In Tom Stoppard’s play Travesties, there is a scene in which the Dadaist poet Tristan Tzara takes a copy of Shakespeare’s sonnet ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?’, cuts it up into individual words with a pair of scissors, puts the words into a hat, and proceeds to draw them out again one at a time at random to create a new ‘poem’.
If there were such a thing as a language without grammar, it would be rather like the words in that hat – a jumble, a meaningless collection – and the process of communicating in that language would be as haphazard as the Dadaist method of creating poetry. In fact, all languages have a grammar, and all users of language must know something of the grammar of the language they are using in order to be able to communicate in it at all. Children, unknowingly, learn grammar as they learn to speak and as they gradually increase the range and sophistication of the things they are able to say. They quickly learn the difference between a statement (I want some), a question (Can I have some?), and a command (Give me some) – three types of utterance to which grammar books might devote whole chapters. People frequently complain that they do not know any grammar or were never taught any grammar, but only the second of these complaints is likely to be strictly true.
The point is, of course, that knowledge exists at different levels. Most people nowadays know what a computer is. They can describe what a computer looks like from the outside and roughly what it can do. They can probably use one. Only an expert, though, can describe what a computer is like on the inside and precisely how it functions. The average user of language is perhaps like the average computer user – getting along quite happily until something goes wrong, at which point everything suddenly becomes technical and incomprehensible and someone with specialist knowledge is needed to put matters right.
The purpose of this section of the book is to give ordinary users of English some of the technical know-how they need to solve language difficulties if they should arise. It is also intended to help them acquire some inside knowledge of the way the English language actually works. Last but not least, it may also help them to become more able and confident communicators in a medium that is one of the most versatile and expressive methods of conveying thoughts and feelings that has ever existed.
Languages are continually evolving. This is most obvious in the additions to vocabulary that are needed to cope with technological advances and other alterations to the landscape of everyday life. Words come into use and fall out of use again. Computers, for instance, have spawned an enormous number of new words, some of which have already fallen into disuse as the technical processes they refer to have become outmoded. The way existing words are used changes too – to take one obvious example, the word gay whose main meaning nowadays is ‘homosexual’ rather than the centuries-old meaning of ‘cheerful’ or ‘bright’.
Grammar also evolves – but usually at a much slower pace because it is largely presented in the form of rules and for everyone who wants to change a rule there are usually others who want to preserve it. From time to time, however, attempts are made to overhaul the way in which we describe the grammatical structure of languages completely. One such attempt was made in the mid-twentieth century by the US linguist Noam Chomsky and his followers. While Chomsky’s work has had a profound effect on the academic study of linguistics, most ordinary discussion of language is still conducted on the basis of more traditional concepts and rules. For the purposes of this book, therefore, grammar means traditional grammar.
There are a number of technical terms that the non-technical reader has to be familiar with in order to be able to understand fully what a grammar book or even an ordinary dictionary is trying to say. Most of the basic concepts of grammar are explained and illustrated as they are discussed in the following pages. There is also a brief glossary of terms at the end of the book. Someone who has no previous knowledge of language terminology may, however, find the following brief list useful for understanding its opening sections. A noun is a word that stands for a thing, a person, or quality (book, reader, and readability are all nouns). A pronoun is a short general word that can replace a noun. A personal pronoun is a word such as I, you, her, or them. A verb is a word that stands for an action (be, have, kick, and spend are all verbs). An adjective is a word that provides more specific information about a noun (happy, hot, red, and terrible are all adjectives). An adverb is a word that provides more specific information about a verb or an adjective (happily, terribly, and very are all adverbs). A word that is singular refers to one person or thing only, one that is plural refers to two or more. Child and adult are singular nouns; children and adults are plural nouns. Is is a singular form of the verb to be; are (as in we are or they are) is a plural form.
As soon as words are taken and used to communicate meaning, they form sentences. It is usually assumed that any sentence must contain a verb, but it is better, perhaps, to start from the principle that a sentence is a unit of language that makes sense and is complete in itself. The normal convention for writing a sentence is that it should begin with a capital letter and end with a full stop, a question mark, or an exclamation mark. Under certain circumstances a single word could satisfy all these requirements:
No.
Really?
Impossible!
Such single-word communications, along with slightly longer phrases such as:
For sale.
No parking.
Once bitten twice shy.
are known grammatically as minor sentences – minor because they contain no verb.
Major sentences are sentences that contain a verb. They too can be very short but still meaningful and complete in themselves:
Listen!
I see.
Is that so?
More often, however, major sentences contain other material – for example, a subject, a verb, an object, or words or phrases modifying any of these – and consist of more than one clause.
On the writing of sentences using ‘good style’, see pp. 222–9.
A clause is, like a sentence, a meaningful series of words. Unlike a sentence, however, a clause is not always complete in itself as regards the meaning that it conveys or the action that it describes. Compare the two statements I arrived late and Although I arrived late. The first simply states a fact; there is not necessarily anything more to be said. The addition of although (or any similar word such as when or because) has the effect of implying that there must be more to say about the incident. In that sense, it is not complete in itself.
A clause that is complete in itself is known as a main clause. Every major sentence must have at least one main clause, and a main clause on its own can constitute a satisfactory sentence. A clause that is incomplete in itself is known as a subordinate clause.
A sentence may consist of a main clause on its own: I ran all the way. It may consist of two or more linked main clauses: I ran all the way | and arrived completely out of breath. It may consist of a main clause together with one or more subordinate clauses: I ran all the way because I was afraid of being late. (For more on these, see pp. 15–22.)
All clauses or sentences apart from the most simple ones are made up of different parts. These parts, which may consist of a single word or a group of words, are known as the subject, the verb, the object, the complement, and the adverbial. They are discussed individually in the sections below.
The subject, as its name suggests, is what the sentence is about, often the person or thing that carries out the action of the verb in the clause or sentence. In the sentences Jane called a taxi and Money isn’t everything, the subjects are Jane and Money. To take a more complex example, in the sentence Drinking wine with lunch makes me feel sleepy in the afternoon the subject is Drinking wine with lunch. The subject can also be a subordinate clause (How you do it doesn’t really matter in which the subject is How you do it) or consist of two or more nouns or pronouns (Robert and I are very alike in that in which the subject is Robert and I).
The usual position of the subject is at the beginning of the sentence in front of the verb, as in all the examples above. The subject, however, changes its position in certain types of sentence. In questions the subject normally follows the verb:
Are you there?
How did the dog get out?
It may also be placed after the verb following a piece of direct speech (‘There’s going to be trouble,’ said Anne), for emphasis (Out went the lights), or in clauses introduced by words such as hardly or no sooner (No sooner had I left than the guests arrived).
Whatever its position in the sentence, the subject determines the form of the verb. If the subject is singular, the verb must be singular; if the subject is plural, the verb must be plural: The rose is red but Roses are red. The same rule applies if the subject is replaced at the beginning of the sentence by there: There is a fault in the software (is because fault is singular); There have been problems with the photocopier (have because problems is plural).
The characteristics and functions of verbs will be discussed more fully in a later section (pp. 39–48) of this book. Suffice it to say at this point that the verb is often the focus of a sentence conveying the most important information in it, as in the following sentences:
He spat at me!
It really hurt.
The verb may simply act as a bridge between the subject and the other components of the sentence that relate to it. This is especially the case with so-called linking verbs such as to be and to seem. In sentences such as The man in the brown overcoat smoking a cigar is a distant relative of the Duke of Loamshire, the important pieces of information come before and after the verb (is): The man in the brown overcoat smoking a cigar and a distant relative of the Duke of Loamshire. The verb itself is little more than a convenient way of getting from the one to the other.
The object of a sentence is a word denoting a person or thing affected by the action of the verb. There are two possible types of object in a sentence: a direct object and an indirect object. The direct object is the person or thing directly affected by the action of a verb. In the sentence The car hit a tree, the direct object is a tree. In the more complex sentence that was used to illustrate the subject Drinking wine with lunch makes me feel sleepy in the afternoon the direct object is me. It is usually possible to ascertain which word is the direct object of a sentence by asking a question about it beginning with what? or whom (who?): What did the car hit? – a tree. Whom does drinking wine make sleepy? – me. Like the subject, the object can also be a subordinate clause (They explained why the television keeps breaking down) or consist of two or more nouns or pronouns (She took Celia, Jane, and me to the cinema).
An indirect object is an additional object that occurs with some verbs, especially verbs that involve the action of giving. In the sentences He gave me a kiss and They bought their daughter a flat in London, the direct objects are a kiss and a flat in London respectively. The indirect objects are me and their daughter. The question that uncovers the indirect object is to whom? or to what? or for whom? or for what? For example, What did they buy? – a flat (direct object). For whom did they buy it? – their daughter (indirect object). Indirect objects are usually used together with direct objects, not on their own.
