TESOL Program

(Session 1 Day 1)
Module 1
Language awareness and essentials
Part 2 Grammar
Ahmad Shaaban AbdelGawad
Teacher Trainer,
Educational and Assessment Consultant
 Task : Define Grammar

Grammar is the study and use of rules by which words change

their forms and are combined into sentences.
 Unit 1 Grammar
• Grammar is a description of the structure of a
language and the way in which linguistic units such as
words and phrases are combined to produce sentences
in the language.

Richards, Platt and Platt (1992:161)

 Key concepts in this guide
By the end of this unit , you should be able to understand and use these key
concepts:
• grammatical form, grammatical function and inflexion
• context and co-text
• content words
– noun (proper, mass, count), verb (lexical or main, copular, primary auxiliary,
modal auxiliary), adjective (predicative and attributive), adverb (manner,
time, place, frequency, degree), interjection
• function words
– determiner (article, demonstrative, wh-word, possessive, quantifier),
preposition (place and time), pronoun (personal and other), conjunction
(coordinating, subordinating, correlating)
• modification
• tense
• aspect
• phrases
 Grammatical form and grammatical function

• Grammatical form refers to how a word or phrase is made in English. For

example:
• The base form of the verb is smoke but, when the subject is he, she or it, the
form of the verb changes to smokes.
The noun is child but when we make it plural, we change the form to children.
• With an adjective in English such as happy we can change the form and make it a
noun: happiness.
 Grammatical form and grammatical function
• When we change the form of a word in English, the change is
called an inflexion.
• For example:
smoke → smokes: this is the third-person, -s inflexion.
printed → printed: the verb is inflected to show the past tense
with -ed.
print → printable: the verb is made into an adjective by the
addition of the suffix able.
• Inflexion is sometimes spelled inflection, by the way. Both are
correct.
 Grammatical form and grammatical function
• Grammatical function refers to what a word is doing in the
language.
 For example: In I cut my finger yesterday,
the word cut has the grammatical function of a verb describing an
action.
In I have a bad cut on my finger, the word cut has the
grammatical function of a noun for a thing.
In The English are strange people, the word English is a noun for
the people who live in England.
In She is English, the word English is an adjective describing her
nationality. It is modifying the noun.
 Grammatical form and grammatical function

• It is easy to see that you do not know what a word is doing

when you look at it.
• You must see or hear it in a context to know what it means and
what sort of word it is.
• Where, socially, or in a text the word is used is referred to as
context.
• The words around the word in a text, written or spoken, is
referred to as co-text.
 Two different sorts of words
• There are two kinds of words in English :
• Content words
When they are alone, these words still have a meaning. For example:
house, school, beauty, dislike, begin, jump, happy, sad, important,
quickly, now, fortunately
When you see or hear these words you can provide a definition and, often,
a translation into another language.
• Grammar or function words
These words mean nothing when they are alone but they make the
grammar of the language work. For example:
in, out, up, the, a, an, this, that, he, she, them, and, when, but
When you see or hear these words you cannot define them or provide a
translation until you know what they are doing in the sentence by looking
at the co-text.
Stop and check
• In this sentences there are 7 function or grammar words and 7
content words. What are they?

Mary came into the room and sat in her favourite chair
by the fire.

• Function words are in green, content words are in red:

• Mary came into the room and sat in her favourite chair by
the fire.
 Content words
• There are 5 types of content words in English.
1. Nouns
2. Verbs
3. Adjectives
4. Adverbs
5. Interjection
 Nouns
Nouns are words for people, places, things and feelings. Here are
some examples of the three types:
1. Proper nouns refer to people and places:
– George is in London
– Russia is huge
– The European Union has lots of members
2. Mass nouns refer things which do not have a plural:
1. Milk is expensive here
2. Sugar is bad for me
3. The water is very cold
4. Happiness is important
5. Beauty doesn't last long
 Nouns
3. Count nouns refer to things we can have in the plural and
most nouns are in this group:

