I. Syntactic Phrases: Day 1, 2, 3
Introduction - Noun Phrases - Adjective Phrases - Adverb Phrases - Prepositional Phrases - Verb Phrases - transitive verbs - Intransitive verbs - Ditransitive verbs - Copulative Verbs - Complex Transitive Verbs - Prepositional verbs - Diprepositional Verbs - Phasal verbs - Functions of Phrase markers

Handbook: 0. Table of Contents       I. Introduction (pages 1-8)
Handbook: II Phrase Expansions (pages 9-24)
Handbook: III Verb Phrase Expansions (pages 25-40)

Handouts:
Examples of Verb Complementation
Test : practice sheet

Test 1
Phrases to analyse and illustrate and Types of verbs.

II. Clauses: Day 4, 5, 6
Adjunct Adverbials - Disjunct Adverbials - Conjunct Adverbials - Functions of Postverbal Prepositional Phrases - Auxiliary - Passive - Yes/No questions - Negative - Imperative

Handbook: IV Adverbials (pages 41-51)
Handbook: V Transformations (pages 52-68)

Test 2
Clauses to analyse and illustrate.

III. Complex Sentences: Day 7-8
Finite Clauses - Adverbial Clauses - Wh-Clause - Relative Clauses - Indirect Questions
Nonfinite Clauses - Bare Infinitives - to-infinitive - ing-participle - en-participle - Complementizers - Functions of Nonfinite Clauses

Handbook: VI Finite Clauses (pages 69-86)
Handbook: VII Nonfinite Clauses (pages 87-102)

Handouts:
Examples of relative clauses and others
Examples of WH clauses and Nonfinite clauses
Exercises: finite/ Nonfinite

Test 3
Sentences to analyse and illustrate

IV. Semantics and Pragmatics: Day 9-10
What is meaning? - Meaning relationships - Semantic Composition - Meaning and Context - Speech Acts - Rules of Conversation

Test 1: 25% (syntax)
Test 2: 25% (syntax)
Test 3: 25% (syntax)
Class presentation: 10% (semantics and pragmatics)
Class preparedness and participation: 15%

TESOL Matters
Vol. 12 No. 4
(September/October/November 2002)

    Hi, Richard,
    A couple of us ESL teachers at my school were trying to figure out something odd about English--nothing unusual, right? We hope you can help us out. How come the so-called proper tag question for a sentence that begins I am ... is ... aren't I? We think this is totally weird, and so do our students!
    Roger Kirkpatrick
    Middletown, NY USA

    Dear Mr. Firsten,
    Can you help me answer a question that an adult student asked me recently? He wanted to know what the difference is between tell and say, and I was unsure as to what I could say that he would understand (and that I would understand). This is a Level I group, so the explanation needs to be fairly simple.
    If you have any ideas, I would appreciate a reply. Thanks.
    Cindy Haven
    Pittsfield, MA USA

    Dear Ms. Haven,
    Let me give you a simple explanation for that Level I student:
    When we use say, we don't normally mention the listener, but we can follow it with an optional that: She said (that) it was going to snow again. / They say (that) we don't have to help them.
    When we use tell, we always follow it by mentioning the listener, after which we can use the optional that: She told me (that) it was going to snow again. / They're telling us (that) we don't have to help them.
    We can use tell without mentioning the listener with words that mean some kind of story: He tells the best jokes. / She told a lie.
    Of course, I'm keeping the explanations and examples as simple as possible for a Level I student. You'll do best by giving the student lots of examples and not too many explanations. I hope this helps.

    Dear Richard,
    I am a linguistics student at North-eastern Illinois University. I have a question for which I can't seem to find the answer (probably because I don't quite know how to reference it in the index). The sentence in question is I keep eating three milkshakes a day, but I never gain weight. It has the same feeling as the sentence you had in your Brain Teaser; it feels a lot like some kind of indefinite frequency thing. I'll keep researching this verb usage. If you can help me out, I would be very appreciative.
    Jedd Thomas Schrock
    Chicago, IL USA

    Dear Richard,
    Question: email--a count noun or noncount noun? I've noticed you wrote "one email message." I also read in some other books emails.
    Chunfang Liu
    San Mateo, CA USA

    Dear Richard,
    Could you, please, give some ex-planation to this: There were fewest customers in the shop since it started. Would it be better to write: There were least customers ... ?
    And another on a similar note: There is (or) are a lot questions that I cannot answer. Thanks for your kind help.
    Vladimir Prech
    Prague, Czech Republic

    Richard,
    I am a little long getting this (back) to you. The question, as I said, arose in a classroom exercise with intermediate students. At issue: identifying parts of speech of words in a sentence.
    Here is the sentence. Harold is painting the white house green. What part of speech is green? Obviously it is not an adjective here modifying the house. He is not painting a green house, but a white one. He is painting it "green" so maybe it is a noun (but I think not). Or maybe he is painting "with green paint," an adjective modifying an absent noun (but again I think not because then one can't insert "paint" in the original sentence). Is something else (prepositional phrase?) missing?
    Stumped me. What do you say? Can it be an adverb somehow, telling us how he is painting?
    Bill Trudeau
    Koc University ELC
    Istanbul, Turkey

    And now, here's a very thorough reply to the previous Brain Teaser:
      The first verb form traditionally tackled in an ELT class is the simple present. Well, is it simple? And is it present? Just how many interpretations/ meanings/uses can we pin on the simple present? Let's see what you can come up with.
    Adrianne Ochoa of Atlanta, Georgia, was the first to send in a reply. Here's what she had to say:
    Well, Richard, No! The simple present isn't simple, and it's not necessarily present, either! As usual, I got my information from Greenbaum & Quirk (1990):
    State present (eternal truths): Two and three make five.
    Habitual present (timeless pre-sent): We go to Florida every year or Water boils at 100 degrees C.
    Instantaneous present or narrative form to draw attention to the drama of the event (restricted situations and with performative verbs): I apologize for my behavior or Lopez throws the ball to Glavine or Just as we arrived, up comes Ben and slaps me on the back as if we're life-long friends.
    To refer to the past but to signify that the information is still valid: Jack tells me the position is still vacant.
    With time-position adverbials to suggest the certainty of a future, scheduled event: The plane leaves for New York at 8 pm tonight.
    In subordinate clauses, especially conditional and temporal, to refer to the future: He'll do it if you let him.
    To refer to the past in reference to literary works: Dickens draws his characters from the London underworld of his time.
    Therefore, simple present can be used to indicate past, present, and future actions.
    Thank you very much, Adrianne!
Reference
Greenbaum, S., & Quirk, R. (1990). A student's grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    And here's the next Brain Teaser:
    What's the difference between see and look at, and what's the difference between look at and watch?
    I'll be looking for your answers. If you know the answer, please email me at GrammSpeak ing @ aol.com. Or snail mail me at Rich-ard Firsten c/o Lindsey Hopkins Technical Educational Center, 750 NW 20th Street, Miami, FL 33127 USA. If your answer arrives first and is correct it will appear along with your name in TESOL Matters! The deadline for submission is October 30, 2002.
    Thanks, everybody, for the wonderful ques-tions you sent in. Please keep sending in any and all questions you have about grammar. I'd love to
    I hear from you!