The usual position of both the direct and indirect object in the sentence is after the verb. If there are two objects the indirect object (highlighted here by underlining) is almost always placed before the direct object:
Give me the gun.
She told the man what was happening.
If both the direct and the indirect object are pronouns (me, him, her, it, etc.), the direct object (highlighted) is sometimes placed first, especially in informal speech:
Give it me.
I sent it them weeks ago.
In sentences where the verb is a linking verb of the type mentioned briefly above (to be, to seem, to feel, etc.), what follows the verb is not an object but a complement. In the sentence James is a computer expert, the complement is a computer expert. A complement, in simple terms, is a word or group of words that tells us more about the element of the sentence that it relates to. In the example just given, the phrase a computer expert is a subject complement because it contains a description of the subject of the sentence James. A subject complement usually follows the verb and takes the form of a noun or an adjective or a noun or adjective phrase, as in: The task seemed utterly impossible and She became a fully paid-up member of the union.
The adverbial is the part of the sentence that provides more information about the verb and the action it denotes. It may consist of a single word, an adverb, as in the sentence They chose the site carefully – where the adverbial is carefully. It may, however, consist of a phrase or a subordinate clause. In the following sentences:
I’m leaving first thing tomorrow.
Put the book on the shelf.
The picnic was cancelled because it was raining.
the adverbials are, respectively, first thing tomorrow, on the shelf and because it was raining. There may also be more than one adverbial in a sentence: I’m leaving | first thing tomorrow | on a plane to Singapore.
The adverbial is usually positioned after the verb at the end of the sentence, as in all the above examples. It may also, however, be placed at the beginning of the sentence or between the subject and the verb.
With trembling hands she opened the package.
I immediately left the room.
As explained in the section on the subject (pp. 7–8), the form of the verb is decided by the nature of the subject. The correspondence that must exist between subject and verb is an example of what is known in grammar as agreement or concord. For a sentence to function as a satisfactory whole, there must be agreement between its component parts.
Since verbs in English generally have the same form in a particular tense whether the subject is singular or plural, agreement between verb and subject is not as great a problem in English as it is in some other languages. It does, however, sometimes cause difficulty in verbs such as to be or to have that change their form more frequently than other verbs. Rules of agreement make the phrases you was or he do incorrect – the form of the verb does not agree with the pronoun: the correct standard forms are you were and he does.
Agreement also dictates the form of subject and object complements. If a subject or object is plural, its complement must be plural as well: Jan is an executor but She made Jan and Gordon executors of her will. Agreement also determines which form of the reflexive pronoun (myself yourselves, etc.) or the possessive (my, your, etc.) should be used. This usually involves little difficulty, but it is obviously important to distinguish between You can please yourself (addressed to one person) and You can please yourselves (addressed to more than one).
agreement of verbs ‘Neither Jean nor her sister is coming’ or ‘Neither Jean nor her sister are coming’
Though keeping to the rules of agreement in English is usually a simple matter, there are occasions when it is difficult to determine whether the subject is singular or plural. When the subject consists of two nouns joined by and there is no problem, because the subject is obviously plural:
Jean and her sister are coming.
Both Jean and her sister are members.
But where the subject consists of two nouns linked together with either… or or neither… nor, the situation is less clear. If both or all of the nouns involved are singular, then the verb should be singular: Neither Jean nor her sister (nor her mother) is coming. If the nouns involved are all plural, the verb should be plural: Either the Wilkinsons or the Petersons have the key. Where one of the nouns is singular and the other plural, the usual rule is that the verb agrees with whichever stands nearest to it:
Neither Jean nor her brother and sister know (rather than knows) anything about this.
Either those curtains or that carpet has (rather than have) to go!
The same applies if two different personal pronouns figure in the sentence: Neither he nor I have (rather than has) done anything we ought to be ashamed of. (A little rewriting can often avoid any problems or awkwardness that might arise when trying to apply the rule of agreement in such cases.)
A similar difficulty may arise when the subject takes the form of a singular noun linked to a plural by of. a number of things; a collection of paintings; a procession of visitors. It often seems more natural to put the verb into the plural form. Although a number is strictly a singular form, few people would insist on replacing the plural have with the singular has in the sentence A number of things have cropped up. In other instances, however, standard English offers a choice, depending on whether the speaker wishes to emphasize the unity of the group or the multiplicity of the things or people that make it up: His collection of paintings is going to be sold (considered as a unity) in contrast to A collection of miscellaneous objects were being sold off as a job lot (considered as a multiplicity). (See also p. 25.)
Sentences fall into four main categories: statements, questions, directives (i.e. commands, instructions, or requests), and exclamations.
The commonest type of sentence is a statement. It begins with a capital letter, ends with a full stop and presents the listener or reader with a piece of information without necessarily expecting any response from them. My husband took the dog for a walk along the towpath is a statement, and it has its components in the standard order – subject followed by verb, followed by object, followed by adverbial.
Questions – which end, of course, with a question mark instead of a full stop – ask for information instead of presenting it and usually expect a response from someone. The distinguishing mark of the majority of questions is a reversal of the normal word order of sentences and the placing of the verb before the subject. The statement He is busy is turned into a question by the reversal of the first two words: Is he busy? The order of subject and verb is similarly reversed following a question word such as how, when, where, why, etc.:
How did I know?
Why didn’t you tell me?
It is not, however, always necessary to reverse the subject and verb. The way that a person speaks a sequence of words in the normal order can turn it into a question – the pitch of the speaker’s voice usually rises towards the end of what he or she is saying. Instead of saying Would you like some tea?, it is possible to say You’d like some tea? with the pitch of the voice rising towards the end of the sentence with the same effect. The variation in the pitch of the speaker’s voice is called intonation.
There are also questions known as tag questions. These are statements with a little tag such as isn’t it?, aren’t you?, or won’t they? tacked on the end:
He’s messed it up again, hasn’t he?
It isn’t time to go yet, is it?
Notice that the tag usually reuses the main verb or part of it (He’s (he has)… hasn’t he; isn’t… is it). If the main verb is not, or does not contain, be, do, have, or will, etc., do is used to make a tag:
He smokes, doesn’t he?
She drove here, didn’t she?
Notice also that a positive main clause takes a negative tag and vice versa:
He’s happy today, isn’t he?
He’s not happy, is he?
On the use of question marks, see pp. 155–6.
Directives are orders or requests to other people to do or to stop doing something. They usually have no subject because it is obvious from the situation who is being addressed. The verb is in what is known as the imperative, the command form, which is identical with its base form (see pp. 47–8):
Stop!
Listen!
Sit down, shut up, and eat your breakfast!
Orders such as these end with an exclamation mark.
Not all directives are so abrupt. Instructions, invitations, and requests also use the imperative form of the verb:
Bake in a moderate oven for 20 minutes.
Come to lunch with us next Sunday.
Please pass the butter.
The negative form of the imperative in ordinary English is made using do:
Don’t say that!
Do not exceed the stated dose.
The straightforward negative form of the imperative is usually found only in older literary works: Judge not that ye be not judged (The Bible, Matthew 7:1, Authorized (King James) Version). Do can also be used to add emphasis to an instruction or request (Oh, do stop talking and get on with it) or warmth to an invitation (Do come, we’d love to see you). For the sake of politeness, directives are often rephrased as questions, especially using would or could:
Would you open the door for me, please?
Could you not smoke in here?
Exclamations – which always end with an exclamation mark – express a person’s spontaneous reaction to a situation, usually one of surprise, approval, or annoyance. They often take the form of a minor sentence without a verb:
More power to your elbow!
Longer exclamations sometimes follow the normal word order of statements It’s a girl! Many exclamations, however, begin with how or what and in these the object or complement is placed before the subject and the verb:
How strange it seems!
What a wonderful time we all had!
On the use of exclamation marks, see pp. 156–7.
Interjections are a group of words that have the exclamatory function of expressing an emotion such as surprise, approval, anger, or pain: ah!, oh!, mmm!, ouch!, ugh!, psst! They are more commonly used in spoken English; in written English they are rarely used except in direct speech.
A simple sentence, that is a simple major sentence, consists of a single clause. As mentioned above (p. 6), a main clause on its own can constitute a satisfactory sentence: The sun is shining today. A sentence with more than one clause is known as a multiple sentence. Multiple sentences may consist of more than one main clause or a main clause together with a number of subordinate clauses. Again, as mentioned earlier (p. 6), a subordinate clause is one that is not complete in itself and cannot, on its own, form a satisfactory sentence. Subordinate clauses usually begin with words such as that, which, if, or when.
