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Unit Objectives:
In the previous unit, you studied about the concept of Business English. In addition, the previous unit
briefed about the identification of the language of Business English. At last, the unit also discussed
the learners of Business English.
English is the language of commerce and business .It is the bridge language (lingua franca) that
unites diverse people, companies, and countries, and enables them to communicate in a clear and
effective manner. Business English is an evolved branch of the English language, which enables non-
native English speakers to understand English business terms. This enables them to find working
their desired professions and does their jobs effectively.
The main difference between General English and Business English is that the former teaches daily
conversational English; whereas, the latter teaches the corporate language. This corporate language
is made up of common business terms. It also teaches learners how to perform business-related
tasks in their jobs, such as writing emails, delivering a presentation, talking on telephone to a client,
writing a report, presenting a viewpoint to colleagues and seniors, and conducting meetings.
One need not be a Shakespeare to learn Business English. However, one must have a clear grasp of
the basic concepts of English grammar to quickly understand and master Business English. In this
unit, you will learn about these foundational concepts of English grammar.
The English language is made up of words which are used in speaking and writing the language. A
collection of words that expresses a meaningful thought is called a sentence. For example:
Walter speaks.
John is reading.
He went to the market.
If the statement is positive, then it is called an affirmative sentence. For example, John is reading.
If the sentence is negative, then it is called a negative sentence. For example, Walter is not going.
2. Interrogative sentence: This type of sentence is used for asking a question. For example:
Is John reading?
Is Walter not going?
3. Imperative sentence: This type of sentence is used to give a command. Here, the subject you is
hidden. For example:
Subject Predicate
John is reading
Walter is not going
There are eight parts of speech. So far, you have learned that words are used to construct a
sentence. Depending on how they are used, the words can be divided into important parts of
speech, which have been discussed as follows:
Adjectives are words that describe or modify other words, making your writing and speaking much
more specific, and a whole lot more interesting. Words like small, blue, and sharp are descriptive,
and they are all examples of adjectives. Because adjectives are used to identify or quantify individual
people and unique things, they are usually positioned before the noun or pronoun that they modify.
Some sentences contain multiple adjectives.
Look at these examples to see how gradable and non-gradable adjectives are used.
Activity 1:
Gradable adjectives
Most adjectives are gradable. This means we can have different levels of that quality. For example,
you can be a bit cold, very cold or extremely cold. We can make them weaker or stronger with
modifiers:
Here is a list of some common gradable adjectives and some modifiers that we can use with them.
Some adjectives are non-gradable. For example, something can't be a bit finished or very finished.
You can't be a bit dead or very dead. These adjectives describe absolute qualities. To make
them stronger we have to use modifiers like absolutely, totally or completely:
Here is a list of some common absolute adjectives and some modifiers that we can use with them.
Modifiers absolutely/totally/completely
acceptable, dead, destroyed, finished, free, impossible, necessary, perfect, ruined, unacceptable,
Adjectives
etc.
Adjectives like amazing, awful and boiling are also non-gradable. They already contain the idea of
'very' in their definitions. If we want to make extreme adjectives stronger, we have to
use absolutely or really:
Here is a list of some common extreme adjectives and some modifiers that we can use with them.
Modifiers absolutely/really
A phrasal verb is a phrase or expression that consists of a verb plus another word or two, like this:
The whole phrase acts as a verb, and has a different meaning to the original verb. For example, look
up, look after and look forward to do NOT mean the same as look.
Because we cannot always work out the meaning of a phrasal verb from its individual words, phrasal
verbs are usually "idiomatic". They are very common in spoken English, and less common in formal
written English.
Activity 2:
Phrasal verbs are very common in English, especially in more informal contexts. They are made up of a
verb and a particle or, sometimes, two particles. The particle often changes the meaning of the verb.
In terms of word order, there are two main types of phrasal verb: separable and inseparable.
Separable
With separable phrasal verbs, the verb and particle can be apart or together.
However, separable phrasal verbs must be separated when you use a pronoun.
She turned the job down because she didn't want to move to Glasgow.
(turn down = to not accept an offer)
Non-separable
Even when there is a pronoun, the verb and particle remain together.
It was quite a major operation. It took months to get over it and feel normal again.
(get over = recover from something)
Some multi-word verbs are inseparable simply because they don't take an object.
I get up at 7 a.m.
Phrasal verbs with two particles are also inseparable. Even if you use a pronoun, you put it after the
particles.
Perfect Aspect
We use perfect aspect to look back from a specific time and talk about things up to that time or
about things that are important at that time.
We use the past perfect to look back from a time in the past:
It was 2006. I had enjoyed working in Italy for the past five years.
She had left home, so she could not answer the phone.
