Adjective Phrases

Adjective Phrases

Sometimes a group of words does the work of an adjective.

Study the following examples.

• The mayor was a wealthy man.
• The mayor was a man of great wealth.

In sentence 1, the adjective wealthy says what sort of man the mayor was. In sentence 2, the group of words ‘of great wealth’ also says the same thing. It qualifies the noun man as an adjective does. It therefore does the work of an adjective and is called an adjective phrase.

Definition

An adjective phrase is a group of words that does the work of an adjective.

• The magistrate was a kind man. (Here the adjective kind modifies the noun man.)
• The magistrate was a man with a kind heart. (Here the adjective phrase ‘with a kind heart’ modifies the noun man.)
• They lived in a stone house.
• They lived in a house built of stone.
• The workers belonged to a hill tribe.
• The workers belonged to a tribe dwelling in the hills.

Study the following adjectives and the adjective phrases that are equivalent to them.

• A golden necklace – a necklace made of gold
• A white coat – a coat of white color
• A jungle track – a track through the jungle
• A deserted city – a city with no inhabitants
• The French flag – the flag of France
• A wooden hut – a hut built of wood
• A blank page – a page with no writing on it

Kinds of Nouns Exercise Worksheet

Kinds of Nouns Exercise 

Point out the nouns in the following sentences and say whether they are common, proper, collective or abstract.

1. Always speak the truth.

2. Honesty is the best policy.

3. King Solomon was famous for his wisdom.

4. A committee of five was appointed.

5. We saw a fleet of ships in the harbour.

6. He gave me a bunch of grapes.

7. London is on the river Thames.

8. Cleanliness is next to godliness.

9. Wisdom is better than riches.

10. Winston Churchill was one of the greatest Prime Ministers of England.

11. I recognized his voice at once.

12. Our team is better than theirs.

Answers

1. truth: abstract noun

2. honesty: abstract noun, policy: abstract noun

3. King: common noun, Solomon:  proper noun, wisdom: abstract noun

4. committee: collective noun

5. a fleet: collective noun, ships: common noun, harbour: common noun

6. a bunch: collective noun, grapes: common noun

7. London: proper noun, river: common noun, Thames: proper noun

8. cleanliness: abstract noun, godliness: abstract noun

9. wisdom: abstract noun, riches: abstract noun

10. Winston Churchill: proper noun, Prime Ministers: common noun, England: proper noun

11. voice: abstract noun

12. team: collective noun

Notes

A proper noun is the name of a particular person, place or thing.

A common noun is a name given in common to every person or thing of the same class or kind.

A collective noun is the name of a collection of people or things taken together and spoken of as a whole.

An abstract noun is the name of a quality, action or state which we cannot see or touch.

Use of Article THE for Proper Nouns

Use of “THE” for proper noun.

The article “the” is used before some proper nouns. Here are some rules for the use of article “the” before proper nouns.

• Article “the” is not used before the name of countries, cities, for example New York, Mexico, Canada, Toronto, London, Paris, and America. But if the name of country or city or place expresses group of places or lands or states, then article “the” will be used before it. For example, the Philippines, the Netherlands, the United States

• Article “the” is not used before the name of universities, for example Oxford University, Yale University, or Columbia University. But if the name of university is written in a order that it includes the word “of” then article “the” will be used before it, for example, the University of British Colombia, the university of Oxford, the University of Toronto.

• Article “the” is used before names composed of both common noun and proper noun, for example the New York City, the Dominion of Canada, the River Nile.

• “The” is used before the names of laws, principles, theories or devices, for example, the Pythagorean Theorem, the Fahrenheit Scale, the Law of Newton, the Allais effect. But if the proper noun is used in possessive form, no article will be used, for example Newton’s Laws of Motion, Hooke’s Law of Elasticity, and Dalton’s Law of Partial Pressures.

• “The” used by the name of ocean, sea, river, dessert or forest (except lakes and fall) for example the Pacific Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Sahara, and the Black Forests.

• “The” is used before the names of buildings, hotels, libraries having particular names, for example the Brunel Hotel, the Lahore Museum, the Library of Congress.

• “The” is used before the name of a geographical region and points on globe, for example the Middle East, the West, the Equator, the North Pole.

• “The” is usually used before the names of organizations for example, the Association of Chartered Accountants, the World Health Organization.

Ways of forming the feminine gender

Ways of forming the feminine gender

There are three ways of forming the feminine gender.

1) By using an entirely different word.

