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Modal Verbs

Here's a list of the modal verbs in English:

can could may might will

would must shall should ought to
Modals are different from normal verbs:

1: They don't use an 's' for the third person singular.

2: They make questions by inversion ('she can go' becomes 'can she go?').
3: They are followed directly by the infinitive of another verb (without 'to').

Probability:
First, they can be used when we want to say how sure we are that something
happened / is happening / will happen. We often call these 'modals of deduction' or
'speculation' or 'certainty' or 'probability'.

For example:

● It's snowing, so it must be very cold outside.

● I don't know where John is. He could have missed the train.
● This bill can't be right. £200 for two cups of coffee

We use 'can' and 'could' to talk about a skill or ability.

For example:

● She can speak six languages.

● My grandfather could play golf very well.
● I can't drive.

Obligation advice
We can use verbs such as 'must' or 'should' to say when something is necessary or
unnecessary, or to give advice.

For example:

● Children must do their homework.

● We have to wear a uniform at work.
● You should stop smoking

We can use verbs such as 'can', 'could' and 'may' to ask for and give permission. We
also use modal verbs to say something is not allowed.
For example:

● Could I leave early today, please?

● You may not use the car tonight.
● Can we swim in the lake?

Habits
We can use 'will' and 'would' to talk about habits or things we usually do, or did in the
past. 

For example:

● When I lived in Italy, we would often eat in the restaurant next to my flat.

● John will always be late!

The Passive Voice

An active sentence like I drank two cups of coffee has the subject first (the
person or thing that does the verb), followed by the verb, and finally the object (the
person or thing that the action happens to). 
So, in this example, the subject is 'I', the verb is 'drank' and the object is 'two cups of
coffee'. 

But, we don't always need to make sentences this way. We might want to put the
object first, or perhaps we don't want to say who did something. This can happen for
lots of reasons (see the explanation further down the page). In this case, we can use a
passive, which puts the object first:

● Two cups of coffee were drunk (we can add 'by me' if we want, but it isn't
necessary).

How to make the Passive in English

We make the passive by putting the verb 'to be' into whatever tense we need and then
adding the past participle. For regular verbs, we make the past participle by adding
'ed' to the infinitive. So playbecomes played. 

Tense Active Passive

present simple I make a cake. A cake is made (by me).
present
I am making a cake. A cake is being made (by me).
continuous
past simple I made a cake. A cake was made(by me).
A cake was being made (by
past continuous I was makinga cake.
me).
present perfect I have made a cake. A cake has been made (by
 me).
pres. perf. I have been making a A cake has been being
continuous cake. made (by me).
A cake had been made (by
past perfect I had made a cake.
me).
future simple I will make a cake. A cake will be made(by me).
I will have made a A cake will have been
future perfect
cake. made (by me).

Practise with these exercises

Verbs with two objects
Some verbs that have two objects can make two different active sentences, and so two
different passive sentences too:

Give

● Active: He gave me the book / He gave the book to me.

You can choose either of the two objects to be the subject of the passive sentence.

● Passive: I was given the book (by him)/ The book was given to me (by him).

Other verbs like this are: ask, offer, teach, tell, lend, promise, sell, throw. 

The passive in subordinate clauses

You can make the passive in a subordinate clause that has a subject and a normal
conjugated verb. This is really the same as a normal passive. 

● Active: I thought that Mary had kissed John.

● Passive: I thought that John had been kissed by Mary.

● Active: He knew that people had built the church in 1915.

● Passive: He knew that the church had been built in 1915.

You can also make the passive using a passive gerund or a passive infinitive in the
same place as a normal gerund or infinitive.

● The child loves being cuddled.

● She would like to be promoted.

When should we use the Passive?

