Comprehensive Reference Guide to English Grammar

Present and Past Tenses

• Present Continuous (am/is/are + -ing) Fundamentals:
  • Used for actions happening at or around the exact moment of speaking; the activity is in progress and not complete.
  • Form: Subject + am/is/are + present participle (-ing). Contractions include I'm, he's, she's, it's, we're, you're, they're.
  • Example: Sarah is in her car on her way to work. She’s driving to work. This means she is driving now, at the time of speaking.

• Present Continuous for Extended Actions Around the Present:

  • Used when the action is not necessarily occurring at the physical second of speaking, but the speaker is in the middle of completing it.
  • Example: Steve is talking to a friend on the telephone and says, "I’m reading a really good book at the moment. It’s about a man who…" Steve is not reading the book while on the phone; he has started reading it, has not finished it, and is in the middle of reading it.
  • Example: Kate wants to work in Italy, so she’s learning Italian. (She may not be studying at the specific time of speaking).
  • Example: Some friends of mine are building their own house. They hope to finish it next summer.
  • Used with periods around the present such as today, this week, this year:
  • "You’re working hard today." (not You work hard today).
  • The company I work for isn’t doing so well this year.

• Present Continuous for Ongoing Changes and Trends:

  • Applied to transitions, processes, and shifts that have begun to develop.
  • Frequently co-occurs with verbs of change: getting, becoming, changing, improving, starting, beginning, increasing, rising, falling, growing.
  • Examples:
  • Is your English getting better? (not Does your English get better)
  • The population of the world is increasing very fast. (not increases)
  • At first I didn’t like my job, but I’m starting to enjoy it now. (not I start)

• Present Simple (I do) Fundamentals:

  • Used to state general truths, natural laws, permanent realities, and actions that occur repeatedly or all the time.
  • Form: Base infinitive for I/we/you/they; suffix -s or -es for third-person singular he/she/it (work \rightarrow works, teach \rightarrow teaches, go \rightarrow goes, have \rightarrow has).
  • Examples:
  • Nurses look after patients in hospitals.
  • I usually go away at weekends.
  • The earth goes round the sun.
  • The cafe opens at 7.30 in the morning.
  • Example situation: Alex is a bus driver, but currently he is asleep in bed. He is not driving a bus at this moment, but he drives a bus. He is a bus driver.

• Question and Negative Formation in the Present Simple:

  • Uses auxiliary do / does + base infinitive:
  • Questions: Do (I/we/you/they) / Does (he/she/it) + infinitive.
  • Negatives: don’t / doesn’t + infinitive.
  • Examples:
  • I come from Canada. Where do you come from?
  • What does this word mean? (not What means this word?)
  • Rice doesn’t grow in cold climates.
  • When do functions as the lexical main verb, the auxiliary must still be used: "What do you do?" "I work in a shop."; He doesn’t do anything to help.
  • Frequency expressions take the simple present: I get up at 8 o’clock every morning; Julie doesn’t drink tea very often; Robert usually goes away two or three times a year.

• Performative Verbs in the Present Simple:

  • Actions accomplished in the exact act of uttering them take the present simple rather than the continuous.
  • I promise I won’t be late. (not I’m promising)
  • "What do you suggest I do?" "I suggest that you…"
  • Parallels: I apologise, I advise, I insist, I agree, I refuse.

• Direct Contrasts: Present Continuous vs. Present Simple:

  • Continuous (incomplete, temporary, happening now/around now) vs. Simple (general, permanent, repeated all the time):
  • The water is boiling. Be careful. (current state) vs. Water boils at $100^\circ\text{C}$. (general scientific law)
  • Listen to those people. What language are they speaking? vs. Excuse me, do you speak English?
  • Let’s go out. It isn’t raining now. vs. It doesn’t rain very much in summer.
  • I’m getting hungry. Let’s go and eat. vs. I always get hungry in the afternoon.
  • The population of the world is increasing very fast. vs. Every day the population of the world increases by about $200,000$ people.
  • I’m living with some friends until I find a place of my own. (temporary) vs. My parents live in London. They have lived there all their lives. (permanent)

• Semantic Contrast: I always do vs. I’m always doing:

  • I always do: Performed every time without exception (I always go to work by car).
  • I’m always doing: Done too often, more often than normal, or irritatingly frequent.
  • I’ve lost my keys again. I’m always losing them. (= I lose them too often).
  • Paul is never satisfied. He’s always complaining. (= he complains too much).
  • You’re always looking at your phone. Don’t you have anything else to do?

• Stative Verbs Precluded from Continuous Forms:

  • Certain verbs express states rather than actions and are not normally used in progressive tenses:
  • Emotion/Desire: like, love, hate, want, need, prefer, fancy.
  • Cognition/Perception: know, realise, understand, recognise, believe, suppose, remember, mean.
  • Possession/Relation: belong, fit, contain, consist, seem.
  • I’m hungry. I want something to eat. (not I’m wanting).
  • Do you understand what I mean?
  • Anna doesn’t seem very happy right now.

• Polysemous Verbs with Stative and Dynamic Usages:

  • think:
  • Meaning "believe" / "hold an opinion" \rightarrow Simple: I think Mary is Canadian, but I’m not sure. (not I’m thinking); What do you think of my idea?
  • Meaning "consider" / active cognitive reflection \rightarrow Continuous allowed: I’m thinking about what happened. I often think about it.; Nicky is thinking of giving up her job. (= considering it).
  • Sensory verbs (see, hear, smell, taste):
  • Standard sensory perception takes simple present (frequently with can): Do you see that man over there?; The room smells. Let’s open a window.; This soup doesn’t taste very good.
  • Appearance and internal feeling (look, feel):
  • Either simple or continuous can express current condition: You look well today or You’re looking well today; How do you feel now? or How are you feeling now?
  • Habitual conditions require the simple: I usually feel tired in the morning. (not I’m usually feeling).
  • Dynamic behavioral construction am/is/are being:
  • Indicates temporary, controllable behavior occurring right now.
  • I can’t understand why he’s being so selfish. He isn’t usually like that. (being selfish = behaving selfishly at this moment).
  • Contrast with inherent character: He never thinks about other people. He is very selfish. (general disposition).
  • Uncontrollable physical states cannot take being: Sam is ill (not is being ill); Are you tired? (not are you being tired).

• Past Simple (I did) Fundamentals:

  • Used for completed actions, events, or situations rooted entirely in the past.
  • Regular verbs append -ed: work \rightarrow worked, clean \rightarrow cleaned, invite \rightarrow invited, stop \rightarrow stopped, study \rightarrow studied.
  • Irregular verbs undergo internal stem changes and do not end in -ed: write \rightarrow wrote, see \rightarrow saw, go \rightarrow went, shut \rightarrow shut.
  • Historical biographical example: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ($1756$-$1791$) was an Austrian musician and composer. He started composing at the age of five and wrote more than $600$ pieces of music. He died at only $35$ years of age.
  • Interrogatives and negatives utilize did / didn’t + bare infinitive:
  • Did you enjoy the party? (not Did you enjoyed)
  • How many people did they invite to the wedding?
  • I didn’t buy anything because I didn’t have any money.
  • What did you do at the weekend? (auxiliary did + main verb do).
  • Past forms of be: was (I/he/she/it) and were (we/you/they). Negatives: wasn’t, weren’t. Inversion governs questions: Was the weather good?; They weren’t able to come.

• Past Continuous (I was doing) Fundamentals:

  • Structure: was/were + -ing.
  • Indicates being in the middle of an action at a precise past moment; the activity started before that timestamp and had not concluded.
  • Temporal benchmark: Karen and Joe played tennis from $10.00$ to $11.30$. At $10.30$, they were playing tennis (= in the middle of playing).
  • Examples:
  • This time last year I was living in Hong Kong.
  • What were you doing at 10 o’clock last night?
  • I waved to Helen, but she wasn’t looking.

• Interplay Between Past Continuous and Past Simple:

  • A continuous background action (was/were doing) interrupted by or framing a completed point-in-time event (did):
  • Matt phoned while we were having dinner.
  • It was raining when I got up.
  • I hurt my back while I was working in the garden.
  • Sequential actions where one event occurs after another require successive past simple verbs:
  • I was walking along the road when I saw Dan. So I stopped, and we talked for a while.
  • Contrastive chronological examples:
  • When Karen arrived, we were having dinner. (= dinner had started before her arrival).
  • When Karen arrived, we had dinner. (= Karen arrived first, then dinner took place).
  • Non-continuous verbs in the past take past simple only: We were good friends. We knew each other well. (not we were knowing); Chris wanted to go home (not was wanting).

Present Perfect, Past Perfect, and Habitual Past

• Present Perfect Simple (have/has + past participle):
  • Connects an event in the past to the present moment; the past action produces a clear result now.
  • Example: Tom cannot find his key. He has lost his key. Meaning: he lost it in the past and does not possess it now.

• Used to communicate new, breaking information: Ow! I’ve cut my finger; The road is closed. There’s been an accident; Police have arrested two men in connection with the robbery.

• Result-oriented present states: He told me his name, but I’ve forgotten it. (= I cannot remember it now); Sally is still here. She hasn’t gone out. (= she is present now).

• Movement distinction: been to vs. gone to:

  • James has gone to Italy. (= he is currently in Italy or on his journey there).

  • Amy has been to Italy. (= she traveled to Italy, completed the trip, and has returned).

  • Adverbials Used with Present Perfect Simple:

• just = a short time ago: "Are you hungry?" "No, I’ve just had lunch."

• already = earlier or sooner than expected: "Don’t forget to pay the bill." "I’ve already paid it."

• yet = until now (indicates the speaker expects an event; used exclusively in negative sentences and questions, usually at the end): Has it stopped raining yet?; I’ve written the email, but I haven’t sent it yet.

  • Life Experiences and Unfinished Time Periods:

• Used when evaluating a continuum extending from the past up to the present moment (e.g., a person's lifetime, recently, in the last few days, so far, since I arrived):

  • Have you ever eaten caviar?
  • We’ve never had a car.
  • Susan has read that book three times.
  • It’s the most boring movie I’ve ever seen.
  • Everything is going well. There haven’t been any problems so far.
  • It has rained every day since I arrived.

• Used with periods incomplete at the moment of speaking (today, this morning, this year):

  • I’ve drunk four cups of coffee today.
  • Have you had a holiday this year?

• Formula: It’s the first / second / third time something has happened:

  • Don is having a driving lesson. It’s the first time he has driven a car. (not drives).

  • Sarah has lost her passport again. This is the second time this has happened. (not happens).

  • Present Perfect Continuous (have/has been + -ing):

• Form: Subject + have/has been + present participle (-ing).

• Used for an activity that has recently stopped or just stopped, where tangible physical evidence exists now:

  • The ground is wet. It’s been raining.
  • Why are you out of breath? Have you been running?
  • Paul is very tired. He’s been working hard.

• Used with how long, for, and since for actions that started in the past and continue into the present:

  • It began raining two hours ago and it is still raining. It has been raining for two hours.
  • How long have you been learning English? (= you are still learning).
  • Ben is watching TV. He’s been watching TV all day.

• Expresses repeated continuous actions over a span: Silvia is a very good tennis player. She’s been playing since she was eight; Every morning they meet in the same cafe. They’ve been going there for years.

  • Comparison: Present Continuous vs. Present Perfect Continuous:

• Don’t disturb me now. I’m working. (action in progress right now) vs. I’ve been working hard. Now I’m going to have a break. (activity completed recently, leading to present condition).

• We need an umbrella. It’s raining. vs. The ground is wet. It’s been raining.

  • Present Perfect Continuous vs. Present Perfect Simple:

• Focus on Activity vs. Focus on Result:

  • Present Perfect Continuous: Focuses on the activity itself; whether it is completed is irrelevant. Kate’s clothes are covered in paint. She has been painting her bedroom.
  • Present Perfect Simple: Focuses on the completion and concrete result of the activity. The bedroom was green. Now it is yellow. She has painted her bedroom.

• Examples in contrast:

  • My hands are very dirty. I’ve been repairing my bike. vs. My bike is OK again now. I’ve repaired it.
  • Joe has been eating too much recently. He should eat less. vs. Somebody has eaten all the chocolates. The box is empty.

• Duration vs. Quantified Measure:

  • Continuous answers How long?: How long have you been reading that book?; Amy has been writing emails all morning.
  • Simple answers How much?, How many?, or How many times?: How many pages of that book have you read?; Amy has sent lots of emails this morning; They’ve played tennis three times this week.

• Stative restrictions: Stative verbs take simple present perfect (I’ve known about the problem for a long time, not I've been knowing). Exception: want and mean can be used in the continuous (I’ve been meaning to phone Anna).

  • Duration with How long, For, and Since:

• Contrasting Present Simple vs. Present Perfect:

  • Present: Paul is in hospital; They are married; Do they have a car?
  • Present Perfect: He has been in hospital since Monday (not is in hospital since Monday); They have been married for $20$ years (not are married for 20 years); How long have they had their car?

• Inquiries regarding duration typically employ the continuous: I’ve been learning English since January; How long have you been driving?

• Verbs of residence and work (live, work):

  • Either continuous or simple can be used with negligible distinction: Julia has been living in this house for a long time OR Julia has lived in this house for a long time.
  • When combined with always, use the simple form exclusively: I’ve always lived in the country. (not always been living).

• Negative duration: I haven’t seen Tom since Monday (= Monday was the last time I saw him); Sarah hasn’t phoned for ages.

• For vs. Since:

  • for + period/duration of time: for two hours, for $20$ minutes, for five days, for a long time, for six months, for $50$ years, for a week, for ages.
  • since + specific starting point: since $8$ o’clock, since Monday, since $12$ May, since April, since $2001$, since Christmas, since lunchtime, since we arrived, since I got up.
  • for can be omitted in affirmative clauses (They’ve been married ten years), but is mandatory in negative clauses (They haven’t had a holiday for ten years). In negative clauses, in can substitute for for: They haven’t had a holiday in ten years.
  • for is omitted before all-inclusive time words: I’ve lived here all my life (not for all my life).

• Relational constructions with since:

  • Inquiries: When did it start raining? (past simple) vs. How long has it been raining? (present perfect continuous).

  • Frame: It is / It has been + time period + since something happened:

    • It’s two years since I last saw Joe. or It’s been two years since I last saw Joe. (= I have not seen him for two years).
    • It’s ages since we went to the cinema. or It’s been ages since…
    • How long is it since Mrs Hill died? or How long has it been since Mrs Hill died?

  • Present Perfect vs. Past Simple:

• Present Perfect relates past actions to the present: Tom has lost his key (= he does not have it now).

• Past Simple isolates the event in historical time without current implication: Tom lost his key (= we do not know if he has it now; we only know he lost it previously).

• Finished vs. Unfinished Time:

  • Present Perfect (Unfinished period up to now): I’ve done a lot of work today; It hasn’t rained this week; Have you seen Anna this morning? (uttered during the morning); Jack has lived in Los Angeles for seven years (he lives there currently).
  • Past Simple (Finished past period): I did a lot of work yesterday; It didn’t rain last week; Did you see Anna this morning? (uttered during the afternoon/evening); Jack lived in New York for ten years (he now lives in Los Angeles; he no longer lives in New York).

• Conversational shift: A conversation often opens with the present perfect to introduce an item of news, but shifts to the past simple to discuss details (time, place, manner):

  • "Ow! I’ve burnt myself." "How did you do that?" "I picked up a hot dish."
  • "Look! Somebody has spilt something on the sofa." "Well, it wasn’t me. I didn’t do it."

• Non-recent, historical events take past simple exclusively: Mozart was a composer. He wrote more than $600$ pieces of music (not has written); Who invented the telephone? (not has invented).

  • Past Perfect Simple (had + past participle):

• Form: Subject + had ('d) + past participle.

• Represents an action completed before a specific reference point in the past (the "past of the past").

