Language and Culture 03 April 2023

Dear Students,
In our lesson of 03 April 2023, we finished the comparison of solutions to the “Useful Phrases
for Letter-Writing”, inclusive of the pertinent language notes and in continuation of what was
begun in our last lesson, I showed you some elementary principles of tense / aspect formation
with the help of “Morphology of Tenses”. Having shown the eminent role of auxiliary verbs in
English, there are now three exercise papers for you to practice what has been gained in
insight, namely “Time-saving Auxiliaries --- II”, “I fully agree with you --- II” and “Fundamental
Disagreement – II”. Finally, there is the text “No Greenwashing” of which I would like you to
prepare the first three pages for our next meeting which I am already looking forward to.
Useful Phrases for Letter-Writing (ct.) --- Complaints --- Making a Complaint:
remind --- regret --- considerably --- overdue --- regret --- yet --- look --- into --- query --- regret
--- complain --- about
• Drawing Attention to a Problem:
draw --- attention --- to --- mistake
• Certainty, Guess, Doubt --- Expressing Certainty:
clear --- doubt --- convinced --- confident --- fail
• Making Guesses:
possible --- seem --- point --- to --- convenient --- unavailable --- fit --- in --- with --- correspond
--- to
• Expressing Doubts and Regrets:
unfortunately --- afraid --- doubt --- cause --- delay
• Apologizing:
sorry --- sorry --- for --- apologize --- for --- accept --- apologies --- for --- forgive --- for
• Congratulations, Recovery Wishes, Condolences:
congratulations --- on --- accept --- congratulations --- every --- success --- very --- wishes ---
for --- recovery --- wish --- very --- birthday --- offer --- sincere --- condolences
• Expressing Thanks --- formal:
express --- sincere --- thanks --- for --- owe --- sincere --- thanks --- for --- in --- kind --- of --- for
--- grateful --- for – accept --- thanks --- for --- express --- gratitude --- sincere --- for
• Informal:
for --- thanks --- for
• Closing Lines:
once --- again --- for --- in --- advance --- hesitate --- contact --- if --- require --- information ---
hope --- to --- look --- forward --- to --- prompt --- reply --- to --- form --- faithfully --- sincerely
 Morphology of Tenses I
A) Simple Forms without either perfective or continuative aspect: Present; Past; Future; Conditional ---- Infinitive: to do

Subject Verb complex Complement

Inverted V-aux (conj.) (in questions) Subject V-aux V-main Complement

v-aux (conj.) will / v-aux (conj.) do / v-main (infinitive) v-main

would (future and did (present and (conjugated)
conditional) past

He does write books.

He writes books.

He does not write books.

Does he (not) write books?

Doesn’t he write books?

He did write books.

He wrote books.

He did not write books.

Did he (not) write books?

Didn’t he write books?

V-aux (conj.) (in questions Subject V-aux V-main Complement

v-aux (conj.) will / v-aux (conj.) do / v-main (infinitive) v-main

would (future / did (present / (conjugated)
conditional) past)

He will (not) write books.

Will he (not) write books?

Won’t he write books?

He would (not) write books.

Would he (not) write books?

Wouldn’t he write books?

The following observations can be made:

• The main verb only appears in its conjugated form in the two tenses: simple present and simple past in the affirmative form.

• However, for emphasis’ sake it is also possible to use an auxiliary verb, which should then be stressed. The main verb is then in the infinitive.

• In all other tense forms an auxiliary verb is necessary

• In questions, the subject and the auxiliary verbs are inverted (nearly like in German)

• Whenever there is an auxiliary verb, this auxiliary verb is conjugated; the main verb is then in an infinite form (in these examples in the
infinitive)

• All changes have then to occur with the auxiliary verb (addition of the negative adverb “not”, tense changes, inversion in questions)

• Basically, there are only two tense changes, namely from present to past and from future to conditional

• When using contracted forms in questions, the negative adverb “not” is linked to the inverted auxiliary verb.
 Morphology of Tenses II
B) Tenses with the perfective aspect (present perfect; past perfect; future perfect; conditional perfect)

Infinitive perfect: to have done

V-aux (conj.) (in Subject V-aux V-main (past Complement

questions) participle)

v-aux v-aux (1) have /

had (conjugated)

v-aux (2) will / v-aux (1) have

would (conj.) (infinitive)

He has (not) written books.