A multiple sentence consisting of two or more main clauses is called a compound sentence. Compound sentences are linked together by and, but, or or:
Henry is a lorry driver and Jane works part-time in a supermarket.
We do stock those boots, but we haven’t any in your size.
Generally speaking the order of the clauses can be reversed without affecting the sense of the sentence: Jane works part-time in a supermarket and Henry is a lorry driver. The process of linking clauses or other parts of a sentence together in this way is known as coordination (see p. 17). The above examples all illustrate simple coordination between two clauses, but multiple coordination is also possible: The band was still playing and everyone was still dancing, but, for me, everything had suddenly changed.
using ‘and’ or ‘but’ at the beginning of a sentence
The main function of and and but, which are known as coordinating conjunctions, is to link items within sentences. It is often suggested that it is either bad grammar or bad style to begin a sentence with either of them. Neither suggestion is correct. While it is inadvisable to use them to open a sentence too often, they can be used very effectively in the right circumstances: But, soft! what light from yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun…
A multiple sentence consisting of a main clause and one or more subordinate clauses is called a complex sentence. The subordinate clause usually follows the main clause:
They went for a walk, | while we tidied up the house.
I can’t come | because I’ll be in London on Tuesday.
The subordinate clause may also, however, begin the sentence: Since you’re busy, I’ll call again later.
Coordination is the grammatical process of linking together elements of a sentence that have equal status. The section on ‘Compound sentences’ (pp. 15–16) considers how it operates with clauses in compound sentences. It also operates between individual words or phrases:
Do you take milk and sugar?
The day was fine but rather chilly.
You could drive over the bridge or through the tunnel.
These are all examples of linked coordination – i.e. a linking word and, or, or but is used in all of them. It is, however, possible to coordinate words, phrases, or clauses by using punctuation marks instead of the linking words, in which case the process is known as unlinked coordination. Instead of saying It was a cold and frosty morning it is perfectly possible to say It was a cold, frosty morning. Likewise, the but in the sentence James likes coffee, but Henry prefers tea could be replaced by a semicolon: James likes coffee; Henry prefers tea.
It should be noted that when two nouns or noun phrases are linked by and, two different combinations can be produced. Compare the sentences, Jane and Joe kissed the bride and Jane and Joe kissed. The former sentence could be split into two clauses: Jane kissed the bride and Joe kissed the bride. The technical name for combining two noun phrases in this way is segregatory coordination. The second sentence, Jane and Joe kissed cannot be split in the same way and still make sense. The two terms form a unit, as they do, for example, in the sentences Management and unions met yesterday and Oil and water dont mix. The technical term for this is combinatory coordination.
The grammatical name for the relationship between parts of a sentence that do not have equal status is subordination. The parts of the sentence that show subordination are the incomplete or subordinate clauses (see pp. 6–7 and p. 15).
Subordinate clauses can perform many functions. They can substitute for any part of the sentence except the verb, appearing, for instance, as the subject: How it got there is a mystery, as the direct or indirect object:
She doesn’t know what’s going on.
I’ll give a prize to whoever comes up with a workable solution.
or as the adverbial: It broke while I was trying to clean it. It is also possible to use a subordinate clause as a part of, or as an addition to, one of the main elements of the sentence, for example, after a noun as part of the subject or object:
The book that you lent me was very useful.
I haven’t finished reading the book that you lent me.
All the examples of subordinate clauses shown so far have contained a finite verb (that is a verb in the present, past, or future tense; see p. 43). These are called finite clauses. It is also possible for subordinate clauses to be based on an infinitive (the root form of the verb, such as (to) be or (to) carry (see pp. 43–4), or a participle (a form of the verb ending in -ing (present participle) or -ed, etc. (past participle), see pp. 44–6). In the sentences They were happy to see us again and I was just walking along, minding my own business, the phrases to see us again and minding my own business are non-finite clauses.
A comparative clause is a special type of subordinate clause that expresses a comparison between two or more things. There are two kinds of comparisons: those in which the two things being compared are equivalents and those in which they are not.
Equivalence is shown by using the construction as… as:
She is as clever as you are.
I waited as long as I could.
Note that, for grammatical purposes, the relationship is one of equivalence even in a sentence such as: She is nowhere near as clever as you are. Non-equivalence is shown by a combination of a comparative element, either an adjective ending in -er (bigger, smaller) or a phrase containing a word such as more or less, and a clause that begins with than:
She’s a lot taller than I am.
He’s doing less well now than he was a year ago.
In both types of sentence it is usual to drop any parts of the subordinate clause that repeat what is in the main clause:
She is as clever as you (are).
He’s doing less well now than (he was) a year ago.
The job took far less time than (we) expected (it to take).
Comment clauses are short clauses inserted into a sentence to show the speaker’s attitude to what he or she is saying or to make clear what he or she is trying to do. Phrases such as I’m glad to say, I’m sorry to say, to be frank, or to put it another way are typical examples. Unlike other types of clause, they do not relate to a particular component of the sentence, but to the sentence as a whole, and, for that reason, can be inserted in it at almost any point:
To be honest, it doesn’t make much difference.
It doesn’t make much difference, to be honest.
It doesn’t, to be honest, make much difference.
Comment clauses are more often used in spoken than in written English and are quite frequently used simply, as it were, to fill a gap. This is especially the case with phrases such as you know, you see, or I mean: Well, I mean, it’s a tricky situation.
There are two ways of conveying what someone has said. It is, of course, possible to write down the exact words that the person used in inverted commas: ‘I’m sorry, but I can’t help you,’ she said. This is known as direct speech.
There are two parts to a sentence containing direct speech: the reporting clause, consisting of a subject and a verb of saying (in the above example she said), and the reported clause, the words spoken: I’m sorry, but I cant help you. The reported clause is the part in inverted commas.
The reporting clause can also be placed before, after, or in the middle of the reported clause. If it is placed after or in the middle, the normal order of subject and verb is often reversed: ‘It looks very black outside,’ said Jill (or Jill said), ‘I think it’s going to rain.’ Note that subject and verb are not usually put in reverse order when the subject is a personal pronoun: ‘Come on,’ he said, ‘let’s go’ – not said he because it sounds old-fashioned and definitely not shouted he, called he, or answered he.
Reported or indirect speech is a method of conveying what someone said without using inverted commas. It integrates the speaker’s words into the framework of a sentence. This is usually done with a clause beginning with that, although the actual word that is often omitted: She said (that) she was sorry, but (that) she couldn’t help us. In some cases a wh- word (what, where, etc.) appears: They asked us where we had been.
There are a number of adjustments that have to be made when direct speech is changed into reported speech. The personal pronoun in the reported clause has to be changed: She said, ‘I’m sorry’ becomes She said she was sorry. Often changes need to be made to references to time or place: They said, ‘It’ll be ready next week’ might, for instance, have to become They said last week that it would be ready this week. If or whether usually needs to be inserted when transferring a question: ‘Can we come too?’ they asked becomes They asked whether (or if) they could come too. Notice also that the reporting clause always come before the reported clause in indirect speech, no matter where it is placed in direct speech.
The most significant change, however, is in the tense of the verb in the reported clause (see p. 40). The present tense in the reported clause of direct speech becomes the past tense in indirect speech: ‘I’m coming,’ he said becomes He said he was coming. The future tense formed with will becomes the future-in-the-past formed with would: ‘I will be there,’ she said becomes She said she would be there. The simple past tense or the past tense formed with have becomes the pluperfect tense formed with had: ‘We’ve finished,’ they announced becomes They announced that they had finished.
Indirect speech is used in the compilation of minutes of meetings: see pp. 308–9.
Relative clauses are clauses that begin with words such as that, which, who, whose, etc., which are known as relative pronouns, or the words when and where, which are known as relative adverbs. The main function of relative clauses is to give more specific information about the nouns they follow, as in the boy who brought the message or the book that I lent you or a place where we can be alone.
There are two types of relative clause and it is often important to be able to distinguish between them. The first type is called a restrictive or defining clause – the information that such a clause contains is intended to identify a particular person or thing specifically as the one that is being talked about. The second type is called a non-restrictive or non-defining clause. The information that it contains is incidental, an extra. The clause could be omitted from the sentence in which it appears without making it unclear who or what is being referred to.
The difference between these two kinds of relative clause can be seen in the two following examples:
The paragraph that mentions you by name comes about halfway down the page.
The paragraph, which comes about halfway down the page, mentions you by name.
In the first example the crucial piece of information (the fact that someone is mentioned by name) is put into the relative clause that mentions you by name. This clause defines which paragraph is being talked about. In the second example the crucial information is in the main clause and the fact that the paragraph is halfway down the page is put in as a useful but optional extra. That is the nature of a non-restrictive relative clause.