1. When we want to change the focus of the sentence:

o The Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci. (We are more
interested in the painting than the artist in this sentence)
2. When who or what causes the action is unknown or unimportant or
obvious or 'people in general':
o He was arrested (obvious agent, the police).
 o My bike has been stolen (unknown agent).
o The road is being repaired (unimportant agent).
o The form can be obtained from the post office (people in general).
3. In factual or scientific writing:
o The chemical is placed in a test tube and the data entered into the
computer.
4. In formal writing instead of using someone/ people/ they (these can
be used in speaking or informal writing):
o The brochure will be finished next month.
5. In order to put the new information at the end of the sentence to
improve style:
o Three books are used regularly in the class. The books were written by
Dr. Bell. ('Dr. Bell wrote the books' sound clumsy)
6. When the subject is very long:
o I was surprised by how well the students did in the test. (More natural
than: 'how well the students did in the test surprised me')

Conditionals

What are conditionals in English grammar? Sometimes we call them 'if clauses'. They
describe the result of something that might happen (in the present or future) or might
have happened but didn't (in the past) . They are made using different English verb
tenses.
Download my infographic! 

There are four main kinds of conditionals:

● The Zero Conditional:

(if + present simple, ... present simple)
If you heat water to 100 degrees, it boils.
 ● The First Conditional:
(if + present simple, ... will + infinitive)
If it rains tomorrow, we'll go to the cinema.

● The Second Conditional:

(if + past simple, ... would + infinitive)
If I had a lot of money, I would travel around the world.

● The Third Conditional

(if + past perfect, ... would + have + past participle)
If I had gone to bed early, I would have caught the train.

Perfect Tenses

In addition to the three main tenses of present, past, and future,

the English language allows us to make three statements about accomplished
facts. We use one of the three perfect tenses to show
an action that has  taken  place as of the present time or is continuing in
the present time (present-perfect tense), that had  taken  place as of a past
time (past-perfect tense), or that will have  taken  place as of a future time
(future-perfect tense).

We form the perfect tenses by using the verb to have as an auxiliary verb

and adding the past participle of the main verb.

Present-Perfect Tense, Defined

We form the present-perfect tense by using the present tense

of have (has or have) and addingthe past participle of the main verb.

The present-perfect tense shows a connection with the past and a connection

with the present. Its use is appropriate in three situations: (1) to show
experience, (2) to show a change or new information, and (3) to show
a continuing action or state.

1.  to show experience from something that happened or didn’t happen in

the past

The event was in the past; you have experiencefrom it or knowledge of it. We

don’t care when it happened or didn’t happen. You know it happened or didn’t
happen, and you have experience from it.

She has seen Bridget Jones’s Diary. He has  never  eaten escargot.

2. to show a change or new information

Here the present is the opposite of the past. Yesterday, the kidnapper was

free; today he is in custody. Yesterday, was the price of gas lower? Is
it higher today?

The FBI has arrested the kidnapper. Has the price of gas gone up again?

3. to show a continuing situation

The action or state started in the past and continues in the present.

The action or statemight very well continue in the future.

I have worked on this website for several years.How long have you known Fred?

Remember the three conditions: (1) to show experience, (2) to show

a change where the present is the opposite of the past, and (3) to show
a continuing action or state that started in the past. If one of these conditions
doesn’t persist, then the present-perfect tense is incorrectly used.

Use of for or since with the Present-Perfect Tense

You’ll often use the words for or since with the present-perfect tense. The

word for will establisha duration of time, since an identified moment when
the action or state began. Take a look:

1. The word for establishes a duration of time.

He has practiced medicine for 25 years. She hasn’t called for a long time.

2. The word since identifies the moment when the action or state began.

I have been here since 9 o’clock. She has worked for that law

firm since leaving law school.

Past-Perfect Tense, Defined

We form the past-perfect tense by taking the past tense of have (had)

and adding the past participle of the main verb. The past perfect is
also called the pluperfect tense.

The past perfect shows what’s called the remotepast. Or

it shows a past within a past. The regular past tense will establish a moment in
the past. For example, you might use the past tenseand say, “When
I arrived at her house ….” Then you would switch to the past-perfect tense to
show that something happened before you arrived.

