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Art. No 34106 ISBN 978-91-44-11460-6 Second edition 2:1 ÂŠ The author and Studentlitteratur 2012, 2016 studentlitteratur.se Studentlitteratur AB, Lund Cover design: Signalera/Jens Martin Layout: Henrik Hast Printed by Mediapool Print Syd AB, Estonia 2016

Content PREFACE 7 1

GRAMMAR ALL AROUND US 9

1.1 Why learn grammar? 10 1.2 Grammar and the world 11 1.2.1 Grammar has meaning! 11 1.2.2 Language variation and change 13 1.3 How to use this book 14 1.4 A window on reality: using a language corpus 16 2

BUILDING A SENTENCE 17

Questions for problem-solving and discussion 18 2.1 The building blocks of language 20 2.1.1 Word classes 22 2.1.2 Clause elements 24 2.1.3 Grammatical phrases 27 2.2 Sentence structure 29 2.2.1 Main clauses and dependent clauses 29 2.2.2 Avoiding run-on sentences 31 2.2.3 Avoiding sentence fragments 32 Brief revision 35 Exercises 36 3

USING NOUNS TO TALK ABOUT THINGS AROUND US 37

Questions for problem-solving and discussion 38 3.1 One or more? Singular and plural nouns in English 42 3.1.1 Formula and crisis: plurals borrowed from other languages 42 3.1.2 Sheep and Swiss: plurals without a plural marker 43 3.1.3 Pyjamas, scissors and police: nouns which are always plural 43 © T H E A U T H O R A N D S T U D E N T L I T T E R AT U R

Content

amage and damages – different meanings in the singular and D the plural 45 3.1.5 Chapters 3 and 4 – logical plurals in English 46 3.2 To count or not to count 47 3.3 Expressing ownership in English nouns: the genitive and the of construction 49 3.4 Expressing (in)definiteness: articles in English 50 3.4.1 A method or the method? 50 3.4.2 In court – no article in English 53 3.4.3 Music or the music? General and specific meaning 54 Brief revision 56 Exercises 58 3.1.4

USING PRONOUNS TO TALK ABOUT THINGS AROUND US 61

4.1 4.1.1 4.1.2 4.1.3 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.4.1 4.4.2 4.4.3 4.5 4.5.1 4.5.2 4.5.3 4.5.4 4.6 4.6.1 4.6.2 4.6.3 4.6.4 4.6.5

Questions for problem-solving and discussion 62 Personal pronouns 65 Pronouns and gender in different languages 66 Money → it, scissors → they 66 There expressing existence 66 Demonstrative pronouns 68 Possessive pronouns 69 Interrogative pronouns 70 What or which? 70 Who or whom? 71 Whose or who’s? 71 Relative pronouns 72 Which, who or whom? 72 That and the zero relative 74 Whose and of which/whom 74 Is the relative clause necessary or not? 75 Quantifying pronouns 76 Some and any – a matter of meaning rather than form 76 Anyone who or the one who – general or specific meaning? 77 Everybody/everyone – plural meaning, singular form 78 Each other 79 Quantifiers and uncountable/plural nouns 79

Content

4.6.6

The whole of China 80 Brief revision 81 Exercises 83

USING VERBS TO TALK ABOUT WHAT WE DO 85

Questions for problem-solving and discussion 86 5.1 Main verbs and auxiliary verbs 91 5.2 The do-construction 93 5.3 I’m singing or I sing? Progressive and simple verb forms 94 5.3.1 The progressive form (I’m singing) 95 5.3.2 The simple form (I sing) 96 5.4 The study was made in 2010 – passives in English 97 5.5 Can/could and will/would: the modal auxiliaries 98 5.5.1 Can – could 99 5.5.2 May – might 100 5.5.3 Must – have /got/ to – ought to 100 5.5.4 Will – would 101 5.5.5 Shall – should 101 5.5.6 Used to 103 5.6 Walk and go – regular and irregular verbs 104 5.7 Verbs and time 105 5.7.1 He loves but they love – subject-verb agreement in English 105 5.7.2 Now and then – present and past 107 5.7.3 Talking about the future in English 109 5.7.4 If only … – conditional constructions 111 5.8 We decide to go but we avoid going: combining two main verbs in English 112 5.8.1 Verbs followed by a to-infinitive 112 5.8.2 Verbs followed by a bare infinitive 113 5.8.3 Verbs followed by a verb in the ing-form 114 5.8.4 Verbs belonging to more than one group 115 5.9 Verb forms after prepositions 116 Brief revision 120 Exercises 122

