C1 Course

Unit 1: Grammar

Instructor: Faridoon T.S. Hussainzada

Contents

• Adverbs and adverbial phrases

• The perfect aspect
Adverbs and adverbial
phrases
Section 1
The position

• 3 main positions of adverbials in main clauses

• Front
• Middle
• End
• Obviously, she usually goes home after class.

• Adverbials = single-word adverbs and adverbial phrases

End position

• In spoken English, these adverbials go at the end:

• Manner (very slowly)
• Place (nearby)
• Time (soon)
• I write very slowly.
• I live nearby.
• We will come there soon.
End position

• Adverbial phrases of frequency go at the end position:

• We have a test every couple of weeks.
• C1 students must watch one movie every unit.

• Some single-word frequency adverbs also go at the end position:

• Taylor buys cars occasionally/sometimes/regularly.
End position

• If you have a verb and a direct object, do not place the adverb
between them:
• She ate the beans too quickly.
• She ate too quickly the beans.
• I wish I could meet Taylor someday.
• I wish I could meet someday Taylor.
End position

• The usual order for adverbs (end position) is:

1. Manner
2. Place
3. Time
• I ate the beans slowly at the restaurant on Friday.

• However, if an adverb of place is needed to complete the meaning of a

verb, the order can be changed:
• I went there by car.
• I went by car there.
End position

• If there are 2 verbs, adverbs of manner can go in 2

positions:
• Before the 1st verb if it modifies it
• After the 2nd verb if it modifies it
• I wanted to kill that guy quickly. (Modifying “kill”)
• I quickly wanted to kill that guy. (Modifying “wanted”)
Tip

• For emphasis in written texts (stories), adverbs of manner can go in

the front or middle position:
• Cautiously, Qudos slowly picked up the mysterious box off the floor.
Middle position

• Adverbial phrases in the middle position are very

rare.
• After 2 weeks, she killed him.
• She killed him after 2 weeks.
• She after 2 weeks killed him.
Middle position

• In the middle position, the adverb goes in these 2 different positions:

• Before the main verb, after the first auxiliary or modal verb
• After the verb be.
• She has always loved playing the piano.
• The winter is usually boring for me.
• Adverbs that take this position:
• Probability and Certainty – She definitely killed Qudos.
• Frequency – He usually plays soccer after school.
• Focus – The US president mainly had a good relationship with the Prime
Minister of India back in the 1960s.
Middle position

• Many adverbs of frequency (never, always, ever) and

certain time adverbs (just, still) can only go in the middle
position (in formal English).
• She still practices her Japanese.
• Still she practices her Japanese.
• She practices her Japanese still.
Middle position

• Adverbs of certainty usually go after auxiliaries, but they

go before contracted negative auxiliaries:
• I’ll probably watch the new movie tonight.
• I probably won’t watch the new movie tonight.
Tip

• Be careful with the word order of contracted negative auxiliaries as

they might change the meaning of the sentences:

• I don’t really care. (= not much)

• I really don’t care. (= not at all)
• I definitely won’t come. (= no chance)
• I won’t definitely come. (= not sure)
Front position

• Comment and linking adverbs usually go at the front of the clause,

followed by a comma:
• Obviously, Ashraf Ghani was a smart individual. However, he was
not as good a president as people had once thought.
Front position

• Adverbials of place, time and frequency can go at the front

position to set the scene or change the focus:
• In Paris, people do not get low-paying jobs.
• Every so often I forget the word for “coat” in Spanish.
Modifying adverbs and adjectives

• Adverbials of degree go directly before the word(s) they modify:

• Lana works very hard, but her reports are a little messy.

• Adverbs can be modified by phrases with prepositions:

• I ate dinner quickly by my standards. (For others, it might be
considered slow.)
• Luckily for you, I’m not mad or I’d have killed you now.
Tip

• Some adverbs have different meanings in different positions:

• Amazingly, strangely, naturally, clearly, fairly, reasonably…

• Strangely, James speaks Spanish. (= surprisingly)

• James speaks Spanish strangely. (= badly)
Tick the correct sentences. Correct the mistakes you found in the remaining sentences.
Check your answers.
The perfect aspect
Section 2
Completed actions

• Perfect tenses describe completed actions before

a certain time in the past, present, or future.
Completed actions

• Perfect tenses can be used to give news and describe

recent events/activities before a certain time:
• The US president has just fled the country.
• It had been raining all night.
• We’ve just been running.
Completed actions

• Perfect simple verbs focus on the effects of completing an activity:

• We’ve painted the room, so we can go and watch a movie.
• She’d worked so hard on her essay, so her teacher praised her.
Completed actions

• Perfect simple can be used to say how much / how many / how
often by a certain time.
• I have slept a lot.
• Irene has written over 500 books in the field of psychology.
Completed actions

• Perfect continuous verbs focus on the effects of doing an activity:

• We have been painting the room for over 5 hours. We are really
tired.
• He’s been cooking dinner for over an hour in the kitchen, and we
have been here in the living room. Of course, we haven’t seen him.
Perfect simple vs. Perfect continuous

• I have made dinner. Let’s go and eat it. (focus on

completion)
• I have been making dinner. I’m all sweaty and hot. (focus
on doing the activity)
Unfinished activities and states

• Perfect verb forms can describe continuing activities or states at a

certain time:
• John hasn’t been feeling well. He should see a doctor.
• Brock has been sad for around 2 days now.
Unfinished activities and states

• We can say the duration of the activity:

• The US president has been in office for 5 years.
• I have never watched any marvel movies.
Unfinished activities and states

• For certain activities, we can use both the simple and the
continuous forms of the perfect tenses (with little difference in
meaning if any at all):
• I will have lived in London for 10 years in August.
• I will have been living in London for 10 years in August.
Tip

• To express dissatisfaction, we can use the past perfect with stress on

‘had’:
• I had hoped my son would get a high score on his exam. (BUT he did
not get a high score and we are disappointed and dissatisfied.)
Match the sentence halves.
Check your answers.
Thank you
Any questions?