Copyright

Published by Collins
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Fourth Edition 2017

© HarperCollins Publishers 2017

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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank those authors and publishers who kindly gave permission for copyright material to
be used in the Collins Corpus. We would also like to thank Times Newspapers Ltd for providing valuable
data.

FOUNDING EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: John Sinclair

FOR THE PUBLISHER: Maree Airlie, Robin Scrimgeour, Lisa Todd, Celia Wigley
CONTRIBUTORS: Penny Hands, Kate Mohideen, Julie Moore, Damian Williams

Acknowledgements
The publishers would like to acknowledge the following for their invaluable contribution to the third
edition:

Managing Editor
Penny Hands

Editorial Consultant
Roger Berry
Lingnan University, Hong Kong

Project Manager Senior Corpus Researcher

Lisa Sutherland Kate Wild

The Grammar of Academic English Corpus Researchers

University of Glasgow Language Centre George Davidson
Dr Esther Daborn Kate Mohideen
Anneli Williams Elizabeth Potter
Louis Harrison Elspeth Summers
Laura Wedgeworth

The Grammar of Business English American English Consultant

Simon Clarke Orin Hargraves

Founding Editor-in-Chief
John Sinclair
We would also like to thank the following people for their contributions to previous editions of the text:

Maree Airlie, Mona Baker, Henri Béjoint, Adriana Bolívar, Jane Bradbury, David Brazil, Dominic Bree,
Nicholas Brownlees, Tony Buckby, Stephen Bullon, Annette Capel, Michela Clari, Jane Cullen, John
Curtin, Richard Fay, Gwyneth Fox, Richard Francis, Iria Garcia, Gottfried Graustein, John Hall, M.A.K.
Halliday, Patrick Hanks, Ron Hardie, Anthony Harvey, Lorna Heaslip, Michael Hoey, Roger Hunt, Sue
Inkster, Andy Kennedy, Lorna Knight, Ramesh Krishnamurthy, Tim Lane, Marcel Lemmens, Helen
Liebeck, Alison Macaulay, Elizabeth Manning, Agnes Molnar, Rosamund Moon, Sue Ogden, Charles
Owen, Georgina Pearce, Georgina Pert, Anne Pradeilles, Christopher Pratt, Christina Rammell, Clare
Ramsey, Ramiro Restrepo, Christopher Royal-Dawson, Toňi Sanchez, Katy Shaw, Sue Smith, Mary
Snell-Hornby, Tom Stableford, John Todd, Bob Walker, Laura Wedgeworth, Herman Wekker, Douglas
Williamson, Jane Winn, Deborah Yuill
About COBUILD
When the first COBUILD dictionary was published in 1987, it revolutionized dictionaries for
learners. It was the first of a new generation of language reference materials that were based on actual
evidence of how English was used, rather than lexicographer intuition.
Collins and the University of Birmingham, led by the linguist John Sinclair, developed an electronic
corpus in the 1980s, called the Collins Birmingham University International Language Database
(COBUILD). This corpus, which for several years was known as the Bank of English®, became the
largest collection of English data in the world. COBUILD dictionary editors use the corpus to analyse
the way that people really use the language.
The Collins Corpus now contains 4.5 billion words taken from websites, newspapers, magazines and
books published around the world, and from spoken material from radio, TV and everyday
conversations. New data is added to the corpus every month, to help COBUILD editors identify new
words, grammatical structures, and meanings from the moment they are first used.
All COBUILD language reference books are based on the information our editors find in the Collins
Corpus. Because the corpus is so large, our editors can look at lots of examples of how people really
use the language. The data tells us how the language is used; the function of different structures; which
words are used together; and how often these words and structures are used.
All of the examples in COBUILD language materials are examples of real English, taken from the
corpus. The examples have been carefully chosen to demonstrate typical grammatical patterns, typical
vocabulary and typical contexts.
COBUILD English Grammar is no exception: Collins editors and researchers have been able to use
this wealth of information to establish a unique and full description of English grammar, and to track
the development of certain grammatical structures over time.
The corpus lies at the heart of COBUILD, and you can be confident that COBUILD will show you
what you need to know to be able to communicate easily and accurately in English.
If you would like to learn more about COBUILD and the Collins Corpus, go to www.collinselt.com
and click on 'COBUILD Reference'.
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Acknowledgements
About Cobuild
Introduction
How to use this Grammar
Glossary of grammatical terms

