GRAMMAR

Sentence word order

1. Affirmative and negative structure

• Subject + Verb + CD + to + CI + ADVBLS (MANNER/PLACE/TIME)

• Subject + Verb + CI + CD + ADVBLS (MANNER/PLACE/TIME)

2. Questions

• (WH-) + AUXILIARY VERB + SUBJECT + VERB + …?

When Cuándo
What Qué
Where Dónde
Why Porqué
Who Quién
How Cómo
How many Cuánto (contable)
How much Cuánto (incontable)

How often Con qué frecuencia

Question forms
Question forms Structure Example
Subject Interrogative Pronoun + Verb in the Who make the exercise?
Questions correspondant tense + Complements?
Object Questions Interrogative Pronoun + Auxiliary verb + Where did you go yesterday?
Subject + Verb + Complements ?
Question tags Auxiliary verb + Subject? You like reading books, don’t you?
You don’t like reading books, do
you?
Questions with Interrogative Pronoun + Auxiliary verb + What did you write about?
preposition Subject + Verb + Complements +
Preposition ?

Suffixes
• - FUL (CON) Ex: useful
• - LESS (SIN) Ex: useless

-ED expresses a passive meaning, that is, the person who accompanies this adjective feels or receives
the action. Ex: Bored

-ING expresses an active meaning, that is, the person who accompanies this adjective carries
out the action. Ex: Boring

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 • To form NOUNS from VERBS: + -sion/ -tion/ - ment/ -or/ -er
• To form NOUNS from ADJECTIVES: + -iness/ -ion/ -ness/ -th
• To form ADJECTIVES from VERBS: + -able/ -ive/ -ed/ -ing
• To form ADJECTIVES from NOUNS: + -ful/ - less/ -ous/ -ical
• To form NOUNS from NOUNS: + -hood/ -ship/ -ist

Adjectives order
Opinion + size + shape + age + colour + origin + material + NOUN

No plural: The cars are green

Before the noun: The green car

There + To Be
The expression ‘there’ followed by the verb ‘to be’ is used to express the impersonal Spanish structure
HAY. We will change the verb to be tense depending on the time we are talking. The same will happen
with the negative and interrogative forms.
Examples:
i. There is one table vs. There are 10 tables
ii. There was one table vs. There were 10 tables
iii. There will be one table v. There will be 10 tables
iv. There aren’t 10 table
v. Are there 10 tables? Were there 10 tables? Will there 10 tables?

The saxon genitive vs. The OF structure

Both structures are used to express possession. The main difference between these structures is that
the Saxon genitive is mainly employed when the owner is a person, whereas the of structure is
commonly used for objects and animals (we should take into account that depends on the relation of
affection with the animal).
Ex1: Elena’s table Ex2: The pages of the book

Common adverbs of quantity

Enough (Suficiente) - With adjectives (after it). Ex: Intelligent enough

- With nouns (before it). Ex: Enough money
Too much/Too many - Too much goes before uncountable nouns. Ex: Too much time
(Demasiado) - Too many goes before countable nouns Ex: Too many books

Lots of / plenty of (Muchos) They refer to large amounts. Ex: There are plenty of/lots of
books.
Few / A few (Pocos) - Few goes in sentences with negative meaning and with
countable nouns. Ex: They have got few friends.
- A few goes in sentences with positive meaning and with
countable nouns. Ex: They have got a few good friends.
Little / A little (pocos) - Little goes in sentences with negative meaning and with
uncountable nouns. Ex: Sam saved little money.
- A little goes in sentences with positive meaning and with
uncountable nouns. Ex: Sam saved a little money.

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Frequency adverbs

◦ Always/Never

◦ Nearly always/almost never or hardly ever

◦ Often / Sometimes

◦ Once a (week), twice a (week), three times a (week)…

◦ A couple of times a week

◦ Seldom/rarely/occasionally

◦ Usually/normally/everyday/ every (week)

One word More than one word

1. Before the verb 4. At the end of the sentence

2. After the verb to be 5. Exceptions: everyday

3. Exceptions: hardly ever

Ex1: I always listen to music. Ex1: I go to the cinema once a week.

