NOUN GENDER

NOUN GENDER

Nouns answer the questions "What is it?" and "Who is it?" 

They give names to things, people and qualities.

Examples

dog, bicycle, man, girl, beauty, truth, world.

NOUN GENDER

In general there is no distinction between masculine, feminine and neuter in English nouns. However, gender is sometimes shown by different forms or different words.

Examples

Different words:

Masculine	Feminine
man father uncle boy husband	woman mother aunt girl wife

Different forms:

Masculine

Feminine

actor prince hero waiter widower

actress princess heroine waitress widow Some nouns can be used for either a masculine or a feminine subject: Examples cousin teenager teacher doctor cook student parent friend relation colleague partner leader Mary is a doctor. She is a doctor Peter is a doctor. He is a doctor. Arthur is my cousin. He is my cousin. Jane is my cousin. She is my cousin. It is possible to make the distinction by adding the words 'male' or 'female'. a female student; a male cousin For professions, we can add the word 'woman' a woman doctor; a woman journalist. In some cases nouns describing things are given gender. I love my car. She (the car) is my greatest passion. France is popular with her (France's) neighbours at the moment. I travelled from England to New York on the Queen Elizabeth, she (the Queen Elizabeth) is a great ship.

ADVERBS OF DEGREE

ADVERBS OF DEGREE

Usage

Adverbs of degree tell us about the intensity or degree of an action, an adjective or another adverb.

Common adverbs of degree:

Almost, nearly, quite, just, too, enough, hardly, scarcely, completely, very, extremely.

Adverbs of degree are usually placed:

1. before the adjective or adverb they are modifying:
   e.g. The water was extremely cold.
2. before the main verb:
   e.g. He was just leaving. She has almost finished.

Examples

• She doesn't quite know what she'll do after university.
• They are completely exhausted from the trip.
• I am too tired to go out tonight.
• He hardly noticed what she was saying.

Enough, very, too

Enough as an adverb meaning 'to the necessary degree' goes after adjectives and adverbs.

Examples

• Is your coffee hot enough? (adjective)
• He didn't work hard enough. (adverb)

Too as an adverb meaning 'more than is necessary or useful' goes before adjectives and adverbs, e.g.

• This coffee is too hot. (adjective)
• He works too hard. (adverb)

Enough and too with adjectives can be followed by 'for someone/something'.

                                      Examples

• The dress was big enough for me.
• She's not experienced enough for this job.
• The coffee was too hot for me.
• The dress was too small for her.

We can also use 'to + infinitive' after enough and too with adjectives/adverb.

                                      Examples

• The coffee was too hot to drink.
• He didn't work hard enough to pass the exam.
• She's not old enough to get married.
• You're too young to have grandchildren!

Very goes before an adverb or adjective to make it stronger.

                                               Examples

• The girl was very beautiful. (adjective)
• He worked very quickly. (adverb)

If we want to make a negative form of an adjective or adverb, we can use a word of opposite meaning, or not very.

                                               Examples

• The girl was ugly OR The girl was not very beautiful
• He worked slowly OR He didn't work very quickly.

BE CAREFUL! There is a big difference between too and very.

• Very expresses a fact:
  He speaks very quickly.
• Too suggests there is a problem:
  He speaks too quickly (for me to understand).

Other adverbs like very

These common adverbs are used like very and not very, and are listed in order of strength, from positive to negative:

extremely, especially, particularly, pretty, rather, quite, fairly, rather, not especially, not particularly.

Note: rather can be positive or negative, depending on the adjective or adverb that follows:

Positive: The teacher was rather nice.

Negative: The film was rather disappointing.

                       Note on inversion with negative adverbs

Normally the subject goes before the verb:

SUBJECT	VERB
I She	left goes

However, some negative adverbs can cause an inversion - the order is reversed and the verb goes before the subject

                                                      Examples

• I have never seen such courage.  Never have I seen such courage.
• She rarely left the house.  Rarely did she leave the house.

Negative inversion is used in writing, not in speaking.

Other adverbs and adverbial expressions that can be used like this:

seldom, scarcely, hardly, not only .....

but also, no sooner .....

than, not until, under no circumstances.

Expressing purpose; reason/cause; result/effect

Expressing purpose; reason/cause; result/effect

Purpose:

Examples:

• We had a meeting today so as to discuss next year's programme.
• He did all he could for her not to worry.
• I moved to France so that I could improve my French.
• Everyone did their best in order to finish the work. 

Reason:

Examples:

• Since you don't believe me, I won't give evidence.
• Because of his lack of training he had difficulties finding a job.
• He gave him his jacket out of pity.
• On account of the weather we didn't go for a walk.
• Billy was punished for lying to his teacher.
• Owing to the snow,the planes couldn't take off.
• As you are a foreigner you can't express your opinions on the situation in the area.
• Seeing that you aren't interested I' ll do it by myself.

