Adverbs of place & movement

 

These adverbs add information about place and movement.

• The children are playing outside.
• They took the dog outside.
• He went upstairs to use the bathroom.
• Let me take your bags upstairs.

 

They usually come after the main verb – or the object, if there is one.

• I see my parents every weekend because they live nearby.
• I don’t see my brother very often because he lives far away / miles away.

 

‘Here’ and ‘there’ are common adverbs of place:

• He has worked here for ten years.
• When he went to Australia, he stayed there for three weeks.
• Come here!
• Wait there!

 

We can also use ‘here’ and ‘there’ at the beginning of a sentence for emphasis:

• Here comes the bus.  At last!
• Here it is!  I’ve been looking for it for ages!
• There you are!  Why are you so late?

 

Note: The verb often comes before the subject – unless it is a pronoun. Here comes the bus.   BUT: Here it comes.

 

Some adverbs of place end in ‘-where’:

• I don’t want to go anywhere cold… I’d prefer to go somewhere really hot.
• I’ve looked everywhere for my keys… but I can’t find them anywhere.

 

Some adverbs of place end in ‘-wards’:

• Please move your chair forwards.
• Can you say the alphabet backwards?
• The pilot turned northwards to try and avoid the storm.

 

Note: Be careful with ‘towards’.  It’s a preposition so you need to use it with an object: Walk towards me. We drove towards the city center.

 

Adverbs: about to, already, just, still, yet

 

These adverbs add information about time.

 

About to

 

We use ‘be about to do something’ to mean ‘be going to do something very soon’.

• Ssshhh…!  The movie is about to start.
• They were about to complain when their meal finally arrived.

 

The structure is:

be + about to + base verb

 

Already, Just, Yet, Still

 

Note: In British English, these adverbs are often used with the Present Perfect tense.  Americans often use the past tense.

 

Already

 

We use ‘already’ to say that something happened early, or earlier than we expected.

• I’ve already finished my homework.
• Really?  That was quick!

 

• Would you like something to eat?
• No, thanks.  We’ve already had lunch.

 

• Is it ten o’clock already?  I can’t believe it!

 

Just

 

Here, ‘just’ means ‘a short time ago’.

• I’ve just had breakfast.
• Has he just arrived?

 

Note: ‘Already’ and ‘just’ come between ‘have/has’ and the past participle.

 

Yet

 

We use ‘yet’ to talk about things we expect to happen.

• I haven’t seen that movie yet.
• Have you cleaned your teeth yet?
• Is dinner ready yet?

 

Note: We only use ‘yet’ in negative sentences and questions.  It usually comes at the end of the sentence.

 

Still

 

We use ‘still’ to talk about things which have not happened or finished as we expected.

• I’ve been here for twenty minutes but the bus still hasn’t come.
• You still haven’t washed the dishes.
• Is it still raining?

 

Note: When we use ‘still’ with the present perfect, it comes before ‘have/has’.

 

Pronouns: interrogative, question words

 

Interrogative pronouns are used to ask questions. There are five interrogative pronouns in English: Who, Whom, What, Which, and Whose. They are also known as question words or wh-words.

 

Who and Whom are used to ask about people. Who is used as the subject of the sentence:

• Who is coming to the party?
• Who was there?
• Who did that?

 

Whom is used as the object of the sentence:

• Whom did you visit? (You is the subject. Whom is the object of ‘visit.’)
• Whom did she talk to? (She is the subject. Whom is the object of ‘talk.’)

 

We often use What to ask questions about things or activities. It is used when there are many possible answers:

• What do you want for dinner?
• What is your friend’s name?
• What time are we supposed to be there?

 

Which is used when there is a smaller number of possible answers:

• Which colour do you prefer, red or blue?
• Which train should I take?
• Which seat would you like?

 

Compare:

• What is your name? – It’s John.
• Which is your name? (looking at a list of names) – This one here, ‘John.’

 

Whose is used to ask about the owner of an object:

• Whose sweater is this?
• Whose shoes are these?
• Whose phone is that?

 

Numerals: dates and time

 

Dates

 

There are many ways to write a date in English. How you write it normally depends on where you live or whether you want to use the formal or informal date.

We can write the date in several different ways:

•  16 March 2017
•  16.03.17 (day first)
•  March 16(th), 2017
•  The 16th of March, 2017
•  Tuesday March 16, 2017
•  03/16/17 (month first)

 

The most common way to write the date in British English is to put the day first, (optionally with the ordinal suffix ‘-st’, ‘-nd’, ‘-rd’ or ‘-th’), then the month, and then the year.

