USEFUL GRAMMAR TERMS and TEST ON TENSES 2
USEFUL GRAMMAR TERMS
Articles :
There are two kinds of article: definite and indefinite. Articles go before a noun or an adjective + noun.
The is a definite article.
The house is in Sheep Street. The black dog is mine.
A and an are indefinite articles.
That’s a camel. Do you want an orange? I’m reading a good book.
Adjectives:
Adjectives tell you more about nouns. Adjectives can go before a noun or after the verb be.
Nick is a man. >> Nick is an intelligent man. Nick is intelligent.
There are also comparative adjectives, e.g. bigger. easier; more interesting, and superlative adjectives, e.g. biggest, easiest and the most interesting.
Adverbs
Adverbs tell you more about verbs. They can describe the following things:
•how often something happens (adverbs of frequency). e.g. never; rarely, occasional/y, sometimes, often, usual/y, always, still, etc.
•how certain something is (adverbs of certainty), e.g. possibly, certainly, definitely, etc.
•how you do an action (adverbs of manner), e.g. carefully, slowly, fast, etc.
•when something happens (adverbs of time>. e.g. yesterday, today, tomorrow, etc.
•where something happens (adverbs of place). e.g. here, there, etc.
Nouns
Nouns are words you use to talk about people, animals, things, places and ideas.
Patrick is my brother. I’ve got a dog. What’s that box for? We live in a village. Everybody needs love.
Nouns can be the subject or object of a sentence.
My dog bit the postman. (The subject, my dog, is a noun. The object, the postman, is also a noun.)
Nouns are either countable, e.g. apple, bouse, etc., or uncountable, e.g. advice. information, bread, otc. Most common nouns are countable. You need to learn the
uncountable nouns. Many uncountable nouns in English are countable in other languages
Pronouns
Pronouns replace nouns.
Subject pronouns are: I, you, he, she, it, we, they.
Helen is a patient person. -+ She’s a patient person.
Object pronouns are: me, you, him, her, it, us, you them.
Children like bananas. -+ Children iike them.
Possessive pronouns are: my, your. his, her, its, our, their.
That’s Lisse’s house. -+ That’s her house.
Quantifiers
Quantifiers are words that tell you about amounts. These are the most common
quantifiers: a, an, some, any, a lot, a bit, a few.
I like you a lot. There isn ‘t any milk. How much cash have you got?
Prepositions
There are prepositions and expressions of place, time and movement.
They do three things:
• in, on, at, behind, under, on top of, at the bottom of, etc. tell you where somuthl nu I Theeat’s behindthesofa. Theofficeisatthe endofthestreet.
• in, on, at, tomorrow, last week, etc. tell you when something happens. My birthday’s in June. We’re sailing to France tomorrow.
• over, across, through, etc. tell you how something moves and whore it rnovoa to , Tony ran across the road. We drove over the bridge.
Question words
The most common question words are: who, what, which, wtiere. when, wl1y, how,
whose. You can use question words to ask about people, things, places, tlme. runsou
and possessions.
Who ‘s that? What colour is the sky? Wllere have you been?
When are they leaving? Why are you laughing? How did 110 rio thnt?
Whose book is this?
A question word can be the subject or object of a sentence,
‘Who saw you” ‘Mike saw me.’ (Who is the subject.)