Prepositions: overview

 

Prepositions are words that express place, time, reason and other logical relationships between different parts of the sentence.

 

Prepositions are always followed by a noun or pronoun.

 

Prepositions of Place

• The ball is on the box.
• The ball is between the box and the bear.
• The ball is behind the box.
• The ball is in front of the box.
• The ball is under the box.
• The ball is next to the box.
• The ball is in the box.
• The ball is near the box.

 

Prepositions of Time

 

at +	9.00 / 10.30 / 7.45
	night
	the weekend (UK)

• I start work at 9.00 every day.
• He doesn’t usually go out at night.
• She sometimes works at the weekend.

 

on +	Monday / Thursday / Sunday
	Friday afternoon / Tuesday morning / Saturday nights
	November 27th / June 2nd / May 1st
	the weekend (US)

• I’m meeting Tom on Monday.
• I don’t usually work on Friday afternoon.
• My birthday is on November 27th.

 

in +	the morning / the afternoon / the evening
	July / September / January
	2012 / 1998 / 2001
	winter / spring / summer / autumn (UK) or fall (US)

• He usually watches TV in the evening.
• They sometimes go on holiday in July.
• We bought this house in 2012.
• It’s always cold here in winter.

 

Note: We always exchange presents at Christmas. We always exchange presents on Christmas Day. He likes going out at New Year. He likes going out on New Year’s Eve.

 

We don’t use a preposition with ‘last’ / ‘this’ / ‘next‘:

• I went to Paris last year.

(NOT: I went to Paris on last year.)

• I want to go to London this year.
• I’m going to visit Barcelona next year.

 

Adjectives with Prepositions

 

These are some useful combinations:

• I’m interested in cooking.
• He’s very good at playing tennis.
• Carrots are good for you.
• My sister is afraid of spiders.
• Paris is famous for the Eiffel Tower.
• We’re worried about the English test.

 

Adverbs of frequency

 

‘Never’, ‘hardly ever’, ‘sometimes’, ‘often’, ‘usually‘ and ‘always’ are adverbs of frequency.  We use them with the present simple to say how often we do something:

 

never – hardly ever – sometimes – often – usually – always

_____________________________

0%                                    100%

 

• I always get up at 7.00 am.
• I usually make toast and coffee for breakfast. 
• I often have two cups of coffee.
• I sometimes drive to work. 
• I hardly ever ride my bike to work.
• I never walk!

 

Present Simple – Most Verbs

 

Most of the time, these adverbs come before the verb:

• I always get up at 7.00 am.

(NOT: I get up always at 7.00 am.)

• I sometimes drive to work.  

(NOT: I drive sometimes to work.)

 

With negatives, they come after the auxiliary verb:

• I don’t usually ride my bike to work.

 

With questions, the word order is:

• What do you usually make for breakfast?
• How do you usually get to work?

 

Present Simple – ‘To be’

• It is sometimes cold at 7.00 am.
• I am usually a bit sleepy in the morning.
• I am never late for work.

 

The word order is different with ‘to be’:

• It is sometimes cold at 7.00 am.

(NOT: It sometimes is cold at 7.00 am.)

• I am never late for work.

(NOT: I never am late for work.)

 

With negatives, we can say:

• I’m not usually very awake in the morning.

 

With questions, we can say:

• Is it usually cold in the morning?
• Are you sometimes late for work?

 

Adjectives: gradable and non-gradable

 

Adjectives can be gradable or non-gradable. 

 

Gradable adjectives can be made stronger or weaker. For this purpose, we use adverbs like ‘very’, ‘pretty’ and ‘rather’ before them:

• This cake is very tasty.
• That movie was really interesting.
• Mary is extremely tired.

 

We do not use adverbs like ‘very’, ‘pretty’ and ‘rather’ for non-gradable adjectives.

For example, freezing already means very cold. Think about the meaning of the words:

• It’s freezing outside. (Very cold.)
• That film was terrifying. (Very scary.)
• This meal is delicious. (Very tasty.)

 

Note: Some emphasizing adverbs like ‘totally’, ‘absolutely’, ‘completely’, ‘perfectly‘, etc. are normally used with adjectives that are in themselves already quite absolute (i.e. non-gradable adjectives). They give even greater emphasis to what is said: The movie was absolutely terrifying. These exercises are completely impossible! The dinner at Saturday night was absolutely fantastic.

Possession: determiners, pronouns, apostrophe + s

 

Possession tells us who owns what. We can use determiners, possessive pronouns and apostrophe + s to show possession.

