writing: Grammar that teachers
might consider when assessing our tests (in my humble opinion)
§ Past simple/present
perfect: time expressions
Over the past few
months/days/years, so far, during, up until/until/till/up to + now, since, as
soon as, once, when, after, it´s the first time…
§ Cleft sentences: what
and it clauses
(What happens is we always bicker for the same stupid things/ what I do
if I get stressed is talk to my friends/what Simon does is pretend he hasn´t
heard me)
(A person (who) I tend to confide in is my hairdresser/the
thing I hate is men chatting me up)
(It´d probably be my parents who I´d talk to first/ it´s
him that´s always gossiping/It is unpredictable oil prices that causes most
trouble/It was only when they opened the boxes that they realised the goods
were missing)
§ Relative clauses
(defining and non-defining, with preposition)
(Bleak House is considered to be the greatest novel
which/that Dickens wrote/The Pickwick Papers, which he wrote early in life, is
one of his most popular book/He is looked after by his father Fran, on whom he
totally depends (more formal, usually written English)/ He is looked after by
his father who he totally depends on)
§ Determiners
None/both/all/one/neither/most/each/part/some/very
little, few, a number…)/superlatives/certain nouns with a preposition (the
level/degree/stage at/to which, the effect/anniversary of which) combined with
of which/whom
(This is one of many theories, none of which have yet been
proved/He also has a brother and a sister, both of whom, along with Fran
himself, are exceptionally clever/He had sought out encyclopaedias, atlases,
telephone, directories, all of which he memorised/ This is one of many
theories, none of them have been proved yet/When Kim was a child, doctors advised
putting him in an institution, at which point his parents took him home instead
and introduced him to books/There were many great films in 2008, the best of
which was I think were European/We must celebrate the discovery of DNA, the
anniversary of which…/I was inspired by the poet Danté, from whose work this
quotation has been taken/This is the house where/in which she was born)
§ Verb + ing and past
participles:
adjective (We found the prospect of giving a talk
rather frightening)
in reduced relative clauses
(People leaving early should do so very
quietly)
after certain verbs (However much I ask her not to, she can´t
resist spoiling her grandchildren)
after prepositions (According to the manual, that switch is for
opening the boot).
Past participles: in
reduced relative clauses where the original clause contains a passive verb (The castle, built in the tenth century…)/as
an adjective (Karen was soon bored out of
her mind by the guided tour)
§ Participle clauses
Often used to make a
piece of writing more varied and sophisticated:
- Present (After not talking for ten years, they signed
the treaty last week)
- Past participle (Caught locally every day, it´s always
wonderfully fresh)
-
Perfect participle (Having
put the gun in the desk drawer, she left the cabin)
§ Introductory “it”:
-
as subject (It´s
incredible that no one was hurt/It´s clear that…/It´s not an aspect…/It´s
difficult to know…/It follows that not winning is stressful/It
surprised-amazed-annoyed-astonished-concerned-frightened-hurted-scared-shocked,
upset, worried him to discover that…)
-
as object: I love it
that my parents are always supportive/We all hate when we
§ Inversion (a
way of adding emphasis or dramatic effect):
Into the room walked Johan
No sooner…than/
seldom/not only-/not until…but also/very rarely/only recently/under no
circumstances/little, hardly…when/ + INVERTED SUBJECT AND THE AUXILIARY
(No sooner had we reached the house than the rain began to fall/never
have I heard such utter nonsense!/seldom do people associate being married with
being healthy/not until last week did he agree to stop smoking/scarcely had she left the room when-than we heard a
scream/not only did they win the tournament, but they also became league
champions/under no circumstances should you exercise immediately after eating a
heavy meal/Never before have food suppliers been faced with such a serious
crisis)
Such was the enthusiasm for the national team that hardly
anyone went to work that day
§ Future verb forms:
- present simple: fixed
event (The new airport tax comes into
effect on Monday)
- present simple as our
subjunctive: as soon as/by the
time/before/after/until and when he arrives, I´ll tell you (cuando él
llegue)
- present continuous:
future arrangements (Who is meeting you
at the station?)
