bahasa inggris profesi ii

8/10/2019 Bahasa Inggris Profesi II

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CHAPTER I

PARTS OF SPEECH

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

After completing this lesson, students are supposed to be able torecognize parts of speech, analyze sentences and understand themand construct good sentences.

A.

INTRODUCTION

There are thousands of words in any language. But not allwords have the same job. For example, some words express "action".Other words express a "thing". Other words "join" one word to

another word. These are the "building blocks" of the language. Thinkof them like the parts of a house. When we want to build a house, weuse concrete to make the foundations or base. We use bricks to makethe walls. We use window frames to make the windows, and doorframes to make the doorways. And we use cement to join them alltogether. Each part of the house has its own job. And when we wantto build a sentence, we use the different types of word. Each type ofword 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 thatyou use to make a sentence. There are only8 types of word - and themost important is the Verb!

Verbs Nouns

Adjectives

Adverbs

Pronouns Prepositions Conjunctions

Interjections

B. PARTS OF SPEECH TABLE

This is a summary of the 8 parts of speech*. You can find

more detail if you click on each part of speech.

part of

speechfunction or

"job"example

wordsexample sentences
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Verb action or state

(to) be,have, do,like, work,sing, can,

must

EnglishClub.com isaweb site. I likeEnglishClub.com.

Noun thing or person

pen, dog,work,music, town,London,teacher,John

This is my dog. Helives in my house.We live in London.

Adjectivedescribes anoun

a/an, the, 2,some, good,

big, red,well,interesting

I have twodogs. Mydogs are big. I likebigdogs.

Adverb

describes a

verb, adjectiveor adverb

quickly,silently,

well, badly,very, really

My dog eatsquickly. When he is

veryhungry, he eatsreallyquickly.

Pronounreplaces anoun

I, you, he,she, some

Tara is Indian. Sheisbeautiful.

Prepositionlinks a noun toanother word

to, at, after,on, but

We went toschoolonMonday.

Conjunction

joins clausesor sentences orwords

and, but,when

I like dogs andI likecats. I like cats anddogs. I like dogs butI don't like cats.

Interjection

shortexclamation,sometimes

inserted into asentence

oh!, ouch!,

hi!, well

Ouch! That hurts!Hi! How are you?

Well, I don't know.
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* Some grammar sources categorize English into 9 or 10 parts ofspeech. At EnglishClub.com, we use the traditional categorization of8parts 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) Determinersmay be treated as a separate part of speech,

instead of being categorized under 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.

pronou

nverb noun

Sheloves

animals.

nounver

badjectiv

enoun

Animals

like kindpeople.

nou

nverb noun

adver

b

Tara speaks

English

well.

nou

nverb

adjecti

venoun

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.


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Here is a sentence that contains every part of speech:

interjecti

onpro

n.con

j.adj.

nou

nver

bpre

p.noun

adver

b

Well, she andyoung

John

walk

toschool

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. For example, "work" can be a verb and a noun;"but" can be a conjunction and a preposition; "well" can be anadjective, an adverb and an interjection. In addition, many nouns canact as adjectives.

To analyze the part of speech, ask yourself: "What job is this worddoing in this sentence?"

In the table below you can see a few examples. Of course, there aremore, even for some of the words in the table. In fact, if you look in agood dictionary you will see that the word "but" has six jobs to do:

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

word part of speech example

worknoun My workis easy.

verb I workin London.

butconjunction

John came butMary didn'tcome.

preposition Everyone came butMary.

well

adjective Are you well?

adverb She speaks well.

interjection Well! That's expensive!


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afternoon

noun We ate in the afternoon.

noun acting asadjective

We had afternoontea.

C.

VERBS

1. What are Verbs?

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

Verbs are sometimes described as "action words". This is partly true.Many verbs give the idea of action, of "doing" something. Forexample, words like run, fight, doand workall convey action.

But some verbs do not give the idea of action; they give the idea ofexistence, of state, of "being". For example, verbs like be, exist, seemand belongall convey state.

A verb always has a subject. (In the sentence "John speaks English",Johnis the subject andspeaksis the verb.) In simple terms, therefore,we can say that verbs are words that tell us what a subject doesor 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). But almost allverbs change in form. For example, the verb to workhas five forms:

to work, work, works, worked, working

Of course, this is still very few forms compared to some languageswhich may have thirty or more forms for a single verb.

2. Verb Classification

We divide verbs into two broad classifications:


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1. Helping Verbs

Imagine that a stranger walks into your room and says:

I can.

People must.

The Earth will.

Do you understand anything? Has this person communicated anythingto you? Probably not! That's because these verbs are helping verbsand have no meaning on their own. They are necessary for thegrammatical structure of the sentence, but they do not tell us verymuch alone. We usually use helping verbs with main verbs. They"help" the main verb. (The sentences in the above examples aretherefore incomplete. They need at least a main verb to completethem.) There are only about 15 helping verbs.

2. Main Verbs

Now imagine that the same stranger walks into your room and says:

I teach.

People eat. The Earth rotates.

Do you understand something? Has this person communicatedsomething to you? Probably yes! Not a lot, but something. That's

because these verbs are main verbsand have meaning on their own.They tell us something. Of course, there are thousands of main verbs.

In the following table we see example sentences with helping verbsand main verbs. Notice that all of these sentences have a main verb.Only some of them have a helping verb.

helping verb main verb

John likes coffee.

You lied to me.


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They are happy.

The children are playing.

We must go now.

I do not want any.

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 forthe grammatical structure of a sentence, but they do not tell us very

much alone. We usually use helping verbs with main verbs. They"help" the main verb (which has the real meaning). There are onlyabout 15 helping verbs in English, and we divide them into two basicgroups:

Primary helping verbs (3 verbs)

These are the verbs be, do, and have. Note that we can use these three

verbs as helping verbs oras main verbs. On this page we talk aboutthem as helping verbs. We use them in the following cases:

beo

to make continuous tenses (He iswatching TV.)o

to make the passive (Small fish areeaten by big fish.)

haveo

to make perfect tenses (I havefinished my homework.)
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doo

to make negatives (I donot like you.)o

to ask questions (Doyou want some coffee?)o

to show emphasis (I dowant you to pass your exam.)o

to stand for a main verb in some constructions (Hespeaks faster than she does.)