• Scenario: Paul left the party at $10.30$. Sarah arrived at $11.00$. When Sarah arrived, Paul was not there: He had gone home.

• Examples:

  • When we got home last night, we found that somebody had broken into the flat.
  • Karen didn’t come to the cinema with us. She’d already seen the movie.
  • The people sitting next to me on the plane were nervous. They hadn’t flown before.

• Contrasting Present Perfect and Past Perfect:

  • I’ve seen that woman before, but I can’t remember where. (present anchor) vs. I’d seen that woman before, but I couldn’t remember where. (past anchor).
  • We aren’t hungry. We’ve just had lunch. vs. We weren’t hungry. We’d just had lunch.

• Contrasting Past Simple and Past Perfect:

  • Was Tom there when you arrived? Yes, but he left soon afterwards. (arrival occurred before departure) vs. Was Tom there when you arrived? No, he’d already left. (departure occurred before arrival).

  • Past Perfect Continuous (had been + -ing):

• Form: Subject + had been + present participle (-ing).

• Represents an ongoing activity that was occurring prior to another past event or milestone.

• Scenario: Waking up yesterday morning, the sun was shining, but the ground was wet: It had been raining.

• Examples:

  • My hands were dirty because I’d been repairing my bike.
  • Tom was tired when he got home. He’d been working hard all day.
  • We’d been playing tennis for about half an hour when it started to rain heavily.

• Contrasts with Present Perfect Continuous and Past Continuous:

  • Present Perfect Continuous: I hope the bus comes soon. I’ve been waiting for $20$ minutes. (waiting before now).

  • Past Perfect Continuous: At last the bus came. I’d been waiting for $20$ minutes. (waiting before the past arrival of the bus).

  • Past Continuous: Katherine was lying on the sofa. She was tired because she’d been working hard. (was lying = action in progress at that moment; had been working = preceding activity causing fatigue).

  • Have and Have got:

• Expressing possession, relationships, illnesses, appointments:

  • have and have got are fully interchangeable in meaning in the present: They have a new car OR They’ve got a new car; I have a headache OR I’ve got a headache; Our house has a small garden OR Our house has got a small garden.
  • Continuous forms are not permitted for these meanings: We have / We’ve got a nice room in the hotel (not We’re having a nice room).
  • Past possession uses had (generally without got): Lisa had long hair when she was a child (not had got).
  • Interrogative/Negative options in the present:
    • Do you have any questions? OR Have you got any questions? (Formal/rare: Have you any questions?)
    • I don’t have a car. OR I haven’t got a car. (Formal/rare: I haven’t a car.)
  • Past questions/negatives use did/didn’t: Did you have a car when you lived in Paris?; I didn’t have my phone.

• Actions and experiences (idiomatic uses of have):

  • Expressions: have breakfast/dinner, have a bath/shower/swim, have a break/rest/party/holiday, have an accident/experience/dream, have a look, have a chat/conversation, have trouble/difficulty/fun/a good time, have a baby (= give birth).

  • have got is impossible in action/experience expressions: Sometimes I have a sandwich for lunch (not I’ve got).

  • Continuous forms are permitted for actions/experiences: We’re having a great time; He’s having a shower.

  • Questions and negatives require do/does/did: I don’t usually have a big breakfast; Did you have trouble finding a place?

  • Used to (do):

• Represents past habits, regular routines, or states that existed in the past but no longer exist today.

• Form: Subject + used to + bare infinitive.

• Examples:

  • Nicola used to travel a lot. She used to go away two or three times a year. (She does not do this any more).
  • This building is now a furniture shop. It used to be a cinema.
  • Lisa used to have very long hair when she was a child.

• Absence of a present form: used to is exclusively past. Present habits require the present simple: We used to live in a village, but now we live in a city (not we use to live).

• Interrogative and negative syntax: Did you use to eat a lot of sweets?; I didn’t use to like him (variant: used not to like).

• Contrasting used to do, was doing, and be used to doing:

  • used to do: Habitual discontinued past action (I used to watch TV a lot).
  • was doing: Action in progress at a specific past moment (I was watching TV when Rob called).
  • be used to doing: Accustomed to a circumstance; finding it normal, not strange (I am used to living alone).

Future Forms and Expressions

• Present Continuous (I am doing) for Future Arrangements:

  • Denotes actions already decided and practically arranged with other people or established by booking.
  • Examples:
  • What are you doing on Saturday evening? (not What do you do)
  • We’re meeting Katherine at the station at half past ten tomorrow.
  • I’m not working tomorrow, so we can go out.
  • Alex is getting married next month. (not will get)
  • Imminent actions with verbs of movement (go, come, leave): I’m tired. I’m going to bed now. Goodnight.; Tina, are you ready yet? Yes, I’m coming.

• Present Simple (I do) for Timetables and Schedules:

  • Used for objective timetables, scheduled programs, and public events:
  • My train leaves at 11.30.
  • What time does the film start tonight?
  • The meeting is at nine o'clock tomorrow.
  • Personal itineraries when fixed systematically like a timetable: I start my new job on Monday; What time do you finish work tomorrow?
  • Contrast: What time are you arriving? (personal plan) vs. What time does the train arrive? (scheduled public transit).

• Future Intentions and Inevitabilities: (be) going to:

  • I am going to do: Expresses an intention or decision reached prior to the moment of speaking (arrangement may or may not be finalized):
  • "Your shoes are dirty." "Yes, I know. I’m going to clean them." (decision made, no formal arrangement).
  • Sarah won the lottery. She’s going to buy a new car.
  • Predictions grounded in present sensory evidence: When current signs make the future outcome unmistakable:

* *The man isn’t looking where he is going. He is going to walk into the wall.*
* *Look at those black clouds! It’s going to rain.*
* *I feel terrible. I think I’m going to be sick.*

• Unfulfilled past intentions (was/were going to):

  • We were going to travel by train, but then we decided to drive instead.

  • I thought it was going to rain, but it didn’t.

  • Will and Shall (Volition, Decisions, Promises):

• I’ll (will): Employed when announcing a spontaneous decision made at the moment of speaking:

  • "Did you call Max?" "Oh no, I forgot. I’ll call him now." (not I call him now).
  • I’m a little hungry. I think I’ll have something to eat.
  • Negative refusal: won’t (will not): I won’t stay long; The car won’t start (personified mechanical refusal).

• Conversational uses of I’ll:

  • Offering: That bag looks heavy. I’ll help you with it.
  • Agreeing: Sure, I’ll give the book to Tom when I see him.
  • Promising: Thanks for lending me the money. I’ll pay you back on Friday; I won’t tell anyone, I promise.
  • Asking someone to do something: Will you please turn the music down?

• Shall: Used predominantly with I and we in interrogatives to ask for opinions, directions, or permissions:

  • Shall I open the window? (= Do you want me to open it?)

  • What shall we do this evening?

  • Contrast: Shall I shut the door? (offer/request for advice) vs. Will you shut the door? (direct request to listener).

  • Will for Predictions and Opinions:

• Represents what the speaker knows, projects, or anticipates will occur (not prior arrangements):

  • Kate has her driving test next week. Joe says: "She’ll pass easily."
  • Common co-occurring markers: probably, I’m sure, I think, I don’t think, I wonder:
    • I’ll probably be home late tonight.
    • Don’t worry about the exam. I’m sure you’ll pass.
    • I don’t think the exam will be very difficult.

• After I hope, standard usage prefers the present simple: I hope Kate passes the driving test (not will pass).

• Occasional epistemic present use of will: Don’t phone Amy now. She’ll be busy. (= deduction about her current state).

  • Contrasting Future Decisions: Will vs. Going to:

• "Gary has been trying to contact you." "Has he? OK, I’ll call him." (decision made upon hearing the news).

• "Gary has been trying to contact you." "Yes, I know. I’m going to call him." (decision made previously).

• In predictive contexts: We’re going to be late. The meeting starts in five minutes and it takes $15$ minutes to get there (present evidence) vs. Jane will be late. She’s always late (general knowledge/belief about Jane's habits).

  • Future Continuous (will be doing) and Future Perfect (will have done):

• Future Continuous (will be doing): In the middle of an action at a future timestamp:

  • This time next week I’ll be on holiday. I’ll be lying on the beach or swimming in the sea.
  • Don’t phone between 7 and 8. We’ll be eating.
  • Complete future actions and routines: The government will be making a statement about the crisis later today; The team’s star player is injured and won’t be playing on Saturday.

• Future Perfect (will have done): An action that will be completed before a designated future limit:

  • Sally always leaves for work at 8.30. She won’t be at home at 9 o'clock – she’ll have gone to work.

  • We’re late. The film will already have started by the time we get to the cinema.

  • Temporal comparison: Ted and Amy have been married for $24$ years (present perfect) \rightarrow Next year they will have been married for $25$ years (future perfect) \rightarrow When their son was born, they had been married for three years (past perfect).

  • Time and Condition Clauses Governing Future Reference:

• Subordinate clauses introduced by when, while, before, after, as soon as, until take present tenses, never will:

  • I’ll call you again later when I arrive. (not when I will arrive)
  • We’ll go out when it stops raining. (not when it will stop)
  • Wait here until I come back.

• Use of Present Perfect in subordinate clauses to denote completion before the main event:

  • Can I have the newspaper when you’ve finished with it?
  • When I’ve phoned Kate, we can go out. (Sequential: phone call finishes first, then leaving occurs).
  • If two events are simultaneous, simple present must be used: When I phone Kate, I’ll ask her about the party. (not when I’ve phoned).

• Conditional Clauses (if vs. when):

  • Future conditions introduced by if require the present: I’ll be angry if it happens again (not if it will happen).
  • if governs possibilities (uncertain events): If it is raining this evening, I won’t go out; If I go out, I’ll get some bread.
  • when governs certainties (inevitable events): When I go out, I’ll get some bread.

Modal Verbs and Related Expressions

• Ability and Possibility: Can, Could, and (Be) Able to:

  • can + bare infinitive indicates general ability, possibility, or permission in the present (We can see the lake from our hotel; Can you speak any foreign languages?). Negative is can’t (cannot).
  • (be) able to serves as an alternative for can, but can is more common. Because can has only present (can) and past (could) forms, (be) able to is mandatory for other tenses:
  • Present Perfect: I haven’t been able to sleep recently.
  • Infinitive / Modal Contexts: Tom might be able to come tomorrow; Applicants must be able to speak two foreign languages.
  • Past ability: could vs. was/were able to / managed to:
  • could denotes general, continuous past ability or co-occurs with perception verbs (see, hear, smell, taste, feel, remember, understand):
    • My grandfather could speak five languages.
    • We were totally free. We could do what we wanted.
    • I was sitting at the back and couldn’t hear very well.
  • Specific single situations require was/were able to or managed to (denoting success in a specific challenge; could cannot be used in affirmative specific cases):
    • The fire spread quickly, but everybody was able to escape. (not could escape).
    • I managed to find him in the end. (not could find).
    • Jack was an excellent tennis player. He could beat anybody (general ability) vs. Andy played well yesterday, but Jack managed to beat him (specific performance).
  • Negative ability in the past: couldn’t is valid in all contexts (general and specific):
    • My grandfather couldn’t swim.
    • I looked for Max everywhere, but I couldn’t find him.

• Speculation, Suggestions, and Counterfactuals: Could and Could have:

  • could for present/future suggestions and possibilities (less certain than can):
  • "What shall we do tonight?" "We could go to the cinema."
  • Unrealistic statements require could: I’m so tired, I could sleep for a week. (not can sleep).
  • Epistemic possibility: The story could be true, but I don’t think it is (not can be true).
  • could have (done) for past counterfactual possibilities (events possible, but which did not happen):
  • I was so tired, I could have slept for a week.
  • The situation was bad, but it could have been worse.
  • Why did you stay at a hotel? You could have stayed with me.
  • David was lucky. He could have hurt himself when he fell.
  • Negative hypothetical couldn’t:
  • Present: I couldn’t live in a big city. I’d hate it. (= it would be impossible for me).
  • Past: We had a really good holiday. It couldn’t have been better. (= impossible to be better).
  • Two distinct meanings of I couldn’t do: (1) Present incapacity: I couldn’t run ten kilometres now (I am not fit enough); (2) Past inability: I couldn’t run yesterday because I had hurt my leg.

• Deduction and Logical Necessity: Must and Can’t:

  • must denotes firm conviction that something is true based on evidence:
  • You’ve been travelling all day. You must be tired.
  • Louise must get very bored in her job. She does the same thing every day.
  • can’t denotes firm conviction that something is logically impossible:
  • You’ve just had lunch. You can’t be hungry already.
  • They haven’t lived here for very long. They can’t know many people.
  • Past deductions (must have done / can’t have done):
  • There’s nobody at home. They must have gone out.
  • I lost one of my gloves. I must have dropped it somewhere.
  • Sarah hasn’t contacted me. She can’t have got my message. (Alternative: couldn’t have got).
  • Max walked into a wall. He can’t have been looking where he was going.

• Possibility: May and Might:

  • Present and future epistemic possibility: may or might are largely interchangeable (It may be true OR It might be true; Take an umbrella. It might rain later; I may go to Ireland).
  • Orthographic distinction: may be (modal + verb, two words) vs. maybe (adverb meaning "perhaps", one word).
  • Past possibility (may have done / might have done):
  • She may have been asleep.
  • You might have left your phone at work.
  • He may not have been feeling well.
  • Distinct negative values: couldn’t have (impossibility) vs. might not have (possible negative outcome):
  • Sarah couldn’t have received my message. Otherwise she would have replied. (= impossible that she received it).
  • I suppose she might not have received it. (= perhaps she did not receive it; open possibility).
  • Unreal hypothetical conditions require might (not may): If they paid me better, I might work harder. (The condition is unreal).
  • Idiomatic phrase: might as well / may as well (do something because there is no better alternative or reason not to):
  • We’ll have to wait an hour for the next bus. We might as well walk.
  • Buses are so expensive these days, you might as well get a taxi.

• Obligation and Necessity: Have to and Must:

  • have to do: Indicates an external necessity, obligation, or established rule/fact (objective reality):
  • You can’t turn right here. You have to turn left.
  • I have to work from 8.30 to 5.30 every day.
  • Requires do/does/did in questions and negatives: What do I have to do to get a licence?; Karen doesn’t have to work Saturdays; Did you have to wait?
  • Combinations: I’ll have to, I’m going to have to, I might have to.
  • must: Used when expressing the speaker's personal opinion, urgent self-directed necessity, or recommendation:
  • I haven’t spoken to Sue for ages. I must phone her.
  • Mark is a really nice person. You must meet him.
  • Used in formal written notices and instructions: Applications for the job must be received by 18 May; Seat belts must be worn.
  • Past obligation requires had to (never must): I went to the meeting yesterday, but I had to leave early. (not I must).
  • Fundamental semantic divergence in negatives:
  • mustn’t = prohibition (do not do it; it is necessary that you refrain): You must keep this a secret. You mustn’t tell anyone.
  • don’t have to = absence of obligation (unnecessary, but optional): You don’t have to come with me. I can go alone.
  • Informal alternative: have got to = have to (I’ve got to work tomorrow).

• Absence of Obligation: Needn’t and Don’t need to:

  • Present absence of obligation: needn’t do (bare infinitive) OR don’t need to do (to + infinitive):
  • We have plenty of time. We needn’t hurry. OR We don’t need to hurry.
  • Contrastive past forms:
  • needn’t have (done): The action was performed, but it was in fact completely unnecessary: Paul and Sarah reserved a table at a restaurant, but it was almost empty. They needn’t have reserved a table.

