English grammar concise and simple. English grammar by levels

Hello friends. Grammar in English with numerous examples to help you understand it better. All grammar rules are presented in a very understandable language. Both beginners to learn English and those who continue will find a lot for themselves here. useful information. English grammar will become much easier for you.

English grammar. Grammar Reference

Verbs and tenses

As well as:

You need to know these rules!

So, dear readers, now you will get acquainted with the basic rules of English from different sections of the language. They concern grammar, speech, syntax and much more.

Rule #1

After modal verbs particle to not used. We talk:

Imust learn Englishmodalverbs. - I have to learn English modal verbs.
You should listen to your parents. - You should listen to your parents.
May I take yournotebooktillSunday? - Can I borrow your laptop until Sunday?

Rule #2

You can not use certain / not definite article with pronoun:

I love my mother. - II loveminemom.
Where is your friend now? - Wherenowis yoursfriend?
Yesterday I met Tom and his wife. - Yesterday I met Tom and his wife.

Rule #3

Adverbs of the English language (to the question "how?") are formed according to the scheme: adjective + ending ly:

perfect - perfect ly- great, great, great
Quick - quick ly- fast, agile
Rapid-rapid ly- fast
Quiet-quiet ly- quiet
nice - nice ly- nicely
Easy - easy ly- easily
Beautiful - beautiful ly- nice

Rule #4

Use presentSimple, after unions if,assoonas,before,when,till,until,after,incase in sentences of time and conditions relating to the future:

When I finish school, I will go to my grandparents in the countryside. - WhenIfinishschool, II will gotominegrandfatherAndgrandmotherinvillage.
After you study your family tree, you will find out where you descend from. - AfterTogo, howyoustudygenealogicaltreeyourfamilies, youfind out, fromwhomyougoing on.
Your elder brother will certainly help you if you ask- Is yoursolderbrothernecessarilywill helpyou, ifyouhisask.

Rule #5

The word order in an English sentence is:

Subject + predicate + direct object + indirect object + circumstance

Subject + predicate + direct object + indirect object + adverbal modifier

Isentyoualetterlastweek. - I sent you a letter last week.
I saw Mike in the club. - IsawT-shirtinclub.
It was sunny yesterday. - YesterdayIt wassunny.

In a Russian sentence, liberties are allowed, and there is no certain word order in it, everything depends on the emotion invested in it. In the English sentence, everything is clear and strict.

Rule #6

Phrasal verbs (verb + preposition) of the English language have their own separate meaning and their own translation. For example:

To look- look; to look for- search

To put- put, put; to put on- put on

Rule #7

The most general rule for the definite and indefinite articles of the English language: the indefinite article is placed where nothing is known about the subject; The definite article is used when something is known about a subject.

I see a The girl walking down the street is very beautiful. - Iseegirl. The girl walking down the street is very beautiful.

Rule #8

Ending — ed characteristic of the past tenses of regular verbs only. Irregular verbs have their own form for each past tense. For example:

look-looked BUT! Bring-brought-brought

Rule #9

There are 4 types of questions in English:

We go to the theater every Saturday. - Wewe gointheatreeverySaturday.

General(general): Do we go to the theater every Saturday? -Wewe gointheatreeverySaturday?
Special(special): Where do we go every Saturday? -Wherewewe goeverySaturday?
Alternative(alternative): Do we go to the theater every Saturday or every Sunday? -Wewe gointheatreeverySaturdayoreachSunday?
Disjunctive(separating): We go to the theater every Saturday, don't we? -Wewe gointheatreeverySaturday, notSowhether?

Rule #10

To make an impersonal sentence, you need a pronoun It:

It is cold today. - Todaycold.
It is morning. - Morning.
It is difficult to translate this text. - Thistextdifficulttranslate.

rule № 11

After unions asif,asthough(as if, as if, as if, as if) in the conditional mood, verb tobe in the 3rd person singular takes the form were:

She speaks so proudlyas if she wasn't guilty. She speaks so proudly, as if it were not her fault.
Tom looks as thought he was rich. - VolumelooksSoas ifis herich.

Rule #12

Conditional incentive sentences in the 1st and 3rd person are formed using the word Let:

Let I have a look at these pictures. - Let me take a look at these photos.
Let him sleep, he is tired. - Giveto himsleep, is hetired.

Rule #13

Everyone knows what the word many is used with countable nouns, and the word much- with uncountable. But, if suddenly, you find it difficult, doubt, forget the rule or do not understand what noun is in front of you, feel free to use a combination of words alotof. It applies to both kinds of nouns.

