introduced by the definite article in that they may have situational, anaphoric or cataphoric reference.
The reflexive pronouns and with ?self (singular) and ?selves (plural). The reflexive has two distinc uses: basic and emphatic. Basic: the reflexive pronaun function as object or complement and has the subject of its clause as its antecendent. Emphatic:the pronoun is in an appositional relation to its antecedent.Reflexive prononus in general show number contrast in the manner of nonus.
Possesive pronouns: consist traditinally of two series the first ?weak? set of possesive pronouns has a determinative function while the second ?stron? set has an independent function as a noun phrase. As the genetive forms of personal pronouns behave very much like the corresponding genitive noun construction
Relative pronouns introduce relative clause.
Interrogative pronouns: they correspond closely to interrogative determiners
Demonstrative pronouns: they have definite meaning and therefore their reference depends on the context shared by speaker/writer and hearer/reader.
29. Personal pronouns and their characteristics
English in common use today has seven personal pronouns:
? first-person singular (I)
? first-person plural (we)
? second-person singular and plural (you)
? third-person singular human or animate male (he)
? third-person singular human or animate female (she)
? third-person singular non-human or inanimate, or impersonal (it)
? third-person plural (they)
In English, it is standard to use personal pronouns explicitly (wyraźnie, jasno) even when the context already understood, or could easily be understood by reading the sentences that follow. For example, one does not normally use the word "he" to refer to somebody if the person reading or hearing the sentence does not know to whom one is referring.
In addition, personal pronouns must correspond to the correct gender, and number of people or objects being described. Using the word "it" in English to refer to a person, for example, is usually considered extremely derogatory. It is generally not accepted to use a singular version of a pronoun for a plural noun, and vice versa. An exception is the informal use of they to refer to one person when sex is unknown: "If somebody took my book, they'd better give it back"
Pronouns usually show the basic distinctions of person (typically a three-way distinction between first, second, and third persons) and number (typically singular vs. plural), but they may also feature other categories such as case (nominative we vs. objective us), gender (masculine he vs. feminine she ), and animacy or humanness (human who vs. nonhuman what) . These can of course vary greatly
30 Possessive pronouns and their characteristics.
possessive forms (my/your/her/his/their/our/etc. and mine/yours/hers/his/ours/theirs etc.)
A possessive pronoun is a part of speech that attributes ownership to someone or something. Like all other pronouns, it substitutes a noun phrase and can prevent its repetition. For example, in the phrase, "These glasses are mine, not yours", the words "mine" and "yours" are possessive pronouns and stand for "my glasses" and "your glasses," respectively.
None of the possessive pronouns are spelled with an apostrophe.
31Reflexive pronouns and their characteristics. A reflexive pronoun is a pronoun that is preceded by the noun or pronoun to which it refers (its antecedent) within the same clause. In generative grammar, a reflexive pronoun is an anaphor that must be bound by its antecedent. The reflexive pronouns are myself, yourself, thyself, himself (in some dialects, "hisself"), herself, itself, oneself, ourselves, yourselves, and themselves (in some dialects, "theirselves").
EG. He shot himself.
The reflexive pronoun can also be used to give more emphasis to the subject or object.
EG. I did it myself. (I want to emphasise the fact that I did it.)
32Demonstrative pronouns and their characteristics.
This; that; these; those; none and neither are Demonstrative Pronouns that substitute nouns when the nouns they replace can be understood from the context. They also indicate whether they are replacing singular or plural words and give the location of the object:
EXAMPLES OF DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS:
This: singular and near the speaker
That: singular and at a distance from the speaker
These: plural and near the speaker
Those: plural and at a distance from the speaker
Eg. 1.: You take these bags and I'll take those. - ("Those" refers to bags that are at a distance from the speaker.)
Eg. 2: We bought this last year - ("This" refers to something that is sing., near the speaker and readily understood in the context of the conversation.)
33 Indefinite pronouns and their characteristics. The indefinite pronouns (everybody/anybody/somebody/all/each/every/some/none/one) do not substitute for specific nouns but function themselves as nouns (Everyone is wondering if any is left.)
One of the chief difficulties we have with the indefinite pronouns lies in the fact that "everybody" feels as though it refers to more than one person, but it takes a singular verb. (Everybody is accounted for.) If you think of this word as meaning "every single body," the confusion usually disappears. The indefinite pronoun none can be either singular or plural, depending on its context. None is nearly always plural (meaning "not any") except when something else in the sentence makes us regard it as a singular (meaning "not one"), as in "None of the food is fresh." Some can be singular or plural depending on whether it refers to something countable or noncountable.
There are other indefinite pronouns, words that double as Determiners:
enough, few, fewer, less, little, many, much, several, more, most, all, both, every, each, any, either, neither, none, some
? Few will be chosen; fewer will finish.
? Little is expected.
34 Negative pronouns and their characteristics. A pronoun that indicates the absence of people or other entities. In English, the negative pronouns are "neither," "nobody," "none," "no one" and "nothing." In Spanish, the negative pronouns are nada (meaning "nothing"), nadie (meaning "nobody") and ninguno (meaning "none" and referring to people or things). (Ninguno also exists in a feminine form, ninguna, and very rarely in a plural form that is sometimes considered substandard, ningunos or ningunas.) Note that in both languages many of these words are sometimes used as other parts of speech. In both English and Spanish, the the negative pronouns can function as either the subject of a sentence or the object of a verb or preposition. Because Spanish permits (and sometimes requires) the use of double negatives in sentences where English does not, negative pronouns aren't always translated as negative pronouns in English. Note that while the English "none" is usually treated as a grammatical plural, the Spanish equivalent ninguno is singular.
Examples:
Nobody can guarantee you a number one position.
In reality, they know nothing.
35Universal pronouns and their characteristics.
The table below provides examples of some universal pronouns in use.
Each The family has five boys. Each is doing well in his own field.("Each" refers to 'every single one of the five boys')
The campus has twenty buildings. Each has its own character.("Each" refers to 'every single one of the twenty buildings')
All Fifty guests were invited. All the guests are here.("All" refers to 'the fifty guests as a group')
I have ordered five books. All of them have arrived.("All" refers to 'all the five books')
Everyone There are forty students in Ahmad's class. Everyone likes him.("Everyone" refers to 'every single one of the forty students')
Everything Everything went on smoothly at the party.("Everything" refers to 'every single activity')
Universal pronouns indicate all objects (persons and nonpersons)
as one whole or any representative of the group separately.
They are: all, both, each, every, everything, everybody, everyone,
and either.
Of these only everybody and everyone have the category of
case (everybody - everybody's, everyone - everyone's), others have
no grammatical categories.
These pronouns, as can be seen from the definition, differ in
their reference.
Some universal pronouns (all, everybody) have always
collective or all-embracing reference.
Two pronouns (both, either) indicate a group comprising two
persons or non-persons treated either as a whole (both) or as
consisting of individual objects in a group of two (either - ??????
?? ????). In accordance with their reference both takes a predicate
verb in the plural and either - in the singular. The article is usually
placed after both.
Some pronouns (every, each, and either) always have
individual reference (??????, ??????), therefore they agree with
the predicate-verb in the singular.
e.g. She searched every corner, but found nothing.
Each of them keeps silent.
Two pronouns (everybody, everyone) may have both
collective and individual reference. In the first case it corresponds
to the Russian ???, in the second case to the Russian ??????. This
or that reference is generally marked not so much by the predicateverb,
as by correlation with personal or possessive pronouns.
36Detaching pronouns and their characteristics. Detaching pronouns indicate the detachment of some object
from other objects of the same class. There are only two pronouns of
this subclass - other, another. They are used both as noun-pronouns
and as adjective-pronouns.
e.g. One of the girls was pretty, while the other was terribly
plain.
He gulped one cup, then another.
I live on the other side.
Both other and another have the category of case (other -
other's, another - another's), but only other has the category of
number (other -others).
The pronoun other has dual reference, personal and nonpersonal,
and correlates with all subclasses of nouns in the singular
and in the plural:
e.g. Other times have come, other people are of importance.
Unlike the majority of pronouns, other (both as a nounpronoun
and as an adjective-pronoun) can be preceded by the
definite article and other determiners.
e.g. The other tree was half-withered.
Then he gave me his other hand.
That other question quite upset me.
Show me some other pictures.
His sister's other child was only five then.
In these sentences other is used as an attribute. The attributive
function can also be performed by the noun-pronoun other in the
genitive case, as in: The other's mouth twitched where other's stands
for some noun from the previous context.
The pronoun another also has a dual reference, but it
correlates only with count nouns in the singular.
e.g. Will you have another cup?
Then another runner came into view.
Another has two meanings:
1) a different one
e.g. I don't very much like this dress, will you show me
another? (??????)
2) one more, one in addition to the one or ones mentioned
before
e.g. She asked me a question, then another. (??? ????)
Detaching pronouns can be used as subject, object, adverbial modifier and attribute.
37Reciprocal pronouns and their characteristics. The reciprocal pronouns are each other and one another. They are convenient forms for combining ideas. If Bob gave Alicia a book for Christmas and Alicia gave Bob a book for Christmas, we can say that they gave each other books (or that they gave books to each other).
? My mother and I give each other a hard time.
If more than two people are involved (let's say a whole book club), we would say that they gave one another books. This rule (if it is one) should be applied circumspectly. It's quite possible for the exchange of books within this book club, for example, to be between individuals, making "each other" just as appropriate as "one another."
Reciprocal pronouns can also take possessive forms:
? They borrowed each other's ideas.
? The scientists in this lab often use one another's equipment.
38. Interrogative pronouns and their characteristics. The interrogative pronouns (who/which/what) introduce questions. (What is that? Who will help me? Which do you prefer?) Which is generally used with more specific reference than what. If we're taking a quiz and I ask "Which questions give you the most trouble?", I am referring to specific questions on that quiz. If I ask "What questions give you most trouble"? I could be asking what kind of questions on that quiz (or what kind of question, generically, in general) gives you trouble. The interrogative pronouns also act as Determiners: It doesn't matter which beer you buy. He doesn't know whose car he hit. In this determiner role, they are sometimes called interrogative adjectives.
Like the relative pronouns, the interrogative pronouns introduce noun clauses, and like the relative pronouns, the interrogative pronouns play a subject role in the clauses they introduce:
? We know who is guilty of this crime.
? I already told the detective what I know about it.
39.Conjunctive pronouns and their characteristics: A Conjunctive pronoun is one that connects a clause to the rest of the sentence.
The conjunctive pronouns what, whatever, whatsoever, whoever, whosoever, whomever, whomsoever, whichever, and whichsoever, Who, whose, whom, which, what.are used in indefinite noun clauses.
Conjunctive pronouns are identical with the interrogative
pronouns as to their morphological, referential and syntactical
characteristics. They refer to persons and non-persons. The
difference between the two subclasses lies in that the conjunctive
pronouns, along with their syntactical function in the clause, connect
subordinate clauses to the main clause. They are used to connect
subject, predicative, and some adverbial clauses, or rather to indicate
the subordinate status of these clauses, as the sentence may begin
with the clause they introduce.
e.g. Who did it will repent. (who opens the subject clause)
I know who did it. (who opens the object clause)
They were what you call model girls. (what opens the
predicative clause)
Whatever you may do you can't save the situation.
(whatever opens the adverbial concessive clause)
Conjunctive pronouns always combine two functions -
notional and structural. They are notional words because they
function as parts of the sentence within a clause and they are
structural words because they serve as connectors or markers of the
subordinate clause.
The compounds whoever, whatever and whichever introduce
subject and adverbial clauses and have a concessive meaning:
e.g. Whoever told you this may be mistaken.
Whichever you choose, I'll help you.
Whatever may be the consequences, I insist on going on.
40.Relative pronouns and their characteristics: The relative pronouns (who/whoever/which/that) relate groups of words to nouns or other pronouns (The student who studies hardest usually does the best.). The word who connects or relates the subject, student, to the verb within the dependent clause (studies). Choosing correctly between which and that and between who and whom leads to what are probably the most Frequently Asked Questions about English grammar. For help with which/that, refer to the Notorious Confusables article on those words (including the hyperlink to Michael Quinion's article on this usage and the links to relevant quizzes). Generally, we use "which" to introduce clauses that are parenthetical in nature (i.e., that can be removed from the sentence without changing the essential meaning of the sentence). For that reason, a "which clause" is often set off with a comma or a pair of commas. "That clauses," on the other hand, are usually deemed indispensable for the meaning of a sentence and are not set off with commas. The pronoun which refers to things; who (and its forms) refers to people; that usually refers to things, but it can also refer to people in a general kind of way. For help with who/whom refer to the section on Consistency. We also recommend that you take the quizzes on the use of who and whom at the end of that section.
The expanded form of the relative pronouns ? whoever, whomever, whatever ? are known as indefinite relative pronouns. A couple of sample sentences should suffice to demonstrate why they are called "indefinite":
? The coach will select whomever he pleases.
? He seemed to say whatever came to mind.
? Whoever crosses this line first will win the race.
What is often an indefinite relative pronoun:
? She will tell you what you need to know.
41. 42 ?
A numeral is a word, functioning most typically as an adjective or pronoun, that expresses a
? number, and
? relation to the number, such as one of the following:
o Quantity
o Sequence
o Frequency
o Fraction
Cardinal numeral- A cardinal numeral is a numeral of the class whose members are
-considered basic in form
-used in counting, and
-used in expressing how many objects are referred to.
Distributive numeral- A distributive numeral is a numeral which expresses a group of the number specified.(In pairs, By the dozen)
Multiplicative numeral- A multiplicative numeral is a numeral that expresses how many fold or how many times.(once, twice)
Ordinal numeral- An ordinal numeral is a numeral belonging to a class whose members designate positions in a sequence.(First, second, third)
Partitive numeral- A partitive numeral is a numeral that expresses a fraction. (half, third)
43. Morphological characteristics of statives.
A stative verb is one which asserts that one of its arguments has a particular property (possibly in relation to its other arguments). Statives differ from other aspectual classes of verbs in that they are static; they have no duration and no distinguished endpoint. Verbs which are not stative are often called dynamic verbs.
44. Modal words and their semantic division.
One of these verb forms: can, could, may, might, shall, should, will, would, must, ought to, used to, need, had better, and dare. They are all used with other verbs to express ideas such as possibility, permission, or intention.
