Verbs

What Are Verbs?

 Verb Classification | Quiz

helping verbs: primary/modal
main verbs: transitive/intransitive, linking, dynamic/stative, regular/irregular

Verb Forms | Quiz

to sing, sing, sings, sang, sung, singing

Tenses
I sing, I am singing, I have sung, I have been singing, I sang, I was singing

English Tense System

In some languages, verb tenses are not very important or do not even exist. In English, the
concept of tense is very important.

In this lesson we look at the idea behind tense, how to avoid confusing tense with time, and the
structure of the basic tenses, with examples using a regular verb, an irregular verb and the verb
be.

What is Tense?
tense (noun): a form of a verb used to indicate the time, and sometimes the continuation or completeness, of an
action in relation to the time of speaking. (From Latin tempus = time).

Tense is a method that we use in English to refer to time - past, present and future. Many
languages use tenses to talk about time. Other languages have no tenses, but of course they can
still talk about time, using different methods.

So, we talk about time in English with tenses. But, and this is a very big but:

 we can also talk about time without using tenses (for example, going to is a special construction
to talk about the future, it is not a tense)
 one tense does not always talk about one time (see Tense & Time for more about this)
Here are some of the terms used in discussing verbs and tenses.

Mood

indicative mood expresses a simple statement of fact, which can be positive (affirmative) or
negative

 I like coffee.
 I do not like coffee.

interrogative mood expresses a question

 Why do you like coffee?

imperative mood expresses a command

 Sit down!

subjunctive mood expresses what is imagined or wished or possible

 The President ordered that he attend the meeting.

Voice

Voice shows the relationship of the subject to the action. In the active voice, the subject does the
action (cats eat mice). In the passive voice, the subject receives the action (mice are eaten by
cats). Among other things, we can use voice to help us change the focus of attention.

Aspect

Aspect expresses a feature of the action related to time, such as completion or duration. Present
simple and past simple tenses have no aspect, but if we wish we can stress with other tenses that:

 the action or state referred to by the verb is completed (and often still relevant), for example:
I have emailed the report to Jane. (so now she has the report)
(This is called perfective aspect, using perfect tenses.)

 the action or state referred to by the verb is in progress or continuing (that is, uncompleted), for
example:
We are eating.
(This is called progressive aspect, using progressive [continuous] tenses.)
Tense and Time
It is important not to confuse the name of a verb tense with the way we use it to talk about time.

For example, a present tense does not always refer to present time:

 I hope it rains tomorrow.

"rains" is present simple, but it refers here to future time (tomorrow)

Or a past tense does not always refer to past time:

 If I had some money now, I could buy it.

"had" is past simple but it refers here to present time (now)

The following examples show how different tenses can be used to talk about different times.

TIME
TENSE
past present future

  I want a coffee. I leave tomorrow.

Present Simple
She likes coffee.

I am taking my exam
  I am having dinner.
next month.
Present Continuous
They are living in London.

Present Perfect
I have seen ET. I have finished.  
Simple

I have been playing

   
Present Perfect tennis.
Continuous
We have been working for four hours.  

If you came
I finished one hour If she loved you now,
Past Simple tomorrow, you would
ago. she would marry you.
see her.

I was working at 2am

Past Continuous    
this morning.
 I had not eaten for 24
Past Perfect Simple    
hours.

If I had been If I had been working

Past Perfect We had been
working now, I would tomorrow, I could not
Continuous working for 3 hours.
have missed you. have agreed.

Hold on. I'll do it

Future Simple   I'll see you tomorrow.
now.

I will be working at
Future Continuous    
9pm tonight.

I will have finished

   
by 9pm tonight.
Future Perfect Simple
We will have been married for ten years next month.

They may be tired

when you arrive
   
Future Perfect because they will
Continuous have been working.

In 30 minutes, we will have been working for four hours.

Basic Tenses
For past and present, there are 2 simple tenses + 6 complex tenses (using auxiliary verbs). To these, we
can add 4 "modal tenses" for the future (using modal auxiliary verbs will/shall). This makes a total of 12
tenses in the active voice. Another 12 tenses are available in the passive voice. So now we have 24
tenses.

24 Tenses past present future*

ACTIVE simple
past present future
tenses

complex past perfect present perfect future perfect

tenses
formed with past continuous present continuous future continuous
auxiliary
past perfect present perfect future perfect
 continuous continuous continuous

past present future

past perfect present perfect future perfect

PASSIVE verbs
past continuous present continuous future continuous

past perfect present perfect future perfect

continuous continuous continuous
 
Some grammar books use the word progressive instead of continuous. They are exactly the
same.

The use of tenses in English may be quite complicated, but the structure of English tenses is
actually very simple. The basic structure for a positive sentence is:

subject + auxiliary verb + main verb

An auxiliary verb is used in all tenses. (In the simple present and simple past tenses, the
auxiliary verb is usually suppressed for the affirmative, but it does exist for intensification.) The
following table shows the 12 tenses for the verb to work in the active voice.

structure
past present future*
auxiliary main verb

normal     I worked I work I will work

simple
intensive do base I did work I do work  

I have I will have

perfect have past participle I had worked
worked worked

present I was I will be

continuous be I am working
participle -ing working working

continuous have present I had been I have been I will have

perfect been participle -ing working working been working

* Technically, there are no future tenses in English. The word will is a modal auxiliary verb and
future tenses are sometimes called "modal tenses". The examples are included here for
convenience and comparison.
Basic Tenses: Regular Verb
Regular verbs list

This page shows the basic tenses with the regular verb work. It includes the affirmative or
positive form (+), the negative form (-) and the interrogative or question form (?).

The basic structure is:

positive: + subject + auxiliary verb + main verb

negative: - subject + auxiliary verb + not + main verb
question: ? auxiliary verb + subject + main verb
These are the forms of the main verb that we use to construct the tenses:

base verb past past participle present participle -ing

work worked worked working

 
past present future

I did work I do work

+ I worked I work
I will work
SIMPLE
do + base verb
(except future: - I did not work I do not work I will not work
will + base verb)
? Did I work? Do I work? Will I work?

+ I had worked I have worked I will have worked

SIMPLE PERFECT
have + past participle - I had not worked I have not worked I will not have worked

? Had I worked? Have I worked? Will I have worked?

CONTINUOUS + I was working I am working I will be working

 - I was not working I am not working I will not be working
be + ing
? Was I working? Am I working? Will I be working?

