Bptli2(2 3) grammar guide by Somos Idiomas

UNIT: 1 - Nouns

Gramática BPTLI22 – BPTLI23

Nueva versión cortesía de:

IDIOMAS MODERNOS

Diseño: Stephany Vargas

UNIT: 1 - Nouns

Texto: Prof. Gustavo Santamaría

1 - Nouns

A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. Examples: Maria, house, picture, food, happiness Add –s or –es to form the plural of most nouns. Examples: home – homes girl – girls match – matches fax – faxes The plural forms of certain nouns are made by following special rules. city – cities

calf – calves

goose – geese

radio – radios

sheep – sheep

A quantifier is a word that expresses quantity or amount of something. Some apples

little milk

few friends

Nouns are divided into common nouns and proper nouns. city → Caracas person → Elizabeth author → Orwell song → “Imagine”

UNIT: 1 - Nouns

Examples:

1. What is a Noun? A word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. With nouns we also express additional meanings such as concepts, qualities, organizations, sensations and events.

Examples: People: aunt, doctor, teacher, mother, Mr. Brown, Gregory, George Orwell Places: kitchen, park, hotel, El Cafetal, Caracas, classroom, hall, office, lobby Things: blanket, mouse, mirror, telephone, monkey, car, community, plane Ideas: freedom, intelligence, sincerity, democracy, joy, beauty, charity, fear

A few nouns have identifiable ‘noun endings’ like:

tradition, ability, instrument,

excellence, significance, parks. Nouns can also be recognized by the position they have in the sentence. They often follow an article such as a, an, the, a quantifier such as either, any, much, or many, and also adjectives such as happy, delicious, white, nice. Examples:

a house

either way

a much richer person

delicious pizza

A noun can be recognized as well by the function it performs in the sentence. A noun may act as:     

Girls love playing with dolls. The teacher assigns homework every day. They are workers. Fred is in love with Tina.

Classification of Nouns 2.1. Common and Proper nouns a. Common nouns: they name any person, place, thing or idea. b. Proper nouns: they name a particular person, place thing or idea. These nouns must begin with capital letter. Common and proper nouns can also be concrete and abstract.

UNIT: 1 - Nouns

the subject of a verb: the object of a verb: the complement of a verb: the object of a preposition:

Common Nouns Proper Nouns

country Colombia

state Bolivar

team Juventus

restaurant Mastranto

airline Mexicana

2.2.Concrete and Abstract nouns a. Concrete nouns: they name something that can be seen, heard, smelled, tasted or touched. b. Abstract nouns: they name something that cannot be perceived through the senses. Concrete Nouns Abstract Nouns

thunder Skill

Susan truth

water honesty

milk apathy

perfume greed

2.3.Collective and Compound nouns a. Collective nouns: they represent groups of people or things. b. Compound nouns: they contain two or more words, normally nouns. They may be written as one word, as two words, or with a hyphen. Collective Nouns Compound Nouns

family oil-rig

committee bookcase

crowd sunlamp

group light bulb

flock bluebird

 A collective noun is singular in meaning when it refers to the group as a unit. Examples: - The committee selects the winner. (group/singular) - The government has to decide on that policy. (group/singular)

Examples: - Her family believe she’s successful. (individuals/plural) - The jury disagree about the issue. (individuals/plural) However, most people use plural verb forms and pronouns with collective nouns.

UNIT: 1 - Nouns

 A collective noun is plural in meaning when it refers to the individual members of the group.

3. Uses or Functions of Nouns As stated at the beginning of the unit, a noun may act as a subject, object (direct or indirect), complement (subject complement=predicate nominative), or object of preposition. Noun as subject: Noun as direct object: Noun as indirect object: Noun as complement: Noun as object of preposition:

Astronauts fly space shuttles. The magician amazed the audience. The teacher gave the students their notebooks. Steve Austin is the director’s assistant. The officer talked to Peter.