Has he (not) written books?

Hasn’t he written books?

he had (not) written books.

Had he (not) written books?

Hadn’t he written books?

V-aux (conj) (in Subject V-aux V-main (past Complement
questions participle)

v-aux v-aux (1) have /

had (conjugated)

v-aux (2) (conj.) v-aux (1) have

will / would (infinitive)

He will (not) have written books.

Will he have written books?

Won’t he have written books?

He would (not) have written books.

Would he have written books?

Wouldn’t he have written books?

The following observations can be made:

• The main verb does no longer appear in a conjugated form but in the past participle form throughout the different tenses

• Due to its infinitive form, the auxiliary verb is “have”

• In the forms “present perfect” and “past perfect” this auxiliary verb (have) is conjugated

• For the forms “future perfect” and “conditional perfect” the auxiliary verb “have” needs itself an auxiliary, namely will (future) or would
(conditional) and does therefore appear in the infinitive form

• In principle, the tense form of the auxiliary verb(s) is the tense form of the whole verb complex; the tense form of the main verb (in these
cases: past participle) adds the perfective aspect and semantic information

• In questions, the subject and the auxiliary verb are inverted (like in German)

• All changes (addition of the negative adverb “not”; tense changes) have to occur at the first form of the verb complex (read from left to right)

• Basically, there are only two tense changes, namely from present to past and from future to conditional

• When using contracted forms in questions, the negative adverb “not” is linked to the inverted auxiliary verb.
 Morphology of Tenses III
C) Tenses without the perfective aspect but with the continuative aspect (present continuous; past continuous; future continuous; conditional
continuous)

Infinitive: to be doing

V-aux (conj.) (in Subject V-aux V-main (present Complement

questions) participle)

v-aux V-aux (1) to be)

(conjugated)

v-aux (2) (conj.) v-aux (1) (to be)

(will / would) (infinitive)

He is (not) writing books.

Is he (not) writing books?

Isn’t he writing books?

He was (not) writing books.

Was he (not) writing books?

Wasn’t he writing books?

V-aux (conj.) (in Subject V-aux V-main (present Complement
questions) participle)

V-aux V aux (1) to be)

(conjugated)

v-aux (2) (conj.) v-aux (1) (to be)

(will / would) (infinitive)

He Will (not) be writing books.

Will he be writing books?

Won’t he be writing books?

He Would (not) be writing books.

Would he (not) be writing books?

Wouldn’t he be writing books?

The following observations can be made:

• The main verb does not appear in its conjugated form but in the form “present participle”. This form makes the respective tense forms
continuous

• According to its infinitive form, the auxiliary verb is “to be”

• In the tense forms “present continuous” and “past continuous” the auxiliary verb (be) is conjugated

• For the tense forms “future continuous” and “conditional continuous” the auxiliary verb “be” needs itself an auxiliary, namely “will “(future)
or “would” (conditional) and does therefore appear in its infinitive form.

• In principle, the tense form of the auxiliary verb(s) is the tense form of the whole verb complex; the tense form of the main verb (in these
cases “present participle”) adds the continuative aspect and semantic information

• In questions, the subject and the auxiliary verb are inverted (like in German)

• All changes (addition of the negative adverb “not”; tense changes) have to occur at the first form of the verb complex (read from left to
right)

• Basically, there are only two tense changes, namely from present to past and from future to conditional

• When using contracted forms in questions, the negative adverb “not” is linked to the inverted auxiliary verb.
 Morphology of Tenses IV
D) Tenses with the perfective and the continuative aspect (present perfect continuous; past perfect continuous; future perfect continuous;
conditional perfect continuous)

Infinitive: to have been doing

V-aux (conj.) Subject V-aux V-main Complement

(present
participle)

v-aux (have) v-aux (be)

v-aux (3) (will / v-aux (2) v-aux (2) (have) v-aux (1) (to
would) (have) (conjugated) be) (past
(conjugated) (infinitive) participle)

He has (not) been writing books.