We use will with the perfect to look back from a time in the future:
Present perfect
for something that started in the past and continues in the present:
for something that happened in the past but is important in the present:
We normally use the present perfect continuous to emphasise that something is still continuing in
the present:
Past perfect
for something that started in the past and continued up to a later time in the past:
When George died, he and Anne had been married for nearly 50 years.
She didn't want to move. She had lived in Liverpool all her life.
for something that happened in the past and is important at a later time in the past:
We use the past perfect continuous to show that something started in the past and continued up to
a time in the past or was important at that time in the past:
Activity 3:
Choose the correct perfect form (present perfect, past perfect or 'will have' + past participle) to
complete each sentence.
1. I was furious when my new computer stopped working. I ___ it for just two weeks! (have
had/had had/will have had)
2. Paul's one of my closest friends. I ___ him since we were at school together. (have known/had
known/will have known)
Continuous aspect
He's getting on the train. (before and after the moment of speaking)
It was a quarter past ten. We were watching the news on television.
Activity 4:
Continuous aspect
Why do we use the continuous aspect in the sentences? Match the reasons with the sentences.
1. At three o'clock this morning I was sitting in a taxi on the way to the airport.
2. The number of the world's people living in cities is getting bigger and bigger all the time.
4. More than 100 people were working in the building when the earthquake struck.
Narrative tenses are verb tenses that are used to talk about the past. They are often found in stories
and descriptions of past events, such as personal anecdotes.
Example
The following are examples of narrative tenses:
Past simple - 'We left on a rainy day'
Past perfect - 'It had rained off and on for ten days'
Past perfect continuous - 'We had been waiting to escape for what seemed ages'
In the classroom
Activities used to practise narrative tenses include gap fills, dictations, story writing and reading,
ordering jumbled text, and re-writing events starting at the end.
2.6 Quantifiers
We use quantifiers when we want to give someone information about the number of
something: how much or how many.
We can use these quantifiers with both count and uncount nouns:
These more colloquial forms are also used with both count and uncount nouns:
We do not normally use the quantifier some in negative and interrogative sentences. We normally
use any:
These more colloquial forms are used only with count nouns:
These quantifiers are used particularly with abstract nouns such as time, money and trouble:
Members of groups
We put a noun directly after a quantifier when we are talking about members of a group in general:
but if we are talking about members of a specific group, we use of the as well:
Note: with all and both, we don’t need to use of. We can say all the … and both the … .
If we are talking about two people or things, we use the quantifiers both, either and neither:
I don’t think the I don’t think either of the I don’t think any of the
supermarket supermarkets supermarkets
was open. was open. were open.
Note that nouns with both have a plural verb but nouns with either and neither have a singular
verb.
We use the quantifiers every and each with singular nouns to mean all:
There was a party in every street. (= There were parties in all the streets.)
Every shop was decorated with flowers. (= All the shops were decorated with flowers.)
Each child was given a prize. (= All the children were given a prize.)
There was a prize in each competition. (= There were prizes in all the competitions.)
We often use every to talk about times like days, weeks and years:
Every shop was decorated with flowers. (NOT The every shop)
Each child was given a prize. (NOT The each child)
2.7 Intensifiers
We use words like very, really and extremely to make adjectives stronger:
amazingly particularly
exceptionally remarkably
incredibly unusually
We also use enough to say more about an adjective, but enough comes after its adjective:
We do not normally use very with these adjectives. We do not say something is very enormous or
someone is very brilliant.
absolutely really
completely quite
exceptionally totally
particularly utterly
Activity 5:
1. How was your exam? B: Not good. It was ___ difficult. (absolutely/really)
2. Are you hungry? B: Hungry? I'm ___ starving! (absolutely/extremely)
Participle Clauses
Participle clauses enable us to say information in a more economical way. They are formed using
present participles (going, reading, seeing, walking, etc.), past participles (gone, read, seen, walked,
etc.) or perfect participles (having gone, having read, having seen, having walked, etc.).
We can use participle clauses when the participle and the verb in the main clause have the same
subject. For example,
Waiting for Ellie, I made some tea. (While I was waiting for Ellie, I made some tea.)
Participle clauses do not have a specific tense. The tense is indicated by the verb in the main clause.
Participle clauses are mainly used in written texts, particularly in a literary, academic or journalistic
style.
Here are some common ways we use present participle clauses. Note that present participles have a
similar meaning to active verbs.
Here are some common ways that we use past participle clauses. Note that past participles normally
have a passive meaning.
Perfect participle clauses show that the action they describe was finished before the action in the
main clause. Perfect participles can be structured to make an active or passive meaning.
It is also common for participle clauses, especially with -ing, to follow conjunctions and prepositions
such as before, after, instead of, on, since, when, while and in spite of.