Content

USING ADJECTIVES, ADVERBS AND ADVERBIALS TO DESCRIBE THINGS AND SITUATIONS 125

Questions for problem-solving and discussion 126 6.1 Adjectives and adverbs 129 6.2 Good – better – best: Comparison of adjectives and adverbs 130 6.3 The blind and the absurd – adjectives functioning as heads of noun phrases 132 6.4 British and American – nationality adjectives (and nouns) 135 6.5 Different adverb types 136 6.5.1 Happily and northwards – adverbs related to adjectives and nouns 136 6.5.2 Always and here – adverbs which are not related to adjectives and nouns 139 6.6 Adverbs and adverbials 140 6.7 Adverbials and word order 142 6.7.1 Adverbials in initial position 142 6.7.2 Adverbials in mid-position 143 6.7.3 To never go – the split infinitive 144 6.8 However and moreover – adverbials linking parts of a text 144 Brief revision 147 Exercises 149 7

REVISION EXERCISE AND KEYS 151

7.1 Revision exercise 152 7.2 Key to questions for problem-solving and discussion 153 7.3 Key to exercises 167 7.4 Key to revision exercise 175 APPENDIX 179

Appendix 1 – Some common irregular verbs 180 Appendix 2 – Nationality adjectives and nouns 184 Appendix 3 – Useful expressions including prepositions 190 Appendix 4 – Useful expressions including pronouns 194 Appendix 5 – Useful expressions including numerals 195 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READING 197 INDEX 199

Preface

Some years ago I took on a major enterprise: writing a new university grammar of English for Swedish students. This project took many hours of hard work, but turned out to be a success. Today the book, A University Grammar of English – with a Swedish Perspective (UGE), is used for first-term students of English in universities and university colleges all over Sweden. So far, I’ve mainly had very positive feedback from students and teachers alike, and in 2015, a second digitalized edition of UGE, was released. A problem with that grammar book, however, is that for students who do not study the regular English course, but rather take a short course of academic writing in English, for instance within a university program focusing on economics or technology, UGE is too comprehensive and contains too much terminology. That is why I decided to write this book, a condensed grammar, built up in the same way as UGE, but focusing only on the most essential things students who want to improve their academic writing in English need to know. Another problem for the type of students mentioned above is that my larger university grammar text contains Swedish examples, translation exercises and so forth. This book is entirely in English and can thus be used by foreign students studying in Sweden without knowing any Swedish at all – preferably in combination with a contrastive grammar book in their own language. In this second edition of Essential English Grammar, the whole book has been digitalized. Twelve audio lectures on particularly tricky issues are now easily available from the digital book. I would like to thank all my previous students of English at Växjö University, Blekinge Institute of Technology and Kalmar University College for their many interesting questions, which have forced me to continuously widen my knowledge of this fascinating phenomenon called English grammar. Furthermore, I would like to thank my © T H E A U T H O R A N D S T U D E N T L I T T E R AT U R

Preface

colleagues Sheila Feldmanis and Liselotte Kjellme for suggesting that I write this book, and Sara Norrby Wallin and her family for letting me use their house as my writing den. My last thanks go, as always, to my ever-expanding family – Anders, Sanna, Maya, Lova and Adam – for constant love and inspiration. Maria Estling Vannestål May 2016

3 USING NOUNS TO TALK ABOUT THINGS AROUND US

CHAPTER 3 Using nouns to talk about things around us

3.1 One or more? Singular and plural nouns in English As you probably know, it is usually very easy to form a plural in English. You simply add an -s, as in one book – two books. Some words, however, look different in the plural. Irregular plurals man – men, woman – women foot – feet, goose – geese, tooth – teeth mouse – mice, louse – lice child – children, ox – oxen calf – calves, half – halves, knife – knives, leaf – leaves, life – lives, loaf – loaves, shelf – shelves, thief – thieves, wife – wives, wolf – wolves echo – echoes, hero – heroes, potato – potatoes, tomato – tomatoes

Note: The plural -s of an abbreviation is either just added directly to the abbreviation or preceded by an apostrophe: Where have all the CDs gone? All the CD’s in the series have the same layout.