Result:

Examples:

• He missed the early train, as a result he was too late for the job interview.
• The result of his trial, therefore, could hardly have been other than a foregone conclusion.
• If he locked the door, then Kitty is trapped inside.

Articles: A, An, The

Articles "a", "an" and "the" in English: probably the biggest source of mistakes in speaking! Use this introductory lesson to test your knowledge and fluency in this important area of grammar. 

See Video

Countable and Uncountable nouns

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=rISkyf7b0h4

In this lesson we're going to look at Countable & Uncountable nouns.

Now this a really important and basic area of English grammar and in this lesson I'll show you 2 key rules to remember for your speaking and writing.

Before that, let's look at the basics.

Now you probably know already that countable nouns, like "apple", can be counted. For example one apple, two apples, three apples

- Whereas uncountable nouns, like milk, can't be counted. So we can't say for example: one, two or three "milks". If we want to count milk, we have to say one or two e.g. glasses or bottles of milk.

Here are some more examples.

"Apple" we've seen is countable. "Milk" we've seen is uncountable. How about "book"? Well we can say one, two or three "books" so it must be countable. It's the same with "insect". It's countable.

Now "bread" on the other hand is uncountable, and if we want to count it, we would say one or two "slices" or "loaves" of bread.

Similarly, "information" is uncountable. To count it, we would say "a piece" or "two pieces" of information. Finally, "money" is uncountable.

Now there are some words which can be both countable and uncountable. We'll look at those words later on in this lesson. 

Key Rule #1

For now, let's turn to Key Rule #1. And this rule concerns to use of "a" or "an" or the "Indefinite Article".

The rule is that "a" or "an" can only be used with countables and not with uncountables.

For example "an apple", "a book", "an insect". We can't say "a milk", "a bread", "an information" or "a money". That's Rule #1.

Key Rule #2.

Key Rule #2 - and this concerns the use of plurals. The rule is (again) that plurals can only be used with countables.

For example: "apples", "books", "insects". We can't say: "milks", "breads", "informations" or "moneys".

So those are the two rules. Let's summarise what we have so far.

Countables: can count. Uncountables: can't count.

Countables: can use "a" or "an". Uncountables can't use "a" or "an". And:

Countables (finally) can use plurals. Can't use plurals with uncountables.

Participle Adjectives / Participial adjectives

Participle Adjectives / Participial adjectives

A participle is a word that may function as a verb or as adjective. It can be used in verb tenses or as a modifier.

Some participles (like 'bored' or 'boring') can be used as adjectives. These are used in a slightly different way from normal adjectives. We usually use the past participle (ending in -ed) to talk about how someone feels:

1- I was really bored during the flight (NOT: I was really boring during the flight).

2- She's interested in history (NOT: She's really interesting in history).

We usually use the present participle (ending in -ing) to talk about the person, thing, or situation which has caused the feeling:

1- It was such a long, boring flight (so I was bored).

2- I read a really interesting book about history (so I was interested).

Be careful! 'I'm boring' is very different from 'I'm bored'! 'I'm boring' means I cause other people to be bored. This is not good! Here are some examples of when one person causes a feeling in another person:

1- I was talking to such a boring guy at the party. He talked about himself for an hour!

2- She's a really interesting woman. She's lived all over the world and speaks five languages.

These participle adjectives make their comparative by using 'more' (not -er) and their superlative by using 'most' (not -est):

1- I was more frightened of dogs than spiders when I was a child.

2- That book is more boring than this one.

3- I think Dr Smith's lesson was more interesting than Dr Brown's.

4- The 24 hours on the flight to Australia was the most bored I've ever been.

Uses of like in questions

The word like is used in different ways to ask questions. Such questions with like may have different meanings.

Like may be used to ask questions about:

Personality or the characteristics of something.

Preferences.

Physical appearance.

Hobbies.

To ask about someone's personality. 

NB: We don't use 'like' in the answer.

Example:

What's your friend like? → He's nice.

What's the house like? → It's huge.

What was the weather like? → It was sunny.

Like in the above examples is used as a preposition.

To ask about someone's physical appearance: 

NB: We don't use 'like' in the answer.

Examples:

What does he look like? → He is tall and has got black long hair.

What does she look like? → She is beautiful. She has brown eyes and short black hair.

Who do you look like? → I look just like my father.

Who does she look like? → She looks like her grandmother.

Like in the above questions is used as a preposition.

To ask about someone's hobbies: 

NB: You can use 'like' in the answer.

What does he like doing? → He likes singing.

What do you like doing? → I like reading.

Like in these examples is used as a verb.