4. Singular and plural nouns Nouns that name one person, place, thing, or idea are called singular nouns. Nouns that name more than one are called plural nouns. Based on this difference, nouns can also be countable and uncountable. 

Countable nouns are the ones that can be counted, and have both singular and plural forms. Uncountable nouns are the ones that cannot be counted, and only have singular form.

Singular Nouns Plural Nouns

Countable Nouns

Uncountable Nouns

packet packets

tomato tomatoes

goose geese

beds pets bag oxygen love shorts news

bananas phones party happiness ink pants means

colors photos girl advice money scissors clothes

match matches

perfumes houses currency sugar music mumps arms

baby babies

fingers faxes mouse homework sadness beer

Note: words like beer, hair, glass, coffee, soup, pizza, fruit, food, politics and others could be either countable or uncountable depending on context and meaning.

UNIT: 1 - Nouns



HOW TO FORM THE PLURAL OF NOUNS: Singular nouns

To form the plural

1. most singular nouns

just add -s

2. most singular nouns ending in o

add -s

solos, studios, photos, pianos, radios, rodeos

a few singular nouns ending in o

add -es

heroes, tomatoes, echoes, potatoes

3. singular nouns end in s, sh, ch, x, ss or z

add -es

when a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) comes before y 5. most singular nouns ending in ff, f or fe

for some nouns ending in f

change the y to i and add -es just add -s

boy-boys, way-ways, ray-rays, day-days, jockey-jockeys

Change the f to v and add -es

life-lives, wife-wives, shelf-shelves, knifeknives, thief-thieves, loaf-loaves

add -s

roof-roofs, chief-chiefs, reef-reefs, cuffcuffs, belief-beliefs

6. some irregular nouns

change their spelling

7. a few irregular nouns

keep the same form

8. compound nouns written as one word

brushes, faxes, masses, ashes, dishes, axes, buzzes, buses, ranches, boxes, churches army–armies, candy–candies, ferryferries, baby-babies

change the last word in the compound

compound nouns written as a hyphenated word or as two separate words

change the most important word

9. some Latin or Greek nouns

specific plural endings

man-men, woman-women, goose-geese, mouse-mice, child-children, ox-oxen, foot-feet, tooth-teeth, person-people deer, sheep, moose, salmon, trout, bison, species, series, fish, aircraft stepchild-stepchildren, firefly-fireflies brother-in-law = brothers-in-law life jacket = life jackets crisis-crises, cactus-cacti, phenomenonphenomena, curriculum-curricula

Adapted from: The Writer’s Craft. Page 539, and Language Arts Today. Page 68

UNIT: 1 - Nouns

4. singular nouns end in consonant + y

Examples prizes, dreams, circles, cows, stations, boys, bats, rats, pets, nouns, friends, desks, bees

5. Quantifiers A quantifier or is a word that expresses quantity or amount of something without stating the exact or actual number. Quantifiers can be a single word or a phrase and are used with nouns. They can be used with both countable or uncountable nouns. There are three main types of quantifiers.

many, a few, few, each, every

Quantifiers used with uncountable nouns

much, a little, little

Quantifiers used with either countable or uncountable nouns

some, no, a lot of, lots of

ď&#x201A;§

A few / few - A little / little

ď&#x201A;§

Each / Every

UNIT: 1 - Nouns

Quantifiers used with countable nouns



Some / Any / No



A lot of / lots of – Much – Many UNIT: 1 - Nouns

Source: Upstream. Intermediate Plus. Workbook. Unit 8. Pages 123 & 124

Source: Upstream. Intermediate Plus. Workbook. Unit 8. Pages 123 & 124.

6. What are appositives? An appositive is a noun or pronoun that usually comes after another noun or pronoun and identifies or explains it. The appositive provides detail to your writing and they are not based on verbs Examples: – My mother, the teacher, speaks three languages. – George Orwell, the novelist, was born in India. – Old Faithful, a geyser, erupts nearly every sixty-seven minutes.