I had been I have been I will have been

+ working working working
CONTINUOUS
I had not been I have not been I will not have been
PERFECT - working working working
have been + ing
Had I been Have I been Will I have been
? working? working? working?

Basic Tenses: Irregular Verb

Irregular verbs list

This page shows the basic tenses with the irregular verb sing. It includes the affirmative or
positive form (+), the negative form (-) and the interrogative or question form (?).

The basic structure is:

positive: + subject + auxiliary verb + main verb

negative: - subject + auxiliary verb + not + main verb
question: ? auxiliary verb + subject + main verb
These are the forms of the main verb that we use to construct the tenses:

base verb past past participle present participle -ing

sing sang sung singing

 
past present future

SIMPLE I did sing I do sing

do + base verb + I sang I sing
I will sing
(except future:
will + base verb) - I did not sing I do not sing I will not sing
 ? Did I sing? Do I sing? Will I sing?

+ I had sung I have sung I will have sung

SIMPLE PERFECT
have + past participle - I had not sung I have not sung I will not have sung

? Had I sung? Have I sung? Will I have sung?

+ I was singing I am singing I will be singing

CONTINUOUS
be + -ing - I was not singing I am not singing I will not be singing

? Was I singing? Am I singing? Will I be singing?

I will have been

+ I had been singing I have been singing
singing
CONTINUOUS
I had not been I have not been I will not have been
PERFECT - singing singing singing
have been + -ing
Had I been Have I been Will I have been
? singing? singing? singing?

Basic Tenses: Be
This page shows the basic tenses with the verb be. It includes the affirmative or positive form
(+), the negative form (-) and the interrogative or question form (?).

The basic structure is:

positive (+): subject + auxiliary verb + main verb

negative (-): subject + auxiliary verb + not + main verb
question (?): auxiliary verb + subject + main verb

But for simple past and simple present tenses, the structure is not the same. In fact, it's even
easier. There is no auxiliary verb. Here is the structure:

positive (+): subject + main verb

negative (-): subject + main verb + not
question (?): main verb + subject
These are the forms of the main verb be that we use to construct the tenses:

base past simple past participle present participle present simple

be was, were been being am, are, is

 
past present future

+ I was I am I will be
SIMPLE
present simple or past
- I was not I am not I will not be
simple
(except future: will + be)
? Was I? Am I? Will I be?

+ I had been I have been I will have been

SIMPLE PERFECT
- I had not been I have not been I will not have been
have + been
? Had I been? Have I been? Will I have been?

+ I was being I am being I will be being

CONTINUOUS
- I was not being I am not being I will not be being
be + being
? Was I being? Am I being? Will I be being?

+ I had been being I have been being I will have been being

I had not been I have not been I will not have been
CONTINUOUS PERFECT -
being being being
have been + being
Had I been Have I been Will I have been
?
being? being? being?
In the following table, we see be conjugated for 12 basic tenses.

SIMPLE past present future

I was am will be

singular you were are will be

he/she/it was is will be

we were are will be

plural you were are will be

they were are will be

PERFECT past present future

I had been have been will have been

singular you had been have been will have been

he/she/it had been has been will have been

we had been have been will have been

plural you had been have been will have been

they had been have been will have been

CONTINUOUS past present future

I was being am being will be being

singular you were being are being will be being

he/she/it was being is being will be being

 we were being are being will be being

plural you were being are being will be being

they were being are being will be being

CONTINUOUS PERFECT past present future

I had been being have been being will have been being

singular you had been being have been being will have been being

he/she/it had been being has been being will have been being

we had been being have been being will have been being

plural you had been being have been being will have been being

they had been being have been being will have been being

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) 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
teacher, school, book

Countable Nouns, Uncountable Nouns

Why is this important? Why do some nouns have no plural?
dog/dogs, rice, hair(s)

Proper Nouns (Names)

Do we say "Atlantic Ocean" or "the Atlantic Ocean"? Should I write "february" or "February"?
Shirley, Mr Jeckyll, Thailand, April, Sony

Possessive 's
Adding 's or ' to show possession.
John's car, my parents' house
Noun as Adjective
Sometimes we use a noun to describe another noun. In that case, the first noun is "acting as" an
adjective.
love story, tooth-brush, bathroom

Compound Nouns
A compound noun is a noun that is made with two or more words.
tennis shoe, six-pack, bedroom

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 a
verb.

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:

 -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. In
the 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".
In this lesson we look at:

 Countable Nouns
 Uncountable Nouns
 Nouns that can be Countable & Uncountable

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. 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

In this lesson we look at the uses of proper nouns, followed by a quiz to check your
understanding:

 Using Capital Letters with Proper Nouns

 Proper Nouns without THE
 Proper Nouns with THE
 Proper Nouns Quiz

Using Capital Letters with Proper Nouns

We always use a Capital Letter for the first letter of a proper noun (name). This includes names
of people, places, companies, days of the week 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 Titanic in the Odeon Cinema.

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

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 a
singular 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 and
not the possessed.

one ball more than one ball

 one boy
the boy's ball the boy's balls

more than one boy

the 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
2. my sister's boyfriend

Proper Nouns (Names)

We very often use possessive 's with names:

 This is Mary's car.

 Where is Ram's telephone?

 Who took Anthony's pen?

 I like Tara's hair.

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

 This is Charles's chair.

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

 Who was Jesus' father?

Irregular Plurals

Some nouns have irregular plural forms without s (man > men). To show possession, we usually
add 's to 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 a word that describes a noun:

adjective noun

clever teacher

small office

black horse

Sometimes we use a noun to describe another noun. In that case, the first 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 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

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 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 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 different
ways: (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

 bathroom

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 these
examples:

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

noun as noun as
adjective adjective noun

    costs

  production costs

car production costs

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

noun as noun as noun as

adjective adjective adjective noun
      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 the
word "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 as
adjective" are regarded as nouns in their own right, with their own dictionary 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 a centre that researches into
accidents on the road for the government

noun as noun as noun as noun as

adjective adjective adjective 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. The above headline is about a
MYSTERY concerning a MURDER in a CENTRE for RESEARCH into the HEALTH of
BIRDS.

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 important
to 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:

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

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

football Shall we play football today?

full moon I always feel crazy at full moon.

adjective + noun blackboard Clean the blackboard please.

software I can't install this software on my PC.

breakfast We always eat breakfast at 8am.

washing
verb(-ing) + noun Put the clothes in the red washing machine.
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.

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

Do you think the police accept money from the

preposition + noun underworld
underworld?

