English Grammar

Welcome to English Club English Grammar for ESL learners. Many of these grammar lessons also have quizzes to check your understanding. If you still don't understand something, feel free to ask a question at the Grammar Help Desk.

grammar (noun): the structure and system of a language, or of languages in general, usually considered to consist of syntax and morphology.

What is Grammar?

English Grammar Terms (long version)

English Grammar Terms (short version)

The 8 English Parts of Speech

These are the words that you use to make a sentence. There are only 8 types of word - and the most important is the Verb!

Verbs  be, have, do, work Nouns  man, town, music Adjectives  a, the, 69, big Adverbs  loudly, well, often Pronouns  you, ours, some Prepositions  at, in, on, from Conjunctions  and, but, though Interjections  ah, dear, er, um

What is Grammar?

Grammar is the system of a language. People sometimes describe grammar as the "rules" of a language; but in fact no language has rules*. If we use the word "rules", we suggest that somebody created the rules first and then spoke the language, like a new game. But languages did not start like that. Languages started by people making sounds which evolved into words, phrases and sentences. No commonly-spoken language is fixed. All

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languages change over time. What we call "grammar" is simply a reflection of a language at a particular time.

Do we need to study grammar to learn a language? The short answer is "no". Very many people in the world speak their own, native language without having studied its grammar. Children start to speak before they even know the word "grammar". But if you are serious about learning a foreign language, the long answer is "yes, grammar can help you to learn a language more quickly and more efficiently." It's important to think of grammar as something that can help you, like a friend. When you understand the grammar (or system) of a language, you can understand many things yourself, without having to ask a teacher or look in a book.

So think of grammar as something good, something positive, something that you can use to find your way - like a signpost or a map.

* Except invented languages like Esperanto. And if Esperanto were widely spoken, its rules would soon be very different.

Glossary of English Grammar Terms

This glossary of English grammar terms relates to the English language. Some terms here may have additional or extended meanings when applied to other languages. For example, "case" in some languages applies to pronouns and nouns. In English, nouns do not have case and therefore no reference to nouns is made in its definition here.

Term Definition

active voice one of two voices in English; a direct form of expression where the subject performs or "acts" the verb; see also passive voiceeg: "Many people eat rice"

adjective part of speech that typically describes or "modifies" a nouneg: "It was a big dog."

adjective clause seldom-used term for relative clause

adjunct word or phrase that adds information to a sentence and that can be removed from the sentence without making the sentence ungrammaticaleg: I met John at school.

adverb word that modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb

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eg: quickly, really, very

adverbial clause dependent clause that acts like an adverb and indicates such things as time, place or reasoneg: Although we are getting older, we grow more beautiful each day.

affirmative statement that expresses (or claims to express) a truth or "yes" meaning; opposite of negativeeg: The sun is hot.

affix language unit (morpheme) that occurs before or after (or sometimes within) the root or stem of a wordeg: un- in unhappy (prefix), -ness in happiness (suffix)

agreement(also known as "concord")

logical (in a grammatical sense) links between words based on tense, caseor numbereg: this phone, these phones

antecedent word, phrase or clause that is replaced by a pronoun (or other substitute) when mentioned subsequently (in the same sentence or later)eg: "Emily is nice because she brings me flowers."

appositive noun phrase that re-identifies or describes its neighbouring nouneg: "Canada, a multicultural country, is recognized by its maple leaf flag."

article determiner that introduces a noun phrase as definite (the) or indefinite (a/an)

aspect feature of some verb forms that relates to duration or completion of time; verbs can have no aspect (simple), or can have continuous or progressive aspect (expressing duration), or have perfect or perfective aspect (expressing completion)

auxiliary verb(also called "helping verb")

verb used with the main verb to help indicate something such as tense or voiceeg: I do not like you. She has finished. He can swim.

bare infinitive unmarked form of the verb (no indication of tense, mood, person, or aspect) without the particle "to"; typically used after modal auxiliary verbs; see also infinitiveeg: "He should come", "I can swim"

base form basic form of a verb before conjugation into tenses etceg: be, speak

case form of a pronoun based on its relationship to other words in the sentence; case can be subjective, objective or possessiveeg: "I love this dog", "This dog loves me", "This is my dog"

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causative verb verb that causes things to happen such as "make", "get" and "have"; the subject does not perform the action but is indirectly responsible for iteg: "She made me go to school", "I had my nails painted"

clause group of words containing a subject and its verbeg: "It was late when he arrived"

comparative,comparative adjective

form of an adjective or adverb made with "-er" or "more" that is used to show differences or similarities between two things (not three or more things)eg: colder, more quickly

complement part of a sentence that completes or adds meaning to the predicateeg: Mary did not say where she was going.

compound noun noun that is made up of more than one word; can be one word, or hyphenated, or separated by a spaceeg: toothbrush, mother-in-law, Christmas Day

compound sentence sentence with at least two independent clauses; usually joined by a conjunctioneg: "You can have something healthy but you can't have more junk food."

concord another term for agreement

conditional structure in English where one action depends on another ("if-then" or "then-if" structure); most common are 1st, 2nd, and 3rd conditionalseg: "If I win I will be happy", "I would be happy if I won"

conjugate to show the different forms of a verb according to voice, mood, tense,number and person; conjugation is quite simple in English compared to many other languageseg: I walk, you walk, he/she/it walks, we walk, they walk; I walked, you walked, he/she/it walked, we walked, they walked

conjunction word that joins or connects two parts of a sentenceeg: Ram likes tea and coffee. Anthony went swimming although it was raining.

content word word that has meaning in a sentence, such as a verb or noun (as opposed to a structure word, such as pronoun or auxiliary verb); content words are stressed in speecheg: "Could you BRING my GLASSES because I've LEFT them at HOME"

continuous(also called "progressive")

verb form (specifically an aspect) indicating actions that are in progress or continuing over a given time period (can be past, present or future); formed with "BE" + "VERB-ing"

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eg: "They are watching TV."

contraction shortening of two (or more) words into oneeg: isn't (is not), we'd've (we would have)

countable noun thing that you can count, such as apple, pen, tree (see uncountable noun)eg: one apple, three pens, ten trees

dangling participle illogical structure that occurs in a sentence when a writer intends to modify one thing but the reader attaches it to anothereg: "Running to the bus, the flowers were blooming." (In the example sentence it seems that the flowers were running.)

declarative sentence sentence type typically used to make a statement (as opposed to a question or command)eg: "Tara works hard", "It wasn't funny"

defining relative clause(also called "restrictive relative clause")

relative clause that contains information required for the understanding of the sentence; not set off with commas; see also non-defining clauseeg: "The boy who was wearing a blue shirt was the winner"

demonstrative pronoundemonstrative adjective

pronoun or determiner that indicates closeness to (this/these) or distance from (that/those) the speakereg: "This is a nice car", "Can you see those cars?"

dependent clause part of a sentence that contains a subject and a verb but does not form a complete thought and cannot stand on its own; see also independent clauseeg: "When the water came out of the tap..."

determiner word such as an article or a possessive adjective or other adjective that typically comes at the beginning of noun phraseseg: "It was an excellent film", "Do you like my new shirt?", "Let's buysome eggs"

direct speech saying what someone said by using their exact words; see also indirect speecheg: "Lucy said: 'I am tired.'"

direct object noun phrase in a sentence that directly receives the action of the verb; see also indirect objecteg: "Joey bought the car", "I like it", "Can you see the man wearing a pink shirt and waving a gun in the air?"

embedded question question that is not in normal question form with a question mark; it occurs within another statement or question and generally follows statement structureeg: "I don't know where he went," "Can you tell me where it

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is before you go?", "They haven't decided whether they should come"

finite verb verb form that has a specific tense, number and personeg: I work, he works, we learned, they ran

first conditional "if-then" conditional structure used for future actions or events that are seen as realistic possibilitieseg: "If we win the lottery we will buy a car"

fragment incomplete piece of a sentence used alone as a complete sentence; a fragment does not contain a complete thought; fragments are common in normal speech but unusual (inappropriate) in formal writingeg: "When's her birthday? - In December", "Will they come? - Probably not"

function purpose or "job" of a word form or element in a sentenceeg: The function of a subject is to perform the action. One function of an adjective is to describe a noun. The function of a noun is to name things.

future continuous(also called "future progressive")

tense* used to describe things that will happen in the future at a particular time; formed with WILL + BE + VERB-ingeg: "I will be graduating in September."

future perfect tense* used to express the past in the future; formed with WILL HAVE + VERB-edeg: "I will have graduated by then"

future perfect continuous

tense* used to show that something will be ongoing until a certain time in the future; formed with WILL HAVE BEEN + VERB-ingeg: "We will have been living there for three months by the time the baby is born"

future simple tense* used to describe something that hasn't happened yet such as a prediction or a sudden decision; formed with WILL + BASE VERBeg: "He will be late", "I will answer the phone"

gerund noun form of a verb, formed with VERB-ingeg: "Walking is great exercise"

gradable adjective adjective that can vary in intensity or grade when paired with a grading adverb ; see also non-gradable adjectiveeg: quite hot, very tall

grading adverb adverb that can modify the intensity or grade of a gradable adjectiveeg: quite hot, very tall

hanging participle another term for dangling participle

helping verb another term for auxiliary verb

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imperative form of verb used when giving a command; formed with BASE VERB onlyeg: "Brush your teeth!"

indefinite pronoun pronoun does not refer to any specific person, thing or amount. It is vague and "not definite".eg: anything, each, many, somebody

independent clause(also called "main clause")

group of words that expresses a complete thought and can stand alone as a sentence; see also dependent clauseeg: "Tara is eating curry.", "Tara likes oranges and Joe likes apples."

indirect object noun phrase representing the person or thing indirectly affected by the action of the verb; see also direct objecteg: "She showed me her book collection", "Joey bought his wife a new car"

indirect question another term for embedded question

indirect speech(also called "reported speech")

saying what someone said without using their exact words; see direct speecheg: "Lucy said that she was tired"

infinitive base form of a verb preceded by "to"**; see also bare infinitiveeg: "You need to study harder", "To be, or not to be: that is the question"

inflection change in word form to indicate grammatical meaningeg: dog, dogs (two inflections); take, takes, took, taking, taken (five inflections)

interjection common word that expresses emotion but has no grammatical value; can often be used alone and is often followed by an exclamation markeg: "Hi!", "er", "Ouch!", "Dammit!"

interrogative (formal) sentence type (typically inverted) normally used when asking a questioneg: "Are you eating?", "What are you eating?"

interrogative pronoun pronoun that asks a question.eg: who, whom, which

intransitive verb verb that does not take a direct object; see also transitive verbe.g. "He is working hard", "Where do you live?"

inversion any reversal of the normal word order, especially placing the auxiliary verb before the subject; used in a variety of ways, as in question formation, conditional clauses and agreement or disagreementeg: "Where are your keys?","Had we watched the weather report, we wouldn't have gone to the beach", "So did he", "Neither did she"

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irregular verbsee irregular verbs list

verb that has a different ending for past tense and past participle forms than the regular "-ed"; see also regular verbeg: buy, bought, bought; do, did, done

lexicon, lexis all of the words and word forms in a language with meaning or function

lexical verb another term for main verb

linking verb verbs that connect the subject to more information (but do not indicate action), such as "be" or "seem"

main clause another term for independent clause

main verb(also called "lexical verb")

any verb in a sentence that is not an auxiliary verb; a main verb has meaning on its owneg: "Does John like Mary?", "I will have arrived by 4pm"

modal verb(also called "modal")

auxiliary verb such as can, could, must, should etc; paired with the bare infinitive of a verbeg: "I should go for a jog"

modifier word or phrase that modifies and limits the meaning of another wordeg: the house => the white house, the house over there, the house we sold last year

mood sentence type that indicates the speaker's view towards the degree of reality of what is being said, for example subjunctive, indicative, imperative

morpheme unit of language with meaning; differs from "word" because some cannot stand alonee.g. un-, predict and -able in unpredictable

multi-word verb verb that consists of a basic verb + another word or words (preposition and/or adverb)eg: get up (phrasal verb), believe in (prepositional verb), get on with(phrasal-prepositional verb)

negative form which changes a "yes" meaning to a "no" meaning; opposite ofaffirmativeeg: "She will not come", "I have never seen her"

nominative case another term for subjective case

non-defining relative clause(also called "non-restrictive relative clause")

relative clause that adds information but is not completely necessary; set off from the sentence with a comma or commas; see defining relative clauseeg: "The boy, who had a chocolate bar in his hand, was still hungry"

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non-gradable adjective adjective that has a fixed quality or intensity and cannot be paired with agrading adverb; see also gradable adjectiveeg: freezing, boiling, dead

non-restrictive relative clause

another term for non-defining relative clause

noun part of speech that names a person, place, thing, quality, quantity or concept; see also proper noun and compound nouneg: "The man is waiting", "I was born in London", "Is that your car?", "Do you like music?"

noun clause clause that takes the place of a noun and cannot stand on its own; often introduced with words such as "that, who or whoever"eg: "What the president said was surprising"

noun phrase (NP) any word or group of words based on a noun or pronoun that can function in a sentence as a subject, object or prepositional object; can be one word or many words; can be very simple or very complexeg: "She is nice", "When is the meeting?", "The car over there beside the lampost is mine"

number change of word form indicating one person or thing (singular) or more than one person or thing (plural)eg: one dog/three dogs, she/they

object thing or person affected by the verb; see also direct object and indirect objecteg: "The boy kicked the ball", "We chose the house with the red door"

objective case case form of a pronoun indicating an objecteg: "John married her", "I gave it to him"

part of speech one of the classes into which words are divided according to their function in a sentenceeg: verb, noun, adjective

participle verb form that can be used as an adjective or a noun; see past participle,present participle

passive voice one of two voices in English; an indirect form of expression in which the subject receives the action; see also active voiceeg: "Rice is eaten by many people"

past tense(also called "simple past")

tense used to talk about an action, event or situation that occurred and was completed in the pasteg: "I lived in Paris for 10 years", "Yesterday we saw a snake"

past continuous tense often used to describe an interrupted action in the past; formed with WAS/WERE + VERB-ing

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eg: "I was reading when you called"

past perfect tense that refers to the past in the past; formed with HAD + VERB-edeg: "We had stopped the car"

past perfect continuous tense that refers to action that happened in the past and continued to a certain point in the past; formed with HAD BEEN + VERB-ingeg: "I had been waiting for three hours when he arrived"

past participle verb form (V3) - usually made by adding "-ed" to the base verb - typically used in perfect and passive tenses, and sometimes as an adjectiveeg: "I have finished", "It was seen by many people", "boiled eggs"

perfect verb form (specifically an aspect); formed with HAVE/HAS + VERB-ed (present perfect) or HAD + VERB-ed (past perfect)

person grammatical category that identifies people in a conversation; there are three persons: 1st person (pronouns I/me, we/us) is the speaker(s), 2nd person (pronoun you) is the listener(s), 3rd person (pronouns he/him, she/her, it, they/them) is everybody or everything else

personal pronoun pronoun that indicates personeg: "He likes my dogs", "They like him"

phrasal verb multi-word verb formed with a verb + adverbeg: break up, turn off (see phrasal verbs list)NB: many people and books call all multi-word verbs "phrasal verbs" (seemulti-word verbs)

phrase two or more words that have a single function and form part of a sentence; phrases can be noun, adjective, adverb, verb or prepositional

plural of a noun or form indicating more than one person or thing; plural nouns are usually formed by adding "-s"; see also singular, numbereg: bananas, spoons, trees

position grammatically correct placement of a word form in a phrase or sentence in relation to other word formseg: "The correct position for an article is at the beginning of the noun phrase that it describes"

positive basic state of an adjective or adverb when it shows quality but notcomparative or superlativeeg: nice, kind, quickly

possessive adjective adjective (also called "determiner") based on a pronoun: my, your, his, her, its, our, theireg: "I lost my keys", "She likes your car"

possessive case case form of a pronoun indicating ownership or possession

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eg: "Mine are blue", "This car is hers"

possessive pronoun pronoun that indicates ownership or possessioneg: "Where is mine?", "These are yours"

predicate one of the two main parts (subject and predicate) of a sentence; the predicate is the part that is not the subjecteg: "My brother is a doctor", "Who did you call?", "The woman wearing a blue dress helped me"

prefix affix that occurs before the root or stem of a wordeg: impossible, reload

preposition part of speech that typically comes before a noun phrase and shows some type of relationship between that noun phrase and another element (including relationships of time, location, purpose etc)eg: "We sleep at night", "I live in London", "This is for digging"

prepositional verb multi-word verb that is formed with verb + prepositioneg: believe in, look after

present participle -ing form of a verb (except when it is a gerund or verbal noun)eg: "We were eating", "The man shouting at the back is rude", "I saw Tara playing tennis"

present simple(also called "simple present")

tense usually used to describe states and actions that are general, habitual or (with the verb "to be") true right now; formed with the basic verb (+ s for 3rd person singular)eg: "Canada sounds beautiful", "She walks to school", "I am very happy"

present continuous(also called "present progressive")

tense used to describe action that is in process now, or a plan for the future; formed with BE + VERB-ingeg: "We are watching TV", "I am moving to Canada next month"

present perfect tense that connects the past and the present, typically used to express experience, change or a continuing situation; formed with HAVE + VERB-edeg: "I have worked there", "John has broken his leg", "How long haveyou been in Canada?"

present perfect continuous

tense used to describe an action that has recently stopped or an action continuing up to now; formed with HAVE + BEEN + VERB-ingeg: "I'm tired because I've been running", "He has been living in Canada for two years"

progressive another term for continuous

pronoun word that replaces a noun or noun phrase; there are several types includingpersonal pronouns, relative pronouns and indefinite pronouns

