This Week's Grammar: "The" - a small but complicated word.

If you'd like to explore the use and omission of articles, (a, an, the) in English, go to this link.

(Almost) Everything an EOI Student should know about Grammar

The Noun

Singular and Plural; Exercises
Possessives;  Exercises
Countable and Uncountable Nouns; Exercises

The Adjective

What is an adjective?
Position of adjective; Exercises
Order of adjectives;
Possessive adjectives; Exercises
Comparatives and Superlatives;  Exercises
interested v. interesting; Exercises
Adjectives and their prepositions; Exercises

Determiners

a/an; Exercises
the; when we don't use "the"; Exercises; More exercises
ordinal numbers and cardinal numbers
Quantifiers: much / many / little / few;  Exercises
Demonstratives: this, that, these, those; Exercises
Quantifiers: too much / too many; too little / too few; Exercises
Too / enough; Exercises

Pronouns

Personal pronouns; Exercise on Personal Pronouns (Subject Form); Personal Pronouns (Object Form); Possesive Pronouns; Reflexive Pronouns; Reflexive and Reciprocal Pronouns.
Interrogative Pronouns; Exercises
all, both; niether, none;  Exercises
each, every; Exercises

The Verb

State (stative) verbs v. action (dynamic) verbs; Exercises
Question forms
Subject and Object Questions; Exercises
Be;  Have; Exercises
Do;
Imperative; Exercises
the -ing form after certain verbs
the-ing form after all prepositions Exercise
The Present Simple;
The Present Continuous;
Present Simple or Present Continuous? Test
The Present Perfect;
Present Perfect Simple or Present Perfect Continuous?
Prsent Perfect or Past Simple?
The Past Simple;
The Past Continuous;
The Past Perfect;
Past Simple or Past Continuous?
Past Simple or Past Perfect?
Expressing the Future
will / be going to;
present continuous / going to;
there is / there are; there was / there were;
can / can't; should; have to; must; may; might; need
used to; Exercises
used to v. would
passive voice
zero conditional; Exercises
first conditional
modal verbs of deduction: present
modals of obligation and permission - present
modals of past obligation


Past, present and future

Talking about the present
Talking about the past
Talking about the future

The Adverb

Where they go in a sentence
Adverbs of manner
Adverbials of place
Advebials of location
Adverbials of direction
Adverbials of distance
Adverbials of time
Adverbials of probability
Comparative adverbs
Superlative adverbs

Prepositions

Prepositions of time
Prepositions of place
Prepositions of direction and movement
Prepositions of duration: for, since, during

Linkers

How to link ideas within a setence and between sentences.


Miscellaneous

So and Such; Exercises
For and Since with the Present Perfect
Stop doing v. stop to do
For and During
At last, Finally, and In the end . . .
Infinitive of Purpose (to go, to live, to study . . . )

This Week's Grammar - Infinitive or Gerund?

 

 

The form of a verb (eg, to go, go or going) can  be determined by a preceding verb. Look:

 

verbs + "to" infinitive:

 

decide to go

forget to go

hope to go

would like to go

 

verbs + bare infinitive:

 

let me go

make me go

 

verbs + ing

 

enjoy going

hate going

like going

don't mind going

 

 

Click here for a fuller explanation and exercises on this point.

Click here for a verb list.

This Week's Grammar

In our NI2 Class, we've been looking at the Second Conditional.

We saw how we use the Second Conditional to talk about hypothetical conditions in the present or future that will PROBABLY NOT happen. We wrote some poems to illustrate this grammar point. Can you identify the structure? What verb tense follows "if"? What verb tense occurs in the other part of the sentence? Where do we put the comma?

If happiness was a needle, many people would be dead.
If happiness was a flower, you would have a flowershop.
If happiness was a cloud, my son would always be in the sky.
If happiness was a common cold, I would always stay in bed.
If happiness was a tree, I would like to be Robin Hood.

Luis

If happiness were a common cold,
I wouldn’t have enough tissues.
If happiness were a star,
It wouldn’t have enough place for the moon.
If happiness were a flower,
It would have a lot of allergies.
If happiness were a cloud,
It would be raining the whole day.
If happiness were a tree,
It wouldn’t have problems with the environment.
If happiness were a needle,
It would be painful.

                                                                                                                                                  Ofelia

If love was a real faithful friend,
It would never cheat you.
If love was an umbrella, 
It would protect you from the rain.
If love was the summer season,
It would be represented by a garden with plenty of roses.
If love was for all of life,
You would never die because of it.


Armando and Yuribia.

This Week's Grammar

Predicting the future

In NB2 this week, we're going to look at the modal verb, "will", to predict the future. Here are some explanations and exercises you can do to help you.

This Week's Grammar

It's important to know how to ask questions correctly. The Marc Chagall College Interactive Book is an excellent resource. Click here. (You have to click on the coloured tabs on the right-hand side to turn the pages.) There is also a very, very good site for learning vocabulary. You can access it here.

This Week's Grammar

In the test de nivelación, many candidates confused "interested" and "interesting". Do you know the difference? Click here and go to "grammar bytes: interesting vs. interested."

This Week's Grammar

EOI Guía has published a very useful slideshow on when (NOT) to use "a" and "the". Click here for quick access to the blog.

This Week's Grammar

Used to do / Get used to doing / Be used to doing . . .

For some extra practice, click here and here and here!

This Week's Grammar

March 4th is National Grammar Day! For a catchy grammar song, click here. To practise this week's grammar point (gerunds and infinitives) click here.

This Week's Grammar

This Week's Grammar

"If God had wanted us to be vegetarians, he wouldn't have made animals out of meat!"

Such is Homer Simpson's way of thinking, anyway!  In this sentence, he's using quite a complex grammatical structure that some of us had difficulty using in our reading activities last week. If you'd like to find out more about how to talk about things in the past which DID NOT happen, go to Saro's blog here.



Order of Adjectives

Spiky black hair



In English, it is common to use more than one adjective before a noun, for example, "He's a silly young fool," or "she's a smart, energetic woman." When you use more than one adjective, you have to put them in the right order, according to type. This page will explain the different types of adjectives and the correct order for them.

This Week's Grammar

We've been looking at the Present Perfect. We saw how we use this aspect of the verb in English to look back on past experiences without saying exactly when they occurred. We considered different monuments or geographical features which still exist today and thought about their life.

 


Maspalomas Lighthouse

 

You have seen golden dunes

and then hotels

You have seen fishermen

and then tourists

You have lived quiet nights

and then noise and madness

You have seen a paradise

and then a desert






Church of Saint John, Arucas

 

  

You have seen doves of peace

You have seen lovers inside

You have seen a cross

You have seen new projects and old ideas

You have seen one hundred years of our history

You have seen workers of blue stone

You have announced death when your bell tolls





Las Canteras beach, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria



 You have seen the dreams of children

You have seen the walk of the elderly

You have seen the sea on the sand

You have heard the sea against the water's edge

You have known the son, the father and the grandfather

You have known hatred and love