IES 7

PROFESORADO DE INGLES
LIC. PROF. MARIA GABRIELA POLINORI

GRAMMAR I BOOKLET

UNIT 1: MORPHOLOGY

⮚ Read the following poem and try to explain the reason for the title:
Why is English not logical at all?
Let’s face it
English is a strange language
There is no egg in the eggplant
No ham in the hamburger,
And neither pine nor apple in the pineapple. English muffins were not
Invented in England, French fries were not invented in France.
We sometimes take English for granted,
But if we examine its paradoxes we find that
Quicksands take you down slowly,
Boxing rings are square,
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

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If writers write, how come fingers don’t fing.
If the plural of tooth is teeth,
Shouldn’t the plural of phone booth be phone beeth?
If the teacher taught,
Why didn’t the preacher praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables,
What the heck does a humanitarian eat?
Why do people recite a t a play,
Yet play at a recital?
Park on driveways and
drive on parkways.
How can the weather be as hot as hell one day,
And as cold as hell on another.

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy

Of a language where a house can burn up as
It burns down.
And in which you fill a form
By filling it out,
And a bell is only heard once it goes!
English was invented by people, not computers,
And it reflects the creativity
Of the human race (which of course isn’t a race at all)
That is why when the stars are out they are visible
But when the lights are out they are invisible,
And why is it that when I wind up my watch
It starts,
But when I wind up this poem
It ends.

⮚ Underline nonsense words

⮚ Look up the vocabulary you don’t know so that you can explain the paradoxes
the poem talks about.

WHAT’S GRAMMAR?

“The rules governing the way in which a communication system works is known as its
grammar” (David Crystal)

Look up the meaning of grammar in your dictionary. Which definition do you prefer?
Why?

Grammar has two main domains: morphology and syntax. Morphology studies the
structure of the WORD. Syntax studies the structure of the SENTENCE.

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MORPHOLOGY
If you have a look at some English words you will see that some of them are easily
broken down into smaller parts: interest-ing; un-reli-able; happi-ness; respons-ible;
go-es; teach-er. These parts are called “morphemes” (the smallest units of meaning).
Some words can be broken down into two, three or even four morphemes but some
other words cannot be broken down at all; these are one-morpheme words, such as
elephant, one, tall. Pay special attention to “elephant” as –ant looks like an ending but it
isn’t as there is no “eleph” in English.

The morphemes that are added before the root (or base or stem) of the word are called
prefixes. These can convey a variety of meanings, for example opposite meaning (like,
dislike; expensive, inexpensive, etc). As prefixes are so closely related to meaning they
are not the scope of grammar at all; they are studied in relationship to semantics
(anyway we will study some of them as well).

The morphemes that are added after the root of the word are called suffixes
(success-ful; neighbour-hood; work-ed). Suffixes will help you decide whether a word
is a noun, an adjective, an adverb, etc as many suffixes are typical of one word class
(nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, etc are word classes). For example
–tion is a typical ending of nouns (e.g. situation, station, promotion, etc.) so when you
see a word ending in –tion you will know that it is a noun. Some suffixes are a bit tricky
because they can belong to other word classes as well, for example –ful is quite typical
of adjectives (wonderful, beautiful, awful) but there are a few nouns which take this
ending (mouthful, handful, pocketful).

Adding suffixes and prefixes to the root of the word is just one process of making words
in English. The English language has three main processes to make new words and the
three of them consist, in a way, of making new words out of old ones:

Affixation: adding a prefix or a suffix to a previously existing word

Conversion or zero-derivation: altering the word class of a previously existing word
Compounding: combining previously existing words to produce compounds

1- Affixation refers to affixes, which means both prefixes and suffixes. These cannot
occur by themselves (so they are said to be bound morphemes). Roots for example are
free morphemes as they can occur on their own.

There are two kinds of affixes, inflectional and derivational.

Prefixes in English have a pure lexical role, so they are always derivational.

But suffixes in English are of two kinds:

- most are purely lexical, their primary function being to change the meaning of the base
form: -ness, -ship, -able (these are derivational suffixes)
- a few are purely grammatical, their role being how the word must be used in a
sentence: plural -s, past -ed, comparative –er. These are inflectional suffixes or simply,
the inflections of the language (they have no lexical meaning). They are just nine,
-which is a good thing so you know that any suffix other than these is derivational =) .
-ing

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-s for the plural
-‘s genitive case
-ed for the past or past participle
Contracted negative n’t
Objective pronoun him
Contracted verbs ‘re
-er comparison
-est comparison

We will study inflectional suffixes more deeply as we deal with nouns, adjectives,
verbs, etc separately later on.

As I have said before, suffixes will help you identify what part of speech a word is, even
a word you may not know. Let’s try this exercise (from Longman Student Grammar of
Spoken and Written English-workbook). Most words are nonsense, but you will see that
it is possible to decide whether they are verbs, adverbs, adjectives or nouns:

“Other reports have ramonstrated an even chranger positive bitegration with

plasma charestarob, which is the main cholesterol-carrying wisotrein. The grangest test
of the hypothesis that increased unintandal cholesterol is redectative is that
hyperextentment laweraty should divarently reduce the incidence of trischaemic heart
disease”.

Remember I have said affixes convey meaning, especially derivational ones. But not all
of them convey just one meaning. Read the following:
-ess as in lioness
-let as in booklet
-ling as in duckling
But:
-ette as in usherette, kitchenette, leatherette
-er as in baker, cooker

For this reason, some words can be tricky and even dangerous as in the case of the word
“inflammable”. Can you guess why?

2- Compounding refers to the way words can combine together to make new words,
which we call compound words, for example alarm clock, postman, father-in-law.

Beware of tricky compounds!

Some compound words are written as two words, some others are written as one word
and others take a hyphen (= are hyphenated). Also, compounds are not always nouns,
there are many examples of compound adjectives too.

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Is there any way to know whether compounds are written as one word, two words or are
hyphenated?
Also, how do you know when a word is a compound or not? Think of “green house”
and “greenhouse”. What’s the difference? Which word (or morpheme) takes the stress?

The following table gives examples of various combinations in compound nouns:

Noun Verb Adverbial

Noun History teacher daylight Rainfall Passer-by
Motorcycle goldfish Haircut Hanger-on
Oil well fire engine Book-keeping
Bedclothes snowball Horse-riding
Girlfriend babysitter
Verb Turntable Throwaway
Wahing machine Cutout
Punchcard Lookout
Chewing gum
Swimming-pool
Adjective Greenhouse Dry-cleaning
Blackboard
Shorthand
Heavyweight
highbrow
blueprint
Adverbial Onlooker Offset
Bystander Outlet
Income

3- Conversion is the process by which we get a new word class without adding prefixes
or suffixes. The items produced in this way are nouns, adjectives and verbs:
verbs which come from nouns (to bottle; to paper a room, to catalogue, to referee)
nouns which come from verbs (a swim, a bore, a show-off)
nouns which come from adjectives: a bitter, a final, a monthly, a regular)

Closely related to the notion of conversion are other linguistic issues which make
English so flexible. You may have noticed that some words seem to have many different
meanings. Words like “set” and “get” must have puzzled you when looking them up in a
dictionary. These are examples of homonimy or polisemy. It’s a well-known problem
in semantics to tell the difference between homonimy (several words –homonyms- with
the same form but different meanings) and polisemy (a single word with more than one
meaning). It can be of help to think that polysemous words have two or more
closely-related meanings, for example “foot” in:
He hurt his foot
She stood at the foot of the stairs
The foot is the lowest part of the stairs as the foot is the lowest part of the human body.

There are many words in English which can be nouns or verbs without any change of
form:
I’ve got a lot of work to do
I work in a factory

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Other common examples are: charge, comment, copy, cut, dance, design, diet, drink,
hope, hurry, lift, look, love, offer, notice, paint, plan, post, promise, queue, reply, shout,
sleep, smell, stay, stock, stop, study, swim, taste, travel, visit, walk, welcome, sorry.

There are also words which have the same form as a verb or as a noun, but they differ in
the stressed syllable. How do you read the following?
I have a present for you.
May I present Miss Kennedy?

The commonest words of this kind are: export, extract, import, increase, permit, present,
protest, record, survey, suspect.

To sum up, these three processes (affixation, compounding and conversion) are very
common in English. But there are others, for example sometimes we just borrow words
form other languages. Just as in Spanish we use so many foreign words the English
language also borrows words from the others, even from ours; for example siesta, patio
and also junta and guerrilla.
Another process to make new words is to combine two words and make a new one, for
example: brunch (breakfast and lunch) or smog (smoke and fog).
And there are more, but these are unusual processes and you will study them under the
scope of linguistics.

Activities:
1- Read the poem “Why is English not logical at all?” again and identify words which
show the three main processes of making words in English.
2- This is a possible classification of prefixes according to meaning (source: exercise
276- R.A. Close: “A university Grammar of English” Workbook- 1995)
a- the negative prefixes: un-, non-, in-, dis-, a-; (as in unfair, unexpected,
non-smoker , non-drip (paint),, insane, disloyal, dislike, amoral, asymetry
b- the reversative prefixes: un-, de- and dis-; as in untie, defrost, deforestation,
disconnect, discolour, discontent
c- the pejorative prefixes: mis-, mal-, and pseudo; as in misinform, misleading,
maltreat, malfunction, malform, pseudointellectual
d- the prefixes of degree or size: arch-; super; out-; sur-, sub-, over-, under-, hyper-,
ultra-, and mini-; as in archduke, arch-enemy, superman, supernatural, outrun,
outlive, surtax, subhuman, substandard, overeat, overdressed, overconfident,
undercook, underprivileged, hypercritical, ultra-violet, ultra-modern, miniskirt
e- the prefixes of attitude: co-, counter-, anti-, pro-; as in cooperate, copilot,
counteract, counterrevolution, ani-social, anticlockwise, pro-Common market,
pro Communist
f- the locative prefixes: super-, sub-, inter-, trans; as in superstructure, subway,
subconscious, international, interaction, transatlantic, transplant
g- the prefixes of time and order: fore-, pre-, post-, ex-, and re-; as in foretell,
pre-war, pre-marital, post-war, ex-husband, rebuild, re-evaluate.
h- number prefixes: uni-, mono-, bi-, di-, tri-, multi-, poly-; as iin unilateral,
monotheism, bilingual, dipone, tripartite, multi-racial, polysyllabic
i- other prefixes: auto-, neo-, pan-, proto-, semi-, vice-; as in autobiography, neo-
Gothic, pan American, prototype, semicircle, vice president

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3- Derivational suffixes: add examples to this list (from Cambridge’s encyclopedia of
the English Language by David Crystal)
Abstract noun-makers: -ist
-age -ite
-dom_
-ery Noun from verbs
-ful -age
-hood -al
-ing -ant
-ism -ation
-ocracy -ee
-ship -er
-ing
Concrete noun-makers -ment
-eer -or
-er
-ess Nouns from adjectives
-ette -ity
-let -ness
-ling
-ster Adjectives from nouns
-ed
Adverb-makers -esque
-ly -ful
-wards -ic
-wise -(i)al
-ish
Verb-makers -less
-ate -ly
-en -ous
-ify -y
-ise/ize
Adjectives from verbs
Adjective noun makers -able
-ese -ive
-(i)an

3- Identify inflectional suffixes in the following sayings and proverbs:

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” (Lao Tzu)
“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind” (Ghandi)
“Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all” (St Augustine)
“You can’t shake hands with a clenched fist” (Dalai Lama)
“When the cat’s away the mice will play”
“Don’t count your chickens until they’re hatched.”
“Let sleeping dogs lie”.