Modal helping verbs (10 verbs)

We use modal helping verbs to "modify" the meaning of the mainverb in some way. A modal helping verb expresses necessity or

possibility, and changes the main verb in that sense. These are themodal verbs:

can, could may, might will, would,

shall, should

must ought to

Here are examples using modal verbs:

I can'tspeak Chinese.

John mayarrive late. Wouldyou like a cup of coffee? You shouldsee a doctor.

I really mustgo now.

Main Verbs

Main verbs are also called "lexical verbs".

Main verbs have meaning on their own (unlikehelping verbs). Thereare thousands of main verbs, and we can classify them in severalways:

Transitive and intransitive verbs

A transitive verb takes a direct object: Somebody killed the President.An intransitive verb does not have a direct object: He died. Many
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verbs, like speak, can be transitive or intransitive. Look at theseexamples:

transitive:

I sawan elephant. We are watchingTV.

He speaksEnglish.

intransitive:

He has arrived. John goesto school.

She speaksfast.

Linking verbs

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

linking verbs).

Mary isa teacher. (mary = teacher)

Tara isbeautiful. (tara = beautiful)

That soundsinteresting. (that = interesting) The sky becamedark. (the sky > dark) The bread has gonebad. (bread > bad)

Dynamic and stative verbs

Some verbs describe action. They are called "dynamic", and can beused with continuous tenses. Other verbs describe state (non-action, asituation). They are called "stative", and cannot normally be used withcontinuous tenses (though some of them can be used with continuoustenses with a change in meaning).

dynamic verbs (examples):

hit, explode, fight, run, go

stative verbs (examples):


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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 realdifference between regular and irregular verbs is that they havedifferent endings for their past tense and past participle forms. Forregular verbs, the past tense ending and past participle ending isalways the same: -ed. For irregular verbs, the past tense ending andthe past participle ending is variable, so it is necessary 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 ofregular verbs andirregular verbs.

One way to think of regular and irregular verbs is like this: allverbs

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 couldbe irregular, transitive and dynamic; another verb could be regular,transitive and stative.

Verb Forms

English verbs come in several forms. For example, the verb to singcan be: to sing, sing, sang, sung, singing or sings. This is a total of 6
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forms. Not many, considering that some languages (French, forexample) have more than 30 forms for an individual verb. Englishtenses may be quite complicated, but the forms that we use to makethe tenses are actually very simple! With the exception of the verb tobe, English main verbs have only 4, 5 or 6 forms. To behas 9 forms.Do not confuse verb forms with tenses. We use the different verbforms to make the tenses, but they are not the same thing.

In this lesson we look at the forms of main verbs and helping(auxiliary) verbs, followed by a quiz 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" has9 forms.

V1 V2 V3

infinitiv

e base

past

simple

past

participle

present

participle

presen

t

simple,

3rdperson

singula

r

regular(to)

work

wor

k

worke

dworked working works

irregula

r

(to) sing

(to)

make

sing

mak

e

sang

made

sung

made

singing

making

sings

makes
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(to) cut cut cut cut cutting cuts

(to) do*

(to)have*

do

have

did

had

done

had

doing

having

does

has

infinitiv

ebase

past

simpl

e

past

participl

e

present

participl

e

presen

t

simple

(to) be* bewas,

werebeen being

am,

are, is

In the above examples:

to cuthas 4forms: to cut, cut, cutting, cuts

to workhas 5forms: to work, work, worked, working, works to singhas 6forms: to sing, sing, sang, sung, singing, sings

to behas 9forms: 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. We often call the infinitive without to the

"bare infinitive".

At school, students usually learn by heart the base, past simpleandpast participle(sometimes called V1, V2, V3, meaning Verb 1, Verb2, Verb 3) for the irregular verbs. They may spend many hourschanting: sing, sang, sung; go, went, gone; have, had, had; etc. Theydo not learn these for the regular verbs because the past simple and

past participle are always the same: they are formed by adding "-ed"to the base. They do not learn the present participleand 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 alwaysmade by adding "s" to the base (though there are some variations inspelling).


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* Note that "do", "have" and "be" also function ashelping or auxiliaryverbs,with exactly the same forms (except that as helping verbs theyare 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 haveone.

To be, or not to be, that is the question:

Base - Imperative

Workwell!

Makethis.

Havea nice day. Bequiet!

Base - Present simple

(except 3rd person singular)

I workin London.

You singwell.

They havea lot of money.

Base - After modal auxiliary verbs

I can worktomorrow. You must singlouder.

They might doit.

You could beright.

Past simple

I workedyesterday.

She cuthis hair last week.
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They hada good time.

They weresurprised, but I wasnot.

Past participle

I have workedhere for five years.

He needs a folder madeof plastic. It is donelike this. I have never beenso happy.

Present participle

I am working.

Singingwell is not easy.

Havingfinished, he went home.

You are beingsilly!

3rd person singular, present simple

He worksin London.

She singswell. She hasa lot of money. It isVietnamese.

Forms of Helping Verbs

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

Primary helping verbs, used mainly to change the tense orvoice of the main verb, and in making questions andnegatives.

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

Study the table below. It shows the prinicipal forms and uses ofhelping verbs, and explains the differences between primary and

modal helping verbs.

* Sometimes we make a sentence that has a helping verb and seems tohave no main verb. In fact, the main verb is "understood". Look at thefollowing examples:


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Question: Canyou speakEnglish? (The main verb speakis"expressed".)

