Test it, Fix it. English grammar - Kenna Bourke 2003

Useful grammar terms

Articles

There are two kinds of article: definite and indefinite. Articles go before a noun or an adjective + noun.

The is a definite article.

The house is in Sheep Street.

The black dog is mine.

A and an are indefinite articles.

That's a camel.

Do you want an orange?

I'm reading a good book.

(See pages 9, 13 and 17.)

Adjectives

Adjectives tell you more about nouns. Adjectives can go before a noun or after the verb be.

There are also comparative adjectives, e.g. bigger, easier, more interesting, and superlative adjectives, e.g. biggest, easiest and the most interesting.

(See pages 21, 25 and 33.)

Adverbs

Adverbs tell you more about verbs. They can describe the following things:

• how often something happens (adverbs of frequency), e.g. never, rarely, occasionally, sometimes, often, usually, always, still, etc.

• how certain something is (adverbs of certainty), e.g. possibly, certainly, definitely, etc.

• how you do an action (adverbs of manner), e.g. carefully, slowly, fast, etc.

• when something happens (adverbs of time), e.g. yesterday, today, tomorrow, etc.

• where something happens (adverbs of place), e.g. here, there, etc.

(See pages 21, 29 and 37.)

Nouns

Nouns are words you use to talk about people, animals, things, places and ideas.

Patrick is my brother.

I've got a dog.

What's that box for?

We live in a village.

Everybody needs love.

Nouns can be the subject or object of a sentence.

My dog bit the postman. (The subject, my dog, is a noun. The object, the postman, is also a noun.)

Nouns are either countable, e.g. apple, house, etc., or uncountable, e.g. advice, information, bread, etc. Most common nouns are countable. You need to learn the uncountable ones. Many uncountable nouns in English are countable in other languages, so be carefull

Pronouns

Pronouns replace nouns.

(See page 65.)

Quantifiers

Quantifiers are words that tell you about amounts. These are the most common quantifiers: a, an, some, any, a lot, a bit, a few.

I like you a lot.

There isn't any milk.

How much cash have you got?

(See page 53.)

Prepositions

There are prepositions and expressions of place, time and movement.

They do three things:

• in, on, at, behind, under, on top of, at the bottom of, etc. tell you where something is.

The cat's behind the sofa.

The office is at the end of the street.

• in, on, at, tomorrow, last week, etc. tell you when something happens.

My birthday's in June.

We're sailing to France tomorrow.

• over, across, through, etc. tell you how something moves and where it moves to.

Tony ran across the road.

We drove over the bridge.

(See pages 69 and 73.)

Question words

The most common question words are: who, what, which, where, when, why, how, whose. You can use question words to ask about people, things, places, time, reaaone, and possessions.

Who's that?

What colour is the sky?

Where have you been?

When are they leaving?

Why are you laughing?

How did he do that?

Whose book is this?

A question word can be the subject or object of a sentence.

'Who saw you?' 'Mike saw me.' (Who is the subject.)

’Who did you see?' 'I saw David.' (Who is the object.)

(See pages 77, 81 and 85)