Faculty of Foreign Languages

Department of English
Level : L1
Module : Grammar
Sequence : Parts of Speech
Lesson : Nouns

1. What is grammar ?
Dictionaries define grammar as the rules and explanations which deal with
the forms and structure of words (morphology), their arrangement in phrases and
sentences (syntax), and their classification based on their function (parts of
speech). Like many dictionary definitions, this makes grammar sound more difficult
than itreally is.

2. Definition
Parts of speech are the classes into which words are put according to their
grammatical uses. They are the basic components of any language. We use them
to express our thoughts and feelings. Words in English can be classified into the
following

types :

adjectives,

adverbs,

conjunctions,

determiners,

interjections, nouns , prepositions, pronouns , verbs.

a. Nouns
Nouns are words that name persons, animals , things , places, ideas, qualities
,and institutions. They may be divided into four categories :
Common nouns : car, bird, student, class, girl, book.
Proper nouns : Dickens, Oxford, Algeria, Renault
Abstract nouns : love, fear, beauty , freedom.
Collective nouns : group , team, herd, .
They are also under three genders :
Masculine
Man
Uncle
King
Actor
Father

Feminine
woman
Aunt
Queen
actress
mother

Neuter
Table
Book
Pen
House
teacher

 They can be singular or plural :

1. Most nouns form their plurals by adding the letter s : cars , doors , girls
2. Nouns that end with s , x , ch, sh, z require an es for the plural : buses ,
boxes , matches, axes , dishes, buzzes.
3. Some words ending in f or fe form their plurals with ves :
Wolf ..wolves, knife ..knives,
scarf.scarfs / scarves
4. Some words ending in y form their plurals with ies, but nouns ending in y
preceded by a vowel usually form the plural simply by adding s :
City .cities , baby..babies, boy ..boys, key ..keys
5. Nouns ending in o form the plural by adding s, some form the plural by adding
es, and some can form the plural by adding either s or es :
Volcanoes , pianos , studios, heroes , radios
6. Many nouns have irregular plural forms :
Singular
Child
Foot
Goose
Tooth
Louse
Mouse
Ox
Man
waman

Plural
Children
Feet
Geese
Teeth
Lice
Mice
Oxen
Men
women

7. Foreign words form the plural by adding s or es, but some, particularly Greek
and Latin words used for scientific purposes, form the plural in the same way
that they do in the original language.
Singular
Analysis
Axis
Basis
Crisis
Criterion
Phenomenon
medium

Plural
Analyses
Axes
Bases
Crises
Criteria
Phenomena
media

They can be countable or uncountable :

a. Countable nouns are nouns which can form a plural. They name anything /
anyone that you can count ( count nouns), and which can be preceded by a ,
an , or a number.
e.g. A bus is coming.
You may need an umbrella.

Here are two books.

b. Uncountable nouns do not have plural forms and cannot be counted (noncount
nouns / mass nouns), they always take singular verbs.
e.g. Water is essential to life and oxygen is too.
They can function as subjects, complements, direct objects , indirect
objects
e.g. Teachers offered the students some books.

Lesson 2 : Pronouns
B. Pronouns:

Pronouns refer to and replace nouns that have already been mentioned, or that the speaker /
writer assumes are understood by the listener/ reader.
Pronouns can be classified as follows
personal

possessiv

Demon-

Reflexive

Relative

Inter-

Indefinite

Recip-

pronoun

strative

pronouns

pronoun

rogative

pronouns

rocal

pronouns

pronoun

pronoun

s
I, me , my, mine, this, that

myself,

you, he, your,

these,

yourself,

him, she, yours,

those

himself,

her,
we,

it his,

her,

us, hers, its,

herself,
itself,

you,

our, ours,

ourselves,

they,

your,

themselves

them

yours,

their,

yourselves

who,
which,
whose,
whom,
that

s
who,
whom,
whose,
which,
what

theirs

pronouns
anybody,
anyone, each
(one), either,
everybody,
everyone,
neither,
nobody, none,
no one, one,
somebody,
someone,
another,
everything,
anything,
something,
both,
few,
many, others,
all, any, each,
more , most,
none

each
other
one
another

Remark:
The personal pronouns have two possessive forms. One form shows
possession by preceding a noun. A personal pronoun in this form may be referred
to as a possessive adjective, since, like an adjective, it describes the thing to which
the noun refers.
e.g. Our mail has been delivered, but theirs has not.

