Calendar 2012: Colours: November

When I think about orange colour, first of all I think about oranges. Because I love them! The cake I made myself and called it “Orange wonder”. It's not only very beautiful but it's also very tasty. It's nice to have tea with the cake when it's cool and rainy outside.

Have to, Must

Must is a modal auxiliary verb.

Have to is NOT an auxiliary verb (it uses the verb have as a main verb). We include have to here for convenience.

In this lesson we look at these two verbs, followed by a quiz to check your understanding:

Modal Verb (Be able to)

Although we look at be able to here, it is not a modal verb. It is simply the verb be plus an adjective (able) followed by the infinitive. We look at be able to here because we sometimes use it instead ofcan and could.

We use be able to:

• to talk about ability

Structure of Be able to

Modal Verb (Could)

Could

Could is an auxiliary verb, a modal auxiliary verb. We use could to:

• talk about past possibility or ability
• make requests

Structure of Could

Modal verbs (Can)

Can and could are modal auxiliary verbs. Be able to is NOT an auxiliary verb (it uses the verb be as a main verb). We include be able to here for convenience.

In this lesson we look at these three verbs, followed by a quiz to check your understanding:

Can

Can is an auxiliary verb, a modal auxiliary verb. We use can to:

• talk about possibility and ability
• make requests
• ask for or give permission

Structure of Can

Active Voice, Passive Voice

There are two special forms for verbs called voice:

1. Active voice
2. Passive voice

The active voice is the "normal" voice. This is the voice that we use most of the time. You are probably already familiar with the active voice. In the active voice, the object receives the action of the verb:

active	subject	verb	object
		>
	Cats	eat	fish.

Each, Every Each and every have similar but not always identical meanings. Each = every one separately Every = each, all

Possessive Adjectives

Warning! These are adjectives. Don't confuse them with pronouns! We use possessive adjectives to show who owns or "possesses" something. The possessive adjectives are: my, your, his, her, its, our, their whose (interrogative)

A, An or The?

When do we say "the dog" and when do we say "a dog"? (On this page we talk only about singular, countable nouns.) The and a/an are called "articles". We divide them into "definite" and "indefinite" like this: Articles Definite Indefinite the a, an

Adjectives

An adjective is a word that tells us more about a noun. (By "noun" we

 include pronouns and noun phrases.)

An adjective "qualifies" or "modifies" a noun (a big dog).

Adjectives can be used before a noun (I like Chinese food) or after certain verbs (It is hard).

We can often use two or more adjectives together (a beautiful young French lady).

Future Perfect Continuous Tense

I will have been singing

How do we make the Future Perfect Continuous Tense?

The structure of the future perfect continuous tense is:

subject	+	auxiliary verb WILL	+	auxiliary verb HAVE	+	auxiliary verb BE	+	main verb
		invariable		invariable		past participle		present participle
		will		have		been		base + ing

Future Perfect Tense

I will have sung
The future perfect tense is quite an easy tense to understand and use. The future perfect tense talks about the past in the future.

How do we make the Future Perfect Tense?

The structure of the future perfect tense is:

subject	+	auxiliary verb WILL	+	auxiliary verb HAVE	+	main verb
		invariable		invariable		past participle
		will		have		V3

Look at these example sentences in the future perfect tense:

Future Continuous Tense

I will be singing

How do we make the Future Continuous Tense?

The structure of the future continuous tense is:

subject	+	auxiliary verb WILL	+	auxiliary verb BE	+	main verb
		invariable		invariable		present participle
		will		be		base + ing

Future Simple Tense

I will sing
The future simple tense is often called will, because we make the future simple tense with the modal auxiliary will.

How do we make the Future Simple Tense?

The structure of the future simple tense is:

subject	+	auxiliary verb WILL	+	main verb
		invariable		base
		will		V1

Past Perfect Tense

I had sung
The past perfect tense is quite an easy tense to understand and to use. This tense talks about the "past in the past".
In this lesson we look at:

• Structure: how do we make the past perfect tense?
  
  
• Use: how do we use the past perfect tense?

Past Continuous Tense

I was singing
The past continuous tense is an important tense in English. We use it to say what we were in the middle of doing at a particular moment in the past.
In this lesson we look at the structure and the use of the past continuous tense, followed by a quiz to check your understanding:
Structure: how do we make the past continuous tense?

Past Simple Tense

I sang
The past simple tense is sometimes called the "preterite tense". We can use several tenses and forms to talk about the past, but the past simple tense is the one we use most often.
In this lesson we look at the structure and use of the past simple tense, followed by a quiz to check your understanding:

Use: how do we use the past simple tense?

Structure: how do we make the past simple tense?

English Prepositions

A preposition is a word governing, and usually coming in front of, a noun or pronoun and expressing a relation to another word or element, as in:

• She left before breakfast.
  
  
• What did you come for?
  (For what did you come?)

Noun as Adjective

As you know, a noun is a person, place or thing, and an adjective is a word that describes a noun:

adjective	noun
clever	teacher
small	office
black	horse

Sometimes we use a noun to describe another noun. In that case, the first noun "acts as" an adjective.

Nouns

What are Nouns?

The simple definition is: a person, place or thing. Here are some examples:

• person: man, woman, teacher, John, Mary
• place: home, office, town, countryside, America
• thing: table, car, banana, money, music, love, dog, monkey

The problem with this definition is that it does not explain why "love" is a noun but can also be a verb.
Another (more complicated) way of recognizing a noun is by its:

1. Ending
2. Position
3. Function