Secondary School English Grammar Review

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering English verb tenses (Simple Present, Past Simple, Present Continuous, Past Continuous, Present Perfect), question words, prepositions of time, and quantifiers.

Simple Present

A verb tense used to express daily habits and facts; formed with the base verb for "I / We / You / They" and "verb + s/es" for third-person singular subjects ("He / She / It").

Signal Words for Simple Present

Time markers used with the simple present tense, including "every day", "every week", "every month", "every year", "always", "sometimes", "often", "never", and "currently".

-es Suffix Rule (Simple Present)

The spelling rule stating that "-es" is added to a verb with a third-person singular subject when the verb ends in "o", "sh", "ch", "x", "s", or "z" (e.g., "go" becomes "goes", "watch" becomes "watches").

Do / Does (Auxiliary Verbs)

Helping verbs used to form negatives and questions in the simple present ("do / do not" for "I / We / You / They" and "does / does not" for "He / She / It"), after which the main verb reverts to its base form without "-s".

Past Simple

A verb tense used for an action that started and ended in the past, often marked by time indicators such as "yesterday" and "last".

Regular Verbs (Past Simple)

Verbs that form their past simple tense by adding the suffix "-ed" to the base form (e.g., "play" becomes "played", "work" becomes "worked").

Irregular Verbs (Past Simple)

Verbs that change their spelling completely in the past simple instead of accepting "-ed" (e.g., "go" becomes "went", "wake" becomes "woke", "see" becomes "saw", "sleep" becomes "slept").

Past Simple Negative and Question Form

Structures formed using the auxiliary "did" followed by the base verb ("Subject + did not + verb" or "Did + subject + verb?").

Present Continuous

A verb tense used to describe an action occurring right now at the moment of speaking; formed using "am / is / are + verb + -ing".

Signal Words for Present Continuous

Key indicator words including "now", "look!", "immediately", "while", and "when".

Past Continuous

A verb tense used for an ongoing action in the past that was typically interrupted by another event; formed using "was / were + verb + -ing".

Interrupted Past Action Rule

The rule where the longer continuous background action takes the past continuous tense ("was/were + verb + -ing") and the short interrupting action takes the past simple tense (e.g., "fell").

Signal Words for Past Continuous

Connecting words used to indicate simultaneous or interrupted past actions, specifically "while", "when", and "as".

Present Perfect

A verb tense formed using "has / have + verb PP (Past Participle)", paired with markers such as "already", "yet", "since", "for", and "three times".

Past Participle (PP)

The third principal form of a verb used in perfect tenses (e.g., "go -> went -> gone", "do -> did -> done").

Since

A time preposition used to indicate the specific starting point of an action (e.g., "since 1994").

For

A time preposition used to denote the duration or total length of time an action has lasted (e.g., "for three years").

What

A question word used to ask about a thing or object.

Where

A question word used to ask about a place or location.

When

A question word used to ask about time.

Who

A question word used to ask about a person or human subject.

Whose

A question word used to inquire about ownership or possession.

Which

A question word used to ask about non-human things, items, or specific choices.

In (Preposition of Time)

Preposition used with periods of time such as parts of the day ("morning"), seasons ("Summer"), and months ("January").

At (Preposition of Time)

Preposition used with specific clock times (e.g., "at 5:00", "at 8:30") and expressions like "night".

On (Preposition of Time)

Preposition used with specific days, dates, and special occasions (e.g., "on Monday", "Fridays", "my birthday", "New Year's Day", "weekend").

Much vs. Many

"Much" is used with uncountable nouns (such as meat, fish, or water), whereas "many" is used with countable nouns.