Pronouns: reflexive

 

We use reflexive pronouns when the object of the verb in the sentence is the same person or thing as the subject.

We also can use them to add emphasis to various statements.

• Mary likes looking at herself in the mirror. (‘herself’ refers to Mary, not to anybody else)
• Jack and Evelyn built their house themselves. (we emphasize the fact that nobody helped them)

 

Reflexive pronouns are formed like this:

 

Subject pronoun	Object pronoun	Reflexive pronoun
I You He She It We You They	Me You Him Her It Us You Them	Myself Yourself Himself Herself Itself Ourselves Yourselves Themselves

• I usually do the cleaning myself.
• Can you repair this chair yourself?
• Jane bought herself a new pair of shoes.
• Jack introduced himself to other people at the meeting.
• This door locks itself after closing.
• We must make important decisions ourselves.
• Be careful, don’t cut yourselves with those knives.
• Old people often talk to themselves.

 

In many situations we use reflexive pronouns just to emphasize that:

1. the subject is acting upon itself instead of acting upon another object, or
2. to emphasize the importance of the subject.

 

Consider the following examples:

• Girls liked them. (they liked someone else)
• Girls liked themselves. (subject acted upon itself)
• I do my laundry myself, and my mother does not help me.
• The movie itself was not very good, but the soundtrack was awesome.
• The Queen herself attended the ceremonial reception.
• We could fix the car ourselves, but Peter decided to take it to the service.

 

We don’t use reflexive pronouns when two or more subjects perform the same reciprocal action. ‘Each other’ is used instead:

• We looked at each other with admiration. (I looked at her, and she looked at me)
• BUT: We looked at ourselves in the mirror. (I looked at myself, and she looked at herself)
• My friends and I are helping each other with the homework.
• Usually cats and dogs don’t like each other.
• Children gave each other apples and ate them with pleasure.

 

Nouns: subject and predicate agreement

 

Subjects and verbs (predicates) must agree in number (singular or plural).

 

The basic rule is: if a subject is singular, its verb must also be singular; if a subject is plural, its verb must also be plural. Thus, being able to find the right subject and verb is key to correct subject-verb agreement.

• The dog growls when he is angry.
• The dogs growl when they are angry.

 

But depending on the context, some plural nouns may have singular agreement with the verbs and vice-versa.

 

1. For example, pieces of art (books, songs, paintings, etc) with plural subject in their name use singular agreement:

• Three Men in a Boat is a humorous novel written by the English writer Jerome K. Jerome in 1889.
• The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of books by Clive Staples Lewis.

 

2. Some nouns ending in ‘-s’ (and thus looking plural) still have singular agreement. These are the nouns denoting academic subjects, sports and geographical names:

• Mathematics was not my strong point at school.
• The Netherlands is a country of tulips and bicycles.
• Gymnastics is a spectator sport.   

 

3. We use a singular verb with distances, periods of time, sums of money, etc., when considered as a unit.

• Three miles is too far to walk.
• Five years is the maximum sentence for that offense.

 

4. A linking verb (‘is‘, ‘are‘, ‘was‘, ‘were‘, ‘seem’, and others) agrees with its subject, not its complement.

• Joe’s favorite dessert is blueberry muffins.
• Blueberry muffins are Joe’s favorite dessert.

 

5. If one subject is singular and one is plural, the verb agrees with the nearer subject.

• Neither the television nor the radios work.
• Neither the radios nor the television works.

 

6. There are many nouns in English that denote groups of people, animals, objects or ideas as single entities.

 

These nouns are known as collective nouns, they have a singular form:

• army, corporation, family, party, jury, colony, flock, pride, tribe, etc.

 

Depending on the context, collective nouns may have either singular or plural agreement.

 

If the noun describes a unit acting as a unified group, the verb must have singular form:

• The class waits for its teacher quietly  (the class is referred to as a unit acting collectively, in unison).

 

If the noun describes a group of individuals acting on their own, the verb must have plural form:

• The class begin their homework assignments while waiting for their teacher (students are acting as individuals – they do their own homework assignments).