Sequence : Parts of Speech

Lesson : Verbs
e.g.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

This man is a teacher.

I have finished the laundry.
Paul can do anything.
The house has been sold.
She got on the bus.

Verbs are words that tell us what a subject does or is.

Verb classifications :
1. Verbs can be divided into:
a. Helping verbs: can, will, shall, have, be, need.
b. Main verbs: play, explain, say,
2. Verbs can be classified under two categories:
a. Action verbs: (An action means something happening) play, work, make, think, etc.
b. State verbs: (A state means something staying the same) be, act, appear, become,
feel, look, run, seem, smell, taste, sound, continue, prove, remain, sit, stand and turn (only when
they are followed by adjectives).
3. They can be under the active or the passive voice.
4. They can be transitive or intransitive:
a. Transitive verbs need direct objects to complete their meanings.
e.g. He annoyed me.
S
V
O
Note: in the example above the direct object is necessary for the completion of the verb meaning.
Therefore, if the object is omitted, the sentence becomes meaningless.
b. Intransitive verbs do not need objects to complete their meanings.
e.g. Mary arrived.
S
V
5. They can be regular or irregular under the past simple tense and the past participle.
6. They can be singular or plural. Verbs do not form their plurals by adding an s as nouns do. So we say
that a verb is singular when it follows a singular noun or the third person pronouns (he, she, it) in some
tenses. Consider the tables below:

Present simple
Past simple

Present simple
Past simple

To be
Is
was

The singular form

To have
To do
has
does
/
/

To play, to cry, etc.

Plays, cries, etc.
/

To be
are
were

The plural form

To have
To do
have
do
/
/

To play, to cry, etc.

Play, cry, etc.
/

Remark: We say that a verb is plural when it is preceded by a plural noun but there are some tricky cases:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

The news is bad today. (News takes an s but it is singular.)

Everybody is here. (Everybody, somebody, everyone, etc. are singular.)
The number of students is high this year. (The subject here is number.)
Two and two is four. (Sums and products of mathematical processes are expressed as singular.)
Thirty-five thousand dollars is a lot of money. (We refer to the sum.)
Dollars are usually used here. (We refer to the dollars themselves.)
The whole family is on a trip. (The word family is a collective noun regarded as a unit.)
8. The family have decided to go on a trip. (We refer to the individuals of the family.)

Lesson: Modal Verbs

e.g.
1. I may meet him.
2. Shall we stop.
3. I wish I could have helped you.
The modal verbs are a special group of auxiliary verbs ( can, could, may, might, shall, should,
ought to , will, would, must). We use them before other verbs to express certain meanings. They differ in
form and meaning from other verbs. Related verb phrases are be able to , have to , had better, used to, be
used to.
Remarks:
a.
The modal forms of need and dare are used so rarely that they will not be considered here.
b.
Do not add (s) in the third person singular present.
c.
Act as operators.
d.
Can never be followed directly by another modal.
e.
Must be followed by bare infinitives (simple forms) of other verbs in verb phrases.
f.
Most modals can be contracted with not and some can be contracted with the pronoun.
e.g. I cannot do this work. .. I cant do this work.
I will help you. Ill help you.
Meanings of Modals

1. Ability: can, could and be able to

We use can to say that something is possible: that someone has an ability or an
opportunity.
A. Can and be able to
In the present tense, be able to is a little more formal and less usual than can.
e.g. Emma is good with computers. She can write/is able to write programs.
But in some structures we always use be able to, not can :
-

To-infinitive: It's nice to be able to go to the opera, (NOT to-can-go)

After a modal verb: Melanie might be able to help us.

