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English grammar is a body of rules (grammar ) specifying how phrases and sentences

are constructed in the English language. Accounts of English grammar tend to fall into

two groups: the descriptivist , which describes the grammatical system of English; and the prescriptivist , which does not describe English grammar but rather sets out a small list of

social regulations that attempt to govern the linguistic behaviour of native speakers (see

inguistic prescription and !escriptive linguistics). "rescriptive grammar concerns itselfwith several open disputes in English grammar , often representing changes in usage over

time.

#his article describes a generali$ed %tandard English, which is the form of speech found

in types of public discourse including broadcasting, education, entertainment,government, and news reporting. %tandard English includes both formal and informal

speech. #he many dialects of English have divergences from the grammar described here,

which are only cursorily mentioned.

Contents

&hide'

• eical categories and phrasal synta

o . *ominals

.. *ouns

... *on+inflectional morphology

... *umber

...- embership .../ %ubclasses

.../. !ual membership, conversion

.. *oun phrases ... "re+modification

.... !eterminers

.... *umber agreement, selectional restrictions ....- Articles

..../ Ad0ectival modification

... "ost+modification ..- "ronouns

..-. 1ender

..-. 2ase

o . 3erbs

.. 3erb classes

.. 4nflectional morphology ... 4rregular verb morphology ... !efective verbs

...- Auiliary inflection

.../ Agreement ..- %tructure of the verb 5comple5

..-. 6perator

../ #ime, tense and aspect

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../. 3erb tense chart

..7 3oice ..8 odals and modality

..8. 4ndicative, or declarative, mood

..8. %ub0unctive mood

..8.- 4mperative mood ..8./ odal forms

..9 *otes

.. 3erb phrases

o .- Ad0ectives

.-. Ad0ective phrases

.-. %emantic ordering

o ./ Adverbs

./. !egree adverbs

o .7 "repositions

.7. "repositional phrases

•

2lausal syntao . ord order

o . 4nterrogative sentences

.. #ypes of 4nterrogative %entences

.. <es=*o >uestions

..- 4nformation >uestions ../ #ags

../. ?eversed polarity tags

../. 2onstant polarity tags

o .- #opicali$ation

o ./ *egation, negative polarity, and assertion

o .7 2omparison .7. %emantic gradability

.7. #ypes of comparison

.7.- 2omparative constructions

o .8 Ellipsis

• - %ee also

• / *otes and references

• 7 @ibliography

• 8 Eternal links

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[edit] Lexical categories and phrasal syntax

[edit] Nominals

 *oun phrases and pronouns both can have a referential function where they 5point5 (i.e.

refer ) to some person or ob0ect in the real world (or a possible world). Additionally, theyshare many of the same grammatical functions in that they can both act as sub0ects,

ob0ects, and complements within clauses.

 *oun phrases may consist of only a single noun, or they may be comple consisting of a

noun (which functions as the head of the noun phrase) that is modified by different typesof elements (such as ad0ectives, prepositional phrases, etc.).&'

"ronouns are words that can act as substitutions for noun phrases. or instance, in the

following sentence

 Professor Plum kicked the very large ball with red spots over the fence. 

the noun phrase the very large ball with red spots can be substituted with the pronoun it  as in

 Professor Plum kicked it  over the fence. 

4n spite of the name pronoun, pronouns cannot substitute for nouns B they only

substitute for noun phrases. #his can be shown with the same sentence above: the noun

ball  cannot be substituted with the pronoun it  (or any other pronoun) as in the

ungrammatical &'  sentence

*Professor Plum kicked the very large it  with red spots over the fence. 

#he sections below describe English nouns (their morphology and synta), the structure

of noun phrases, and pronouns.

[edit] Nouns

 *ouns are defined notionally (i.e. semantically) as generally describing persons, places,

things, or ideas. #his notional definition does account for what are the central members of

the noun leical category. Cowever, the notional definition fails to account for several

nouns, such as deverbal nouns like jump or destruction (which are notionally more likeactions). or this reason, many grammatical descriptions of English define nouns in terms

of grammar (i.e. according to their  morphological and syntactic behavior). *onetheless,

traditional English grammars and some pedagogical grammars define nouns with anotional definition.

 *on+proper nouns, in general, are not marked for case or gender, but are marked for

number and definiteness (when referential).

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[edit] Non-inflectional morphology

See also: English compound  

Please help improve this section by expanding it. urther information might befound on the talk page or at re>uests for epansion. (une !""#$

English nouns may be of a few morphological types:

• simple nouns

• nouns with derivational affies 

• compound nouns

• compound nouns with derivational affies

%imple nouns consist of a single root which also acts as the stem which may be inflected. 

or eample, the word (or, more precisely, the leeme) boy is a simple noun consisting of

a single root (also boy). #he root boy also acts as the stem boy, which can have theinflectional plural suffi %s added to it producing the inflectional word+form boys.

ore comple nouns can have derivational  prefies or suffies in addition to a noun

stem. or eample, the noun archenemy consists of a derivational prefi arch% and a root

enemy. Cere the derived form archenemy acts as the stem which can be used to form the

inflected word+form archenemies. An eample with a derivational suffi is kingdom 

which is composed of root king  and suffi %dom. %ome English nouns can be comple

with several derivational prefies and suffies. A considerably comple eample isantidisestablishmentarianism which has the root establish and the affies anti%, dis%,

%ment , %ary, %an, and %ism.

English compound nouns are nouns that consist of more than one stem. or eample, the

compound paperclip is composed of the stem paper  and the stem clip. 2ompounds inEnglish can be usefully subdivided (following @auer D-) into different classes

according to the leical category of the individual stems and according to a semantic

classification into endocentric, eocentric, copulative, and appositional subtypes.

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[edit] Number

 &ain article: English plural 

English nouns are typically inflected for number , having distinct singular  and plural  

forms. #he plural form usually consists of the singular form plus %s or %es, but there are

many irregular nouns. 6rdinarily, the singular form is used when discussing one instanceof the nouns referent, and the plural form is used when discussing any other number of

instances, but there are many eceptions to this rule. Cere are some eamples:

Number Example

ingular

'he girl  talks.

 Every girl  

talks.

 o girl  talks.

Plural

'he girls talk.

 )ll girls talk.

 o girls talk.

[edit] !embership

ords that belong to the noun leical category (or part of speech) can be simple words

that belong primarily to the noun category. #hese include words like man, dog , rice, etcetera.

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6ther nouns can be derived from words belonging to other leical categories with the

addition of class%changing  derivational suffies. or eample, the suffies %ation, %ee,

%ure, %al , %er , %ment  are attached to verb bases to create deverbal nouns.

ve (verb) F veation (noun)

appoint  (verb) F appointee (noun) fail  (verb) F  failure (noun)

ac+uit  (verb) F ac+uittal  (noun)

run (verb) F runner  (noun)

adjust  (verb) F adjustment  (noun)

%till other suffies (%dom, %hood , %ist , %th, %ness) form derived dead0ectival nouns from

ad0ectives:

 free (ad0ective) F  freedom (noun)

lively (ad0ective) F livelihood  (noun)

moral  (ad0ective) F moralist  (noun)

warm (ad0ective) F warmth (noun)

happy (ad0ective) F happiness (noun)

#hese derivational suffies can also be added to (compound) phrasal bases like in thenoun stick%it%to%itiveness, which is derived from the phrase & stick it to it  ' G %ive G %ness.

@esides derivational suffiation, words from other leical categories can be converted

straight to nouns (without any overt morphological indication) by a conversion  process

(also known as ,ero derivation). or eample, the word run is a verb but it can be

converted to a noun run 5point scored in a baseball game (by running around the bases)5as in the sentence:

'he team won with five runs in the ninth inning. 

Cere it is evident that run is a noun because it is plurali$ed with the inflectional pluralsuffi %s, it is modified by the preceding >uantifier   five, and it occurs as the head of the

noun phrase five runs which acts as the complement of the  preposition with in the

 prepositional phrase with five runs. 6ther leical categories can also be converted:

if  (subordinator) F if  (noun) as in no ifs - ands- or buts about it  &idiomatic'

daily (ad0ective) F daily (noun) &H 5newspaper5' as in did you buy a daily for me down (preposition) F down (noun) &in American football' as in they made a new firstdown 

Additionally, there are phrases which can be converted into nouns, such as jack%in%the%bo, love%lies%bleeding  (type of flower). #hese may be viewed as compounds (see noun

morphology section). #here are also conversion processes that convert from one noun

subclass to another subclass (see the noun subclass conversion section).

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[edit] ubclasses

#hree basic noun classes in English can be distinguished according to syntactic criteria:

•  proper nouns ( proper name)

• countable nouns (count nouns)

• uncountable nouns (noncount nouns)

#hese syntactic subclasses also correspond fairly well to semantic categories (asindicated by their names and eplained below).

2ountable and uncountable nouns B such as dog  (countable), rice (uncountable) Bshow article contrast: a dog , the dog , dogs, the dogs are all possible 0ust as rice, the rice 

are both possible.

2ountable nouns differ from uncountable nouns in that they cannot stand alone&-', cannot

 be modified by some unless they are in plural forms, can be modified by a, and can be

 plurali$ed. %emantically, they generally refer to easily individuated ob0ects. Eamples ofcountable nouns include the following: remark , book , bottle, chair , forest , idea, bun, pig ,

toy, difficulty, bracelet , mountain, etc.

Incountable nouns, in contrast, can stand alone, can be modified by some, cannot be

modified by a, and cannot be plurali$ed. %emantically, uncountable nouns refer to anundifferentiated mass. Eamples of uncountable nouns include: rice, furniture, jewelry,

 scenery, gold , bread , grass, warmth, music, butter , homework , baggage, sugar , coffee,

luck , sunshine, water , air , /hinese (language), soccer , literature, rain, walking , etc.

#he morphosyntactic differences between countable and uncountable nouns are displayedin the table below.

Countable Noun "ncountable Noun

standalone *remark rice

some # N$"N *some remark some rice

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a # N$"N a remark *a rice

plural remarks *rices

some # plural N$"N some remarks *some rices

6n the other hand, proper nouns, which include personal names  B such as Peter , Smith 

and placenames like Paris, 'okyo B do not show article contrast. #ypically, an article

cannot precede them. #hus, *a Peter , *the Peter , *a 'okyo, *the 'okyo are allungrammatical (only Peter  and 'okyo without articles are possible). Although several

 proper nouns (e.g. Peter , Smith, Paris, 'okyo) cannot be preceded by an article, some

 proper nouns must obligatorily be preceded by an article. #hese include proper nouns like

'he 0ague, 'he 1alles, the etherlands, the 2est 3ndies, and the )ndes. Cowever, like proper nouns without article modification, these proper nouns with preceding articles also

lack article contrast. #hus, while 'he 0ague is grammatical, *a 0ague and *0ague are

ungrammatical. %emantically, proper nouns have uni>ue reference.