3.1.1 Formula and crisis: plurals borrowed from other languages There is one special group of words which are useful to know about, since they are quite common in academic writing. These are called foreign plurals and have been borrowed from Greek and Latin.

CHAPTER 3 Using nouns to talk about things around us

Foreign plurals words ending in -a: e.g. formula – formulae words ending in -is: e.g. analysis – analyses, basis – bases, crisis – crises, diagnosis – diagnoses, hypothesis – hypotheses, oasis – oases, parenthesis – parentheses, thesis – theses words ending in -on: e.g. criterion – criteria, phenomenon – phenomena words ending in -us: e.g. bacillus – bacilli, stimulus – stimuli

Note: Some people use criteria and phenomena as singular forms (one criteria, one phenomena), but this form is not generally accepted, so it is a good idea to avoid it. Some nouns can have either the foreign plural or the English one: focus – foci/focuses, appendix – appendices/appendixes, index – indices/indexes.

3.1.2 Sheep and Swiss: plurals without a plural marker Another special group of plurals are those called zero plurals, because they look the same in the singular and the plural. A number of animals (e.g. sheep, fish, salmon, deer), nationality words in -ese (e.g. Chinese, Japanese) and the nationality word Swiss belong to this group. Other examples of zero plurals are the words aircraft, barracks, crossroads, headquarters, species and series: (a) Could tiger farms save a species? (singular) (b) How many species exist on earth? (plural)

3.1.3 Pyjamas, scissors and police: nouns which are always plural Some nouns are always plural. First, there are a number of nouns for things that consist of two parts (usually joined at one end or in the middle). Some of these are items of clothing (such as knickers, pants,

CHAPTER 3 Using nouns to talk about things around us

pyjamas/pajamas, tights and trousers) and tools/instruments (such as binoculars, scales, scissors and tweezers). A second group consists of words which refer to living beings (such as cattle, people, police and vermin). Remember that nouns which are always plural also take plural forms of verbs and pronouns: My pyjamas are warm from the laundry and smell soft, and I smile when I put them on. The police are continuously working to determine the number of missing persons after the earthquake disaster in Southeast Asia.

Especially people and police are often incorrectly used with singular verb or pronoun forms by learners of English: *It’s great for us to have been able to meet and play in front of so much people this summer. (correct form: … so many people …) *The police is usually OK, but sometimes the alcohol checkpoints are quite frequent. (correct form: The police are …)

In the last sentence, we refer to the police in the sense of the ‘police force’. If you prefer to talk about a specific individual, the most politically correct way is to talk about a police constable or police officer etc. depending on the person’s rank (rather than a policeman or police woman). Note: It is much more common to use people than persons when you put the noun person in the plural. Persons are mainly used in particular phrases, such as homeless persons and missing persons. People can be used both in the singular (a people) and the plural (peoples) when you talk about nationality: A people that forgets its history is a people without a future.

Finally, there is a third group of various nouns ending in -s which mainly exist in the plural, such as belongings, congratulations, fireworks, groceries, lyrics, outskirts, surroundings and valuables. © T H E A U T H O R A N D S T U D E N T L I T T E R AT U R

CHAPTER 3 Using nouns to talk about things around us

3.1.4 Damage and damages – different meanings in the singular and the plural A small group of nouns can have different meanings in the singular and in the plural. Here are a few such example: (a) Running shoes may cause damage to knees, hips and ankles. (singular, the word damage referring to a case where something is damaged) (b) Reality TV star Katie Price has been ordered to pay “substantial” damages after falsely claiming her ex-husband was romancing his manager. (plural, the word damages referring to a sum of money decided by a court as a punishment for hurting someone or someone’s property) (a) What is the moral of this story? (singular, the word moral referring to what you can learn from something you read or watch) (b) This selfless act of preventing Teddy from hurting himself, shows that his morals are good. (plural, the word morals referring to someone’s behaviour or way of thinking)

