Grammar Practice - Herbert Puchta, Jeff Stranks, Peter Lewis-Jones 2012

Appendix

Tenses

Present tense

Present simple

We form the Present simple with the base form of the verb.

We add -s to the base form for the third person singular (he / she I it).

Present continuous

We form the Present continuous with am I is I are + the -ing form of the verb.

Past tense

Past simple - was I were

Past simple - irregular verbs

A lot of verbs have an irregular Past simple: there are no rules to form this. Here is a list of the most important irregular verbs.

Future tense

(be) going to

We form the going to-future with am I is I are + going to + the base form of the verb.

Special verbs

to be — affirmative, negative

Questions with be

have got I haven't got

The third person singular of have got is (he I she I it) has got.

there is I there are

We use there is I there are to say that something exists in a certain location.

can I can't

Can is a modal verb and is always followed by the base form of a verb.

The negative form is cannot, often contracted to can't.

Adverbs

Adverbs of frequency (always, often, usually, sometimes, never)

Imperative - let’s

Articles

Indefinite article

We use the indefinite article a / an with countable singular nouns.

Definite article

There is one definite article in English: the.

Nouns and adjectives

Plural nouns — irregular plurals

We add -s to singular nouns to make them plural. Nouns ending in consonant + у change to -ies in the plural. Some nouns have an irregular plural.

Possessive 's

To show that something belongs to somebody we use this structure: the name of the person + 's + the possession.

Adjectives

Adjectives go before a noun or after the verb be They are the same for singular and plural.

Question words

this I that, these I those

We use demonstrative adjectives and pronouns to talk about people or things near us (this I these) or further away (that I those).

Possessive adjectives

Possessive adjectives always precede the noun. We do not use an article with possessive adjectives.

Personal pronouns - subject and object pronouns

Prepositions

We use prepositions in front of a noun or a pronoun to talk about direction, place or time, (see 'Time prepositions').

Time prepositions (in, on, at)

Conjunctions

Linking words (and, but, because, so)

We use linking words (conjunctions) to join main clauses and dependent clauses.

Quantity / measurement

How much is/are...? / How many...?

We use how much to ask about quantity or to ask the price of something. We use how many to ask about the number of things.

Ordinal numbers