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eg: you, he, him; who, which; somebody, anything

proper noun noun that is capitalized at all times and is the name of a person, place or thingeg: Shakespeare, Tokyo, EnglishClub.com

punctuation standard marks such as commas, periods and question marks within a sentenceeg: , . ? ! - ; :

quantifier determiner or pronoun that indicates quantityeg: some, many, all

question tag final part of a tag question; mini-question at end of a tag questioneg: "Snow isn't black, is it?"

question word another term for WH-word

reciprocal pronoun pronoun that indicates that two or more subjects are acting mutually; there are two in English - each other, one anothereg: "John and Mary were shouting at each other", "The students accusedone another of cheating"

reduced relative clause(also called "participial relative clause")

construction similar to a relative clause, but containing a participle instead of a finite verb; this construction is possible only under certain circumstanceseg: "The woman sitting on the bench is my sister", "The people arrested by the police have been released"

reflexive pronoun pronoun ending in -self or -selves, used when the subject and object are the same, or when the subject needs emphasiseg: "She drove herself", "I'll phone her myself"

regular verbsee regular verbs list

verb that has "-ed" as the ending for past tense and past participle forms; see also irregular verbeg: work, worked, worked

relative adverb adverb that introduces a relative clause; there are four in English: where,when, wherever, whenever; see also relative pronoun

relative clause dependent clause that usually starts with a relative pronoun such as who or which, or relative adverb such as whereeg: "The person who finishes first can leave early" (defining), "Texas,where my brother lives, is big" (non-defining)

relative pronoun pronoun that starts a relative clause; there are five in English: who, whom,whose, which, that; see also relative adverb

reported speech another term for indirect speech

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restrictive relative clause

another term for defining relative clause

second conditional "if-then" conditional structure used to talk about an unlikely possibility in the futureeg: "If we won the lottery we would buy a car"

sentence largest grammatical unit; a sentence must always include a subject (except for imperatives) and predicate; a written sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop/period (.), question mark (?) or exclamation mark (!); a sentence contains a complete thought such as a statement, question, request or commandeg: "Stop!", "Do you like coffee?", "I work."

series list of items in a sentenceeg: "The children ate popsicles, popcorn and chips"

singular of a noun or form indicating exactly one person or thing; singular nouns are usually the simplest form of the noun (as found in a dictionary); see alsoplural, numbereg: banana, spoon, tree

split infinitive situation where a word or phrase comes between the particle "to" and the verb in an infinitive; considered poor construction by someeg: "He promised to never lie again"

Standard English (S.E.) "normal" spelling, pronunciation and grammar that is used by educated native speakers of English

structure word word that has no real meaning in a sentence, such as a pronoun or auxiliary verb (as opposed to a content word, such as verb or noun); structure words are not normally stressed in speecheg: "Could you BRING my GLASSES because I've LEFT them at HOME"

subject one of the two main parts (subject and predicate) of a sentence; the subject is the part that is not the predicate; typically, the subject is the first noun phrase in a sentence and is what the rest of the sentence "is about"eg: "The rain water was dirty", "Mary is beautiful", "Who saw you?"

subjective casealso called "nominative"

case form of a pronoun indicating a subjecteg: Did she tell you about her?

subjunctive fairly rare verb form typically used to talk about events that are not certain to happen, usually something that someone wants, hopes or imagines will happen; formed with BARE INFINITIVE (except past of "be")eg: "The President requests that John attend the meeting"

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subordinate clause another term for dependent clause

suffix affix that occurs after the root or stem of a wordeg: happiness, quickly

superlative,superlative adjective

adjective or adverb that describes the extreme degree of somethingeg: happiest, most quickly

SVO subject-verb-object; a common word order where the subject is followed by the verb and then the objecteg: "The man crossed the street"

syntax sentence structure; the rules about sentence structure

tag question special construction with statement that ends in a mini-question; the whole sentence is a tag question; the mini-question is a question tag; usually used to obtain confirmationeg: "The Earth is round, isn't it?", "You don't eat meat, do you?"

tense form of a verb that shows us when the action or state happens (past, present or future). Note that the name of a tense is not always a guide to when the action happens. The "present continuous tense", for example, can be used to talk about the present or the future.

third conditional "if-then" conditional structure used to talk about a possible event in the past that did not happen (and is therefore now impossible)eg: "If we had won the lottery we would have bought a car"

transitive verb action verb that has a direct object (receiver of the action); see alsointransitive verbeg: "The kids always eat a snack while they watch TV"

uncountable nouns(also called "mass nouns" or "non-count")

thing that you cannot count, such as substances or concepts; see alsocountable nounseg: water, furniture, music

usage way in which words and constructions are normally used in any particular language

V1, V2, V3 referring to Verb 1, Verb 2, Verb 3 - being the base, past and past participle that students typically learn for irregular verbseg: speak, spoke, spoken

verb word that describes the subject's action or state and that we can change orconjugate based on tense and personeg: (to) work, (to) love, (to) begin

voice form of a verb that shows the relation of the subject to the action; there are two voices in English: active, passive

WH-question question using a WH-word and expecting an answer that is not "yes"

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or "no"; WH-questions are "open" questions; see also yes-no questioneg: Where are you going?

WH-word(also called "question word")

word that asks a WH-question; there are 7 WH-words: who, what, where, when, which, why, how

word order order or sequence in which words occur within a sentence; basic word order for English is subject-verb-object or SVO

yes-no question question to which the answer is yes or no; yes-no questions are "closed" questions; see also WH-questioneg: "Do you like coffee?"

zero conditional "if-then" conditional structure used when the result of the condition is always true (based on fact)eg: "If you dial O, the operator comes on"

* note that technically English does not have a real future tense** some authorities consider the base form of the verb without "to" to be the true infinitive

Glossary of English Grammar Terms

Active Voice

In the active voice, the subject of the verb does the action (eg They killed the President). See also Passive Voice.

AdjectiveA word like big, red, easy, French etc. An adjective describes a noun or pronoun.

AdverbA word like slowly, quietly, well, often etc. An adverb modifies a verb.

ArticleThe "indefinite" articles are a and an. The "definite article" is the.

Auxiliary Verb

A verb that is used with a main verb. Be, do and have are auxiliary verbs. Can, may, must etc are modal auxiliary verbs.

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ClauseA group of words containing a subject and its verb (for example: It was late when he arrived).

ConjunctionA word used to connect words, phrases and clauses (for example: and, but, if).

InfinitiveThe basic form of a verb as in to work or work.

InterjectionAn exclamation inserted into an utterance without grammatical connection (for example: oh!,ah!, ouch!, well!).

Modal Verb

An auxiliary verb like can, may, must etc that modifies the main verb and expresses possibility, probability etc. It is also called "modal auxiliary verb".

NounA word like table, dog, teacher, America etc. A noun is the name of an object, concept, person or place. A "concrete noun" is something you can see or touch like a person or car. An "abstract noun" is something that you cannot see or touch like a decision or happiness. A "countable noun" is something that you can count (for example: bottle, song, dollar). An "uncountable noun" is something that you cannot count (for example: water, music, money).

ObjectIn the active voice, a noun or its equivalent that receives the action of the verb. In the passive voice, a noun or its equivalent that does the action of the verb.

ParticipleThe -ing and -ed forms of verbs. The -ing form is called the "present participle". The -ed form is called the "past participle" (for irregular verbs, this is column 3).

Part Of Speech

One of the eight classes of word in English - noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction and interjection.

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Passive Voice

In the passive voice, the subject receives the action of the verb (eg The President was killed). See also Active Voice.

PhraseA group of words not containing a subject and its verb (eg on the table, the girl in a red dress).

PredicateEach sentence contains (or implies) two parts: a subject and a predicate. The predicate is what is said about the subject.

PrepositionA word like at, to, in, over etc. Prepositions usually come before a noun and give information about things like time, place and direction.

PronounA word like I, me, you, he, him, it etc. A pronoun replaces a noun.

SentenceA group of words that express a thought. A sentence conveys a statement, question, exclamation or command. A sentence contains or implies a subject and a predicate. In simple terms, a sentence must contain a verb and (usually) a subject. A sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop (.), question mark (?) or exclamation mark (!).

SubjectEvery sentence contains (or implies) two parts: a subject and a predicate. The subject is the main noun (or equivalent) in a sentence about which something is said.

TenseThe form of a verb that shows us when the action or state happens (past, present or future). Note that the name of a tense is not always a guide to when the action happens. The "present continuous tense", for example, can be used to talk about the present or the future.

VerbA word like (to) work, (to) love, (to) begin. A verb describes an action or state.

English Parts of Speech

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There are thousands of words in any language. But not all words have the same job. For example, some words express "action". Other words express a "thing". Other words "join" one word to another word. These are the "building blocks" of the language. Think of them like the parts of a house. When we want to build a house, we use concrete to make the foundations or base. We use bricks to make the walls. We use window frames to make the windows, and door frames to make the doorways. And we use cement to join them all together. Each part of the house has its own job. And when we want to build a sentence, we use the different types of word. Each type of word has its own job.

We can categorize English words into 8 basic types or classes. These classes are called "parts of speech".

It's quite important to recognize parts of speech. This helps you to analyze sentences and understand them. It also helps you to construct good sentences.

In this lesson, we have an overview of the eight parts of speech, followed by a quiz to check your understanding:

Parts of Speech Table Parts of Speech Examples Words with More than One Job Parts of Speech Quiz

Parts of Speech Table

This is a summary of the 8 parts of speech*. You can find more detail if you click on each part of speech.

part of speech

function or "job"

example words

example sentences

Verb action or state (to) be, have, do, like, work, sing, can, must

EnglishClub.com is a web site. Ilike EnglishClub.com.

Noun thing or person pen, dog, work, music, town, London, teacher, John

This is my dog. He lives in myhouse. We live in London.

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Adjective describes a noun a/an, the, 69, some, good, big, red, well, interesting

My dog is big. I like big dogs.

Adverb describes a verb, adjective or adverb

quickly, silently, well, badly, very, really

My dog eats quickly. When he is very hungry, he eats reallyquickly.

Pronoun replaces a noun I, you, he, she, some

Tara is Indian. She is beautiful.

Preposition links a noun to another word

to, at, after, on, but

We went to school on Monday.

Conjunction joins clauses or sentences or words

and, but, when I like dogs and I like cats. I like cats and dogs. I like dogs but I don't like cats.

Interjection short exclamation, sometimes inserted into a sentence

oh!, ouch!, hi!, well

Ouch! That hurts! Hi! How are you? Well, I don't know.

* Some grammar sources categorize English into 9 or 10 parts of speech. At EnglishClub.com, we use the traditional categorization of 8 parts of speech. Examples of other categorizations are:

Verbs may be treated as two different parts of speech:o Lexical Verbs (work, like, run)o Auxiliary Verbs (be, have, must)

Determiners may be treated as a separate part of speech, instead of being categorized under Adjectives

Parts of Speech Examples »

Parts of Speech Examples

Here are some sentences made with different English parts of speech:

verb

Stop!

  noun verb

John works.

  noun verb verb

John is working.

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pronoun verb noun

She loves animals.

  noun verb adjective noun

Animals like kind people.

 

noun verb noun adverb

Tara speaks English well.

  noun verb adjective noun

Tara speaks good English.

 

pronoun verb preposition adjective noun adverb

She ran to the station quickly.

 

pron. verb adj. noun conjunction pron. verb pron.

She likes big snakes but I hate them.

Here is a sentence that contains every part of speech:

interjection pron. conj. adj. noun verb prep. noun adverb

Well, she and young John walk to school slowly.

Words with More than One Job »

Words with More than One Job

Many words in English can have more than one job, or be more than one part of speech. For example, "work" can be a verb and a noun; "but" can be a conjunction and a preposition; "well" can be an adjective, an adverb and an interjection. In addition, many nouns can act as adjectives.

To analyze the part of speech, ask yourself: "What job is this word doing in this sentence?"

In the table below you can see a few examples. Of course, there are more, even for some of the words in the table. In fact, if you look in a good dictionary you will see that the word buthas six jobs to do:

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verb, noun, adverb, pronoun, preposition and conjuction!

word part of speech example

work noun My work is easy.

verb I work in London.

but conjunction John came but Mary didn't come.

preposition Everyone came but Mary.

well adjective Are you well?

adverb She speaks well.

interjection Well! That's expensive!

afternoon noun We ate in the afternoon.

noun acting as adjective We had afternoon tea.

Nouns

It's not easy to describe a noun. In simple terms, nouns are "things" (and verbs are "actions"). Like food. Food (noun) is something you eat (verb). Or happiness. Happiness (noun) is something you want (verb). Or human being. A human being (noun) is something you are (verb).

What are Nouns?

The simple definition is: a person, place or thingteacher, school, book

Countable Nouns, Uncountable Nouns

Why is this important? Why do some nouns have no plural?dog/dogs, rice, hair(s)

Proper Nouns (Names)

Do we say "Atlantic Ocean" or "the Atlantic Ocean"? Should I write "february" or "February"?Shirley, Mr Jeckyll, Thailand, April, Sony

Possessive 's

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Adding 's or ' to show possession.

John's car, my parents' house

Noun as Adjective

Sometimes we use a noun to describe another noun. In that case, the first noun is "acting as" an adjective.

love story, tooth-brush, bathroom

Compound Nouns

A compound noun is a noun that is made with two or more words.tennis shoe, six-pack, bedroom

What are Nouns?

The simple definition is: a person, place or thing. Here are some examples:

person: man, woman, teacher, John, Mary place: home, office, town, countryside, America thing: table, car, banana, money, music, love, dog, monkey

The problem with this definition is that it does not explain why "love" is a noun but can also be a verb.

Another (more complicated) way of recognizing a noun is by its:

1. Ending2. Position3. Function

1. Noun Ending

There are certain word endings that show that a word is a noun, for example:

-ity > nationality -ment > appointment -ness > happiness -ation > relation -hood > childhood

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But this is not true for the word endings of all nouns. For example, the noun "spoonful" ends in -ful, but the adjective "careful" also ends in -ful.

2. Position in Sentence

We can often recognise a noun by its position in the sentence.

Nouns often come after a determiner (a determiner is a word like a, an, the, this, my, such):

a relief an afternoon the doctor this word my house such stupidity

Nouns often come after one or more adjectives:

a great relief a peaceful afternoon the tall, Indian doctor this difficult word my brown and white house such crass stupidity

3. Function in a Sentence

Nouns have certain functions (jobs) in a sentence, for example:

subject of verb: Doctors work hard. object of verb: He likes coffee. subject and object of verb: Teachers teach students.

But the subject or object of a sentence is not always a noun. It could be a pronoun or a phrase. In the sentence "My doctor works hard", the noun is "doctor" but the subject is "My doctor".

Countable and Uncountable Nouns

English nouns are often described as "countable" or "uncountable".

In this lesson we look at:

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Countable Nouns Uncountable Nouns Nouns that can be Countable & Uncountable

Countable Nouns

Countable nouns are easy to recognize. They are things that we can count. For example: "pen". We can count pens. We can have one, two, three or more pens. Here are some more countable nouns:

dog, cat, animal, man, person bottle, box, litre coin, note, dollar cup, plate, fork table, chair, suitcase, bag

Countable nouns can be singular or plural:

My dog is playing. My dogs are hungry.

We can use the indefinite article a/an with countable nouns:

A dog is an animal.

When a countable noun is singular, we must use a word like a/the/my/this with it:

I want an orange. (not I want orange.) Where is my bottle? (not Where is bottle?)

When a countable noun is plural, we can use it alone:

I like oranges. Bottles can break.

We can use some and any with countable nouns:

I've got some dollars. Have you got any pens?

We can use a few and many with countable nouns:

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I've got a few dollars. I haven't got many pens.

"People" is countable. "People" is the plural of "person". We can count people:

There is one person here. There are three people here.

Uncountable Nouns

Uncountable nouns are substances, concepts etc that we cannot divide into separate elements. We cannot "count" them. For example, we cannot count "milk". We can count "bottles of milk" or "litres of milk", but we cannot count "milk" itself. Here are some more uncountable nouns:

music, art, love, happiness advice, information, news furniture, luggage rice, sugar, butter, water electricity, gas, power money, currency

We usually treat uncountable nouns as singular. We use a singular verb. For example:

This news is very important. Your luggage looks heavy.

We do not usually use the indefinite article a/an with uncountable nouns. We cannot say "an information" or "a music". But we can say a something of:

a piece of news a bottle of water a grain of rice

We can use some and any with uncountable nouns:

I've got some money.

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Have you got any rice?

We can use a little and much with uncountable nouns:

I've got a little money. I haven't got much rice.

Uncountable nouns are also called "mass nouns".

Here are some more examples of countable and uncountable nouns. When you learn a new word, it's a good idea to learn whether it's countable or uncountable.

Nouns that can be Countable and Uncountable

Sometimes, the same noun can be countable and uncountable, often with a change of meaning.

Countable Uncountable

There are two hairs in my coffee! hair I don't have much hair.

There are two lights in our bedroom. light Close the curtain. There's too much light!

Shhhhh! I thought I heard a noise. noise It's difficult to work when there is too much noise.

Have you got a paper to read? (= newspaper) paper I want to draw a picture. Have you got

some paper?

Our house has seven rooms. room Is there room for me to sit here?

We had a great time at the party. time Have you got time for a coffee?

Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's greatest works. work I have no money. I need work!

 Drinks (coffee, water, orange juice) are usually uncountable. But if we are thinking of a cup or a glass, we can say (in a restaurant, for example):

Two teas and one coffee please.

