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Grammar: omitting the relative pronoun in adjective clauses

Lesson:

Adjective clauses (a/k/a relative clauses) are one of those topics that start off appearing easy before eventually becoming more and more difficult. The devil is in the details. The basic idea is simple, but the small details make us make mistakes. Take, for instance, the following example:

• John is the sort of person who I would trust with my life.

It's a typical adjective clause, with nothing very special about it. It's the kind of adjective clause that hopefully we can make with no problems. Yet there is something interesting about it. Namely, it's equally correct to write it like this:

• John is the sort of person I would trust with my life.

What's the difference? The 'who'. Note that I've taken it out in my second sentence. In some sentences, it is possible to do this, but not all of them. Look at the following sentences, where the relative pronoun is red where it must stay but blue where it can be removed without a problem:

• Where did I put the newspaper that I was reading?
• The lady who cleans these offices is going on holiday next week.
• The box that holds my books has a hole in it.
• The children who my neighbour looks after are really very noisy.
• I don't enjoy watching movies which make me feel sad.
• The foods that are good for me are never the foods that I enjoy eating.
• I want to spend my life with people who I love and with people who love me.
• Mr. John Sciuk, who used to be my attorney, has just announced his retirement.

Grammar: adjectives and adverbs (answers)

1. The room is awfully crowded.
2. These days, I frequently spend evenings at home, listening to slow music and silently reading old books.
3. I've grown tired of waiting pointlessly for the boss to arrive!
4. You should be extremely cautious if you see a wild animal.
5. I've been working overly carefully to avoid making a serious mistake.
6. Dinner was nauseatingly rich.
   

Grammar: adjectives and adverbs (lesson & exercise)

Lesson:

This quick lesson looks at three different uses of adverbs and compares them to adjectives - a topic that is easy for some students and more difficult for others.

Most, but not all, adjectives can be recognised by the '-ly' suffix at the end. Please note that some words, like 'friendly' and 'homely' are adjectives even though they end with '-ly'. Note, though, that 'friend' and 'home' are not adjectives. An '-ly' adverb is formed by adding '-ly' to an adjective.

For example, 'clear', 'true', 'strange', 'colourful' and 'regular' are all adjectives (that modify nouns), so 'clearly', 'truly', 'strangely', 'colourfully' and 'regularly' are adverbs.

When I say that an adjective modifies a noun, I mean that you can speak of 'clear glass' or say that 'the information is true'. In those examples, 'glass' and 'information' are nouns, and we are using the adjective 'clear' to describe the glass, and the adjective 'true' to say something about 'information'.

Here are a few examples where the adjectives are in red and the nouns they modify are blue:

• I live next door to a Russian family.
• That restaurant is so expensive!
• We just threw out an ugly, old, black-and-white television.
• Crime is a daily event in this city.
• The doors of the house are wooden.

Adverbs, on the other hand, do not modify nouns. Everybody can immediately tell you that they modify verbs, but that's only one thing they do. In brief, they can modify verbs, adjectives or even other adverbs. They can do other things, but that's all we want to look at today. Let's look at a few examples of each of those types, where the adverb is red and the thing it's modifying is in blue:

• He drives too slowly. (modifying a verb)
• The professor at the university spoke eloquently and lucidly. (modifying a verb)
• I've nearly finished the assignment! (modifying a verb)
• The old man stepped very carefully through the bedroom to avoid waking his wife. (modifying a verb)
• The restaurant served disgustingly salty food. (modifying an adjective)
• I think you're completely insane! (modifying an adjective)
• The tank is nearly empty. (modifying an adjective)
• She talks annoyingly loudly. (modifying another adverb)
• Our office operates entirely independently of the main office. (modifying another adverb)
• The train goes unbelievably fast. (modifying another adverb)

One other use of adverbs, to modify whole sentences, is a subject for a different lesson. You can see above how in each case the adverb describes, explains or in some way answers a 'how?' question about the word in blue, whether that is a verb, an adjective or an adverb.

Exercise:

In each of these sentences, choose whether to put '-ly' into the blank (thus making the adjective into an adverb) or to leave it blank (thus keeping it an adjective).