* `didn’t need to (do)`: The action was not necessary at that time, regardless of whether it was performed or not: *He didn’t need to get up early, so he didn’t.* / *He didn’t need to get up early, but it was a beautiful morning, so he did.*

• Advisability: Should and Ought to:

  • should: Expresses recommendations, personal advice, or sensible courses of action (You look tired. You should go to bed). Less absolute than must or have to.
  • Often paired with I think / I don’t think: I don’t think you should work so hard.
  • Expectation of normality: Where’s Tina? She should be here by now; Helen has been studying hard, so she should pass the exam.
  • Past criticism and regrets (should have done / shouldn’t have done):
  • You missed a great party last night. You should have come. (= you did not come, but it was a good idea).
  • I’m feeling sick. I shouldn’t have eaten so much. (= I ate too much).
  • ought to: Exact functional equivalent of should, taking to + infinitive: Do you think I ought to apply for this job?; You ought to have come.

• Subjunctive Complementation and Should 2:

  • Used after verbs of demand, advice, and proposal: insist, demand, recommend, suggest, propose:
  • Subordinate clause options:
    • With should: I insisted that he should apologise.
    • Subjunctive (bare infinitive for all persons): I insisted that he apologise. (or What do you suggest we do?).
    • Normal indicative: I insisted that he apologised.
  • Structural error restriction: suggest cannot take an object + to-infinitive: I suggested that she buy a car (not I suggested her to buy). Can also take -ing: What do you suggest doing?
  • Impersonal constructions: It is essential/vital/important/necessary that somebody (should) do something.
  • Evaluative adjectives taking should: strange, odd, funny, typical, natural, interesting, surprised, surprising: It’s strange that he should be late.
  • Conditional contingency: If the situation should change, we will contact you. Can invert with deletion of if: Should the situation change, we will contact you.
  • Advice formula: I should … (= I would if I were in your position): "Shall I leave now?" "No, I should wait a bit."

• Imminent Risk and Past Time: Had Better and It’s Time:

  • had better ('d better + bare infinitive):
  • Advisable action where failure to comply leads to tangible negative consequences or danger: I have to meet Amy in ten minutes. I’d better go now or I’ll be late.
  • Negative is had better not: You’d better not go out tonight.
  • Differences from should: had better applies to a specific impending situation with potential peril; should applies broadly to general principles without inherent danger.
  • it’s time ... constructions:
  • Structure 1: It’s time (for somebody) to do: It’s time to go home.
  • Structure 2: It’s time somebody did something (past tense verb with present meaning):
    • Implies criticism or complaint that something is overdue: It’s late. It’s time we went home (not time we go); It’s time you did something about it; It’s about time he realised that he isn’t the most important person in the world.

• Imagined Scenarios and Past Routine: Would:

  • Expresses unreal or imaginary current/future situations: It would be nice to buy a new car, but we can’t afford it; I’d love to live by the sea.
  • Counterfactual past imagination: would have done: They helped us a lot. I don’t know what we would have done without their help.
  • Past form of will/won’t in indirect reported contexts: Tom said he’d call me on Sunday; The car wouldn’t start (= refused to start).
  • Past regular habits (synonymous with used to for repeated actions): When we were children, we lived by the sea. In summer, if the weather was fine, we would all get up early and go for a swim.

• Interpersonal Speech Acts: Requests, Offers, Permission, Invitations:

  • Requests: Can you wait a moment?; Could you wait a moment?; Do you think you could take me to the airport?
  • Asking for items: Can I have these postcards?; Could we have the menu?; Can I get these postcards?; May I have … ?
  • Asking to do things (permission): Can I speak to Steve?; Could I use your phone charger?; Do you think I could borrow your bike?; May I ask you a question? (formal); Do you mind if I … ?; Is it all right if I … ?
  • Offers and invitations: Can I help you?; Can I get you some coffee?; Would you like some coffee? (not Do you like); Would you like to eat with us tonight?; I’d like some information, please.

Conditionals and Hypothetical Meaning

• Real vs. Unreal Conditionals:

  • Open/Possible Present or Future (Type 1): if + present, main clause will + bare infinitive:
  • If we take the bus, it will be cheaper. (Taking the bus is an open, realistic possibility).
  • Hypothetical/Unreal Present or Future (Type 2): if + past, main clause would + bare infinitive:
  • If we took the bus, it would be cheaper, but the train is quicker. (The speaker has already decided to take the train; taking the bus is contrary to plan).
  • What would you do if you won a lot of money? (Winning is not realistically expected).
  • If there was an election tomorrow, who would you vote for?
  • would is precluded from the if-clause: If we went by bus, it would be cheaper (not If we would go).
  • Modals could and might in hypothetical results: If I won a lot of money, I might buy a house (= possible); If it stopped raining, we could go out (= able to).

• Hypothetical States and Wishes in the Present:

  • if I knew ...: Employs a past verb to signify an imaginary present reality: Sarah wants to phone Paul, but she doesn’t know his number. She says: "I’d phone him if I knew his number."
  • I wish I knew ...: Expresses present regret over an unfulfilled state (wishing reality were different):
  • I wish I knew Paul’s phone number. (= I do not know it, and I regret this).
  • I wish I didn’t have to work tomorrow. (= unfortunately, I have to work).
  • I wish there weren’t so many people.
  • Subjunctive were vs. was: After if and wish, were can replace was for singular subjects:
  • If I were you, I wouldn’t buy that coat. OR If I was you…
  • I’d go for a walk if it weren’t so cold.
  • I wish Anna were here. OR I wish Anna was here.
  • Polysemy of could: Can mean "would be able to" in the result clause or "was/were able to" in the conditional clause: She could get a better job if she could speak another language.

• Past Counterfactual Conditionals and Regrets:

  • Type 3 Conditionals (if + had done ... would have done):
  • Evaluates an unrealized historical event and its hypothetical past result:
  • Situation: Gary was in hospital, but Rachel did not know. Rachel says: "If I’d known you were in hospital, I would have gone to visit you."
  • I didn’t see you. If I’d seen you, I would have said hello.
  • They would have gone out if they hadn’t been so tired.
  • The view was wonderful. I would have taken some pictures if I’d had a camera with me.
  • would is barred from the conditional clause: If I had seen you (not If I would have seen you).
  • Past regrets with I wish had (done):
  • I wish I’d known that Gary was ill. (= I did not know, and I regret it).
  • I feel sick. I wish I hadn’t eaten so much.
  • Prohibited phrasing: wish … would have is incorrect (I wish it had been warmer, not I wish it would have been).
  • Modals in past counterfactual results: If the weather hadn’t been so bad, we would have gone out / we could have gone out / we might have gone out.

• Comprehensive Rules Governing Wish:

  • Formula 1: wish somebody something (wishing good fortune, greetings) takes a direct object + noun:
  • I wish you all the best in the future; He wished me luck.
  • Expressing desires for events to happen requires hope (not wish): I hope you feel better soon (not I wish you feel); I hope you enjoy your stay vs. I wish you a pleasant stay.
  • Formula 2: wish somebody would (do):
  • Expresses a complaint or desire for someone else to change their present behavior, act, or cease a repetitive action:
    • It’s been raining all day. Tanya says: "I wish it would stop raining."
    • The phone has been ringing for five minutes. I wish somebody would answer it.
    • I wish you wouldn’t keep interrupting me.
  • Constraint: Cannot use wish ... would to express how an existing static situation should be (use past simple instead): I wish Sarah were here now (not would be); I wish I had a car (not would have).

The Passive Voice

• Form and Communicative Function:

  • Active: The grammatical subject is the agent performing the action (My grandfather built this house in 1981).
  • Passive: The grammatical subject is the patient/recipient undergoing the action (This house was built in 1981).
  • Functions: Applied when the agent is unknown, irrelevant, or when focus is centered entirely on the receiver or outcome (A lot of money was stolen in the robbery; Is this room cleaned every day?).
  • Specifying the agent requires the preposition by: This house was built by my grandfather; Two hundred people are employed by the company.

• Tense Formations in the Passive Voice:

  • Present Simple: am/is/are + past participle (Many accidents are caused by careless driving; I’m not invited to parties very often).
  • Past Simple: was/were + past participle (This room was cleaned yesterday; We were woken up by a loud noise).
  • Present Continuous: am/is/are + being + past participle (The room is being cleaned at the moment; There’s somebody walking behind us. I think we are being followed).
  • Past Continuous: was/were + being + past participle (The room was being cleaned when I arrived).
  • Present Perfect: have/has + been + past participle (The room has been cleaned; The trip has been cancelled).
  • Past Perfect: had + been + past participle (The vegetables had been cooked too long).
  • Passive Infinitive: (to) be + past participle (Something must be done before it’s too late; A new supermarket is going to be built next year).
  • Passive Perfect Infinitive: (to) have been + past participle (The room should have been cleaned; The letter might have been sent to the wrong address).

• Ditransitive Verbs in the Passive:

  • Verbs possessing two objects (direct and indirect), such as give, ask, offer, pay, show, tell:
  • Active: My grandfather gave me this watch.
  • Passive Variant 1 (Personal subject, most common): I was given this watch (by my grandfather).
  • Passive Variant 2 (Inanimate subject): This watch was given to me (by my grandfather).
  • Examples: I’ve been offered the job; You will be given plenty of time; I was shown a copy; He’s paid a lot of money.

• Passive Gerunds, Birth Expressions, and the Get Passive:

  • Passive Gerund: being + past participle:
  • I don’t like being told what to do.
  • I remember being taken to the zoo when I was a child.
  • Steve hates being kept waiting.
  • We climbed over the wall without being seen.
  • Birth expressions: Born is exclusively past passive: I was born in Chicago (not I am born). Present tense is used only for general demographic birth rates: How many babies are born every day?
  • The Get Passive:
  • Used predominantly in informal spoken English for dynamic occurrences, unplanned incidents, or accidents: There was a fight, but nobody got hurt; I don’t get invited to many parties; Liz didn’t get offered the job.
  • Cannot be used for static conditions or general states: Jessica is liked by everybody (not gets liked); Very little was known about him (not got known).
  • Idiomatic non-passive reflexive uses of get: get married, get divorced, get dressed, get lost, get changed.

• Impersonal Passive Constructions:

  • Evaluative verbs (alleged, believed, considered, expected, known, reported, thought, understood):
  • Structural Pattern 1: It is said/believed/reported that ...
  • Structural Pattern 2: Subject + is said/believed/reported to + infinitive
  • Examples:
    • It is said that George is $108$ years old. OR George is said to be $108$ years old.
    • It is reported that two people were injured. OR Two people are reported to have been injured.
    • It is expected that the strike will end soon. OR The strike is expected to end soon.
    • It is alleged that he stole a car. OR He is alleged to have stolen a car.
    • There is said to be a secret tunnel between the two houses.
  • Semantic layers of supposed to:
  • Equivalent to said to: I want to see that film. It’s supposed to be good (= people say it is good); Fireworks are supposed to have been invented in China.
  • Expressing intended or arranged obligations (often contrasting with actual reality): The plan is supposed to be a secret, but everybody knows; You’re supposed to be on holiday; Our guests were supposed to come at 7.30, but they were late.
  • Prohibition: not supposed to = not permitted / not allowed: You’re not supposed to park your car here. It’s private parking only.

• Causative and Experiential Constructions: Have/Get something done:

  • Causative meaning: Arranging for a third party or professional service to execute a task:
  • Contrast: Lisa repaired the roof (= did it herself) vs. Lisa had the roof repaired (= arranged for a builder to do it).
  • Structural word order: Subject + have + Object + Past Participle (Lisa had the roof repaired yesterday; Did you have your hair cut?; Our neighbour is having a garage built).
  • Informal alternative: get something done (When are you going to get the roof repaired?).
  • Experiential/Adverse meaning: Something happens to a person or their property (not initiated by choice):
  • Paul and Karen had their bags stolen while they were travelling.
  • Gary had his nose broken in a fight.
  • Have you ever had your bike stolen?

Reported Speech and Question Formations

• Direct to Indirect Speech Mechanics (Tense Backshifting):

  • When reporting an utterance where the introductory reporting verb is in the past (said, told), the verbs of the original direct speech normally shift backwards in tense:
  • am/is \rightarrow was
  • are \rightarrow were
  • do/does \rightarrow did
  • have/has \rightarrow had
  • will \rightarrow would
  • can \rightarrow could
  • want/like/go \rightarrow wanted/liked/went
  • Past Simple (did/saw) \rightarrow Past Simple (did/saw) OR Past Perfect (had done / had seen).
  • Paradigmatic Transformations:
  • Direct: "I’ve lost my phone." \rightarrow Reported: Anna said that she had lost her phone.
  • Direct: "I want to buy a car." \rightarrow Reported: She said that she wanted to buy a car.
  • Direct: "I can’t come to the party." \rightarrow Reported: She said that she couldn’t come to the party.
  • Direct: "I’m going away and I’ll phone you." \rightarrow Reported: She said that she was going away and would phone me.
  • Conjunction that is syntactically optional (Paul said that he was feeling ill OR Paul said he was feeling ill).

• Retention of Present Tense vs. Mandatory Backshift:

  • Present tense is optionally preserved in reported speech if the situation remains true and unchanged now:
  • Direct: "My new job is boring." \rightarrow Reported: Paul said that his new job is boring. (His job is still boring now).
  • Direct: "I want to go to Canada next year." \rightarrow Reported: Helen told me that she wants to go to Canada next year.
  • Both Paul said his job is boring and Paul said his job was boring are grammatically valid if the situation has not changed.
  • Mandatory backshift to the past occurs if the situation has terminated or if there is a discrepancy with current facts:
  • Paul left the room suddenly. He said he had to go. (The requirement ended when he left).
  • Scenario: Rachel tells you, "Joe is in hospital." Later, you encounter Joe walking in the street. You say: "Joe, this is a surprise. Rachel said you were in hospital." (Backshift is mandatory because the statement conflicts with current reality).

• Reporting Verbs: Say vs. Tell and Imperative Reporting:

  • Syntax of tell: Requires an explicit personal indirect object without a preposition: Rachel told me that you were in hospital (not told to me); What did you tell the police?
  • Syntax of say: Does not take a direct personal indirect object: Rachel said that you were in hospital (not said me). If the person addressed is specified, the preposition to is mandatory: Anna said goodbye to me and left; What did you say to the police?
  • Reporting orders, requests, and advice via tell/ask somebody to do:
  • Direct: "Drink plenty of water," the doctor said to me. \rightarrow Reported: The doctor told me to drink plenty of water.
  • Direct: "Don’t work too hard," I said to Joe. \rightarrow Reported: I told Joe not to work too hard.
  • Direct: "Can you help me, please?" Jackie said. \rightarrow Reported: Jackie asked me to help her.
  • Prepositional reporting: Paul said not to worry about him (not Paul said me).

• Direct Question Syntax:

  • Standard inverted interrogative structure: auxiliary verb + subject + main verb (Will Tom be here?; Have you been working?; When was the house built?).
  • Present and Past Simple question auxiliaries do/does/did:
  • Do you live near here?; What time does the film start?; Did you sell your car?
  • Subject vs. Object Interrogatives:
  • Object question (Inversion and auxiliary required): Emma phoned somebody \rightarrow Who did Emma phone?
  • Subject question (who/what/which represents the grammatical subject; auxiliary do/does/did is omitted, statement word order is maintained):
    • Somebody phoned Emma \rightarrow Who phoned Emma? (not Who did phone)
    • Who wants something to eat? (not Who does want)
    • What happened to you last night? (not What did happen)
    • How many people came to the party?
    • Which bus goes to the centre?
  • Preposition stranding in questions: Prepositions appear at the end of the interrogative clause: Where are you from?; What was the weather like?; Who do you want to speak to?; Which job has Tina applied for? (Formal style fronting: To whom do you wish to speak?).
  • Negative Questions (isn’t it?, didn’t you?):
  • Express surprise: Didn’t you hear the doorbell? I rang it three times.
  • Seek agreement: Haven’t we met before? Yes, I think we have.
  • Polarity of answers: "Don’t you want to go?" "Yes." (= Yes, I want to go) / "No." (= No, I do not want to go).
  • Questions with Why: Why don’t we eat out tonight? (not Why we don’t eat); Why wasn’t Emma at work?

