bahasa inggris profesi i

8/10/2019 Bahasa Inggris Profesi I

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CHAPTER IPARTS OF SPEECH

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:After completing this lesson, students are supposed to be able to:

recognize parts of speech analyze sentences and understand them construct good sentences.

A. INTRODUCTIONThere 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" oneword 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 doorframes 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". These are the words that you use to make a sentence. There are only 8 types ofword - 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

B. PARTS OF SPEECH TABLEThis is a summary of the 8 parts of speech*. You can find more detail if you click on

each part of speech.

part ofspeech 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 nouna/an, the, 2, some,good, big, red, well,interesting

I have two dogs. My dogs arebig . 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 really quickly.

Pronoun replaces a noun I, you, he, she, some Tara is Indian. She is beautiful.

Preposition links a noun toanother word to, at, after, on, but We went to school on Monday.

Conjunction joins clauses orsentences or words and, but, when

I like dogs and I like cats. I likecats and dogs. I like dogs but Idon't like cats.

Interjection short exclamation,sometimes insertedinto a sentence

oh!, ouch!, hi!, well Ouch ! That hurts! Hi ! How areyou? 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 categorizedunder Adjectives

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.

pronoun verb noun

She loves animals.

noun verb adjective noun

Animals like kind people.

noun verb noun adverb noun verb adjective noun
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Tara speaks English well. 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

Many words in English can have more than one job, or be more than one part of speech. Forexample, "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 thewords in the table. In fact, if you look in a good dictionary you will see that the word " but " hassix jobs to do:

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

word part of speech example

worknoun My work is easy.

verb I work in London.

butconjunction John came but Mary didn't come.

preposition Everyone came but Mary.

welladjective Are you well ?

adverb She speaks well .


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interjection Well ! That's expensive!

afternoonnoun We ate in the afternoon .

noun acting as adjective We had afternoon tea.

C. VERBS

1. What are Verbs?

The verb is king in English. The shortest sentence contains a verb. You can make a one-wordsentence with a verb, for example: " Stop! " You cannot make a one-word sentence with any othertype of word.

Verbs are sometimes described as "action words". This is partly true. Many verbs give the idea

of action, of "doing" something. For example, words like run, fight, do and work all conveyaction.

But some verbs do not give the idea of action; they give the idea of existence, of state, of"being". For example, verbs like be, exist, seem and belong all convey state.

A verb always has a subject. (In the sentence "John speaks English", John is the subject and speaks is the verb.) In simple terms, therefore, we can say that verbs are words that tell us what asubject does or is; they describe:

action (Ram plays football.)

state (Anthony seems kind.)

There is something very special about verbs in English. Most other words (adjectives, adverbs, prepositions etc) do not change in form (although nouns can have singular and plural forms). Butalmost all verbs change in form. For example, the verb to work has five forms:

to work, work, works, worked, working

Of course, this is still very few forms compared to some languages which may have thirty ormore forms for a single verb.

2.

Verb Classification

We divide verbs into two broad classifications:

1. Helping Verbs

Imagine that a stranger walks into your room and says:


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Helping verbs and main verbs can be further sub-divided, as we shall see on the following pages.

Helping Verbs

Helping verbs are also called "auxiliary verbs".

Helping verbs have no meaning on their own. They are necessary for the grammatical structureof a sentence, but they do not tell us very much alone. We usually use helping verbs with mainverbs. They "help" the main verb (which has the real meaning). There are only about 15 helpingverbs in English, and we divide them into two basic groups:

Primary helping verbs (3 verbs)

These are the verbs be , do , and have . Note that we can use these three verbs as helping verbs or as main verbs. On this page we talk about them as helping verbs. We use them in the followingcases:

be o to make continuous tenses (He is watching TV.)o to make the passive (Small fish are eaten by big fish.)

have o to make perfect tenses (I have finished my homework.)

do o to make negatives (I do not like you.)o to ask questions ( Do you want some coffee?)o to show emphasis (I do want you to pass your exam.)o to stand for a main verb in some constructions (He speaks faster than she does .)

Modal helping verbs (10 verbs)

We use modal helping verbs to "modify" the meaning of the main verb in some way. A modalhelping verb expresses necessity or possibility, and changes the main verb in that sense. Theseare the modal verbs:

can, could may, might will, would, shall, should must ought to
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Here are examples using modal verbs:

I can't speak Chinese. John may arrive late. Would you like a cup of coffee?

You should see a doctor. I really must go now.

Main Verbs

Main verbs are also called "lexical verbs".

Main verbs have meaning on their own (unlike helping verbs) . There are thousands of mainverbs, and we can classify them in several ways:

Transitive and intransitive verbs

A transitive verb takes a direct object: Somebody killed the President. An intransitive verb doesnot have a direct object: He died. Many verbs, like speak , can be transitive or intransitive. Lookat these examples:

transitive:

I saw an elephant. We are watching TV. He speaks English.

intransitive:

He has arrived . John goes to school. She speaks fast.

Linking verbs

A linking verb does not have much meaning in itself. It "links" the subject to what is said aboutthe subject. Usually, a linking verb shows equality (=) or a change to a different state or place(>). Linking verbs are always intransitive (but not all intransitive verbs are linking verbs).

Mary is a teacher. (mary = teacher) Tara is beautiful. (tara = beautiful) That sounds interesting. (that = interesting) The sky became dark. (the sky > dark) The bread has gone bad. (bread > bad)
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Dynamic and stative verbs

Some verbs describe action. They are called "dynamic", and can be used with continuous tenses.Other verbs describe state (non-action, a situation). They are called "stative", and cannotnormally be used with continuous tenses (though some of them can be used with continuous

tenses with a change in meaning).

dynamic verbs (examples):

hit, explode, fight, run, go

stative verbs (examples):

be like, love, prefer, wish impress, please, surprise

hear, see, sound belong to, consist of, contain, include, need appear, resemble, seem

Regular and irregular verbs

This is more a question of vocabulary than of grammar. The only real difference between regularand irregular verbs is that they have different endings for their past tense and past participleforms. For regular verbs, the past tense ending and past participle ending is always the same: -ed.For irregular verbs, the past tense ending and the past participle ending is variable, so it isnecessary to learn them by heart.

regular verbs: base, past tense, past participle

look, looked, looked work, worked, worked

irregular verbs: base, past tense, past participle

buy, bought, bought cut, cut, cut do, did, done

Here are lists of regular verbs and irregular verbs.

