Basic rules of the English language summary. Crazy English grammar

We present to you the first article in the series “Grammar in English for beginners". In this series of materials, we decided to present all the rules briefly and in simple words so that beginners “from scratch” or those who do not remember the basics of English well can independently figure out the grammar, understand it and apply it in practice.

Plural in English

In English, as in Russian, all words are divided into countable and uncountable. This is important to understand in education. plural one word or another. Countable nouns denote those objects that can be counted, for example: table (table), book (book), apple (apple). Uncountable nouns are abstract concepts, liquids, products, etc., that is, things that cannot be counted. For example: knowledge, water, meat, flour. These words have no plural or singular.

Countable nouns can be used in singular or plural. A singular noun denotes one thing; this is the form of the word that is indicated in the dictionary: apple - apple. A plural noun denotes several objects: apples - apples.

How to form the plural of nouns:

Usually the plural of nouns is formed by adding the ending -s to the word: book – books (book – books). However, there are several spelling features:

• If the word ends in -o, -s, -ss, -sh, -ch, -x, then add the ending -es: hero – heroes (hero – heroes), bus – buses (bus – buses).

  Exceptions: photo - photos (photo - photographs), video - videos (video recording - video recordings), radio - radios (radio - several radios), rhino - rhinos (rhino - rhinoceroses), piano - pianos (piano - several pianos), hippo - hippos (hippopotamus - hippopotamuses).

• If the word ends in -f, -fe, then change the ending to -ves: knife – knives, leaf – leaves, wife – wives.

  Exceptions: roof - roofs (roof - roofs), giraffe - giraffes (giraffe - giraffes), cliff - cliffs (cliff - cliffs).

• If a word ends in -y, preceded by a consonant, then we change -y to -ies: body – bodies (body – bodies).
• If the word ends in -y, preceded by a vowel, then add the ending -s: boy – boys (boy – boys).

In English there is also exception words, which form the plural irregularly. You just need to learn such words by heart; fortunately, there are not very many of them.

Try our test to see how well you have understood the material.

English Plural Noun Test

Articles in English

There are two types of articles in English: definite and indefinite. They are not translated into Russian. In the vast majority of cases, one of these articles must be placed before a singular noun.

The indefinite article a/an is used only with countable nouns in the singular: a girl (girl), a pen (handle). If a word begins with a consonant sound, we write the article a (a girl), and if the word begins with a vowel sound, we write the article an (an apple).

The indefinite article a/an is used in the following cases:

• We name any indefinite object, and we have only one, which is why we use the article a, which comes from the word one (one):

  It is a book. - This is a book.

• We mention the subject for the first time in speech:

  I see a shop. - I see (some, one of many) store.

• We talk about a person’s profession or indicate his belonging to a certain group:

  He is a teacher. - He is a teacher.
  She is a student. - She is a student.

We use the definite article the when we're talking about about a specific subject familiar to us. This article can appear before a singular or plural noun.

The definite article the is used in the following cases:

• We have already mentioned the subject earlier in our speech:

  I see a shop. The shop is big. - I see a store. (This) The store is big.

  It is believed that the definite article comes from the word that (that), therefore it is intended to indicate some specific object familiar to the interlocutors.

• We are talking about an object that in this context is one of a kind and cannot be confused with something else:

  Honey, I'm washing the car. - Honey, I'm washing the car. (the family has one car, so we are talking about a specific item)
  Look at the girl in the red dress - Look at the girl in the red dress. (we point to a specific girl in a specific dress)

• We are talking about a one-of-a-kind object, there is no other like it: the sun, the moon, the world, the President of France, etc.:

  The earth is our home. - Earth is our home.

Verb to be

There is always a verb in an English sentence. And if in Russian we can say “I am a doctor”, “Mary is beautiful”, “We are in the hospital”, then in English this is unacceptable: in all these cases, the verb to be must appear after the subject. Therefore, you can remember a simple rule: if there are no ordinary verbs in a sentence, then the verb to be is needed.

