General Grammar Exercises/Essential Grammar Terms 2

Essential grammar terms 2

Decide whether the following are true or false:



1 ) The word “leg” is singular.

Please write your answer here:[ANSWER]


2) The word “work” is uncountable. [ANSWER]


3) In the sentence “The sun
rises at seven in the morning”, “rises” is an intransitive verb. [ANSWER]


4) In the sentence “I kissed your wife”, the word “wife”
is the direct object. [ANSWER]


5) In the sentence “I must leave”, the word “must” is an
auxiliary verb. [ANSWER]



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Hints and clues:



1 ) The word “leg” is singular.
SINGULAR means.....
... only one.

PLURALMore than one. [ANSWER]

2) The word "work" is uncountable.
UNCOUNTABLE NOUNSNouns which cannot be counted: e.g. information, news, advice, bread, milk, etc… (Two informations is not possible) [ANSWER]

3) In the sentence "The sun rises at seven in the morning", "rises" is an intransitive verb. [ANSWER]

4) In the sentence “I kissed your wife”, the word “wife”is the direct object.
A TRANSITIVE VERB has a ……

DIRECT OBJECT
“I missed the train”. (Question: What did you miss? Answer: The train. This is the direct object.)

INTRANSITIVE VERB
Does not take a direct object : “The sun is shining.” ... but may take an ...

INDIRECT OBJECT(which usually has a preposition in front of it) “The sun is shining on my bald head.”
Here is an example where the indirect object doesn’t have a preposition in front of it: “I gave her a do-nut.” Here “Do-nut” is the direct object…. that’s what you gave… and “her” is the indirect object …. who you gave it to. See also: “I gave a do-nut to her”, which means the same thing. [ANSWER]

.
5) In the sentence “I must leave”, the word “must” is an auxilliary verb.
An auxilliary verb is often thought of as a "helper" verb, which tells us more about the "main" verb which follows it, either in terms of grammar or meaning. [ANSWER]

Check your answers, then read on.....................

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Answers:

.

1 ) The word “leg” is singular.
True. “Leg” is singular, “legs” is plural.

2) The word “work” is uncountable.

True (and false). “Work” is uncountable when it
means “what you do for a living”, as in “Work is said
to be important for good mental health”. Here it must
be used in the singular. But it is countable and can be
used in the plural when it means “a piece of work” as
in “the works of Shakespeare”.

3) In the sentence “The sun rises at seven in the morning”, “rises” is an intransitive verb.
True. The sun doesn’t “rise” anything, it just rises!
In the sentence “The sun burned my skin” the verb
“burns” is used transitively. It does burn something.
It burns your skin. “Burn” is a verb which can be both
transitive and intransitive. In the sentence “The fire
burned brightly”, it is used intransitively. Here it is
followed by an adjective, and an adjective cannot act
as an object.

4) In the sentence “I kissed your wife”, the word “wife”is the direct object.
True. Your wife is who (or “whom” to put it more
formally) I kissed.

5) In the sentence “I must leave”, the word “must” is an auxilliary verb.
True. Or false. It’s more properly called a modal verb, like
“should, may, could,would”, etc.
To simplify the
grammar, modal verbs generally have only two
forms, one with present and future meaning (“He
should go”) and one with past meaning (“He should
have gone”).
Auxilliary verbs can usually take a range of tenses. For example: "I have to leave; I will have to leave; I will have had to leave; I had had to leave" etc.
(Yes - these are all possible. But you're not likely to hear the last two in everyday speaking. Most English people speak English very badly anyway, so don't worry if yours is less than perfect!)

Photo Album

Happy iguana (a type of lizard) on Santa Fe, Galapagos islands. Charles Darwin studied the wildlife on these islands during his famous sea voyage which led to the development of his "Modern Theory of E........". Supply the rest of the missing word.

Answer:
Evolution.

.
Grammar note:


"....which led to the development of his 'Modern Theory of Evolution'" is an example of a defining relative clause. This actually defines the sea voyage and tells us which sea voyage we are talking about. Notice there is no comma before "which".


Here is an example of a non-defining relative clause:


This ship's previous voyage, which had ended in disaster for the captain, is described in Chapter 2.


This just gives us additional information. Notice the comma before "which", and the one after captain.

.

(Darwin believed we were descended from monkeys. Do you agree?)

Photo

Taken on the Galapagos islands by my Colleague Mary. Sadly, I've never been there.

Grammar Note

In the last sentence above, "sadly" is a sentence adverb. Most adverbs just describe verbs, but sentence adverbs describe the whole sentence. They are a very useful "linking" device. They don't link individual sentences, but the do connect the general meaning of a whole piece of writing.


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.
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Do you get it?




There are only two basic rules of good comedy:

The first is to always leave people wanting more......

