Introduction 5 11B Past activity, habit, refusal etc. 122
For the learner 5 11C Expectation, assumption, conclusion 126
For the teacher 8 11D Obligation, absence of obligation 129
11E Duty and arrangement, with non-
1 Verb tenses 10 fulfilment 132
1A The past tense of certain verbs 10 11F Use of should for suggestions,
1B Tense use for fact: review 12 opinions, feelings etc. 136
1C Use of present for future tenses 20
1D Tense use for non-fact: supposition 25 12 Reported speech 139
1E Tense use for non-fact: wish 31 12A Tense and word changes: general
1F Fact and non-fact: summary of tense review 139
use 34 12B Possible changes in auxiliary verbs 145
12C Suggestions, requests and
2 Adverbials 39 commands 1492A Adverbs against adjectives 39
2B Position 43 13 The passive 154
13A Subject formation from the active
3 Linking: result, cause 50 voice 154
3A Relation between result and cause 50 13B Passive constructions with the
3B Result expressed with too or enough 54 infinitive 161
4 Linking: purpose 60 14 Inversion of subject and4A Standard constructions 60 verb 164
4B Shortened constructions 63 14A Types of lead word 164
14B Established sentence patterns 168
5 Linking: concession 66 15 Dependent prepositions 170
6 Linking: cause, purpose,
concession (alternative) 70 16 Phrasal verbs 178
7 Linking: time 73 16A Type, meaning and word order 178
16B Meaning and use of selected verbs 181
8 Linking: relatives 78
8A Links and clause types: review 78 17 Study lists 187
8B Sentence building with relatives 84 17A The past tense of certain verbs (with
8C Shortened constructions 89 past participle) 187
9 Linking: Similarity and 17B Verbs and phrases followed by thecomparison 94 plain infinitive 785
17C Verbs followed by an object + full
10 The infinitive and -ing 100 infinitive 189
10A The infinitive 700 17D Verbs and phrases followed by -ing
10B The -ing form as gerund 103 (gerund) 190
10C Verbs taking a full infinitive or –ing
(gerund) according to meaning 109 17E Verbs used with two objects 192
10D Verbs taking the infinitive or –ing 17F Dependent prepositions 193
(participle) according to meaning 113 17G Phrasal verbs 196
11 Auxiliary verbs: particular Subject index 199uses 177 Word index 203
11A Ability, permission, possibility 178 Key to Exercises 209
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Foreword to the revised edition
This edition of the book is in its scope and method the same as the first; the material and its arrangement remain basically unchanged. But there were in the first edition some omissions in the treatment of adverbs and links (conjunctions) which have been made good. Also a large part of the section on reported speech has been rewritten with additional examples and exercises in order to make the approach to this aspect of English grammar both more extensive and more flexible. Elsewhere in the book I have occasionally altered the wording of the explanations where I have thought these could be made clearer, but on the whole have not found it necessary to amend the exercises except to accommodate the extra adverbs and links.
What is entirely new to this edition is the introduction of style marking, that is to say, of a definite indication in the text that certain words or constructions are associated with a formal style of English. Whereas in the first edition this association was mentioned only in the explanations, in the present edition it is specifically pointed out wherever it occurs in examples and exercises (see the relevant paragraph in the Introduction for the learner). The intention is that in this way users of the book will be made more aware of the relationship between grammatical usage and style.
It is of course gratifying that the book should have found enough favour amongst learners and teachers of English to warrant a revised edition, and this approval, silent though it may be, has been a very real encouragement in its preparation. I would welcome any comments, however critical, that the book's users might like to make through the publishers.
I should also like to record here my gratitude to Annette Capel, prime mover and promoter of this revised edition, and to Caroline Egerton, who returned to the book in the editorial role which she undertook for the first edition and which she has again fulfilled so well.
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Introduction
For the learner
If you are the kind of learner for whom this book has been written, you will have learnt English intensively for months or less intensively for years. You will now be in contact with the language as it is used by British, American and other native speakers in conversation, on radio and television, in letters, books or newspapers. You yourself may be using the language socially or in your work; you may be studying it full- or part-time; you may be preparing for an examination such as the Cambridge Proficiency.
Whatever you are doing, you will have some academic background and some acquaintance, although it may be only slight, with grammatical concepts. With the help from time to time of a good dictionary or a teacher, you will be able to read this and the rest of the book with adequate understanding. In short, you will have reached an advanced level in English but you will still be learning it with a view to improving it as a means of communication, both written and spoken.
Apart from vocabulary, idiom and pronunciation, what you will still be learning is grammar, which is the way the vocabulary organises itself or, in other words, how the language works. A lot of grammar you will already know, such as the general order of words, basic tenses and verb forms, the making of questions and statements. Some of this, however, will have been imperfectly learnt, while there will be some grammar that you do not know at all. It is for this purpose, then, that the book has been written: to review the grammar that you may know imperfectly and to teach the grammar that you need to know but do not. (You may know it in the sense that you have heard or seen it used but not in the more important sense that you can recognise it and can use it yourself.) How does the book set out to achieve this?
Examples
The way a language works is best shown by example, and so the introduction to any typical section of the book is followed first by examples of the grammar dealt with in that section. Since language is normally organised for intelligent communication, and is not a collection of unconnected utterances, the examples in each section are as far as possible connected to form a discourse or 'story' to show grammar in use and not just as 'naked' grammar lying about doing nothing. From these examples you should be able to get quite a good idea of how the language works.