TESOL Matters
Vol. 13 No.2
(March/April/May 2003)

    Hello Richard,
    I am a graduate assistant in an intensive English language program at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. I got your e-mail address from one of the full
time faculty who coordinates all of the grammar classes.
    My question: How does the rule on comparative adjectives apply to fun? It's a one-syllable adjective, so I would assume that I would just add -er, but funner just doesn't sound right! I say more fun. But, why? Also, what's the rule for the superlative form of fun? I think it sounds okay to say "that was the funnest party I've ever been too," but not "that was the most fun party I've ever been to." Can you explain? I would really appreciate it! Thanks!
    Julie S. McSwain
    Carbondale, EL USA

    Dear Richard,
    I teach adult ESOL. One day, a student of mine was complaining to me about his parttime job. He said he had to keep it because of the money, but had no interest in the job and added, "I am very boring." I couldn't help chuckling a little, and then explained that he should say bored, not boring, but I have to admit I wasn't sure why. Can you explain this, please? Thanks in advance.
    Frank Denault
    South Yarmouth, MA USA

When it comes to semantics, it gets more complex. Although it would be beyond the scope of this article to deal comprehensively with the meanings of these 12 forms, for the purpose of illustration, the following is a synthesis of the meanings to which the simple present tense has been applied (based on Celce-Murcia & LarsenFreeman, 1999):

a. habitual actions in the present
        I read the New York Times every Sunday.
b. general, timeless truths, such as physical laws or customs
        The earth revolves around the sun.
c. states
        It is cloudy.
d. subordinate clauses of time or condition when the main clause contains a future-time verb
        When she comes, we'll find out.
e. events or actions in the present, such as in sporting events
        The goal counts!
f. speech acts in the present
        I nominate Chris.
g. conversational historical present (in narration)
        "So he enters the room and crosses over to the other side without looking at anyone."
h. events scheduled in the future
        My flight departs at 9 a.m. tomorrow.

     With this list, we can begin to understand why ESL/ EFL students struggle to learn verb tense-aspect in English. It is not really a simple present, is it? Furthermore, the semantics of the verb often constrain the form that is used. For instance, it is well known that students overextend the present progressive and use it where the simple present would be preferred (e.g., *I am knowing that).' To counter this, teachers are well advised when introducing a new tense-aspect combination to contrast it with one that is already known.
     For instance, to minimize the problem with the overextension of the -ing to stative verbs, it may be helpful to show students that two contrasting meanings can often be portrayed with the same verb:

I am thinking about the answer. (mental activity)
I think the answer is 144. (mental state/report)

Moreover, whereas the English system may seem straightforward enough, the exact mapping of form and meaning varies considerably from language to language. For example, although many languages use one future tense, a student learning English has to distinguish among several different structures, each conveying a nuance of meaning encompassed in the more comprehensive future tense of other languages. Learners of English, therefore, must not only learn the markings of the tense but must also suspend their customary way of marking temporality and adopt a new approach. Naturally, this leads to frequent misuse, not to mention a lot of bewilderment among teachers who wonder why their students "Just don't get it."

Verb Tense-Aspect As a System

However, there is a second implication to appreciating that English verb tense-aspect combinations function as a system. As we have seen, the challenge of learning the English tense-aspect system is learning to make appropriate use choices. Therefore, not only is it important for students to understand what sets one tense-aspect form apart from the others, it is equally important for students to understand why certain forms cluster together. Here the point must be made that, in order to truly understand this and to understand how the system functions as a system, a sentence-level treatment of the form-meaning combinations is insufficient. The system operates as a system most visibly at the level of text.
     Purely sentence-level descriptions of the grammar of the tense-aspect system leads to explanations such as the following:

The present perfect is used to depict past actions or events that have recently taken place.

Although this statement represents a reasonable attempt to capture an important generalization about one member of the English tense-aspect system, as with all such grammatical explanations, exceptions abound. Here is one such exception that appeared in a magazine automobile advertisement a few years ago for a minivan with the name Town & Country.

In their recent study, Town & Country tied as "Americas most Appealing, Minivan" after its owners rated it on over 100 attributes (Chrysler, 1998, p. 129).

Here we see the conflict between the rule, as given, with the use in this text of the word recent in a sentence using simple past tense, undermining the confidence of ESL/EFL students in the rule about the present perfect that they have been given.      However, we can take the same sentence and put it back into the text from which it came and see that the use of the simple past makes perfectly good sense.

For the second year in a row, the Chrysler Town & Country has been honored with J.D. Power and Associates' prestigious APEAL award. In their recent study, Town & Country tied as "America's Most Appealing Minivan" after its owners rated it on over 100 attributes. So while we always insist that it be quiet, we certainly don’t mind hearing this sort of noise.

The use of the present perfect in the first sentence introduces the result, which has current relevance. The simple past in the second sentence is used to relate the events that led up to the result. The simple present in the third sentence concludes the text, commenting in an evaluative way on the result that has been reported.
     Learning to recognize the way that the tense-aspect combinations operate in discourse is thus key to helping students learn to use the tense-aspect system as a resource in promoting cohesion of texts.

There is further inference that can be drawn from the above example: A simple linear time line often fails at the level of text. This is because the tenses do not relate simplistically to the linear passage of time. There is no simple one-to-one relationship between tenses and time. If there were, the choice that Beth faces in responding to Alan's invitation in the following example would correspond to different time periods, which, at least in U.S. English, they need not.

Alan: Do you want some lunch?
Beth: No thanks. I've already eaten.
                or
     No thanks. I already ate.

Of course, there is a temporal dimension to the uses of tense in language. We humans not only report our present experience; we also have the ability to anticipate or to recall an event that has already taken place. However, we also use tense-aspect combinations to show sequences of events within a given period of time. Indeed, for William Bull, a linguist who did research on Spanish, what is less important about verb forms is signaling the time an event occurs. It is more important to convey whether an event occurs before, after, or at the same time as another one. When people speak about an event, they place themselves in relation to the event they axe actually or imaginatively observing. They can do so by adopting a present axis of orientation, a past axis of orientation when recalling an event, or a future axis of orientation if they are anticipating an event. Each of these axes represents a different time segment. However, importantly, where time lines leave off, Bull demonstrates how, within each of these segments, the tense-aspect forms can signal anteriority, simultaneity, or posteriority to a reference point on an axis of orientation.
     So each axis in Bull's framework has a basic time in the middle, one to the left, signaling a time before the basic time, and one to the right, signaling a time after the basic time of that axis. Any given language may nor have unique forms for each of these points. As Bull's framework is applied to English (Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman, 1999; Hours Smith, 1993), for example, the perfect combinations work well to signal the time before the basic axis points, but for the time after the basic axis time, other forms are appropriated (Table 2).

If we were to use the tense-aspect combinations of each axis in simple texts, it is easy to see how the tense-aspect combinations cluster within an axis of orientation, as the following examples illustrate.