Has he (not) been writing books?

Hasn’t he been writing books?

He had (not) been writing books.

Had he (not) been writing books?

Hadn’t he been writing books?

V-aux (conj.) Subject V-aux V-main Complement
(present
participle)

v-aux (have) v-aux (be)

v-aux (3) (will / v-aux (2) v-aux (2) (have) v-aux (1) (to
would) (have) (conjugated) be) (past
(conjugated) (infinitive) participle)

He Will (not) have been writing books.

Will he (not) have been writing books?

Won’t he have been writing books?

He would (not) have been writing books.

Would he (not) have been writing books?

Wouldn’t he have been writing books?

The following observations can be made:

• The main verb does not appear in its conjugated form but in the form “present participle”. This form makes the respective tense forms
continuous

• According to its infinitive form, the auxiliary verb is “to have been”, going back to the infinitive “to be”

• Therefore, the auxiliary verb itself always consists of two verbs (to have + to be (past participle))

• In the tense forms “present perfect continuous” and “past perfect continuous” the auxiliary verb is conjugated in the present tense or past
tense respectively

• For the tense forms “future perfect continuous” and “conditional perfect continuous” the auxiliary verb (have) requires itself the auxiliary
verb forms “will” (future) or “would” (conditional). In these tense forms the auxiliary “have” is then in its infinitive form

• In principle, the tense form of the auxiliary verb(s) is the tense form of the whole verb complex; the tense form of the main verb (in these
cases: present participle) adds the continuative aspect

• In questions, the subject and the auxiliary verb are inverted (like in German)

• All changes (addition of the negative adverb “not”; tense changes) have to occur at the first form of the verb complex (when read from left
to right)

• Basically, there are only two tense changes, namely from present to past and from future to conditional

• When using contracted forms in questions, the negative adverb “not” is linked to the inverted auxiliary verb.
 Time-saving Auxiliaries --- II ---
Give short-form answers to the following questions

1.) Who’s the present ruler of Russia? --- Vladimir Putin ................

2.) Who discovered Tasmania? --- Abel Tasman ................

3.) Which of the two weighs more, John or Jennifer? --- Probably ................

4.) Who used to live in this old house? --- Some bats ................

5.) What’s the capital of Poland? --- Warsaw ................

6.) Which of you knows the shortest way to the station? --- I ................

7.) How many of you have dinner after eight at night? --- Most of us ................

8.) Who came late yesterday? --- Some people of the other department
................

9.) How many of you ought to have more exercise? --- We all ................

10.) Which takes longer to say: Aberystwyth or

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerwchwyndrobbwllllandryriliogogogoch? --- The latter one
................

11.) Who can answer my questions? --- Most of us ................

12.) Who taught you physics? --- Ms. Inertia ................

13.) Who likes German wine? --- Most Germans ................

14.) How many of you ought to be in the office by nine o’clock? --- All of us
................

15.) Who saw Judith in the town yesterday? Jonathan ................

16.) Who dares to jump over this stream? --- Nobody ................

17.) Who’ll come with me to the leisure park? --- We all ................

18.) What was the worst mistake you’ve ever made? --- Signing this contract
................

19.) Who’s taken my notes? --- No one ................

20.) How many of you need new computer screens? --- Most of us ................
 I fully agree with you --- II ---
Agree with the following remarks
Some suitable introductory phrases for ‘obvious’ types are: obviously, indeed, I’m sure, you
can see, it’s quite clear etc.

1.) These flies are a nuisance. --- Yes, ................

2.) The book has fallen on the floor. --- So ................

3.) I believe your friend Mark works in an insurance office. --- Yes, ................

4.) They are showing “Home on the Ranch” here next week. --- Yes, ................

5.) Juliette only likes him for his money. --- Of course, ................

6.) I expect you can give me a lift, can’t you? --- Of course, ................

7.) If you threw a book out of the window, I dare say it would fall. --- Of course
................

8.) I can’t leave without paying. --- Of course, ................

9.) You’ve spilt some tea down your dress. --- So ................

10.) Probably anybody could speak English if they tried. --- Of course ................

11.) You must do what she tells you. --- Of course ................