• Indirect, Embedded, and Reported Questions:

  • Embedded clauses: When a question is embedded within an introductory frame (Do you know …?, Can you tell me …?, I don’t know …, I wonder …), the clause ceases to be inverted and assumes standard declarative subject + verb order:
  • Where has Tom gone? \rightarrow Do you know where Tom has gone? (not has Tom gone)
  • What time is it? \rightarrow Do you know what time it is?
  • Where can I find Louise? \rightarrow Can you tell me where I can find Louise?
  • Deletion of dummy auxiliary do/does/did in embedded structures:
  • What time does the film start? \rightarrow Do you know what time the film starts? (not does the film start)
  • Why did she leave early? \rightarrow I wonder why she left early.
  • Polar questions require if or whether: Did anybody see you? \rightarrow I don’t know if anybody saw me OR … whether anybody saw me.
  • Reported questions apply both declarative word order and tense backshifting:
  • Direct: The police officer said, "Where are you going?" \rightarrow Reported: The police officer asked us where we were going.
  • Direct: Clare asked, "What time do the shops close?" \rightarrow Reported: Clare wanted to know what time the shops closed.
  • Interview sequence transformations:
    • "Are you willing to travel?" \rightarrow She asked if/whether I was willing to travel.
    • "Why did you apply for the job?" \rightarrow She asked why I had applied for the job.

• Auxiliary Verbs in Ellipsis, Agreement, and Question Tags:

  • Ellipsis: Auxiliary verbs avoid verbatim lexical repetition (Have you locked the door? Yes, I have; Gary wasn’t working, but Laura was; Does Simon live in London? He did, but he doesn’t any more).
  • Showing conversational engagement/surprise: "Lisa isn’t very well." "Isn’t she? What’s wrong?"; "It rained every day." "Did it?"
  • Additions with So (affirmative) and Neither / Nor (negative):
  • Subject-auxiliary inversion follows so and neither:
    • "I’m tired." "So am I." (not So I am).
    • "I never read newspapers." "Neither do I." OR "Nor do I." (Alternative: I don’t either).
    • Sarah can’t drive and neither can Mark.
  • Presumptive responses with so and not:
  • Affirmative: I think so, I suppose so, I expect so, I hope so, I guess so, I’m afraid so.
  • Negative patterns:
    • Form with negative auxiliary: I don’t think so, I don’t expect so.
    • Form with negative particle not: I hope not, I’m afraid not, I guess not, I suppose not (e.g., "Do you think it will rain?" "I hope not", not I don’t hope so).
  • Question Tags:
  • Positive statement \rightarrow negative tag: Kate will be here soon, won’t she?; There was a lot of traffic, wasn’t there?; Joe should pass, shouldn’t he?
  • Negative statement \rightarrow positive tag: Kate won’t be late, will she?; They don’t like us, do they?; You haven’t eaten yet, have you?
  • Intonation contours dictate meaning: falling pitch indicates expectation of mutual agreement (It’s a nice day, isn’t it?); rising pitch indicates a genuine request for information (You haven’t seen Kate, have you?).
  • Formulaic tags: Let’s ... takes shall we? (Let’s go for a walk, shall we?); Imperative prohibitions Don’t ... take will you? (Don’t be late, will you?); I’m ... takes aren’t I? (I’m right, aren’t I?).

Verb Complementation: -ing and Infinitive Patterns

• Verbs Followed Directly by Gerund (-ing):

  • Standard group: enjoy, mind, suggest, stop, finish, recommend, consider, admit, deny, avoid, risk, imagine, fancy.
  • Examples:
  • I enjoy reading. (not enjoy to read)
  • Would you mind closing the door?
  • Chris suggested going to the cinema.
  • Suddenly everybody stopped talking.
  • He tried to avoid answering my question.
  • Have you ever considered going to live in another country?
  • Negative gerund: not -ing (When I’m on holiday, I enjoy not having to get up early).
  • Phrasal verbs followed by -ing: give up (= stop), put off (= delay), go on / carry on (= continue), keep / keep on (= do repeatedly):
  • I’ve given up buying newspapers.
  • You shouldn’t put off telling him what happened.
  • Katherine wants to go on working.
  • You keep interrupting when I’m talking.
  • Structure verb + object + -ing: You can’t stop people doing what they want; I can’t imagine George riding a motorbike; Sorry to keep you waiting.
  • Perfect gerund: having done/stolen emphasizes completed status (They admitted having stolen the money), though the simple gerund is equally valid (They admitted stealing the money).
  • Complement clauses with that: Verbs like admit, deny, suggest, and recommend can alternatively take a finite that-clause (They denied that they had done anything wrong; Chris suggested that we go to the cinema).

• Verbs Followed Directly by Infinitive (to ...):

  • Standard group: offer, agree, refuse, decide, plan, arrange, hope, forget, manage, fail, promise, threaten, deserve, afford, learn, tend.
  • Examples:
  • We decided to take a taxi home.
  • Simon agreed to help him.
  • I waved to Karen, but failed to attract her attention.
  • I like Dan, but I think he tends to talk too much.
  • How old were you when you learnt to drive?
  • Negative infinitive: not to ... (We decided not to go out; I promised not to be late).
  • Syntax of dare: Permits the infinitive with or without to (I didn’t dare to tell him OR I didn’t dare tell him). However, negative dare not (daren’t) must take the bare infinitive without to (I daren’t tell him what happened).
  • Continuous and Perfect Infinitives after seem, appear, pretend, claim:
  • They seem to have plenty of money.
  • I pretended to be reading the newspaper. (= pretended that I was reading).
  • I seem to have lost my keys. (= it seems that I have lost them).
  • She claimed not to have seen me. (= claimed that she had not seen me).
  • Interrogative + Infinitive: Verbs like ask, know, decide, remember, forget, learn, explain, understand, wonder pair with what/how/where/whether + to ... (We asked how to get to the station; Have you decided where to go on holiday?; Can somebody show me how to use this camera?).

• Verb (+ Object) + to-Infinitive Structures:

  • Dual-pattern verbs: want, expect, ask, help, would like, would prefer can function with or without an intervening noun phrase:
  • Without object: We expected to be late; Would you like to go now?
  • With object: We expected Dan to be late; Would you like me to go now?; He doesn’t want anybody to know.
  • Prohibition: want that is ungrammatical (Do you want me to come with you?, not want that I come).
  • help: Accepts either the infinitive with to or bare infinitive: Can you help me to move this table? OR Can you help me move this table?
  • Verbs requiring an object before the infinitive: tell, advise, remind, warn, invite, encourage, persuade, get (= persuade/arrange), force, teach, allow, enable:
  • I wouldn’t advise you to stay there.
  • Can you remind me to call Sam tomorrow?
  • Joe warned me not to touch it.
  • I got somebody to help me.
  • Who taught you to drive?
  • Passive counterparts: I was warned not to touch it; Are we allowed to park here?
  • Causative verbs with bare infinitive: make and let:
  • Form: make/let + object + bare infinitive (without to):
    • I made him promise that he wouldn’t tell anybody.
    • Hot weather makes me feel tired.
    • Her parents wouldn’t let her go out alone.
    • Let me carry your bag for you.
  • Exception in the passive: While make takes a bare infinitive in active voice, its passive construction requires to + infinitive: We were made to wait for two hours (not made wait).

• Verbs with Aspectual and Meaning Shifts Between -ing and to ...:

  • remember:
  • remember doing: Memory follows the action; recalling an event that occurred previously (I clearly remember locking the door = I locked it, and now I have a memory of that action; He could remember driving along the road).
  • remember to do: Memory precedes the action; keeping a future task in mind so as to perform it (I remembered to lock the door = I remembered I had to lock it, and so I did; Remember to buy some bananas).
  • regret:
  • regret doing: Repenting or feeling sorrow regarding a completed past action (I now regret saying what I said; Do you regret not going to college?).
  • regret to say / to tell you / to inform you: Formal and immediate communication of bad news (I regret to say that we are unable to accept your offer).
  • go on:
  • go on doing: Continuing the identical activity without cessation (The president paused for a moment and then went on talking; We can’t go on living like this).
  • go on to do: Transitioning forward to introduce or perform a brand new topic or stage (After discussing the economy, the president went on to talk about foreign policy).
  • Verbs indifferent to meaning: begin, start, continue, intend, bother can take either form without shift (It started raining OR It started to rain; Don’t bother locking the door OR Don’t bother to lock). Note: Two continuous -ing forms are avoided phonologically (It’s starting to rain, not It’s starting raining).
  • try:
  • try to do: Make an effort, struggle, or attempt to achieve something difficult (I was very tired. I tried to keep my eyes open, but I couldn’t; I tried to move the table, but it was too heavy).
  • try doing: Undertake an action as an experiment or test to see if it solves a problem or yields results (The photocopier doesn’t seem to be working. Try pressing the green button; I tried moving the table to the other side to see if it looked better).
  • need:
  • need to do: Active necessity for the subject (I need to charge my phone; He needs to work harder).
  • something needs doing: Passive necessity; the entity needs to be acted upon (My phone needs charging = needs to be charged; The windows need cleaning; It needs thinking about carefully).
  • can’t help:
  • can’t help doing: Unable to prevent or stop oneself from doing something (I don’t like him, but I can’t help feeling sorry for him; She tried to be serious, but she couldn’t help laughing; I’m sorry I’m nervous; I can’t help it).

• Expressing Preferences: Like, Prefer, and Would rather:

  • like, love, hate:
  • Repeated habitual actions allow both: Do you like getting up early? OR Do you like to get up early?
  • An existing state/situation prefers -ing: Paul lives in Berlin now. He likes living there; I hated working in that office.
  • Subconscious/Pragmatic difference: I like doing implies direct enjoyment (I like cleaning the kitchen = I enjoy the process); I like to do implies an intellectual or pragmatic choice (It’s not my favourite job, but I like to clean the kitchen as often as possible = I choose to do it because it is wise).
  • enjoy and mind require -ing exclusively (I enjoy cleaning; I don’t mind cleaning).
  • Hypothetical preference: would like / would love / would hate / would prefer take to + infinitive (I’d like to go away; Would you prefer to eat now or later?). Would mind requires -ing (Would you mind closing the door?).
  • Past counterfactual desire: would like/love/hate/prefer to have done:
  • It’s a shame we didn’t see Anna. I would like to have seen her again.
  • Poor David! I would hate to have been in his position.
  • Syntactic frames for prefer:
  • General: prefer noun to noun (I prefer this coat to the other one).
  • General activity: prefer doing X to doing Y OR prefer doing X rather than doing Y (I prefer driving to travelling by train).
  • General infinitive: prefer to do X rather than (do) Y (I prefer to drive rather than travel by train).
  • Specific immediate situation: would prefer to do X rather than (do) Y (I’d prefer to stay at home tonight rather than go to the cinema).
  • Syntactic frames for would rather ('d rather + bare infinitive):
  • I’d rather drive. (not to drive).
  • Direct contrast: I’d rather stay at home tonight than go to the cinema.
  • Negative: I’d rather not go out tonight.
  • Subjunctive clause I’d rather somebody did something (past form expressing present desire):
    • "Who’s going to drive?" "I’d rather you drove." (not you drive).
    • I’d rather you didn’t tell anyone what I said. (= I prefer you not to tell).

• Prepositions Governing Gerunds and To as a Preposition:

  • Any preposition (in, for, about, at, with, of, without, instead of, in spite of) followed by a verb requires the -ing form:
  • Are you interested in working for us?
  • I’m not good at learning languages.
  • Thanks very much for inviting me.
  • How about meeting for lunch?
  • Before going out, I phoned Sarah (not Before to go out).
  • What did you do after leaving school?
  • You can improve your English by reading more.
  • We ran ten kilometres without stopping.
  • To as a Preposition vs. To as an Infinitive Marker:
  • To is often followed by the base infinitive (We decided to travel by train).
  • When to functions syntactically as a preposition (parallel to in, for, about), it must be followed by an -ing gerund:
    • I prefer driving to travelling by train. (not to travel).
    • Are you looking forward to going on holiday? (not to go).

• Habituation: Be used to vs. Get used to vs. Used to:

  • be used to something / doing something = accustomed to it; it is not strange, new, or difficult:

* Scenario: Lisa is American but lives in Britain. When she first drove in Britain, driving on the left was difficult because she was not used to it. After some time, she *got used to driving on the left*. Now, *she is used to driving on the left*.
* Form: `be/get used to + noun / -ing` (The word `to` is a preposition): *Lisa is used to driving on the left* (not *used to drive*); *I’m used to living alone* (not *used to live*).
* `get used to`: Denotes the ongoing developmental process of becoming accustomed (*I expect we’ll get used to the noise*).
* Contrast with past habitual `used to do`: *I used to drive to work every day, but these days I usually go by bike* (past habit abandoned) vs. *I’m used to driving on the left* (current acclimation).

• Specialized Expressions Taking -ing:

  • there’s no point in / it’s no use / it’s no good + -ing:
  • There’s no point in having a car if you never use it. (Contrast: What’s the point of having a car?).
  • It’s no use worrying about what happened.
  • It’s no good trying to persuade me.
  • it’s worth / not worth + -ing:
  • It’s a nice town. It’s worth spending a few days there.
  • Our flight was early, so it wasn’t worth going to bed.
  • It’s a great movie. It’s worth seeing.
  • There was nothing worth stealing.
  • Expressions of difficulty: have trouble / difficulty / a problem + -ing:
  • I had no trouble finding a place to stay. (not trouble to find).
  • Did you have a problem getting a visa?
  • People sometimes have difficulty reading my writing.
  • Expenditure expressions: spend/waste time/money + -ing; busy + -ing:
  • He spent hours trying to repair the clock.
  • I waste a lot of time doing nothing.
  • She was too busy doing other things.
  • Recreational physical activities: go + -ing:
  • go sailing, go swimming, go fishing, go riding, go hiking, go surfing, go scuba diving, go skiing, go jogging, go camping, go shopping.

• Infinitive of Purpose, For, and So that:

  • to + infinitive expresses purpose (why an individual acts or why something exists):
  • I called the restaurant to reserve a table.
  • We shouted to warn everybody of the danger.
  • The president has a team of bodyguards to protect him.
  • Noun + to-infinitive expressions: a place to park, something to eat, work to do, a chair to sit on, money to buy food, time to think.
  • for + noun vs. to + infinitive:
  • We stopped for petrol. vs. We stopped to get petrol.
  • I had to run for the bus. vs. I had to run to catch the bus.
  • Purpose structure: There weren’t any chairs for us to sit on.
  • Instrumental function of an object: for + -ing:
  • This brush is for washing the dishes. (general intended purpose of the tool).
  • Contrast with individual human motivation: I went into the kitchen to wash the dishes (not for washing).
  • Functional interrogative: What is this switch for? (= what is its purpose?); What did you do that for? (= why did you do that?).
  • so that + clause: Preferred over infinitives when introducing modal verbs (can, could, will, would) or when the subject of the purpose clause differs from the main subject:
  • She’s learning English so that she can study in Canada.
  • We moved to London so that we could see our friends more often.
  • I hurried so that I wouldn’t be late. (that can be dropped: I hurried so I wouldn’t be late).

