Participle clauses – reduced relative clauses – are very common in written English as they allow us to include information without making it too complex to comprehend.
Present participles or past participles can be used in a clause with an adverbial meaning. Very often these clauses express information about time, reason or result.
I am sure that I should know English to get a well-paid job.
If we want to express purpose, we can use “for”, “to”, or “so that”.
We can express all the information within one sentence, or alternatively we can divide the sentence into several parts, clefts, each of them having its own predicat.
If you are reading this, it means you’ve studied conditionals and can understand them quite well.
Now let me introduce you to inversion in conditionals. Don’t worry, it’s not as scary as it sounds.
You can often find inverted conditionals in formal speech or see it used for emphasis.
Sometimes we need to change the direct word order: subject + verb and use the inverted word order instead. We use inversion in order to emphasize subordinate parts of the sentence.
There are several ways of introducing a new idea in the English language: by using the introductory structure “there is/are” or by using the introductory “it”. So what’s the difference?
So can act as a substitute for an adjective, adverb, or a whole clause if we don’t want to be overly repetitive:
Richard was enraged at his brother’s stupidity and he had every right to be so. (= to be enraged)
Elon considered the suggestion seriously and Helen even more so. (= even more seriously)
Mike’s going to be there. At least I presume so. (= that he is going to be there)
Do so (did so / doing so, etc.) is used instead of repeating a verb phrase when it is clear from the context what we’re talking about.
We use one as a substitute for a singular countable noun and ones for a plural noun when we don’t want to be overly repetitive and when it is clear from the context what we are talking about.
An auxiliary verb (be, have, can, will, would, etc.) can be used instead of a whole verb group or instead of a verb in order to avoid repeating words from a previous clause.
When we want to express ability, possibility, willingness, certainty, necessity, or obligation, we can use modal verbs.
When we want to express our choices or our preferences of one thing over another, we can use modal structures “would prefer / would rather”.
‘If you can dream it, you can do it’. – said Walt Disney. And we cannot but agree with him. Stop dreaming and learn about modal verbs!
Back in the day, when I was your age, I had to … walk to school for two hours in winter, fight off bears to get to the library or print newspapers to afford lunch, blah… blah… We’ve all heard similar exaggerated statements from our parents or other older relatives. Let’s learn how to reminisce about “the good old days” using modal verbs in the past.
The verb always agrees with the subject. When the subject is singular, it is followed by a singular verb. If the subject is plural, it is followed by a plural verb.
We use each when we are talking about separate individuals in the group (Each person chooses a different route to the castle.) and we use every when we are talking more about the group as a whole (Every route was of about the same length.)...
A compound noun usually consists of two parts: the first noun indicates what class of things the second one belongs to. The first noun is typically used in the singular form.
Have you ever tried to pay a compliment to your female English-speaking friend, saying something like: “Your hairs are so beautiful!” and seeing her really surprised and puzzled?
Articles are among the most frequently used functional words in English. Therefore, we need to know when and how we are supposed to use them. Articles are very important because they can define a noun as specific or non-specific.