•  I was born on the 20th of April, 1983. (pronounced as ‘the twentieth of April nineteen eighty three’)
• I was born on 20-04-1983. (this format is usually used on forms, documents, etc.)

 

For writing the date in the United States, we can use several standard formats:

 

1. Short — write the month first, then the day, and then the year preceded by a comma:

•  Jane was in Prague on January 4, 2013. (pronounced as ‘January fourth, two thousand thirteen’)

2. Long — write the day of the week and then the rest of the ‘short’ format:

•  The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, October 12, 2018. (pronounced as ‘Tuesday, October twelfth, two thousand eighteen’)

3. Numerical — replace the month, day, and year with numerals, and separate with slashes, full stops or hyphens:

• He graduated from the University on 05/30/1994. (also possible: 05.30.1994 or 05-30-1994)

 

Note: You should always be consistent when using any of these formats.

 

Telling the time

 

We can write the time both numerically and in words.

There are two common ways of telling the time.

 

1. Say the hour first and then the minutes:

•   6:25 – It’s six twenty-five.
•   8:05 – It’s eight O-five. (the ‘O’ stands for zero and is pronounced like a long ‘o’)
•   9:11 – It’s nine eleven.
•   2:34 – It’s two thirty-four.

 

2. Say the minutes first and then the hour.  

(Minutes + ‘past’/’to’ + Hour)

 

For minutes 1-30 we use ‘PAST’ after the minutes. For minutes 31-59 we use ‘TO’ after the minutes.

•   2:35 – It’s twenty-five to three.
•   11:20 – It’s twenty past eleven.
•   4:18 – It’s eighteen past four.
•   8:51 – It’s nine (minutes) to nine.

 

When it is 15 minutes past the hour we normally say ‘(a) quarter past’ + hour.

•  7:15 – It’s (a) quarter past seven.

 

When it is 15 minutes before the hour we normally say ‘a quarter to’ + hour.

•   12:45 – It’s (a) quarter to one.

Of course, we can also say ‘seven fifteen’ and ‘twelve forty-five’.

 

When it is 30 minutes past the hour we normally say ‘half past’ + hour.

•   3:30 – It’s half past three.

Of course, we can also say ‘three thirty’.

O’clock

 

We use ‘o’clock’ when there are NO minutes i.e. when it’s exactly on the hour.

•   10:00 – It’s ten o’clock.
•  5:00 – It’s five o’clock.

Sometimes it is written as ‘9 o’clock’ (numeral + ‘o’clock’)

 

Giving the Time

 

We use ‘it is’ or ‘it’s’ to respond to the questions that ask for the time right now.

•   It is half past five (5:30).
•   It’s ten to twelve (11:50).

 

We use the structure ‘AT’ + time when giving the time of a specific event in the future.

•    The bus arrives at midday/noon/twelve o’clock (12:00).
•   The flight leaves at a quarter to two/one forty-five (1:45).
•   The concert begins at ten o’clock/10 o’clock. (10:00)

A.M vs. P.M

 

In English ordinary speech, we normally use the twelve-hour clock.

To make it clear whether you mean a time before 12 o’clock noon or after 12 o’clock noon, we can use ‘in the morning’, ‘in the afternoon’, ‘in the evening’, ‘at night’.

•   He came at a quarter past three (3:15) in the morning.

 

In more formal situations, we use a.m. (a.m = at morning) for the morning and p.m. (p.m = past morning) for the afternoon and night.

• 3a.m = Three o’clock in the morning.
• 3p.m = Three o’clock in the afternoon.

 

Note: Normally, a period separates the letters as they are acronyms, but it is also common to forego adding the commas and just write ‘am’ and ‘pm’.

 

Remember: 12p.m is noon or midday, or ‘lunchtime’ as it is commonly called, while 12a.m is ‘midnight’ even though it is technically the first hour of the morning.

 

Numerals: cardinal and ordinal numbers

 

We use Numeral to express numbers and relations to numbers, i.e. quantity, sequence, frequency, etc.

•  I have two apples.
•  There are twenty-five pencils in the box.
•  I’ve already asked him three times.

There are two types of numerals: cardinal and ordinal.

 

Cardinal numerals

 

We use Cardinal numerals to count or to say how many of something there are.