• Adjective Complementation: Adjective + to ...:

  • Syntactic movement frame: It is [adj] to do [something] \rightarrow [Something] is [adj] to do:
  • It is hard to understand him \rightarrow He is hard to understand (not He is hard to understand him).
  • It was impossible to answer the exam questions \rightarrow The exam questions were impossible to answer (not to answer them).
  • Applied with: easy, hard, difficult, impossible, dangerous, safe, expensive, cheap, nice, good, interesting, exciting.
  • Attributive variation: This is a difficult question to answer (not to answer it).
  • Moral evaluation frame: It is [adj] of somebody to do something:
  • Applied with: nice, kind, generous, polite, honest, silly, stupid, careless, inconsiderate, unfair, typical.
  • It was nice of you to take me to the airport.
  • It’s silly of Ruth to give up her job.
  • Emotional reaction frame: subject + [adj] + to ...:
  • Applied with: glad, pleased, relieved, surprised, amazed, sad, disappointed, sorry.
  • I’m sorry to hear that your mother isn’t well.
  • Was Julia surprised to see you?
  • Ordinal and exclusory modifiers: the first, the second, the last, the next, the only + to ...:
  • The next train to arrive at platform 4 will be the 10.50.
  • Everybody was late except me. I was the only one to arrive on time.
  • Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon.
  • Probabilistic modal adjectives: bound to, sure to, likely to:
  • Carla is a very good student. She’s bound to pass the exam. (= sure to pass).
  • It’s not likely to rain.

• Contrastive Prepositional Gerunds vs. Infinitives (Afraid, Interested, Sorry):

  • afraid to do vs. afraid of doing:
  • afraid to do: Unwilling to execute an action because it is hazardous, unpleasant, or dangerous (This part of town is dangerous. People are afraid to walk here at night; James was afraid to tell his parents).
  • afraid of doing: Fear that an accidental, involuntary, or bad outcome will befall the subject (The path was icy… We were afraid of falling; I’m always afraid of being bitten).
  • Causal synthesis: I was afraid to go near the dog because I was afraid of being bitten.
  • interested in doing vs. interested to do:
  • interested in doing: Thinking about doing an activity, intending to, or considering it (Let me know if you’re interested in joining the club; Nobody was interested in buying the car).
  • interested to do: Finding it fascinating or informative to hear, see, or learn something (I was interested to hear that Tanya left her job; I would be interested to know what he thinks).
  • sorry to do vs. sorry for/about doing:
  • sorry for (doing) / sorry about (doing): Apologizing retrospectively for an action previously performed by the speaker (I’m sorry for shouting at you yesterday OR I’m sorry I shouted).
  • sorry to do: Regretting an ongoing reality, feeling sympathy on receipt of news, or apologizing at the exact moment of an interruption (I’m sorry to hear that Nicky lost her job; I’ll be sorry to leave; I’m sorry to bother you, but I need to ask a question).

• Perception Verb Complementation (See, Hear, Watch, Feel):

  • Bare Infinitive pattern (see somebody do):
  • Denotes witnessing a complete event from beginning to end.
  • Scenario: Tom got into his car and drove off. You saw the entire sequence: I saw Tom get into his car and drive off.
  • I didn’t hear you come in.
  • He jumped over the wall and ran away. I saw him jump over the wall and run away.
  • Participle pattern (see somebody doing):
  • Denotes witnessing an action in progress, ongoing at a point in time (not from start to finish).
  • Scenario: Yesterday you passed Kate. She was standing at the bus stop waiting: I saw Kate waiting for a bus.
  • I could hear it raining.
  • Listen to the birds singing!
  • We found him sitting under a tree eating an apple.
  • Neutral contexts allow either: I’ve never seen her dance OR I’ve never seen her dancing.

• Participial Clauses (-ing and -ed clauses):

  • Simultaneous actions: Two actions happening at the exact same moment by the same subject take -ing:
  • Kate is in the kitchen making coffee.
  • A man ran out of the house shouting.
  • Do something! Don’t just stand there doing nothing!
  • Embedded actions within temporal spans (while / when doing):
  • Joe hurt his knee playing football. (= while playing).
  • Did you cut yourself shaving?
  • Be careful when crossing the road.
  • Sequential actions: Prior action takes the compound participle Having (done) (or After doing), set off by an obligatory comma:
  • Having found a hotel, we looked for somewhere to eat.
  • Having finished her work, she went home. (Written style).
  • Explanatory / Causal participial clauses (functioning like because / since):
  • Feeling tired, I went to bed early. (= because I felt tired).
  • Being unemployed, he doesn’t have much money. (= because he is unemployed).
  • Not having a car, she finds it difficult to get around. (= because she does not have a car).
  • Completed antecedent cause: Having seen the film twice, I didn’t want to see it again. (= because I had seen it twice).

Articles, Nouns, and Pronouns

• Countable and Uncountable Noun Paradigms:

  • Countable nouns: Individual, distinct entities. Can be counted with numbers; possess singular and plural forms (a banana / two bananas). Cannot stand alone in the singular without a determiner (a, the, my). Bare plurals denote generalizations (I like bananas; Accidents can be prevented).
  • Uncountable nouns: Undifferentiated masses, materials, abstract notions. Cannot be counted with numbers; have no plural form (rice, not two rices). Can stand alone without determiners (I eat rice every day; There’s blood on your shirt). Expressing units requires partitive counters (a grain of rice, a bowl of rice, a packet of rice).
  • Dual-Category Nouns (Context-Dependent Shifts):
  • Did you hear a noise? (specific sound) vs. There’s too much noise. (general acoustic pollution).
  • I bought a paper. (newspaper) vs. I need some paper to write on. (writing material).
  • There’s a hair in my soup! (one individual strand) vs. You’ve got very long hair. (collective hair on head).
  • We had a very nice room in the hotel. (compartment) vs. There isn’t room for two cars. (spatial capacity).
  • I had interesting experiences while travelling. (adventures/events) vs. I had a lot of experience for the job. (accumulated skill/knowledge).
  • Drinks: Normally uncountable (coffee), but countable when ordering units: Two coffees and an orange juice, please (= two cups of coffee).
  • Systematically Uncountable Mass Nouns in English (frequently causing learner errors):
  • accommodation, advice, baggage, behaviour, bread, chaos, damage, furniture, information, luck, luggage, news, permission, progress, scenery, traffic, weather, work.
  • Syntactic constraints: Never take a/an (I’m looking for work, not a work; That's good advice, not a good advice; a loaf of bread, not a bread). Never pluralized (furniture, never furnitures; information, never informations).
  • Concord: news takes a singular verb (The news was unexpected, not were).
  • travel (noun) is an uncountable general concept; a specific trip requires trip or journey (We had a very good trip, not a good travel).

• Determiner Selection: A/An, Some, and Zero Article:

  • Categorization with a/an: Classifies an entity as a representative of a set or states an individual's profession (A dog is an animal; Sandra is a nurse; Would you like to be an English teacher?).
  • Plural equivalents discard the article entirely: Dogs are animals; My parents are both doctors.
  • Physical descriptions: Jack has a long nose (not the long nose); Jack has blue eyes (not the blue eyes).
  • Functional uses of some with plurals:
  • Indefinite number/quantity: I’ve seen some good movies recently; I need some new sunglasses (a pair).
  • Partial limitation (contrasting with the whole): Some children learn very quickly (= some, but not all children).
  • Not used for generic categorization: I love bananas (not some bananas); She writes books (not some books).

• The Definite Article (The): Specificity and Unique Referents:

  • First mention (a/an) vs. Subsequent mention (the): "I had a sandwich and an apple for lunch. The sandwich wasn’t very good, but the apple was nice."
  • Contextual specificity: Tim sat down on a chair (one of many) vs. Tim sat down on the chair nearest the door (uniquely identified chair).
  • Unique cosmic and physical referents: the earth, the world, the universe, the sun, the moon, the sky, the ground, the country (= rural area), the equator.
  • Contrast: Earth as a named celestial body in space takes zero article (Which planet is nearest Earth?); space meaning the cosmic expanse takes zero article (There are millions of stars in space), but spatial capacity takes an article (I tried to park, but the space was too small).
  • Shared physical environment: the light, the floor, the ceiling, the door, the carpet (in a room); the bank, the post office, the station, the airport in a city.
  • Superlatives and Ordinals: the highest mountain, the best way, the tenth floor, the same (Your sweater is the same colour as mine).
  • Cultural media: the cinema, the theatre, the radio, the internet (I listen to the radio a lot; The internet has changed our lives). Exception: TV / television takes zero article (I watch TV a lot), but the physical appliance takes the article (Can you turn off the television?).
  • Meals take zero article: What did you have for breakfast?; We had lunch. But modified meals take a: We had a very nice lunch; a big breakfast.
  • Labels and alphanumeric designations take zero article: platform 5 (not the platform 5), size 43, room 126, page 29, vitamin A.

• Institutional Nouns: Primary Purpose vs. Physical Facility:

  • Nouns: school, university, college, hospital, prison (or jail), church.
  • Primary/Functional Purpose (Zero Article): When an individual is utilizing the institution for its foundational social design (as student, patient, inmate, worshipper):
  • Ellie is ten years old. Every day she goes to school. She’s at school now. (As a pupil).
  • Joe had an accident and was taken to hospital. He’s still in hospital now. (As an injured patient).
  • Ken’s brother is in prison for robbery. (As a convicted prisoner).
  • Sarah goes to church every Sunday. (To participate in religious services).
  • Physical Facility/Building (Definite Article The): When visited by an outsider who is not part of the primary population:
  • Ellie’s mother has gone to the school to see her teacher. (As an adult visitor).
  • Jane went to the hospital to visit Joe. (As a visitor to a patient).
  • Ken went to the prison to visit his brother. (Visiting the structure).
  • Some workmen went to the church to repair the roof. (Architectural repair).
  • Parallel zero article usage: go to bed / be in bed (I’m going to bed now), but specific furniture takes the (I sat down on the bed); go to work / be at work / start work; go home / be at home.

• Generic Classes: Animals, Inventions, Nationalities, and Adjectives:

  • Generalizing about things in general uses bare plurals/uncountables without the:
  • I’m afraid of dogs (not the dogs).
  • Doctors are usually paid more than teachers.
  • Life has changed a lot in the last thirty years.
  • Most shops accept credit cards. (not The most shops).
  • Contrast: Children learn from playing (all children) vs. We took the children to the zoo (a specific family group).
  • Generic singular types of animals, machines, and inventions take the + singular noun:
  • The giraffe is the tallest of all animals. (The species as a whole, not one specimen).
  • The bicycle is an excellent means of transport.
  • When was the camera invented?
  • The dollar is the currency of the United States.
  • Musical instruments take the: Can you play the guitar?; The piano is my favourite instrument.
  • Generic humanity uses man with zero article: What do you know about the origins of man? (not the man).
  • Collective Adjectives for Social Classes (the + adjective without a noun):
  • Form: the old, the elderly, the rich, the poor, the homeless, the unemployed, the sick, the injured.
  • Plural in agreement: Do you think the rich should pay higher taxes?; The homeless need help.
  • Cannot be inflected with -s (not the olds, not the poors). An individual takes a noun: a rich man, a homeless person.
  • Nationalities:
  • Nationalities ending in -ch or -sh take the + plural sense: the French, the Dutch, the British, the English, the Spanish (The French are famous for their food). An individual requires a French woman / an English guy.
  • Nationalities ending in -ese or -ss: the Chinese, the Portuguese, the Swiss (singular: a Chinese, a Swiss).
  • Other nationalities end in -s with zero article: Italians, Mexicans, Thais (Italians are very friendly).

• Names With and Without The (Onomastics and Toponyms):

  • Proper names of people, continents, countries, states, islands, cities, and individual mountains take zero article:
  • Africa, France, Japan, Texas, Sicily, Cairo, Everest, Kilimanjaro.
  • Countries containing political administrative nouns (Republic, Kingdom, States) require the:
  • the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom (the UK), the Dominican Republic, the United States of America (the USA).
  • Personal Titles (Mr, Ms, Doctor, Professor, Captain, President, Uncle, Saint, Queen) + Name take zero article:
  • Doctor Johnson (contrast: We called the doctor), President Kennedy, Uncle Robert, Queen Catherine.
  • Identical rule for Mount and Lake: Mount Everest, Mount Etna, Lake Superior, Lake Victoria.
  • Bodies of water (oceans, seas, rivers, canals) and deserts take the:
  • the Atlantic (Ocean), the Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean (Sea), the Red Sea, the Amazon, the Nile, the Thames, the Danube, the Volga, the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal, the Sahara (Desert), the Gobi Desert.
  • Plural names of people, groups of islands, and mountain ranges take the:
  • the Taylors (= the Taylor family), the Johnsons.
  • the Netherlands, the Philippines, the Bahamas, the Canaries.
  • the Alps, the Andes, the Rockies, the Urals.
  • Compass directions: the north (of Brazil) vs. northern Brazil (zero article); the southeast (of Spain) vs. southeastern Spain; North America, South Africa.
  • Streets, buildings, and institutions:
  • Streets, roads, squares, and parks take zero article: Union Street, Fifth Avenue, Abbey Road, Broadway, Times Square, Hyde Park.
  • Two-word public facilities named after locations or persons take zero article: Manchester Airport, Victoria Station, Harvard University, Buckingham Palace, Canterbury Cathedral, Edinburgh Castle, Cambridge University (Contrast: the Royal Palace, because "Royal" is an adjective, not a proper name).
  • Commercial entities, shops, and restaurants named after people with -'s or -s take zero article: McDonald’s, Barclays, Joe’s Diner, Macy’s, St John’s Church, St Patrick’s Cathedral.
  • Most other public monuments, hotels, theatres, and museums take the: the Sheraton Hotel, the Palace Theatre, the Odeon, the Guggenheim Museum, the National Gallery, the Empire State (Building), the White House, the Eiffel Tower, the Acropolis, the Kremlin, the Pentagon.
  • Names containing an of-phrase take the: the Bank of England, the Museum of Modern Art, the Great Wall of China, the Tower of London, the University of Cambridge (vs. Cambridge University).
  • Media publications and organizations: the Washington Post, the Financial Times, the Sun, the BBC, the Red Cross, the European Union. But commercial corporate brands take zero article: Fiat, Sony, Singapore Airlines, Kodak, IBM, Yale University Press.

• Morphology of Number: Dual-Part Plurals, Collective Concord, and Quantified Singulars:

  • Two-part symmetrical garments and tools are permanently plural and take plural verbs: trousers, jeans, tights, shorts, pants, pyjamas, glasses, binoculars, scissors (My trousers are too long, not is). Quantified via a pair of: a nice pair of jeans; a new pair of glasses.
  • Academic subjects and sports ending in -ics are grammatically singular: athletics, gymnastics, economics, politics, physics, electronics, maths (Gymnastics is my favourite sport, not are).
  • Nouns possessing invariant singular and plural spelling: means (a means of transport / many means of transport); series (a TV series / two TV series); species (a species of bird / 200 species of bird).
  • Collective nouns representing human groups (audience, committee, company, family, firm, government, staff, team): Can govern either plural verbs (viewing members as individuals) or singular verbs (viewing entity as a unit):
  • The government have decided to increase taxes OR The government has decided…
  • Sports teams and commercial firms: Shell have increased petrol prices; Italy are playing Brazil.
  • Police governs plural agreement strictly: The police are investigating the crime (not is). An individual officer is a police officer, a policeman, or a policewoman (never a police).
  • Person has plural people: They are nice people (not persons); Many people don’t have enough to eat.
  • Measures of money, time, and distance take a singular verb (conceived as a unified single total):
  • Fifty thousand pounds was stolen. (not were stolen).
  • Three years is a long time to be without a job. (not are).
  • Two miles isn’t very far to walk.