• Bachelor (masculine) / spinster or maid (feminine)
• Boy / girl
• Man / woman
• Husband / wife
• Father / mother
• Brother / sister
• Son / daughter
• Horse / mare
• Monk / nun
• Buck / doe
• King / queen
• Cock / hen
• Dog / bitch
• Drake / duck
• Earl / countess
• Gander / geese
• Gentleman / lady
• Nephew / niece
• Uncle / aunt

2) By adding a syllable (-ess, -ine, -trix etc) to the masculine gender

• Author (masculine) / authoress (feminine)
• Baron / baroness
• Count / countess
• Giant / giantess
• Heir / heiress
• Host / hostess
• Lion / lioness
• Mayor / mayoress
• Poet / poetess
• Priest / priestess

In the following -ess is added after dropping the vowel of the masculine ending.

• Actor (masculine) / actress (feminine)
• Enchanter / enchantress
• Duke / duchess
• Emperor / empress
• Prince / princess
• Tiger / tigress
• Waiter / waitress
• Master / mistress
• Sorcerer / sorceress

3) By placing a word before or after

• Grandfather / grandmother
• Manservant / maidservant
• Landlord / landlady
• Peacock / peahen
• Salesman / saleswoman
• Washerman / washerwoman

Notes

A mayor can be a man or a woman. In British English, a mayoress is the wife of a male mayor.

Some words ending in -ess are no longer used. Examples are: authoress and poetess. Author and poet are now used for both men and women. The words steward and stewardess are being replaced by other terms like flight attendant. Note that a flight attendant can be a man or a woman.

Nouns: Gender

Nouns: Gender

Living beings are of either the male or the female sex. Now compare the following pairs of words.

• Boy, girl
• Man, woman
• Husband, wife
• Lion, lioness

Here the first word of each pair is the name of a male animal. The second word of each pair is the name of a female animal. A noun that denotes a male animal is said to be of the masculine gender. A noun that denotes a female animal is said to be of the feminine gender.

A noun that denotes either a male or a female is said to be of the common gender. Examples are: parent, child, friend, servant, thief, enemy, cousin, student, baby, teacher, writer etc.

A noun that denotes a thing that is neither male nor female is said to be of the neuter gender. Examples are: book, pen, room, house, tree etc.

It is thus seen that in modern English, the gender of a noun is entirely a matter of sex or the absence of it. It has nothing to do with the form of a noun, which determines its gender in many other languages.

Note that inanimate objects are often personified, that is, spoken of as if they were living beings. We then regard them as males or females.

The masculine gender is often applied to lifeless objects known for strength or violence. Examples are: sun, summer, winter, time, death etc.

The feminine gender is often applied to lifeless objects known for beauty or gracefulness. Examples are: moon, earth, spring, autumn, nature, liberty, justice, peace, mercy, hope etc.

Types of Nouns

TYPES OF NOUNS

DEFINITION: Noun is a word which is used to name something as a person, animal, thing and place. There are six kinds of noun in English.

1) Proper Noun

2) Common Noun

3) Abstractive Noun

4) Collective Noun

5) Compound Noun

6) Material Noun

1) PROPER NOUN

DEFINITION: Proper Noun is a name of particular thing, person, animal and place. On the other hand, proper noun is always written with a capital letter at the beginning of the word.

Example: Dara, New York, Cambodia, John

2) COMMON NOUN

DEFINITION: Common Noun is a name which is given in common to everyone (person, thing, animal…..).

Example: Man, teacher, doctor, dog, cat, house, chair…

3) ABSTRACTIVE NOUN

DEFINITION: Abstractive Noun is the name of idea, quality and action that is the name of something we can’t touch, see, smell and taste.

Example:

- Idea: Advice, ambition, wish...

- Quality: Goodness, kindness, darkness...

- Action: Talking, movement, discussion..

NOTE: Some Abstractive Nouns can make from many kinds of adjective, verb and common noun.

a) Abstractive Noun makes from adjective.

Adjective	Abstractive Noun
dark poor wise honest	darkness poverty wisdom honesty

b) Abstractive Noun makes from verb.

Verb	Abstractive Noun
hope regret help promise	hope regret help promise

c) Abstractive Noun is quite different from verb.

Verb	Abstractive Noun
live die know advise	life death knowledge advice

Verb Abstractive Noun

d) Abstractive Noun makes from common noun.

Common Noun	Abstractive Noun
man friend hero infant	manhood friendship heroism infancy

4) COLLECTIVE NOUN

DEFINITION: Collective Noun is a name of number or collection of person, thing and animal taken together and spoken as a whole.

Example: Army, committee, family, nation, association, community…

5) COMPOUND NOUN

DEFINITION: Compound Nouns are the nouns that are combined between one word with another word and can make from many kinds of noun, adjective and verb.