Ex2: I am always happy. Ex2: I listen to music everyday.

Ex3: I hardly ever play the piano.

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Use of a / an / the / no article

Comparatives and Superlatives

1.- COMPARATIVE

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3.- RULES TO USE “-ER / -EST or MORE / MOST”

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Gerund and Infinitives

Gerund Infinitive
The gerund is the verbal form ending in-ingEx1: The infinitive is the verbal form preceded by
Dance (base form) -> Dancing to
Its negative is formed by placing not beforethe Ex1: Dance (base form) -> To dance
gerund. Its negative is formed by placing not beforethe
Ex2: They preferred not taking the bus. It is infinitive.
translated by the Spanish infinitive.Ex3: Ex2: They wanted not to take the bus.
Drinking -> beber It is translated by the Spanish Infinitive.
It is used: Ex3: To drink -> beber
1. As the subject of the sentence when we It is used:
speak of general actions or facts.Ex4: 1. After adjectives and adverbs.
Smoking is bad (Fumar es malo) Ex4: It is funny to dance (Es divertido
2. After preposition. bailar)
Ex5: I have the chance of meeting 2. After the following verbs:
new people. Want, wish, seem, promise, choose,
Ex6: We are interested in visiting refuse, learn, expect, teach, warn,
Paris. persuade, ask, need, prepare, used to,
3. After the following verbs and decide, agree, help, plan, hope, consider,
expressions. appear, tell, invite, advise, can’t afford,
Like, love, enjoy, prefer, dislike, hate, manage, offer, would like.
detest, deny, miss, suggest, mention,risk, 3. Exceptions: there are some cases such as
keep, can’t stand, can’t help, can’t stop, some verbs of perception (hear, feel,
don’t mind, it’s no use, it’snot worth, see), make let and modal
be/get used to, admit, verbs that are followed by a bare
avoid, finish, give up, practice and

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 can’t imagine. infinitive, that is to say, by andinfinitive
without to.
Ex5: Let me drive you home
Ex6: You can play the guitar
Ex7: I saw you cross the street.

Exceptions:

+ ing (gerund) To infinitive

Forget/Remember You forget/remember something You forget/remember that you
you did in the past. have to do something.
Go on You continue with an action. You change your activity.
Regret You are sorry about something You are sorry to say that
you did. something is true.
Stop You don’t do an action anymore. You interrupt an action and do
something else briefly.
Try You do an experiment to see if it You make an effort to do
works. something.

Relative Clauses Information

There are two types of relative clauses: Defining and Non-defining.
They both share the structure. The only thing is going to change is the relative pronoun.
Moreover, Non-defining clauses are written between commas, because they are adding
information to the main sentence, but it isn’t necessary to include it if you don’t want to.

Ex1: Felipe VI, who is the Spanish king, lives in Madrid Ex2:

The girl who is my neighbor helped me yesterday.Relative

Pronouns

Which Objects and animals Que The dog which is near the corner
Who people Quien/que The girl who is my friend
Whose Possession cuyo The boy whose name is Pablo
Where Place Donde The square where the monument is
When Time Cuando The day when I did the exam
That* Objects, animals and people Que The girl that is my friend
Exceptions:

*1 That is only used in Defining clauses

*2 Sometimes we can omit the relative pronoun:

a) Defining

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 b) Being which, who and that

c) Not being the subject of the subordinate clause.

Examples:

1. The Bible which is a book is old. X

2. The t-shirt which is red is from Portugal X

3. The t-shirt that I bought is red √

Conditional clauses
The conditional clauses are subordinated sentences dependable on another sentence which isthe main
one.

If + S + V, S + V

S + V + if + S + V

There are 4 types: Zero Conditional, First Conditional, Second Conditional and Third Conditional.
Moreover, some conditional clauses are mixed, but we are not going to study them this year.

