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Adjectives
Comparative
Order
Possessive
Superlative
Used to
Common Adjectives
Personality Adjectives
Adverbials
Adverbs
Degree
Duration
Frequency
Manner
Place
Probability
Time
Comparative
Superlative
Articles
Case
Objective/Accusative
Possessive/Genetive
Subjective/Nominative
Clauses
Conditionals
Type I
Type II
Type III
Zero
Conjunctions
Coordinating Conjunctions
Subordinating Conjunctions
Correlatives
Determiners
Some vs Any
Nouns
Abstract Nouns
Collective Nouns
Common Nouns
Compound Nouns
Concrete Nouns
Countable/Uncountable Nouns
Gerunds
Plural Nouns
Predicate Nouns
Proper Nouns
Participles
Past Participle
Perfect Participle
Present Participle
Prepositions
Prepositions of Movement
Prepositions of Place
Prepositions of Time
Pronouns
Indefinite Pronouns
Personal Pronouns
Possessive Pronouns
Reflexive Pronouns
Questions
Closed Questions
Open (Wh ..) Questions
Tag Questions
Reported Speech
Tenses
Simple
Past
Present
Simple Present as Future
Continuous
Past
Present
Present Continuous as Future
Perfect
Future
Verbs
Action Verbs
Auxiliary Verbs
Finite / Non-finite Verbs
Irregular Verbs
Modal Verbs
Mood
Phrasal Verbs
Regular Verbs
Conjugation and Contraction
To be
To do
To have
Do or make
Used to
List of Irregular Verbs
Voice
Active Voice
Passive Voice
.
Adjectives
For example:-
The grey dog barked. (The adjective grey describes the noun "dog".)
The good news is that the form of an adjective does not change. It does not matter if the noun being
modified is male or female, singular or plural, subject or object.
Some adjectives give us factual information about the noun - age, size colour etc (fact adjectives -
can't be argued with). Some adjectives show what somebody thinks about something or somebody -
nice, horrid, beautiful etc (opinion adjectives - not everyone may agree).
If you are asked questions with which, whose, what kind, or how many, you need an adjective to be
able to answer.
!Note - The articles a, an, and the and the possessives my, our, your, and their are also
adjectives.
Opinion
Adjectives can be used to give your opinion about something.
good, pretty, right, wrong, funny, light, happy, sad, full, soft, hard etc.
For example:
Size
For example:
Age
For example:
Shape
Adjectives can be used to describe shape.
For example:
Colour
For example:
Origin
For example:-
Material
For example:
• "She went for a long walk." or "She went for lots of long walks."
Temperature
For example:
Time
late, early, bed, nap, dinner, lunch, day, morning, night, etc.
For example:
• "She had an early start."
Purpose
Adjectives can be used to describe purpose. (These adjectives often end with "-ing".)
For example:
• "She gave them a sleeping bag." or "She gave them sleeping bags."
!Note - In each case the adjective stays the same, whether it is describing a masculine, feminine,
singular or plural noun.
When using more than one adjective to modify a noun, the adjectives may be separated by a
conjunction (and) or by commas (,).
For example:
• "Her hair was long and blonde." or "She had long, blonde hair."
More examples:
!Note - Adjectives that go immediately before the noun are called attributive adjectives.
Adjectives can also be used after some verbs. They do not describe the verb, adverbs do that.
Adjectives after a verb describe the subject of the verb (usually a noun or pronoun). They are called
predicative adjectives.
For example:
• "David looks tired." The subject (in this case David) is being described as tired not the verb to
look.
There is also the adjective used to, which is explained here.
Adjectives
Used to something
The use of used to do is explained here. However, used to has another meaning, it can be used as an
adjective and we use it to talk about things that have become familiar, and are no longer strange or
new.
Adjective Order
Adjectives can be used to describe lots of things, from physical size, age, shape, colour, material, to
more abstract things like opinion, origin and purpose. We can use adjectives together to give a
detailed description of something. Adjectives that express opinions usually come before all others, but
it can sometimes depend on what exactly you want to emphasise.
For example:
When we group adjectives together there is a general rule for the position of each type adjective, these
are:-
This is just a guide as you wouldn't normally see so many adjectives in one description.
For example:
• "She had a big, ugly, old, baggy, blue, cotton, British, knitting bag." Is grammatically correct
but a bit too long-winded.
* You might swap opinion and fact adjectives depending on what you wish to emphasise:-
For example:
• "She had a long, ugly nose." emphasising the length of her nose.
• "He was a silly, little man." emphasising that the man was silly.
