Verbs: phrasal

 

A phrasal verb is a combination of a verb with an adverb or a preposition. ‘Wake up’ and ‘get up’ are examples of phrasal verbs.

• I usually wake up at 7 o’clock… but I get up at 8 o’clock!

 

Phrasal Verbs without Objects

 

We don’t use ‘wake up’ and ‘get up’ with an object.

 

These are some other examples of phrasal verbs without objects:

• Come in! The door is open!
• Hold on. I need five more minutes.
• Look out! There’s a car coming!
• Go away! I don’t want to talk to you!
• The train was full so I had to stand up.
• Please sit down and relax.

 

Phrasal Verbs with Objects

 

a) Some phrasal verbs always take an object:

• I put on my jacket.

NOT: I put on.

 

‘My jacket’ is the object. We can also put the object in the middle:

• I put my jacket on.

 

If the object is a pronoun, it always comes in the middle:

• I put it on.

NOT: I put on it.

 

Other common phrasal verbs which follow this pattern:

• I took off my jacket.
• He switched on / turned on the computer.
• He switched off / turned off the computer.

 

b) Other phrasal verbs always take an object but we can’t put it in the middle:

• I looked after his plants.

NOT: I looked after.

NOT: I looked his plants after.

• I looked after them.

NOT: I looked them after.

 

Another common phrasal verb which follows this pattern:

• She takes after her father.
• The police are looking into the crime.

 

c) Some phrasal verbs can be used with or without an object:

• The taxi arrived and I got in. (no object)
• I got in / into the taxi.

 

• The bus arrived and I got on.
• I got on / onto the bus.

 

• I walked to the shop and I went in.
• I went in / into the shop.

Verbs: irregular

 

Here is a list of common irregular verbs with their Past Simple and Past Participle forms:

 

Base verb	Past Simple	Past Participle
be become begin break bring build buy catch choose come cost cut do drink drive eat fall feel find fly forget get give go grow have hear hide hit hold hurt keep know learn leave lend let lose make meet pay put read ring run say see sell send show shut sing sit sleep speak spell spend stand steal swim take teach tell think throw understand wake wear win write	was/were became began broke brought built bought caught chose came cost cut did drank drove ate fell felt found flew forgot got gave went grew had heard hid hit held hurt kept knew learnt/learned left lent let lost made met paid put read rang ran said saw sold sent showed shut sang sat slept spoke spelt/spelled spent stood stole swam took taught told thought threw understood woke wore won wrote	been become begun broken brought built bought caught chosen come cost cut done drunk driven eaten fallen felt found flown forgotten got given gone grown had heard hidden hit held hurt kept known learnt/learned left lent let lost made met paid put read rung run said seen sold sent shown/showed shut sung sat slept spoken spelt/spelled spent stood stolen swum taken taught told thought thrown understood woken worn won written

Verbs: action vs state

 

We often use verbs to talk about actions:

• He swims at the beach every morning.
• I cooked pasta for dinner last night.
• She’s studying French at the moment.

 

We can use ‘action verbs’ in different tenses, including continuous tenses:

• He is swimming at the beach right now.
• I was cooking pasta for dinner last night, when the phone rang.

 

We also use verbs to talk about states:

• He needs to travel to the US.
• I didn’t understand the homework.
• They like basketball more than football.

 

We don’t usually use ‘state verbs’ in continuous tenses:

• NOT: He is needing to travel to the US.
• I wasn’t understanding the homework.
• They are liking basketball more than football.

 

We often use ‘state verbs’ to talk about mental or emotional states:

 

believe	feel	forget
hate	know	like
love	mean	need
prefer	remember	think
want	understand	wish

 

Other common state verbs include:

 

be	belong	have
own	possess	doubt

 

Some verbs can be both ‘state’ and ‘action’ verbs when they have different meanings:

• •  What do you think of the decision?
  • I feel it’s a mistake.

Here we are using ‘think ‘and ‘feel’ to talk about opinions. They are state verbs so the continuous tense is not possible:

• NOT: What are you thinking of the decision?
• I’m feeling it’s a mistake.

 

In the following examples ‘think’ and ‘feel’ are action verbs so we can use them in a continuous tense.

• What are you thinking about?
• I’m thinking about our holiday.
• How are you feeling?
• I’m not feeling very well.