As seen above, the different subclasses affect grammatical number  and >uantification.

[edit] %ual membership& conversion

2omplicating the membership of the basic subclasses described above is the eistence ofsome nouns which have dual membership in more than one subcategory and the

conversion of a noun from its basic subcategory to a different subcategory. (%ee the nounmembership section.)

 *ouns like brick  and cake have dual membership. or eample, observe the followingsentences with brick :

'he house was made of brick . brick   H uncountable

'he house was made of bricks. bricks H countable

4n the first sentence, brick  is an uncountable noun. #his can be determined by the lack of

an article preceding brick , which is a characteristic of uncountable nouns (and, thus, this

sentence is parallel to a sentence like 'he ball was made of rice). 4n the second sentence,bricks is a countable noun because it is plural, which is a characteristic of only countable

nouns (and, thus, this sentence is parallel to a sentence like 'he toy house was made of

matches). 6ther nouns that have dual membership in both countable and uncountable

subclasses are stone, paper , beauty, difficulty, eperience, light , sound , talk , and lamb.

As mentioned above, several nouns can undergo a conversion from one subclass to

another. 6ne type of conversion is from a proper noun to a countable noun. A proper

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name like Picasso may become a countable noun through metonymic etension, as in the

sentence:

 1id you see the Picassos hanging on the wall 

Although Picasso usually has a uni>ue referent (which is the person "ablo "icasso), itcan be used metonymically to mean, 5a painting created by "icasso5. #his converted noun

can be seen as belonging to the countable subclass by the fact that it is plural and that the

article the precedes it. #here are also two idiomatic constructions which involve theconversion of a proper noun to a countable noun:

 Ecuse me ma4am- a Mr. Smith is on the phone. 

5ou don4t mean '0E Margaret Thatcher  - do you 

Cere the article a before &r. Smith indicates a meaning of 5a certain person called r.

%mith that is otherwise unknown to you5 in the first sentence while in the second

sentence the article the with intonational stress (here indicated in caps) gives a reading of5the well+known person called argaret #hatcher5.

[edit] Noun phrases

[edit] Pre-modification

Please help improve this section by expanding it. urther information might be

found on the talk page or at re>uests for epansion. (une !""#$

[edit] %eterminers

!eterminers&/'&7' include articles (like the- a6an), demonstratives (like this, these, that ,those), >uantifiers (like all , many, some, any, each), numerals (like one, two, first ,

 second ), genitives&8' (like my, your , his, her , its, our , their ), interrogatives (like which,

what ), and eclamatives (like such, what ) that modify noun heads in noun phrases.

!eterminers function as words that 5determine5 other nouns, where 5determine5 isgenerally conceived of as indicating information about >uantification, grammatical

(and=or semantic) number, issues involving reference, and noun subclass membership

(i.e. count, noncount, and proper noun subclasses). #hese 5determining5 functions makedeterminers >uite distinct from ad0ectival modifiers which generally provide >ualitative

information about nouns and cannot provide determining functions.

ithin the noun phrase, determiners occur at the far left edge of the noun phrase before

the noun head and before any optional ad0ective modifiers (if present):

%E'E(!)NE(  # *%+EC'),E # N$"N

Eamples follow:

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the balloon

!E# *6I*

many balloons

!E# *6I*

all balloons

!E# *6I*

the big red balloon

!E# A!J A!J *6I*

many big red balloons

!E# A!J A!J *6I*

all big red balloons

!E# A!J A!J *6I*

#he distinctness of the determiner and ad0ective positions relative to each other and thenoun head is demonstrable in that ad0ectives may never precede determiners. #hus, the

following are ungrammatical English nouns phrases: *big the red balloon, *big red the

balloon (as well as *big many red balloons, *big red many balloons, *big all redballoons, *big red all balloons).

!eterminers can be divided into three subclasses according to their position with respect

to each other:

•  predeteminers

• central determiners

•  postdeterminers

"redeterminers may precede central determiners but may not follow central determiners.

"ostdeterminers follow central determiners but may not precede them. 2entral

determiners must occur after predeterminers and before postdeterminers. #hus, a central

determiner like the as in

the red balloons

!E# A!J *6I*

can be preceded by a predeterminer like all  as in

all the red balloons

"?E!E# 2E*#.!E#

!E# A!J *6I*

or the central determiner the can be followed by a postdeterminer like many as in

the many red balloons

2E*#.!E# "6%#!E#

!E# A!J *6I*

A se>uence of predeterminer G central determiner G postdeterminer is also possible as in

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all the many red balloons

"?E!E# 2E*#.!E# "6%#!E#

!E# A!J *6I*

Cowever, there are several restrictions on combinatory possibilities. 6ne generalrestriction is that only one determiner can occur in each of the three determiner positions.

or eample, the postdeterminers many and two can occur in the following

many smart children 

seven smart children 

the many smart children 

the seven smart children 

 but both many and two cannot occur in postdeterminer position rendering the following

noun phrases ungrammatical: *many seven smart children, *seven many smart children,

*the many seven smart children, *the seven many smart children. Additionally, there areoften other leical restrictions. or eample, the predeterminer all  can occur alone (as the

sole determiner) or before a central determiner (e.g. all children, all of the children, all of

these children, all of my children); however, the predeterminer such can only occur alone

or before central determiner a (e.g., such nuisance7, such a nuisance7).

"redeterminers include words like all , both, half , double, twice, three times, one%third ,

one%fifth, three%+uarters, such, eclamative what . Eamples with predeterminers

 preceding a central determiner:

all  of the big balloons 

both of his nice parents half  a minute double the risk  twice my age 

three times my salary one-third  of the cost  one-fifth of the rate three-quarters of the diameter  

such a big boy what  a clever suggestion 

2entral determiners include words like the, a6an, this, that , these, those, every, each,enough, much, more, most  less, no, some, either , neither , which, what .

Eamples of central determiners preceding ad0ectival modified noun heads:

the big balloon a big balloon this big balloon 

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that  big balloon these big balloons those big balloons every big balloon 

each big balloon 

no big balloon some big balloons 

either  big balloon 

hile the, a6an, no, and every only function as determiners&9', the other central

determiners can also function as members of other leical categories, especially as pronouns. or eample, that  functions as a determiner in

That  item is our belonging. 

 but as pronoun in

That  is our belonging. 

4n additional to the above determiners, noun phrases with a genitive enclitic %8s&' canhave a determinative function like genitive determiners his, her , its, their . #hese genitive

determinative noun phrases occur in the central determiner position:

[ my stepmother’s ]  friendly children 

both of  [ my stepmother’s ]  friendly children 

[ my stepmother’s ] many friendly children 

all of  [ my stepmother’s ] many friendly children 

[edit] Number agreement& selectional restrictions

Please help improve this section by expanding it. urther information might befound on the talk page or at re>uests for epansion. (une !""#$

[edit] *rticles

Please help improve this section by expanding it. urther information might be

found on the talk page or at re>uests for epansion. (une !""#$

Articles are words like a6an, and the that modify nouns. #hey occur in the central

determiner position. Articles have several functions including marking definiteness,

specific=generic reference, given=new information in discourse, and noun subclassmembership (i.e. count, noncount, and proper noun subclasses).

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#he definite article 5the5 is used to refer to a specific instance of the noun, often already

mentioned in the contet or easy to identify. !efinite articles are slightly different from

demonstratives, which often indicate the location of nouns with respect to the speaker andaudience.

•

5et us look for a good restaurant.5• 5hat about the restaurant we ate at last weekL5

• 5#hat restaurant was terrible. hat about this one on the corner hereL5

[edit] *d/ectival modification

Please help improve this section by expanding it. urther information might be

found on the talk page or at re>uests for epansion. (une !""#$

[edit] Post-modification

Please help improve this section by expanding it. urther information might befound on the talk page or at re>uests for epansion. (une !""#$

• ad0ectival modification ( jokes galore)

•  prepositional phrase modification (men in tights)

• clausal modification ( planes flying overhead , jokes that 3 love, et cetera)

[edit] Pronouns

See also: English relative clauses 

[edit] 0ender

 &ain article: 9ender in English

A remnant of grammatical gender is also preserved in the third person  pronouns. 1ender

is assigned to animate ob0ects based on biological gender (where known), and to

 personified ob0ects based on social conventions (ships, for eample, are often regarded as

feminine in English). 0e is used for masculine nouns; she is used for feminine nouns; andit  is used for nouns of indeterminate gender and inanimate ob0ects. #he use of it  to refer

to humans is generally considered ungrammatical and impolite, but is sometimes useddeliberately as a term of offence or insult as it implies the person is of indeterminate

gender or, worse, sub+human + a thing. (%ee for eample: A 2hild 2alled 54t5)

#raditionally, the masculine he was used to refer to a person in the third person whose

gender was unknown or irrelevant to the contet; recently, this usage has come under

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criticism for supporting gender+based stereotypes and is increasingly considered

inappropriate (see 1ender+neutral language). #here is no consensus on a replacement.

%ome English speakers prefer to use the slightly cumbersome 5he or she5 or 5s=he5;others prefer the use of they (third plural) (see singular they). #his situation rarely leads

to confusion, since the intended meaning can be inferred from contet, e.g. 5#his person

has written me a letter but they have not signed it.5 Cowever, it still is considered bysome to be incorrect grammar. %pivak pronouns have also been proposed which are

essentially formed by dropping the leading MthF from the plural counterpart, but their use

is relatively rare compared to other solutions. or comparison, speakers of  1erman distinguish between the homophonous sie (5she5), sie (5they5), and Sie (5you5, polite)

with little difficulty.

#he categori$ation of nouns is typically epressed by one or more of the elements called

deictic, numerative, epithet , and classifier . e shall consider each of these in turn.

[edit] Case

 urther information: English personal pronouns 

Cistorically, English used to mark nouns for case, and the two remnants of this case

marking are the pronominal system and the genitive clitic (which used to be called the

Saon genitive). #he genitive is marked by a clitic at the end of the modifying noun

 phrase. #his can be illustrated in the following manner:

'he president from the company8s daughter was married yesterday. 

#he 8s clitic attached to company does not modify company but rather modifies the entire

noun phrase president from the company. #his can be shown more clearly using brackets:

['he president from the company]8s daughter was married yesterday. 

English pronoun forms vary with number , person, case, and notional gender (only in -rd

 person singular). *umber and case distinctions have collapsed in the nd person singular

in the standard formal language, although informal dialectal forms have numberdistinctions (for eample singular you vs. plural y4all , youse, etc.).

Case

1st

2nd

3rd

sg. pl.

sg.

pl. interrogative

male female neuter

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ub/ective 4 we

you

he she

it

they who

$b/ective me us him

her 

them who(m)

0enitive

determiner my our your  

his its

their 

whose

nominal mine ours yours hers theirs

 *otes

. %ome dialects use different forms for the second person plural pronoun: theyinclude you%all  or y4all  &D', you guys, yu4uns &K', youse &', or ye &'. #hese forms are

generally regarded as collo>uial and non+standard.

