
- •Grammar Reference
- •Simple and Progressive Forms
- •The Present Progressive vs. The Present Simple Tense
- •What are you thinking about?
- •The Past Progressive vs. The Past Simple Tense.
- •I was talking to the President last night, and he said …
- •The Future Simple vs. Future Progressive Tense.
- •Will you be quiet, please?
- •Let’s go and see Lucy, shall we?
- •Distancing
- •Unit 2 The Simple Present Perfect Tense
- •The Simple Past Perfect Tense
- •The Simple Future Perfect
- •Perfect forms with state verbs
- •Nouns in Groups
- •1.The Present Perfect Progressive
- •2. The present perfect simple versus the present perfect progressive
- •3. The present perfect progressive versus the present simple (progressive)
- •4. The Past Perfect Progressive
- •5. The Future Perfect Progressive
- •Adjectives and Adverbs
- •Unit 4 Passives
- •Unit 5 The Participle
- •The Gerund
- •Unit 6 The Infinitive
- •9. Other infinitive structures which are quite common in English are as follows.
- •Gerund or Infinitive
- •Unit 7 Conditionals, Wishes, Regrets, Subjunctives
- •10. Subjunctives.
- •Unit 8 Modal Auxiliaries Can / Could
- •May and Might
- •Must and Have to
- •Should and Ought to
- •Unit 9 Emphasis
- •Unit 10 Modal Verbs of Deduction May and Might
- •Can and Could
- •Doubt about an action not taking place
- •Reported Speech (Advanced Points)
- •1. Reporting past tenses.
- •2. Reporting present and future tenses.
- •3. Modal verbs in reported speech.
- •4. Conditionals in reported speech.
5. The Future Perfect Progressive
The future perfect progressive is used to emphasize the continuity of a future action that will be going on for some time before a given future moment. If the completion of an action is emphasized the future perfect simple is used.
She’ll have been teaching for 2 years this summer.
The builders will have finished the roof by Tuesday.
Adjectives and Adverbs
Adjectives are normally used in two positions – before nouns and after link verbs: be, seem, appear, become, feel, look, taste, sound, smell, get, etc.
It’s a good dish. It tastes good. She looks happy.
If there are several adjectives in a word combination, their order should be as follows: value (indicating personal opinion) – size – age – shape – colour – origin – material + noun.
Lovely black leather shoes
A priceless fifth-century Greek gold coin
Adverbs are used to modify verbs, adjectives, past participles and other adverbs.
She danced happily into the room.
It is terribly cold today.
The steak is badly cooked.
She drives unusually well.
Some adjectives and adverbs have the same form.
A fast car goes fast.
If you do hard work, you work hard.
There are also adverbs that have two forms, like ‘late’ and ‘lately’, which have a different meaning. Here are some examples.
Dead = exactly, completely, very
dead certain, dead right, dead tired
Deadly (is an adjective) = fatal, causing death
Cyanide is a deadly poison.
Direct – is often used as an adverb referring to journeys
The plane goes direct from London to Houston.
Easy – is used as an adverb in some informal expressions
Take it easy! Go easy! Easier said than done. Easy come, easy go.
Fine = well – is used in some informal expressions
That suits me fine. You are doing fine.
(Compare: finely chopped onions)
Free = without payment
You can eat free in my restaurant.
Freely = without limit or restriction
You can talk freely now, I won’t tell anyone.
Hard – an adjective and an adverb
Hit it hard. These are hard times.
Hardly = almost not
I’ve hardly got any clean clothes left.
High – refers to height
He can jump very high.
Highly = very much
It is highly appropriate.
Low – is an adjective and an adverb
He spoke in a low voice. He bent low.
Quick – is often used instead of ‘quickly’ in informal style.
I’ll get back as quick as I can.
Real – is often used instead of ‘really’ before adjectives and adverbs in informal style.
That was real nice. He cooks real well.
Right = just, exactly
She arrived right after breakfast. Turn the gas right down.
Right & rightly – can both be used to mean ‘correctly’. ‘Right’ is informal.
I rightly assumed that Henry wasn’t coming.
You guessed right. It serves you right.
Short – is used in expressions: to stop short (suddenly), to cut short (interrupt)
Shortly = soon
The others will arrive shortly.
Wide – is the normal adverb. ‘Widely’ suggests distance or separation.
The door was wide open. She has traveled widely.
For more information, check in a good dictionary.