1. The room is awful__ crowded__.
2. These days, I frequent__ spend evenings at home, listening to slow__ music and silent__ reading old__ books.
3. I've grown tired__ of waiting pointless__ for the boss to arrive!
4. You should be extreme__ cautious__ if you see a wild__ animal.
5. I've been working over__ careful__ to avoid making a serious__ mistake.
6. Dinner was nauseating__ rich__.

Grammar: indefinite articles 'a' and 'an' (answers)

1. I'm looking for an orange-coloured sweater.
2. Are you an American citizen?
3. They are sending a UN inspector.
4. We're having a press conference with an ABC reporter, a CBS reporter, an NBC reporter and a FOX reporter.
5. Is there a holiday in February?
6. Was the stegosaurus a carnivore, a herbivore or an omnivore?
7. All of the workers in this factory belong to a union.
8. The word 'mnemonic' starts with an 'm'.
9. It was a useful piece of advice.
10. If you have an hour or two, you should watch this movie.

Grammar: indefinite articles 'a' and 'an' (lesson & exercise)

Lesson:

In learning about articles, there are two main topics: one of them, when to use 'a' and 'the', is infamously difficult. The other one, however, when to use 'a' and 'an', is very simple. Today, let's look at the simple one.

As a fast review (because it's not the topic of this lesson), we use 'a' or 'an' for nouns that are countable, singular and indefinite.

In other words, we don't say '*I smell a smoke', because 'smoke' is uncountable. We don't say '*I saw a computers' because 'computers' is plural. We don't say, for example, '*There are clouds in a sky' because 'sky' tends to be definite.

The important subject today, though, is whether to use 'a' or 'an'. For some reason, we always see the xample here of 'umbrella'. A student quickly learns to say 'I have an umbrella.' instead of '*I have a umbrella.'

Why? The basic answer is that 'umbrella' begins with the letter 'u', and the letter 'u' is a vowel. Because it's a vowel, we must use 'an' instead of 'a' with it. In the English language, the following are vowels: 'a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u' and sometimes 'y'. Because 'y' at the beginning of a word is almost never a vowel, we can forget about it today.

Okay. So far so easy. The important thing, though, which people often confuse, is that it's not the written spelling which matters but the spoken pronunciation. For example, 'uniform' starts with the same letter as 'umbrella' in writing, but we say it differently. We say 'uniform' like there is a 'y' at the beginning - the beginning of 'uniform' is like 'you'. For this reason, we say 'I have to wear a uniform'. More commonly, a word like 'honest' is written with an 'h', but that 'h' is not pronounced. So we say 'I'm looking for an honest man'. A few more examples, which should be clearer if you say them out loud:

• Poland is a European country.
• The doctor wants me to have an X-ray done.
• It's an honour to meet you.
• Smiling is a universal gesture.

Interestingly, all of this is also true for the definite article too. Although it's always spelt the same, we pronounce it differently. In front of vowels, 'the' sounds like the old English word 'thee'. When we say, for example, 'the English language', we pronounce the first word with a 'long e'. When we say 'the European Union', however, we pronounce 'the' normally.

Exercise:

Fill in the blanks in these sentences with either 'a' or 'an'.

1. I'm looking for _____ orange-coloured sweater.
2. Are you _____ American citizen?
3. They are sending _____ UN inspector.
4. We're having a press conference with _____ ABC reporter, _____ CBS reporter, _____ NBC reporter and _____ FOX reporter.
5. Is there _____ holiday in February?
6. Was the stegosaurus _____ carnivore, _____ herbivore or _____ omnivore?
7. All of the workers in this factory belong to _____ union.
8. The word 'mnemonic' starts with _____ 'm'.
9. It was _____ useful piece of advice.
10. If you have _____ hour or two, you should watch this movie.

Vocabulary: 'way' and 'far' as intensifiers (answers)

1. I'm way too old for this kind of nonsense.
2. She's way more beautiful than I had expected.
3. Have you heard the new professor? She's way intelligent.
4. Look way up into the sky!
5. You're way out of line, miss!

Vocabulary: 'way' and 'far' as intensifiers (lesson & exercise)

Lesson:

You probably know that the word 'way' is a noun; one with many meanings including 'route' and 'method'. You probably also know that 'far' is an adjective meaning 'distant'.

