Progressive Known As Continuous Is Basically an Ing Word E.G. Singing, Dancing

Troublesome Terms

Progressive – known as ‘continuous’ is basically an ‘ing’ word – e.g. singing, dancing.

Past Progressive - WAS/WERE + an ING word

e.g. Amanda was making a cake.

The children were singing at school.

Present Progressive – IS/ARE + an ING word

e.g. Michael is playing football.

The girls are dancing in a show.

Perfect Progressive – you can have past perfect progressive or present perfect progressive.

Past Perfect Progressive – Ashley had been playing tennis for an hour.

Present Perfect Progressive – Jess has been baking a pie.

Subjunctive – very few phrases and used in more formal styles.

Most common and most likely to appear – If I/they were….. + modal verb.

e.g. If I were to do my homework, I would improve my score.

If they were to train harder, there is a chance they could win.

Other examples:

If I had set out earlier, I would have caught the bus.

If he were to come here this evening, I would invite him to the party.

If it rained this afternoon, the match should be cancelled until next week.

It is imperative that the new law be implemented.

If the rumour be true, everything is possible.

Noun –names a person or thing. E.g. Thefox jumped the gate.

A common noun refers to people or things in general: dog, tree, bridge, chair.

A proper noun identifies a particular person, place or thing. Proper nouns begin with capital letters such as James, Africa, Friday, April.

Abstract nounsrefer to ideas, qualities and conditions – things that cannot be seen or touched.

e.g. danger, happiness, friendship, jealousy

Collective nouns refer to groups of people or things. E.g. crowd, family, team, herd

Noun Phrase – a phrase which is centred around a noun. Description of the noun can be before the noun, after the noun or both.

e.g. Big foxes can jump.

Foxes with bushy tails can jump.

Adverb – An adverb gives more information about a verb, an adjective or a other adverb. It can go either before or after the verb. An adverb tells you more about how, when, where and how often something happens.

e.g. Later, a cat crept up the tree as the little, green bird eagerly pecked the juicy apple twice and ate it noisily.

Some adverbs are used for emphasis: very heavy, quite unusual, rather large.

Adverbial – like an adverb, it modifies a verb or clause. Preposition phrases and sub-ordinate clauses can be an adverbial.

e.g. The bus leaves in five minutes (preposition phrase – modifies ‘leaves’)

She promised to see him last night (noun phrase – modifying either ‘promised’ or ‘see’)

They tell you more about the how or when the verb was/is done.

If it is a fronted adverbial, it just means it comes first in the sentence, before the verb.

e.g. The day after tomorrow, I’m visiting my friend.

Preposition – A preposition links a following noun, pronoun or noun phrase to some other word in a sentence. Often describe locations or directions, but can also describe relations of time.

e.g. Tom waved goodbye to Christy.

She’ll be back from Australia in two weeks.

I haven’t seen my dog since this morning.

Preposition Phrase – Main focus of the phrase is the preposition, followed by a noun, pronoun or noun phrase.

e.g. He was in bed.

I met them after the party.

Pronoun – A pronoun can be used instead of a noun. Using a pronoun avoids repeating the noun again and again.

e.g. The boy peeled the apple and ate it as he sat on a bench.

Possessive pronouns - These tell you who or what owns what: his, her, our, your, their, its, my, mine etc…

e.g. The boy peeled his apple and ate it as he sat on a bench.

Relative pronouns – These introduce more information about the noun: who, whom, which, what.

e.g. The boy who sat on the bench.

Conjunction – A conjunction links words or groups of words.

e.g. Later, a cat crept up the tree as the little, green bird eagerly pecked the juicy apple and ate it noisily. The cat paused before he got to the bird. He watched the bird quietly because he didn’t want to scare it away.

Coordinating conjunctions – join words or groups of words which are of the same importance in the sentence. They link two main clauses together to form a compound sentence. You can easily remember all the coordinating conjunctions using this simple acronym: FANBOYS.

Subordinating conjunctions- A subordinating conjunction

links a main clause with a subordinate clause.

Here are some examples of subordinating conjunctions:

if, while, because, although, since, after, before, until, when etc..

Verb – A verb describes an action.

e.g. The boy peeled the apple and ate it as he sat on a bench.

Modal verbs– Modal verbs are used to express possibility: will, would, could, can , should, may, might, shall, should, must, ought.

e.g. We must take him to the river. I should share these sweets.

Adjective – An adjective gives more information about a noun. It normally goes before the noun.

The young, hungry boy peeled the juicy apple and ate it as he sat on an old, wooden bench.

Determiner– A determiner goes in front of a noun and its adjectives to help to tell you which person or thing the sentence is about, or how many of them there are.

e.g. The young, hungry boy peeled one juicy apple and ate it as he sat on a wooden bench.

‘The, an and a’ are called articles which are a type of determiner. More determiners include: this, that, these, those, some, any, each, fifty etc..

Active and passive voice – In a sentence with and ACTIVE verb, the subject of the sentence is doing the action. This is called the active voice. E.g. The little boy kicked the ball. In a sentence with a PASSIVE verb, the subject is being acted on. This is called the passive voice. The ball was kicked by the boy.