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Explanation
In order thoroughly to understand the examples, however, you will need some help; and to make understanding and learning easier you will probably feel the need for rules. To answer these needs as far as possible, an explanation follows the examples. It is linked for reference purposes to the examples by numbers and letters, so that you do not have to go through the whole explanation to clarify a certain example. This should be of particular advantage in review sections such as those on verb tenses (1B) and relatives (8A), where you may find that your existing knowledge makes some of the explanation unnecessary. In any explanation of grammar, descriptive terminology is unavoidable, and this is not introduced here for its own sake. Sometimes you will recognise the terms used through your own language, but in any case their meaning is illustrated in the examples and explained if necessary.
Exercises
Having, through the examples and the explanation, understood the grammar involved, you now have to practise and test your knowledge. The exercises, like the examples, are as far as possible organised as discourse so that you can use the grammar you are learning in a meaningful context. It is important, therefore, to read out or to rewrite the whole text and not just the portion that needs changing. To help you prepare for some of the exercises, there are study lists towards the end of the book, placed there to make it easier for you not to refer to them while actually doing the exercises. If you find the exercises too difficult, you should return to examples, explanation or lists, and also if necessary to your dictionary, for better preparation.
Grammar and style
You will know already that English, like your own language, has differences of style. Such differences can usefully be classed under the terms formal and informal. This Introduction is written in a style somewhere between the two: it has not got the colloquial contraction (You'll know ... it's ... it hasn't) and shorter sentences of informal written English, which approaches and sometimes imitates the language of everyday speech; on the other hand, it addresses you personally, avoiding a lot of impersonal or passive constructions, and prefers words like needs, order and works rather than the more formal requirements, sequence and functions. The language of the examples and exercises is seldom more formal than this and is often more informal; its stylistic range is wide enough for general communication in English, written or spoken. There is some grammar, however, that is associated with a certain formality of style, either as single words or phrases (3A etc.) or in the way the grammar is used (8A,B etc.). Where this kind of
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language occurs in the examples and exercises it is labelled, or style-marked, in the way described in the introductory note to 3 (p.50).
Order of contents
The numbered sections of the book are in an order that can be followed to advantage, but are sufficiently independent of each other to be taken in the order that best answers your needs. However, the subsections A, B etc. build upon each other, and should be done in the order given.
Indexes
There are grammatical and word indexes that refer you by section number and letter to the relevant explanations, which, as mentioned above, are themselves linked with the examples.
Key to exercises
So that you can correct your answers to the exercises yourself, there is a key to them at the end of the book.
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For the teacher
It is through what I have already said to the learner that I can best introduce the book to a teacher. In continuation I should like to add the following.
Rationale
This book has come into being, over many years of teaching and organising courses, in response to the need of post-intermediate students to feel bedrock beneath them. Learners at this level may be superficially fluent and able to cope socially in the language, but often flounder in a slough of words when more exact communication, written or spoken, is required of them. Those who meet the challenge and make further progress are usually those who not only need but actively demand a fuller understanding of grammar. At the stage we are talking about, this demand can best be met through the medium of English itself.
Although there are several EFL books dealing with grammar at this level, they have not all got exercises under the same cover. Also I have thought it to be very well worthwhile to try and put the grammar into more homogeneous contexts than are found in other books. The object thereby is not that learners should lose sight of the grammar as such (which happens in some books) but that they should see it used in examples in a contextual situation, and therefore in a more meaningful way, than they would in unconnected sentences. Where possible I have extended this treatment to the exercises. Thus the book, and thus its title.
Use
As already pointed out to the learner, the order followed by the main sections of this book is a recommended one only. The extensive cross-referencing that is provided should allow you to integrate the book into the rest of your teaching programme in any order required. Whichever section is selected for teaching, it is of course most important that you should thoroughly acquaint yourself beforehand with its examples, explanation and exercises.
Most of the grammatical categories that I have used will be familiar to you. I have departed from the traditional ones only where, after experiment and discussion, it has been apparent that there are better ways (at least at this level of teaching) of presenting the grammar of the language. Instances are the division of verb use into the categories of 'fact' and 'non-fact' and the incorporation into the passive of an auxiliary form. The examples and explanation of each section should soon put you in the picture regarding the categories used.
Depending on the time available and the depth of study required, the exercises may be done in class, orally or in writing, or as homework for later checking and comment.
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Weighting
The book does not set out to be a comprehensive grammar of English. Some grammatical features, such as independent prepositions, have been considered familiar enough to the post-intermediate learner to be used in examples and exercises without grammatical comment. Others, such as verb tenses and relative pronouns, are not dealt with from scratch but are extensively reviewed and presented as a working unit.
The emphasis throughout is on the essential unit of discourse, which is the contextualised sentence; the relation between grammar and meaning is never forgotten. The aim is that serious learners should acquire, without the need for systematic structural analysis, a knowledge of the English sentence so that they can get its grammar and its meaning right not only in exercises but in their own connected speech and writing.
The grammar dealt with is that of British English. Some might argue that, since this is not always the same as North American (including Canadian) grammar, I should draw attention to the differences. The fact that I have not done so is because I do not consider them to be important enough to justify complicating the text on their account. Most of these differences concern prepositions (such as the use of than instead of from after different) or verb use (for example do you have in the interrogative instead of have you with or without got). They are being continually moderated by the powerful influence upon the English language of the US media, so that Americanisms soon become known to the advanced learner and retain little, if any, of their mystery. It is as well, however, to be consistent in one's grammatical usage, and it is to this end that the book's grammar has remained on this side of the Atlantic.
9
1 Verb tenses
1A The past tense of certain verbs
1 What time did the sun rise? —>The sun rose just after
Just after five o'clock. ...
Dalian