грамматика+учебник

good - better - best, bad- -worse - worst.

4. Irregular forms

The following adjectives have irregular forms of degrees of comparison.

The adjectives elder and eldest are used to speak about people’s ages in the same family.

Her elder sister is two years older than she is. But: He is my oldest friend.

Both farther and further can be used to speak about a ‘greater distance’, but only further is used in the meaning of ‘more’:

Go farther and you will see the house. Who wants to read further explanations?

The adjective latest is used in talking about events and productions to refer to new or very recent things. Last can mean ‘before this’. Latest suggests there may be more to come, while last means ‘final’:

Do you know the latest news? What is the last story about?

Nearest is used to mean ‘most near in space’, while next is used to talk about time and series and means ‘nearest in the future’ or ‘after this/that one’:

Where is the nearest bus stop? Who is the next to answer?

In some expressions like ‘next door’ next means nearest in space:

My best friend lives next door.

Note: The adjective lesser doesn’t have degrees of comparison and is used to mean “smaller in size, amount or importance”. It is used in such phrases as: to a greater or lesser degree, the lesser of two evils, the lesser evil; it can be also used in compounds: a lesser-known artist.

Comparatives with the definite articles can be used to say that two things change together:

The more exciting the show is, the more people come to see it.

The word order in these sentences is the following:

The +comparative +subject +predicate, the +comparative +subject + predicate.

The short form of the structure can be used in set expressions and in sentences ending with “the better”:

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The more the merrier.

The stronger you are the better.

SUBSTANTIVIZED ADJECTIVES

When adjectives are substantivized, they acquire characteristics of the noun. Wholly substantivized adjectives have become nouns, e.g. a native, valuables

Partially substantivized adjectives have acquired only some of the characteristics of the noun. They denote a whole class and are used with the definite article having the generic meaning, e.g. the blind, the deaf, the disabled, the elderly, the handicapped, the poor, the rich, the unemployed, the young the English, etc.

THE WORDS OF THE CATEGORY OF STATE

In English grammar these words are treated as adjectives which cannot be used attributively. Russian scholars treat them as a separate part of speech.

The words of the category of state are used to denote a temporary state of a person or thing:

She is afraid of dogs.

These words are derivatives with the prefix a-: ablaze, afire, aflame, afloat, afoot, afraid, aglow, ajar, alight, alive, asleep, awake, aware, etc.

The words of the category of state cannot precede a noun. They are used as predicative, objective predicative, attribute in post-position, and adverbial modifier, e.g.

Predicative – He is afraid of dogs.

Objective predicative – This story makes him asleep at once. Attribute – John, awake and cheerful, entered the kitchen.

Adverbial modifier – Aware of the danger awaiting him, the man moved slowly through the wood.

THE NUMERAL

The numeral indicates the number of persons or things (cardinal numeral) or the order of persons or things (ordinal numeral).

CARDINAL NUMERALS

Cardinal numerals are used in counting. They have the following morphological structure. From 1 to 12 and 100, 1000, 1000000 are simple words; numerals from 13 to 19 are derivatives with the suffix –teen; the cardinal numerals indicating tens are formed by means of the suffix –ty. The numerals from 21 to 29, from 31 to 39, from 41 to 49 etc. are composite words.

Cardinal numerals hundred, thousand, million can take the indefinite article in the meaning of "one". They can be substantivized and used in plural, e.g. hundreds, thousands, millions, but they have singular form when preceded by other numerals, e.g. two hundred, three thousand, four million.

Cardinal numerals can be used as subject, predicative, object, attribute (apposition), adverbial modifier, e.g.

Subject - How many do you want? - Five will do. Predicative - We are three here. He is fourteen. Object - I'll take two, if I may.

Attribute - Two small birds and one big one flew out of the bush.

Adverbial modifier - I'll be back after four.

ORDINAL NUMERALS

Ordinal numerals have the following morphological structure: they are built by means of the suffix -th from cardinal numerals, e.g. fourth, twenty-fifth, etc. The exception is three numerals – first, second, third.

In ordinal groups only the last member of the group has the ordinal form: (the) twentyfifth.

Ordinal numerals are usually used as attributes, but they can also be used as subject, predicative, or object, e.g.

Attribute - The first car appeared and the public roared.

Subject - The first two questions were difficult, but the third was the worst. Predicative - He is always the first to come.