. #he pronoun thou was the former second person singular pronoun; it is consideredan archaism in most contets, although it is still used in some dialects in the north

of England. 'hou was originally the informal form to the formal you, is very rare,

and is confined to dialects and religious and poetic functions. 4n modern %tandardEnglish, the second person plural you is used instead.

-.  &ine (and thine) were also previously used before vowel sounds to avoid a glottal

stop. e.g., 5!o mine eyes deceive meLN 5Onow thine enemy.5 #his usage is now

archaic./. #he ob0ective form whom is most often found in formal English (as in writing)

while the more common ob0ective who is found in less formal writing and most

speech. "rescriptivists state that who when used in ob0ective contet is

5incorrect5.

#he refleive pronouns are compounds consisting an genitive determiner pronoun and a

following %self , with eception of the -rd person singular male form which consists of the

ob0ective form him G %self  and the -rd person plural form with consists ob0ective them G%self  G %(e$s. 4n the plural, these refleives take the regular plural suffi %s (with voicing

of the f  F v as with the free form of self  F selves) along with the plural inflected pronoun

form.

Case

1st 2nd 3rd

sg. pl. sg. pl.

sg.

pl.

male female neuter

7

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(eflexiv

e

mysel

f ourselves yourself yourselves himself herself itself themselves

;urself  is used instead of ourselves for any semantically singular version of we, such asthe royal we .

4n some dialects, the -rd person male and -rd person plural refleives are formed with thegenitive determiner his F hisself  and their  F theirself . #hus, these dialects have

regulari$ed the entire paradigm to genitive forms.

[edit] ,erbs

 &ain article: English verbs

[edit] ,erb classes

English verbs fall into two main types:

• main verbs (also full verbs)

• auxiliaries (also auiliary verbs, helping verbs)

ain verbs are verbs like jump, take, catch, and hit . #hey are leical in nature, carry the

main semantic information within the verb comple, and are an open class (i.e. main

verbs can be freely and productively created anew via word+formation processes). 4n thesentence

 0alil is helping  his brother. 

the verb helping  is the main verb.

Auiliaries are verbs that typically precede the main verb in sentences. #hey are of

limited number, contribute grammatical information to the verb comple, and are aclosed class. 4n the sentence

 0alil is helping his brother. 

the verb is is the auiliary.

#hree verbs in English B be, have, and do B may function as both main verbs and as

auiliaries.&-' Puirk et al. (D7) refer to these verbs as primary verbs. #he followingeamples demonstrate their dual functionality:

 0alil will be a student.  (be as a main verb)

 0alil is helping a student.  (be as an auiliary)

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'he girls have many books.  (have as a main verb)

'he girls have helped many students.  (have as an auiliary)

'he girls may do their homework.  (do as a main verb)'he girls do not help many students.  (do as an auiliary)

@esides the three primary verbs, the other auiliaries are modals which include can,could , may, might , must , shall , should , will , and would . 4n addition to their restriction to

functioning only as auiliaries, modals can only occur in finite clauses and cannot beinflected for tense, number, or person.

ore marginal to the class of modals are verbs like ought  and in @ritish varieties also

need  and dare. #hese display many but not all properties of modals and are thus termed

marginal modals by Puirk et al. (D7).

inally, the verb used  (as in She used to called me everyday) is considered to be marginal

modal by Puirk et al. (D7), but Cuddleston Q "ullum (KK) find several differences

 between it and the other modals and marginal modals, concluding that it is an auiliary ofthe most marginal type. %emantically, used  has reference to time, which distinguishes it

from modals, which have modality as their main semantic component.

[edit] )nflectional morphology

English verbs only have eight possible inflectional forms:

• non+finite&/'  (or non+tensed) forms:

() base form (also called plain form) &7' 

() -ing  

&8'

 form(-) -en form &9' 

• finite (or tensed) forms:

nonpast forms:(/) general nonpast form

(7) 1st person singular nonpast form

(8) 3rd person singular nonpast form past forms:

(9) general past form

() 1st43rd person singular past form

#he copula be has eight distinct inflectional forms as seen in the eample sentences below:

'he girl wants to be in school  (base form: be)

'he girl is being  a nuisance (%ing  form: being )

'he girl has been a great help (%en form: been)

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'he girls are students (general nonpast form: are)

 3 am a student  (st sg. nonpast form: am)

'he girl is a student  (-rd sg. nonpast form: is)

'he girls were students (general past form: were)

'he girl was a student  (st=-rd sg. past form: was)

Cowever, most verbs (which include all 5regular5 verbs and some 5irregular5 verbs) have

only four distinct inflectional forms:

'he girl wants to ump in the lake (base form: jump)

'he girl is umping  in the lake (%ing  form: jumping )

'he girl has already umped  in the lake (%en form: jumped )

'he girls ump in the lake every day (general nonpast form: jump)

 3 ump in the lake every day (st sg. nonpast form: jump)

'he girl umps in the lake every day (-rd sg. nonpast form: jumps)'he girls umped  in the lake yesterday (general past form: jumped )

'he girl umped  in the lake yesterday (st=-rd sg. past form: jumped )

Inlike copula be, the verb jump has the same syncretic word+form jump for the base,

general nonpast, and st. sg. nonpast forms (where the copula has be, are, am,

respectively) and the same syncretic word+form jumped  for the %en, general past, and thest=-rd sg. past forms (where the copula has been, were, was, respectively). Ipon

comparing other verbs with the copula, one finds that only the copula has a st=-rd sg.

 past form that is distinct from the general past form, a st sg. nonpast form that is distinctfrom the general nonpast, and a base form that is distinct from the general nonpast form

 B all other verbs display syncretism in these forms.&' #he copula and a regular jump can

 be compared with each other and three types of irregular verbs in the table below.

English ,erb )nflectional Paradigm

Copula

be

(egular

verb

)rregular verb

5ith 6

inflections

)rregular verb

5ith 7

inflections

)rregular verb

5ith 3

inflections

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-ing  form being   jumping  tak ing  build ing  hitt ing 

3rd g.

Nonpastis jumps takes build s hit s

1st g.

Nonpastam

 jump take build 

hit 

0eneral

Nonpastare

8ase be

0eneral

Pastwere

 jumped 

took 

buil t 1st43rd

g. Pastwas

-en form been taken

All verbs (including the copula) form the %ing  form with the addition of the %ing  suffi to

the base form:

@A%E 6?  G %ing  

All regular verbs and most irregular verbs form the -rd singular form with the addition ofthe %e(s$ suffi to the base form:

@A%E 6?  G %(e$s 

#he parenthetical (e$ above indicates that this suffi is spelled as either %es or %s. #he %es 

form (pronounced [ z]ɪ ) occurs after  sibilant consonants. #he %s spelling occurs after all

other sounds.&D' Eamples:

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•  push%es [p - z]ʊʃ   ɪ   ( sh represents sibilant consonant [ ]ʃ )

• catch%es [kæt - z]ʃ   ɪ   (ch, dge represents sibilant consonant [t ]ʃ )

• ( judge%es) F judges [d d - z]ʒʌ ʒ   ɪ   (dge represents sibilant consonant [d ]ʒ )

•  fit%s, dig%s, bathe%s, pan%s, pay%s  (t , g , the, n, ay represent non+sibilant sounds [t,

, ð, n, e ]ɡ   ɪ )

All regular verbs form the past=%en form (as well as the syncretic st=-rd past) with the

addition of the %ed  suffi to the base form:

@A%E 6?  G %ed  

[edit] )rregular verb morphology

4rregular verbs&K' may have the same syncretism as regular verbs (like catch) or mayshow less syncretism with five distinct forms (like take) or more syncretism with only

three distinct forms (like hit ). (%ee also: English irregular verbs.) Eamples of the three

types differing in the number of distinct inflectional forms:

• irregular verbs with 7 forms: take, break , swim, grow, drive, do 

• irregular verbs with / forms: catch, build , have, feel , tell , say 

• irregular verbs with - forms: hit , put , hurt , bet , cut , cast  

4rregular verbs with five distinct inflectional forms do not syncreti$e the general past and

the %en forms. 4rregular verbs with only three forms have the syncretism involving allforms ecept for the %ing  form and the -rd sg. nonpast form. &'

4rregular verbs with five and four inflectional forms have different patterns of past

formation and %en formation. any of the patterns involve vowel ablaut (i.e. internalvowel changes) and=or the addition of suffies.&' %ome of the more common patterns are briefly mentioned below. *ote that the spelling does not always reflect pronunciation

changes in the internal vowel, so the pronunciation is transcribed phonetically:

• 3oicing change in last consonant between base and past=%en forms (d  is voiced, t  

is voiceless):

bend  R bent 

build R built 

• 3owel change and suffiation of t  between base and past=%en forms:

 sleep [sli pː

]R slept   [sl pt]ɛ  ( slep G %t )

deal   [di l]ː R dealt  [d lt]ɛ  (deal  G %t )

• ?eplacing of vowel and final consonant(s) in base form with [ t]ɔː  in past=%en 

form:S

think  [θ ŋk]ɪ R thought  [θ tɔː

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]

catch [kætʃ]

R caught   [k t]ɔː

• 3owel change between base and past=%en forms and %(e$n suffiation:

break  [bre k]ɪ R broke [bro k]ʊ R broken [bro kən]ʊ  (broke G %(e$n) steal   [sti l]ː R stole   [sto l]ʊ R stolen   [sto lən]ʊ  ( stole G %en)

tear    [t ər]ɛ R tore   [t ər]ɔ R torn   [t rn]ɔː  (tor(e$ G %n)

• 3owel change between base=%en and past forms and %(e$n suffiation:

draw [dr ɔː

]R drew

 [druː

]R drawn [dr n]ɔː  (draw G %n)

 fall    [f l]ɔː R fell   [f l]ɛ R fallen   [f lən]ɔː  ( fall  G %en)

take   [te k]ɪ R took   [t k]ʊ R taken   [te kən]ɪ  (take G %(e$n)

• 3owel changes in base, past, Q %en forms:

 swim [sw m]ɪ R swam [swæm] R swum [sw m]ʌ

• 3owel changes in base, past, Q %en forms with %(e$n suffiation:

drive [drа v]ɪ R drove [dro v]ʊ R driven [dr vən]ɪ  (drive G %(e$n)

 fly   [flа ]ɪ R flew   [flu ]ː R flown   [flo n]ʊ  ( flow G %n)

A few verbs also have irregular changes between the general present and the -rd sg. present forms:

have [hæv] R has   [hæz] (and not the epected -rd sg. *haves [hævz])

do   [du ]ː R does [d z]ʌ (and not the epected -rd sg. *dos [du z]ː ) say   [se ]ɪ R says [s z]ɛ (and not the epected -rd sg. [se z]ɪ )

#he copula paradigm also has suffiation and vowel ablaut, but it is additionally marked

 by suppletion.&-' (%ee the table above for its eight inflected forms.)