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 the
compound 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 single
noun and so it has a single main stress - on the first word. Stress is important in compound
nouns. 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 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

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

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 school teacher three school teachers

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 it is more usual to say spoonfuls or truckfuls. Both
the 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

  new style plural
(very formal)

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 to
find 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 and
therefore does not usually take an -s. A tree that has apples has many apples, but we say an apple
tree, not apples tree; matchbox not matchesbox; toothbrush not teethbrush.

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

plural compound noun

long plural form becomes ›
[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

Compound noun quiz

Using compound nouns, can you shorten the following phrases?

a room for
1.  
stores

a tape for
2. measuring up  
to 300 cms

the assistant
3. manager of  
the restaurant
 a station for
4.  
express trains

5. size of cables  

reduction in
6.  
cost

two periods of
7.  
three months

plugs with 3
8.  
pins

two steel
9. boxes for the  
tools

the husband
10. of my  
daughter

      

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 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).

Determiners
Determiners are words like the, an, my, some. They are grammatically similar. They all come at
the beginning of noun phrases, and usually we cannot use more than one determiner in the same
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 "a dog"? (On this page we talk only about
singular, countable nouns.)
The and a/an are called "articles". We divide them into "definite" and "indefinite" like this:

Articles

Definite Indefinite

the a, an

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

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

When we are talking about one thing in particular, we use the. When we are talking about one
thing in general, we use a or an.

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

 I saw the moon last night.

 I saw a star last night.

Look at these examples:

the a, an

 The capital of France is Paris.  I was born in a town.

 I have found the book that I lost.  John had an omelette for lunch.
 Have you cleaned the car?  James Bond ordered a drink.
 There are six eggs in the fridge.  We want to buy an umbrella.

 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 the
word. 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.)

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

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

 my, your, his, her, its, our, their

 whose (interrogative)

possessive
number person gender example sentence
adjective

1st male/female my This is my book.

2nd male/female your I like your hair.

singular male his His name is "John".

3rd female her Her name is "Mary".

neuter its The dog is licking its paw.

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

2nd male/female your Your children are lovely.

plural
The students thanked their
3rd male/female/neuter their
teacher.

         

male/female (not
singular/plural 1st/2nd/3rd whose Whose phone did you use?
neuter)
 
Compare:

your = possessive adjective

you're = you are

its = possessive adjective

it's = it is OR it has

their = possessive adjective

they're = they are
there = adverb (I'm not going there / look over there / there is a car outside)
whose = possessive adjective
who's = who is OR who has

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

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

 my, your, his, her, its, our, their

 whose (interrogative)

possessive
number person gender example sentence
adjective

1st male/female my This is my book.

2nd male/female your I like your hair.

singular male his His name is "John".

3rd female her Her name is "Mary".

neuter its The dog is licking its paw.

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

2nd male/female your Your children are lovely.

plural
The students thanked their
3rd male/female/neuter their
teacher.

         

male/female (not
singular/plural 1st/2nd/3rd whose Whose phone did you use?
neuter)
 
Compare:

your = possessive adjective

you're = you are
its = possessive adjective
it's = it is OR it has

their = possessive adjective

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

whose = possessive adjective

who's = who is OR who has

Each, Every
Each and every have similar but not always identical meanings.

Each = every one separately

Every = each, all

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 in
general.

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.

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
+   I have $10.
money.

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

Do you have any

?   Do you have $1 or $10 or $1,000,000?
money?
 
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 say
that it is not a real question, because we think we know the answer already.)

 Would you like some more tea?

 Could I have some sugar, please?

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.

In this lesson we look at the position of adjectives in a sentence, followed by a quiz to check
your understanding:
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 about
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 fact adjectives:

 articles (a, the)

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

Here is an example with opinion and fact adjectives:

adjectives

deter- fact noun

opinion
miner 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.

Superlative Adjectives
A superlative adjective expresses the extreme or highest degree of a quality. 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 the adjective "big":

ABA is the biggest.

C

In this lesson we will look first at how we make superlative adjectives, and then at how we use
them:

 Formation of Superlative Adjectives

Formation of Superlative Adjectives

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, big → the biggest
double the last consonant

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

modern → the most

modern
Normal rule: use "most"
expensive → 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

Exception
The following adjectives have irregular forms:

 good → the best

 bad → the worst
 far → the furthest

Use of Superlative Adjectives

Use of Superlative Adjectives

We use a superlative adjective to describe one thing in a group of three or more things. Look at
these 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 as
shown in the table below:

  Earth Mars Jupiter  

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

Dis-
Jupiter is the most distant from the
tance from Sun (million 150 228 778
Sun.
km)

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

Moons 1 2 16 Jupiter has the most moons.

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

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)

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 gradable adjectives
a little, dreadfully, extremely, fairly, hugely, angry, big, busy, clever, cold, deep, fast, friendly,
+
immensely, intensely, rather, reasonably, good, happy, high, hot, important, long, popular, rich,
slightly, unusually, very 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" 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 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

 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 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 same idea 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 just
give the adjective extra impact), for example:

non-grading adverbs non-gradable adjectives

absolutely awful

utterly excellent extreme

completely terrified

totally dead

nearly impossible absolute

virtually unique

essentially chemical

mainly digital classifying

almost domestic

Here are some example sentences with non-gradable adjectives:

 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 adjective
to 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, but
less 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:

  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 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

Gradable and Non-gradable Adjectives Quiz

1 I am happy to see you.

2 The cat was dead when the vet arrived.

3 To make tea, the water should be boiling.

4 Well done! Your homework is excellent.

5 Don't see that film! It's awful!

6 The terrified people ran for their lives.

 7 I am reading a good book.

8 Are you sure? - Yes, I'm certain.

9 It's cold outside. In fact, it's nearly freezing.

10 The world is in a ridiculous situation. I laugh so

much!

Noun as Adjective
As you know, a noun is a person, place or thing, and an adjective is a word that describes a noun:

adjective noun

clever teacher

small office

black horse

Sometimes we use a noun to describe another noun. In that case, the first 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 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

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 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 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 different
ways: (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

 bathroom

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 these
examples:

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

noun as noun as noun

adjective adjective

    costs

  production costs

car production costs

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

noun as noun as noun as noun

adjective adjective adjective

      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 the
word "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 as
adjective" are regarded as nouns in their own right, with their own dictionary 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 a centre that researches into
accidents on the road for the government

noun as noun as noun as noun as noun

adjective adjective adjective adjective

        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 a
MYSTERY concerning a MURDER in a CENTRE for RESEARCH into the HEALTH of
BIRDS.