Adjectives

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An adjective is a word that tells us more about a noun. (By "noun" we include pronouns and noun phrases.)

An adjective "qualifies" or "modifies" a noun (a bigdog).

Adjectives can be used before a noun (I like Chinesefood) or after certain verbs (It is hard).

We can often use two or more adjectives together (a beautiful young French lady).

Determinersthe, a/an, this, some, any

Adjective Order (with Quiz)

beautiful, long, dark brown

Comparative Adjectives

richer, more exciting

Superlative Adjectives

the richest, the most exciting

Adverbs

An adverb is a word that tells us more about a verb. An adverb "qualifies" or "modifies" a verb(The man ran quickly). But adverbs can also modify adjectives (Tara is really beautiful), or even other adverbs (It works very well).

Many different kinds of word are called adverbs. We can usually recognise an adverb by its:

1. Function (Job)2. Form3. Position

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It is sometimes said that the adjective is the enemy of the noun. This is because, very often, if we use the precise noun we don't need an adjective. For example, instead of saying "a large, impressive house" (2 adjectives + 1 noun) we could simply say "a mansion" (1 noun).

1. Function

The principal job of an adverb is to modify (give more information about) verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. In the following examples, the adverb is in bold and the word that it modifies is in italics.

Modify a verb:- John speaks loudly. (How does John speak?)- Mary lives locally. (Where does Mary live?)- She never smokes. (When does she smoke?)

Modify an adjective:- He is really handsome.

Modify another adverb:- She drives incredibly slowly.

But adverbs have other functions, too. They can:

Modify a whole sentence:- Obviously, I can't know everything.

Modify a prepositional phrase:- It's immediately inside the door.

2. Form

Many adverbs end in -ly. We form such adverbs by adding -ly to the adjective. Here are some examples:

quickly, softly, strongly, honestly, interestingly

But not all words that end in -ly are adverbs. "Friendly", for example, is an adjective.

Some adverbs have no particular form, for example:

well, fast, very, never, always, often, still

3. Position

Adverbs have three main positions in the sentence:

Front (before the subject):- Now we will study adverbs.

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Middle (between the subject and the main verb):- We often study adverbs.

End (after the verb or object):- We study adverbs carefully.

Adverbs of Frequency

always, sometimes, never...

Adverbs of Frequency

Adverbs of Frequency answer the question "How often?" or "How frequently?" They tell us how often somebody does something.

Adverbs of frequency come before the main verb (except the main verb "to be"):

We usually go shopping on Saturday. I have often done that. She is always late.

Occasionally, sometimes, often, frequently and usually can also go at the beginning or end of a sentence:

Sometimes they come and stay with us. I play tennis occasionally.

Rarely and seldom can also go at the end of a sentence (often with "very"):

We see them rarely. John eats meat very seldom.

Pronouns

Pronouns are small words that take the place of a noun. We can use a pronoun instead of a noun. Pronouns are words like: he, you, ours, themselves, some, each... If we didn't have pronouns, we would have to repeat a lot of nouns. We would have to say things like:

Do you like the president? I don't like the president. The president is too pompous.

With pronouns, we can say:

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100% always

  usually

  frequently

  often

50% sometimes

  occasionally

  rarely

  seldom

  hardly ever

0% never

Do you like the president? I don't like him. He is too pompous.

Personal Pronouns

I, me, you, he, him, she...

Demonstrative Pronouns

this, that, these, those

Possessive Pronouns

mine, yours, his...

Interrogative Pronouns

who, what, which...

Reflexive Pronouns

myself, yourself, himself...

Reciprocal Pronouns

each other, one another

Indefinite Pronouns

another, much, nobody, few, such...

Relative Pronouns

who, whom, which...

Pronoun Case

subjective, objective, possessive

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Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns represent specific people or things. We use them depending on:

number: singular (eg: I) or plural (eg: we) person: 1st person (eg: I), 2nd person (eg: you) or 3rd person

(eg: he) gender: male (eg: he), female (eg: she) or neuter (eg: it) case: subject (eg: we) or object (eg: us)

We use personal pronouns in place of the person or people that we are talking about. My name is Josef but when I am talking about myself I almost always use "I" or "me", not "Josef". When I am talking direct to you, I almost always use "you", not your name. When I am talking about another person, say John, I may start with "John" but then use "he" or "him". And so on.

Here are the personal pronouns, followed by some example sentences:

number person gender personal pronouns

subject object

singular 1st male/female I me

2nd male/female you you

3rd male he him

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female she her

neuter it it

plural 1st male/female we us

2nd male/female you you

3rd male/female/neuter they them

Examples (in each case, the first example shows a subject pronoun, the second an object pronoun):

I like coffee. John helped me.

Do you like coffee? John loves you.

He runs fast. Did Ram beat him?

She is clever. Does Mary know her?

It doesn't work. Can the engineer repair it?

We went home. Anthony drove us.

Do you need a table for three? Did John and Mary beat you at doubles?

They played doubles. John and Mary beat them.

When we are talking about a single thing, we almost always use it. However, there are a few exceptions. We may sometimes refer to an animal as he/him or she/her, especially if the animal is domesticated or a pet. Ships (and some other vessels or vehicles) as well as some countries are often treated as female and referred to as she/her. Here are some examples:

This is our dog Rusty. He's an Alsation. The Titanic was a great ship but she sank on her first voyage.

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My first car was a Mini and I treated her like my wife. Thailand has now opened her border with Cambodia.

For a single person, sometimes we don't know whether to use he or she. There are several solutions to this:

If a teacher needs help, he or she should see the principal. If a teacher needs help, he should see the principal. If a teacher needs help, they should see the principal.

We often use it to introduce a remark:

It is nice to have a holiday sometimes. It is important to dress well. It's difficult to find a job. Is it normal to see them together? It didn't take long to walk here.

We also often use it to talk about the weather, temperature, time and distance:

It's raining. It will probably be hot tomorrow. Is it nine o'clock yet?

Demonstrative Pronouns

to demonstrate (verb):

to show; to indicate; to point to

A demonstrative pronoun represents a thing or things:

near in distance or time (this, these) far in distance or time (that, those)

  near far

singular this that

plural these those

Here are some examples with demonstrative pronouns, followed by an

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illustration:

This tastes good. Have you seen this? These are bad times. Do you like these?

That is beautiful. Look at that! Those were the days! Can you see those?

This is heavier than that. These are bigger than those.

Do not confuse demonstrative pronouns with demonstrative adjectives. They are identical, but a demonstrative pronoun stands alone, while a demonstrative adjective qualifies a noun.

That smells. (demonstrative pronoun)That book is good. (demonstrative adjective + noun)

Normally we use demonstrative pronouns for things only. But we can use them for people when the person is identified. Look at these examples:

This is Josef speaking. Is that Mary? That sounds like John.

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Possessive Pronouns

We use possessive pronouns to refer to a specific person/people or thing/things (the "antecedent") belonging to a person/people (and sometimes belonging to an animal/animals or thing/things).

We use possessive pronouns depending on:

number: singular (eg: mine) or plural (eg: ours) person: 1st person (eg: mine), 2nd person (eg: yours) or 3rd person

(eg: his) gender: male (his), female (hers)

Below are the possessive pronouns, followed by some example sentences. Notice that each possessive pronoun can:

be subject or object refer to a singular or plural antecedent

number person gender (of "owner") possessive pronouns

singular 1st male/female mine

2nd male/female yours

3rd male his

female hers

plural 1st male/female ours

2nd male/female yours

3rd male/female/neuter theirs

Look at these pictures. Mine is the big one. (subject = My picture) I like your flowers. Do you like mine? (object = my flowers)

I looked everywhere for your key. I found John's key but I couldn't find yours. (object = your key)

My flowers are dying. Yours are lovely. (subject = Your flowers)

All the essays were good but his was the best. (subject = his essay)

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John found his passport but Mary couldn't find hers. (object = her passport)

John found his clothes but Mary couldn't find hers. (object = her clothes)

Here is your car. Ours is over there, where we left it. (subject = Our car)

Your photos are good. Ours are terrible. (subject = Our photos)

Each couple's books are colour-coded. Yours are red. (subject = Your books)

I don't like this family's garden but I like yours. (subject = your garden)

These aren't John and Mary's children. Theirs have black hair. (subject = Their children)

John and Mary don't like your car. Do you like theirs? (object = their car)

Notice that the following (with apostrophe [']) do NOT exist: her's, your's, their's

Notice that the interrogative pronoun whose can also be a possessive pronoun (an interrogative possessive pronoun). Look at these examples:

There was $100 on the table and Tara wondered whose it was. This car hasn't moved for two months. Whose is it?

Interrogative Pronouns

We use interrogative pronouns to ask questions. The interrogative pronoun represents the thing that we don't know (what we are asking the question about).

There are four main interrogative pronouns: who, whom, what, which

Notice that the possessive pronoun whose can also be an interrogative pronoun (an interrogative possessive pronoun).

  subject object  

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person who whom  

thing what  

person/thing which  

person whose (possessive)

 Notice that whom is the correct form when the pronoun is the object of the verb, as in "Whom did you see?" ("I saw John.") However, in normal, spoken English we rarely use whom. Most native speakers would say (or even write): "Who did you see?"

Look at these example questions. In the sample answers, the noun phrase that the interrogative pronoun represents is shown in bold.

question answer  

Who told you? John told me. subject

Whom did you tell? I told Mary. object

What's happened? An accident's happened. subject

What do you want? I want coffee. object

Which came first? The Porsche 911 came first. subject

Which will the doctor see first? The doctor will see the patient in blue first.

object

There's one car missing. Whose hasn't arrived?

John's (car) hasn't arrived. subject

We've found everyone's keys. Whose did you find?

I found John's (keys). object

Note that we sometimes use the suffix "-ever" to make compounds from some of these pronouns (mainly whoever, whatever, whichever). When we add "-ever", we use it for emphasis, often to show confusion or surprise. Look at these examples:

Whoever would want to do such a nasty thing?

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Whatever did he say to make her cry like that? They're all fantastic! Whichever will you choose?

Reflexive Pronouns

reflexive (adj.) [grammar]: reflecting back on the subject, like a mirror

We use a reflexive pronoun when we want to refer back to the subject of the sentence or clause. Reflexive pronouns end in "-self" (singular) or "-selves" (plural).

There are eight reflexive pronouns:

  reflexive pronoun

singular myselfyourselfhimself, herself, itself

plural ourselvesyourselvesthemselves

Look at these examples:

  reflexive pronouns

the underlined words are NOT the same person/thing

the underlined words are the SAME person/thing

John saw me. I saw myself in the mirror.

Why does he blame you? Why do you blame yourself?

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David sent him a copy. John sent himself a copy.

David sent her a copy. Mary sent herself a copy.

My dog hurt the cat. My dog hurt itself.

We blame you. We blame ourselves.

Can you help my children? Can you help yourselves?

They cannot look after the babies. They cannot look after themselves.

Intensive pronouns

Notice that all the above reflexive pronouns can also act as intensive pronouns, but the function and usage are different. An intensive pronoun emphasizes its antecedent. Look at these examples:

I made it myself. OR I myself made it. Have you yourself seen it? OR Have you seen it yourself? The President himself promised to stop the war. She spoke to me herself. OR She herself spoke to me. The exam itself wasn't difficult, but exam room was horrible. Never mind. We'll do it ourselves. You yourselves asked us to do it. They recommend this book even though they themselves have never

read it. OR They recommend this book even though they have never read it themselves.

Reciprocal Pronouns

reciprocal (adj.): given or done in return; [grammar] expressing mutual action

We use reciprocal pronouns when each of two or more subjects is acting in the same way towards the other. For example, A is talking to B, and B is talking to A. So we say:

A and B are talking to each other.

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The action is "reciprocated". John talks to Mary and Mary talks to John. I give you a present and you give me a present. The dog bites the cat and the cat bites the dog.

There are only two reciprocal pronouns, and they are both two words:

each other one another

When we use these reciprocal pronouns:

there must be two or more people, things or groups involved (so we cannot use reciprocal pronouns with I, you [singular], he/she/it), and

they must be doing the same thing

Look at these examples:

John and Mary love each other. Peter and David hate each other. The ten prisoners were all blaming one another. Both teams played hard against each other. We gave each other gifts. Why don't you believe each other? They can't see each other. The gangsters were fighting one another. The boats were bumping against each other in the storm.

You probably notice that each other is used in more examples above than one another. That's because in general we use each other more often than one another, which sounds a little formal. Also, some people say that we should use one another only for three or more people or things, but there is no real justification for this.

Indefinite Pronouns

An indefinite pronoun does not refer to any specific person, thing or amount. It is vague and "not definite". Some typical indefinite pronouns are:

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all, another, any, anybody/anyone, anything, each, everybody/everyone, everything, few, many, nobody, none, one, several, some, somebody/someone

Note that many indefinite pronouns also function as other parts of speech. Look at "another" in the following sentences:

He has one job in the day and another at night. (pronoun) I'd like another drink, please. (adjective)

Most indefinite pronouns are either singular or plural. However, some of them can be singular in one context and plural in another. The most common indefinite pronouns are listed below, with examples, as singular, plural or singular/plural.

Notice that a singular pronoun takes a singular verb AND that any personal pronoun should also agree (in number and gender). Look at these examples:

Each of the players has a doctor. I met two girls. One has given me her phone number.

Similarly, plural pronouns need plural agreement:

Many have expressed their views.

pronoun meaning example

singular

another an additional or different person or thing

That ice-cream was good. Can I have another?

anybody/anyone no matter what person Can anyone answer this question?

anything no matter what thing The doctor needs to know if you have eaten anything in the last two hours.

each every one of two or more people or things, seen separately

Each has his own thoughts.

either one or the other of two people or things

Do you want tea or coffee? / I don't mind. Either is good for me.

enough as much or as many as needed

Enough is enough.

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everybody/everyone all people We can start the meeting because everybody has arrived.

everything all things They have no house or possessions. They losteverything in the earthquake.

less a smaller amount "Less is more" (Mies van der Rohe)

little a small amount Little is know about his early life.

much a large amount Much has happend since we met.

neither not one and not the other of two people or things

I keep telling Jack and Jill butneither believes me.

nobody/no-one no person I phoned many times butnobody answered.

nothing no single thing, not anything

If you don't know the answer it's best to say nothing.

one an unidentified person Can one smoke here? | All the students arrived but now one is missing.

other a different person or thing from one already mentioned

One was tall and the other was short.

somebody/someone an unspecified or unknown person

Clearly somebody murdered him. It was not suicide.

something an unspecified or unknown thing

Listen! I just heard something! What could it be?

you an unidentified person (informal)

And you can see why.

plural

both two people or things, seen together

John likes coffee but not tea. I think both are good.

few a small number of people or things

Few have ever disobeyed him and lived.

fewer a reduced number of people or things

Fewer are smoking these days.

many a large number of people Many have come already.

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or things

others other people; not us I'm sure that others have tried before us.

several more than two but not many

They all complained and severalleft the meeting.

they people in general (informal)

They say that vegetables are good for you.

singular or plural

all the whole quantity of something or of some things or people

All is forgiven.All have arrived.

any no matter how much or how many

Is any left?Are any coming?

more a greater quantity of something; a greater number of people or things

There is more over there.More are coming.

most the majority; nearly all Most is lost.Most have refused.

none not any; no person or persons

They fixed the water so why isnone coming out of the tap?I invited five friends but nonehave come.*

some an unspecified quantity of something; an unspecified number of people or things

Here is some.Some have arrived.

such of the type already mentioned

He was a foreigner and he felt that he was treated as such.

* Some people say that "none" should always take a singular verb, even when talking about countable nouns (eg five friends). They argue that "none" means "no one", and "one" is obviously singular. They say that "I invited five friends but none has come" is correct and "I invited five friends but none have come" is incorrect. Historically and grammatically there is little to support this view. "None" has been used for hundreds of years with both a singular and a plural verb, according to the context and the emphasis required.

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Relative Pronouns

A relative pronoun is a pronoun that introduces a relative clause. It is called a "relative" pronoun because it "relates" to the word that it modifies. Here is an example:

The person who phoned me last night is my teacher.

In the above example, "who":

relates to "person", which it modifies introduces the relative clause "who phoned me last night"

There are five relative pronouns: who, whom, whose, which, that*

Who (subject) and whom (object) are generally only for people. Whose is for possession.Which is for things. That can be used for people** and things and as subject and object in defining relative clauses (clauses that are essential to the sentence and do not simply add extra information).

Relative pronouns can refer to singular or plural, and there is no difference between male and female.

Look at these examples showing defining and non-defining relative clauses:

  example sentencesS=subject, O=object, P=possessive

notes

defining S - The person who phoned me last night is my teacher.- The person that phoned me last night is my teacher.

That is preferable

- The car which hit me was yellow.- The cars that hit me were yellow.

That is preferable

O - The person whom I phoned last night is my teacher.- The people who I phoned last night are my teachers.- The person that I phoned last night is my teacher.- The person I phoned last night is my teacher.

Whom is correct but very formal. The relative pronoun is optional.

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- The car which I drive is old.- The car that I drive is old.- The car I drive is old.

That is preferable to which. The relative pronoun is optional.

P - The student whose phone just rang should stand up.- Students whose parents are wealthy pay extra.

 

- The police are looking for the car whosedriver was masked.- The police are looking for the car of which the driver was masked.

Of which is usual for things, but whose is sometimes possible

non-defining

S - Mrs Pratt, who is very kind, is my teacher.

 

- The car, which was a taxi, exploded.- The cars, which were taxis, exploded.

 

O - Mrs Pratt, whom I like very much, is my teacher.- Mr and Mrs Pratt, who I like very much, are my teachers.

