Introduction To Grammar

            Grammar is a very important part of the English language. You will be tested on this in your examination. This section will cover all the items in Grammar you are expected to know for your examination

            Brief notes in tables are given to help you remember the important points. These are accompanied by examples to illustrate them. The exercises that follow each unit are specially designed to provide you with ample practice so that you will be able to speak better English and do well in the examination.

            The topics covered in this section include :

1.      Nouns

2.      Pronouns

3.      Articles and Quantifiers

4.      Verbs and Tenses

5.      Subject-Verb Agreement

6.      Modals

7.      Prepositions

8.      Adjectives

9.      Connectors

10.  Adverbs

11.  Phrasal Verbs

12.  Tag Questions

13.  Capitalization and Punctuation

14.  Direct and Indirect Speech

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.
	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.

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 meet every Thursday.
• 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 are now:

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.

Caramel is for everyone - YouthSays Campaign - YouthSays.com

Caramel is for everyone - YouthSays Campaign - YouthSays.com

Blog Action Day 2010 - "Water" - YouthSays Campaign - YouthSays.com

Blog Action Day 2010 - "Water" - YouthSays Campaign - YouthSays.com

New years eve countdown party, let's go. - YouthSays Campaign - YouthSays.com

New years eve countdown party, let's go. - YouthSays Campaign - YouthSays.com

The video of last month's 1Utama Unicef Flashmob - YouthSays Campaign - YouthSays.com

The video of last month's 1Utama Unicef Flashmob - YouthSays Campaign - YouthSays.com