English

Grammar
Today
With CD-ROM
An of Spoken
and Written Grammar

Ronald Carter, Michael McCarthy,

Mark and Anne O'Keeffe

CAMBRIDGE digitalisiert durch:

English grammar today
UNIVERSITY PRESS IDS Basel Bern
2011
Contents

Thanks and acknowledgements v

Introduction 1

A-Z 7

Table of irregular verbs

Glossary

Index 625
English
Grammar
Today
Ronald Carter, Michael McCarthy,
Mark and Anne O'Keeffe

CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Contents

Introduction 1
Adjectives 2
-ed and -ing adjectives {interested or interesting); Gradable (big) and
ungradable (organic) adjectives; Adjective order (a strange, green, metallic material);
Adjectives which are easily confused (economic or economical)
Adjuncts (adverbials) 7
Adjuncts (They waited outside for ages.); Complements (He put some salt
in the soup.); Post modifiers (They've closed that restaurant on Market
Street.)
Adverbs and adverb phrases 8
Quickly, very well; Time, place and manner adverbs there, slowly);
Adverbs which are easily confused (ultimately or recently)
Clauses 11
Main clauses (We didn't go to the ) and subordinate clauses
(because there weren't any tickets left)
Declaratives (Í saw them last interrogatives (What are you doing?),
Imperatives (Hurry up!) and (Wasn't she great!)
Finite (J had something to eat) and non-finite (before leaving.) clauses
Comparison 15
Comparatives (taller than, more beautiful); as (small) as, the same as;
Superlatives (the fastest, the most confident); less
Conditionals: if, if only, provided, rather, wish
Conjunctions 22
and, but, or, as, though, although, even though, while, whereas
Determiners 26
a/an, the, few, enough, two of them; some or any
Discourse markers 31
actually, anyway, so, right, well, first of all; Responses (Oh really!)
Ellipsis and substitution 36
Ellipsis (Seen my You ready yet?); So and neither, Substitution
(J hope not.)
Future 41
Will, shall, be going to, present continuous, present simple, be about to
Future continuous (/ will be working.); Future perfect (Í will have worked
eight hours.) and future perfect continuous (/ will have been working
here ten years.); Future in the past
English Grammar Today Workbook
Contents

Hedges and downtoners 46

I wondered if, possibly, kind of, a bit
Imperatives 49
Be quiet!, Let's go yet.
Infinitives 52
There's work to do.
Modality 53
Ability (Can you swim underwater?); Certainty (They must be ready soon.);
Obligation and necessity (We need to win this game to get into the final);
Possibility (She might be friend of Richard's.)
Modal verbs: can, could, may, might, be able to 58
Modal verbs: must, have to, have got to, need 61
Modal should and ought to 64
Modal verbs: will, and would 67
verbs: would, would like, would rather 70
Modality: expressions with be 73
be about to, be likely to and be due to; be certain, be supposed to,
be allowed to
Modality: tense 75
Can and could, will and would, may and might
Should have, could have, might have, must have
Negation 77
no, don't, neither, never, unlikely
Nouns 79
Singular and plural (tree - trees, child -children); Compound nouns (car
park); Nouns used only in the plural (sunglasses)
Nouns: countable and uncountable nouns 83
cars, information; Countable and uncountable nouns with different meanings
(an iron or iron); Piece words used with uncountable nouns (a bit)
Objects: direct and indirect objects 86
She gave the dog its dinner.
Passive 89
The show is watched fivemillion people every week.
Past: past simple, past continuous and present perfect simple 93
Past simple talked.) and past continuous (7 was Past simple or
present perfect? (They ate or they've eaten?)
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Past perfect simple and past perfect continuous 96

Past perfect (He'd seen it before.); Past perfect continuous (She'd been
talking about him.); Past tense review
Possession 100
Possessive s (John's car); a friend of mine
Prepositions 102
At, to, through, next to, in front of, during
Present perfect simple and present perfect continuous 107
Present simple and present continuous 111
Pronouns 117
she, us, his, mine; myself, yourself, each none, ones, one or some;
everyone, someone, nothing, everything; this, that, these; who, which, how
Punctuation 121
Questions 123
Yes-no questions; Alternative questions; Echo questions; Two-step questions;
Wh- questions; Statement questions; Question tags; Follow-up questions
Questions: how and like?
How is he?; What's he like?; How ... much, often, many, big?
Questions: 129
Who; What; Which; How; Why; When; Where
Relative clauses 132
Defining relative clauses (A botanist is a scientist who studies plants.)
Non-defining relative clauses (Kate's brother Nico, who is 19, is at
university in Berlin.)
Reported speech 137
Direct speech couldn't sleep last night," he said.) and indirect speech
(She told me they had left her without any money.)
Reporting verbs (say and ask, admit, explain, promise)
Speech acts 142
Commands, instructions, offers, promises, requests, suggestions
Spelling 148
Spoken and written English: register 151
Subjects 156
Subjects (The teacher told the class to sit down.); Subject-verb agreement
(/ think, He thinks); Subject complements (That rice tastes quite sweet.)
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Tags 158
You're a musician, aren't you?
There is and there are
to and would 162
Used to or would (I used to play the flute., We'd often swim in the river.)
Be used to (I'm used to working long hours.)
Verbs 165
Linking verbs, auxiliary verbs and modal verbs; Compound verbs (daydream)
Verb forms, regular and irregular verbs; Phrasal verbs (take off)
State verbs (I don't know.) and action verbs (She watching TV)
Verbs: everyday verbs (get, go, wish, want) 170
Verb patterns 174
io-infinitive form and the Object + io-infinitive or object +
base form; Reporting verbs + (Everyone agrees that
we have to act quickly.)
Verbs which are easily confused 176
come go; bring, take, fetch, lend or borrow; expect, for or hope;
fall, fall down feel; look, see, watch, hear or listen; used to,
be used to or usually; say or do or make; Verbs that sound similar
Word formation 182
Prefixes and suffixes; Adjectives and suffixes; Nouns into adjectives; Nouns
and prefixes; Verbs and prefixes, verbs and suffixes; Nouns and verbs;
Adverbs and suffixes; Conversions, compounds and abbreviations
Words and expressions which are easily confused 186
as or like; all, every or the whole; First, firstly, last, the end;
Each and every; Already, still yet
Answer key 189