One way to think of regular and irregular verbs is like this: all verbs are irregular and the so-called regular verbs are simply one very large group of irregular verbs.

Often the above divisions can be mixed. For example, one verb could be irregular, transitive anddynamic; another verb could be regular, transitive and stative.
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Verb Forms

English verbs come in several forms . For example, the verb to sing can be: to sing, sing, sang,sung, singing or sings. This is a total of 6 forms. Not many, considering that some languages(French, for example) have more than 30 forms for an individual verb. English tenses may be

quite complicated, but the forms that we use to make the tenses are actually very simple! Withthe exception of the verb to be , English main verbs have only 4, 5 or 6 forms. To be has 9 forms.Do not confuse verb forms with tenses. We use the different verb forms to make the tenses, butthey are not the same thing.

In this lesson we look at the forms of main verbs and helping (auxiliary) verbs, followed by aquiz to check your understanding:

Forms of Main Verbs Forms of Helping Verbs Main Verb Forms Quiz

Forms of Main Verbs

Main verbs are also called "lexical verbs".

Main verbs (except the verb "be") have only 4, 5 or 6 forms. "Be" has 9 forms.

V1 V2 V3

infinitive base past

simple past

participle present

participle present simple, 3rd

person singular

regular (to) work work worked worked working works

irregular

(to) sing(to) make(to) cut

singmakecut

sangmadecut

sungmadecut

singingmakingcutting

singsmakescuts

(to) do*(to)have*

dohave

didhad

donehad

doinghaving

doeshas

infinitive base pastsimple

pastparticiple

presentparticiple

present simple
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(to) be* bewas,were

been being am, are, is

In the above examples: to cut has 4 forms: to cut, cut, cutting, cuts to work has 5 forms: to work, work, worked, working, works to sing has 6 forms: to sing, sing, sang, sung, singing, sings to be has 9 forms: to be, be, was, were, been, being, am, is, are

The infinitive can be with or without to . For example, to sing and sing are both infinitives. Weoften call the infinitive without to the "bare infinitive".

At school, students usually learn by heart the base , past simple and past participle (sometimes

called V1, V2, V3, meaning Verb 1, Verb 2, Verb 3) for the irregular verbs. They may spendmany hours chanting: sing, sang, sung; go, went, gone; have, had, had; etc. They do not learnthese for the regular verbs because the past simple and past participle are always the same: theyare formed by adding "-ed" to the base. They do not learn the present participle and 3rd personsingular present simple by heart - for another very simple reason: they never change. The

present participle is always made by adding "-ing" to the base, and the 3rd person singular present simple is always made by adding "s" to the base (though there are some variations inspelling).

* Note that "do", "have" and "be" also function as helping or auxiliary verbs, with exactly thesame forms (except that as helping verbs they are never in infinitive form).

Example Sentences

These example sentences use main verbs in different forms.

Infinitive

I want to work He has to sing . This exercise is easy to do . Let him have one. To be , or not to be , that is the question:

Base - Imperative

Work well! Make this. Have a nice day. Be quiet!
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Base - Present simple(except 3rd person singular)

I work in London. You sing well.

They have a lot of money.

Base - After modal auxiliary verbs

I can work tomorrow. You must sing louder. They might do it. You could be right.

Past simple

I worked yesterday. She cut his hair last week. They had a good time. They were surprised, but I was not.

Past participle

I have worked here for five years. He needs a folder made of plastic. It is done like this. I have never been so happy.

Present participle

I am working . Singing well is not easy. Having finished, he went home. You are being silly!

3rd person singular, present simple

He works in London. She sings well.

She has a lot of money. It is Vietnamese.

Forms of Helping Verbs


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All helping verbs are used with a main verb (either expressed or understood*). There are 2groups of helping verbs:

Primary helping verbs , used mainly to change the tense or voice of the main verb, andin making questions and negatives.

Modal helping verbs , used to change the "mood" of the main verb.

Study the table below. It shows the prinicipal forms and uses of helping verbs, and explains thedifferences between primary and modal helping verbs.

* Sometimes we make a sentence that has a helping verb and seems to have no main verb. Infact, the main verb is "understood". Look at the following examples:

Question: Can you speak English? (The main verb speak is "expressed".) Answer: Yes, I can . (The main verb speak is not expressed. It is "understood" from the

context. We understand: Yes, I can speak English.

But if somebody walked into the room and said "Hello. I can", we would understand nothing !

Helping Verbs

Primary Modal

do(to make simple tenses, and questionsand negatives)

can could

be(to make continuous tenses, and the

passive voice)may might

have (to make perfect tenses) will would

shall should

must

ought (to)

"Do", "be" and "have" as helping verbs haveexactly the same forms as when they are main

Modal helping verbs are invariable. They
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verbs (except that as helping verbs they are neverused in infinitive forms).

always have the same form.

Primary helping verbs are followed by the mainverb in a particular form:

do + V1 (base verb) be + -ing (present participle) have + V3 (past participle)

"Ought" is followed by the main verb ininfinitive form. Other modal helping verbsare followed by the main verb in its baseform (V1).

ought + to... (infinitive) other modals + V1 (base verb)

"Do", "be" and "have" can also function as mainverbs.

Modal helping verbs cannot function asmain verbs.

D. 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) issomething 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 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 averb.

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

1. Ending 2. Position 3. Function

1. Noun Ending

There are certain word endings that show that a word is a noun, for example:
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-ity > nationality -ment > appointment -ness > happiness -ation > relation -hood > childhood

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. Inthe 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".