The verb to be has three forms:

• Am is added to the pronoun I when we talk about ourselves:

  I am beautiful. - I am beautiful.

• Is is placed after the pronouns he, she, it:

  She is beautiful. - She's beautiful.

• Are is used after you, we, they:

  You are beautiful. - You are handsome.

The verb to be in English is most often used in the following cases:

• We inform you that by whom is a person (name, profession, etc.):

  I am a doctor. - I am doctor.

• We inform you that what a person or thing has a quality:

  Mary is beautiful. - Mary is beautiful.

• We inform you that Where there is a person or object:

  We are at the hospital. - We're in the hospital.

Sentences with the verb to be in the present tense are constructed as follows:

We think you are now ready to take the test and test your knowledge.

Test for the use of the verb to be

Present Continuous Tense - present continuous tense

Present Continuous Tense most often shows that an action is happening at the moment.

Every English sentence has a subject and a predicate. In the Present Continuous the predicate consists of the auxiliary verb to be in in the required form(am, is, are) and the main verb without the particle to, to which we add the ending -ing (playing, reading).

She is playing tennis now. - She is now plays to tennis.
I am reading a novel at the moment. - I'm currently I'm reading novel.

The verb to be in this tense is an auxiliary verb, that is, it is a word that comes before the main verb (playing, reading) and helps to form tense. You will find auxiliary verbs in other tenses; these types of verbs include to be (am, is, are), do/does, have/has, will.

Please note the following tense words Present Continuous: now (now), at the moment (at the moment), today (today), tonight (tonight), these days (these days), currently (these days), at present (currently), still (still).

Affirmative sentences in the Present Continuous are formed as follows:

Usually in this tense you just need to add the ending -ing to the main verb: walk – walking (walk), look – looking (look). But some verbs change like this:

• If the verb ends in -e, we remove the -e and add -ing: write – writing, dance – dancing.

  Exception: see – seeing (to see).

• If the verb ends in -ie, we change -ie to -y and add -ing: lie – lying (lie), die – dying (die).
• If the verb ends with a stressed syllable with a short vowel that occurs between two consonants, the final consonant is doubled by adding -ing: begin – beginning (begin), swim – swimming (swim).

In negative sentences in the Present Continuous, you just need to insert the particle not between to be and the main verb.

She isn't cooking at the moment. - At the moment she doesn't cook.
You are not listening to me now. - You don't listen me now.

In interrogative sentences in the Present Continuous, you need to put the verb to be in the first place, and after it put the subject and the main verb.

Is she cooking at the moment? - She trains At the moment?
Are you listening to me now? - You me now are you listening?

Now we suggest you take a test on the use of Present Continuous tense.

Test for the use of Present Continuous

We have presented you with the first 5 basic topics of the English language. Now your task is to thoroughly understand them and work through them as productively as possible with the help of exercises. In order not to burden you with a large amount of grammar at once, we will release the next article in this series in a few weeks. Subscribe to our newsletter, then you definitely won't miss out important information. We wish you success in learning English!

“I don’t want to speak intelligently. I want to speak like a lady,” these words belong to Eliza Doolittle, the heroine of Bernard Shaw’s famous play “Pygmalion.”

Eliza may not have wanted to learn to speak correctly, but without grammar she would not have been able to speak at all. We are now talking about grammar as a system of words and syntactic structures inherent in a particular language. Grammar in this sense is “our main asset,” emphasized Eliza’s mentor, Professor Henry Higgins.

But this is not the only definition of grammar. The systematic study and description of a language or group of languages ​​is also grammar, descriptive grammar. Professor Higgins was mainly concerned with just one aspect of it - phonetics, or the study of speech sounds. Henry Higgins recorded the conversation of ordinary people in his notebook - this is a very accurate image of what descriptive grammar is.