Present
He sings in the church choir. He has sung in the choir for years. He is going to sing in it as long as he can carry a
tune.

Past
He even sang in the church choir when he was a teenager. In fact, he had sung/sang in the school choir before that. He would sing every chance he got.

Future
He will sing in the holiday concert next week. He will have sung in that event 20 times. He will likely sing for 20 more.

It is significant to note that speakers and writers of English tend to adopt an axis of orientation and remain within it unless prompted to shift to another axis. When they do so, they often, though not always, license this with some grammatical marker, such as a temporal adverbial, indicated in italics in the following sentence.

He has sung in die church choir for years. Next year, he will take some time off.

The following excerpt from a newspaper article discussing the rebirth of Chattanooga, Tennessee, shows how this works in authentic discourse. The first paragraph opens with the present tense followed by a modal perfect, a sequence that allows the author to make the contrast with how the city is now compared to how it had been in 1982. The first sentence of the second paragraph uses the past perfect to signal a past axis of orientation, which is maintained throughout the middle paragraphs. The final paragraph uses the present axis once again, with its initial sentence in the present perfect along with the adverb now acting as a discourse bridge between axes. The article concludes by reprising the contrast using the adverbs once with the past perfect and today with the simple present.

In 1982, the city that now stands as a monument to effective downtown rebirth could have been a war zone.
   Some 18,000 manufacturing jobs had left in the previous 10 years. Homeless people wandered the streets, living in abandoned warehouses. In 1969, the federal government determined that Chattanooga had the dirtiest air in America, even worse than that of Los Angeles.
   "The air was so bad that you had to drive to work with your headlights on every day," recalled resident Roy Anglin, who was a manager in one of the factories that stayed. "We're situated in a basin, so the pollution was trapped."
   "Downtown was basically a ghost town," said Rich Bailey, director of the local chamber of commerce's news bureau. "That was a result of economic changes all across the country. Historically, Chattanooga was a manufacturing town, and many of the manufacturers left the city. We had entire blocks With almost empty buildings and parking lots. It was scary."
   All that has changed now. The air is much cleaner, the warehouses have either been torn down or renovated to accommodate the new business, and the Tennessee River waterfront that had once been used for stag heaps and empty coke furnaces is today lush, green and vibrant. (Seitz, 1999, P. 1)

Thus, the Bull framework helps us to see one way the tense-aspect system operates to enhance the cohesion of texts. To help raise the grammatical consciousness of ESL/ EFL students around this matter, Kuehn (1998) shows how choppy a paragraph sounds when writers shift from one axis (indicated by underlined verbs) to another without signaling their intention to do so.

I don't know what to do for my vacation. It will start in three weeks. I saved enough money for a really nice trip. I went to Hawaii. It will be too early to go to the mountains. I worked hard all year. I really need a break. (n.p.)

Although the ideas expressed in this paragraph graph are totally comprehensible, the writing style is not felicitous.It is not difficult to see how ESL/EFL students would construct such a paragraph by following the sentence-level rules they have been given. In fact, each sentence conforms perfectly to sentence-level grammatical descriptions. The first sentence is the statement of a present state, the second is a statement about a future event, the third states a fact about a completed process, and so on.
      Notice, however, that the discourse cohesion is signifi-cantly improved (although, admittedly, the style is still repetitive) if this text is rewritten within a single axis of orientation, here the present axis.

I don't know what to do with my vacation. It starts in three weeks, I have saved enough money for a really nice trip. I have been to Hawaii. It is too early to go to the mountains. I have worked hard all year. I really need a break. (Kuehn, 1998, n.p.)

     Kuehn refers to the first paragraph as an example of discourse hopping, in which there are changing reference points. The revised version represents discourse freezing, in which meaning is not sacrificed, but the discourse cohesion is enhanced by the consistent use of present axis forms.
     Providing students with the text-level convention of staying within a single axis obviates the need to get into unhelpful and difficult-to-answer sentence-level questions that would be prompted by the sentences in these two paragraphs, such as when to use present perfect or past (in the third, fourth, and sixth sentences) and when to use simple present or simple future (i.e., with will) in the second and fifth sentences. To impress this point upon ESL/ EFL students in a more tangible way, Kuehn suggests creating a visual three-axis Bull framework in the classroom by placing three ropes on the floor (see Figure I for a pictorial view of this layout).

In this exercise, ask students to imagine they are standing on Present Avenue looking down the street at a specific building. From that view (reference point), the building has a distinct took (present perfect). If they travel one block over to Past Avenue and walk to the backside of the same building, it looks different from that focal point (simple past), and so forth.
     Haccius (2002) offers another way of helping students improve the cohesion of their writing while drawing on the insights of the Bull framework. He makes the point that, before students start to produce discourse, they must first decide what axis they are on and their point of reference. He then has them practice shifting reference points in a chronological chain of events. For instance, he begins by asking one student, whom we shall call San, to describe the activities of his morning routine. Haccius summarizes them on the blackboard.

San gets up at 5:00.
He has a shower and gets dressed.
He has breakfast and then brushes his teeth.
At 6:15 he goes to the Station to catch his train.
He gets to school at 7:25 and has to wait half an hour for class. (Haccius, 2002, n.p.)

In this case, the events are situated on the present axis. Asking the students to rewrite the events starting with the fourth sentence as their reference point and applying the Bull framework will require them to change the first three sentences from the simple present to the present perfect while leaving the final sentence in the simple present, even though it occurs after (or in the future from) the point of reference.

When San gets to the station at 6:15, he has gotten up, has had a shower and has gotten dressed. He has had his breakfast and has brushed his teeth. He catches the train and gets to school at 7:25 and has to wait half an hour for class. (Haccius, 2002, n.p.)

This exercise highlights the present perfect as the tenseaspect combination that marks anteriority along the present axis and can help students resolve the confusion between the present perfect and the simple past.
     Changing the axis from present (here, used habitually) to the past (for a specific day) would then produce the following.

When San got to the station at 6:15, he had gotten up, had had a shower, and had gotten dressed. He had had his
breakfast and had brushed his teeth. He caught the train and got to school at 7.25 and had to wait half an hour for class. (Haccius, 2002, n.p.)

Although these texts still need editing, they demonstrate the cohesion of the tense-aspect system when organized along a time axis.

Celce-Murcia, M., & Larsen-Freeman, D. (1999). The grammarbook: An ESL/ETL teacher's course (2nd ed.). Boston: Heinle& Heinle.
Chrysler. (1998, August). [Magazine advertisement). National Geographic, 129.
Haccius, M. (2002). The use of frameworks in the teaching of tense [Independent Professional Project]. Unpublished master's thesis [in progress],      School for International Training, Brattleboro, VT.
Houts Smith, L. 1993). An investigation of the Bull framework: One teacher! personal inquiry into the English tense system [Independent      Professional Project]. Unpublished master's thesis, School for International Training, Brattleboro, VT.
Kuehn, T. (1998, May). Using event/time lines: The Bull framework. Paper presented at the Sandanona Conference, School for International      Training, Brattleboro, VT.
Larsen-Freeman, D. (in press). Teaching language: From grammar to grammaring. Boston: Heinle & Heinle.
Seitz, S. (1999, July 7). Chattanooga teaches. Brattleboro Reformer, 1.