 

In the following example we are using ‘have’ to talk about possession. It is a state verb so the continuous tense is not possible:

• NOT: He is having a red car.
• He has a red car.

 

Here ‘has’ means ‘eats’:

• She has breakfast at 7.30 every morning.

It is an action verb so we can use it in a continuous tense:

• She is having breakfast now.

 

Present Perfect: ‘unfinished past’

 

We can use the Present Perfect to talk about situations which started in the past and continue into the present.

• I’m a teacher.
• I started teaching ten year ago.
• I’ve been a teacher for ten years.

(NOT: I am a teacher for ten years.)

(NOT: I’ve been a teacher ten years ago.)

 

• My best friend’s name is Gary.
• I met him three years ago.
• I’ve known him for three years.

(NOT: I know him for three years.)

(NOT: I’ve known him three years ago.)

 

• I have a car.
• My Dad gave it to me a long time ago.
• I’ve had it for ages.

(NOT: I have it for ages.)

(NOT: I’ve had a long time ago.)

 

Note: ‘Be’, ‘know’ and ‘have’ are state verbs so we don’t usually use them in their continuous forms.   be → been know → known   With actions, we can use the Present Perfect Simple or the Present Perfect Continuous: I’ve learned English for five years.  – I’ve been learning English for five years. He has worked here since 2015. – He has been working here since 2015. This structure will be covered in more detail in the Upper-intermediate course.

 

We use:

for +	ages / ten years / six months / two weeks / fifteen minutes
	a period of time

 

since +	2015 / March / last summer / yesterday / this morning / 10.00
	a point in time

 

Present Perfect & Past Simple

 

We use the Present Perfect to talk about a situation or action which is not finished.

 

We use the Past Simple when we talk about completed past actions.

 

Compare:

• Tom lives in New York. He has lived there for two years. (Present Perfect)
• Before that, he lived in San Francisco for a year.  (Past Simple)

 

Present Perfect with ‘just’ and ‘yet’

 

We use the Present Perfect to talk about actions or events in the past that still have an effect on the present moment.

 

Consider the example:

 

Tom is currently on holiday in Moscow. He has a list of things he wants to see and do while he’s there:

• See Red Square.✅
• Visit the Kremlin.✅
• Eat some Russian food.✅
• Buy some vodka.❌
• Go to the ballet.❌
• Learn some Russian!❌

Here, there is a connection between the past and the present. We can use the Present Perfect to talk about the things Tom has / hasn’t seen / done:

• He has seen Red Square.
• He has visited the Kremlin.
• He has eaten some Russian food.
• He hasn’t bought any vodka (yet).
• He hasn’t been to the ballet (yet).
• He hasn’t learned any Russian (yet).

 

We often use ‘yet’ with negative and question forms of the Present Perfect. It means something like ‘until now’. It usually comes at the end of the sentence.

• Sue: Have you seen Red Square yet?
• Tom: Yes, I’ve just seen it.  I was there this morning.
• Sue: What about the ballet?  Have you been to the ballet yet?
• Tom: No, not yet.  I’m going tonight.

We don’t use ‘yet’ with positive statements:

(NOT: He has seen Red Square yet.)

 

We can use ‘just’ to talk about something that happened a short time ago:

• He has just seen Red Square.

‘Just’ comes between the auxiliary verb and the main verb.

 

We can use ‘already‘ to emphasize that the event or action is recent and happened before now:

• They’ve already finished their trip.

 

More irregular past participles:

 

take → taken

do → done

make → made

eat → eaten

see → seen

find → found

speak → spoken

come → come

 

Present Perfect: experience

We can use the Present Perfect to ask about life experiences. We often use it with ‘ever’:

• Tom: Have you ever been to London?
• Sue: Yes, I have.
• Tom: Me too. What about Paris?  Have you ever been to Paris?  
• Sue: No, I haven’t – but I’d love to go!

Have	I you we they	(ever)	Past Participle
Has	he she it

With short answers, we use:

Yes, I / you / we / they have. – Yes, he / she / it has.

No, I / you / we / they haven’t. – No, he / she / it hasn’t.

• Tom has been to London.
• Sue has been to London too.
• They have (both) been to London.
• Sue hasn’t been to Paris.
• Sue has never been to Paris.

