Quantifiers

What is a quantifier?

Some cats searching for food

A quantifier is a type of noun marker that express quantity. It answers to the questions how much or how many. They express inexact quantity. For example the words several and many do not give an exact quantity. These words give a rough idea of the quantity.

Use of Quantifiers

Quantifiers go before nouns. Remember this order> Quantifier + noun

I have some cats.

I have a couple of comics.

Requests and Permission

How to request and ask for permission politely

Requests

When we make a request, we use the modal verbs would, will, could and can. Using these verbs, we make a polite request.

For example:

Would you lend me money?

Can you lend me money, please?

As we already know, after a modal verb the next verb does not change. So it is no necessary to add -es or s if we conjugate the thir singular person he, she or it.

Gerunds and Infinitives

What is a Gerund?

A gerund is a verbal form with the ending -ing.
Working, eating, dancing. We can use it when we have two verbs in a row.

I like eating in the restaurant.

What is an infinitive?

An infinitive is the basic form of a verb. Work, play, paint, etc. It is not the main verb in a sentence. They are used after a modal verb:

I can play.
I want to see your new car.
I like to smell this fragance.

Use of Gerunds and Infinitives

How to use gerunds and infinitives?

In some cases it is possible to use both options.

I like making pizza or I like to make pizza.
He began to run but He began running.

After the propositions, it is necessary to use gerunds.

You are good at playing chess!

She is happy about marrying a rich man.

Sometimes gerunds can play the role of a noun. For example: Drawing is my favourite hobby. Don't forget to include the be verb.

Also we can use infinitives to express purpouse.

I bought this pencil to draw better. (Because I want to draw better).

Articles

How to use the articles?

Often we have problems using the articles. This post will be useful. It will give you some tips for remembering how to use them.

Indefinite Articles

A or an? They are indefinite articles. So how to use them? It depends on the next word.

If the next word starts with a consonant sound, we use a. For example, a book, a pencil, a chair, a man, etc.

When the word starts with a vowel sound, then we use an. I remaindo you that there are 5 vowel sounds: a,e,i,o,u. For example: an aplication, an eraser, an explanation.

There are some examples, when a word starts with a vowel letter, but it starts with a consonan sound. Examples: university, uniform, eulogy. In this case we have to use a. The same happens with the words that have the silent sound h. Example: An hour.

When we give general facts about something or somebody we use the indefinite article.

A tablet is a modern invention. (It means that all the tablets are a modern invention).

It is possible to talk about non specific things using the articles a or an.

When I was in Madrid, I saw an interesting park.

Remember that the use of an or a depends on the next word. For example: A book. But an old book. In this case we use an because the next word is old.

The zero article

It is possible to give a general fact without any article. If we take the previous examples

A tablet is a modern invention, we can cut the article a. So we add the ending -s to the word tablet> tablets. Then, we got "Tablets are a modern invention". As we see, we are not talking about specific things. We are making a generalization.

The

When we talk about specific things, we use the. The state of California is big.

Also, we use the when we need to talk about things that we already have information about.

Have you seen the book? Yes, I saw it yesterday on the table.

Nouns

Count Nouns and Non-Count Nouns use

Nouns describe people, places and things. 

There are two types of noun> contable and noncount. They have some properties that make easy to be recognized and classified. 

Count nouns

It is possible to use numbers 

There are rules that give the plural form of the noun:

Noncount nouns

As the name says, we cannot use them with numbers. We cannot count them.

Usually we use uncount nons when we talk about

Very small things like rice. 

Gases like the oxygen

Studies

The whole of a group

Activities

Disieses

Abstract ideas

But how do you know if a noun is contable or uncontable?

First, the dictionary helps us to determine if the noun is contable or not. 

Second, uncontable nouns do not use plural forms. For instance, we cannot say "the rices". 

Reduced Adjective Clauses and Appositives

Reduced Adjective Clauses

In the spoken language speakers reduce the sentences and they try to save time.

Let see an example>

The man who is reading the newspaper is my uncle.

