Adjectives

  An adjective is a word used to describe a noun.

Types of Adjectives

Following are the kinds of adjectives which are commonly used:

1. Adjectives of Quality:
   
   • Adjectives of Quality answer the question ‘Of what kind’
     
   • Examples : Large, Small, Intelligent, Beautiful
     
     
2. Adjectives of Quantity:
   
   • Adjectives of Quantity answer the question ‘How much’
     
   • Examples : Some, Little, Any, Enough
     
     
3. Adjectives of Number:
   
   • Adjectives of Number answer the question ‘How many’
     
   • Examples : Two, Seven, Second, Third
     
     
4. Demonstrative Adjectives:
   
   • Demonstrative Adjectives answer the question ‘Which’
     
   • Examples : This, That, These, Those
     
     
5. Interrogative Adjectives:
   
   • Interrogative Adjectives are used to ask questions about a noun.
     
   • Examples : What, Which, Whose
     

List of Adjectives, Adjective Examples

Abundant	Elderly	Nasty
Accurate	Elegant	Naughty
Addicted	Embarrassed	Nervous
Adorable	Empty	New
Adventurous	Encouraging	Noisy
Afraid	Enthusiastic	Nutritious
Aggressive	Excellent	Obedient
Alcoholic	Exciting	Obese
Alert	Expensive	Obnoxious
Aloof	Fabulous	Old
Ambitious	Fair	Overconfident
Ancient	Faithful	Peaceful
Angry	Famous	Pink
Animated	Fancy	Polite
Annoying	Fantastic	Poor
Anxious	Fast	Powerful
Arrogant	Fearful	Precious
Ashamed	Fearless	Pretty
Attractive	Fertile	Proud
Auspicious	Filthy	Quick
Awesome	Foolish	Quiet
Awful	Forgetful	Rapid
Bad	Friendly	Rare
Bashful	Funny	Red
Beautiful	Gentle	Remarkable
Belligerent	Glamorous	Responsible
Beneficial	Glorious	Rich
Best	Gorgeous	Romantic
Big	Graceful	Royal
Bitter	Grateful	Rude
Bizarre	Great	Scintillating
Black	Greedy	Secretive
Blue	Green	Selfish
Boring	Handsome	Serious
Brainy	Happy	Sharp
Bright	Harsh	Shiny
Broad	Healthy	Shocking
Broken	Heavy	Short
Busy	Helpful	Shy
Calm	Hilarious	Silly
Capable	Historical	Sincere
Careful	Horrible	Skinny
Careless	Hot	Slim
Caring	Huge	Slow
Cautious	Humorous	Small
Charming	Hungry	Soft
Cheap	Ignorant	Spicy
Cheerful	Illegal	Spiritual
Chubby	Imaginary	Splendid
Clean	Impolite	Strong
Clever	Important	Successful
Clumsy	Impossible	Sweet
Cold	Innocent	Talented
Colorful	Intelligent	Tall
Comfortable	Interesting	Tasty
Concerned	Jealous	Tense
Confused	Jolly	Terrible
Crowded	Juicy	Terrific
Cruel	Juvenile	Thick
Curious	Kind	Thin
Curly	Large	Tiny
Cute	Legal	Ugly
Damaged	Light	Unique
Dangerous	Literate	Untidy
Dark	Little	Upset
Deep	Lively	Victorious
Defective	Lonely	Violent
Delicate	Loud	Vulgar
Delicious	Lovely	Warm
Depressed	Lucky	Weak
Determined	Macho	Wealthy
Different	Magical	Wide
Dirty	Magnificent	Wise
Disgusting	Massive	Witty
Dry	Mature	Wonderful
Dusty	Mean	Worried
Early	Messy	Young
Educated	Modern	Youthful
Efficient	Narrow	Zealous

Adverbs

  An adverb is a word which modifies the meaning of a verb, adjective or another adverb.