45. Interjection and its types.
An interjection is a part of speech that usually has no grammatical connection with the rest of the sentence and simply expresses emotion on the part of the speaker, although most interjections have clear definitions. Filled pauses such as uh, er, um, are also considered interjections. Interjections are generally uninflected function words and have sometimes been seen as sentence-words, because they can replace or be replaced by a whole sentence (they are holophrastic). Sometimes, however, interjections combine with other words to form sentences, but not with finite verbs.
46. Synthetical and analytical verb forms.
English verbs come in several forms. For example, the verb to sing can be: to sing, sing, sang, sung, singing or sings. English tenses may be quite complicated, but the forms that we use to make the tenses are actually very simple! With the exception of the verb to be, English main verbs have only 4, 5 or 6 forms. To be has 9 forms. Do not confuse verb forms with tenses. We use the different verb forms to make the tenses, but they are not the same thing.
Forms: Infinitive, base- imperative, base- present simple, Base - After modal auxiliary verbs, Past simple, Past Participle, Present Participle, 3rd person singular( present simple).
47. Morphological composition of verbs
- According to their morphological composition verbs can be divided into:
- Simple verbs - consist of only one root morpheme: ask, build, go
- Derivative verbs - are composed of one root morpheme and one or more derivational morphemes (prefixes and suffixes).The main verb forming suffixes are: -ate, -en, -fy, -ize, as in:organize, justify, blacken, decorate. The most widely spread prefixes are: de-, dis-, mis-, re, un-, as in: decompose, dislike, misunderstand, rewrite, and unpack.
- Compound verbs consist of at least two stems: overgrow,undertake.
- Phrasal verbs consist of a verbal stem and an adverbial particle, which is sometimes referred to as postposition. Postposition often changes the meaning of the verb with which it is associated. Thus there are phrasal verbs whose meaning is different from the meaning of their components: e.g. to give up, to give in. There are other phrasal verbs in which the original meaning is preserved: to stand up, to sit down, to come in, to take off, to put on.
48. Semantic classifications of the verb
1. Causative/inchoative alternation
2. Middle alternation
3. Instrument subject alternation
4. *With/against alternation
5. *Conative alternation
6. *Body-Part possessor ascension alternation:
7. Unintentional interpretation available (some verbs)
49.Category of tense of the verb
In English, there are three basic tenses: present, past, and future. Each has a perfect form, indicating completed action; each has a progressive form, indicating ongoing action; and each has a perfect progressive form, indicating ongoing action that will be completed at some definite time.
50. Category of aspect of the verb.
? Perfective (aorist, simple; see above): 'I struck the bell.' (single action)
? Perfect (sometimes confusingly called "perfective"; see above): 'I have arrived at the cinema.' (hence, I am now in the cinema)
? Progressive (continuous): 'I am eating.' (action is in progress)
? Habitual: 'I walk home from work.' (every day)
'I would walk [OR: used to walk] home from work.' (past habit)
? Imperfective (either progressive or habitual): 'I am walking to work' (progressive) or 'I walk to work every day' (habitual).
? Prospective: 'I am about to eat' OR: 'I am going to eat."
? Recent Perfect or After Perfect: 'I just ate' OR: 'I am after eating." (Hiberno-English)
? Inceptive: 'I am beginning to eat.'
? Inchoative (not clearly distinguished from prospective): 'The apples are about to ripen.'
? Continuative: 'I am still eating.'
? Terminative: 'I am finishing my meal.'
? Conative: 'I am trying to eat.'
? Cessative: 'I am quitting smoking.'
? Defective : 'I almost fell.'
? Pausative: 'I stopped working for a while.'
? Resumptive: 'I resumed sleeping.'
? Punctual: 'I slept.'
? Durative: 'I slept for an hour.'
? Delimitative: 'I slept for a while.'
? Protractive: 'The argument went on and on.'
? Iterative: 'I read the same books again and again.'
? Frequentative: 'It sparkled', contrasted with 'It sparked'. Or, 'I run around', vs. 'I run'.
? Experiential: 'I have gone to school many times.'
? Intentional: 'I listened carefully.'
? Accidental: 'I knocked over the chair.'
? Generic: 'Mangoes grow on trees.'
? Intensive: 'It glared.'
? Moderative: 'It shone.'
? Attenuative: 'It glimmered.'
? Semelfactive (momentane): 'The mouse squeaked once.' (contrasted to 'The mouse squeaked/was squeaking.')
51. Category of voice of the verb
Voice is the form of the verb which serves to show whether the subject of the sentence is the agent (the doer) or the object of the action expressed by the predicate verb. There are two voices in English ? the active voice and the passive voice.
The active voice shows that the person or thing denoted by the subject of the sentence is the agent of the action expressed by the predicate verb, that it acts.
e.g. ?I deny that,? said John.
We know you?ve been cheating us.
The passive voice serves to show that the person or thing denoted by the subject of the sentence is not the agent (doer) of the action expressed by the predicate verb but is the object (receiver) of this action.
e.g. Students are examined twice a year.
This tree was planted by my grandfather.
52. Category of mood of the verb
The meaning of the category of mood is the attitude of the speaker or the writer towards the content of the sentence, whether the speaker considers the action real, unreal, desirable, necessary, etc.
There are 3 moods in English:
a) the indicative ( tr. ozn.)
b) the imperative (tr. rozkaz.)
c) the subjunctive (tr. przypusz. ?)
53 Present indefinite/simple tense ? formation, meaning and usage
Present simple
We use:
1)For permanent states, repeated actions and daily routines
2)For general truths and laws of nature
3)For timetables (planes, trains, etc. and programmes
4)For sports commentaries, reviews and narration
5)To give instructions or directions (instead of the imperative)
The PS is used with the following time expressions: usually, often, always, etc., everyday/ week/ month/ year, in the morning/ afternoon/ evening, at night, at the weekend, on Mondays, etc.
Example: The plane from Brussels arrives at 8.30
Construction: subject verb (in 3 personal form we add ?s or ?es)
Question: Do/Does(does-in 3 personal form) subject verb
Negative: Subject do/does not verb
54 Present progressive/continuous tense ? formation, meaning and usage
Present continuous
We use:
1)For actions taking place now, a t the moment of speaking
2)For temporary actions; that is actions that are going on around now, but not at the actual moment of speaking, for example: I?m looking for a new job these days
3)With adverbs such as: always, constantly, continually, etc. for actions which happen very often, usually to express annoyance, irritation or anger, for example: I?, always meeting Sara when I go shopping
4)For actions that we have already arranged to do in the near future, especially when the time and place have been decided
5)For changing or developing situations
The PC is used with the following time expressions: now, at the moment, at present, these days, still, nowadays, today, tonight, etc.
Example: I?m going to school at the moment
Construction: Subject the right form of the verb ?to be? ing
Question: the right form of the verb ?to be? subject verb ing
Negative: Subject the right form of the verb ?to be? not verb ing
55 Present perfect tense ? formation, meaning and usage
Present Perfect
We use:
1)For an action which started in the past and continues up to the present, especially with state verbs such as be, have, like, know, etc. In this case we often use for and since
2)For an action which has recently finished and whose result is visible in the present
3)For an action which happened at an unsteadied time in the past. The exact time is not mentioned because it is either unknown or unimportant. The emphasis is placed on the action.
4)For an action which has happened within a specific time period which is not over at the moment of speaking. We often use words and expressions such as today, this morning/ evening/ week, etc.
Example: I have broken my leg
We use the PP to announce a piece of news and the past simple or past continuous to give more details about it.
The PP is used with the following time expressions: for, since, already, yet, always, just, ever, never, so far, today, this week/month, etc. how long, lately, recently, still, etc.
Construction: Subject the right form of the verb ?to have (has/have) past participle (for regular verb we add ?ed at the end of the verb)
Question: the right form of the verb ?to have (has/have) subject past participle (for regular verb we add ?ed at the end of the verb)
Negative: Subject the right form of the verb ?to have (has/have) not past participle (for regular verb we add ?ed at the end of the verb)
56 Present perfect continuous tense ? formation, meaning and usage
Present perfect continuous
We use:
1)To put emphasis on the duration of an action which started in the past and continuous up to the present, especially with time expressions such as for, since, all morning/ day/ year, etc.
2)For an action which started in the past and lasted for some time. The action may have finished or may still be going on. The result of the action is visible in the present
3)To express anger, irritation or annoyance
With the verbs like, work, teach and feel=(have a particular emotion) we can use the present perfect or present perfect continuous with no difference in meaning, example: We have lived/ have been living here for 20 years.
The PPC is used with the following time expressions: for, since, how long, lately, recently
Example: Somebody has been giving away our plans
Construction: Subject the right form of the verb ?to have (has/have) been verb -ing
Question: the right form of the verb ?to have (has/have) subject been verb -ing
Negative: Subject the right form of the verb ?to have (has/have) not been verb -ing
57 Past indefinite/simple tense ? formation, meaning and usage
Past simple
We use:
1)For an action which happened at a definite time in the past. The time is stated, already known or implied
2)For actions which happened immediately one after the another in the past
3)For past habits or states which are now finished.
The PS is used with the following time expressions: yesterday, then, when, how long ago??, last night/ week/ month, etc. three days / hours/ weeks, etc. ago
Example: First she paid the driver, then she go out of the taxi
Construction: subject the verb in the past (second column) or if the verb is regular we add ?ed at the end of the verb
Question: did subject verb
Negative: subject did not verb
58 Past progressive/continuous tense ? formation, meaning and usage
Past Continuous
We use:
1)For an action which was in progress at a stated time in the past. We don?t mention when the action started or finished
2)For an action which was in progress when another action interrupted it. We use the PC for the action in the progress (longer action) and the past simple for the action which interrupted it (shorter action)
3)For two or more simultaneous past actions
4)To describe atmosphere, setting, etc. in the introduction to a story before we describe the main events
The PC is used with the following time expressions: when, while, as, all morning/ evening/ day/ night, etc.
Example: She was talking on the mobile phone while she was driving to work
Construction: Subject the right form of the verb ?to be? in the past tense (was/were) verb -ing
Question: the right form of the verb ?to be? in the past tense (was/were) subject verb -ing
Negative: Subject the right form of the verb ?to be? in the past tense (was/were) not verb -ing
59 Past perfect tense ? formation, meaning and usage
Past perfect
We use:
1)For an action which happened before another past action or before a stated time in the past
2)For an action which finished in the past and whose result was visible in the past
The PP is the past equivalent of the present perfect
The PP is used with the following time expressions: before, after, already, just, for, since, till/ until, when, by, by the time, never, etc.
Example: She had finished work when she met her friends for coffee.
Construction: subject had past participle or if the verb is regular we add ?ed at the end of the verb
Question: Had subject past participle or if the verb is regular we add ?ed at the end of the verb
Negative: subject had not past participle or if the verb is regular we add ?ed at the end of the verb
60 Past perfect continuous tense ? formation, meaning and usage
Past perfect continuous
We use:
1)To put emphasis on the duration of an action which started and finished in the past before another past action or a stated time in the past, usually with since or for
2)For an action which lasted for some time in the past and whose result was visible in the past.
The PPC is the past equivalent of the present perfect continuous
The PPC is used with the following time expressions: for, since, how long, before, until, etc.
Example: they had been looking for a house for six months before they found one they liked
Construction: Subject had been verb -ing
Question: Had subject been verb -ing
Negative: Subject had not been verb -ing
61. Future indefinite/simple tense ? formation, meaning and usage.
Simple Future has two different forms in English: "will" and "be going to." Although the two forms can sometimes be used interchangeably, they often express two very different meanings. These different meanings might seem too abstract at first, but with time and practice, the differences will become clear. Both "will" and "be going to" refer to a specific time in the future.
FORM Will:
[will verb]
Examples:
? You will help him later.
? Will you help him later?
? You will not help him later.
FORM Be Going To:
[am/is/are going to verb]
Examples:
? You are going to meet Jane tonight.
? Are you going to meet Jane tonight?
? You are not going to meet Jane tonight.
Positive sentences:
Subject Auxiliary verb Verb
I/a dog etc. will go/take etc.
Questions (interrogative sentences):
Auxiliary verb Subject Verb
will I/a dog etc. go/take etc.
Negative sentences:
Subject Auxiliary verb not Verb
I/a dog etc. will not/won't go/take etc.
USE 1 "Will" to Express a Voluntary Action
"Will" often suggests that a speaker will do something voluntarily. A voluntary action is one the speaker offers to do for someone else. Often, we use "will" to respond to someone else's complaint or request for help. We also use "will" when we request that someone help us or volunteer to do something for us. Similarly, we use "will not" or "won't" when we refuse to voluntarily do something.
Examples:
? I will send you the information when I get it.
? I will translate the email, so Mr. Smith can read it.
? Will you help me move this heavy table?
? Will you make dinner?
? I will not do your homework for you.
? I won't do all the housework myself!
? A: I'm really hungry.
B: I'll make some sandwiches.
? A: I'm so tired. I'm about to fall asleep.
B: I'll get you some coffee.
? A: The phone is ringing.
B: I'll get it.
USE 2 "Will" to Express a Promise
"Will" is usually used in promises.
Examples:
? I will call you when I arrive.
? If I am elected President of the United States, I will make sure everyone has access to inexpensive health insurance.
? I promise I will not tell him about the surprise party.
? Don't worry, I'll be careful.
? I won't tell anyone your secret.
USE 3 "Be going to" to Express a Plan
"Be going to" expresses that something is a plan. It expresses the idea that a person intends to do something in the future. It does not matter whether the plan is realistic or not.
Examples:
? He is going to spend his vacation in Hawaii.
? She is not going to spend her vacation in Hawaii.
? A: When are we going to meet each other tonight?
B: We are going to meet at 6 PM.
? I'm going to be an actor when I grow up.
? Michelle is going to begin medical school next year.
? They are going to drive all the way to Alaska.
? Who are you going to invite to the party?
? A: Who is going to make John's birthday cake?
B: Sue is going to make John's birthday cake.
USE 4 "Will" or "Be Going to" to Express a Prediction
Both "will" and "be going to" can express the idea of a general prediction about the future. Predictions are guesses about what might happen in the future. In "prediction" sentences, the subject usually has little control over the future and therefore USES 1-3 do not apply. In the following examples, there is no difference in meaning.
Examples:
? The year 2222 will be a very interesting year.
? The year 2222 is going to be a very interesting year.
? John Smith will be the next President.
? John Smith is going to be the next President.
? The movie "Zenith" will win several Academy Awards.
? The movie "Zenith" is going to win several Academy Awards.