12.) He told me you were going to see the Managing Director today. --- Yes
................

13.) They say we’ll win the match. --- Of course ................

14.) He’ll probably be promoted. --- Yes, ................

15.) Your boss would like to meet him. --- Yes, ................
 Fundamental Disagreement --- II ---
Disagree with the following statements
Use “no” or “but” (for disagreeing with a question or an assumption)

1.) Why did you come so late today? --- But ................

2.) A compositor is a man who writes music. --- (composer) --- But ................

3.) Susan is very pretty, but she uses too much make-up. --- ................

4.) Of course you will be late, as usual! –-- ................

5.) I’m sure you would like to meet them. --- ................

6.) He’s forgotten to pay you for his ticket. --- ................

7.) Of course your brother will forget to call for us. --- ................

8.) I suppose I must put on my other shoes for the party. --- ................

9.) I’ll forget to get off the bus at the right stop. --- ................

10.) I was here long before you. --- ................

11.) I suppose you must be home early tonight. --- ................

12.) You used to wear a green shirt and a yellow tie. --- ................

13.) A loafer is a man who bakes bread. --- (baker) --- ................

14.) Why have you forgotten to buy me a ticket? --- But ................

15.) You’ll have forgotten this exercise by next week. --- ................

16.) The characteristic cry of a cat is a loud roar. --- ................

17.) Manfred spends too much time sitting about in cafés. --- ................

18.) Seven and four makes twelve. --- ................

19.) You have used up all the money I gave you, I suppose. --- But ................

20.) You ought to do at least five exercises a week. --- ................

 No Greenwashing!
PLAYGREEN is a global manufacturer of toys that are safe and do not harm the environment.
It presents itself as a green company. But can PLAYGREEN do even more to improve the way
it runs its business? John, the owner, believes it can.

DECARBONIZE NOW!
John has a meeting with his top managers to look at what PLAYGREEN can do to reduce the
amount of carbon released in their manufacturing processes. In one word: decarbonize.

John This year, we want to become a toy manufacturer that, as a whole, removes
more carbon ............... from the air than we produce. This is about
reaching carbon ................ I want to see...............-carbon
products as the result.

Ann It’s a fantastic goal, but I don’t think it’s possible overnight. I’ve tried to calculate
the total carbon ............... of each of our products and offices. My
report looks at energy, materials and transport. I honestly can’t see how we can
achieve this easily.

John I never said it would be easy. Tell me about one of the problems.

Ann Well, a small one would be the 100 farms from which we buy the wool for our
toys. They all also have cows that produce huge amounts of
................ We may have to change farms in the long term, but we
can’t do that this year.

Mark We could introduce an initiative to reduce the climate impact of each product by
buying carbon ................ You know, we say we will plant a tree – right
next to those smelly cows – every time we sell 100 toys.

John That’s one option. And we could use that in marketing. What about the bigger
problems? I want to know how we can reduce the carbon ...............
in the first place. What’s happening with the older factories?

Ann We’ve been looking into carbon ............... and ...............

technology. It traps CO2 at the factory and then transports it to a location below
ground – where it stays. Shall I tell you how it works?
 John No, just tell me how much it could cost us. It’s possible that the government will
increase the carbon ............... next year and I’d rather invest the
money in a climate-friendly production ............... than give it to the
government.

Mark As the price of carbon increases, so does the ............... for low-
carbon solutions!

Words to fill in: capture --- dioxide --- emissions --- facility --- footprint --- incentive ---
methane --- neutrality --- offsets --- sequestration --- tax --- zero

THE WARNING SIGNS

During the meeting, John talks about climate change.

A Coastal erosion 1 Land next to the sea has been worn away

B Global deforestation 2 Many European and US cities have experienced

record-breaking high temperatures.

C Intense heatwaves 3 Ships can no longer travel on some rivers, as the

water levels have reached a record low.

D Mass extinction 4 The infrastructure of many cities and regions

cannot cope with heavy rainfall

E Severe droughts 5 The number of tigers in the world has dropped to

almost 3,000 worldwide

F Widespread flooding 6 Too many trees have been cut down to create palm
oil for our cosmetics and food.

