WRITING: GRAMMAR THAT TEACHERS MIGHT CONSIDER WHEN ASSESSING OUR TESTS (IN MY HUMBLE OPINION)

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