 

Compare:

 

Singular agreement	Plural agreement
My family is big and friendly.     The team is playing confidently and assertively.     The band has released a new album.	My family are going out together for the first time after three years.   The team are happy with the results of their game.   The band have been on tour to promote their new album.

 

 

Compound subjects

 

1. Two or more singular (or plural) subjects joined by ‘and’ act as a plural compound subject and take a plural verb (we can say ‘they‘).

• The cow and the pig are jumping over the moon.

 

BUT: Phrases such as ‘together with’, ‘as well as’, and ‘along with’ are not the same as ‘and’. They modify the earlier word and, thus, are used with a singular verb.

• The mayor as well as his brothers is going to prison.
• The mayor and his brothers are going to jail.
• The politician, along with the newsmen, is expected shortly.

 

2. Two singular subjects connected by ‘or‘, ‘nor‘, ‘either…or‘, or ‘neither…nor‘ require a singular verb.

• Neither money nor power was important any longer.
• My aunt or my uncle is arriving by train today.

 

3. Prepositional phrases between the subject and verb (like ‘of‘) usually do not affect agreement.

• A bouquet of yellow roses lends color and fragrance to the room. (bouquet lends, not roses lend)
• The colors of the rainbow are beautiful.

 

4. The words that come between the subject and verb do not affect agreement.

• The dog, who is chewing on my jeans, is usually very good.

 

5. When sentences start with ‘there‘ or ‘here‘, the subject will always be placed after the verb, so care needs to be taken to identify it correctly.

• There is a problem with the balance sheet.
• Here are the papers you requested.

 

6. If one of the words ‘each‘, ‘every‘, or ‘no‘ comes before the subject, the verb is singular.

• No smoking or drinking is allowed.
• Every man and woman is required to check in.

 

7. With words that indicate portions (‘a lot‘, ‘a majority‘, ‘some‘, ‘all‘) we are guided by the noun after ‘of’. If the noun after of is singular, use a singular verb. If it is plural, use a plural verb.

• A lot of the pie has disappeared.
• A lot of the pies have disappeared.
• All of the pie is gone.
• All of the pies are gone.
• Some of the pie is missing.
• Some of the pies are missing.

 

 

 

Compound nouns

 

A compound noun consists of two or more words that act as a singular noun.

All compound nouns contain at least one main word, which is  the last in such combination and in most cases is a noun:

• table tennis, playground, school bag, haircut, dishwasher, toothpaste, swimming pool   

 

The other word(s) in this combination may be an adjective, or preposition, or verb. They modify the main word or add to its meaning:

• We need to go to the bus stop. (noun + noun)
• Take a look at the whiteboard. (adjective + noun)
• The historic city centre is reachable by underground. (preposition + noun)

 

Compound nouns can be formed in three different ways:

 

– two words melded together to make one word

• Jennifer needs some time to fix her makeup.
• Michael likes playing football.
• I need a new toothbrush for my trip.

 

– separate words next to each other

• To receive your parcel you should contact your local post office.
• Kids have been playing in the  swimming pool all day long.
• Please put the plates on the kitchen table, I will wash them later.

 

– hyphenated forms

• This coat is not suitable for dry-cleaning.
• All visitors are invited to the hotel reception for check-in.
• There are two six-packs of beer in my fridge.

 

Plural forms of compound nouns are created by making the final noun plural:

• Babysitter → Good babysitters always have reference letters from their clients.
• Haircut → Some haircuts can make your face look thinner.
• Cycle race → Nick took part in many cycle races.

Note: In general we make the plural of a compound noun by adding -s to the “base word” (the most “significant” word): mother-in-law – mothers-in-law passer-by – passers-by Some compound nouns have no obvious base word and you may need to consult a dictionary to find the plural: grown-up – grown-ups good-for-nothing – good-for-nothings

Nouns: formation with common prefixes

 

We use prefixes to change the meaning of nouns.

