Advance English Grammar Rules

help advanced-level learner gain control over difficult areas of English grammar

This app is designed to help advanced-level learners gain control over difficult areas of English grammar. This app is not a systematic treatment of all areas of English grammar. Instead, it deals in depth with selected grammar topics that pose special problems for nonnative speakers. These topics fall into two areas: (1) areas of grammar that are the source of persistent error and (2) areas of grammar that are so complex that even advanced nonnative speakers almost always avoid them.

Examples of the first type of persistent error would be using wrong articles, misusing the present and present progressive tenses, confusing present and past participles of verbs used as adjectives, and using the wrong relative pronoun in adjective clauses.

Examples of the second type of constructions that are avoided because of their complexity would be gerunds and infinitives used as nouns, participial phrases, and wh- infinitive phrases.

Each topic is explained in detail, often going far beyond what would be found in a more general grammar book. My hope is that by fully understanding the technical grammatical issues involved, you will feel much more confident in using these difficult constructions. Each bit of grammatical analysis is supported by a series of practice exercises that will help you gain practical control over the issues covered in the analysis.

Contents

Preface

1 Noun plurals

The spelling and pronunciations of regular nouns

Irregular plurals of English and Latin origin

Noncount nouns

2 Possessive nouns and personal pronouns

The correct forms of possessive nouns and personal pronouns

The different meanings of possessive nouns and personal pronouns

Possessive formed with of

3 Articles and quantifiers

Articles

Quantifiers

4 Adjectives

Forming the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives

Deriving adjectives from verb participles

5 Verb forms and tenses

Rule #1: The first verb, and only the first verb, is tensed

Rule #2: All verb constructions except for the simple present and simple past consist of two verb components

Rule #3: If both the perfect and the progressive aspects are used in the same verb sequence, the perfect always comes first

6 Talking about present time

The present and present progressive tenses

The present perfect tense

7 Talking about past time

The past tense

The past perfect tense

8 Talking about future time

Using the present and present progressive tenses for future time

9 Causative verbs

Older causative verbs

More modern causative verbs

10 The passive

How the be passive is formed

Reasons for deleting the agent

Get passives

11 The structure of adjective clauses

The internal structure of adjective clauses

Creating and moving relative pronouns

Deleting relative pronouns

Moving objects of prepositions

12 Restrictive and nonrestrictive adjective clauses

The differences in meaning between restrictive and nonrestrictive adjective clauses

The reduction of adjective clauses to participial phrases

13 Gerunds

Identifying gerunds

Determining the expressed and unexpressed subjects of gerunds

14 Infinitives

Identifying inifnitives

Determining the expressed and unexpressed subjects of infinitives

15 Noun clauses

Where noun clauses can be used

That clauses

Wh- clauses

Answer key