3- Read the following summary of the sitcom “Little Britain”. Find examples of
compound words and derivational affices:

Welcome to "Little Britain," the British countryside of the United Kingdom. From
Britain's cities to the highlands of Scotland, "Little Britain" is home to a numerous
group of quirky characters. Among them are: teenage troublemaker Vicky Pollard;
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caregiver Lou Todd, who doesn't realise that Andy Pipkin, the lazy fat man he looks
after who sits in a wheelchair, can actually walk; Sebastian Love, the gay assistant
of the Prime Minister; Ray McCooney, eccentric manager of a Scottish hotel;
Majorie Dawes, the cruel leader of the "Fat Fighters" who makes fun of fat men and
women in her diet class; overweight woman Bubbles De Vere; former Welsh
children's TV presenter Des Kaye, who works in a DIY superstore; gay Welshman
Daffyd Thomas, who claims he is "the only gay in the village"; and many more.
Each week, we travel through Little Britain and visit each character as we are
joined by the Narrator, who gives us his comments and helps explain the culture of
Little Britain.

Extra Practice:
Word formation (19-20, pages 256-263) Michael Vince: “First Certificate Language
Practice” Heinemann 1996-
Compound nouns (Units 54-55) Martin Hewings: “Advanced Grammar in Use”
Cambridge 2001

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Crystal, David: “The Encyclopedia of the English Language”, Cambridge 1994
R.A. Close: “A University Grammar of English” Workbook- 1995
Allsop, Jake: “English Grammar” Cassell 1985
Biber, Douglas (and others): “Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English”
Longman 1999
Richards, Jack and Schmidts Richard: “Dictionary of Language Teaching and
Applied Linguistics”, Longman 2002 (third edition)
Moreno, María Ester: “Let’s analyse these structures and sentences together”,
Universidad Libros- Buenos Aires 2004
Quirk R and Greenbaum Sidney: “A University Grammar of English” Longman
1984

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UNIT 2: SYNTAX

As we saw in Unit 1, grammar has two big domains, morphology, the study of the
structure of words and syntax, the study of the structure of sentences.

Before starting to analyse the structure of the sentence, we need to draw a

distinction between two groups of WORDS:

Group 1: happy, happiness, tongue, make, history, historical, historically, going.

Group 2: on, away, the, many, what, he, his, him, himself, and, however

Group 1 consists of lexical words, that is to say nouns, adjectives, verbs and
adverbs. These are the words that carry meaning. In speech they are generally
stressed and we use them in telegrams (Well, perhaps you have never written a
telegram!) for example (parcel arriving tomorrow) or in newspaper headlines (trial
postponed; president admits corruption).They are an open-class system, which
means that there are lots of these words and even new words can be added, for
example “net surfer”, “D.V.D”, which are all relatively new in the language. Also,
they have a complex internal structure (un-believ-abl-y).

Group 2 are function words and in contrast, they are members of a close system,
they are short and do not have internal structure. They are:
▪ Prepositions: in, into, on, at, etc.

▪ Pronouns:
o subject pronouns: I, you, she, …
o objective pronouns: me, you, him, …
o possessive pronouns: mine, yours, his, …
o demonstrative pronouns: this, that, …
o interrogative pronouns: what, which, …?
o reflexive pronouns: myself, …
o indefinite pronouns: something, anything, nothing, …
▪ Determiners:
o articles: the, a, …
o demonstrative determiners: this, that …
o possessive determiners: my, your, …

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 o quantifiers: many, a little, …
▪ Conjunctions:
o Coordinating conjunctions: and, but, so, or.
o Subordinating conjunctions: which, who, while, when, that, because,
▪ Conjuncts (David Crystal) traditionally these are called linking adverbs (or
connectors): however, yet, still, furthermore, …
▪ Auxiliaries:
o modal auxiliaries: will, would, …
o primary verbs (as auxiliaries, not as lexical verbs): do, be, have.
o Semi-modal: going to, need to, have to, …
▪ Adverbial particles: off, away, back, down

▪ Existential there

▪ Negator not

▪ Infinitive marker to

⮚ Working with newspapers: read the following headlines from The Sun
newpaper (May 13th’s issue): classify the words into functional and lexical;
expand the headlines into complete sentences.

British kids danger fears

Tech students honored
Pregnant teen murdered
Posties to vote over pay strike

__________________________

Now we are ready to go into the notion of sentence. What is a SENTENCE? Try to
provide a definition.

What about these? Are these sentences?

Lovely day! Hello! Warning Closed No parking
These are called minor sentences by some authors (David Crystal), or “amorphous”
sentences, but we will not concentrate on these for the time being.

So we arrive at the question: What is the structure of the sentence? See that
sentences can be broken down into some elements:

Mary is great
I have bought a book
Grammar is the most interesting subject
The teacher gave the tests to the students

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The main elements are the subject and the predicate. (Note: all these are examples
of simple sentences, that is, sentences which have only one verb; we will see
sentences with more than one verb later in this unit).

You must have noticed that the predicate needs to be analyzed further:
Mary is great
I have bought a book
Grammar is the most interesting subject
The teacher gave the tests to the
students

Which is the only element that we cannot omit in a sentence? Consider this:
“The farmer drinks beer by the bucketful”
“The farmer drinks beer”
“The farmer drinks by the bucketful”
“drinks beer by the bucketful” (nodding in his direction, casual style)

The only element that we cannot omit is the verb. The choice of verb largely
determines what other elements are used in a sentence. For example:
“He died”
The verb died does not need the presence of another element in the sentence to
complete its meaning. We may add:
He died yesterday
He died in his bed
He died because nobody cared for him
But all these elements add extra information. We don’t need them to understand the
message.

But what happens with these verbs?

I am I love

They need some other elements to complete their meaning:

I am Gaby or I am the grammar teacher or I am happy
I love grammar or I love eating chocolates

Verbs like died are called intransitive. Verbs like love are called transitive. Verbs
like be are called copular.

Transitive verbs are by far the most common in English, so there are many sentences
having the pattern: S + V+ O:
Messi scored a fantastic goal
The police arrested the thief
The dog bit the boy

Intransitive and transitive are words that appear in the dictionary and help you
understand how to use verbs, for example if you look up the difference between
raise and rise, you will read that raise is transitive so it needs an object (raise your
hand) whereas rise is intransitive so it does not need one (the sun rises in the east)

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 When studying grammar, the word transitive is not enough and we need to draw a
distinction between monotransitive (taking only one object, which is usually a
direct object), ditransitive (taking two objects, a direct and an indirect object) and
complex transitive (taking a direct object and an objective complement):

Children love stories (monotransitive)

Give me the book (ditransitive)
She dyes her hair black (complextransitive)

To sum up, there are some basic sentence patterns in English:

S+V: intransitive ( or extensive)

S+V+O: monotransitive
S+V+C: copular (or intensive) S+V+A: copular (or intensive)
S+V+O: monotransitive
S+V+O+O: ditransitive
S+V+O+C: complextransitive S+V+O+A: complextransitive

You can explain the following joke/pun by referring to the verb pattern involved. Try!

__

________________________

Another definition of grammar is: “The grammar of a language is simply the way it
combines smaller elements (such as words) into larger elements (such as sentences)”
(Trask).
But let’s see that from words to sentences there is another level in the structure of the
sentence:

Word level: The/Beatles/ were/ born/ in/ Liverpool/

Phrase level: The Beatles/ were born/ in Liverpool/
Sentence level: TheBeatles were born in Liverpool/

If we add more information, such as: “The Beatles were born in Liverpool and they
became famous all over the world” we add another level, which is called clause level:
The Beatles were born in Liverpool/ and/ they became famous all over the world/

But in this case we are talking about compound sentences (sentences having more than
one verb), not simple ones.

So let’s concentrate on the phrase level. What are PHRASES? There are five types:

Noun phrases: a man, an interesting man, a really interesting man, the man involved
Adjectival phrases: interesting, really interesting, really interesting indeed, interested
in that
Verb phrases: am, am working, must be, must have been, will have been working
Prepositional phrases: in the office, at home, over there, on Monday, for my mother
Adverb phrases: now, here, yesterday, luckily, fast, very well indeed.
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 ⮚ Go back to the simple sentences you analysed (from the comic strips) and
identify the types of phrases.
________

Let’s go back to a distinction we have already drawn between simple and compound
sentences as we need to add another type we have not mentioned yet.
Sentences can be classified into:
Simple sentences: they have only one finite verb.
Grammar is not difficult.
It’s raining
Compound sentences: they have more than one finite verb; they consist of two or more
sentences connected by a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, so)
The new edition of the book includes a workbook and a C.D. and it is also much
cheaper than the old edition.
It’s raining but we are going out anyway.
Complex sentences: they have more than one verb; one sentence - the dependant or
subordinate clause- depends on the other, which is called the main clause.
We’re going to study nouns in detail when we finish with syntax.
Verbs like give are called ditransitive because they take two objects

NOTE: Some grammarians don’t agree on the analysis of sentences like “He got up and
had a bath”. There are two possible ways to think of this sentence. We may say it is
compound, as it can be expanded into He got up and he had a bath. We can also say it is
simple because the subject is the same for both verbs but in this case we have to point
out that the predicate is compound as it has two verbs.

⮚ Read the following proverbs. Identify simple, compound and subordinate

sentences. Analyse simple ones in terms of the basic patterns:

Birds of a feather flock together.

He who lies down with dogs gets up with fleas.
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink
The early bird catches the worm.
Curiosity killed the cat.
You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
Don’t change horses in the midstream.

⮚ Word order: some sentences from the following jokes (source: “jokes in
English for the ESL classroom” ) have been mixed up. Put them into the
correct order:

Teacher: Maria please (to America/ point/ on the map. )

Maria: This is it.  
Teacher: Well done. Now class,( who/ America/ found?
Class: Maria did.

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A: Aren't you wearing your wedding ring on the wrong finger?
B: Yes I am, (the wrong woman/ I / married).

(this note /An elementary school teacher/ sends / on the first day of school/ to all
parents. )
"If you promise not to believe everything your child says happens at school, I will
promise not to believe everything your child says happens at home

(What / call / a deer with no eyes/ do/ youl? )

B: No idea. (No Eye Deer.)