Thus:
When I arrived at her house, she had finisheddinner.

The past-perfect tense does not require other words showing

an established past, words such as when I arrived at her house. The
past perfectwill move the time back further; it will show a
more remote past. Consider the following:

I wasn’t thirsty. I had just drunk a Perrier. We were hungry. We hadn’t eaten for

six hours.

Past Perfect in Indirect Quotations

We often use the past-perfect tense when we report on the speech of others or

of ourselves. Watch for the words told, said, explained, thought, wondered,
and others.

Suppose as a direct quotation, a woman says, “The plane has left.”

Or suppose a man says, “I wonder if I have been there before.”
When reporting these quotations as indirect speech, writers use the past
perfect. Notice that the tense moves back from the present perfect (has
left, have been) to the past perfect (had left, had been):

She told us that the plane had left. He wondered if he had been there before.

Future-Perfect Tense, Defined

The future-perfect tense is formed by taking the future tense of have (will

have) and adding the past participle of the main verb.

The future-perfect tense refers to an action that will be completed at

some definite time in the future. Ironically, it expresses a past in the future.
That is, the future-perfect tense expresses
an action or state taking place before another action or time period in the
future.

For example, suppose you will arrive at the airport at 10:15

a.m. Suppose the plane will leave at 10:00 a.m. Thus:

When you arrive at the airport, the plane will have left.

Other examples include:

You may call me at my office tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. I will have arrived by

then. They will be exhausted when they land tomorrow. They will not have
slept for many hours.

Some Controversy

In my writing courses, students sometimes contend that the perfect tenses
don’t say anything different. For example, they’ll argue that I have
decided doesn’t say anything different from I decided. Or they’ll say that I had
decideddiffers not one bit from I decided. They’re wrong, of course, else they’d
be teaching the course.

The perfect tenses show an accomplished fact in relation to a particular point

in time in the present, the past, or the future. Read this sentence and you’ll see
that you cannot express the thought in any other way:

When I arrived, he had finished his dinner.

Substitute the straight past tense for the past-perfect tense and see what you

get:

When I arrived, he finished his dinner.

This latter statement suggests, or could suggest, that after I arrived,

he finished his dinner, whereas the past-perfect tense makes it plainthat by
the time I got there he had  alreadyfinished his dinner.

So the teacher who advised one of my studentsnever to put the

word had in front of a verb just didn’t know what she was talking about. With
a single utterance, she abolished the past-perfect tense.

Forming the Perfect Tenses

As noted above in the discussion of past participles, you form

the perfect tenses by conjugating the verb to have and adding the
past participle of the verb.

Thus, the three perfect tenses (in first-person singular) look like this:

Perfect Tense Example

Present-Perfect Tense I have decided to retire.
Past-Perfect Tense(Pluperfect) I had decided to retire.
Future-Perfect Tense I will have decided to retire.

Relative clauses
What is a relative clause?
We can use relative clauses to join two English sentences, or to give more information
about something.

I bought a new car. It is very fast.

→ I bought a new car that is very fast.
She lives in New York. She likes living in New York.
→ She lives in New York, which she likes.

Defining and Non-defining

A defining relative clause tells which noun we are talking about:

● I like the woman who lives next door.

(If I don't say 'who lives next door', then we don't know which woman I mean).

A non-defining relative clause gives us extra information about something. We

don't need this information to understand the sentence.

● I live in London, which has some fantastic parks.

(Everybody knows where London is, so 'which has some fantastic parks' is
extra information).

Defining relative clauses:

1: The relative pronoun is the subject:

First, let's consider when the relative pronoun is the subject of a defining relative
clause. 

We can use 'who', 'which' or 'that'. We use 'who' for people and 'which' for things. We
can use 'that' for people or things.