 

Prefixes go at the beginning of words:

• She lives in a subdivision outside of a large city.
• That is a bunch of nonsense.  I can’t believe you think that.
• He has to talk to his ex-wife frequently because of the children.
• The level of malnutrition in the children of this town is astonishing.
• There was a lot of unrest among the people after the president was arrested.
• For children with parents from different countries, biculturalism and bilingualism are often parts of their lives.
• Her learning disability has made it difficult for her to keep up with classmates.  

 

The most common noun prefixes and their meaning:

 

Prefix	Meaning	Examples
anti-	against	antibody, antifreeze
bi-	referring to two	bicycle, bilingualism, biculturalism
co-	together, with	coordination, cooperation
semi-	half of, not complete	semicircle, semidesert, semidarkness
mal-	bad, not enough	malfunction, malnutrition, maltreatment
ex-	former	exwife, ex-president, ex-smoker
sub-	under, below	subdivision, submarine, subset
dis-	bad, opposite of	disability, disbelief discomfort
non-	opposite of	nonsense, nonfiction
un-	lack of	unfairness, unrest, unemployment
over-	excessive, above	overwork, overheating

 

Note: You may see some nouns with prefixes written with a hyphen (-). This happens when a verb is not commonly used with a prefix, such as: ex-president. This will also depend on the type of English (American or British).

 

Nouns: formation with common suffixes

 

Nouns are words that refer to people, places, and things. We use suffixes to make a new word. For example, we can add a suffix to a verb and create a noun.

Suffixes go on the end of words.

• They always arrive late on Wednesdays. (verb)
• The arrival of a new puppy made everyone happy. (noun)

By adding -al, the verb ‘arrive’ becomes a noun.

 

Here are some other examples of nouns ending in -al:

 

Root Word	Noun	Meaning
profession	professional	Related to the action of a verb
approve	approval
deny	denial

 

There are other suffixes that we can use to create nouns, such as -tion/-ation, -ness, -ity, -ment, -ship, -ance/ence, -er/or, -ian, -ist, and many more. We can divide them into several main groups to distinguish them by meaning:

1. Nouns describing people doing some activity (often an occupation) and people experiencing some activity (suffix -ee).

Suffix	Example
-ant	assistant, participant
-ee	attendee, referee, grantee
-ent	correspondent, respondent
-(e)er	engineer, manager
-ian	librarian, historian
-ic	mechanic, paramedic
-ician	mathematician, politician
-or	supervisor, survivor
-ist	Marxist, capitalist (followers of philosophies)

• I don’t think I am a good writer.
• She works as a biologist for a research company.

2. Nouns describing devices

Suffix	Example
-er	condenser, opener
-or	alternator, razor

•  Today we can’t live without computers.

3. Nouns describing abstracts

Suffix	Example
-age	mileage, percentage
-al	disposal, proposal
-ance/-ence	appearance, attendance, dependence
-ation	information, transformation
-dom	freedom, kingdom
-iety	society, variety
-ism	capitalism, idealism (philosophies)
-ity	density, diversity
-ment	agreement, statement
-ness	usefulness, weakness
-ship	membership, relationship
-sion	conclusion, explosion
-ure	exposure, failure
-th	breadth, length

• I do not like taking public transportation in this city.
• No one knows what happiness really is.
• Equality between different groups is important for the future of the country.
• His preference for tea over coffee surprised me.

 

Spelling Tips

 

Often, the suffix causes a spelling change to the original word. The following changes may occur:

1.  Dropping letters

The final -e is dropped:

• argue – argument.

2.  Changing ‘y’ to ‘i‘

In words that end in ‘-y’, the ‘y’ becomes an ‘i’:

• deny – denial
• happy – happiness

3. Changing ‘-le’ to ‘-il’

• able, possible + -ity → ability, possibility

4. Changing ‘-t’ to ‘-ss’

• permit, omit + -ion → permission, omission

 

Suffixes can help expand your vocabulary. For example, if you know the word ‘happy’ or ‘create’, you can use that to understand and use new words like ‘happiness’ and ‘creativity’.

Nouns: abstract and concrete

 

Nouns in English can be abstract and concrete.

 

Meaning

 

Concrete nouns denote things that have some physical form and that you can experience through your 5 senses — sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch.