Type 1 If + subject + present simple + , + subject + future simpleSubject +

future simple + if + subject + present simple
- This is used when we talk about probable conditions (Ex1),and
promises (Ex2) and warnings (Ex3) as well.
Ex1: If I study English, I will pass / I will pass if I study English
Translation: Si estudio Inglés, aprobaré.
Ex2: If you study, I will buy you a motorbike
Ex3: If you don’t study, you will be punished.

Type 2 If + subject + past simple + , + subject + Conditional simpleSubject +

Conditional simple + if + subject + past simple
- This type is used when we talk about conditions unlikely to happen(Ex1),
and to express advices (Ex2).
Ex1: If I won the lottery, I would travel to New York.
Translation: Si ganara la lotería, viajaría a Nueva York.
Ex2: If I were you, I would study English Philology.

!!! When we use the verb to be, we use were with all the subjects.
Type 3 If + subject + past perfect + , + subject + Conditional Perfect
Subject + Conditional perfect + if + subject + past perfect
- This type is used when we talk about past conditions which are
impossible to occur (Ex1)
Ex1: If Antonio had read the book, he would have passed it.
Translation: Si Antonio hubiera leído el libro, habría aprobado.
Zero If + subject + present simple + , + subject + present simpleSubject +
conditional present simple + if + subject + present simple
- It is used when we are talking about universal truths.
Ex1: If you heat water, it boilts
Translation: Si calientas agua, hierve.

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 • Other connectors: they can be employed in all the conditional types.
1) Unless (a menos que/ a no ser que / como no / si no) = if + vb in negEx1: If
you don’t study, you will fail

Ex2: Unless you study, you will fail

2) Providing that / As long as ( Solo sí )

Ex1: If you watch the film, you will like it.

Ex2: Providing that / As long as you watch the film, you will like it.

3) Whether (Tanto si … como si no …)

Ex1: Whether you like it or not, you will eat.

Wish clauses
Wish clauses are used to express a wish. All of them are translated in the same way, and theyfollow
the same structure.

Time Structure and Examples

1) Presentwish S + Wish + S + Past simple
Ex: I wish I were on holidays (Ojalá estuviera de vacaciones)

2) Past wish S + Wish + S + Past perfect

Ex: I wish I had been on holidays last weekend (Ojalá hubiera ido de
vacaciones el fin de semana pasado)
3) Futurewish S + Wish + S + Conditional simple
Ex: I wish I would be on holidays next week (Ojalá esté de vacaciones
la semana que viene)

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Passive Voice

The passive voice is used in formal communicative situations to emphasise the object, instead
of the subject as in active sentences. Depending on the sentence elements, we distinguish three
different types, but all of them change the verb in the same way.

Verb to be in the same tense of the active + past participle of the main verb (-ed/3rd column).
Examples:

Dance: is danced
Will play : will be played Is
buying: is being bought
Was painting: was being painted
Will have broken : will have been broken
Would drink: would be drunk
Had studied: has been studied *Only transitive verbs
can be changed into passive voice.

If the subject is a personal pronoun we have to change it into an object pronoun.

Subject Object
I Me
You You
He / She / It Him / Her / It
We Us
You You
They Them

Type 1 Active: S + V + DO + (ADVBL)

Passive: DO + V IN PASSIVE + (ADVBL) + BY S
Ex1: I bought a book _ A book was bought (by me)
Type 2 Active: S + V + DO + to IO (ADVBL) / S + V + IO + DO + (ADVBL)
Passive: DO + V IN PASSIVE + to IO + (ADVBL) + BY S / IO + V IN PASSIVE + DO +
(ADVBL) + BY S
Ex1: I bought a dress to Mary / I bought Mary a dress
A dress was bought to Mary / Mary was bought a dress
Type 3 Active: S + V + That Clause (DO)
Passive1: It + V in passive + that clause + (ADVBL) + By S
Passive2: S (that clause) + V in passive + V of the that clause in to infinitive +
(ADVBL) + By S1
Ex1: I think that passive is very easy
1) It is thought that passive is very easy
2) Passive is thought to be very easy