7. What is an Appositive Phrase? An appositive phrase consists of an appositive and its modifiers (articles, adjectives, adverbs,

(come before) the word it modifies.

UNIT: 1 - Nouns

prepositions); however, they DO NOT contain verbs. Sometimes appositive phrases precede

Examples: – Jean Nicolet, the French explorer, landed on the shore of Green Bay in 1634. (The adjective French modifies the appositive explorer. This appositive phrase comes after the word it modifies: Jean Nicolet.)

– An epic tale of adventure and heroism, the story of King Arthur is loved by people of all ages. (The adjective epic and the prepositional phrase of adventure and heroism all modify the appositive tale. This appositive phrase comes before the word it modifies: story.) Essential appositive phrases: They make the main idea of a sentence complete, and clearly identify the noun with which they appear. If the sentence is read without the essential appositive, meaning could be lost. Commas are not used with essential appositives. Examples: – The cartoon cat Garfield is overweight, out of shape and grumpy. – The enchanted country Ireland has captured people’s imaginations for centuries. – The vast national park Canaima is located to the south of Venezuela. Nonessential appositive phrases: They add extra information or meaning to a sentence that is already clear and complete. When you leave out the appositive phrase, the meaning of the sentence does not change. Use commas to set off this kind of appositive. Examples:

– Peter Foley, a bachelor, was married in the White House. – Poe, the creator of the detective story, introduced new ideas.

UNIT: 1 - Nouns

– Often people in a story face a dilemma, an unpleasant choice.

1. Instructions. Read the text carefully and do the following activities: a. Identify and underline all the nouns. b. Provide a full classification of each noun (common, proper, concrete, abstract, collective, compound, countable, uncountable, singular, plural). c. Establish the function of each noun (subject, direct object, indirect object, subject complement, object of preposition).

Guide to eating out in Los Angeles By Marian Cummings An inexpensive meal in Los Angeles doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t always mean hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza or other kinds of fast food. Restaurants serving food from other countries are also becoming popular, and they have good food at good prices. About a month ago, I decided to travel around the city and try the food in a variety of inexpensive restaurants. I found wonderful Chinese, Italian and Middle Eastern restaurants with food as delicious as anything you can find in Hong Kong, Rome or Beirut. Of all the restaurants I visited, I do have one favorite-a pleasant little Mexican restaurant, El Rancho, at 2905 Burbank Avenue.

________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________

UNIT: 1 - Nouns

________________________________________________________________________

2. The following nouns can be either countable or uncountable according to context and meaning. Write two (2) sentences per noun in which you express both meanings. Example: beer: 1. People in Venezuela drink a lot of beer. (uncountable) 2. My friends drank many beers last night. (countable) food

paper

water

hair

chicken

time

glass

1 ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 2 ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 3 ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 4 ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 5 ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 6 ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 7 ______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ 3. Using your own ideas write two sentences with essential appositives and two sentences with nonessential appositives. Use commas where necessary.

UNIT: 1 - Nouns

______________________________________________________________________________

The Printing Press If you asked a large number of people what the most important invention has been, many would say the printing press. Others might say the wheel. But even though itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s debatable whether the appearance of the printing press affected the course of history more than the wheel, the printing press ranks within the top two or three inventions in history. Long before the telephone, the television, the radio, and the computer, the written word was the only way to communicate ideas to people too far away to talk with. Until the sixth or seventh century, all books had to be written by hand. In the sixth and seventh centuries, the Japanese and Chinese invented a way to print pages by carving characters and pictures on wooden, ivory, or clay blocks.

______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ Taken from: Top Notch 3B. Unit 8. Page 94

UNIT: 1 - Nouns

______________________________________________________________________________

coffee

cake

room

time

3. Add final â&#x20AC;&#x201C;s / -es to the nouns in italics if necessary. Do not add or change any other words. 1. I had chicken_ and rice_ for dinner last night. 2. Mary always has fresh egg_ available because she raises chicken__ in her yard. 3. Outside my window, I can see a lot of tree__, bush__, grass__, dirt__, and flower__.

