CLASS NOTES

PRESENT PERFECT TENSE

USAGE:

• The present perfect is used to talk about past experiences that were important in our lives more than the fact of when they occurred. For this usage we often use ‘’never’’ and ‘’ever’’.

• We use the present perfect tense to talk about an action which started in the past and continuous in the present. For this usage we often use ‘’since’’ and ‘’for’’ to say how long the action has lasted.

• This tense is also used to talk about a past action that has the result in the present. For this usage the following words are often used: ‘’just’’, ‘’already’’ and ‘’yet’’.

Other common expressions used with the present perfect are: ‘’so far’’ and ‘’up to now’’.

STRUCTURE:

The structure of the present perfect tense is:

Affirmative:

Subject + auxiliary verb (have/has) + main verb (past participle) + complement

Negative:

Subject + auxiliary verb (have/has) + ‘’not’’ + main verb (past participle) + complement

Questions:

Auxiliary verb (have/has) + subject + main verb (past participle) + complement + Question mark (?)

EXAMPLES:

	Subject	Auxiliary verb		Verb in past participle	Complement
Affirmative	I	have		been	to New York
	She	has		studied	French for three years
	We	have		finished	the task assigned
Negative	I	have	not	gone	to Canada
	He	has	not	worked	with us
	we	have	not	eaten	yet
Interrogative	Have	you		been	to Los Angeles?
	Have	they		Finished?
	Has	she		seen	a UFO?

Contractions with the present perfect 
                       

I have	I’ve
You have	You’ve
He has	He’s
She has	She’s
Michael has	Michael’s
The car has	The car’s
We have	We’ve
They have	They’ve

PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES

Prefixes and suffixes are small parts of words that are added to a word in order to change the meaning.

A prefix is added before the word or base to alter its meaning and form a new word.

A suffix is added after the word or base.

Prefixes and Suffixes can be added to nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

Examples:

Prefix

‘’formal’’ becomes ‘’informal’’ when we add the prefix ‘’in’’ (‘’in-‘’ means ‘’not’’, hence ‘’informal’’ means ‘’ not formal’’ Prefix Meaning Examples Ex- (+ noun) Was but not now Ex-wife, ex-president In-, im- (+adjective) not Incredible, Informal, impossible, immature Non- (+adjective or noun) not Non-smoking, nonarrival Pre- before Pre-school, premolar Re- (+verb) again Redo, rewrite Un- (+adjective or noun) not Unhappy, unsafe, unable.

Suffix

"work" becomes "worker" when we add the suffix "-er" ("-er" means "person who does something," so "worker" means "the person who works ") Suffix Meaning Examples Er, or (noun) person Singer, player, instructor Er, or (noun) Machine, thing Printer, word processor Ful (adjective) Full of Wonderful, careful, successful less without Speechless, Useless ness Makes an abstract noun from an adjective Badness, happiness y Makes an adjective from a noun Cloudy, windy, sparky sion ism Doctrine, belief (noun suffix) Socialism, Catholicism ment Condition of Argument, treatment ity State of being Capacity, sagacity Ize, ise To make (verb suffix) Harmonize, standardize,

MODALS

DEFINITION:

Modals are auxiliary words that provide additional and specific meaning to the main verb of the sentence. The modal is placed between the subject and the main verb which must be kept in its base form.  Modals are not verbs so they do not accept conjugation nor they need other auxiliaries.

CATHEGORIES:

We have different kind of Modals according to its function:

·        Modals to express obligation

Must, have to, need to, should, and ought to

·        Modals to express suggestions or advice

Should, ought to, had better, could

·        Modals to express possibilities or assumptions

Must, may, might, can, could, should

·        Modals to express unreal condition

Would, could

·        Modals to express regrets

Must, should, could

·        Modals to express politeness

Would, may, might, shall

USES:

MUST: Responsibility or assumption

MAY: Permission or a good probability

COULD: Unreal ability or past ability

CAN: Real ability

WOULD: Assumptions, past unreal, unwillingness

MUST:Strong obligation from the speaker, responsibility or certainty

HAVE TO:Strong obligation from outside, responsibility

SHOULD:Suggestions or advice, regrets or possibilities

OUGHT TO:Formal suggestion or advice

DON’T HAVE TO:Used when something is not necessary.

MODALS IN PAST:

When we use modals to express past ideas we need to use the following structure:

Modal + Have + verb in past participle

Examples:

Modal	Meaning	Example
Would have	Past unreal action	We would have gone if you had invited us
Could have	Past unreal ability	You could have helped me, but you didn’t
May have	Past unreal possibility	She may have been in love with him
Might have	Past unreal small probability	He might have had a problem
Should have	Past unreal recommendation or regret	In think you should have invested on the business. I shouldn’t have spent all my money on the trip.
Must have	Past unreal assumption or strong regret	She looks so happy and satisfied; she must have gotten the promotion.

