English grammar

We built up an English grammar by picking up sentences from articles published on the Web in 2000 (those without any indication are from CNN)

page published on Memoriale during the summer of 2000 - Last updated on February 27, 2005

A R T I C L E S

=Accessory words qualifying nouns in their number

A powerful earthquake struck Taiwan yesterday while people were at work, they said

President Bill Clinton is departing Camp David and the Middle East peace talks without an agreement

definite article (here it means 'these')

Barak is getting ready to leave the Camp David summit without a peace deal

indefinite article (here it means 'any')

Hurricane Alberto strengthening slightly in the Atlantic

the article is used with seas and oceans

Researchers in Copenhagen, Denmark, induced mild hypothermia in 17 patients

the article is not used because of an unspecified number

Mori was expected to urge India to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty

generally, no article is required with countries, continents, departments, towns, streets

(with some exceptions like the People's Republic of China; the Netherlands; the United Arab Emirates...)

N O U N S

=Words used as name of persons, animals, places or things

A powerful earthquake struck Taiwan yesterday while people were at work, they said

Government study shows HIV diagnosis changes sexual behavior

acronym

Human Immunodeficiency Virus

The weakness of a cabinet that now consists of only 11 members handling 23 portfolios

Italian loan

Lieutenant of alleged mobster Bulger admits five murders

French loan

Lebanese guerrillas block U.N. unit's deployment

Spanish loan

Man uses casino winnings to enliven Nevada ghost town

word used as plural, mostly

Comedian Bob Hope's condition upgraded from critical to stable

the genitive case of nouns (1)

Narco-traffickers' grip on his nation

the genitive case of nouns (2)

At least 160 bodies recovered from avalanche of garbage dump in Philippines

plural of nouns ending in y

2 Greyhound drivers abandon buses, passengers at Nebraska truck stop

plural of nouns ending in 's'

When wives overwork, husbands' health declines

plural of 12 nouns ending in 'f' or 'fe' (ves):

calf, half, knife, leaf, life, loaf, self, sheaf, self, thief, wife, wolf

Spanish women outraged by book that gives advice on beatings

noun considered as uncountable and without plural, but the author thinks it is time to reform the old rule

Turkish police confiscate Picasso painting

plural nouns without a singular form (nouns like cattle, youth and people)

All roads lead to Philadelphia for candidates, delegates, as convention kick-off nears

 compound noun from football

Clubfixit: Diary of a startup

a new word from a verb with prep.

Exchange officials immediately suspended trading (South China Morning Post)

gerund forming the noun of professions, activities (e.g. banking, financing, and others)

A fellow who used to eat a lot of chicken at home (International Herald Tribune)

expression having function of indefinite number in affirmative sentences

The public largely opposes capital punishment

here it means 'the members of the community', 'people'

Mrs. Clinton evoked nostalgia as she recalled the changes

abbreviation of mistress

title of married woman, usually without higher title

He's also had a gym installed in Leo's hotel room (The Mirror)

abbreviation of gymnasium (sometimes it can be gymnastics too)

A D J E C T I V E S

=Words indicating an attribute, used to describe nouns

A powerful earthquake struck Taiwan yesterday while people were at work, they said

Rare copy of Declaration of Independence goes on auction block

adjective, having an ordinary function

With the then Pope's blessing joining a candelight protest

adjective (=existing at that time)

Solar-powered car makes cross-Canada trip

compound adjective

U.S. experiences hottest spring in its history

usual superlative for short adjectives

What is your reaction to Stephen King's latest serial online novel?

superlative ('new' or 'the most recent')

U.S. government asks refiners to explain higher gas prices

usual comparative for short adjectives

Opposition rally in Zimbabwe much larger than president's

usual comparative, with adj. ending in er + than

More equipment, crews called in to fight Colorado wildfires

comparative with uncountable or plural nouns

Without surgery, both sisters would have died within a few months (The Daily Express)

adjective (=the two)

Supreme Court handles tough issues on last day of its term

possessive adjective (=of it)

Author Linda Greenlaw chats about her experiences in 'The Perfect Storm'

possessive adjective (f)

Stephen King's newest book is available only on his Web site

possessive adjective (m)

Lowering the body's temperature by even 1 degree within a few hours

indefinite adjective

Those tiny bones on the piece without much meat constitute ribs (International Herald Tribune)

adjective for indefinite quantity, used especially in negative and interrogative sentences (but the author thinks they've never had a precise rule)

No accord in Burundi peace talks

indefinite adjective (=not any)

The taco replacement has begun in several restaurants (AbcNews)

indefinite pronoun (=more than two but not many)

Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung wasted little time Tuesday

indefinite adjective, used with singular uncountable nouns

Some 100 armed men, believed to be Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels...