(A list of English adjectives with dictionary look up - double click on any word for its definition and
pronunciation)
Appearance | Condition | Feeling | Shape | Size | Sound | Speed | Taste | Time | Touch
Appearance Condition
adorable alive
alert brainy
average broken
beautiful busy
blonde careful
bloody cautious
blushing clever
bright crazy
clean damaged
clear dead
cloudy difficult
colourful easy
concerned fake
crowded false
curious famous
cute forward
dark fragile
dirty guilty
drab helpful
distinct helpless
dull important
elegant impossible
fancy infamous
filthy innocent
glamorous inquisitive
gleaming mad
graceful modern
grotesque open
homely outgoing
light outstanding
misty poor
motionless powerful
muddy puzzled
plain real
poised rich
quaint right
scary robust
shiny sane
smoggy scary
sparkling shy
spotless sleepy
stormy stupid
strange super
ugly tame
unsightly thick
unusual tired
wild
wrong
Touch
blunt
boiling
breakable
breezy
broken
bumpy
chilly
clean
cold
cool
crooked
cuddly
curly
damaged
damp
different
dirty
dry
dusty
filthy
flaky
fluffy
fuzzy
greasy
grubby
hard
icy
loose
plastic
prickly
ripe
rough
rubbery
scratchy
shaky
shaggy
sharp
silky
slimy
slippery
smooth
soft
solid
steady
sticky
tight
uneven
unusual
unripe
warm
weak
wet
wooden
wooly
For example:
For example:
Tall / Short
The man on the left is taller than the man on the right.
The man on the right is shorter than the man on the left.
Fast / Slow
Comparative adjectives are used to show what quality one thing has more or less than the other. They
normally come before any other adjectives.
For example:
Big / Small
Words of one syllable, with one vowel and one Double the consonant and add
big - bigger
consonant at the end. -er to the end of the word.
Words of two syllables or more, not ending in Place 'more' before the beautiful - more
'y'. adjective. beautiful
!Note - When comparing two things like this we put than between the adjective and the thing
being compared.
For example:-
Possessive Adjectives
Superlative Adjectives
The superlative is used to say what thing or person has the most of a particular quality within a group
or of its kind. Superlative adjectives normally come before any other adjectives.
Snowdon is not
the highest
mountain in
Britain, Ben
Nevis is.
Mount Snowdon is 3,559 Ben Nevis is 4,408 feet
feet high. high.
Words of one syllable ending in 'e'. Add -st to the end of the word. wide - widest
Words of one syllable, with one vowel and one Double the consonant and add
big - biggest
consonant at the end. -est to the end of the word.
Words of two syllables or more, not ending in Place 'the most' before the beautiful - the most
'y'. adjective. beautiful
The following adjectives are exceptions:
For example:
• "The Rio de la Plata river, on the southeast coastline of South America, is the widestriver in
the world."
• According to the List of World records Carol Yager (1960-1994), from Michigan,
is thefattest person ever to live, weighing 725 kg (1,600 lb).
• "Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world."
• "I think that Castle Combe is the prettiest village in England."
• "Arguably, Rome is the most beautiful city in the world."
Irregular Adjectives
Positive | Negative
Positive
a-e f-p q-z
Negative
a-e f-p q-z
Adverbials modify or tell us something about the sentence or the verb. It may be a single adverb, a
phrase, or a prepositional phrase, or a clause element.
For example:-
For example:-
Word groups that are also considered to be adverbials can also modify verbs: a prepositional phrase,
a noun phrase, a finite clause or a non-finite clause.
For example:-
For example:-
Adverbs can tell you where, when, how, why and to what extent something happens.
They are often formed from adjectives or nouns be adding the suffix -ly.
For example: Quick becomes quickly, sudden becomes suddenly, intelligent becomes intelligently, . . .
To form an adverb from adjectives ending in -y change the y to i before adding the -ly.
To form an adverb from adjectives ending in -e drop the -e before adding the -ly.
The bird sang The policeman Schumacher drives The woman spoke
Example
prettily. spoke seriously. fast. quietly.
Adverbs can modify adjectives
For example:-
Some adverbs can modify others. As with adjectives, the adverb precedes the one it is modifying.
For example:-
For example:-
Some adverbs of degree such as quite, rather, so, such ... can modify noun phrases.
For example:-
For example:-
For example:-
Luckily the car stopped in time. In this sentence luckily modifies the whole sentence, it shows that it
was good luck that the car stopped in time.
Adverbs of Degree
Adverbs of degree tell us the strength or intensity of something that happens. Many adverbs are
gradable, that is, we can intensify them. Basically they answer the sort of question that asks How
much ...? or How little...?
Adverbs of degree include; adequately, almost, entirely, extremely, greatly, highly, hugely, immensely,
moderately, partially, perfectly, practically, profoundly, strongly, totally, tremendously, very, virtually
etc.
For example:-
The man drove badly. = The man drove really badly. - In this sentence really shows us just how badly
he drove.
They enjoyed the film. = They enjoyed the film immensely. - In this sentence immenselyshows us how
much they enjoyed the film.
These intensifiers are not gradable though, you cannot say The man drove extremely very badly.
Adverbs of Duration
For example:
"They were occupied." = "They were briefly occupied." - In this sentence briefly shows us the duration.