IMPORTANT
In the Simple Future, it is not always clear which USE the speaker has in mind. Often, there is more than one way to interpret a sentence's meaning.
No Future in Time Clauses
Like all future forms, the Simple Future cannot be used in clauses beginning with time expressions such as: when, while, before, after, by the time, as soon as, if, unless, etc. Instead of Simple Future, Simple Present is used.
Examples:
? When you will arrive tonight, we will go out for dinner. Not Correct
? When you arrive tonight, we will go out for dinner. Correct
ADVERB PLACEMENT
The examples below show the placement for grammar adverbs such as: always, only, never, ever, still, just, etc.
Examples:
? You will never help him.
? Will you ever help him?
? You are never going to meet Jane.
? Are you ever going to meet Jane?
ACTIVE / PASSIVE
Examples:
? John will finish the work by 5:00 PM. ACTIVE
? The work will be finished by 5:00 PM. PASSIVE
? Sally is going to make a beautiful dinner tonight. ACTIVE
? A beautiful dinner is going to be made by Sally tonight. PASSIVE
62. Future progressive/continuous tense ? formation, meaning and usage.
Future Continuous has two different forms: "will be doing " and "be going to be doing." Unlike Simple Future forms, Future Continuous forms are usually interchangeable.
FORM Future Continuous with "Will"
[will be present participle]
Examples:
? You will be waiting for her when her plane arrives tonight.
? Will you be waiting for her when her plane arrives tonight?
? You will not be waiting for her when her plane arrives tonight.
FORM Future Continuous with "Be Going To "
[am/is/are going to be present participle]
Examples:
? You are going to be waiting for her when her plane arrives tonight.
? Are you going to be waiting for her when her plane arrives tonight?
? You are not going to be waiting for her when her plane arrives tonight.
REMEMBER: It is possible to use either "will" or "be going to" to create the Future Continuous with little difference in meaning.
How do we make the Future Continuous Tense?
The structure of the future continuous tense is:
subject auxiliary verb WILL auxiliary verb BE main verb
invariable invariable present participle
will be base ing
For negative sentences in the future continuous tense, we insert not between will and be. For question sentences, we exchange the subject and will. Look at these example sentences with the future continuous tense:
subject auxiliary verb auxiliary verb main verb
I will be working at 10am.
You will be lying on a beach tomorrow.
- She will not be using the car.
- We will not be having dinner at home.
? Will you be playing football?
? Will they be watching TV?
USE 1 Interrupted Action in the Future
Use the Future Continuous to indicate that a longer action in the future will be interrupted by a shorter action in the future. Remember this can be a real interruption or just an interruption in time.
Examples:
? I will be watching TV when she arrives tonight.
? I will be waiting for you when your bus arrives.
? I am going to be staying at the Madison Hotel, if anything happens and you need to contact me.
? He will be studying at the library tonight, so he will not see Jennifer when she arrives.
Notice in the examples above that the interruptions (marked in italics) are in Simple Present rather than Simple Future. This is because the interruptions are in time clauses, and you cannot use future tenses in time clauses.
USE 2 Specific Time as an Interruption in the Future
In USE 1, described above, the Future Continuous is interrupted by a short action in the future. In addition to using short actions as interruptions, you can also use a specific time as an interruption.
Examples:
? Tonight at 6 PM, I am going to be eating dinner.
I WILL BE IN THE PROCESS OF EATING DINNER.
? At midnight tonight, we will still be driving through the desert.
WE WILL BE IN THE PROCESS OF DRIVING THROUGH THE DESERT.
REMEMBER
In the Simple Future, a specific time is used to show the time an action will begin or end. In the Future Continuous, a specific time interrupts the action.
Examples:
? Tonight at 6 PM, I am going to eat dinner.
I AM GOING TO START EATING AT 6 PM.
? Tonight at 6 PM, I am going to be eating dinner.
I AM GOING TO START EARLIER AND I WILL BE IN THE PROCESS OF EATING DINNER AT 6 PM.
USE 3 Parallel Actions in the Future
When you use the Future Continuous with two actions in the same sentence, it expresses the idea that both actions will be happening at the same time. The actions are parallel.
Examples:
? I am going to be studying and he is going to be making dinner.
? Tonight, they will be eating dinner, discussing their plans, and having a good time.
? While Ellen is reading, Tim will be watching television.
NOTICE "IS READING" BECAUSE OF THE TIME CLAUSE CONTAINING "WHILE."
USE 4 Atmosphere in the Future
In English, we often use a series of Parallel Actions to describe atmosphere at a specific point in the future.
Example:
? When I arrive at the party, everybody is going to be celebrating. Some will be dancing. Others are going to be talking. A few people will be eating pizza, and several people are going to be drinking beer. They always do the same thing.
REMEMBER No Future in Time Clauses
Like all future tenses, the Future Continuous cannot be used in clauses beginning with time expressions such as: when, while, before, after, by the time, as soon as, if, unless, etc. Instead of Future Continuous, Present Continuous is used.
Examples:
? While I am going to be finishing my homework, she is going to make dinner. Not Correct
? While I am finishing my homework, she is going to make dinner. Correct
AND REMEMBER Non-Continuous Verbs / Mixed Verbs
It is important to remember that Non-Continuous Verbs cannot be used in any continuous tenses. Also, certain non-continuous meanings for Mixed Verbs cannot be used in continuous tenses. Instead of using Future Continuous with these verbs, you must use Simple Future.
Examples:
? Jane will be being at my house when you arrive. Not Correct
? Jane will be at my house when you arrive. Correct
ADVERB PLACEMENT
The examples below show the placement for grammar adverbs such as: always, only, never, ever, still, just, etc.
Examples:
? You will still be waiting for her when her plane arrives.
? Will you still be waiting for her when her plane arrives?
? You are still going to be waiting for her when her plane arrives.
? Are you still going to be waiting for her when her plane arrives?
ACTIVE / PASSIVE
Examples:
? At 8:00 PM tonight, John will be washing the dishes. ACTIVE
? At 8:00 PM tonight, the dishes will be being washed by John. PASSIVE
? At 8:00 PM tonight, John is going to be washing the dishes. ACTIVE
? At 8:00 PM tonight, the dishes are going to be being washed by John. PASSIVE
NOTE: Passive forms of the Future Continuous are not common.
63. Future perfect tense ? formation, meaning and usage.
Future Perfect has two different forms: "will have done" and "be going to have done." Unlike Simple Future forms, Future Perfect forms are usually interchangeable.
FORM Future Perfect with "Will"
[will have past participle]
Examples:
? You will have perfected your English by the time you come back from the U.S.
? Will you have perfected your English by the time you come back from the U.S.?
? You will not have perfected your English by the time you come back from the U.S.
FORM Future Perfect with "Be Going To"
[am/is/are going to have past participle]
Examples:
? You are going to have perfected your English by the time you come back from the U.S.
? Are you going to have perfected your English by the time you come back from the U.S.?
? You are not going to have perfected your English by the time you come back from the U.S.
NOTE: It is possible to use either "will" or "be going to" to create the Future Perfect with little or no difference in meaning.
Positive sentences:
Subject Auxiliary verb Auxiliary verb Past participle
I/a dog etc. will have gone, seen, etc.
Questions (interrogative sentences):
Auxiliary verb Subject Auxiliary verb Past participle ?
will I/a dog etc. have gone, seen, etc.
Negative sentences:
Subject Auxiliary verb Auxiliary verb Past participle
I/a dog etc. won't have gone, seen, etc.
USE 1 Completed Action Before Something in the Future
The Future Perfect expresses the idea that something will occur before another action in the future. It can also show that something will happen before a specific time in the future.
Examples:
? By next November, I will have received my promotion.
? By the time he gets home, she is going to have cleaned the entire house.
? I am not going to have finished this test by 3 o'clock.
? Will she have learned enough Chinese to communicate before she moves to Beijing?
? Sam is probably going to have completed the proposal by the time he leaves this afternoon.
? By the time I finish this course, I will have taken ten tests.
? How many countries are you going to have visited by the time you turn 50?
Notice in the examples above that the reference points (marked in italics) are in Simple Present rather than Simple Future. This is because the interruptions are in time clauses, and you cannot use future tenses in time clauses.
USE 2 Duration Before Something in the Future (Non-Continuous Verbs)
With Non-Continuous Verbs and some non-continuous uses of Mixed Verbs, we use the Future Perfect to show that something will continue up until another action in the future.
Examples:
? I will have been in London for six months by the time I leave.
? By Monday, Susan is going to have had my book for a week.
Although the above use of Future Perfect is normally limited to Non-Continuous Verbs and non-continuous uses of Mixed Verbs, the words "live," "work," "teach," and "study" are sometimes used in this way even though they are NOT Non-Continuous Verbs.
REMEMBER No Future in Time Clauses
Like all future forms, the Future Perfect cannot be used in clauses beginning with time expressions such as: when, while, before, after, by the time, as soon as, if, unless, etc. Instead of Future Perfect, Present Perfect is used.
Examples:
? I am going to see a movie when I will have finished my homework. Not Correct
? I am going to see a movie when I have finished my homework. Correct
ADVERB PLACEMENT
The examples below show the placement for grammar adverbs such as: always, only, never, ever, still, just, etc.
Examples:
? You will only have learned a few words.
? Will you only have learned a few words?
? You are only going to have learned a few words.
? Are you only going to have learned a few words?
ACTIVE / PASSIVE
Examples:
? They will have completed the project before the deadline. ACTIVE
? The project will have been completed before the deadline. PASSIVE
? They are going to have completed the project before the deadline. ACTIVE
? The project is going to have been completed before the deadline. PASSIVE
64. Future perfect continuous tense ? formation, meaning and usage.
Future Perfect Continuous has two different forms: "will have been doing " and "be going to have been doing." Unlike Simple Future forms, Future Perfect Continuous forms are usually interchangeable.
FORM Future Perfect Continuous with "Will"
[will have been present participle]
Examples:
? You will have been waiting for more than two hours when her plane finally arrives.
? Will you have been waiting for more than two hours when her plane finally arrives?
? You will not have been waiting for more than two hours when her plane finally arrives.
FORM Future Perfect Continuous with "Be Going To"
[am/is/are going to have been present participle]
Examples:
? You are going to have been waiting for more than two hours when her plane finally arrives.
? Are you going to have been waiting for more than two hours when her plane finally arrives?
? You are not going to have been waiting for more than two hours when her plane finally arrives.
NOTE: It is possible to use either "will" or "be going to" to create the Future Perfect Continuous with little or no difference in meaning.
Positive sentences:
Subject Auxiliary verb Auxiliary verb Auxiliary verb Present participle
I/a dog etc. will have been going, doing (verb ing)
Negative sentences:
Auxiliary verb Subject Auxiliary verb Auxiliary verb Present participle
will I/a dog etc. have been going, doing (verb ing)
Questions (interrogative sentences):
Subject Auxiliary verb Auxiliary verb Auxiliary verb Present participle ?
I/a dog etc. won't have been going, doing (verb ing)
USE 1 Duration Before Something in the Future
We use the Future Perfect Continuous to show that something will continue up until a particular event or time in the future. "For five minutes," "for two weeks," and "since Friday" are all durations which can be used with the Future Perfect Continuous. Notice that this is related to the Present Perfect Continuous and the Past Perfect Continuous; however, with Future Perfect Continuous, the duration stops at or before a reference point in the future.
Examples:
? They will have been talking for over an hour by the time Thomas arrives.
? She is going to have been working at that company for three years when it finally closes.
? James will have been teaching at the university for more than a year by the time he leaves for Asia.
? How long will you have been studying when you graduate?
? We are going to have been driving for over three days straight when we get to Anchorage.
? A: When you finish your English course, will you have been living in New Zealand for over a year?
B: No, I will not have been living here that long.
Notice in the examples above that the reference points (marked in italics) are in Simple Present rather than Simple Future. This is because these future events are in time clauses, and you cannot use future tenses in time clauses.
USE 2 Cause of Something in the Future
Using the Future Perfect Continuous before another action in the future is a good way to show cause and effect.
Examples:
? Jason will be tired when he gets home because he will have been jogging for over an hour.
? Claudia's English will be perfect when she returns to Germany because she is going to have been studying English in the United States for over two years.
Future Continuous vs. Future Perfect Continuous
If you do not include a duration such as "for five minutes," "for two weeks" or "since Friday," many English speakers choose to use the Future Continuous rather than the Future Perfect Continuous. Be careful because this can change the meaning of the sentence. Future Continuous emphasizes interrupted actions, whereas Future Perfect Continuous emphasizes a duration of time before something in the future. Study the examples below to understand the difference.
Examples:
? He will be tired because he will be exercising so hard.
THIS SENTENCE EMPHASIZES THAT HE WILL BE TIRED BECAUSE HE WILL BE EXERCISING AT THAT EXACT MOMENT IN THE FUTURE.
? He will be tired because he will have been exercising so hard.
THIS SENTENCE EMPHASIZES THAT HE WILL BE TIRED BECAUSE HE WILL HAVE BEEN EXERCISING FOR A PERIOD OF TIME. IT IS POSSIBLE THAT HE WILL STILL BE EXERCISING AT THAT MOMENT OR THAT HE WILL JUST HAVE FINISHED.
REMEMBER No Future in Time Clauses
Like all future forms, the Future Perfect Continuous cannot be used in clauses beginning with time expressions such as: when, while, before, after, by the time, as soon as, if, unless, etc. Instead of Future Perfect Continuous, Present Perfect Continuous is used.
Examples:
? You won't get a promotion until you will have been working here as long as Tim. Not Correct
? You won't get a promotion until you have been working here as long as Tim. Correct
AND REMEMBER Non-Continuous Verbs / Mixed Verbs
It is important to remember that Non-Continuous Verbs cannot be used in any continuous tenses. Also, certain non-continuous meanings for Mixed Verbs cannot be used in continuous tenses. Instead of using Future Perfect Continuous with these verbs, you must use Future Perfect .
Examples:
? Ned will have been having his driver's license for over two years. Not Correct
? Ned will have had his driver's license for over two years. Correct
ADVERB PLACEMENT
The examples below show the placement for grammar adverbs such as: always, only, never, ever, still, just, etc.
Examples:
? You will only have been waiting for a few minutes when her plane arrives.
? Will you only have been waiting for a few minutes when her plane arrives?
? You are only going to have been waiting for a few minutes when her plane arrives.
? Are you only going to have been waiting for a few minutes when her plane arrives?