Extra practice:

▪ Alexander, L.G.: “Longman English Practice for intermediate students”,

Longman 1997- The simple sentence (pages 4-7)
▪ Martin Hewings: “Advanced Grammar in Use” Cambridge 2001
o Linking verbs (unit 26- pages 52-53) Verbs with and without objects
(unit 36- pages 72-73)
o Verb + two objects (unit 42- pages 84-85)
o Agreement between subject and verb: (units 51-52- pages 102-105)
▪ Foley, Mark –Hall Diane: “Advanced Learners’ Grammar” Longman 2004
(pages 294-297) Word Order
Assignment on morphology and syntax: “Working with newpapers”:
Look for 10 newspaper headlines in well-known on-line newspapers (www.thetimes.co.uk
or www.thesun.co.uk).
1- Write down some headlines. Also write down the explanation below the headline to have
as a reference. Identify functional and lexical words in the headlines.
2- Expand the headlines into complete sentences.
3- Choose one of the articles and find examples of the three processes of making new words
in English (conversion, affixation and compounding).
4- Find examples of each sentence pattern.

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 UNIT 3: MORPHOLOGY – SYNTAX- SEMANTICS

1- TYPES OF SENTENCES

Traditionally, four kinds of sentences are identified:

° Declarative sentences: they are statements affirming or denying. They have
the form S+P:
We love to study grammar (affirmative)
We don’t like to get up early in winter (negative)
° Interrogative sentences: they are questions, that is to say, they correspond
to the interrogative form of declarative sentences. Three kinds of questions
can be identified:
o Yes- No questions (Auxiliary + S + )
Do you like analyzing sentences?
Have you analysed sentences before?
Will you try to study harder next time?
o Wh-questions (Question word + aux. +subject)
What’s your favourite subject?
Why do you like grammar so much?
o Alternative questions (two options joined by the alternative
coordinating conjunction OR)
Are you going to sit for the Grammar exam in December or will
you wait until March?
Do you prefer tea or coffee?
° Imperative sentences: also called commands although they not only
express orders but also polite requests, advice, instructions, etc; in a more
modern approach to grammar these may be called “directives”. The subject
is “you” but it is usually omitted:
Study harder!
Do forgive me! (the insertion of do here is emphatic)
Don’t smoke in here!
Also (with subject):
You wait here, Henry.
Somebody answer the phone
Nobody say a word
Everybody keep quiet
You get out! (showing anger)

° Exclamatory sentences (What /How + sentence):

How silly you are!
What a silly mistake I have made!

We could also include here another category, that of

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 ° amorphous sentences or minor sentences (David Crystal) such as
Lovely day! Hello! Warning Closed No parking

NOTE: in declarative sentence the typical word order is S+ V. However, there cases of
inversion, where the typical word order is altered (you will see this in detail next year).
Here comes the bride (adverbial of place+ verb of movement come/go + S)
On the stairs was sitting a small dark-haired girl (literary style)
“I love you” whispered John (reporting)
Under no circumstances can we accept that cheque (negative expression +
inversion)

NOTE: in Wh- questions, there is no auxiliary when the interrogative pronoun is the
subject of the question. Compare the following:

Who loves you? vs Who do you love?

NOTE: notice also the word order in indirect questions: “Can you tell me where your
seat is?” Vs “Where is your seat?”

NOTE: notice the question tag with commands:

Stop whistling, will you?(also can, can’t, could and won’t may be used)
Let’s go home, shall we?

⮚ Activity (source Maxim magazine): Identify kind of questions, underline the

question word (interrogative pronoun), the kind of auxiliary (also called
operator) used for each question (modal or a primary verb) and the main
verb. See also if there are indirect questions or any other kind and pay
special attention to the construction.

The Witless stand

…Maxim presents a collection of some of the finest American courtroom blunders, all taken from the
original court transcripts
Attorney: Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people?
Witness: All my autopsies have been on dead people.

A: What is your name?

W: Ernestine Mc Dowell.
A: And what is your marital status?
W: Fair

A: Do you know how far pregnant you are right now?

W: I will be three months on November 8th
A: Apparently, then, the date of conception was August 8 th
W: What were you and your husband doing at that time?

A: When he went, had you gone and she, if she wanted to and were able, for the time being excluding
all the restraints on her not to, gone also, would he have brought you, meaning you and she, with him
to the station?
A: Objection. That question should be taken out and shot.

16
A: Are you qualified to give a urine example?
W: Yes. I have been since early childhood.

A: Did the woman driving the car you rear-ended attempt to talk to you?
W: No
A: How did you leave the scene of the accident?
W: Scared

A: And lastly Gary, all your responses must be oral, O.K.? What school do you go to?
W: Oral

A: Any suggestions as to what prevented this from being a murder trail instead of an attempted
murder trail?
W: The victim lived

A: (showing witness a picture) That’s you?

W: Yes, sir
A: And you were present when the picture was taken, right?
W: Yes, sir

W: What’s the meaning of male sperm being present?

W: It indicates intercourse
A: male sperm?
W: That is the only kind I know

A: Trooper, when you stopped the defendant, were your red and blue lights flashing?
W: yes, sir
A: Did the defendant say anything when he got out of the car?
W: yes, sir
A: What did she say?
W: What disco am I at?

A: Now, Mrs Johnson, how was your first marriage terminated?

W: By death
A: And by whose death was it terminated?
(From Disorder in the Court and More Humour in the Court)

⮚ Activity: All these extracts have examples of commands (directives).

Underline the bare infinitive that stands for the finite verb phrase. Say
whether each extract is an order, a piece of advice, a suggestion or other.
Discuss where each extract may have been they taken from (a magazine
advert, a recipe, etc)

a- “Come to where the flavor is”

b- “Kneel on all fours. Extend your right arm and straighten your left leg to shoulder level. Hold,
and keeping your back straight, repeat 20 times on each side”

c- “Just add Bacardi”

d- “Insert card
Listen for dial tone
Wait for display to show “dial now”
Dial required number
Wait for connection
Watch display for remaining credit
Replace handset receiver at end of call

17
 Your card will be returned”

e- “Take the sensorExcel challenge”

f- “Lick your wounds. Back off. See less of him until you can see him without hurting. And please,
don’t play with fire so carelessly again”

g- “Cancer: use this cycle to get to the heart of a personal dilemma. The solution stares you right in
the face, so use your of power of persuasion to settle it by the New Moon”.

h-“ Having chosen your toothbrush, make sure you know how to use it! Remember that a careful,
methodical approach is the key to good brushing. Pay particular attention to the area where your
teeth and gums meet. Gum disease is the most common cause of tooth loss in adults”.
(source: Maxim magazine, 1997 - spring issue
Cosmopolitan magazine June 2003 issue
The British Council Trio Plus Practice Book –Heinemann 1988)

⮚ More questions: analyse the type of questions you find in these jokes:

Why are Saturday and Sunday strong? Because all the other days are weekdays
Why is smiles the longest word in the English language? Because there’s a mile between the beginning
and the end
Why couldn’t the skeleton go to the party? He had no body to go with
Why did the skeleton run up the tree? Because a dog was after his bones
What room can’t a ghost go into? The living room
What’s Dracula’s favourite dessert? I scream
Who did the vampire marry? The girl necks door
What do you call a motorbike belonging to a witch? A brrrrrrrrrrrrrroom stick
Where do ghosts go swimming? The Dead Sea
Who won the skeleton beauty contest? No body
What did the skeleton say to his girlfriend? I love every bone in your body
Why does Dracula have no friend? Because he’s a pain in the neck
(from “Spooky Joke Book” Scholastic 2001)

Extra Practice: Chapter 11: Sentence types and discourse functions (pages 82-85)
Chalker, Sylvia: “A Student’s English Grammar Workbook” Longman 1999

4- VERBS

MORPHOLOGY: Formation of verbs

Derivational prefixes:
° Prefixes which modify the meaning of the verb:
Re-, fore-, co-, out-, over-, under-, un-, de-, dis-, mis-: as in rebuild, foresee,
cooperate, outweigh, overcharge, underachieve, undo, defrost, disconnect, miscalculate.
° The prefix en- (em-) to make transitive verbs as in empower, enclose,
encourage
° Prefixes attached to Latin roots

18
 Trans + mit (send) Pre + fer (=carry), ex + clude (=close), ob + ject (throw), in
+pel (=push) (impel), inter +rupt (=break), de + scribe (=write), sub +port
(=carry) (support), ad + attain (=hold) (attain)

Note: I don’t expect you to know Latin!!! This is just to show how sometimes it is not easy to recognize
the root of the word because in itself it may mean nothing to us as we don’t know its origin, as in the case
of prefer. Anyway I’m including a chart with examples: (source Cassell’s Students’ Grammar- page
144-145-146)

Derivational suffixes
° Suggesting “to make or become (adjective)”:
-en (adjective +-en): blacken, brighten, broaden, darken, deepen, redden, sadden,
shorten, etc
° Suggesting “to cause or to make”
-ify: electrify, falsify
-ize (-ise): legalize, modernize
-ate: originate, alienate
Notice that some words are always spelled ise because these letters are not a suffix but
part of the word itself: advertise, advise, comprise, compromise, despise, devise,
disguise, exercise, improvise, promise, revise, supervise, surprise, televise.

Inflectional suffixes (or inflectional morphology)

Verbs in English may take four inflectional suffixes:
-s for third person in the present tense (she goes, he studies, my dog eats),
-ing to express progressive aspect (he’s studying)
-ed for the past (he visited) and
-ed for the participle form (he has visited)

Remember that in the case of irregular verbs we also talk about an inflectional suffix for
the past, for example: was = be + -ed (inflectional suffix – past tense)

You already know by now (or at least you should!) regular and irregular verbs. Let’s
revise these to focus on some difficulties that usually arise:

⮚ Activity: Regular verbs: (source: Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and

Written English workbook) one of the annoying things about English is that
the stem of the verb can also change its spelling, depending on the
inflectional ending that follows it. Provide the three inflected forms of the
following verbs (+ -ed, -ing, -s) and group them according to the changes
they make when “adjusting” their spelling to the different endings:

call, ask, row, use, like, move, hope, need, stop, pad, open, visit, rebut, pass,
wish, watch, play, die, lie, apply, cry, copy.

⮚ Activity: Irregular Verbs (source The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the

English Language by David Crystal) Group the following verbs according to
the changes they make to form their past and participle: sleep, take, stand,
have, mow, come, send, shut, swell, keep, swim, blow, cut, sit,

19
 ⮚ Exercise –ed form, regular and irregular (Sylvia Chalker: “A Student’s
English Grammar Workbook” -Chapter 3: Verbs and Auxiliaries- Exercise 9)
Complete the following passage using –ed forms of these regular and irregular verbs:
descend, disappear, drop, give, lead, perch, populate, rise, round, say, set, stand, wrap

My mother ……………. me directions how to reach the dispensary, and I …………. off
with a bottle …………….. in brown paper under my arm. The road …………… uphill,
through a thickly ………………… poor locality, as far as the barracks, which was
…………….. on the very top of the hill, over the city, and then ………………….
between high walls, till it suddenly almost ……………… in a stony path, that
………….. steeply, steeply, to the valley of the little river, and the opposite hillside
……………….. to the gently …………….top, on which …………….. the purple
sandstone tower of the cathedral.

