Grammar Review

Verbs and Verbal

 A verb can indicate a state of being

(what the subject is) or a location:
Present

Past

John is intelligent

John was happy about

his scores

Robin and Donald are

doctors

Robin and Donald were

students together

Mickey is at work

Mickey was at home

yesterday

 A verb can indicate what the subject is

like or what it becomes:
1. That child seems frightened
2. The book had become obsolete
. A verb can indicate an action ( what
the subject is doing):
1. The students will finish in time
2. My neighbour has bought a new car

Auxiliary Verbs
A verb may consist of a single word
or of a main verb and more auxiliary
verbs (sometimes called helping
verbs)
The following auxiliary verbs are
used
yes/no
questions
and WhPresent in
Past
Present
Past
Present
Past
will
would
Have/has
Had
Is/am/
Was/wer
questions:
Can

could

May

might

Must

Do/does

did

are

shall

should

 Where did Andy buy his camera?

Should I mention the problem
involved?
The negative is formed by adding not or
the ending nt after the auxiliary
I cant go home
We had not yet gone to the shop
They aren't going with us

 The verbs do, have and will should

not be confused with auxiliary verbs
do, have, and will:
Verbs

Auxiliary verbs

I do my homework right
after class

Do you take the bus?

The Adamses still have an

electric typewriter

They have worked for us

for many years

My grandfather willed us
his fortune

I will bring my suit to the

convention

Verb Tenses
Verb tenses indicate a point in time or period
of time in the past, present or future.
The verb tense in a sentence must be logical in
time

Agreement between the verb tense and time

markers such as today, next year, last week,
and now, and between verbs in different
clauses is important.

Subject Verb Agreement

The subject of a sentence must agree with
the verb in person and number:
Susan is working
Susan, Bill and Albert are working

Note the following subject verb agreement

rules:
1. A prepositional phrase does not affect
verb:
The houses on that street are for sale
The house with the broken steps is for sale

2. The following expressions do not affect the verb:

Accompanied by

As well as

Along with

In addition to

among

Together with

Jim along with his family, is going camping

Jim and his family, as well as the dog, are going
camping

3. Subjects joined by and or both.andtake a

plural verb:
Both Jill and Lydia are leaving town

4. When several, many, both and few are used as

pronouns, they take a plural verb:
Several have already left the party

5. When the following phrases are used, the verb

agrees with the subject that is closer to the verb in
the sentence:
Either.or
Neither.nor
Not only..but also
Neither my sister nor my brothers want to work in an
office
Neither my brothers nor my sister wants to work in
an office

6. The expression a number of (meaning several)

is plural. The expression the number of is
singular:
A number of items have been deleted
The number of deleted items is small

7. When a word indicating nationality refers to a language, it is

singular. When it refers to the people, it is plural:
Japanese was difficult language for me to learn
The Japanese are investing heavily in Southeast Asia

8. When clauses, infinitives or gerunds are used as subjects, they

usually take a singular verb:
Clauses as subjects
What it takes is lots of courage
What those boys need is a good
hot meal
Where we go depends on job
opportunities
Whether it rains or not doesnt matter

Infinitives as subjects:
To fly in space is her dream
To be able to read is very important in
todays world

Gerunds as subjects:
Learning a new skill is very satisfying
Answering trivial questions is common
pastime

9. Sometimes as speaker wants to focus on the

type of information that is expressed by an
adjective. Since an adjective cannot be used in a
subject position, the word it is used as the subject:
It was windy and the rain beat down

10. sometimes a speaker wants to emphasize a

noun and its relative clause. The speaker uses it in
the subject position followed by the verb be:
It was Tom who broke the window

11. Sometimes a speaker wants to say that

something exists or wants to mention the presence
of something. The word there is used as the
subject, and the verb agrees with the noun or noun
phrase:
There were six men in the boat

Modals
Look at the list of model below:
can

had
better

may

must

shall

will

coul
d

have to

might

ought
to

should

would

Modals are always followed by the

base form of a verb
Modals have many meanings and
can be used for variety of purposes

Modals

Meaning

We can leave after 2:30

This is within our ability

We could leave after 2:30

may
might

This is a possibility

We had better leave after 2:30

ought to
should

This is advisable

We have to leave in the morning

must

This is necessary

We will leave in the morning

shall

This is our intention

We would leave early every

morning at 8:30

This is past habit

The woman must be the new

president
Im lost. I must have taken a
wrong turn

This is an assumption
This is an assumption concerning a
past action

We make questions by putting

the subject after may/might:
May I ? Could I Might I ? Etc.
The negative forms are may not and might not..
We use may:
when we are not sure about something:
Jack may be coming to see us tomorrow.
Oh dear! Its half past ten. We may be late for the meeting.
There may not be very many people there.

to make polite requests:

May I borrow the car tomorrow?
May we come a bit later?

When we use may not for a refusal it is emphatic:

You may not!
You may not borrow the car until you can be more careful with it.

We use might:
When we are not sure about something:
I might see you tomorrow.
It looks nice, but it might be very expensive.
Its quite bright. It might not rain today.

As the past tense of may for requests:

He asked if he might borrow the car.
They wanted to know if they might come later.

For very polite requests:

Might I ask you a question?
Might we just interrupt for a moment?