Answer: Yes, I can. (The main verb speakis not expressed. Itis "understood" from the context. We understand: Yes, I canspeakEnglish.

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

Helping Verbs

Primary Modal

do

(to make simple tenses,

and questions and

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 have exactly the same formsas when they aremain verbs

(except that as helping verbs they

are never used in infinitive forms).

Modal helping verbs areinvariable. They always have

the same form.
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Primary helping verbs are followed

by the main verb in a particular

form:

do+ V1 (base verb) be+ -ing (present

participle)

have+ V3 (past participle)

"Ought" is followed by the

main verb in infinitive form.

Other modal helping verbs are

followed by the main verb in

its base form (V1).

ought+ to... (infinitive)

other modals+ V1(base verb)

"Do", "be" and "have" can also

function asmain verbs.

Modal helping verbs cannot

function as main 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 youeat (verb). Or happiness. Happiness (noun) is something 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 someexamples:

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 a verb.

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

1.

Ending2.

Position3. Function
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1. Noun Ending

There are certain word endings that show that a word is a noun, forexample:

-ity > nationality -ment > appointment

-ness > happiness

-ation > relation -hood > childhood

But this is not true for the word endings of all nouns. For example, thenoun "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:


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subject of verb: Doctorswork hard.

object of verb: He likes coffee.

subject and object of verb: Teachersteach students.

But the subject or object of a sentence is not always a noun. It couldbe a pronoun or a phrase. In the sentence "My doctor works hard", thenoun is "doctor" but the subject is "My doctor".

Countable and Uncountable Nouns

English nouns are often described as "countable" or "uncountable".

Countable Nouns

Countable nouns are easy to recognize. They are things that we cancount. For example: "pen". We can count pens. We can have one,two, three or more pens. Here are some more countable nouns:

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 isplaying. My dogs arehungry.

We can use the indefinite article a/anwith countable nouns:

Adog is ananimal.

When a countable noun is singular, we must use a word likea/the/my/thiswith it:

I want anorange. (notI want orange.)

Where is mybottle? (notWhere is bottle?)

When a countable noun is plural, we can use it alone:

I like oranges.


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Bottles can break.

We can use someand anywith countable nouns:

I've got somedollars. Have you got anypens?

We can use a fewand manywith countable nouns:

I've got a fewdollars.

I haven't got manypens.

"People" is countable. "People" is the plural of "person". We can

count people:

There is one person here. There are three people here.

Uncountable Nouns

Uncountable nouns are substances, concepts etc that we cannot divide

into separate elements. We cannot "count" them. For example, wecannot count "milk". We can count "bottles of milk" or "litres ofmilk", but we cannot count "milk" itself. Here are some moreuncountable 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 singularverb. For example:

Thisnews isvery important.

Your luggage looksheavy.

We do not usually use the indefinite article a/an with uncountablenouns. We cannot say "an information" or "a music". But we can saya something of:


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a piece ofnews

a bottle ofwater

a grain ofrice

We can use someand anywith uncountable nouns:

I've got somemoney.

Have you got anyrice?

We can use a littleand muchwith uncountable nouns:

I've got a littlemoney. I haven't got muchrice.

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

table furniture

battery electricity

bottle wine

report information

tip advice

journey travel

job work

view scenery


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When you learn a new word, it's a good idea to learn whether it'scountable or uncountable.

Nouns that can be Countable and Uncountable

Sometimes, the same noun can be countable anduncountable, oftenwith a change of meaning.

Countable Uncountable

There are two hairs in mycoffee!

hair I don't have much hair.

There are two lights in ourbedroom.

light Close the curtain. There's toomuch light!

Shhhhh! I thought I heard anoise.There are so many differentnoises in the city.

noiseIt's difficult to work whenthere is too much noise.

Have you got a paper to

read? (newspaper)Hand me those student

papers.

paper I want to draw a picture. Haveyou got some paper?

Our house has seven rooms. roomIs there room for me to sithere?

We had a great time at theparty.

How many times have I toldyou no?

time

Have you got time for a

coffee?

Macbethis one ofShakespeare's greatestworks.

work I have no money. I need work!

Drinks (coffee, water, orange juice) are usually uncountable. But if

we are thinking of a cup or a glass, we can say (in a restaurant, forexample):

Two teas and one coffee please.


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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, like John, Marie, London, France or Sony. Aname is a noun, but a very special noun - a proper noun. Proper nounshave 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 alwaysuse a Capital Letter for the first letter of a proper noun(name). This includes names of people, places, companies, days of theweek and months. For example:

They like John. (not*They like john.) I live in England.

She works for Sony.

The last day in January is a Monday.

We saw Titanicin the Odeon Cinema.

Proper Nouns without THE


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

first namesBill (not*the Bill)

Hilary

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 weuse "The" if we use the full name, for example:

The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd

We do not normally use "the" for shops, banks, hotels etc named aftera 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


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islands Corsica

mountains Everest

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

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

kingdom the United Kingdom, the UK

republic the French Republic

We do not use "the" with "President/Doctor/Mr etc + Name":

the president, theking

President Bush (not*the President Bush)

the captain, the

detective

Captain Kirk, Detective Colombo

the doctor, theprofessor

Doctor Well, Dr Well, Professor Dolittle

my uncle, your aunt Uncle Jack, Aunt Jill

Mr Gates (not*the Mr Gates), Mrs Clinton,Miss Black

Look at these example sentences:

I wanted to speak to the doctor. I wanted to speak to Doctor Brown.

Who was the presidentbefore President Kennedy?

We do not use "the" with "Lake/Mount + Name":

the lake Lake Victoria

the mount Mount Everest


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Look at this example sentence:

We live beside Lake Victoria. We have a fantastic viewacross the lake.