Match the effect of climate change to the correct terms

 THE ENERGY OPTIONS
Could the most efficient solution involve the transition to sustainable energy? Ann has prepared
a short report on the topic.

We are pioneers in using modern technologies in our manufacturing processes. It’s our belief
that ............... should stay in the ground. None of our factories is
..............., so the only ............... fuel we burn is gas.

As our factories are not close to the sea, we clearly can’t use ............... energy.
For the same reason, we don’t benefit from offshore ............... farms, either, but
we can use energy from highly efficient ............... on top of hills.

Where possible, we have put ............... panels on top of all the buildings. The
resulting solar energy generates enough ............... energy to power sections of the
factories.

In some areas where hot dry steam is available underground, we have started to make use of
............... energy.

In Finland, we have one of the most modern ............... cooling and heating plants
in the world. This system takes any extra heat from the production process and turns it into
energy to use in the factory.

Words to fill in: coal-fired --- combined --- fossil --- geothermal --- hydrocarbons ---
photovoltaic ---- renewable --- tidal --- turbines --- wind
 THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY
Today, the idea is to move away from the linear “take – make – waste” model of business and
consumption towards a “circular economy”, whereby companies minimize the use of new
materials and avoid creating rubbish, or waste, at the end of the life cycle of a product by
making it recyclable.

MATERIALS MATTER
Consumers know what they want – and many are looking for products that are green.

Generally, we are targeting ...............-conscious consumers. They know what they

want to buy. Not just the millennials. This means we have to go further than just symbolic
measures.

People are looking for eco-............... products, especially when they are buying
children’s toys.

We need to highlight the fact that we use ...............-toxic and ...............-

free paints in all our toys.

And that we mainly use plant-............... materials.

We’re one of the few toy manufacturers to offer ...............-grade toys. If children do
put them in their mouths, they won’t make them sick.

Of course, it goes without saying that you won’t find any single-............... plastic
anywhere near our toys. Even our packaging is green.

We should also highlight that we don’t sell any ...............-powered products. That
means that there are no heavy metals in any of our toys.

We need to look into third-............... certification labels. If an independent

organization says that we use the best materials, that would show we are serious about this.
All our wooden toys already have the PEFT (Program for the Endorsement of Forest
Certification) label, which means that they are made with wood from sustainable forests. But
are there other labels we should have?

Of course, the best solution for our planet would be to tell people to buy second-
............... toys – but that wouldn’t be good for business.

Complete the hyphenated expressions with the following words: based --- battery --- socially
--- food --- friendly --- hand --- non --- party --- solvent --- use
 GREENER TRANSPORT AND MORE
Decarbonization doesn’t end at the production line. There are other options to make the
company greener as well, as is shown in the following email.

Subject:

How can we all go greener?

Dear team

As you know, we recently looked into ways we can make our company and products greener.
We will not only look at how we can make significant changes to our production sites, but also
to the way we all work. I list here a few ideas that I have received from the group. We should
discuss them at the next monthly meeting in March.

Replace company cars with electric ................

Install ............... stations in the car park for these cars.

Introduce a cycle hire ............... so employees can ride a bike to work for free.

Subsidize ............... transport for all employees.

Start a car............... initiative at each location.

............... from carbon-heavy industries and put our money into clean energy.

Please send me your ideas by the end of this week.

Kind regards

John

Words to fill in: charging --- disinvest --- public --- scheme --- sharing --- vehicles
 REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE
It’s important that the employees at PLAYGREEN are honest about their own behaviour.
Choose the correct option to complete each sentence.

I use rechargeable / refillable batteries wherever possible.

I never turn on the air climate / conditioning

I de-plug / unplug all my electrical equipment when I leave the office.

I use recycled / recycling paper.

I work remotely / removed two days a week.

I never use dispensable / disposable coffee cups.

I no longer take short-distance / short-haul flights. I go by train.

THE FUTURE
John decides that they need to create new positions at the company to focus on green ideas.

A chief sustainability ............... is the executive in an organization whose job is to

ensure that the company is green.

A fuel-cell ............... designs devices that generate energy from chemical

reactions, not from burning oil or gas.

