Grammatika_Saakyan

lent, fantastic, cool), frequency (weekly, daily, regular). According to their morphological composition adjectives can be simple (young, new, fresh), derived (careful, woody, rainy), compound (well-known, much-praised, man-made).

All adjectives fall into two groups — qualitative and relative. Qualitative adjectives denote properties of a substance directly (great, calm, gold, beautiful). Relative adjectives describe properties of a substance through relation to material (woolen, wooden, golden) to place (Italian, European), to time (ancient, contemporary).

Compare:

•Sun eclipses are rare. Sunny weather makes me happy. Everybody admires her golden hair. This gold watch is a piece of art.

When two or more adjectives come before a noun, the usual order is: Value — Size —

Age — Shape — Colour — Origin — Material — Opinion — Temperature

•a pretty little wooden house (value + size + material)

a beautiful old red London bus (value + age + colour + origin)

This word order is not compulsory. Sometimes a short adjective comes before a long

one:

•a soft, comfortable chair; a happy, peaceful home; a tall, handsome man; a bright, cheerful smile.

The adjective big generally comes before value adjectives:

•a big bad wolf, a big tall building,

a big handsome man, a big fat woman.

Adjectives are used in the sentence in the functions of an attribute or of a predicative:

• He always drinks cold milk. He is cold and miserable.

Adjectives denoting temporary states are used only predicatively: ill, well, unwell; as well as adjectives with the prefix a-: afraid, alike, alive, alone, asleep, awake, aware (of), ashamed.

•She doesn't look very well today.

— I feel faint. — Are you ill?

We are aware that he is ashamed.

Adjectives have degrees of comparison: the comparative and the superlative degree. The adjective expressing some quality without comparison is said to be in the positive degree. An equal degree is expressed with the help of the conjunctions: as ... as, not as (so)

... as in negative sentences.

•She is as old as I am.

He isn't as clever as she is.

The comparative and the superlative degrees of comparison are formed in the synthetic, analytic and suppletive ways.

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We can show the difference in degrees by using such words as almost or nearly. If you want to compare these adjectives you should use more/less nearly or most/least nearly:

•The flowers are nearly dead from the cold. Those over there are more nearly dead.

3.Remember the adjectives ending in -ly:

The Numeral

I.The Numeral is a part of speech denoting number or order. Numerals may be used in the sentence in the function of:

1.an attribute

•Ten people are wanted for the job. The second song was a great hit.

2.a predicative

•My son is twenty and my daughter is twenty-two.

3.the subject, an object or an adverbial modifier when substantivized

•Seven is a lucky number. The two left the office early.

We often invited them to make a four at tennis. I am teaching the child to count by tens.

II.Numerals fall into cardinals and ordinals.

1.Cardinal numerals are used in counting and answer the question

How many?

•She has three questions to ask. He caught four fish yesterday. There are ten students in my class. John has two cars.

All cardinal numerals may become substantivized and turn into nouns.

•The four played a game of cards. Hundreds went to the show.

Mind the following:

•two million citizens but millions of citizens

three thousand children but thousands of children five hundred people but hundreds of people

We count by tens, hundreds, thousands; also by the hundred, by the thousand.

2. Ordinal numerals denote order or position and answer the question Which? Most of them are formed from cardinal numerals by means of the suffix -th (sixth, seventh, etc., except first, second, and third).

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Ordinal numerals which modify nouns are usually preceded by the definite article:

• the first term, the fourth day, the one hundred and twenty-fifth page.

The indefinite article may also be used. In such cases the meaning 1 be an additional one, one more.

•A third possibility occurred to me. Soon I'll start learning a second foreign

language. You are like a second family to me.

They all looked forward to Sundays because then, although, they had exactly the same food, everyone was allowed a second helping.

III. Fractional numbers

In fractional numbers the numerator is a cardinal numeral and the denominator is an ordinal (used as a noun):

• two-thirds, three-sixths.

Decimal fractions: 1.62 = one, point six, two.

IV. The spoken forms of 0

1.nought used in mathematics:

•0.7 = nought point seven

.07 = point nought seven

2.zero used in science, for example, in temperatures:

•-15 °C = minus fifteen degrees or fifteen degrees below zero

3.о [əν] used in telephone numbers:

•01 -500-3026 = о one five double o, three о two six

4.nil or nothing used in scores in such games as football:

•2-0 = the score was two nothing or two nil.