Many birds- a lot of birds
Much sugar- a lot of sugar

Rule No.14

Many English words are polysemic, that is, they can have several meanings. It depends on the context and meaning of the sentence. To better understand the translation, you should refer to the dictionary and clarify the context in which the word is used.

Toshoot- shoot on video; toshoot- fire
Country- the country; country- village, village

Rule #15

Verb do can replace the main verb in a sentence. For example:

Kate doesn't like to clean her room, but I do. - Katenotlovesclean upmyroom, butII love.
Amanda likes to get presents, but I don't. - Amanda likes to receive gifts, but I don't.
Steve often ignores his duties, but his sister doesn't. - Steveoftenneglectstheirduties, buthissisterNo.

So we got to the fifteenth rule. Of course, this is not all. Each section of the English language has its own characteristics, and, therefore, its own laws. We have only covered the most basic ones. We hope they will be useful to you in learning the language.

Basic English in 20 minutes

In recent years, the study of English has become so popular that some are sometimes even surprised that someone does not know it. This is not surprising, since English can be considered the most “international”, it is spoken in almost all countries of the world (of course, in addition to mother tongue). Those who wish for further career prospects seek to learn it in the very first place, and only then can, if desired, begin to study other languages. Of course, this is not easy, because the rules of the English language, its grammar, are strikingly different from those that are inherent in a person's native language. And, in addition to them, you need to learn a lot of foreign words in order to be able to express yourself in such a way that you are understood. But, let's say that you have already begun to study a long time ago, and you need a list of the most common mistakes made when speaking or writing a text. We suggest taking into account the basic rules of the English language, in which mistakes are most often made.

Verbs Present Simple (present indefinite tense): they are used when it comes to any action (I do - I do) that takes place at all. For example: I drive a bus - I drive a bus. That is, this action does not necessarily occur at this moment, it occurs in general, constantly. Remember that such verbs are used in a "pure" form only in relation to the pronouns I, we, you, they (I, we, you, they). With the pronouns he, she, it (he, she, it), the ending -s- is added to the verbs, for example: Henry works in a bank - Henry works in a bank.
The rules of the English language say that auxiliary will (not translated in this case), which serves to form the future tense, is not used with such words as while, when, after, before, as soon as, till, until - while, when, after, before as soon as, as long as, until then.
to and must, despite the similarity of meaning, still differ in meaning. Thus, I have to do it means "I must / have to do this", and I must to do it should be understood as "I must do this."
Studying further the rules of the English language, please note that verbs with the ending -ing- are used before at, in, of, with, for, instead of, about, in spite of (in, in, from, with, to, a, approximately , despite) and after after, before (after, before). For example: are you interested in reading of this book - are you interested in reading this book?

In addition, it is necessary to remember about the correct construction of sentences. We are used to the fact that the Russian language is so great and powerful that it allows an arbitrary permutation of words among themselves, and the meaning of the sentence will not change from this and will be clear. In English, everything is different: if you rearrange it as you like, you get nothing more than an ordinary set of words that have no connection. It is for this reason that it is important to learn the rules of the English language, in which there are nine types of sentences, each of which is built according to its own laws. The classification of species is as follows:

1) narrative (subject - simple predicate - other parts of speech);

2) interrogative (built based on the expected answer: general questions that can be answered “yes, no”; special, requiring only a full answer; choice questions; dividing, consisting of a sentence and the question itself);

3) imperative (the only one that does not have a subject);

4) exclamatory (they are identical in structure to narrative ones, but with greater expression and intonation);

5) negative (have only one negation);

6) answers to questions (are built depending on the question asked);

7) (nominal and verbal, for example: it is cold - cold, or it's getting warm - it becomes warm);

8) indefinitely personal (one can do it easily);

9) complex sentences (consist of several independent sentences).

Of course, all this is just a brief basics of the English language, because there are, in fact, much more rules. But nothing is impossible, as you know, nothing happens. Therefore, if the desire to learn English is very strong, in addition to the rules, do not forget that you need to communicate in this language. The fact is that, having learned a language only on paper, you will hardly be able to understand it in colloquial speech without practice. If there is no one to communicate in English with, the solution is simple: watch films without translation and try to catch intonations, pronunciation features of words and other nuances. So you will quickly begin to think, and, consequently, speak English as freely as possible.

It is one of the most difficult questions in teaching. Any learner of English, naturally, tries to master its grammar, relying on knowledge of the grammar of his language. And often the difficulties are caused by those grammatical structures, which have no analogues in the Russian language. For example, it is difficult for a Russian-speaking student to understand why there are more than a dozen different tenses in English, although in Russian we get along just fine with three.