General Grammar Exercises/Essential Grammar Terms 1

Essential Grammar Terms 1

To make use of many of the exercises on these pages you will need to know what the grammar terms below mean. Try the exercise for starters!
Mix and match. The word on the right is an example of the grammar term on the left. For example, connect the word "wonderful" on the right to "adjective" on the left. “Wonderful” is an example of an “adjective”.


Now do the others: (One quick way to do it is to copy and paste the left hand column into the answer space, then copy individual items from the right hand column and paste - or just write - them at the end of the dotted line which will appear. This way, you'll have a grammar term, and at the end of the line you'll have an example of that grammar term.)

gerund ................................................... full infinitive  ............................................. naked infinitive ........................................ tense ...................................................... past participle ........ .................................. preposition .............................................. concrete noun ......................................... abstract noun .. ........................................ proper noun ............................................ adverb .................................................... comparative adverb ................................. adjective ................................................. comparative adjective .............................. superlative adjective................................. conjunction (link) .. ................................... indefinite article ... .................................... definite article .......................................... pronoun .................................................. compound noun ....................................... voice   ....................................................... voice .......................................................

an up  Prince Charles grass so future simple more quickly than the more comfortable than candlestick go writing (the) oldest active imagination wonderful passive ridden to sing they differently

Please write your answers here:
[LARGEANSWER]




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Hints and Clues




gerund – can be used as:
a noun (“Swimming is good for you”), adjective (“This is drinking water”), after a preposition (“He crossed the road without looking”) or after certain verbs (“I enjoy dancing”). How does the gerund word usually end?

Put your (new?) answer here:
an/up/Prince Charles/grass/so/future simple/more quickly than/the/more comfortable than/candlestick/go/writing/the oldest/active/imagination/wonderful/passive/ridden/to sing/they/differently[ANSWER]





full infinitive – the full form of the verb with “to”. It has no “time”.

an/up/Prince Charles/grass/so/future simple/more quickly than/the/more comfortable than/candlestick/go/writing/the oldest/active/imagination/wonderful/passive/ridden/to sing/they/differently[ANSWER]





naked infinitive – the infinitive of the verb without "to”. It has no “time”.
an/up/Prince Charles/grass/so/future simple/more quickly than/the/more comfortable than/candlestick/go/writing/the oldest/active/imagination/wonderful/passive/ridden/to sing/they/differently[ANSWER]




tense – for example “present continuous”. Here the verb has a time context (in this case “happening now”). Any written sentence will have at least one verb in a proper tense (not just a gerund, infinitive, participle, etc).

an/up/Prince Charles/grass/so/future simple/more quickly than/the/more comfortable than/candlestick/go/writing/the oldest/active/imagination/wonderful/passive/ridden/to sing/they/differently[ANSWER]





past participle – for example “written”. The most common uses of this are as an adjective (“written work”), in perfect tenses (“I’ve written”), or in passive voice structures (“Many things have been written about him”).

an/up/Prince Charles/grass/so/future simple/more quickly than/the/more comfortable than/candlestick/go/writing/the oldest/active/imagination/wonderful/passive/ridden/to sing/they/differently[ANSWER]





preposition – for example “through”. There are many types of preposition such as those of position (“behind the door”), movement (“He walked into the bar”), time (“after dinner”), etc. What comes after them?
an/up/Prince Charles/grass/so/future simple/more quickly than/the/more comfortable than/candlestick/go/writing/the oldest/active/imagination/wonderful/passive/ridden/to sing/they/differently[ANSWER]





concrete noun – for example "table" or "library". Can you see them? Can you touch them? What does “concrete” mean?
an/up/Prince Charles/grass/so/future simple/more quickly than/the/more comfortable than/candlestick/go/writing/the oldest/active/imagination/wonderful/passive/ridden/to sing/they/differently[ANSWER]





abstract noun – for example, things of the mind (“belief, memory”), emotions (“disgust, fear”), qualities (“beauty, courage”).

an/up/Prince Charles/grass/so/future simple/more quickly than/the/more comfortable than/candlestick/go/writing/the oldest/active/imagination/wonderful/passive/ridden/to sing/they/differently[ANSWER]





proper noun – for example "Tokyo" or "Muhammad Ali". What sort of things are they? What do you notice about the first letter?

an/up/Prince Charles/grass/so/future simple/more quickly than/the/more comfortable than/candlestick/go/writing/the oldest/active/imagination/wonderful/passive/ridden/to sing/they/differently[ANSWER]





adverb – usually describe verbs (“He eats fast”), adjectives (“a happily married man”), or whole sentences (“Sadly, I won’t be able to help you”). How does the adverb word usually end?

an/up/Prince Charles/grass/so/future simple/more quickly than/the/more comfortable than/candlestick/go/writing/the oldest/active/imagination/wonderful/passive/ridden/to sing/they/differently[ANSWER]





comparative adverb form – using an adverb to compare how things behave.