Diane Larsen-Freeman has taught English applied linguistics at the School for International Training (SIT), in the United States, for many years. She is currently Distinguished Senior Faculty Fellow at SIT and professor of education and director of the English Language Institute at the University of Michigan.

Tom Kuehn is a faculty member in the Intensive English Program at Portland State University (PSU), in the United States. His work with improving student understanding of the tense-aspect system through a multisensory approach began during graduate work at the, School for International Training and has continued in grammar courses at PSU.

Mark Haccius has taught EFL at Lémania College, in Switzerland, for many years and has recently joined the faculty of the Ecole hôtelière de Lausannne He has developed a keen interest in the English tense-aspect system and the problems i tpresents for speakers of other languages and is currently completing his Independent Professional Project on this topic at the School for International Training, in the United States.

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A grammatical element whose main role is to co-occur with nouns to express such semantic notions as quantity, number, possession, and definiteness; for example, the, a, this, some, my, much. These words 'determine' the way in which the noun is to be interpreted. In many languages, determiners agree in gender, number, case with the nouns.

ARTICLE: A type of word which specifies whether a noun is definite or indefinite, as illustrated by English the (definite) vs. a (indefinite). Articles are usually included within the class of determiners.

DEMONSTRATIVE: A word whose basic role is to locate a referent in relation to a speaker, an addressee, or some other person referred to. English demonstrative specifies two distances: proximal this, these (physically and thence subjectively closer to the speaker) and distal that, those (physically or subjectively more remote from the speaker). Used with a noun the demonstrative is a determiner (e.g. this chair); used alone, it is a pronoun (e.g. I want this / this one).

POSSESSIVE: A linguistic form which indicates possession. English includes 'possessive adjectives' such as my, your, his, her, its, our, their + noun, and 'possessive pronouns' such as mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs used alone. English also expresses possession through inflections as in John's (genitive case).

QUANTIFYER: A word or expression which gives a relative or indefinite indication of quantity (e.g. many, few) distinguished as such from a numeral which gives a precise and absolute indication of quantity (e.g. one, two, three). Used with a noun it is a determiner (e.g. many people, few cities, three books); used alone, it is a pronoun.
Cardinal/ ordinal numeral - A cardinal numeral is a quantifyer which indicates the number of individuals in a set (e.g. one, two, three). An ordinal numeral indicates an ordered position in a series (e.g. third, fifth).
Indefinite - A quantifyer not limiting or specifying as in all, any, each, certain, some. Used with a noun the indefinite word is a determiner (e.g. some people, certain species, all plants); used alone, the indefinite is a pronoun (e.g. We have them all)

INTERROGATIVE: Words which mark interrogative constructions often sub-classified as 'interrogative adjectives' (e.g. which, what), adverbs (e.g. why, when, where, how), and pronouns (e.g. who, which one). Used with a noun the interrogative word is a determiner (e.g. which book?, What page?).

A word class, traditionally defined as the 'name of a person, place, or thing', and described linguistically in terms of a set of grammatical properties. These properties include the nounís ability to act as subject or object of a verb, and be analyzed in terms of gender, number, case, and countability. Nouns are generally sub-classified into common and proper types.

COMMON/ PROPER NOUNS: A common noun refers to a class of objects or concepts, such as chair, cat, person, information. A proper noun refers to a unique person, place, animal, etc., such as Fred, Boston, Toto. The grammar of the two kinds of noun is different: in English, common nouns typically express a contrast between singular and plural, whereas proper nouns do not. We can say a chair and chairs, but not *a Fred and *Freds.

GENDER: A grammatical category which displays such contrasts as masculine / feminine / neuter / or animate / inanimate. A distinction is drawn between 'natural gende', which involves reference to the sex of real-world entities, and 'grammatical gender', which is associated with arbitrary word classes. English distinguishes gender only in third person pronouns as in he / she / it / him / her /its / his / hers. There are three inherent genders in German: masculine (Mond 'moon', Name 'name', Tod 'death', Tag 'day'); feminine (Nacht 'night', Sonne 'sun', Stunde 'hour', Studie 'study'); neuter (Fräulein 'Miss', Kind 'child', Mal 'time', Meer 'ocean, sea'). There are two inherent genders in the romance languages: masculine (el libro, o livro, il libro, le livre 'the book'); feminine (la escuela, a escola, la scuola, l'école 'the school'). The distinction animate/ inanimate is found in older Indo-European languages. 'Animate' denotes entities that can act, or are perceived as acting, of their own will.

NUMBER: A grammatical category used for the analysis of word classes, especially noun., It displays such contrasts as 'singular', 'dual', and 'plural' --that is, the contrasts of 'one' vs. 'two', vs. 'many' respectively. Pronouns and verbs also commonly display contrasts of number.

COUNTABILITY: A contrast in the grammatical classification of nouns, in which nouns denoting separable entities ('countable') are distinguished from those denoting continuous entities, having no natural bounds ('noncountable'). English identifies count nouns by their co-occurrence with such forms as a, many, and the numbers. Noncount nouns co-occur with such forms as much and some: compare a table vs. some music. Many nouns can be used in both contexts: a cake, some cake.

CASE: Inflectional category, basically of nouns, which marks their role in relation to other parts of the sentence. Case extends to determiners, adjectives, and pronouns, Case endings are typical of the Indo-European languages. Latin had the following cases:
Nominative Case - The nominative case is the case typically taken by a noun phrase (the noun, the determiner, and the adjective) when it is the subject of the verb. It is also the form under which the noun is given in grammars and dictionaries.
Genitive Case - The genitive case is used with nouns (or noun phrases) typically to express a possessive relationship. The meaning of the genitive can generally be ascertained by translating it with the possessive of.
Dative Case - The dative case most commonly marks the person or thing indirectly affected by the action of the verb. In most instances, the sense of the dative can be translated by to, for.
Accusative Case - The accusative case usually marks a word as being the direct object of the verb. It can also be used with prepositions; e. g. ad 'to', in 'into', post 'after', 'behind'.
Ablative Case - The ablative is often called the adverbial case. It limits the verb by such signals as 'means' by what, 'agent' by whom, 'accompanimen't with whom, 'manner' how, 'place' where, from which, 'time' when, within which.
Vocative Case - The vocative case is used in the function of direct address. The vocative is sometimes accompanied by O as in O Caesar, O fortuna. The vocative has the same form as the nominative case and is often not listed in the paradigms.

An adjective is a type of word whose main function is to modify a noun, expressing a characteristic quality or attribute. In many languages, adjectives agree in gender, number and case with the nouns they modify.

ATTRIBUTIVE ADJECTIVE: An adjective that occurs within the noun phrase as in a red car, a happy occasion.

PREDICATIVE ADJECTIVE: An adjective that occurs after a verb as in It is red, he is happy.