Simple Pluralisation Guide

Plural Forms
Regular Plurals
The plural form of most nouns is created simply by adding the letter 's' to the end of the word .
For example:-

• bag - bags
• dog - dogs
• horse - horses
• minute - minutes

But there are some exceptions:-

Nouns that end in -ch, -x, -s, -sh add '-es' to the end of the word.

For example:-

• box - boxes
• boss - bosses
• bush - bushes
• church - churches
• gas - gases

Most nouns ending in -o preceded by a consonant also form their plurals by adding '-es' .

For example:-

• potato - potatoes
• tomato - tomatoes
• volcano - volcanoes

However many newly created words and words with a Spanish or Italian origin that end in -o just add an 's'.

For example:-

• photo - photos | piano - pianos | portico - porticos

Nouns that end in a single 'z', add '-zes' to the end of the word.

For example:-

• quiz - quizzes

Nouns ending in a consonant + y, drop the y and add '-ies'.
For example:-

• party - parties | lady - ladies

Most nouns ending in 'is', drop the 'is' and add '-es'
.
For example:-

• crisis - crises | hypothesis - hypotheses | oasis - oases

Most nouns ending in -f or -fe, drop the f and add 'ves'.
For example:-

• calf - calves | half - halves | wolf - wolves

But this isn't a hard and fast rule:-

• belief - beliefs (believes is a verb form)
• brief - briefs
• chef - chefs
• proof - proofs
• roof - roofs
• cafe - cafes
• safe - safes (saves is a verb form)

Irregular Plurals
There are also a lot of common nouns that have irregular plurals.
Most common nouns connected with human beings seem to be irregular.

For example:-

• child - children | person - people | man - men | woman - women

Other irregular common nouns are:-

foot - feet | goose - geese | mouse - mice | tooth - teeth

Some nouns have identical plural and singular forms.
<b>
For example:-

• aircraft - aircraft | fish - fish | headquarters - headquarters | sheep - sheep | species - species

In the plural form they still take a plural verb (are / were):-

There is an aircraft in the hangar.
There are some aircraft in the hangar.
There was a fish in the tank.
There were some fish in the tank.

Uncountable nouns on the other hand have no plural form and take a singular verb (is / was ...).</b>
<b>
For example:-

• advice
• information
• luggage
• news

There is a lot of luggage on the plane, but a piece of luggage has gone missing.

Some nouns (especially those associated with two things) exist only in the plural form and take a plural verb (are / were...).</b>
<b>
For example:-

• cattle
• scissors
• trousers
• tweezers
• congratulations
• pyjamas

Have you seen my scissors? They were on my desk.

Nouns that stem from older forms of English or are of foreign origin often have odd plurals.</b>

For example:-

• ox - oxen
• index - indices or indexes

In compound nouns the plural ending is usually added to the main noun.

For example:-

• son-in-law - sons-in-law
• passer-by - passers-by

Words ending in -us
Linguists can argue for hours about the plural ending of nouns ending in -us. Many of these words are loanwords from Latin and preserve their Latin plural form, replacing the -us suffix with -i, but of course not all words ending in -us have a Latin origin , and some Latin words ending in -us were not pluralized with -i. hence the argument.

For example:-
The English plural of virus is viruses, not viri.
Other Latin loanwords that take the regular English plural -es ending include campus - campuses | bonus - bonuses
Latin loanwords that take a -i plural ending include radius - radii | alumnus - alumni

If you want to bait a linguist ask them if the plural of crocus is crocuses or croci, or whether the plural of octopus is octopuses, octopi or octopodes.

Singular
Uncountable nouns are always singular.
The pronouns each, either, neither, another, and all compound words ending in one, body, or thing are always singular.

Simple Future Tense

We sometimes use the simple present form to discuss future events. Especially when talking about official events that happen at a set time such as timetables, meetings, itineraries, programmes etc
.
For example:

Q) "What time does the train leave?" A) "It leaves at 17.30."
Q) "What time does the meeting begin tomorrow?" A) "It begins at 8.00am."
Q) "What time do you arrive at the airport tomorrow?" A) "I arrive at 6.30pm."

Past Continuous Tense

Past Continuous Timeline


For example:
Q) "What were they doing yesterday?" A) "They were working all day."

It can be used to describe what someone was doing at a particular point in time.

For example:
Q) "What were you doing at 7.30 last night?" A) "I was watching television."

The past continuous can also be used to show that an activity frequently took place over a period of time.

Q) "What did you do on holiday?" A) "I went skiing a lot."

Often the past continuous is mixed with the past simple to show what was happening when something happened. The past continuous refers to the longer event and the simple past to the event that interrupted it.

For example:
"I was driving to work when I crashed my car."
or
As I was driving to work, I crashed my car."