We do not normally use "the" for roads, streets, squares, parks etc:

streets etc Oxford Street, Trenholme Road, Fifth Avenue

squares etc Trafalgar Square, Oundle Place, Piccadilly Circus

parks etc Central Park, Kew Gardens

Many big, important buildings have names made of two words (forexample, Kennedy Airport). If the first word is the name of a personor place, we do not normally use "the":

people Kennedy Airport, Alexander Palace, St Paul's Cathedral

places Heathrow Airport, Waterloo Station, Edinburgh Castle

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


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We normally use "the" for pluralnames 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 Clintonstoday. 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

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


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When we want to show that something belongs to somebody orsomething, we usually add 'sto a singular noun and an apostrophe 'toa 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 isinfluenced by the possessor and not 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'smother (the mother of the man nextdoor)

the Queen of England'spoodles (the poodles of the Queen ofEngland)

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

more usual and natural:

1. the boyfriend of my sister2. my sister's boyfriend

Proper Nouns (Names)

We very often use possessive 'swith names:

This is Mary's car.

Where is Ram's telephone?


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Who took Anthony's pen?

I like Tara's hair.

When a name ends in s, we usually treat it like any other singularnoun, and add 's:

This is Charles's chair.

But it is possible (especially with older, classical names) to just addthe apostrophe ':

Who was Jesus' father?

I rr egular Plurals

Some nouns have irregular plural forms without s (man > men). Toshow possession, we usually add 'sto the plural form of these nouns:

singular noun plural noun

my child's dog my children's dog

the man's work the men's work

the mouse's cage the mice's cage

a person's clothes people's clothes

Noun as Adjective

As you know, a noun is a person, place or thing, and an adjective is aword that describes a noun:

adjective noun

clever teacher


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small office

black horse

Sometimes we use a noun to describe another noun. In that case, thefirst noun "acts as" an adjective.

noun

as 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 beingtalked about:

a race horseis a horsethat runs in races a horse raceis a racefor horses a boat raceis a racefor boats

a love storyis a storyabout love

a war storyis a storyabout war

a tennis ballis a ballfor playing tennis tennis shoesare shoesfor playing tennis a computer exhibitionis an exhibitionof computers

a bicycle shopis a shopthat sells bicycles

The "noun as adjective" is singular

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

Right Wrong


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boat race boat races NOT boats race, boats races

toothbrush toothbrushes NOT teethbrush, teethbrushes

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 (forexample news, billiards, athletics). When we use these nouns "asadjectives" 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 use them 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 differentways:

two separate words (car door)

two hyphenated words (book-case)

one word (bathroom)


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

How do we say the "noun as adjective"?

For pronunciation, we usually stress the first word:

shoeshop

boat-race

bathroom

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

Yes. Just like adjectives, we often use more than one "noun asadjective" together. Look at these examples:

car production costs:we are talking about the costs of producingcars

noun asadjective

noun asadjective noun

costs

production costs

car production costs

England football team coach:we are talking about the coach whotrains the team that plays football for England

noun as

adjective

noun as

adjective

noun as

adjective noun

coach

team coach


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football team coach

England football team coach

Note: in England football team coachcan you see a "hidden" "nounas adjective"? Look at the word "football" (foot-ball). These twonouns (foot+ball) have developed into a single noun (football). This isone way that words evolve. Many word combinations that use a "nounas adjective" are regarded as nouns in their own right, with their owndictionary definition. But not all dictionaries agree with each other.For example, some dictionaries list "tennis ball" as a noun and other

dictionaries do not.

government road accident research centre:we are talking about acentre that researches into accidents on the road for the government

noun as

adjective

noun as

adjective

noun as

adjective

noun as

adjective noun

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. Theabove headline is about a MYSTERY concerning a MURDER in aCENTRE for RESEARCH into the HEALTH of BIRDS.


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Note, too, that we can still use a real adjectiveto qualify a "noun asadjective" structure:

emptycoffee jar

honestcar salesman

deliciousdog food risingcar production costs famousEngland football team coach

Compound Nouns

A compound noun is a noun that is made with two or more words. Acompound noun is usually [noun + noun] or [adjective + noun], but

there are other combinations (see below). It is important to understandand recognize compound nouns. Each compound noun acts as a singleunit 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:

noun + noun

bus stopIs this the bus stopforthe number 12 bus?

fire-flyIn the tropics you can seefire-fliesat night.

footballShall we play footballtoday?

adjective + noun

full moonI always feel crazy at fullmoon.

blackboardClean the blackboard

please.

softwareI can't install thissoftwareon my PC.

verb(-ing) + noun breakfastWe always eat breakfastat 8am.


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washingmachine

Put the clothes in the redwashing machine.

swimmingpool

What a beautifulswimming 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-outPlease remember thatcheck-outis at 12 noon.

noun +prepositionalphrase

mother-in-law

My mother-in-lawliveswith us.

preposition + noun underworldDo you think the policeaccept money from theunderworld?

noun + adjective truckfulWe need 10 truckfuls of

bricks.

PronunciationCompound 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 the compound noun"golf ball", the first word is stressed more (even though both wordsare nouns, and nouns are always stressed). Since "golf ball" is acompound noun we consider it as a single noun and so it has a singlemain stress - on the first word. Stress is important in compound

nouns. For example, it helps us know if somebody said "a GREENHOUSE" (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 theopen, hyphenated or closed form for the same compound noun. It is

partly a matter of style. There are no definite rules. For example we

can find:

container ship container-ship containership


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

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 say spoonsful or trucksful for the plural. Today itis more usual to say spoonfuls or truckfuls. Both the old style(spoonsful) and the new style (spoonfuls) are normally acceptable, butyou should be consistent in your choice. Here are some examples:

old style plural(very formal) new style plural

teaspoonful 3 teaspoonsfulof sugar 3 teasponfulsof sugar

truckful 5 trucksfulof sand 5 truckfulsof sand

bucketful 2 bucketsfulof water 2 bucketfulsof water

cupful 4 cupsfulof rice 4 cupfulsof rice

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

higher-ups also-rans


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go-betweens

has-beens good-for-nothings

grown-ups

Note that with compound nouns made of [noun + noun] the first nounis like an adjective and therefore does not usually take an -s. A treethat has apples has many apples, but we say an apple tree, not applestree; matchboxnot matchesbox; toothbrushnot teethbrush.