EPITHET: A word which characterizes a noun and is regularly associated with it as in the haunted house, the iron lady.

A pronoun is a word that can substitute for a single noun or a noun phrase. Several types of pronouns are distinguished in grammars.

PERSONAL PRONOUNS : subject I / we you he, she, it / they; object me / us you him, her, it / them; reflexive myself / ourselves yourself/ yourselves himself, herself, itself / themselves; possessive mine / ours yours his, hers / theirs

PRONOUNS WITH NO INDICATION OF PERSON: demonstrative this, that, these, those; interrogative who, what, which, where, why, when, how; indefinite someone, anyone, no one, somebody, anybody, nobody, something, anything, nothing, each one, all, some, any, none; relative who, whom, that, which, whose.

A conjugation is the inflection of verbs according to person, number, tense, aspect, and mood. Latin verbs and verbs of the romance languages typically display conjugations. For example, Spanish verbs have three conjugations: the –ar verbs, the –er verbs, and the –ir verbs. The inflectional forms vary across the conjugations.

STRONG/ WEAK VERBS : English verbs are classified as strong verbs or weak verbs. A strong verb is a verb which changes its root vowel when changing its tense, as in sing vs. sang. A weak verb is a verb where the past tense is formed by adding an inflection, as in kick vs. kicked. The distinction is important in the Germanic languages. The term ablaut is used to describe a change of vowel which causes a word to take on a different grammatical function

Tense is the grammatical expression of the time in a clause. Tenses fall into two categories: absolute tenses and relative tenses. The first involves the basic tripartite division of time into ‘past’, ‘present’, and ‘future’; the other expresses a contrast relative to some other time.

ABSOLUTE TENSES: Present tense: A tense form which typically refers to a time of action contemporaneous with the time of the utterance. It is widely used in descriptions of ongoing events (as in sports commentary), accounts of mental states (I know, I remember). The present tense is also used to convey states or habitual actions (He is sick, They always say… We get up at six). It may convey a ‘recent past’ in newspaper headlines, Minister dies. Preterite:The simple past tense form of a verb as in I saw or I jumped. Future tense: A form of the verb which refers to future time. English has no formal future tense. The modals will/ shall indicate the future.

RELATIVE TENSES: Present perfect: An event in the past is seen as having some present relevance. The example, I’ve hurt my knee, implies that the knee is currently sore whereas in I hurt my knee the knee may be quite well again. The present perfect tense is made up of the auxiliary have followed by the Past Participle of the verb.  Pluperfect or past perfect: An event in the past is seen as having some relevance on another past event as in I had finished (pluperfect) when they arrived (preterite). The pluperfect or past perfect tense is made up of the auxiliary had + the Past Participle of the verb. Future perfect: An event in the future is seen as having some relevance on another future event; as in, I will have eaten (future perfect) when they arrive. The future perfect tense is made up of the modal will/shall followed by have + the Past Participle of the verb.

Aspect is a grammatical category which marks the duration or type of temporal activity denoted by the verb. Many languages make great use of aspectual contrasts.

PROGRESSIVE/ NON-PROGRESSIVE: In English, aspect shows a contrast of a durative kind. The progressive/non-progressive aspect contrasts in every tense: present I speak/ I am speaking; present perfect I have spoken/ I have been speaking; past (preterite) I spoke/ I was speaking; past perfect (pluperfect) I had spoken/ I had been speaking; future I will speak/ I will be speaking; future perfect I will have spoken/ I will have been speaking.

Mood is a grammatical category which indicates what the speaker is doing with a proposition in a particular discourse situation. Mood is also referred to as 'modality' or 'mode', especially when inflectional forms are not involved.

MODAL AUXILIARIES: Verb-like words which typically express speakers' attitudes towards the factual content of an utterance, such as uncertainty (may, mightI), possibility (can, could), and necessity ( ought, should).

INDICATIVE MOOD: A type of mood recognized in languages where the verb is inflected, used in the expression of statements and questions (e.g. It is raining, Are you going?).

IMPERATIVE MOOD: A grammatical mood recognized in languages where the verb is inflected, used in the expression of commands (e.g. Look! Stay here! Don't go!).

SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD: A grammatical feature typically found in verb forms, sentences, or clauses, occurring in subordinate clauses to express such attitudes as tentativeness, vagueness, uncertainty. In English the subjunctive is used only with certain constructions as in if he were going, formulae such as So be it, and clauses introduced by that , lest such as I insist that he leave, It was resolved that the school be closed, It's important that you all be there, Speak low lest you be overheard. Another grammatical category called 'optative' mood expresses a desire, hope, or wish. Optative expressions in English use the modal verbs or the subjunctive: May they go home safely, Heaven help us!

CONDITIONAL MOOD: A clause or sentence which expresses a hypothesis or circumstance under which a statement may be valid. Conditional constructions are typically introduced by if and unless, as in If it were not raining we would go to the beach. The conditional is made up of the modals would/should/ followed by the infinitive or perfect forms of the verb (I would go, We should see it.; I would have done it, You should have seen it).

PARTICIPLE: The participle is a word derived from a verb and used as an adjective, as in shining example and parked car. The name comes from the way such a word 'participates' in the characteristics of both verb and adjective. The participle forms are classified into two types: present, the -ing forms and past, the -ed forms.

GERUND: A gerund is a noun derived from a verb (a 'verbal noun'), such as the two -ing forms in Seeing is believing. A gerundive is an adjective derived from a verb (a 'verbal adjective'), such as crumbling ruin.

INFINITIVE: The nonfinite form of the verb which in many languages is cited as the verb's basic form (e.g. go, walk). In English, this form may be used alone (the 'bare' or 'zero' infinitive) or with the particle to (the 'to-infinitive'). Different verbs make use of these alternatives. Compare : The policeman saw the man leave and The policeman told the man to leave.

A category used in grammatical description, chiefly with the reference to the verb, to express the way a clause may alter the relationship between subject and object without changing the meaning of the sentence.

ACTIVE VOICE: When the grammatical subject is the actor (John is building a house. John wrote a book. John had spoken to them).

PASSIVE VOICE: When the grammatical subject is the goal or recipient of the action denoted by the verb (The house is being built by John. The book was written by John. The speech will be given by John).

MIDDLE PASSIVE: The term ‘middle’ passive is sometimes used for actions which seem to fall between the ‘active’ and the ‘passive’, such as The door closed. The window broke. He broke his leg. He killed himself in a car accident. He was killed in a car accident.

AUXILIARY: An auxiliary verb is a verb which is subordinate to the chief lexical verb, helping to express such grammatical distinctions as tense, mood, and aspect (They have eaten. They are reading. The poem was written by Mary).

COPULA: A copula is a verb with little or no independent meaning, whose primary function is to link elements of clause structure, typically the subject and the complement, to show that they are semantically equivalent (They are happy. They are teachers.).

An item that typically precedes a noun phrase to form a single constituent of structure. Prepositional phases are often used as an adverbial (see adverb).

