- •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
4. Go, come, spend, waste, be busy
A. go and come
go and come can be followed by the participles of verbs of physical activity and the verb shop:
They are going riding/skiing/sailing.
Come dancing.
I'm going shopping this afternoon.
B. spend/waste+ an expression of time or money + present participle:
He spends two hours (a day) travelling.
He doesn 't spend much time preparing his lessons.
We wasted a whole afternoon trying to repair the car.
He spent a lot of money modernizing the house.
C. be busy + present participle: She is/was busy packing.
5. A present participle phrase replacing a main clause
The participle constructions in A and B below are chiefly used in written English.
A.When two actions by the same subject occur simultaneously it is usually possible to express one of them by a present participle. The participle can be before or after the finite verb:
He rode away. He whistled as he went. = He rode away whistling.
He holds the rope with one hand and stretches out the other to the boy in the water = Holding the rope with one hand, he stretches etc.
B.When one action is immediately followed by another by the same subject the first action can often be expressed by a present participle. The participle must be placed first:
He opened the drawer and took out a revolver
= Opening the drawer he took out a revolver.
She raised the trapdoor and pointed to a flight of steps
= Raising the trapdoor she pointed to a flight of steps.
We take off our shoes and creep cautiously along the passage
= Taking off our shoes we creep cautiously along the passage.
It would seem more logical here to use the perfect participle and say Having opened, Having raised, Having taken off, but this is not necessary except when the use of the present participle might lead to ambiguity.
Eating his dinner he rushed out of the house would give the impression that he left the house with his plate in his hand. Here, therefore, it would be better to say Having eaten his dinner . . .
When the second action forms part of the first, or is a result of it, we can express the second action by a present participle:
She went out, slamming the door.
He fired, wounding one of the bandits.
I fell, striking my head against the door and cutting it.
(Here we have three actions, the last two expressed by participles.)
The participle need not necessarily have the same subject as the first verb:
The plane crashed, its bombs exploding as it hit the ground.
6. A present participle phrase replacing a subordinate clause
These constructions are chiefly found in written English.
A. The present participle can replace as/since/because + subject + verb, i.e. it can help to explain the action which follows:
Knowing that he wouldn't be able to buy food on his journey he took large supplies with him = As he knew etc.
Fearing that the police would recognize him he never went out in daylight = As he feared etc.
Note that being at the beginning of a sentence will normally mean 'as he is/as he was':
Being a student he was naturally interested in museums =
Because/As he was a studentetc.
It could not mean 'while he was a student'.
B.The subject of the participle need not be the same as the subject of the following verb:
The day being fine, we decided to go swimming.
In cases like this the participle must follow its noun/pronoun. Being fine the day, we decided ... is incorrect, but Being athletic, Tom found the climb quite easy is all right, as Tom is the subject of both the participle and the following verb. It is possible to use two or more participles, one after the other:
Realizing that he hadn 't enough money and not wanting to borrow from his father, he decided to pawn his watch.
Not knowing the language and having no friends in the town,
he found it hard to get work.