Whom is correct but very formal. Who is normal.

- The car, which I was driving at the time, suddenly caught fire.

 

P - My brother, whose phone you just heard, is a doctor.

 

- The car, whose driver jumped out just before the accident, was completely destroyed.- The car, the driver of which jumped out just before the accident, was completely destroyed.

Of which is usual for things, but whose is sometimes possible

*Not all grammar sources count "that" as a relative pronoun.**Some people claim that we cannot use "that" for people but must use "who/whom"; there is no good reason for such a claim.

Relative Pronouns

A relative pronoun is a pronoun that introduces a relative clause. It is called a "relative" pronoun because it "relates" to the word that it modifies. Here is an

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example:

The person who phoned me last night is my teacher.

In the above example, "who":

relates to "person", which it modifies introduces the relative clause "who phoned me last night"

There are five relative pronouns: who, whom, whose, which, that*

Who (subject) and whom (object) are generally only for people. Whose is for possession.Which is for things. That can be used for people** and things and as subject and object in defining relative clauses (clauses that are essential to the sentence and do not simply add extra information).

Relative pronouns can refer to singular or plural, and there is no difference between male and female.

Look at these examples showing defining and non-defining relative clauses:

  example sentencesS=subject, O=object, P=possessive

notes

defining S - The person who phoned me last night is my teacher.- The person that phoned me last night is my teacher.

That is preferable

- The car which hit me was yellow.- The cars that hit me were yellow.

That is preferable

O - The person whom I phoned last night is my teacher.- The people who I phoned last night are my teachers.- The person that I phoned last night is my teacher.- The person I phoned last night is my teacher.

Whom is correct but very formal. The relative pronoun is optional.

- The car which I drive is old.- The car that I drive is old.- The car I drive is old.

That is preferable to which. The relative pronoun is optional.

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P - The student whose phone just rang should stand up.- Students whose parents are wealthy pay extra.

 

- The police are looking for the car whosedriver was masked.- The police are looking for the car of which the driver was masked.

Of which is usual for things, but whose is sometimes possible

non-defining

S - Mrs Pratt, who is very kind, is my teacher.

 

- The car, which was a taxi, exploded.- The cars, which were taxis, exploded.

 

O - Mrs Pratt, whom I like very much, is my teacher.- Mr and Mrs Pratt, who I like very much, are my teachers.

Whom is correct but very formal. Who is normal.

- The car, which I was driving at the time, suddenly caught fire.

 

P - My brother, whose phone you just heard, is a doctor.

 

- The car, whose driver jumped out just before the accident, was completely destroyed.- The car, the driver of which jumped out just before the accident, was completely destroyed.

Of which is usual for things, but whose is sometimes possible

*Not all grammar sources count "that" as a relative pronoun.**Some people claim that we cannot use "that" for people but must use "who/whom"; there is no good reason for such a claim.

Pronoun Case

Pronouns (and nouns) in English display "case" according to their function in the sentence. Their function can be:

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subjective (they act as the subject) objective (they act as the object) possessive (they show possession of something else)

The following table shows the different forms for pronouns depending on case.

subjective case objective case possessive case

personal pronouns singular 1st I me mine

    2nd you you yours

3rd hesheit

himherit

hishersits

  plural 1st we us ours

    2nd you you yours

3rd they them theirs

relative/interrogative pronouns

    who whom whose

      whoever whomever  

      which/that/what which/that/what  

indefinite pronouns     everybody everybody everybody'sA problem of case: Mary and I or Mary and me?

1. Mary and I are delighted to be here today. (NOT Mary and me)2. The letter was addressed to Mary and me. (NOT Mary and I)

In 1, Mary and I are subjects, which is why the pronoun takes the subjective case ("I"). In 2, Mary and I are objects, which is why the pronoun takes the objective case ("me"). An easy way to check the correct case is to try the sentence without Mary. Would you say "I am delighted to be here" or "Me am delighted to be here"? Would you say "The letter was addressed to me" or "The letter was addressed to I"?

English Prepositions

A preposition is a word governing, and usually coming in front of, a noun or pronoun and expressing a relation to another word or element, as in:

She left before breakfast.

What did you come for?

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(For what did you come?)

List of Prepositions

A Simple Rule for Prepositions

Prepositions of Place

at the bus stop, in the box, on the wall

Prepositions of Time

at Christmas, in May, on Friday

English Prepositions List

There are about 150 prepositions in English. Yet this is a very small number when you think of the thousands of other words (nouns, verbs etc). Prepositions are important words. We use individual prepositions more frequently than other individual words. In fact, the prepositions of,to and in are among the ten most frequent words in English. Here is a short list of 70 of the more common one-word prepositions. Many of these prepositions have more than one meaning. Please refer to a dictionary for precise meaning and usage.

aboard about above across after against along amid among anti around as at

before behind below

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beneath beside besides between beyond but by

concerning considering

despite down during

except excepting excluding

following for from

in inside into

like

minus

near

of off on onto opposite outside over

past per plus

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regarding round

save since

than through to toward towards

under underneath unlike until up upon

versus via

with within without

English Preposition Rule

There is one very simple rule about prepositions. And, unlike most rules, this rule has no exceptions.

RuleA preposition is followed by a "noun". It is never followed by a verb.

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By "noun" we include:

noun (dog, money, love) proper noun (name) (Bangkok, Mary) pronoun (you, him, us) noun group (my first job) gerund (swimming)

A preposition cannot be followed by a verb. If we want to follow a preposition by a verb, we must use the "-ing" form which is really a gerund or verb in noun form.

Quick Quiz: In the following sentences, why is "to" followed by a verb? That should be impossible, according to the above rule:

I would like to go now. She used to smoke.

Here are some examples:

Subject + verb preposition "noun"

The food is on the table.

She lives in Japan.

Tara is looking for you.

The letter is under your blue book.

Pascal is used to English people.

She isn't used to working.

I ate before coming.

Answer to Quick Quiz: In these sentences, "to" is not a preposition. It is part of theinfinitive ("to go", "to smoke").

Prepositions of Place: at, in, on

In general, we use:

at for a POINT

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in for an ENCLOSED SPACE on for a SURFACE

at in on

POINT ENCLOSED SPACE SURFACE

at the corner in the garden on the wall

at the bus stop in London on the ceiling

at the door in France on the door

at the top of the page in a box on the cover

at the end of the road in my pocket on the floor

at the entrance in my wallet on the carpet

at the crossroads in a building on the menu

at the front desk in a car on a page

Look at these examples:

Jane is waiting for you at the bus stop. The shop is at the end of the street. My plane stopped at Dubai and Hanoi and arrived in Bangkok two

hours late. When will you arrive at the office? Do you work in an office? I have a meeting in New York. Do you live in Japan? Jupiter is in the Solar System. The author's name is on the cover of the book. There are no prices on this menu. You are standing on my foot. There was a "no smoking" sign on the wall. I live on the 7th floor at 21 Oxford Street in London.

Notice the use of the prepositions of place at, in and on in these standard expressions:

at in on

at home in a car on a bus

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at work in a taxi on a train

at school in a helicopter on a plane

at university in a boat on a ship

at college in a lift (elevator) on a bicycle, on a motorbike

at the top in the newspaper on a horse, on an elephant

at the bottom in the sky on the radio, on television

at the side in a row on the left, on the right

at reception in Oxford Street on the way

Prepositions of Time: at, in, on

We use:

at for a PRECISE TIME in for MONTHS, YEARS, CENTURIES and LONG PERIODS on for DAYS and DATES

at in on

PRECISE TIME

MONTHS, YEARS, CENTURIES and LONG PERIODS

DAYS and DATES

at 3 o'clock in May on Sunday

at 10.30am in summer on Tuesdays

at noon in the summer on 6 March

at dinnertime in 1990 on 25 Dec. 2010

at bedtime in the 1990s on Christmas Day

at sunrise in the next century on Independence Day

at sunset in the Ice Age on my birthday

at the moment in the past/future on New Year's Eve

Look at these examples:

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I have a meeting at 9am. The shop closes at midnight. Jane went home at lunchtime. In England, it often snows in December. Do you think we will go to Jupiter in the future? There should be a lot of progress in the next century. Do you work on Mondays? Her birthday is on 20 November. Where will you be on New Year's Day?

Notice the use of the preposition of time at in the following standard expressions:

Expression Example

at night The stars shine at night.

at the weekend I don't usually work at the weekend.

at Christmas/Easter I stay with my family at Christmas.

at the same time We finished the test at the same time.

at present He's not home at present. Try later.

Notice the use of the prepositions of time in and on in these common expressions:

in on

in the morning on Tuesday morning

in the mornings on Saturday mornings

in the afternoon(s) on Sunday afternoons

in the evening(s) on Monday evening

When we say last, next, every, this we do not also use at, in, on.

I went to London last June. (not in last June) He's coming back next Tuesday. (not on next Tuesday) I go home every Easter. (not at every Easter) We'll call you this evening. (not in this evening)

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Prepositions of Place: at, in, on

In general, we use:

at for a POINT in for an ENCLOSED SPACE on for a SURFACE

at in on

POINT ENCLOSED SPACE SURFACE

at the corner in the garden on the wall

at the bus stop in London on the ceiling

at the door in France on the door

at the top of the page in a box on the cover

at the end of the road in my pocket on the floor

at the entrance in my wallet on the carpet

at the crossroads in a building on the menu

at the front desk in a car on a page

Look at these examples:

Jane is waiting for you at the bus stop. The shop is at the end of the street. My plane stopped at Dubai and Hanoi and arrived in Bangkok two

hours late. When will you arrive at the office? Do you work in an office? I have a meeting in New York. Do you live in Japan? Jupiter is in the Solar System. The author's name is on the cover of the book. There are no prices on this menu. You are standing on my foot. There was a "no smoking" sign on the wall. I live on the 7th floor at 21 Oxford Street in London.

Notice the use of the prepositions of place at, in and on in these standard expressions:

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at in on

at home in a car on a bus

at work in a taxi on a train

at school in a helicopter on a plane

at university in a boat on a ship

at college in a lift (elevator) on a bicycle, on a motorbike

at the top in the newspaper on a horse, on an elephant

at the bottom in the sky on the radio, on television

at the side in a row on the left, on the right

at reception in Oxford Street on the way

Conjunctions

A conjunction is a word that "joins". A conjunction joins two parts of a sentence.

Here are some example conjunctions:

Coordinating Conjunctions Subordinating Conjunctions

and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so although, because, since, unless

We can consider conjunctions from three aspects.

Form

Conjunctions have three basic forms:

Single Wordfor example: and, but, because, although

Compound (often ending with as or that)for example: provided that, as long as, in order that

Correlative (surrounding an adverb or adjective)for example: so...that

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Function

Conjunctions have two basic functions or "jobs":

Coordinating conjunctions are used to join two parts of a sentence that are grammatically equal. The two parts may be single words or clauses, for example:- Jack and Jill went up the hill.- The water was warm, but I didn't go swimming.

Subordinating conjunctions are used to join a subordinate dependent clause to a main clause, for example:- I went swimming although it was cold.

Position

Coordinating conjunctions always come between the words or clauses that they join.

Subordinating conjunctions usually come at the beginning of the subordinate clause.

In this lesson we will look in more detail at:

Coordinating Conjunctions

Coordinating Conjunctions

The short, simple conjunctions are called "coordinating conjunctions":

and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so

A coordinating conjunction joins parts of a sentence (for example words or independent clauses) that are grammatically equal or similar. A coordinating conjunction shows that the elements it joins are similar in importance and structure:

Look at these examples - the two elements that the coordinating conjunction joins are shown in square brackets [ ]:

I like [tea] and [coffee]. [Ram likes tea], but [Anthony likes coffee].

Coordinating conjunctions always come between the words or clauses that they join.

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When a coordinating conjunction joins independent clauses, it is always correct to place a comma before the conjunction:

I want to work as an interpreter in the future, so I am studying Russian at university.

However, if the independent clauses are short and well-balanced, a comma is not really essential:

She is kind so she helps people.

When "and" is used with the last word of a list, a comma is optional:

He drinks beer, whisky, wine, and rum. He drinks beer, whisky, wine and rum.

The 7 coordinating conjunctions are short, simple words. They have only two or three letters. There's an easy way to remember them - their initials spell:

F A N B O Y S

For

And Nor But Or Yet So

Subordinating Conjunctions

The majority of conjunctions are "subordinating conjunctions". Common subordinating conjunctions are:

after, although, as, because, before, how, if, once, since, than, that, though, till, until, when, where, whether, while

A subordinating conjunction joins a subordinate (dependent) clause to a main (independent) clause:

Look at this example:

main orindependent clause

subordinate ordependent clause

Ram went swimming although it was raining.

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subordinatingconjunction

 

 A subordinate or dependent clause "depends" on a main or independent clause. It cannot exist alone. Imagine that somebody says to you: "Hello! Although it was raining." What do you understand? Nothing! But a main or independent clause can exist alone. You will understand very well if somebody says to you: "Hello! Ram went swimming."

A subordinating conjunction always comes at the beginning of a subordinate clause. It "introduces" a subordinate clause. However, a subordinate clause can sometimes come after and sometimes before a main clause. Thus, two structures are possible:

Ram went swimming although it was raining. Although it was raining, Ram went swimming.Interjections

Hi! That's an interjection. :-)

Interjection is a big name for a little word. Interjections are short exclamations like Oh!, Um orAh! They have no real grammatical value but we use them quite often, usually more in speaking than in writing. When interjections are inserted into a sentence, they have no grammatical connection to the sentence. An interjection is sometimes followed by an exclamation mark (!) when written.

The table below shows some interjections with examples.

interjection meaning example

ah expressing pleasure "Ah, that feels good."

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Interjections like er and um are also known as "hesitation devices". They are extremely common in English. People use them when they don't know what to say, or to indicate that they are thinking about what to say. You should learn to recognize them when you hear them and realize that they have no real meaning.

expressing realization "Ah, now I understand."

expressing resignation "Ah well, it can't be heped."

expressing surprise "Ah! I've won!"

alas expressing grief or pity "Alas, she's dead now."

dear expressing pity "Oh dear! Does it hurt?"

expressing surprise "Dear me! That's a surprise!"

eh asking for repetition "It's hot today." "Eh?" "I said it's hot today."

expressing enquiry "What do you think of that, eh?"

expressing surprise "Eh! Really?"

inviting agreement "Let's go, eh?"

er expressing hesitation "Lima is the capital of...er...Peru."

hello, hullo expressing greeting "Hello John. How are you today?"

expressing surprise "Hello! My car's gone!"

hey calling attention "Hey! look at that!"

expressing surprise, joy etc "Hey! What a good idea!"

hi expressing greeting "Hi! What's new?"

hmm expressing hesitation, doubt or disagreement

"Hmm. I'm not so sure."

oh, o expressing surprise "Oh! You're here!"

expressing pain "Oh! I've got a toothache."

expressing pleading "Oh, please say 'yes'!"

ouch expressing pain "Ouch! That hurts!"

uh expressing hesitation "Uh...I don't know the answer to that."

uh-huh expressing agreement "Shall we go?" "Uh-huh."

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um, umm expressing hesitation "85 divided by 5 is...um...17."

well expressing surprise "Well I never!"

introducing a remark "Well, what did he say?"

Verbs

What Are Verbs?

Verb Classification  | Quizhelping verbs: primary/modalmain verbs: transitive/intransitive, linking, dynamic/stative, regular/irregular

Verb Forms | Quizto sing, sing, sings, sang, sung, singing

TensesI sing, I am singing, I have sung, I have been singing, I sang, I was singing

English Tense System What is Tense? Tense & Time Basic Tenses Regular Verbs Irregular Verbs Be

Present tenses Simple, Continuous, Perfect Simple, Perfect Continuous

Past tenses Simple, Continuous, Perfect Simple, Perfect Continuous Future tenses Simple, Continuous, Perfect Simple, Perfect

Continuous

Phrasal Verbs | Quiz

put out, look after, get on with

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Conditionals | Quizif I win, if I won, if I had won

Modal Verbs

can, shall, must...

Gerunds (-ing) | Quiz

fishing is fun, I hate working

Questions | Quiz

Do you like me? Why do you like me?, Do you like me or him?

Tag Questions | Quiz

You like me, don't you?

Subjunctive | QuizShe insists that he come

Active Voice, Passive Voice | Quiz

Cats eat mice, Mice are eaten by cats

Infinitive or -ing? | Quiz

I like to do, I like doing

Plural Verbs with Singular Subjects

the company do, the company does

Verb Meanings with Continuous Tenses | Quiz

Am I being silly?

Used to do / Be used to | Quiz

I used to do it, I am not used to it

Going to

I am going to do it

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Future Time | Quiz

I will do it, I am going to do it, I am doing it, I do it

For & Since for Time | Quiz

for two days, since 1st April

Tenses

The English Tense System

The links below are to lessons for each of the 12 basic tenses. In each lesson we look at two aspects of the tense:

Structure: How do we make the tense? Use: When and why do we use the tense?

Some lessons look at additional aspects, and most of them finish with a quiz to check your understanding.

Many English learners worry too much about tense. If you stopped 100 native English speakers in the street and asked them about tense, 1 of them might give you an intelligent answer - if you were lucky. The other 99 would know little about terms like "past perfect" or "present continuous". And they would know nothing about aspect, voice or mood. But they can all speak fluent English and communicate effectively. Of course, for ESL it helps to know about tenses, but don't become obsessed with them. Be like those native speakers! Speak naturally!