Chapter 1 Referring to people and things

Nouns
• Countable nouns
• Uncountable nouns
• Singular nouns
• Plural nouns
• Collective nouns
• Proper nouns
• Nouns that are rarely used alone
• Adjectives used as nouns
• Nouns referring to males or females
• -ing nouns
• Compound nouns
Pronouns
• Personal pronouns
• Possessive pronouns
• Reflexive pronouns
• Generic pronouns
• Demonstrative pronouns
• Indefinite pronouns
• Reciprocal pronouns
• Relative pronouns
• Interrogative pronouns
Determiners
• Definite determiners: the
• Definite determiners: this, that, these and those
• Possessive determiners: my, your, their, etc.
• The possessive form: apostrophe s (’s)
• Indefinite determiners: all, some, many etc.
• Indefinite determiners: a and an
• Other indefinite determiners

Chapter 2 Giving information about people and things

Adjectives
 • Qualitative adjectives
• Classifying adjectives
• Colour adjectives
• Showing strong feelings
• Postdeterminers
• Adjectives that are only used in front of a noun
• Adjectives that always follow a linking verb
• Position of adjectives in noun phrases
• -ing adjectives
• -ed adjectives
• Compound adjectives
Comparatives
Superlatives
Saying things are similar
Talking about different amounts of a quality
Saying things are different
Noun modifiers
Talking about amounts of things
Numbers
• Cardinal numbers
• Ordinal numbers
• Fractions
• Measurements
• Age
Approximate amounts and measurements
Expanding the noun phrase
• with prepositional phrases
• with adjectives
• Nouns followed by to-infinitive, -ed participle, or -ing participle

Chapter 3 Types of verb

Intransitive verbs
Transitive verbs
Reflexive verbs
Delexical verbs: verbs with little meaning
Verbs that can be used both with and without an object
Verbs that can take an object or a prepositional phrase
Changing your focus by changing the subject
Reciprocal verbs
Verbs that can have two objects
Phrasal verbs
Compound verbs
Linking verbs
• Adjectives after linking verbs
• Nouns after linking verbs
• Other verbs with following adjectives
Describing the object of a verb
Using a prepositional phrase after a linking verb
Using two main verbs together
Chapter 4 Expressing time: tenses and time adverbials
The present
• The present simple
• The present progressive
• Time adverbials with reference to the present
The past
• The past simple
• The past progressive
• The present perfect
• The past perfect
• Time adverbials with reference to the past
Expressing future time
• Indicating the future using will
• Other ways of talking about the future
• Time adverbials with reference to the future
Other uses of verb forms
Using time adverbials to indicate past, present, or future
Yet, still, already, etc.
Time adverbials and prepositional phrases
Non-specific times
Expressing frequency and duration

Chapter 5 Modals, negatives, and ways of forming sentences

Making statements: the declarative form
Asking questions: the interrogative form
• Yes/no-questions
• Indirect questions
• Question tags
• Wh-questions
The imperative
Other uses of the declarative, the interrogative, and the imperative
Forming negative statements
Broad negatives
Using modals
• Special features of modals
• Uses of modals
• Expressions used instead of modals
• Semi-modals

Chapter 6 Expressing manner and place

Adverbs
• Types of adverb
• Comparative and superlative adverbs
• Adverbs of manner
• Adverbs of degree
• Adverbs of place
• Destinations and directions
Prepositions
• Position of prepositional phrases
• After verbs indicating movement
• Showing position
• Showing direction
 • Other uses of prepositional phrases
• Prepositions used with verbs
• Prepositional phrases after nouns and adjectives
• Extended meanings of prepositions
Other ways of giving information about place

Chapter 7 Reporting what people say or think

Using reporting verbs
Reporting someone’s actual words: direct speech
Reporting in your own words: reported speech
• Reporting statements and thoughts
• Reporting questions
• Reporting orders, requests, advice, and intentions
• Reporting uncertain things
• Time reference in reported speech
Using reporting verbs to perform an action
Avoiding mention of the person speaking or thinking
Referring to the speaker and hearer
Other ways of indicating what is said
Other ways of using reported clauses

Chapter 8 Combining messages

Clauses and conjunctions
• Time clauses
• Conditional clauses
• Purpose clauses
• Reason clauses
• Result clauses
• Concessive clauses
• Place clauses
• Clauses of manner
• Relative clauses
Nominal that-clauses
Non-finite clauses
Linking words, phrases, and clauses together

Chapter 9 Changing the focus in a sentence

The passive
Split sentences
Taking the focus off the subject: using impersonal it
Introducing something new: there as subject
Focusing using adverbials
Emphasizing
Putting something first
Introducing your statement
Focusing on the speaker’s attitude
Exclamations
Addressing people