Types of Adverbs

There are seven classes of commonly used adverbs:

1. Adverbs of Time: These adverbs are used to answer the question ‘when’.
   Examples : Now, Yesterday, Today, Once
   
   
2. Adverbs of Frequency: These adverbs are used to answer the question ‘how often’.
   Examples : Seldom, Rarely, Often, Frequently
   
   
3. Adverbs of Place: These adverbs are used to answer the question ‘where’.
   Examples : Out, In, Forward, Everywhere
   
   
4. Adverbs of Manner: These adverbs are used to answer the question ‘how’.
   Examples : Honestly, Bravely, Happily
   
   
5. Adverbs of Degree:These adverbs are used to answer the question ‘how much’ or ‘to what extent’.
   Examples : Fully, Partly, Altogether, Almost
   
   
6. Adverbs of Affirmation and Negation: These adverbs are used to confirm or deny.
   Examples : Certainly, Surely, Absolutely
   
   
7. Adverbs of Reason: These adverbs are used to give the reason.                              
   Examples : Therefore, Hence
   
   

List of Adverbs, Adverb Examples

Accidentally	Happily	Really
Always	Highly	Regularly
Angrily	Honestly	Reluctantly
Arrogantly	Hopelessly	Repeatedly
Badly	Immediately	Rudely
Beautifully	Innocently	Sadly
Bitterly	Instantly	Safely
Blindly	Interestingly	Seldom
Boldly	Jealously	Selfishly
Bravely	Joyfully	Seriously
Briefly	Kindly	Silently
Busily	Lazily	Slowly
Carefully	Less	Softly
Certainly	Loudly	Sometimes
Clearly	Lovingly	Soon
Courageously	Loyally	Strictly
Cruelly	Madly	Suddenly
Curiously	More	Surprisingly
Daily	Mysteriously	Sweetly
Delightfully	Naturally	Terribly
Easily	Nearly	Thankfully
Enthusiastically	Nervously	Thoughtfully
Eventually	Never	Tomorrow
Exactly	Obediently	Unexpectedly
Excitedly	Officially	Unfortunately
Extremely	Often	Urgently
Fairly	Openly	Usually
Faithfully	Painfully	Valiantly
Fast	Patiently	Very
Foolishly	Politely	Violently
Fortunately	Poorly	Well
Frankly	Positively	Wisely
Generally	Properly	Yearly
Generously	Quickly	Yesterday
Gently	Quietly
Gracefully	Rarely

Tenses

  The concept of time can be split into:

1. The Present - What you are currently doing.   

I eat, I am eating                                  

2. The Past - What you did some time back.  

I ate, I was eating

3. The Future - What you will do later.  

I will eat, I will be eating                                             

In the English language, tenses play an important role in sentence formation.
The tense of a verb shows the time of an event or action.
 There are four types of tenses. Simple, Perfect, Continuous and Present Perfect Continuous and each of these has a present, past and future form. 


PRESENT TENSES
SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE
In Simple Present, the action is simply mentioned and there is nothing being said about its completeness.
I eat.
I sleep.
I play.
PRESENT CONTINUOUS TENSE
In Present Continuous, the action is on-going/ still going on and hence continuous.
I am eating.
I am sleeping.
I am playing.
PRESENT PERFECT TENSE
In Present Perfect, the action is complete or has ended and hence termed Perfect.
I have eaten.
I have slept.
I have played.
PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE
In Present Perfect Continuous, the action has been taking place for some time and is still ongoing.
I have been eating.
I have been sleeping.
I have been playing.

PAST TENSES
SIMPLE PAST TENSE
In Simple Past, the action is simply mentioned and understood to have taken place in the past.
I ate.
I slept.
I played.
PAST CONTINUOUS TENSE
In Past Continuous, the action was ongoing till a certain time in the past.
I was eating.
I was sleeping.
I was playing.
PAST PERFECT TENSE
Past Perfect is used to express something that happened before another action in the past.
I had eaten.
I had slept.
I had played.
PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE
Past Perfect Continuous is used to express something that started in the past and continued until another time in the past.
I had been eating.
I had been sleeping.
I had been playing.

FUTURE TENSES
SIMPLE FUTURE TENSE
Simple Future is used when we plan or make a decision to do something. Nothing is said about the time in the future.
I will eat.
I will sleep.
I will play.
FUTURE CONTINUOUS TENSE
The future continuous tense is used to express action at a particular moment in the future. However, the action will not have finished at the moment.
I will be eating at 9 a.m.
I will be sleeping when you arrive.
I will be playing at 5 p.m.