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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 countablenouns:

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:

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.


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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 "aninformation" 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. 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:

Countable Uncountable

dollar money

song music

suitcase luggage


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Proper Nouns (Names)

A proper noun is the special word (or name) that we use for a person, place or organization, likeJohn, Marie, London, France or Sony. A name is a noun, but a very special noun - a proper noun.Proper nouns have special rules.

common noun proper noun

man, boy John

woman, girl Mary

country, town England, London

company Ford, Sony

shop, restaurant Maceys, McDonalds

month, day of the week January, Sunday

book, film War & Peace , Titanic

Using Capital Letters with Proper Nouns

We always use a Capital Letter for the first letter of a proper noun (name). This includes namesof people, places, companies, days of the week and months. For example:

They like J ohn. ( not *They like john.) I live in England. She works for Sony. The last day in J anuary is a Monday. We saw T itanic in the O deon C inema.

Proper Nouns without THE

We do not use "the" with names of people. For example:

first namesBill ( not *the Bill)

Hilary


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surnamesClinton

Gates

full names Hilary Gates

We do not normally use "the" with names of companies. For example:

Renault, Ford, Sony, EnglishClub.com General Motors, Air France, British Airways Warner Brothers, Brown & Son Ltd

If the full (registered) name of a company starts with "The", then we use "The" if we use the fullname, for example:

The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd

We do not normally use "the" for shops, banks, hotels etc named after a founder or other person(with -'s or -s). For example:

shops Harrods, Marks & Spencer, Maceys

banks Barclays Bank

hotels, restaurants Steve's Hotel, Joe's Cafe, McDonalds

churches, cathedrals St John's Church, St Peter's Cathedral

We do not normally use "the" with names of places. For example:

towns Washington (not *the Washington), Paris, Tokyo

states, regions Texas, Kent, Eastern Europe

countries England, Italy, Brazil

continents Asia, Europe, North America

islands Corsica

mountains Everest

Exception! If a country name includes "States","Kingdom", "Republic" etc, we use "the":

states the United States, the US, the United States of America, the USA

kingdom the United Kingdom, the UK


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Proper Nouns with THE

We normally use "the" for country names that include "States","Kingdom", "Republic" etc:

States the United States of America/the USA

Kingdom the United Kingdom/the UK

Republic the French Republic

We normally use "the" for names of canals, rivers, seas and oceans:

canals the Suez Canal

rivers the River Nile, the Nile

seas the Mediterranean Sea, the Mediterranean

oceans the Pacific Ocean, the Pacific

We normally use "the" for plural names of people and places:

people (families, for example) the Clintons

countries the Philippines, the United States

island groups the Virgin Islands, the British Isles

mountain ranges the Himalayas, the Alps

Look at these sentences:

I saw the Clintons today. It was Bill's birthday. Trinidad is the largest island in the West Indies . Mount Everest is in the Himalayas .

We normally use "the" with the following sorts of names:

hotels, restaurants the Ritz Hotel, the Peking Restaurant

banks the National Westminster Bank

cinemas, theatres the Royal Theatre, the ABC Cinema

museums the British Museum, the National Gallery

buildings the White House, the Crystal Palace


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newspapers the Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Post

organisations the United Nations, the BBC, the European Union

We normally use "the" for names made with "of":

the Tower of London the Gulf of Siam the Tropic of Cancer the London School of Economics the Bank of France the Statue of Liberty

Possessive 's

When we want to show that something belongs to somebody or something, we usually add 's to asingular noun and an apostrophe ' to a plural noun, for example:

the boy's ball (one boy) the boys' ball (two or more boys)

Notice that the number of balls does not matter. The structure is influenced by the possessor andnot the possessed.

one ball more than one ball

one boythe boy's ball the boy's balls

more than one boythe boys' ball the boys' balls

The structure can be used for a whole phrase:

the man next door's mother (the mother of the man next door ) the Queen of England's poodles (the poodles of the Queen of England )

Although we can use of to show possession, it is more usual to use possessive 's . The following phrases have the same meaning, but #2 is more usual and natural:

1. the boyfriend of my sister


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clever teacher

small office

black horse

Sometimes we use a noun to describe another noun. In that case, the first noun "acts as" anadjective.

nounas adjective noun

history teacher

ticket office

race horse

The "noun as adjective" always comes first

If you remember this it will help you to understand what is being talked about:

a race horse is a horse that runs in races a horse race is a race for horses a boat race is a race for boats a love story is a story about love a war story is a story about war a tennis ball is a ball for playing tennis tennis shoes are shoes for playing tennis a computer exhibition is an exhibition of computers a bicycle shop is a shop that sells bicycles

The "noun as adjective" is singular

Just like a real adjective, the "noun as adjective" is invariable. It is usually in the singular form.

Right Wrong

boat race boat races NOT boats race, boats races

toothbrush toothbrushes NOT teethbrush, teethbrushes


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shoe-lace shoe-laces NOT shoes-lace, shoes-laces

cigarette packet cigarette packets NOT cigarettes packet, cigarettes packets

In other words, if there is a plural it is on the real noun only.

A few nouns look plural but we usually treat them as singular (for example news, billiards,athletics). When we use these nouns "as adjectives" they are unchanged:

a news reporter, three news reporters one billiards table, four billiards tables an athletics trainer, fifty athletics trainers

Exceptions:When we use certain nouns "as adjectives" (clothes, sports, customs, accounts, arms), we usethem in the plural form:

clothes shop, clothes shops sports club, sports clubs customs duty, customs duties accounts department, accounts departments arms production

How do we write the "noun as adjective"?

We write the "noun as adjective" and the real noun in several different ways:

two separate words (car door) two hyphenated words (book-case) one word (bathroom)

There are no easy rules for this. We even write some combinations in two or all three differentways: (head master, head-master, headmaster)

How do we say the "noun as adjective"?

For pronunciation, we usually stress the first word:

shoe shop boat -race bath room


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Can we have more than one "noun as adjective"?