Present TenseI do, I doPresent Continuous TenseI am doing, I am doing tomorrowPresent Perfect TenseI have donePresent Perfect Continuous TenseI have been doing

Past TenseI did do, I didPast Continuous TenseI was doing

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Past Perfect TenseI had donePast Perfect Continuous TenseI had been doing

Future TenseI will doFuture Continuous TenseI will be doingFuture Perfect TenseI will have doneFuture Perfect Continuous TenseI will have been doing

English Tense SystemIn some languages, verb tenses are not very important or do not even exist. In English, the concept of tense is very important.In this lesson we look at the idea behind tense, how to avoid confusing tense with time, and the structure of the basic tenses, with examples using a regular verb, an irregular verb and the verb be.

What is Tense? Tense & Time Basic Tenses Regular Verbs Irregular Verbs Be

What is Tense?Tense (noun): a form of a verb used to indicate the time, and sometimes the continuation or completeness, of an action in relation to the time of speaking. (From Latin tempus = time).Tense is a method that we use in English to refer to time - past, present and future. Many languages use tenses to talk about time. Other languages have no tenses, but of course they can still talk about time, using different methods.So, we talk about time in English with tenses. But, and this is a very big but:

we can also talk about time without using tenses (for example, going to is a special construction to talk about the future, it is not a tense)

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one tense does not always talk about one time (see Tense & Time for more about this)Here are some of the terms used in discussing verbs and tenses.

MoodIndicative mood expresses a simple statement of fact, which can be positive (affirmative) or negative

I like coffee. I do not like coffee.

interrogative mood expresses a question Why do you like coffee?

imperative mood expresses a command Sit down!

subjunctive mood expresses what is imagined or wished or possible The President ordered that he attend the meeting.

VoiceVoice shows the relationship of the subject to the action. In the active voice, the subject does the action (cats eat mice). In the passive voice, the subject receives the action (mice are eaten by cats). Among other things, we can use voice to help us change the focus of attention.AspectAspect expresses a feature of the action related to time, such as completion or duration. Present simple and past simple tenses have no aspect, but if we wish we can stress with other tenses that:

the action or state referred to by the verb is completed (and often still relevant), for example:I have emailed the report to Jane. (so now she has the report)(This is called perfective aspect, using perfect tenses.)

the action or state referred to by the verb is in progress or continuing (that is, uncompleted), for example:We are eating.(This is called progressive aspect, using progressive [continuous] tenses.)

Tense & Time

It is important not to confuse the name of a verb tense with the way we use it to talk abouttime.

For example, a present tense does not always refer to present time:

I hope it rains tomorrow."rains" is present simple, but it refers here to future time (tomorrow)

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Or a past tense does not always refer to past time:

If I had some money now, I could buy it."had" is past simple but it refers here to present time (now)

The following examples show how different tenses can be used to talk about different times.

TENSE TIME

past present future

Present Simple   I want a coffee.

I leave tomorrow.

She likes coffee.

Present Continuous

  I am having dinner.

I am taking my exam next month.

They are living in London.

Present Perfect Simple

I have seen ET. I have finished.

 

Present Perfect Continuous

I have been playingtennis.

   

We have been working for four hours.

 

Past Simple I finished one hour ago.

If she loved you now, she would marry you.

If you cametomorrow, you would see her.

Past Continuous I was working at 2am this morning.

   

Past Perfect Simple

I had not eaten for 24 hours.

   

Past Perfect We had been If I had been If I had been

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Continuous working for 3 hours.

working now, I would have missed you.

working tomorrow, I could not have agreed.

Future Simple   Hold on. I'll do it now.

I'll see you tomorrow.

Future Continuous

    I will be working at 9pm tonight.

Future Perfect Simple

    I will have finishedby 9pm tonight.

We will have been married for ten years next month.

Future Perfect Continuous

    They may be tired when you arrive because they will have been working.

In 30 minutes, we will have been working for four hours.

Basic Tenses

For past and present, there are 2 simple tenses + 6 complex tenses (using auxiliary verbs). To these, we can add 4 "modal tenses" for the future (using modal auxiliary verbs will/shall). This makes a total of 12 tenses in the active voice. Another 12 tenses are available in the passive voice. So now we have 24 tenses.

24 Tenses past present future*

ACTIVE simple tenses

past present future

complex past perfect present perfect future perfect

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tensesformed withauxiliary verbs

past continuous

present continuous

future continuous

past perfect continuous

present perfect continuous

future perfect continuous

PASSIVE past present future

past perfect present perfect future perfect

past continuous

present continuous

future continuous

past perfect continuous

present perfect continuous

future perfect continuous

 

Some grammar books use the wordprogressive instead of continuous. They are exactly the same.

The use of tenses in English may be quite complicated, but the structure of English tenses is actually very simple. The basic structure for a positive sentence is:

subject + auxiliary verb + main verb

An auxiliary verb is used in all tenses. (In the simple present and simple past tenses, the auxiliary verb is usually suppressed for the affirmative, but it does exist for intensification.) The following table shows the 12 tenses for the verb to work in the active voice.

structure past present future*

auxiliary main verb

simple normal     I worked I work I will work

intensive do base I did work

I do work

 

perfect have past I had I have I will

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participle worked worked have worked

continuous be present participle -ing

I was working

I am working

I will be working

continuous perfect

have been

present participle -ing

I had been working

I have been working

I will have been working

* Technically, there are no future tenses in English. The word will is a modal auxiliary verb and future tenses are sometimes called "modal tenses". The examples are included here for convenience and comparison.

Basic Tenses: Regular Verb

Regular verbs list

This page shows the basic tenses with the regular verb work. It includes the affirmative or positive form (+), the negative form (-) and the interrogative or question form (?).

The basic structure is:

positive: + subject + auxiliary verb + main verbnegative: - subject + auxiliary verb + not + main verbquestion: ? auxiliary verb + subject + main verb

These are the forms of the main verb that we use to construct the tenses:

base verb past past participle present participle -ing

work worked worked working

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past present future

SIMPLEdo + base verb(except future:will + base verb)

+ I did workI worked

I do workI work

I will work

- I did not work I do not work I will not work

? Did I work? Do I work? Will I work?

SIMPLE PERFECThave + past participle

+ I had worked I have worked I will have worked

- I had not worked I have not worked

I will not have worked

? Had I worked? Have I worked? Will I have worked?

CONTINUOUSbe + ing

+ I was working I am working I will be working

- I was not working

I am not working I will not be working

? Was I working? Am I working? Will I be working?

CONTINUOUS PERFECThave been + ing

+ I had beenworking

I have beenworking

I will have beenworking

- I had not beenworking

I have not beenworking

I will not have beenworking

? Had I beenworking?

Have I beenworking?

Will I have beenworking?

Regular Verbs List

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There are thousands of regular verbs in English. This is a list of 600 of the more common regular verbs. Note that there are some spelling variations in American English (for example, "practise" becomes "practice" in American English).

accept add admire admit advise afford agree alert

allow amuse analyse announce annoy answer apologise appear

applaud appreciate approve argue arrange arrest arrive ask

attach attack attempt attend attract avoid

  back bake balance ban bang bare bat bathe battle beam

beg behave belong bleach bless blind blink blot blush boast

boil bolt bomb book bore borrow bounce bow box brake

brake branch breathe bruise brush bubble bump burn bury buzz

  calculate call camp care carry carve cause challenge change charge chase cheat check cheer chew

choke chop claim clap clean clear clip close coach coil collect colour comb command communicate

compare compete complain complete concentrate concern confess confuse connect consider consist contain continue copy correct

cough count cover crack crash crawl cross crush cry cure curl curve cycle

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  dam damage dance dare decay deceive decide decorate delay delight

deliver depend describe desert deserve destroy detect develop disagree disappear

disapprove disarm discover dislike divide double doubt drag drain dream

dress drip drop drown drum dry dust

  earn educate embarrass employ empty encourage

end enjoy enter entertain escape examine

excite excuse exercise exist expand expect

explain explode extend

  face fade fail fancy fasten fax fear fence

fetch file fill film fire fit fix flap

flash float flood flow flower fold follow fool

force form found frame frighten fry

  gather gaze glow glue

grab grate grease greet

grin grip groan guarantee

guard guess guide

  hammer hand handle hang happen

harm hate haunt head heal

heat help hook hop hope

hug hum hunt hurry

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harass heap hover

  identify ignore imagine impress improve include

increase influence inform inject injure instruct

intend interest interfere interrupt introduce invent

invite irritate itch

  jail jam

jog join

joke judge

juggle jump

  kick kill

kiss kneel

knit knock

knot

  label land last laugh launch

learn level license lick lie

lighten like list listen live

load lock long look love

  man manage march mark marry match mate

matter measure meddle melt memorise mend mess up

milk mine miss mix moan moor mourn

move muddle mug multiply murder

  nail name

need nest

nod note

notice number

  obey object observe

obtain occur offend

offer open order

overflow owe own

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  pack paddle paint park part pass paste pat pause peck pedal peel peep perform

permit phone pick pinch pine place plan plant play please plug point poke polish

pop possess post pour practise pray preach precede prefer prepare present preserve press pretend

prevent prick print produce program promise protect provide pull pump punch puncture punish push

  question queue

  race radiate rain raise reach realise receive recognise record reduce reflect

refuse regret reign reject rejoice relax release rely remain remember remind

remove repair repeat replace reply report reproduce request rescue retire return

rhyme rinse risk rob rock roll rot rub ruin rule rush

  sack sail satisfy save saw scare scatter scold scorch scrape

shiver shock shop shrug sigh sign signal sin sip ski

soothe sound spare spark sparkle spell spill spoil spot spray

stop store strap strengthen stretch strip stroke stuff subtract succeed

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scratch scream screw scribble scrub seal search separate serve settle shade share shave shelter

skip slap slip slow smash smell smile smoke snatch sneeze sniff snore snow soak

sprout squash squeak squeal squeeze stain stamp stare start stay steer step stir stitch

suck suffer suggest suit supply support suppose surprise surround suspect suspend switch

  talk tame tap taste tease telephone tempt terrify test thank

thaw tick tickle tie time tip tire touch tour tow

trace trade train transport trap travel treat tremble trick trip

trot trouble trust try tug tumble turn twist type

  undress unfasten

unite unlock

unpack untidy

use

  vanish visit

  wail wait walk wander want warm warn

waste watch water wave weigh welcome whine

whirl whisper whistle wink wipe wish wobble

work worry wrap wreck wrestle wriggle

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wash whip wonder

  x-ray

  yawn yell

  zip zoom

Basic Tenses: Irregular Verb

Irregular verbs list

This page shows the basic tenses with the irregular verb sing. It includes the affirmative or positive form (+), the negative form (-) and the interrogative or question form (?).

The basic structure is:

positive: + subject + auxiliary verb + main verbnegative: - subject + auxiliary verb + not + main verbquestion: ? auxiliary verb + subject + main verb

These are the forms of the main verb that we use to construct the tenses:

base verb past past participle present participle -ing

sing sang sung singing 

past present future

SIMPLEdo + base

+ I did singI sang

I do singI sing

I will sing

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verb(except future:will + base verb)

- I did not sing I do not sing I will not sing

? Did I sing? Do I sing? Will I sing?

SIMPLE PERFECThave + past participle

+ I had sung I have sung I will have sung

- I had not sung I have not sung I will not have sung

? Had I sung? Have I sung? Will I have sung?

CONTINUOUSbe + -ing

+ I was singing I am singing I will be singing

- I was not singing I am not singing I will not be singing

? Was I singing? Am I singing? Will I be singing?

CONTINUOUS PERFECThave been + -ing

+ I had been singing

I have been singing

I will have beensinging

- I had not beensinging

I have not beensinging

I will not have beensinging

? Had I beensinging?

Have I beensinging?

Will I have beensinging?

 

The basic structure of tenses for regular verbs and irregular verbs is exactly the same (except to be). The only difference is that with regular verbs the past and past participle are always the same (worked, worked), while with irregular verbs the past and past participle are not always the same

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(sang, sung). But the structure is the same! It will help you a great deal to really understand that.

Irregular Verbs List

This is a list of some irregular verbs in English. Of course, there are many others, but these are the more common irregular verbs.

V1Base Form

V2Past Simple

V3Past Participle

awake awoke awoken

be was, were been

beat beat beaten

become became become

begin began begun

bend bent bent

bet bet bet

bid bid bid

bite bit bitten

blow blew blown

break broke broken

bring brought brought

broadcast broadcast broadcast

build built built

burn burned/burnt burned/burnt

buy bought bought

catch caught caught

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choose chose chosen

come came come

cost cost cost

cut cut cut

dig dug dug

do did done

draw drew drawn

dream dreamed/dreamt dreamed/dreamt

drive drove driven

drink drank drunk

eat ate eaten

fall fell fallen

feel felt felt

fight fought fought

find found found

fly flew flown

forget forgot forgotten

forgive forgave forgiven

freeze froze frozen

get got gotten

give gave given

go went gone

grow grew grown

hang hung hung

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have had had

hear heard heard

hide hid hidden

hit hit hit

hold held held

hurt hurt hurt

keep kept kept

know knew known

lay laid laid

lead led led

learn learned/learnt learned/learnt

leave left left

lend lent lent

let let let

lie lay lain

lose lost lost

make made made

mean meant meant

meet met met

pay paid paid

put put put

read read read

ride rode ridden

ring rang rung

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rise rose risen

run ran run

say said said

see saw seen

sell sold sold

send sent sent

show showed showed/shown

shut shut shut

sing sang sung

sit sat sat

sleep slept slept

speak spoke spoken

spend spent spent

stand stood stood

swim swam swum

take took taken

teach taught taught

tear tore torn

tell told told

think thought thought

throw threw thrown

understand understood understood

wake woke woken

wear wore worn

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win won won

write wrote written

Basic Tenses: Be

This page shows the basic tenses with the verb be. It includes the affirmative or positive form (+), the negative form (-) and the interrogative or question form (?).

The basic structure is:

positive: + subject + auxiliary verb + main verbnegative: - subject + auxiliary verb + not + main verbquestion: ? auxiliary verb + subject + main verb

But for simple past and simple present tenses, the structure is not the same. In fact, it's even easier. There is no auxiliary verb. Here is the structure:

positive: + subject + main verbnegative: - subject + main verb + notquestion: ? main verb + subject

These are the forms of the main verb be that we use to construct the tenses:

base past simple past participle present participle present simple

be was, were been being am, are, is 

past present future

SIMPLEpresent simple or past simple(except future: will + be)

+ I was I am I will be

- I was not I am not I will not be

? Was I? Am I? Will I be?

SIMPLE + I had been I have been I will have been

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PERFECThave + been

- I had not been I have not been I will not have been

? Had I been? Have I been? Will I have been?

CONTINUOUSbe + being

+ I was being I am being I will be being

- I was not being I am not being I will not be being

? Was I being? Am I being? Will I be being?

CONTINUOUS PERFECThave been + being

+ I had beenbeing I have beenbeing I will have beenbeing

- I had not beenbeing

I have not beenbeing

I will not have beenbeing

? Had I beenbeing?

Have I beenbeing?

Will I have beenbeing?

In the following table, we see be conjugated for 12 basic tenses.

SIMPLE past present future

singular I was am will be

you were are will be

he/she/it was is will be

plural we were are will be

you were are will be

they were are will be

PERFECT past present future

singular I had been have been will have been

you had been have been will have been

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he/she/it had been has been will have been

plural we had been have been will have been

you had been have been will have been

they had been have been will have been

CONTINUOUS past present future

singular I was being am being will be being

you were being are being will be being

he/she/it was being is being will be being

plural we were being are being will be being

you were being are being will be being

they were being are being will be being

CONTINUOUS PERFECT

past present future

singular I had been being

have been being

will have been being

you had been being

have been being

will have been being

he/she/it had been being

has been being

will have been being

plural we had been being

have been being

will have been being

you had been being

have been being

will have been being

they had been being

have been being

will have been being

Simple Present Tense

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I sing

How do we make the Simple Present Tense?subject + auxiliary verb + main verb

    do   base

There are three important exceptions:

1. For positive sentences, we do not normally use the auxiliary.2. For the 3rd person singular (he, she, it), we add s to the main verb

or es to the auxiliary.3. For the verb to be, we do not use an auxiliary, even for questions and

negatives.

Look at these examples with the main verb like:

  subject auxiliary verb   main verb  

+ I, you, we, they   like coffee.

He, she, it   likes coffee.

- I, you, we, they do not like coffee.

He, she, it does not like coffee.

? Do I, you, we, they   like coffee?

Does he, she, it   like coffee?

Look at these examples with the main verb be. Notice that there is no auxiliary:

  subject main verb    

+ I am   French.

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You, we, they are   French.

He, she, it is   French.

- I am not old.

You, we, they are not old.

He, she, it is not old.

? Am I   late?

Are you, we, they   late?

Is he, she, it   late?

How do we use the Simple Present Tense?

We use the simple present tense when:

the action is general the action happens all the time, or habitually, in the past, present and

future the action is not only happening now the statement is always true

John drives a taxi.

past present future

It is John's job to drive a taxi. He does it every day. Past, present and future.

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Look at these examples:

I live in New York. The Moon goes round the Earth. John drives a taxi. He does not drive a bus. We do not work at night. Do you play football?

Note that with the verb to be, we can also use the simple present tense for situations that are not general. We can use the simple present tense to talk about now. Look at these examples of the verb "to be" in the simple present tense - some of them are general, some of them arenow:

Am I right?Tara is not at home.You are happy.

past present future

The situation is now.

 

I am not fat.Why are you so beautiful?Ram is tall.

past present future

The situation is general. Past, present and future.

 

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This page shows the use of the simple present tense to talk about general events. But note that there are some other uses for the simple present tense, for example in conditional or ifsentences, or to talk about the future. You will learn about those later.