As we can see, "who is" links the many with the action. But what if I do it shorter? Is it possible? Yes, it is. I can reduce this sentence whithout "who is".

The man reading the newspapes is my uncle.

This procedure helps to use less words in a sentence and say what you want faster.

Rules for reducing

1) It is possible to reduce adjective clauses that use adjective clauses pronouns.

The girl who is talking on the phone is my cousin.
Here I can reduce because after "who" there is present progressive (to be + gerund).
So, the reduced sentence is "The girl talking on the phone is my cousin.

2) Check the verb situation

Pay attention to the next situations:

a) The boy who is playing the violin is great!
b) The woman who is on the righ.
c) The environment is polluted by the human
d) The house that was painted by my father is very big.

It is possible to reduce the clauses cutting the be verb. Then we get the next options.

a) The boy playing the violin is great!
b) The woman on the righ.
c) The environment polluted by the human
d) The house painted by my father is very big.

But what happens if there is a negative sentence? Read the next example

I like to see people who are not smoking.

In this case we cut "who" and "are", but we do not cut not. Then we get the next sentence>

I like to see people not smoking.

Absence of be verb

People who smoke has a high risk of dying.

In this case it is possible to cut "who" and add the ending -ing to the verb smoke.

People smoking has a high risk of dying.

Collocations

What are collocations

Collocations are words that frequently go together. That means that they are combined in order to give an especific meaning to what we want to say.

It is possible to confuse the words and the verbs because there are many similar words, whose meaning has a meaning of nuances.

Collocations do not have fixed rules about the form of meaning.

Some reasons of errors with collocations

The direct translation from our first language can afect the sentence in English. For example, in my native language, Spanish, we say "it does cold" when we want to say that it is cold. Without a doubt, this sentence does not help the talk partner to understand what we want to say.

Use of collocations

The only way to avoid a bad use of collocations is just to study hard and memorize many expressions. However, I have made a list with the most useful collocations.

Turn on the light
Do the laundry
Read a book (some people can use another verbs like watch)
To damage a book (I remember how once I used the verb destroy to explain that a book was damaged).
Make tea, coffe and other (remember that you cannot cook drinks=)
Have or drink coffe.
Take medicine
Do homework
Brush your teeth
Have a party
Grow vegetables and fruits
I am afraid of spider
The car is expensive (not has an expensive cost)
Get into an accident
Get lost
Married to

Adjective Clauses

What is an adjective clauses?

When we want to describe something or somebody giving specific information, sometimes it is necessary to use words that connect the subject with the descriptions. The words are who, whom, which, that and whose.

Here some examples>

I want to meet a girl who likes to go to the cinema.

I would like to buy the car that has a modern design.

As we see in the examples. after connectors who and that there is a verb.

Adjective Clauses with Subject Pronouns

The subject pronoun who is used for people. After who, we can use the verb in singular or plural. That dependes on the first part of the sentence:

Mary is the girl how is dancing > In this case we use is, because the subject is in singular (Mary).

Mary and Susy are the girls who are dancing there.> In this case we use are becaseu we are talking about two subjects, that is to say in plural.

However, it is possible to use that instead of who. It does not change the sense of the sentence> He is the boy who has many friends or He is the boy that has many friends.

For thing we use that or wich> My girlfriend saw the letter that I wrote for her yesterday.

Adjective Clauses with Object Pronouns

Adjective Clauses with the Possessive

Adjective Clauses with Prepositions

Adjective Clauses with Where

Adjective Clauses with When

Adjectives and Adjective Phrases

What is an adjective?

Adjetives are words that describes nouns and pronouns. They give more information about somebody or something. For example, we know the word cat but if we want to know how the can looks like, we have to give more information using and adjective. For example, the cat is lazy. Usually, the elephants are big. My girlfriend is gorgeus.