Yet for most, "speaking like a lady" means speaking correctly, speaking as prescribed, speaking in accordance with language norm. Bernard Shaw spoke about the importance of prescriptive grammar when he wrote in the preface to Pygmalion: “The English do not respect their native language and stubbornly refuse to teach their children to speak it.” It is about the need for a prescriptive approach that Rex Harrison, who played the role of Professor Higgins in the musical “My Fair Lady,” said: “And there are places where our language has already been reduced to nothing. It hasn’t been in use in America for God knows how long!”

Why do we need to learn English grammar?

Grammar is a tool that can be used to describe any language. Grammar gives names to the words and word groups that make up sentences. Already in early childhood we learn to compose sentences - the grammar of our native language is subject to everyone. Studying English at school, university, with a tutor or at a university, we are faced with the need to once again independently and consciously go through this path. And here we need to have an idea of ​​the types of words and phrases and how they form sentences.

Literate people are more likely to succeed in relationships with the opposite sex
According to an online survey in which 1,700 people took part, 43% of users on dating sites consider a low level of literacy to be a significant disadvantage to attractiveness.
More than a third (35%) say literacy is sexy. The survey also showed that women are more demanding of their partner’s literacy than men (Michael Sebastian, “43 Percent of Singles Say Bad Grammar Is a Turnoff”).

Parts of speech in English grammar

Depending on their function in a sentence, words are assigned to one or another part of speech. There are 8 parts of speech in English. Just by learning their names, you certainly will not become an English grammar professor. But you will have a basic understanding of the English language and will be ready to start reading other articles on our site - and these articles will help you make significant progress in learning English grammar.

Remember: if a sentence consists of one word, only an interjection can act as this word.

Other parts of speech - nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions - appear in combinations. To understand which part of speech a word belongs to, we must look not only at the word itself, but also at its meaning, place and role in the sentence.

Let's consider three proposals:

1. Jim showed up for work two hours late. (Jim showed up at work two hours late).
   Here work is what Jim came to work for.
2. He will not have to work overtime. (He will have to work overtime).
   And here work is the action that Jim will carry out.
3. His work permit expires in March. (His work permit expires in March.)
   Finally, here work denotes the attribute of the noun permit.

In the first sentence the word work acts as a noun, in the second as a verb, and in the third as an adjective.

We hope you are not confused yet? Let's see what functions the 8 parts of speech perform in English.

NB! Articles (the, a/an) were once considered a separate part of speech. Nowadays they are more often classified as defining words or determinants.

What do we use to build proposals?

TOP 18 grammatical terms with film examples

Brush up on your English grammar with memorable quotes from your favorite movies and show off your knowledge in an interview or exam! We have compiled a “dossier” on 18 of the most common grammatical terms with rather unusual examples:

1. Active voice - Active Voice

A form of a verb that denotes an action performed by the subject (that is, the main character of the sentence, expressed by the subject). In other words, we are talking about how someone does something, produces, accomplishes something, that is, acts actively.

This construction is the opposite of the passive (passive) voice (see below).

Friends, every language has its own basic rules regarding grammar, spelling, syntax, etc. English is no exception. On the pages of our website you can find a detailed description of each section of grammar, reading rules, syntactic rules, and speech patterns of the English language.

In this article we will not dwell in detail on each section of the language.

Our material today is intended specifically for beginners in learning the language, for those who have taken up English from scratch. We want to introduce you to the most basic, most important and necessary rules of the English language that you will encounter everywhere while mastering this language. If you are ready, then 15 basic rules are waiting for you!

You need to know these rules!

So, dear readers, now you will get acquainted with the basic rules of English from different sections of the language. They concern grammar, speech, syntax and much more. All you need is to read the rules carefully and thoughtfully, pay attention to the examples and, of course, remember them! If you wish, you can copy this information into your English notebook or notepad. This way, you can always remind yourself of what you need in a particular exercise.