ACTIVE / PASSIVE
Examples:
? The famous artist will have been painting the mural for over six months by the time it is finished. ACTIVE
? The mural will have been being painted by the famous artist for over six months by the time it is finished. PASSIVE
? The famous artist is going to have been painting the mural for over six months by the time it is finished. ACTIVE
? The mural is going to have been being painted by the famous artist for over six months by the time it is finished. PASSIVE
NOTE: Passive forms of the Future Perfect Continuous are not common.
65. Use of the passive voice.
We form the passive with the verb ?to bo? and the past participle of the main verb.
The present perfect continous, the future cont., the past perfect cont., and the future perfect cont. are not normally used in the passive.
We can use the verb to be instead of the verb to be in everyday speech when we talk about things that happen by accident or unexpectedly.
USE
We use the passive:
1. when the person who carries out the action is unknown, unimportant or obvious from the context.
- My flat was broken into last week. (We don?t know who broke into the flat)
- Coffee beans are grown in Brazil. (It is not important to know who grows the coffee)
2. when the action itself is more important than the person who carries it out, as in news headlines, newspapers articles, formal notices, instructions, advertisments, processes, etc.
- The new hospital wil be opened by the Queen on May 15th. (formal notice)
- Then, the milk is taken to factory where it is pasteurised. (process)
3. When we refer to an unpleasant event and we do not want to say who or what is to blame.
- A lot of mistakes have been made. (instead of ?You have made a lot of mistakes?.)
To change a sentence from the active into the passive:
a) the object of the active sentence becomes the subject in the passive sentence
b) the active verb remains in the same tense, but changes into a passive form
c) the subject of the active sentence becomes the agent, and is either introduced with the prepoistion ?by? or omitted.
Active ? Tom (subject) invited (verb) me (object).
Passive ? I (subject) was invited (verb) by Tom (agent).
Only transitive verbs (verbs fallowed by an object) can be changed into the passive
Active: Grandma knitted my jumper. (transitive verb)
Passive: My jumper was knitted by Grandma.
But: They travelled to Lisbon last summer (intransitive verb)
Some transitive verbs such as have, fit, suit, resemble, etc. cannot be changed into passive.
We use by agent to say who or what carries out the action. We use with instrument/material/ingredient to say what the agent used.
The pancakes were made by Claire. They were made with eggs, flour and milk.
The agent is often omitted in the passive sentence when the subject of the active sentence is one of the following words: people, one, someone/somebody, they, he, etc.
Active: Somebody has rearranged furniture.
Passive: The furniture has been rearranged.
But: The agent is not omitted when it is a specific or important person or when it is essential to the meaning of the sentence.
The ?Mona Lisa? was painted by da Vinci.
66. The Indicative Mood
The indicative mood is the most common and is used to express facts and opinions or to make inquiries. Most of the statements you make or you read will be in the indicative mood.
The highlighted verbs in the following sentences are all in the indicative mood:
Joe picks up the boxes.
The german shepherd fetches the stick.
Charles closes the window.
67. The Imperative Mood
The imperative mood is also common and is used to give orders or to make requests. The imperative is identical in form to the second person indicative.
The highlighted verbs in the following sentences are all in the imperative mood:
Pick up those boxes.
Fetch.
Close the window.
68. The Subjunctive Mood
The subjunctive mood has almost disappeared from the language and is thus more difficult to use correctly than either the indicative mood or the imperative mood. The subjunctive mood rarely appears in everyday conversation or writing and is used in a set of specific circumstances.
You form the present tense subjunctive by dropping the "s" from the end of the third person singular, except for the verb "be".
paints
present subjunctive: "paint"
walks
present subjunctive: "walk"
thinks
present subjunctive: "think"
is
present subjunctive: "be"
Except for the verb "be," the past tense subjunctive is indistinguishable in form from the past tense indicative. The past tense subjunctive of "be" is "were."
painted
past subjunctive: "painted"
walked
past subjunctive: "walked"
thought
past subjunctive: "thought"
was
past subjunctive: "were"
The subjunctive is found in a handful of traditional circumstances. For example, in the sentence "God save the Queen," the verb "save" is in the subjunctive mood. Similarly, in the sentence "Heaven forbid," the verb forbid is in the subjunctive mood.
The subjunctive is usually found in complex sentences. The subjunctive mood is used in dependent clauses to express unreal conditions and in dependent clauses following verbs of wishing or requesting.
The subjunctive mood is used in a dependent clause attached to an independent clause that uses a verb such as "ask," "command," "demand," "insist," "order," "recommend," "require," "suggest," or "wish."
The subjunctive mood is also used in a dependent clause attached to an independent clause that uses an adjective that expresses urgency (such as "crucial," "essential," "important," "imperative," "necessary," or "urgent").
Each of the highlighted verbs in the following sentences is in the subjunctive mood.
It is urgent that Harraway attend Monday's meeting.
The Member of Parliament demanded that the Minister explain the effects of the bill on the environment.
The sergeant ordered that Calvin scrub the walls of the mess hall.
We suggest that Mr. Beatty move the car out of the no parking zone.
The committee recommended that the bill be passed immediately.
If Canada were a tropical country, we would be able to grow pineapples in our backyards.
If he were more generous, he would not have chased the canvassers away from his door.
I wish that this book were still in print.
If the council members were interested in stopping street prostitution, they would urge the police to pursue customers more vigorously than they pursue the prostitutes.
69. Non-finite forms of the verb (verbals).
Gerunds
A gerund is a verbal that ends in -ing and functions as a noun. The term verbal indicates that a gerund, like the other two kinds of verbals, is based on a verb and therefore expresses action or a state of being. However, since a gerund functions as a noun, it occupies some positions in a sentence that a noun ordinarily would, for example: subject, direct object, subject complement, and object of preposition.
Gerund as subject:
? Traveling might satisfy your desire for new experiences. (Traveling is the gerund.)
? The study abroad program might satisfy your desire for new experiences. (The gerund has been removed.)
Gerund as direct object:
? They do not appreciate my singing. (The gerund is singing.)
? They do not appreciate my assistance. (The gerund has been removed)
Gerund as subject complement:
? My cat's favorite activity is sleeping. (The gerund is sleeping.)
? My cat's favorite food is salmon. (The gerund has been removed.)
Gerund as object of preposition:
? The police arrested him for speeding. (The gerund is speeding.)
? The police arrested him for criminal activity. (The gerund has been removed.)
A Gerund Phrase is a group of words consisting of a gerund and the modifier(s) and/or (pro)noun(s) or noun phrase(s) that function as the direct object(s), indirect object(s), or complement(s) of the action or state expressed in the gerund, such as:
The gerund phrase functions as the subject of the sentence.
Finding a needle in a haystack would be easier than what we're trying to do.
Finding (gerund)
a needle (direct object of action expressed in gerund)
in a haystack (prepositional phrase as adverb)
The gerund phrase functions as the direct object of the verb appreciate.
I hope that you appreciate my offering you this opportunity.
my (possessive pronoun adjective form, modifying the gerund)
offering (gerund)
you (indirect object of action expressed in gerund)
this opportunity (direct object of action expressed in gerund)
The gerund phrase functions as the subject complement.
Newt's favorite tactic has been lying to his constituents.
lying to (gerund)
his constituents (direct object of action expressed in gerund)
The gerund phrase functions as the object of the preposition for.
You might get in trouble for faking an illness to avoid work.
faking (gerund)
an illness (direct object of action expressed in gerund)
to avoid work (infinitive phrase as adverb)
The gerund phrase functions as the subject of the sentence.
Being the boss made Jeff feel uneasy.
Being (gerund)
the boss (subject complement for Jeff, via state of being expressed in gerund)
Punctuation
A gerund virtually never requires any punctuation with it.
Points to remember:
1. A gerund is a verbal ending in -ing that is used as a noun.
2. A gerund phrase consists of a gerund plus modifier(s), object(s), and/or complement(s).
3. Gerunds and gerund phrases virtually never require punctuation.
Participles
A participle is a verbal that is used as an adjective and most often ends in -ing or -ed. The term verbal indicates that a participle, like the other two kinds of verbals, is based on a verb and therefore expresses action or a state of being. However, since they function as adjectives, participles modify nouns or pronouns. There are two types of participles: present participles and past participles. Present participles end in -ing. Past participles end in -ed, -en, -d, -t, or -n, as in the words asked, eaten, saved, dealt, and seen.
? The crying baby had a wet diaper.
? Shaken, he walked away from the wrecked car.
? The burning log fell off the fire.
? Smiling, she hugged the panting dog.
A participial phrase is a group of words consisting of a participle and the modifier(s) and/or (pro)noun(s) or noun phrase(s) that function as the direct object(s), indirect object(s), or complement(s) of the action or state expressed in the participle, such as:
Removing his coat, Jack rushed to the river.
The participial phrase functions as an adjective modifying Jack.
Removing (participle)
his coat (direct object of action expressed in participle)
Delores noticed her cousin walking along the shoreline.
The participial phrase functions as an adjective modifying cousin.
walking (participle)
along the shoreline (prepositional phrase as adverb)
Children introduced to music early develop strong intellectual skills.
The participial phrase functions as an adjective modifying children.
introduced (to) (participle)
music (direct object of action expressed in participle)
early (adverb)
Having been a gymnast, Lynn knew the importance of exercise.
The participial phrase functions as an adjective modifying Lynn.
Having been (participle)
a gymnast (subject complement for Lynn, via state of being expressed in participle)
Placement: In order to prevent confusion, a participial phrase must be placed as close to the noun it modifies as possible, and the noun must be clearly stated.
? Carrying a heavy pile of books, his foot caught on a step. *
? Carrying a heavy pile of books, he caught his foot on a step.
In the first sentence there is no clear indication of who or what is performing the action expressed in the participle carrying. Certainly foot can't be logically understood to function in this way. This situation is an example of a dangling modifier error since the modifier (the participial phrase) is not modifying any specific noun in the sentence and is thus left "dangling." Since a person must be doing the carrying for the sentence to make sense, a noun or pronoun that refers to a person must be in the place immediately after the participial phrase, as in the second sentence.
Punctuation: When a participial phrase begins a sentence, a comma should be placed after the phrase.
? Arriving at the store, I found that it was closed.
? Washing and polishing the car, Frank developed sore muscles.
If the participle or participial phrase comes in the middle of a sentence, it should be set off with commas only if the information is not essential to the meaning of the sentence.
? Sid, watching an old movie, drifted in and out of sleep.
? The church, destroyed by a fire, was never rebuilt.
Note that if the participial phrase is essential to the meaning of the sentence, no commas should be used:
? The student earning the highest grade point average will receive a special award.
? The guy wearing the chicken costume is my cousin.
If a participial phrase comes at the end of a sentence, a comma usually precedes the phrase if it modifies an earlier word in the sentence but not if the phrase directly follows the word it modifies.
? The local residents often saw Ken wandering through the streets.
(The phrase modifies Ken, not residents.)
? Tom nervously watched the woman, alarmed by her silence.
(The phrase modifies Tom, not woman.)
Points to remember
1. A participle is a verbal ending in -ing (present) or -ed, -en, -d, -t, or -n (past) that functions as an adjective, modifying a noun or pronoun.
2. A participial phrase consists of a participle plus modifier(s), object(s), and/or complement(s).
3. Participles and participial phrases must be placed as close to the nouns or pronouns they modify as possible, and those nouns or pronouns must be clearly stated.
4. A participial phrase is set off with commas when it:
o a) comes at the beginning of a sentence
o b) interrupts a sentence as a nonessential element
o c) comes at the end of a sentence and is separated from the word it modifies.
Infinitives
An infinitive is a verbal consisting of the word to plus a verb (in its simplest "stem" form) and functioning as a noun, adjective, or adverb. The term verbal indicates that an infinitive, like the other two kinds of verbals, is based on a verb and therefore expresses action or a state of being. However, the infinitive may function as a subject, direct object, subject complement, adjective, or adverb in a sentence. Although an infinitive is easy to locate because of the to verb form, deciding what function it has in a sentence can sometimes be confusing.
? To wait seemed foolish when decisive action was required. (subject)
? Everyone wanted to go. (direct object)
? His ambition is to fly. (subject complement)
? He lacked the strength to resist. (adjective)
? We must study to learn. (adverb)
Be sure not to confuse an infinitive?a verbal consisting of to plus a verb?with a prepositional phrase beginning with to, which consists of to plus a noun or pronoun and any modifiers.
? Infinitives: to fly, to draw, to become, to enter, to stand, to catch, to belong
? Prepositional Phrases: to him, to the committee, to my house, to the mountains, to us, to this address
An Infinitive Phrase is a group of words consisting of an infinitive and the modifier(s) and/or (pro)noun(s) or noun phrase(s) that function as the actor(s), direct object(s), indirect object(s), or complement(s) of the action or state expressed in the infinitive, such as:
We intended to leave early.
The infinitive phrase functions as the direct object of the verb intended.
to leave (infinitive)
early (adverb)
I have a paper to write before class.
The infinitive phrase functions as an adjective modifying paper.
to write (infinitive)
before class (prepositional phrase as adverb)
Phil agreed to give me a ride.
The infinitive phrase functions as the direct object of the verb agreed.
to give (infinitive)
me (indirect object of action expressed in infinitive)
a ride (direct object of action expressed in infinitive)
They asked me to bring some food.
The infinitive phrase functions as the direct object of the verb asked.
me (actor or "subject" of infinitive phrase)
to bring (infinitive)
some food (direct object of action expressed in infinitive)
Everyone wanted Carol to be the captain of the team.
The infinitive phrase functions as the direct object of the verb wanted.
Carol (actor or "subject" of infinitive phrase)
to be (infinitive)
the captain (subject complement for Carol, via state of being expressed in infinitive)
of the team (prepositional phrase as adjective)
Actors: In these last two examples the actor of the infinitive phrase could be roughly characterized as the "subject" of the action or state expressed in the infinitive. It is somewhat misleading to use the word subject, however, since an infinitive phrase is not a full clause with a subject and a finite verb. Also notice that when it is a pronoun, the actor appears in the objective case (me, not I, in the fourth example). Certain verbs, when they take an infinitive direct object, require an actor for the infinitive phrase; others can't have an actor. Still other verbs can go either way, as the charts below illustrate.
Verbs that take infinitive objects without actors:
agree begin continue decide
fail hesitate hope intend
learn neglect offer plan
prefer pretend promise refuse
remember start try
Examples:
? Most students plan to study.
? We began to learn.
? In all of these examples no actor can come between the italicized main (finite) verb and the infinitive direct-object phrase.