SOME PREPOSITIONS: in the garden, on my bike, behind the house, throughout Asia, on Saturday, during the day, after dinner, with my friends, at a fast pace, of wood, since the beginning, against their will, under oath, towards school, to the right. Prepositions may also combine with a clause as in by leaving the door open.

A type of word whose chief function is to specify the mode of action of a verb, such as quickly in they walk quickly. However, several other kinds of word have been grouped under the heading of adverbs. Among these items are intensifying words, negative particles, and sentence connectors.

INTENSIFIERS: very, quite, too

NEGATIVE: not

SENTENCE CONNECTORS: however, moreover

MANNER ADVERBIALS: quickly, immediately, necessarily, etc.

TIME AND SPACE ADVERBIALS: today, yesterday, tomorrow, now, right away, soon, later, always, never, sometimes
there, inside, outside, here, nearby, away, inside, outside, above, below, afterward

A type of word whose chief function is to connect words or clauses. Conjunctions are traditionally classified into 'coordinating' conjunctions, which links units of equivalent status, and 'subordinating' conjunctions, which establish a hierarchy as in main/ dependent clauses.

SOME CONJUNCTION: and, or, either/ or, neither/ nor, but, so that, if, yet, if, because, for, since, till, although, until, when, while, since, where, therefore, furthermore, as...as, also, etc...

Forms that express ‘states of mind’ and do not enter into specific syntactic relations with other words.

SOME INTERJECTION: Heavens! Dear me! Alas! Outch! Ugh! Wow! Yuk! Phew!

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TESOL Matters
Vol. 12 No. 2
(March/April/May 2002)

Dear Richard,
      One of my students recently asked me about a sentence she'd found in a magazine article. The part of the sentence she was questioning was, . . . if the truth be told. She thought it had to be wrong because the auxiliary verb be was left unconjugated. I told her it was right, but I didn't really know how to explain to her why it's right. Can you help?
      Cheryl Fairbanks
     Lebanon, NH USA

Dear Cheryl,
     You've got a very observant student there! What she came upon is the archaic subjunctive, a throw-back to an early subjunctive form of English that appears in cliches or pat phrases. The easiest thing for you to do is simply to tell the student that it is indeed a pat phrase, one that should just be memorized and used appropriately; there's really no need to analyze it. Other examples of pat phrases with the archaic subjunctive are If music be the food of love, play on! / If need be. / Come rain or come shine, . . / So help me God. So what exactly did the archaic subjunctive mean? It was used to show that an action or state of being wasn't a fact or reality, but rather a supposition or form of conjecture. It doesn't exist anymore in modern English, but it does still exist in other languages, like Spanish -- in which case it's not archaic at all! I hope this helps.

Dear Richard,
      I get very frustrated at times when I have to teach grammar to my ESL students. For example, I spend time getting them to use lie and lay correctly. I know lie is intransitive and lay is transitive and teach them what those terms mean. I give them concrete examples and exercises to internalize the different uses of these verbs.
      But then I listen to native English speakers and wince when I hear about 95% of them use lay exclusively as in, I'm going to lay down and take a nap. I guess you can see how frustrating this is for me. So what do I do about it?
      Alan Riquelme
     Denver, CO USA

Dear Alan,
      I can empathize, believe me! It may not be much of a comfort to know this, but you're not the only ESOL teacher who's vented about this problem. Grammar books say one thing; native speakers say another.
      So what's to be done? Well, to begin with, your explanation of lie vs. lay is right on the money (Why are you lying on the floor? / Please lay your coats on my bed.) Lie is intransitive, meaning it does not take a direct object, whereas lay is transitive and requires a direct object. That's what grammar books say and that's what has been accepted as "correct" usage for a very long time. The problem is that most native speakers, educated as well as uneducated, don't seem to like using lie for anything except to mean "not tell the truth." The old proverb, that we shouldn't try to fight city hall, works very well in this case. You should teach the more traditional usages to your students, but also make them aware of how lie seems to be going out of use in its meaning of the subject putting him/her/itself in a prone position.
      I predict that it won't be too much longer before lay is considered acceptable in both the transitive and intransitive usages. After all, English, being the dynamic language that it is, keeps evolving, depending on what the majority of native speakers consider proper usage. It does make our job difficult at times, but it's an occupational hazard that we just can't avoid.

TESOL Matters
Vol. 12 No. 3
(June/July/August 2002)

Dear Richard,
      I'm fairly new to the field of TESOL, so there are lots of things I need to learn about grammar and how to get it across to my classes. The other day, a student of mine asked me why somebody used the word over in the sentence I drove over to the supermarket to get some things. I thought about it and thought about it, but I couldn't come up with a good explanation. Can you?
      Iris Cowan
     Houston, TX USA

Dear Richard,
      I've had this ongoing disagreement with a colleague of mine. He says that when you use already and yet, you're supposed to use the present perfect form of the verb. I say that's not necessarily so; that you can use the simple past, too. We've asked others and they just shrug their shoulders, not willing to commit to either camp. So what's the bottom line on this issue?
      Exasperated
     Perth Amboy, NJ USA

Dear Exasperated,
      Don't be exasperated! You're absolutely correct as far as American English goes. It's now become acceptable to use either the present perfect or the simple past with already and yet (I've already done that. / I already did that. I haven't done that yet. / I didn't do that yet.) In British English, however, the tendency still seems to be that those words should only be used with the present perfect.
      I have to say that, knowing the meaning of present perfect, I tend to favor using this form with already and yet, but usage is what determines what is and is not acceptable in the long run. So many native speakers of American English use the simple past with already and yet that it has now become an acceptable variation in the United States.

Dear Richard,
     You are one of my grammar wizards. Tell me your opinion of this sentence: When I was growing up, my parents both worked. Would it be better as While I was growing up, . . .? Thanks for any thoughts.
     Lynn Stafford-Yilmaz
     Bellevue, WA USA

     Now let's get to the answer for the "Brain Teaser" from our last issue. The question was:
We teach students that the simple present can represent actions that happen all the time (She always makes fun of it), and that the present progressive, which some refer to as the present continuous, represents an action happening now (She's making fun of it again). So then how do you explain this sentence: "She's always making fun of it?"
      I want to thank each and every person who responded. Many of you had the right answer, but Dr. Paul Schneider of the Washington Academy of Languages in Seattle, WA, was the first person to send in a correct answer.
      Here's part of what Paul had to say: The speaker's attitude toward the woman is a necessary part of the speaker's meaning. I can construct a few sentences surrounding the sentence in question, where it is clear that I either approve or disapprove of her actions. Consider: "Both Irene and I can't stand that awful flag. In fact, she's always making fun of it." Here it's obvious I approve of Irene's action. With a few contextual changes, one can make the example such that it is clear the speaker disapproves. Some grammarians like to say it's an emotional comment on a present habit. I really don't like to call it a habit; I prefer to say that native speakers use the present continuous when the speaker means to express approval or disapproval of an action.
      You've gotten to the heart of the matter, Paul. Well done! Just to add to what you wrote, as others pointed out in their responses, forever and constantly are two more words we can use besides always. One point that nobody hit on, however, is that using one of these adverbs together with the present progressive also communicates the relentlessness of the action.