The relative clause can come after the subject or the object of the sentence. We can't
drop the relative pronoun.

For example (clause after the object of the sentence):

● I'm looking for a secretary who / that can use a computer well.
● She has a son who / that is a doctor.
● We bought a house which / that is 200 years old.
● I sent a letter which / that arrived three weeks later.

More examples (clause after the subject of the sentence):

● The people who / that live on the island are very friendly.
● The man who / that phoned is my brother.
● The camera which / that costs £100 is over there.
● The house which / that belongs to Julie is in London.

2: The relative pronoun is the object:

Next, let's talk about when the relative pronoun is the object of the clause. In this case
we can drop the relative pronoun if we want to. Again, the clause can come after the
subject or the object of the sentence. Here are some examples:
(Clause after the object)

● She loves the chocolate (which / that) I bought.

● We went to the village (which / that) Lucy recommended.
● John met a woman (who / that) I had been to school with.
● The police arrested a man (who / that) Jill worked with.

(Clause after the subject)

● The bike (which / that) I loved was stolen.

● The university (which / that) she likes is famous.
● The woman (who / that) my brother loves is from Mexico.
● The doctor (who / that) my grandmother liked lives in New York.

Non-defining relative clauses:

We don't use 'that' in non-defining relative clauses, so we need to use 'which' if the
pronoun refers to a thing, and 'who' if it refers to a person. We can't drop the relative
pronoun in this kind of clause, even if the relative pronoun is the subject of the
clause.

(Clause comes after the subject)

● My boss, who is very nice, lives in Manchester.

● My sister, who I live with, knows a lot about cars.
● My bicycle, which I've had for more than ten years, is falling apart.
● My mother's house, which I grew up in, is very small.

(Clause comes after the object)

● Yesterday I called our friend Julie, who lives in New York.

● The photographer called to the Queen, who looked annoyed.
● Last week I bought a new computer, which I don't like now.
● I really love the new Chinese restaurant, which we went to last night.

Prepositions and relative clauses

If the verb in the relative clause needs a preposition, we put it at the end of the clause:

For example:

● listen to

The music is good. Julie listens to the music.

→ The music (which / that) Julie listens to is good.

● work with

My brother met a woman. I used to work with the woman.

→ My brother met a woman (who / that) I used to work with.
 ● go to

The country is very hot. He went to the country.

→ The country (which / that) he went to is very hot.

● come from

I visited the city. John comes from the city.

→ I visited the city (that / which) John comes from.

● apply for

The job is well paid. She applied for the job.

→ The job (which / that) she applied for is well paid.

Whose
'Whose' is always the subject of the relative clause and can't be left out. It replaces a
possessive. It can be used for people and things.

The dog is over there. The dog's / its owner lives next door.
→ The dog whose owner lives next door is over there.

The little girl is sad. The little girl's / her doll was lost.
→ The little girl whose doll was lost is sad.

The woman is coming tonight. Her car is a BMW.

→ The woman whose car is a BMW is coming tonight.

The house belongs to me. Its roof is very old.

→ The house whose roof is old belongs to me.

Where / when / why

We can sometimes use these question words instead of relative pronouns and
prepositions.

I live in a city. I study in the city.

→ I live in the city where I study.

→ I live in the city that / which I study in.
→ I live in the city in which I study.

The bar in Barcelona is still there. I met my wife in that bar.

→ The bar in Barcelona where I met my wife is still there.

→ The bar in Barcelona that / which I met my wife in is still there.
→ The bar in Barcelona in which I met my wife is still there.
The summer was long and hot. I graduated from university in the summer.

→ The summer when I graduated from university was long and hot.

→ The summer that / which I graduated from university in was long and hot.
→ The summer in which I graduated was long and hot.

Reported Speech
Reported Statements

When do we use reported speech? Sometimes someone says a sentence, for example
"I'm going to the cinema tonight". Later, maybe we want to tell someone else what the
first person said.