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

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?
What do adverbs do? What's their job?

Adverb Form
How do we make adverbs?

Kinds of Adverbs
What are the main kinds of adverbs?

Adverb Position
Where do we place the adverb in a sentence?

Adverbs of Frequency
hourly, weekly, once a year...
always, sometimes, never...

Adverbs Quiz

See also adverb vocabulary:

 Adverbs of Manner List

 Adverbs of Place List
 Adverbs of Time List
 Adverbs of Degree List

What is an Adverb?
An adverb is a word that tells us more about a verb. It "qualifies" or "modifies" a verb (The man
ran quickly). In the following examples, the adverb is in bold and the verb that it modifies is in
italics.

 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 works
very 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.

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

quick quickly
nice nicely
most adjectives add -ly
sole solely
careful carefully

regrettable regrettably
-able or -ible change -e to -y
horrible horribly

-y change -y to -ily happy happily

-ic change -ic to -ically economic economically

But not all words that end in -ly are adverbs. The words friendly, lovely, lonely and neighbourly,
for example, are all adjectives.

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

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

Kinds of Adverbs
Here you can see the basic kinds of adverbs.

Adverbs of Manner

Adverbs of Manner tell us the manner or way in which something happens. They answer the
question "how?". Adverbs of Manner mainly modify verbs.

 He speaks slowly. (How does he speak?)

 They helped us cheerfully. (How did they help us?)

 James Bond drives his 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.

 Please sit here. (Where should I sit?)

 They looked everywhere. (Where did they look?)

 Two cars were parked outside. (Where were two cars parked?)

Adverbs of Time

Adverbs of Time tell us something about the time that something happens. Adverbs of Time
mainly modify verbs.
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 the
question "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?)

See also adverb vocabulary:

 Adverbs of Manner List

 Adverbs of Place List

 Adverbs of Time List

 Adverbs of Degree List

Adverb Position
When an adverb modifies a verb, there are usually 3 possible positions within the sentence or
clause:

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 that
it modifies, for example:

  adverb adjective  

She gave him a really dirty look.

  adverb adverb  

We quite often study English.

The position of an adverb often depends on the kind of adverb (manner, place, time, degree). The
following 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.

sentence
mainly
kind of adverb usual position
modifies
  adverb  

manner verbs She stroked his hair gently.   END

place verbs He was working here.   END

definite He finished the job yesterday.   END

time verbs
frequency We often go to Paris. MID

I nearly died. MID

verbs,
adjectives
degree It was terribly funny. before adjective
and
adverbs
He works really fast. before adverb

Adverbs of Manner List

Alphabetical list of common single-word manner adverbs

Adverbs of manner form the largest group of adverbs. We make most of them simply by adding
-ly to their corresponding adjective. This is an alphabetical list of 130 common single-word
adverbs of manner. Adverbs of manner that do not end in -ly are shown in bold.
accidentally
angrily
anxiously
awkwardly
badly
beautifully
blindly
boldly
bravely
brightly
busily
calmly
carefully
carelessly
cautiously
cheerfully
clearly
closely
correctly
courageously
cruelly
daringly
deliberately
doubtfully
eagerly
easily
elegantly
enormously
enthusiastically
equally
eventually
exactly
faithfully
fast
fatally
fiercely
fondly
foolishly
fortunately
frankly
frantically
generously
gently
gladly
gracefully
greedily
happily
hard
hastily
healthily
honestly
hungrily
hurriedly
inadequately
ingeniously
innocently
inquisitively
irritably
joyously
justly
kindly
lazily
loosely
loudly
madly
mortally
mysteriously
neatly
nervously
noisily
obediently
openly
painfully
patiently
perfectly
politely
poorly
powerfully
promptly
punctually
quickly
quietly
rapidly
rarely
really
recklessly
regularly
reluctantly
repeatedly
rightfully
roughly
rudely
sadly
safely
selfishly
sensibly
seriously
sharply
shyly
silently
sleepily
slowly
smoothly
so
softly
solemnly
speedily
stealthily
sternly
straight
stupidly
successfully
suddenly
suspiciously
swiftly
tenderly
tensely
thoughtfully
tightly
truthfully
unexpectedly
victoriously
violently
vivaciously
warmly
weakly
wearily
well
wildly
wisely

Adverbs of Place List

Alphabetical list of common single-word place adverbs

about
above
abroad
anywhere
away
back
backwards (also backward)
behind
below
down
downstairs
east (etc)
elsewhere
far
here
in
indoors
inside
near
nearby
off
on
out
outside
over
there
towards
under
up
upstairs
where

Common suffixes
 -wards or -ward (backwards, downwards, eastward, forwards, homewards, upwards)
 -where (anywhere, everywhere, nowhere, somewhere)

Note that some adverbs can also be prepositions.

 She was waiting with a red scarf on. (adverb)
 She put the red scarf on the table. (preposition)

Adverbs of Time List

List of common single-word time adverbs

points of time (definite):

 now
 then

 today

 tomorrow

 tonight

 yesterday

frequency (definite):

 annually
 daily

 fortnightly

 hourly

 monthly

 nightly

 quarterly

 weekly

 yearly

The word "bimonthly" is ambiguous and best avoided. Bimonthly can mean "twice a month" or "every
two months". The same is true of "biyearly"/"biannually".

frequency (indefinite):

 always
 constantly

 ever

 frequently

 generally

 infrequently

 never
  normally

 occasionally

 often

 rarely

 regularly

 seldom

 sometimes

 regularly

 usually

relationships in time (indefinite):

 already
 before

 early

 earlier

 eventually

 finally

 first

 formerly

 just

 last

 late

 later

 lately

 next

 previously

 recently

 since

 soon
  still

 yet

See also: grammar of adverbs

Adverbs of Degree List

Alphabetical list of common single-word degree adverbs

almost
absolutely
awfully*
badly*
barely
completely
decidedly
deeply
enough
enormously
entirely
extremely
fairly
far
fully
greatly
hardly
highly
how
incredibly
indeed
intensely
just
least
less
little
lots
most
much
nearly
perfectly
positively
practically
pretty*
purely
quite
rather
really
scarcely
simply
so
somewhat
strongly
terribly*
thoroughly
too
totally
utterly
very
virtually
well

*informal

See also: grammar of adverbs

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
I, me, you, he, him, she...

Demonstrative Pronouns
this, that, these, those

Possessive Pronouns
mine, yours, his...
Interrogative Pronouns
who, what, which...