FUTURE PERFECT TENSE
Future Perfect expresses action that will occur in the future before another action in the future.
I will have eaten before 10 a.m.
I will have slept before you arrive.
I will have played before 6 p.m.
FUTURE PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE
Future Perfect Continuous is used to talk about an on-going action before some point in the future.
I will have been sleeping for two hours when you arrive.
I will have been playing for an hour when it is 5 p.m.
 

can or could

Possibility

We use the modal can to make general statements about what is possible:

       It can be very cold in winter. (= It is sometimes very cold in winter)
       You can easily lose your way in the dark. (= People often lose their way in the dark) 

We use could as the past tense of can:

       It could be very cold in winter. (=Sometimes it was very cold in winter.)
       You could lose your way in the dark. (=People often lost their way in the dark)

We use could to show that something is possible in the future, but not certain:

If we don’t hurry we could be late. (=Perhaps/Maybe we will be late)

We use could have to show that something is/was possible now or at some time in the past:

       It’s ten o’clock. They could have arrived now.
       They could have arrived hours ago.

Impossibility:

We use the negative can’t or cannot to show that something is impossible:

       That can’t be true.
       You cannot be serious.

We use couldn’t/could not to talk about the past:

       We knew it could not be true.
       He was obviously joking. He could not be serious.

Ability:

We use can to talk about someone’s skill or general abilities:

       She can speak several languages.
       He can swim like a fish.
       They can’t dance very well.

We use can to talk about the ability to do something at a given time in the present or future:

       You can make a lot of money if you are lucky.
       Help. I can’t breathe.
       They can run but they can’t hide.

We use could to talk about past time:

       She could speak several languages.
       They couldn’t dance very well.

Permission:

We use can to ask for permission to do something:

       Can I ask a question, please?
       Can we go home now?

could is more formal and polite than can:

       Could I ask a question please?
       Could we go home now?

We use can to give permission:

       You can go home now if you like.
       You can borrow my pen if you like.

We use can to say that someone has permission to do something:

       We can go out whenever we want.
       Students can travel free.

Instructions and requests:

We use could you and as a polite way of telling or asking someone to do something:

       Could you take a message please?
       Could I have my bill please?

can is less polite:

       Can you take a message please?

Offers and invitations:

We use can I … to make offers:

       Can I help you?
       Can I do that for you?

We sometimes say I can ... or I could ... to make an offer:

       I can do that for you if you like.
       I can give you a lift to the station.

adverbs of manner

Adverbs of manner are usually formed from adjectives by adding –ly:
       bad > badly; quiet > quietly; recent > recently; sudden > suddenly

but there are sometimes changes in spelling:
       easy > easily; gentle > gently

If an adjective ends in –ly we use the phrase in a …. way to express manner:

       Silly > He behaved in a silly way.
       Friendly > She spoke in a friendly way.

A few adverbs of manner have the same form as the adjective:

       They all worked hard.
       She usually arrives late.
        I hate driving fast.

Note: hardly and lately have different meanings:
       He could hardly walk = It was difficult for him to walk.
       I haven’t seen John lately = I haven’t seen John recently.

We often use phrases with like as adverbials of manner:

       She slept like a baby.
       He ran like a rabbit.

Adverbs of manner and link verbs

We very often use adverbials with like after link verbs:

       Her hands felt like ice.
       It smells like fresh bread.

But we do not use other adverbials of manner after link verbs. We use adjectives instead:

       They looked happily happy.
       That bread smells deliciously delicious.

active and passive voice

Transitive verbs have both active and passive forms:

active		passive
The hunter killed the lion.	>>	The lion was killed by the hunter.
Someone has cleaned the windows	>>	The windows have been cleaned

The passive forms are made up of the verb be with a past participle:

	be	past participle
English	is	spoken	all over the world
The windows	have been	cleaned
Lunch	was being	served
The work	will be	finished	soon
They	might have been	invited	to the party

We sometimes use the verb get to form the passive:

       Be careful with the glass. It might get broken.
       Peter got hurt in a crash.

If we want to show the person or thing doing the action we use by:

       She was attacked by a dangerous dog.
       The money was stolen by her husband.

We can use the indirect object as the subject of a passive verb:

active		passive
I gave him a book for his birthday	>>	He was given a book for his birthday.
Someone sent her a cheque for a thousand euros	>>	She was sent a cheque for a thousand euros.

We can use phrasal verbs in the passive:

active		passive
They called off the meeting.	>>	The meeting was called off.
His grandmother looked after him.	>>	He was looked after by his grandmother.
They will send him away to school.	>>	He will be sent away to school.

Some verbs very frequently used in the passive are followed by the to-infinitive:

be supposed to	be expected to	be asked to
be scheduled to	be allowed to	be told to

John has been asked to make a speech at the meeting.
You are supposed to wear a uniform.
The meeting is scheduled to start at seven.