Verbs that take infinitive objects with actors:
advise allow convince remind
encourage force hire teach
instruct invite permit tell
implore incite appoint order
Examples:
? He reminded me to buy milk.
? Their fathers advise them to study.
? She forced the defendant to admit the truth.
? You've convinced the director of the program to change her position.
? I invite you to consider the evidence.
In all of these examples an actor is required after the italicized main (finite) verb and before the infinitive direct-object phrase.
Verbs that use either pattern:
ask expect (would) like want
Examples:
? I asked to see the records.
? I asked him to show me the records.
? Trent expected his group to win.
? Trent expected to win.
In all of these examples the italicized main verb can take an infinitive object with or without an actor.
Punctuation: If the infinitive is used as an adverb and is the beginning phrase in a sentence, it should be set off with a comma; otherwise, no punctuation is needed for an infinitive phrase.
? To buy a basket of flowers, John had to spend his last dollar.
? To improve your writing, you must consider your purpose and audience.
Points to remember
1. An infinitive is a verbal consisting of the word to plus a verb; it may be used as a noun, adjective, or adverb.
2. An infinitive phrase consists of an infinitive plus modifier(s), object(s), complement(s), and/or actor(s).
3. An infinitive phrase requires a comma only if it is used as an adverb at the beginning of a sentence.
70. Morphological categories of the infinitive
The infinitive is a non-finite form of the verb which names a process in a most general way. Like other non-finites the infinitive has a double nature: it has verbal and non-verbal (i.e. nominal) features. The verbal features of the infinitive are of two kinds: morphological (the infinitive has the verb categories of voice, aspect and perfect) and syntactical.
The category of perfect
1. The non-perfect infinitive indicates that the action expressed by the infinitive is simultaneous with the action of the finite verb; e.g. I?ve always heard him tell the tale.
Combined with the present tense of such verbs as to want, to expect, to hope, to intend, etc. the non-perfect infinitive refers an action to the future; e.g. I want you to give me some information.
When used with the modal verbs the non-perfect infinitive may also refer an action to the future; e.g. I must go and see him in a day or two.
The meaning of the non-perfect infinitive may easily be modified by the context. Thus, it may denote an action preceding or following the action denoted by the finite verb.
2. The perfect infinitive indicates that the action expressed by the infinitive precedes the action of the finite verb; e.g. I am very glad to have seen you again.
Combined with a modal verb the perfect infinitive indicates
a) either that the action took place in the past,
e.g. Why did she go away so early last night? ? She may have been ill.
b) or that the action is already accomplished at a given moment and is viewed upon from that moment; e.g. Let?s go, it must have stopped raining.
After the modal verbs should, ought to, could, might, was to /were to the perfect infinitive indicates that an action planned or considered desirable was not carried out.
e.g. You should have phoned me at once.
After the past tense forms of the verbs expressing hope, expectation, intention the perfect infinitive indicates that the action was not carried out.
e.g. I meant to have written to you. (but I didn?t)
The category of aspect
1. The common aspect forms denote simultaneousness with the action of the finite verb.
2. The non-perfect continuous infinitive denotes an action in its progress at the time when the action expressed by the finite form of the verb takes place;e.g. She seemed to be listening.
3. The perfect continuous infinitive denotes an action which lasted a certain time before the action of the finite verb., e.g. We must have been walking for two hours, let?s have a rest.
The two aspects differ in their frequency and functioning; the continuous aspect forms are very seldom used and cannot perform all the functions in which the common aspect forms are used.
They can only function as:
a) subject; e.g. To be staying with them was a real pleasure.
b) object; e.g. I was glad to be walking.
c) part of a compound verbal predicate; e.g. Now they must be getting back.
The category of voice
The infinitive of transitive verbs has the category of voice, active (to say, to have said) and passive (to be said, to have been said).
There are no perfect continuous forms in the passive voice and non-perfect continuous forms (to be being taken) are exceptionally rare.
72. Gerund and the infinitive compared
Gerunds are nouns built from a verb with an '-ing' suffix. They can be used as the subject of a sentence, an object, or an object of preposition. They can also be used to complement a subject. Often, gerunds exist side-by-side with nouns that come from the same root but the gerund and the common noun have different shades of meaning. Examples: breath and breathing, knowledge and knowing.
Examples of gerunds as the subject of a sentence are:
? Backpacking is a rewarding pastime.
? Stretching can loosen up muscles.
? No smoking. (I.e., no smoking is allowed / you may not smoke here.)
As an object:
? We all love to go bowling on the weekend.
? He loves eating chips.
An object of preposition:
? They complained of hearing strange sounds from the next cabin.
? They sang about being eaten by bears to allay their fears.
And as a complement to a subject:
? One of the most dangerous things to do on the lake is ice-skating.
Infinitive is the base form of the verb. The infinitive form of a verb is the form which follows "to".
For example:
? (to) go, (to) be,(to) ask, (to) fight, (to) understand, (to) walk .
Infinitives may occur with or without the infinitive marker "to". Infinitives without "to" are known as "bare infinitives".
For example:
? Help me open the door.
OTHER FORMS
The infinitive can have the following forms:
1. The perfect infinitive
to have past participle
For example: to have broken, to have seen, to have saved.
This form is most commonly found in Type 3 conditional sentences, using the conditional perfect.
For example:
r If I had known you were coming I would have baked a cake.
r Someone must have broken the window and climbed in.
r I would like to have seen the Taj Mahal when I was in India.
r He pretended to have seen the film.
r If I'd seen the ball I would have caught it.
2. The continuous infinitive
to be present participle
For example: to be swimming, to be joking, to be waiting
Examples:
r I'd really like to be swimming in a nice cool pool right now.
r You must be joking!
r I happened to be waiting for the bus when the accident happened.
3. The perfect continuous infinitive
to have been present participle
Examples: to have been crying, to have been waiting, to have been painting
Examples:
r The woman seemed to have been crying.
r You must have been waiting for hours!
r He pretended to have been painting all day.
4. The passive infinitive
to be past participle
For example: to be given, to be shut, to be opened
Examples:
r I am expecting to be given a pay-rise next month.
r These doors should be shut.
r This window ought to be opened.
NOTE: As with the present infinitive, there are situations where the "to" is omitted.
75. Structural classification of sentences.
A simple sentence has only one subject and one predicate-verb, but it may contain more than one object, attribute or adverbial.
A compound sentence consists of two or more independent clauses (or simple sentences) related to each other in meaning, and linked by a coordinating conjunction, such as and, but, or, or by a (;) without a conjunction.
A complex sentence contains one main/principal clause and one or more dependent/subordinate clauses, with a connective word denoting the relation between the two parts.
A compound-complex sentence contains at least two main clauses and at least one dependent clause?a combination of a compound and a complex sentence.
76. One-member sentences
Sentence Fragments are also called one-member sentences, which contain only the few words that express the main idea.
78. Elliptical (incomplete) sentences.
In the grammar of a sentence, an elliptical construction is a construction that lacks an element that is, nevertheless, recoverable or inferable from the context. The elliptical construction is a sequence of words in which some words have been omitted. Because of the logic or pattern of the entire sentence, it is easy to infer what the missing words are.
Example: Fire when ready. (In the sentence, "you are" is understood, as in "Fire when you are ready.").
Elliptical constructions can often be used in dialog to shorten what is being said.
79. Communicative types of sentences.
Exclamatory
An exclamatory sentence is released because of, and expresses strong emotion. Exclamations are comparable to interjections. In punctuation, an exclamatory is ended with an exclamation mark. For instance:
? I'll never finish this paper in time!
Imperative
An imperative sentence gives an order or directions or instructions. Imperative sentences are a little more intentional than exclamatory sentences, and their aim is to get the person(s) being spoken to to either do or not do something (usually in direct relation to the speaker). An imperative can end in either a period or an exclamation point.
? After separating them from the yolks, beat the whites until they are light and fluffy.
? Help me!
The vocative case of nouns can be said to be in the imperative as well since it does not seek information, but rather a reaction from the person (or animal) being addressed.
80. Types of interrogative sentences.
There are four types of interrogative sentences.
Yes/No Interrogatives
Yes/No questions usually will be answered by yes or no.
For example:
? Will you bring your book?
* => Answer: Yes or No)
? Did she pass the test?
* => Answer: Yes or No)
Alternative Interrogatives
Alternative interrogativse offer two or more alternative responses:
For example:
? Should I telephone you or send an email?
? Do you want bear, wine, or wisky?
Yes/no interrogatives and alternative interrogatives are introduced by an auxiliary verb.
Wh- Interrogatives
Wh- Interrogatives are introduced by a wh- word, and they elicit an open-ended response:
For example:
? What happened?
? Where do you work?
? Who won the Cup Final in 1997?
Tag Questions
They are sometimes tagged onto the end of a declarative sentence.
For example:
? David plays the piano, doesn't he?
? We've forgotten the milk, haven't we?
? There's a big match tonight, isn't there?
82). Major sentence elements. Sentence elements are the groups of words that combine together to comprise the ?building units? of a well-formed sentence. A sentence element approach to grammar assumes a top-down methodology. In other words, it starts with the sentence as a whole and then divides it into its functional components.
There are five types of sentence element:
1. subject
2. predicate
3. object
4. predicative (aka complement)
5. adverbial
83). Types of subject:
a). Nouns
b). Pronouns - Personal Pronouns; Interrogative Pronouns; Demonstrative pronouns; Indefinite pronouns
c). Gerund or Gerund Phrase
d). Infinitive or infinitive phrase
e). Indefinite or Dummy subject
f). Clauses
85). Difference between objects and complements An object in grammar is a sentence element and part of the sentence predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. As an example, the following sentence is given:
In the sentence "Bobby kicked the ball", "ball" is the object.
"Bobby" is the subject, the doer or performer, while "kick" is the action, and "ball" is the object involved in the action.
Objects fall into three classes: direct objects, prepositional objects, and non-prepositional indirect objects. An object may take any of a number of forms, all of them nominal in some sense. Common forms include:
? A noun or noun phrase, as in "I remembered her advice."
? An infinitive or infinitival clause, as in "I remembered to eat."
? A gerund or gerund phrase, as in "I remembered being there."
? A declarative content clause, as in "I remembered that he was blond."
? An interrogative content clause, as in "I remembered why she had left."
? A fused relative clause, as in "I remembered what she wanted me to do."
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. e.g.
He is Spanish.
She became an engineer.
That man looks like John.
Object complements follow the direct object of the verb. E.g.
They painted the house red.
She called him an idiot!
I saw her standing there
86). Compound sentences and types of coordination. In the English language, a compound sentence is composed of at least two independent clauses. It does not require a dependent clause. The clauses are joined by a coordinating conjunction (with or without a comma), a correlative conjunction (with or without a comma), or a semicolon that functions as a conjunction. A conjunction can be used to make a compound sentence. The use of a comma to separate two independent clauses in a sentence is accepted as part of the English language.
Example: My friend invited me to a tea party, but my parents didn't let me go.
87). Complex sentences. A complex sentence has a base of a complete sentence with a subject, verb, and words to complete the thought (the complete "couple" or "parents"). A complex sentence also adds additional information in separate phrases (the "children"). The information in the phrases depends upon the information in the complete sentence base; it cannot stand alone.
The [bracketed] phrases in the following sentences add information to the base sentence but cannot stand alone:
[If the temperature stays at about freezing], then we can join the polar bear club for a dip in the lake.
I told him that his new print on the wall looked like an interesting prehistoric drawing of a fish, [although I really just wanted to laugh].
The kids need to go to bed, [whether or not they want to], no later than 8:00 p.m.
Certain words traditionally start off the subordinate, or dependent, parts of the complex sentence:
before.....while.....if.....where
after.....because.....whether.....whereas
though.....since.....unless.....as
although.....when.....because.....as if
88). Types of attributive/relative clauses. Types of relative clause
There are two types of relative clause: defining and non-defining. You use a defining (or restrictive) relative clause to ?identify? or ?restrict the reference of? a noun. You do not separate it from the rest of the sentence by commas (in text) or pauses (in speech).
The student who achieves the highest GPA score in this department will be awarded a prize of $20,000.
Computer games that involve fighting and shooting apparently have a negative effect on young people.
You use a non-defining (or non-restrictive) relative clause to supply additional information about the noun, whose identity or reference is already established. You can also use it to comment on the whole situation described in a main clause.
Albert Einstein, who put forward the theory of relativity, is considered by many as the most intelligent person in human history.
The ELC, which provides language support to PolyU students, is located in the AG wing.
You should not use the relative pronoun that in non-defining relative clauses
89). Types of adverbial clauses.
An adverbial clause is a clause that functions as an adverb. In other words, it contains subject (explicit or implied) and predicate, and it modifies a verb. Types of adverbial clauses:
kind of clause usual conjunction function example
time clauses when, before, after, since, while, as, until These clauses are used to say when something happens by referring to a period of time or to another event. Her father died when she was young.
conditional clauses if, unless These clauses are used to talk about a possible situation and its consequences. If they lose weight during an illness, they soon regain it afterwards.
purpose clauses in order to, so that, in order that These clauses are used to indicate the purpose of an action. They had to take some of his land so that they could extend the churchyard.
reason clauses because, since, as, given These clauses are used to indicate the reason for something. I couldn't feel anger against him because I liked him too much.
result clauses so that These clauses are used to indicate the result of something. My suitcase had become so damaged on the journey home that the lid would not stay closed.
concessive clauses although, though, while These clauses are used to make two statements, one of which contrasts with the other or makes it seem surprising. I used to read a lot although I don't get much time for books now
place clauses where, wherever These clauses are used to talk about the location or position of something. He said he was happy where he was.
clauses of manner as, like, the way These clauses are used to talk about someone's behaviour or the way something is done. I was never allowed to do things the way I wanted to do them.
clauses of exclamations what a(an), how, such, so Exclamations are used to express anger, fear, shock, surprise etc. They always take an exclamation mark (!). What horrible news! How fast she types! You lucky man!
Adjective- In grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's definition.
According to their way of nomination ,adjectives fall into two groups :
- qualitative
- relative
Compound adjectives consist of at least two steams :
a) consisting of a noun and adjective (color-blind, grows-green)
b) adjective an adjective ( deaf-mute)
c) adverb a participle ( well known, newly-repaired)
d) noun/pronoun a verbal( all-seeking, heart-breaking)
e) adjective/adverb a noun the suffix ?ed ( blue ?eyed, long-legged)
Adverb- An adverb is a part of speech. It is any word that modifies any other part of language: verbs, adjectives (including numbers), clauses, sentences and other adverbs, except for nouns; modifiers of nouns are primarily determiners and adjectives.