'some' with a number, it means 'about'

Which aspect of NASA's current program do you find most exciting?

interrogative adjective referring to a choice, from a definite set of alternatives

A vote that showed an opposition candidate likely to deal the ruling Colorado Party...

adjective, used mostly with infinitive construction

California hospital workers head back to work after one-day strike

a number becoming a new adjective, when combined with nouns

it's a very interesting peculiarity belonging to the English language

But bones have irregular shapes (New Scientist)

adjectives built by prefix (in, il, im, ir)

An unpublicised move (The Hindu)

prefix before adjectives or derivative nouns in a negative sense

An auto-erotic game which went wrong (The Scotsman)

prefix from Greek 'autos' (=by oneself or itself)

Because director Boaz Yakin (Fresh) was a self-confessed know-nothing about the sport (Usa Today)

prefix expressing reflexive action and forming adjectives

Due to be executed by lethal injection at 9.00 p.m.

adjective (=under engagement to...)

Giant arches, bridges and walls made of artificial bone could be easier (New Scientist)

the same word can be an adjective or a noun

The baby-faced star has reached Brandoesque proportions (The Mirror)

adjective built on a famous name

N U M B E R S

Judge Judy takes your calls on Larry King Live, 9 p.m.

time after noon (post meridiem), while before noon is a.m. (ante meridiem)

Dowsing thrives into 21st Century

ordinal numbers (ending with the last 2 letters)

Her two daughters Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret

kings and queens, followed by ordinal numbers

World Bank pledges $500 million for AIDS fight in Africa

never plurals, when referred to definite numbers

Hundreds attend memorial service in Atlanta for U.S. Sen. Paul Coverdell

plural forms, when the number is indefinite

An estimated 100,000 people attended the ceremony to honour Pius IX

commas are used before thousands

One third of all the cancers diagnosed were skin cancer (Irish Independent)

fraction, expressed by ordinal number

P R O N O U N S

=words used instead of nouns to indicate persons or things

A powerful earthquake struck Taiwan yesterday while people were at work, they said

Mouse that feels: high-tech novelty or start of a revolution?

relative pronoun

Albright: What I'm doing on my world tour

relative pronoun (=the thing or the things that...)

Barnabei, 33, who is half-American and half-Italian

relative pronoun as a subject (=person that)

Wisnovsky, whom Barnabei had been dating

objective case of who

Loretta Young, whose acting career extended from silent movies to television...

relative possessive (=of whom), here as a subject

All the band members, including myself... (The Hindustan Times)

pronoun, reflexive form of me

Everyone is running out of the building,'' one witness said (South China Morning Post)

pronoun for 'every person'

P R E P O S I T I O N S

=words usually preceding nouns and having relation to another word

A powerful earthquake struck Taiwan yesterday while people were at work, they said

Unlike its previous flirts with the Olympic city (The Daily Telegraph, Australia)

preposition (=differently from)

Because of the organization's ban on homosexuals

preposition, always placed before nouns and pronouns

New Zealand peacekeepers based in East Timor airlifted 54 people across the border (The Australian, 6.9)

preposition (=on or to the other side of)

U.S. tourist plans to visit Mir by 2001

preposition=not later than

Norway's royal palace in downtown Oslo is open for public tours for the first time since 1920

preposition indicating the starting point of an action

Whether the minister's body was among those recovered (The Independent)

preposition (=in the group of)

Eritrea, Ethiopia to sign peace deal on Sunday

at or during... before dates and days of the week (it can be dropped, particularly in conversation)

The real-life coach upon whom his character is based (Usa Today)

preposition (=on) used in formal English

Global struggle for women's rights spotlighted at New York meeting

preposition=positions or places where people gather or work

Man who shot pope pardoned in Italy

positions in large areas (regions, countries, cities)

An islet off the Aegean island of Paros (Electronic Herald)

preposition=at a short distance...

Poll: Bush holds slight lead over Gore

preposition=with superiority or preference to (an opposing side)

Families optimistic about Fiji hostages' release

on the subject of..., concerning...

