CICLO DE NIVELACIÓN
2 01 8
ENGLISH GRAMMAR
BASICS
María Belén Oliva
Patricia Meehan
Candelaria Luque Colombres
, INDEX
CHAPTER 1
PARTS OF SPEECH 3
EXERCISES 12
CHAPTER 2
THE VERB PHRASE 15
EXERCISES 25
CHAPTER 3
THE NOUN PHRASE 40
EXERCISES 57
CHAPTER 4
ADJECTIVES 70
EXERCISES 75
CHAPTER 5
ADVERBS AND ADVERBIALS 84
EXERCISES 89
CHAPTER 6
BASIC SENTENCE PATTERNS 91
EXERCISES 101
LIST OF IRREGULAR VERBS 107
APPENDIX 111
BIBLIOGRAPHY 113
PREFACE
The main objective of An Introductory Course: English Grammar is to introduce
the first-year university student into the world of English grammar. Most of the
students doing this introductory course have had some previous contact with
,English grammar in one form or another. But here we intend to offer them a new
perspective on the subject: one which relates grammatical structure systematically
to meaning and use.
An Introductory Course: English Grammar does not intend to be a complete
review of English grammar but an impressive survey of some of the main study
areas of this subject. One that supplies basic information about the different
grammatical forms and structures included in the first year syllabus of Práctica
Gramatical del Inglés at Facultad de Lenguas (U.N.C) and which will, naturally, be
given a more detailed treatment during the year.
The organization of the present work goes from a description of the main
grammatical features of isolated words through to sentences and simple texts.
Though we have attempted to simplify grammatical terminology and classifications
as far as possible, we have introduced and explained the metalanguage essential to
describe the grammar of the English language. The treatment of such terminology
goes from simple terms like noun and adjective to more complex ones like time and
tense and ditransitive complementation, notions we consider the future English teacher
and/or translator should master.
The Authors
CHAPTER 1
PARTS OF SPEECH
There are different categories of parts of speech. Each part of speech explains not
what the word is, but how the word is used. The main parts of speech are verbs,
nouns, adjectives, adverbs, determiners, conjunctions, prepositions and pronouns.
nouns
lexical verbs
3
, LEXICAL/CONTENT adjectives
WORDS adverbs
PARTS
OF SPEECH pronouns
FUNCTION/STRUCTURE noun determiners
WORDS conjunctions
auxiliary verbs
prepositions
Lexical words and function words
Parts of speech can be grouped into two major families, depending on their
function and on their grammatical behaviour: Lexical words (or content words) and
Function words (or structure words).
LEXICAL WORDS
Lexical words are the main carriers of information in a text. They can be
subdivided into the following word classes (or parts of speech): nouns, verbs,
adjectives, and adverbs. Of all the word families, lexical words are the most numerous,
and their number is growing all the time, they are members of open classes. They
often have a complex internal structure and can be composed of several parts: e.g.
unfriendliness = un + friend + li + ness. They are generally the words that are stressed
most in speech.
1. Lexical Verbs
The most distinctive feature of lexical Verbs (also called main verbs) is that they
carry meaning. Some verbs express meanings related to actions or physical
activity (do, break, walk), others to mental or intellectual activities (think, believe).
Finally, some lexical verbs express meanings related to states and feelings (be,
seem, like, love).
Eg: I’m sure you did the right thing.
4
2 01 8
ENGLISH GRAMMAR
BASICS
María Belén Oliva
Patricia Meehan
Candelaria Luque Colombres
, INDEX
CHAPTER 1
PARTS OF SPEECH 3
EXERCISES 12
CHAPTER 2
THE VERB PHRASE 15
EXERCISES 25
CHAPTER 3
THE NOUN PHRASE 40
EXERCISES 57
CHAPTER 4
ADJECTIVES 70
EXERCISES 75
CHAPTER 5
ADVERBS AND ADVERBIALS 84
EXERCISES 89
CHAPTER 6
BASIC SENTENCE PATTERNS 91
EXERCISES 101
LIST OF IRREGULAR VERBS 107
APPENDIX 111
BIBLIOGRAPHY 113
PREFACE
The main objective of An Introductory Course: English Grammar is to introduce
the first-year university student into the world of English grammar. Most of the
students doing this introductory course have had some previous contact with
,English grammar in one form or another. But here we intend to offer them a new
perspective on the subject: one which relates grammatical structure systematically
to meaning and use.
An Introductory Course: English Grammar does not intend to be a complete
review of English grammar but an impressive survey of some of the main study
areas of this subject. One that supplies basic information about the different
grammatical forms and structures included in the first year syllabus of Práctica
Gramatical del Inglés at Facultad de Lenguas (U.N.C) and which will, naturally, be
given a more detailed treatment during the year.
The organization of the present work goes from a description of the main
grammatical features of isolated words through to sentences and simple texts.
Though we have attempted to simplify grammatical terminology and classifications
as far as possible, we have introduced and explained the metalanguage essential to
describe the grammar of the English language. The treatment of such terminology
goes from simple terms like noun and adjective to more complex ones like time and
tense and ditransitive complementation, notions we consider the future English teacher
and/or translator should master.
The Authors
CHAPTER 1
PARTS OF SPEECH
There are different categories of parts of speech. Each part of speech explains not
what the word is, but how the word is used. The main parts of speech are verbs,
nouns, adjectives, adverbs, determiners, conjunctions, prepositions and pronouns.
nouns
lexical verbs
3
, LEXICAL/CONTENT adjectives
WORDS adverbs
PARTS
OF SPEECH pronouns
FUNCTION/STRUCTURE noun determiners
WORDS conjunctions
auxiliary verbs
prepositions
Lexical words and function words
Parts of speech can be grouped into two major families, depending on their
function and on their grammatical behaviour: Lexical words (or content words) and
Function words (or structure words).
LEXICAL WORDS
Lexical words are the main carriers of information in a text. They can be
subdivided into the following word classes (or parts of speech): nouns, verbs,
adjectives, and adverbs. Of all the word families, lexical words are the most numerous,
and their number is growing all the time, they are members of open classes. They
often have a complex internal structure and can be composed of several parts: e.g.
unfriendliness = un + friend + li + ness. They are generally the words that are stressed
most in speech.
1. Lexical Verbs
The most distinctive feature of lexical Verbs (also called main verbs) is that they
carry meaning. Some verbs express meanings related to actions or physical
activity (do, break, walk), others to mental or intellectual activities (think, believe).
Finally, some lexical verbs express meanings related to states and feelings (be,
seem, like, love).
Eg: I’m sure you did the right thing.
4