And now here's the "Brain Teaser" for this issue. If you know the answer, please e-mail or snail-mail it to me. If your answer arrives first and is correct, it will appear along with your name in TESOL Matters! The deadline for submission is July 15, 2002. My e-mail address is GrammSpeaking@aol.com. My snail mail address is c/o Lindsey Hopkins Technical Educational Center, 750 NW 20th Street, Miami, FL 33127 USA.

There you are, teaching a Level 1 class. The first verb form you might be tackling is the simple present. Well, is it simple? And is it present? Just how many interpretations/meanings/uses can we pin on the simple present? Let's see what you can come up with.

Please send in any and all questions you have about grammar. I'd love to hear from you!

TESOL Matters
Vol. 12 No. 4
(September/October/November 2002)

    Hi, Richard,
    A couple of us ESL teachers at my school were trying to figure out something odd about English--nothing unusual, right? We hope you can help us out. How come the so-called proper tag question for a sentence that begins I am ... is ... aren't I? We think this is totally weird, and so do our students!
    Roger Kirkpatrick
    Middletown, NY USA

    Dear Mr. Firsten,
    Can you help me answer a question that an adult student asked me recently? He wanted to know what the difference is between tell and say, and I was unsure as to what I could say that he would understand (and that I would understand). This is a Level I group, so the explanation needs to be fairly simple.
    If you have any ideas, I would appreciate a reply. Thanks.
    Cindy Haven
    Pittsfield, MA USA

    Dear Ms. Haven,
    Let me give you a simple explanation for that Level I student:
    When we use say, we don't normally mention the listener, but we can follow it with an optional that: She said (that) it was going to snow again. / They say (that) we don't have to help them.
    When we use tell, we always follow it by mentioning the listener, after which we can use the optional that: She told me (that) it was going to snow again. / They're telling us (that) we don't have to help them.
    We can use tell without mentioning the listener with words that mean some kind of story: He tells the best jokes. / She told a lie.
    Of course, I'm keeping the explanations and examples as simple as possible for a Level I student. You'll do best by giving the student lots of examples and not too many explanations. I hope this helps.

    Dear Richard,
    I am a linguistics student at North-eastern Illinois University. I have a question for which I can't seem to find the answer (probably because I don't quite know how to reference it in the index). The sentence in question is I keep eating three milkshakes a day, but I never gain weight. It has the same feeling as the sentence you had in your Brain Teaser; it feels a lot like some kind of indefinite frequency thing. I'll keep researching this verb usage. If you can help me out, I would be very appreciative.
    Jedd Thomas Schrock
    Chicago, IL USA

    Dear Richard,
    Question: email--a count noun or noncount noun? I've noticed you wrote "one email message." I also read in some other books emails.
    Chunfang Liu
    San Mateo, CA USA

    Dear Richard,
    Could you, please, give some ex-planation to this: There were fewest customers in the shop since it started. Would it be better to write: There were least customers ... ?
    And another on a similar note: There is (or) are a lot questions that I cannot answer. Thanks for your kind help.
    Vladimir Prech
    Prague, Czech Republic

    Richard,
    I am a little long getting this (back) to you. The question, as I said, arose in a classroom exercise with intermediate students. At issue: identifying parts of speech of words in a sentence.
    Here is the sentence. Harold is painting the white house green. What part of speech is green? Obviously it is not an adjective here modifying the house. He is not painting a green house, but a white one. He is painting it "green" so maybe it is a noun (but I think not). Or maybe he is painting "with green paint," an adjective modifying an absent noun (but again I think not because then one can't insert "paint" in the original sentence). Is something else (prepositional phrase?) missing?
    Stumped me. What do you say? Can it be an adverb somehow, telling us how he is painting?
    Bill Trudeau
    Koc University ELC
    Istanbul, Turkey

    And now, here's a very thorough reply to the previous Brain Teaser:
      The first verb form traditionally tackled in an ELT class is the simple present. Well, is it simple? And is it present? Just how many interpretations/ meanings/uses can we pin on the simple present? Let's see what you can come up with.
    Adrianne Ochoa of Atlanta, Georgia, was the first to send in a reply. Here's what she had to say:
    Well, Richard, No! The simple present isn't simple, and it's not necessarily present, either! As usual, I got my information from Greenbaum & Quirk (1990):
    State present (eternal truths): Two and three make five.
    Habitual present (timeless pre-sent): We go to Florida every year or Water boils at 100 degrees C.
    Instantaneous present or narrative form to draw attention to the drama of the event (restricted situations and with performative verbs): I apologize for my behavior or Lopez throws the ball to Glavine or Just as we arrived, up comes Ben and slaps me on the back as if we're life-long friends.
    To refer to the past but to signify that the information is still valid: Jack tells me the position is still vacant.
    With time-position adverbials to suggest the certainty of a future, scheduled event: The plane leaves for New York at 8 pm tonight.
    In subordinate clauses, especially conditional and temporal, to refer to the future: He'll do it if you let him.
    To refer to the past in reference to literary works: Dickens draws his characters from the London underworld of his time.
    Therefore, simple present can be used to indicate past, present, and future actions.
    Thank you very much, Adrianne!
Reference
Greenbaum, S., & Quirk, R. (1990). A student's grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    And here's the next Brain Teaser:
    What's the difference between see and look at, and what's the difference between look at and watch?
    I'll be looking for your answers. If you know the answer, please email me at GrammSpeak ing @ aol.com. Or snail mail me at Rich-ard Firsten c/o Lindsey Hopkins Technical Educational Center, 750 NW 20th Street, Miami, FL 33127 USA. If your answer arrives first and is correct it will appear along with your name in TESOL Matters! The deadline for submission is October 30, 2002.
    Thanks, everybody, for the wonderful ques-tions you sent in. Please keep sending in any and all questions you have about grammar. I'd love to
    I hear from you!

TESOL Matters
Vol. 13 No.1
(December/January/February 2003)

    Dear Richard,
    These days, getting a grammar question I have to research is exciting! Two days ago, I told my upper level class that when you are talking about the future, the verbs after words like when, before, if, unless, until, etc. are in the present tense. Future action, present verb. No problem. Not the right time to mention the exceptions with if.
    We have been discussing in vitro fertilization, and I had given them a homework sheet in which they had to answer the question using a vocabulary word. The question was "What has to happen to an egg before it will grow?" Ever
inquisitive Masatoshi asked me today why I had used the future tense after before.

     What has to happen before it grows? (generally)
    What has to happen before it can grow? (has the ability to)
    What has to happen before it will grow?(????)
    I don't mind exceptions, if this is one. I just need a way to comprehend what the exception is. I hope you can answer this question. Thanks for your thoughts.
    Meg Duval
    St. Petersburg, FL USA

Dear Meg,
    The simple fact is that, if the speaker chooses to use will after before, it represents a prediction. Before it grows is more of a general observation, as you've noted; before it will grow adds the extra element of making this prediction. We're really splitting hairs here, but that's the answer, Meg.