•  Five plums.
•  Forty cars.
•  One million dollars.
•  I ate ten apples.

Cardinal Numerals
1 One	2 Two	3 Three	4 Four
5 Five	6 Six	7 Seven	8 Eight
9 Nine	10 Ten	11 Eleven	12 Twelve
13 Thirteen	14 Fourteen	15 Fifteen	16 Sixteen
17 Seventeen	18 Eighteen	19 Nineteen	20 Twenty
21 Twenty-one	22 Twenty-two	23 twenty-three	24 twenty-four
25 Twenty-five	26 Twenty-six	27 Twenty-seven	28 Twenty-eight
29 Twenty-nine	30 Thirty	40 Forty	50 Fifty
60 Sixty	70 Seventy	80 Eighty	90 Ninety
100 One hundred	1,000 One thousand	1,000,000 One million	1,000,000,000 One billion

 

Compound numerals, (numbers consisting of two words), from 21-99 should be hyphenated.

• We invited twenty-five people to the dinner.

 

For higher numerals, we can add ‘and’ between the second last word and the final word.

•  He requested nine hundred and ten plates.
•  Where did you get all four hundred and fifty-five of these?

 

When saying large cardinal numerals we don’t add ‘-s’ to the words ‘hundred’, ‘thousand’ and ‘million’:

• There are two hundred eight (208) pupils in our school.
• There are five thousand eight hundred thirty (5,830) kilometers between New-York and Paris.

 

To avoid misunderstandings with certain similar-sounding cardinal numerals, always stress the correct syllable when pronouncing them.

•  Thirteen (13) → Thirty (30)
•  Fourteen (14) → Forty (40)
•  Fifteen (15) → Fifty (50)
•  Sixteen (16) → Sixty (60)
•  Seventeen (17) → Seventy (70)
•  Eighteen (18) → Eighty (80)
•  Nineteen (19) → Ninety (90)

 

Ordinal numerals

 

We use Ordinal numerals to express position or rank of something in a sequential order of size, chronology, importance, etc.

•  The first song was beautiful, but the second was rather dull.
• The thousandth passenger received a reward.
•  Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States.
•  He came in fourth (4th) in the race.

 

Spelling of ordinal numerals

 

We can write ordinal numbers in two ways – a numerical form or in written, word form.

In the numerical form, we add the suffix ‘-th’ to most ordinal numbers. However, 1, 2, and 3, have special suffixes: ‘-st’ (first), ‘-nd’ (second), and ‘-rd’ (third).

•  1st
•  2nd
•  3rd
•  4th
•  5th
•  6th
•  10th
•  15th
•  20th
•  21st

The written form follows the same rules except we add the suffixes to the word.

•  First
•  Second
•  Third
•  Fourth
•  Fifth
•  Sixth
•  Tenth
•  Fifteenth
• Twentieth (note the change in spelling from ‘y’ to ‘ie’)
• Twenty-first (note the hyphen is still necessary)

 

In some cases, the spelling of the numeral is modified to accommodate the suffix:

•  one – first
•  two – second
•  three – third
•  five – fifth
•  eight – eighth
•  nine – ninth
•  twelve – twelfth

 

Additionally, for cardinal numbers ending in ‘-y’ we change it to ‘-ie’ in ordinal numbers:

•  twenty – twentieth
•  forty – fortieth
•  sixty – sixtieth

 

In compound numerals ‘-th’ is added to the last word.

• one million – one-millionth
• two hundred – two-hundredth

 

Ordinal Numerals
1st First	2nd Second	3rd Third	4th Fourth
5th Fifth	6th Sixth	7th Seventh	8th Eighth
9th Ninth	10th Tenth	11th Eleventh	12th Twelfth
13th Thirteenth	14th Fourteenth	15th Fifteenth	16th Sixteenth
17th Seventeenth	18th Eighteenth	19th Nineteenth	20th Twentieth
21st Twenty-first	22nd Twenty- second	23rd Twenty- third	24th Twenty-fourth
25th Twenty-fifth	26th Twenty- sixth	27th Twenty- seventh	28th Twenty- eighth
29th Twenty-ninth	30th Thirtieth	40th Fortieth	50th Fiftieth
60th Sixtieth	70th Seventieth	80th Eightieth	90th Ninetieth
100th One- hundredth	1,000th One- thousandth	1,000,000th One- millionth	1,000,000,000th One- billionth

 

Gerund: functions in a sentence

 

The gerund always has the same function as a noun (although it looks like a verb). Like a noun, it can perform different functions in a sentence.

