Introduction To Grammar
Thursday, January 13, 2011
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
Friday, January 7, 2011
Simple Present Tense
| subject | + | auxiliary verb | + | main verb |
| do | base |
There are three important exceptions:
- For positive sentences, we do not normally use the auxiliary.
- For the 3rd person singular (he, she, it), we add s to the main verb or es to the auxiliary.
- 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. | ||
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Wednesday, December 22, 2010
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