- •1. Kinds of nouns
- •2. Gender
- •3. Plurals
- •4. Uncountable nouns
- •5. Possessive case
- •Adjectives
- •1. Kinds of adjectives
- •2. Participles used as adjectives
- •3. Position of adjectives: attributive and predicative use
- •9. Comparison of adjectives
- •Adverbs
- •1. Kinds of adverbs
- •2. Form and use
- •3. Some words are both adjectives and adverbs:
- •4. Comparative and superlative adverb forms
- •5. Constructions with comparisons.
- •6. Position of adverbs
- •3. Uses of the Present Continuous Tense
- •4. Verbs not normally used in the Continuous Tenses
- •5. See, feel, look, smell and taste used in the continuous
- •6. The Continuous and Non-Continuous Uses of Certain Verbs
- •The simple present tense
- •1. Form
- •2. Spelling Notes
- •3. Uses of the Simple Present Tense
- •4. Other Uses of the Simple Present Tense
- •The past and perfect tenses the simple past tense
- •1. Form
- •2. Spelling Notes
- •3. Uses of the Past Simple Tense
- •4. Used to Indicating Past Habit
- •The past continuous tense
- •1. Form
- •2. Main Uses of the Past Continuous Tense
- •3. Other Uses of the Past Continuous Tense
- •The present perfect tense (simple and continuous)
- •1. Form
- •2. The Present Perfect Used for Past Actions Whose Time is not Definite
- •3. The Present Perfect Used for Actions Occurring in an Incomplete Period
- •4. The Present Perfect (Simple and Continuous) Used for Actions and Situations Continuing up to the Present
- •5. Special Structures in the Present Perfect
- •The past perfect tense (simple, continuous)
- •1. Form
- •3. Past and Past Perfect Tenses in Time Clauses.
- •4. Past Perfect Tense in Main Clause
- •The future
- •1. Future Forms
- •2. The simple present used for the future
- •4. The Present Continuous as a Future Form
- •5. The be going to form
- •6. The Future Simple
- •7. The Future Continuous
- •8. The Future Perfect
- •9. The Future Perfect Continuous
- •The passive voice
- •1. Form
- •2. Various Structures Expressed in the Passive
- •3. Active Tenses and Their Passive Equivalents
- •4. Get in the Passive
- •5. Questions in the passive
- •6. Uses of the Passive: Active or Passive
- •7. The Passive is Used:
- •8. Passive Sentences with or without by:
- •9. Passive with the Verbs Having Two Objects
- •10. Special Passive Patterns
- •11. Verbs Which Cannot be Used in the Passive
- •1. Modal Auxiliary Verbs: General
- •2. Modal Auxiliary Verbs With Perfect Infinitives
- •3. Can, could and be able for ability
- •4. May and Can for Permission
- •5. May and Can for Possibility
- •6. Could as an Alternative to May/Might
- •7. Can in Interrogative and Negative Sentences
- •8. Can Used to Express ‘Theoretical Possibility’
- •9. Set Phrases with Can, May, Might
- •10. Must and Have for Deduction and Assumption
- •11. Must and have to: forms
- •12. Difference between have to and have got to Forms
- •13. Difference between must and have to in the Affirmative
- •14. Need not and must not in the Present and Future
- •15. Must, have to and need in the Interrogative
- •17. Needn’t have done Compared with didn’t have/need to do
- •18. Ought and Should for Obligation
- •The infinitive
- •1. Forms
- •2. Infinitive without to
- •3. The Infinitive Represented by its to
- •4. Split Infinitives
- •5. The Infinitive Used as a Connective Link
- •6. Functions of the infinitive
- •7. The Infinitive as Subject of a Sentence
- •8. The Infinitive as Complement of a Verb
- •9. The Infinitive as Object of a Verb
- •10. The Infinitive as Object of an Adjective
- •11. The Infinitive after Interrogative Conjunction
- •12. The Infinitive as Adverbial Modifier
- •A. TheInfinitive as Adverbial Modifier of Purpose
- •B. The Infinitive asAdverbial Modifier of Result
- •13. The Infinitive as Attribute
- •14. Active and Passive Infinitive with Similar Meaning
- •15. Objective-with-the-Infinitive Construction
- •16. Nominative-with-the-Infinitive Construction
- •19. The Infinitive as Parenthesis
- •The gerund
- •1. Form and Use
- •2. Functions of the Gerund
- •3. Verbs Followed by the Gerund
- •Note that:
- •5. Gerunds after Prepositions
- •6. The Verb mind
- •7. Gerunds with Passive Meaning
- •8. The Gerund: Special Cases
- •Infinitive and gerund constructions
- •1. Verbs and Adjectives Which May Take either Infinitive or Gerund
- •M. Accustomed, afraid, ashamed, certain, interested, sorry, sure, used
- •The participles
- •1. The Present (or Active) Participle
- •2. Present Participle after verbs of sensation
- •I saw him enter the room, unlock a drawer, take out a document, photograph it and put it back.
- •4. Go, come, spend, waste, be busy
- •5. A present participle phrase replacing a main clause
- •6. A present participle phrase replacing a subordinate clause
- •7. The perfect participle (active)
- •8. The past participle (passive) and the perfect participle (passive)
- •9. Participles used as adjectives before and after nouns
- •10. Misrelated participles
- •Reported speech
- •1. Main points
- •2. Statements in reported speech 1. If you want to report a statement, you use a ‘that’-clause after certain verbs. The most useful are:
- •Tense changes
- •Indirect speech is usually introduced by a verb in the past tense. Verbs in the reported clause have to be changed into a corresponding ‘more past’ tense.