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

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 stops4,000 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 and noun phrases.)

An adjective "qualifies" or "modifies" a noun(a bigdog).

Adjectives can be used before a noun (I like Chinesefood) or aftercertain verbs (Itis hard).

We can often use two or more adjectives together (a beautifulyoungFrenchlady).

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).


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Determiners

Determiners are words like the, an, my, some. They aregrammatically similar. They all come at the beginning of noun

phrases, and usually we cannot use more than one determiner in thesame noun phrase.

Articles:

a, an, the

Possessive Adjectives:

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

Other determiners:

each, every

either, neither some, any, no much, many; more, most

little, less, least

few, fewer, fewest

what, whatever; which, whichever both, half, all several

enough

A, An or The?

When do we say "the dog" and when do we say "adog"? (On thispage we talk only about singular, countable nouns.)

Theand a/anare called "articles". We divide them into "definite" and"indefinite" like this:

Articles

Definite Indefinite

the a, an
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-each-every.htmhttp://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-determiners-some-any.htmhttp://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-determiners-some-any.htmhttp://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-determiners-each-every.htmhttp://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-determiners-possessive.htmhttp://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-determiners-the-a-an.htm


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We use "definite" to mean sure, certain. "Definite" is particular.

We use "indefinite" to mean not sure, not certain. "Indefinite" isgeneral.

When we are talking about one thing in particular, we use the. Whenwe are talking about one thing in general, we use aor an.

Think of the sky at night. In the sky we see 1 moon and millions ofstars. So normally we would say:

I saw themoon last night. I saw astar last night.

Look at these examples:

the a, an

Thecapital of France isParis.

I have found thebook that I

lost. Have you cleaned thecar? There are six eggs in the

fridge.

Please switch off theTVwhen you finish.

I was born in atown.

John had anomelette

for lunch.

James Bond ordered adrink.

We want to buy anumbrella.

Have you got apen?

Of course, often we can use theor a/anfor the same word. It dependson the situation, not the word. Look at these examples:

We want to buy anumbrella. (Any umbrella, not a particularumbrella.)

Where is theumbrella? (We already have an umbrella. We arelooking for our umbrella, a particular umbrella.)

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

Aman and awoman were walking in Oxford Street. Thewoman sawadress that she liked in ashop. She asked theman if he could buy


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the dress for her. He said: "Do you think the shop will accept acheque? I don't have acredit card."

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

Warning! These are adjectives. Don't confuse them withpronouns!

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

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

whose (interrogative)

number person gender

possessiv

e

adjective

exampl

e

sentenc

e

singular

1st male/female my

This is

mybook.

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
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licking

itspaw.

plural

1st male/female our

Wehave

sold

our

house.

2nd male/female your

Your

children are

lovely.

3rd

male/female/neut

er their

The

student

s

thanked

their

teacher.

singular/plur

al

1st/2nd/3r

d

male/female (not

neuter)whose

Whosephone

did you

use?

Compare:

your= possessive adjectiveyou're = you are


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its= possessive adjectiveit's = it is ORit has

their= possessive adjectivethey're = they arethere = adverb (I'm not going there / look over there / there is a caroutside)

whose= possessive adjectivewho's = who is ORwho has

Be careful! There is no apostrophe (') in the possessive adjective "its".We use an apostrophe to write 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 itsleg.

Each, Every

Eachand everyhave similar but not always identical meanings.

Each= every one separatelyEvery= each, all

Sometimes, eachand everyhave the same meaning:

Prices go up eachyear.

Prices go up everyyear.

But often they are not exactly the same.

Eachexpresses the idea of 'one by one'. It emphasizes individuality.

Everyis half-way between each and all. It sees things or people assingular, but in a group or in general.


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Consider the following:

Everyartist is sensitive.

Eachartist sees things differently.

Everysoldier saluted as the President arrived.

The President gave eachsoldier a medal.

Eachcan be used in front of the verb:

The soldiers eachreceived a medal.

Eachcan be followed by 'of':

The President spoke to eachof the soldiers. He gave a medal to eachof them.

Everycannot be used for 2 things. For 2 things, eachcan be used:

He was carrying a suitcase in eachhand.

Everyis used to say how often something happens:

There is a plane to Bangkok everyday.

The bus leaves everyhour.

Verbs with eachand everyare always conjugated in the singular.

Some, Any

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

Any = one, some or all

Usually, we use somein positive (+) sentences and anyin negative (-)

and question (?) sentences.

some any example situation

+ I have some I have $10.


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money.

-I don't haveanymoney.

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

?Do you haveanymoney?

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

In general, we use something/anythingand somebody/anybodyinthe same way as some/any.


He needs somestamps. I must go. I have somehomework to do. I'm thirsty. I want somethingto drink.

I can see somebodycoming.

He doesn't need anystamps. I can stay. I don't have anyhomework to do.

I'm not thirsty. I don't want anythingto drink.

I can't see anybodycoming.

Does he need anystamps?

Do you have anyhomework to do? Do you want anythingto drink? Can you see anybodycoming?

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

I refused to give them anymoney. (I did notgive them anymoney)

She finished the test without anydifficulty. (she did nothaveany difficulty)

Sometimes we use somein a question, when we expect a positive

YES answer. (We could say that it is not a real question, because wethink we know the answer already.)

Would you like somemore tea?

Could I have somesugar, please?


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

Adjective Order

There are 2 basic positions for adjectives:

1.

beforethe noun2. aftercertain 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 blackdogs.

She was wearing a beautiful long reddress.

What is the correct order for two or more adjectives?

1. The general order is: opinion, fact:

a nice French car (nota French nice car)

("Opinion" is what you thinkabout something. "Fact" is what isdefinitely trueabout something.)

