In English sentences, a lot of important meanings are expressed by the form of the verb phrase — for example questioning (this is what your question is about), negation, time, completion, continuation etc. But English verbs do not have many different forms. So to express all these meanings, a number of “auxiliary” (or “helping”) verbs are added to other verbs.
1. BE
Be is added to other verbs to make continuous and passive forms. WAS is the past tense of IS and AM, WERE is the past tense of ARE. They are all forms of BE.
IS it raining?
Was Peter arrested last night?
2. DO
DO is used to make questions (and negative) forms of non-auxiliary verbs, i.e. main verbs. DID is the past tense of DO and DOES.
DO you smoke?
DID he go to the party last Sunday?
3. HAVE
HAVE is used to make perfect forms. HAD is the past tense of HAVE and HAS.
HAVE you finished your homework?
HAS he talked to you?
4. MODALS
Modal verbs WILL, WOULD, SHOULD, CAN, COULD, MAY, MIGHT, MUST etc. are also called “modal auxiliary verbs”. They are used with other verbs to add various meanings, mostly to do with degrees of certainty or obligation.
CAN he swim?
WILL you call me tomorrow?
Modals can be auxiliaries:
She can play tennis. Can Sam play football? Will you call me tomorrow? The computer will not start up!
DO/DOES are the auxiliaries used to ask questions in the present (not with the Verb BE):
DO they play tennis every day? DOES she know Jack? DOES Sammy have a brother?
DID is used to ask questions in the past (with these same Verbs):
Did they play tennis yesterday?
Did you call me?
Did they arrive in time to catch the train?
Also in negatives:
I do not understand.
I did not study German.
He did not phone me last night.
In short answers:
Do you have a brother? – Yes, I do.
Does Ellen work for Mr. Jackson? – Yes, she does.
Did you understand the last lesson? – Yes, I did.
WAS is the past tense of AM and IS; WERE is the past tense of ARE. They are all forms of the Verb BE:
I am a shipping clerk.
How old is Sam? – He is 28 years old.
I was at home this morning.
Peter was not very interested in this subject.
Was John from Germany?
Remember that the Verb BE can also be used as an auxiliary to form continuous tenses and Passive Verbs:
Ellen IS WASHING the dishes. (Present Continuous)
The dishes ARE BEING WASHED. (Present Continuous Passive)
Practise grammar along with vocabulary you are learning and it will become natural to you. Find five minutes to speak English every day and your fluency will improve!
In this article I will explain the parts of speech, in this article focusing on pronouns.
Pronouns
A word used to refer to a PERSON or THING not by its actual name, but by another word that stands for it. The word you use to stand for a noun is called a pronoun (which means for a noun). The other types of pronouns commonly used in the English language are:
Personal pronouns (I, you, him etc),
Reflexive pronouns (myself, yourself, himself, herself, and itself), these are called reflexive because they reflect (look back like in a mirror) back to an earlier noun or pronoun.
Relative pronouns (who, whose, which, that, what and whom), these pronouns help to connect or relate one part of a sentence to another. Interrogative pronouns (who, whose, whom, which and what) these pronouns help to ask questions or interrogate.
Demonstrative pronouns are this, that, these, and those, and these point out a person or thing specifically (in detail).
Indefinite pronouns words like any, each, several, same, and many more. These refer to people or things generally rather than specifically.
More pronoun exercises
Example of using a pronoun:
Jack plays his guitar every evening.
He is learning very fast.
He is a pronoun, and in this sentence it stands for Jack.
Other examples are: SHE, THEM, OR HIM.
Exercise to show use of pronouns:
When John stoked the cat and listened to it purring softly, he felt calm and peaceful.
Without pronouns the sentence would be like this:
When John stroked the cat and listened to the cat purring softly, John felt calm and peaceful
Find the Pronouns:
She went out to find them. Answers: She, them
We asked him if he was feeling better. We, him, he
“I think this is yours,” she said. I, this, yours, she
You should ask her if she wants to join us. You, her, she, us
It isn’t yours it’s mine! It, yours, it mine
They took me home with them. They, me, them
We use pronouns so that we do not have to repeat the same nouns over and over again. They make speaking and writing much quicker and clearer.
Remember that “I” is the only pronoun that is always spelt with a capital letter.
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In this series of articles I will explain the parts of speech, starting with nouns. There are EIGHT different parts of speech which one should practice using for both speech and writing, and these are: Noun, Pronoun, Adjective, Verb, Adverb, Preposition, Conjunction and (Optional) Interjection/Exclamation.
Nouns
There are four types of nouns, which we will go through in detail later, they are: COMMON, PROPER, (Optional) ABSTRACT, and (Optional) COLLECTIVE.
A NOUN is used for naming a Person, animal, place, or thing.
For example: Jennifer, Aircraft, Shop, ladder, window cleaner and bird.
The Gender (sex) of Nouns
Please note that (as we all know), Men, Boys, and male animals are masculine, whereas Women, girls, and female animals are feminine; and things, plants, animals whose sex we do know, and sometimes babies whose sex we do not know, are neuter (pronoun = it/they). The exceptions being countries, ships, and sometimes cars and vehicles, are feminine.
Examples of Gender: Actor (Masculine) Actress (Feminine). However a teacher can be either masculine or feminine, and a book is neither masculine nor feminine.
N.B. Many domestic animals and some large wild animals have different forms for the male and female. Bull, cow, cock, hen, dog, bitch, lion, lioness, tiger, tigress.
Recognising nouns
To decide if a word is a NOUN, ask yourself “Does it tell me something’s name?” If the answer is YES, then the word is a NOUN.
- Is UNDER a NOUN?
- Is TABLE a NOUN?
NOUNS usually have the following letters put in front of them (THE, A, AN) so try the following test: PUT “THE” in front of the following words to see for yourself which words are NOUNS, and those that aren’t.
SAUCEPAN HEAT FINGER
HAPPY DAFFODIL (type of Flower) NEVER
ROCKET SKY SOMETIME HAVE
Remember that names of particular people are NOUNS, and you CAN”T put “THE” in front of them.
For example: ALICE ALBERT JANE
Noun exercises
Exercise 1: How many nouns can you find in the sentences below?
- Boris, the cat, ran across the road.
- Mary was wearing a beautiful red dress.
- Tom had a dog, a hamster, (small furry animal), a white rabbit and a parrot.
- Susan has sold her old car to get a new bicycle.
- The poor old man had only a bed, a table and one chair.
Singular or plural nouns?
NOUNS can be either singular (referring to one single person or thing) or plural (meaning more than one)
SINGULAR: BAT BOX BERRY LEAF
PLURAL: BATS BOXES BERRIES LEAVES
Remember that we form (make) the plural of most nouns by adding s to the singular.
But some nouns do NOT change at all in the plural form, and these are:
Aircraft, deer, series, and sheep
Exercise 2: Pick out the nouns in the following list of words.
Ugly, box, David, wonderful, dog, bottle, under, slowly, in, cup, when, and silly.
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In this article I will explain one of the parts of speech - adjectives.
Adjectives
An adjective is a describing word that “tells you more about a noun or pronoun. It answers the question, “What is it like?”
Example:
The burglar was wearing a black jacket, a furry hat and a large mask over his face.
The adjectives used are: black that tells you about the jacket, furry which tells you more about the hat; and large tells you more about the mask.
Example of adjectives: FAT, DANGEROUS, NEW, or WOODEN.
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