5. Yoko learned several new word__ today. She increased her vocabulary__ today. 6. I drank two glass__ of water. 7. Window__ are made of glass.

UNIT: 1 - Nouns

4. Tom gave me some good advice__. Milly also gave me some good suggestion__.

8. Jack wears glass__ because he has poor eyesight. 9. It took me a lot of time__ to finish my homework__. I had a lot of assignment__. 10. There are typewriter__, copier__, telephone__, and stapler__ in a typical business office. Business offices need a lot of equipment__.

4. Using your own ideas write two sentences with essential appositives and two sentences with nonessential appositives. Use commas where necessary.

UNIT: 1 - Nouns

___________________________________________________________________

2 - Pronouns

A pronoun takes the place of one or more nouns and the words that go with the nouns. They helped her with the math exercise. A subject pronoun is used as the subject of a sentence. You can’t park on the sidewalk. An object pronoun is used as the object of a verb or as the object of a preposition. Bob, my best friend, gave me a nice football. Use a subject pronoun in a compound subject. Luis and she opened a new shop. Use an object pronoun in a compound object.

A possessive pronoun shows who or what owns something.  Some come before nouns. ► Our cat is grey.  Some stand alone. ► Ours is grey.

UNIT: 2 - Pronouns

The big balloon hit Tony and her.

1. What is a pronoun? A word that refers to and can take the place of a noun, pronoun or a group of words acting as a noun (noun phrase). Pronouns help present ideas clearly and efficiently by preventing unnecessary repetition. They are also used as transitional elements to tie sentences or paragraphs together. Examples: – Kate is married. She has two children. – Hurry up! You’ll miss your train. – My father has a new black Mercedes. He bought it last week. – Many interesting books were donated to the community library. Several of them were short stories.

2. Classification of pronouns 2.1. Personal pronouns a. Subject pronouns: they are the subject of a sentence (I, you, he, she, it, you, we, they). b. Object pronouns: they are the object of a verb or preposition (me, you, him, her, it, you, us, them). c. Possessive pronouns: they tell who or what has or owns something; or can take the place of a possessive noun. 

When used before a noun (my, your, his, her, its, our, your, their)



When used alone (mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs).

d. The cases of personal pronouns. There are three cases:

1. Subject form: – He answered the questions. – We hear the noise.

UNIT: 2 - Pronouns

Nominative case: subject form, or predicate nominative –i.e. after a linking verb

2. Predicate Nominative: – That student must be he. (It follows a linking verb) – The singer was she. = She was the singer. – It’s me vs. It is I. / This is she. / This is her.

NOTE: It’s me = ungrammatical, used only in informal conversation

Objective case: When the pronoun is object of preposition, direct or indirect object 1. Object of preposition: – They gave a surprise party for me. – Give this book to her. 2. Direct object: –The answer surprised her. – Are you following us? 3. Indirect object: – Stephanie sent them a souvenir. – Please, lend me a pen. Possessive case: subject, predicate nominative, direct object / object of preposition, adjectives 1. Subject form: – Yours are the best lines in the play – Ours were sent yesterday. 2. Predicate nominative: – The leading role is hers. 3. Direct object: – I’ve heard your lines, but I haven’t heard his. 4. Object of preposition: – Your part sounds interesting; now I’ll tell you about

5. Adjective: when possessive pronouns are used with the nouns they refer to. – Read your lines slowly and clearly. – I need to paint my house.

UNIT: 2 - Pronouns

mine.

2.2. Indefinite pronouns: They do not refer to a particular person, place, thing or idea. An indefinite pronoun usually does not have an antecedent. Some indefinite pronouns are singular, some are plural and others can be either singular or plural, depending on the context.

