Tag: Basic

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Structure: ‘a / an / the 1’

What are articles and when do we use them?

In grammar terms, articles are ‘a’, ‘an’ and ‘the’. These are some of the most common words in English and in many Western European languages there are article systems that are similar to articles in English, but with some differences.

Use: We use articles to indicate if something we are talking about is known to the speaker and the listener (it’s definite) or if it’s something which is not known to both the speaker and listener (it’s indefinite). Let’s look at an example.

eg Before my flight I was in the lounge.

In this sentence the speaker is indicating to the listener (by saying ‘the lounge’) that he/she knows the lounge (perhaps it’s the lounge that the speaker usually goes to, or it’s the only lounge in the airport). Whatever the reason, the speaker is indicating that the listener already knows about the lounge (it’s definite).

Let’s look at a second example.

We punctured a tyre after landing.

In this sentence the speaker is indicating to the listener (by saying ‘a tyre’) that he/she doesn’t know about the burst tyre. A plane has many tyres so it’s impossible to know which one was punctured. Later in the conversation however, the speaker my say;

…we’ll have to replace the punctured tyre.

In this sentence, ‘punctured tyre’ has become definite (‘the punctured tyre’) because it was mentioned previously, even though you don’t know which specific tyre was punctured, you know that the punctured tyre exists, and that’s why it has become definite.

Tip: Information that begins as indefinite becomes definite. ie Something which you first describe as ‘a plane’ then becomes ‘the plane’ when you mention it again.

Check out the diagram below and our other posts on articles to find out more about definite and indefinite articles.

Diagram of how to use a, an & the.
How to use a, an & the.

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Structure: ‘Present perfect 3’

Present perfect for ‘news / updates’

In ‘present perfect 1‘ we talked about ‘have you ever….?’ questions.

In ‘present perfect 2‘ we talking about ‘finished time references’ and ‘unfinished time references and how they relate to the present perfect and past simple.

Now we want to add some other situations when the present perfect can be used.

We can use the present perfect when giving new information or updates.

When giving new information or updates to somebody you can use the present perfect. Usually this information is recent and the person listening doesn’t know the new information or the update.

Example: Imagine a controller and pilot speaking in a non-routine situation. The pilot has a medical situation on board and is talking to the controller.

Pilot: We have requested a doctor on board and she has checked the passenger. The passenger has a heart problem and the doctor has given him some medication.

All of these present perfect verb forms give new information or are updates for the controller about the situation.

Another situation when we can use the present perfect is when an action has a connection to now.

If an the action happened in the past, you use the present perfect to indicate that the effect exists in the present. So if you cut (past simple) your finger in the past maybe it’s fine now.

However, if you’ve cut (present perfect) your finger it suggests that maybe you are bleeding or that there is still a present effect of the cut (it could be painful).

These two uses – giving new information or updates and an action has a connection to now – don’t have to be separate. It’s possible for something to be new information and have a connection to now. Indeed, that’s quite common.

Tip: Don’t worry about trying to separate giving new information or updates and an action has a connection to now. If you think you action relates to one or both of these you’ll use the present perfect.

In fact, it’s possible for an action to happen in an ‘unfinished time reference‘ (present perfect 2), to be ‘new information‘ and ‘to have a connection to now‘, but we don’t have to worry about that, we just use the present perfect.

Check out the diagram below for more information and examples. Try to write some examples of your own.

Diagram of how to use the present perfect.
How to use the present perfect 3.

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Structure: ‘Present Perfect 2’

Present perfect vs past simple

In ‘Present perfect 1’ (click here), we talked about a specific situation where you can use the present perfect, to ask ‘have you ever …?’ questions. This time we want to talk about positive statements and also to compare the present perfect with the past simple.

To compare these two tenses it’s necessary to think about two time references: finished time and unfinished time.

When we think about the time reference ‘yesterday’, it’s clear that ‘yesterday’ is finished. Similarly, ‘last week’, ‘last month’ and ‘last year’ are also finished.

Tip: With ‘finished time’ references use the past simple.

In contrast to that, with ‘unfinished time’ references such as ‘this week’, ‘this year’, ‘this month’ etc… it’s clear that they aren’t finished.

Tip: With ‘unfinished time’ references use use the present perfect.

In some situations the time of day will determine if you should use the past simple or present perfect. In the morning for example the time reference ‘this morning’ is unfinished so you use the present perfect with it.

In the afternoon the time reference ‘this morning’ is finished so you should use the past simple in that situation. Check out the diagram below for more information, write some examples of your own and read them out loud to help you remember them.

