ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Prof. Michaela L. Squiccimarro

English Grammar Compendium

Present simple
It’s the base form of the verb but with the 3rd person singular (she/he/it) we add tan -s.
We use the present simple to:
- Talk about something that is true in the present. Ex: I’m 19 years old;
- Something that happens regularly in the present. Ex: I play football every Monday.
- Something that is always true. Es: The Earth goes round the sun.
Negative form: do/does not (or don’t/doesn’t) + base form of the verb. Ex: I don’t like football. She
doesn’t live in London now.
Questions: use do/does + base form of the verb. Ex: Where do you live? Does he play the piano?

Present continuous
It’s made from the present tense of the verb “be” and the -ing form of a verb. Ex: He is talking.
We use the present continuous to:
- Talk about activities at the moment of speaking. Ex: Right now, I’m watching TV.

NOTE THAT generally, want, like, belong, know, suppose, remember, need, love, see, realise,
mean, forget, prefer, hate, hear, believe, understand, seem, have (ownership), think (believing) use
the present simple instead.

Present perfect simple

It’s used to describe a fact that has been true from sometime in the past and continues to be true up
through the present.
Have/has + past participle
Ex: I’ve lost my key (I haven’t got it now); Jim has gone to Canada (He’s in Canada now).

NOTE THAT “yet”, “this morning/evening/week/term”, “today” are used with the present perfect
simple because the time frame is still ongoing.

Present perfect continuous

It’s used to describe an action that has already begun to happen sometime in the past and continues
to happen up through the present.
Have/has + been + -ing form
Examples:
I haven’t been feeling very well recently.
You’re out of breath. Have you been running?
It has been raining for two hours (It’s still raining)
How long have you been running?
She has been playing tennis since she was eight. (She still plays tennis)

Use the present perfect continuous with: how long, for, since.
Examples:
How long have you been learning English?
They’ve been waiting for over an hour.
I’ve been watching TV since 2 o’ clock.
Have you been working hard today?

1
 ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Prof. Michaela L. Squiccimarro

Past simple
With most verbs, the past tense is formed by adding –ed. But there are a lot of irregular past tense
forms in English (list of Irregular verbs here:
https://www.englishpage.com/irregularverbs/irregularverbs.html
We use the past tense to talk about:
- Something that happened once in the past (I met my wife in 1983.)
- Something that happened several times in the past (When I was a boy, I walked a mile to
school every day.)
- Something that was true for some time in the past (I lived abroad for ten years.)
Negative form: use did not (or didn’t) + base form of the verb. (They didn't go to Spain this year)
Question: use did with the infinitive. (Did she play tennis when she was younger?)

Past continuous
Was/were + -ing form
We use the past continuous for something which happened before and after another action (The
children were doing their homework when I got home) OR to show that something continued for
some time (My head was aching).
Negative form: use were/were not (or wasn’t/ weren’t) + -ing form.
Question: What were you doing when the rain started? I was having a shower.

Past perfect simple & continuous

Simple: it’s used to talk about actions that were completed before some point in the past. The past
perfect simple is for talking about something that happened before something else.
Structure: had + past participle.
Ex: When I got home, I found that someone had broken into my flat and had stolen my fur coat.
Continuous: The past perfect continuous tense shows that an action that started in the past
continued up until another time in the past.
Structure: had been + -ing form.
Ex: The football match had stopped. They had been playing for half an hour when there was a
terrible storm.

Future forms
When we know about the future, we normally use the present tense.
Present simple: we use the present simple for something scheduled. Ex: We have a lesson next
Monday; The train arrives at 6.30 in the morning; The holidays start next week.
Present continuous: we can use the present continuous for plans or arrangements. Ex: I'm playing
football tomorrow; They are coming to see us tomorrow; We're having a party at Christmas.
Be going to + Infinitive: We use “be going to” to talk about plans or intentions OR to make
predictions based on evidence we can see. Ex: I'm going to drive to work today; They are going to
move to Manchester;Be careful! You are going to fall. (= I can see that you might fall.); Look at
those black clouds. I think it's going to rain. (= I can see that it will rain.)
Will + Infinitive: use this form to express beliefs about the future, OR to mean want to or be willing
to, OR to make offers and promises. Ex: It will be a nice day tomorrow; I think Brazil will win the
World Cup; I'm sure you will enjoy the film.