• Compound Nouns and Numeric Modifiers:

  • Two nouns combined (noun + noun): The first noun acts adjectivally to describe the category or function of the second: a bus driver (= driver of a bus), income tax, the city centre, an apple tree, a Paris hotel, my life story.
  • First noun ending in -ing: indicates functional apparatus: a frying pan (= a pan for frying), a washing machine, a swimming pool.
  • Multiple noun clustering: hotel reception desk, World Swimming Championships, table tennis table.
  • Semantic contrast between descriptive type vs. contents:
  • a coffee cup (an empty cup designed for coffee) vs. a cup of coffee (a cup filled with coffee).
  • a shopping bag (a bag for shopping) vs. a bag of shopping (a bag full of groceries).
  • Numerical compounds acting as modifiers: The modifying noun must remain singular:
  • a three-hour journey (not a three-hours journey).
  • a ten-pound note (not ten-pounds note).
  • a four-week course (Contrast: The course lasted four weeks).
  • a six-mile walk; two 14-year-old girls.

• Possessive Structures: -'s vs. of ...:

  • Apostrophe-s (-'s) is used for people, animals, and temporal periods:
  • Singular noun + -'s: Tom’s computer; my sister’s room (= one sister).
  • Plural noun ending in -s + ': my sisters’ room (= two or more sisters); the Carters’ house.
  • Irregular plural nouns not ending in -s take -'s: the men’s changing room; a children’s book.
  • Joint ownership: Jack and Karen’s children.
  • Elliptical use: This isn’t my book. It’s my sister’s. (= sister's book).
  • Extended noun phrases discard -'s in favor of of: the mother of the man we met yesterday (not the man we met yesterday's mother).
  • of ... is used for inanimate objects, abstract concepts, and parts of structures:
  • the temperature of the water (not the water’s temperature).
  • the name of the book; the owner of the restaurant.
  • Spatial partitives: the beginning/end/middle of …, the top/bottom of …, the front/back/side of … (the back of the car).
  • Flexible categories: Organizations and geographic entities allow either:
  • the government’s decision OR the decision of the government.
  • the company’s success OR the success of the company.
  • the city’s streets; the world’s population; Italy’s prime minister.
  • Temporal expressions take -'s / -s': yesterday’s newspaper; next week’s meeting; today’s weather; a week’s holiday; three weeks’ holiday; ten minutes’ walk.

• Reflexive, Reciprocal, and Absolute Pronouns:

  • Reflexive pronouns: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves.
  • Used when the syntactic subject and object are referentially identical: Steve introduced himself to the other guests; I’ll pay for myself; Amy enjoyed herself.
  • Precluded verbs: Verbs denoting personal routine or state do not take reflexives in English: feel, relax, concentrate, meet (I feel nervous. I can’t relax; You need to concentrate, not concentrate yourself). Grooming verbs do not use reflexives unless emphasizing effort: He washed, shaved and dressed (or got dressed).
  • Emphatic usage (meaning "personally, without delegation"): I repaired it myself; You can do it yourself; The film itself wasn’t very good, but I loved the music; Lisa herself doesn’t think so.
  • Reciprocal pronouns: each other / one another (mutual interaction between entities):
  • Contrast: Kate and Joe looked at themselves in the mirror (each saw their own reflection) vs. Kate and Joe looked at each other (Kate looked at Joe, Joe looked at Kate).
  • The Double Genitive (a friend of mine):
  • Frame: a/some [noun] + of + possessive pronoun / noun-'s:
    • a friend of mine (not a friend of me); some friends of ours; a neighbour of his; a good idea of yours; a friend of my sister’s; an idea of Tom’s.
  • Syntactic use of own:
  • Denotes exclusive individual possession: my own, your own, her own (I want my own room; Vicky and Gary would like their own house; It’s my own fault).
  • Post-modified frame: a room of my own; problems of his own.
  • Performing tasks independently: Paul cuts his own hair (= cuts it himself).
  • Solitary existence: on my own / by myself:
  • Interchangeable phrases meaning "alone": on my/your/his/her/its/our/their own OR by myself/yourself/himself/herself/itself/ourselves/yourselves/themselves.
  • I like living on my own OR I like living by myself.

• Existential There vs. Impersonal/Referential It:

  • There ...: Used to declare the existence, occurrence, or presence of something for the first time: There’s a new restaurant in Hill Street; There was a lot of traffic; There has been a rise in the cost of living.
  • It ...: Refers back to a specific entity, property, or antecedent situation previously mentioned: We went to the new restaurant. It’s very good. (It = the restaurant); I wasn’t expecting her to call. It was a complete surprise. (It = the fact that she called).
  • Modal developments of existential there: there will be, there must be, there might be, there must have been, there should have been, there would have been, there is sure/bound/likely to be, there used to be (There’s bound to be a cafe somewhere near here; If people drove carefully, there wouldn’t be so many accidents).
  • Anticipatory / Dummy It:
  • Evaluative dummy subject: It’s dangerous to walk in the road (preferred over To walk in the road is dangerous); It didn’t take us long to get here; It’s a shame you can’t come; It’s not worth waiting.
  • Environmental matrices (distance, time, meteorology): How far is it to the airport?; It’s 10 o’clock; It was windy (Contrast: There was a cold wind).

• Determiners and Quantifiers: Distribution and Quantification:

  • Some vs. Any:
  • Basic polarity: some (and compounds somebody, someone, something, somewhere) in affirmative clauses (We bought some flowers); any (and compounds anybody, anything, anywhere) in negative clauses (We didn’t buy any flowers; She went out without any money; He refused to eat anything; Hardly anybody fails).
  • Questions: some is used when expecting an affirmative answer, or when offering/requesting (Can I have some sugar?; Would you like something to eat?). any is used for open inquiries where existence is unknown (Do you have any luggage?; Is there anybody in the house?).
  • Conditional meaning: if + any (Let me know if you need anything; I’m sorry for any trouble I’ve caused).
  • Arbitrary choice meaning ("it does not matter which/who/what"): You can take any bus. They all go to the centre; Come and see me any time; Anybody could have come in; "What do you want to eat?" "Anything. I’m so hungry I could eat anything."
  • Singular concord with gender-neutral plural pronominal reference: Someone has forgotten their umbrella (= his or her); If anybody wants to leave, they can.
  • No, None, and Negative Quantifiers:
  • no + noun: Equivalent to not a or not any (There was no bus; No reason was given).
  • none: Pronoun operating without a noun ("How much money do you have?" "None."; There are none left).
  • none of ...: Takes definite pronouns/determiners (None of this money is mine; None of the students were/was happy).
  • Non-assertive words nobody, no-one, nothing, nowhere: Equivalent to not ... anybody/anything/anywhere (I said nothing = I didn’t say anything). Double negatives are prohibited (I said nothing, not I didn’t say nothing).
  • Much, Many, Little, Few, A lot, Plenty:
  • Uncountable nouns: much, little, a little (much time, little energy).
  • Countable plural nouns: many, few, a few (many friends, few cars).
  • Neutral quantifiers for both: a lot of, lots of, plenty of (plenty = more than enough: There’s plenty of time).
  • Register constraint: Much is unusual in positive affirmative spoken statements (We spent a lot of money, not We spent much money; I see David a lot). Permitted with degree modifiers: too much, so much, as much.
  • Semantics of little/few vs. a little/a few:
    • little / few (without article) = negative connotation, "not much / not many, almost none, less than desired": Gary has little time for other things; Vicky has few friends in London.
    • a little / a few (with article) = positive connotation, "some, a small quantity/number, enough": We have a little time before the train leaves. Let’s have coffee; I have a few friends and we meet quite often.
    • only a little / only a few: Emphasizes limitation (Hurry! We only have a little time).
  • Partitive Of-Constructions with Quantifiers (All, Most, Half, etc.):
  • Direct noun linkage without of: All cars have wheels; Many people drive too fast; Some people learn easily (not Some of people).
  • Selective partitive with of: Required before determiners (the, my, this, those): some of the people, most of my time, none of this money. Note: all and half make of optional: All my friends OR All of my friends; Half this money OR Half of this money.
  • Pronoun linkage: of is mandatory before objective pronouns: all of us, some of it, none of them, half of you (All of us were late, not all us).
  • Binary vs. Multi-Item Quantifiers:
  • Binary (Two entities): both, neither, either:
    • Both restaurants are good. (not the both).
    • Neither restaurant is expensive.
    • We can go to either restaurant. I don’t mind. (= one or the other).
    • Combined correlatives: both ... and ... (Both Chris and Paul were late); neither ... nor ... (Neither Chris nor Paul came); either ... or ... (Either you apologise, or I’ll never speak to you again).
    • Partitives: both of, neither of, either of + the/these/us/them (Neither of them is/are at home; Both of us were tired).
  • Multiple (More than two entities): all, none, any (You could stay at any of the hotels; None of them had a room; All of them were full).
  • Universals: All, Every, Whole:
  • all vs. everybody/everyone/everything: All is not normally used alone as a subject pronoun meaning people (Everybody was happy, not All were happy; Everything went wrong, not All went wrong). Used alone only to mean "the only thing": All I’ve eaten today is a banana.
  • whole = complete, entire. Preceded by the/my/a and used primarily with singular countable nouns: the whole book, her whole life, a whole packet of biscuits. Inapplicable to uncountable mass nouns (all the money, not the whole money; all the information, not the whole information).
  • Temporal duration: all day / the whole day (= entire day from start to end; note: all day, not all the day). Contrast: all the time (= continuously/always) vs. every time (= on each individual occasion).
  • Each vs. Every:
    • each: Focuses on items individually, one by one. Favored for small sets, and mandatory for sets of two: Study each sentence carefully; There were four books. Each book was a different colour; In football, each team has eleven players (not every team).
    • every: Focuses on items collectively as a whole group (similar to all). Favored for large sets: Kate has read every book in the library; There’s a bus every ten minutes.
    • Pronominal syntax: each can stand alone (None of the rooms are the same. Each is different); every cannot stand alone, requiring one (Have you read these? Yes, every one). every one of ... is correct, but every of is ungrammatical.
    • Distributive adverbial: each at the end of a clause: These oranges are $40\text{ pence}$ each.
    • Pronoun orthography: everyone (one word) = people (Everybody); every one (two words) = each individual entity in a series of things or people (She goes to lots of parties and goes to every one).

Relative Clauses

• Defining Relative Clauses (Type 1):

  • Essential to the sentence: Restricts, defines, and identifies precisely which person or thing is meant. Commas are not used.
  • Relative pronouns for people: who or that (The woman who lives next door is a doctor; The woman that lives next door…; not which).
  • Relative pronouns for things: that or which (Grace works for a company that makes furniture; … a company which makes furniture).
  • Pronoun retention error: The personal pronoun must be deleted: I met a woman who is an English teacher (not who she is); Where are the keys that were on the table? (not that they were).
  • Universal pronoun: what = "the thing(s) that". Cannot replace that after indefinite antecedents: What happened was my fault (= the thing that happened), but Everything that happened was my fault (not Everything what happened).

• Subject vs. Object Pronouns and Preposition Placement:

  • Relative pronoun as Subject: The relative pronoun is followed by a verb and cannot be omitted:
  • The woman who lives next door (who is the subject of lives).
  • The keys that were on the table (that is the subject of were).
  • Relative pronoun as Object: The relative pronoun is followed by a subject + verb and can be omitted entirely:
  • The woman (who/that) I wanted to see was away.
  • Did you find the keys (that/which) you lost?
  • The dress Lisa bought doesn’t fit her very well.
  • Resumptive pronoun prohibition: Do not retain the object pronoun (the keys you lost, not the keys you lost them).
  • Preposition positioning: Prepositions generally remain stranded at the end of the relative clause:
  • Do you know the woman Tom is talking to? (or the woman who/that Tom is talking to).
  • The bed I slept in wasn’t comfortable.
  • Are these the books you were looking for?
  • Resumptive prepositional pronoun prohibition: the man I was sitting next to (not next to him).

• Relative Determiners and Adverbs: Whose, Whom, Where:

  • whose: Expresses possession, predominantly for people (replacing his, her, their):
  • We helped some people whose car had broken down. (= their car had broken down).
  • A widow is a woman whose husband is dead.
  • Homophonic contrast: whose (possessive) vs. who’s (= contraction of who is or who has):
    • I have a friend who’s learning Arabic. (who is)
    • I have a friend who’s just started. (who has)
    • I have a friend whose sister is learning Arabic. (possessive determiner)
  • whom: Formal objective pronoun for people, used as the object of a verb or directly following a preposition:
  • George is a person whom I admire very much. (Spoken English preference: a person I admire).
  • It’s important to have friends with whom you can relax. (Spoken English preference: friends you can relax with).
  • where: Refers to geographic and spatial locations in defining clauses:
  • I recently went back to the town where I grew up.
  • The restaurant where we had lunch was near the airport.
  • Temporal and causal relatives: Clauses of time and reason can take that or zero:
  • The day we got married OR The day that we got married.
  • The reason I’m calling you OR The reason that I’m calling you OR The reason why I’m calling you.

• Non-Defining Relative Clauses (Type 2 - Extra Information):

  • Adds non-essential, parenthetical information about an entity already identified and known. Enclosed by commas:
  • My brother Ben, who lives in Hong Kong, is an architect.
  • Anna told me about her new job, which she’s enjoying a lot.
  • We stayed at the Park Hotel, which a friend of ours recommended.
  • Structural constraints distinguishing Type 2 from Type 1:
  • that cannot be used in Type 2 clauses (John, who speaks French, works as a guide, not that speaks).
  • The relative pronoun cannot be omitted, even when serving as an object (We stayed at the Park Hotel, which a friend recommended, not hotel a friend recommended).
  • whom is accepted for human objects: This morning I met Chris, whom I hadn’t seen for ages.
  • whose and where are utilized identically with commas: Lisa, whose car had broken down, was in a bad mood; Kate has just been to Sweden, where her daughter lives.

• Partitive Relatives and Sentential Which:

  • Quantifier + of whom / of which in non-defining clauses:
  • Form: all of, most of, many of, some of, neither of, none of, both of, one of, two of + whom (people) / which (things):
    • Helen has three brothers, all of whom are married.
    • They asked me a lot of questions, most of which I couldn’t answer.
    • Martin tried on three jackets, none of which fitted him.
    • Two men, neither of whom I had seen before, came into the office.
  • Noun phrases: the cause of which, the name of which (The house was damaged in a fire, the cause of which was never established).
  • Sentential relative clause with which: Refers back to the entire proposition of the main clause (never what):
  • Joe got the job, which surprised everybody. (which = the fact that Joe got the job).
  • Sarah couldn’t meet us, which was a shame. (not what was a shame).
  • The weather was good, which we hadn’t expected.

• Reduced Participial Relative Clauses:

  • Active / Progressive reduction (-ing clauses):
  • Who is the woman talking to Tom? (= who is talking to Tom).
  • Police investigating the crime are looking for three men. (= police who are investigating).
  • Can express permanent properties: The road connecting the two villages is very narrow. (= road that connects).
  • Passive reduction (-ed clauses):
  • The boy injured in the accident was taken to hospital. (= who was injured in the accident).
  • The gun used in the robbery has been found. (= which was used in the robbery).
  • Irregular passive participles: The police never found the money stolen in the robbery; Most of the goods made in this factory are exported.
  • Existential combinations: There were some children swimming in the river; There was a big red car parked outside.

Adjectives, Adverbs, and Word Order

• Participial Adjectives: -ing vs. -ed:

  • -ing adjectives describe the external entity, event, or person that generates the feeling (the cause):
  • Jane’s job is boring.
  • The movie was disappointing.
  • The news was shocking.
  • Paul always talks about the same things. He’s really boring.
  • -ed adjectives describe the internal subjective feeling experienced by an individual (the receiver):
  • Jane is bored with her job.
  • We were disappointed with the movie.
  • I was shocked when I heard the news.
  • Julia is interested in politics. (not interesting in politics).