Reflexive Pronouns
myself, yourself, himself...

Reciprocal Pronouns
each other, one another

Indefinite Pronouns
another, much, nobody, few, such...

Relative Pronouns
who, whom, which...

Pronoun Case
subjective, objective, possessive

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

personal pronouns

number person gender subject object

singular 1st male/female I me

2nd male/female you you

 male he him

3rd female she her

neuter it it

1st male/female we us

plural 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):

 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.

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

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 a
demonstrative 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 when
the person is identified. Look at these examples:

 This is Josef speaking. Is that Mary?

 That sounds like John.

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 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 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

1st male/female mine

2nd male/female yours

singular
male his
3rd
female hers

1st male/female ours

plural 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)
 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 thing
that 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  

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. Most
native 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

The doctor will see the patient in

Which will the doctor see first? object
blue first.

There's one car missing. Whose hasn't

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

We've found everyone's keys. Whose did

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

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 to
show 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
 myself
singular yourself
himself, herself, itself

ourselves
plural yourselves
themselves

Look at these examples:

  reflexive pronouns

the underlined words are NOT the same the underlined words are the SAME
person/thing person/thing

John saw me. I saw myself in the mirror.

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 function
and usage are different. An intensive pronoun emphasizes its antecedent. Look at these
examples:

 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 way
towards 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.

The action is "reciprocated". John talks to Mary and Mary talks to John. I give you a present and
you 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 use
reciprocal pronouns with I, you [singular], he/she/it), and
 they must be doing the same thing

Look at these examples:

 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.

Indefinite Pronouns
That's Not My Job!
This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.

An indefinite pronoun does not refer to any specific person, thing or amount. It is vague and "not
definite". 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" in
the following sentences:
 He has one job in the day and another at night. (pronoun)
 I'd like another drink, please. (adjective)

Most indefinite pronouns are either singular or plural. However, some of them can be singular in
one context and plural in another. The most common indefinite pronouns are listed below, with
examples, 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

an additional or different person or That ice-cream was good. Can I

another
thing have another?

anybody/anyone no matter what person Can anyone answer this question?

The doctor needs to know if you

anything no matter what thing have eaten anything in the last two
hours.

every one of two or more people or

each Each has his own thoughts.
things, seen separately

one or the other of two people or Do you want tea or coffee? / I don't
either
things mind. Either is good for me.

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

We can start the meeting because

everybody/everyone all people
everybody has arrived.

They have no house or possessions.

everything all things They lost everything in the
earthquake.

"Less is more" (Mies van der

less a smaller amount
Rohe)

little a small amount Little is know about his early life.

much a large amount Much has happend since we met.

not one and not the other of two I keep telling Jack and Jill but
neither
people or things neither believes me.

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

 answered.

If you don't know the answer it's

nothing no single thing, not anything
best to say nothing.

Can one smoke here? | All the

one an unidentified person students arrived but now one is
missing.

a different person or thing from one One was tall and the other was
other
already mentioned short.

Clearly somebody murdered him.

somebody/someone an unspecified or unknown person
It was not suicide.

Listen! I just heard something!

something an unspecified or unknown thing
What could it be?

you an unidentified person (informal) And you can see why.

plural

John likes coffee but not tea. I

both two people or things, seen together
think both are good.

Few have ever disobeyed him and

few a small number of people or things
lived.

a reduced number of people or

fewer Fewer are smoking these days.
things

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

I'm sure that others have tried

others other people; not us
before us.

They all complained and several

several more than two but not many
left the meeting.

They say that vegetables are good

they people in general (informal)
for you.

singular or plural

the whole quantity of something or All is forgiven.

all
of some things or people All have arrived.
 Is any left?
any no matter how much or how many
Are any coming?

a greater quantity of something; a There is more over there.

more
greater number of people or things More are coming.

Most is lost.
most the majority; nearly all
Most have refused.

They fixed the water so why is

none coming out of the tap?
none not any; no person or persons
I invited five friends but none have
come.*

an unspecified quantity of
Here is some.
some something; an unspecified number
Some have arrived.
of people or things

He was a foreigner and he felt that

such of the type already mentioned
he was treated as such.
* Some people say that "none" should always take a singular verb, even when talking about
countable nouns (eg five friends). They argue that "none" means "no one", and "one" is
obviously singular. They say that "I invited five friends but none has come" is correct and "I
invited five friends but none have come" is incorrect. Historically and grammatically there is
little to support this view. "None" has been used for hundreds of years with both a singular and a
plural verb, according to the context and the emphasis required.

Relative Pronouns
A relative pronoun is a pronoun that introduces a relative clause. It is called a "relative" pronoun
because it "relates" to the word that it modifies. Here is an example:

 The person who phoned me last night is my teacher.

In the above example, "who":

 relates to "person", which it modifies

 introduces the relative clause "who phoned me last night"

There are five relative pronouns: who, whom, whose, which, that*
Who (subject) and whom (object) are generally only for people. Whose is for possession.
Which is for things. That can be used for people** and things and as subject and object in
defining relative clauses (clauses that are essential to the sentence and do not simply add extra
information).

Relative pronouns can refer to singular or plural, and there is no difference between male and
female.

Look at these examples showing defining and non-defining relative clauses:

example sentences
  notes
S=subject, O=object, P=possessive

- The person who phoned me last night is

my teacher.
That is preferable
- The person that phoned me last night is
S my teacher.

- The car which hit me was yellow.

That is preferable
- The cars that hit me were yellow.

- The person whom I phoned last night is

my teacher.
- The people who I phoned last night are
Whom is correct but very
my teachers.
formal. The relative pronoun is
- The person that I phoned last night is my
optional.
teacher.
O - The person I phoned last night is my
defining teacher.

- The car which I drive is old.

That is preferable to which. The
- The car that I drive is old.
relative pronoun is optional.
- The car I drive is old.

- The student whose phone just rang

should stand up.
 
- Students whose parents are wealthy pay
extra.
P
- The police are looking for the car whose
driver was masked. Of which is usual for things, but
- The police are looking for the car of whose is sometimes possible
which the driver was masked.
 - Mrs Pratt, who is very kind, is my
 
teacher.
S
- The car, which was a taxi, exploded.
 
- The cars, which were taxis, exploded.

- Mrs Pratt, whom I like very much, is my

teacher. Whom is correct but very
- Mr and Mrs Pratt, who I like very much, formal. Who is normal.
O are my teachers.
non-
defining - The car, which I was driving at the time,
 
suddenly caught fire.