Yes. Just like adjectives, we often use more than one "noun as adjective" together. Look at theseexamples:

car production costs: we are talking about the costs of producing cars

noun asadjective

noun asadjective noun

costs

production costs

car production costs

England football team coach: we are talking about the coach who trains the team that playsfootball for England

noun asadjective

noun asadjective


coach

team coach

football team coach

England football team coach

Note: in England football team coach can you see a "hidden" "noun as adjective"? Look at theword "football" (foot-ball). These two nouns (foot+ball) have developed into a single noun(football). This is one way that words evolve. Many word combinations that use a "noun asadjective" are regarded as nouns in their own right, with their own dictionary definition. But notall dictionaries agree with each other. For example, some dictionaries list "tennis ball" as a nounand other dictionaries do not.

government road accident research centre: we are talking about a centre that researches intoaccidents on the road for the government


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noun asadjective

noun asadjective

noun asadjective


centre

research centre

accident research centre

road accident research centre

government road accident research centre

Newpapers often use many nouns together in headlines to save space. Look at this example:

BIRD HEALTH RESEARCH CENTRE MURDER MYSTERY

To understand headlines like these, try reading them backwards. The above headline is about aMYSTERY concerning a MURDER in a CENTRE for RESEARCH into the HEALTH ofBIRDS.

Note, too, that we can still use a real adjective to qualify a "noun as adjective" structure:

empty coffee jar honest car salesman delicious dog food rising car production costs famous England football team coach

Compound Nouns

A compound noun is a noun that is made with two or more words. A compound noun is usually[noun + noun] or [adjective + noun], but there are other combinations (see below). It is importantto understand and recognize compound nouns. Each compound noun acts as a single unit and can

be modified by adjectives and other nouns.

There are three forms for compound nouns:

1. open or spaced - space between words ( tennis shoe )2. hyphenated - hyphen between words ( six-pack )3. closed or solid - no space or hyphen between words ( bedroom )

Here are some examples of compound nouns:


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noun + noun

bus stop Is this the bus stop for the number 12 bus?

fire-fly In the tropics you can see fire-flies at night.

football Shall we play football today?

adjective + noun

full moon I always feel crazy at full moon .

blackboard Clean the blackboard please.software I can't install this software on my PC.

verb(-ing) + noun

breakfast We always eat breakfast at 8am.

washingmachine Put the clothes in the red washing machine .

swimming pool What a beautiful swimming pool !

noun + verb(-ing)

sunrise I like to get up at sunrise .

haircut You need a haircut .

train-spotting His hobby is train-spotting .

verb + preposition check-out Please remember that check-out is at 12 noon.

noun + prepositional phrase mother-in-law My mother-in-law lives with us.

preposition + noun underworld Do you think the police accept money from theunderworld ?

noun + adjective truckful We need 10 truckfuls of bricks.

Pronunciation Compound nouns tend to have more stress on the first word. In the phrase "pink ball", both

words are equally stressed (as you know, adjectives and nouns are always stressed). In thecompound noun "golf ball", the first word is stressed more (even though both words are nouns,and nouns are always stressed). Since "golf ball" is a compound noun we consider it as a singlenoun and so it has a single main stress - on the first word. Stress is important in compoundnouns. For example, it helps us know if somebody said "a GREEN HOUSE" (a house which is

painted green) or "a GREENhouse" (a building made of glass for growing plants inside).

British/American differences Different varieties of English, and even different writers, may use the open, hyphenated or closedform for the same compound noun. It is partly a matter of style. There are no definite rules. Forexample we can find:

container ship container-ship containership

If you are not sure which form to use, please check in a good dictionary.


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Plural forms of compound nouns In general we make the plural of a compound noun by adding -s to the "base word" (the most"significant" word). Look at these examples:

singular plural

a tennis shoe three tennis shoes one assistant headmaster five assistant headmasters

the sergeant major some sergeants major

a mother-in-law two mothers-in-law

an assistant secretary of state three assistant secretaries of state

my toothbrush our toothbrushes

a woman-doctor four women-doctors

a doctor of philosophy two doctors of philosophy

a passerby, a passer-by two passersby , two passers-by

Note that there is some variation with words like spoonful or truckful. The old style was to sayspoonsful or trucksful for the plural. Today it is more usual to say spoonfuls or truckfuls. Boththe old style (spoonsful) and the new style (spoonfuls) are normally acceptable, but you should

be consistent in your choice. Here are some examples:

old style plural(very formal) new style plural

teaspoonful 3 teaspoonsful of sugar 3 teasponfuls of sugar

truckful 5 trucksful of sand 5 truckfuls of sand bucketful 2 bucketsful of water 2 bucketfuls of water

cupful 4 cupsful of rice 4 cupfuls of rice

Some compound nouns have no obvious base word and you may need to consult a dictionary tofind the plural:

higher-ups also-rans go-betweens

has-beens good-for-nothings grown-ups

Note that with compound nouns made of [noun + noun] the first noun is like an adjective andtherefore does not usually take an -s. A tree that has apples has many apples, but we say an appletree , not apples tree; matchbox not matchesbox; toothbrush not teethbrush.


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With compound nouns made of [noun + noun] the second noun takes an -s for plural. The firstnoun acts like an adjective and as you know, adjectives in English are invariable. Look at theseexamples:

long plural form becomes plural compound noun

[noun + noun] 100 trees with apples 100 apple trees

1,000 cables for telephones 1,000 telephone cables

20 boxes for tools 20 tool boxes

10 stops for buses 10 bus stops

4,000 wheels for cars 4,000 car wheels

E. ADJECTIVES

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

An adjective "qualifies" or "modifies" a noun (a big dog ).

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

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

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).

Determiners

Determiners are words like the , an , my , some . They are grammatically similar. They all come atthe beginning of noun phrases, and usually we cannot use more than one determiner in the samenoun phrase.

