grammar for teachers. language awareness

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This is a little introduction to english grammar

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Complete the sentences with the correct word classes.

1. A nounis a word that names a person, place, thing, event, substance or quality, e.g.teacher,banana,hotel,oilandfriendliness.

2. A pronounis a word which is used instead of a noun or a noun phrase, e.g.she,it,who.They areoften used to refer to a noun that has already been mentioned.

3. An adjectiveis a word that describes a noun or pronoun, e.g.small,tired,pink, hot.

4. A verbis a word or phrase that describes an action, a state of being or an experience, e.g.jump, keep, feel.

5. An adverbis a word that describes or gives more information about a verb, adjective, adverb or phrase, e.g.she laughedhappily, the dress wasbeautifullymade.

6.A conjunctionis a word that connects words, phrases and clauses in a sentence, e.g.and,but,while,although.

7. A determineris a word that is used before a noun to show which particular example of the noun you are referring to, e.g.thatblue dress, mylast holiday.

8. A prepositionis a word that is used before a noun, anoun phraseor a pronoun, connecting it to another wordin the sentence, e.g.he camebybus. They arrivedat10.00.

9. An interjectionis a word that is used to show a sudden expression of emotion, e.g.Hey! Wow! Ouch!

Summary of the 5 types of nouns we have looked at

In Tasks 2 and 3 we looked at countable and uncountable nouns. We call nouns countable because we can count the number of things. For example, we can count the number of apples we see. Countable nouns can be singular or plural. Singular countable nouns have a, an or the in front of them. Plural countable nouns usually end in s and can have a number in front of them, e.g. five apples.

Uncountable nouns are things we cant count like advice, information, water or air. They dont have a plural form: we cant say advices. And they are not used with a or an: we cant say an information (we say some information).

Some words can be countable or uncountable, depending on their meaning in context. For example, in Task 2, experience is uncountable when we are talking about the teachers general experience (she has a lot of experience), but its countable when we are talking about particular events (I've had many strange experiences in my life). When we want to quantify uncountable nouns, we use phrases like a bag of (flour), a piece of (advice, information) or a drop of (water).

In Task 4, we looked at concrete and abstract nouns. Concrete nouns can be seen, touched or measured.

In Task 5 we looked at collective nouns. These are nouns that refer to a group of people, for example family, audience, team and government.

In Task 6 we looked at compound nouns. A compound noun combines two or more words into a new word with a related meaning. Compound words may be written as one word (bedroom), separate words (alarm clock) or separate but hyphenated words (brother-in-law).

In Task 7 we looked at possessive nouns. We add an apostrophe (') and s to a noun to make it possessive. This shows that what follows the noun belongs to it. For example, in Johns book, the book belongs to John. In singular nouns and irregular plural nouns the apostrophe comes before the s as in Johns or mens. In regular plural nouns ending in an s the apostrophe comes after e.g. parents.

Lets look at the answers to the task. What other determiners are there?

The most common determiners in the English language are the definite and indefinite articles.

The definite article is the, e.g. the house.

Indefinite articles are a and an, e.g. a village, an orchard

Other determiners are quantifiers, words that say how much or how many, e.g.

some, any, few, e.g. some fruit, any lemons, few orangescardinal numbers like one, two, three, e.g. five bananasordinal numbers like first, second, third, e.g. first time.The student doesnt know that

A adjectives come before the nounB adjectives dont have plural formsC adjectives are sometimes ungradableD adjectives are not connected with conjunctions when they come before a nounE adjectives from participles may end in ingor edbut the meaning is differentF adjectives are connected with conjunctions when they comeafter the verbto beG adjectives need to follow a specific order when more than one is used in a sentenceH adjectives have different comparative forms depending on their length1 There areoldsbuildings in my city.B

2It is a shopnew.A

3They were watching afunny and newmovie.D

4The house wasbig,modern.F

5It isvery freezingin my country in the winter.C

6I wasvery boringin my lesson today.E

7Sarah ismore kind than Jane.H

8She hasblue,bigsuitcase.G

Lets move on now from adjectives to looking at conjunctions. From the definition we saw earlier, we know that conjunctions are words that connect words, phrases and clauses in a sentence. Before we look at conjunctions, we need to talk about the sentences they work with.

A sentence is a group of words which express a thought or thoughts. There are four types of sentence:

1 A statement, for example: I like music.2 A question, for example: How are you?3 An imperative, for example: Turn on the light.4 An exclamation, for example: Thats fantastic!