Present perfect: It's been quiet today. I've been able to get some work done.
For the future we use can or will be able to but NOT will-can.
e.g. If we earn some money, we can go/we'll be able to go on holiday next

summer.
I'm afraid I can't come/I won't be able to come to the disco on Friday.
-

But to suggest a possible future action, we normally use can.

e.g. Let's have lunch together. We can go to that new restaurant.

B. Could and was/were able to

- For ability or opportunity in the past, we use could or was/were able to.
e.g. Natasha could play (OR was able to play) the piano when she was four.
- To say that the ability or opportunity resulted in a particular action, something that
really happened,we use was/were able to but not could.
e.g. The plane was able to take off at eleven o'clock, after the fog had lifted.
-

In negative sentences and questions, we can use either form.

e.g. It was foggy, so the plane couldn't/wasn't able to take off.

The pool was closed, so they couldn't/weren't able to have a swim.

2. Permission: can, may, could and be allowed to

a. Asking permission : We use can, could or may to ask for permission.

e.g. Can I use your pen?
May I see the letter? ~ Certainly.
b. Giving and refusing permission : To give permission we use can or may
(but not could).
e.g. You may telephone from here.

You can wait in my office if you like.

c. Talking about permission
- We sometimes talk about rules made by someone else. To do this we use can,
-

could and be allowed to.

We use can to talk about the present, and we use could for the past.
e.g. Each passenger can take one bag onto the plane.
In the 1920s you could drive without taking a test.

We can also use be allowed to.

For a general permission in the past we use either could or was/were allowed
to.

But to say that the permission resulted in a particular action, something that really
happened, we use

was/were allowed to (but not could).

e.g. I was allowed to leave work early yesterday.
3. Possibility and certainty: may, might, could, must, etc
- We use may or might to say that something is possible or that it is quite likely.
We can use them for the present or the future.
e.g. It may/might be a bomb. (= Perhaps it is a bomb.)
- We can use could to say that something is possible.
e.g. The story could be true, I suppose. (= Possibly it is true.)
- Sometimes could means only a small possibility. It is possible (but not likely) that
you will win a million pounds.
- In some situations we can use may, might or could.
e.g. It may/might/could rain later.
-

Something negative is possible.

Something is impossible.

e.g. Daniel may not get the job.

e.g. I'm completely unfit. I couldn't run a

marathon.
-

We use must when we realize that something is certainly true.

e.g. Andrew isn't here. He must be working in the library.

- We use can't when we realize that something is impossible.
e.g. Life can't be easy when you have to spend it in a wheelchair.

4. Necessity: must and have to

-

We use must and have to/has to to say that something is necessary.

When we use the past, or the future with will, we need a form of have to.
And in other structures we also use a form of have to, not must : (To-infinitive,
after a modal verb, Present perfect)

e.g.

I don't want to have to wait in a queue for ages.

She has toothache. She might have to go to the dentist.
Mark has had to drive all the way to London.

We use must when the speaker feels that something is necessary.

We use have to when the situation makes something necessary.
We use should and ought to to say what is the best thing or the right thing to

do. There is no difference in meaning.

use should and ought to in questions to ask for advice.
After should or ought to we can use a continuous form (be + an ing-form).
We use had better to say what is the best thing to do in a situation.
We use be supposed to when we are talking about the normal or correct way
of doing things

e.g. The guests are supposed to buy flowers for the hostess.
5. Suggestions, offers and invitations
A. Suggestions :
- We can use Shall, could , Why don't...?
- To ask for a suggestion we use shall, should or can.
B. Offers :
- We can use will or can to offer to do something.
- We can also use question forms with shall or can.
- To offer food or drink, we use would like.
c. Invitations :
- The words we use in invitations are similar to those we use in offers of food and
drink. To invite someone, we often use Would you like to