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 factadjectives:


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articles (a, the)

possessives (my, your...)

demonstratives (this, that...) quantifiers (some, any, few, many...) numbers (one, two, three)

Here is an example with opinionand factadjectives:

adjectives

noundeter-miner

opinionfact

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 blackand white. She was wearing a long, blueand yellowdress.

The rules on this page are for the normal, "natural" order ofadjectives. But these rules are not rigid, and you may sometimes wishto change the order for emphasis. Consider the followingconversations:

Conversation 1A "I want to buy a round table."

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

Conversation 2A "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 aftersome verbs, such as: be, become, feel,get, look, seem, smell, sound


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Even when an adjective comes after the verb and not before a noun, italways refers to and qualifies the subjectof the sentence, not theverb.

Look at the examples below: subject verbadjective

Ram isEnglish.

Because she had to wait, she becameimpatient.

Is itgettingdark? The examination did notseemdifficult. Your friend looksnice. This towelfeelsdamp.

That new film doesn'tsoundvery interesting.

Dinnersmellsgoodtonight. This milk tastessour.

Itsmellsbad.

These verbs are "stative" verbs, which express a state or change ofstate, not "dynamic" verbs which express an action. Note that someverbs can be stative in one sense (she looks beautiful | it got hot), anddynamic in another (she looked at him | he got the money). The above

examples do not include all stative verbs.

Note also that in the above structure (subject verbadjective), theadjective can qualify a pronoun since 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 or different. Perhaps they are the same in someways and different in other ways. We can use comparative adjectivesto describe the differences.

We can use comparative adjectives when talking about twothings

(not three or more things).

In the example below, "bigger" is the comparative form of the

adjective "big":

A1 A2


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A1 is biggerthan A2.

Formation of Comparative Adjectives

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

shortadjectives: add "-er" longadjectives: use "more"

Short adjectives

1-syllable adjectives old, fast

2-syllable adjectives ending in -yhappy, easy

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 they to i

happy happier

Long adjectives

2-syllable adjectives not ending in -ymodern, 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':


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quiet quieter/more quiet

clever cleverer/more clever

narrow narrower/more narrow simple simpler/more simple

ExceptionThe 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 or10 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 tallerthanJohn.

America is big. But Russia is bigger. I want to have a more powerfulcomputer.

Is French more difficultthan 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 6,790Mars is smallerthanEarth.

Distance from Sun

(million km)150 228

Mars is more distantfrom

the Sun.

Length of day (hours) 24 25A day on Mars is slightlylongerthan a day onEarth.


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Moons 1 2Mars has moremoonsthan Earth.

Surface temperature

(degrees Celcius)

22 -23 Mars is colderthan Earth.

Although we use comparative adjectives when talking about twothings (not three or more things), 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 stillcomparing one thing (Mt Everest) to one other thing (all othermountains).

Superlative Adjectives

A superlative adjective expresses the extreme or highest degree of aquality. We use a superlative adjective to describe the extreme quality

of one thing in a group of things.

In the example below, "biggest" is the superlative form of theadjective "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

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

shortadjectives: add "-est" longadjectives: use "most"


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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 biggest

Variation: if the adjective ends in -y, changethe y to i

happy the

happiest

Long adjectives

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

all adjectives of 3 or more syllablesexpensive,intellectual

Normal rule:use "most"

modern the mostmodernexpensive the

most expensive

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

ExceptionThe following adjectives have irregular forms:

good the best bad the worst


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far the furthest

Use of Superlative Adjectives

We use a superlative adjective to describe one thing in a group ofthree or more things. Look at these examples:

John is 1m75. David is 1m80. Chris is 1m85. Chris is thetallest.

Canada, China and Russia are big countries. But Russia is thebiggest.

Mount Everest is the highestmountain in the world.

If we talk about the three planets Earth, Mars and Jupiter, we can usesuperlative adjectives as shown in the table below:

Earth Mars Jupiter

Dia-meter (km)

12,760 6,790 142,800 Jupiter is the biggest.

Dis-tance from Sun(million km)

150 228 778Jupiter is the mostdistantfrom the Sun.

Length of day(hours)

24 25 10Jupiter has theshortestday.

Moons 1 2 16Jupiter has the most

moons.

Surface temp.(degreesCelcius)

22 -23 -150 Jupiter is the coldest.

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

England is coldestin winter. (notthe coldest) My boss is most generous when we get a big order. (notthe

most generous)

Gradable and Non-gradable Adjectives


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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 hotis gradable.

Other qualities cannot vary in intensity or grade because theyare:

a.

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

The adjectivesfreezing, deadand nuclearare non-gradable.

Gradable Adjectives

A gradable adjective can be used with "grading adverbs" that vary theadjective's grade or intensity. Look at these examples:

grading adverbsa little, dreadfully, extremely,

fairly, hugely, immensely,

intensely, rather, reasonably,

slightly, unusually, very

+

gradable adjectivesangry, 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 superlativeforms:

EC Tip: "Gradable adjectives" are also called "qualitative adjectives".

"Grading adverbs" are also 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 happywith my homework.


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That website is reasonably popular. But this one is morepopular.

He said that Holland was a little coldand Denmark wasrather cold. But Sweden was the coldest.

EC Tip: The adjective deadis 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 cannotbe 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 andsuperlative forms:

freezing, more freezing, the most freezing

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 understand what makes an adjective gradableor 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 same idea in your

language.

It was freezingoutside.

The dog was dead. He is investing in nuclearenergy.


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However, a non-gradable adjective canbe used with "non-gradingadverbs" (which usually just give the adjective extra impact), forexample:

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:

Her exam results were absolutely awful. She will have to takethe exam again.

Is there anything like it in the world? It must be virtuallyunique.

It starts an essentially chemical reaction.