 

The gerund as the subject

• Hunting lions is dangerous.
• Flying makes me nervous.
• Eating people is wrong.

 

The gerund as the object

 

Gerunds and gerund phrases can act as direct objects when used with another verb. Direct objects answer the question ‘what?’:

• Mary loves skating. (Mary loves what? Mary loves skating.)
• I enjoy running every morning.
• Tom doesn’t like getting up early.
• Ann enjoys shopping.

 

Sometimes, gerunds and gerund phrases are used as indirect objects. Indirect objects are used with a verb and a direct object (another noun). They often answer the question ‘to what?’:

• I will give dancing my best shot. (I will give my best shot to what? To dancing.)
• Jack made running his priority.
• Jeremy gave skiing a try.

 

The gerund as the subject complement

 

Gerunds can be used after linking verbs (‘to be’, modal verbs, the verbs ‘to feel’, ‘to seem‘, ‘mean‘ etc.) and complement the subject of the sentence.

• Seeing is believing.
• The most important thing is learning.
• His mistake was talking too much.
• Being a student sometimes means spending long ours with books.

The gerund after prepositions

 

The gerund must be used when a verb comes after a preposition. This is also true of certain expressions ending in a preposition, for example the expressions ‘in spite of’ and ‘there’s no point in’.

• She is good at singing.
• She avoided him by walking on the opposite side of the road.
• There’s no point in waiting.

Gerund: overview

Gerunds are ‘-ing’ verbs that we use as nouns.

 

Gerunds and gerund phrases often act as subjects in the sentence:

• Swimming is good for you. (this sounds better than ‘To swim is good for you’).
• Flying is faster than walking.
• Reading books is a good way to learn more. (a gerund phrase).

 

To form Gerunds, add ‘-ing’ to the base form of the verb:

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

 

Spelling rules

 

Regular verbs with a silent ‘-e’ at the end: change the ‘-e’ to ‘-ing’:

• To choose → choosing
• To glide → gliding

 

Regular verbs with ‘-ie’ at the end: change ‘-ie’ to ‘-ying’:

• To tie → tying
• To lie → lying

 

If the verb ends in a consonant + vowel + consonant and the final syllable is stressed, double the last consonant and add ‘-ing’:

• To for’get → forgetting
• To ‘swim → swimming

 

But don’t do that with ‘-x’ or ‘-w’:

• To relax → relaxing
• To blow → blowing

 

Gerunds and gerund phrases can also be used as direct or indirect objects, objects of prepositions, and predicate nouns. You can learn more about this in the following units.

Articles: proper nouns

 

Generally, we don’t use articles with proper nouns – names of people and places and things.

•  Mike lives in Bangalore, India.
• I have a teacher named John. John is from England.

However, some proper nouns are used with the definite article ‘the’. We use ‘the’ with the following proper nouns:

 

1. astronomical names: the Sun, the North Star, the Milky Way, the Great Bear, etc. But, we do not use ‘the’ before most planet names, like Saturn and Mars.

•  The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System.

2. certain geographical names: the South Pole, the North Pole, the Arctic, the Netherlands, the Hague, the UK, etc.

• The International Court of Justice has its seat in the Hague.

3. mountain ranges: the Alps, the Pennines, the Urals. But, single mountains take no article: Everest, Mont Blanc, etc.

• The Himalayas are home to many of the world’s highest mountains.

4. rivers, seas, oceans, canals: the Thames, the Amazon, the Danube, the Black Sea, the Pacific Ocean, the Panama Canal, the English Channel, etc. But, names of lakes are used without ‘the’, i.e. Lake Ontario, Lake Chad, etc.

• The Danube is an important waterway.

5. some countries, areas, provinces: the United Kingdom, the USA, the Ukraine, the Caucasus, etc.

•  There were representatives from the Netherlands present.

6. parts of towns: the West End, the Soho, the City (London), etc.

•  This new business center is situated in the East End of London.

7. parts of the world: the South, in the North, to the West, etc.

•  The political situation in the East remained largely unstable.

8. deserts: the Sahara, the Gobi, the Karakum, etc.

• The Sahara covers most of northern Africa.

9. names of public institutions (museums, hotels, restaurants), unique buildings and monuments: the White House, the National Gallery, the British Museum, the Hermitage, etc.

•  If you are fond of paintings, you should go to the Tate Gallery.