NOTE: I would like to draw your attention to some verbs which have two participle
forms. The alternative past participle –en is only used adjectivally:

Melt melted (usual pp) molten (adjectival pp) as in molten iron

Prove proved proven an unproven assertion
Shave shaved shaven a clean-shaven face
Shear sheared shorn a shorn lamb
Shrink shrunk shrunken a shrunken head
Sink sunk sunken a sunken treasure-ship
Strike struck stricken a grief-stricken widow

Verb Functions and Classes

Depending on their function, verbs may belong to different classes:

main verbs vs auxiliary verbs

Lexical verbs vs primary verbs primary verbs vs modal

verbs

Pay special attention to primary verbs that can function both as auxiliaries or main
verbs. For example, in I’m your Grammar teacher, the verb is the main verb in the
sentence so we can say this is a primary verb functioning as the main verb in the
sentence (or primary verb as lexical verb). But in the sentence I’m leaving some extra
copies at Adrian’s, the primary verb is acting as auxiliary as the main verb in this phrase
is leaving.

Remember also that modal verbs include central modals (the “couples” may –might,
etc), semi-modals (going to, have to, etc) and marginal modals (be supposed to, etc)
(We are discussing modals again when dealing with MOOD in these same copies)

20
 ⮚ Extra practice: (Sylvia Chalker: “A Student’s English Grammar Workbook”
-Chapter 3: Verbs and Auxiliaries- Exercises 38-39- 40)

SYNTAX

From the syntactic point of view, verbs are classified according to what other elements
they require in a sentence (this is what we dealt with in Unit 2, remember?). From this
point of view verbs can be copular or copulative, monotransitive, intransitive,
monotransitive or complex transitive.

Some authors prefer to talk about verbs being just transitive or intransitive and having
complete or incomplete predication.

For example:
The little boy is writing a letter (transitive verb of complete predication)
He read the letter to Tom (transitive verb of complete predication)
Her husband made her happy (transitive verb of incomplete predication)
Fish swim (intransitive verb of complete predication)
Helen is our new teacher (intransitive verb of incomplete predication)

⮚ Extra practice on sentence patterns: identify copular, monotransitive,

intransitive and complex transitive verbs.

Sarah and Michael disappeared

She changed her dress
The Swiss cheese has gone bad
Marc was in the bathroom
You gave her the wrong kind of egg
That makes me so mad.
They are sending us to Disneyland.
I saw one of your grandchildren the other day.
Well, I can’t promise you that.
I’m soaking wet and you call it nice.
Her father had called her one evening.
They certainly couldn’t tell her the truth.
Later, after dark, a boy brought him a plate of food.
We should show understanding for the fear of our neighbours.
He didn’t get his hair wet.
I just got really hot.
We got home too late.
Therefore, if you get an interview but not the job, you will still have reached
your goal.
First, we have to discuss where he would fit in our club.
He spoke quickly but she drawled when she talked.

SEMANTICS

21
 A traditional definition of a verb is “a word that denotes an action”. However, this is
a limited definition as there are many verbs which denote no action at all (think of
have, owe, contain, for example).
Some other definitions attempt to make a further distinction, for example in
Cassell’s Students’ English Grammar (1983) verbs are defined as “words which
refer to actions, e.g. go, talk, move, or to states, e.g. be, seem, appear”. You may
already have heard of this distinction as state and dynamic, as a way to differentiate
those verbs that are never used in a continuous form from those which are.
Considering only lexical verbs, quite many other categories can be distinguished:
° Activity verbs: go, cook, play

° Communication verbs: say, tell, ask, shout

° Causative verbs (verbs of facilitation or causation): cause, enable, require,

allow, help, let, permit
° Verbs of occurrence: become, change, happen (usually for events)

° Verbs of existence or relationship: is, seem, include, involve, represent

° Verbs of aspect: (or aspectual verbs): begin, continue, stop, start, finish, keep

SEMANTICS OF THE VERB PHRASE: Tense vs time

TENSE is a grammatical category which refers to time. Notice that also adverbs denote
time, but semantically (verbs change form to show tense, adverbs carry meaning in
themselves)

We are used to speaking about verb tenses and sometimes quite a big number are
identified. Just to give a few examples: present simple, present continuous, past perfect,
past perfect continuous; even a future tense is sometimes distinguished.
In fact, there are only two tenses in English. English has only one inflectional form to
express past time: the past tense marker: typically -ed. So we’ve got I walk vs I walked
(present /non-past vs past tense).
English has no future tense ending, but uses a wide range of other techniques to express
future time (such as modals, semi-modals or future adverbs).
What we call progressive and perfective (or continuous and perfect) are referred to as
“aspect” in modern grammar and is semantically related to its duration or continuance,
its completion, beginning, repetition, etc.
However, we find it terribly difficult to drop such notions as future tense; in fact most
textbooks refer to tenses in this sense.

It is also important to say that there is not a one-to-one relationship between time-tense,
for example what we call simple present sometimes may express past, present or future:
I hear you went to Columbia University
She leaves tomorrow at 9.00

Or for example there’s a use of the past tense that does not imply past time at all
Wish you were here (Pink Floyd)
If you worked for six hours tomorrow you could have Saturday free
22
 ⮚ Extra practice: What time? When exactly? (Sylvia Chalker Chapter 4: The
semantics of the verb phrase - Exercises 26-27)

⮚ Activity: Verb tenses: See the following extracts from different sources.
Analyse the tense used in each in relationship with its source:

a- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

It's the fourth book about Harry Potter. It's his fourth year in the magic school Hogwarts. Harry
wants to get away from the Dursleys and go to the International Quidditch Cup with Hermione, Ron,
and the Weasleys. He wants to dream about Cho Chang. He likes her. At school there are many guests
from two other magic schools. There is organizing the triwizard tournament. And Harry is the fourth
champion. He completes first and second task successfully, but ...

b- Did you know?

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated
Peanuts are of the ingredients of dynamite
A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes
There are more chickens than people in the world
On a Canadian tow-dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament Building is an American flag
Almonds are members of the peach family
An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brains
Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
It is impossible to sneeze with one’s eyes open
The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world

c- “Doctors pour drugs of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, into
human beings of whom they know nothing” Voltaire

“Children begin by loving their parents; after a time they judge them, rarely, if ever, do they forgive
them”

d- “Blade runners”
Burt Reynolds: “The former football star’s formerly ball-shaped face has been streamlined and
stretched across a newly pinched nose into a vaguely Asian look...”
Arnold Schwarzenegger: …”Arnold, 49, has had his eyes artificially opened and his superjaw moved
back to a more civilized level…”

e- “An elementary school teacher sends this note to all parents on the first day of school: "If you
promise not to believe everything your child says happens at school, I will promise not to believe
everything your child says happens at home”.

MOOD

Mood is quite a traditional category in the study of English grammar. Mood refers to the
changes in the form of the verb to show the various ways in which the action or state is
thought of by the speaker. Traditional grammar recognizes three:
Indicative mood: the form of the verb used in declarative sentences or questions
Imperative mood: the form of the verb in imperative sentences (directives or
commands)

23
Subjunctive mood: the form of the verb often used to express uncertainty, wishes, or
desires. In contrast to the indicative mood the subjunctive often refers to non-factual or
hypothetical situations. In English the use of the subjunctive form is still found in:

o That clauses after certain verbs:

It is required that she be present.
I demand that she come at once.
o Past subjunctive of be in if clauses: If I were you, I’d go there.
o In some fixed expressions: So be it; God save the Queen; Heaven
forbid that …; Heaven help us;

Modern grammarians prefer to speak of several moods or modes expressed by the

modals and by other verbal phrases, for example wish and intention by the subjunctive,
necessity and obligation by modals (must, should, ought to), certainty, possibility also
by modals (may, must) etc.

Modal Auxiliaries and Language functions

In conversation, there’s typically much more variety of modals than of verb tenses. See
the conversation below. See what tenses and modals are being used:

(A family dinner table conversation)

A: What is that?
B: It’s one of those tomato pear ones.
A: You know what we should do –we should make apple pie this Fall.
C: Apple? We never really get much access to apples. I guess we could go out and hunt some but …
B: I never really hear about any. Smith has an apple tree.
D: I think I’ll have some of this. Joshua would you pass me the meat please, and I would like to have
some hash, Darling, to go with my eggs. Thanks – Oh, we forgot to say grace – Oops, uh, oh, well.

Notice that modals are usually associated with language functions, such as requests,
offers, promise, etc:

Asking for permission: Do you think I could possibly phone Australia?

May I use your phone?

Complaining: You might have told me you were having a party!

I wish you wouldn’t make so much noise!

Inviting: Would you like some more tea?

Would you like to come round for a drink later?

Offering: Shall I carry this bag for you?

Would you like me to do the washing up?
Can I offer you a lift home?

Asking for or giving advice: What do you think I should do?

I don’t think you should go

Asking for information: Could you tell me what time the bank opens?

24
Promising: I’ll definitely bring your camera back tomorrow?

⮚ Extra practice on word classes: “And You Think English is Easy?”

Can you read these, right the first time? Identify the word class of the words
underlined paying special attention to the stress.

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture. 
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present
8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object. 

⮚ More about word classes: (Sylvia Chalker: chapter 2 exercise 7) choose

the odd word out in each set –the word that does not belong to that particular
word class:
1- could may should will want
2- are can did has was
3- me every ours someonethey
4- after at during into upwards
5- and because or too when
6- college class grammar learn teacher
7- angry hungry lonely obviously silly
8- cause insist must persuadesuggest
9- an how my no whose
10- afterwards badly friendly now soon

Extra practice:
Diagnostic tests: “Advanced Grammar Practice”
The simple sentence Close, R.A: “A University Grammar of English Workbook”
Longman 1995 - Chapter 7 only up to page 61- exercise 107
Modals and subjunctive Pages 26-27- 28 (same source as above)
Must or have to? Mustn’t or don’t have to? Can, could, couldn’t or be able to?
(Tayfoor Susanne: “Common mistakes at First Certificate and How to avoid them”
Cambridge 2004) pages 15-19

Other bibliography used in these notes:

Swan, Michael: “Practical English Usage”, Oxford 1980 and third edition 2005
Michael Vince: “First Certificate Language Practice” Heinemann 1996

25
4. NOUNS

A rather general definition of nouns says “a word used for things”. The following song
provides a good example of nouns that are things. Underline all the nouns in the song.

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels

Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things

Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes

Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things

When the dog bites

When the bee stings
When I'm feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don't feel so bad.