We use may have and might have to show that something has possibly
happened now or happened at some time in the past:
Its ten oclock. They might have arrived now.[= Perhaps they have arrived]
They may have arrived hours ago. [= Perhaps they arrived hours ago.]

Could
Could' is used to make polite requests. We can also use 'can' for these but
'could' is more polite.
Could
Could
Could
Could

you help me, please?

you lend me some money?
I have a lift?
I bother you for a moment?

If we use 'could' in reply to these requests, it suggests that we do not really want
to do it. If you agree to the request, it is better to say 'can'.
Of course I can.
I could help you if it's really necessary but I'm really busy right now.
I could lend you some money but I'd need it back tomorrow without fail.
I could give you a lift as far as Birmingham.

'Could' is used to talk about theoretical possibility and is similar in meaning to

'might'.
It could rain later. Take an umbrella.
He could be there by now.
Could he be any happier?
It could be Sarah's.

Will or Would

We usewill:
to talk about the future to say what we believe will happen
to talk about what people want to do or are willing to do
to make promises and offers

wouldis thepasttense form ofwill. Because it is a past tense it is used:

to talk about the past.
to talk about hypotheses things that are imagined rather than true.
for politeness.

Beliefs
We usewill
to say what we believe will happen in the future:
We'll belate.
Wewill have totake the train.

We usewouldas the past tense ofwill:

to saywhat we believed would happen:
I thought Iwould belate so Iwould have
totake the train.

Offers and promises

We useI willorWe willto make offers and promises:
Ill giveyou a lift home after the party.
We willcome and see you next week.

Willingness
to talk about what people want to do or are willing to do:
Well seeyou tomorrow.
Perhaps dadwill lendme the car.

We usewouldas the past tense ofwill:

to talk about what people wanted to do or were willing to do:
We had a terrible night. The babywouldnt goto sleep. He kept waking up
and crying.
Dadwouldnt lendme the car, so we hadto take the train.

to talk about something that we did often in the past

because we wanted to do it:
When they were children they used to spend their holidays at their
grandmothers at the seaside. Theywould get upearly every morning and
theyd havea quick breakfast then theywould runacross the road to the
beach.

Conditionals
We usewillin conditionals withifandunlessto say what we think will
happen in the future or present:
Ill giveher a call if I can find her number.
Youwont get inunless you have a ticket.

We usewouldto talk about hypotheses, about something which is

possible but not real:
to talk about the result or effect of a possible situation:
Itwould bevery expensive to stay in a hotel.

in conditionals with words likeifandwhat if. In these sentences the

main verb is usually in thepast tense:
Iwould giveher a call if Icouldfind her number.
If Ihadthe money I'd buya new car.
Youwould loseweight if youtookmore exercise.
If hegota new job hewould probably makemore money.
What if helosthis job. Whatwould happenthen?

We use conditionals to giveadvice:

Danwill helpyou if you ask him.

Pasttenses aremore polite:

Danwould helpyou if youaskedhim.

Phrases with would:

would you,would you mind (not) -ing, for requests:
Would you carry this for me please?
Would you mind carrying this?
Would you mind not telling him that?

would you like ...;would you like to ...,for offers and

invitations:
Would you like to come round to morrow?
Would you like another drink?

I would like ;Id like (you)(to) ..., to say what we

want or what we want to do:
Id like that one please.
Id like to go home now.

Id rather(I would rather) to say what we prefer:

Id rather have that one.
Id rather go home now.

I would think,I would imagine,I'd guess,to give an

opinion when we are not sure or when we want to be polite:
Its very difficult I would imagine.
I would think thats the right answer.

May or Might

We can use 'may' to ask for permission.

However this is rather formal and not used
very often in modern spoken English
May I borrow your pen?
May we think about it?
May I go now?

We use 'may' to suggest something is possible

It may rain later today.
I may not have time to do it today.
Pete may come with us

Might
We use 'might' to suggest a small possibility of
something.
Often we read that 'might' suggests a smaller
possibility than 'may', there is in fact little difference
and 'might is more usual than 'may' in spoken English.
She might be at home by now but it's not sure at all.
It might rain this afternoon.
I might not have time to go to the shops for you.
I might not go.

For the past, we use 'might have'.

He might have tried to call while I was out.
I might have dropped it in the street.

UseMightin the Past Tense

Nowadays, you can safely usemight haveandmay
haveinterchangeably. However, be aware that some grammarsavvy pedants might insist that only might havecan be used in
the past tense. To placate those people, you should opt formight
haveovermay have. For example:
I might have cooked a lasagne if you hadn't called.
I may have cooked a lasagne if you hadn't called.
(This is not wrong, but it does not sound as natural to the native ear as the
version above. This is especially true when the event did not occur. In this
example, the lasagne did not get made.)

For most native English speakers,might haveusually sounds

better. However, if you have a good reason for usingmay
haveovermight have, you should go for it. For example:
The mites may have caused the infection.
(In this example, the author was keen to avoidmites might.)

As people rely more and more on

technology to solve problems, the
ability of humans to think for
themselves will surely deteriorate.
Write a response in which you discuss the
extent to which you agree or disagree with the
statement and explain your reasoning for the
position you take. In developing and
supporting your position, you should consider
ways in which the statement might or might
not hold true and explain how these
considerations shape your position.