 

Examples of concrete nouns are:

• book, river, air, forest, apple, noise, car, street, pen, bottle, stone, lamp, etc.

Abstract nouns denote things that don’t have any physical form, like events, ideas, qualities, concepts, emotions, states.

 

Examples of abstract nouns are:

• love, hate, sympathy, honesty, freedom, truth, knowledge, progress, friendship, etc.

 

Usage

 

Most concrete nouns may be used both with an indefinite and definite article and may be singular and plural.

• an ocean – the ocean – oceans
• an avenue – the avenue – avenues

 

Unlike concrete nouns, most abstract nouns are used with no (zero) article and in singular.

• Love is a powerful emotion.

 

BUT: if an abstract noun is qualified by a defining relative or by the preposition of + noun phrase, it can be used with a definite article ‘the’.

• The education that I received in my college is internationally recognized.

 

Many abstract nouns can be both countable and uncountable based on the context, and usually these forms differ a bit in their meaning. If they are countable, they may be used in plural.

 

Compare: 

 

Countable	Uncountable
Peter acquired several useful skills on a hike.    What qualities do you need for this job?   The Ministry of Culture provides support to young artists.   Mary has visited Italy many times.   Were there any troubles on your route?   Just have a look at those beauties on the beach!	It requires skill to make a fire in the woods.   This restaurant is known for it’s superb quality.   The Institute develops targeted programmes for different cultures and languages.   Hurry up, you don’t have much time left.   Please be careful not to get in trouble.   People do their best to preserve the beauty of their city.

 

Verbs: question tags

 

Question tags are very common in spoken English. We use them in two different ways:

 

     1. To make a conversation

• Tom: It’s a nice day, isn’t it?

In this example, the speaker is not asking a real question. (He already knows if it is a nice day or not!) He just wants the other person to agree with him. Here, we use the falling intonation.

• Sally: You like pizza, don’t you?

If Sally is sure that the other person likes pizza – perhaps she’s talking to a good friend – her intonation falls, too.

 

     2. To check that you are right

• Sally: You like pizza, don’t you?

If Sally is not sure, her intonation rises. This is more similar to a real question.

 

Structure of question tags

 

1. When the sentence is positive, the tag is usually negative.

• It’s a nice day, isn’t it?
• You like pizza, don’t you?

 

When the sentence is negative, the tag is usually positive.

• He doesn’t speak Spanish, does he?
• They didn’t go to the cinema, did they?

 

2. When the verb ‘to be’ is the main verb, we use it in the question tag:

• It’s a nice day today, isn’t it?
• You’re from China, aren’t you?

 

3. The verb in the statement should be the same tense as the verb in the tag.

• You are a good singer, aren’t you?
• You didn’t go to work yesterday, did you?
• You have been to London, haven’t you?

 

4. Be careful when the sentence starts with ‘I am…’ because the tag is ‘aren’t I?’

• I’m late, aren’t I?
• I’m right, aren’t I?

 

5. If there is an auxiliary verb in the sentence, we use it in the question tag:

• He doesn’t speak Spanish, does he?
• They aren’t coming to the party, are they?
• You have been to Australia, haven’t you?

 

6. If there is no auxiliary verb in the sentence, we use an appropriate form of ‘do’:

• You like pizza, don’t you?
• You watched TV last night, didn’t you?

 

7. If there is a modal verb in the sentence, we use it in the question tag:

• He can ski, can’t he?
• This shouldn’t take long, should it?

 

Verbs: Participles

 

A Participle is a form of a verb that can function as part of a verb phase, or independently as an adjective or an adverb.

• working man (adjective)
• broken heart (verb)
• asking me (adverb)

 

    1. Present Participles are forms of verbs that express a non-completed or continuing action. They are used with auxiliary verbs ‘be’ and ‘have’ to make continuous tenses, such as Present Continuous, Present Perfect Continuous, etc.

• It is raining all day long.
• The choir was singing beautiful chants.
• Cindy and Shaun have been spending their vacation at the sea.