Here's how it works:

We use a 'reporting verb' like 'say' or 'tell'..) If this verb is in the present tense, it's easy. We
just put 'she says' and then the sentence:

● Direct speech: I like ice cream.

● Reported speech: She says (that) she likes ice cream.

We don't need to change the tense, though probably we do need to change the 'person' from 'I'
to 'she', for example. We also may need to change words like 'my' and 'your'.

(As I'm sure you know, often, we can choose if we want to use 'that' or not in English. I've put
it in brackets () to show that it's optional. It's exactly the same if you use 'that' or if you don't
use 'that'.)

But, if the reporting verb is in the past tense, then usually we change the tenses in the reported
speech:

● Direct speech: I like ice cream.

● Reported speech: She said (that) she liked ice cream.

Tense Direct Speech Reported Speech

present
I like ice cream She said (that) she liked ice cream.
simple
present I am living in
She said (that) she was living in London.
continuous London
She said (that) she had bought a car OR She said
past simple I bought a car
(that) she bought a car.
past I was walking along She said (that) she had been walking along the
continuous the street street.
present I haven't seen Julie She said (that) she hadn't seen Julie.
 perfect
I had taken English She said (that) she had taken English lessons
past perfect*
lessons before before.
will I'll see you later She said (that) she would see me later.
would* I would help, but..” She said (that) she would help but...
I can speak perfect
can She said (that) she could speak perfect English.
English
I could swim when I
could* She said (that) she could swim when she was four.
was four
shall I shall come later She said (that) she would come later.
I should call my
should* She said (that) she should call her mother
mother
might* I might be late She said (that) she might be late
I must study at the She said (that) she must study at the weekend OR
must
weekend She said she had to study at the weekend
* doesn't change.

Occasionally, we don't need to change the present tense into the past if the information in
direct speech is still true (but this is only for things which are general facts, and even then
usually we like to change the tense):

● Direct speech: The sky is blue.

● Reported speech: She said (that) the sky is/was blue.

Reported Questions

So now you have no problem with making reported speech from positive and negative
sentences. But how about questions?

● Direct speech: Where do you live?

How can we make the reported speech here?

In fact, it's not so different from reported statements. The tense changes are the same, and we
keep the question word. The very important thing though is that, once we tell the question to
someone else, it isn't a question any more. So we need to change the grammar to a normal
positive sentence. A bit confusing? Maybe this example will help:

● Direct speech: Where do you live?

● Reported speech: She asked me where I lived.

Do you see how I made it? The direct question is in the present simple tense. We make a
present simple question with 'do' or 'does' so I need to take that away. Then I need to change
the verb to the past simple. 

Another example:

● Direct speech: Where is Julie?

● Reported speech: She asked me where Julie was.
The direct question is the present simple of 'be'. We make the question form of the present
simple of be by inverting (changing the position of)the subject and verb. So, we need to
change them back before putting the verb into the past simple.
Here are some more examples:

Direct Question Reported Question

Where is the Post Office,
She asked me where the Post Office was.
please?
What are you doing? She asked me what I was doing.
She asked me who that fantastic man had
Who was that fantastic man?
been.

So much for 'wh' questions. But, what if you need to report a 'yes / no' question? We don't
have any question words to help us. Instead, we use 'if':

● Direct speech: Do you like chocolate?

● Reported speech: She asked me if I liked chocolate.

No problem? Here are a few more examples:

Direct Question Reported Question

Do you love me? He asked me if I loved him.
Have you ever been to She asked me if I had ever been to
Mexico? Mexico.
Are you living here? She asked me if I was living here.
Click here to practise reported 'wh' questions.
Click here to practise reported 'yes / no' questions. 

Reported Requests

There's more! What if someone asks you to do something (in a polite way)? For example:

● Direct speech: Close the window, please

● Or: Could you close the window please?
● Or: Would you mind closing the window please?