Rule #1

After modal verbs particle to not used. We are speaking:

• Imust learn Englishmodalverbs. — I have to learn English modal verbs.
• You should listen to your parents. “You should listen to your parents.”
• May I take yournotebooktillSunday? — Can I borrow your laptop until Sunday?

And in no case do we say: must to learn; should to listen; may to take etc.

Rule No. 2

You cannot use the definite/indefinite article with a pronoun:

• I love my mother. - II loveminemom.
• Where is your friend now? - WhereNowis yoursFriend?
• Yesterday I met Tom and his wife. — Yesterday I met Tom and his wife.

You can't say: the my mother or my mother; the friend or your friend. You can immediately see how absurd this looks, and even more so, how absurd it sounds. It really hurts my ears!

Rule No. 3

Adverbs of the English language (for the question “how?”) are formed according to the scheme: adjective + ending ly:

• Perfect - perfect ly- excellent, wonderful, wonderful
• Quick - quick ly- quickly, nimbly
• Rapid - rapid ly- fast
• Quiet - Quiet ly- quiet
• Nice - nice ly- cute
• Easy - easy ly- easily
• Beautiful - beautiful ly- Beautiful

• He entered the room quietly. - Hequiethas enteredVroom.
• Tom did his homework perfectly fine! - Volumedidmyhomeexcellent job (incredibly good)!
• Suelooksbeautifully today. — Sue looks beautiful today.

Rule No. 4

Use PresentSimple, after unions if,assoonasbefore,when,till,until,after,incase in sentences of time and conditions relating to the future:

• When I finish school, I will go to my grandparents in the countryside. - WhenII'll finishschool, II'll goTominegrandfatherAndgrandmaVvillage.
• After you study your family tree, you will find out where you descend from. - AfterTogo, HowYouyou will studygenealogicaltreeyoursfamilies, Youyou will find, fromwhomYouhappening.
• Your elder brother will certainly help you if you ask- Is yoursseniorBrotherNecessarilywill helpyou, IfYouhisask.

Rule No. 5

The word order in an English sentence is:

Subject + predicate + direct object + indirect object + adverbial

Subject + predicate + direct object + indirect object + adverbal modifier

• Isentyoualetterlastweek. — I sent you a letter last week.
• I saw Mike in the club. - IsawMikeVclub.
• It was sunny yesterday. - Yesterdaywassunny.

In a Russian sentence, liberties are allowed, and there is no specific word order in it, everything depends on the emotion embedded in it. In an English sentence, everything is clear and strict.

Rule No. 6

Phrasal verbs (verb + preposition) of the English language have their own separate meaning and their own translation. For example:

To look- look; to look for- search

To put- put, put; to put on- put on

Compare:

• Put the plates on the table, please. - Put itdishesontable, Please.
• It is cold outside; put on your coat. - OnstreetCold, put it oncoat.

Rule No. 7

The most general rule for the definite and indefinite articles in the English language: the indefinite article is placed where nothing is known about the subject; The definite article is used where something is known about the subject.

• I see a The girl walking down the street is very beautiful. - II seegirl. The girl walking down the street is very beautiful.

Rule No. 8

Ending - ed characteristic of the past tenses of only regular verbs. Irregular verbs have a different form for each past tense. For example:

Look -looked BUT! Bring -brought —brought

Rule No. 9

There are 4 types of questions in English:

We go to the theater every Saturday. - Welet's goVtheatereverySaturday.

• General(general): Do we go to the theater every Saturday? —Welet's goVtheatereverySaturday?
• Special(special): Where do we go every Saturday? —WhereWelet's goeverySaturday?
• Alternative(alternative): Do we go to the theater every Saturday or every Sunday? —Welet's goVtheatereverySaturdayoreachSunday?
• Disjunctive(separating): We go to the theater every Saturday, don’t we? —Welet's goVtheatereverySaturday, NotSowhether?

