Language Reference PDF

# Language Reference ## Grammar ### The Continuous Aspect - Use the continuous aspect to talk about: - An action or situation which is/was in progress at a particular time - An unfinished action or situation - A temporary action - A trend, changing action or situation - Use the present...

# Language Reference ## Grammar ### The Continuous Aspect - Use the continuous aspect to talk about: - An action or situation which is/was in progress at a particular time - An unfinished action or situation - A temporary action - A trend, changing action or situation - Use the present continuous to talk about actions or situations currently in progress. - Also use the present continuous to describe future arrangements. - Use the past continuous to talk about an ongoing action in the past, often unfinished.) - Use the present perfect continuous to talk about an ongoing action or situation in the past that is still continuing into the present or has just finished but has a result in the present. - Use the past perfect continuous to talk about an ongoing action or situation in the past that is still continuing up to another time in the past. - Use the future continuous to talk about temporary actions in progress at a particular time in the future. ### The Perfect Aspect - Use the perfect aspect to look back from one time to another. - Present Perfect: This looks back from now to a time before now. It often focuses on completed actions or situations. - Present Perfect Continuous: This focuses on the duration of the action. - Past Perfect: The past perfect looks back from a time in the past to another time before that. - Past perfect Continuous: The past perfect continuous focuses on duration. - Future Perfect: The future perfect looks back from a time in the future to another time before that. - Future perfect Continuous: The future perfect continuous focuses on duration. ## Other Forms - The perfect has an infinitive form: to + have + past participle. - The -ing form is having + past participle. ## Key Language - Stating Requirements, Saying What is Essential and Desirable - Stating Your Position - Clarifying ## Vocabulary - Issues in Education - Reporting What Others Say - Suffixes (Adjectives) - Abbreviations ## Articles - Use the indefinite article (a/an): - To introduce something for the first time. - a/an and one: They are not usually interchangeable. - One + noun means 'not more than one/one only'. - An egg is not enough to make a cake. (= I also need other ingredients.) - Use the definite article (the): - To refer to something mentioned before. - To refer to something obvious from the context (common knowledge). - To refer to something unique. - With a superlative phrase - With the names of some countries and geographical features - Use the zero article (no article): - With general plural and uncountable nouns, and abstract nouns. - With people's names and continents, countries,.. cities, mountains and lakes. ## Modal Verbs: Present and Future - Ability/Possibility: Use can/be able to for ability/possibility. - Permission/Requests/Refusal: Use can, could or may for permission and can or could for requests. Use won't for refusal. - Likelihood/Deduction: Use can, could, may or might to express a likelihood in the present or future. - But don't use couldn't to talk about a general possibility in the future; use might not. - Use must (but not mustn't) and can't (but not can) to express a logical deduction, for something you are certain about. - Advice/Obligation/Prohibition: - Use should or ought to for advice. - Use should, must or have to for obligation. - Use don't have to or don't need to when there is no obligation. - Prohibition is negative obligation. Use can't or mustn't for this. ## Key Language - Stating Your Position - Clarifying ## Vocabulary - Travel Collocations - Multi-word Verbs - The Natural World ## Grammar ### Subordinate Clauses - A sentence consists of one or more clauses. - A sentence may simply be two main clauses, joined by and, but or or. - A sentence often consists of a main clause and a subordinate clause, joined by a subordinating conjunction such as when, because, although, if. - When subordinate clauses begin sentences, they are often separated by commas. - Commas are not used before 'that' clauses. - A main clause can stand by itself. - A subordinate clause can't stand by itself. - Subordinate clauses are dependent on a main clause; they often express a notion that explains or completes something in the main clause, e.g. a reason or a condition. - Cause/reason (because, as, since) - Result (so) - Condition (if, unless, provided) - Purpose (to, so that) - Time (before, when, while) - Relative (who, which) - Reported speech (that) ### Modal Perfect - A modal perfect is a modal verb + have + past participle. - Use must/can't couldn't have + past participle to express certainty about something in the past. - The opposite of must have done is can't/couldn't have done. It expresses impossibility. - Use may/might/could have + past participle to express a degree of possibility in the past. - Use should/ought to have + past participle to express past necessity or criticism. - This can also express regret. - Use needn't have + past participle to say that we did something, but it turned out not to be necessary or there was no obligation. - Compare with didn't need to + infinitive. When we use this, we don't know whether the action happened or not. ## Key Language - Stating Objectives - Giving Strong Advice ## Vocabulary - Dependent Prepositions - Adjectives of Character - International Relations ## Grammar ### The Passive - Form the passive with a form of be + past participle. - Use the passive in the present and past continuous, but avoid other continuous forms. - Form the infinitive of the passive with to be + past participle. - Form the passive after modals with be (without to) + past participle - Form the passive of -ing forms with being + past participle (e.g. after prepositions). - Intransitive verbs cannot be made passive. - The passive is often used because the agent is obvious or unknown or unimportant. It is also sometimes used to avoid naming the agent, perhaps to avoid blame or responsibility. - If we want to give the agent, we use by: - We can also use the passive to manipulate the order of information in a text. - We can choose to put longer subjects at the end of a sentence by using the passive. - The passive is also used to describe processes. ## Complex Noun Phrases - Complex noun phrases are used to describe the noun in a sentence. - They either appear before the noun (pre-modifiers) or after the noun (post-modifiers). - The most common pre-modifiers are adjectives. - When more than one adjective is used, they appear in a certain order: opinion size shape age + colour origin material purpose. - Form compound adjectives by using a hyphen between each word used to describe the noun. - nouns can also be used as pre-modifiers. - Form compound nouns by joining two nouns, either as one word, with a hyphen, or as two words. - Use adverb + adjective collocations to give more information about the noun. - A phrase introduced by a preposition can be used as a post-modifier. - Full and reduced relative clauses can also be used in this way. - Similar to these are clauses formed with a present participle or a past participle. - Use that to introduce a whole clause (subject + verb + object) after the noun. - To introduce the purpose of a noun, use a to-infinitive. ## Key Language - Criticising - Accepting Criticism - Offering Counter-Arguments ## Vocabulary - Describing Technology - Collocations