 

Determiners show who owns a noun:

• This is my book.
• That’s your problem.
• Cindy is visiting her mother.
• Tom is cleaning his room.

 

We use possessive pronouns after a verb:

• This is my pencil → This pencil is mine.
• That is her dress → That dress is hers.
• These are our coats → These coats are ours.

 

Determiners and possessive pronouns have different forms:

 

Subject pronoun	Determiners	Possessive pronoun
I You He She It We You Them	My Your His Her Its Our Your Their	Mine Yours His Hers Its Ours Yours Theirs

 

We can add apostrophe + s to a noun to show possession. We put the other noun after:

• Nick’s house looks clean.
• Selena’s books are on the floor.
• It’s nobody’s fault.

Personal pronouns: subject and object

 

Personal pronouns are used like nouns. They show who we are talking about:

• This is Jane, she is a teacher.
• We like her classes.
• She is funny.

 

Personal pronouns can be subject pronouns or object pronouns.

 

Subject pronouns are used in place of the subject. We use them so we don’t repeat the noun:

• Tom is a student. He studies English.
• Mary lives in France. She likes it.
• Betty is hungry. She wants to eat.

 

Subject pronouns have different forms:

 

	Singular	Plural
1st person	I	We
2nd person	You	You
3rd person	He / She / It	They

• Hi, I am Timothy!
• He needs help.
• They want to go home.

 

Object pronouns are used in place of the object:

• Don’t tell them.
• Look at me.
• I can’t see you.

 

Object pronouns have different forms:

 

	Singular	Plural
1st person	I → Me	We → Us
2nd person	You → You	You → You
3rd person	He → Him She → Her It → It	They → Them

• Henry is chasing a cat. He can’t catch it.
• Where are my parents? Can you see them?
• Ryan is eating pizza. He likes it.

 

Nouns: plural and singular

 

English nouns can be countable (we can say ‘two balls’) or uncountable (we can’t say ‘two milks’).

 

Countable nouns can have singular (street, book, dog) or plural (streets, books, dogs) forms.

 

Uncountable nouns don’t have plural forms.

• money
• water
• music
• information

 

We usually make plural nouns by adding ‘-s’ to the base form:

• One book → Polly has two books.
• One pencil → The teacher gave me three pencils.
• A cat → We saw two cats outside the house.
• A question  → Do you have any questions?

 

 But there are also some specific spelling rules for plurals.

1. For nouns ending in ‘-s’, ‘-ss’, ‘-sh’, ‘-ch’, ‘-x’ and ‘-z’, add ‘-es’:

• A bus → All the buses stop here.
• A glass → I had two glasses of wine last night.
• A brush → I prefer soft brushes for my hair.
• A peach → Sandy bought fresh peaches at the market.
• A box → There were boxes with presents under the Christmas tree.
• A quiz → I like taking fun quizzes*.

Note: When a word ends in a singular ‘z’, the ‘z’ is doubled and ‘-es’ is added.

 

2. For nouns ending in a consonant + ‘-y’, change the ‘-y’ to ‘-ies’:

• A city → I visited many cities.
• A story → My grandmother knows many interesting stories.
• A country → How many countries are there in the world?
• A family → Ten families moved into new houses last month.

 

3. For most nouns ending in ‘-o‘, add ‘-s‘ (kilos, photos, radios, etc). But there are several common nouns that need ‘-es‘ instead:

• Potato → Jane bought two kilos of potatoes at the market.
• Tomato → Tomatoes are good in any salad.
• Hero → Batman and Superman are my two favorite superheroes.
• Echo → Loud echoes could be heard in the woods.

 

4. For nouns ending in ‘-f‘ or ‘-fe‘, change ‘-f / -fe‘ to ‘-ves‘:

• A leaf → Many trees lose their leaves in Autumn.
• A wife → In some countries a man can have several wives.
• A knife → A good chef always takes care of his knives.

 

Some nouns in English have irregular plural forms. The most common are:
man – men woman – women child – children person – people foot  – feet	tooth – teeth fish – fish sheep – sheep mouse – mice penny – pence

 

 

 

Modal verbs: ability

 

Can is a modal verb that describes what someone is able to do. It is used in different forms to describe past and present abilities.

• Peter can cook Italian food.

 

In positive statements we put can between the subject and the main verb in its base form:

• I can ride a bicycle.
• They can help you with building your house.

 

The negative form of can becomes ‘can not’ or contracted ‘cannot’ (‘can’t’):

• Jeffrey cannot play the piano.
• She can’t go with us because she’s sick.