Rule No. 10

To make an impersonal sentence, you need a pronoun It:

• It is cold today. - TodayCold.
• It is morning. - Morning.
• It is difficult to translate this text. - Thistextdifficulttranslate.

Rule № 11

After alliances asif,asthough(as if, as if, as if, as if) in the conditional mood, verb tobe in the 3rd person singular takes the form were:

• She speaks so proudlyas if she wasn't guilty. “She speaks so proudly, as if she’s not guilty.”
• Tom looks as though he were rich. - VolumelooksSoas ifHerich.

Rule No. 12

Conditional incentive sentences in the 1st and 3rd person are formed using the word Let's:

• Let's I have a look at these pictures. - Let me look at these photographs.
• Let's him sleep, he is tired. - Giveto himsleep, Hetired.

Rule No. 13

Everyone knows what the word is many is used with countable nouns, and the word much- with the uncountable. But, if suddenly you find it difficult, doubt, forgot the rule or don’t understand what noun is in front of you, feel free to use a combination of words alotof. It applies to both types of nouns.

• Many birds a lot of birds
• Much sugar - a lot of sugar

Rule no.14

A bunch of English words- polysemic, that is, they can have several meanings. It depends on the context and meaning of the sentence. To more accurately understand the translation, you should consult a dictionary and clarify in what context the word is used.

• Toshoot- shoot on video; toshoot- fire
• Country- a country; country- village, village

Rule No. 15

Verb do can replace the main verb in a sentence. For example.

Regarding the difficulty of English, there are different opinions. There is a common belief that English (mainly in terms of grammar) is relatively simple. But many, having tried to “conquer this mountain,” begin to be inclined to believe that everything is not so simple.

In reality, English grammar is multi-layered and consists of several levels, and whether it is complex or not depends on the level you want to achieve.

For most, it is not a goal to know English in its entirety and at the highest level - we just want to understand in most situations what we hear and more or less competently express our thoughts. For these purposes, you don’t need to know ALL of the grammar - you need to understand it, and then everything will look a little simpler.

What is included in this “necessary minimum”? What should you not ignore? Traditionally, the first thing most people are interested in is what is the situation with tenses in English? Which in turn leads to the question...

How many tenses are there in English?

Amazingly, if you take 5 people who have studied English and ask them this question, most likely each will give a different number. One will answer - 12, another - 16, and someone will name a shocking 26 or even 32!

Which one is right?
Our answer may surprise you. In fact, it doesn't matter! The majority of native speakers themselves also do not know exactly how many tenses there are in English - they simply use them.

A common mistake English teachers make when presenting material is that they focus too much on covering as much grammar as possible and try to give students as much time as possible, going deeper and deeper.
And if those tenses with which they usually begin are quite simple and understandable, then the subsequent ones, for lack of analogues in Russian, cause difficulties even in understanding, not to mention use.

Gradually a person gets lost in this “chaos”. He gets the feeling that times great amount, and all of them are equally important, you need to know them and be able to apply them (and if you make a mistake, you will be shot). This creates despair and reluctance to continue studying. American teachers even came up with a name for this state of “lostness” – ‘English trauma’.

In fact, not all times are equally “useful,” especially at first. The most basic ones are used constantly. Others, on the contrary, are used much less frequently - their knowledge is not a necessity.

In order to communicate at the level of the average Englishman or American, you need to know 5 tenses. To understand 99% of what is said and written, you need to add three more “to the piggy bank.”

The first three basic English tenses you need to master are present, future and past in the ‘simple’ categories.

Next are added: the present categories ‘progressive’ (in the British version called ‘continuous’) - “continuous” and ‘Present Perfect’ - “perfect” (it refers to the past tense). These two tenses have no direct analogues in Russian, so they present a certain complexity.

No more tenses are needed at this stage; there is no need to “collect” them!

Make sure you know this!