• I have a pencil and two pens

• My house is here
• Dogs are not usually dangerous
• I love trees
• My country is beautiful
• He's a Scotsman
 Verb
• Verbs are words for doing, thinking, speaking and being. Here are
some examples of the five types:
1. Verbs describing actions, behaviour or feelings. These are lexical verbs or main
verbs which carry meaning even if alone:
kick the ball
don't worry
the glass broke
I am watching TV
Begin!
2. Verbs describing states and thinking These are also lexical verbs or main verbs
which carry meaning even if alone:
I enjoy walking
I hope she is here
she hates pasta
it helps me work
Think!
3. Linking or copular verbs join nouns to nouns and nouns to adjectives
and show the connection between things:
I am in London
she became the manager
the car looks wonderful
she got older
there is a house on the corner
• The verbs do not mean anything if the do not connect two things so,
e.g.:
*She got
*They are
*It became
All mean nothing.
4) Primary Auxiliary verbs make tenses with other verbs:
I have broken the glass
she is working in Berlin
they got the car repaired
we don't visit museums
Again, the verbs do not mean anything if they do not make a form with another
verb so, e.g.:
*She has
*They are
*We got
all mean nothing (unless you have clear co-text so you can fill in the missing
information in your head).
5. Modal auxiliary verbs show how you feel about other verbs. They do not stand
alone but are always with other verbs:
I can come at six
she will go later
they must go
we used to work harder
• Again, the verbs do not mean anything if they do not come with
a main verb so,
e.g.:
*She can
*They will
*It must
all mean nothing (unless you have clear co-text so you can fill in
the missing information in your head).
 ADJECTIVES
ADJECTIVES one orange pea
Adjectives modify (i.e., change) nouns. They can come before or after the noun
they describe.
For example:
It's a huge house with a long garden
(adjective before the noun: attributive use)
The house is tiny and the garden is very small (adjective after the noun, joined
with a linking verb: predicative use)
Some adjectives describe the noun. For example:
It's a red house
and some tell us what sort of noun it is, for example:
It's a detached house
This is an important difference.
 ADVERBS

• ADVERBS beautifully painted

• Adverbs describe (modify) verbs and some modify adjectives

and other adverbs. There are five types which answer
different questions:
 How? Adverbs of manner:
 He drove quickly, he walked slowly, he spoke happily

 When? Adverbs of time:

 I'll arrive soon, She left early, I'm flying tomorrow

 Where? Adverbs of place:

 sit here, please smoke outside, come in

 How often? Adverbs of frequency:

 she often works at home, they frequently take a holiday, we sometimes play
cards

 How much? Adverbs of degree:

 I like it a lot, they really enjoy their food, he drove very quickly, she hugely
enjoyed the play
• Some adverbs also modify adjectives.
• For example:
She was very happy.
They were slightly interested

• Some adverbs also modify other adverbs. For example:

She drove very quickly
He arrived extremely quickly
 INTERJECTIONS
• INTERJECTIONS (sometimes called exclamations)
• Ooops!
• These are words we use, usually in speech, and informally,
to show our feelings:
surprise, pain, tiredness, fear etc. Here are some examples:
• Wow! What a beautiful house!
Ouch! That hurts.
Oh, I didn't know that.
Yuck! That's horrible.
 Activity

• A- verb b- conjunction c- adjective d- preposition

• E- adverb f- noun g- pronoun
 Grammar or Function words

• These words mean nothing when they are alone.

• They must be part of a sentence for you to understand them.
• There are 4 different kinds of function words.