Sentences are made of clauses. Sentences can be simple or complex. Simple sentences have one clause: that is, a subject and a verb and perhaps an object.

Complex sentences are made up of more than one clause and this is where conjunctions come in. For example, the sentence It was sunny and we felt warm is made up of two clauses joined together by the conjunction and. In the sentence It was sunny and we felt warm, the two clauses are independent of each other and can stand alone. For example, It was sunny. We felt warm. These are main clauses joined together by and. Conjunctions that join main clauses together are called coordinating conjunctions. And is an example of a coordinating conjunction.

There are three main coordinating conjunctions that work with main clauses in this way: and, but, or. For example: It was raining but it was warm. Would you like coffee or would you like tea? Note, though, that in the second of the two coordinating clauses, the subject words and modal auxiliaries are often left out. For example, It was raining but warm. Would you like coffee or tea?

The other conjunctions that we use in complex sentences are called subordinating conjunctions. They are called this because they are used to join a subordinate clause to a main clause in a complex sentence. Subordinate clauses are dependent on the main clause. For example, Ill wear my hat if I want to. I want to is a subordinate clause. It leaves you asking what? I want to what? We need the main clause Ill wear my hat to understand the sentence.

Like conjunctions, prepositions are used to connect or link words in a sentence. Some of the most frequently used words in English are prepositions, e.g. in, on, by, to, with.

Here are a couple of facts about prepositions:

Prepositions usually come before a noun in a sentence, e.g. at home, by bus.Most prepositions have more than one meaning, e.g. at can relate to time, e.g. at 9 o'clock, or place, e.g. at home.Prepositions can be classified into some broad categories, although, as mentioned before, many prepositions belong to more than one category and there are some prepositions that do not fall into these categories.

Prepositions of timefor 4 yearsfive to sixsince 1999on Tuesdayfive past sixHell be home by 9 oclock.4 years agoin Aprilfrom Monday to Thursdaybefore 2000Im here until Sunday.at nightPrepositions of place (position)on the wallIts under the table.behind the doorin the houseIt's next to the bed.at the theatrePrepositions of place (direction)Im going to the bank.Get out of the car.Drive towards the town.Pass through the tunnel.Climb over the fence.Go across the bridge.

A regular verb is a verb which forms its past tense by adding-ed.watch IwatchedTV. like Helikedthe game.correct

An irregular verb is a verb which does not form its past tense by adding-ed. Irregular verbs have many different past and past participle forms.drive Theydroveto work. go Hewentto Spain.correct

The base form of a verb is the simplest form of the verb. It is the form listed in a dictionary. It is also called the bare infinitive.play, drive, go, buy, watch, own, think, believe, becorrect

The infinitive form of a verb is the simplest form of the verb withto.to eat, to play, to drive, to go, to buy, to watch, to own, to believecorrect

A present participle is also called the-ingform. Its the simplest form of the verb with-ingadded.eating, playing, driving, going, buying, watching, singingcorrect

A past participle is sometimes referred to as the third form of a verb. It is used to form tenses and comes after forms of the verbhaveand be. Regular past participles end in-ed.eaten, played, driven, gone, bought, watched, belonged, ownedAn event verb is also known as a dynamic verb. These verbs describe actions or events. They are used in simple and continuous tenses.eat, break, flew, fallen, begin, watch, boils, drinks, exploded, kickcorrect

A state verb is also known as a stative verb. These verbs describe states or conditions. They are not normally used in continuous tenses.be, knew, believed, understand, belonged, last, own, depend, deservecorrect

A transitive verb is sometimes called an object verb, as it needs to be followed by an object, usually a noun, a pronoun or a noun phrase.Tomgavethebookto Sarah. Iatetheapple.Jim isbuyingsomeshoes.correct

An intransitive verb is sometimes called a no object verb as it isnot followed by an object; it stands alone.The trainarrivedlate. Itrained.Ive alreadyeaten.The babylaughed.correct

A linking verb is sometimes called a complement verb because it needs to be followed by a complement, usually an adjective or a phrase with an adjective in it.Itfeelscold. Theyarevery happy. Sheseemsrelaxed.correct

A multiword verb is a verb made up of a main verb (do, come, put) plus a particle (on, out, off, back). Multiword verbs includephrasal verbs and prepositional verbs.give up, take away, put up, take after, put up with.