English Skills 1: Grammar and Language Fundamentals

English Skills 1

Greetings and Introduction

• Ways to express gratitude:
• Thank you (a lot/very much/so much)
• Thanks (a lot/very much/so much)
• Many thanks
• That's very kind of you
• I'd like to thank you
• Thanks a bunch
• Cheers
• You've saved my life
• I'm really grateful/I'm very appreciative/I really appreciate
• Replies to thanks:
• You're welcome
• Come again
• Don't mention it
• It's my pleasure/The pleasure's mine
• Not at all
• No problem
• Any time
• It's ok

Language Functions

Inviting and Offering

• Ways to invite someone:
• Will you come and share?
• Would you like to join us for dinner?
• Please, come and we share
• Ways to offer something informally:
• Do you want a cup of tea?
• Fancy a cup of tea?
• Just for you
• Ways to offer something formally:
• Would you like a cup of tea?
• Would you care for a cup of tea?
• Would you mind a cup of tea?
• May I get you a cup of tea?
• Replies to accept/refuse an offer informally:
• Yes, please/No, thanks
• Yes, why not/No, not at the moment
• Thanks
• Replies to accept/refuse an offer formally:
• Yes, that would be lovely/No, I'm alright

Unit 6: Plural of Nouns

• Rules regulating plural of nouns:
• Generally formed by adding –s to the singular
• Nouns ending in –s, -ss, -sh, -ch, or –x form their plural by adding –es to the singular
• Most verbs ending in –o also form the plural by adding –es to the singular
• Nouns ending in –y preceded by a consonant form their plural by changing –y into –i and adding –es
• Nouns ending in –f or –fe form their plural by changing –f or –fe into –v and adding –es
• A few nouns form their plural by changing the inside vowel of the singular
• Some nouns have the same form in both singular and plural
• Some nouns are used only in the plural
• Some nouns look plural but are in fact singular
• Abstract nouns have no plural
• Collective nouns can be added to abstract nouns
• In compound nouns, the plural of the singular is put on the most important word

Tenses

Present Perfect Continuous Tense

• To indicate an action that began in the past and is still in progress
• To indicate an action that was in progress in the past and has just finished

Past Simple

• To indicate an action completed at a particular time in the past
• Often occurs with adverbs or adverb phrases of past time (e.g. yesterday, last week, last month, a week ago, …)
• To indicate an action in the past (which occurred during a period of time)

Past Continuous Tense

• For action was in progress at a certain time in the past
• For two actions in progress at the same time in the past
• For an action in progress when another past action began

Past Perfect Tense

• Mainly used to indicate an action in the past which had happened before another action in the past

Past Perfect Continuous Tense

• Mainly used to say how long something had been happening before something else happened

Future Tense

Simple Future Tense

• With if-clauses to indicate an action that is likely to happen
• To talk about things that we cannot control

Adjectives

Position of Adjectives

• Placed immediately before the noun that it qualifies
• After verbs like “to be”, “to seem”, “to look”, “to taste”

Formation of Adjectives

• Many adjectives are formed from either the past participles of verbs, and so end in –ed, or from the present participles and so end in –ing
• Examples of adjectives ending in –ed include: annoyed, blackened, jailed, damaged, developed, coloured, guarded,….
• Examples of adjectives ending in –ing include: amusing, interesting, horrifying, worrying, satisfying, amazing,…

Degrees of Comparison of Adjectives

• Positive degree
• Comparative degree:
• For short adjectives, the rule is: adj + er + than
• For long adjectives, the rule is: more + adj.+ than
• Superlative degree:
• For short adjectives, the rule is: the + adj.+ est
• For long adjectives, the rule is: the + most + adj.

Homophones

• Words that read the same but have different meanings and spellings. Examples: see/sea; b/bee; eight/ate; one/won; two/too