COMPARATIVE AND SUPERLATIVE

COMPARATIVE

The comparative form is used to compare two characteristics of two items.

There are some rules to form comparatives and superlatives. First we need to be aware if the adjective is short (one syllable) or long (two or more syllables).

For short adjectives we add the suffix ‘’-er’’ to the adjective and add ‘’than’’ to compare things.

One syllable adjective	Comparative	Example
Old	Older than	Budapest is older than Hanoi
Small	Smaller than	A netbook is smaller than a laptop
Young	Younger than	You are younger than me
High	Higher than	The balloon can go higher than the clouds
Wide	Wider than	The brain is wider than the sky
Fast	Faster than	This rocket can travel faster than light
Tall	Taller than	Our shadows are taller than our souls
Long adjectives	Comparative	Example
Famous	More famous than	New festivals are more famous than the traditional ones.
Expensive	More expensive than	Some motorcycles are more expensive than cars
Interesting	More interesting than	The Da Vinci code I is more interesting than Da Vinci Code II
Beautiful	More beautiful than	Dragonflies are more beautiful than butterflies

Some aspects to consider:

v When an adjective ends in –y we change it for –i  when –er is added. Two syllable adjectives that finish in –er, -le or –ow can take either ‘’-er’’ or ‘’more’’ although the first option is more often used.

For example:

Mary is cleverer than Sophie

Mary is more clever than Sophie

This task is simpler than the first one

This task is more simple than the first one

Her mind is getting narrower

Her mind is getting more narrow

v If we are not sure for some endings that might sound weird, it is safer to use more

Endings: -y, -er, -le, -ow

For example: crueler/ more cruel

SUPERLATIVE

The superlative is used to single out one characteristic from the rest or a group of items from the rest, so it always includes the word “the.”

The next thing the superlative does is refer to a characteristic using an adjective, for example, the most interesting, the highest, or the least expensive.

The last part of the superlative is the comparative element using the words “most” or “least” for long adjectives and the superlative suffix “-est” for the short adjectives. Let's look at a few examples:

One syllable adjective	Comparative	Example
Old	The oldest	Clark is the oldest in the classroom
Small	The smallest	The Vatican is the smallest state in the world
Young	The youngest	Britney is the youngest of her family
High	The highest	The Everest is the highest mountain
Wide	The widest	Main street is the widest in the town
Fast	The fastest	The program he ran was the fastest
Tall	The tallest	The tallest model was the most elegant
Long adjectives	Comparative	Example
Famous	The most famous	Brazil Carnival is the most famous
Expensive	The most expensive	The most expensive dress is not the most beautiful
Interesting	The most interesting	The last book I read was the most interesting
Beautiful	The most beautiful	This is the most beautiful fountain I’ve ever seen.

Exceptions:

Some adjectives have irregular forms in both comparative and superlative:

Adjective	Comparative	Superlative
Good	Better	The best
Bad	Worse	The worst
Little	Less	The least
Much, many, some	More	Most
Far	Further	Furthest

CLAUSES

A clause is a group of words that expresses an idea, its main characteristic is that it has at least one subject and one verb; hence we can distinguish a clause from a phrase because a phrase is a group of words that does not contain a subject and verb relationship.

Clause: Students laugh

Phrase: laughing a lot

Clauses are classifies as ‘’dependent’’ and ‘’independent’’

Independent clause

An independent clause is a complex sentence; it can stand up by itself, contains a subject and verb and expresses a complete thought in context and meaning.

For example: the rain was heavy

Independent clauses are usually joined together by a coordinating conjunction in order to form complex sentences.

These are some examples of such connectors: and, but, or, yet, nor, for, so.

For example: We went home at 9:00 pm, so we missed the end of the concert

The two sentences above can be separated and still be understood as a complete idea:

We went home at 9:00

We missed the end of the concert

Dependent clause

A dependent clause also called subordinate is just a part of a sentence, it also contains a subject and verb but the difference is that it does not express a complete thought. They are normally joined to an independent clause to form a complex sentence. Dependent clauses are joined to another clause with a subordinating conjunction.

These are some examples of subordinating conjunctions: before, after, unless, although, because, since, even if, until, whereas, if.

Dependent clauses can also be joined with a relative pronoun: that, who, whom, whose, which, whichever, and whoever.

For example:  we exercised al lot because we had to.

Types of dependent clauses

There are three types of dependent clauses: nominal, adverbial and adjectival.

A nominal clause functions as a noun or noun phrase.

Noun clauses answer the questions who? Whom? Or what?

An adverbial clause is an expression that functions as an adverb. It is separated by these conjunctions: after, although, as, because. Before, if, since, that, though, till, unless, until, when, where, while.

Adverb clauses answer the questions when? Where? Why?

An adjectival clause functions as an adjective to describe a noun.

Adjectival clauses answers the questions which? What kind of?

By: Erika Nárez