Present Continuous Tense

I am singing

We often use the present continuous tense in English. It is very different from the simple present tense, both in structure and in use.

In this lesson we look the structure and use of the present continuous tense, followed by a quiz to check your understanding:

Structure: how do we make the present continuous tense? Use: when and why do we use the present continuous tense? Spelling: how do we spell verbs with -ing for the present continuous

tense? Present Continuous Tense Quiz

Continuous tenses are also calledprogressive tenses. So the present progressive tense is the same as the present continuous tense.

How do we make the Present Continuous Tense?

The structure of the present continuous tense is:

subject + auxiliary verb + main verb    be   base + ing

Look at these examples:

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  subject auxiliary verb   main verb  

+ I am   speaking to you.

+ You are   reading this.

- She is not staying in London.

- We are not playing football.

? Is he   watching TV?

? Are they   waiting for John?

How do we use the Present Continuous Tense?

We use the present continuous tense to talk about:

action happening now action in the future

Present continuous tense for action happening now

a) for action happening exactly now

I am eating my lunch.

past present future

The action is happening now.

 

Look at these examples. Right now you are looking at this screen and at the same time...

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...the pages are turning. ...the candle is burning. ...the numbers are spinning.

b) for action happening around now

The action may not be happening exactly now, but it is happening just before and just after now, and it is not permanent or habitual.

John is going out with Mary.

past present future

           

  The action is happening around now.

 

Look at these examples:

Muriel is learning to drive. I am living with my sister until I find an apartment.

Present continuous tense for the future

We can also use the present continuous tense to talk about the future - if we add a future word!! We must add (or understand from the context) a future word. "Future words" include, for example, tomorrow, next year, in June, at Christmas etc. We only use the present continuous tense to talk about the future when we have planned to do something before we speak. We have already made a decision and a plan before speaking.

I am taking my exam next month.

past present future

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!!!

  A firm plan or programme exists now.

The action is in the future.

Look at these examples:

We're eating in a restaurant tonight. We've already booked the table..

They can play tennis with you tomorrow. They're not working. When are you starting your new job?

In these examples, we have a firm plan or programme before speaking. The decision and plan were made before speaking.

Spelling of Present Continuous Tense »

How do we spell the Present Continuous Tense?

We make the present continuous tense by adding -ing to the base verb. Normally it's simple - we just add -ing. But sometimes we have to change the word a little. Perhaps we double the last letter, or we drop a letter. Here are the rules to help you know how to spell the present continuous tense.

Basic rule Just add -ing to the base verb:

work > working

play > playing

assist > assisting

see > seeing

be > being

Exception 1

If the base verb ends in consonant + stressed vowel + consonant, double the last letter:s t o p

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  consonant stressedvowel

consonant

(vowels = a, e, i, o, u)

stop > stopping

run > running

begin > beginning

Note that this exception does not apply when the last syllable of the base verb is not stressed:

open > opening

Exception 2

If the base verb ends in ie, change the ie to y:

lie > lying

die > dying

Exception 3

If the base verb ends in vowel + consonant + e, omit the e:

come > coming

mistake > mistaking

Phrasal Verbs and other multi-word verbs

Phrasal verbs are part of a large group of verbs called "multi-word verbs". Phrasal verbs and other multi-word verbs are an important part of the English language. Multi-word verbs, including phrasal verbs, are very common, especially in spoken English. A multi-word verb is a verb like "pick up", "turn on" or "get on with". For convenience, many people refer to all multi-word verbs as phrasal verbs. These verbs consist of a basic verb + another word or words. The other word(s) can be prepositions and/or adverbs. The two or three words that make up multi-word verbs form a short "phrase" - which is why these verbs are often all called "phrasal verbs".

The important thing to remember is that a multi-word verb is still a verb. "Get" is a verb. "Get up", is also a verb, a different verb. "Get" and "get up" are two different verbs. They do not have the same meaning. So you should

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treat each multi-word verb as a separate verb, and learn it like any other verb. Look at these examples. You can see that there are three types of multi-word verb:

single-word verb look direct your eyes in a certain direction

You must look before you leap.

multi-word verbs

prepositional verbs

look after

take care of Who is looking after the baby?

phrasal verbs look up search for and find information in a reference book

You can look up my number in the telephone directory.

phrasal-prepositional verbs

look forward to

anticipate with pleasure

I look forward to meeting you.

In this lesson we look at the three types of multi-word verbs, including phrasal verbs, followed by a quiz to check your understanding:

Phrasal Verbs Prepositional Verbs Phrasal-prepositional Verbs Phrasal Verbs Quiz

Like many grammar books, we divide multi-word verbs into:

prepositional verbs phrasal verbs phrasal-prepositional verbs

Other grammars, however, call allmulti-word verbs "phrasal verbs".

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Phrasal Verbs ReferenceHundreds of phrasal verbs listed in EnglishClub's language reference. With definitions, example sentences, quizzes and answers.

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Designed to help learners of English improve their knowledge of phrasal verbs, this e-book can be used as a self-study guide by learners, or the material can be used by teachers in class.

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Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal verbs are a group of multi-word verbs made from a verb plus another word or words. Many people refer to all multi-word verbs as phrasal verbs. On these pages we make a distinction between three types of multi-word verbs: prepositional verbs, phrasal verbs and phrasal-prepositional verbs. On this page we look at phrasal verbs proper.

Phrasal verbs are made of:

verb + adverb

Phrasal verbs can be:

intransitive (no direct object) transitive (direct object)

Here are some examples of phrasal verbs:

phrasal verbs

meaning examples

  direct

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object

intransitive phrasal verbs

get up rise from bed

I don't like to get up.  

break down

cease to function

He was late because his car broke down.

 

transitive phrasal verbs

put off postpone We will have to put off

the meeting.

turn down

refuse They turned down my offer.

Separable Phrasal Verbs

When phrasal verbs are transitive (that is, they have a direct object), we can usually separate the two parts. For example, "turn down" is a separable phrasal verb. We can say: "turn down my offer" or "turn my offer down". Look at this table:

transitive phrasal verbs areseparable

They turned   down my offer.

They turned my offer

down.  

However, if the direct object is a pronoun, we have no choice. We must separate the phrasal verb and insert the pronoun between the two parts. Look at this example with the separable phrasal verb "switch on":

direct object pronounsmust go between the

John

switched

  on the radio.

These are all possible.

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two parts of transitive phrasal verbs

John

switched

the radio

on.  

John

switched

it on.  

John

switched

on it. This is not possible.

 

Separable or inseparable phrasal verbs? Some dictionaries tell you when phrasal verbs are separable. If a dictionary writes "look (something) up", you know that the phrasal verb "look up" is separable, and you can say "look something up" and "look up something". It's a good idea to write "something/somebody" as appropriate in your vocabulary book when you learn a new phrasal verb, like this:

get up break down put something/somebody off turn sthg/sby down

This tells you whether the verb needs a direct object (and where to put it).

Prepositional Verbs »

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Prepositional Verbs

Prepositional verbs are a group of multi-word verbs made from a verb plus another word or words. Many people refer to all multi-word verbs as phrasal verbs. On these pages we make a distinction between three types of multi-word verbs: prepositional verbs, phrasal verbs and phrasal-prepositional verbs. On this page we look at prepositional verbs.

Prepositional verbs are made of:

verb + preposition

Because a preposition always has an object, all prepositional verbs have direct objects. Here are some examples of prepositional verbs:

prepositional verbs

meaning examples

  direct object

believe in have faith in the existence of

I believe in God.

look after take care of He is looking after

the dog.

talk about discuss Did you talk about

me?

wait for await John is waiting for

Mary.

Prepositional verbs cannot be separated. That means that we cannot put the direct object between the two parts. For example, we must say "look after the baby". We cannot say "look the baby after":

prepositional verbs areinseparable

Who is looking after the baby?

This is possible.

Who is looking the babyafter?

This is notpossible.

 

It is a good idea to write

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"something/somebody" in your vocabulary book when you learn a new prepositional verb, like this:

believe in something/somebody look after sthg/sby

This reminds you that this verb needs a direct object (and where to put it).

Phrasal-prepositional Verbs

Phrasal-prepositional verbs are a small group of multi-word verbs made from a verb plus another word or words. Many people refer to all multi-word verbs as phrasal verbs. On these pages we make a distinction between three types of multi-word verbs: prepositional verbs, phrasal verbs and phrasal-prepositional verbs. On this page we look at phrasal-prepositional verbs.

Phrasal-prepositional verbs are made of:

verb + adverb + preposition

Look at these examples of phrasal-prepositional verbs:

phrasal-prepositional verbs

meaning examples

  direct object

get on with have a friendly relationship with

He doesn't get on with

his wife.

put up with tolerate I won't put up with

your attitude.

look forward to anticipate with pleasure

I look forward to

seeing you.

run out of use up, exhaust We have run out of

eggs.

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Because phrasal-prepositional verbs end with a preposition, there is always a direct object. And, like prepositional verbs, phrasal-prepositional verbs cannot be separated. Look at these examples:

phrasal-prepositional verbs areinseparable

We ran out of fuel.

We ran out of it.

Now check your understanding »

It is a good idea to write "something/somebody" in your vocabulary book when you learn a new phrasal-prepositional verb, like this:

get on with somebody put up with sthg/sby run out of something

This reminds you that this verb needs a direct object (and where to put it).

English Conditionals

There are several structures in English that are called conditionals.

"Condition" means "situation or circumstance". If a particular condition is true, then a particular result happens.

If y = 10 then 2y = 20 If y = 3 then 2y = 6

There are three basic conditionals that we use very often. There are some more conditionals that we do not use so often.

In this lesson, we will look at the three basic conditionals as well as the so-called zero conditional. We'll finish with a quiz to check your understanding.

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Structure of Conditional Sentences

First Conditional Second Conditional Third Conditional Zero Conditional Summary Quiz

Structure of Conditional Sentences The structure of most conditionals is very simple. There are two

basic possibilities. Of course, we add many words and can use various tenses, but the basic structure is usually like this:

IF condition result

IF y = 10 2y = 20

or like this:

result IF condition

2y = 20 IF y = 10

First Conditional: real possibility

We are talking about the future. We are thinking about a particular condition or situation in the future, and the result of this condition. There is a real possibility that this condition will happen. For example, it is morning. You are at home. You plan to play tennis this afternoon. But there are some clouds in the sky. Imagine that it rains. What will you do?

IF condition result

  present simple WILL + base verb

If it rains I will stay at home.

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People sometimes call conditionals "IF" structures or sentences, because there is usually (but not always) the word "if" in a conditional sentence.

Notice that we are thinking about a future condition. It is not raining yet. But the sky is cloudy and you think that it could rain. We use the present simple tense to talk about the possible future condition. We use WILL + base verb to talk about the possible future result. The important thing about the first conditional is that there is a real possibility that the condition will happen. Here are some more examples (do you remember the two basic structures: [IF condition result] and [result IF condition]?):

IF condition result

  present simple WILL + base verb

If I see Mary I will tell her.

If Tara is free tomorrow he will invite her.

If they do not pass their exam their teacher will be sad.

If it rains tomorrow will you stay at home?

If it rains tomorrow what will you do?

 

result IF condition

WILL + base verb   present simple

I will tell Mary if I see her.

He will invite Tara if she is free tomorrow.

Their teacher will be sad if they do not pass their exam.

Will you stay at home if it rains tomorrow?

What will you do if it rains tomorrow?

 

Sometimes, we use shall, can, ormay instead of will, for example: If you are good today, you can watch TV tonight.

Second Conditional »

Second Conditional: unreal possibility or dream

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The second conditional is like the first conditional. We are still thinking about the future. We are thinking about a particular condition in the future, and the result of this condition. But there is not a real possibility that this condition will happen. For example, you do not have a lottery ticket. Is it possible to win? No! No lottery ticket, no win! But maybe you will buy a lottery ticket in the future. So you can think about winning in the future, like a dream. It's not very real, but it's still possible.

IF condition result

  past simple WOULD + base verb

If I won the lottery I would buy a car.

Notice that we are thinking about a future condition. We use the past simple tense to talk about the future condition. We use WOULD + base verb to talk about the future result. The important thing about the second conditional is that there is an unreal possibility that the condition will happen.

Here are some more examples:

IF condition result

  past simple WOULD + base verb

If I married Mary I would be happy.

If Ram became rich she would marry him.

If it snowed next July would you be surprised?

If it snowed next July what would you do?

 

result IF condition

WOULD + base verb   past simple

I would be happy if I married Mary.

She would marry Ram if he became rich.

Would you be surprised if it snowed next July?

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What would you do if it snowed next July?

 

Sometimes, we use should, could ormight instead of would, for example: If I won a million dollars, I could stop working.

Third Conditional »

Third Conditional: no possibility

The first conditional and second conditionals talk about the future. With the third conditionalwe talk about the past. We talk about a condition in the past that did not happen. That is why there is no possibility for this condition. The third conditional is also like a dream, but with no possibility of the dream coming true.

Last week you bought a lottery ticket. But you did not win. :-(

condition result

  Past Perfect WOULD HAVE + Past Participle

If I had won the lottery I would have bought a car.

Notice that we are thinking about an impossible past condition. You did not win the lottery. So the condition was not true, and that particular condition can never be true because it is finished. We use the past perfect tense to talk about the impossible past condition. We use WOULD HAVE + past participle to talk about the impossible past result. The important thing about the third conditional is that both the condition and result are impossible now.

Sometimes, we use should have,could have, might have instead ofwould have, for example: If you had bought a lottery ticket, you might have won.

Look at some more examples in the tables below:

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IF condition result

  past perfect WOULD HAVE + past participle

If I had seen Mary I would have told her.

If Tara had been free yesterday I would have invited her.

If they had not passed their exam their teacher would have been sad.

If it had rained yesterday would you have stayed at home?

If it had rained yesterday what would you have done?

 

result IF condition

WOULD HAVE + past participle   past perfect

I would have told Mary if I had seen her.

I would have invited Tara if she had been free yesterday.

Their teacher would have been sad if they had not passed their exam.

Would you have stayed at home if it had rained yesterday?

What would you have done if it had rained yesterday?

Zero Conditional »

Zero Conditional: certainty

We use the so-called zero conditional when the result of the condition is always true, like a scientific fact.

Take some ice. Put it in a saucepan. Heat the saucepan. What happens? The ice melts (it becomes water). You would be surprised if it did not.

IF condition result

  present simple present simple

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If you heat ice it melts.

Notice that we are thinking about a result that is always true for this condition. The result of the condition is an absolute certainty. We are not thinking about the future or the past, or even the present. We are thinking about a simple fact. We use the present simple tense to talk about the condition. We also use the present simple tense to talk about the result. The important thing about the zero conditional is that the condition always has the same result.

We can also use when instead of if, for example: When I get up late I miss my bus.

Look at some more examples in the tables below:

IF condition result

  present simple present simple

If I miss the 8 o'clock bus I am late for work.

If I am late for work my boss gets angry.

If people don't eat they get hungry.

If you heat ice does it melt?

 

result IF condition

present simple   present simple

I am late for work if I miss the 8 o'clock bus.

My boss gets angry if I am late for work.

People get hungry if they don't eat.

Does ice melt if you heat it?

Summary »

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Conditionals: Summary

Here is a chart to help you to visualize the basic English conditionals. Do not take the 50% and 10% figures too literally. They are just to help you.

probability conditional example time

100% zero conditional

If you heat ice, it melts. any time

50% first conditional

If it rains, I will stay at home.

future

10% second conditional

If I won the lottery, I would buy a car.

future

0% third conditional

If I had won the lottery, I would have bought a car.

past

Now check your understanding »

Modal Verbs (modal auxiliaries)

Modal auxiliary verbs may sound difficult but in fact they're easy. They are invariable (no conjugation). And the main verb is always the "bare infinitive" (the infinitive without "to").

Can, Could, Be able to | QuizCan and could are modal auxiliary verbs. Be able to is NOT an auxiliary verb (it uses the verb beas a main verb). We include be able to here for convenience.

Have to, Must, Must not/Mustn't | QuizMust is a modal auxiliary verb. Have to is NOT an auxiliary verb (it uses the verb have as a main verb). We include have to here for convenience.

Shall versus Will | Should versus WouldPeople may sometimes tell you that there is no difference between shall and will, or even that today nobody uses shall (except in

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offers such as "Shall I call a taxi?"). They say the same thing about should, but it's not really true.

Would | QuizWould is an auxiliary verb, a modal auxiliary verb. We use would mainly to talk about the past, talk about the future in the past and express the conditional mood.

Should | QuizShould is an auxiliary verb, a modal auxiliary verb. We use should mainly to give advice or make recommendations, talk about obligation or talk about probability and expectation.

Can, Could, Be able to

Can and could are modal auxiliary verbs. Be able to is NOT an auxiliary verb (it uses the verbbe as a main verb). We include be able to here for convenience.

In this lesson we look at these three verbs, followed by a quiz to check your understanding:

Can Could Be able to Can, Could, Be able to Quiz

Can

Can is an auxiliary verb, a modal auxiliary verb. We use can to:

talk about possibility and ability make requests ask for or give permission

Structure of Can

subject + can + main verb

The main verb is always the bare infinitive (infinitive without "to").

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subject auxiliary verb main verb  

+ I can play tennis.

- He cannot play tennis.

can't

? Can you play tennis?

Notice that:

Can is invariable. There is only one form of can. The main verb is always the bare infinitive.

The main verb is always the bare infinitive (infinitive without "to"). We cannot say:

Use of Can

can: Possibility and Ability

We use can to talk about what is possible, what we are able or free to do:

She can drive a car. John can speak Spanish. I cannot hear you. (I can't hear you.) Can you hear me?