As with so many things in English, though, these words have other, perhaps unexpected, meanings. Their use - mostly informal - takes many ESL students by surprise, but both of them can be said to mean 'much'. In other words, in many places where we can use the word 'much', we may also say 'way' or 'far'.

'Far' is the more accepted of the two. It can replace 'much' in these examples:

• This restaurant is much more expensive than that one.
• The bookcase is much too heavy for us to carry.
• Her condition is much worse than I had predicted.
• She was much happier without you.
• I've heard much too many complaints from people like you.

It could even be argued tnat in the last example 'far too many' is better sounding than 'much too many'.

In each of the above examples, using 'far' is suitable both in formal and informal contexts. Note, however, that all of the examples use either comparatives or 'too'. 'Way' has a broader range of uses, but is rather more informal in tone. In each of the above examples, using 'way' instead of 'much' or 'far' is grammatically possible, and gives the sentences a more conversational (some might say distinctly American) tone.

'Way' also fits into the following:

• The office is way down at the end of the hall.
• Your project is way over budget.
• It's way past your bedtime.
• I'm way annoyed at your behaviour.
• That was way cool! How did you do it?

The last two sentences, where it replaces 'very' are highly informal - almost to the point of being slang.

Lastly, of course, you may be familiar with the expression, 'No way!', meaning primarily either 'I won't do it!' (also in longer structures like 'No way I'm going to kiss her!') or 'I don't believe you', but usable in most situations where a simple 'No!' might be used as a response.

Exercise:

Fit the word 'way' into these sentences in the appropriate place:

1. I'm too old for this kind of nonsense.
2. She's more beautiful than I had expected.
3. Have you heard the new professor? She's intelligent.
4. Look up into the sky!
5. You're out of line, miss!

Grammar: formation of the passive (answers)

1. This building was built in 1949.
2. My favourite TV show is going to be cancelled.
3. Windows has been reinstalled on all of these computers.
4. My package is being shipped to you at the moment.
5. This medicine shouldn't be taken on an empty stomach.

Grammar: formation of the passive (lesson & exercise)

Lesson:

We're finishing off our first calendar month at ESL Lessons with a relatively simple topic: passives.

Simple? A lot of people have a terrible fear of passives. They see them as very complex, confusing and difficult. Well, the truth is that they are none of these things. Today's lesson is not about the meaning or usage of passive verbs; it's just going to focus on their form. We're going to learn how to make passive verbs today.

The formula, the only formula you'll ever need to make passives, is this:

to be + V3

That's it. Really. Every passive sentence has these forms. What does it mean? Well, let's take a look. 'To be' refers, of course, to the verb 'to be'. Depending on tense, that can mean any of the following: 'am', 'is', 'are', 'was', 'were', 'have been', 'has been', 'had been', 'will be', 'should be', 'must be', 'has to be', 'is going to be', 'will have been', 'should have been' and, in the case of passives, 'am being', 'is being', was being', etc. 'V3', verb three, is also called the 'past participle'. It's the third form of verbs that you learn through memorization and are listed in the back of every ESL textbook. For example, the 'V3' form of 'steal' is 'stolen' and the 'V3' form of 'find' is 'found'. Being regular, verbs such as 'need' or 'control' get their V3 forms just by adding '-ed': in this case, 'needed' and 'controlled'.

Okay. So, for example, 'was stolen' and 'will be needed' are passive verbs, because 'was' and 'will be' are forms of the verb 'to be', and 'stolen' and 'needed' are V3 forms of the verbs 'steal' and 'need'.

Again, today's lesson doesn't focus on the meaning of these verbs - just the formation of them.

A very typical passive-related exercise would be one in which the student is given active (i.e. 'normal') sentences and asked to change them into passive sentences. They may be given this sentence:

• They have found the missing girl.

And asked to turn it into this sentence:

• The missing girl has been found.

How can you do it? Well, it's actually quite easy. When we look at the first sentence, we can find its subject ('They'), its verb ('have found') and its object ('the missing girl'). The object of our active sentence becomes the subject of our passive sentence, so our passive sentence is going to begin with the words 'The missing girl'. Now, for the verb, we need to look at the active sentence and decide two things: 1) Which tense is the verb in? 2) Which verb is it?