It is in such cases that the grammar of the English language comes to the rescue in tables, where you can clearly trace the common features and differences of different grammatical forms. Teachers note that English grammar in tables and diagrams is much easier to store in memory and subsequently turns out to be easier to apply in practice.

So, let's make a table of the nine basic tenses of the English language. Before going directly to the table, you need to know a few basic rules that apply to any English tense.

At any time of the English language there is auxiliary in addition to main verb (predicate).
In a negative sentence of any tense, the particle not is added to auxiliary verb and put before main verb - predicate.
In any question of any tense of the English language, it is necessary to use auxiliary, which is placed before the subject.

There are three main groups of English tenses:

Simple (or Indefinite) - simple,
Continuous (or Progressive) - long,
Perfect - completed.

Each of these groups has its own
Present - Present,
Past - Past and
Future - Future .

Thus, in our table we get nine times of the English language - three times in three groups. Consider first the three times of the Simple group, then Continuous and, finally, Perfect. In the process of studying the tables, pay attention to the common features of each group of tenses, as well as the form of the main verb in the tenses of each group.

English grammar in tables

Group	Simple
Time	present		Past	Future
How is formed	1 the formvb . (I, you, we, they)	1 the formvb.+ s(es) (he, she, it)	2 form verb.	*will* + 1 verb form.
Auxiliary verb	do	do es	*did*	*will*
affirmative form	They walk in the park every day. They walk in the park every day.	He walk s in the park every day. He walks in the park every day.	They walk ed in the park yesterday. They walked in the park yesterday.	They *will* walk in the park tomorrow. They will walk in the park tomorrow.
negative form	They do not walk in the parkevery day	He do es not walk _ in the park every day.	They *did* not walk_ in the park yesterday.	They *will* not walk in the park tomorrow.
General question	Do they walk in the park every day?	*Do es* he walk _ in the park every day?	*Did* they walk_ in the park yesterday?	*Will* they walk in the park tomorrow?
Special question	Where do they walk every day?	Where do es he walk _ every day?	Where *did* they walk _ yesterday?	Where *will* they walk tomorrow?
Description	Denotes actions that occur regularly, usually and are not tied to the moment of speech. Cue words - every (day, year, week), usually, always, often, etc.		Denotes an action that took place sometime in the past and the time for its completion has already passed. hint words - yesterday, last (week, year, month…), ago etc.	Denotes an action that will take place in an indefinite or distant future. hint words - tomorrow, next (year, month…) etc.

Group	continuous
Time
How is formed	am, is, are +vb . ing	was, were + vb.ing	*will* + be + vb. ing
Auxiliary verb	*am, is, are*	*were, were*	*will*
affirmative form	They *are* walk ing in the park now. They are walking in the park now.	They *were* walk ing in the park when he saw them yesterday. They were walking in the park when he saw them yesterday.	They *will* be walk ing in the park at this time tomorrow. They will be walking in the park at this time tomorrow.
negative form	They *are* not walk ing in the park now.	They *were* not walk ing in the park when he saw them yesterday.	They *will* not be walk ing in the park at this time tomorrow.
General question	*Are* they walk ing in the park now?	*Were* they walk ing in the park when he saw them yesterday?	*Will* they be walk ing in the park at this time tomorrow?
Special question	Where *are* they walk ing now?	Where *were* they walk ing when he saw them yesterday?	Where *will* they be walk ing at this time tomorrow?
Description	Denotes actions that are happening at the moment of speaking. Cue words - now, at the moment, Look! Listen! etc.	Denotes an action that happened at a certain point in the past. Or an action against the background of which another action took place, which necessarily must be expressed in Past Simple.	Denotes an action that will take place at a specific time or period in the future. Hint words - can be combinations of future tense designation words and a certain moment - at this time tomorrow, at six o'clock next Friday etc.

Group
Time
How is formed	*have* + 3 the formvb . (I, you, we, they)	*ha s* + 3 the formvb . (he, she, it)	*had* + 3 form of the verb.	*will* + *have* + 3 form of the verb.
Auxiliary verb	*have*	ha s	*had*	*will*
affirmative form	They *have* already walk ed in the park. They have already walked in the park.	He *ha s* already walk ed in the park. He has already walked in the park.	They *had* already walk ed in the park before he came. They had already walked in the park before he came.	They *will* *have* already walk ed in the park by 2 p.m. tomorrow. They will already walk in the park until two in the afternoon tomorrow.
negative form	They *have* not walk ed in the park yet.	He ha s not walk ed in the park yet.	They *had* not walk ed in the park before he came.	They *will* not *have* walk ed in the park by 2 p.m. tomorrow.
General question	*have* they walk ed in the park yet?	*Has* he walk ed in the park yet?	*Had* they walk ed in the park before he came?	*Will* they *have* walk ed in the park by 2 p.m. tomorrow?
Special question	Where *have* they walk ed ?	Where *ha s* he walk ed ?	Where *had* they walk ed before he came?	Where *will* they *have* walk ed by 2 p.m. tomorrow?
Description	Denotes an action that has ended and is connected to the present through the result. The place and time of the action is not important. hint words - ever, never, just, already, yet; since		Denotes an action that was completed before some point or other action in the past. hint words - before, by (the time) etc	Denotes an action that will be completed by some point in the future or before some other action in the future.