Other nouns of this type are content – contents, custom – customs, look – looks and manner – manners. Also note that nouns ending in -ics can be used both in the singular and the plural, with slightly different meanings (although the noun looks the same in both types): (a) Statistics is primarily concerned with the analysis of data. (singular, referring to a subject that you can, for instance, study at university) (b) Statistics have shown that the number of foreign students in Arizona has decreased by 1.8 percent since last year. (plural, referring to actual figures) © T H E A U T H O R A N D S T U D E N T L I T T E R AT U R

CHAPTER 3 Using nouns to talk about things around us

3.1.5 Chapters 3 and 4 – logical plurals in English In some expressions, the plural form of a noun is used in English where a singular form is used in some other languages. Since there are two or more items involved, it seems quite logical to use the plural form of the noun, thus the expression logical plurals. These can be categorized into four different groups: • expressions denoting changes from one item to another, such as

change buses, jobs, lanes, places, planes, seats, trains etc.:

When the covers are lifted, the rabbits have changed places. • expressions denoting human interaction, such as be/make friends

with, shake hands:

I made friends with the bullies.

containing two or more numerals or letters, such as in the 17 and 18th centuries, chapters three and four, sections (a) and (b):

• expressions th

The dominant women’s undergarment in the 18th and 19th centuries was the corset. • phenomena related to the body, soul, personal belongings etc. in

cases where two or more people (or animals) are involved, such as all … lives, blow … noses, bring … umbrellas, change … minds, have bad/good appetites, have large/small brains/heads/mouths/noses etc., lose … jobs/lives, make up … minds, shake … heads: All owls have large heads.

CHAPTER 3 Using nouns to talk about things around us

3.2 To count or not to count Some nouns, in both English and other languages, cannot be counted or divided into singular and plural; we make a distinction between countable nouns and uncountable nouns. Examples of uncountable nouns are sugar and music. We do not talk about *one sugar –*many sugars or *one music – *many musics. Furthermore, an uncountable noun cannot be used with the indefinite article (*a sugar – *a music) and it always takes a singular verb form (sugar is – music is). Some uncountable English nouns (e.g. progress, knowledge and behaviour) are countable in other languages, which makes it difficult for learners, as exemplified in the following sentences from student essays: *We might not save all animals on earth, but we can make a considerable progress. (correct form: … make considerable progress) *He also seems to know everybody, and these knowledges help him solve new cases successfully. (correct form: … and this knowledge helps …) *Scientists have found several signs in their behaviours that point to the fact that animals do have consciousness. (correct form: … in their behaviour …)

Here is a list of some frequent nouns that are uncountable in English and countable (or mainly used in the plural) in some other languages. Some uncountable English nouns advice cash evidence furniture

homework jewellery knowledge money

news pollution progress stationary

Note: The uncountable noun news is particularly problematic, since it has an -s at the end and therefore looks like a plural, although it

CHAPTER 3 Using nouns to talk about things around us

functions as a singular. Remember that it takes a singular verb form (e.g. is and has): All news is hot news.

Some nouns can be both countable and uncountable, depending on the context: How many times have you been arrested, Mr President? (countable) Time is running out. (uncountable)

If you do not know if a noun is countable or uncountable in a certain situation, you can look it up in an English-only learner’s dictionary. The dictionary usually gives you both definitions and concrete examples, to make it possible for you to decide if a noun should be regarded as countable or uncountable in a specific context. Here is an example from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English concerning the word time: (a) [U] –‘something that is measured in minutes, hours, years etc. using clocks’: a machine that can travel through time. (U = uncountable noun) (b) [C] –‘an occasion when something happens or someone does something’: It was the only time I ever saw her lose her temper. (C = countable noun)

Some more examples of frequent nouns that can be both countable and uncountable are business, coffee, glass, hair, iron, paper and work: How do I cite a work by Shakespeare? (countable, referring to a specific book or something else that someone has produced) It’s time to go to work. (uncountable, referring to what people do for a living)

You can watch an audio lecture on uncountable nouns.

CHAPTER 3 Using nouns to talk about things around us

3.3 Expressing ownership in English nouns: the genitive and the of construction When you want to express ownership (and similar relations) in English, a typical way is to use the genitive, which means that you add an apostrophe (’) and an s to the noun. The genitive is mainly used about people, animals and countries: Virginia Woolf’s classic novel To The Lighthouse explores the artist’s role in society and life. The Horse’s Mouth is a 1944 novel by Joyce Cary. China’s economy has surpassed Japan’s.