In this case, we can see that the verb ('have found') is present perfect, and the verb is 'find'. Remembering our magic formula 'to be + V3', all we need to do is choose the present perfect form of the verb 'to be' and the V3 form of 'find'. Because 'the missing girl' (she) is singular, our present perfect form of 'to be' is 'has been', and the V3 form of 'find' is, of course, 'found'.

Another example:

• We will sell 500 books this week.

What do we need to do? The verb is 'will sell' and the object is '500 books'. So we need to put the object ('500 books') first, then the future simple form of 'to be' ('will be'), and the V3 form of 'sell' ('sold'). Keeping the time expression, we get:

• 500 books will be sold this week.

Let's look at a few more examples, with the verbs in blue and the subject of the passive sentence in red:

• You can't mix oil and water. = Oil and water can't be mixed.
• They are cleaning the office. = The office is being cleaned.
• Thieves stole Renoir's painting in 1995. = Renoir's painting was stolen in 1995.
• They have discovered a new galaxy. = A new galaxy has been discovered.
• They will punish you for your actions = You will be punished for your actions.

Exercise:

Change these active sentences into passive. Do not include the 'by agent' in your answer.

1. They built this building in 1949. = ______________________________
2. They are going to cancel my favourite TV show. = ______________________________
3. We have reinstalled Windows on all of these computers. = ______________________________
4. They are shipping my package to you at the moment. = ______________________________
5. You shouldn't take this medicine on an empty stomach. = ______________________________

Vocabulary: over- and under- prefixes (answers)

1. The municipal government is trying to find a solution to the problem of overpopulation in the city's downtown area.
2. The police closed down the bar for serving drinks to underage people.
3. We had expected 250 guests, but almost 500 people came. We really underestimated how many people would come.
4. The HR manager looked at my three university degrees and told me I was overqualified for the job.
5. I wore a t-shirt to the part, and everyone else was wearing suits. I felt so embarrassed because I was underdressed.
6. I told her the news and she almost had a heart attack. I don't know why she overreacted like that.
7. People who work in this factory are usually overworked and underpaid: their job is difficult and they earn little money.
8. If you overload the donkey, you might break its back!
9. She always spends the whole day dreaming of magical castles and handsome princes. She has an overactive imagination.

Vocabulary: over- and under- prefixes (lesson & exercise)

Lesson:

It's said that there are upwards of a million words in the English language. Of course, it's impossible to learn every word: the average native speaker is said to know only about 30,000. However, to increase your vocabulary, it's very useful to be able to break a word down into parts and guess its meaning from this. A very easy starting place is to look at prefixes and suffixes, and an ideal starting point would be the prefixes 'over-' and 'under-'.

Generally speaking, we can say that these prefixes carry the meaning of 'too much' or 'too little (i.e. not enough)'. For example, a person who ate too much might hold his stomach and complain that he had overeaten. So we can see that 'over-' can attach to verbs and, in this case, changes the meaning from 'to eat' to 'to eat too much'.

Usually, you will find these prefixes attached to verbs or to adjectives. Any good dictionary should contain a nice list. Here are a few examples:

• overbook (v.): to book too many tickets on a plane, in a hotel, etc.
• overcharge (v.): to charge too much money for something.
• overcrowded (adj.): having too many people or things in it; probematically crowded.
• overcook (v.): to cook something too long.
• overdo (v.): to exaggerate.
• overdrawn (adj.): having too much money drawn from a bank account.
• overdressed (adj.): wearing too much or too formal clothing.
• overgrown (adj.): grown too much; for plants, being excessively and problematically big.
• overload (v.): to load too much onto something, e.g. a truck.
• overpopulated (adj.): for a place, having too high a population.
• overprotective (adj.): trying too hard to protect someone, esp. a child.
• overqualified (adj.): having too many qualifications for a job.
• overreact (v.): to react in an exaggerated way.
• overworked (adj.): being forced to work too much.

The prefix 'under-' works in much the same way. Understanding, for example, that the adjective 'underfunded' means 'receiving not enough funding', you should probably be able to guess the meaning of these words: underachieve (v.), underage (adj.), underdeveloped (adj.), underestimate (v.), undernourished (adj.), underpaid (adj.), underrate (v.), undersell (v.), understaffed (adj.) and undervalue (v.). The following exercise will let you test yourself.