Object - Which one would you want? - Show me the third.

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Little / a little is used in affirmative statements, while much is mostly used in negative statements and questions. A lot can be used both in affirmative and negative statements and in questions.

DEGREES OF COMPARISON

Adverbs can have degrees of comparison.

1. Adverbs form degrees of comparison in the synthetic way by means of inflections -er, -est in the following cases:

-if an adverb is a monosyllabic word:

hard - harder – hardest fast - faster - fastest;

- if it is a word of two syllables but identical in form with the adjective: early - earlier – earliest

funny - funnier - funniest.

2.Other adverbs of two syllables and polysyllabic adverbs form the degrees of comparison in the analytical way:

quickly - more quickly - most quickly slowly - more slowly - most slowly.

3.The adverbs well and badly have suppletive forms of the degrees of comparison:

well - better – best badly - worse - worst.

4. The following adverbs have irregular forms of the degrees of comparison: much/many - more – most

little - less – least

far – farther/further – farthest/furthest.

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THE VERB

GENERAL NOTION

The verb denotes actions, existence, mental condition, states and processes. There are transitive and intransitive verbs.

Transitive verbs can take a direct object: Read the letter. Intransitive verbs cannot take a direct object: Come here.

Morphologically verbs can be divided into

-simple, e.g. come, read;

-derivative, e.g. reconstruct;

-compound, e.g. daydream;

-composite, e.g. give up, put on, take off. These verbs are also called ‘phrasal verbs’.

The verb has four basic forms.

According to their basic forms verbs are divided into regular, irregular and mixed. Regular verbs form the Past Indefinite and Participle II by adding -ed/-d to the stem, e.g. walk - walked, love - loved.

Irregular verbs change their root vowel, add suffix -en, change the final consonant, have homonymous or suppletive forms, e.g. run - ran - run, take - took - taken, send - sent - sent, put - put -put go - went - gone.

Mixed verbs have the regular form of the Past Indefinite and the irregular form of Participle II, e.g. show - showed - shown.

CLASSIFICATION OF VERBS

There are four main types of verbs: notional, auxiliary, link, and modal.

Notional verbs have the meaning of their own and can be used without other verbs, as a simple predicate:

She writes a lot of letters every day.

Auxiliary verbs combine with notional verbs to build analytical forms. Auxiliary verbs have lost their lexical meaning. They are do, have, be, shall, will, should, would:

Do you know this person? He is writing a test now. They have never met us.

Shall we go? They will help you. They said they would help you.

Link verbs are used in compound nominal predicates. They are: be, feel, seem, look, become, get, grow, taste, come and others. Some of them have lost to some extent their lexical meaning; in other cases their lexical meaning is not important:

We are students.

It becomes colder every day.

The road came white and straight in front of us.

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The soup tastes good.

Modal and semi-modal verbs express the speaker's attitude toward the action or state described by the infinitive. They are: can/could, may/might, must, shall, will, should, ought, would, need, dare, be, have. As a rule they are not used alone and are followed by a notional verb. Modal verbs are a kind of modal auxiliaries as they build forms without other auxiliary verbs:

You can go now. Must we come again?

You shouldn't believe everything he says. Semi-modal verbs can use auxiliaries in negative and interrogative forms:

Do you have to go there again?

You needn’t read the text. You don’t need to read the text.

There are verbs that can be used both as notional and auxiliary and there are verbs that can be used as notional, auxiliary and semi-modal or auxiliary and modal.

How often do you do such things?

He is at home. He is sleeping. He is to come soon.

He has this book. He has read it. He had to read it last week.

Will it rain, do you think? I mustn’t, but I will. We shall start at 5. You shall be sorry.

She said she would come. We asked her but she wouldn’t listen. I thought I should call you. You should have called.

Wherever you might go you will meet him. You might have cleaned the room.

According to lexical meaning verbs can be terminative, non-terminative, and verbs of double aspect character.

Terminative verbs denote actions implying a certain limit, e.g. come, find, bring, etc.

I’ve brought you a book. Here it is.

Non-terminative verbs denote actions that do not imply any limit, e.g. live, possess, hope, stay, etc.

I hope to meet you again.

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Verbs of double aspect character can be both, depending on the context, e.g. see, read, learn, etc.

She can see well. I haven’t seen him yet.

GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES OF THE VERBS

The verb has the grammatical categories of person, number, tense, aspect, and voice.

THE CATEGORIES OF PERSON AND NUMBER

There are few forms indicating person and number. The verb be has separate forms in the Present Indefinite to indicate person and number and forms to indicate number in the Past Indefinite.

The ending -s /-es is the marker of the third person singular in the Present Indefinite Indicative, while the other forms have no ending:

He likes music. We like music.

The category of person can be manifested in the Future tenses and in the Future-in- the past tenses, as the auxiliary shall/should can be used with the first person, while will/would can be used with all the persons:

Shall I go now? He will come later. We will help you. I said I should come. He said he would come.

THE CATEGORIES OF TENSE AND ASPECT

The category of tense is expressed in the forms of the verbs. It is closely connected with the category of aspect. Each tense has four aspect forms - Indefinite, Continuous, Perfect, and Perfect Continuous. So, on the whole there are 16 tense-aspect forms:

Present Indefinite - He works really hard. Present Continuous - He is working now.

Present Perfect - He has already finished working for today.

Present Perfect Continuous - He has been working at the project for a couple of months.

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THE CATEGORY OF VOICE

The category of Voice indicates the relationship of the predicate to the subject and the object of the action denoted by the predicate. The form of the active voice shows that the subject is the doer of the action. The passive voice shows that the subject of the sentence is influenced by the action:

Active voice - He usually writes letters on Saturday. Passive voice - Letters are written every Saturday.

THE CATEGORY OF MOOD

Mood is a grammatical category, which indicates the attitude of the speaker towards the action or state expressed by the verb from the point of view of its reality.

There are three principal moods in Modern English:

The Indicative Mood shows that the action or state expressed by the verb is presented as a real fact.

You remember my brother, I am sure. They walked to the car slowly.

The forms of the Indicative Mood have tense and aspect distinctions and they can be used in the Active and Passive Voice.

The Imperative Mood is used to express a command or a request. It has only one form that coincides with the infinitive without the particle to.

Come in and close the door.

The negative form is built by means of the auxiliary verb do.

Don’t say it again. Don’t be late.

If the command or request concerns the 1st or 3rd person, the verb ‘let’ is used:

Let him help you. Let me help you. Let us walk a little.

Commands and requests can be also expressed by modal verbs. Remember that requests expressed by modal verbs sound more polite, while requests expressed by the Imperative Mood sound like polite commands/

The Subjunctive Mood presents the action or the state expressed by the verb as a non-fact, as something imaginary or desired:

If I were you, I would accept this proposal. I wish I could fly.

На вашем месте я бы принял это предложение. Жаль, что я не могу летать.

THE INDICATIVE MOOD

THE PRESENT INDEFINITE TENSE

(THE SIMPLE PRESENT)

FORMATION

The verb be distinguishes the category of person in the singular and the category of number.

Contracted forms of be with pronouns and with the negative particle not are very common in Spoken English:

The form of the Present Indefinite of other verbs coincides with the form of the Infinitive without the particle to. The third person singular form takes the ending -s, -es.

The pronunciation of the ending -s (es) varies:

1. It is pronounced [z] after vowels and voiced consonants other than sibilants and affricates:

go - goes, come - comes

2. It is pronounced [s] after voiceless consonants other than sibilants and affricates: work - works, hope - hopes

3. It is pronounced [iz] after sibilants and affricates:

pass - passes, match – matches, wish – wishes, fix - fixes, buzz - buzzes

SPELLING RULES

The verbs ending in -s, -ss, -ch, -sh, -tch, -x, -z take -es (passes, pushes, fixes); the verbs ending in -о take -es (goes, does); the verbs ending in -у preceded by a consonant take -es and у is replaced by i (try - tries); the verb have changes into has. The other verbs take the ending -s. Interrogative and negative forms of the Present Indefinite of all the verbs except be and have (with the meaning to possess) are analytical. They are built by means of the present indefinite of the auxiliary do and the infinitive of the notional verb.

The auxiliary do can be used in the affirmative form for the purpose of emphasis: I say it again, I do know the fact.

THE USE OF THE PRESENT INDEFINITE TENSE

The Present Indefinite refers the action, which it denotes to the present time in a broad sense. It is used to denote:

1. Habitual, repeated actions:

He always gets up very early.

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