Kinds of Adverbs
Adverbs of Manner
She moved slowly and spoke quietly.
Adverbs of Place
She has lived on the island all her life.
She still lives there now.
Adverbs of Frequency
She takes the boat to the mainland every day.
She often goes by herself.
Adverbs of Time
She tries to get back before dark.
It's starting to get dark now.
She finished her tea first.
She left early.
Adverbs of Purpose
She drives her boat slowly to avoid hitting the rocks.
She shops in several stores to get the best buys.
Adverbial modifier- is the secondary part of the sentence which modifies another part of the sentence expressed by a verb, or an adjective, or an adverb denoting the time, place, manner, degree, quantity.
May refer to:
- the predicate- verb or to a verbal phrase
- the whole of the sentence
- adjectives
- adverbs
Antecedent- Antecedent takes the place of a noun..... In grammar, an antecedent is generally the noun or noun phrase to which an anaphor refers in a coreference. However, an antecedent can also be a clause, especially when the anaphor is a demonstrative
Bare infinitive- In grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. In the usual (traditional) description of English, the infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the particle to: therefore, do and to do, be and to be, and so on are infinitives. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition of infinitive that applies to all languages; however, in languages that have infinitives, they generally have most of the following properties:
-In most of their uses, infinitives are non-finite verbs.
-They function as other lexical categories ? usually nouns ? within the clauses that contain them, for example by serving as the subject of another verb.
-They do not represent any of the verb's arguments (as employer and employee do).
-They are not inflected to agree with any subject, and their subject, if they have one, is not case-marked as such.
-They cannot serve as the only verb of a declarative sentence.
-They are the verb's lemma, citation form, and/or name; that is, they are regarded as its basic uninflected form, and/or they are used in giving its definition or conjugation.
-They do not have tense, aspect, moods, and/or voice, or they are limited in the range of tenses, aspects, moods, and/or voices that they can use. (In languages where infinitives do not have moods at all, they are usually treated as being their own non-finite mood.)
-They are used with auxiliary verbs.
.
Case- In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun indicates its grammatical function in a greater phrase or clause; such as the role of subject, of direct object, or of possessor. Case is the grammatical function of a noun or pronoun. There are only three cases in modern English, they are subjective (he), objective (him) and possessive (his). They may seem more familiar in their old English form - nominative, accusative and genitive. There is no dative case in modern English. Yippee!
Collective nouns- Collective nouns are nouns that refer to things or people as a unit. Examples: family, police, class, team, crew etc.
Collective nouns can be used in both the singular form and the plural form.
Rules for Using Collective Nouns:
- Singular Collective Noun (Singular collective nouns refer to one unit of people or things, Singular collective nouns are used like singular nouns.)
- Plural Collective Nouns (Plural collective nouns refer to two or more units of people or things, Plural collective nouns are used like plural nouns )
Common noun ? a noun that may be preceded by an article or other limiting modifier and that denotes any or all of a class of entities and not an individual. Common nouns can be subcategorized as count nouns and mass nouns. A common noun begins with a lowercase letter unless it is at the beginning of a sentence. Contrast with proper noun.
Examples of sentences with common nouns:
? The black dog is in my yard.
? His anger knows no limits.
complement ? is any word or phrase that completes the sense of a subject or an object.
? object complement is a complement that is used to predicate a description of the direct object. Examples:
We elected him chairman.
? subject complement is a complement that is used to predicate a description of the subject of a clause. Subject complements have two subgroups: predicate adjectives and predicate nouns. Examples:
I am not yet experienced.
I am a teacher.
Complement is obligatory, as contrasted with adjuncts, which are optional.
conjunction ? is a word that links words, phrases, or clauses. There are three types of conjunctions:
? coordinating conjunctions: may join single words, or they may join groups of words, but they must always join similar elements: e.g. subject subject, verb phrase verb phrase, sentence sentence. (e.g. for, and, because, but, or, yet, so, nor)
? correlative conjunctions: also connect sentence elements of the same kind: however, unlike coordinating conjunctions, correlative conjunctions are always used in pairs.
(e.g. either. . .or; both. . . and; neither. . . nor; not only. . . but also)
? subordinating conjunctions: the largest class of conjunctions, connect subordinate clauses to a main clause. (e.g. as, although, before, even if, since, that, unless, when)
? conjunctive adverbs: join independent clauses together (e.g. also, indeed, next, thus)
copular verb ? in other words linking verb; links a subject to a complement. Linking verbs must be followed by a complement in order to make the sentence complete. The complement can be a subject complement or an adverbial, and occurs in two sentence types which are of the Subject-Verb-Complement (SVC) and Subject-Verb-Adverbial (SVA) pattern.
These are two groups of linking verbs:
? resulting linking verbs: become, get, grow, fall, prove, run, turn
? current linking verbs: appear, be, feel, lie, look, remain, seem, smell, sound, stay, taste
degree of comparison ? the degree of comparison of an adjective or adverb describes the relational value of one thing with something in another clause of a sentence. An adjective may
? simply describe a quality (the positive), e.g. This house is big.
? compare the quality with that of another of its kind (comparative degree), e.g. This house is bigger than that one.
? compare the quality with many or all others (superlative degree), e.g. This is the biggest house in this street.
deictic word (deixis) ? word or phrase that can only be understood from the context of the text or utterance. E.g. Tom?s interview was about to start and he was feeling nervous about it.
Here, from the context, we know that he refers to Tom and it refers to the interview.
descriptive genitive ? the word in the genitive case is being used as an adjective, describing an attribute or quality to the head noun. It doesn?t show a possession. For example:
A women?s college (a college for women)
The degree of doctor (a doctoral degree)
ditransitive verb ? is one that takes both a direct object and an indirect object. e.g.
He gave her a letter. (?The letter? is the direct object, what he gave, and ?her? is indirect object, the person he gave it to)
ergative verb ? is a verb that can be both transitive and intransitive, where the subject of the intransitive verb is the same as the object of the transitive verb. For example, 'open' is an ergative verb because you can say 'The door opened' or 'She opened the door'.
Ergative verbs can be divided into several categories:
? Verbs suggesting a change of state ? break, burst, melt, tear
? Verbs of cooking ? bake, boil, cook, fry
? Verbs of movement ? move, shake, sweep, turn
? Verbs involving vehicles ? drive, fly, reverse, sail
finite forms of the verb ? are the forms where the verb shows tense, person or number. For example: I go; she goes; he went.
genitive of measure ? describe a person or thing by indicating measure (day, year, pound, etc.) Examples: ten day?s absence; five dollars' worth of candy; the height of the tower
GROUP GENITIVE a construction in which the genitive ending 's is added to an entire phrase, esp. when added to a word other than the head of the noun phrase, as the woman who lives across the street's in That is the woman who lives across the street's cat or the people next-door's in The people next-door's house is for rent. Also called group' posses"sive.
INFLECTION / INFLEXION Inflection , also spelled 'inflexion', is a system in which words' forms are altered by an affix. Nouns in English can be changed to show plurality, the 3rd person singular of most verbs is inflected by the addition of -s, etc.
Grammar word change: a change in the form of a word, often an addition at the end of it, that indicates a particular grammatical function, e.g. the "s" added to most English nouns when they are plural
Grammar altered form of word: an altered form of a word, e.g. one showing a change in tense, mood, gender, or number, or the part of the word that changes in this way
INTERJECTIONAn interjection is a word or short phrase used in speech to gain attention, to exclaim, protest or command. Interjections can be used to show emotion such as surprise or shock.
Interjections are often found at the beginning of a sentence, especially in speech, and are commonly followed by an exclamation mark or a comma.
1. exclamation expressing emotion: a sound, word, or phrase that expresses a strong emotion such as pain or surprise but otherwise has no meaning
2. comment made abruptly: something said loudly and abruptly, or something inserted in a text, especially something that interrupts what is being said or discussed
INTRANSITIVE VERB An intransitive verb is an action verb (that is, it is neither a linking verb nor an auxiliary verb) which does not have a direct object.
The action is still being done, but it is not being done to anything or anyone else.
Most verbs can be both intransitive and transitive depending on the sentence. The verb to go, however, is always intransitive.
In most dictionaries the abbreviation v.i. means "verb, intransitive."
Transitive: He runs a large corporation.
(The verb runs has a direct object, corporation.)
Intransitive: He runs around the block daily.
(There is no direct object.)
MASS NOUNS A mass noun has no plural form, often referring to a substance.
EG: butter; smoke; money - These nouns have no plurals.
Mass nouns are also called uncountable.
A mass noun is a noun whose referents are not thought of as separate entities.
It may have distinguishing features such as the following:
* The inability to take a plural form
* Cooccurrence with some determiners (such as some and much), but not others (such as the English many)
Discussion
Some nouns may permit treatment as either count or mass nouns.
Example:
In English, salad may be treated as either a count or mass noun, as evidenced by the acceptability of the following expressions:
* many salads
* much salad
Examples (English)
The word furniture is a mass noun. It cannot take the plural suffix -s:
# * furnitures
In addition, it can occur with some determiners, but not others:
# the furniture
# much furniture
# some furniture
# * a furniture
# * many furnitures
MODAL VERBS Modal verbs are used to express ideas such as possibility, intention, permission, obligation and necessity. is a type of auxiliary verb that is used to indicate modality. The use of auxiliary verbs to express modality is a characteristic of Germanic languages. Its primary function is to express mood.
CAN, COULD, WILL, WOULD, SHALL, SHOULD, OUGHT TO, DARE , MAY MIGHT, MUST, USED TO, NEED, HAD BETTER are some examples.
eg: I would have told you, if you had wanted me to.
eg: Yes, I can do that.
MONOTRANSITIVE VERB A monotransitive verb is a verb that takes two arguments: a subject and a single direct object. For example, the verbs buy, bite, kill, break, and eat are monotransitive in English. a two-place verb which occurs with a direct object in addition to the subject.
MOOD
1. a set of categories for which the verb is inflected in many languages, and that is typically used to indicate the syntactic relation of the clause in which the verb occurs to other clauses in the sentence, or the attitude of the speaker toward what he or she is saying, as certainty or uncertainty, wish or command, emphasis or hesitancy.
2. a set of syntactic devices in some languages that is similar to this set in function or meaning, involving the use of auxiliary words, as can, may, might
3. any of the categories of these sets: the Latin indicative, imperative, and subjunctive moods
Mood shows the attitude of the speaker or the writer to the action or state described by the verb.
1) The Indicative is the verb used in ordinary statements and questions:
She went home.
Has she called yet?
2) The Imperative is used to give orders and instructions:
Go home.
Come and see me.
3) The Subjunctive is used to express doubts, wishes, etc. It is not used much in English any more and exists in a few phrases:
If I were you, I'd speak to her about it straightaway.
Be that as it may
MUTATION 1.the act or process of changing.
2.a change or alteration, as in form or nature.
3.Phonetics. umlaut.
4.Linguistics. (in Celtic languages) syntactically determined morphophonemic phenomena that affect initial sounds of words.
NON-FINITE VERB The non-finite forms of a verb have no tense, person or singular plural. The infinitive and present and past participles are the non-finite parts of a verb; To do; doing; done
A non-finite verb has no subject, tense or number. The only non-finite verb forms are the infinitive (indicated by to), the gerund or the participle.
For example:-
I lived in Germany to improve my German. (To improve is in the infinitive form - improve is non-finite).
In linguistics, a non-finite verb (or a verbal) is a verb form that is not limited by a subject and, more generally, is not fully inflected by categories that are marked inflectionally in language, such as tense, aspect, mood, number, gender, and person. As a result, a non-finite verb cannot generally serve as the main verb in an independent clause; rather, it heads a non-finite clause.
By some accounts, a non-finite verb acts simultaneously as a verb and as another part of speech; it can take adverbs and certain kinds of verb arguments, producing a verbal phrase (i.e., non-finite clause), and this phrase then plays a different role?usually noun, adjective, or adverb?in a greater clause. This is the reason for the term verbal; non-finite verbs have traditionally been classified as verbal nouns, verbal adjectives, or verbal adverbs.
English has three kinds of verbals:
1. participles, which function as adjectives;
2. gerunds, which function as nouns; and
3. infinitives, which have noun-like, adjective-like, and adverb-like functions.
Each of these kinds of verbals is also used in various common constructs; for example, the past participle is used in forming the perfect aspect (to have done).
NON-TERNMINATIVE VERBS The division of verbs into terminative and non-terminative depends on the aspectual characteristic in the lexical meaning of the verb which influences the use of aspect forms.
Terminative verbs besides their specific meaning contain the idea that the action must be fulfilled and come to an end, reaching some point where it has logically to stop. These are such verbs as sit down, come, fall, stop, begin, open, close, shut, die, bring, find, etc.
Non-terminative, or durative verbs imply that actions or states expressed by these verbs may go on indefinitely without reaching any logically necessary final point. These are such verbs as carry, run, walk, sleep, stand, sit, live, know, suppose, talk, speak, etc.
The end, which is simply an interruption of these actions, may be shown only by means of some adverbial modifier:
He slept till nine in the morning.
The last subclass comprises verbs that can function as both terminative and non-terminative (verbs of double aspectual meaning). The difference is clear from the context:
Can you see well? (non-terminative)
I see nothing there. (terminative)
Noun: A noun is a word used to name a person, animal, place, thing, and abstract idea. A noun can function in a sentence as a subject, a direct object, an indirect object, a subject complement, an object complement, an appositive, an adjective or an adverb.
Many common nouns, like "engineer" or "teacher," can refer to men or women. Once, many English nouns would change form depending on their gender -- for example, a man was called an "author" while a woman was called an "authoress" -- but this use of gender-specific nouns is very rare today. Those that are still used occasionally tend to refer to occupational categories, as in the following sentences.
Most nouns change their form to indicate number by adding "-s" or "-es". There are other nouns which form the plural by changing the last letter before adding "s". Some words ending in "f" form the plural by deleting "f" and adding "ves," and words ending in "y" form the plural by deleting the "y" and adding "ies,". Other nouns form the plural irregularly.
In the possessive case, a noun changes its form to show that it owns or is closely related to something else. Usually, nouns become possessive by adding a combination of an apostrophe and the letter "s."
There are many different types of nouns: the proper noun, the common noun, the concrete noun, the abstract noun, the countable noun (also called the count noun), the non-countable noun (also called the mass noun), and the collective noun.