Exercise:

Fill in the blanks using one of the words on the list below (not all of the words on the list are acceptable words, but all of the correct answers are).

1. The municipal government is trying to find a solution to the problem of __________ in the city's downtown area.
2. The police closed down the bar for serving drinks to __________ people.
3. We had expected 250 guests, but almost 500 people came. We really __________ how many people would come.
4. The HR manager looked at my three university degrees and told me I was __________ for the job.
5. I wore a t-shirt to the part, and everyone else was wearing suits. I felt so embarrassed because I was __________.
6. I told her the news and she almost had a heart attack. I don't know why she __________ like that.
7. People who work in this factory are usually __________ and __________: their job is difficult and they earn little money.
8. If you __________ the donkey, you might break its back!
9. She always spends the whole day dreaming of magical castles and handsome princes. She has an __________ imagination.

• overactive / underactive
• overage / underage
• overdressed / underdressed
• overestimated / underestimated
• overload / underload
• overpaid / underpaid
• overpopulation / underpopulation
• overqualified / underqualified
• overreacted / underreacted
• overworked / underworked

Grammar: tag questions (answers)

1. The weather is beautiful today, isn't it?
2. You broke the window, didn't you?
3. It isn't safe to walk in this neighbourhood, is it?
4. She hasn't learned very much, has she?
5. This window looks pretty dirty, doesn't it?
6. Let's order a pizza, shall we?
7. Those kids are really growing up, aren't they?
8. I don't know what I'm talking about, do I?
9. Sit down, won't you?
10. There must be a mistake, mustn't there?
11. You have to go home early today, don't you?
12. The dog needs food, doesn't it?
13. I am in your class, am I not or aren't I?
14. I should listen to you, shouldn't I?
15. This exercise wasn't very difficult, was it?

Grammar: tag questions (lesson & exercise)

Lesson:

Tag questions, the quick little two-word way to turn a normal sentence into a question, are one of the easiest topics in English grammar. The name 'tag question' refers to the two words after the comma at the end of these examples:

• Rio de Janeiro is the capital of Brazil, isn't it?
• You didn't see anything, did you?
• John should lose some weight, shouldn't he?

In each case, these truly are questions - the speaker expects the listener to say something. Depending on how the speaker says it, a simple 'uh-huh' from the listener might be enough or a full answer might be necessary.

Making tag questions is very easy - it's all about choosing the right helping verb and the right subject. A 'helping verb', also called an 'auxillary verb', is the verb you can see directly after the comma - the verb that we put before the subject in normal questions and the verb we put 'not' after in negative sentences. They include words like 'is', 'are', 'did', 'do', 'will', 'can', 'must', 'have' and 'had'. In the three examples above, you'll see that the helping verb in the sentence and the helping verb in the tag question are the same, just changed from positive to negative or vice versa. So 'is' in the first example becomes 'isn't' in the tag, and the negative 'didn't' in the second one becomes 'did' in the tag.

Present simple and past simple sentences, if they're positive, won't have helping verbs. In these cases, you need to use 'doesn't', 'don't' or 'didn't'. For example:

• They kill horses, don't they?
• You slept well, didn't you?

The last word of the tag question is just the subject again. You can see in the two examples above that the first word of the example and the last word are the same. In the examples above, we've used pronouns where necessary ('he' for 'John', 'it' for 'Rio de Janeiro'), but the logic is still the same.

So that's really all there is to tag questions: take a normal sentence, put a comma at the end, then put the opposite helping verb (negative if the original sentence is positive and positive if the original is negative) plus the subject again (using a pronoun if necessary), a question mark, and you're done!

Let's look at a few more examples, this time with colours. Blue shows subjects, red shows helping verbs.

• There's an empty room here, isn't there?
• My sister was waiting here, wasn't she?
• We've gotten lost, haven't we?
• This school doesn't have an air conditioner, does it?
• Susan and Louise worked here, didn't they?
• You can reach the button, can't you?