Noun/ Adjective/verb	Noun	Common Noun
sun strong walking	light man stick	sunlight strongman walking-stick

6) MATERIAL NOUN

DEFINITION: Material Noun is the name of particular object.

Example: Chair, table, car, book, pen, house, radio…

USING 'WILL' & 'BE GOING TO'

USING 'WILL' & 'BE GOING TO'

WILL is used to talk about:

1) An offer or willingness.

Example:

- I will give you gift tomorrow.

- Don’t be scared! I will be here with until the sun rises.

2) Asking and ordering somebody to do something in the future.

Example:

- Will you be quiet?

- Will you send me some money?

3) Future fact—the action is sure to occur in the future.

Example:

- She will win the beauty contest next week.

- French will lose the football match in the last round.

4) Prediction in the future without evidence.

Example:

- I think it will rain this evening.

- The traffic accidence will take place this morning.

5) Something we decided to do at the moment of speaking.

Example:

A: This box is too heavy!

B: Don’t worry! I will help you.

BE GOING TO is used to talk about:

1) Prediction in the future with evidence.

Example:

- Look! The sky is full of dark clouds. It is going to rain now.

- The battery of this computer is too low. It is going to run out of the electricity now.

2) Something we have already decided to do. (Future plan or arrangement)

Example:

A: What is your purpose to Cambodia?

B: I’m going to visit Angkor Wat.

NOTE: When we talk about things which we have already arranged to do or planned to do in the future, we can use the Present Continuous in stead of Be Going To.

Example:

- I’m having dinner with Zosie at Paramoun Restaurant.

- I’m going to have dinner with Zosie at Paramoun Restaurant.

Types of Phrases I

Types of Phrases I

A phrase is a group of related words (within a sentence) without both subject and verb. 

For example, He is laughing at the joker.

A phrase functions as a noun, verb, adverb, adjective or preposition in a sentence. The function of a phrase depends on its construction (words it contains). On the basis of their functions and constructions, phrases are divided into various types i.e. noun phrase, verb phrase, adverb phrase, adjective phrase, appositive phrase, infinite phrase, participle phrase and gerund phrase.

Noun Phrase

      A noun phrase consists of a noun and other related words (usually modifiers and determiners) which modify the noun. It functions like a noun in a sentence.

A noun phrase consists of a noun as the head word and other words (usually modifiers and determiners) which come after or before the noun. The whole phrase works as a noun in a sentence.

Noun Phrase = noun + modifiers        (the modifiers can be after or before noun)

Examples.

• He is wearing a nice red shirt.                    (as noun/object)
• She brought a glass full of water.               (as noun/object)
• The boy with brown hair is laughing.           (as noun/subject)
• A man on the roof was shouting.                 (as noun/subject)

A sentence can also contain more noun phrases.

For example. The girl with blue eyes bought a beautiful chair.

Prepositional phrase.

      A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition, object of preposition(noun or pronoun) and may also consist of other modifiers.

e.g. on a table, near a wall, in the room, at the door, under a tree

A prepositional phrase starts with a preposition and mostly ends with a noun or pronoun. Whatever prepositional phrase ends with is called object of preposition. A prepositional phrase functions as an adjective or adverb in a sentence.

Examples.

• A boy on the roof is singing a song.              (As adjective)
• The man in the room is our teacher.             (As adjective)
• She is shouting in a loud voice.                    (As adverb)
• He always behaves in a good manner.        (As adverb)

Adjective Phrase.

   An adjective phrase is a group of words that functions like an adjective in a sentence. It consists of adjectives, modifier and any word that modifies a noun or pronoun.

An adjective phrase functions like an adjective to modify (or tell about) a noun or a pronoun in a sentence.

Examples.

• He is wearing a nice red shirt.                     (modifies shirt)
• The girl with brown hair is singing a song.  (modifies girl)
• He gave me a glass full of water.                (modifies glass)
• A boy from America won the race.               (modifies boy)

Prepositional phrases and participle phrases also function as adjectives so we can also call them adjective phrases when they function as adjective. In the above sentence “The girl with brown hair is singing a song”, the phrase “with brown hair” is a prepositional phrase but it functions as an adjective.

Question tags worksheet

Question tags worksheet

Add appropriate question tags.

