Irregular adjectives

Adjective Comparative Superlative

good better the best
bad worse the worst
many more the most
little less the least

UNIT 5: The passive

The river was cleaned up last year.
The river wasn’t cleaned up last year.
New facilities were built for the local
residents.
New facilities weren’t built for the local
residents.
The lives of many people were improved by
social entrepreneurs.
Students from rural areas were recruited by
the college.
Was the project stopped due to lack of
money?
Were the houses painted by the villagers?
•• We use the passive when we want to focus on an action
or the object of the action, rather than on the person who
is doing the action.
•• We often use the passive because we don’t know who
or what did the action, or when it isn’t important to know.
If we want to say who does or did the action (the agent),
we use the passive verb + by agent.
•• We form the simple past passive with the simple past of
the verb be (was/were) + past participle.
We use the simple past passive:
•• to talk about past facts
Barefoot College was founded by Sanjit Roy.
•• to describe a past process or series of events
The corporation was set up, plans were developed,
and a new transport system was constructed.

UNIT 6: Verb patterns with -ing and infinitive

He dislikes receiving calls late at night.
The presenter recommended not using social
media so much.
They decided to create a new social media
company.
I intend to send a card to congratulate him on
getting engaged.
She hates to lose / hates losing.
He prefers to communicate / prefers
communicating by email.
•• We use the verb + -ing pattern with some verbs,
which are never followed by the infinitive. The
negative form of this pattern is not + -ing.
She usually avoids texting her boss.
I regret not writing to them.
•• We use verb + infinitive with some verbs, which are
never followed by -ing.
We agreed to keep in touch via email.
•• Some verbs can follow either pattern without
changing the basic meaning.
I love to check / love checking my social media
accounts.

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