Note: two final observations on this topic. Firstly, as you might know, you can't contract 'am not'. So tag questions starting with 'I am...' lead to a problem. The two possible solutions, each of which is a little problematic, are a) to say '...aren't I?' or b) to say '...am I not?'

The second observation is that most textbooks list '...shall we?' as the appropriate tag question after 'Let's' and '...won't you?' or '...will you?' after imperative sentences. A few closing examples to illustrate these points:

• I'm sitting in the right seat, aren't I? or:
• I'm sitting in the right seat, am I not?
• Let's go home now, shall we?
• Lend me $5, will you?

Exercise:

Fill in the blanks with the correct words to make a suitable tag question.

1. The weather is beautiful today, __________?
2. You broke the window, __________?
3. It isn't safe to walk in this neighbourhood, __________?
4. She hasn't learned very much, __________?
5. This window looks pretty dirty, __________?
6. Let's order a pizza, __________?
7. Those kids are really growing up, __________?
8. I don't know what I'm talking about, __________?
9. Sit down, __________?
10. There must be a mistake, __________?
11. You have to go home early today, __________?
12. The dog needs food, __________?
13. I am in your class, __________?
14. I should listen to you, __________?
15. This exercise wasn't very difficult, __________?

Slang: "ain't" (answers)

1. Your mother isn't going to be happy about this.
2. We haven't (or aren't) finished with you yet.
3. There isn't enough time today.
4. Isn't that my luck?
5. I am not allowed to stay out past 10:00.
6. Haven't you ever eaten shrimp?
7. She hasn't got any bed to sleep in.
8. If it isn't broken, don't fix it!
9. Playing tennis isn't my idea of a good time.
10. It isn't acceptable to use slang words in English grammar class.

Slang: "ain't" (lesson & exercise)

Lesson:

For the first lesson, I thought I'd say a few words about a topic my students ask me about a lot - the word 'ain't'.

It's not surprising that students are interested in it. They hear it in songs all the time, and perhaps they've seen a teacher or two shake their heads as if it were a dirty word or something.

Is 'ain't' a dirty word? No, it isn't. You can say it on television. Your mother will not slap you if you say it. But it is slang, which means you shouldn't use it in formal situations. Also I would advise you never to use it in writing, except maybe things like SMS messages. In fact, I would advise you never to use it - not because it's a bad word, but because it sounds unnatural when most English learners say it.

So what is it? Well, originally, hundreds of years ago, 'ain't' was simply the short form of 'am not'. Just as 'is not' can become 'isn't' and 'will not' shortens to 'won't', 'ain't' was used to shorten 'am not'. The problem came when people started use 'ain't' to shorten other things, such as 'is not'. So because it was bad grammar to shorten 'is not' to 'ain't', the teachers of good English grammar decided to completely banish 'ain't' from 'good' English, to the point that today the word 'ain't' is not considered proper grammar in any situation, and 'am not' has no acceptable contraction (though you can, of course, say "I'm not").

Still, you can hear the word all the time. It does still mean 'am not', but it can also mean 'is not', 'are not', 'have not' and 'has not' (it's very rare that this can cause confusion). So, also thinking about how double negatives are not acceptable in standard 'proper' English but can often be used informally, we can see how 'ain't' is used in a few examples:

1. '*I ain't your girlfriend.' = 'I am not your girlfriend.'
2. '*He ain't coming home.' = 'He isn't coming home.'
3. '*Ain't you heard the news?' = 'Haven't you heard the news?'
4. '*There ain't no reason to cry.' = 'There isn't any reason to cry.'

Note that we can't use 'ain't' in place of all negative contractions. '*I ain't drink wine' or '*She ain't be home tonight until 10:00' would be incorrect sentences, not merely non-standard ones.

Exercise:

All of these sentences use the word 'ain't'. How would you write these sentences in standard English, i.e. the kind of English that is acceptable in writing and in English lessons?

1. Your mother ain't going to be happy about this.
2. We ain't finished with you yet.
3. There ain't enough time today.
4. Ain't that my luck?
5. I ain't allowed to stay out past 10:00.
6. Ain't you ever eaten shrimp?
7. She ain't got no bed to sleep in.
8. If it ain't broken, don't fix it!
9. Playing tennis ain't my idea of a good time.
10. It ain't acceptable to use slang words in English grammar class.

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