Activity 6:
Relative clauses
Defining relative clauses give us essential information – information that tells us who or what we are
talking about.
who/that
We can use who or that to talk about people. that is more common and a bit more informal.
which/that
We can use which or that to talk about things. that is more common and a bit more informal.
Other pronouns
Sometimes we can leave out the relative pronoun. For example, we can usually leave
out who, which or that if it is followed by a subject.
Activity 7:
Sentence connectors improve your writing. They add variety and sophistication to your style of
writing, we use several different words to show cause and effect. Connectors are words or groups of
words that help us connect words, phrases or sentences. Cause and effect is a relationship between
events or things, where one is the result of the others. They are a combination of action and
reaction. When we talk about an effect resulting from a certain cause,
We use expressions such as: because, since, as, owing to, due to… In addition, while an effect is
produced by a cause, cause is the producer of an effect. The cause can be a person, object, situation,
or event that can result in something, while an effect is the result of the actions of the person or the
outcome of some chain of events that have happened. The cause will in a way explain the reason
why the effect happened in the first place. The cause naturally precedes an effect, while the effect
will always follow it.
There are three main types of linking words: transitions, conjunctions, and prepositions.
Conjunctions; The most common conjunctions are because, as, since, and so. Words of “because”,
“since” introduce a cause; “so” introduces an effect.
Transitions; The most common transitions are therefore, consequently, and as a result.
Prepositions; The most common prepositions are due to and because of.
‘Because’ usually follows the main clause. As and since are very similar. As is less formal than since.
They are used when the reason is known.
Due to and owing to are similar but there is a different. Due to is adjectival (it follows a noun or
pronoun), whereas owing to is adverbial (it complements a verb). Owing to is interchangeable with
because of. ‘As a result of’ and ‘because of ’can be used.
“Therefore” used mainly in formal situation. When you start a sentence with these (as a result,
therefore) words, you need to put a comma after them. “So” used less formal situation. That’s why,
for this reason, consequently are other examples.
Activity 8:
Complete the sentences using the phrases.
2. In either case ______ water in the base of the retort can be detected by a free flow of steam.
We can use modal verbs for deduction – guessing if something is true using the available
information. The modal verb we choose shows how certain we are about the possibility. This page
focuses on making deductions about the present or future.
must
We use must when we feel sure that something is true or it's the only realistic possibility.
This must be her house. I can see her car in the garage.
He must live near here because he always walks to work.
Come inside and get warm. You must be freezing out there!
We use might, may or could to say that we think something is possible but we're not sure.
They all have the same meaning, but may is more formal than might and could.
can't
Note that these verbs, like all modal verbs, are followed by an infinitive without to.
Activity 9:
1. The house isn't hard to find. It's the red one at the end. You _____ miss it!(Must/might/can’t)
2. What an amazing trip! You _____ have some incredible photos.(Must/might/can’t)
3. That _____ be the vegetarian option. It's got chicken in it.(Must/may not/can't)
4. Have you got your passport? I'm not sure if you'll need it but they _____ ask you for ID.
(Can’t/might/must)
5. Who left their laptop on my desk? It _____ be Mel's – she's working at home
today.(Must/could/can’t)
2.11 Summary
In this unit, we learned about the basics of the English language grammar, the English
language is made up of eight parts of speech: noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb,
preposition, conjunction, and interjection. At the intermediate level English language
grammar ,the phrasal verbs means in English traditional grammar, a phrasal verb is the
combination of two or three words from different grammatical categories — a verb and a
particle, such as an adverb or a preposition — to form a single semantic unit on a lexical or
syntactic level. Examples: turn down, run into, sit up. The most important tenses is perfect
and continuous aspects of the past and present tense. The quantifiers and Intensifiers is like
Expressions of quantity. Intensifiers and qualifiers are words that can be used with adverbs
or adjectives to add extra meaning. The modal verbs are can, could, may, might, must,
ought to, shall, should, will, and would. Unlike other auxiliary verbs modals only exist in
their helping form; they cannot act alone as the main verb in a sentence.
Self-Assessment Questions:
Modal Signs
For each sign, complete the sentence using a phrase from the box. Each sentence includes examples
of modal verbs for obligation, permission and possibility.
No Smoking
1. You in here.
Admission Free
Private Property
Don't Iron
Donations Welcome
3. Sunday is the day most countries respect a day of rest in the week.
12. Hiroshima is the place the first atomic bomb was dropped.
Courtesy:
1. https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/business-english
2. https://www.esl-lounge.com/
3. https://www.englishclub.com/
4. https://englishgrammarhere.com/
5. https://www.englisch-hilfen.de/
6. https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/