1. DETERMINERS
2. PRONOUNS
3. PREPOSITIONS
4. CONJUNCTIONS
 DETERMINERS
• These words change how we see a noun.
For example, we can have:
she has one cat
this cat is pretty
my cat is not very clever
some cats are in the garden
the cat wants food
a cat came into the house
which cat is your cat?
and the determiners change how we understand the words
cat, garden and house.
 Determiners always come in front of the noun and there are five
sorts of them:
• a, an, the.
These are articles and they tell you if you are talking about a special noun or
not. For example:
a cat came in (this is one cat that I don't know)
the cat came in (this is a cat I know)
• this, that, these, those.
These are demonstratives and they tell me where the cat is. For
example:
This cat here
Those cats there
That cat in the garden
Those cats are in the garden
• wh- words. These words make questions:
Which cat?
What cats?
Whose cat?
Who is that?
• my, your, his, her, our, their.
These are possessives and show us who has something. For example:
my cat is in the house
his cat is stupid
their cats are in the garden
• some, many, a few, two, three, ten, a little, lots of, no, several.
These are quantifiers and tell us how much or how many. For example:
There are four cats in the house
Several cats came in
Many cats are white
No cats are in the garden
 PRONOUNS
• These are small words which stand for things, people or whole
ideas. There are three sorts:
• I, me, you, she, he, it, her, him, we, us, they, them. These are
personal pronouns because they stand for people.
For example:
I want a cat
She wants it
We gave them a cat
Please tell us
• something, someone, anything, anyone, some, any, nothing etc.
These do not stand for a special person or thing. For example:
Do you want something?
I have nothing to eat
Can I give you some?
Is anyone at home?
• Notice that adjectives in English always come after these words:
I want something stronger
She offered nothing useful
Have you anything bigger?
• this, that, it etc. can also stand for whole ideas.
• For example:
He was working in the garden and that is why he didn't hear the telephone
I was trying to follow the instructions to install my printer but it was very
difficult.
 PREPOSITIONS
• These words usually tell us when or where (but they can tell us other
things).
• They join the verb to the noun or pronoun.
There are two main sorts:
• Prepositions of place. For example:
He is waiting at the bus stop
She is sitting in my chair
They have lunch in the square
The restaurant is in the corner
• Prepositions of time. For example:
He will wait until 6 o'clock
She came on Sunday
They left after the film
The train arrived at the right time
 CONJUNCTIONS
• These words join ideas together.
There are three sorts.
• Joining (coordinating) two equal ideas. For example:
He went to the market and he bought a new hat
I telephoned but nobody answered
• Making one idea depend on another (subordinating). For example:
I came because he asked me
She will come if she has time
• Double (correlating or correlative) conjunctions put two ideas
together. For example:
Both John and Mary came
Whether he comes or not is important
 Tense and aspect
• Tense in languages refers to the time something
happens.
• For example:
I came with him (past time)
I will finish before 6 (future time)
I am smoking too much (present time)
 Aspect
• Aspect refers to how we see an event in relation to other
events.
• For example:
I have been waiting since 6 o'clock (the perfect aspect: I
am talking about something which started in the past and is
still happening now)
• She was cycling when the accident happened (the
progressive aspect followed by the simple aspect: I want to
be clear that the cycling was a long event but the accident
was short and quick)
 Phrases
Phrases
We have seen that, for example, a noun or a verb can be a single word
with a single grammatical function as in, for example:

• He (pronoun) went (verb) home (noun)

• Mrs. Smith (noun) cooked (verb) that (determiner) wonderful
(adjective) dinner (noun)
• But very often the grammatical function is filled not by a single word
but by a phrase of more than one word.
• Look at this sentence
The old man almost certainly had lived through very interesting times
 Prepositional
Noun phrase Adverb phrase Verb phrase Adjective phrase Noun phrase
phrase

The old man almost certainly had lived through times

very interesting

1. Notice that we talk about a phrase even if it is only one word. That's the
correct way to analyse the grammar.
2. The most important word in the phrase is called the head.
3. The heads of the phrases above are: man, certainly, live, through,
interesting, times.
 Self-test questions
• Give an example of inflexion on a verb and on a noun.
• What is the difference between words like
table, house, happiness, decide and extremely
and words like
and, of, for, by, the, an and because?
• Give one example of the following:
– a proper noun
– a copular verb
– an adverb of manner
– the attributive use of an adjective
– a quantifying determiner
– a preposition of time
– a personal pronoun
– a coordinating conjunction
• Explain the difference between tense and aspect.
 TKT Module 1: Grammar Practice test 1
Matching exercise | TKT Course
Drag and drop the items on the right to match the items on the left. Think
only about the words in bold.

1. The old man in the boat was fishing
2. The old man in the boat was enjoying his
fishing
3. The old man in the boat was fishing
4. The old man in the boat was enjoying his
fishing
5. NO MATCH!
6. The old man in the boat should be careful
7. The old man in the boat was enjoying his
fishing
A. a verb in the progressive aspect
B. a prepositional phrase
C. a noun phrase as the subject of
the verb
D. a primary auxiliary verb
E. a modal auxiliary verb
F. a verb in the perfect aspect
G. an inflected verb form with the
grammatical function of a noun
Answer