V. Roman numerals

1.Books use various numbering systems, including Roman numerals:

1.II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, etc. for 1-10.

2.M = 1000, D = 500, С = 100, L = 50.

3.Dates on monuments are also sometimes written in Roman, e. g. 1985 would be MCMLXXXV, where M - 1000, CM = 1000-100 = 900, L = 50, XXX = 30 (i. e. 3 x 10), and V = 5.

Notes:

a)In writing, spell out cardinal and ordinal numerals that can be written in one or two words. Always spell out numerals that open the sentence.

• There were twenty pages in the essay.

Five hundred and seventy people attended the conference.

b)Remember the punctuation marks when writing a sum of money:

•2,123.56 = two thousand one hundred twenty three dollars and fifty six cents

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The Pronoun

The Pronoun is a part of speech which points out things and qualities of things without naming them directly like nouns and adjectives do. Pronouns have a very general, relative character. Everyone can use the pronoun I and it will denote different people; the pronoun you denotes a person spoken to; the pronouns he, she, it denote people or objects being discussed. Due to their general and relative character pronouns are widely used in different languages as stand-ins (substitutes) for nouns.

In the sentence pronouns function either as nouns or as adjectives and can be classified into noun-pronouns and adjective-pronouns. In the sentence noun-pronouns have the function of the subject, object, and of the predicative.

•I am a student. (subject)

It's me. (predicative)

Explain it to me. (object) You should do it. (object)

Adjective-pronouns cannot function independently, they modify the nouns they are used with.

•My life is hard, but still this is my life. I like some pop-music.

I don't like any rock music.

Some pronouns have gender, case and number.

Gender: he — masculine; she — feminine; it — neuter. They — refers to all of them in the plural.

Case: only personal pronouns have cases — the Nominative Case and the Objective

Case.

I — me, he — him, she — her, they — them, we — us.

Number in the system of pronouns can be expressed in different ways:

I — we; he, she, it — they; this — these; that — those; one — ones; other— others; yourself— yourselves.

Some pronouns are always singular in meaning (each, every, (a) little, much, everything, something, nothing). Others are only plural (many, (a) few, both, several). Many pronouns have one form for the singular and for the plural meaning (all, any, some, who, which).

•All is well. All are here.

Who is this boy? Who are those girls?

Pronouns are very numerous. According to their meaning all pronouns fall into the following groups: personal, possessive, indefinite, demonstrative, reflexive, interrogative, relative and conjunctive, reciprocal.

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Personal Pronouns

Personal Pronouns have two cases — the Nominative Case and the Objective Case.

When a personal pronoun is a subject or a predicative of the sentence, it is used in the Nominative Case in official, formal style.

•The chairman and I were the speakers that day. It was they who founded the society.

In informal, colloquial style the use of the objective case of the personal pronoun has become standard in Modern English.

•That's her. It was them.

Hello, is that me you are looking for?

The Objective Case of the personal pronoun is used after such prepositions as between, up, but (in the meaning of except), except, without.

•The secret was between Bob and me. It's up to them, not to us.

But for him, we would not know what to do.

If the pronoun follows than or as it is always used in the Nominative Case when the verb is used.

•He is a faster skater than I am. She is as intelligent as he is.

But it is more usual to say me/him, etc. when there is no verb:

•You are taller than me. He is not as clever as her.

Possessive Pronouns

Possessive Pronouns have two forms — the Conjoint Form and the Absolute Form.

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The conjoint form of the pronoun is always followed by a noun.

•Your idea is interesting, His hair is black and shiny.

The absolute form is used absolutely, without any noun and may have different functions in the sentence.

•I like that idea of yours.

The car is not his, it's theirs. Yours is the best essay.

Compare. You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours.

Demonstrative Pronouns

Demonstrative Pronouns have number — the singular and the plural: it — they, this

— these, that — those.

The general demonstrative meaning of these pronouns is near and distant reference in time and space.

This/these identify something near to the speaker, they are associated with here. That/those identify something farther from the speaker; they are associated with there.

• this room — that house; these years — those days.