1 We are not going to write/say it if the subject is a personal pronoun (he/she…); or an indefinite
pronoun such as someone, no one, anybody…

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HAVE / GET SOMETHING DONE

This structure is employed for expressing actions that people have made for us.
Person that receives the action + have or get in the correspondent tense + thing used in the
action (DO) + verb in -ed or 3rd column
Ex: I had my hair cut yesterday (me corté el pelo ayer)

Reported Speech

The main difference between the direct and the reported speech is that, when we talk about
the direct speech we are thinking about the textual words someone has said, whereas, in the
reported speech we are saying something that another person has said or you said in another
moment.

Graphically, in the direct speech we are going to use: (:‘…’)

Eva said: ‘I am happy’ Eva said that she was happy

1. CHANGES

We have to bear in mind certain changes we are going to apply when we use the reported speech:

a) Pronouns (personal and possessive)

Personal I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they

Possessive my, your, his, her, its, our, your, their

Ex. Natalia said: ‘I have got my new car’. Natalia said that she had got her new car.
b) Demonstratives

This (este/a) That

These (estos/as) Those
That (aquel/la) No change
Those (aquellos/as) No change

c) Time and Place expressions

Time

Present Now Then

Today That day
Past Yesterday The previous day/ the day before
The day before yesterday Two previous days/ two days before
Last week The previous week/ the week before
A year ago The previous year/ the year before
Future Tomorrow The following day/ the day after 11
Next week The following week/ the week after
 The day after tomorrow In two days’ time
Place Here There
There There

a) Verb tenses

Present Simple Past Simple

Past Simple Past Perfect
Present Continuous Past Continuous
Past Continuous Past Perfect Continuous
Present Perfect Past Perfect
Past Perfect Past Perfect
Future Simple Conditional Simple
Future Continuous Conditional Continuous
Future Perfect Conditional Perfect

Ex: Ana said: ‘I was in the car’. Ana said that she had been in the car.

b) Modal verbs

Can Could
Shall Should
May Might
Must/have to Had to
Should No change
Could No change
Might No change
Had to No change

2. Structures

a) Statements

They are going to be introduced by a verb such as say or tell2, and we have to replace :’…’ by
that.

the sky was blue

Ex: Eva said: ‘The sky is blue’ Eva said that
b) Questions Yes/No

questions:

2 Tell is followed obligatorily by the person who receives the info.

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They are going to be introduced by a verb such as ask, and we have to replace:’…’ by if. We shouldn’t
forget we have to write the information as a statement when we do the change. We will use whether if
the question ends in or not.

Ex: ‘Do you like pizza?’, Antonio asked to Ana Antonio asked if Ana liked pizza
Wh- questions

They are going to be introduced by a verb such as ask, wonder, inquire, want to know…, and we have to
replace:’…’ by the wh- interrogative pronoun.

Ex: Mary asked: ‘Where do you live now?’ Mary asked where I lived then.
c) Orders/commands/offers

We are not going to follow the 4 changes as we don’t have to change subjects or the verb tenses. We
are going to use a to-infinitive verb. We need to include in the reported speech the persons towards the
order is said.

Ex: The teacher ordered: ‘ Close the door now’ The teacher ordered Ana to close the door then.
d) Suggestions

Again, we don’t need to change subjects or verb tenses as we are going to use the gerund.

Ex: Mary suggested: ‘Let’s go to the cinema tomorrow’ Mary suggested going to the
cinema the following day.

What time is it? Prepositions

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Dates

We always use ordinal numbers to express dates:

1st First 7th Seventh 20th Twentieth

2nd Second 8th Eighth 21st Twenty First

3rd Third 9th Ninth 22nd Twenty second

4th Fourth 10th Tenth 23rd Twenty third

5th Fifth … 24th Twenty fourth

6th Sixth …

Written Form: 20th September Spoken

Form: The 20th of September

Years: They are divided into two parts: 1992 (nineteen – ninety-two)

Exception: 2000 (two thousands)

Adjectives + Preposition

Nice / kind / stupid / intelligent / clever / sensible / (im)polite / rude OF someone (to do
something)

- Ex: It was very nice of you to help me

Nice / kind / good / (im)polite / rude / (un)pleasant / (un)friendly / cruel TO someone

- Ex: She has always been very nice to me

- Ex: Why are you so angry about the exam?