To lure people from careers they have become bored with

the sentence ends with a preposition (=unlike other languages, English allows this construction)

C O N J U N C T I O N S

=words used to connect clauses or words

A powerful earthquake struck Taiwan yesterday while people were at work, they said

Egan takes charge as New York archbishop

conjunction for somebody's job, function or social role

With dignity, financially as well as emotionally

conjunction connecting at the same level (=not only, in addition to)

Trapped in the burning UNHCR office in Atambua while a fifth victim was set on fire (The Australian, 6.9)

conjunction of time (=during the time that)

A special counsel to investigate whether Gore misled prosecutors

conjunction introducing a doubt, or a possibility

As the anger grew, a crew from a local television station was ordered to leave the meeting

=for the reason that, seeing that (it usually begins the sentence)

Although there may have been other instances of people being possessed (The Daily Telegraph, 11.9)

conjunction, usually placed at the beginning

Shows such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (the Times)

clause of explanation with conjunctive function (=for example)

A D V E R B S

=words indicating manner or degree, used to modify verbs or adjectives

A powerful earthquake struck Taiwan yesterday while people were at work, they said

Surprisingly, a recent recruitment campaign by the chancellor of the city's school

adverb used mostly at the beginning of the sentence, just to emphasize

Sometimes it was about love and longing and guitars and drugs (The Hindustan Times)

adverb of time (=at some times)

A ruling by three judges that the operation to separate the pair must go ahead (The Daily Express)

adverb of time or space, frequently used with verbs of movement

"I am a bit emotional now, it is all a bit much, you get so worked up about it" (The Daily Telegraph, Au)

adverb, used in colloquial English (=somewhat, a little)

You get the same sentiment from voters everywhere (Sydney Morning Herald)

adverb (=in every place)

Just as Henry M. Jackson was once known as the Senator from Boeing (New York Times)

adverb of time (=in the past)

J.D. Salinger revealed again in daughter's tell-all memoir

adverb (=another time)

They have already designed a number of structures (New Scientist)

adverb (=before the time in question)

But rather points him out for imitation and for veneration for his virtue

adverb (=by preference)

At least 62 bodies have been recovered (Electronic Herald)

adverb (=not less than)

Wildfire at Washington state nuclear site grows rapidly

adverb of manner

“This is definitely a precautionary measure” (AbcNews)

adverb, used to strengthen (=certainly, absolutely) especially in American English

Mubarak, Arafat and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Al-Sharaa also met in Egypt

adverb, used in formal English (never in end-position)

Pentagon still under assault from hackers

adverb (=now, as before), usually between subject and verb

It still functions almost exactly as intended (The Times)

adverb of quantity or measure in quality

"I haven't decided yet, but I will shortly..." Gore said Sunday

adverb, placed at the end of the sentence

Larger markets, not so plentiful as the small stores, did not have chicken either (Herald Tribune)

adverb or conjunction, in negative or interrogative sentences (=any more than)

He should have cut short his vacation and accepted other countries' help sooner

adverb 'soon', with a comparative form in 'er'

Rabbis who deal with responsa don't have it that easy (The Jerusalem Post)

adverb (=to such a degree, so)

The divide-and-rule tactics which have served it so well to date (Sydney Morning Herald)

adverb of time (=until now)

...Where he was eating none at all (International Herald Tribune)

adverbial locution in negative sentences

V E R B S

=words used to indicate action, state or occurrence

A powerful earthquake struck Taiwan yesterday while people were at work, they said

The chemical reaction which destroys ozone is helped by their weather conditions (The Guardian)

transitive action

Colombian government and rebels exchange peace proposals

  simple present tense (indefinite action, when it is expressed like that)

Former Starr spokesman faces contempt trial Thursday

simple present tense

Explore the ways technology is changing parts of the developing world

present continuous tense (to be+doing, work in progress)

How far from home are you planning to travel for the Labor Day weekend?

present continuous tense for the future

Report: Law to help people with disabilities is not being enforced

present progressive, in passive forms (here it is negative)

Video on demand - How tobacco settlement money is being spent

present progressive, in passive forms (here it is affirmative)

Gore: "Together, we are going to take this ticket from Nashville today to Los Angeles"

the 'be-going-to' form

Peru - 'The dictatorship will fall!' chanted demonstrators at one point

will - future prediction is mixed with personal desire

So, lasers can destroy missiles. But will they find them in time?

will-form future (conditions, simple events, intentions)

Court: Parents in repressed memory case can't sue

contraction (auxil. verb 'can' + 'not')

Hillary's got a ticket to ride

contraction, frequent in informal English (she has got)

Mexico's defeated ruling party says it won't participate in new government

contraction (from future will + 'not')

Documentary: Computer hacker endangered NASA astronauts

simple past tense in regular verbs

Australian charged with murder after hostel fire

past participle (frequently used like that in headlines)

Algeria - The president's office announced that Bouteflika had decided to pardon two prisoners

past perfect tense (had + past participle)

A UN official called on African nations to realize how the disease has devastated the continent

present perfect tense

Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who has been living in the United States for two months

present perfect continuous tense (to be+pres. participle)

Join the chat!

imperative

Airliner crashes in east-central China, killing at least 42

gerund, contemporary action

ABC to adopt British game show 'The People Versus'

infinitive referring to the future, frequent in newspapers (from the 'be+infinitive' form)

