An Interjection is a word class which generally has no grammatical connection with the rest of the utterances around it and is used to express emotion on the part of the speaker. When written, they often have an exclamation mark to close them. The following are...
A demonstrative pronoun is a pronoun used in place of a noun to demonstrate (= show; indicate; point) where something or somebody is in reference to the speaker. There are four demonstrative pronouns in the English language: thisthesethatthose For example: Did you see...
Conjugation refers to the different form of a verb depending on how it is used and who uses it. Unlike many other languages, English conjugation is fairly straightforward and presents few problems. Regular Verbs This is the conjugation of a regular English verb,...
Modifiers are pretty straightforward when you come to think of it. Essentially a modifier does just that: it modifies or changes or qualifies another word or phrase or clause. Suppose you have a noun: motorcycle You can then modify it: black motorcycle Harley Davidson...
Of all the types of conjunctions, Correlative Conjunctions are perhaps the easiest to identify as they always come in pairs, they always come together and they link two separate but related items of equal value. Pretty much like socks do. Common Correlative...
Let me start by saying that I think the name Subordinating Conjunction is wrong. It doesn't really describe what they do. When we use one of these so-called subordinating conjunctions we're not saying they make a phrase subordinate to another; we're saying they make a...
Generally speaking, a Preposition tells you where something is or when something happened: at, in, on, by... As you might guess, a Prepositional Phrase simply means a preposition and what it is talking about known as the object: {preposition} + {object} by + the light...
An intensifier is a word, usually an adverb, that has little meaning in itself but provides force, intensity or emphasis to another word, again usually an adverb. The basic and most common intensifier in English is very. He's good; he's very good. They're late;...
The Subjunctive is a verb mood used in dependent clauses to express wishes, commands, emotion, possibility, judgement, necessity, or statements that are contrary to facts at present. Basically we use the subjunctive to talk about events that we want to happen, we...
The past is past and (sometimes unfortunately) it cannot be changed. All we can do is imagine how it might be different now if things had gone differently. To do this, to describe unreal situations in the past, we use the Third Conditional. If I had known the party...
A present participle is a verb ending in -ing. Running down the street, I fell over and bruised myself. This sentence is made up of two clauses: The main clause: I fell over and bruised myself. The subordinate clause: Running down the street. In this case, the...
Numbers are classified in grammar into two main groups: Cardinal and Ordinal. Numbers serve as adjectives in that they modify the noun which follows, e.g. There are young people here. There are many people here. There are six people here. Note that in a sentence...
A pronoun, as you all know, is a word which stands in place of another. John kicked the can.He kicked it. However, let's suppose we wanted to find out the name of the person who kicked the can. We don't know so we need to use a pronoun which could stand for anyone (or...
When we want to talk about HOW MUCH of something there is, we use a Quantifier. Common quantifiers include: manymuch(a) few(a) littlelessfewermoresomeany Grammatically speaking, quantifiers are a sub-group of determiners and we use them with nouns to describe the...
A simple definition of a noun is that it's an object or concept; a thing. We can group nouns in various ways. One major group are Common Nouns. Simply put, a Common Noun is a noun which is used to talk about an object or concept. Here are a few examples: objects...
Apposition is when you have 2 nouns (or noun phrases) next to each other and they both refer to the same thing. Each of them provides a bit of information about each other. For example, take these basic sentences: Clark Kent leaped into a phone booth.Clark Kent is an...
A Proper Noun is a special type of noun which refers to a person or place (and sometimes a title). Tom Cruise, Spain, Alexander the Great, Pluto... Proper nouns help identify a particular person, place, object or animal because they tell us their name. Compare these...
We use the Indefinite Article - a or an - when we talk about: jobs He is an artist and his wife is a plumber. beliefs He is a Buddhist and his wife is an atheist. nationalities He is an American and she is a Swede. We never use the indefinite article with...
A reflexive pronoun is a special kind of pronoun used to talk about the same person or thing that was mentioned in the subject: Alice looked at herself in the mirror. They enjoyed themselves at the beach. We use reflexive pronouns when the person who does something,...
Prepositions of Place are used to describe where something or someone is... Words like: in, on, at, by, behind, over... and so on. Most Common Prepositions of Place The 3 most commonly used prepositions of place are at, in and on. For ESL students prepositions of...
A Collective Noun is a noun used to describe a group of objects (things, people, etc). For example, when we talk about collections of people we can use words like: a group of mena gang of teenagersa mob of riotersa squad of soldiers Each of the highlighted words is a...
If you teach or learn English you'll know that many students often have a problem deciding whether to use a Continuous Verb Form or a Simple Verb Form. For example, both of these are grammatically correct: I work here.I am working here. But learners can often choose...
To offer something, we can use various modal verbs. I will give you a hand with that case. Shall I give you a hand with that case? Can I give you a hand with that case. Will is very positive; a statement of intent more than an offer. When we use shall as let's the...
Personal Pronouns are a subset of pronouns which stand in for people, places, things and ideas. To begin with, here is a full table of all personal pronouns in English: Subject Object Reflexive Possessive singular I me myself mine singular you you yourself yours...
A participle is a form of English verb. In English there are 2 participles: the present participle made by adding -ing to the verb, e.g. walk > walking the past participle made by adding -ed to the verb, e.g. walk > walked These two participles can be used...
To show degrees of requests, we can use various modal verbs. 1. Polite Requests Can I see you in your office, please? Could I see you in your office, please? May I see you in your office, please? could is more polite than can and may is quite formal. 2. Direct...
This is a very general guide to Gender in English. Unlike many other languages it is fairly straightforward in English which makes it relatively easy for language learners and explaining it in your TEFL classroom. To begin with and in practical terms, English...
To show degrees of permission, we can use various modal verbs. 1. Permission You cannot leave yet. You are not allowed to leave yet. You may not leave yet. You mustn't leave yet. You needn't leave yet. can is more friendly than may which is quite formal. needn't shows...
What is the Definite Article? We use the definite article - the - when we talk about a noun which refers to a particular member of a a group. In other words, we use the definite article to talk about a specific noun from a group. In this example the group is all men;...
In general, the Present Perfect Simple (PPS) is used to talk about an event which happened in the past but which has a very strong connection to the present: I have just finished laying the table so we can eat soon. The Present Perfect Continuous (PPC) on the...