• Adjective Position and Stacking Hierarchy:

  • Opinion adjectives precede Fact adjectives: a nice long summer holiday; a delicious hot vegetable soup; an interesting young man.
  • Fact Adjective Ordering Matrix:
  1. Size / Length: large, small, tall, short, long
  2. Shape / Width: round, fat, thin, slim, wide, narrow
  3. Age: old, new, young
  4. Colour: black, white, red
  5. Origin: Russian, French, American
  6. Material: wooden, plastic, cotton, metal
  • Examples: a tall young man ($1 \rightarrow 3$); a large wooden table ($1 \rightarrow 6$); big blue eyes ($1 \rightarrow 4$); a small black plastic bag ($1 \rightarrow 4 \rightarrow 6$); an old white cotton shirt ($3 \rightarrow 4 \rightarrow 6$).
  • Multiple color adjectives require and: a black and white dress; a red, white and green flag. Other prenominal adjectives do not take and (a long black dress, not a long and black dress).
  • Predicative adjectives follow linking verbs (be, get, become, seem, look, feel, sound, taste, smell):
  • The dinner smells good (not well); You look tired; This tea tastes a bit strange.
  • Sequential determinations: Numerical ordinals precede quantifiers: the first two days (not the two first days); the next few weeks; the last ten minutes.

• Adjectives vs. Adverbs of Manner:

  • Adjectives modify nouns (Sam is a careful driver; heavy rain).
  • Adverbs modify verbs, actions, adjectives, and other adverbs: Adjective + -ly (Sam drove carefully; raining heavily).
  • Adjectival -ly exceptions (words ending in -ly that are adjectives, not adverbs): friendly, lively, elderly, lonely, lovely (It was a lovely day).
  • Adverbs modifying adjectives and other adverbs: reasonably cheap, terribly sorry, incredibly quickly, surprisingly easy, seriously injured, badly organised.

• Irregular Adverbs and Semantic Divergence:

  • good (adjective) vs. well (adverb): Your English is good vs. You speak English well; Sophie is a good pianist vs. She plays the piano well. Exception: well is an adjective when describing health (I’m very well, thanks). Compound adjectives take well-: well-known, well-educated, well-paid, well-behaved.
  • Identical forms for Adjectives and Adverbs:
  • fast: Darren is a fast runner (adj) vs. Darren can run fast (adv).
  • hard: It’s hard work (adj) vs. Kate works hard (adv) (not works hardly).
  • late: Sorry I’m late (adj) vs. I got up late (adv).
  • Semantic contrast: hard vs. hardly:
  • hard = with great effort/vigor: He tried hard to find a job.
  • hardly = almost not, scarcely, very little: He hardly tried (= tried very little); Sarah was unfriendly. She hardly spoke to me.
  • Word order: hardly precedes the verb: We hardly know each other (not We know each other hardly).
  • Capacity: I can hardly do something = it is almost impossible (My leg was hurting. I could hardly walk).
  • Polarity: hardly + any / anybody / anything / anywhere / ever (Hardly anybody passed; She said hardly anything; I hardly ever go out).
  • Emphatic certainty: It’s hardly surprising (= certainly not surprising); It’s hardly a crisis.
  • Semantic contrast: late vs. lately:
  • late = opposite of early.
  • lately = recently (Have you seen Kate lately?).

• Intensifiers: So vs. Such:

  • so + adjective/adverb: so stupid, so quick, so nice, so quickly (The story was so stupid).
  • such + (adjective) + noun: such a story, such people, such a stupid story, such nice people (Word order: such a ..., not a such).
  • Expressing results with that (often omitted): I was so tired (that) I fell asleep; It was such nice weather (that) we spent the day on the beach.
  • Demonstrative meaning ("like this"): I didn’t realise it was so old; I didn’t realise it was such an old house; How can you say such a thing?; Idiom: There’s no such word (= this word does not exist).
  • Quantitative pairs:
  • so long vs. such a long time (I haven’t seen her for so long vs. for such a long time).
  • so far vs. such a long way.
  • so much / so many vs. such a lot (of) (so much traffic vs. such a lot of traffic).

• Degree Modifiers: Enough and Too:

  • Word order of enough:
  • Follows adjectives and adverbs: fit enough (not enough fit); long enough.
  • Precedes nouns: enough money; enough chairs.
  • Stands alone: We don’t need more money. We have enough.
  • Comparative values:
  • too = excess (more than necessary): You work too hard; too much furniture; too many people.
  • not ... enough = deficiency (less than necessary): You don’t work hard enough; not enough space.
  • Complementation with for and to:
  • This bag isn’t big enough for all my clothes.
  • Does Joe have enough experience to do the job?
  • The bridge is just wide enough for two cars to pass one another.
  • Syntactic restriction with infinitives: Object pronouns are omitted from the infinitive complement:
  • The food was too hot to eat. (not to eat it).
  • These boxes are too heavy to carry. (not to carry them).
  • This chair isn’t strong enough to stand on. (not to stand on it).

• Gradable Modifiers: Quite, Pretty, Rather, and Fairly:

  • Scale of intensity: fairly < quite / pretty < rather < very.
  • quite and pretty = moderate degree (more than "a little", less than "very"):
  • She’s quite famous OR She’s pretty famous.
  • pretty is informal and conversational.
  • Position with articles: quite precedes a/an (quite an old house, not a quite old house). Conversely: a pretty good job.
  • Special uses of quite: quite a/an + noun (It was quite a surprise = quite a big surprise); quite a lot (of); quite like / enjoy (I quite like tennis).
  • rather: Used primarily for negative evaluations (rather cloudy, rather shy). When used with positive adjectives, it signifies "surprisingly" or "unusually" (These oranges are rather good. Where did you get them?).
  • fairly: Weaker modifier; indicates something is acceptable but could be improved (My room is fairly big, but I’d prefer a bigger one).
  • Absolute meaning of quite = completely, entirely:
  • Co-occurs with absolute/ungradable adjectives: sure, right, true, clear, different, incredible, amazing, certain, wrong, safe, obvious, unnecessary, extraordinary, impossible.
  • "Are you sure?" "Yes, quite sure." (= completely sure).
  • She was quite different from what I expected. (= completely different).
  • I quite agree with you. (= completely agree).
  • Negative: not quite = not completely (I don’t quite understand; "Are you ready?" "Not quite").

• Comparative Syntax (-er, More, and Irregulars):

  • Morphology:
  • Monosyllabic words append -er: cheap \rightarrow cheaper, fast \rightarrow faster, thin \rightarrow thinner.
  • Disyllabic words ending in -y change to -ier: lucky \rightarrow luckier, easy \rightarrow easier, early \rightarrow earlier.
  • Polysyllabic words (two or more syllables) take more: more serious, more expensive, more comfortable.
  • Adverbs ending in -ly take more: more slowly, more quietly, more easily.
  • Disyllabic adjectives allowing both: clever, narrow, quiet, shallow, simple (quieter OR more quiet).
  • Irregular Comparatives:
  • good / well \rightarrow better.
  • bad / badly \rightarrow worse.
  • far \rightarrow further OR farther (further than I thought). Note: further (not farther) also signifies "additional": Let me know if you hear any further news.
  • Comparative Pre-modifiers: much, a lot, far (= a lot), a bit, a little, slightly (much better, a lot more expensive, a bit more slowly, slightly heavier, far more serious).
  • Polarity Modifiers any and no + Comparative:
  • I’m not waiting any longer. (= not even a little longer).
  • Their apartment is no bigger than ours. (= not even a little bigger).
  • Do you feel any better?
  • Progressive increase: Repeated comparatives denote continuous development (getting better and better, bigger and bigger, more and more difficult).
  • Correlative Proportionality (The ... the ...):
  • Expresses mutual dependency between two variables:
    • The sooner the better. (= as soon as possible).
    • The sooner we leave, the earlier we’ll arrive.
    • The younger you are, the easier it is to learn.
    • The more expensive the hotel, the better the service.
  • Kinship Comparatives: older vs. elder:
  • older: General comparative for age (David looks older than he is; My sister is older than me).
  • elder: Attributive adjective restricted to family relationships (my elder sister, their elder son). Cannot be used predicatively (not She is elder than me).

• Equatives (As ... as) and Superlatives:

  • Equatives: as ... as in affirmative contexts (Let’s walk. It’s just as quick as taking the bus; as fast as I could; as much as you want).
  • Negative equatives: not as ... as OR not so ... as (Joe isn’t as rich as Sarah; It’s not so cold as yesterday).
  • Multiplicative comparisons: twice as ... as, three times as ... as (Petrol is twice as expensive as it was a few years ago; Their house is three times as big as ours).
  • Identity: the same as (never the same like): Laura’s salary is the same as mine; David is the same age as James.
  • Pronoun case after than and as: In informal English, objective pronouns are used (You’re taller than me; He’s not as clever as her). In formal English, subjective pronouns paired with auxiliaries appear (You’re taller than I am; He’s not as clever as she is).
  • Superlative morphology: Monosyllabic -est vs. Polysyllabic most (the longest, the hottest, the easiest, the most famous, the most difficult). Irregulars: best, worst, furthest/farthest.
  • Prepositions with Superlatives:
  • Use in with physical locations, organizations, and human groups: the longest river in the world (not of the world); the best room in the hotel; the youngest student in the class.
  • Use of with temporal periods: the hottest day of the year; the happiest day of my life.
  • Present perfect relative complementation: That was the best holiday I’ve had for a long time; What’s the most important decision you’ve ever made?

• Word Order Principles:

  • Verb and Direct Object Adjacency: Adverbs or prepositional phrases must not separate a verb from its direct object:
  • I like my job very much. (not I like very much my job).
  • Our guide spoke English fluently. (not spoke fluently English).
  • I lost all my money and I also lost my passport. (not I lost also my passport).
  • Did you eat meat every day?
  • Canonical Spatial and Temporal Hierarchy: Verb + Object + Place + Time:
  • Place precedes Time: Ben walks to work every morning (not every morning to work); I’m going to Paris on Monday; We took the children to the zoo yesterday.
  • Fronting of Time: Temporal adjuncts can be placed at the absolute front for topicalization: On Monday I’m going to Paris; After the party Sarah gave me a lift home.
  • Mid-Position Adverb Placement (Frequency and Modality):
  • Adverbs: always, also, probably, almost, hardly ever, rarely, already, still, both, all.
  • Single-word verb: The adverb precedes the verb (Emily always drives to work; I almost fell; I also cooked the dinner). Exception: The adverb must follow the simple forms of be (am/is/are/was/were): We were also hungry (not also were); You’re always late.
  • Multi-word verbal groups: The adverb sits directly after the first auxiliary/modal verb:
    • I can never remember her name.
    • Clare doesn’t usually drive to work.
    • The meeting will probably be cancelled.
    • You’ve always been very kind to me.
  • probably with negatives: Precedes the negative auxiliary: I probably won’t see you OR I’ll probably not see you (never I won’t probably).
  • Obligatory placement before have to: I always have to phone him (not I have always to phone).
  • Elliptical emphatic position: In short clauses where the lexical verb is omitted, the adverb precedes the auxiliary: "Tom says he isn’t clever, but I think he is."; He always says he won’t be late, but he always is (not is always).

Conjunctions, Prepositions, and Phrasal Verbs

• Continuity and Aspectual Adverbs (Still, Yet, Already, Any more):

  • still: Signifies an ongoing, uninterrupted situation in mid-position (Joe is still in bed; Do you still want to go?). In negative clauses, fronted still conveys marked surprise/impatience (She still hasn’t come = she should have arrived long ago).
  • not ... any more / not ... any longer: Placed at the end of a clause to express the cessation of a previous state: Lucy doesn’t work here any more OR … any longer.
  • no longer: Sits in mid-position with an affirmative verb (Lucy no longer works here). Note: no more cannot replace no longer in this context (We are no longer friends, not no more friends).
  • yet: Used in negative statements and inquiries to indicate an event is anticipated up to the present moment; positioned at clause end (It’s 10 o’clock and Joe isn’t here yet; Have you decided yet?).
  • already: Expresses that an occurrence occurred sooner than anticipated; sits in mid-position or at the end (She has already left; I’ve just had lunch and I’m already hungry).

• Intensifying Even and Concessives:

  • even: Marks an addition that is unusual, extreme, or surprising (Tina has a television in every room, even the bathroom; He always wears a coat, even in hot weather).
  • Negative polarity not even: I can’t cook. I can’t even boil an egg; They didn’t even say hello.
  • With comparatives: Jack got up early, but I got up even earlier; even more surprised.
  • Subordinating connectives: even though / even when / even if + subject + verb:
  • Even though Tina can’t drive, she has a car. (not even she can’t drive).
  • Contrast: We’re going even if the weather is bad (weather is irrelevant) vs. We won’t go if the weather is bad (weather dictates action).
  • Concession: Although vs. In spite of / Despite:
  • although / even though + finite clause (subject + verb): Although it rained a lot, they had a good time; I couldn’t sleep although I was tired.
  • in spite of / despite + noun phrase / pronoun / gerund (-ing):
    • In spite of the rain, they had a good time.
    • Despite being very tired, I couldn’t sleep. (not despite I was tired).
    • She continued working in spite of what I said.
    • Phrase: in spite of the fact (that) / despite the fact (that) + clause.
    • Syntactic error: despite does not take of (despite the rain, not despite of).
  • though: Colloquial equivalent to although, frequently positioned at the very end of a spoken sentence (The house isn’t so nice. I like the garden though = but I like the garden).

• Contingency and Condition: In Case and Unless:

  • in case: Precautionary action executed now to prepare for a possible future contingency:

* *Your car should have a spare wheel in case you have a puncture.* (= because it is possible to get a puncture).
* *I’d better write down my password in case I forget it.*
* Diminutive possibility: `just in case` (*I’ll take an umbrella just in case*).
* Rule: Present tense follows `in case` for future contingencies (never *will*): *in case I forget* (not *in case I will forget*).
* Past motivation: *I drew a map for Sarah in case she had a problem finding our house*.
* Contrast: `in case` vs. `if`:
  * *We’ll buy some food in case Tom comes.* (= buy food now, whether he comes or not).
  * *We’ll buy some food if Tom comes.* (= wait; buy food only after he arrives).
* Fixed idiom: `in case of + noun` = "in the event of": *In case of fire, leave the building*; *In case of emergency, call this number*.

• unless = "except if":

* *You can’t go in unless you are a member.* (= You can go in only if you are a member / except if you are a member).
* *I’ll see you tomorrow unless I have to work late.* (= except if I have to work late).
* Future tense restriction: Takes present simple (not *will*): *I’m not going out unless it stops raining*.

• Conditional synonyms: as long as / so long as / provided (that) / providing (that) = on condition that:

  • You can borrow my car as long as you promise not to drive too fast.

  • Travelling by car is convenient provided you have somewhere to park.

  • Takes present tense for future: Providing the weather is good, we’re having a picnic tomorrow.

  • Temporal Connectives: As, When, While, During, By, Until:

• Simultaneous as (= at the exact same moment):

  • We all waved goodbye to Liz as she drove away.
  • Kate slipped as she was getting off the bus.
  • Emphatic simultaneity: just as (Just as I sat down, the doorbell rang).
  • Parallel extended processes: As the day went on, the weather got worse.
  • Contrast with when: Sequential events take when exclusively: When I got home, I had something to eat (not as I got home).

• Causal as (= because): As I was hungry, I decided to find somewhere to eat; As it’s late, let’s get a taxi.

• Comparative Similarity: Like vs. As:

  • like (preposition) = similar to / resembling (+ noun, pronoun, or gerund): What a beautiful house! It’s like a palace (not as a palace); It’s like walking on ice; It sounds like a baby crying. Exemplification: water sports, like surfing (or such as surfing).
  • as (conjunction) = in the same manner that (+ subject + verb): I left everything as it was; You should have done it as I showed you (Informal: like I showed you).
  • Idiomatic frames: as usual, as always, as you know, as I said, as she expected.
  • as (preposition) = in the role, capacity, or form of (+ noun): As a taxi driver, I spend my life in a car (The speaker is a taxi driver) vs. I’m like a taxi driver (The speaker is not a taxi driver, but drives family members around similarly); I worked as a photographer.