[edit] %efective verbs

A final thing to mention is that a few verbs are defective in that they are not inflected orare missing some inflectional forms. #he verb beware has only the base form beware. 4t

is usually found in imperative sentences:

 !eware of the dog. 

#he forms bewaring , bewares, bewared  are not present in odern English.

#he verb used  only occurs in past form, as in

2e used  to go to the beach every day when 3 was young. 

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or in the base form only following do, as in

2e did not use to go the beach every day. 

#his used  verb indicates habitual action or states in the past and should not be confused

with the other verb use which is a regular verb.

#he verb stride is missing a past participle form in its inflectional paradigm for many

speakers (for some speakers who do have a past participle form, the form may variously

 be stridden, strid , or strode).

#he verbs rumored  and reputed  only occur in the %en form in passive sentences:

 0alil is rumored  to have participated in the scandal.  0alil is reputed  to have connections with the scandal. 

All modals (can, could , should , might , etc.) are defective.

[edit] *uxiliary inflection

Please help improve this section by expanding it. urther information might befound on the talk page or at re>uests for epansion. (une !""#$

6f the auiliaries, only be, have, and do are inflected for tense, number, and person. #he

auiliary be has the same eight inflectional forms as a main verb (the copula) and have 

and do likewise have the same five inflectional forms as when functioning as main verbs.

4n contrast, modals are uninflected auiliaries with respect to these grammatical parameters (and are thus defective).

Cowever, most auiliaries share the additional inflection of negation. *egative inflection

consists of a %n4t  suffi that is attached to the auiliary. #hus, there are the followinginflected auiliary forms:

be&/' 

aren4t   (are G %n4t )isn4t   (is G %n4t )

weren4t   (were G %n4t )

wasn4t   (was G %n4t )ain4t   &dialectal, prescriptively 5incorrect5'

have 

haven4t   (have G %n4t )

hasn4t   (has G %n4t )hadn4t   (had  G %n4t )

do 

don4t   (do G %n4t )

modals

can4t   (can G %n4t )couldn4t   (could  G %n4t )

mayn4t   (may G %n4t ) &very rare'

mightn4t   (might  G %n4t )mustn4t   (must  G %n4t ) shan4t   ( shall  G %n4t )

won4t   (will  G %n4t )

wouldn4t   (would  G %n4t )

marginal auxiliaries

daren4t   (dare G %n4t ) &rare, mostly @ritish'

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doesn4t   (does G %n4t )

didn4t   (did  G %n4t ) needn4t   (need  G %n4t ) &rare, mostly @ritish'

oughtn4t   (ought  G %n4t ) &ungrammatical in

some varieties'

usedn4t   (used  G %n4t ) &ungrammatical in some

dialects, mostly @ritish'

#he negative forms don4t  [do nt]ʊ  (and not the epected [dunt]) and won4t  [wo nt]ʊ  (andnot the epected [w lnt]ɪ ) are irregular in their changes in internal vowel, and  shan4t  

[ ænt, nt]ʃ ʃɑː  is irregular in its deletion of the final consonant (and in ?" its vowel hasshifted from [æ] to [ ]ɑː ). #he forms mayn4t  and shan4t  are now rare (particularly so with

mayn4t ) and are virtually absent in standard varieties of American English.

#raditional grammar views %n4t  not as an inflectional suffi but as simply a

 phonologically reduced form (in traditional terms contracted ) of the grammatical wordnot . According to this view, haven4t  is e>uivalent to non+contracted have < not , doesn4t  H

does < not , etc. #hese contracted negative forms are, thus, e>uated with the reduced

(contracted) forms of some of the other auiliaries, namely are F 8re, is F 8s, am F 8m,have F 8ve, has F 8s, had  F 8d , does F 8s, will  F 8ll , would  F 8d . Although this is the

historical origin of the negative forms, clearly in the modern language the %n4t  in these

words are suffies forming a single indivisible word as the negative auiliaries display

different syntactic behavior compared with constructions consisting of auiliary G not :

 1id n"t  0alil bring the coffee 

*1id not  0alil bring the coffee 

*1id 0alil n"t  bring the coffee 

 1id 0alil not  bring the coffee 

Sadaf brought the coffee- did n"t  she 

*Sadaf brought the coffee- did not  she *Sadaf brought the coffee- did shen"t  Sadaf brought the coffee- did she not  

Additionally, it can also be shown that the reduced forms of the other auiliaries do not

 behave similarly to the negative auiliaries:

Should n’t  0alil go to the store  (cf. 0alil should n’t  go to the store.)*Should ’ve 0alil gone to the store  (cf. 0alil should ’ve gone to the store.)

*0e8d n’t  go to the store if she asked him. 

 0e8d ’ve gone to the store if she had asked him.&7' 

inally, the negative inflection property applies generally to auiliaries but not to mainverbs. #here are two eceptions to this, however, involving the 5primary5 verbs. #he verb

be as a main verb may also be inflected in the negative as the following eamples show:

'he student wasn"t  being considered fairly.  (negative inflection as auiliary)

'he student wasn"t  a sophomore.  (negative inflection as main verb)

-

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4n @ritish varieties, have may also have negative forms as a main verb while are

ungrammatical for most American varieties:

'he student hasn"t  been treated fairly.  (negative inflection as auiliary)'he student hasn"t  enough time.  (negative inflection as main verb B @ritish)

#he other 5primary5 verb, however, cannot have negative forms when acting as a main

verb.

#his case of properties of auiliaries applying to be and have is also seen in other

syntactic behavior, such as in the inversion of sub0ect and auiliary operator. (%ee theoperator section.)

#hus, 8ve, 8m, 8s, etc. are phonologically reduced (i.e. contracted) forms of separate words

whereas the negative %n8t  is not a contracted separate word but rather a (inflectional)

suffi. Albeit in etremely formal writing (where not  would be preferable), the %n8t  is

acceptable in most writing.

[edit] *greement

ost English verbs mark number (in agreement with their sub0ects) only in the non+pasttense, indicative mood. 4n this contet, there is a contrast between the -rd person and all

other persons (i.e., st and nd): the -rd person is marked with a %(e$s suffi while all

other persons are unmarked (i.e. without overt marking). urthermore, the inflectional

suffi %(e$s also indicates singular number, i.e. %(e$s indicates a -rd person singularsub0ect. %imilarly, singular number is only indicated in the -rd person B number in the

other persons are unmarked. #he plural in the -rd person is unmarked. #he -rd person

singular suffi is added to the general present tense form while the unmarked form isgeneral present tense form. #here is, thus, only a distinction between a general present

form and -rd person singular form.

0eneral 3rd ingular

listen listen%s

 push push%es

2ombined with personal pronoun sub0ects, the following are the possible sub0ect+verb

combinations:&8'

0eneral 3rd ingular

/

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 36we6you6they

 pushhe6she6it pushes

#he copula be, however, makes additional distinctions of the st person singular in thenon+past and the st or -rd person singular in the past. Inlike other verbs, these inflected

forms of be lie in a suppletive relationship.

Non-past Past

0eneral1st ingular3rd ingular 0eneral 1st43rd ingular

are am is were was

"ronoun sub0ect+verb combinations:

Non-past Past

0eneral 1st ingular 3rd ingular 0eneral 1st43rd ingular

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we6you6they

are 3 am he6she6it is

we6you6they

were 36he6she6it was

4n the sub0unctive mood, all person and number distinctions are neutrali$ed (see below).

[edit] tructure of the verb 9complex9

Please help improve this section by expanding it. urther information might befound on the talk page or at re>uests for epansion. (une !""#$

[edit] $perator

Please help improve this section by expanding it. urther information might be

found on the talk page or at re>uests for epansion. (une !""#$

#he first auiliary in the verb comple is termed the operator. 4t is displays a number ofdistinct syntactic and morphological characteristics.

•

sub0ect+operator inversion

& 'he large man with a cane ' has been coming your way.  #as & the large man with a cane ' been coming your way & 'he woman ' has been flying a kite- and  & her son ' has been flying a kite- too. 

& 'he woman ' has been flying a kite- and so has & her son ' .  (with coordination

ellipsis)

[edit] 'ime& tense and aspect

'his article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the sub/ect.

"lease help recruit one or improve this article yourself. %ee the talk page for details."lease consider using TTEpert+sub0ectUU to associate this re>uest with a iki"ro0ect

 &ain article: English=verb>'enses

2hanges in tense in English are achieved by the changes in ending and the use ofauiliary verbs 5to be5 and 5to have5 and the use of the auiliaries 5will5, 5shall5 and

5would5. (#hese auiliaries cannot co+occur with other modals like can, may, and must .)

#he eamples below use the regular verb to listen:

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• Present tenses 

o imple present (or simply 5present5): 54 listen.5 #his tense typically

epresses habitual actions. ?arely, it is used to refer to present time in

reportative style speech.

o Present continuous (or 5present progressive5): 54 am listening.5 #his

tense epresses actions in the present taking place as the speaker isspeaking or in the future.

o Present perfect: 54 have listened.5 #his tense epresses actions that began

in the past but are still true in the present: 54 have known her for si years5(and 4 still know her). #his is also used to epress a completed action that

took place at a non-specific moment in the past. #his tense often

epresses actions that happen in the past, yet cannot be considered a pasttense because it always has a connection to the present.

o Present perfect continuous: 54 have been listening.5 #his is used to

epress that an event started at some time in the past and continuing to the present.

o All forms of the present tense are often used in place of their future+tensecounterparts. 4n particular, various kinds of  subordinate clauses  Bespecially if  and when clauses B cannot generally use the future tense, so

the present tense is used instead.

•

•

•

•

•

•

• Past tenses 

o imple past: 54 listened.5 #his is used to epress a completed action thattook place at a specific moment in the past. (2onfusingly, in I% English,

the simple past may sometimes be used for a non-specific moment in the past).

o Past continuous (otherwise known as the imperfect or past progressive):

54 was listening.5 #his is used to epress an incomplete action in the past.(#hus, an 5imperfect5 action, as opposed to a completed and therefore

5perfect5 action.)

o Past perfect or pluperfect: 54 had listened.5 #his epresses an action

completed before some other action in the past (often epressed by the

simple past). #he pluperfect is thus epressing an action even more in the

 past e.g. 5Ce realised that he had lost  his way5, 54 was going to town because he had spoken to me5.

o Past perfect continuous or simply 5perfect continuous5: 54 had been

listening.5 Isually used with an eplicit duration, this indicates that an

event was ongoing for a specific time, e.g. 5hen "eter entered my room,4 had been listening to music for half an hour.5

• :uture tenses 

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o imple future: 54 shall=will listen.5 #his is used to epress that an event

will occur in the future, or that the speaker intends to perform some action.

o :uture continuous: 54 shall=will be listening.5 #his is used to epress an

ongoing event that has not yet been initiated.

o :uture perfect: 54 shall=will have listened.5 #his indicates an action which

will occur before some other action in the future: *ormally two actions areepressed, and the future perfect indicates an action which will occur in

the future but will, at the time of the main future action epressed, be in

the past (e.g. 54 will know the tune net week because 4 will have listenedto it5).

o :uture perfect continuous or future imperfect: 54 shall=will have been

listening.5 Epresses an ongoing action that occurs in the future, beforesome other event epressed in the future.

o 54 am going to listen5 is a construction using 5to go5 as an auiliary. 4t is

referred to as going to future, futur proche or immediate future, andhas the same sense as the simple future, sometimes with an implication of

immediacy. 4t is not strictly a tense, and 5to go5 is not strictly a tenseauiliary verb, but this construction often is presented as a tense forsimplicity. @y varying the tense of the auiliary 5to go5, various other

meanings can be achieved, e.g. 54 am going to be listening5 (future

continuous), and 54 was going to listen5 (conditional perfect continuous).