Oscar Hammerstein II, "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music

MORPHOLOGY

Formation of nouns
Typical suffixes for nouns
To describe professions:
- er: -verb +(e)r: baker, builder
-noun +(e)r: engineer, gardener
- or: actor, author
-ist, -ian, -ant, -ent: pianist, geologist, physicist, mathematician, historian, accountant

Abstract nouns:
-tion: information, situation, solution (from the verbs to inform, to situate, to solve)
-sion: (verbs ending in –de form nouns in sion) explosion, persuasion, invasion (form
the verbs to explode, to persuade, to invade)
-sion (verbs ending in –vert from nouns in –version) conversion, perversion (form the
verbs convert, pervert)

26
-ssion (some verbs in –d or –de form nouns in –ssion) succession, precession, recession
(from the verbs succeed, proceed, recede)
-ment (mostly formed form verbs: amusement, judgement, excitement, argument,
statement, arrangement (from the verbs …
-ness (mostly formed form adjectives) sadness, readiness, usefulness, redness, business
(from the adjectives …
-ance, -ence, -ancy, -ency: independence, attendance, accountancy, efficiency, (from
the adjectives …
Also nuisance, conscience, emergency.
-y, -ty, -ity, -iety
Many of these abstract nouns have a related adjective:
-y: comedy, harmony, jealousy, rivalry, tragedy (the related adjectives are …
Also systems of government like autocracy, democracy, plutocracy, monarchy,
oligarchy, anarchy
-ty: pity, beauty, loyalty (the related adjectives are …
-ity: density, equality, hilarity, scarcity (the related adjectives are …
-iety: anxiety, notoriety, society, variety (the related adjectives are …
Adjectives ending in –able or ible form nouns in –ability or –ibility respectively:
-ability: probability, respectability (from the adjectives …
-ibility: possibility, responsibility (from the adjectives …
Other endings:
-t: height, weight,
-th: (formed from adjectives, often with a change of vowel sound and spelling) breadth,
depth, length, width (from …
-ship: relationship, scholarship, workmanship (from …
-ism: used to describe all sorts of philosophies and other systems of belief. Complete
the following chart:
Adjective The person The belief
Classical Classicist Classicism
Communist
Conservative
Defeatist
Liberal
Optimistic
Pessimistic
Realistic
Romantic
Socialist

Various
-al: arrival, committal, denial, dismissal, proposal, refusal, withdrawal (from the verbs
-dom: kingdom (from … ), wisdom (from … )
-hood: likelihood (from … ), neighbourhood (from… )
-our: behaviour (from the verb … ), candour (from the adj. … ), demeanour,
endeavour, humour (adj … ), favour, flavour, rancour, valour
-or: horror (adj. … ), terror (adj… )
-ure: departure (from the verb … )
-ful: pocketful, mouthful, spoonful (from the nouns …)

to form the feminine:

-ess: lioness, poetess, actress, hostess, stewardess

27
NOTE: we are discussing gender under SEMANTICS as there are few words that are
morphologically marked for gender.

To suggest “small”
-ette. Kitchenette

NOTE: Up to here, all the suffixes above could be said to be derivational, with the
exception of –er (doer of the action), which some grammarians consider inflectional.
The same happens with the –ing; it is definitely an inflection when attached to verbs but
there is disagreement among grammarians when the suffix makes the word a noun.

-ing: many nouns describing activities can be formed by adding -ing to a verb
(traditional grammar calls these gerunds or verbal nouns). For example:

Sporting/ healthy activities: climbing, dancing, fishing, horse-riding, gliding, jogging,

potholing, skiing, skating, shooting, surfing, swimming, walking.
Other activities or habits: birdwatching, drawing, drinking, eating, hitch-hiking,
painting, sketching, smoking, stamp-collecting, touring, sight-seeing.
Language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing.

Inflectional suffixes: -s for the plural

⮚ Poem: “Why is English so Difficult to Learn”

We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is ………….
But the plural of ox should be …………………….., not “oxes”.
The one fowl is goose, but two are …………..
Yet the plural of moose should never be “meese”.
You may found a lone mouse or a whole lot of …………………
But the plural of house is ………………., not “hice”.
If the plural of man is always called ……………..,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called “pen”?
The cow in the plural may be …………. or kine.
But the plural of vow is ………………. not “vine”.
And I speak of a foot, and you show me your ……………
But I give you a boot –would a pair be called “beet”?
If one is a tooth, and a whole set are …………..,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called “beeth”?
If the singular is this, and the plural is …………
Should the plural of kiss be nicknamed “kese”?
Then one may be that, and three may be …………..,
Yet the plural of hat should never be “hose”.
We speak of a brother, and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say “methren”.
The masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
Just imagine the feminine she, “shis” and “shim”!
So our English, I think you will agree,
Is the trickiest language you ever did see.
(unknown) (source: Peter Wateyn-Jones: Fun Class Activities 2 Penguin books 2000)

28
This poem introduces you to the notion of number, especially to the cases of irregular
plurals. Regular plurals are those adding the inflectional suffix –s (cats, dogs) where
the only difference is in the pronunciation of /s/ /z/ respectively. Let’s see other cases:
(see copies from Traductorado Pago de los Arroyos The Noun, pages 1-2-3)

Please special attention to the plural of compound nouns (exercises form Hewing’s
Advanced Grammar in Use)

Inflectional suffixes: ‘s (or “The aberrant apostrophe” David Crystal)

The Bride of Frankenstein Plato’s cave

The Count of Monte Cristo VERSUS Noah’s ark
Son of a bitch Bluebeard’s Castle

(for more examples, read David Crystal’s Encyclopedia of the English Language page 202)

Just with these examples you may realize why Crystal calls the apostrophe “aberrant”

⮚ Practice: The possessive form of nouns (Unit 53) Martin Hewings:

“Advanced Grammar in Use” Cambridge 2001

Conversion
Remember also that many nouns are cases of conversion, that is to say, they can also be
used as verbs or adjectives. Common examples of these are: work, charge, comment,
copy, dance, cut, design, diet, drink, hope, hurry, lift, look, love, offer, notice, paint,
plan, post, promise, queue, reply, shout, sleep, smell, stay, stock, stop, study, swim, taste,
travel, visit, walk, welcome, worry. (Look up these words to get good examples from the
dictionary both as nouns and verbs).

NOTE: Remember that some words are stressed on the first syllable when they are
nouns but on the second when they are used as verbs.
Some other changes are:
° The pronunciation of “use”

° The change of spelling between practice(noun) and practise (verb) (in Br E)

° The change of spelling and pronunciation between advice, device (noun) and
advise, devise (verb)

We will also see some other cases of conversion later in this unit when we deal with the
semantics of the noun (in these copies)

Also, many nouns have different meanings (polysemous words). See the following
riddle. The joke is possible because of the two meanings of some of the words. Which
ones? Explain

29
Why couldn't Cinderella be a good soccer player?
She lost her shoe, she ran away from the ball, and her coach was a pumpkin

Finally, nouns can be used with other words to make compound nouns.
NOTE: Notice the difference between such similar expressions as:
a teacup and a cup of tea
a milkbottle and a bottle of milk
a matchbox and a box of matches
a cigarette packet and a packet of cigarettes
a flower vase and a vase of flowers

SYNTAX

Nouns are usually the head of a noun phrase, and as such it appears as:
S: The police are questioning a youth following an explosion which took place in or
near the British Museum
Do: The police are questioning a youth following an explosion which took place in or
near the British Museum
IO: Please, ask your teacher any doubts you may have.
SC: I’m your grammar teacher
OC: They elected me Head of the English Department
Adverbial: I saw it the day I got married/ that day
Prepositional complement: The police are questioning a youth following an explosion
which took place in or near the British Museum

SEMANTICS

From the semantic point of view, nouns are usually classified into common and proper
(basically names by which we understand the designation of specific people, places,
institutions, seasons and festivals). Common nouns are in turn classified into countable
and non countable (also called count vs non-count/ mass), both of which may be
abstract or concrete. That is:

concrete
count
Common abstract

Nouns
concrete (furniture)
non-count
Abstract (information)

Proper

Most grammarian draw this basic distinction and then they also mention collective
nouns (gang, shoal, fleet) when dealing with number and partitive constructions
(slice, loaf, piece) when dealing with non-countable nouns. In contrast, in Longman
Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English, the authors classify nouns into:
common or proper, countable or uncountable, concrete, abstract, collective, unit,
quantifying and species nouns.

30
Let’s see these new types:
° Collective nouns:

° army, audience, board, committee, crew, family, jury, staff, team.

° Official bodies and organizations: the Air Force, the BBC, the Senate, the
U.N., Congress, Parliament.
° Collective nouns + selected collocates:

A batch of cakes, cards, blood tests, messages, pigs

A bunch of idiots, thieves, roses, bananas, grapes
A clump of azaleas, trees
A crowd of demonstrators, fans, spectators, shoppers
A flock of birds, doves, geese, sheep, children
A gang of bandits, drunken youth,
A group of adults, friends, girls, animals, insects, atoms, buildings, things
A herd of cows, deer, elephants
A host of advisors, angels, stars, fact, possibilities …
A pack of rogues, dogs, lies
A series of accidents, events, tests
A set of assumptions, characteristics, conditions, glasses
A shoal of fish
A swarm of bees, panicked men, possibilities…
A troop of inspectors

° Unit nouns + selected collocates

An act of adultery, aggression, kindness

A bit of beef, cake, cheese, sugar, cloth, paper, grass, wood,
conversation, excitement, fun, luck
A chip of glass, ice, paint, stone
A chunk of chocolate, meat, gold, rock
A game of cards, chess, tennis, golf
An item of clothing, equipment, information, news
A grain of corn, dust, salt, doubt
A loaf of bread
A lump of clay, soil, butter, cheese, fat, meat
A piece of cake, chicken, toast, calk, land, advice, evidence
A pair of glasses, pants, pliers, pyjamas,
A rasher of bacon
A scrap of paper, hope, information
A sheet of cardboard, paper,
A slice of bread, ham, pie
A sliver of glass, light
A speck of dirt, paint
A sprinkling of sugar
A strip of cloth, land
A trace of blood, lipstick, poison
A whit of concern

° Quantifying nouns

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 o Nouns denoting type of container:
Barrel of apples
Basket of eggs, flowers, bread, fruit
Box of books, matches
Cup of coffee
Keg of beer
Pack of cards, cigarettes
Packet of biscuits, chips, cocaine, envelope
Sack of coal, grain

o Nouns denoting shape

Heap of bones, leaves, blankets
Pile of bills, rocks, rubbish
Stick of incense
Wedge of bronze, ice

o Standardized measure terms

Pint, gallon, quart , litre of beer, milk, oil, petrol, water
Foot, inch, yard, metre of cloth, earth, fabric, wire
Ounce, gram, kilogram of butter, margarine, meat, potatoes, sugar
Ton, tonne of aluminium, bricks, explosives

o Plural numbers
Dozens of animals, books, drivers
Hundreds of times

o Nouns denoting large quantities

A load of cars, money, stuff, crap, garbage, rubbish, nonsense
Loads of books, cakes, friends, money, things, work
A mass of bodies, detail, material
Masses of homework, money, people

o Nouns ending in –ful

Armful of pots and pans, red roses, grass
Fistful of cash, dollars
Handful of peanuts, pencils, salt
Mouthful of coffee, cereal, icecream
Spoonful of broth, cream, sugar, tea

° Species noun: sort of, kind of, class of, type of

⮚ Exercise: (Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English) .