Normally, we use can for the present. But it is possible to use can when we make present decisions about future ability.

A. Can you help me with my homework? (present)B. Sorry. I'm busy today. But I can help you tomorrow. (future)

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can: Requests and Orders

We often use can in a question to ask somebody to do something. This is not a real question - we do not really want to know if the person is able to do something, we want them to do it! The use of can in this way is informal (mainly between friends and family):

Can you make a cup of coffee, please. Can you put the TV on. Can you come here a minute. Can you be quiet!

can: Permission

We sometimes use can to ask or give permission for something:

A. Can I smoke in this room?B. You can't smoke here, but you can smoke in the garden.

(Note that we also use could, may, might for permission. The use of can for permission is informal.)

Could

Could is an auxiliary verb, a modal auxiliary verb. We use could to:

talk about past possibility or ability make requests

Structure of Could

subject + could + main verb

The main verb is always the bare infinitive (infinitive without "to").

  subject auxiliary verb main verb

+ My grandmother could swim.

- She could not walk.

couldn't

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? Could your grandmother swim?

Notice that:

Could is invariable. There is only one form of could. The main verb is always the bare infinitive.

The main verb is always the bare infinitive. We cannot say:

Use of Could

could: Past Possibility or Ability

We use could to talk about what was possible in the past, what we were able or free to do:

I could swim when I was 5 years old. My grandmother could speak seven languages. When we arrived home, we could not open the door.

(...couldn't open the door.) Could you understand what he was saying?

We use could (positive) and couldn't (negative) for general ability in the past. But when we talk about one special occasion in the past, we use be able to (positive) and couldn't(negative). Look at these examples:

Past

General Specific Occasion

+ My grandmother could speak Spanish.

A man fell into the river yesterday. The police were able to save him.

- My grandmother couldn'tspeak A man fell into the river yesterday.

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Spanish. The police couldn'tsave him.

could: Requests

We often use could in a question to ask somebody to do something. The use of could in this way is fairly polite (formal):

Could you tell me where the bank is, please? Could you send me a catalogue, please?

Be able to »

Be able to

Although we look at be able to here, it is not a modal verb. It is simply the verb be plus an adjective (able) followed by the infinitive. We look at be able to here because we sometimes use it instead of can and could.

We use be able to:

to talk about ability

Structure of Be able to

The structure of be able to is:

subject + be + able + infinitive

  subject bemain verb

ableadjective

infinitive

+ I am able to drive.

- She is not able to drive.

isn't

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? Are you able to drive?

Notice that be able to is possible in all tenses, for example:

I was able to drive... I will be able to drive... I have been able to drive...

Notice too that be able to has an infinitive form:

I would like to be able to speak Chinese.

Use of Be able to

be able to: ability

We use be able to to express ability. "Able" is an adjective meaning: having the power, skill or means to do something. If we say "I am able to swim", it is like saying "I can swim". We sometimes use "be able to" instead of "can" or "could" for ability. "Be able to" is possible in all tenses - but "can" is possible only in the present and "could" is possible only in the past for ability. In addition, "can" and "could" have no infinitive form. So we use "be able to" when we want to use other tenses or the infinitive. Look at these examples:

I have been able to swim since I was five. (present perfect) You will be able to speak perfect English very soon. (future simple) I would like to be able to fly an airplane. (infinitive)

Now check your understanding »

Gerunds (-ing)

When a verb ends in -ing, it may be a gerund or a present participle. It is important to understand that they are not the same.

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Be able to is not a modal auxiliary verb. We include it here for convenience, because it is often used like "can" and "could", which are modal auxiliary verbs.

Gerunds are sometimes called "verbal nouns".

When we use a verb in -ing form more like a noun, it is usually a gerund:

Fishing is fun.

When we use a verb in -ing form more like a verb or an adjective, it is usually a present participle:

Anthony is fishing. I have a boring teacher.

In this lesson, we look at the different ways in which we use gerunds, followed by a quiz to check your understanding:

Gerunds as Subject, Object or Complement

Gerunds after Prepositions Gerunds after Certain Verbs Gerunds in Passive Sense Gerunds Quiz

Gerunds as Subject, Object or Complement

Try to think of gerunds as verbs in noun form.

Like nouns, gerunds can be the subject, object or complement of a sentence:

Smoking costs a lot of money. I don't like writing. My favourite occupation is reading.

But, like a verb, a gerund can also have an object itself. In this case, the whole expression [gerund + object] can be the subject, object or complement of the sentence.

Smoking  cigarettes costs a lot of money. I don't like writing letters. My favourite occupation is reading detective stories.

Like nouns, we can use gerunds with adjectives (including articles and other determiners):

pointless questioning

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Many grammarians do not like to use the expression "gerund". That is because there is sometimes no clear difference between a gerund and a present participle.

a settling of debts the making of Titanic his drinking of alcohol

But when we use a gerund with an article, it does not usually take a direct object:

a settling of debts (not a settling debts) Making "Titanic" was expensive. The making of "Titanic" was expensive.

Do you see the difference in these two sentences? In one, "reading" is a gerund (noun). In the other "reading" is a present participle (verb).

My favourite occupation is reading.

My favourite niece is reading.

Answer

Gerunds after Prepositions »

As Subject, Object | After Prepositions | After Certain Verbs | Passive Sense | Gerunds Quiz

Gerunds after Prepositions

This is a good rule. It has no exceptions!

If we want to use a verb after a preposition, it must be a gerund. It is impossible to use an infinitive after a preposition. So for example, we say:

I will call you after arriving at the office. Please have a drink before leaving. I am looking forward to meeting you. Do you object to working late? Tara always dreams about going on holiday.

Notice that you could replace all the above gerunds with "real" nouns:

I will call you after my arrival at the office. Please have a drink before your departure.

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I am looking forward to our lunch. Do you object to this job? Tara always dreams about holidays.

The above rule has no exceptions! So why is "to" followed by "driving" in 1 and by "drive" in 2?

1. I am used to driving on the left.2. I used to drive on the left.

Answer

Gerunds after Certain Verbs »

Gerunds after Certain Verbs

We sometimes use one verb after another verb. Often the second verb is in the infinitive form, for example:

I want to eat.

But sometimes the second verb must be in gerund form, for example:

I dislike eating.

This depends on the first verb. Here is a list of verbs that are usually followed by a verb in gerund form:

admit, appreciate, avoid, carry on, consider, defer, delay, deny, detest, dislike, endure, enjoy, escape, excuse, face, feel like, finish, forgive, give up, can't help, imagine, involve, leave off, mention, mind, miss, postpone, practise, put off, report, resent, risk, can't stand, suggest, understand

Look at these examples:

She is considering having a holiday. Do you feel like going out? I can't help falling in love with you. I can't stand not seeing you.

Some verbs can be followed by the

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gerund form or the infinitive form without a big change in meaning:begin, continue, hate, intend, like, love, prefer, propose, start

I like to play tennis. I like playing tennis. It started to rain. It started raining.

Gerunds in Passive Sense »

Gerunds in Passive Sense

We often use a gerund after the verbs need, require and want. In this case, the gerund has a passive sense.

I have three shirts that need washing. (need to be washed) This letter requires signing. (needs to be signed) The house wants repainting. (needs to be repainted)

The expression "something wants doing" is British English.

Now check your understanding »

Questions or Interrogative

What is a question?

A statement is a sentence that gives information. A question is a sentence that asks for information. Questions are also called "interrogative".

Statement: I like EnglishClub.com.

Question: Do you like EnglishClub.com?

A written question in English always ends with a question mark: ?

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In this lesson we look at basic questions in English, followed by a quiz to check your understanding:

Basic Question Structure Basic Question Types Questions Quiz

Basic Question Structure

The basic structure of a question in English is very simple:

auxiliary verb + subject + main verb

auxiliary verb subject main verb  

Do you like Mary?

Are they playing football?

Will Anthony go to Tokyo?

Have you seen ET?

Exception!For the verb be in simple present and simple past, we do not use an auxiliary verb. We simply reverse the positions of be and subject:

Statement: He is German.

Question: Is he German?

Basic Question Types »

Basic Question Types

There are 3 basic types of question:

1. Yes/No Questions (the answer to the question is "Yes" or "No")2. Question Word Questions (the answer to the question is

"Information")3. Choice Questions (the answer to the question is "in the question")

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1. Yes/No Questions

auxiliary verb subject main verb   AnswerYes or No

Do you want dinner? Yes, I do.

Can you drive?   No, I can't.

Has she finished her work? Yes, she has.

Did they go home? No, they didn't.

Exception! verb be simple present and simple past

  Is Anne French? Yes, she is.

  Was Ram at home? No, he wasn't.

2. Question Word Questions

question word

auxiliary verb

subject main verb

  AnswerInformation

Where do you live?   In Paris.

When will we have lunch? At 1pm.

Who did she meet?   She met Ram.

Why hasn't Tara done it? Because she can't.

Exception! verb be simple present and simple past

Where is Bombay? In India.

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How was she? Very well.

3. Choice Questions

auxiliary verb

subject main verb

  OR   AnswerIn the question

Do you want tea or coffee? Coffee, please.

Will we meet John or James? John.

Did she go to London

or New York?

She went to London.

Exception! verb be simple present and simple past

  Is your car

white or black? It's black.

  Were they $15 or $50? $15.

Now check your understanding »

These pages show the three basictypes of question. There are other types of question, for example tag questions.

Tag Questions

You speak English, don't you?

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A tag question is a special construction in English. It is a statement followed by a mini-question. The whole sentence is a "tag question", and the mini-question at the end is called a "question tag".

A "tag" is something small that we add to something larger. For example, the little piece of cloth added to a shirt showing size or washing instructions is a tag.

We use tag questions at the end of statements to ask for confirmation. They mean something like: "Am I right?" or "Do you agree?" They are very common in English.

The basic structure is:

+Positive statement,

-negative tag?

Snow is white, isn't it?

-Negative statement,

+positive tag?

You don't like me, do you?

Look at these examples with positive statements:

positive statement [+] negative tag [-] notes:

subject

auxiliary

main verb

  auxiliary

not

personalpronoun(same as subject)

 

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You are coming,

  are n't you?  

We have finished,

  have n't we?  

You do like coffee, do n't you?  

You like coffee, do n't you? You (do) like...

They will help,   wo n't they? won't = will not

I can come,   can 't I?  

We must go,   must n't we?  

He should try harder, should n't he?  

You   are English,

are n't you? no auxiliary for main verb bepresent & past

John   was there, was n't he?

Look at these examples with negative statements:

negative statement [-] positive tag [+]

subject auxiliary

  main verb

    auxiliary

personalpronoun(same as subject)

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It is n't raining,     is it?

We have never seen   that, have we?

You do n't like   coffee, do you?

They will not help,     will they?

They wo n't report   us, will they?

I can never do   it right, can I?

We must n't tell   her, must we?

He should n't drive   so fast, should he?

You     are n't English,

are you?

John     was not there, was he?

Some special cases:

I am right, aren't I? aren't I (not amn't I)

You have to go, don't you? you (do) have to go...

I have been answering,haven't I?

use first auxiliary

Nothing came in the post, didit?

treat statements with nothing, nobody etc like negative statements

Let's go, shall we? let's = let us

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He'd better do it, hadn't he? he had better (no auxiliary)

Here are some mixed examples:

But you don't really love her, do you? This will work, won't it? Well, I couldn't help it, could I? But you'll tell me if she calls, won't you? We'd never have known, would we? The weather's bad, isn't it? You won't be late, will you? Nobody knows, do they?

Notice that we often use tag questions to ask for information or help, starting with a negative statement. This is quite a friendly/polite way of making a request. For example, instead of saying "Where is the police station?" (not very polite), or "Do you know where the police station is?" (slightly more polite), we could say: "You wouldn't know where the police station is, would you?" Here are some more examples:

You don't know of any good jobs, do you? You couldn't help me with my homework, could you? You haven't got $10 to lend me, have you?

Intonation

We can change the meaning of a tag question with the musical pitch of our voice. With rising intonation, it sounds like a real question. But if our intonation falls, it sounds more like a statement that doesn't require a real answer:

  intonation  

You don't know where my wallet is,

do you? / rising real question

It's a beautiful view, isn't it? \ falling not a real question

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Answers to tag questionsA question tag is the "mini-question" at the end. A tag question is the whole sentence.

How do we answer a tag question? Often, we just say Yes or No. Sometimes we may repeat the tag and reverse it (..., do they? Yes, they do). Be very careful about answering tag questions. In some languages, an oposite system of answering is used, and non-native English speakers sometimes answer in the wrong way. This can lead to a lot of confusion!

Answer a tag question according to the truth of the situation. Your answer reflects the real facts, not (necessarily) the question.

For example, everyone knows that snow is white. Look at these questions, and the correct answers:

tag question

correct answer

   

Snow is white, isn't it?

Yes (it is). the answer is the same in both cases - because snow IS WHITE!

but notice the change of stress when the answerer does not agree with the questioner

Snow isn't white, is it?

Yes itis!

Snow is black, isn't it?

No itisn't! the answer is the same in both cases - because snow IS NOT BLACK!

Snow isn't black, is it?

No (it isn't).

In some languages, people answer a question like "Snow isn't black, is it?" with "Yes" (meaning "Yes, I agree with you"). This is the wrong answer in English!

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Here are some more examples, with correct answers:

The moon goes round the earth, doesn't it? Yes, it does. The earth is bigger than the moon, isn't it? Yes. The earth is bigger than the sun, isn't it? No, it isn't! Asian people don't like rice, do they? Yes, they do! Elephants live in Europe, don't they? No, they don't! Men don't have babies, do they? No. The English alphabet doesn't have 40 letters, does it? No, it doesn't.

Question tags with imperatives

Sometimes we use question tags with imperatives (invitations, orders), but the sentence remains an imperative and does not require a direct answer. We use won't for invitations. We use can, can't, will, would for orders.

  imperative + question tag

notes:

invitation

Take a seat, won't you?

polite

order Help me, can you? quite friendly

Help me, can't you? quite friendly (some irritation?)

Close the door, would you?

quite polite

Do it now, will you? less polite

Don't forget, will you? with negative imperatives only will is possible

Same-way question tags

Although the basic structure of tag questions is positive-negative or negative-positive, it is sometime possible to use a positive-positive or

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negative-negative structure. We use same-way question tags to express interest, surprise, anger etc, and not to make real questions.

So you're having a baby, are you? That's wonderful! She wants to marry him, does she? Some chance! So you think that's amusing, do you? Think again.

Negative-negative tag questions usually sound rather hostile:

So you don't like my looks, don't you?

Now check your understanding >

Subjunctive

The subjunctive is a special, relatively rare verb form in English.

Structure of the Subjunctive

The structure of the subjunctive is extremely simple. For all verbs except the past tense of be, the subjunctive is the same as the bare infinitive (infinitive without "to"):

be (past) be (present) all other verbs (past & present)

I wereyou werehe, she, it werewe wereyou werethey were

I beyou behe, she, it bewe beyou bethey be

I workyou workhe, she, it workwe workyou workthey work

 

The subjunctive does not change according to person (I, you, he etc).

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Use of the Subjunctive

We use subjunctives mainly when talking about events that are not certain to happen. For example, we use the subjunctive when talking about events that somebody:

wants to happen hopes will happen imagines happening

Look at these examples:

The President requests that you be present at the meeting. It is vital that you be present at the meeting. If you were at the meeting, the President would be happy.

The subjunctive is typically used after two structures:

the verbs: ask, command, demand, insist, propose, recommend, request, suggest +that

the expressions: it is desirable, essential, important, necessary, vital + that

Here are some examples with the subjunctive:

The manager insists that the car park be locked at night. The board of directors recommended that he join the company. It is essential that we vote as soon as possible. It was necessary that every student submit his essay by the weekend.

Notice that in these structures the subjunctive is always the same. It does not matter whether the sentence is past or present. Look at these examples:

Present: The President requests that they stop the occupation. Past: The President requested that they stop the occupation.

Present: It is essential that she be present. Past: It was essential that she be present.

The use of the subjunctive as above is more common in American English than in English, where should + infinitive is often used:

The manager insists that the car park should be locked at night. It was essential that we should vote as soon as possible.

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We usually use the subjunctive were instead of "was" after if (and other words with similar meaning). Look at these sentences:

If I were you, I would ask her. Suppose she were here. What would you say?

Why do we say "I were", "he were"?

We sometimes hear things like "if I were you, I would go" or "if he were here, he would tell you". Normally, the past tense of the verb "to be" is: I was, he was. But the if I were youstructure does not use the past simple tense of the verb "to be". It uses the past subjunctiveof the verb "to be". In the following examples, you can see that we often use the subjunctive form were instead of "was" after:

if as if wish suppose

Formal

(The were form is correct at all times.)

Informal

(The was form is possible in informal, familiar conversation.)

If I were younger, I would go. If I was younger, I would go.

If he weren't so mean, he would buy one for me.

If he wasn't so mean, he would buy one for me.

I wish I weren't so slow! I wish I wasn't so slow!

I wish it were longer. I wish it was longer.

It's not as if I were ugly. It's not as if I was ugly.

She acts as if she were Queen. She acts as if she was Queen.

If I were you, I should tell her. Note: We do not normally say "if I was

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you", even in familiar conversation.

Some fixed expressions use the subjunctive. Here are some examples:

Long live the King! God bless America! Heaven forbid! Be that as it may, he still wants to see her. Come what may, I will never forget you. We are all citizens of the world, as it were.