Thus, from these tables it can be understood that each group has a common feature both in meaning and in the form of the times included in it.

Simple group times are indeterminate actions not associated with any moment.
The times of the Continuous group are prolonged action, process. In form, all tenses of this group use the verb be in the present, past or future, and the ending -ing of the main verb.
Perfect band times are completed activities implying a result. All tenses of this group use have verb in the present, past or future, and the third form of the semantic verb.

Also note that the auxiliary verb will is common to all groups in the future tense.

Present Perfect Continuous, Past Perfect Continuous, Future in the Past Continuous

Long times are not something easy, however, one can delve into their structure if one understands how they are formed and what functionality they perform.

We present to your attention a detailed table that reveals in detail the essence of these difficult grammatical phenomena. This is a kind of “memo for dummies”, helping out when you urgently need to remember this grammatical rule.

Group	continuous
Time	Present Perfect continuous	Past Perfect Continuous	Future in the Past
How is formed	to form have, has + been attached verb with " ing" at the end	modal verb had + been combined with the verb ing" at the end	the form would + be with a verb with " ing" at the end
Auxiliary verb	to be in Present Perfect( have, has + been)	to be in Past Perfect( had + been)	would + be
affirmative form	Eva has been stand-ing on this place for 2 days. The translation of the sentence is as follows: Eve stood here for two days.	Peter had been waiting for this airship for 2 days when it was announced about delay. Translation: Peter had been waiting for this airship for 2 days when they announced its delay.	She said they would be working the whole night. It translates as follows: She said they would work all night.
negative form	Eva has not been standing on this place for 2 days.	Peter had not been waiting for this airship…	She said they would n't be working the whole night.
General question	Has Eva been standing on this place 2 days?	Had he been waiting for this airship for 2 days, when was it announced about delay?	Did she say they would be working the whole night?
Special question	Where has Eva been standing 2 days?	how long had he been waiting for this airship, when was it announced about delay?	What did she say, they really would be working the whole night?
Description	Used to refer to a process. Indicates an action that started in the past. It also continued in the past. The end of the process occurred either immediately before the conversation or at the time of the conversation.	The presence of such a time in the sentence indicates that the action indicated by the Past Perfect Continuous began and continued in the past. Its ending could also take place before some event in the past, or it did not take place before a certain moment in the past.	It is used when talking about some ongoing action in the future. Admission discussed it in the past. Helper words in this case are all day, from..till, during. A feature of sentences with Future in the Past is their structure: in the first part, the past simple tense is used, and in the second, the long future.

Tables of tenses of the English language help to easily understand the logic of building various grammatical structures of the English language and are a good help in doing exercises.

You can apply the acquired knowledge in practice and continue learning on our website. Here you will find all the basic rules, practice applying them in unique exercises, get real pleasure from professionally voiced texts of various levels and you will be able to choose the training material that is right for you.

English grammar exercises

After you have studied the English grammar tables, try the exercises to consolidate your knowledge.

Complete the sentence with the missing word

Fill in the gaps with the right words

Put the words in the correct order

Summer go every we usuallyevery camping usually ... summer go every we usuallyevery camping usually ... summer go every we usuallyevery camping usually ... summer go every we usuallyevery camping usually ... summer go every we usuallyevery camping usually ... summer go every we usually every camping usually .

Uncle to year Spain last went my ... uncle to year Spain last went my ... uncle to year Spain last went my ... uncle to year Spain last went my ... uncle to year Spain last went my ... uncle to year Spain last went my ... uncle to year Spain last went my .

“I don’t want to speak properly. I want to talk like a lady,” these words belong to Eliza Doolittle, the heroine of Bernard Shaw’s famous play Pygmalion.

Eliza may not have wanted to learn to speak literately, but without grammar she would not have been able to speak at all. We are now talking about grammar as a system of words and syntactic constructions inherent in a particular language. Grammar in this sense is “our main asset,” emphasized Eliza’s mentor, Professor Henry Higgins.