- Ex: They were furious with me for doing the exam

- Ex: I was pleased with the present you gaveme

Bored / fed up WITH something

- Ex: I am bored with doing the same everyday Surprised /

shocked / amazed / astonished AT/BY something

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 - Ex: Everybody was surprised at/by the news

Excited / worried / upset ABOUT something

- Ex: Are you excited about going on holidays?

- Ex: Are you afraid of dogs?

- Ex: I am not ashamed of my parents

- Ex: I am very good at Maths / Honey is good forcold

Married TO someone

- Ex: Linda is married to Peter

- Ex: I am sorry about the noise

Be/Feel sorry FOR someone

- Ex: I feel sorry for George

Famous/ Infamous FOR something

- Ex: Florence is famous for its monuments

Responsible FOR something

- Ex: John is responsible for the

money Interested IN something

- Ex: Are you interested in Maths?

- Ex: I am fond of music / I am keen on musicFull

OF something

- Ex: The letter was full of mistakes

Similar / Different TO something

- Ex: Spain is similar to

Italy Crowded WITH (people)

- Ex: The school was crowded with students

Aware OF something / someone

- Ex: You should be aware of the

dog Typical OF something

- Ex: Croissant are typical of French people

Adequate FOR something / someone

- Ex: A coat is adequate for cold

- Ex: I am certain about passing the exam

Optimistic / pessimistic ABOUT something

 - Ex: The students are pessimistic about the exam

Hopeless / Hopeful / useful / useless AT something

- Ex: Old people are useless at computers

- Ex: I am very proud of my sister

Allergic TO something

- Ex: Paul is allergic to milk

Friendly TO someone

- Ex: Teachers are friendly to their students

Verbs + Prepositions

Accuse (someone) OF (something)

Admire (someone) FOR (something)

Agree ON something Vs. Agree WITH someone

Apologize TO (something) FOR (something)

Apply FOR (something)

Argue WITH (someone) ABOUT (something)

Arrive AT (a building, room, site, event…) Vs. Arrive IN (a city, a country…)

Ask (someone) ABOUT (someone/something) Vs. Ask (someone) FOR (something)

Believe IN (something)

Belong TO (someone)

Blame (someone) FOR (something)

Borrow (something) FROM (someone) Vs. Lend (something) To (someone)

Care ABOUT (someone/something)

Comment ON (something)

Compare (something) TO (something)

Complain TO (someone) ABOUT (something)

Concentrate ON (something)

Consist OF (something)

Count ON (someone) TO (do something)

Decide ON (something)

Depend ON (someone/something)

Dream ABOUT (someone/something)

Escape FROM (someone/something)

Excuse (someone) FROM (something)

Forgive (someone) FOR (something)

Get rid OF (something)

Hide (something) FROM (someone)

Insist ON (something)

Introduce (someone) TO (someone)

Invite (someone) TO (something)

Object TO (something)

Participate IN (something)

Pay FOR (something)

Prefer (something) TO (something)

Prevent (someone) FROM (something)

Prohibit (someone) FROM (something)

Recover FROM (something)

Rely ON (someone/something)

Remind (someone) OF (something)

Search FOR (something)

Smile AT (someone)

Speak TO (someone) ABOUT (something)

Stop (someone) FROM (something)

Succeed IN (something)

Suffer FROM (something)

Take care OF (someone/something

Talk TO (someone) ABOUT (something)

Thank (someone) FOR (something)

Travel TO (somewhere)

Wait FOR (someone/something)

Work FOR (someone/something)

Relieve (someone) OF (something)