Future perfect
Will have + past participle
We use the future perfect to say “how long”, for an action that starts before and continues up to
another action or time in the future. Usually, we need “for”. We use the future perfect with a future
time word, (and often with 'by') to talk about an action that will finish before a certain time in the
2
 ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Prof. Michaela L. Squiccimarro
future, but we don't know exactly when. Ex: When we get married, I'll have known Robert for four
years; At 4 o'clock, I'll have been in this office for 24 hours; By 10 o'clock, I will have finished my
homework. (= I will finish my homework some time before 10, but we don't know exactly when.); By
the time I'm sixty, I will have retired. (= I will retire sometime before I'm sixty. Maybe when I'm
fifty-nine, maybe when I'm fifty-two.)

Future continuous
Will be + -ing form
We use the future continuous (or progressive) for something happening before and after a specific
time in the future. Ex: I'll be working at eight o'clock. Can you come later?; They'll be waiting for
you when you arrive.

Conditionals (“if clauses”)

They describe the result of something that might happen (in the present or future) or might have
happened but didn't (in the past).
- Zero (IF + present simple → present simple): General truths and general habits. Ex: If I heat
the water it boils.
- First (IF + present simple → WILL + infinitive): Possible or likely things in the future. Ex:
If it rains I will bring the umbrella.
- Second (IF + past simple → WOULD + infinitive): Impossible things in the present/
unlikely things in the future”. Ex: If I won the lottery, I would buy a castle in Scotland.
- Third (IF + past perfect simple → WOULD + present perfect simple): Things that didn’t
happen in the past and their imaginary results. Ex: If you had studied, you would have
passed the English exam.

Both/either/neither
- Both … and: = not only X but also Y. Can be used as a pronoun to refer to two things that
we have already mentioned. Ex: Both restaurants are very good. // Both Anna and Maria
like pizza.
- Either … or: Either = any one of the two = this one or the other one. Ex: Either Anna or
Maria will go to the party tonight.
- Neither … nor: Neither = not one and not the other. Ex: Neither Anna nor Maria will go to
the party tonight. BUT Both Anna and Maria won’t go to the party tonight.

Quantifiers
INCREASE (0% to 100%)
With plural countable nouns:
many more most
With uncountable nouns:
much more most

DECREASE (100% to 0%)

With plural countable nouns:
few fewer fewest
With uncountable nouns:
little less least

3
 ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Prof. Michaela L. Squiccimarro
Ex: There are many people in Poland, more in India, but the most people live in China.
· Much time and money is spent on education, more on health services but the most is spent on
national defence.
· Few rivers in Europe aren’t polluted.
· Fewer people die young now than in the nineteenth century.
· The country with the fewest people per square kilometre must be Australia.
· Scientists have little hope of finding a complete cure for cancer before 2010.
· She had less time to study than I did but had better results.
· Give that dog the least opportunity and it will bite you.

With Uncountable Nouns With Both With Countable Nouns

How much? How much? or How many? How many?
a little no/none a few
a bit (of) not any a number (of)
some (any) several
a great deal of a lot of a large number of
a large amount of plenty of a great number of
a large quantity of lots of a majority of

Examples:
- How much money have you got?
- How many cigarettes have you smoked?
- There’s not much sugar in the cupboard.
- There weren’t many people at the party.
- There were too many people at the party.
- It’s a problem when there are so many people.
- There’s not so much work to do this week.
- I’ve got a lot of work this week.
- There were a lot of people at the concert.