- be going to: personal
plan or intention (I´m going to stop
reading this paper, it´s so right-wing)
- be going to: predition
based on present evidence (Look at the
time. We are going to be late)
- Will: definite
predictions or decisions make at the time of speaking (I think they´ll have an early election/The cost of oil will continue
to rise)
- future continuous:
something that will be in progress at a certain time in the future (This time next year we´ll be generating our
own electricity with our new solar panels)
- future continuous:
something that will happen in the normal course of events, not because you
planned it (I´ll be passing the post
office, so I can post that for you)
-
future perfect: something that will be completed before a
certain time in the future (We´ll install
four panels every day, and so by the end of the week we will have fitted panels
to all the houses in the street)
§ Phrases referring to
the future (predictions):
-due to/set to/about
to/on the verge of +ing/be to/on the brink of/on the point (Building work is due to start in March/I´m not about to drop everything just
to go and pick her up from the station/A large bank is on the brink of
collapse/There is bound to be a lot of interest in this exhibition, and tickets
are likely to sell out fast)
-make the prediction
less or more certain: definitely/certainly/probably/almost/quite
be
certain/be (un)likely/(im)possible/probable that/ There is + a strong /slim +
chance/likelihood/possibility/no way/no doubt + that clause May/might (well) (We may/might well run out of oil before the
end of the century)
§ Future in the past
§ Verb + infinitive
with to or verb + ing:
-
forget/go on/mean/regret has different meanings when they are followed by verb
+ ing or infinitive with to (I will always regret losing them/I regret to say
that at school I was trouble)
-
+ verb + ing: keep on/miss/stop/avoid/begin/continue/don´t mind/end
up/enjoy/finish/hate/keep/like/love/forget/prefer/regret/remember/start/try
-
+ infinitive with to: need/expect/manage/stop/try/learn/begin/continue/decide/forget/hate/hope/like/love/plan/prefer/pretend/refuse/regret/remember/seem/start
-
+ object + infinitive: help/let/make
-+
object + infinitive with to : persuade/allow/encourage/help/ask/convince/expect/force/pay/teach
-
+ infinitive: would/can/could/had better/might/should/will/would rather
-
verbs of the senses (see, notice…): object + ing or object + infinitive (He
noticed me playing/I say him get into the car)
§ Reflexive pronouns
§ Ways of comparing:
formal and informal
-formal:
ü a big difference:
decidedly/a good deal/significantly/distinctly/far
ü
a small difference: somewhat/barely (any)/ marginally
-informal:
ü a big difference: way,
loads/miles/not half as…as/not anywhere near as…as
ü
a small difference: a tiny bit, much the same, pretty much
the same, more or less the same.
(The paperwork is considerably more/less complicated than I thought it
would be/To me, interviews are nowhere near as scary as exams/However, it´s
twice/three times/four times as hard in the winter, when the weather is bad/
The bigger the job, the greater the profit/ The more you work, the more you
earn/ Men are just as helpful if you do interview them)
§ Adverbs. Position
§ Conditionals:
- real conditionals:
ü zero conditionals
(if-sentences): If/when you boil water, it turns into steam/ If/when you choose
four correct numbers, you win €500/If you want more chance of winning in the
lottery, buy more tickets.
ü first conditional
(possible or likely future result): if/supposing that/as long as/assuming
that/unless/if + should.
Will
or might.
(If you
get any more points for speeding you´ll be banned from driving/Supposing you
don´t get the job, what will you do then?/provided that you take the medicine
as instructed, you should be fine/if you will eat so much chocolate, of course
you´ll feel sick!/if you´ll wait here for a moment, I´ll go and see)
-
unreal conditionals:
ü
second conditional: unlikely or imaginary situations in
the present or future. If you lost your
licence, you´d probably lose your job.
Would and could for ability or possibility (If I won the lottery, I could go travelling)
ü
-third conditional: imaginary situation in the past. If
you hadn´t gone through that red light, the police wouldn´t have stopped you.
Could/might=would perhaps
More formal: Had I
Known it was your birthday, I would have baked you a cake
ü
Mixed conditionals: if
the kidnapper hadn´t licked that envelope, he wouldn´t be in prison now
(mixed). If the kidnapper hadn´t licked that envelope, he wouldn´t have gone to
prison (third conditional)
§ Passive forms: when we are more
interested in what happens than in who or what does the action, often when we
don´t know who or what does the action
(The Silk Road was used by many different kinds of travellers/Travellers will
be supplied with food and lodging/Camels are still widely used as a form of
transport all over the Middle East/It has been decided that no further action
will be taken)
§ Impersonal report
structures:
-
with the passive: It is
claimed/accepted/agreed/alleged/believed/considered/expected/felt/known/predicted/said/suggested/thought/understood
that even your financial records can be accessed. CCTV cameras are
known/believed/considered/found/said/thought to operate in more and more
buildings.
There are now estimated/alleged/believed/claimed/(expected/found/rumoured/said/thought
to be more mobile phones than people in many countries.
-with
seem and appear: It seems/appears that
they will soon become the norm. There are also appear to be many hospitals
using them. The government appears to be obsessed with the idea of watching
people.
§ Wish, if only…
If only I knew someone who could help/ I wish Tom was-were
here/ I wish it wasn´t-weren´t raining/If only I had known you were coming/I
wish I could live here/I wish more young people would vote. In only Nancy would
get her hair cut/I wish I wasn´t going to the dentist in the future.
§ Past verb forms with
present or future meanings:
- (sentences not
referring to past time, but tell us what the speaker would like to happen)
It´s time we all accepted the fact that everyone can make
a difference/I´d sooner someone else was doing one of the jobs/I´d prefer it if
a lot more people got directly involved.
- to suggest something
is urgent: It´s high time/about time we
realized we can´t keep using up the earth´s resources like this.
-preference: I´d rather you´d told me before/We would
have preferred it if you had warned us at the time.
§ Simple versus
continuous: activity and state verbs.
§ A/an/the or no
article
§ A/an versus one; few,
a few, quiet a few
§ Subject/verb
agreement:
when a singular verb has a plural subject, or the other way round.
§ Modal verbs:
-
Can/could/may/must/have to/ought/should/would/wont/will.
-
semi-modals: be allowed to/manage/be able to/needn´t/don´t need to/didn´t need
to/needn´t have done
§ Modal verbs: level of
certainty about the past, present and future
§ Unreal past time: It´s time
we left/I´d rather you didn´t smoke/He walked in as if he owned the place/She
explained that he was an architect/I was wondering whether you felt like going
out tonight/ What did you have in mind?
§ Plurals and numbers