Indefinite Pronouns

The pronouns some and any (when used both as noun-pronouns and as adjectivepronouns) indicate indefinite qualities and quantities. Both can be used with all classes of nouns in the singular and in the plural.

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1.Some usually expresses an indefinite number or amount or indefinite quality.

•I picked some apples from our tree. Now we shall order some nice food. You must think of some plan.

It happened some ten years ago.

As a rule, some is used in affirmative sentences. In interrogative and negative sentences the pronouns any or no are used. However, some remains in interrogative and negative sentences when the question or negation does not concern the part of the sentence containing some.

•May I offer you some tea?

Shall we invite some of your friends too? I could not find some of my books.

Not all your answers are correct. Some are, some aren't.

2.Any is used in interrogative and negative sentences instead of some. Any may be used as an adverbial modifier of degree in the sentence.

•Is there any way out? There can't be any. He isn't any better today.

Any in affirmative sentences means it does not matter who, what or which and corresponds to the Russian любой, всякий, какой угодно.

•Come any day you like. Any child knows it.

— What book shall I give you? — Any will do.

3.The pronoun one is used only with countable nouns and has the plural form — ones and the possessive case — one's.

The pronoun one is used: a) to stand for people:

•One should be careful in such matters.

b) to express some vague time:

• One day I'll tell you my secret.

c)to avoid the repetition of the same noun (as a word-substitute):

•My house is the first one on the left.

d)with the meaning of only or single:

•Your father is the one man to help me. This is the one way to do it.

The Pronouns Much and Many, Little and Few

Much means a large amount and modifies only uncountable nouns.

•I haven't much time to spare. You needn't bring much luggage.

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Many means a large number and modifies only countable nouns in the plural.

•He has many friends here.

You haven't made many mistakes this time.

Much and many are used mainly in interrogative and negative sentences and in object clauses introduced by if or whether.

•Did you have much rain on your holiday? She hasn't very much advice to give him.

I wonder if many people will come to the party.

In present-day English a lot of, lots of, plenty of, a great deal of, a large number of, a

good many, a great many replace much and many in affirmative sentences.

• There is a lot of work to do.

I know lots of girls who go out dancing every Saturday.

A great many mistakes have been made by nearly everybody.

Much and many can be used in affirmative sentences:

a)when they are used as subjects or modify the subject of the sentence.

• Much depends on what he will say. Many think he will improve.

Many people think the same.

b)when much is used alone as a noun-pronoun in the function of an object.

• My father meant so much to me.

I would give much to know what the matter is.

c) when much and many are modified by such adverbs of degree as so, too, as and

how.

•We've got too many things to do today. Sorry, I've given you so much trouble.

The pronouns much and many have degrees of comparison:

much

more —> most

many

The pronouns little and few are used as noun-pronouns and as adjective-pronouns.

•Much was said but little was done, (noun-pronoun) We have little time this week, (adjective-pronoun) Few will deny such an evident fact, (noun-pronoun) I have very few regrets about it. (adjective-pronoun)

Little means a small amount and is used with uncountable nouns.

• I know little of his life.

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Few means a small number and can be used with countable nouns in the plural.

• Few people can face it.

Both little and few have a negative implication — they mean not enough.

•Few people would agree to that. We have little water.

A little and a few have a positive meaning. They mean some, though not much/many.

•He earns a little money and can live quite comfortably on it. You should have a few things with you.

Compare:

•I know little about painting. (= almost nothing) I know a little about painting. (= something)

There is little change in her. (= almost no change) -There is a little change in her. (= some change) He has few friends here. (= almost none) He has a few friends here. (= some friends)

Little and few have degrees of comparison:

little —> less —> least few —> fewer —> fewest

•Please make less noise.

The child gives us the least trouble.

There were fewer people at the library today. Who has made the fewest mistakes?

Self-pronouns

They are: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, themselves. Self-pronouns are either reflexive or emphatic.

1. A reflexive pronoun can be used in the sentence as an object, attribute, predicative, an adverbial modifier.

•He thinks too much of himself. She didn't like that photograph of

herself. David is not quite himself today. I prefer to stay by myself.

II.The Russian reflexive meaning (-ся, -съ) can be expressed in English by:

1. the verb in the active voice.

•They met but soon parted.

She washed, dressed and came downstairs.

2.the verb in the passive voice.

•The house is being built in the country. The text was being translated.

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