I dedicate this book to my former TOEFL / TWE students whose need to

understand English grammar and enthusiasm for the TOEFL gave me the
urgency and inspiration to write this book.
Contents at a Glance

Part A
Grammar Review

1 Tenses 1
2 The Passive Voice 21
3 Clauses 27
4 Modal Auxiliaries 49
5 Participial Modifiers 77
6 Participles as Adjectives 85
7 Subjunctive 97
8 Verbs 103
9 Reporting Verbs 133
10 The Pronoun 145
11 Modifying Adverbs 153
12 Inverted Word Order 159

Part B
The TOEFL Essay

Explanations in Myanmar 165

Understanding the Topics for the TOEFL Essay 175
Practice writing the Essay 179
Sample Essays 183

Answers to Exercises 195

Contents

Part A
GRAMMAR REVIEW

Chapter 1. TENSES 1
Simple Present Tense 2
Stative Verbs 3
Present Continuous Tense 4
Simple Past Tense 5
Present Perfect Tense 6
Present Perfect Continuous Tense 9
Past Continuous Tense 10
Past Perfect Tense 11
Past Continuous and Simple Past 12
Past Perfect and Simple Past 13
Past Perfect Continuous Tense 13
Future Tense 14
Future Continuous Tense 15
Future Perfect Tense 15
Exercise 1 16

Chapter 2. THE PASSIVE VOICE 21

Exercise 2 25

Chapter 3. CLAUSES 27
Independent Clauses 27
Dependent Clauses 28
Noun Clauses 29
Embedded Questions 30
That Clause in Subject Position 32
Exercise 3 32
Adverb Clauses 35
Time Clauses 35
Reason, Contrast 36
Clauses of Concession 36
Although, Even Though, Though 36
 In Spite of / Despite 36
Exercise 4 38
Relative Clauses 40
That, Which 41
Who, Whom 42
Whose 43
Reduced Relative Clauses 43
Prepositions + Relative Pronouns 44
Restrictive and Nonrestrictive Relative Clauses 45
Exercise 5 45

Chapter 4. MODAL AUXILIARIES 49

Can, Be Able 49
Could, Should, Would, Might 50
Used To 51
Would Rather 52
Prefer 53
Exercise 6 54
Exercise 7 54
Must (have to) 56
Should (Ought to) (Had better) 57
Past Modals 58
Conclusion Sentences (Present) 59
Conclusion Sentences (Past) 60
Exercise 8 61
Conditional Sentences 62
The Real or Future Possible 63
Present Unreal 64
Past Unreal 66
Past Unreal with If omitted 67
Conditional Sentence (Habitual) 67
Conditional Sentence (Command) 68
Exercise 9 68
As If, As Though 72
Exercise 10 74
Wish 75
Exercise 11 75

Chapter 5. PARTICIPIAL MODIFIERS 77

Examples of Illogical Modifiers 80
Exercise 12 82
Chapter 6. PARTICIPLES AS ADJECTIVES 85
Exercise 13 93

Chapter 7. SUBJUNCTIVE 97
Exercise 14 100

Chapter 8. VERBS 103

The Verb Be 103
There is, There are 104
Subject Verb Agreement 106
Being +Phrase 107
Linking Verbs 108
Exercise 15 110
The Verb Have 110
Causative Verb Have 113
Exercise 16 115
The Verb Get 117
Get + Adjective 118
Get + Preposition 119
Causative Verb Get 120
Exercise 17 122
The Verb Make 123
Make in Idioms 124
Causative Verb Make 125
Make + Complement Noun + Adjective 125
Causative Verb Let 126
Let + Preposition 127
Exercise 18 127
The Verb Do 128
Usage with Do 129
Do for Emphasis 130
Exercise 19 131

Chapter 9. REPORTING VERBS 133

Say, Tell 133
Tell, Ask 134
Ask if / whether 135
Explain, Apologize, Accuse 137
Advise, Suggest 138
Refuse, Deny 139
 Request, Ask 139
Insist 139
Admit, Confess 140
Plead 140
Sequence of Tenses 140
Exercise 20 141

Chapter 10. THE PRONOUN 145

Subject Pronouns, Complement Pronouns 145
Noun - Pronoun Agreement 146
Pronoun reference 147
Exercise 21 148
It - Reference to a certain condition 150
It - for emphasis 150
Exercise 22 151

Chapter 11. MODIFYING ADVERBS 153

Adverbials Hardly, Rarely, Barely, Seldom 156
Exercise 23 157
Exercise 24 158

Chapter 12. INVERTED WORD ORDER 159

Inversion in Contrary to fact Conditional Sentences 159
Sentences beginning with “only+ time expression” 159
Sentences beginning with Negative Words 160
Sentences beginning with Prepositional Phrases 161
Affirmative / Negative Agreement 161
Exercise 25 162

Part B
THE TOEFL ESSAY

EXPLANATIONS IN MYANMAR 165

Essay 165
paragraphing 165
brainstorming, organization 166
thesis statement 167
 Sentence Structure 167
phrases and clauses 167
subject verb agreement 169
parallel structure 170
conjunctions, pronoun agreement 171
relative clauses 171
comparison 172
intention 173
transition words 173

UNDERSTANDING THE TOPICS FOR THE TOEFL ESSAY 175

PRACTICE WRITING THE ESSAY 179
SAMPLE ESSAYS 183
Sample Essay 1 183
Sample Essay 2 185
Sample Essay 3 186
Sample Essay 4 187
Sample Essay 5 188
Sample Essay 6 189
Sample Essay 7 190
Sample Essay 8 191
Sample Essay 9 192
Sample Essay 10 193
Sample Essay 11 194

ANSWERS to EXERCISES 1 through 25 195