The same form of words can often be used or interpreted either restrictively or non-restrictively. For example, consider the sentence My uncle who lives in Nottingham is a retired headmaster. If someone were discussing all their uncles, then this might be read as a restrictive clause My uncle who lives in Nottingham is a retired headmaster, and my uncle who lives in Derby is a grocer, and as for my uncle who lives in Leicester, he’s a milkman. Uncle by uncle they are being specifically identified by the towns in which they live. On the other hand, perhaps the conversation is not about uncles but about teaching. In this case the fact that the speaker’s uncle lives in Nottingham is really neither here nor there: My uncle, who lives in Nottingham, is a retired headmaster, and what he thinks is…
Non-restrictive clauses are usually enclosed in commas or dashes to indicate that they are dispensable from the sentence: Paulton – which is where I grew up – is a small village in Somerset. It is incorrect to put commas or dashes around a restrictive clause: The paragraph that mentions you by name comes about halfway down the page.
When a non-restrictive relative clause refers to a thing, it must begin with the relative pronoun which:
The car, which was at least forty years old, rattled alarmingly.
Paulton – which is where I grew up – is a small village in Somerset.
Restrictive clauses relating to things may begin with either that or which, although there is an increasing tendency for that to be preferred: The card that/which I eventually chose was a humorous one. If, as in the last example, the noun that the relative pronoun (that, which, or whom) relates to is the object of a restrictive clause, then the relative pronoun can be omitted: The card I eventually chose was a humorous one.
On the use of commas in non-restrictive clauses, see also pp. 150–52.
One further type of relative clause should be mentioned – it is called a sentential relative clause because it relates not to a specific word but to a whole clause or to the whole of the rest of the sentence. Such clauses are also introduced by which: He was late for his appointment – which was not like him at all.
The following sections of this survey of grammar deal with individual types or classes of words, their nature and functions, and the changes that they undergo when they are used for different purposes. A noun stands for a person or thing. The word ‘thing, in this instance, is being used in its widest sense, because nouns denote not only real-world objects or creatures (table is a noun, as are bus, computer, lion, and virus), but also events and actions and completely intangible things such as states, feelings, and concepts (business is a noun, as are conversation, inertia, happiness, and unity).
Nouns are usually classified by type – although many of them belong, or can belong, to more than one type – and these types are usually dealt with in contrasting pairs. There are proper nouns and common nouns, concrete nouns and abstract nouns, countable nouns and uncountable nouns, and collective nouns. These types will now be dealt with individually.
A proper noun is a noun that denotes a specific person or thing. It is, to all intents and purposes, a name. In fact proper name is an alternative term for proper noun.
Proper nouns include people’s first names and surnames, the names of places, times, events, and institutions, and the titles of books, films, etc. They are spelt with an initial capital letter: Sam, Shakespeare, New York, October, Christmas, Christianity, Marxism, and Coronation Street.
All nouns that are not proper nouns are known as common nouns. The same word can be both a common noun and, in other contexts, a proper noun. An enigma (common noun) is a mystery, for example; Enigma (proper noun) is the name of a German encoding machine used in the Second World War, the title of a novel, and the name the British composer Edward Elgar gave to the theme on which he based his Enigma Variations. Road is a common noun when used in the sentence I was walking down the road and part of a proper noun in the name London Road.
Apart from being spelt with an initial capital letter, proper nouns have other characteristics that usually distinguish them from common nouns. They do not, generally, have a plural and they are not, usually, preceded by a or an. There is only one Australia; there was only one Genghis Khan.
Although this is the general rule, however, there are many exceptions to it. There are occasions when either a specific example or several examples of something denoted by a common noun must be referred to: keeping up with the Joneses; buying a Picasso; one of the warmest Januaries on record.
Proper nouns are quite often preceded by the: the United Nations, the White House, the Olympic Games. The t of the is spelt with a capital letter only when it forms an integral part of the name or title: a copy of ‘The Times’; a conference held at The Hague.
Concrete nouns stand for actual objects that can be seen, touched, tasted, etc. Abstract nouns, as the name implies, denote things that are abstract and cannot be seen or touched. Table and lion are concrete nouns; happiness and unity are abstract nouns. Many nouns have both concrete and abstract senses, the abstract sense often being a figurative or metaphorical version of the concrete one. Thus key is a concrete noun when it means an object that unlocks a door, an abstract one in a phrase such as the key to the problem.
Countable nouns are nouns that can form a plural and can be preceded by a or an: a table – tables; an equivalent – equivalents. Countable nouns must in fact be preceded by a determiner (a word such as a, the, this, that or my; see p. oo) when they are singular. It is not possible, for example, to say table stands. Concrete nouns tend to be countable – though by no means all are.
Uncountable nouns are nouns that do not normally form a plural and cannot normally be preceded by a or an. They can, however, stand alone without a determiner (see p. 34) when they are singular. Concrete uncountable nouns include words such as blood, mud, and foliage; concrete in its normal everyday sense of a building material is an uncountable noun. Abstract nouns tend to be uncountable – words such as happiness, gravity, or inspiration.
There are many words that have both countable and uncountable senses. Tea, for example, is uncountable in phrases such as a packet of tea, a cup of tea, or invite someone for tea. Three different senses are involved and in each of them tea is uncountable. In the phrase two teas please (=cups of tea) it is, however, countable. Feeling, emotion, and many similar words are uncountable when they are used generally and abstractly (Try to put more feeling into the way you say the line) and countable when they refer to specific types or examples (a feeling of joy; One can only guess at what their feelings were on that occasion).
Collective nouns are nouns that refer to a group of people or things. Group itself is a collective noun, as are committee, crew, government, flock, herd, team, etc.
using a singular or plural verb with a collective noun ‘The government is united’ or ‘The government are united’
Most collective nouns are countable; their peculiarity is that when they are used in the singular form they can take either a plural or a singular verb. It is possible to say that the government is united or the government are united. It is possible to say the team has lost its last five matches or the team have lost their last five matches. Choosing a singular verb treats the group as a unit; choosing a plural one emphasizes the fact that it is made up of many individuals. While it may be difficult sometimes to decide whether to opt for a singular or plural verb, it is very important that all the attendant words, such as possessive pronouns, match the form that has been chosen for the verb – so it would be incorrect to write either the team has lost their last five matches or the team have lost its last five matches.
Most English nouns form their plural by adding -s: table – tables; team -teams. Nouns whose singular form ends in -ch, -s, -sh, -ss, -x, or -zz add -es to make the plural: bunch – bunches; cross -crosses. Nouns that end in one or more consonants and -y (lady, shanty, monarchy, etc.) change the y to ie and add s in the plural (ladies, shanties, monarchies) (see p. 137). All these plural forms are regular – that is to say that they follow the standard pattern for a particular feature or operation in a language.
Many common English words have irregular plurals – in other words they do not conform to the standard pattern. Obvious examples are words such as man and woman (plurals men and women) or mouse, child, and foot (plurals mice, children, and feet respectively). It is partly because these are very basic, common words with a long history in the English language that they have retained these unusual plurals, which were, in fact, regular in the forms of the language that were the ancestors of modern English.
Words that end in the letters –f (or -fe) and -o frequently cause difficulty because some of them have regular plurals and some have irregular ones. The plural of thief is thieves, but the plural of chief is chiefs. Life pluralizes as lives, but fife as fifes. Eminent people have been caught out by the fact that potato and tomato become potatoes and tomatoes, although large numbers of words ending -o simply add -s (avocados, pianos, photos, and radios). See also p. 138.
There are no easy rules, unfortunately, for irregular plurals in English. They simply have to be learnt and remembered.
There are a number of words that have been imported into English directly from foreign languages and have retained a foreign form as their only plural or, increasingly nowadays, as an alternative to a regular English one. The majority of these come from Latin or Greek. The more specialized and technical they are, the more likely it is that they will retain a Latin or Greek plural.
Latin nouns usually end in -a, -ex (or -ix), -um, or -us. The Latin plural of -a is -ae, while that of -us is -i, and words whose singular form ends in -um have a plural ending -a. Larva and vertebra become larvae and vertebrae in the plural, nucleus and stimulus become nuclei and stimuli, bacterium and stratum become bacteria and strata.
Words taken from Greek that have irregular plurals tend to end in -is or -on. Words whose singular form ends in -is usually end in -es in the plural (basis – bases; crisis – crises). Words such as criterion and phenomenon have plurals that end in -a (criteria and phenomena).
