Grammar I

Third test

Verb phrase

Classification:

Auxiliary verbs:

 Primary auxiliary: be – have – do

 Modal auxiliary: can – may- shall- must – ought to – need – dare – could
– might – should – would – used to

Semi auxiliary: have to – have got to – be about to – be going to…

Lexical verbs: stative – dynamic – regular – irregular – intensive – extensive:

intransitive – transitive: monotransitive – ditransitive and complex transitive

Forms of the verb phrase:

1. V (base + bare infinitive)

All the present tense except for the 3rd person singular
Imperative
Subjunctive: E.g.: He demands that she call…
After a modal verb
To infinitive: E.g.: He wants her to go.
2. Vs
With 3rd person singular present tense: E.g. She goes to school in the
morning.
3. Ving
Progressive/continuous tenses: E.g.: He is calling you
4. Ved
Past tense: E.g.: He called yesterday.
He went to the cinema.
5. Ved2
Past participle: E.g.: He has drunk the water
He was interviewed by the boss. (Passive)
 Finite verb phrase Non-finite verb phrase
 Have distinctions as regards  Do not shows contrast as
tenses: present and past. regards mood- tense
 Have mood:  Do not occurs as a main verb
indicative/imperative/subjunctiv  Can occur as subject or object
e e.g.: To smoke is dangerous.
 Occur as the main verb phrase I like reading novels.
of a sentence/clause +TO INFINITE
 There is agreement between +Ving
subject and verb phrase. +Ved2
 It has only one element (lexical
verb)
 Can be simple: one element
e.g.: He works hard. SIMPLE-
FINITE VERB PHRASE or
complex e.g.: He has been
working hard. COMPLEX-
FINITE VERB PHRASE

Moods of the verb:

Indicative: it expresses a fact (something real)/ factual/ “unmarked” e.g.: After

that, there were no more disturbances.

Imperative: it expresses orders/ commands e.g.: Be quiet!

Marked: begins with bare infinitive/ base

Subject implicit

Negative sentences begins with “don’t”

Subjunctive: hypothetical situations/ wishes

1. Mandative: verbs such as asked/demand e.g.: He asked that she come.

2. Formulaic: express a wish e.g.: God bless you!
3. Were: conditional clauses e.g.: If I were rich, I would travel around the
world.

Aspect of the verb:

Manner in which the action is considered complete, incomplete or in

progress

 Progressive: all progressive tenses showing progressive aspect e.g.: He

is typing letters.
 Non-progressive: the actions do not show progressive actions e.g.: He
arrived late.
  Perfective: all the perfect tenses show perfective aspect e.g.: He has just
arrived.

We can have combinations e.g.: have been jogging (progressive/perfective)

1. Stative/state: cannot generally appear occur in the progressive

2. Dynamic: can occur in the progressive

Regular and irregular verbs:

Regular verbs: VED1 (past) and VED2 (past participle) they are predictable by
the addition of a suffix –ed –d

Irregular verbs: VED1 (past) and VED2 (past participle) they are not predictable
and “to be” is the most common irregular verb

Classifications of irregular verbs:

Criteria: VED1 = VED2

Suffixation

Vowel identity

Class1: burn + + +

Class2: bring + + -

Class3: cut + - +

Class4: meet + - -

Class5: mow +/- + +/-

Class6: know - + +/-

Class7: swim - - -

Nouns: entities

 Animate: people, animals

 Inanimate: objects, substances
 Concrete: persons, objects
 Abstract: feelings, emotions
 Individual: boy
 Collective: family
 Countable: 1 chair/2 chairs
 Uncountable: sugar/ water
Countable: they can be used with a wide range of determiners and take plural
forms e.g.: suitcases, bags, cases

Uncountable: they cannot take plural forms: substances, liquid, gases, material
e.g.: iron, baggage

Common: have a physical existence and are tangible perceived through the
senses e.g.: notebook, cell

Abstracts: abstractions, feelings, emotions, states, ideas, qualities and are not
tangible e.g.: love, friendship, hope

Collective: in singular denotes a group/ collection of individuals e.g.: family,

crew, crowd, staff, jury

Invariable: either singular or plural/ cannot change their number

Singular invariable + singular verb e.g.: Peter, gold

Plural invariable + plural verb e.g.: people, jeans

Variable: can occur either with singular or plural and the plural forms is
predictable from the singular e.g.: boy – boys/ box – boxes

Variable regular: one form for the singular and one form for the plural e.g.:
cat/cats

Variable irregular: mutations e.g.: man/men woman/women

Determiners:

Classes of determiners:

Central determiners;

 Articles: a/an, the, zero article

 Demonstratives: this/these, that/those “point distance”
 Possessives: my, your, his, her
 No, some, any, enough, which, whose

Pre-determiners; precede the central determiner: all, both, half

Three times, four times, one third, etc. can function as determiners.

Post determiners:

 Ordinals: numbers that denote order e.g.: first, second, third

 Other, another, next, last etc.
 Cardinals: one, two
  Quantifiers: many, few, more, less, much, little

Pronouns:

Replace/stand in place of nouns or noun phrase and cannot occur with

determiners.

Classes of pronouns:

Central:

 Personal: I, he, she…

 Reflexive: yourself, yourselves
 Possessive: mine, yours, ours

Relative:

 Introduce relative classes e.g.: that, wh series (whose, when)

Interrogative: wh words/series e.g.: who, whose, when etc. used in questions

Demonstratives: point “distance” “number” e.g.: this, these, those, that

Indefinite:

Positive: Universal: all, everybody, everyone, everything

Assertive: much, more, few, little, fewer, several, enough, one,

somebody, someone

Non-assertive: anyone, anything, anybody

Negative: neither, nobody, nothing, no one, none

Pronouns: functions

Nominal: replace noun or noun phrase e.g.: that is my house/ I like that
(demonstrative pronoun)

Determiners: word that precedes a noun e.g.: that house is new (determiner
demonstrative)