You always write a proper noun with a capital letter, since the noun represents the name of a specific person, place, or thing. The names of days of the week, months, historical documents, institutions, organisations, religions, their holy texts and their adherents are proper nouns. A proper noun is the opposite of a common noun. (Jamaica, Monday, etc)
A common noun is a noun referring to a person, place, or thing in a general sense -- usually, you should write it with a capital letter only when it begins a sentence. A common noun is the opposite of a proper noun. (town, summer, neighbourhood, etc)
A concrete noun is a noun which names anything (or anyone) that you can perceive through your physical senses: touch, sight, taste, hearing, or smell. A concrete noun is the opposite of a abstract noun. (judge, file, clerk, etc)
An abstract noun is a noun which names anything which you can not perceive through your five physical senses, and is the opposite of a concrete noun.(childhood, justice, schizophrenia, etc)
A countable noun (or count noun) is a noun with both a singular and a plural form, and it names anything (or anyone) that you can count. You can make a countable noun plural and attach it to a plural verb in a sentence. Countable nouns are the opposite of non-countable nouns and collective nouns. (table, tree, baby)
A non-countable noun (or mass noun) is a noun which does not have a plural form, and which refers to something that you could (or would) not usually count. A non-countable noun always takes a singular verb in a sentence. Non-countable nouns are similar to collective nouns, and are the opposite of countable nouns. (oxygen, furniture, etc)
A collective noun is a noun naming a group of things, animals, or persons. You could count the individual members of the group, but you usually think of the group as a whole is generally as one unit. You need to be able to recognise collective nouns in order to maintain subject-verb agreement. A collective noun is similar to a non-countable noun, and is roughly the opposite of a countable noun. (jury, committee, class, etc)
Nouns of Multitude:Nouns of multitude are pluralia tantum judging by their pattering. Though singular in form they are used with determiners that pattern either with all nouns or with plural nouns only and always take a plural verb: CATTLE, FOLK, GENTRY, ARMY, MILITIA, KINDRED, PEOPLE, POLICE, VERMIN, YOUTH. In other words noun of multitude is the name of something that contains many individual things or people.
Numeral:A numeral is a word, functioning most typically as an adjective or pronoun, that expresses a
? number, and
? relation to the number, such as one of the following:
Quantity
Sequence
Frequency
Fraction
Here are some kinds of numerals:
A cardinal numeral is a numeral of the class whose members are
-considered basic in form
-used in counting, and
-used in expressing how many objects are referred to.(one, ten, eighty)
A distributive numeral is a numeral which expresses a group of the number specified.
-By the dozen
-In pairs
A multiplicative numeral is a numeral that expresses how many fold or how many times.
-once
-twice
-thrice
An ordinal numeral is a numeral belonging to a class whose members designate positions in a sequence.
-First
-Second
-Third
A partitive numeral is a numeral that expresses a fraction.
-half
-third
Object:Object is word that follows verb and completes the verb's meaning. Object is always noun or pronoun. Two kinds of objects follow verbs: direct objects and indirect objects.
To determine if a verb has a direct object, isolate the verb and make it into a question by placing "whom?" or "what?" after it. The answer, if there is one, is the direct object:
The advertising executive drove a flashy red Porsche.
Objective Case:Objective case is the case or function of a pronoun when it is the direct or indirect object of a verb, the object of a preposition, the subject of an infinitive, or an appositive to an object. The objective (or accusative) forms of English pronouns are me, us, you, him, her, it, them, whom and whomever.
In other words when a pronoun is the object of the verb or preposition it is in the objective case.
Examples:
To know her was to love her.
That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
The news hit them hard. (direct object of hit)
Objective Genitive:In grammar, an objective genitive is a use of the genitive case to express an objective relationship. In objective genitive the genitive modifies a noun from which we can infer an action worked on the genitive modifier: Mary?s engagement, your father?s illness, his tormentors, the Hundred Years' War, a man's world.
Ordinals:In linguistics, ordinal numbers are the words representing the rank of a number with respect to some order, in particular order or position (i.e. first, second, third, etc.). Its use may refer to size, importance, chronology, etc. They are adjectives and, at least in English, precede the nouns they are modifying.
Ordinal numbers are alternatively written in English with numerals and letter suffixes: 1st, 2nd or 2d, 3rd or 3d, 4th, 11th, 21st, 477th, etc.
Participle:In linguistics, a participle is a derivative of a non-finite verb, which can be used in compound tenses or voices, or as a modifier. Participles often share properties with other parts of speech, in particular adjectives and nouns.
English verbs have two participles:
? called variously the present, active, imperfect, or progressive participle, it is identical in form to the gerund; the term present participle is sometimes used to include the gerund. The term gerund-participle is also used.
? called variously the past, passive, or perfect participle, it is usually identical to the verb's preterite (past tense) form, though in irregular verbs the two usually differ.
The present participle in English is active. It has the following uses:
forming the progressive aspect: Jim was sleeping.
modifying a noun, with active sense: Let sleeping dogs lie.
modifying a verb or sentence: Broadly speaking, the project was successful.
The present participle in English has the same form as the gerund, but the gerund acts as a noun rather than a verb or a modifier. The word sleeping in Your job description does not include sleeping is a gerund and not a present participle.
The past participle has both active and passive uses:
forming the perfect aspect: The chicken has eaten.
forming the passive voice: The chicken was eaten.
modifying a noun, with active sense: our fallen comrades
modifying a noun, with passive sense: the attached files
modifying a verb or sentence, with passive sense: Seen from this perspective, the problem presents no easy solution.
As noun-modifiers, participles usually precede the noun (like adjectives), but in many cases they can or must follow it:
The visiting dignitaries devoured the baked apples.
Please bring all the documents required.
The difficulties encountered were nearly insurmountable.
Particle:A particle, in grammar, is a function word that is not assignable to any of the traditional grammatical word classes (such as pronouns, articles or conjunctions).
The term is a catch-all term for a heterogeneous set of elements and lacks a precise universal definition. It is mostly used for words that help to encode grammatical categories (such as negation, mood or case) and are uninflected.
In English, the infinitive marker to and the negator not are examples of words that are usually regarded as particles.
Depending on its context, the meaning of the term may overlap with such notions or meanings as "morpheme", "marker", or even "adverb" (another catch-all term). Like many linguistic concepts, the precise content of the notion is very language-specific.
Under the strictest definition, which demands that a particle be an uninflected word, English deictics like this and that would not be classed as such (since they have plurals), and neither would Romance articles (since they are inflected for number and gender).
Phrase:In grammar, a phrase is a group of two or more grammatically linked words without a subject and predicate that functions as a single unit in the syntax of a sentence.
The group "teacher both students and" is not a phrase because the words have no grammatical relationship to one another. Similarly, the group "bay the across" is not a phrase.
In both cases, the words need to be rearranged in order to create phrases. The group "both teachers and students" and the group "across the bay" are both phrases.
You use a phrase to add information to a sentence and can perform the functions of a subject, an object, a subject or object complement, a verb, an adjective, or an adverb.
She bought some spinach when she went to the corner store.
Lightning flashed brightly in the night sky.
They heard high pitched cries in the middle of the night.
A verb phrase consists of a verb, its direct and/or indirect objects, and any adverb, adverb phrases, or adverb clauses which happen to modify it. The predicate of a clause or sentence is always a verb phrase:
He did not have all the ingredients the recipe called for; therefore, he decided to make something else.
A noun phrase consists of a pronoun or noun with any associated modifiers, including adjectives, adjective phrases, adjective clauses, and other nouns in the possessive case.
Like a noun, a noun phrase can act as a subject, as the object of a verb or verbal, as a subject or object complement, or as the object of a preposition, as in the following examples:
subject
Small children often insist that they can do it by themselves.
object of a verb
To read quickly and accurately is Eugene's goal.
An adjective phrase is any phrase which modifies a noun or pronoun. You often construct adjective phrases using participles or prepositions together with their objects:
I was driven mad by the sound of my neighbour's constant piano practising.
A prepositional phrase can also be an adverb phrase, functioning as an adverb, as in the following sentences.
She bought some spinach when she went to the corner store.
Possessive Genitive: In grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a noun as modifying another noun. It often marks a noun as being the possessor of another noun but it can also indicate various relationships other than possession; certain verbs may take arguments in the genitive case. Modern English does not typically mark nouns for a genitive case morphologically ? rather, it uses the clitic 's or a preposition (usually of) ? but the personal pronouns do have distinct possessive forms.
Possessive Case:
The good news is that the genitive case is used less and less in English today.
You may still hear someone say something like "The mother of the bride," but it could equally be; "The bride's mother."
However, the possessive pattern ('s) is generally used when indicate a relation of ownership or association with a person, rather than a thing.
For example:
Lynne's web site kept growing larger and larger.
Genitive Case
You should still use the genitive case when talking about things that belong to other things.
For example:
The door of the car.
The content of the website.
Predicate: Predicate is the head of a clause and says something about the subject.
In traditional grammar, a predicate is one of the two main parts of a sentence (the other being the subject, which the predicate modifies). In current linguistic semantics, a predicate is an expression that can be true of something. Thus, the expressions "is yellow" or "like broccoli" are true of those things that are yellow or like broccoli, respectively. The latter notion is closely related to the notion of a predicate in formal logic, and includes more expressions than the former one, like, for example, nouns and some kinds of adjectives.
Predicates can be classified as either verbal or nominal. A verbal predicate indicates some sort of action. In the sample sentence, "reads the book" is a verbal predicate. A nominal predicate uses a copulative verb to identify or describe the subject. In the sentence "The woman is happy," the nominal predicate is "is happy"
In the following examples, the predicate is underlined.
She dances. (verb only predicate)
John reads the book. (direct object)
She listened to the radio. (prepositional object)
Classes of predicate:
1. Stage-level predicates- true of a temporal stage of its subject. For example, if John is "hungry", that typically lasts a certain amount of time, and not his entire lifespan.
2. Individual-level predicates- is true throughout the existence of an individual. For example, if John is "smart", this is a property of him, regardless which particular point in time we consider.
3. Kind-level predicates- is true of a kind of thing, but cannot be applied to individual members of the kind. An example of this is the predicate "are widespread." One can't meaningfully say of a particular individual John that he is widespread. One may only say this of kinds, as in: Humans are widespread.
4. Collective vs. distributive predicates- Collective predicates require their subjects to be somehow plural, while distributive ones don't. An example of a collective predicate is "formed a line". This predicate can only stand in a nexus with a plural subject:
The students- The student formed a line.
5. Activities: Activities are like states in presenting events as unbounded in time, but they differ from states in involving some kind of change. Examples of activity predicates include "run in the park", "snore loudly", "fall through the air", etc.
6. Achievements: Achievement predicates are like accomplishments lacking a process part. They denote punctual change. Examples of achievement predicates are "reach the top", "win the race", "find his glasses".
Predicative:An element of the predicate of a sentence which supplements the subject or object by means of the verb. Predicatives may be nominal or adjectival. A nominal predicative is a noun or pronoun that follows a linking verb and renames the subject.
In grammar, a predicative is an element of the predicate of a sentence which supplements the subject or object by means of the verb. A predicative may be nominal or adjectival. If the complement after a linking verb is a noun or a pronoun, it is called a predicate nominative. If the complement after a linking verb is an adjective, it is called a predicate adjective.
He seems nice. (adjectival predicative of the subject)
Bob is a postman. (nominal predicative of the subject)
We painted the door white. (adjectival predicative of the object)
They elected him president. (nominal predicative of the object)
Predicatives may also be termed complements. Although sometimes object predicatives may be omitted leaving a well-formed sentence, in many instances they are essential to the meaning of the sentence:
That shrimp dish made him sick.
They called her a thief.
I consider him my friend.
Prefix: A prefix (affix) is a word, or letter(s) placed at the beginning of another word (a base word) to adjust or qualify its usage or meaning.
English prefixes are affixes (i.e., bound morphemes that provide the primary meaning) that are added before either simple roots or complex bases (or operands) consisting of (a) a root and other affixes, (b) multiple roots, or (c) multiple roots and other affixes. Examples of these follow:
? undo (consisting of prefix un- and root do)
? untouchable (consisting of prefix un-, root touch, and suffix ?able
? non-childproof (consisting of prefix non-, root child, and root proof)
? non-childproofable (consisting of prefix non-, root child, root proof, and suffix -able)
English words may consist of multiple prefixes: anti-pseudo-classicism (containing both an anti- prefix and a pseudo- prefix).
In English, all prefixes are derivational. This contrasts with English suffixes, which may be either derivational or inflectional. (In linguistics, derivation is "Used to form new words, as with happi-ness and un-happy from happy, or determination from determine. A contrast is intended with the process of inflection, which uses another kind of affix in order to form variants of the same word, as with determine/determine-s/determin-ing/determin-ed.)
As is often the case with derivational morphology, many English prefixes can only be added to bases of particular lexical categories (or "parts of speech"). For example, the prefix re- meaning "again, back" is only added to verb bases as in rebuild, reclaim, reuse, resell, re-evaluate, resettle. It cannot be added to bases of other lexical categories. Thus, examples of re- plus a noun base (such as the ungrammatical *rehusband, *remonopoly) or re- plus an adjective base (*renatural, *rewise) are virtually unattested.[1]
These selectional restrictions on what base a prefix can be attached to can be used to distinguish between otherwise identical-sounding prefixes. For instance, there are two different un- prefixes in English: one meaning "not, opposite of", the other meaning "reverse action, deprive of, release from". The first prefix un- "not" is attached to adjective and participle bases while the second prefix un- "reverse action" is attached to either verb or noun bases. Thus, English can have two words that are pronounced and spelled the same and have the same lexical category but have different meanings, different prefixes, a different internal morphological structure, and different internal bases that the prefixes are attached to:
unlockable "not able to be locked"
unlockable "able to be unlocked"
In the first unlockable "not able to be locked", the prefix un- "not" is attached to an adjective base lockable (which, in turn, is composed of lock -able). This word has the following internal structure:
[ un [ [ lock ]verb able ]adj ]adj
In the second unlockable "able to be unlocked", the prefix un- "reverse action" is attached to a verb base lock, resulting in the derived verb unlock. Subsequently, the -able suffix is added after the newly created unlock adjective base deriving the adjective unlockable. This word has the following internal structure:
[ [ un [ lock ]verb ]verb able ]adj
Preposition :Prepositions are a class of words that indicate relationships between nouns, pronouns and other words in a sentence. Most often they come before a noun. They never change their form, regardless of the case, gender etc. of the word they are referring to.