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Adjectives that can be gradable and non-gradable

Some adjectives may have more than one meaning or sense. It'spossible for the same adjective to be gradable with one sense and non-

gradable with another sense. For example:

adjectivecommon

=

He's got a very oldcar. gradable not young

I saw my oldboyfriend yesterday. non-gradable

former,ex-

He has some dreadfully commonhabits. gradable vulgar

"The" is a very commonword in English. gradable prevalent

The two countries' commonborder poses

problems.

non-

gradableshared

Adverbs used with gradable and non-gradable adjectives

The adverbs really(very much) and fairlyand pretty(both meaning

"to a significant degree, but less than very") can often be used withgradable and non-gradable adjectives:

gradable non-gradable

Please don't forget! It's really

important.He was really terrified.

He's a fairly richman. It's a fairly impossiblejob.


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He's pretty tall.It's pretty ridiculouswhen you

think about it.

"Quite" with gradable and non-gradable adjectives

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

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 for reference. 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


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many more. Remember that you cannot use all non-grading adverbs

with all non-gradable adjectives. Some collocate (go together). 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 answerquestions such as how?, where?, when?, how often?and how much?

What is an Adverb?

An adverbis a word that tells us more about a verb. It "qualifies" or"modifies" a verb(The man ranquickly). In the following examples,the adverb is in boldand the verb that it modifies is in italics.

Johnspeaksloudly. (How does John speak?)

Afterwardsshesmokeda cigarette. (When did she smoke?) Mary liveslocally. (Where does Mary live?)

But adverbs can also modify adjectives(Tara is reallybeautiful), oreven other adverbs(It works verywell). Look at these examples:

Modify an adjective:- He is reallyhandsome. (How handsome is he?)- That was extremelykindof you.

Modify another adverb:- She drives incrediblyslowly. (How slowly does she drive?)- He drives extremelyfast.

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 immediatelyinside the

door.


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Adverb Form

We make many adverbs by adding -lyto 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 thetable below:

Adjective ending do this adjective adverb

most adjectives add -ly

quicknicesolecareful

quicklynicelysolelycarefully

-able or -ible change -e to -yregrettablehorrible

regrettablyhorribly

-y change -y to -ily happy happily

-icchange -ic to -ically

economic economically

But not all words that end in -ly are adverbs. The wordsfriendly,lovely, lonelyand neighbourly, for example, are all adjectives.

And some adverbs have no particular form. Look at these examples:

well, fast, very, never, always, often, still

Note that the form of an adverb can also change to make itcomparative or superlative.

Kinds of Adverbs

Here you can see the basic kinds of adverbs.


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Adverbs of Manner

Adverbs of Manner tell us the manner or way in which somethinghappens. They answer the question "how?". Adverbs of Manner

mainly modify verbs.

Hespeaksslowly. (How does he speak?) They helpedus cheerfully. (How did they help us?) James Bond driveshis cars fast. (How does James Bond drive

his cars?)

We normally use Adverbs of Manner with dynamic (action)verbs,

not with stative or state verbs.

He ran fast. She came quickly. They worked happily. She looked beautifully. It seems strangely. They are happily.

Adverbs of Place

Adverbs of Place tell us the place where something happens. They

answer the question "where?". Adverbs of Place mainly modify verbs.

Pleasesithere. (Where should I sit?)

They lookedeverywhere. (Where did they look?)

Two cars wereparkedoutside. (Where were two carsparked?)

Adverbs of Time

Adverbs of Time tell us something about the time that somethinghappens. Adverbs of Time mainly modify verbs.

They can answer the question "when?":

He cameyesterday. (When did he come?)

I wantit now. (When do I want it?)

Or they can answer the question "how often?":

They deliverthe newspaper daily. (How often do they deliverthe newspaper?)


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We sometimeswatcha movie. (How often do we watch amovie?)

Adverbs of Degree

Adverbs of Degree tell us the degree or extent to which somethinghappens. They answer the question "how much?" or "to whatdegree?". Adverbs of Degree can modify verbs, adjectivesand otheradverbs.

She entirelyagreeswith him. (How much does she agree withhim?)

Mary is verybeautiful. (To what degree is Mary beautiful?How beautiful is Mary?)

He drove quitedangerously. (To what degree did he drivedangerously? How dangerously did he drive?)

Adverb Position

When an adverb modifies a verb, there are usually 3 possiblepositions within the sentence or clause:

1. FRONT - before

subjectNow

I will reada

book.

2. MID - between subject

+ verbI often readbooks.

3. END - after verb/objectI read

bookscarefully.

When an adverb modifies an adjectiveor another adverb, it usuallygoes in front of the word that it modifies, for example:

adverb adjective


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She gave him a really dirty look.

adverb adverb

We quite often study English.

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

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

exceptions.

kind of

adverb

mainl

y

modif

ies

sentence

usual

positionadverb

manner verbsShestroked

his hairgently. END

place verbs

He was

working here. END

ti

m

e

definit

e

verbs

Hefinished

the job

yester

day.END

freque

ncy

We oftengo to P

aris.

MID

degree verbs, I nearly died. MID
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adjecti

ves

and

adver

bs

It wasterribl

yfunny.

before adj

ective

He works really fast. beforeadverb

Adverbs of Frequency

Adverbs of Frequency are Adverbs of Time that answer the question

"How frequently?" or "How often?". They tell us how oftensomething happens. Here are some examples:

a. daily, weekly, yearlyb. often, sometimes, rarely

You probably see a difference between a) and b) above. With wordslike dailywe know exactly how often. The words in a) describe

definitefrequency. On the other hand, words like oftengive us anidea about frequency but they don't tell us exactly. The words in b)describe indefinitefrequency.

We separate them into two groups because they normally go indifferent positions in the sentence.

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 weeklyto review progress.


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Sometimes, usually for reasons of emphasis or style, some adverbs ofdefinite frequency may go at 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

Adverbs of indefinite frequency mainly

go in MID position in the sentence.They go beforethe main verb (exceptthe main verb "to be"):

We usuallygo shopping onSaturday.