- •1. Past Simple and Past Continuous in time clauses do not normally change. The verb in the main clause can either remain unchanged or become the past perfect:
- •5. Time and place expressions in reported speech
- •6. Modals in reported speech
- •7. Reported questions
- •8. Questions beginning Shall I/we…? Such questions can be of different types:
- •9. Reported orders/requests/advice/suggestions, etc.
- •14. Let’s, let him/them in indirect speech 1. Let’s usually expresses a suggestion and is reported by suggest in reported speech:
- •15. Exclamations and yes/no
- •16. Reported speech: mixed types
- •Contents
9. Comparison of adjectives
A. There are three degrees of comparison:
Positive Comparative Superlative
dark darker darkest
useful more useful most useful
B. Form
1. One-syllable adjectives form their comparative and superlative by adding er and est to the positive form: light lighter lightest
Adjectives ending in e add r and st:
brave braver bravest
Adjectives with one vowel followed by one consonant double the final consonant:
fat fatter fattest
2. Adjectives of three or more syllables form their comparative and superlative by putting more and most before the positive:
interesting more interesting most interesting
beautiful more beautiful most beautiful
3. Adjectives of two syllables follow one or other of the above rules. Those ending in ful or re usually take more and most:
doubtful more doubtful most doubtful
obscure more obscure most obscure
Those ending in er, y or ly usually add er, est:
clever cleverer cleverest
pretty prettier prettiest ( note that the y becomes i)
silly sillier silliest
4. With a few two-syllable adjectives, both kinds of comparative and superlative are possible. These are: common, handsome, polite, quiet, wicked, pleasant, cruel, stupid, tired, and words ending in -ow and -le.
common commoner/more common commonest/most common
gentle gentler/more gentle gentlest/most gentle
hollow hollower/more hollow hollowest/most hollow
5. Irregular comparison:
bad worse worst
far farther farthest (of distance only)
further furthest (used more widely)
good better best
little less least
many/much more most
old elder eldest (of people only)
older oldest (of people and things)
farther and further
Both words are used to refer to distance, with no difference of meaning:
London is farther/further than Paris.
Further (but not farther) can also be used, mainly with abstract nouns, to mean ‘additional’, ‘extra’, ‘more advanced’.
College of Further Education.
Finally, they reached the furthest point in the dicussion.
elder, eldest; older, oldest
Elder and eldest are chiefly used for comparisons within a family.
Note the difference between elder and eldest.
My elder son is the older of my two sons; if I say my eldest son, I probably have at least three sons. If I say my elder sister, I only have one sister. But elder is not used with than, so older is necessary here:
My elder brother is two years older than I am.
C. Use of comparative and superlative
1. The comparative is used to compare things or people that are separate from each other. The superlative is used to compare one member of a group with the whole group (including that member):
Mary’s nicer than her three sisters.
Mary’s the nicest of the four sisters in the family.
In the first sentence, Mary is not one of the three sisters; we use the comparative. In the second sentence, Mary is one of the four girls that we are talking about; we use the superlative.
Note that after superlatives we use in with places (towns, buildings etc.)
What’s the longest river in the world?
We live in one of the nicest rooms in the hotel.
Also: in the class/in the team/in the family etc.
Tom is the best player in the team.
But: the happiest day of my life, the most pleasant season of the year
2. We sometimes use the comparative instead of the superlative to talk about a group that only has two members.
I like Betty and Maud, but I think Betty’s the nicer of the two.
I’ll give you the bigger steak: I’m not very hungry.
3. After the superlative we often use the present perfect tense.
It’s the best book I’ve ever read.
D. Further information about comparison of adjectives
1. Before the comparative you can use much, far, very much, a lot, any, no, rather, a bit, a little:
very much nicer, a lot happier, rather more expensive, a little less interesting, a bit easier, far more serious Is your mother any more relaxed?
Things are no better than before.
When more is followed by a plural noun, it can be modified by far or many, but not much.
Compare: many more opportunities (or far more)
much more money (or far more)
We say much less or far less, and far fewer, but not ‘many fewer’.
much less time (or far less time)
far less mistakes far fewer mistakes
2. To express the continuing change, we can use ‘double comparative’:
Your English is improving. It’s getting better and better.
These days more and more people are learning English.
She is becoming more and more nervous.
3. the......the......(with two comparatives) to say that two changes happen together.
The warmer the weather, the better I feel.
The more dangerous it is, the more I like it.
The more expensive the hotel (is), the better the service (is).
Note the structure the+comparative the better:
Do you like high speed? Yes. The faster the better.
What size box do you want? The bigger the better.
4. as.......as......
a) When we say that two things are the same in some way, we can use as....as.... with an adjective:
It’s as cold as ice. She’s as bad-tempered as her mother.
In negative comparisons, we can use not as.....as..... or not so.....as...... Both are correct in modern English.
She is not so nice as her sister. (or She is not as nice as her sister).
b) With a noun we use as much.....as..... or as many.....as.....to talk about quantity:
I haven’t got as much money as I thought.
They need as many tests as possible.
c) Twice, three times, etc. can be used with as.....as.....; so can half, a quarter etc.
Their house is about twice as big as ours.
You are not half as clever as you think you are.
d) We say the same as (not ‘the same like’)
Tom is the same age as George.
‘What would you like to drink?’ ‘I’ll have the same as last time’.
e) like+noun and as+noun
He worked like a slave. (very hard indeed)
He worked as a slave. (He was a slave.)
She used her umbrella as a weapon. (She struck him with it.)