Identify the kind of noun:

1- “Your books have sold millions of copies” the young interviewer was saying.
2- According to Kant and Laplace, the original mass of gas cooled and began to contract.
3- The minibar was filled with candy, mineral water, decaffeinated soft drinks and dairy
products. “These are the kind of munchies which our research found helps sleep”, said
Jeremy Baka, Hilton spokesman.
4- You guys can go to a whole bunch of places and you should not go to New Mexico.

32
When classifying nouns, it is important to consider the context in which the noun
appears. For example, with countable and non-countable nouns, some words are always
countable (table) and some words are always uncountable (advice, happiness), but there
are words which can be used in both senses depending on the context. Compare:
He has got a good head of hair.
What beautiful hair!
You have got several blond hairs on your jacket. Whose are they? (jealous wife)
Waiter! There’s a hair in my soup! (angry customer)

Also, some words can be either mass or count nouns depending on what they mean:
A window made of glass a glass of wine
I haven’t got much time We had a good time at the party

Nouns not normally countable in English: advice, clothing, flu, furniture, hair, homework,
housework, jewelry, lightning, luggage, meat, money, news, permission, progress, rubbish, scenery,
shopping, soap, spaghetti, thunder, toast, traffic, weather.

⮚ Activity: Proverbs: analyse in the following proverbs countable and

non-countable nouns as well as the use of the articles
Don’t cry over spilt milk. An apple a day keeps the doctor away
Too many cooks spoil the broth The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
Half a loaf is better than none. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
( source: language unlocked)

Conversion (or re-classification): this kind of conversion has to do only with nouns.
For example:

Abstract to concrete: She hasn’t got much beauty. She’s a beauty.

Common to proper: Revenge retired and Hope arrived. (personification)
Here comes Father.
Proper to common: atlas, tweed, jersey, sandwich (were originally proper names)
He hopes to have a Rolls-royce. Stop being a Chaplin.
Non –count to count: a coffee, a tea.

Gender
In English, nouns have no grammatical gender like in Spanish la mesa, el pizarrón.
Only some pronouns have gender: she, he for example. Words like man-woman,
father-mother, cow –bull, spinster-bachelor account for biological gender distinctions.
Some grammar books will draw a distinction between:
° masculine gender: for all words representing males

° feminine gender: for words representing females

° neuter: for inanimate objects

33
Modern grammar does not consider “neuter”. It just says only animate beings can have
different words to show biological gender; all other nouns in English (standing for
inanimate objects) do not have gender.

Forms
° Morphologically marked: -ess to form the feminine (poet, emperor, viscount)

° Morphologically unmarked: a completely different word is used

bachelor-spinster, horse-mare, fox-vixen
° Compounds with one element denoting sex: boyfriend, peacock-peahen,
he-bear, etc.
° Foreign feminines: hero-heroine, sultan- sultana

° Words with masculine, feminine and common gender: father/ mother/

parent, boy/ girl child, man/ woman/ person, brother/ sister/ sibling, etc.

See some special cases:

° Countries:
Looking at the map we see France. It is one of the largest countries in Europe (treated
as a geographical unit)
During the Second World War, Italy fought against the allies. Her fascist regime finally
dropped, Musolini being killed.(treated as political economic unit)

° Animals
They are called he or she when they are thought of as having personality, intelligence or
feelings. Pet animals are called he or she by their owners, but not always by other
people:
Go and find the cat and put him out.
Once upon a time there was a rabbit called Luke. He lived in a forest …
I think Felicity is upset about something. She’s not giving much milk these days.
That fox has got away three times this year, but we’ll get him before he’s much older.
I saw a weasel last night. It was just down at the end of the garden.
His dog had to be destroyed because it started attacking sheep.

° Cars
Some people use she for cars, motorbikes, and other kinds of vehicle; sailors often use
she for ships

° People
We often have problems with words like student, which may refer to either sex:
If a student needs advice about careers, he or she should consult the Careers Officer
With words like anybody, somebody etc, the plural form can be used to avoid
ambiguity, even when we talk about one person only:

34
If anybody’s lost a purse, they can get it from the office.

⮚ Activity: (source: anomalous anonymies

www.grammar.ccc.commnet.edu) (I recommend you this site; it’s
great!)

You will find here some mistakes made by English learners. Concentrate on nouns and
spot the mistake (choice of vocabulary); suggest the correct noun the students should
have used.

On his quest, Milkman discovers his own family's genitality, and that makes him forget
about the gold

The patchwork guilts had been sown by Grandma Dee.

I felt as if I had been trown into a room of hungry loins.

At your connivance, I can be reached at the above number.

You always knew when he come in the room because of the smell of his strange colon.

Next, break the eggs into two bowels.

We were so poor that we had to share a bathroom and a chicken with two other families.

⮚ Activity: Bush’s solecisms (source: Anomalous Anonymies

www.grammar.ccc.commnet.edu) (again I strongly recommend
you this site!). Here you will find some mistakes made by the
American President. These are connected with nouns:

“I urge members to pass the appropriations bill that remain”

“The federal government and the state government must not fear programs who
change lives, but must welcome those faith-based programs for the embetterment of
mankind”
“I'm furious. But my furity will not keep me from…”
“I am mindful not only of preserving executive powers for myself, but for
predecessors as well”
“Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream”
“If the terriers and bariffs are torn down, this economy will grow”
“Rarely is the question asked, Is our children learning”

⮚ Activity: What’s new in English (adapted from an article by

Margaret Oertig)

35
 Neologisms often reflect cultural changes. Just as in previous decades words like
bikini (40’s), Ms (50’s), eurodollar (60’s), miniseries (70’s), couch potatoe (80’s)
, Mc Job, flamemail (90’s) appeared, there are some new words that are clearly
the result of some changes in society. Match the nouns with their meaning:
Road rage
Roid rage
Steaming
Chilling out

Extra practice: Nouns and Noun Phrases (Foley, Mark and Hall, Diane: “Advanced
Learners’ Grammar” Longman 2004) Practice 1-2-3 pages 252-253

5. ADJECTIVES

MORPHOLOGY
Some adjectives are also formed through adding prefixes and suffixes. Within
inflectional suffixes -er for the comparative and –est for the superlative are exclusive of
adjectives. Again, grammarians do not agree on –ing and –ed for adjectives; some will
call them inflectional and some will say they are derivational. There are many
derivational affixes in the formation of adjectives.

⮚ For affixes and some cases of compounding of adjectives we’ll see

L.G.Alexander’s workbook (Longman) pages 80-81

Compound adjectives:

° Formed with past participles: a candle-lit table, a self-employed author.

° Formed with present participles: a long-playing record, a time-consuming job

° Denominal compounds: cross-eyed, heart-hearted, open-minded

° Cardinal number + noun: a three-year-old building, a four-hour meeting, a

ten-minute walk
° Ordinal number + noun: a first-rate film, a second-hand car, a nineteenth-century
novel
° Others: class-conscious, tax-free, fire-resistant,
well/badly-done/behaved/built/paid, ill/poorly-advised/educated/informed, etc.

36
 ⮚ Activity: read the following captions from magazine ads and identify all the
adjectives. Say also what product they are advertising. Comment on
morphological processes.

“Sensationally softer skins in seconds” (Lancome)

“The best facial is a daily facial”
“The absolute femininity” (Dior’s J’adore)
“the coolest way to get rid of dandruff” (Head&Shoulders)
“Lip-plumping effect and dazzling colour” (L’oreal)
“Now go brown beautifully. The new capsule for an optimal tan”
“The measure of healthoy-looking care. Up to 70% smoother and shinier” (Pantene)
“For colour that’s so vibrant and so intense; with pure colour extracts and ammonia-free herbal
fragrance: a totally intense experience in colour” (Clairol)
“Not greasy, not clingy, but protective. It’s everything you ever wanted in a man.
Transparent, water-resistant formula” (Garnier)
“Radiant glow Foundation: a natural luminous finish for a flawless complexion”
“What is it about PINK that makes you feel so good?
It shaves you so close , your skin stays smoother, longer” (Gillette)
“Dry to soft: feel the difference immediately.
Accelerated results; concentrated formula for intensive care; noticeable effect…
Because the skin on your feet is different and needs its own special care” (Schol)

SYNTAX
Adjectives can function as:
° Noun modifiers: as in a beautiful house, the people present, anyone
intelligent (see that in these examples we find both pre-modifiers and
post-modifiers)
° heads of noun phrases: the rich, the poor (in these cases we talk about
nominalization, that is to say, the adjectives have a nominal function
because they are in the typical position of a noun)
° heads of adjectival phrases in the following cases:
o as subjective complements: Brad Pitt is cute.
o as objective complement: Women consider him cute.

Also in some clauses (do not worry about these for the time being; we’ll see them in
detail next year):
o Verbless clauses:
Unhappy with the result, she returned to work.
If wet, these shoes should never be placed too close to the heat.
° Exclamatory clauses:
Excellent! (How) beautiful!

Attributive, predicative and postpositive

In general adjectives can be used in two typical positions:
the beautiful house (attributive)
the house is beautiful (predicative)

Adjectives are attributive when they pre-modify the head of a noun phrase. They are
predicative when they function as Cs or Cs, in general after verb to be.
37
As I said before most adjectives (central adjectives) can occur in both positions.
However, there are some adjectives that occur in either one or the other:
It was an utter waste of time (attributive only)
He’s afraid (predicative only)

Attributive only:
° Intensifying adjectives: a true scholar, plain nonsense, a complete fool, a
close friend, feeble joke, slight effort
° Restrictive adjectives: the principal objection, a particular child, the exact
answer.
° Adjectives related to adverbs: my former friend, past students, the present
king, a hard worker.

Predicative only: ill, faint, content, lit, a- adjectives (afloat, awake, alive, asleep, alike,
alive, alone)

NOTE: see that utter is after verb to be; however it is not the head of the phrase as it is
modifying the word waste, so it is considered only in relationship to waste.

Postpositive refers to the position after the noun, as in:

the people present, the people involved/ responsible

Be careful! Some adjectives can occur both before and after nouns with a change in
meaning: concerned, elect, involved, present, proper, responsible.
See also some fixed expressions where adjectives that are generally attributive are used
after the noun: court martial, Secretary General (of the United Nations), Attorney
General, Astronomer Royal, God Almighty!