•

•

•

•

• Conditional tenses 

o Present conditional or simply conditional: 54 would listen.5 #his is usedto epress an event that occurred multiple times or was ongoing in the past

(i.e. hen 4 was younger, 4 would listen. &multiple times'), or somethingthat would be done now or in the future when predicated upon another

condition (i.e. V4f 4 had the time, 4 would listen to you.N &#his condition

could be known from contet and omitted from the conditional

statement.')o Present continuous conditional: 54 would be listening.5 #his is used to

epress an ongoing event that had not yet been initiated.

o Conditional perfect: 54 would have listened.5 4ndicates that an action

would occur after some other event.

o Conditional perfect continuous: 54 would have been listening5:Epresses an ongoing action that would occur in the future in the past,after some other event.

Auiliary verbs may be used to define tense, aspect, or mood of a verb phrase.

As mentioned above 5going to5 is used for some future pseudo+tenses:

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orms of 5do5 are used for some negatives, >uestions and emphasis of the simple present

and simple past:

. 5!o 4 listenL5 54 do not listen.5 54 do listenW5. 5!id 4 listenL5 54 did not listen.5 54 did listenW5

[edit] ,erb tense chart

 &ain article: 9rammatical aspect 

English verb tenses can be better visuali$ed in the following chart, which shows the timesof the English language and its three aspects, namely "rior, 2omplete, and 4ncomplete.

 *ote that this chart only represents actions truly happening, be it present, past, or future.

%ince unreal conditionals are obviously assumptions, conditional structures with wouldare not included here.

P*' P(EEN' :"'"(E

P()$( *PEC' "ast "erfect "resent "erfect uture "erfect

C$!PLE'E *PEC' %imple "ast %imple "resent %imple uture

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)NC$!PLE'E *PEC' "ast 2ontinuous "resent 2ontinuous uture 2ontinuous

[edit] ,oice

 &ain article: English passive voice

English has two voices for verbs: the active and the passive. #he basic form is the active

verb, and follows the %36 pattern discussed above. #he passive voice is derived from theactive by using the auiliary verb 5to be5 and the %en form of the main verb.

Eamples of the passive:

Passive voice   $ctive voice

4 am seen by John  ohn sees me

<ou will be struck by John  ohn will strike you

4t was stolen by John  ohn stole it 

e were carried by John  ohn carried us

#hey have been chosen by John ohn has chosen them

urthermore, the agent and patient switch grammatical roles between active and passive

voices so that in passive the patient is the sub0ect, and the agent is noted in an optional prepositional phrase using by, for eample:

. active: 3 heard the music. . passive: 'he music was heard (by me$. (*ote: me, not 3 )

#he passive form of the verb is formed by replacing the verb with to be in the same tense

and aspect, and appending the %en form of the original verb. #hus:

'ense *ctive voice 'he same sense& expressed 5ith the passive

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voice

%imple present 4 hear  the music. #he music is heard  by me.

"resent

 progressive

4 am hearing  the

music.#he music is being heard  by me.

"ast progressive4 was hearing  the

music.#he music was being heard  by me.

"ast perfect 4 had heard  the music. #he music had been heard  by me.

%imple future 4 will hear  the music. #he music will be heard  by me.

#his pattern continues through all the composite tenses as well. #he semantic effect of

the change from active to passive is the depersonalisation of an action. 4t is alsooccasionally used to topicali$e the direct ob0ect of a sentence, or when the agent is either

unknown or unimportant even when included, thus:

. #he plane was shot down.

. !o$ens were killed.-. @ill was run over by a bus.

any writing style guides including %trunk and hite recommend minimi$ing use of the

 passive voice in English; however, many others do not.

#here is a third voice in English, related to the classic 5middle5 voice. 4n this, the patient becomes the sub0ect, as in passive, but the verb remains in apparently active voice, no

agent can plausibly be supplied, and generally, an adverbial modifies the entire

construction. #hus:

. %he does not frighten easily.

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. #his bread slices poorly.

-. Cis novels sell well.

[edit] !odals and modality

English has 5moods5 of verb. #hese always include the declarative=indicative and thesub0unctive moods, and normally the imperative is included as a mood. %ome people

include conditional or interrogative forms as verbal moods.

[edit] )ndicative& or declarative& mood

• #he declarative mood  or indicative mood  is the simplest and most basic mood.

#he overwhelming ma0ority of verb use is in the indicative, which may be

considered the 5normal5 form of verbs, with the sub0unctive as an 5eceptional5

form of verbs. (4f any other forms are considered a mood (e.g. imperative), they

may also be considered other 5eceptional5 verb forms.)

Eamples are most commonly used verb forms, e.g.:

• 4 think

• 4 thought

• Ce was seen

• 4 am walking home.

• #hey are singing.

• Ce is not a dancer.

• e are very happy.

[edit] ub/unctive mood

• #he subjunctive mood  is used to epress counterfactual (or conditional)

statements, and is often found in if+then statements, and certain formulaic

epressions. 4t is typically marked in the present tense by the auiliary 5were5

 plus the %ing  form of the verb.. ere 4 eating, 4 would sit.

. 4f they were eating, they would sit.

-. #ruth be told.../. 4f 4 were you... 4 would do that.

#he con0ugation of these moods becomes a significantly more comple matter when they

are used with different tenses. Cowever, casual spoken English rarely uses the

sub0unctive, and generally restricts the conditional mood to the simple present and simple past. A notable eception to this is the use of the present sub0unctive in clauses of wish or

command which is marked in one or two ways: () if third person singular, the 5+s5

con0ugation called for by the declarative mood is absent, and () past tense is not used.or eample, 5#hey insisted that he go to chapel every morning5 means that they were

re>uiring or demanding him to go to chapel. Cowever, 5#hey insisted that he went to

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chapel every morning5 means they are reasserting the statement that, in the past, he did

attend chapel every morning. #he underlying grammar of this distinction has been called

the 5American sub0unctive5. 6n the other hand, other constructions for epressing wishesand commands, which do not use the sub0unctive, are e>ually common, such as 5#hey

re>uired him to go...5

[edit] )mperative mood

• #he imperative mood  is used for commands or instructions. 4t is not always

considered a verbal mood per se. Ising the verb in its simplest, uncon0ugated

form forms it: 5istenW %itW EatW5 #he imperative mood in English occurs only in

the second person, and the sub0ect (5you5) is generally not epressly stated, because it is implied. hen the speaker gives a command regarding anyone else,

it is still directed at the second person as though it were a re>uest for permission,

although it may be a rhetorical statement.

. et me do the talking.. 2ome here.

-. 1ive him an allowance.

/. et sleeping dogs lie.

[edit] !odal forms

 &ain article: English modal auiliary verb

2onditional forms of verb are used to epress if+then statements, or in response to

counterfactual propositions (see sub0unctive mood, above), denoting or implying anindeterminate future action. 2onditionals may be considered tense forms but are

sometimes considered a verbal mood, the conditional mood .

2onditionals are epressed through the use of the verbal auiliaries could , would , should ,

may and might  in combination with the stem form of the verb.

. Ce could go to the store.. <ou should be more careful.

-. 4 may try something else.

/. Ce might be heading north.

 *ote that for many speakers 5may5 and 5might5 have merged into a single meaning (thatof 5might5) that implies the outcome of the statement is contingent. #he implication of

 permission in 5may5 seems to remain only in certain uses with the second person, e.g.5<ou may leave the dinner table.5

#wo main conditional tenses can be identified in English:

 3 would think  H "resent 2onditional

 3 would have thought  H 2onditional "erfect

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[edit] Notes

. 4n English, a long+standing prescriptive rule holds that shall  denotes simple

futurity in the first person, and will  denotes simple futurity in the second and third persons. 4n American English, this distinction has largely vanished; will  is

normally used for both cases, and shall  is rare. 4n @ritish English, adherence tothe rule has declined during the Kth century ( see Shall and will   for a more

detailed discussion), although use of shall  remains for epressing the simplefuture in the first person.

. #he distinction between tense, aspect, and mood is not clear+cut or universally

agreed+upon. or eample, many analysts would not accept that English hastwelve tenses. #he si 5continuous5 (also called 5progressive5) forms in the list

above are often treated under the heading of 5aspect5 rather than tense: the simple

 past and the past continuous are eamples of the same tense, under this view. 4naddition, many modern grammars of English agree that English does not have a

future tense (or a future perfect). #hese include two large recent grammars:

. @iber, !., %. Johansson, 1. eech, %. 2onrad Q E. inegan. DDD.

 ?ongman grammar of spoken and written English. Carlow, ongman.. Cuddleston, ?.  Q 1. "ullum. KK. 'he /ambridge grammar of the

 English language. 2ambridge, 2I".

#he main argument given by Cuddleston and "ullum (pp KD+K) that English does not

have a future tense is that 5will5 is a modal verb, both in its grammar and in its meaning.@iber et al. go further and say that English has only two tenses, past and present: they

treat the perfect forms with 5have5 under 5aspect5. Cuddleston Q "ullum, on the other

hand, regard the forms with 5have5 as 5secondary tenses5.

[edit] ,erb phrases

Please help improve this section by expanding it. urther information might befound on the talk page or at re>uests for epansion. (une !""#$

[edit] *d/ectives

Ad0ectives are words that can be used attributively within noun phrases where they

(pre+)modify noun heads and predicatively within verb phrase where they are thecomplement of copular verbs. or eample, in the sentence below the ad0ective tall  occurs within the noun phrase the tall man modifying the noun head man. #he ad0ective

nice occurs within the verb phrase is nice as the complement of the (copular) verb head

is.

& 'he tall  man ' & is nice '

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#he ad0ectives also act as the head of ad0ective phrases as in the following:

'he & very tall  ' man is & rather nice '

Cere the ad0ectives tall  and nice are the heads of the ad0ective phrases very tall  and

rather nice.

%emantically, ad0ectives provide more information about them. Ad0ectives are used to

describe and identify their associated nouns.

A further morphological characteristic of ad0ectives, which is also shared with adverbs, is

their ability to be inflected in comparison: tall%er , tall%est . %ee also the comparisonsection.