In many languages, ownership is always expressed in a way more similar to the English of construction, which is used in English when the “ownership” concerns things and phenomena, rather than people, animals and countries: How do I find the IP address of my computer? The meaning of life constitutes a philosophical question.

This may cause problems for some learners of English who overuse the of construction. There are also three common mistakes related to the use of the genitive apostrophe: • to forget the genitive apostrophe (*Peters friends, correct form:

Peter’s friends) • to put the apostrophe in the wrong place (see below) • to use an apostrophe for a plural form which is not a genitive (*Minimal instruction’s give more interesting result’s, correct form: Minimal instructions give more interesting results)

CHAPTER 3 Using nouns to talk about things around us

The placement of the apostrophe in a genitive construction tends to be a problem for many learners of English. This is how the apostrophe should be placed: • singular nouns: apostrophe before the s – the professor’s lectures

(only one professor involved) • plural nouns: apostrophe after the s – the professors’ lectures (two or more professors involved) • plural nouns which do not end in s – apostrophe before the s: the People’s Republic of China • personal name ending in s – either apostrophe plus another s or just an apostrophe added: Charles’s or Charles’

3.4 Expressing (in)definiteness: articles in English One of the most complicated areas of learning English tends to be the mastering of articles; should I use a, an, the or no article in the noun phrase? The reason is that there are different ways of expressing definiteness and indefiniteness in different languages. Many languages have articles similar to the English ones (for instance, French, German, Spanish, Danish and Swedish), but in some areas of the language system, the usage differs between the languages. In many languages, however (for instance, Slavic languages and many Asian and African languages), there are no articles at all. This makes it difficult for learners of English to know when and how to use articles.

3.4.1 A method or the method? Let us first make a basic distinction between the indefinite article (a/an) and the definite article (the). A/an is used to talk about something new, something that we have not already mentioned or could expect the listener or reader to be familiar with: © T H E A U T H O R A N D S T U D E N T L I T T E R AT U R

CHAPTER 3 Using nouns to talk about things around us

I have got a headache. Here is an interesting phenomenon.

On the other hand, the is used when we talk about something that we have mentioned, or that we could expect the listener or reader to know about anyway, for instance because it is a generally existing phenomenon: The method we just described is a very old one. We have all been taught that the sun rises in the east, but does it really?

This difference between the indefinite article and the definite article corresponds to the use of articles in many other languages. There are also cases, however, where the indefinite/definite article is used in English but no article is used in the corresponding construction in another language. Here are some such examples from my own mother tongue Swedish: • a/an when a noun phrase classifies someone according to his or her

occupation, religious beliefs, political affiliation, nationality etc: Kunal Verma is a researcher at Accenture Technology Labs. (no article in Swedish)

• a/an in certain expressions introduced by have:

Nearly 1.7 million Hong Kong people have a driving licence. (no article in Swedish) • the in the names of hotels, restaurants, museums, mountain ranges,

groups of islands, rivers, canals, seas, deserts, some countries and cities (e.g. the Gambia, the Netherlands, the Hague) and most newspapers (but not magazines) The first Royal Governor, a former pirate named Woodes Rogers, brought law and order to the Bahamas in 1718. (no article in Swedish)

Maria Estling Vannestål has a PhD in English linguistics and many years’ experience of teaching grammar and academic writing at university level. She is also the author of the more comprehensive A University Grammar of English – with a Swedish Perspective (Studentlitteratur 2015).

Essential English Grammar Essential English Grammar is a book for those who want to improve their English grammar skills. The explanations are easily accessible and illustrated by authentic examples from various sources, including students’ essays. The book further includes questions for discussion as well as exercises. The author addresses a number of typical problems facing learners of English, with a specific focus on areas important for producing correct academic texts, making the book particularly useful for short courses in academic writing. Since it is written entirely in English Essential English Grammar can be used by international students. The website accompanying this second edition contains a digitalized version of the book as well as twelve audio lectures on particularly tricky issues.

Art.nr 34106

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