Indefinite Pronouns

Singular

Plural Singular or Plural

Examples:

another, everybody, neither, one, anybody, everyone, nobody, somebody, anyone, everything, no one, each, someone, much, nothing, something both, few, many, others, several all, any, most, none, some

– No one knows exactly where Maria went. (singular) – Both like reading fairy tales. (plural) – Most of his music (is) popular. (singular) – Most of his melodies (are) popular. (plural)

2.3. Reflexive pronouns: They point the action of the verb back to the subject and add necessary information to the sentence. Examples: – I cut myself with this knife.

a. Singular: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself. b. Plural: yourselves, ourselves, themselves.

UNIT: 2 - Pronouns

– She is looking at herself in the mirror.

2.4. Intensive pronouns: They are reflexive pronouns that add emphasis to a noun or a pronoun already mentioned. They do not add information. If intensive pronouns are removed, the meaning of the sentence does not change. Examples: – Eva herself bound the paper. –The neighbors themselves cleaned the alley.

A reflexive or an intensive pronoun must always have an antecedent. Examples: – Myself prepared this cake. – I prepared this cake myself.

INCORRECT CORRECT

- They can come with Sue and myself. 2.5.- They Interrogative can comepronouns: with Sue and me.

INCORRECT CORRECT

They introduce an interrogative sentence. They do not have antecedents. The interrogative pronouns are: who, whom, whose, which, what, etc.

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE PREDICATE Wh- Word Auxiliary Subject Verb Predicate Verb Who(m) did you see?

ANSWERS (STATEMENTS) Subject

Verb

Predicate

saw

me.

ANSWERS (STATEMENTS) Subject

Verb

Predicate

saw

him.

UNIT: 2 - Pronouns

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE SUBJECT Wh- Word Verb Predicate Subject Who saw you?

GRAMMAR EXPLANATIONS

1. Use wh- questions to ask for specific information.

EXAMPLES ►Who did you see at Ed’s Grill?

►Why did you go there? Wh- questions begin with question words such as who, what, where, when, why, which, whose, how, how many, how ►How many people saw you there? much, and how long. ►How long did you stay there?

Someone saw you.

2. When you are asking about the subject (usually the first part of the sentence), use a wh- question word in place of the subject. The word order is the same as in a statement.

↓

Who saw you? You saw someone. Did you see someone?

3. When you are asking about the predicate (usually the last part of the sentence), the question begins with a wh- word, but the word order is the same as in a yes/no question. Important: When you ask a wh- question about something in the predicate, you need either:

↓

Who did you see?

►Who is Terry Adams? ►Why was he at Ed’s Grill?

a. a form of the verb be or b. a form of an auxiliary (helping) verb such as do, have, can, will.

►Why does she want to testify?

NOT Why she wants to testify?

Very Formal

Important: If the main verb is a form of be, you cannot use whom.

► Whom did you see?

Informal ► Who did you see? ► Who is the next witness?

NOT Whom is the next witness?

Adapted from: Focus on Grammar. An Intermediate Course for Reference and Practice. Pages 66 & 67.

UNIT: 2 - Pronouns

4. Usage Note: In very formal English when asking about people in the predicate, whom is sometimes used instead of who.

2.6. Demonstrative pronouns: They point out something and stand alone in a sentence.

Notice the difference:

They are used in place of a noun.

- That is a great cook. - That cook is great.

PRONOUN

a. Singular: This (close) – That (far) ADJECTIVE

b. Plural:

- These are repainted walls.

PRONOUN

- These walls are repainted.

ADJECTIVE

These (close) – Those (far)

- This is a corn cob

- Those are my parents’ raincoats. - These are delicious apples and oranges

PRONOUN

- Those raincoats are my parents’. ADJECTIVE

2.7.

Demonstrative adjectives: They are used before a noun rather than in place of it. Examples: – This movie is funny. – Those girls are studying English now.