- My brother, whose phone you just heard,

 
is a doctor.

- The car, whose driver jumped out just

P before the accident, was completely
destroyed. Of which is usual for things, but
- The car, the driver of which jumped out whose is sometimes possible
just before the accident, was completely
destroyed.

*Not all grammar sources count "that" as a relative pronoun.

**Some people claim that we cannot use "that" for people but must use "who/whom"; there is no
good reason for such a claim.

English Prepositions
A preposition is a word governing, and usually coming in front of, a noun or pronoun and
expressing a relation to another word or element, as in:

 She left before breakfast.

 What did you come for?

(For what did you come?)

Short List of Common Prepositions

A Simple Rule for Prepositions

Prepositions of Place
at the bus stop, in the box, on the wall

Prepositions of Time
at Christmas, in May, on Friday

Prepositions List - full list with example sentences

English
Prepositions
List
There are about 150
prepositions in English. For a full list of 150 prepositions, try
Yet this is a very small this downloadable ebook, English Prepositions List by English Club
number when you think of founder Josef Essberger:
the thousands of other  includes one-word and complex prepositions
words (nouns, verbs etc).  370 example sentences
Prepositions are important
words. We use individual  200 quiz questions with answers
prepositions more
frequently than other  immediate download to your computer
individual words. In fact,
 read on your computer or print out on paper
the prepositions of, to and
in are among the ten most  works on Windows or Mac
frequent words in English.
Here is a short list of 70 Buy online at eslDepot.com
of the more common one-
word prepositions. Many of these prepositions have more than one meaning. Please refer to a
dictionary for precise meaning and usage.

 aboard
 about
 above
 across
 after
 against
 along
 amid
 among
 anti
 around
 as
 at

 before
 behind
 below
 beneath
 beside
 besides
 between
 beyond
 but
 by

 concerning
 considering

 despite
 down
 during

 except
 excepting
 excluding
 following
 for
 from

 in
 inside
 into

 like

 minus

 near

 of
 off
 on
 onto
 opposite
 outside
 over

 past
 per
 plus

 regarding
 round

 save
 since

 than
 through
 to
  toward
 towards

 under
 underneath
 unlike
 until
 up
 upon

 versus
 via

 with
 within
 without

English Preposition Rule

There is one very simple rule about prepositions. And, unlike most rules, this rule has no
exceptions.

Rule
A preposition is followed by a "noun". It is never followed by a verb.

By "noun" we include:

 noun (dog, money, love)

 proper noun (name) (Bangkok, Mary)
 pronoun (you, him, us)
 noun group (my first job)
 gerund (swimming)
A preposition cannot be followed by a verb. If we want to follow a preposition by a verb, we
must use the "-ing" form which is really a gerund or verb in noun form.

Quick Quiz: In the following sentences, why is "to" followed by a verb? That should be
impossible, according to the above rule:

 I would like to go now.

 She used to smoke.

Here are some examples:

Subject + verb preposition "noun"

The food is on the table.

She lives in Japan.

Tara is looking for you.

The letter is under your blue book.

Pascal is used to English people.

She isn't used to working.

I ate before coming.

Answer to Quick Quiz: In these sentences, "to" is not a preposition. It is part of the infinitive
("to go", "to smoke").

Prepositions of Place: at, in, on

In general, we use:

 at for a POINT
 in for an ENCLOSED SPACE
 on for a SURFACE

at in on
POINT ENCLOSED SPACE SURFACE

at the corner in the garden on the wall

at the bus stop in London on the ceiling

at the door in France on the door

at the top of the page in a box on the cover

at the end of the road in my pocket on the floor

at the entrance in my wallet on the carpet

at the crossroads in a building on the menu

at the front desk in a car on a page

Look at these examples:

 Jane is waiting for you at the bus stop.

 The shop is at the end of the street.
 My plane stopped at Dubai and Hanoi and arrived in Bangkok two hours late.
 When will you arrive at the office?
 Do you work in an office?
 I have a meeting in New York.
 Do you live in Japan?
 Jupiter is in the Solar System.
 The author's name is on the cover of the book.
 There are no prices on this menu.
 You are standing on my foot.
 There was a "no smoking" sign on the wall.
 I live on the 7th floor at 21 Oxford Street in London.

Notice the use of the prepositions of place at, in and on in these standard expressions:
at in on

at home in a car on a bus

at work in a taxi on a train

at school in a helicopter on a plane

at university in a boat on a ship

at college in a lift (elevator) on a bicycle, on a motorbike

at the top in the newspaper on a horse, on an elephant

at the bottom in the sky on the radio, on television

at the side in a row on the left, on the right

at reception in Oxford Street on the way

See also Prepositions of Time: at, in, on

Prepositions of Time: at, in, on

We use:

 at for a PRECISE TIME

 in for MONTHS, YEARS, CENTURIES and LONG PERIODS
 on for DAYS and DATES

at in on

PRECISE MONTHS, YEARS, CENTURIES and LONG

DAYS and DATES
TIME PERIODS

at 3 o'clock in May on Sunday

at 10.30am in summer on Tuesdays

at noon in the summer on 6 March

at dinnertime in 1990 on 25 Dec. 2010

at bedtime in the 1990s on Christmas Day

on Independence
at sunrise in the next century
Day

at sunset in the Ice Age on my birthday

at the moment in the past/future on New Year's Eve

Look at these examples:

 I have a meeting at 9am.

 The shop closes at midnight.
 Jane went home at lunchtime.
 In England, it often snows in December.
 Do you think we will go to Jupiter in the future?
 There should be a lot of progress in the next century.
 Do you work on Mondays?
 Her birthday is on 20 November.
 Where will you be on New Year's Day?

Notice the use of the preposition of time at in the following standard expressions:

Expression Example

at night The stars shine at night.

at the weekend I don't usually work at the weekend.

We finished the test

at the same time.at I stay with my family at Christmas.
Christmas/Easter

at presentat the
He's not home at present. Try later.
same time

Notice the use of the prepositions of time in and on in these common expressions:
in on

in the morning on Tuesday morning

in the mornings on Saturday mornings

in the afternoon(s) on Sunday afternoons

in the evening(s) on Monday evening

When we say last, next, every, this we do not also use at, in, on.