I You We They	have haven’t (have not)	Past Participle
He She It	has hasn’t (has not)

The past participles of regular verbs end in ‘ed’:

• Tom has visited Big Ben.
• He has walked in Hyde Park.
• He has travelled on a red bus.

A lot of common verbs have irregular past participles:

• He has been to London.
• He has seen the river Thames.
• He has eaten fish and chips.

be → been	buy → bought
see → seen	drive → driven
eat → eaten	have → had
drink → drunk	write → written

Note: For a complete list of irregular verbs, see the Pre-intermediate course, 5.2 Verbs: irregular.

Present Perfect & Past Simple

Compare:

• Tom has been to London.  (Present Perfect)
• He went there in 2016.  (Past Simple)

We use the Present Perfect to talk about life experiences. We use the Past Simple when we talk about an action at a definite past time.

Article: zero

 

No article – the so-called ‘zero article’ – is put before plural and uncountable nouns that have a general meaning.

• Tea is mostly imported from India and Sri Lanka.
• Cats drink milk.
• I like comics.

 

We can use the zero article (no article) in the following ways:

 

1. with plural nouns that are not specific:

•  I see flowers in the vase.
• We have bananas in the kitchen.

 

2. to talk about places and institutions whose purpose is clear to everyone:

• Children start school in September.
•  It’s time to go to bed, kids!

 

3. to talk about names of places:

•  London is the capital of Great Britain.
•  You’ll see many beautiful sights all over Vienna.

Note: Some places, specifically some countries, do have the definite article ‘the‘ in front of them, i.e. the United Kingdom (the UK), the USA (the United States of America), the Netherlands, etc.

 

4. with plural nouns to talk about a class of things in general:

• Cheetahs run faster than any mammal. (the whole species in general, not particular cheetahs)
• Rivers always flow into seas and oceans.

 

5. with the names of persons. (Of course, we can still use ‘the’ to differentiate between two or more persons that might have the same names):

•  Yesterday I saw Tim Smith.
• Was it the Tim Smith who visited our meeting last Friday or someone else?

 

6. with other determiners:

•  I need some information.
•  My house is next to the bus stop.

 

7. with uncountable or abstract nouns:

•  Do you like coffee?
•  Art is subjective.

*The other articles include ‘a’, ‘an’, and ‘the’.

 

Article: definite

 

We use the definite article ‘the’ in front of countable and uncountable nouns to talk about specific things, the only one of its kind, things everyone knows about, or, to refer back to something that’s already been mentioned.

•  The window in my room is open. (specific window “in my room”)
•  Did you buy your notebook in the shop near our college?  
•  I love this cafe; the croissants here are delicious. (refers to specific croissants of this cafe)

 

We can use ‘the’ in the following ways:

 

1. to refer back to a person or thing that has already been mentioned earlier or that is known from the context:

• There is an early train to London, so I suggest that we take the train. (refers back to ‘an early train’)
•  This is a cat. The cat is grey, and its paws are white. (refers back to ‘a cat’)
• There are an apple and a pear on a plate. I will take the apple.

 

2. before superlative forms:

•  This is the best restaurant in the city.
•  Michael prefers only the oldest artifacts for his collection.
•  What is the biggest lake in the world?

 

3. before ordinal numbers and the words ‘first’, ‘last’, ‘right’, ‘wrong’, ‘only’:

•  This is the first time I’ve been here.
•  You are the best!
•  She is the only woman I love.

 

4. with common expressions such as: in the morning; in the evening; in the afternoon; to/at the cinema/theater/movies; to/at the shop/market/store:

•  Let’s go to the theater tonight.
•  They came in the evening and stayed for half an hour.
•  I’m running to the store. Do you need anything?

 

More common expressions that use ‘the’: ●  all the same ●  by the way ●  in the afternoon/night ●  on the one hand/on the other hand ●  on the right/on the left ●  on the whole ●  the day after tomorrow ●  the day before yesterday ●  (one or) the other ●  play the (piano/violin) ●  to tell the truth

 

5. before one of a kind or unique things (names of places, planets, unique titles, etc.):

•  Look at the moon; it’s so beautiful tonight.
•  Tim is traveling across the Atlantic Ocean.
•  The Pope is visiting Brazil next month.

