A DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR of ENGLISH BY EXAMPLE

207 Pages·2020·3.066 MB·English

by  Andrew Rossiter

A
DESCRIPTIVE
GRAMMAR
of
ENGLISH
BY EXAMPLE

Andrew Rossiter

Linguapress
Also by Andrew Rossiter

Problem words in English – The everyday words that are hard
to use
Linguapress – KDP 2020 ISBN-13: 979 8666 997413.
Available in paperback and as an ebook

A full and clear exploration of over fifty of the most common words
in English which regularly cause confusion for learners and native
speakers too.

.

1
“I love how comprehensive, simple and logical this book is”
Book review on Amazon
ISBN-13: 979 - 8645611750
Revision 2.2
First published in book form 2020.
Copyright © Andrew Rossiter. All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be reproduced, stored in a retrievable system, or transmitted in any form or
by any means without the prior permission of the copyright-holder.
Linguapress. Website - Linguapress.com
2
Preface
The importance of Grammar
Why an understanding of grammar is vital for
effective communication
Languages are natural forms of communication; children
quickly learn to communicate using their native language, and soon
master the main rules of expression without being taught.
Indeed, we cannot communicate efficiently without first mastering
the essential principles of grammar or syntax. If we imagine language
as a big highway, the words are the cars and trucks, but the grammar is
the road signs and markings that tell people driving on it where to go
and how to drive. Without roadsigns, a big highway would quickly
descend into total confusion. Without grammar, we could manage to
produce some sort of elementary communication, such as "Me Tarzan,
you Jane", but we would be unable to form any more complex ideas into
words. It follows that mastering the essential grammatical rules is a vital
skill that needs to be acquired by all learners of any language - native
language or foreign language.
That being said, it is often possible to communicate orally, notably
through dialogue, with minimal mastery of grammar, since oral
communication and in particular dialogue are bilateral processes, in
which the receiver – the person being spoken to – can request
clarification from the speaker until the meaning of a message is clear.
However, even when communicating orally, and even if a poor mastery
of the rules will not normally prevent two people from communicating
relatively effectively, some notions of grammar are essential, as these
ensure that speaker and listeners use the same code.
With written language, grammar is essential; written
communication is deferred or indirect communication, and is
unidirectional, so there is no possibility for the receiver to demand
verification - at least not under normal circumstances. Written
communication and any other form of indirect communication thus
depend on correct use of grammar or syntax, as well as of vocabulary
and spelling, in order to ensure that messages are immediately
comprehensible to the reader, and not meaningless or ambiguous.
1
Then there are social and professional reasons for using good
grammar. For any job that entails writing of any kind, or communication
with coworkers, customers or suppliers – and that means most jobs
except the most humdrum and basic of jobs – employers are
increasingly attentive to the way applicants write and speak. Those who
can't speak coherently, or can't write grammatically, are likely to get
marked way down in a job interview.
Grammatical rules, spelling and vocabulary, even pronunciaton,
are codes, and like any codes, for effective communication to occur,
writers and readers, speakers and listeners, need to work with the
same codes. When a writer uses one code, and a reader tries to use a
different code to comprehend what is written, the exercise in
communication will fail, or partly fail.
This happens all the time, when readers try to understand a
message in a language that they do not master; since they don't fully
share the same code, communication is at best incomplete, at worst
ambiguous or impossible. Even if there are plenty of occasions where,
with a bit of logical thinking, readers or listeners can make a sensible
guess and imagine correctly what the speaker or writer is trying to say,
this is not always the case.
The pages of this grammar were initially put together for the benefit of
non-native speakers of English, particularly advanced EFL and ESL
students and teachers of as a foreign or second language. It is however
very much suited also for students and teachers who are native
speakers, and want clear and evidence-based explanations of how
English works and should be written and spoken.
Of course, this grammar is not complete. No grammar is ever
complete; it is on the other hand full and covers all the essential points
of English grammar likely to be of interest to the ordinary reader.
Finally, this grammar is the fruit of many years experience. Parts of
it were first put together over twenty years ago, others more recently. All
sections have been regularly updated, tested and improved until finally
they constituted a full and coherent descriptive overview of English
grammar today. Doubtless there will be more changes and
improvements in the years to come. Languages never stop evolving.