10. names of organizations, government, committees, associations, foundations, etc.: the Finance Committee, the British Parliament, the Teachers’ Association, etc.

• The United Nations has many offices all over the world.

11. names of vessels: the Titanic, the Discovery, etc.

• The Queen Elizabeth made its first journey in 1939.

12. names of many English-speaking newspapers: the Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, etc.

• The Washington Post wrote about the meeting of the two presidents.

13. names of families: the Forsytes, the Simpsons, etc.

• The Thompsons don’t live here now; they moved last year.

Conjunction: coordinating

 

Conjunctions are words that link other words, phrases and clauses together in a sentence.

 

Coordinating conjunctions link parts of the sentence that are equally important. In English, there are seven coordinating conjunctions – and, or, for, nor, but, yet, so.

 

1. Using ‘and’ helps us to join two ideas together:

• There is a house and a woodshed on the picture.
• Jonathan lives and works in Melbourne.
• Jane bought a new dress and a small bag.

 

Note: If there are more than two items in the list, we can use ‘and’ between the final two items in the list. We use commas (,) between the items: There are two plates, two spoons, two forks, and two glasses on the table.

 

2. Use ‘or’ to link alternative items, ideas and choices, or to speak about the consequences of an action or event:

• Would you like tea or coffee? (You must choose one.)
• Should I visit Italy or France this summer? (You must choose one.)
• The weather is bad. Put on your hat, or you may catch a cold (Bad consequence).

 

3. Use ‘for’ to show that one part of the sentence is the reason or purpose of the other (similar to ‘because’):

• I visit this cafe every morning, for I like the coffee they make.
• Peter often buys new books, for he enjoys reading.
• Jane and Michael went to Rome, for it was their five-year anniversary.

 

4. Use ‘nor’ to join two statements that both show things or ideas that are not true or didn’t happen. The verb in the part of the sentence after ‘nor’ should have a positive form, and the word order in this part should be inverted like a question:

• I don’t like fishing, nor do I go hunting.
• Jack can’t play any musical instruments, nor can he dance.
• Mary doesn’t feel well today, nor does her younger sister Cindy.

 

5. Use ‘but’ to contrast two ideas, or join a negative statement to a positive statement:

• The weather is bad, but we can go for a walk anyway.
• Kate loves soap operas, but hates sports shows.
• My friends went on holiday, but they didn’t enjoy it.

 

6. Use ‘yet’ to show a contrasting idea that follows the first idea logically. It is similar to ‘but’:

• This meal is tasty yet a bit spicy for me.
• Tom likes his new job, yet he misses his old colleagues.
• They planned to go to the cinema, yet they preferred the theatre.

 

7. Use ‘so’ to show that one part of the sentence is a consequence of the other (‘cause-and-effect’ relationship):

• The traffic is heavy on the main road, so the drivers are looking for alternative routes.
• I don’t like eating out, so I rarely go to restaurants.
• This movie is long, so I bought some snacks.

 

 

Infinitive: usage

 

Verb Patterns

 

a) verb + -ing

 

After some verbs, we use verb-ing:

• I enjoy going to the cinema.

NOT: I enjoy to go to the cinema.

 

• It was late when we finished watching the movie.

NOT: It was late when we finished to watch the movie.

 

 

Some other verbs which follow this pattern are:

 

suggest	like	love	stop
finish	keep	avoid	hate
	mind	enjoy

• I hate listening to rap music.
• It didn’t stop raining all day.

 

b) to + infinitive

 

After other verbs, we use to + infinitive:

• We wanted to relax on holiday.

NOT: We wanted relaxing on holiday.

 

• We decided to go to Greece.

NOT: We decided going to Greece.

 

 

Some other verbs which follow this pattern are:

 

choose	forget	help	decide
hope	need	plan	want
promise	try	would like	learn

• We hope to go there again next year.
• I promised to buy a present for my sister.

 

In the negative, we use ‘not to…’:

• We tried not to drink too much ouzo.

 

Infinitives of Purpose

 

We can also use infinitives to say why we do something:

• Why do people go to Paris?

… because they want to see the Eiffel Tower.

• To see the Eiffel Tower.

 

• I went to the library…

… because I wanted to get a book.

• … to get a book.

 

• She went to the bakery…

… because she wanted to buy a chocolate cake.

• … to buy a chocolate cake.

 

• We went to the zoo…

… because we wanted to see the animals.

• … to see the animals.