Diagram of how to use the present perfect.
How to use the present perfect 2.

Tip: Understanding the difference between ‘finished time references’ and ‘unfinished time references’ will help you a lot to use the present perfect correctly.

Very often we begin with a present perfect sentence and then use the past simple, then maybe the present simple and then something else. We don’t use the present perfect in isolation, we use it with other common tenses.

Let’s imagine you are talking to a friend on Wednesday.

Oh man…I’ve flown a lot this week (unfinished time). I flew ten hours on Monday (finished time) and twelve hours on Tuesday (finished time) and now I’m really tired.

As we can see in the example above, we use a mix of tenses together to talk about different time references.

Tip: In these situations you need to know your time reference before you select your verb and tense even though the time reference is usually at the end of the sentence.

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Structure: ‘Present perfect 1’

Using the present perfect with ‘have you ever….?’

The present perfect is a common tense but is often confused because it’s used in a different way in other languages. It’s also confused in English because it’s used in a few different ways.

First we’ll focus on one situation when it’s used and talk about other situations in other posts.

One common use of the present perfect is to ask ‘have you ever ….?’ questions. These questions relate to the life of the person.

eg Have you ever visited China? This question relates to any time in your life.

Form: Have / has + subject + every + past participle (main verb)…

Example: Have you every flown a twin-engine plane?

To answer this question we usually start with;

  • Yes I have…
  • No I haven’t…

And after this we can continue with other tenses.

eg Yes I have been to China. (start with present perfect)

I went there five years ago. (add past simple verb form to talk about finished past actions)

I had a great time and visited a lot of wonderful places. (more finished past actions)

I’m going to visit there again in the future for sure! (talk about a future plan)

So we started with a present perfect verb form, then some past simple forms, then a ‘going to future’ verb form. Many other options are possible but what it important to remember is that with ‘have you ever…?’ questions, we usually begin with ‘yes I have….’ or ‘no I haven’t…’ and go from there.

Look at the diagram below for a summary of this.

Diagram of how to use the present perfect.
How to use the present perfect 1.

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Structure: ‘Superlative adjectives’

How to make superlative adjectives

Adjectives are put into four different categories before creating their comparative and superlative forms:

  1. one-syllable or short adjectives
  2. two or more syllable long adjectives
  3. adjectives that end with ‘y’
  4. irregular adjectives.

1. To make one-syllable or short adjectives into superlative adjectives we add ‘the’ before the adjective and ‘est’ to the end of the adjective.

  • short becomes the shortest
  • long becomes the longest

2. To make two or more syllable long adjectives into superlative adjective add ‘the most’ before the adjective.

  • comfortable becomes the most comfortable
  • impressive becomes the most impressive

3. To make adjectives that end with ‘y’ into superlative adjectives we add ‘the’ before the adjective, we remove ‘y’ at the end of the adjective and add ‘iest’.

  • easy becomes the easiest
  • heavy becomes the heaviest

4. To make irregular adjectives into superlative adjectives you just have to learn the superlative form. Fortunately they aren’t many.

  • good becomes the best
  • bad becomes the worst

Look at the diagram below for a summary of how we create the superlative forms from these different types of adjectives.

Diagram of how to form superlative adjectives.
Diagram of how to form superlative adjectives.

Activity

What sentences can you create using superlative adjectives? Try to write some using the four different categories of superlative adjectives.

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Structure: ‘Comparative adjectives’

How to make comparative adjectives

Adjectives are put into four different categories before creating their comparative forms:

  1. one-syllable or short adjectives
  2. two or more syllable long adjectives
  3. adjectives that end with ‘y’
  4. irregular adjectives.

1. To make one-syllable or short adjectives into comparative adjectives we add ‘er + than’ to the end of the adjective.

  • short becomes shorter than
  • long becomes longer than

2. To make two or more syllable long adjectives into comparative adjective add ‘more’ before the adjective and ‘than’ after the adjective

  • comfortable becomes more comfortable than
  • impressive becomes more impressive than

3. To make adjectives that end with ‘y’ into comparative adjectives we remove ‘y’ at the end of the adjective and add ‘ier + than’ to the end of the adjective.

  • easy becomes easier than
  • heavy becomes heavier than

4. To make irregular adjectives into comparative adjectives you just have to learn the comparative form. Fortunately they aren’t many and they use ‘than’ after the comparative form.

  • good becomes better than
  • bad becomes worse than

Look at the diagram below for a summary of how we create the comparative forms from these different types of adjectives.

Diagram of how to form comparative adjectives.
Diagram of how to form comparative adjectives.

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