 I went to London last June. (not in last June)

 He's coming back next Tuesday. (not on next Tuesday)
 I go home every Easter. (not at every Easter)
 We'll call you this evening. (not in this evening)

Prepositions of
Place: at, in, on
In general, we use:
 at for a POINT
 in for an ENCLOSED SPACE
 on for a SURFACE

at
in
on

POINT
ENCLOSED SPACE
SURFACE
at the corner
in the garden
on the wall

at the bus stop

in London
on the ceiling

at the door
in France
on the door

at the top of the page

in a box
on the cover

at the end of the road

in my pocket
on the floor

at the entrance
in my wallet
on the carpet

at the crossroads
in a building
on the menu

at the front desk

in a car
on a page

Look at these examples:

 Jane is waiting for you at the bus stop.
 The shop is at the end of the street.
 My plane stopped at Dubai and Hanoi and arrived in Bangkok two hours late.
 When will you arrive at the office?
  Do you work in an office?
 I have a meeting in New York.
 Do you live in Japan?
 Jupiter is in the Solar System.
 The author's name is on the cover of the book.
 There are no prices on this menu.
 You are standing on my foot.
 There was a "no smoking" sign on the wall.
 I live on the 7th floor at 21 Oxford Street in London.

Notice the use of the prepositions of place at, in and on in these standard expressions:

at
in
on

at home
in a car
on a bus

at work
in a taxi
on a train

at school
in a helicopter
on a plane

at university
in a boat
on a ship

at college
in a lift (elevator)
on a bicycle, on a motorbike

at the top
in the newspaper
on a horse, on an elephant

at the bottom
in the sky
on the radio, on television

at the side
in a row
on the left, on the right

at reception
in Oxford Street
on the way

Prepositions of Time: at, in, on

We use:

 at for a PRECISE TIME

 in for MONTHS, YEARS, CENTURIES and LONG PERIODS
 on for DAYS and DATES

atinonPRECISE TIMEMONTHS, YEARS, CENTURIES and LONG PERIODSDAYS and

DATESat 3 o'clockin Mayon Sundayat 10.30amin summeron Tuesdaysat noonin the summeron
6 Marchat dinnertimein 1990on 25 Dec. 2010at bedtimein the 1990son Christmas Dayat
sunrisein the next centuryon Independence Dayat sunsetin the Ice Ageon my birthdayat the
momentin the past/futureon New Year's EveLook at these examples:

 I have a meeting at 9am.

 The shop closes at midnight.
 Jane went home at lunchtime.
 In England, it often snows in December.
 Do you think we will go to Jupiter in the future?
 There should be a lot of progress in the next century.
 Do you work on Mondays?
  Her birthday is on 20 November.
 Where will you be on New Year's Day?

Notice the use of the preposition of time at in the following standard expressions:

ExpressionExampleat nightThe stars shine at night.at the weekendI don't usually work at the
weekend.at Christmas/EasterI stay with my family at Christmas.at the same timeWe finished
the test at the same time.at presentHe's not home at present. Try later.Notice the use of the
prepositions of time in and on in these common expressions:
inonin the morningon Tuesday morningin the morningson Saturday morningsin the
afternoon(s)on Sunday afternoonsin the evening(s)on Monday eveningWhen we say last, next,
every, this we do not also use at, in, on.
 I went to London last June. (not in last June)
 He's coming back next Tuesday. (not on next Tuesday)
 I go home every Easter. (not at every Easter)
 We'll call you this evening. (not in this evening)

See also Prepositions of Place: at, in, on

Prepositions of Place: at, in, on

In general, we use:

 at for a POINT
 in for an ENCLOSED SPACE
 on for a SURFACE

atinonPOINTENCLOSED SPACESURFACEat the cornerin the gardenon the wallat the bus
stopin Londonon the ceilingat the doorin Franceon the doorat the top of the pagein a boxon the
coverat the end of the roadin my pocketon the floorat the entrancein my walleton the carpetat the
crossroadsin a buildingon the menuat the front desk in a caron a pageLook at these examples:

 Jane is waiting for you at the bus stop.

 The shop is at the end of the street.
 My plane stopped at Dubai and Hanoi and arrived in Bangkok two hours late.
 When will you arrive at the office?
 Do you work in an office?
  I have a meeting in New York.
 Do you live in Japan?
 Jupiter is in the Solar System.
 The author's name is on the cover of the book.
 There are no prices on this menu.
 You are standing on my foot.
 There was a "no smoking" sign on the wall.
 I live on the 7th floor at 21 Oxford Street in London.

Notice the use of the prepositions of place at, in and on in these standard expressions:

atinonat homein a caron a busat workin a taxion a trainat schoolin a helicopteron a planeat
universityin a boaton a shipat collegein a lift (elevator)on a bicycle, on a motorbikeat the topin
the newspaperon a horse, on an elephantat the bottomin the skyon the radio, on televisionat the
sidein a rowon the left, on the rightat receptionin Oxford Streeton the way

Prepositions of Time: at, in, on

We use:

 at for a PRECISE TIME

 in for MONTHS, YEARS, CENTURIES and LONG PERIODS
 on for DAYS and DATES

atinonPRECISE TIMEMONTHS, YEARS, CENTURIES and LONG PERIODSDAYS and

DATESat 3 o'clockin Mayon Sundayat 10.30amin summeron Tuesdaysat noonin the summeron
6 Marchat dinnertimein 1990on 25 Dec. 2010at bedtimein the 1990son Christmas Dayat
sunrisein the next centuryon Independence Dayat sunsetin the Ice Ageon my birthdayat the
momentin the past/futureon New Year's EveLook at these examples:

 I have a meeting at 9am.

 The shop closes at midnight.
 Jane went home at lunchtime.
 In England, it often snows in December.
 Do you think we will go to Jupiter in the future?
 There should be a lot of progress in the next century.
  Do you work on Mondays?
 Her birthday is on 20 November.
 Where will you be on New Year's Day?

Notice the use of the preposition of time at in the following standard expressions:

ExpressionExampleat nightThe stars shine at night.at the weekendI don't usually work at the
weekend.at Christmas/EasterI stay with my family at Christmas.at the same timeWe finished
the test at the same time.at presentHe's not home at present. Try later.Notice the use of the
prepositions of time in and on in these common expressions:
inonin the morningon Tuesday morningin the morningson Saturday morningsin the
afternoon(s)on Sunday afternoonsin the evening(s)on Monday eveningWhen we say last, next,
every, this we do not also use at, in, on.
 I went to London last June. (not in last June)
 He's coming back next Tuesday. (not on next Tuesday)
 I go home every Easter. (not at every Easter)
 We'll call you this evening. (not in this evening)

See also Prepositions of Place: at, in, on

Prepositions List
A full list of 150 English prepositions with example sentences

It is not possible to produce a definitive list of English prepositions. That means that nobody can
create a list of prepositions and say: "Here are all the prepositions in the English language – no
more and no fewer." Why? Because complex prepositions can theoretically be added to the
language at any time. These pages list all 94 one-word prepositions (which are unlikely to
change or be added to) and 56 complex prepositions (which may possibly be added to as the
language evolves). This total of 150 prepositions is comprehensive at the time of writing, and
represents all the prepositions currently found in a good English dictionary.