Please help improve this section by expanding it. urther information might be

found on the talk page or at re>uests for epansion. (une !""#$

[edit] *d/ective phrases

Please help improve this section by expanding it. urther information might be

found on the talk page or at re>uests for epansion. (une !""#$

[edit] emantic ordering

[edit] *dverbs

Please help improve this section by expanding it. urther information might befound on the talk page or at re>uests for epansion. (une !""#$

#he term adverb originating from traditional grammar refers to a wide range of words

that have different functions and different syntactic behaviors. #herefore, it is best toseparate adverbs into different subclasses and discuss the grammar of each subclass

separately.

%ee also the comparison section.

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[edit] %egree adverbs

Please help improve this section by expanding it. urther information might be

found on the talk page or at re>uests for epansion. (une !""#$

*dverbs of degree (or intensifiers) roughly >ualify a point on a gradable semantic property. @elow are some degree adverbs:

• very &9' 

• etremely 

• etc.

%yntactically, degree adverbs pre+modify either ad0ectives or adverbs:

'he very fast car is running smoothly.  (very modifying ad0ective fast )

'he very kindly gentleman fied my car.  (very modifying ad0ective kindly)'he fast car is running very smoothly.  (very modifying adverb smoothly)'he kindly gentleman is driving my car very fast.  (very modifying adverb fast )

[edit] Prepositions

Please help improve this section by expanding it. urther information might befound on the talk page or at re>uests for epansion. (une !""#$

[edit] Prepositional phrases

Please help improve this section by expanding it. urther information might be

found on the talk page or at re>uests for epansion. (une !""#$

"" H (odifier G ) " G *" : (right$ on & the bus '

[edit] Clausal syntax[edit] ;ord order

English is a sub0ect verb ob0ect (%36) language: it prefers a se>uence of sub0ectXverbX ob0ect in its simplest, unmarked declarative statements. #hus, 5#om &sub0ect' eats &verb'

cheese &ob0ect'5 and 5ary sees the cat.5

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Cowever, beyond these simple eamples, word order is a complicated matter in English.

4n particular, the speaker or writers point of departure in each clause is a key factor in the

organi$ation of the message. #hus, the elements in a message can be ordered in a waythat signals to the reader or listener what the message concerns.

•

'he duke has given my aunt that teapot. (i.e., 4 am going to tell you about theduke).

•  &y aunt  has been given that teapot by the duke. (i.e., 4 am going to tell you about

my aunt).

• 'hat teapot  has been given to my aunt by the duke. (i.e., 4 am going to tell you

about that teapot).

#he point of departure can also be set up as an e>uation, known as a thematic e>uative. 4nthis way, virtually any element in a clause can be put first.

• 52hat the duke gave my aunt  was a teapot5 (i.e., 4 am going to tell you what the

duke gave my aunt).• 52hat happened  was that the duke gave my aunt a teapot5 (i.e., 4 am going to tell

you what happened).

Isually, the point of departure is the sub0ect of a declarative clause; this is the unmarked  

form. A point of departure is marked  when it is not the sub0ect B thus, occasionally it is

the ob0ect (55ou 4 blame for this dilemma5) and more often an adverbial  phrase (5'hismorning  4 got up late5).

4n >uestions, point of departure is treated slightly differently. English >uestions come in

two types: wh+>uestions and yes+no >uestions. 6rdinary (unmarked) >uestions of either

type start with the word that indicates what the speaker wants to know.

• 52here is my little dogL5 (4 want you to tell me where.) &wh+>uestion'

• 5 3s John %mith insideL5 (4 want you to tell me whether he is or is not). &yes+no

>uestion'

%pecial (marked) >uestions displace this key 5what 4 want to know5 word with some

other element.

• 5After tea, will you tell me a storyL5 (%till 5will you or will not youL5)

• 54n your house, who does the cookingL5 (%till 5whoL5)

Either imperative clauses are of the type 54 want you to do something5 or 54 want you and

me to do something.5 #he second type usually starts with let us; in the unmarked form of

the first type, you is implied and not made eplicit (54mprove your grammarW5), andincluded in the marked form (5<ou improve your grammarW5); another marked form is

5!o improve your grammar.5 4n the negative, 5!o not argue with me5 is unmarked, and

5!o not you argue with me5 is marked.

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4n spoken English, the point of departure is fre>uently marked off by intonation.

1enerally, English is a head%initial  language, meaning that the 5anchor5 of a phrase

(segment of a sentence) occurs at the beginning of the phrase.

•

?an >uickly (verb phrase)• #o the store ( prepositional phrase)

#he main eception is that simple modifiers precede the noun phrases:

• A dog (article G noun)

• @lue house (ad0ective G noun)

• reds cat (possessive G noun) but  man of the house (noun G prepositional phrase)

#his leads to a sentence like: 5reds sister ran >uickly to the store.5 As can be inferredfrom this eample, the se>uence of a basic sentence (ignoring articles and other

determiners as well as prepositional phrases) is: Ad0ective + %ub0ect + 3erb + Adverb +Ad0ective + 4ndirect 6b0ect + Ad0ective- + !irect 6b0ect.

4nterrogative sentences invert word order (5!id you go to the storeL5). 2hanging a givensentence from active to passive grammatical voice changes the word order, moving the

new sub0ect to the front (5John bought the car5 becomes 5#he car was bought by John5),

and leical or grammatical emphasis (topicali$ation) changes it in many cases as well(see duke+aunt+teapot eamples above).

English also sees some use of the 6%3 (ob0ect+sub0ect+verb) word order, especially when

making comparisons using pronouns that are marked for case. or eample, 54 hate

oranges, but apples 4 will eat.5 ar more rare, but still sometimes used is 63%, 54f it isapples you like, then apples like 4,5 although this last usage can sound contrived and

anachronistic to a native speaker.

[edit] )nterrogative sentences

4nterrogative word order is used to pose >uestions, with or without an epected answer.

ost of the time, it is formed by switching the order of the sub0ect and the auiliary (or

5helping5) verb in a declarative sentence, as in the following:

. Are you going to the partyL

. 4s he supposed to do thatL-. Cow much do 4 owe youL

/. here is the parking lotL

Cowever, when the information being re>uested would be the sub0ect of the answer, the

word order is not inverted, and the interrogative pronoun takes the place of the sub0ect, as

in the following:

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. ho helped you with your homeworkL

. hat happened hereL

hen spoken, an intonation change is often used to emphasi$e this switch, or can entirelyreflect interrogation in some cases (e.g. 5John ranL5). #he interrogative phrase can further

 be formed in this manner by moving the predicate of a declarative sentence in front of thehelping verb and changing it to a demonstrative, relative pronoun, >uantifier, etc. Ending

the sentence with a >uestion mark denotes the interrogative phrase MLF.

?hetorical >uestions can be formed by moving the helping verb+sub0ect pair to the end of

the >uestion, e.g. 5<ou would not really do that, would youL5

[edit] 'ypes of )nterrogative entences

#here are three types of interrogative sentences (>uestions) in English:

. <es=no >uestions re>uire V<es=*oN answers. or eample: !o you like modernmusicL 4s he a driverL

o Alternative >uestions epress opposition and can be asked to any part of

the sentence (like special >uestions). or eample: !o you prefer tea orcoffeeL !id you or your mother tell him the truthL

. 4nformation >uestions (or 2h+>uestions) re>uire special information while

answering them. #hey are characteri$ed by the presence of an interrogative

 pronoun in the first place (hyL henL Cow muchL etc.) and can be asked to any part of the sentence. or eample: here did you spend last summerL hy have

you done itL

o Puestions to the sub0ect re>uire mentioning the doer of the action in the

answer. or eample: ho has broken the windowL ho was talking toyou when 4 saw youL

-. #ag >uestions (dis0unctive >uestions) represent statements with tags separated bya comma. or eample: <ou were at home yesterday, were you notL Ce will not

come tomorrow, will heL

[edit] <es4No =uestions

<es4No =uestions re>uire an answer YyesZ or YnoZ. 4f there is a modal verb (can- must- should- may), an auiliary verb (will- shall- have) or a form of the verb Yto beZ in the

sentence, put it in front of the sub0ect.

•  &ary is drinking tea. @ 3s &ary drinking tea 

• 'he friends have come. @ 0ave the friends come 

• 'he houses were built last year. @ 2ere the houses built last year  

• 5ou must do it. @ &ust you do it 

• She will come in ten minutes. @ 2ill she come in ten minutes 

• 'hey are from /anada. % )re they from /anada 

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4f there is no modal verb, auiliary verb or the verb Yto beZ in the sentence, yes=no

>uestions are formed with the help of the auiliary verb YdoZ. #he auiliary verb YdoZ has

no meaning. 4t 0ust takes the form according to the main verb in the sentence.

YdoZ X in the present tense: if the sub0ect of the sentence is the noun in the st person

singular or plural ( 3 or we), the nd person singular or plural ( you), and the -rd person plural (they).

• 2e go to the country every weekend. @ 1o we go the country every weekend 

• 5ou like swimming. @ 1o you like swimming 

• 'hey play football. @ 1o they play football 

YdoesZ X in the present tense: if the sub0ect of the sentence is the noun in the -rd person

singular (he, she, it).

• She cooks well. @ 1oes she cook well 

YdidZ + in the past tense

• 'hey arrived yesterday. @ 1id they arrive yesterday 

Note: the main verb in yes=no >uestions comes without any endings ( %es- %s- ed ) or in case

of the past tense X in its first form (arrived @ arrive- came @ come).

#o form negative yes=no >uestions you have to put the negative modal verb, negative

auiliary verb or negative form of the verb Yto beZ in front of the sub0ect.

•

/an8t you help him •  )ren8t you waiting for me 

4f you need to form the negative yes=no >uestion with the help of the auiliary verb YdoZ,

you have to use YdonZtZ (do not), doesnZt (does not), or didnZt (did not) instead of YdoZ

does, or did.

•  1on8t you know him 

•  1idn8t you tell him the truth 

#he peraphrastic negative is used in more formal English:

• /an you not help him 

•  )re you not waiting for me 

•  1o you not know him 

•  1id you not tell him the truth 

[edit] )nformation =uestions

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4nformation or 2h+ >uestions re>uire additional information for the answer (as opposed

to simply yes or no as with yes=no+>uestions). #o form such >uestions you have to put the

>uestion word (whyL whenL whereL whatL howL whoL whomL) together with all of thewords in the same phrase at the front of the sentence. 4f the >uestion word is part of the

sub0ect you do not have to change the word order . #he word order remains as in the

statement.

• 2ho is playing the piano in the room now 

• 2hich car is hers 

4f the >uestion word is not part of the sub0ect you have to use a modal verb (can- must-

 should- may), an auiliary verb (will- shall- have) or a form of the verb Yto beZ after the

>uestion word and in front of the sub0ect.