But this is not the only definition of grammar. The systematic study and description of a language or group of languages is also a grammar, a descriptive grammar. Professor Higgins was mainly concerned with just one aspect of it, phonetics, or the study of the sounds of speech. The language of the common people Henry Higgins recorded in his notebook is a very accurate picture of what a descriptive grammar is.

And yet, for the majority, “talking like a lady” means speaking correctly, as prescribed, speaking in accordance with the language norm. The importance of prescriptive grammar was stated by Bernard Shaw when he wrote in the preface to Pygmalion: “The English do not respect their native language and stubbornly refuse to teach children to speak it.” It is about the need for a prescriptive approach and the remark of Rex Harrison, who played the role of Professor Higgins in the musical “My Fair Lady”: “And there are places where our language has already been reduced to nothing. In America, it has not been used for God knows how many years!

Why do we need to learn English grammar?

Grammar is a tool that can be used to describe any language. Grammar gives names to words (words) and phrases (word groups), which form sentences (sentences). Already in early childhood, we learn to make sentences - the grammar of the native language is subject to everyone. When studying English at school, university, with a tutor or at home, we are faced with the need to once again walk this path on our own and consciously. And here already we need to have an idea about the types of words and phrases and how they add up to sentences.

Literate people are more likely to succeed in relationships with the opposite sex
According to an online survey of 1,700 people, 43% of users on dating sites say they low level literacy is a fat minus to attractiveness.
More than a third (35%) say that literacy is sexy. The survey also showed that women are more demanding of partner literacy than men (Michael Sebastian, “43 Percent of Singles Say Bad Grammar Is a Turnoff”).

Parts of speech in English grammar

Depending on the function in the sentence, words are assigned to one or another part of speech (part of speech). There are 8 parts of speech in English. Just by learning their names, you certainly won't become an English grammar professor. But you will have a basic understanding of the English language and will be ready to start reading other articles on our site - and these articles will help you make significant progress in learning English grammar.

Remember: if the sentence consists of one word, only an interjection (interjection) can act as this word.

Other parts of speech - nouns (nouns), pronouns (pronouns), verbs (verbs), adjectives (adjectives), adverbs (adverbs), prepositions (prepositions) and conjunctions (conjunctions) - appear in combinations. To understand which part of speech a word belongs to, we must look not only at the word itself, but also at its meaning, place and role in the sentence.

Consider three suggestions:

Jim showed up for work two hours late. (Jim showed up for work two hours late).
Here, work is what Jim came to work for.
He will have to work overtime. (He will have to work overtime).
And here work is the action that Jim will perform.
His work permit expires in March. (His work permit expires in March).
Finally, here work denotes the sign of the noun permit.

In the first sentence, work is used as a noun, in the second as a verb, and in the third as an adjective.

We hope you are not confused yet? Let's see what functions the 8 parts of speech perform in English.

Part of speech	main function
noun	names an animated object, place or thing	pirate, caribbean, ship (pirate, caribbean, ship)
pronoun	replaces a noun	I, you, he, she, it, ours, them, who (I, you. he, she, it, ours, theirs, who)
	expresses an action or state	sing, dance, believe, be (sing, dance, believe, be)
adjective	denotes a noun	hot, lazy, funny (hot, lazy, funny)
	denotes a sign of a verb, adjective or other dialect	softly, lazily, often (gently, lazily, often)
	shows the relationship between a noun (pronoun) and other words in a sentence	up, over, against, for (up, through, against, for)
	connects words, parts of a complex sentence and	and, but, or, yet (and, but, or, else)
interjection	expresses emotions	ah, whoops, ouch (ah! oh!)

NB! Articles (the, a/an) were once considered a separate part of speech. Now they are more often classified as defining words or determinants (determiners).

What do we build proposals from?

TOP 18 grammar terms with movie examples

Refresh your English grammar with catchy quotes from your favorite movies and show off your knowledge in a job interview or exam! We have compiled a "dossier" on 18 of the most common grammatical terms with rather unusual examples:

1. Valid (active) voice - Active Voice

A form of the verb that denotes an action performed by the subject (that is, the main character of the sentence, expressed by the subject, subject). In other words, we are talking about how someone does something, produces, accomplishes, that is, acts actively.

This construction is opposite to the passive (passive) voice (see below).

“We buy things we don't need, with money we don't have, to impress people we don't like.”

We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like.

It is important to learn how to build big from small: put words in the correct form and combine them into phrases, arrange parts of a sentence so as to get a meaningful statement.

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