It should be noted that the fact that a word ends in one of the above combinations of letters does not automatically mean that its plural will be one of the irregular ones mentioned above. It is quite correct to speak of arenas or eras, foetuses, sinuses, albums, museums, complexes, coupons, and electrons. In fact to foist a Latin or Greek plural on any of these words would be incorrect. Additionally, there are quite a number of words where a more learned Latin or Greek plural exists side by side with an ordinary English one: formulas is as correct as formulae, mediums as correct as media. Sometimes one sense of a word usually has a Latin or Greek plural and another sense an English one. Medium is a case in point: communicators with the dead are mediums, means of mass communication are media.
Among the plural forms taken from modern foreign languages, perhaps the most noteworthy are words from French ending in -eau, which can form their plural as -eaux or -eaus (bureaux or bureaus, tableaux or tableaus), and words from Italian ending in -o, whose plurals can end in -s or -i (tempos or tempi, virtuosos or virtuosi).
This is an area of English usage where changes are currently taking place. On the whole, irregular forms from foreign languages are tending to be used less and ordinary English forms more. Though dictionaries do not always agree, a modern dictionary is the best place to look for guidance both for the spelling of tricky English plurals (-os or -oes) and to ascertain whether a foreign or an English form is more appropriate.
Nouns that change their form in the plural, whatever form that change may take, are known as variable nouns. Nouns that do not change their form are either zero plurals or invariable nouns.
A zero plural is a noun whose form does not change whether it is singular or plural. The word sheep, for example, remains the same whether a single animal or a flock is being referred to. A single aircraft in the sky or a dozen aircraft at an airfield may be described. There are a number of nouns, especially names of animals, which are sometimes treated as standard nouns and sometimes as zero plurals. The plural of fish is sometimes fish and sometimes fishes. There are elephants at the zoo or in a circus, but on the plains of Africa (that is to say, when using the word in a slightly more technical, zoological way) you are more likely to report seeing elephant.
Invariable nouns are nouns that are either always singular or always plural. The commonest type of invariable singular noun is the uncountable type (e.g. mud or gravity) discussed on p. 24. In addition, there are a number of nouns ending, rather confusingly, in -s which are strictly singular: billiards, mumps, news. None of these should be followed by a plural verb:
News has (not have) just come in…
Mumps is (not are) a serious disease.
Many of the words ending in -ics fall into this category, although many of them also have senses in which they can be used with a plural verb: Politics is the art of the possible, but His politics (= his political views) are very right wing.
Among the nouns that are invariably plural there are some that look plural because they end in -s (dregs, glasses (= spectacles), scissors, and trousers) and some that do not look as if they are plurals (cattle and vermin). They are always, however, followed by a plural verb:
My trousers are at the cleaners’.
The cattle are grazing in the field.
English does not divide nouns into masculine and feminine, or masculine, feminine, and neuter as ancient languages did and many foreign languages still do. English nouns show gender only in as much as they relate either to males or to females: woman is not a feminine word in the grammatical sense that la femme is in French or die Frau is in German, but it, obviously, refers to a female human being as boy refers to a male one. There are many similar pairs of words that describe animals of different sexes (cock and hen, ram and ewe, etc.), but these words too are not either masculine or feminine in the grammatical sense. Gender in this sense is most important, for grammatical purposes, in that it determines the form of the personal pronoun which is used in connection with a noun. Female creatures are referred to as she, her, males as he, him, and inanimate objects (and occasionally very young children) by the non-personal it.
There are a number of suffixes (word endings) that can be used to convert a noun that usually refers to a male into one that refers to a female. The commonest of these is -ess. A female lion is a lioness, the daughter of a king or queen is a princess and a woman actor may be referred to as an actress. Though it is not a grammatical issue as such, it is worth noting that the use in jobs and positions of gender-specific terms, especially women-only terms, is declining. This is an area where changes are currently taking place in the language in response to changes in society. It is usually inappropriate to employ a gender-specific term where a neutral one is available, and so -ess (and -ette and -trix) words should generally be avoided. See also pp. 131–2.
In many languages, nouns have different inflections depending on their role in the sentence, for example, whether they are the subject or object of a verb. An inflected form of a noun is known as a case. English nouns remain in their basic form – in what is known as the common case -except where it is necessary to show that one person or thing owns another. There is a possessive or genitive case for most English nouns. In the singular, it consists of adding apostrophe s to the base form: Jill’s car; a climber’s equipment; the car’s service history. This rule applies also to singular nouns that end in -s (Robert Burns’ poetry; the dress’s sleeves). Plural nouns that end in -s add an apostrophe only: members’ voting rights; the animals’ feeding time. Plural nouns that end in a letter other than s add an apostrophe s as usual: the children’s toys; the media’s obsession with smut. (See also pp. 170–71.)
An alternative way of showing possession – the more frequent way for inanimate objects – is to use of. the top of the hill; the history of the United States.
A feature of modern English is its use of nouns as modifiers – words which provide more information about other words and describe the things or people that they stand for more specifically. Nouns are frequently used in front of other nouns in the way that adjectives are. In the phrases car keys and house keys, car and house are modifiers. Many everyday nouns are very frequently used in this way as a neater alternative to a longer phrase using, for example, the genitive with of, so that the roof of the church becomes the church roof and the window of the kitchen becomes the kitchen window.
Nouns used as modifiers may look like adjectives, but they do not share all their characteristics. They cannot be used in any position except in front of the noun they relate to and they do not have comparative or superlative forms (see p. 33).
A noun phrase is a group of related words, one of which is a noun or pronoun. It may consist simply of a single noun or pronoun, a noun preceded by a or the, or a main noun accompanied by a phrase or clause. The following are all noun phrases based on the main noun child: a child; a small child; a child with learning difficulties’, a child who is of above average intelligence.
When a noun phrase is immediately followed by another noun phrase that refers to exactly the same person or thing and defines him, her, or it more closely, the two phrases are said to be in apposition to each other. For example, the following noun phrases are in apposition: Paris, the capital of France. Strictly speaking, the order in which the two phrases in apposition appear should make no difference to the meaning of the sentence:
Paris, the capital of France.
The capital of France, Paris.
Dr Brown, the head of the French department, is giving the lecture.
The head of the French department, Dr Brown, is giving the lecture.
Similarly, it should be possible to omit either of the two elements without making the sentence incomprehensible:
Dr Brown is giving the lecture.
The head of the Trench department is giving the lecture.
The term apposition is also, however, more loosely applied to cases where the two phrases cannot be transposed so freely (my computer, a Gateway 2000 but not a Gateway 2000, my computer), where a word or phrase such as namely or for example comes between the two phrases in apposition (her favourite poets, namely Keats and Shelley), or where the second element cannot be dropped if the sense is to be preserved: The play Under Milk Wood is on the radio tonight. If the title of the play were omitted, the sense would be much less clear.
Appositive clauses are clauses beginning with that which are attached to abstract nouns such as belief, fact, knowledge, suggestion, and which indicate their content, that is, what is believed, known, suggested, or a fact: the belief that God exists; the fact that she is away on holiday. They are called appositive because their relationship to their main noun is the same as that between one noun phrase and another in apposition to it: Paris is the capital of France; the fact in question is that she is away on holiday.
It is important to distinguish between appositive clauses beginning with that and restrictive clauses beginning with that (see pp. 21–2) – for example between the idea that was put forward at the meeting and the idea that the meeting should be postponed. The first clause is a relative clause -that could be replaced by which and does not convey the content of the idea – the second is an appositive one.
Adjectives are words that describe particular qualities possessed by people or things. They are usually attached to or relate to nouns. Words such as big, new, old, red, and small are adjectives.
They are defined in two ways: according to their position in relation to the noun they relate to and according to whether or not they can form comparisons.
An attributive adjective is one that appears before the noun it relates to, as in a red dress or bright colours, where red and bright are adjectives used attributively. Some adjectives can be used only in this position, for example, former, latter, or utter.
A predicative adjective is one that is used after a verb such as be, become, or seem – in other words, it is the complement of its noun. In the sentences The dress is red and The colours seem very bright, red and bright are being used predicatively. Some adjectives can be used only in this position, for example, afraid, asleep, or alike.
Occasionally an adjective is placed immediately after the noun it relates to, in which case it is said to be postpositive. Postpositive adjectives are most often found together with pronouns, as in:
There’s something fishy going on.
Everything possible is being done.
Here fishy and possible are being used postpositively. But there are a number of fixed noun phrases that contain a postpositive adjective (body politic, court martial, princess royal), and when the past participles of verbs (see p. 45) are used as adjectives, they often occur postpositively (the money invested, the people involved, the time required).
Most adjectives are gradable, that is to say that they stand for a quality which can vary in degree. In other words, it is sensible to ask how… is something? and expect an answer very, slightly, totally, or more… than something else. Gradable adjectives can be used in comparisons or can be modified by adverbs such as very, completely, fairly, slightly. There are a number of adjectives, however, that, because of their sense, are non-gradable. To ask how perfect, how impossible or how unique something is does not make sense – or does not, strictly speaking, make sense. Those adjectives are therefore non-gradable.
The comparative form of an adjective is, as its name suggests, the form used when making comparisons. Shorter and simpler adjectives in English form the comparative by adding -er (lighter, sweeter). Adjectives that end with a single vowel followed by a single consonant (big, red) double the consonant (bigger, redder): see p. 140. Adjectives that end in -y change to i (angrier, warier) (see p. 137), although single-syllable adjectives may sometimes keep the -y (drier or dryer). Adjectives that end in -e simply add -r (bluer, later). Longer adjectives – those with three syllables or more – form their comparatives with more (more comfortable-, more unusual). Most adjectives with two syllables can form the comparative either way (commoner/more common; shakier/more shaky).
The comparative form should be used when comparing people or things in twos or when comparing one person or thing with another. This is the case even if an individual is being compared with a group or with a series of individuals:
This is the cheaper of the two options.
John is taller than his brother or his father.
Mary is more troublesome than all the rest of the children put together.
The form used to indicate that a thing possesses a quality to a greater degree than two or more other things is the superlative. The superlative is formed in the same way as the comparative either by adding -est or by using most (sweetest; biggest; driest, commonest/most common; most comfortable). At least three things must be involved in a comparison for the superlative to be the appropriate form of the adjective to use – though it is also used when the number of things involved is unspecified:
John is the tallest of the three boys.
It is the cheapest option currently on offer.
Adjectives are often used in strings of two or more before nouns and are sometimes separated by commas. When they are used in this way, certain conventions usually dictate the order in which they appear. It is not idiomatic, for instance, to write a red Italian fast car or a country remote village. The usual order of adjectives (sometimes changed for emphasis or special effect) is first general adjectives (big, fast, remote), followed by parts of verbs used as adjectives (excited, thrilling), followed by adjectives of colour, followed by adjectives of nationality or region (Chinese, Italian, Western), followed by nouns used as adjectives or adjectives closely derived from nouns (country, iron, wooden). Reordered on these principles, the phrases shown above would reappear as a fast red Italian car and a remote country village.
Determiners are a small but very important class of words that, like adjectives, appear in front of and relate to nouns. They include a, the, this, that, all, each, every, few, more, much, many, some, which, whichever, and what. Their function is to determine or specify the particular object or person, or the number of objects or persons, in a group that a noun refers to. Numerals (one, two, three, etc., and first, second, third, etc.) are also classed as determiners, as are also the possessive adjectives my, his, her, your, etc.
Determiners, unlike most adjectives, must come before the noun they relate to – but they are also frequently used as pronouns (see p. 35). As is not uncommon in language, the same word can play different roles in different contexts. In the phrases all the people and some green apples, all and some are determiners; in the sentences All is not lost and Save some for me, all and some are pronouns. All and some also count as pronouns when followed by of in phrases such as all of the time or some of the people.
A noun may be preceded by more than one determiner (each and every day; my one hope; all the many tributes) or by a determiner and one or more adjectives (a few happy days; more long sleepless nights).
Determiners are often limited as to the type of noun that they can accompany. The following determiners can be used only with singular countable nouns – a, an, each, either, every, neither, and one (a book, each book, etc.). The following are restricted to use with plural countable nouns both, few (and a few), many, several, these, those, together with two and all the other numerals (both books, a few books, etc.). Finally, least, less, little (and a little), and much are only used with uncountable nouns (less applause, much applause).
The commonest determiners are a and the, known respectively as the indefinite article and definite article. A is known as the indefinite article because, in a phrase such as a book, any book could be meant, whereas the book must refer to a book that has been referred to at least once before and is defined or definite to that extent.
Pronouns are words that can take the place of nouns and noun phrases, and sometimes of clauses. They are stand-in words, but vitally important for avoiding long-winded repetition. Consider for instance the unlikely passage:
James picked up the book. James carried the book over to James’ sister Jenny and showed Jenny a passage. ‘Isn’t the passage in the book interesting?’ James asked.
If the pronouns he, it, his, her, and this are put in appropriate places instead of the names and nouns, it immediately becomes more readable:
James picked up the book. He carried it over to his sister Jenny and showed her a passage. ‘lsn’t this interesting?’ he asked
The most important class of pronouns contains the personal pronouns, words such as I, you, he, she, and it which stand for the names of the people and things that are the actual actors in sentences.
Personal pronouns are divided first of all according to person. For grammatical purposes, there are three persons. The first person is the speaker – if singular J, if plural we. The second person is the person spoken to – in both singular and plural you. The third person is the person (or object) spoken about by the first and second persons – in the singular, according to gender, he, she, or it, and in the plural always they.
The forms of the personal pronouns illustrated so far are those for the subject case, the forms used when the pronoun is the subject of the sentence. When a pronoun is the object of the sentence and when it follows a preposition, it goes into the object case: I becomes me; we becomes us; he, she, and they change to him, her, and them respectively; and you and it remain the same:
I ran.
He ran me over.
They shouted.
She shouted at them.
the pronoun after a preposition ‘Between you and I’ or ‘Between you and me’
In ordinary English grammar, prepositions are followed by the object form of the personal pronoun – that is to say the form that would be used as the object of a simple sentence (me, you, him, her, it, us, them). So He hit me, therefore behind me and Give it to me – not behind I, etc., I is a subject form). Between is a preposition just the same as behind, or to, and follows the same rule: We divided the inheritance between us (not between we). It makes no difference to this rule how many pronouns follow the preposition. Consequently, the correct form is between you and me (just as it would be behind us and them or to both him and her).
The personal pronouns also each have their own distinctive possessive forms. We have already touched on the forms that are used as determiners: my, your, his, her, its, our, and their. The forms that are used as pronouns are: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, and theirs. These forms can be used as either the subject or complement of a verb:
That bag is mine.
Yours is over there.
It should be noted that although most of the forms of the possessive pronoun end in s, none of them ends in an apostrophe –’s.
The reflexive pronouns are a small group of words formed by adding -self (singular) or -selves (plural) to either the objective or the possessive forms of the personal pronoun: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, and themselves. They are used to show that the action of a verb affects the person or thing that is its subject – effectively that the same person or thing is both the subject and the object of the verb:
She fell down and hurt herself.
The machines switched themselves off.
Sometimes they follow a preposition rather than the actual verb, but still refer back to the subject: He looks very pleased with himself.
Emphatic pronouns are exactly the same in form as reflexive pronouns (myself, himself, etc.). They usually follow immediately after the noun or pronoun they relate to and, as their name suggests, their function is purely to give emphasis:
I myself have said as much on numerous occasions.
It’s not the fault of the machine itself, hut of the person operating the machine.
Sometimes the emphatic pronoun is moved to a position further away from the word it relates to, but its function remains the same: He didn’t actually say so himself, but his best friend told me that that’s what he feels.
The demonstrative pronouns are this, that, these, and those when used as pronouns rather than determiners. They are called demonstrative because they point out or demonstrate which of a number of things are being referred to. This (singular) and these (plural) usually refer to things nearer to the speaker, that (singular) and those (plural) to things further away:
Whose book is this on my desk?
Whose car is that parked on the other side of the road?
Take these and put them over there with those.
Interrogative pronouns begin questions. There are five of them: who, whom, whose, what, and which. (Other words that begin questions, such as how, when, and where, are called interrogative adverbs.) What and which can be used before any type of noun, singular or plural:
What size do you take?
Which shoes are you taking?
Who, whom, and whose are effectively three different forms of the same word. Who is a subject pronoun. Who was at the meeting? or in a reported question I asked her who was at the meeting. Whom is an object pronoun:
Whom should we ask?
She told me whom she had spoken to.
Note that in modern English, especially modern spoken and informal English, whom, though grammatically correct, would generally be replaced in both these examples by who.
Whose is the possessive form: Whose are these trainers?
On the use of question marks, see pp. 155–6.
A relative pronoun is the word that, which, who, whom, or whose when used to begin a relative clause (see pp. 21–2). Which is always used to refer to animals or things; who and whom are always used to refer to people. That usually refers to things, but sometimes to people; whose usually refers to people, but sometimes to things.
Indefinite pronouns are pronouns that refer to people or things without stating specifically who or what they are. Indefinite pronouns such as anyone, everybody, nobody, or somebody are used to refer to people only; the corresponding forms, such as anything, everything, nothing, and something, refer only to things. Other indefinite pronouns such as all, both, some, etc., may refer to either people or things.
Verbs are a large, very important, and rather complex class of words. They denote action, in its broadest sense. Words such as go, talk, and walk are verbs. A verb is the one essential component of a major sentence.
Most English verbs have four or five forms. Regular English verbs, that is verbs that conform to the basic standard pattern for verbs, have four. The verb cook, for example, has a base form cook; a form ending in -s: cooks; a form ending -ing: cooking; and a form ending in -ed: cooked.
The base form is used to make the infinitive form (p. 43) to cook, the imperative form (see pp. 13–14; used for giving orders – ready, steady, cook!), and all the forms of the present tense except the third person singular (I cook, they cook, etc.).
The only function of the -s form is to make the third person singular of the present tense (he cooks, she cooks, it cooks). Note that just as nouns ending in -ch, -ss, etc., add -es to make their plural, verbs ending in the same combination of letters also add -es (teaches, kisses, mixes), verbs that end in -y change it to an i and add -es (glorifies, tries) (see p. 137), and that verbs ending in –0 usually add -es (echoes, embargoes) (see p. 138).
The -ing form of the verb makes the present participle (see p. 44) (cooking) and the -ed form makes both the past tense (we cooked) and the past participle (see p. 45) (cooked).
Irregular verbs usually have one additional form – a past participle that is different from the past tense: sing, sings, singing, sang (past tense), and sung (past participle). Both the past tense and the past participle are completely different from the -ed forms of regular verbs. Nevertheless, the various parts of irregular verbs serve the same function as those of regular verbs.
The tenses of verbs are the different time frames within which the action of the verb takes place. The present tense refers to action taking place now (I cook; we are cooking). The past and future tenses, obviously enough, refer to action in the past or future (I cooked; she has cooked; they will cook).
It will be noticed that the four or five forms of the verb discussed above provide only two of the tenses – the simple present (you cook; he cooks) and the simple past (we cooked). In order to make all the other tenses, another verb is used: be, have, or will. These are known as auxiliary verbs (see p. 42). Using auxiliary verbs it is possible to fill the time gaps left by the main forms of the verb.
Continuous tenses express actions that are going on, were going on, or will be going on at a particular time. They are constructed using to be together with the -ing form of the verb. The continuous present tense (I am cooking) is in fact commoner in everyday use than the simple present tense. He cooks often means he is able to cook, whereas to express the idea that he is at this time standing by the stove holding a frying pan, you would say he is cooking – he is doing it now. The same distinction holds for past time, where the past continuous tense is used especially to refer to an action that was going on when something else occurred: She rang while I was cooking the lunch.
The future tense in English is usually formed using the auxiliaries will or shall. A distinction used to be drawn, especially in British English, between the first person I and we, which were strictly supposed to make their future tense with shall (I shall cook tomorrow or in the continuous form we shall be cooking tomorrow), and the second and third persons (you and he, she, it, and they), which made their future tense with will. To say I will (as in the marriage service) or you shall or they shall expressed a special determination to do something or to see something done (Britons never, never, never shall be slaves!). For the most part, however, this distinction is less strictly observed than it once was. The future tense is commonly formed nowadays with will (often informally shortened to -ll) for all persons of the verb.
The perfect tense of a verb is a past tense formed with the auxiliary verb have together with the -ed form of a regular verb or the past participle of an irregular verb (J have cooked; I had sung).
When formed with the present tense of have, the perfect tense replaces the simple past tense in questions (Have you told him?), when emphasizing that a thing has been done (Yes, I have told him), or to indicate that an action that began in the past is still continuing in the present (He has left the key at home and has gone back to get it).
When formed with the past tense of have, the perfect (also called the pluperfect here) expresses an action that occurred at an earlier time than the past time of the main action:
I had been there before, so I knew what to expect.
After he had locked up the building, he went home.
Auxiliary verbs are verbs that are used with and in front of other verbs. Besides be, have, will, and shall, the auxiliaries that have already been mentioned while discussing tenses, there is the verb do, which is used to make variant and slightly more emphatic forms of both the present and the past tense:
I do sometimes make mistakes.
She did say she was coming.
They are also used to form questions in both those tenses:
Do you cook?
Did you see that?
The other auxiliaries express ability (can, could), obligation (must, should), wishes (would), or possibility (may, might). All the auxiliaries except be and have are always followed by the base form of the verb:
I can cook.
You must sing for us.
They might come.
A finite verb is any verb that has a specific tense, is in one of the three persons, and is either singular or plural. Generally speaking, a finite verb is a verb that has a subject (even if that subject is not expressed, as, for example, in the imperative or command form of the verb). A non-finite verb does not fit this description. The non-finite forms of the verb are the infinitive (the base form usually preceded by to: to sing), the present participle (singing) and the past participle (sung).
The infinitive with to is used after many verbs, nouns, and adjectives:
He learnt to sing in a church choir.
I’ve no wish to sing.
She’s too nervous to sing for us.
It can also form the subject of a verb (To sing refreshes the soul) or express a purpose like in order to (To sing you don’t have to he able to read music).
The infinitive without to is only used after other verbs, especially auxiliaries:
She might sing, if you asked her.
I heard Pavarotti sing once.
splitting an infinitive ‘to sweetly sing’
The infinitive of verbs in English is usually written as two words: to + the basic unchanged form of the verb: to do, to go, to sing, etc. In Latin and most modern European languages, however, the infinitive is represented by a single word, so that the equivalent of to sing in Latin is canere, in French chanter, in German singen, etc. On this basis, some teachers of English grammar argue that, though expressed in two words, the English infinitive is a single unified concept, and that it is bad grammar to insert any other word or phrase between, for example, to and sing. That is what is meant by ‘splitting an infinitive’, as in to usually do, to not infrequently go, or to sweetly sing. (Note that only a phrase of this sort counts as a split infinitive – in phrases such as to be sweetly singing or to have usually done, the adverbs (sweetly, usually) do not come between the two constituent parts of the infinitive, to and be and have respectively.)
The most famous example of the late twentieth century was ‘… to boldly go where no man has gone before’, from the introduction to the television series Star Trek.
Some people say that you should never split an infinitive. Most guides to usage, however, advise a common-sense approach. If you can put the adverb before to or after the main part of the verb without making the sentence sound awkward or ambiguous, then do so:
… boldly to go where no man has gone before.
… to go boldly where no man has gone before.
However, moving the adverb sometimes makes the meaning unclear:
They planned to secretly exchange the prisoners.
They planned secretly to exchange the prisoners.
The first sentence contains a split infinitive, to secretly exchange. But if you move secretly before to exchange, as in the second sentence, it is not clear whether the adverb relates to the verb planned or exchange.
Sometimes a split infinitive simply sounds more natural, especially in informal spoken English:
You’re supposed to partly cook the vegetables first.
You need to really thump the keys.
The present participle is used to make the continuous forms of verbs and in some clauses (before/after/while cooking the dinner…). Present participles are also sometimes used as adjectives (a singing waiter) and sometimes as nouns (Singing lifts the spirits). When the present participle is used as a noun, it is sometimes preceded by a possessive form (Does my singing disturb you?).
pronoun + the ‘-ing’form Do you object to my bringing my sister?’ or Voyou object to me bringing my sister?’
From a grammatical point of view, the choice between Do you object to my bringing my sister? and Do you object to me bringing my sister? hinges on whether the phrase bringing my sister should be considered to be more like a noun or more like a verb. If it is more noun than verb, then the possessive my is more appropriate – as it would be in a more straightforward question, such as Do you object to my comings and goings?, where comings and goings are plural nouns. Constructing a different sentence in which the phrase is the subject of a sentence backs up the point – My bringing my sister might cause problems sounds far preferable to Me bringing my sister might cause problems. This is because it seems wrong for the object form me to play a part in the subject of a sentence. The form of the question with my is more correct and preferable in standard and formal writing. But in more informal English the form with me is common and generally acceptable.
The past participle is used to form the perfect tenses of verbs and the passive (see pp. 46–7). It is also used as an adjective (a cooked dinner, a sung Mass) and can form the basis of a clause: Exhausted by his efforts, he collapsed on the sofa.
dangling participle ‘Blown to bits by the blast, workers were removing rubble from the buildings’
A so-called dangling participle is a phrase based on a present or past participle (an ‘-ing’ form or, usually, an ‘-ed’ form) – in this case blown to bits by the blast – that is wrongly or ambiguously placed so that it is not clear what or whom it refers to. The result is commonly a howler: Blown to bits by the blast, workers were removing rubble from the buildings. It was the buildings, not the workers, that were blown to bits. The safest place for a participle clause is next to the noun it describes (in this instance, the buildings): Workers were removing rubble from the buildings blown to bits by the blast. Consider this other example which is a less obvious mistake: Through the window we saw, flying over the foothills of the Andes, a flock of scarlet parrots. It could be that we are flying in an aircraft looking out, or that we are on the ground watching flying parrots. It would be clearer if the sentence were rearranged so that flying over the foothills of the Andes came next to we (Flying over the foothills of the Andes, we saw through the window…) or parrots (… we saw a flock of scarlet parrots flying over the Andes).