• 2here is 'ommy 

• 2here will you be waiting for me tomorrow 

4f there is no modal verb, auiliary verb or the verb Yto beZ in the sentence, you have to

use the auiliary verb YdoZ after the >uestion word and in front of the sub0ect.

• 2here do your parents live 

• 2hy did he do it 

Note: the main verb in information >uestions comes without any endings ( goes @ go- plays @ play- talked % talk ) or in case of the past tense X in its first form (arrived @ arrive-

came @ come).

[edit] 'ags

see also: [*egation, negative polarity, and assertion.

[edit] (eversed polarity tags

!is0unctive >uestions (tag >uestions) #ag >uestions are statements with tags at the end.

#he tag consists of two or three parts.

1st part: a modal verb, an auiliary verb, or a form of the verb Yto beZ (if they are in thesentence) in the form re>uired by the pronoun in the -rd part.

2nd part: the particle YnotZ if the statement is positive. 4f the statement is negative, the

 particle is omitted.

3rd part: the sub0ect of the statement epressed by a noun.

• She is having a shower now- isn8t she 

• 5ou can8t swim- can you 

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4f there is no modal verb, auiliary verb or the verb Yto beZ in the statement, you have to

use the auiliary verb YdoZ in the tag.

•  0enry played tennis well- didn8t he 

• 2e go to work by bus- don8t we 

Notes

(a) 4n @rE the main verb Yto haveZ behaves as an auiliary.

• 5ou have a brother and a sister- haven8t you (ArE$  

• 5ou have a brother and a sister- don8t you ()mE$  

(b) 4f the sub0ect of the statement is the indefinite pronoun YsomebodyZ in the tag it is

replaced by the pronoun YtheyZ.

•

Someone8s knocking at the door- aren8t they 

(c) %uch words like YnothingZ, YneverZ, YhardlyZ make the statements negative, so the tag

should be positive.

• 5ou never listen to me- do you 

(d) 4f the statement starts with YthereZ, this word counts as a pronoun, so it is placed on

the -rd place in the tag.

• ZZ#here is nothing here, is thereL

(e) 4f the statement is an imperative, the tag will be Ywill youZ or YwonZt youZ.

•  Ae attentive- won8t you 

•  1on8t be la,y- will you 

(f) 4f the statement contains Yet usZ, the tag will be Yshall weZ.

• ZZet us go to the cinema, shall weL

(g) ore formal English uses peraphrastic negation in the tags to positive sentences:

• She is having a shower now- is she not 

• 5ou cannot swim- can you 

•  0enry played tennis well- did he not 

• 2e go to work by bus- do we not 

• 5ou have a brother and a sister- have you not (ArE$ 

• 5ou have a brother and a sister- do you not ()mE$ 

• Someone is knocking at the door- are they not 

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•  Ae attentive- will you not 

!eaning of tags

#he tag >uestion re>uires the person to respond to the statement. *egative tags re>uire a

Y<esZ answer. "ositive tags re>uire a Y*oZ answer.

• ZZe have done the pro0ect, have we notL X <es, we have.

• 2e have not done the project- have we @ o- we have not. 

[edit] Constant polarity tags

Please help improve this section by expanding it. urther information might be

found on the talk page or at re>uests for epansion. (une !""#$

So- they read my article- did they 

[edit] 'opicali>ation

Please help improve this section by expanding it. urther information might be

found on the talk page or at re>uests for epansion. (une !""#$

•

#opicali$ation

'he book- 3 like. 'he movie- 3 do not. (cf. 3 like the book. 3 do not like the movie.)

'o ohn- 3 gave the book. (cf. 3 gave the book to ohn.)

• left dislocation

'he book- 3 like it. (cf. 3 like the book.) im- he is here. (cf. im is here.)

• cleft

 3t is the book (that$ 3 like. (cf. 3 like the book.)

•

 pseudo+cleft

'he book is what 3 like. (cf. 3 like the book.)

[edit] Negation& negative polarity& and assertion

Please help improve this section by expanding it. urther information might be

found on the talk page or at re>uests for epansion. (une !""#$

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• 1rammatical polarity

• "olarity item

 0alil is going with them.  0alil isn’t  going with them.  (inflectional 5contraction5 negation)

 0alil is not  going with them.  (periphrastic negation)

 0alil went  with them 

 0alil didn"t go with them.  (do+support, inflectional 5contraction5 negation) 0alil did not go with them.  (do+support, periphrastic negation)

 0alil was receiving some help from his friends. 

*0alil was receiving any help from his friends.  0alil was receiving no help from his friends. 

*0alil was not  receiving some help from his friends. 

 0alil was not  receiving any help from his friends. 

 0alil was not  receiving no help from his friends.  (dialectal, prescriptively5incorrect5)

 0alil can drive a motorcycle and so can /herif. 

*0alil can drive a motorcycle and neither  can /herif. *0alil cannot  drive a motorcycle and so can /herif. 

 0alil cannot  drive a motorcycle and neither  can /herif. 

 0alil almost  touched the bomb and so did /herif. *0alil almost  touched the bomb and neither  did /herif. 

*0alil hardly touched the bomb and so did /herif. 

 0alil hardly touched the bomb and neither  did /herif. 

• syntactic negation vs. leical negation (clausal vs. subclausal)

 0alil was unable to go and so was /herif. 

*0alil was unable to go and neither  was /herif. 

*0alil wasn"t able to go and so was /herif.  0alil was not able to go and neither  was /herif. 

• 3" negation vs. non+3" negation

 1o not  ever accept this job position7 (negation inside of 3") %ever  ever accept this job position7 (negation outside of 3")

restrictions on not :

 0e did not  accept the position. (negation inside of 3")

? 0e not  accepted the position. (negation outside of 3")

 3t is imperative & that he not  accept the position '. (negation outside of 3" in

sub0unctive)

•

•

•

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•

•

•

scope of negation and ambiguity

'he streets are not  & safe because of the flood  '

interpretation [ H the flood is not the reason for the unsafe streets (there is

another cause)

'he streets are not  & safe ' because of the flood  

interpretation [ H the flood is causing the unsafe streets

 )ll of the streets are not flooded  

interpretation [ H one of the streets are flooded  interpretation [ H ot all of the streets are flooded  

&'

[edit] Comparison

[edit] emantic gradability

Ad0ectives and adverbs typically have the semantic feature of being gradable, that is the

>uality or state that they describe eists on a gradual scale between two opposite poles.or eample, there is a gradable scale between the antonyms cold  and hot . 1radable

words of this type can have several modifiers that >ualify where on the scale a particular

>uality or state rests as in the followingcombinations:

very +uick  

rather +uick  

+uite +uick  too +uick  

+uick  

very +uickly

rather +uickly

+uite +uicklytoo +uickly

+uickly

ost ad0ectives&D' are gradable but some ad0ectives are not. or eample, the ad0ective

infinite is not gradable making the ad0ective phrases very infinite, rather infinite andmore infinite semantically odd.

[edit] 'ypes of comparison

Please help improve this section by expanding it. urther information might be

found on the talk page or at re>uests for epansion. (une !""#$

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1radable ad0ective and adverbs can also be involved in comparison where to the

 positions of two or more entities on a gradable scale are compared with each other.%emantically, three types of comparison can be distinguished:

•

higher degree (superior)• same degree

• lower degree (inferior)

2omparisons of the same degree use only the general base ad0ective form.

4n higher degree comparisons, the comparison is indicated either by inflectional

suffiation, using %er , %est  (morphological marking) or by periphrastic constructions

involving more, most  modifiers preceding the ad0ective (syntactic marking). #he threeinflectional forms are known as

•

absolute (or positive)• comparative

•  superlative

ower degree comparisons only use periphrastic constructions involving less and least  

ad0ectival modifiers.

Eamples:

)nflectional Periphrastic

ame degree *bsolute tall beautiful  

@igher degree

Comparative taller more beautiful  

uperlative tallest most beautiful  

Lo5er degree

 X  less tall- less beautiful 

 X  least tall- least beautiful 

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[edit] Comparative constructions

%he is taller than Calil is.

%he is more tall than short. (note: *She is taller than short  is ungrammatical)%he is as tall as Calil is.

etc.

[edit] Ellipsis

Please help improve this section by expanding it. urther information might be

found on the talk page or at re>uests for epansion. (une !""#$

#he phenomenon of ellipsis refers to omission of parts of sentences when those parts arereadily recoverable in the contet of an utterance. %ome types of ellipsis are obligatory

while other types of ellipsis are optional. %till other types are optional in certain

grammatical environment but obligatory in other grammatical environments. oreample, in the following sentences the underlined words can optionally be omitted:

'he red sock and red shoe are in the hamper. 

'he red sock and shoe are in the hamper.  (red  is omitted) 0alil can drink coffee and ohn can drink coffee - too.  0alil can drink coffee and ohn can- too.  (drink coffee is omitted)

 0alil borrowed one of my /1s but 3 cannot remember which /1. 

 0alil borrowed one of my /1s but 3 cannot remember which.  (/1 is omitted)'his boy always has done bad things and always will do bad things. 

'his boy always has and always will do bad things.  (done bad things is omitted)

 0alil is drinking coffee at the table and ohn is drinking coffee at the bar.  0alil is drinking coffee at the table and ohn at the bar.  (is drinking coffee is

omitted)

#he above eamples involve ellipsis in the second component of a coordinated

constituent. #his type of ellipsis is very common. 6ther types of non+coordinatedoptional ellipsis are the following:

 1o you want a drink 

2ant a drink  (do you omitted)

 1o you want a drink 5ou want a drink  (do omitted)

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 3t looks fine to me. 

 ?ooks fine to me.  (it  omitted)

 3s the machine still broken  &achine still broken  (is the omitted)

2e meet on 2ednesday mornings. 

2e meet 2ednesday mornings.  (on omitted)

2ertain kinds of ellipsis indicate a more informal or familiar style of language while other

types are neutral in the aspect.

A type of ellipsis that is always obligatory involves control constructions.&-K' #hese

sentences are usually analy$ed as consisting of a main clause with the verb of the mainclause taking a non+finite clause as a complement.

 0alil tried  & to paint his house ' . 