Each page is split into two sections:

1. one-word prepositions (for example before, into, on)

2. complex prepositions (phrases of two or more words that function like one-word prepositions,
for example according to, but for, in spite of)

 Prepositions beginning with A

  Prepositions beginning with B

 Prepositions beginning with C

 Prepositions beginning with D

 Prepositions beginning with E

 Prepositions beginning with F

 Prepositions beginning with G

 Prepositions beginning with I

 Prepositions beginning with L

 Prepositions beginning with M

 Prepositions beginning with N

 Prepositions beginning with O

 Prepositions beginning with P

 Prepositions beginning with R

 Prepositions beginning with S

 Prepositions beginning with T

 Prepositions beginning with U

 Prepositions beginning with V

 Prepositions beginning with W

Conjunctions
A conjunction is a word that "joins". A conjunction joins two parts of a sentence.

Here are some example conjunctions:

Coordinating ConjunctionsSubordinating Conjunctionsand, but, or, nor, for, yet, soalthough,

because, since, unlessWe can consider conjunctions from three aspects.

Form

Conjunctions have three basic forms:

  Single Word
for example: and, but, because, although

 Compound (often ending with as or that)

for example: provided that, as long as, in order that

 Correlative (surrounding an adverb or adjective)

for example: so...that

Function

Conjunctions have two basic functions or "jobs":

 Coordinating conjunctions are used to join two parts of a sentence that are grammatically
equal. The two parts may be single words or clauses, for example:
- Jack and Jill went up the hill.
- The water was warm, but I didn't go swimming.

 Subordinating conjunctions are used to join a subordinate dependent clause to a main clause,
for example:
- I went swimming although it was cold.

Position

 Coordinating conjunctions always come between the words or clauses that they join.

 Subordinating conjunctions usually come at the beginning of the subordinate clause.

In this lesson we will look in more detail at:

 Coordinating Conjunctions
 Subordinating Conjunctions

Coordinating Conjunctions
The short, simple conjunctions are called "coordinating conjunctions":

 and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so

A coordinating conjunction joins parts of a sentence (for example words or independent clauses)
that are grammatically equal or similar. A coordinating conjunction shows that the elements it
joins are similar in importance and structure:
+

Look at these examples - the two elements that the coordinating conjunction joins are shown in
square brackets [ ]:
 I like [tea] and [coffee].
 [Ram likes tea], but [Anthony likes coffee].

Coordinating conjunctions always come between the words or clauses that they join.

When a coordinating conjunction joins independent clauses, it is always correct to place a

comma before the conjunction:

 I want to work as an interpreter in the future, so I am studying Russian at university.

However, if the independent clauses are short and well-balanced, a comma is not really essential:

 She is kind so she helps people.

When "and" is used with the last word of a list, a comma is optional:

 He drinks beer, whisky, wine, and rum.

 He drinks beer, whisky, wine and rum.

Subordinating Conjunctions
The majority of conjunctions are "subordinating conjunctions". Common subordinating
conjunctions are:

 after, although, as, because, before, how, if, once, since, than, that, though, till, until,
when, where, whether, while
A subordinating conjunction joins a subordinate (dependent) clause to a main (independent)
clause:

Look at this example:

main or
independent clausesubordinate or
dependent clauseRam went swimmingalthoughit was raining.subordinating
conjunction  
A subordinate or dependent clause "depends" on a main or independent clause. It cannot exist
alone. Imagine that somebody says to you: "Hello! Although it was raining." What do you
understand? Nothing! But a main or independent clause can exist alone. You will understand
very well if somebody says to you: "Hello! Ram went swimming."

A subordinating conjunction always comes at the beginning of a subordinate clause. It

"introduces" a subordinate clause. However, a subordinate clause can sometimes come after and
sometimes before a main clause. Thus, two structures are possible:

+
Ram went swimming although it was raining. 
+

Although it was raining, Ram went swimming.

Interjections
Hi! That's an interjection. :-)

Interjection is a big name for a little word. Interjections are short exclamations like Oh!, Um or
Ah! They have no real grammatical value but we use them quite often, usually more in speaking
than in writing. When interjections are inserted into a sentence, they have no grammatical
connection to the sentence. An interjection is sometimes followed by an exclamation mark (!)
when written.

Interjections like er and um are also known as "hesitation devices". They are extremely common
in English. People use them when they don't know what to say, or to indicate that they are
thinking about what to say. You should learn to recognize them when you hear them and realize
that they have no real meaning.

The table below shows some interjections with examples.

interjectionmeaningexampleahexpressing pleasure"Ah, that feels good."expressing

realization"Ah, now I understand."expressing resignation"Ah well, it can't be heped."expressing
surprise"Ah! I've won!"alasexpressing grief or pity"Alas, she's dead now."dearexpressing
pity"Oh dear! Does it hurt?"expressing surprise"Dear me! That's a surprise!"ehasking for
repetition"It's hot today." "Eh?" "I said it's hot today."expressing enquiry"What do you think of
that, eh?"expressing surprise"Eh! Really?"inviting agreement"Let's go, eh?"erexpressing
hesitation"Lima is the capital of...er...Peru."hello, hulloexpressing greeting"Hello John. How are
you today?"expressing surprise"Hello! My car's gone!"heycalling attention"Hey! look at
that!"expressing surprise, joy etc"Hey! What a good idea!"hiexpressing greeting"Hi! What's
new?"hmmexpressing hesitation, doubt or disagreement"Hmm. I'm not so sure."oh, oexpressing
surprise"Oh! You're here!"expressing pain"Oh! I've got a toothache."expressing pleading"Oh,
please say 'yes'!"ouchexpressing pain"Ouch! That hurts!"uhexpressing hesitation"Uh...I don't
know the answer to that."uh-huhexpressing agreement"Shall we go?" "Uh-huh."um,
ummexpressing hesitation"85 divided by 5 is...um...17."wellexpressing surprise"Well I
never!"introducing a remark"Well, what did he say?"