1. You don’t work on Sundays, ……………………?

a) do you
b) don’t you
c) will you

2. They haven’t forgotten us, ……………………….?

a) have they
b) haven’t they
c) do they

3. There is little point in doing anything about it, ……………………..?

a) is there
b) isn’t there
c) was there

4. She didn’t recognize him, ……………………..?

a) did she
b) didn’t she
c) had she

5. You passed the test, ………………………..?

a) did you
b) didn’t you
c) had you

6. They bought a new car last week, ……………………?

a) did they
b) didn’t they
c) hadn’t they

7. She wants to be a writer, ……………………..?

a) does she
b) doesn’t she
c) hasn’t she

8. They make a lot of money, …………………………..?

a) do they
b) don’t they
c) have they

9. No one helped him, ……………………..?

a) do they
b) did they
c) didn’t they

Answers

1. You don’t work on Sundays, do they?

2. They haven’t forgotten us, have they?

3. There is little point in doing anything about it, is there?

4. She didn’t recognize him, did she?

5. You passed the test, didn’t you?

6. They bought a new car last week, didn’t they?

7. She wants to be a writer, doesn’t she?

8. They make a lot of money, don’t they?

9. No one helped him, did they?

Future Perfect Continuous tense

Future Perfect Continuous tense

It is used to express a continued or ongoing action that will start in future and is thought to be continued till sometime in future. (Remember, an ongoing action in future which will continue till some time in future). There will be a time reference, such as “since 1980, for three hours” from which the action will start in future and will continue. A sense of time reference is found which gives an idea that action will start at some time in future and will continue for some time.  Such time reference or sense of time reference is the identity of Future perfect continuous tense because it tells that action will start at a particular time in future. For example, “He will have been studying in this school since 2005”, so the it means that he will start studying in this school in 2005 and will study in this school till sometime in future.

Note: If there is not time reference or sense of time reference then it is not future perfect continuous tense because there is no hint about the time of action when it will start in future and it seems just an ongoing action in future which resembles “future Continuous tense. So the reference of time differentiates between Future perfect continuous tense between future continuous tense.

Rules: 

An auxiliary verb “will have been” is used in sentence. 1st form of verb (base verb) +ing (present participle) is used as main verb in sentence. “Since” or “for” is used before the “time reference” in sentence. If the time reference is exactly known such as 1995, 4 O’clock then “since” is used before the time in sentence. If the time reference is not exactly known such as three hours, six years, four days, then “for” is used before the time in sentence. Time reference such as 3 hours or 5 days is not exactly known because we don’t know that about which three hours a day is told in sentence or about which 5 days in a month is told in sentence. While the 1995 is exactly know time.

                                 Structure of sentence.

Positive Sentence.

• Subject + Auxiliary verb + main verb (Present participle) + Object + Time reference

•Subject + will have been + (1st form of verb or base verb + ing) + object + time reference

Examples.

         I will have been waiting for him for one hour.

         She will have been playing football since 2015.

Negative Sentence.

• Subject +”Not” inside Auxiliary verbs + main verb (present participle) + Object +    Time reference

• Subject + will not have been + (1st form of verb or base verb + ing) + object +    Time reference

To make negative sentence, the word “not” is added inside auxiliary verb, so it becomes “will not have been”.

Examples.

         I will not have been waiting for him for one hour.

         She will not have been playing football since 2015.

Interrogative Sentence.

• Auxiliary verb + Subject + auxiliary verb + main verb (present participle) + object +    time reference

• Will + Subject + have been + (1st form of verb or base verb+ing) + object + time    reference

Interrogative sentence starts with auxiliary verb “will” and auxiliary verb “have been” is used after subject in sentence.

Examples.

        Will I have been waiting for him for one hour?

        Will she have been playing football since 2015?

Future Perfect tense

Future Perfect tense

It is used to express an action which will occur in future and is thought to be completed in future. It expresses a sense of completion of an action which will occur in future. For example, “John will have gone tomorrow”. It shows a sense of completion of an action (go) which will occur in future (tomorrow).

Rules. Auxiliary verb “will have” is used in sentence. 3rd form of verb or past participle form of verb is used as main verb in sentence.

                                   Structure of sentence

Positive sentence

       • Subject + auxiliary verb + main verb (past participle) + object

       • Subject + will have + 3rd form of verb or past participle + object

Examples

        She will have finished the work by Wednesday.

        I will have left for home by the time he gets up.

        You will have started a job.

Negative sentence

      • Subject + Not between auxiliary verbs + main verb (past participle) + object

      • Subject + will not have + 3rd form of verb or past participle + object

Examples

       She will have finished the work by Wednesday.

       I will have left for home by the time he gets up.

       You will not have started a job.

Interrogative sentence

    • Auxiliary verb + Subject + auxiliary verb + main verb (past participle) + object

    • Will + Subject +have + 3rd form of verb or past participle + object

Examples

Will she have finished the work by Wednesday?

Will I have left for home by the time he gets up?

Will you have started a job?