⮚ Activity: comment on the syntactic function of the adjectives in the

magazine ads.

⮚ Find out what gradable/ungradable means

⮚ Order of adjectives before nouns: It’s possible to use many adjectives before
a noun but you have to arrange them in a certain order. Work out a rule.

⮚ Distinguishing between adverbs and adjectives: underline adjectives in the

following sentences (be careful! May be there aren’t!):
They were cute invitations, weren’t they?
That looks pretty good.
Can it be farmed intensively or should it be reared extensively?
Here there are eight shared electrons; therefore methane is uncharged.
The initial objective is to identify areas within cities which exhibit distinctive
characteristics and which can be shown to be relatively homogeneous.

38
 The Russian airline was also interested in starting a transatlantic service.
The drive that motivates distinctive individual behavioral patterns is to a
considerable degree subconscious.

⮚ Adjectives + prepositions:
Adjectives are usually followed by a prepositional phrase, for example angry with
(someone), glad about (something), proud of (something). You have to study these
prepositions by heart, as there are no rules stating which preposition follows each
adjective. Find out which preposition the following groups of adjectives take:
annoyed, anxious, certain, excited, happy, pleased, right, sorry, upset + …………..
angry, annoyed, bad, good, surprised + ……………
bored, shocked, surprised + ……………
famous, late, ready, sorry + ……………
absent, different, safe + ……………..
interested + ………….
Afraid, ashamed, aware, capable, fond, full, jealous + ……………..
Keen + …………..
Grateful, kind, married, superior + ………….
Angry, annoyed, bored , happy, pleased +……………

For adjectives that belong to more than one group, check with the dictionary of
examples with each preposition.

ADVERBS

⮚ Activity: What are adverbs? What are their functions? Find the adverbs in the
following famous quotes by Groucho Marx (a well-known comedian, your
parents must have heard of him!) and try to provide an answer to the previous
questions:

A black cat crossing your path signifies that the animal is going somewhere.
From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down, I convulsed with
laughter. Someday I intend on reading it.
Getting older is no problem. You just have to live long enough
I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into
the other room and read a book.
I have had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it.
I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception.

39
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it
incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.
I intend to live forever, or die trying.

Adverbs are mainly lexical words but there are also some adverbs that belong to
functional words, such as adverb particles (away, out, down) and linking adverbs
(however, yet, still) (also called conjuncts). David Crystal says that adverbs were a
“dustbin category” as when grammarians were not sure what part of speech a word
was, they said it was an adverb. For this reason you will see that some of the new word
classes that modern grammar suggests (conjuncts for example) were used to be
considered adverbs by traditional grammar.

MORPHOLOGY (formation of adverbs)

Adverbs can be:
● single words (one-morpheme words) : yet, down, then, too.
● derived from adjectives: quickly, splendidly,
● derived from nouns: daily, weekly, monthly, hourly
● formed by adding the derivational suffixes wards/ways: sideways, backwards,
forwards, homewards, crosswise, inwards, upwards, northwards, etc. (warning:
towards is a preposition!!!)
● formed by adding the prefix a: ashore, aloft, abroad.
● compound words: anywhere, sometimes, however

Some adverbs have the same form as the corresponding adjective: fast, hard, straight,
low, far, early, clean (as an adverb only in some contexts, see examples below), dead,
enough, long:

Adjective
That is a very fast train
He is a hard worker
He has gone to the Far East
It is a straight road.
“The early bird catches the worm”
wrote..
Take a clean sheet of paper
The prisoner got clean away
I saw a dead bird in the garden
Have you enough time to do the work?
He went on a long journey
Adverb
It goes very fast
He works hard
He didn’t walk very fast
It ran straight for miles
Very early in his career Shakespeare
The man was clean-shaven
Dead slow (traffic notice)
The man was dead drunk
He didn’t try hard enough.
It shan’t be long.

Note 1: hardly has a different meaning and is only an adverb: He hardly works
nowadays
Note 2: lowly is an adjective: Henry VIII’s great Chancellor, Cardinal Wolsey was of
lowly (humble) parentage, his father was a butcher.

There are adverbs which have two forms (sometimes but not always, with different
meanings)

40
Adjective Adverb
Bright bright, brightly
Cheap cheap, cheaply
Direct direct, directly (=at once)
High high, highly (flying high, highly-praised)
Late late, lately (= recently)
Pretty prettily, pretty (=very)
Sound sound, soundly (sleeping sound (ly), soundly-beaten)
Clear clear, clearly (“I said it loud and clear” Lewis Carroll’s
Alice)
Wide wide, widely (wide open, to differ widely)
Slow slow, slowly (go slow (traffic sign))
Right right, rightly (turn right, rightly blamed for …)

There are also fixed phrases that behave like adverbs, like “of course”, “as a matter of
fact”, etc.

Just like adjectives, adverbs can be compared, but the comparison is done by means of
the periphrastic form: She works much more quickly than I do.

SYNTAX
● Adverbs can stand alone as head of adverbial phrases

He ran quickly
Come here
I went to the dentist yesterday

In these cases we say that the adverb modifies or gives information about the verb. But
in the following sentences, the adverbs refer to the whole sentence:

Fortunately, I remembered in time who he was

Indeed, I won’t do it.

These are examples of disjuncts as opposed to adjuncts which perform a function,

although not obligatory in the main clause. Disjuncts are in a way, outside the clause.
Compare:
It is better to talk frankly to her sister
Frankly, it is better to talk to her sister.

● Adverbs can also be used as modifiers in other types of phrases. For example:
Modifying an adjective:
It is very hot today. Are you quite comfortable? His work isn’t good enough for the
scholarship.
Modifying another adverb:
He plays extremely well. She drives too fast.

● Sometimes they modify whole phrases:

They live nearly on top of the hill. His remarks were quite to the point.

41
 ● Last adverbs can also be the complement of a preposition (usually nouns are
prepositional complements): until then.

WARNING! Don’t confuse adverbs with adverbials. An adverb is a category (a class

of words) but an adverbial (adjunct) is a syntactic function; so you may find different
phrases performing the function of an adverbial (adjunct):
o An adverbial phrase: We had Grammar yesterday
o A prepositional phrase: On Tuesdays, we have four Grammar periods
o A noun phrase: Next Tuesday we will have our Grammar midterm.

WARNING! Be careful, an adverb can be used as a noun in sentences such as Yesterday

was yet (Yesterday is the head of the subject, so it is a noun)

Quite few languages don’t have adverbs as a separate part of speech. German for
example, uses one word for adjectives and adverbs, for example gut means both good
and well. Very informal English also does this, although it is not considered
grammatically correct. You may notice this in songs for example “I feel good”(think of
more examples, there a lot)

SEMANTICS
From the semantic point of view, there may be adverbs of:
● Place: here, there
● Time: then, now, tomorrow, afterwards
● Degree: (amplifiers or intensifiers like very, and diminishers or downtoners like
almost, somewhat, quite
● Addition/restriction: too, also, only, just
● Manner: well, fast and most –ly adverbs (when they function as adjuncts)
● Stance: probably, definitely, really, roughly, nearly, about (before numbers),
maybe , -ly adverbs (when functioning as disjuncts)
● Linking: however, yet, still, etc

Within stance there are many categories which we will see next year, so don’t worry for
the time being! (my favourite expression).
Activity: pick out the adverbs in the following songs, discuss the type and function of
each one. Comment on special uses (informal for example) if any.

42
 ⮚ EXTRA PRACTICE
Read the following poem/song for children (source: “Teaching Meaning” workshop by
Prof. Maria Andrea Fernandez Gallino- Ameghino bookshop and ISP Nº 7 - 2003) and
analyse the adverbial adjuncts (of time, place, manner, etc). What kind of phrases
function as adverbial adjuncts? Underline the head of each phrase and label the phrase
accordingly.

The Animal March

The animals marched into town The lizards came lazily
To the happy Earth Animal March. The snails came slowly
From the north and from the south, The kangaroos flew fast
From the east and from the west The hippos came happily
They all marched into town The ants came angrily
To the Happy Earth Animal March The lions came loudly, loudly, loudly
The lions came loudly to the Happy
The cats came quietly, quietly, quietly, Earth Animal March
The cats came quietly to the Happy to the Happy Earth Animal March
Earth Animal March. to the Happy Earth Animal March

⮚ Rap (source: “Teaching Meaning” workshop by Maria Andrea Fernandez

Gallino- ISP Nº 7) Read the rap and identify adjectives, adverbs or adverb
particles and prepositions:
If you want to keep fit, here is what you have to do,
You have to do excercise and play sports too.
But wait! Don’t forget to warm up first-
Without warming up, your muscles can get hurt.
Let’s do the rap
The warm up rap
The warm up rap
Stamp your feet and clap
Let’s do the rap.
Don’t sit there and nap
The warm up rap
Let’s do the warm up rap

Put your hands on your hips ad hold your tummy in

Keep your back straight – I said “Hold your tummy in!

43
Bend forwards, then sideways, then backwards, and around.
Make a circle five times and don’t fall down.
Chorus
Lift your arms up and stretch your fingers out
Keep your shoulders down and wiggle them about
Now twist your wrists around and around
Bend your elbows in and lookt at the ground
Chorus
Sit on the floor with yur legs out wide
Keep your knees straight and bend to the side
Hold your right ankle with your right hand
Stretch your left arm and touch your toes if you can

Bibliography: Eckersley & Eckersley

Hurford James: “Grammar: A student’s guide” Cambridge 1994

44
PREPOSITIONS

Prepositions can be simple or complex. Most are simple, such as at, in, for as they
consist of only one word. Other prepositions are complex such as along with, as for,
away from, etc as they consist of more than one word. The other element that is part of a
complex preposition may be another preposition (as for) or an adverb (away from) , an
ing- word (owing to) , a conjunction (because of) or even a noun (by means of).

Study the following list of complex prepositions: (for the complete list see LGSWE
page 75 )

such as
as for, but for, except for
apart from, away from
ahead of, because of, exclusive of, inside of, instead of, out of, regardless of
depending on
according to, contrary to, due to, next to, on to, opposite to, previous to, thanks to, up to
along with, together with
as regards,
rather than

as far as, as well as

in retunr for
by means of, in case of, in charge of, in front of, in spite of,
in addition to, with respect to
in comparison with

as a result of, in the case of, with the exception of

But what are prepositions?

Authors like Hurford, Quirk and Eckersley define them in a similar way, the easiest
definition being Eckersley’s: “prepositions are words used with nouns to show the
relation in which these nouns stand to some other word in the sentence” So for example
in the sentence “The horse is in the stable”, the preposition in shows the relationship
between horse and stable.
LGSWE says prepositions are a device which connects noun phrases with other
structures.

Prepositions imply various types of relational meaning, place and time being the most
common and the easiest to identify. Try brainstorming prepositions denoting place and
time. You’ll come up with quite many:
Place: ...............................................................................................................................
Time: ...............................................................................................................................