Articles:

a, an, the

Possessive Adjectives:

my, your, his, her, its, our, their, whose

Other determiners:
http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-determiners-the-a-an.htmhttp://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-determiners-possessive.htmhttp://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-determiners-possessive.htmhttp://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-determiners-the-a-an.htm


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Please switch off the TV when you finish. Have you got a pen?

Of course, often we can use the or a/an for the same word. It depends on the situation, not theword. Look at these examples:

We want to buy an umbrella. (Any umbrella, not a particular umbrella.) Where is the umbrella? (We already have an umbrella. We are looking for our umbrella,

a particular umbrella.)

This little story should help you understand the difference between the and a, an :

A man and a woman were walking in Oxford Street. The woman saw a dress that she liked in a shop. She asked the man if he could buy the dress for her. He said: "Do you think the shop willaccept a cheque? I don't have a credit card."

My, your, his, her, its, our, their, whose

Warning! These are adjectives. Don't confuse them with pronouns!

We use possessive adjectives to show who owns or "possesses" something. The possessiveadjectives are:

my, your, his, her, its, our, their whose (interrogative)

number person gender possessiveadjective

example sentence

singular

1st male/female my This is my book.

2nd male/female your I like your hair.

3rd

male his His name is "John".

female her Her name is "Mary".

neuter its The dog is licking its paw.
http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/pronouns.htmhttp://www.englishclub.com/grammar/pronouns.htm


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plural

1st male/female our We have sold our house.

2nd male/female your Your children are lovely.

3rd male/female/neuter theirThe students thanked their teacher.

singular/plural 1st/2nd/3rdmale/female (notneuter)

whose Whose phone did you use?

Compare:

your = possessive adjectiveyou're = you are

its = possessive adjectiveit's = it is OR it has

their = possessive adjectivethey're = they are

there = adverb (I'm not going there / look over there / there is a car outside)

whose = possessive adjectivewho's = who is OR who has

Be careful! There is no apostrophe (') in the possessive adjective " its ". We use an apostrophe towrite the short form of "it is" or "it has". For example:

it's raining = it is rainingit's finished = it has finished

I'm taking my dog to the vet. It's broken its leg.

Each, Every

Each and every have similar but not always identical meanings.

Each = every one separatelyEvery = each, all


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Sometimes, each and every have the same meaning:

Prices go up each year.

Prices go up every year.

But often they are not exactly the same.

Each expresses the idea of 'one by one'. It emphasizes individuality.

Every is half-way between each and all. It sees things or people as singular, but in a group or ingeneral.

Consider the following: Every artist is sensitive. Each artist sees things differently. Every soldier saluted as the President arrived. The President gave each soldier a medal.

Each can be used in front of the verb:

The soldiers each received a medal.

Each can be followed by 'of': The President spoke to each of the soldiers. He gave a medal to each of them.

Every cannot be used for 2 things. For 2 things, each can be used:

He was carrying a suitcase in each hand.

Every is used to say how often something happens: There is a plane to Bangkok every day. The bus leaves every hour.

Verbs with each and every are always conjugated in the singular.


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Some, Any

Some = a little, a few or a small number or amount

Any = one, some or all

Usually, we use some in positive (+) sentences and any in negative (-) and question (?)sentences.

some any example situation

+ I have some money. I have $10.

- I don't have any money.I don't have $1 and I don't have $10 and I don't have$1,000,000. I have $0.

? Do you have any money? Do you have $1 or $10 or $1,000,000?

In general, we use something/anything and somebody/anybody in the same way as some/any .

Look at these examples:

He needs some stamps. I must go. I have some homework to do. I'm thirsty. I want something to drink. I can see somebody coming.

He doesn't need any stamps. I can stay. I don't have any homework to do. I'm not thirsty. I don't want anything to drink. I can't see anybody coming.

Does he need any stamps? Do you have any homework to do? Do you want anything to drink? Can you see anybody coming?

We use any in a positive sentence when the real sense is negative.

I refused to give them any money. (I did not give them any money) She finished the test without any difficulty. (she did not have any difficulty)

Sometimes we use some in a question, when we expect a positive YES answer. (We could saythat it is not a real question, because we think we know the answer already.)


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Would you like some more tea? Could I have some sugar, please?

Some grammarians do not consider determiners as adjectives, but give them a class of their own.

Adjective Order

There are 2 basic positions for adjectives:

1. before the noun 2. after certain verbs (be, become, get, seem, look, feel, sound, smell, taste)

adj. noun verb adj.

1 I like big cars.

2 My car is big.

Adjective Before Noun

We sometimes use more than one adjective before the noun:

I like big black dogs. She was wearing a beautiful long red dress.

What is the correct order for two or more adjectives?

1. The general order is: opinion, fact :

a nice French car ( not a French nice car)

("Opinion" is what you think about something. "Fact" is what is definitely true aboutsomething.)

2. The normal order for fact adjectives is size, age, shape, colour, material, origin :

a big, old, square, black, wooden Chinese table

3. Determiners usually come first , even though they are fact adjectives:

articles (a, the) possessives (my, your...) demonstratives (this, that...) quantifiers (some, any, few, many...)


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numbers (one, two, three)

Here is an example with opinion and fact adjectives:

adjectives

noundeter-miner opinion

fact

age shape colour

two nice old round red candles

When we want to use two colour adjectives , we join them with "and":

Many newspapers are black and white . She was wearing a long, blue and yellow dress.

The rules on this page are for the normal, "natural" order of adjectives. But these rules are notrigid, and you may sometimes wish to change the order for emphasis. Consider the followingconversations:

Conversation 1

A "I want to buy a round table."

B "Do you want a new round table or an old round table?"

Conversation 2

A "I want to buy an old table".

B "Do you want a round old table or a square old table?"

Adjective After Certain Verbs

An adjective can come after some verbs, such as: be, become, feel, get, look, seem, smell, sound

Even when an adjective comes after the verb and not before a noun, it always refers to andqualifies the subject of the sentence, not the verb.

Look at the examples below: subject verb adjective

Ram is English . Because she had to wait, she became impatient . Is it getting dark ?