• as if / as though / like:

  • Evaluating appearance: That house looks as if it’s going to fall down OR looks like it’s going to fall down; It sounds as if they’re having a party.
  • Manner of action: He ran as if he was running for his life.
  • Unreal present subjunctive: Followed by past tenses (or were) to mark counterfactual unreality: He talks as if he knew everything (he does not know everything); Why do you talk about him as if he were an old man?; They treat me as if I were their own son.

• During, For, and While:

* `during + noun`: Identifies when something happens within a period (*I fell asleep during the movie*; *during our holiday*). Cannot state duration length (not *during two hours*).
* `for + period of time`: Measures duration length (*We watched TV for two hours*; *It rained for three days*).
* `while + subject + verb`: Action running concurrently with another (*I fell asleep while I was watching TV*; *Alex read a book while Amy watched TV*). Takes present tense for future: *I hope the weather will be good while I’m there* (not *while I will be*).

• By vs. Until:

  • until (or till): Measures continuous duration terminating at a future boundary (Let’s wait until it stops raining; Joe will be away until Monday = he returns on Monday).

  • by: Sets an absolute deadline ("on or before; not later than"): I sent the documents today, so they should arrive by Monday; We have to be home by 5 o’clock.

  • Clause syntax: by the time + clause:

    • Future: By the time we get there, the bank will be closed; By the time we get to the cinema, the film will already have started.
    • Past: By the time she arrived, most of the guests had left.
    • Adverbial phrases: by then / by that time (Karen arrived at midnight, but by then the guests had left).

  • Prepositions of Time and Location (At, On, In):

• Temporal At, On, In:

  • at: Specific clock times, points of the day, festivals: at 5 o’clock, at 11.45, at midnight, at lunchtime, at sunset, at the moment, at the same time, at weekends (British), at Christmas.
  • on: Days and specific dates: on Friday, on Fridays, on 16 May 2012, on New Year’s Day, on my birthday, on Christmas Day, on Friday morning(s).
  • in: Longer periods, months, years, seasons: in June, in 2012, in the 1990s, in the 21st century, in winter, in the morning, in the night (specific night).
  • Preposition zero: Omitted before last, next, this, every (I’ll see you next Friday; last June).
  • Elapsed time and future intervals with in: The train leaves in a few minutes (= from now); I learnt to drive in four weeks (= duration to accomplish).

• Idiomatic temporal contrasts:

  • on time: Punctual; strictly adhering to schedule (The 11.45 train left on time).
  • in time: Soon enough to perform an action or avoid missing an event (Will you be home in time for dinner?; just in time = at the final possible moment).
  • at the end (of ...): Point where something terminates (at the end of January; at the end of the film). Opposite: at the beginning.
  • in the end: Finally; describing the ultimate resolution of a complex process (We had a lot of problems with our car. We sold it in the end). Opposite: at first.

• Spatial In, At, On:

  • in (enclosed 3D spaces, geographic areas, bodies of water): in the room, in a building, in a garden, in Italy, in the mountains, in the pool, in the river, in the sky, in a row, in a queue, in a photograph, in the mirror, in the world.

  • at (point on a map, marker along a journey, functional interaction): at the bus stop, at the door, at the traffic lights, at the roundabout, at reception, at the top, at the bottom, at the end of the street, at the station, at the airport.

  • on (surfaces, linear routes, planes, public transport): on the floor, on the wall, on the ceiling, on a page, on an island, on the coast, on a road, on a map, on a menu, on the left/right, on the first floor.

  • Vehicular distinctions: on a bus, on a train, on a plane, on a ship, on a bike, on a horse vs. in a car, in a taxi.

  • Travel vs. Arrival prepositions:

    • Motion toward: go to, travel to, return to, welcome to.
    • get to a destination (What time did you get to the hotel?).
    • arrive in (large territories, cities, countries: arrive in Madrid, arrive in Spain).
    • arrive at (specific buildings, facilities, events: arrive at the airport, arrive at the party).
    • Absolute zero with home: go home, get home, on my way home (never to home).
    • Motion into interiors: into (or in): walked into the room; got into the car. Opposite is out of (got out of the car).

  • Dependent Prepositional Systems:

• Noun + Preposition:

  • for: a demand for, a need for, a reason for (not reason of).
  • of: a cause of, a picture/photo/map/plan of, an advantage/disadvantage of (but an advantage in doing).
  • in: an increase/decrease/rise/fall in (prices, numbers).
  • to: a solution to, a key to, an answer to, a reply to, a reaction to, damage to, an invitation to, an attitude to/towards.
  • with / between: a relationship/connection/contact with OR between two things; a difference between.

• Adjective + Preposition:

  • Behavior/Attitude: nice/kind/polite/good/generous of somebody to do vs. nice/kind/polite/rude/cruel to somebody.
  • Reaction/Emotion: pleased/satisfied/delighted with; surprised/shocked/amazed/astonished at/by; excited/worried/nervous about; angry/annoyed about something / with somebody for doing; upset about.
  • Psychological states: sorry about a situation / for doing; feel sorry for somebody; proud/ashamed/jealous/envious/suspicious/critical/tolerant/aware/conscious/capable of; fond of; full of / short of; tired of; fed up with; bored with.
  • Competence: good/bad/brilliant/hopeless at.
  • Connection/Separation: similar to; different from (or different to); dependent on (but independent of); married/engaged to (not with); crowded with; famous for; keen on; responsible for.

• Verb + Preposition:

  • to: talk/speak to; listen to; apologise to somebody for; explain something to somebody (not explain me); describe something to somebody.

  • Verbs taking no preposition: phone somebody, call somebody, email somebody, text somebody, answer somebody/something (not answer to), ask somebody, discuss something (not discuss about).

  • Contrasting at vs. to:

    • Target of hostility: shout at somebody (angry) vs. shout to somebody (so they can hear across a distance).
    • Physical targeting: throw something at (to hit them aggressively) vs. throw something to (for them to catch cooperatively).
    • Aim: point/aim/shoot/fire at.

  • for: apply for a job; search a place for; look for (= seek); wait for; leave a place for another; ask for (but ask somebody the way, no preposition); care for (= look after / like); care about (= deem important); pay for (but pay a bill/tax/fine, no preposition); blame somebody for (or blame a problem on).

  • of: die of/from an illness; consist of; approve of; accuse/suspect somebody of; remind somebody of (cause to remember identity/past) vs. remind somebody about (tell not to forget an appointment/task); hear of (know existence) vs. hear about (receive details) vs. hear from (receive communication).

  • about: talk/read/know about; do something about; complain about; think about (active cognitive deliberation) vs. think of (produce an idea, opinion, or spontaneous thought).

  • on: concentrate on; depend on / rely on; live on (money/food); congratulate/compliment somebody on; spend money on; insist on.

  • in / into: believe in (existential belief / philosophy) vs. believe something (accept as truth); specialise in; succeed in; break into; crash/drive/bump/run into; divide/split into; translate from one language into another.

  • with: collide with; provide/supply somebody with; fill something with.

  • Phrasal Verbs: Syntax and Functional Lexicon:

• Particle Movement Principles with Transitive Phrasal Verbs:

  • Full noun direct object: Can precede or follow the particle:
    • I turned on the light. OR I turned the light on.
    • Take off your shoes. OR Take your shoes off.
  • Pronoun direct object (it, them, me, him, her, us): Must sit between the verb and particle (cannot follow the particle):
    • I turned it on. (not I turned on it).
    • These shoes are uncomfortable. I’m going to take them off. (not take off them).
    • Don’t throw it away. (not throw away it).
    • Wake her up. (not wake up her).

• Three-part phrasal verbs (Verb + Particle + Preposition): look up at, run away from, keep up with, look forward to, put up with (= tolerate), cut down on (= reduce).

• Lexical Particle Inventory:

  • in / out:
    • check in (arrive at hotel/airport) vs. check out (depart/settle bill).
    • drop in (visit informally without appointment); join in (participate in ongoing activity); plug in (connect electricity); fill in / fill out (complete a form); take somebody in (deceive someone).
    • eat out (dine at restaurant); drop out (discontinue course/study); get out of (avoid a commitment); leave out (omit); cross out (draw line through text); work out (exercise; calculate; resolve; develop successfully); figure out (understand/solve); carry out (execute orders/experiments); point out (draw attention to); sort out (organize/resolve); turn out (prove to be; result in the end); run out of (exhaust supply); try out (test).
  • on / off:
    • State/Operation: turn/switch/put on vs. turn/switch/put off.
    • put off (postpone); call off (cancel); set off (start a journey); take off (aircraft departure; garment removal); see somebody off (accompany to departure point); be off to (departing for).
    • Continuity marker on: go on / carry on / keep on (= continue); drive on / walk on.
    • get on (progress; relate well with someone); get on with (continue work after interruption).
    • doze off / drop off / nod off (fall asleep); go off (alarm rings; explode); show off (display oneself boastfully); tell somebody off (scold/reprimand); rip somebody off (cheat/overcharge); put somebody off (discourage/repel).
  • up / down:
    • Verticality: put up (mount on wall) vs. take down; pick up vs. put down; stand up vs. sit down / lie down / bend down; turn up (increase volume) vs. turn down (reduce volume).
    • down = reduction / destruction: knock down / blow down / cut down; burn down; slow down; calm down; close down / shut down (cease commerce); let somebody down (disappoint); turn down (reject offer/application); break down (mechanical failure; emotional collapse).
    • up = completion, assembly, initiation: grow up (mature to adult); bring up (raise child; introduce topic); clean up / clear up / tidy up; wash up (clean dishes); end up (final destination/state); give up (surrender/abandon); make up (invent falsehood; constitute a whole); take up (occupy space/time; adopt hobby); turn up / show up (arrive unexpectedly); use up (exhaust completely); set up (establish organization); catch up with (reach parity with leader); fix up (arrange); cheer up (elevate mood); save up (accumulate funds); do up (fasten garment; renovate building); look up (search in reference book); blow up (explode); tear up (shred paper); hold up (delay).
  • away / back:
    • Departure: go away, drive away, run away, walk away, look away.
    • Displacement / Relinquishment: take away, throw away, give away, put away (to storage).
    • Prevention: keep away from (avoid proximity); get away (escape); get away with (commit misdeed without penalty).
    • Return: be back, come back, walk back, give back, take back, put back.
    • Reciprocal interaction: wave back, smile back, shout back, call/phone/ring back, get back to (reply), pay back, look back on (reflect on past memories).

Systemic Reference & Dialectal Variations

• Orthographic and Morphological Rules (Appendix 6):

  • Suffixes -s / -es:
  • Sibilant terminations -s, -ss, -sh, -ch, -x take -es: bus \rightarrow buses, miss \rightarrow misses, wash \rightarrow washes, match \rightarrow matches, box \rightarrow boxes.
  • Certain words ending in -o: potato \rightarrow potatoes, tomato \rightarrow tomatoes, do \rightarrow does, go \rightarrow goes.
  • Stem mutations of -y:
  • Consonant + y: y shifts to ie before -s (baby \rightarrow babies, country \rightarrow countries, hurry \rightarrow hurries).
  • Consonant + y: y shifts to i before -ed, -er, -est, -ly (hurried, easier, easiest, easily, heavily).
  • Exception: y is retained before -ing (hurrying, studying, trying).
  • Vowel + y: y remains unchanged (play \rightarrow plays / played; enjoy \rightarrow enjoys / enjoyed). Irregular exceptions: day \rightarrow daily, pay \rightarrow paid, lay \rightarrow laid, say \rightarrow said.
  • Verbs ending in -ie: ie shifts to y before -ing: die \rightarrow dying, lie \rightarrow lying, tie \rightarrow tying.
  • Silent final -e:
  • Dropped before -ing: hope \rightarrow hoping, dance \rightarrow dancing. Exceptions: be \rightarrow being, see \rightarrow seeing, agree \rightarrow agreeing.
  • Retained before -ly: polite \rightarrow politely, extreme \rightarrow extremely. Words ending in -le shift to -ly: simple \rightarrow simply, terrible \rightarrow terribly.
  • Consonant Doubling Rules (Monosyllables and Polysyllables):
  • Single vowel + single final consonant: Consonant doubles before -ing, -ed, -er, -est (stop \rightarrow stopping / stopped; plan \rightarrow planning / planned; big \rightarrow bigger / biggest; wet \rightarrow wetter / wettest).
  • Polysyllabic verbs: Consonant doubles ONLY if the final syllable is phonologically stressed:
    • Stressed final syllable: preFER \rightarrow preferring / preferred; perMIT \rightarrow permitting / permitted; reGRET \rightarrow regretting / regretted; beGIN \rightarrow beginning.
    • Unstressed final syllable (no doubling): VISit \rightarrow visiting / visited; deVELop \rightarrow developing / developed; HAPpen \rightarrow happening / happened; reMEMber \rightarrow remembering / remembered.
  • British English -l exception: Verbs ending in -l double the consonant regardless of stress (travel \rightarrow travelling / travelled; cancel \rightarrow cancelling / cancelled).
  • Constraints: Do not double when the base ends in two consonants (start \rightarrow started), two vowels precede the consonant (boil \rightarrow boiling, cheap \rightarrow cheaper), or when ending in w or y (stay \rightarrow stayed, grow \rightarrow growing).

• British English vs. American English Divergences (Appendix 7):

  • Tense selection for immediate / recent events:
  • British English uses the Present Perfect with just, already, yet: I’ve lost my key. Have you seen it?; I’ve just had lunch; He’s already left.
  • American English frequently substitutes the Past Simple: I lost my key. Did you see it?; I just had lunch; He already left.
  • Verb morphology:
  • Mixed regular/irregular verbs (burn, spell, learn, smell, spill, spoil): British English prefers irregulars (burnt, spelt, learnt), while American English predominantly utilizes regular forms (burned, spelled, learned).
  • Past participle of get: British English uses got exclusively (Your English has got much better); American English utilizes gotten (Your English has gotten much better).
  • Orthography: British -ise (apologise, organise, specialise) corresponds to American -ize (apologize, organize, specialize). British doubling -ll- (travelling, cancelled) corresponds to American single -l- (traveling, canceled).
  • Modal auxiliary preferences:
  • British utilizes shall with I/we for future and suggestions (Shall we go?); American considers shall unusual, substituting will or should (Should we go?).
  • Past epistemic negative deduction: British uses can’t have (done) (She can’t have got my message); American uses must not have (done) (She must not have gotten my message).
  • Absence of obligation: British readily uses needn’t (We needn’t hurry); American regards needn’t as rare, favoring don’t need to.
  • Mandative Subjunctive: British frequently inserts should (I insisted that he should apologise); American mandates the bare subjunctive (I insisted that he apologize).
  • Collective Noun Agreement: British allows plural agreement with group nouns (The team are playing well); American requires singular concord (The team is playing well).
  • Prepositions and Idioms:
  • Weekends: British at the weekend / at weekends vs. American on the weekend / on weekends.
  • Healthcare: British in hospital / to hospital (zero article) vs. American in the hospital / to the hospital.
  • Theatrical position: British at the front/back of the cinema vs. American in the front/back of the theater.
  • Distinction: British different from or different to vs. American different from or different than.
  • Phrasal variants:
    • British fill in a form vs. American fill out a form.
    • British get on with somebody vs. American get along with somebody.
    • British knock down a building vs. American tear down a building.
    • British do up a house vs. American fix up a house.
    • British turn round vs. American turn around.
  • Conversational tags: British response "Lisa isn’t well." "Isn’t she?" vs. American "She isn’t?".
  • Preferences: British I’d rather you did something vs. American I’d rather you do something.
  • Bath/Vacation collocations: British have a bath / shower / break / holiday vs. American take a bath / shower / break / vacation.
  • Mass countability: British accommodation is strictly uncountable (plenty of accommodation); American permits plural countability (accommodations).