 

6. to refer to specific things that are defined by a phrase, (often a relative clause), immediately following the noun:

•  The novel I read yesterday was pretty interesting. (not any novel, but the one I read yesterday)
• The movie that I saw earlier will be on TV next week.
•  The muffins that they sell here are absolutely delicious.

 

7. with adjectives that act as nouns to describe a whole class or group of people or things:

• These luxurious estates are owned by the rich.
• People in our town always help the poor.
• The elderly always try to teach the young.

 

Note: We use the indefinite articles ‘a’ and ‘an’ when the noun is not specific, known, or in any other case not mentioned above. But, sometimes we do not use an article at all. For certain uncountable nouns or when a noun is used to refer to a whole group or category, we do not use an article. We call this the zero article.

 

Prepositions of time

 

Prepositions of time tell us when something happens, and for how long. They are usually used with clock times, mealtimes, parts of the day, months, years, and other durations:

• I’ll see you at 8 o’clock.
• My brother gets up late on Sundays.
• Shakespeare died in 1616.

1. To talk about days and dates, use ‘on’:

• Shall we go shopping on Sunday afternoon?
• I usually go out on Saturday.
• The festival will take place on the 15th of August.

2. To talk about a point in time (clock time or mealtime), use ‘at’:

• My alarm clock buzzed at 8.00am.
• David and Stephanie will see us tomorrow morning at breakfast.
• My favourite TV program starts at six thirty.

 

Note: ‘at’ is also used in the following expressions: at night, at the weekend, at the moment, at Christmas, at Easter.

3. To talk about parts of the day, months, seasons and years (meaning ‘during’ them), use ‘in’:

• Yesterday Peter woke up early in the morning.
• I graduated from the University in 2003.
• Have you been to Los Angeles in autumn?

‘In’ can also mean after some time:

• I’ll call you back in an hour.
• Jeremy hopes to finish his new painting in a week.

4. Prepositions ‘past’ and ‘to’ are usually used to tell the time:

• It’s half past four (4:30.)
• It’s twenty to nine (8:40.)

5. To say when an action starts and when it finishes, use prepositions ‘from…until…’ and ‘between…and…’:

• The shop is normally open from 8am until 6pm.
• The train is late, it’s supposed to arrive between 4pm and 6pm

6. To say when the ongoing action finishes, use ‘until’:

• Michael has to stay at work until six o’clock.
• We will live together until next year.

7. To say when an ongoing action started, use ‘since’:

• I’ve been studying German since last year.
• Kate’s been playing with her daughter since 11am.

8. To say how long the action has been happening, use ‘for’:

• John has been practicing yoga for 10 years
• I’ve been working for 9 hours already.

9. To say something happened in a period of time, use ‘during’:

• I met Jane during the summer.
• She stayed at a hostel during her trip.

10. Prepositions ‘before’ and ‘after’ are used to show  a sequence of actions:

• I will finish my work before 5 o’clock (earlier).
• I will do the dishes after dinner (later).

 

Prepositions of place

 

Prepositions of place are used before a noun or a pronoun. They say where someone or something is:

• There is a pen in the box.
• Let’s meet at the beach.
• A beautiful picture is hanging on the wall.

 

Meaning

1. To talk about the exact point where something happens, use ‘at’:

• The train arrives at the station at 6 o’clock.
• Yesterday I met Jane at the supermarket.
• Look, someone’s standing at our door.

2. To talk about something that is inside something bigger, use ‘in’:

• Mary lives with her parents in Canada.
• I’ve been sitting in the library for 2 hours.
• There are many shops in the city centre.

3. To talk about something on a surface, in line with something (like a river or road), or attached to something else, use ‘on’:

• There are 8 plates on the table.
• The cars are on the road.
• He is wearing a hat on his head.

4. To describe the exact location of something compared to something else, we use precise prepositions of place:

• The clouds are above our heads.
• The puppy is sitting under the table.
• You have a spot just below your mouth.
• There is a small bakery opposite our house.
• I can see the supermarket in front of me.
• Tom is hiding behind that tree.
• Your suitcase is on top of the wardrobe.
• There’s a bank next to the train station.
• Cindy couldn’t choose between two cakes, so she decided to take them both.
• Leave your shoes outside.
• There is a beautiful forest near our village.
• The pencils are inside the box.