Use of adjectives participles

Often, when we talk about feelings, some adjectives look like the present participle or the past participle. The present participle has the ending -ing and the past participle has the ending -ed. For example: exciting and excited. We can say This situation is exciting, but if we talk about ourselves, we have to say We are excited. Here more examples:

This tv show is amusing.We are amused.
This is a boring book. I am bored.

Comparatives and superlatives

When I want to compare things or people, I need to use some special words. The adjectives changes according to how many syllables have the words.

The next table has some examples how to use the comparative forms correctly:

Comparing more that two things

When we compare three or more thing, we need to use the superlative. Fortunatelly, the rules for the superlative are similar to comparative.

Finally, when we use the superlative we use the definite article THE before the adjective>

Mary is the most beautiful girl in the world.

Irregularities

Unfortunatelly, there are some exceptions to these rules. Some adjectives have their own form for both comparative and superlatives. For some reason, not only in English but in many European languages the words good and bad have irregular changes. But if we remember this table, we should not have problems with this>

Modals

Modals verbs are verbs frequently used to express hability, necessity, possibility, probability, permission,  obligation, duty and others.

The main aspect of these verbs is that they do not change. The second important characteristic of modals verbs is that after them, verbs do not change. It is used only the original form (infinitive).

Here there are some examples of their use.

Hability (can)

I can play guitar. I can't play guitar. Can I play guitar?

Necessity (need to)

I need to get money.

Possibility (may)

He may get angry, if he know the truth.

Duty

The soldiers must defend the homeland.

Past Perfect

We use perfect perfect when we talk about an action happened before another one. The best example is this one: When I come home, I noticed that someone had been at my house. 

As we see, when I came home, nobody was there. The theft happened when I was not at home. 

It is important to use the next structure for making sentences. 

Personal pronoun + had + participle> I had left when you came.

I had left when you came.

Questions

In order to ask questions, it is necessary to put the auxiliary verb had at the beginning of the sentence.

Had you left when I came?

Stative verbs

Stative verbs are non-action verbs. They are used to express a state (that is why they are called stative). In general, we use them when we talk about thoughts, emotions, senses and states of being. It is important emphasize that we do not use them to talk about actions.


Some stative verbs are believe, love, like, dislike, taste
 hear, smell, sound. see feel and look.
 be, appear, need and want.

Examples: That sounds good.
I think about you.
This smells good (if I talk about food)
I believe you.

These verbs cannot be used with -ing. So, it is not correct to say "I am disliking that". So we cannot use stative verbs in any progressive sentence.

The present perfect

Present perfect is used to express actions already made in the past. We use it for talking about experiences. For example, I have traveled for many countries. That indicates that I have done that. It is not important whem, but it is important to know that I have done that. 

In order to build such sentences, we use the next structure:

Personal pronoun + have or has (not) + participle. 


Example: I have traveled all over the world.


Present Perfect with since and for

Often we need to connect the past with the present. That means that an action started in the past can be continued in the present. For example, I started to study English in 2007 and I continue studying it in 2017. I can say it using the present perfect and the prepositions since and for. 

I have studied English since 2007 or I have studied English for ten years. 

Since

This preposition is used to highlight the time when an action was started. 
Since yesterday, since last year, since I was born, etc.

I have been sick since yesterday.

For

This preposition is used to talk about how long an action was carried out.


I was working on this project for 10 months.

Questions with present perfect

In order to ask a question using Present Perfect, it is necessary to respect the next order:

Have + personal pronoun +participle  + rest of the sentence.

Example: Have you ever danced with the devil by the pale moonlight?

What have I done? 

Example: in the song "What I've done" the sentence has an emotional tint. It is used present perfect for expressing this idea stronger. 

Present perfect progressive

The present perfect progressive is used for talking about actions that have been developing. If I want to say, what I have been doing, it is necessary to use this structure>

Personal pronoun + have or has + been + gerund. 

Example> I have been reading this book all the day.

In the case of the negation it is necessary to put "not" after have. I have not been working.


As it is known, when we have a question, it is necessary to switch the order and the auxiliary verb Have is at the begining of the sentence> 

Have you been reading this book all the day?