2.8. Relative pronouns: This kind of pronouns is used to relate, or connect, an adjective clause to the word or words it modifies. An adjective clause is a group of words (subject and verb) that modifies a noun or pronoun. The relative pronouns are: who, whom, whose, which, and that. Examples:

(That is a relative pronoun. House is the word it modifies or antecedent) – Tom Cruise, who starred Mission Impossible, is my favorite actor. (Who is a relative pronoun. Tom Cruise is the antecedent)

UNIT: 2 - Pronouns

– The green house, that I bought last week, belonged to a famous painter.

3. Pronouns and antecedents The antecedent of a pronoun is the word or group of words that a pronoun refers to or replaces. It may be made up of two or more nouns. Pronouns can also be antecedents of other pronouns. The antecedent and the pronoun may appear in the same sentence, or the antecedent may appear in the preceding sentence. Occasionally the antecedent appears after the pronoun. Examples: – The coaches, players and fans appeared happy as they arrived. – They knew their way. – You missed your bus. – The tractor pushed the stones and bricks. It cleared a path. – After he studied, Bill rested.

A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in person, number, and gender. Examples: – People can excel even if they have disabilities. – When Anne began working with Helen, Helen gave her many difficult moments.

4. Problems with pronouns 4.1. Compound constructions – Paola and I learned gardening. – Paola and me learned gardening. (correct only in oral form)

– Maria practices (with) him and I. – Maria practices (with) him and me. The correct compound object of preposition is him and me

UNIT: 2 - Pronouns

The correct compound subject is Paola and I

4.2. Pronouns in comparisons When a pronoun is part of a comparison using than or as, use the nominative form (I, you, he, she, we, it, they) – Marcos is four years older than I (am) – My friend Al has better books than she (does)

4.3. Who vs. Whom Who is always in the nominative case, so it is used as a subject. Examples: – Who was there? – Who will call for tickets? – Who received that pleasant surprise? Whom is always in the objective case. It must be used when the sentence needs an object. Examples: – Whom did the Franklins see? – About whom will you write your biography? – Whom was the speech directed to?

4.4. We vs. Us with nouns The pronouns we and us are often used with nouns: we students, us students. Use we (in the nominative case) if the noun is the subject of the sentence. Example: – We teachers try to convince students to study hard.

Example:

– Nothing can stop us teachers

UNIT: 2 - Pronouns

Use us (in the objective case) if the noun is an object.

4.5. Compound antecedents using OR or NOR. When two or more singular antecedents are joined by OR or NOR, use a singular pronoun. - Neither Peter nor Robert received his test results. When two or more plural antecedents are joined by OR or NOR, use a plural pronoun to refer to them. - Neither the dancers nor the actors brought their costumes. When one singular antecedent and one plural antecedent are joined by OR or NOR, use the noun nearer the verb to decide if the pronoun is singular or plural.

UNIT: 2 - Pronouns

- Neither Alice nor the other guests brought their swimsuits.

1. Instructions. Read the text carefully and do the following activities:

a. Identify and underline all the pronouns. b. Provide the classification of each pronoun (Subject, Object, Possessive, Reflexive, Demonstrative, Relative, Interrogative, Indefinite). c. Establish the case or function of each pronoun (Nominative, Objective, Possessive). d. Identify and circle the antecedents or referents of each pronoun.

Wonders of the modern world by Ann Halliday

I don’t believe that today’s wonders are similar in kind to the wonders of the Ancient World. They were all buildings and statues. In the last two centuries we have seen unprecedented technical and scientific achievements. These are surely our modern wonders. Here is my list.

1 Computers They have already revolutionized the way we live and work. But it is early days for Computers. We don’t know how much they are still changing the world. More computer

2 Space Travel Only a few years before men were walking on the moon, reputable scientists declared that it was impossible. But in 1969 Neil Armstrong stepped out of his space capsule and made his

Taken from: New Headway. Intermediate. Unit 1. Page 10

famous statement: ‘That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind’.

UNIT: 2 - Pronouns

wonders are yet to come.

27 3 We are still here