Andrew Rossiter France 2020

2
3
Table of Contents
1. Verbs
1.1. Verbs: definition, types, forms ................................................... 6
1.2. Verbs: the present tenses .........................................................10
1.3. Verbs: expressing the future .....................................................13
1.4. Verbs: past tenses ....................................................................16
1.5. Verbs: conditional structures – if and unless ..............................19
1.6. Verbs: the infinitive ...................................................................23
1.7. Verbs: the imperative ...............................................................29
1.8. Verbs: active and passive .........................................................31
1.9. Verbs: gerunds, participles and -ing forms ................................35
1.10. Consecutive verbs - whether to use -ing or an infinitive ..........41
1.11. To be: main verb, auxiliary, or modal ......................................43
1.12. To have: main verb, auxiliary or modal ...................................49
1.13. Do and make: uses and differences ......................................54
1.14. Get and got: usage and meanings .........................................58
1.15. Modal verbs 1 - must, should, ought to ..................................61
1.16 Modal verbs 2 - can, may and might... ....................................65
1.17. Verbs of enabling & permission - allow, let, prevent etc. ..........69
1.18. Phrasal & prepositional verbs .................................................71
1.19. Irregular verbs ........................................................................76
2. The Noun phrase
2.1. Nouns : nature, usage, formation .............................................77
2.2. Noun phrases ...........................................................................84
2.3. Count and non-count nouns .....................................................86
2.4. Pronouns 1: Personal pronouns and indefinite pronouns...........89
Pronouns 2: Relative pronouns ............................................93
Pronouns 3: Demonstrative pronouns ..................................97
2.5. Articles ................................................................................... 101
2.6. Quantifiers - some, any, no .................................................... 103
Other Quantifiers - many, few each, all, enough etc. ........... 106
4
2.7. Numbers and counting ........................................................... 116
Numbers: ordinals .............................................................. 120
Numbers: fractions, decimals ............................................. 122
2.8. Possession ............................................................................. 124
2.9. Adjectives in English, formation, use, ordering ........................ 128
3. Other parts of speech
3.1. Adverbs in English .................................................................. 136
3.2. Prepositions ........................................................................... 140
3.3. Conjunctions and connectors .................................................. 145
4. Sentences and clauses
4.1. Word order in statements ........................................................ 156
4.2. Word order in questions .......................................................... 159
4.3. Reported questions ................................................................. 161
4.4. Tag questions .......................................................................... 165
4.5. Negatve structures .................................................................. 169
4.6. Relative clauses ...................................................................... 173
4.7. Punctuation ............................................................................. 180
4.8. Language and style ................................................................. 186

5. Glossary of essential grammar terms .............................. 190

Note: Use of colour in this book.
This grammar makes extensive use of colour coding. Generally
speaking dark rust red coulour is used to highlight the key words in any
paragraph. When other colours are used, such as scarlet or blue or
green, these are to contrast different structures or different categories,
or to relate contrastive examples to different cases.
5
1. Verbs in English
1.1. What are verbs and how are they used?
Verbs are among the essential building blocks of communication in any
language. They are one of the two essential elements of a sentence or
clause. The other is the subject.
Verbs: a definition
A verb exists in relation to a subject. It is the key and essential element
of the predicate in a sentence. The verb expresses an action or
process undertaken or undergone by the subject, or a situation defining
the subject.
Actions: to break, to start, to shout
Processes: to sleep, to eat, to think
Situations: to be, to seem, to live
1.1.1. Verbs in the sentence
Every sentence is made up of a subject and a predicate. The
predicate must contain a verb, but can contain many other elements too
(a complement, an object or more, adverbs, circumstantial expressions,
etc.)
Examples
• The president sneezed.
• You have taken the wrong bag.
• The man and the woman both forgot.
• He forgot to get off the train at York.
1.1.2. Different types of verb
Transitive or intransitive?
Verbs can either be transitive or intransitive. A transitive verb
requires an object, an intransitive verb cannot have an object. Some
verbs can be transitive or intransitive, depending on context.

6
Transitive: to take, to employ, to like, to drop
Intransitive: to sleep, to die, to fall
Verbs that can be either: to give, to burn, to smell
Stative or dynamic?
Verbs can be either stative or dynamic. Stative verbs describe a
situation or state, dynamic verbs describe a process or change of
state. The two categories are incompatible with each other.
Stative – describing a state: to know, to lie, to be, to like,
Dynamic – expressing a change of state: to discover, to lie
down, to become, to learn.
Examples
1) I know a lot of people in London.
2) My father likes beer but not whisky.
3) The scientists discovered a new planet on the edge of the
solar system.
4) I sat down and went to sleep.
1.1.3. Tense, aspect, voice
According to conventional modern linguistics, there are only two tenses
in English, the present and the past. Other “tenses” are verb forms
created with the help of auxiliaries and modals. As well as being a
rather artificial construct, this can be very confusing for students.
Thus, for the purpose of clarity, it is more useful to use the historic
classification of tenses in English, as defined by – among others –
Samuel Johnson. Johnson listed six English tenses, each of them with a
simple and a progressive or continuous aspect.
Here is a table of the main tenses in English, in simple and progressive
aspect, and active and passive voices: sample verb – to make.
7