4n the sentence above 0alil tried  & B  ' is the main clause and the embedded (i.e.

subordinate) non+finite clause is to paint his house. #he non+finite clause is analy$ed ashaving a sub0ect which is obligatorily omitted in the surface sentence. 4n this case, the

omitted sub0ect is 0alil  (since it is Calil who making the painting attempt). #hus, the

underlying structure is

 0alil tried  & 0alil paint his house ' .  (underlying 0alil  in the embedded clause isungrammatical)

which has a sub0ect that must be omitted (along with an infinitive marker to that must beadded) to give:

 0alil tried to paint his house.  ( 0alil  is omitted)

#ypes of ellipsis that are obligatory in certain constructions but optional in others includethe that  complementi$er :

"ost+nominal modification:

'he man that 3 love will be there.   (that  is optionally present)

'he man 3 love will be there.  (that  is optionally omitted)

6b0ect: 0e knows that 3 love him.  (that  is optionally present)

 0e knows 3 love him.  (that  is optionally present)Etraposition:

 3t is obvious that 3 love him.  (that  is optionally present)

 3t is obvious 3 love him.  (that  is optionally omitted)

%ub0ect:'hat 3 love him is obvious.  (that  is obligatorily present)

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*3 love him is obvious.  (omitting that  is ungrammatical when the clause is in

sub0ect position)

[edit] ee also

• !isputes in English grammar• 2apitali$ation

• English prefies

•  *ominal group

• #hematic e>uative

• 1rammar checker

[edit] Notes and references

. A 6ther more recent analyses of noun phrases posit that they are instead determiner

 phrases with a determiner acting as the phrasal head and the noun (and its modifiers)acting as a complement to the determiner. #his article will follow the older, traditional

view of noun phrases being headed by nouns and determiners acting as modifiers of the

noun head.

. A Ingrammatical eample sentences are generally indicated with a preceding asterisk  &  

in linguistic literature. #his convention will be used in this article.

-. A 5%tanding alone5 (or 5bare5) refers to a syntactic contet like the following:

.  3 want &book . (book  H countable)

.  3 want rice. (rice H uncountable)

%entence () with uncountable rice without a preceding article is grammatical, but

sentence () is ungrammatical because book  in the singular cannot occur without a

 preceding article. 4n other words, rice can standalone in sentence () without an article but book  cannot standalone.

/. A #he term determiner  has different meanings in works by different authors. 6ne usage

uses the term determiner  as the name of a syntactic leical category (i.e. part of speech)

while the term determinative is used to refer to words that have a 5determining5 function.

6ther authors reverse the definitions with determiner  referring to function and

determinative referring to the leical category. A third usage uses the term determiner  to

refer to both the leical category and the function (and thus does not distinguish between

the two). 4n this article, the first usage will be followed where determiner  H leical

category, determinative H function.

7. A any traditional grammars refer to determiners with the term adjective. Cowever,

determiners clearly have different syntactic behavior and are usually distinguished fromad0ectives in more linguistically+oriented grammatical descriptions.

8. A *ote that the genitive pronouns mine, yours, hers, ours, theirs are not determiners but

are rather syntactically pronouns. (#he genitive pronoun his has the same form as thegenitive determiner his, i.e. they are syncretic.)

9. A #he word no, however, can also function as an inter0ection, when used to give a

negative answer to a yes+no >uestion as in

%peaker A: 1o you want a pelican 

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%peaker @: %o - 3 don4t like them. 

. A #he genitive enclitic is spelled simply %8  in certain situations...

D. A 'he )merican 0eritage 1ictionary of the English ?anguage, ourth Edition. %ee

http:==www.bartleby.com=8=88=<KK88KK.html.

K. A 'he )merican 0eritage 1ictionary of the English ?anguage, ourth Edition. %eehttp:==www.bartleby.com=8=D/=<KKD/7K.html.

. A 'he )merican 0eritage 1ictionary of the English ?anguage, ourth Edition. %eehttp:==www.bartleby.com=8=D=<KKD7K.html.

. A 1ictionary of ewfoundland English. %ee

http:==www.heritage.nf.ca=dictionary=a$inde=pages=77K7.html.

-. A As an auiliary, do has a mostly empty semantic component. Cowever, it is re>uired in

certain syntactic constructions that are referred to as do%support .

/. A %trictly speaking, the term non%finite refers to verbs (and their associated clauses) that

are limited in their inflection according to person, number, and tense. %ince the base form

of the verb is used in imperative sentences, the base form is not strictly non+finite as

imperative sentences have a second person sub0ect (usually not present in the surface

sentence). #hus, the terminology of non%tensed  and tensed  is more appropriate to a

characteri$ation of odern English. Cowever, this article will use the traditional

terminology non%finite with the caveat that base form is finite in imperative sentences andtruly non+finite in other constructions.

7. A 4n traditional grammar terminology, the base form is often split into three forms:

infinitive, imperative, present subjunctive. Cowever, these forms are always identical

morphologically in odern English.8. A #he %ing  form is called by two terms in traditional grammar: present participle or

 gerund . Cowever, since these forms are never distinct morphologically, they have been

referred to with the term participle%gerund . !espite its name present participle in

traditional grammar, the %ing  does not epress tense and, in fact, is used in verbal

constructions that indicate present, future, and past time frames. 4n finite clauses, its main

function is aspectual.

9. A !espite the name past participle from traditional grammar, the %en form does not

epress tense or a past time frame. 4n finite clauses, it indicates either aspect or passivevoice. #he %en form is named after the %enC%n suffi that appears on several irregular

verbs like beat : beaten (beat < %en$, sew : sewn (sew < %n$, give : given (give < %n$.

. A *ote that if the copula is ecluded from the analysis, the verb paradigm can be charted

as

English ,erb )nflectional Paradigm excluding copula

(egular

verb

)rregular verb

5ith 6 inflections

)rregular verb

5ith 7 inflections

)rregular verb

5ith 3 inflections

-ing  form  jumping  tak ing  build ing  hitt ing 

3rd g.

Nonpast jumps takes build s hit s

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8ase  jump take build 

hit Past

 jumped 

took 

buil t 

-en form taken

D. A Actually, the %s spelling represents two different pronunciations: one as [s] (after

voiceless nonsibilants), the other as [z] after voiced nonsibilants.

K. A #here are approimately between 7K and -KK irregular verbs in odern English.

Cowever, there is considerable dialectal variation in the number of irregular verbs in the

language of an individual native speaker (i.e. idiolect). Even within so+called 5standard5

varieties of English, there is variation. or eample, some speakers say=write has been

mowed  with mow having the %en form of regular verbs while other speakers say=write has

been mown with mow having an irregular %en form B here both the regular and irregular

forms are considered acceptable by prescriptivists. Another eample is drag  where some

speakers say=write She dragged it yesterday (regular past) while others say=write She

drug it yesterday (irregular past) B in this eample the irregular drug  is re0ected by some prescriptivists. %everal irregular verbs are archaic and obsolete (such as

 smiteCsmoteCsmitten). 6thers have become converted to regular verb inflectional

 paradigms (such the irregular past form glode has become glided  in most modern

varieties).

. A #he irregular beat  eceptionally distinguishes the general past (beat ) from the %en form

(beaten) but has a syncretism involving the base, general nonpast, and st. sg. nonpast

forms as well as the general past and st=-rd sg. past.

. A #here are two categories of irregular verbs based upon historical development:

. strong verbs (the 5transparently irregular5 of two historical types)

. 5true5 irregular verbs.

#he term 5transparently irregular5 is sometimes used to describe Jacob 1rimms 5strong5verbs that appear irregular at first, but actually follow a common paradigm. #his group of

verbs is a relic of the older 1ermanic ablaut system for con0ugation. #his is generally

confined to atypical simple past verb forms, e.g.:

swim R swam R swum

sing R sang R sung

steal R stole R stolen

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Another category of 5transparently irregular5 verbs dates back to iddle English. %ome

verbs, especially those with a stem ending in an alveolar consonant (=t=, =d=, or =s=),

formed a geminate consonant or consonant cluster with the +d suffi. 4n iddle English,

vowels before a consonant cluster often became shorter. As the 1reat 3owel %hift 

obscured the connection between long vowels and the corresponding short vowels,transparent irregularities such as the following arose:

meet R met

lead R led

read R readlose R lost

keep R kept

4rregular verbs include eat , sit , lend , and keep, among many others. %ome paradigms are

 based on obsolete root words, or roots that have changed meaning. 6thers are derived

from old umlaut patterns that changes in  phonemic structure and grammar have distorted

(keep C kept  is one such eample). %ome are unclear in origin, and may date back to

"roto+4ndo+European times.

-. A #he reason for the suppletion is due to the historical development of the copula, which

is a merging of the inflectional paradigms of three different verbs: am, are, is (and

archaic art ) are from one verb; be, been, being  are from a second verb; was, were are

from a third 6ld English verb.

/. A #here is also the dialectal form amn4t  (am G n4t ) which is uncommon in standard

varieties.

7. A *ote that se>uences of reduced forms like 8d8ve (H would have) are often not found in

written language. *evertheless, they are fre>uently attested in the spoken language.

8. A #he archaic version second person singular has a %est  suffi as in thou listenest . #he

archaic third person singular has a %eth suffi as in he6she6it listeneth.

9. A *ote that the degree adverb very is to be distinguished from the ad0ective very meaning

5actual, precise5 as in the sentence 'hat is the very woman of which 3 was speaking .

. A #he word anymore is similar to any in being grammatical only in sentences suggesting

doubt, or >uestions. Cowever, in some Inited %tates dialects it can be heard used with

the approimate meaning nowadays. Cowever, in such contets there is often still an

implication of negation or cessation. or eample, in the utterance,

Anymore, people 0ust wear 0eans and t+shirts when they travel on a plane

it may be implicit that

"eople no longer dress up to fly.

D. A All dynamic and most stative ad0ectives are gradable. Cowever, many nongradable

ad0ectives can be used in a gradable sense often with an accompanying change inmeaning. or instance, the stative ad0ective dead  is usually not gradable since generally

dead  and its complementary alive are considered being mutually eclusive states. @ut, in

sentences like 3 felt very dead today the ad0ective being used as a gradable ad0ective.

-K. A 2ontrol structures are also referred to as e+ui%P%deletion in earlier transformational

grammar.

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[edit] 8ibliography

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• 2elce+urcia, .; Q arsen+reeman, !. 'he grammar book: )n ES?6E?

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• Puirk, ?andolph; 1reenbaum, %idney; eech, 1eoffrey; Q %vartvik, Jan. (D9).

 ) grammar of contemporary English. Carlow: ongman.

7-

8/12/2019 English Grammar is a Body of Rules

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• Puirk, ?andolph; 1reenbaum, %idney; eech, 1eoffrey; Q %vartvik, Jan. (D7).

 ) comprehensive grammar of the English language. Carlow: ongman.

• %cheurweghs, 1ustave. (D7D). Present%day English synta: ) survey of sentence

 patterns. ondon: ongmans.

• %trang, @arbara . C. (D8). &odern English structure (nd ed.). ondon:

Arnold.• \andvoort, ?. . (D9). ) handbook of English grammar  (nd ed.). ondon:

ongmans.

[edit] External linBs

• English 1rammar, wikibook  in English 

• A riendly 1rammar of English by ?obert de @eaugrande

• odern English 1rammar by !aniel Oies

• #he American Ceritage @ook of English Isage.  @oston: Coughton ifflin, DD8.

&!ate of "rintout'.

• #he 4nternet 1rammar of English.

• An easy to understand guide to grammar and writing with active community

college classroom site and links to other writing, grammar sites. by ord ?ouges,

eon an$bom.

• Ad0ectives, 2ompounds and ords (aurie @auer)