 

Note: When -ing forms are used as verbs, adjectives or adverbs, they are called Present Participles. They can refer to present, past or future. When -ing forms are used like nouns, they are called gerunds.

 

To form the Present Participle we add ‘-ing’ to the base form of the verb:

• to play → playing
• to hide → hiding
• to swim → swimming

 

Note: Spelling of some verb base forms changes a bit when adding ‘-ing’. For spelling rules, see Present Continuous: statements in the Pre-intermediate course.

 

2. Past Participles are forms of verbs that express a completed action. They are used with auxiliary verb ‘have’ to form perfect tenses such as Present Perfect, Past Perfect, etc., and Passive voice.

• I have passed the exam and I am very happy.
• Jane had planned to take the kids to the beach, but the weather changed.
• We have finished our work for today.

 

In most cases (for regular verbs), to form the Past Participle we add ‘-ed’ to the base form of the verb:

• to listen → listened
• to like → liked
• to drop → dropped

 

Note: spelling of some verb base forms changes a bit when adding ‘-ed’. For spelling rules, see Past Simple: statements in the Beginner course.

 

Some common verbs in English have irregular Past Participle forms:

• I don’t feel (base form) quite well today.
• I haven’t felt (past participle form) very well for over a week now.
• Helen has gone to Madrid. She will be back next Sunday.
• Mary has done her homework perfectly, her mam’s glad.
• The police have found the suspect within three hours.

 

Note: for the list of Past Simple and Past Participle forms of irregular verbs see Verbs: irregular in the Pre-Intermediate course.

 

Verb patterns: Used to / Be used to / Get used to / Would

Verb patterns are one or two verbs followed by preposition. Some verb patterns may look similar but have very different meanings.

 

Consider the following examples:

• I used to drive on the left when I lived in the UK.
• I would drive to my mother’s house when I lived closer to her.
• When I came to the UK, I had to get used to driving on the left.
• I am used to driving on the left since I’ve lived in the UK for a long time.

 

Used to + infinitive

 

We use ‘used to + infinitive’ to talk about things that happened often in the past, but no longer happen.

This pattern can also be used for things that were true in the past, but are not true anymore:

• I used to play football a lot, but I don’t play much now.
• Ben used to drink a lot of beer when he was student. These days he doesn’t drink at all.
• This building used to be a shoe factory, but now it is a museum.

 

Would

 

We also use ‘would’ for things that were true in the past, but are not true anymore. It usually denotes habitual actions in the past but not past states:

• When I was a child, I would watch TV every Saturday morning.
• Every weekend I would go on a long bike ride.

Note: For many situations, both ‘used to’ and ‘would’ can be used. However, for past states, only ‘used to’ can be used. We used to live in London when I was a child. ‘Would’ is not used with stative verbs (have, be, live, love, smell, feel, know, etc.). She used to have a house in the country. NOT: She would have a house in the country.

 

Be used to + object

 

We use ‘be used to + object (gerund/noun/pronoun)’ to talk about something that has been done for a long time and is normal and familiar.

• Can I have some pepper, please? I’m used to more spicy food.
• Katrin was used to her classmates, so she missed them after moving to another town.
• Jack is used to working alone; he never asks for any help.
• My dogs are used to playing with other pets when outdoors.

 

Get used to + object

 

We use ‘get used to + object (gerund/noun/pronoun)’ to describe situations when we learn something new or adapt to new conditions:

• Tom got used to new weather conditions within a couple of days.
• It didn’t take much time for the students to get used to their new teacher.
• When I travel, I get used to sleeping in a plane quite easily.
• He got used to hearing the noise from the street.

 

Verb patterns: ‘Verb+Gerund’ vs ‘Verb+Infinitive’

 

Using gerunds and infinitives with other verbs in English is a tricky thing, because some verbs are followed only by infinitives and other verbs — only by gerunds, while certain verbs may be followed by either one.

 

Furthermore, use of infinitive or gerund after a certain verb may totally change the meaning of a sentence.

