English
End of Year Revision
Verbs
Verbs make things happen. They are doing/being words
E.g. I banged the door (doing)
I am happy (being)
The infinitive
With verbs we start with the infinitive. This is the verb before anything is done to it. The infinitive is
made up of:
To + basic form of the verb (to sleep, to eat)
Conjugating verbs (that means do something to them)
To make a verb tell us something specific about who/what is doing it and when it is being done, we
need to conjugate it.
To conjugate a verb either
1. Change the ending
e.g. I look in the mirror
I looked in the mirror
2. Add an auxiliary
e.g. I will look in the mirror
I had looked in the mirror
Tenses
Just remember there are four tenses
Past simple-I ran down the road
Present-I run down the road
Future-I will run down the road
Conditional-I could run down the road
There are a few more bits and pieces to remember. Each tense has different aspects
Past simple-I ran down the road
Past continuous-I was running down the road
Past perfect-I had run down the road
Past perfect continuous-I had been running down the road
And the list goes on. Just remember that different aspects of the tenses are formed by conjugating
the verb in different ways
1) Changing the ending
Regular verbs behave in regular ways
Irregular verbs
As with every rule, the exceptions outweigh it. You just have to learn the exceptions and that is that.
E.g. Drink/drank, speak/spoke, think/thought
2) Adding auxiliary
Auxiliary verbs help the main verb express something particular about who/what is doing it and
when it is being done. You can learn these by singing then to the tune of Jingle Bells.
May, might, must
Be, being, been
Am, are
Is, was, were
Should, could, would
Have, had, has
Will, can
Shall
Ought
The ones in green are special kinds of auxiliary verbs called modal verbs. The give information about
the mood.
Recap
I. Verbs are doing or being words
The infinitive is the basic form of the verb
The two ways of conjugating are adding an ending in to the verb or adding am auxiliary
There are 4 tense
Each tense has several aspects
Auxiliary verbs that express the mood of the verb is called modal verbs
All verbs have two participles. These are present and past.
Present participle end in ing
Finite and non finite
A finite verb has a subject and tense
A non finite verb has no subject or tense on its own.
The present participle-walking, losing, having
Past participle- walked, lost, had
The infinitive-to walk, to lose, to have
Phrases
Two or more without a finite verb
E.g. Going out
Clause
Two or more words with a finite verb
E.g. I stood
Sentence
A simple sentence has one finite verb. It makes complete sense in its own
The subordinate clause
It doesn't make sense in its own but is has a main clause as well
Compound sentence (to equal clauses)
I saw the man and he shouted at me
Complex sentence (main and subordinate clause)
I saw the man, who had visited the house
Participles
Every verb has two participles (past and present)
They are called participles, because they participate in forming the the whole verb. They usually
follow the auxiliary verbs to be or to have
The past participle
Helps make aspects of the past tense of verbs
Follows has, have or was
Katie was bitten by the dog
Was is the auxiliary verb
Bitten is the past participle
The underlined words are the whole verb
The present participle
Ends in ing
Is not a complete Verb but helps make aspects of all tenses with the help of to have and to
be
Doris has been cleaning the house all day
Can be used as an adjective
Can be used as a noun. When it is used as a noun it is called a gerund or verbal noun
Can be used on its own to add detail
Connectives
Who
Which
Although
On the other hand
On the contrary
And
When
But
In addition
Because
That
Never the less
Therefore
However
Henceforth
Meanwhile
Than
Moreover
Secondly
Otherwise
This leads to
This means
Whom
As a result
So
Hence
Since
Thus
Furthermore
Where as
As well as
Even though
Though
Yet
Despite
or
Sentence Structure
The present participle is never finite:
I am
Are
Was
Will be
Had been
Should be
A phrase is 2 words or more without a finite verb
A simple sentence has one verb. It makes complete sense on its own
Another name for a simple sentence is an independent clause
There are two finite verbs so there are two independent clauses, but there is one sentence
Punctuating direct speech
i. Words actually spoken are put out in inverted commas
ii. Every time there is a new speaker, start a new line and indent
iii. Each new speech begins with a capital letter, unless it is a continuation of a sentence the
speaker has already started
iv. Each piece of speech ends with one of the following: comma, full stop, question mark,
exclamation mark. These go inside the speech mark
v. If you put narration in the middle of the speech, follow it with either a comma or a full stop.
Come here John, said Sarah, and let me do your tie for you.