Why 'rigged' missile test may help Clinton

the possibility (that it will happen), now and in the future

Astronomers say new planet might hold clues about Earth

used as past tense of may, frequent in reported speech

Scientists plot map of asteroids that could threaten Earth

generic possibility or ability to do something now or later

One could converse quite congenially with him

past of 'can' (action or possibility in the past)

Should Yasser Arafat declare an independent Palestinian state next month?

duty, obligation or advice

The myriad of scheduled convention speakers must concentrate on who Al Gore is

modal auxiliary verb with no tense, followed by infinitive, showing obligation, deduction, advisability or likelihood

Airline passenger tries to break into cockpit, later dies of heart attack

'try' + infinitve (=attempt to do, with effort)

They are expected to go on damaging the ozone layer for decades (The Guardian)

go on + ing= continue

The author has just come off a long acid high (Washington Post)

typical verb with preposition

Disorganised crewmen failed to help terrified passengers (Electronic Herald)

verb + infinitive

Yugoslavia still rebuilding a year after NATO bombing

from gerund, the 'ing form' as a complement of a sentence

S Y N T A X

=Analysis of the grammatical arrangement of words

A powerful earthquake struck Taiwan yesterday while people were at work, they said

EU approves humanitarian aid for Yugoslavia

a classic sentence

... not that South Koreans do not eat chicken. They do (International Herald Tribune)

auxiliary verb avoids repeating the verb already used

How do news editors decide what to cover?

normal interrogative sentence (aux. do - subject - verb)

Even if the operation is a success... (The Daily Express)

concessive clause

The 345ft, 4407-ton ferry sank 45 minutes after becoming impaled (Electronic Herald)

conjunction with gerund

Judge orders black House to produce e-mails

verb + object +infinitive (verbs like allow, request, teach)

Was Texas right to execute a convicted killer said to be mentally retarded?

infinitive structure with 'say' (it is possible only in passive forms)

Simpson denies taking polygraph, plans Internet chat

-ing form after verbs like consider, deny, imagine, avoid

Lebanese officials said Sunday they would not agree to a deal hammered out by the U.N.

action announced for the future, in reported speech with past tenses

Scientists have found what they say is the first direct evidence of cannibalism (New York Times)

subordinate clause as object

Recording industry expected today to fight Napster stay request

one of the milestones in English, the subject with a passive construction

Was Christ a 'communist'? Castro thinks so

the idea expressed is resumed this way, after verbs like 'hope', 'believe', 'guess'

G8 leaders pledge to help poor countries - They... prompted calls for less talk and more action

effective contrast between two concepts

Bradley: 'Today, I want to make it clear that I endorse Al Gore for president of the United States'

the object has to be anticipated even though it is going to be expressed in a relative clause

(not easy to understand and almost illogical out of English, other languages don't think so)

The Pope has appealed for the sentence not to be carried out

 construction giving an infinitive to the object (impossible in most languages)

A fellow who used to eat a lot of chicken at home (International Herald Tribune)

structure 'used to + infinitive', allowed only in the past

He has been in custody since his arrest on December 10

typical verbal structure n.1 with actions during x time

They have freed five of the 12 international hostages they have held for more than three months

typical verbal structure n.2 with actions during x time

***

To see local girl and marathon swimming champion Maroney light the cauldron (The Daily Telegraph, Au)

word from a Greek city

Found in a supermarket brand pulled from stores this week (AbcNews)

Old English word ('burn' was a cognate)

The leadership of an informal caucus of democracies (The Hindu)

American word (some reported about Algonquin origins)

Before I go into the nitty-gritty of my failure (The Hindustan Times)

word of uncertain origins

Bridges could be easier to design (New Scientist)

the same word is used for noun and verb

(To) rev up the economy and strengthen the justice system

verb used in informal style

We are dealing with universal values: to be merciful, to be tolerant, to love the neighbor

word having different spelling in GB (our)

As he runs for a fourth Senate term this fall... (New York Times)

word different in British English ('autumn')

Yates’ death marks the final chapter in a tragic life (The Scotsman)

the sentence follows a narrative style just to describe the story in a literary way

How do you balance the pressures between work and family?

 a typical sentence belonging to the contemporary world

Russian premier optimistic on income-tax bill

 verbs can be dropped in headlines

Following her split with Geldof (The Scotsman)

word coming from nautical environment, having great development today

Washington Monument reopens after $10 million facelift

example of successful word used with figurative sense too

Is teaching a 'calling'?

natural linguistic transformation from a verb into a noun

The most telling of the evidence (New York Times)

linguistic transformation from a verb into an adjective

This page was first published in July 2000