If you have already studied English and think you have reached an intermediate level, then before moving on, check if you have a command of the following “basic” English tenses:

Present Simple(usually called 'Present Indefinite' in UK): I go there often. (I XI can't wait to go thereoften).

Future Simple(usually called 'Future Indefinite' in UK): I will go there tomorrow. (I I'll go thereTomorrow).

Past Simple(usually called 'Past Indefinite' in UK): I went there yesterday. (I went thereyesterday).

Present Progressive(in the British version called ‘Present Continuous’): I am reading a newspaper now. (IchitaI'm reading the newspaper now).

Present Perfect: I have heard about it. (I heardabout it. )

For everything else, make sure that at this stage you:

1. You know how to construct negatives and questions.
2. Understand all aspects and features of the verb ‘to be’.
3. Mastered all forms of personal pronouns (possessive, objective, etc.).
4. Do you own English design“presence” ‘there is’.
5. You understand (at least) the general logic of using articles.
6. Do you know how to correctly say “a lot”, “a little” and “a little” in English?
7. You speak basic modal verbs (can, may, should, must, would).
8. Know the comparative and superlative degrees of adjectives and adverbs.
9. You know how to construct sentences taking into account the “English word order”.

All this grammatical basis English – something that belongs to the initial, basic level. If you don’t have this knowledge, it’s pointless to delve further into grammar.

Of course, we are all curious and a slight deviation from the “course” is possible. But don’t let yourself be “dragged” into the jungle - this is destructive when learning a language.

With a sequential approach, you follow the principle of priority - “from important to unimportant” and master only the language that you can use in practice. In addition, each subsequent topic will be simple and understandable for you, since it will be based on a reliable and logical foundation.

Initially, the course is designed for beginners from scratch, so we start from the very basics. Then the level rises very quickly, and by the second half quite “serious” things begin - we enter the territory of “advanced” English.

Thus, the course is useful for students of almost any level. Even for the most “advanced” - for those who know all the topics we cover, the course will be interesting from the point of view of practice and consolidation of knowledge and skills. Below is short plan main grammatical topics of the course.

Lessons from the first week (Week 1):

1. Simple future tense; constructing questions and negatives.

2. Simple present tense; detailed answers.

3. Don't definite article'a'; plural formation.

4. Use of the infinitive; countable and uncountable nouns.

5. The verb ‘to be’ (to be) and its features; possessive case (ownership).

6. Conjugation of verbs in the 3rd person singular; definite article ‘the’.

7. Constructions like “I want...”; prohibition of double negatives in English.

Lesson-summarization of the first week: The system of pronouns in English (personal, objective, possessive, reflexive); structure English sentences(narration, question, denial); conjugation of the verb 'to be'; generalization of the topic of articles.

Lessons from the second week (Week 2):

8. Simple past tense; introduction to phrasal verbs; 'something' and 'anything'.

9. The verb to ‘be’ is in the past tense.

10. Irregular verbs in the simple past.

11. Introduction to modal verbs; development of the topic of phrasal verbs.

12. Comparative and superlative degrees of adjectives.

13. Negation through the particle ‘no’; stable constructions (idioms) in English.

14. Modal verbs ‘must’ and ‘should’.

Summary lesson 2 weeks: Simple past (formation and use); groups of irregular verbs; modal verbs; phrasal verbs; degrees of comparison of adjectives; numerals.

Lessons from Week 3:

15. Progressive tense in the present and past.

16. Conditional sentences; future from the past; 'going to...' construction.

17. Conditional mood(verb ‘would’); verbs of sensory perception.

18. Construction ‘there is’; past participles; modal verb 'could'.

19. Imperative mood; 'have to' construction; “pseudo-verbs” (to be + adjective).

21. Constructions like “I want you to...” (I want you to do).

Summary lesson 3 weeks: ‘Progressive tense’ in the present, past and future; verbs of sensory perception and their specificity; active and passive participles; the construction of the presence of ‘there is’ in the present, past and future; modal verb equivalents; conditional sentences; constructions ‘in order to’ and ‘so that’; verbs of suggestions and recommendations.