 

— Some verbs can be followed only by a ‘to’-infinitive:

agree, afford, appear, choose, decide, expect, fail, hope, learn, manage, promise, refuse, seem, wait, want

• We agreed to go to the cinema together with Ann.
• Steffany decided to take a taxi, because it was late.
• I promise to follow your piece of advice.
• Last year Jack learned to play table tennis.
• She feels offended and she doesn’t want to see him.

 

— Some verbs can be followed only by a gerund:

admit, advise, avoid, consider, deny, discuss, dislike, enjoy, fancy, finish, imagine, keep (on), mind, practice, postpone, risk, recommend, stop, suggest

• I enjoy drinking my coffee in the morning.
• Yesterday we discussed going to Italy on vacation.
• Your drawings are quite good, keep on practicing.
• Peter tried to avoid answering his father’s questions.
• Have you ever considered crossing that beautiful lake on a raft? 

 

Note: Here are some tips to remember.   1. Gerunds are mostly used when actions are real, fixed, or completed. Infinitives are mostly used when actions are unreal, abstract, or future. I enjoy cooking. He wants to swim. 2. After a preposition, you almost always will find a gerund. She is afraid of flying. 3. When you are talking about an activity, you usually use a gerund. I quit smoking. Let’s go shopping.

 

— Some verbs (e.g. mind, imagine, can’t stand, dislike, involve, miss, put off and risk) can be used with a subject before the gerund. If the subject is a pronoun, it is in the object form (me, him, her, us, them):

• We just couldn’t imagine Robert making a speech.
• Do you mind me sitting here while you’re working?
• I don’t want to risk her losing her job.

 

— Some verbs can be followed either by the infinitive or the gerund without any change in meaning:

begin, bother, continue, hate, intend, like, love, prefer, start

• Suddenly it started raining. = Suddenly it started to rain.
• Michael intends buying a bicycle.  = Michael intends to buy a bicycle.
• The boy continued playing with his dog. = The boy continued to play with his dog.
• Margaret prefers meeting with her friends in a mall. = Margaret prefers to meet with her friends in a mall.

 

— ‘Hate‘, ‘like‘, ‘love‘ and ‘prefer‘ can be followed either by ‘-ing’ or a ‘to’-infinitive. The difference in meaning is often small. The ‘-ing‘ form emphasizes the verb itself. The ‘to‘-infinitive puts the emphasis more on the preference for or the result of the action.

 

Compare:

Gerund	Infinitive
I love cooking Italian food. (emphasis on the process itself and enjoyment of it)	I like to drink coffee in the morning, and tea in the evening. (emphasis more on the preference or habit)
She hates washing the dishes. (emphasis on the process and no enjoyment of it)	I hate to be the only person to attend. (emphasis on the result: I would prefer not to be in that situation)

 

Note: When ‘hate’, ‘like’, ‘love’ and ‘prefer’ are used with would or should, only the ‘to’-infinitive is used:

• He’d love to find some quiet place to live. NOT: He’d love finding some quiet place to live.
• Would you like to go to the party on Saturday?

 

— But some verbs can be followed either by the infinitive or the gerund with a certain change in meaning:

forget, regret, remember, stop, try, need, go on

 

Compare:

Gerund	Infinitive
Mike regrets saying what he said to his teacher. (he did that and now he’s sorry about it)	We regret to inform you that the train will be 2 hours late. (we are sorry that we have to say that)
I know Jane, I remember talking to her yesterday. (I talked to Jane and now I remember that fact)	Yesterday I met Jane and I remembered to talk to her. (I’d planned to talk to Jane, so I did not forget to do that when I met her)

 

— Some verbs connected with feeling, hearing and seeing can be used with gerund or with an infinitive without to:

feel, notice, see, hear, watch

 

When used with gerund, these verbs emphasize the action in progress. When they are used with an infinitive without to, they emphasize the action as a whole, or as completed.

 

Compare:

Gerund	Infinitive
She heard people shouting in the street. (emphasizes the continued or repeated action)	I heard someone shout ‘Help!’, so I ran outside. (emphasizes the whole event happened once)
I saw her crossing the street. (emphasizes the crossing as it was happening)	I saw Philip cross the street. (emphasizes the whole event from start to finish)