I have oftendone that.

She is alwayslate.

Occasionally,sometimes, often,frequentlyand usuallycan also go atthe beginning or end of a sentence:

Sometimesthey come and staywith us.

I play tennis occasionally.

Rarelyandseldomcan 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 apronoun instead of a noun. Pronouns are words like: he, you, ours,themselves, some, each... If we didn't have pronouns, we would haveto repeat a lot of nouns. We would have to say things like:

100% always, constantly

usually, normally

frequently, regularly

often

50% sometimes

occasionally

rarely, infrequently

seldom

hardly ever

0% never


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Do you like the president? I don't like the president. Thepresident is too pompous.

With pronouns, we can say:

Do you like the president? I don't like him. Heis toopompous.

Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns represent specific people or things. We use themdepending 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 aretalking about. My name is Josef but when I am talking about myself I

almost always use "I" or "me", not "Josef". When I am talking directto you, I almost always use "you", not your name. When I am talkingabout another 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:

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


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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 object pronoun):

Ilike coffee. John helped me.

Do youlike coffee? John loves you.

Heruns fast. Did Ram beat him?

Sheis clever.

Does Mary know her?

Itdoesn't work. Can the engineer repair it?

Wewent home. Anthony drove us.

Do youneed a table for three? Did John and Mary beat youat doubles?

Theyplayed doubles.

John and Mary beat them.

When we are talking about a single thing, we almost always use it.However, there are a few exceptions. We may sometimes refer to ananimal as he/himor she/her, especially if the animal is domesticatedor a pet. Ships (and some other vessels or vehicles) as well as somecountries are often treated as female and referred to as she/her. Hereare some examples:

This is our dog Rusty. He's an Alsation.

The Titanicwas a great ship but shesank on her first voyage.

My first car was a Mini and I treated herlike my wife.


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Thailand has now opened herborder with Cambodia.

For a single person, sometimes we don't know whether to use heorshe. There are several solutions to this:

If a teacher needs help, he or sheshould see the principal. If a teacher needs help, heshould see the principal.

If a teacher needs help, theyshould see the principal.

We often use itto introduce a remark:

Itis nice to have a holiday sometimes. Itis important to dress well.

It's difficult to find a job. Is itnormal to see them together? Itdidn't take long to walk here.

We also often use itto talk about the weather, temperature, time anddistance:

It's raining.

Itwill probably be hot tomorrow. Isit 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

plural these those


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Here are some examples with demonstrative pronouns, followed byan illustration:

Thistastes good.

Have you seen this?

Theseare bad times. Do you like these?

Thatis beautiful.

Look at that! Thosewere the days! Can you see those?

Thisis heavier than that. Theseare bigger than those.

Do not confuse demonstrative pronouns with demonstrativeadjectives. They are identical, but a demonstrative pronoun standsalone, while a demonstrative adjective qualifies a noun.

Thatsmells. (demonstrative pronoun)

That bookis good. (demonstrative adjective + noun)

Normally we use demonstrative pronouns for things only. But we canuse them for people when the person is identified. Look at theseexamples:

Thisis Josef speaking. Is thatMary?

Thatsounds like John.

Possessive Pronouns

We use possessive pronouns to refer to a specific person/people orthing/things (the "antecedent") belonging to a person/people (andsometimes belonging to an animal/animals or thing/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 3rdperson (eg: his)

gender: male (his), female (hers)


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Below are the possessive pronouns, followed by some examplesentences. Notice that each possessive pronoun can:

be subject orobject

refer to a singular orplural 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. Mineis the big one. (subject = Mypicture)

I like your flowers. Do you like mine? (object = my flowers)

I looked everywhere for your key. I found John's key but Icouldn't find yours. (object = your key)

My flowers are dying. Yoursare lovely. (subject = Yourflowers)

All the essays were good but hiswas the best. (subject = hisessay)

John found his passport but Mary couldn't find hers. (object =her passport)


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John found his clothes but Mary couldn't find hers. (object =her clothes)

Here is your car. Oursis over there, where we left it. (subject= Our car)

Your photos are good. Oursare terrible. (subject = Ourphotos)

Each couple's books are colour-coded. Yoursare 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. Theirshave 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 theinterrogative pronoun whosecan also be a possessivepronoun (an interrogative possessive pronoun). Look at theseexamples:

There was $100 on the table and Tara wondered whoseit was. This car hasn't moved for two months. Whoseis it?

Interrogative Pronouns

We use interrogative pronouns to ask questions. The interrogativepronoun represents the thing that we don't know (what we are askingthe question about).

There are four main interrogative pronouns: who, whom, what,

which

Notice that thepossessive pronoun whosecan also be an interrogativepronoun (an interrogative possessive pronoun).
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subject object

person who whom

thing what

person/thing which

person whose (possessive)

Notice that whomis the correct form when the pronoun is the object

of the verb, as in "Whomdid you see?" ("I saw John.") However, in

normal, spoken English we rarely use whom. Most native speakers

would say (or even write): "Whodid you see?"

Look at these example questions. In the sample answers, the nounphrase that the interrogative pronoun represents is shown in bold.

question answer

Whotold you? Johntold me. subject

Whomdid you tell? I told Mary. object

What's happened? An accident's happened. subject

Whatdo you want? I want coffee. object


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Whichcame first?The Porsche 911came

first.subject

Whichwill the doctor see

first?

The doctor will see the

patient in bluefirst.object

There's one car missing.

Whosehasn't arrived?

John's (car)hasn't

arrived.subject

We've found everyone's keys.

Whosedid you find?I found John's (keys). object

Note that we sometimes use the suffix "-ever" to make compoundsfrom some of these pronouns (mainly whoever, whatever,whichever). When we add "-ever", we use it for emphasis, often to

show confusion or surprise. Look at these examples:

bahasa inggris profesi ii

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