Lessons from Week 4:

22. Present perfect tense.

23. Conditional sentences of the second type.

24. Gerund.

25. Passive voice; 'used to' construction.

26. Meanings of the verb ‘to get’; some prepositions; phrasal verbs.

27. Passive voice (continued); construction “or... or” (whether .. or...)

28. Stable constructions “verb + nouns” (have + noun, take + noun).

Summary lesson 4 weeks: Passive voice; gerund; present perfect; the logic of “difficult” times.

29. The whole story (we apply everything).

30. Surprise!

The topics are not limited to the listed list - we give the grammar in context, explaining it as a particular construction appears.

So, now you know what you can achieve by completing the course to the end. This is not a lot, and a lot at the same time. For some this will seem quite simple (due to the fact that some of the material has already been mastered), for others it will be a long journey from the very beginning.

Language was created so that people can communicate and understand each other. In order for interaction to be most effective, the first native speakers had to agree on the rules of English, otherwise everyone would speak their own. Over time, the set of these rules grew larger, acquired additional nuances and exceptions, and then turned into thick English textbooks that today flood the shelves of bookstores and libraries. We will not delve into the jungle of studying British speech, so as not to list all the rules in the English language, but will focus on the 10 basic rules of the English language. Check it!

Order of words in a sentence

Russian speech allows us to compose phrases in any order we like. The sentences “He bought a car”, “He bought a car”, “He bought a car” and other variations will sound equally organic and correct from a grammatical point of view. But the English are a pedantic people, so in their sentences, as in life, there is a strictly observed order:

Subject(who?) + predicate(what does it do?) + addition(with whom? over whom? etc.) + circumstance(when? where? how? etc.).

He bought a car. - He bought a car.

Minor members may be absent, but the presence of a subject and predicate is mandatory, therefore the existence impersonal offers impossible in English. If in the Russian analogue the subject performing the action is absent, then in English it is replaced by the pronoun “ it».

It's cold outside. - It's cold outside.

Auxiliary verbs

It is very important to remember to use auxiliary verbs in negative and interrogative sentences. In Russian, we do not need any helpers other than the main predicate verb. But in classical English, the construction of questions and negations requires the indispensable presence of an helping verb.

Do you like music? - Do you like music?
I won't go to this party. - I won't (will not) go to the party.

Which auxiliary verb you should use depends on the tense, but that's a whole other story with 16 separate chapters.

Basic forms of English verbs be, have, do

There is a “holy trinity” of verbs in the English language - words that can express most actions. These are the verbs: " be"(to be, to appear, to be), " have"(to have) and " do" (do). Due to such frequent use, in the present tense they have their own special forms:

• « Be" divided by am (for I), " is" (for he, she, it) and " are"(for we, you, they).
• "Have" It has special shape only for the third person singular (he, she, it) - “ has».
• A " do", using general rule for "he", "she", "it" in the present tense, uses the ending " es» — « does».

Having remembered these basic rules about verbs and their forms, you can already express your thoughts and explain to a foreigner what you need from him.

Prohibition of double negatives

Famous game " I never..." in English is called " I've never(done)...” As you can see, in the Russian language there is a double negative - the pronoun “ never" and negative particle " Not" In English we only see the negative pronoun " never”, and before the verb “done” there is not and cannot be the usual negative particle “not”. Why this happened and who is to blame for this is unknown to history, but we like the version that business residents of Foggy Albion simply do not like to repeat themselves. And we should remember that in English you cannot use double negatives.

Articles

We can talk about these mysterious guys for hours. What makes this conversation especially long is the fact that there are no articles in the Russian language. But we will not repeat the multi-volume material of textbooks, but will concentrate only on when articles are not needed:

• When a noun is preceded by a possessive pronoun or a noun in the possessive case:

This is a dog. This is my dog. It isn't my sister's dog.- This is a dog. This is my dog. This is not my sister's dog.