 

Questions with can are formed by swapping the subject and the modal verb:

• Can Jane play tennis?
• Can he drive a car?

 

Ability in the past

 

To talk about ability in the past we use could, which is the past form of can. The negative form of could is ‘could not (couldn’t)’.

• I can’t dance rumba now (present ability), but I could when I was younger (past ability).
• When I was a student I could party all night before an exam.
• I couldn’t go to that restaurant because it was too expensive.
• When Emily was eight she could play the violin.

 

Ability in the future

 

We don’t use can to describe future ability. Instead, we use ‘will be able to’:

• Peter can play the accordion quite well (present ability). In a year or two he will be able to give concerts (future ability).
• Next Sunday I will be able to see the new fountains in the park.

 

Negative statements about future ability are formed using ‘won’t be able to’ or ‘will be unable to’:

• If you don’t study well, you won’t be able to find a good job.
• Sorry, I’ll be unable to call him at 2 PM. I’ll be in a meeting at that time.

 

 

Modal verbs: overview

 

Modal verbs are very common and useful in English. We use them to talk about ability, permission, obligation, requests, offers, suggestions and more.

 

Meaning	Examples
Ability	I can play football. Tom couldn’t visit us because he was tired.
Permission	You may have more ice-cream if you like. Could I leave early today?
Requests	Can / Could you bring me that book? Would you call John and invite him, please?
Offers	I’ll buy the meat for the barbecue. Shall I carry some of your bags?
Suggestions and advice	You should / ought to go to the dentist. We could try that new Italian restaurant.
Obligation	You have to drive on the left in the UK. You mustn’t be late for work.
Making deductions	There is someone at the door.  It could / might / may be Nick, I don’t know. It can’t be Mary because she is on vacation.

 

Modal verbs in English don’t add an ‘s’ for he/she/it.  They are always followed by the main verb in the base form:

 

Subject	Modal verb	Base form of the verb	Rest of the sentence
I (you, he, she, it, we, they)	can	dance	very well.

 

Negative statements with modal verbs are formed by adding ‘not‘ after the modal verb:

• You should not (shouldn’t) eat so much meat – it’s bad for you.
• Jack can not (can’t) play tennis, but he likes playing football.

 

Questions with modal verbs are usually formed by swapping the subject and modal verb:

• They should visit Egypt.
• Why should they visit Egypt?

 

• You may come in.
• May I come in?

 

• Tiffany can meet her friends tonight.
• Can Tiffany meet her friends tonight? 

 

Note: With ‘ought to’ (=should) and ‘have to’ (=must) we use ‘to’ before the base form of the verb. You ought to learn how to drive. I have to read a lot to become a good student.

Past Simple: questions

 

To ask questions using Past Simple, we use Did + subject + verb:

 

Singular	Plural
Did I go? Did you go? Did he/she/it go?	Did we go? Did you go? Did they go?

• Did you go to the supermarket? – No, I didn’t.
• Did he play football? – Yes, he did.
• Did they watch a film? – No, they didn’t.

 

Note: we must use did / didn’t with the verb do as well. Did she do her homework? Yes, she did, but she didn’t do the dishes.

 

To ask questions using the verb ‘be’, we use was or were + subject + adjective:

 

Singular	Plural
Was I late? Were you late? Was he/she/it late?	Were we late? Were you late? Were they late?

• Was she happy?
• Was Tom cold?
• Were they upset?

 

To ask questions using question words (when, why, how, where, what), we use question word + did + subject + verb:

• When did you arrive?
• Where did she go?
• Why did they leave?
• How did it happen?

 

Past Simple: negative

 

We use Past Simple negative to talk about what we did not do in the past.

 

To make Past Simple negative sentences, we use did not (didn’t) + verb:

 

Singular	Plural
I did not (didn’t) go You did not (didn’t) go He/she/It did not (didn’t) go	We didn’t go You didn’t go They didn’t go

 

• I didn’t go to school on Monday.
• Stefany didn’t like the meal.
• He didn’t talk to me yesterday.

 

In Past Simple negative, the verb ‘be’ has two forms — was not (wasn’t) or were not (weren’t):

 

Singular	Plural
I was not (wasn’t) happy You were not (weren’t) happy He/she/it was not (wasn’t) happy	We weren’t happy You weren’t happy They weren’t happy

 

• I wasn’t at home last night.
• Mary wasn’t at school.
• They weren’t happy.