an/up/Prince Charles/grass/so/future simple/more quickly than/the/more comfortable than/candlestick/go/writing/the oldest/active/imagination/wonderful/passive/ridden/to sing/they/differently[ANSWER]





adjective – word which tells us more about a noun (“black hair”). It usually comes before a noun, but can stand alone (“His hair is black”).
an/up/Prince Charles/grass/so/future simple/more quickly than/the/more comfortable than/candlestick/go/writing/the oldest/active/imagination/wonderful/passive/ridden/to sing/they/differently[ANSWER]




comparative adjective – compares two nouns.

an/up/Prince Charles/grass/so/future simple/more quickly than/the/more comfortable than/candlestick/go/writing/the oldest/active/imagination/wonderful/passive/ridden/to sing/they/differently[ANSWER]





superlative adjective form – compares more than two nouns.

an/up/Prince Charles/grass/so/future simple/more quickly than/the/more comfortable than/candlestick/go/writing/the oldest/active/imagination/wonderful/passive/ridden/to sing/they/differently[ANSWER]





conjunction (link) – this connects sentences or parts of a sentence, for example “but”.

an/up/Prince Charles/grass/so/future simple/more quickly than/the/more comfortable than/candlestick/go/writing/the oldest/active/imagination/wonderful/passive/ridden/to sing/they/differently[ANSWER]





indefinite article – put before a noun which maybe I don’t know about, or can't identify. Or it might just mean "one in number". When there is more than one we use “some” or "any".

an/up/Prince Charles/grass/so/future simple/more quickly than/the/more comfortable than/candlestick/go/writing/the oldest/active/imagination/wonderful/passive/ridden/to sing/they/differently[ANSWER]





definite article – put before a noun I do know about, or which has been introduced, or which is specific, etc. (Articles are complicated, and a separate exercise will follow later.)

an/up/Prince Charles/grass/so/future simple/more quickly than/the/more comfortable than/candlestick/go/writing/the oldest/active/imagination/wonderful/passive/ridden/to sing/they/differently[ANSWER]





naked infinitive – for example “I should go”, or “He made me stay”. How does it differ from the full infinitive?

an/up/Prince Charles/grass/so/future simple/more quickly than/the/more comfortable than/candlestick/go/writing/the oldest/active/imagination/wonderful/passive/ridden/to sing/they/differently[ANSWER]





pronoun – used in place of a noun, for example “The boys might hurt themselves”.
an/up/Prince Charles/grass/so/future simple/more quickly than/the/more comfortable than/candlestick/go/writing/the oldest/active/imagination/wonderful/passive/ridden/to sing/they/differently[ANSWER]





compound noun – made up of more than one noun.

an/up/Prince Charles/grass/so/future simple/more quickly than/the/more comfortable than/candlestick/go/writing/the oldest/active/imagination/wonderful/passive/ridden/to sing/they/differently[ANSWER]





voice – this is a particular use of the verb, showing perhaps that the object of the sentence is more important than the subject.

an/up/Prince Charles/grass/so/future simple/more quickly than/the/more comfortable than/candlestick/go/writing/the oldest/active/imagination/wonderful/passive/ridden/to sing/they/differently[ANSWER]




voice – as above
an/up/Prince Charles/grass/so/future simple/more quickly than/the/more comfortable than/candlestick/go/writing/the oldest/active/imagination/wonderful/passive/ridden/to sing/they/differently[ANSWER]
.

Make your final decisions, then check your answers further down the page..........

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Answers:

gerund – writing

infinitive – to sing

naked infinitive – go

tense – future simple

past participle – ridden

preposition – up

concrete noun – grass

abstract noun – imagination

proper noun – Prince Charles

adverb – differently

comparative adverb form - more quickly than

adjective – wonderful (although “writing “ could also be used as an adjective)

comparative adjective – more comfortable than

superlative adjective form - (the) oldest

conjunction (link) – so

indefinite article – an

definite article – the

pronoun – they

compound noun – candlestick (candle + stick)

voice - active (active voice)

voice - passive (passive voice)

Note: "active" and "passive" are called "voices". Don't worry about this - it's just a name. Simply remember that they are voices and not tenses.

Photo Album

An English country garden. Google "Nana Mouskouri, English Country Garden lyrics" to find out what three kinds of things you might find in one.

Answer:



Flowers, insects, songbirds. Oh, and a family of foxes lives at the bottom of ours.

Do you get it?

Learning a foreign language is a very difficult thing to do. I should know, because I learned Spanish the hard way. From a Frenchman.


Photo: Human pyramid in the Spanish town of Algamesi, Valencia in south-eastern Spain. In the town's "Fiesta de la Virgen de La Salud" this tradition ends a festival which can be seen on the first eight days of September.