• When a cardinal number precedes a noun (answers the question “how much?”):

I have two sisters and one brother.- I have two sisters and one brother.

• When a noun is preceded by the negation “no”:

I have no idea what to do.- I have no idea what to do.

• When a noun is preceded by a demonstrative pronoun (this, these, that, those):

Give me that pencil, please.- Give me that pencil, please.

Plural

The basic rule for forming plurals is to add the ending " s» to the singular form:

a dog - dog s, a cat - cat s, an insect - insect s

If a noun ends in hissing sound or letter " O", then you should add the ending " es»:

bus - bus es, glass - glass es, bush - bush es, box-box es, branch - branch es potato-potato es

When the word ends with " y", and in front of her stands consonant, « y" in the plural changes to " ies»:

ba by-bab ies, ci ty- cit ies, la dy- lad ies
But: b oh- boy s,t oh- toy s, pl ay- play s.

When the end of a word is " f" or " fe", when adding the ending " s"letter" f" changes to " v»:

lea f-lea v es, wi f e-wi v es

These are the main ones English rules formation of the plural form, but we should not forget about exceptions that go against the rules, for example:

child - children, man - men, mouse - mice etc.

Degrees of comparison

There are two ways to form degrees of comparison: using suffixes and using additional words. The choice of method is influenced by the number of syllables and the last letter in the word:

If the word has 1 syllable, then you should add a suffix:

cold - colder - the coldest, cool - cooler -the coolest, big- bigger -the biggest

If the word consists of two or more syllables, then we use an additional word:

beautiful - more beautiful - the most beautiful

When a word ends with " y", we again use the first method with endings, but in this case "y" changes to " ie».

funny - fun ier- the fun iest, sunny-sunny ier- the sun iest

Don't forget the article " the" before superlative comparisons, as well doubling the last consonant letters in monosyllabic words with consonant/vowel/consonant alternation.

Gerund after the verb "like"

A gerund is a verb ending in " ing" If you need to express your preferences using the verb “like,” then it is preferable to use a gerund after it:

I like watch ing films.
Do you like jogg ing?
You don't like play ing chess, do you?

Past tense forms of verbs

The basic rule is that to express the past tense you should use second verb form. This is where the nuances begin, because the main verbs of the English language are divided into regular and irregular, and their methods of forming the second form differ. For correct verbs use the ending " ed", but everyone wrong the verb has its own three shapes that need to be remembered - there is no separate rule for irregular verbs. Fortunately, many of them are formed according to similar word-formation models, and modern teaching methods have funny rhymes aimed at quickly memorizing the forms of irregular verbs. Our online tutor will be happy to introduce you to them.

Many, much, a lot

English nouns, like Russian ones, are divided into two classes: countable and uncountable. Class influences the use of quantitative pronouns:

• WITH countable should use " many».

I have many dresses.- I have a lot of dresses.

WITH uncountable, which are liquids, substances and substances that cannot be counted, we use “ much».

I don't drink much water.- I don't drink a lot of water.

If define classdifficult, then you can use “ a lot (of)", which goes equally well with both uncountable nouns and those that can be counted

He doesn't watch a lot of TV, but he reads a lot of books.- He doesn't watch TV a lot, but he reads a lot of books.

Small hint the ending " s» for countable nouns in the plural.

Conclusion

When learning English, you should remember that rules are meant to be broken. All the rules above are just the “skeleton” of British literary speech. Alive colloquial has a lot of nuances and exceptions, which can only be known by immersing yourself in the atmosphere of an English-speaking society. English songs and films, as well as live interlocutors, will help you do this!

Embark on an exciting journey through the sections of our website, and in just a few days the 10 most important rules English will become as natural as breathing. Breathe in English!

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