All of these requests mean the same thing, so we don't need to report every word when we tell
another person about it. We simply use 'ask me + to + infinitive':

● Reported speech: She asked me to close the window.

Here are a few more examples: 

Direct Request Reported Request

Please help me. She asked me to help her. 
Please don't smoke. She asked me not to smoke.
She asked me to bring her book that
Could you bring my book tonight?
night.
Could you pass the milk, please? She asked me to pass the milk.
 Would you mind coming early
She asked me to come early the next day.
tomorrow?
To report a negative request, use 'not':

● Direct speech: Please don't be late.

● Reported speech: She asked us not to be late.

Reported Orders

And finally, how about if someone doesn't ask so politely? We can call this an 'order' in
English, when someone tells you very directly to do something. For example:

● Direct speech: Sit down!

In fact, we make this into reported speech in the same way as a request. We just use 'tell'
instead of 'ask':

● Reported speech: She told me to sit down.

Direct
Reported Order
Order
He told the child to go to
Go to bed!
bed.
Don't worry! He told her not to worry.
Be on time! He told me to be on time.
Don't
He told us not to smoke.
smoke!

Time Expressions with Reported Speech

Sometimes when we change direct speech into reported speech we have to change time
expressions too. We don't always have to do this, however. It depends on when we heard the
direct speech and when we say the reported speech.

For example:

It's Monday. Julie says "I'm leaving today".

If I tell someone on Monday, I say "Julie said she was leaving today".

If I tell someone on Tuesday, I say "Julie said she was leaving yesterday".
If I tell someone on Wednesday, I say "Julie said she was leaving on Monday".
If I tell someone a month later, I say "Julie said she was leaving that day".

So, there's no easy conversion. You really have to think about when the direct speech was
said.

Here's a table of some possible conversions:

 now then / at that time
today yesterday / that day / Tuesday / the 27th of June
yesterda the day before yesterday / the day before / Wednesday / the 5th of
y December
last
the night before, Thursday night
night
last
the week before / the previous week
week
tomorro
today / the next day / the following day / Friday
w

Uncountable nouns
Uncountable nouns are for the things that we cannot count with numbers. They may be the
names for abstract ideas or qualities or for physical objects that are too small or too
amorphous to be counted (liquids, powders, gases, etc.). Uncountable nouns are used with a
singular verb. They usually do not have a plural form.

Examples

● tea
● sugar
● water
● air
● rice
● knowledge
● beauty
● anger
● fear
● love
● money
● research
● safety
● evidence

We cannot use a/an with these nouns. To express a quantity of an uncountable noun, use a

word or expression like some, a lot of, much, a bit of, a great deal of  , or else use an exact
measurement like a cup of, a bag of, 1kg of, 1L of, a handful of, a pinch of, an hour of, a day
of. If you want to ask about the quantity of an uncountable noun, you ask "How much?"
Examples

● There has been a lot of research into the causes of this disease.

● He gave me a great deal of advicebefore my interview.
● Can you give me some informationabout uncountable nouns?
● He did not have much sugar left.
 ● Measure 1 cup of water, 300g of flour, and 1 teaspoon of salt.
● How much rice do you want?

Tricky spots
Some nouns are countable in other languages but uncountable in English. They must follow
the rules for uncountable nouns. The most common ones are:
accommodation, advice, baggage, behavior, bread, furniture, information, luggage, news,
progress, traffic, travel, trouble, weather, work

Examples

● I would like to give you some advice.

● How much bread should I bring?
● I didn't make much progress today.
● This looks like a lot of trouble to me.
● We did an hour of work yesterday.

Be careful with the noun hair which is normally uncountable in English, so it is not used in

the plural. It can be countable only when referring to individual hairs.
Examples

● She has long blond hair.

● The child's hair was curly.
● I washed my hair yesterday.
● My father is getting a few grey hairs now. (refers to individual hairs)
● I found a hair in my soup! (refers to a single strand of hair)