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The examination did not seem difficult . Your friend looks nice . This towel feels damp . That new film doesn't sound very interesting . Dinner smells good tonight.

This milk tastes sour . It smells bad .

These verbs are "stative" verbs, which express a state or change of state, not "dynamic" verbswhich express an action. Note that some verbs can be stative in one sense (she looks beautiful | itgot hot), and dynamic in another (she looked at him | he got the money). The above examples donot include all stative verbs.

Note also that in the above structure (subject verb adjective ), the adjective can qualify a pronounsince the subject may be a pronoun.

Comparative Adjectives

When we talk about two things, we can "compare" them. We can see if they are the same ordifferent. Perhaps they are the same in some ways and different in other ways. We can usecomparative adjectives to describe the differences.

We can use comparative adjectives when talking about two things (not three or more things).

In the example below, "bigger" is the comparative form of the adjective "big":

A1 A2

A1 is bigger than A2.

Formation of Comparative Adjectives

There are two ways to make or form a comparative adjective:

short adjectives: add "-er" long adjectives: use "more"

Short adjectives

1-syllable adjectives old, fast

2-syllable adjectives ending in -y happy, easy


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Normal rule: add "-er" old older

Variation: if the adjective ends in -e, just add -r late later

Variation: if the adjective ends in consonant, vowel, consonant,

double the last consonant big bigger

Variation: if the adjective ends in -y, change the y to i happy happier

Long adjectives

2-syllable adjectives not ending in -y modern, pleasant

all adjectives of 3 or more syllables expensive, intellectual

Normal rule: use "more"modern more modern expensive moreexpensive

With some 2-syllable adjectives, we can use '-er' or 'more':

quiet quieter/more quiet clever cleverer/more clever narrow narrower/more narrow simple simpler/more simple

Exception The following adjectives have irregular forms:

good better well (healthy) better bad worse far farther/further

Use of Comparative Adjectives

We use comparative adjectives when talking about 2 things (not 3 or 10 or 1,000,000 things,only 2 things).

Often, the comparative adjective is followed by "than".


John is 1m80. He is tall. But Chris is 1m85. He is taller than John.


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America is big. But Russia is bigger . I want to have a more powerful computer. Is French more difficult than English?

If we talk about the two planets Earth and Mars, we can compare them as shown in the table

below:

Earth Mars

Diameter (km) 12,760 6,790 Mars is smaller than Earth.

Distance from Sun (million km) 150 228 Mars is more distant from the Sun.

Length of day (hours) 24 25 A day on Mars is slightly longer than a dayon Earth.

Moons 1 2 Mars has more moons than Earth.Surface temperature (degreesCelcius) 22 -23 Mars is colder than Earth.

Although we use comparative adjectives when talking about two things (not three or morethings), in fact one or both of the things may be a group of things.

Mt Everest is higher than all other mountains.

Here, we are talking about hundreds of mountains, but we are still comparing one thing (Mt

Everest) to one other thing (all other mountains).

Superlative Adjectives

A superlative adjective expresses the extreme or highest degree of a quality. We use a superlativeadjective to describe the extreme quality of one thing in a group of things.

In the example below, "biggest" is the superlative form of the adjective "big":

A B C

A is the biggest .

We can use superlative adjectives when talking about three or more things (not two things).

Formation of Superlative Adjectives


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As with comparative adjectives, there are two ways to form a superlative adjective :

short adjectives: add "-est" long adjectives: use "most"

We also usually add 'the' at the beginning.

Short adjectives

1-syllable adjectives old, fast

2-syllable adjectives ending in -y happy, easy

Normal rule: add "-est" old the oldest

Variation: if the adjective ends in -e, just add -st late the latest

Variation: if the adjective ends in consonant, vowel, consonant,double the last consonant big the bigg est

Variation: if the adjective ends in -y, change the y to i happy the happiest

Long adjectives

2-syllable adjectives not ending in -y modern, pleasant

all adjectives of 3 or more syllables expensive, intellectual

Normal rule: use "most"modern the mostmodernexpensive the mostexpensive

With some 2-syllable adjectives, we can use '-est' or 'most':

quiet the quietest/most quiet clever the cleverest/most clever narrow the narrowest/most narrow simple the simplest/most simple

Exception The following adjectives have irregular forms:

good the best bad the worst far the furthest


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Use of Superlative Adjectives

We use a superlative adjective to describe one thing in a group of three or more things. Look atthese examples:

John is 1m75. David is 1m80. Chris is 1m85. Chris is the tallest . Canada, China and Russia are big countries. But Russia is the biggest .

Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world.

If we talk about the three planets Earth, Mars and Jupiter, we can use superlative adjectives asshown in the table below:

Earth Mars Jupiter

Dia-meter (km) 12,760 6,790 142,800 Jupiter is the biggest .

Dis-tance from Sun (millionkm)

150 228 778 Jupiter is the most distant from theSun.

Length of day (hours) 24 25 10 Jupiter has the shortest day.

Moons 1 2 16 Jupiter has the most moons.

Surface temp.(degrees Celcius) 22 -23 -150 Jupiter is the coldest .

When we compare one thing with itself, we do not use "the":

England is coldest in winter. ( not the coldest) My boss is most generous when we get a big order. ( not the most generous)

Gradable and Non-gradable Adjectives

Adjectives describe qualities (characteristics) of nouns.

Some qualities can vary in intensity or grade (for example: rather hot, hot, very hot; hot,

hotter, the hottest).

The adjective hot is gradable .

Other qualities cannot vary in intensity or grade because they are:a. extremes (for example: freezing)

b. absolutes (for example: dead)c. classifying (for example: nuclear)


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The adjectives freezing , dead and nuclear are non-gradable .