An in-vitro meat ............... is someone who researches how to create food products
such as burgers in the laboratory.

A supply-chain ............... is someone who has the responsibility to coordinate

activities across the whole production cycle and who ensures that everything runs as smoothly
and efficiently as possible.

An urban ............... is someone who grows fruit and vegetables in city areas.

Complete the job titles with the following words: engineer --- gardener --- manager --- officer -
-- scientist
 NO GREENWASHING --- LANGUAGE NOTES --- INTRODUCTION
Use of the present simple
Found in the text: … toys that are safe and (which) do no harm to the environment
Rule: Use the present simple for things that are always so

Auxiliaries to shorten sentences

Found in the text: Can it do even more? He believes it can.
Rule: Avoid clumsy repetitions of full verbs by using actually existing or underlying auxiliary
verbs (instead of saying: He believes it can do even more)

DECARBONIZE NOW:
Use of the present perfect
Found in the text: I’ve tried to calculate…
Rule: Use the present perfect to say that someone has done something not when someone
did something. The time when the action took place is of no importance, but the result is.

Indirect question:
Found in the text: I want to know how we can reduce ...
Rule: The word order typical of questions in direct speech (inversion) is reverted to that of a
statement. That’s why an indirect question ends in a full stop, not a question mark. You may
be looking straight into your interlocutor’s face but still ask the question indirectly (using an
introduction such as: “I want to know…)

The present perfect progressive

Found in the text: We’ve been looking into …
Rule: Use the present perfect progressive when a) you do not need to say when an action
took place and b) when you want to stress that performing an action must have taken some
time (going up to the present moment) but there is no emphasis on any result

The future forms “shall”

Found in the text: Shall I tell you …?
Rule: the form “shall” is technically speaking the correct future form of the first person
singular and plural. It is more formal than “will” and used, also in more informal contexts,
where in German we would use the verb “sollen”

The will-future for a detached view on the future

Found in the text: It’s possible that the government will …
Rule: Use the will-future for future events which are not 100% certain or for events which you
cannot influence.
Contrast: The government is going to cut public expenditure (either such an announcement
has been made or it is otherwise obvious)
 I had rather do something
Found in the text: I’d rather invest …
Rule: ‘Sb. had rather do sth’. is equivalent to ‘sb. should better do sth.’, thus it is not a form of
the past perfect: Somebody had done something before doing something else

Auxiliary for shortening sentences

Found in the text: As the price increases, so does the incentive
Rule: To avoid clumsy repetitions of full verbs, use the underlying auxiliary verbs to replace
the full verb. The underlying deep-structure of the first part of this sentence is: ‘As the price
does increase, …’ which accounts for the use of the auxiliary ‘do’ (in its third person form) in
the second part of this sentence. Mind the use of the inversion in this second part: ‘…so does
the price’ instead of ‘… so the price does.’

THE WARNING SIGNS

Use of the present perfect passive
Found in the text:
Active passive
Erosion has worn away land … Land has been worn away …
… and people have cut down too many … and too many tress have been cut down
trees.
Rule: when transforming active into passive, keep the tenses but mark them only at the
auxiliary verb “to be”. Since in the passive, the main verb is always in the form of the past
participle, this past participle cannot give tense information any longer.

Defective auxiliaries
Found in the text: They cannot cope
Rule: some modal auxiliaries like “can, may, must” are also called “defective” as they neither
have a to-infinitive, nor participles. The spelling of cannot in one word is a relic of Old
English, to a certain degree comparable to the contracted form “don’t / doesn’t” which appear
to have underlying one-word full forms, although the surface-structure realization is in two
words (do not / does not)

Word formation:
Found in the text: erosion / extinction
Rule: word formation often occurs in the sequence: verb – noun – adjective, so we have
Verb Noun Adjective
to erode the erosion erosive (forces of the wind)
to extinguish the extinction, the (fire) (the) extinguished (past part.
extinguisher as an adj.) fire
 THE ENERGY OPTIONS
Word formation
Found in the text: efficient --- involve --- sustainable --- generate --- renewable --- available
Rule: in addition to what has been said above, we can also say that word formation rests on
the principle of affixation (adding of prefixes or suffixes) which means that derived words are
longer than the basic words
Verb Noun adjective
efficiency efficient
to involve the involvement involved (past participle)
to sustain sustainability / sustenance sustainable
to generate the generation / the generative (grammar)
generator
to renew the renewal renewable / (basis: new)
to avail (o.s. of sth.) the avail / the availability available