Now check your understanding »

Active Voice, Passive Voice

There are two special forms for verbs called voice:

1. Active voice2. Passive voice

The active voice is the "normal" voice. This is the voice that we use most of the time. You are probably already familiar with the active voice. In the active voice, the object receives the action of the verb:

active subject verb object

  >

Cats eat fish.

The passive voice is less usual. In the passive voice, the subject receives the action of the verb:

passive subject verb object

<  

Fish are eaten by cats.

The object of the active verb becomes the subject of the passive verb:

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  subject verb object

active Everybody drinks water.

passive Water is drunk by everybody.

Now we'll look at the passive voice in more detail »

Passive Voice

The passive voice is less usual than the active voice. The active voice is the "normal" voice. But sometimes we need the passive voice. In this lesson we look at how to construct the passive voice, when to use it and how to conjugate it.

Construction of the Passive Voice

The structure of the passive voice is very simple:

subject + auxiliary verb (be) + main verb (past participle)

The main verb is always in its past participle form.

Look at these examples:

subject auxiliary verb (to be)

  main verb (past participle)

 

Water is   drunk by everyone.

100 people

are   employed by this company.

I am   paid in euro.

We are not paid in dollars.

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Are they   paid in yen?

Use of the Passive Voice

We use the passive when:

we want to make the active object more important we do not know the active subject

  subject verb object

give importance to active object (President Kennedy)

President Kennedy

was killed by Lee Harvey Oswald.

active subject unknown My wallet has been stolen.

?

Note that we always use by to introduce the passive object (Fish are eaten by cats).

Look at this sentence:

He was killed with a gun.

Normally we use by to introduce the passive object. But the gun is not the active subject. The gun did not kill him. He was killed by somebody with a gun. In the active voice, it would be: Somebody killed him with a gun. The gun is the instrument. Somebody is the "agent" or "doer".

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Conjugation for the Passive Voice

We can form the passive in any tense. In fact, conjugation of verbs in the passive tense is rather easy, as the main verb is always in past participle form and the auxiliary verb is alwaysbe. To form the required tense, we conjugate the auxiliary verb. So, for example:

present simple: It is made present continuous: It is being made present perfect: It has been made

Here are some examples with most of the possible tenses:

infinitive to be washed

simple present It is washed.

past It was washed.

future It will be washed.

conditional It would be washed.

continuous present It is being washed.

past It was being washed.

future It will be being washed.

conditional It would be being washed.

perfect simple present It has been washed.

past It had been washed.

future It will have been washed.

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conditional It would have been washed.

perfect continuous present It has been being washed.

past It had been being washed.

future It will have been being washed.

conditional It would have been being washed.

Now check your understanding »

Infinitive or -ing?

Sometimes we need to decide whether to use a verb in its:

-ing form (doing, singing)

or

infinitive form (to do, to sing).

For example, only one of the following sentences is correct. Which one?

I dislike working late. (???) I dislike to work late. (???)

When to use the infinitive

The infinitive form is used after certain verbs:- forget, help, learn, teach, train- choose, expect, hope, need, offer, want, would like- agree, encourage, pretend, promise, recommend- allow, can/can't afford, decide, manage, mean, refuse

I forgot to close the window. Mary needs to leave early. Why are they encouraged to learn English?

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We can't afford to take a long holiday.

The infinitive form is always used after adjectives, for example:- disappointed, glad, happy, pleased, relieved, sad, surprised

I was happy to help them. She will be delighted to see you.

This includes too + adjective:

The water was too cold to swim in. Is your coffee too hot to drink?

The infinitive form is used after adjective + enough:

He was strong enough to lift it. She is rich enough to buy two.

When to use -ing

The -ing form is used when the word is the subject of a sentence or clause:

Swimming  is good exercise. Doctors say that smoking is bad for you.

The -ing form is used after a preposition:

I look forward to meeting you. They left without saying "Goodbye."

The -ing form is used after certain verbs:- avoid, dislike, enjoy, finish, give up, mind/not mind, practise

I dislike getting up early. Would you mind opening the window?

Some verbs can be followed by the -ing form or the infinitive without a big change in meaning: begin, continue, hate, intend, like, love, prefer, propose, start.

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It started to rain. It started raining. I like to play tennis. I like playing tennis.

Now check your understanding >

Plural Verbs with Singular Subjects

We often use singular nouns that refer to groups of people (for example: team, government,committee) as if they were plural. This is particularly true in English and less true in USA English. This is because we often think of the group as people, doing things that people do (eating, wanting, feeling etc).

In such cases, we use:

plural verb they (not it) who (not which)

Here are some examples:

The committee want sandwiches for lunch. They have to leave early.

My family, who don't see me often, have asked me home for Christmas.

The team hope to win next time.

Here are some examples of words and expressions that can be considered singular or plural:

choir, class, club, committee, company, family, government, jury, school, staff, team, union, the BBC, board of directors, the Conservative Party, Manchester United, the Ministry of Health

But when we consider the group as an impersonal unit, we use singular verbs and pronouns:

The new company is the result of a merger.

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An average family consists of four people. The committee, which was formed in 1999, is made up of four men

and four women.

Notice that this is often a question of style and logic. The important thing is to be consistent.

Using a plural verb with singular subject is less common in American English.

Verb Meanings with Continuous Tenses

There are some verbs that we do not normally use in the continuous tense. And there are other verbs that we use in the simple tense with one meaning and in the continuous tense with another meaning.

In this lesson we look at various uses of continuous tenses, followed by a quiz to check your understanding:

Verbs not Used with Continuous Tenses Verbs with Two Meanings Be and Continuous Tenses Continuous Tense Verb Quiz

Verbs not Used with Continuous Tenses

There are some verbs that we do not normally use with continuous tenses. We usually use the following verbs with simple tenses only (not continuous tenses):

hate, like, love, need, prefer, want, wish believe, imagine, know, mean, realize, recognize, remember, suppose,

understand belong, concern, consist, contain, depend, involve, matter, need, owe, own,

possess appear, resemble, seem, hear, see

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Here are some examples:

I want a coffee. not I am wanting a coffee.

I don't believe you are right. not I am not believing you are right.

Does this pen belong to you? not Is this pen belonging to you?

It seemed wrong. not It was seeming wrong.

I don't hear anything. not I am not hearing anything.

Notice that we often use can + see/hear:

With verbs that we don't use in the continuous tense, there is no real action or activity. Compare "to hear" and "to listen". "To hear" means "to receive sound in your ears". There is no real action or activity by you. We use "to hear" with simple tenses only. But "to listen" means "to try to hear". You make an effort to hear. There is a kind of action or activity. We can use "to listen" with simple or continuous tenses.

I can see someone in the distance.(not I am seeing someone in the distance.)

I can't hear you very well.(not I am not hearing you very well.)

Verbs with Two Meanings »

Verbs with Two Meanings

Some verbs have two different meanings or senses. For one sense we must use a simple tense. For the other sense we can use a continuous or simple tense.

For example, the verb to think has two different senses:

1. to believe, to have an opinionI think Ricky Martin is sexy.

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2. to reflect, to use your brain to solve a problemI am thinking about my homework.

In sense 1 there is no real action, no activity. This sense is called "stative". In sense 2 there is a kind of action, a kind of activity. This sense is called "dynamic".

When we use the stative sense, we use a simple tense. When we use the dynamic sense, we can use a simple or continuous tense, depending on the situation.

Look at the examples in the table below:

Stative sense(no real action)

Dynamic sense(a kind of action)

Simple only Continuous Simple

I think she is beautiful.

Be quiet. I'm thinking. I will think about this problem tomorrow.

I don't consider that he is the right man for the job.

We are considering your job application and will give you our answer in a few days.

We consider every job application very carefully.

This table measures 4 x 6 feet.

She is measuring the room for a new carpet.

A good carpentermeasures his wood carefully.

Does the wine tastegood?

I was tasting the wine when I dropped the glass.

I always taste wine before I drink it.

Mary has three children.

Please phone later. We are havingdinner now.

We have dinner at 8pm every day.

Be and Continuous Tenses »

Be and Continuous Tenses

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If you have a doubt about a particular verb, ask yourself the question: "Is there any real action or activity?"

The verb be can be an auxiliary verb (Marie is learning English) or a main verb (Marie is French). On this page we look at the verb be as a main verb.

Usually we use simple tenses with the verb be as a main verb. For example, we say:

London is the capital of the UK.(not London is being the capital of the UK.)

Is she beautiful?(not Is she being beautiful?)

Were you late?(not Were you being late?)

Sometimes, however, we can use the verb be with a continuous tense. This is when the real sense of the verb be is "act" or "behave". Also, of course, the action is temporary. Compare the examples in the table below:

Here is the structure of the verb be in the continuous present tense:I am beingYou are beingHe, she, it is beingWe are beingThey are being 

Mary is a careful person. (Mary is always careful - it's her nature.)

John is being careful. (John is acting carefully now, but maybe he is not always careful - we don't know.)

Is he always so stupid? (Is that his personality?)

They were being really stupid. (They were behaving really stupidly at that moment.)

Andrew is not usually selfish. (It is not Andrew's character to be selfish.)

Why is he being so selfish? (Why is he acting so selfishly at the moment?)

Notice that we also make a difference between "to be sick" and "to be being sick":

She is sick (= she is not well)

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She is being sick (= she is vomiting)

Now check your understanding »

Used to do & Be used to

These two expressions look the same, but in fact they are completely different.

In this lesson we look at the structure and use of both expressions, followed by a quiz to check your understanding:

Used to do Be used to Used to do or Be used to Quiz

Used to do

We use used to do to talk about the past. It is not a tense but it is like a tense. It is a special expression. We use the expression used to do for the past only.

Structure of Used to do

The structure is:

  subject auxiliarydid

not main verbuse

infinitive

+ I     used to do.

- I did not use to do.

? Did you   use to do?

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Do not confuse used to do with with the expression be used to. They have different meanings.

 

Used or use?

when there is did in the sentence, we say use to (without d)

when there is no did in the sentence, we say used to (withd)

Use of Used to do

We use the used to do expression to talk about:

an activity that we did regularly in the past (like a habit) a situation that was true in the past

I used to smoke.

//////

past present future

Look at these examples.

the past the present

She used to work in a shop. Now she works in a bank.

He used to watch a lot of TV. Now he doesn't watch much TV.

They used to be married. Now they are divorced.

There used to be a cinema here. Now there is a supermarket here.

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I didn't use to go swimming. Now I go swimming.

Did you use to smoke?  

Be used to »

Be used to

Be used to somethingBe used to doing

Be used to is an expression. It is not a tense. If I say "I am used to Thailand", it is like saying "I am accustomed to Thailand."

Structure of Be used to

The structure is:

subject + be + used to + object

  subject main verbbe

not used to object

+ I am   used to horses.

- He is not used to horses.

We aren't used to horses.

? Are you   used to horses?

If the object invoves a verb, we use the -ing form:

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Do not confuse be used to with with the special construction used to do. They have different meanings.

I am not used to being lied to.

He is   used to working late.

We aren't used to taking the bus.

Are you   used to cooking?

 

Why do we use -ing for a verb after be used to? Because we always use -ingfor a verb after a preposition - and theto is a preposition.

Use of Be used to

The be used to expression is for talking about something that is familiar to us or easy for us. For example:

I am used to driving on the left.

It means that it is not a problem for me to drive on the left of the road. I am Japanese. In Japan, people drive on the left. Now I am living in the USA where people drive on the right. Of course, I drive on the right in the USA, but when I go to Japan it is easy for me to drive on the left because "I am used to it".

Look at these examples.

I am used to hard work. I am used to working hard. He is not used to New York. He isn't used to living in New York. Are you used to fast food? Are you used to eating quickly?

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Tenses

We can use be used to in any tense. We just conjugate the verb be in the tense that we need. Look at these examples:

When we lived in Bangkok, we were used to hot weather. I have been used to snakes for a long time. You will soon be used to living alone.

Now check your understanding »

Going to

Going to is not a tense. It is a special expression to talk about the future.

Structure of Going to

The structure is:

subject + be + going + infinitive

The verb be is conjugated (past, present or future).

  subject be (not) going infinitive  

+ I am   going to buy a new car.

+ I'm   going to go swimming.

- He is not going to take the exam.

- It isn't going to rain.  

? Are you   going to paint the house?

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Use of Going to

Going to - intention

We use going to when we have the intention to do something before we speak. We have already made a decision before speaking. Look at these examples:

Jo has won the lottery. He says he's going to buy a Porsche. We're not going to paint our bedroom tomorrow. When are you going to go on holiday?

In these examples, we had an intention or plan before speaking. The decision was made before speaking.

Going to - prediction

We often use going to to make a prediction about the future. Our prediction is based on present evidence. We are saying what we think will happen. Here are some examples:

The sky is very black. It's going to snow. It's 8.30! You're going to miss the train! I crashed the company car. My boss isn't going to be very happy!

In these examples, the present situation (black sky, the time, damaged car) gives us a good idea of what is going to happen.

Future Time

The future is uncertain. We know the past. We know the present. We do not know the future. We can be 100% sure or certain about the past and the present. But we can never be 100% certain about the future. In English there are several structures and tenses to talk about the future. It is usually the degree of certainty about the future that decides our choice of structure or tense.

In this lesson we look at four of the most common ways to talk about the future, followed by a quiz to check your understanding:

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Although we often talk about "future tenses", technically there are no future tenses in English - only different ways of talking about the future, using special constructions, other tenses or modal verbs.

Will for No Plan, Prediction & Be Going to for Intention & Prediction Present Continuous for Plan Present Simple for Schedules Summary Future Time Quiz

Will

One of the most common ways to talk about the future is with will, for example: I will call you tonight. We often call this the "future simple tense", but technically there are no future tenses in English. In this construction, the word will is a modal auxiliary verb.

Here are the three main ways that we use will to talk about the future.

No plan

We use will when there is no prior plan or decision to do something before we speak. We make the decision at the time of speaking. Look at these examples:

Hold on. I'll get a pen. We will see what we can do to help you. Maybe we'll stay in and watch television tonight.

In these examples, we had no firm plan before speaking. The decision was made at the time of speaking.

We often use will with the verb think:

I think I'll go to the gym tomorrow. I think I'll have a holiday next year. I don't think I'll buy that car.

Prediction

We often use will to make a prediction about the future. Again, there is no firm plan. We are saying what we think will happen. Here are some examples:

It will rain tomorrow.

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People won't go to Jupiter before the 22nd century. Who do you think will get the job?

Be

The verb be is an exception with will. Even when we have a very firm plan, and we are not speaking spontaneously, we can use will with be. Look at these examples:

I will be in London tomorrow. There will be 50 people at the party. The meeting will be at 9.30 am.

The verb be is always exceptional!

Going to »

Going to

Intention

We use the special going to construction when we have the intention to do something before we speak. We have already made a decision before speaking. Look at these examples:

I have won $1,000. I am going to buy a new TV. We're not going to see my mother tomorrow. When are you going to go on holiday?

In these examples, we had an intention or plan before speaking. The decision was made before we spoke.

Prediction

We often use going to to make a prediction about the future. Our prediction is based onevidence. We are saying what seems sure to happen. Here are some examples:

The sky is very black. It is going to snow. It's 8.30! You're going to miss the train!

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I crashed the company car. My boss isn't going to be very happy!

In these examples, the present situation (black sky/the time/damaged car) gives us a good idea of what is going to happen.

We use will for prediction when we have no real evidence: "It will rain tomorrow." (It's my feeling but I can't be sure.)

We use going to for prediction when there is some real evidence: "It's going to rain." (There's a big, black cloud in the sky and if it doesn't rain I'll be very surprised.)

Present Continuous »

Present Continuous for Plan

We often use the present continuous tense to talk about the future. Of course, we normally use the present continuous to talk about action happening in the present, but if we add a future word, we can use it to talk about the future. (By "future word" we mean words or expressions like tomorrow, next week, in June. The future word may be clearly expressed or understood from the context.)

Sometimes there is no real difference between an intention (going to) and a plan (present continuous). In this case, it doen't matter which we use.

We're going to paint the bedroom tomorrow.

We're painting the bedroom tomorrow.

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We use the present continuous only when a plan exists before we speak. Look at these examples:

Mary is taking her music exam next year.

They can't play tennis with you tomorrow. They 're working.

We're going to the theatre on Friday.

Present Simple »

Present Simple for Schedules

When an event is on a schedule or timetable (for example, the take-off time for a plane), we often use the present simple to express the future. We usually also use a future word (expressed or understood) like tomorrow, at 6.30pm, next week.

Only a few verbs are used in this way, for example:

be, open, close, begin, start, end, finish, arrive, come, leave, return

Look at these sentences:

The train leaves Detroit at 9pm tonight. John starts work next week. Tomorrow is Thursday.

Summary »

Future Time: Summary

When we speak, we choose the tense that we use. This is important in English, because the tense we choose expresses more than just a simple fact. When we speak about the future, the tense we choose can express how we "see" the future, even our personal feelings about the future. It certainly expresses what we believe to be the probability (the chance, the reality) of something happening or whether we have already decided to do it.

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This table gives a simple scale of probability for each structure. It is not exact because language is not a science, and there are many variables. This table should help you to think about the "concept" of the future in English. This concept does not exist in all languages, but it is rather important in English.

% probability beforespeaker speaks of event happening

structure used for example

0% will no plan Don't get up. I'll answer the phone.

70% going to intention We're going to watch TV tonight.

90% present continuous

plan I'm taking my exam in June.

99.999% present simple

schedule My plane takes off at 6.00am tomorrow.

 

It is impossible in English to express the future with 100% certainty. (The speakers of any language that can do this must all be billionaires!)

Now check your understanding »

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