Gradable Adjectives

A gradable adjective can be used with "grading adverbs" that vary the adjective's grade or

intensity. Look at these examples:

grading adverbs a little, dreadfully, extremely, fairly,hugely, immensely, intensely, rather,reasonably, slightly, unusually, very

+

gradable adjectives angry, big, busy, clever, cold, deep, fast,friendly, good, happy, high, hot, important, long,

popular, rich, strong, tall, warm, weak, young

A gradable adjective can also have comparative and superlative forms:

EC Tip : "Gradable adjectives" are also called "qualitative adjectives". "Grading adverbs" arealso called "submodifiers".

big, bigger, the biggest hot, hotter, the hottest important, more important, the most important

Look at these example sentences:

My teacher was very happy with my homework. That website is reasonably popular . But this one is more popular . He said that Holland was a little cold and Denmark was rather cold . But Sweden was

the coldest .

EC Tip : The adjective dead is non-gradable because it is an absolute . Dead is dead. We cannot be more or less dead. One person cannot be "deader" than another. Other absolutes include:correct , unique , perfect

Non-gradable Adjectives

A non-gradable adjective cannot be used with grading adverbs:

It was rather freezing outside. The dog was very dead. He is investing in slightly nuclear energy.

Non-gradable adjectives do not normally have comparative and superlative forms:

freezing, more freezing, the most freezing


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dead, deader, the deadest nuclear, more nuclear, the most nuclear

Often, non-gradable adjectives are used alone:

EC Tip : Don't try to learn lists of gradable and non-gradable adjectives! It's better to understandwhat makes an adjective gradable or non-gradable. This is a matter of logic and common sense.Most native-speakers have never heard of gradable and non-gradable adjectives. They just "feel"that it doesn't make sense to say "fairly excellent" or "very unique". You probably have the sameidea in your language.

It was freezing outside. The dog was dead . He is investing in nuclear energy.

However, a non-gradable adjective can be used with "non-grading adverbs" (which usually justgive the adjective extra impact), for example:

non-grading adverbs non-gradable adjectives

absolutely awful

extremeutterly excellent

completely terrified

totally dead

absolutenearly impossible

virtually unique

essentially chemical

classifyingmainly digital

almost domestic

Here are some example sentences with non-gradable adjectives:


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Her exam results were absolutely awful . She will have to take the exam again. Is there anything like it in the world? It must be virtually unique . It starts an essentially chemical reaction.

Adjectives that can be gradable and non-gradable

Some adjectives may have more than one meaning or sense. It's possible for the same adjectiveto be gradable with one sense and non-gradable with another sense. For example:

adjective common =

He's got a very old car. gradable not young

I saw my old boyfriend yesterday. non-gradable former, ex-

He has some dreadfully common habits. gradable vulgar

"The" is a very common word in English. gradable prevalent

The two countries' common border poses problems. non-gradable shared

Adverbs used with gradable and non-gradable adjectives

The adverbs really (very much) and fairly and pretty (both meaning "to a significant degree, butless than very") can often be used with gradable and non-gradable adjectives:

gradable non-gradable

Please don't forget! It's really important . He was really terrified .

He's a fairly rich man. It's a fairly impossible job.

He's pretty tall . It's pretty ridiculous when you think about it.

"Quite" with gradable and non-gradable adjectives

The meaning of the adverb "quite" changes according to the type of adjective we use it with:


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adjective quite =

It's quite warm today. gradable fairly, rather

Are you quite certain ? non-gradable completely, absolutely

Reference

Non-gradable adjectives

Although we don't recommend that you learn lists of non-gradable adjectives, here are some forreference. You can decide for yourself whether they are extreme, absolute or classifying.

alive, awful, black, boiling, certain, correct, dead, domestic, enormous, environmental, excellent,freezing, furious, gigantic, huge, immediately, impossible, miniscule, mortal, overjoyed, perfect,

pregnant, principal, ridiculous, superb, terrible, terrified, unique, unknown, white, whole

Non-grading adverbs

Again, no need to learn lists. Here are a few examples. There are many more. Remember thatyou cannot use all non-grading adverbs with all non-gradable adjectives. Some collocate (gotogether). Some don't.

absolutely, almost, completely, entirely, exclusively, fully, largely, mainly, nearly, perfectly, practically, primarily, utterly, virtually

F. ADVERBS

Adverbs are an important part of speech. They usually answer questions such as how?, where? ,when? , how often? and how much?

What is an Adverb?


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An adverb is a word that tells us more about a verb . It "qualifies" or "modifies" a verb (The manran quickly ). In the following examples, the adverb is in bold and the verb that it modifies is initalics .

John speaks loudly . (How does John speak?)

Afterwards she smoked a cigarette. (When did she smoke?) Mary lives locally . (Where does Mary live?)

But adverbs can also modify adjectives (Tara is really beautiful ), or even other adverbs (It worksvery well ). Look at these examples:

Modify an adjective :- He is really handsome . (How handsome is he?)- That was extremely kind of you.

Modify another adverb :- She drives incredibly slowly . (How slowly does she drive?)- He drives extremely fast .

Note that 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 .

Adverb Form

We make many adverbs by adding -ly to an adjective, for example:

quick (adjective) > quickly (adverb) careful (adjective) > carefully (adverb) beautiful (adjective) > beautifully (adverb)

There are some basic rules about spelling for -ly adverbs. See the table below:

Adjective ending do this adjective adverb

most adjectives add -ly

quicknice

solecareful

quicklynicely

solelycarefully

-able or -ible change -e to -yregrettablehorrible

regrettablyhorribly

-y change -y to -ily happy happily


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They can answer the question "when?":

He came yesterday . (When did he come?) I want it now . (When do I want it?)

Or they can answer the question "how often?": They deliver the newspaper daily . (How often do they deliver the newspaper?) We sometimes watch a movie. (How often do we watch a movie?)

Adverbs of Degree

Adverbs of Degree tell us the degree or extent to which something happens. They answer thequestion "how much?" or "to what degree?". Adverbs of Degree can modify verbs , adjectives and other adverbs .

She entirely agrees with him. (How much does she agree with him?) Mary is very beautiful . (To what degree is Mary beautiful? How beautiful is Mary?) He drove quite dangerously . (To what degree did he drive dangerously? How

dangerously did he drive?)