"The phone was out of order." = "The phone was temporarily out of order." - In this
sentence temporarily shows us the duration.
Adverbs of Frequency
Adverbs of frequency tell us how often something is done. These include; always, constantly,
continually, frequently, infrequently, intermittently, normally, occasionally, often, periodically, rarely,
regularly, seldom, sometimes, . . .
For example:
When something happens regularly at a fixed time we can use the following as adverbs:-
For example:
Adverbs of Manner
Often these adverbs are formed by adding -ly to the end of an adjective.
Adjectives ending -l add -ly ; careful-carefully.
adjective adverb
anxious anxiously
bad badly
beautiful beautifully
capable capably
lucky luckily
quick quickly
weak weakly
For example:
The little girl ran quickly. In this sentence quickly modifies the verb ran (to run).
Adverbs of Place
These include; abroad, anywhere, here, outside, somewhere, there, underground, upstairs ...
For example:
Place Example
Upstairs The children were playing upstairs.
In London The people demonstrated in London.
Outside The children were playing outside.
English Grammar
Adverbs of Probability
If you imagine playing dice, what's the likelihood (probability) of rolling a six? It's possible, but it's not
certain. You'll certainly throw something between one and six, but your not likely to throw two sixes.
English Grammar
Adverbs of Time
Adverbs of time
Some adverbs tell us when something happened.
For example:-
Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away. - In this sentence yesterday shows us when.
Time Example
Saturday, Sunday ... I am going to the shops on Monday.
Today I've been to the shops today.
Yesterday I went yesterday.
Next week/month/year I am going next week.
Last week/month/year I went last year.
Finally I finally went.
Eventually I eventually went to the shops.
Already I've already been to the shops.
Soon I'm going to the shops soon.
Just I'm just going to the shops.
Still I'm still at the shops.
Adverbs of Comparison
When we compare what two things or people do we look at what makes one different from the other.
Adverbs of comparison are used to show what one thing does better or worse than the other.
For example:-
The rule for forming the comparative of an adverb is if it has the same form as an adjective add the
suffix -er to the end.
For example:-
For example:
When comparing two things you need to put than between the adverb and what is being compared.
For example:-
The superlative form of an adverb is used to say what thing or person does something to the greater
degree within a group or of its kind. Superlatives can be preceded by 'the'. In general the superlative
forms of adverbs are the same as for superlative forms of adjectives.
The rule for forming the superlative of an adverb is if it has the same form as an adjective add the
suffix -est to the end.
For example:-
For example:-
For example:
Greedy
Loud
Fast / Slow
Hedgehogs
walkslowly
Snails crawl
veryslowly.
Articles
First the good news:There are only three articles in English: a, an and the.
There are two types of articles indefinite 'a' and 'an' or definite 'the'. You also need to know when not
to use an article.
The bad news is that their proper use is complex, especially when you get into the advanced use of
English. Quite often you have to work it out by what sounds right, which can be frustrating for a
learner.
A and an are the indefinite articles. They refer to something not specifically known to the person you
are communicating with.
A and an are used before nouns that introduce something or someone you have not mentioned
before:-
Note! You use a when the noun you are referring to begins with a consonant (b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l,
m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y or z), for example, "a city", "a factory", and "a hotel".
You use an when the noun you are referring to begins with a vowel (a, e, i, o, u)
Pronunciation changes this rule. It's the sound that matters, not the spelling.
If the next word begins with a consonant sound when we say it, for example, "university"
then we use a. If the next word begins with a vowel sound when we say it, for example
"hour" then we use an.
We say "university" with a "y" sound at the beginning as though it were spelt "youniversity".
So, "a university" IS correct.
There are two ways to pronounce "the". One "thuh" and the other "thee". To learn when we use them
see the pronunciation files: How to pronounce "the".
You use the when you know that the listener knows or can work out what particular person/thing you
are talking about.
You should also use the when you have already mentioned the thing you are talking about.
For
"She's got two children; a girl and a boy. The girl's eight and the boy's fourteen."
example:
For
the North Pole, the equator
example:
We also use the before certain nouns when we know there is only one of a particular thing.
For
the rain, the sun, the wind, the world, the earth, the White House etc..
example:
However if you want to describe a particular instance of these you should use a/an.
The is also used to say that a particular person or thing being mentioned is the best, most famous, etc.
In this use, 'the' is usually given strong pronunciation:
"The books are expensive." = (Not all books are expensive, just the ones I'm talking about.)
For
example:
"Books are expensive." = (All books are expensive.)
No article
Inflation is rising.
People are worried about rising crime. (Note! People generally, so no article)
You do not use an article before uncountable nouns when talking about them generally.
You do not use an article before the names of countries except where they indicate multiple areas or
contain the words (state(s), kindom, republic, union). Kingdom, state, republic and union are nouns, so
they need an article.
For
Use the - the UK (United Kingdom), the USA (United States of America), theIrish Republic
example: