Helping Hands: November 2011

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Parts of Speech with Brief Definition

Sr.#	Part of Speech	task, job, function	words as example	sentences as example
1.	NOUN	thing or person	pen, dog, work, music, town, Lahore, teacher, Ali	This is my pen. He lives in my house. We live in Lahore.
2.	PRONOUN	replaces a noun	I, you, he, she, some	Aafia is Pakistani. She is beautiful.
3.	ADJECTIVE	describes a noun	a/an, the, 69, some, good, big, red, well, interesting	My cat is big. I like big cats.
4.	VERB	action or state	(to) be, have, do, like, work, sing, can, must	Google is a web site. I like google.com.
5.	ADVERB	describes a verb, adjective or adverb	quickly, silently, well, badly, very, really	My cat eats quickly. When she is very hungry, she eats really quickly.
6.	PREPOSITION	links a noun to another word	to, at, after, on, but	We went to school on Monday.
7.	CONJUNCTION	joins clauses or sentences or words	and, but, when	I like dogs and I like cats. I like cats and dogs. I like dogs but I don't like cats.
8.	INTERJECTION	short exclamation, sometimes inserted into a sentence	oh!, ouch!, hi!, well	Ouch! That hurts! Hi! How are you? Well, I don't know.

NOTE:
Some grammar sources categorize English into Nine (9) or Ten (10) parts of speech by dividing verbs into two parts (Lexical Verbs & Auxiliary Verbs) and by including Determiners as well. But we use the traditional categorization of eight (8) parts of speech.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

TENSES

The Present Tenses

Present Simple Used to say what someone usually does I always study English on Tuesday.

Present Progressive Used to say what someone is doing now I am studying English now

Present Perfect Simple Used to show unfinished time I have studied English twice this week.

Present Perfect Progressive

Used to say how long someone has been doing something.

I have been studying English for 2 years.

I have been studying English since 1997.

The Past Tenses

Simple Past

Used to show a completed action

I studied English last Saturday.

Past Progressive

Often used to say when something was being done or what was happening when something else happened

I was studying English last Monday when my friend rang.

I was studying English at 5pm last Monday.

Past Perfect Simple

The past of have done. Used to say when something was done by.

I had done my English homework by 6.30 pm last Saturday.

I had done my English homework by the time I ate dinner last Saturday.

Past Perfect Progressive

The past of have been. Used to show how long something was done for by a certain time.

I'd been doing my English homework for 30 minutes when my friend rang last Saturday.

I'd been doing my English homework for 30 minutes by 1 pm last Saturday.

The Future Tenses

The future can be indicated in several different ways in English. It is often created with the use of auxiliaries: "She will be a student.", "She is going to drive a new car."

English can even create the future by using the simple present (used for timetables, programs etc.), "The train arrives at 10pm" or the present progressive (used for future plans), "He is collecting his mother from the station tonight."

Simple Future (uses will or shall or going to + base form)

Simple Future (Some uncertainty)

Decide to do something at the time of speaking

I think I'll do my English homework tonight.

Simple Future (Certain)

Have already decided or arranged to do something

I am going to study English next Saturday.

Future Progressive/Continous (uses will be, shall be or going to be +-ing form)

Future Progressive (Some uncertainty)	The English lesson should* begin at 7.30 and end at 9.15, so the person should be studying at 7.30 (but the lesson might start late).*		I will be starting my English lesson at 7.30 pm.
Future Progressive (Certain)	The English lesson begins at 7.30 and ends at 9.15, so he's certain* to be studying when his friend arrives at 8.00*	I am going to be studying English when my friends arrive at 9.00 pm.