Adverb Position

When an adverb modifies a verb , there are usually 3 possible positions within the sentence orclause:

1. FRONT - before subject Now I will read a book.

2. MID - between subject + verb I often read books.

3. END - after verb/object I read books carefully .

When an adverb modifies an adjective or another adverb , it usually goes in front of the word thatit modifies, for example:

adverb adjective

She gave him a really dirty look.


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adverb adverb

We quite often study English.

The position of an adverb often depends on the kind of adverb (manner, place, time, degree). Thefollowing table gives you some guidelines for placement based on the kind of adverb.

Warning: these are guidelines only, and not complete. There are many exceptions.

kind of adverb mainlymodifies

sentence

usual position

adverb

manner verbsShe stroked his hai

rgently . END

place verbs He was working here . END

time

definite

verbs

He finished the jobyesterday.

END

frequency

We often go to Paris.

MID

degree

verbs,adjectives andadverbs

I nearly died . MID

It was terribly funny . before adjective

He works really fast . before adverb

Adverbs of Frequency
http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adverbs-kinds.htmhttp://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adverbs-kinds.htm


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Adverbs of Frequency are Adverbs of Time that answer the question "How frequently?" or "Howoften?". They tell us how often something happens. Here are some examples:

a. daily, weekly, yearly b. often, sometimes, rarely

You probably see a difference between a) and b) above. With words like daily we know exactlyhow often. The words in a) describe definite frequency. On the other hand, words like often giveus an idea about frequency but they don't tell us exactly. The words in b) describe indefinite frequency.

We separate them into two groups because they normally go in different positions in thesentence.

Adverbs of definite frequency

Examples: hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly every second, once a minute, twice a year once, twice, once or twice, three times

Adverbs of definite frequency, like all adverbs of definite time, typically go in END position.Look at these examples:

Most companies pay taxes yearly . The manager checks the toilets every hour .

The directors meet weekly to review progress.Sometimes, usually for reasons of emphasis or style, some adverbs of definite frequency may goat the FRONT, for example:

Every day , more than five thousand people die on our roads.

Adverbs of indefinite frequency

Examples:

never, seldom, sometimes, often, always

100% always, constantly

usually, normally

frequently, regularly

often


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Adverbs of indefinite frequency mainly go in MID position in thesentence. They go 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 goat 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 .

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

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 isJosef but when I am talking about myself I almost always use "I" or "me", not "Josef". When Iam talking direct to you, I almost always use "you", not your name. When I am talking aboutanother 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:

50% sometimes

occasionally

rarely, infrequently

seldomhardly ever

0% never


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number person gender

personal pronouns

subject object

singular

1st male/female I me

2nd male/female you you

3rd

male he him

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 objectpronoun ):

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 .


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When we are talking about a single thing, we almost always use it . However, there are a fewexceptions. We may sometimes refer to an animal as he /him or she /her , especially if the animalis domesticated or a pet. Ships (and some other vessels or vehicles) as well as some countries areoften 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.

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 severalsolutions 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? It 's 50 kilometres from here to Cambridge.

Demonstrative Pronouns

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


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plural these those

Here are some examples with demonstrative pronouns, followed by an 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 ademonstrative 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 whenthe 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 orthing/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)


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

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

person who whom

thing what

person/thing which
http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/pronouns-interrogative.htmhttp://www.englishclub.com/grammar/pronouns-possessive.htmhttp://www.englishclub.com/grammar/pronouns-possessive.htmhttp://www.englishclub.com/grammar/pronouns-interrogative.htm


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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 . Mostnative 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 inblue first.

object

There's one car missing. Whose hasn'tarrived?

John's (car) hasn't arrived. subject

We've found everyone's keys. Whose didyou find?

I found John's (keys) . object


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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 toshow confusion or surprise. Look at these examples:

Whoever would want to do such a nasty thing?

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

singularmyselfyourselfhimself , herself , itself

plural

ourselves

yourselves themselves


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.


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

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 functionand usage are different. An intensive pronoun emphasizes its antecedent. Look at theseexamples:

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 waytowards 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 andyou 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 usereciprocal pronouns with I, you [singular], he/she/it), and

they must be doing the same thing


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 "notdefinite". Some typical indefinite pronouns are:

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" inthe following sentences:

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


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Most indefinite pronouns are either singular or plural. However, some of them can be singular inone context and plural in another. The most common indefinite pronouns are listed below, withexamples, 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 orthingThat ice-cream was good. Can Ihave another ?

anybody/anyone no matter what person Can anyone answer thisquestion?

anything no matter what thingThe doctor needs to know if youhave eaten anything in the lasttwo hours.

each every one of two or more people orthings, seen separately Each has his own thoughts.

either one or the other of two people orthings

Do you want tea or coffee? / Idon't mind. Either is good forme.

enough as much or as many as needed Enough is enough.

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

everything all thingsThey have no house or

possessions. They losteverything in the earthquake.

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


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little a small amount Little is known about his earlylife.

much a large amount Much has happend since we met.

neither not one and not the other of two people or thingsI keep telling Jack and Jill butneither believes me.

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

nothing no single thing, not anything If you don't know the answer it's best to say nothing .

one an unidentified personCan one smoke here? | All thestudents arrived but now one is

missing.

other a different person or thing fromone already mentionedOne was tall and the other wasshort.

somebody/someone an unspecified or unknown person Clearly somebody murderedhim. 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. Ithink both are good.

few a small number of people or things Few have ever disobeyed himand lived.

fewer a reduced number of people orthings Fewer are smoking these days.

many a large number of people or things Many have come already.

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 several left the meeting.


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they people in general (informal) They say that vegetables aregood for you.

singular or plural

all the whole quantity of something orof some things or peopleAll 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; agreater number of people or thingsThere 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 none have come.*

somean unspecified quantity ofsomething; an unspecified numberof people or things

Here is some .Some have arrived.

such of the type alr

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