Use of the present perfect

Found in the text: Ann has prepared
Rule: Use the present perfect when you want to say that something has happened instead of
when it happened (past tense)

Noun + preposition
Found in the text: We are pioneers in using …
Rule: Since a preposition in English must always be followed by a sort of noun, use a gerund
(nominalised verb form) instead of a verb

Too, either, neither

Found in the text: We don’t benefit from offshore wind farms, either
Rule: use ‘too’ in positive sentences, ‘either’ in negative sentences when the verb has been
made negative and ‘neither’ in negative sentences in which the verb has not been made
negative
Positive statement Negative statement (verb is Negative statement (verb is
negative) positive – inversion is
necessary)
We benefit from wind farms, We don’t benefit from wind Neither do we benefit from
too farms, either wind farms

Use of the present perfect

Found in the text: We have put panels … we have started to use
Rule: Use the present perfect when you want to say that something has happened, not when
it happened.
 MATERIALS MATTER
The present progressive
Found in the text: Many are looking for products that are green
Rule: use the present progressive for talking about things that are happening at or around
the time of speaking, not for things that happen on a regular basis

Comparisons
Found in the text: we have to go further than just symbolic measures
Rule: use ‘as + basic form of adjective / adverb + as’ to say that two things are equal, use
‘comparative form of adjective / adverb + than’ to say that two things are different
Two things are the same Two things are different
We have to go as far as using concrete We have to go farther / further than using
measures symbolic measures.
Mind: use ‘than’ in comparisons and ‘then’ when talking about actions happening one after
another.

Emphatic auxiliary
Found in the sentence: If children do put them in their mouths …
Rule: In an affirmative statement, there is normally no need to use the auxiliary ‘do’, but
when we do so, we should stress it. Mind that when using an auxiliary, the main verb is then
in its infinitive form.
Normal statement Statement with emphatic auxiliary
If he puts it in his mouth If he does put it in his mouth

GREENER TRANSPORT AND MORE:

Alternative v. option / options
Found in the text: there are other options ….
Rule: Since an alternative is just the choice between A or B, we say: ‘I want to leave my
options open’, stressing that there are more possibilities for you to choose from

Adverbs which are also adjectives

Found in the text: … at our monthly meeting
Rule: the words ‘hourly’, ‘daily’, ‘weekly’, ‘monthly’, ‘yearly’, although ending in ’–ly’ are not
only adverbs but also adjectives.
Adverb Adjective
Checking the machinery must be done daily Our daily design brief takes place at ten
sharp.
 ‘To subsidize’ and related forms – beware of confusions
Found in the text: subsidize public transport
Rule: to subsidize --- to pay subsidies (not: subventions) --- the subsidiary
(Tochtergesellschaft) --- to keep a diary (Tagebuch führen)
In his diary he noted down that his company would have to cut its subsidies paid to subsidize
the ailing subsidiary of the parent company.

By the end of this week

Found in the text: Please send me your ideas by the end of this week.
Rule: mind the different meanings of these words:
At the end of the week (on Friday)
Before the end of the week (before Friday)
By the end of the week (on Friday at the latest, preferably before Friday)
After this week (in the next week or even later)
Within a week (within the time span of seven days)

THE FUTURE:
The present simple
Found in the text: someone who designs, who researches, who grows
Rule: Regular activities such as those listed in a job description are referred to by the present
simple, temporary activities could be referred to by the present progressive
Present simple Present progressive
She works in the R&D department – He is temporarily helping out in our
actually she is the head of it overseas subsidiary.

The determiner ‘whose’

Found in the text: … the executive in an organization whose job is to ensure …
Rule: “whose” and “who’s” sound alike but mustn’t be mixed up:
Who’s the person who’s never heard the word “whose”?
Who is the person who has never heard the “whose”?
word