A transitive verb is one that has a direct object (bring a packed lunch); an intransitive verb does not have a direct object (winter came late that year). Verbs that describe movement are often wholly or mainly intransitive:
Prices are rising.
Prices are falling.
The army advanced.
The army retreated.
Many verbs can be used both transitively and intransitively: I can’t sing (intransitive); She can’t sing a note (transitive). Verbs often come in pairs that have a similar form, one being transitive and the other intransitive. Rise, for example, which is always intransitive, has a transitive partner raise:
Prices are rising again.
They have raised their prices again.
The active voice is a form of a verb in which the subject performs the action denoted by the verb: Hugh cooked the supper. The passive voice is a form of a verb in which the subject is affected by the action of the verb: The supper was cooked by Hugh. Another way of expressing this is to say that the object of an active verb (in the above example the supper) becomes the subject of a passive verb in an equivalent sentence: The supper was cooked by Hugh. The subject of the active sentence (Hugh) becomes the passive agent in the passive one – usually preceded by the preposition by. It follows from this that only transitive verbs can be used in the passive, as an intransitive verb has, by definition, no object to form the subject of a passive sentence. The passive form is constructed using the auxiliary verb be together with a past participle: The song is (being) sung/was sung/ will be sung by…
On the use of the active and passive in writing, see pp. 221–2.
There are three so-called moods of verbs. The indicative is the ordinary form of the verb used for making statements or asking questions. The imperative (that consists of the base form of the verb on its own without a subject: see pp. 13–14) is used for giving orders. The subjunctive is a special form of a verb that is sometimes used in clauses expressing a wish, demand, or recommendation. The present tense of the subjunctive for most verbs is the same as the ordinary present tense, except that the third person singular form drops its final -s or -es: lest he forget; I suggest she give it more thought. The present subjective of to be is be and of to have, have:
Lest I be thought remiss, I shall inform you immediately.
They insisted he have another try.
Using the subjunctive makes a sentence much more formal and the same result can be obtained with less formality by using should. Should could be inserted into all the above examples:
Lest he should forget…
I suggest she should give it more thought.
They insisted he should have another try.
The present subjunctive is most often used in certain fixed phrases:
God bless you!
If need be…
Suffice it to say…
Long live the Queen!
Only the verb to be has a separate form for the past tense of the subjunctive, were as in if I were you. The past subjunctive is preferable to the ordinary past tense after if when something completely hypothetical is in question:
Even if that were the case…
What would you say if I were to tell you I’d won the lottery?
It is incorrect, however, to use were when the speaker is not putting forward a hypothesis but using an if clause to introduce a statement of fact or probability:
If she was upset, she certainly didn’t show it.
If it was there this morning, it’s probably still there now.
Phrasal or multi-word verbs are verbs in which the base form is accompanied by an adverb or a preposition or both: do down; do up; do away with. These verbs usually have distinct meanings that are not always deducible from their component parts – do down means ‘to criticize adversely’, do up means ‘to fasten’, do away with means ‘to get rid of’. Grammarians tend to distinguish between true phrasal verbs, which have their own, usually figurative, meaning and combinations of the verb in its literal sense together with a preposition or adverb: run out of is a phrasal verb in the sentence We’ve run out of milk but not in the sentence He ran out of the room. In most instances the object of such a verb follows the adverb or preposition, as in the examples above. But when a phrasal verb consists of a verb and an adverb the object can usually either follow the adverb or come between it and the verb: She did up her coat or She did her coat up.
Adverbs are a versatile class of words that can be used to modify words, phrases, or whole sentences. They are used especially often with verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.
The majority of adverbs derive from adjectives and are formed by adding -ly or -ally to the base form of the adjective. The adjective sad becomes the adverb sadly, original becomes originally, and so on. The meaning of adverbs can often be rendered as in a (sad, original, etc.) way’.
Besides indicating the manner in which something was done, adverbs often indicate time (always, now, often, then, today, and yesterday are all adverbs, as well currently, formerly, simultaneously, etc.) and place (here, there, and everywhere are all adverbs, as are words like around, down, in, out, and up, which can also function as prepositions). Like adjectives, many adverbs also have a comparative and a superlative (see p. 33): Jack ran fast, Jill ran faster, and the dog ran fastest of all Fast is, however, something of an exception. The majority of adverbs form the comparative and superlative with more and most
The light was shining more brightly than before.
We are the most poorly paid workers in the whole industry.
Adverbs can usually be placed in almost any position within a clause without materially affecting its meaning:
Quickly I gathered my things.
I quickly gathered my things.
I gathered my things quickly.
The one place where it is normally impossible to put an adverb is between a verb and its direct object: I gathered quickly my things is not standard English.
Sometimes, however, changing the position of an adverb crucially affects the meaning. Only this key fits that lock and This key fits that lock only (or only fits that lock) do not mean the same. It is usually best to place the adverb next to the word it relates to. When adverbs modify adjectives or other adverbs, they are always placed before them, for example with very: a very quick change; Things are changing very quickly.
a double negative ‘I don’t know nothing’
See chapter 2, ‘double negative’, p. 69.
The role of an adverb is often performed by a phrase or clause. An adverbial phrase may be a group of words based on or around a main adverb (as soon as possible; strangely enough; rather unusually), but is also often a phrase based on a preposition (in a minute; beside the lake; owing to circumstances beyond our control). Adverbial clauses are introduced by words such as because, if, when, where, and while. All such clauses and phrases are also known simply as adverbials: see p. 10.
Prepositions are a group of words mainly consisting of small words, but they are some of the most frequently used words in the English language. They are words that are placed before other words, especially nouns, phrases, or clauses, to link them into the sentence. After, at, before, behind, for, in, of, and out are all prepositions. In the following examples the preposition in is followed first by a noun, then by a pronoun, then by an adverb, and finally by a clause:
There’s nothing in the box.
There’s nothing in it.
There’s nothing in there.
There’s nothing in what she says.
Not all prepositions are single words, however; phrases such as because of, in spite of, and on account of axe prepositions too.
Many words that are prepositions also have other functions. In, for example, is both an adverb and a preposition. When it is functioning as a preposition, however, it must be followed by something else in order to complete the sense:
They are in the living room (in as preposition).
They are in (i.e. at home; in as adverb).
Before can function not only as a preposition and an adverb, but also as a conjunction:
I managed to do four hours’ work before lunch (preposition).
I’ve never been here before (adverb).
Before you go, let me show you this photograph (conjunction).
ending a sentence with a preposition
‘This is the sort of English up with which I will not puf was Sir Winston Churchill’s alleged response to the clumsy English produced by those who go out of their way to avoid ending a sentence with a preposition. Many great writers of the past have broken this ‘rule’:
And do such bitter business as the day/Would quake to look on. (William Shakespeare)
What a fine conformity would it starch us all into. (John Milton)
The present argument is the most abstracted that ever I engaged in. (Jonathan Swift)
… the less convincing on account of the party it came from. (Edmund Burke)
… too horrible to be trifled with. (Rudyard Kipling)
Supporters of the so-called ‘rule’ that a sentence should never end with a preposition insist that a preposition should always precede its complement. But this is sometimes undesirable or impossible:
He gave me some photographs to look at.
This seat is not very comfortable to sit in.
She had forgotten which page she was up to.
This pen is not easy to write with.
Was it worth waiting for?
You would not say He gave me some photographs at which to look. Nor would you say She had forgotten up to which page she was.
Similarly, the question Was it worth waiting for? cannot be expressed in any other way.
However, in formal written English, you can often keep the preposition before its complement without sounding stilted. You could write one of the women with whom I work in a formal letter, for example, though you would say one of the women I work with when talking to a friend.
You can also sometimes rephrase a sentence to move the preposition from the end:
This pen is easy to write with. → It is easy to write with this pen.
This seat is not very comfortable to sit in.→ Sitting in this seat is not very comfortable.
A conjunction is a word that links two clauses or two other parts of a sentence. There are two types of conjunction: coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions.
Coordinating conjunctions link words, phrases, or clauses that have equal status. Examples are and, or, and but, together with the paired joining phrases both… and, either… or, neither… nor, and not only… but also. See also p. 17.
Subordinating conjunctions link parts of a sentence that do not have equal status. Their main function is to introduce subordinate clauses used as adverbials:
I only found out after she had left the company.
As you’re not a member, you can’t vote.
See also pp. 17–18.