Some common prepositions are:
Prepositions typically come before a noun:
For example:
-after class
-at home
-before Tuesday
-in London
-on fire
-with pleasure
A preposition usually indicates the temporal, spatial or logical relationship of its object to the rest of the sentence.
For example:
-The book is on the table.
-The book is beside the table.
-She read the book during class.
In each of the preceding sentences, a preposition locates the noun "book" in space or in time.
Prepositions are classified as simple or compound.
Simple prepositions are single word prepositions. These are all showed above.
For example:
The book is on the table.
Compound prepositions are more than one word. in between and because of are prepositions made up of two words - in front of, on behalf of are prepositions made up of three words.
For example:
-The book is in between War and Peace and The Lord of the Rings.
-The book is in front of the clock.
Pronoun:In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun (including a noun phrase consisting of a single noun) with or without a determiner, such as you and they in English.
Types of pronouns:
Personal pronouns stand in place of the names of people or things:
Subjective pronouns are used when the person or thing is the subject of the sentence or clause. Example: I like to eat chips but she does not. .
Intensive pronouns re-emphasize a noun or pronoun that has already been mentioned. English uses the same forms as for the reflexive pronouns; for example: I did it myself
Objective pronouns are used when the person or thing is the object of the sentence or clause. Example: John likes me but not her.
Direct and indirect object pronouns. English uses the same forms for both; for example: Mary loves him (direct object); Mary sent him a letter (indirect object).
Reflexive pronouns are used when a person or thing acts on itself. Example: John cut himself.
Reciprocal pronouns refer to a reciprocal relationship. Example:They do not like each other.
Prepositional pronouns come after a preposition. for example: Mary looked at him.
Disjunctive pronouns are used in isolation, or in certain other special grammatical contexts. No distinct forms exist in English; for example: To whom does this belong? Me.
Dummy pronouns are used when grammatical rules require a noun (or pronoun), but none is semantically required. Example: It is raining.
Weak pronouns.
Possessive pronouns are used to indicate possession or ownership.
In strict sense, the possessive pronouns are only those that act syntactically as nouns. Example: Those clothes are mine.
Often, though, the term "possessive pronoun" is also applied to the so-called possessive adjectives (or possessive determiners). For example, in English: I lost my wallet. They are not strictly speaking pronouns because they do not substitute for a noun or noun phrase, and as such, some grammarians classify these terms in a separate lexical category called determiners (they have a syntactic role close to that of adjectives, always qualifying a noun).
Demonstrative pronouns distinguish the particular objects or people that are referred to from other possible candidates. Example: I shall take these.
Indefinite pronouns refer to general categories of people or things.Example: Anyone can do that.
Distributive pronouns are used to refer to members of a group separately, rather than collectively. Example: To each his own.
Negative pronouns indicate the non-existence of people or things. English example: Nobody thinks that.
Relative pronouns refer back to people or things previously mentioned. English example: People who smoke should quit now.
Indefinite relative pronouns have some of the properties of both relative pronouns and indefinite pronouns. They have a sense of "referring back", but the person or thing to which they refer has not previously been explicitly named. English example: I know what I like.
Interrogative pronouns ask which person or thing is meant. Example: Who did that?
Proper Noun:A proper noun is a noun which names a specific person, place, or thing. Every noun can further be classified as common or proper. A proper noun has two distinctive features:
1) it will name a specific [usually a one-of-a-kind] item
2) it will begin with a capital letter no matter where it occurs in a sentence.
Sentence:In linguistics, a sentence is a grammatical unit of one or more words, bearing minimal syntactic relation to the words that precede or follow it, often preceded and followed in speech by pauses, having one of a small number of characteristic intonation patterns, and typically expressing an independent statement, question, request, command, etc.Sentences are generally characterized in most languages by the presence of a finite verb.
Components of a sentence:
A simple complete sentence consists of a subject and a predicate. The subject is typically a noun phrase, though other kinds of phrases (such as gerund phrases) work as well, and some languages allow subjects to be omitted. The predicate is a finite verb phrase: it's a finite verb together with zero or more objects, zero or more complements, and zero or more adverbials. See also copula for the consequences of this verb on the theory of sentence structure.
Clauses:
A clause consists of a subject and a verb. There are two types of clauses: independent and subordinate (dependent). An independent clause consists of a subject verb and also demonstrates a complete thought: for example, "I am sad." A subordinate clause consists of a subject and a verb, but demonstrates an incomplete thought: for example, "Because I had to really move."
Classification:
1.By structure:
-A simple sentence consists of a single independent clause with no dependent clauses.
-A compound sentence consists of multiple independent clauses with no dependent clauses. These clauses are joined together using conjunctions, punctuation, or both.
-A complex sentence consists of one or more independent clauses with at least one dependent clause.
-A complex-compound sentence (or compound-complex sentence) consists of multiple independent clauses, at least one of which has at least one dependent clause.
2. By purpose
-A declarative sentence or declaration, the most common type, commonly makes a statement: I am going home.
-A negative sentence or negation denies that a statement is true: I am not going home.
-An interrogative sentence or question is commonly used to request information ? When are you going to work? ? but sometimes not; see rhetorical question.
-An exclamatory sentence or exclamation is generally a more emphatic form of statement: What a wonderful day this is!
-An imperative sentence or command tells someone to do something: Go to work at 7:30 tomorrow morning.
Split infinitive:The infinitive of a verb is the form given in the dictionary where no specific subject is indicated. In English it is always characterized by the word 'to':
e.g. to work, to pay, to eat, to find, to inhabit, to bribe...
A 'split infinitive' occurs when the 'to' is separated from its verb by other words. The most famous split infinitive comes at the beginning of every episode of Star Trek, when the crew's continuing mission is announced as: "to boldly go" (rather than "to go boldly").
Split infinitives have, traditionally, been regarded by some commentators as anathema, something to be avoided at all costs. There is no rational basis for this rule; splitting infinitives is commonplace in spoken language, and even in written English it may be clearer or more elegant to do so.
In general, however, split infinitives should be avoided in the formal register of an essay or other piece of academic writing, unless the alternative seems excessively awkward or clumsy. Usually it is sufficient to move the offending word so that it comes either before or after the infinitive.
Harry's teacher told him to never look back.
Harry's teacher told him never to look back.
She told me I had to quickly finish this sandwich.
She told me I had to finish this sandwich quickly.
There are occasions when splitting the infinitice is far clearer than any alternative phrasing:
Ex. That was the only way to more than double his salary.
Stative :Denoting a verb describing a state rather than an activity, act, or event, such as know and want as opposed to leave and throw.
A stative verb is one which asserts that one of its arguments has a particular property (possibly in relation to its other arguments). Statives differ from other aspectual classes of verbs in that they are static; they have no duration and no distinguished endpoint. Verbs which are not stative are often called dynamic verbs.
Ex.
I am tired.
I have two children.
Stem :In grammar, the part of a verb or noun that remains unchanged by tense and agreement.
In linguistics, a stem (sometimes also theme) is the part of a word that is common to all its inflected variants. Stems are often roots, e.g. atomic, its root is atom, but its stem is atom?ic. A stem can be morphologically complex, as seen with compound words (cf. the compound nouns meat ball or bottle opener) or words with derivational morphemes (cf. the derived verbs black-en or standard-ize). Thus, the stem of the complex English noun photographer is photo?graph?er, but not photo. For another example, the root of the English verb form destabilized is stabil-, a form of stable that does not occur alone; the stem is de?stabil?ize, which includes the derivational affixes de- and -ize, but not the inflectional past tense suffix -(e)d. That is, a stem is that part of a word that affixes attach to.
Subject :Traditionally, one of the two main parts of a sentence, the other being the predicate. In grammar, the noun or pronoun that carries out the action of the verb in a sentence, as in ?The dog chased the cat?. The subject also controls the form and number of the verb.
Subjects are most difficult to identify when they are implied, as in ?Save me!?, where the subject is ?you?.
A complete and a simple subject :
The complete subject is who or what is doing the verb plus all of the modifiers [descriptive words] that go with it. Read the sentence below:
The big, hungry, green Martian grabbed a student from the back row.
Who did the grabbing? The Martian, of course. But this Martian wasn't petite, satisfied, and blue. No, this one was big, hungry, and green. The complete subject, then, is the huge, hairy, hungry, green Martian.
The simple subject, on the other hand, is the who or what that is doing the verb without any description. Take a look at this example:
The bright copper coin sparkled on the sidewalk.
What did the sparkling? Obviously, the bright copper coin. The, bright and copper, however, are just description that distinguishes this coin from one that is, let's say, tarnished and silver. The simple subject is only the word coin.
subjective genitive- We have the subjective genitive when the noun in the genitive produces the action, being therefore related as subject to the verbal idea of the noun modified. Example: the boy?s application ? the boy applied for (?) her parents? consent ? the parents consented
substantivization is the result of ellipsis (syntactical shortening ) when a word combination with a semantically strong attribute loses its semantically weak noun (man, person etc), e.g. ?a grown-up person? is shortened to ?a grown-up?. In cases of perfect substantivization the attribute takes the paradigm of a countable noun , e.g. a criminal, criminals, a criminal?s (mistake) , criminals? (mistakes). Such words are used in a sentence in the same function as nouns, e.g. I am fond of musicals. (musical comedies). There are also two types of partly substantivized adjectives: those which have only the plural form and have the meaning of collective nouns, such as: sweets, news, empties, finals, greens, those which have only the singular form and are used with the definite article. They also have the meaning of collective nouns and denote a class, a nationality, a group of people, e.g. the rich, the English, the dead .
suffix- in grammar, a suffix (also postfix, ending) is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry grammatical information (inflectional suffixes), or lexical information (derivational suffixes). An inflectional suffix is sometimes called a desinence.
Some examples from English:
Girls, where the suffix -s marks the plural.
He makes, where suffix -s marks the third person singular present tense.
He closed, where the suffix -ed marks the past tense.
suppletive form -in linguistics and etymology, suppletion is traditionally understood as the use of one word as the inflected form of another word when the two words are not cognate. For those learning a language, suppletive forms will be seen as "irregular" or even "highly irregular". The term "suppletion" implies that a gap in the paradigm was filled by a form "supplied" by a different paradigm. Instances of suppletion are overwhelmingly restricted to the most commonly-used lexical items in a language.
terminative verb- besides their specific meaning contain the idea that the action must be fulfilled and come to an end, reaching some point where it has logically to stop. These are such verbs as sit down,come,fall,stop, begin, open, close, shut, die, bring, find, etc.
transitive verb- in syntax, a transitive verb is a verb that requires both a direct subject and one or more objects. Some examples of sentences with transitive verbs:
? Harry sees Adam. (Adam is the direct object of "sees")
? You lifted the bag. (bag is the direct object of "lifted")
? I punished you. (you is the direct object of "punished")
? I give you the book. (book is the direct object of "give" and "you" is the non-prepositional indirect object of "give")
utterance- is a complete unit of speech in spoken language. It is generally but not always bounded by silence. It can be represented and delineated in written language in many ways. Note that utterances do not exist in written language, only their representations do.
verb- in syntax, a verb is a word (part of speech) that usually denotes an action (bring, read), an occurrence (decompose, glitter), or a state of being (exist, stand). Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its tense, aspect, mood and voice. It may also agree with the person, gender, and/or number of some of its arguments (subject, object, etc.).
The number of arguments that a verb takes is called its valency or valence. Verbs can be classified according to their valency.
? Intransitive (valency = 1): the verb only has a subject. For example: "he runs", "it falls".
? Transitive (valency = 2): the verb has a subject and a direct object. For example: "she eats fish", "we hunt deer".
? Ditransitive (valency = 3): the verb has a subject, a direct object and an indirect or secondary object. For example: "I gave her a book," "She sent me flowers."
voice- in grammar, the voice (also called gender or diathesis) of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state) that the verb expresses and the participants identified by its arguments (subject, object, etc.). When the subject is the agent or actor of the verb, the verb is in the active voice. When the subject is the patient, target or undergoer of the action, it is said to be in the passive voice.
For example, in the sentence:
The cat ate the mouse.
the verb "ate" is in the active voice, but in the sentence:
The mouse was eaten by the cat.
the verbal phrase "was eaten" is passive.
voicing- in English as in Polish language also we distinguish two voices: active and passive. The active voice is more standard in English than it's counterpart. This involves the subject of the verb to be the one doing the action (in a manner of speaking), whereas in the Passive voice, the "subject" would be similar to the object of an active sentence. Compare:
"I threw the remote." Active voice, I-subject, remote-object,
"The remote was thrown (by me)." Passive,
Although technically the remote is the subject of the second sentence, it is used as a object. The use of the Passive voice is to be able to hide the one doing the action. If you said, "The remote was thrown," it could mean you don't know who threw it, you are trying not to assume who threw it, or you're trying not to blame someone for throwing it. That also means you can omit it if you don't know the who it is. You can say, "The remote was thrown," "The ball was hit," or "The chair was moved," which are all perfect passive constructions without a "subject" arguement.
To form the Passive voice, one must use a form of the verb to be, and then add the verb with it's perfect form, in most cases -ed endings.
Przeczytaj podobne teksty
Czas czytania: 145 minut
Treść zweryfikowana i sprawdzona
Zgodnie z misją, Redakcja serwisu dokłada wszelkich starań, aby dostarczać rzetelne i sprawdzone treści edukacyjne.
Dodatkowe oznaczenie "Sprawdzona treść" wskazuje, że dany materiał został zweryfikowany przez Redakcję lub ekspertów współpracujących z serwisem.
Weryfikacja tekstu odbywa się na następujących poziomach:
1. Sprawdzenie tekstu pod kątem ewentualnych błędów ortograficznych, stylistycznych, interpunkcyjnych lub innych.
2. Weryfikacja tekstu pod kątem błędów rzeczowych.
3. Sprawdzenie materiału pod kątem ich aktualności.
Dodatkowe oznaczenie "Sprawdzona treść" wskazuje, że dany materiał został zweryfikowany przez Redakcję lub ekspertów współpracujących z serwisem.
Weryfikacja tekstu odbywa się na następujących poziomach:
1. Sprawdzenie tekstu pod kątem ewentualnych błędów ortograficznych, stylistycznych, interpunkcyjnych lub innych.
2. Weryfikacja tekstu pod kątem błędów rzeczowych.
3. Sprawdzenie materiału pod kątem ich aktualności.