Within place for example Quirk categorizes prepositions further as expressing direction
(to, onto) , position (at, on, in) passage (across, through), destination (over) , orientation
(beyond, over, past), resultative meaning (over, across) and pervasive meaning (around).
Other relationships expressed by prepositions are purpose, source, instrument and cause
(see extra practice Quirk: workbook pages 48-55)

Quirk also mentions the idea of dimension that prepositions have, as can be seen in the
following charts:

45
What is called dimesion type 0 is a mere point in relation to which a position is
indicated.
On can be one dimensional as in Put your signature on this line or two-dimensional as
in There is a new roof on the cottage; in may be two-dimensional as in the cows are in
the filed (enclosed area) or there are two bedrooms in the cottage.

See also the following examples from Quirk

On the window (the frost made patterns on the window) window = a glass surface
In the window: (a face appeared in the window) window = a framed area
On the island: Robinson Crusoe was marooned on an inhabited island
In the island: He was born in Long Island

At/in Stratford-on-Avon (small locations)

He works in London but lives in the country (big town)
Our plane refuelled at London on its way from New York to Moscow (as a point in a
map)

In some cases it is very difficult to decide what category is more suitable, as in The ball
rolled underneath the table, where both passage and destination may be implied:
passage - if the ball passed under the table on the way to some other destination- and
also destination - if the ball rolled under the table and stayed there.

See that over may be used to illustrate most of the senses described by Quirk:
Position: a lamp hung over the door
Destination: they threw a blanket over her.
Passage: they climbed over a wall.
Orientation: they live over (on the far side of ) the road.
Resultative: at last we were over the crest of the hill
Pervasive (static) leaves lay thick all over the ground
Pervasive (motion): they splashed water all over me

Eckersley and Eckersley deal with prepositions in a simpler way; they just say that little
guidance can be given as regards what preposition is the right one to use and so give
numerous examples of the main prepositions in sentences, with notes on the usage of
those which may cause difficulty (see A Compehensive English Grammar pages
283-303)

Cassell’s includes many drawings and diagrams to illustrate prepositions:

46
Finally prepositions can have a literal meaning as in “in shallow water” and also an
idiomatic one as in “in deep water” “in difficulties”, “in trouble”, “in a spot”. (see
excercise 90- Quirk’s workbook)

NOTE: although prepositions almost always precede noun phrases, there are a few cases
in which they take postposition: His intelligence notwithstanding, he was not
successful; and in some idiomatic expressions all the world over, all the year round,
search the house through.

Traditional grammar has been against the use of prepositions at the end of sentences,
as in That’s the boy I’ve been chatting with. This proscriptive tendency has made
possible to utter such awkward constructions as Churchill’s famous “This is something
up with which I will not put”

See the following example which ends a sentence with five prepositions. Is it possible to
avoid having the prepositions at the end?
What did you bring that book that I did not want to be read to out of up for?
........................................................................................................................

WARNING #1: Don’t confuse prepositions with adverbs or adverb particles. An easy
way to differentiate them is to remember that prepositions take a complement, so in We
drove past the house, “past” is a preposition but in We drove past, “past” is an adverb.
(Hurford says this is the reason why prepositions are so called: pre-position). Some
authors like Quirk call these prepositional adverbs, when the ellipted complement can
be understood from the context: We drove past(the house). Hurford calls these transitive
or intransitive prepositions, on the analogy with transitive or intransitive verbs which
take /don’t take a noun phrase. Don’t worry! We will call these prepositions and
adverbs.

WARNING #2: Don’t confuse prepositions with subordinating conjunctions

Enlarge the idea suggested in the prepositional phrase so that you can show the
difference with the subordinting conjunction:

PREPOSITION SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTION

We have to register before October .............................................................
After 10 p.m. we went out. .............................................................
I have lived here since 1992 .............................................................

LGWSE draws a distinction between free and bound prepositions. Free prepositions
are the ones which do not depend on other words in the context. For example in Wait for
me in the classroom, please the preposition in is free (I could just as well say Wait for
me here, there, at your desks, in the playground, etc) but the preposition for depends on
wait; wait is always used with for and not with any other preposition.

Verbs + preposition combinations are called prepositional verbs, for example believe
...., concentrate ....., part ...., confide ....., rely ......, depend ......, apologize ...., worry ......

47
SYNTAX
Syntactically, prepositions act as heads of prepositional phrases and they are followed
by a prepositional complement (or object to/of the preposition) which is usually a
noun phrase, as in:
We’re in class now We are in the biggest classroom. We’re at college.

But the prepositional complement may also be also be an adverb, as in:

We started classes in March. We have been in this classroom since then.

In turn, prepositional phrases may function as:

o Adverbial adjuncts (of place, time, manner, reason, etc):
.................................................
o Obligatory adverbial (or adverbial complement):
.............................................................
o Disjunct: To my surprise, ........
o Post modifier in a noun phrase: Students at the back always misbehave
o Direct object: Concentrate on grammar.
o Adjectival complement: We are interested in grammar

Altough it’s not very common, prepositional phrases can also function as subject
Between six and seven will suit me

⮚ Extra Practice: Quirk and Greenbaum: “A University Grammar of English”

workbook chapter 6 pages 48-55

BIBLIOGRAPHY USED IN THIS UNIT

Hurford James: “Grammar- A student’s guide” Cambridge 1994
Quirk and Gremmbaum: “A University Grammar of English” 1973
Quirk and Greenbaum: “A University Grammar of English” workbook 1974
Eckersley and Eckersley:
Biber Douglas (et al): Longman Grammar of Written and Spoken English- Longman
1999.
Eckersley and Eckersley:
Cassell’s

48
DETERMINERS
Determiners Are function words

Modals you cannot .. Macmillan calendar page 27

More on imperatives:
Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house. Give love to your
children, to your wife or husband, to a next door neighbour. Let no one ever come to
you without living better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness,
kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile, kindness in
your warm greeting. Mother teresa

If I had my child to raise again

If I had my child to raise again,
I’d finger-paint more and point the finger less.
I would do less correcting and more
connecting.
I’d take my eyes off the watch , and watch
With my eyes.
I would care to know less and know to care
More.
I’d take more hikes and fly more kites.
I’d stop playing serious, and seriously play.
I’d run through more fields and gaze at
More stars.
I’d do more hugging and less tugging.
I’d build self-esteem first, and the house
later.
I would be firm less often, and affirm much more.
I’d teach less about the love of power

49
 And more about the power of love.
Diane Loomans

FOR NEXT YEAR, ADD THA LAST PAGES FROM THE DICTIONARY THAT
HAVE SUFFIXES AND PREFIXES

El ad 1 es de Marlboro

. (para dos seignificadops de una palabra)

Whie House News Conference

Nov. 4, 2004

We hold dear what our Declaration of Independence says, that all have got uninalienable
rights, endowed by a Creator.

IT will be he's and I's responsibility … to secure the nation …

in a nominating speech
January, 2005

Let me finish for a minute, John, please. I'm just getting warmed up. I'm finding my
feet.

And that's really my only comment I've got.

Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children

But I also made it clear to Vladimir Putin that it's important to think beyond the old days
of when we had the concept that if we blew each other up, the world would be safe.
50
 Washington, D.C.
May 1, 2001

This administration is doing everything we can to end the stalemate in an efficient way.
We're making the right decisions to bring the solution to an end.

Mas d ebush:

'The  vast majority of our imports come from outside the

 country.'
                  -  George W. Bush

'If we  don't succeed, we run the risk of  failure.' 

              -  George W. Bush

'One  word sums up probably the responsibility of any

Governor, and that  one word is 'to be  prepared'.'
              
                -George  W. Bush

'I  have made good judgments in the past. I have made

good judgments in  the future.'
             -  George W. Bush

'The  future will be better  tomorrow.'

                -  George W. Bush

'We're  going to have the best educated American people

in the  world.'
          -  George W. Bush

'I  stand by all the misstatements that I've  made.'

             -  George W Bush

51
 'We  have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of
NATO. We have a  firm commitment to  Europe .  We are a
part of  Europe   '
              -  George W. Bush

'Public  speaking is very easy.'

              -  George W. Bush

'A  low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people

going to the  polls.'
             -  George W. Bush

'I  have opinions of my own  -- strong  opinions --  but I

don't always agree with them.'
             -George  Bush

'We are  ready for any unforeseen event that may or may
not  occur.'
              -  George W. Bush

'For  NASA, space is still a high  priority.'

              -George  W. Bush

'Quite  frankly, teachers are the only profession that

teach our  children.' 
            -George  W. Bush

'It  isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's

the impurities  in our air and water that are doing  it.'
             -  George W. Bush

52
 A Dog's Purpose (from a
6-year-old).

Being a veterinarian, I had been

called to examine a ten-year-old
Irish Wolfhound named Belker. The
dog's owners, Ron, his wife Lisa,
and their little boy Shane, were all
very attached to Belker, and they
were hoping for a miracle.

I examined Belker and found he

was dying of cancer. I told the
family we couldn't do anything for
Belker, and offered to perform the
euthanasia procedure for the old
dog in their home.

As we made arrangements, Ron

and Lisa told me they thought it
would be good for six-year-old
Shane to observe the procedure.
They felt as though Shane might
learn something from the
53
 experience.

The next day, I felt the familiar

catch in my throat as Belker's
family surrounded him. Shane
seemed so calm, petting the old
dog for the last time, that I
wondered if he understood what
was going on. Within a few
minutes, Belker slipped peacefully
away.

The little boy seemed to accept

Belker's transition without any
difficulty or confusion. We sat
together for a while after Belker's
Death, wondering aloud about the
sad fact that animal lives are
shorter than human lives. Shane,
who had been listening quietly,
piped up, 'I know why.'

Startled, we all turned to him.

What came out of his mouth next
54
 stunned me. I'd never heard a
more comforting explanation.

He said, 'People are born so that

they can learn how to live a good
Life -- like loving everybody all the
time, and being nice, right?' The
Six-year-old continued, 'Well, dogs
already know how to do that, so
they don't have to stay as long.'

Live simply.

Love generously.

Care deeply.

Speak kindly.

Remember, if a dog was the

teacher you would learn things
like:

When loved ones come home,

55
 always run to greet them.

Never pass up the opportunity to

go for a joyride.

Allow the experience of fresh air

and the wind in your face to be
pure Ecstasy.

Take naps.

Stretch before rising.

Run, romp, and play daily.

Thrive on attention and let people

touch you.

Avoid biting when a simple growl

will do.

On warm days, stop to lie on your

back on the grass.

56
 On hot days, drink lots of water
and lie under a shady tree.

When you're happy, dance around

and wag your entire body.

Delight in the simple joy of a long

walk.

Be loyal.

Never pretend to be something

you're not.

If what you want lies buried, dig

until you find it.

When someone is having a bad

day, be silent, sit close by, and
nuzzle them gently.
 
ENJOY EVERY MOMENT OF EVERY
DAY!  

57
  

58