    Hello Mr. Firsten,
    My colleagues and I at San Francisco City College can't seem to come up with a systematic explanation for why the following can occur. Example: The boss reviewed the data ordered collected by the research department.
    We have hypothesized that it's possible to put two passive verbs like this back to back because there's an implied second agent. We can think of certain verbs that imply that second agent where this construction is not possible, but cannot think of examples without a second agent where it would be possible. Are you aware of any specific rule governing this kind of slotting, especially a collected list of verbs which allow it? It would be useful to give students some sort of general rule.
    Thanks in advance.
    Nicki Harlow
    San Francisco, CA USA

 Dear Ms. Harlow,
    Thank you for sending in such a very interesting question. To begin with, I think your example would work much better if there were a comma following ordered. Now, I'm afraid you and your colleagues may be barking up the wrong tree. Let's investigate your example in a methodical manner and then cite other examples.
    Most people would recognize that some words have been deleted from that sentence, namely, that and which and the past auxiliary were. In other words, the full sentence would be
    "The boss reviewed the data that were ordered, which were collected by the research department."

    Dear Richard,
    I’ve been given an intermediate-
level ESL class and one of the grammar areas I have to teach is the passive voice. I thought I understood all there was to know about the passive voice and how and when to use it, but now I’m not so sure.
    Not long ago, I was speaking with the testing counselor at my school about a student of mine. I asked her how the student had tested on a standardized exam recently given to all the students. As the words were coming out of my mouth, it suddenly dawned on me that my question was really weird: How did he test? The testing counselor didn’t blink an eye, of course, but it got me thinking: The student didn’t test anybody; the school tested him! So how is it that my question sounded okay? According to the passive voice rules I’ve always taught, my question should have been How was he tested? But that means something different from what I meant.
    I’m completely at a loss to figure this one out and I can’t seem to find anything in my reference books. Please help me out here!
    Josh Zervas
    Portland, OR USA

TESOL Matters
Vol. 13 No.2
(March/April/May 2003)

    Hello Richard,
    I am a graduate assistant in an intensive English language program at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. I got your e-mail address from one of the full
time faculty who coordinates all of the grammar classes.
    My question: How does the rule on comparative adjectives apply to fun? It's a one-syllable adjective, so I would assume that I would just add -er, but funner just doesn't sound right! I say more fun. But, why? Also, what's the rule for the superlative form of fun? I think it sounds okay to say "that was the funnest party I've ever been too," but not "that was the most fun party I've ever been to." Can you explain? I would really appreciate it! Thanks!
    Julie S. McSwain
    Carbondale, EL USA

    Dear Richard,
    I teach adult ESOL. One day, a student of mine was complaining to me about his parttime job. He said he had to keep it because of the money, but had no interest in the job and added, "I am very boring." I couldn't help chuckling a little, and then explained that he should say bored, not boring, but I have to admit I wasn't sure why. Can you explain this, please? Thanks in advance.
    Frank Denault
    South Yarmouth, MA USA

TESOL Matters
Vol. 13 No. 3
(June/ July/August 2003)

     Dear Richard,
     Caught your column in TESOL Matters--I really enjoy reading it. It has a wonderful, folksy approach to grammar that brings it right down to earth where it belongs. One answer caught my curiosity.
     I think the problem with will in a future time clause comes from the fact that will can express willingness (one of its many shades) and that in clauses headed with before, will is used to indicate that the subject is willing to do something if the conditions of the main clause are met. It is sort of an odd kind of conditional sentence, but similar to the one in which one says I will do it if you will do it: In both clauses, will is used when two speakers are making a deal about willingness to do something. If you will do it essentially asks if you are willing to do it.
      Before I'll ever set foot in his house again, (be willing to in the future) he's got to apologize! (condition to be met)
     Hens must sit on eggs(condition to be met) before they will hatch. (be willing to in the future). (I know we're attributing will to eggs, but I think the concept works.)
     Before a car will start, you must turn on the ignition.

     Before I will accept this check, I need verification of your identity.
     All of these forms must be filled out before the government will send your refund check.
     What do you think'?
     Betty Azar
     Freeland, WA USA

   Dear Betty,
     Great to hear from you. First, let me thank you for your kind comments about my column. You know how much I appreciate your support.
     And now to business. I carefully read what you wrote about the meaning of will in those clauses beginning with before. A big smile came over my face because you indeed explained a concept of will that I had overlooked as a partial explanation.
     You know what, Betty? I think the answer may very well lie in a combination of what I said and what you said. I agree with the "willingness" interpretation completely for sentences dealing with people or even animals. I also think my interpretation of "prediction" may have merit when dealing with things such as an egg hatching or a car starting. I think both ways of looking at this use of will following before work beautifully together to answer the question.
     Thanks very much for writing me!

     A lot of students is in the hall-- also correct. So evidently a number and a lot not only have a plural meaning but behave in plural ways even while looking quite singular.
     Who knew? I asked a colleague who teaches regular English and who authored a book for freshman composition, and her unhelpful response was that she does not allow students to use a lot. I do not think banning grammatical structures that we do not understand is much of an answer, but I can empathize.
    Thanks for your interesting column and for your kind response.
    Evelyn Uyemura
     Torrance, CA USA

     Dear Evelyn,
     Thanks for making my job so easy! You worked out the answer to your question very nicely, so all I had to do was sit back, enjoy reading it, and write these couple of lines. Yes, a number of has a plural meaning and behaves in a plural way even while looking singular. Think of the phrase as a synonym for many.

TESOL Matters
Vol. 13 No. 4
(September/ October/November 2003)

    Dear Richard,
   I think that my problem might be more specific to LI interference, but here goes. My students are confused about prepositions following verbs. They are sure that we say enter to a room (He entered the room) and help to someone (I helped my friend), and these are translations from their LIs (Hebrew and Arabic).
    Are there any rules about when verbs are not followed by prepositions? If there aren't rules, is there a list anywhere? There are lots of sources for the opposite lists of verbs with prepositions, but I haven't found the opposite. Thanks.
    Susan Holzman
    Petah Tikva, Israel

Dear Susan,
    I've come across the same problem, and I'm sure most ESOL teachers have. You're right in thinking it's a problem of language interference. I don't think there are any lists of verbs without prepositions, but this is how I would explain this problem to your students.

    Dear Richard,
    I have a question about verb tenses in adjective clauses. The following example comes from an exercise in the blue Azar grammar book with instructions to change the adjective phrase to an adjective clause: "He read The Old Man and the Sea, written by Ernest Hemingway."
    One of my students insisted that the clause should be "which had been written ..." because the action of writing happened earlier than the action of reading. I told him that the rule for sequence of tenses applies to noun clauses and not to adjective clauses. I don't know that I've ever read that rule anywhere, but my intuition tells me that we wouldn't say "had been" in this sentence.
    Does the rule for sequence of tenses apply only to noun clauses? Thanks very much for your time and expertise.
    Susan Blower
    Columbus, OH USA

    Dear Richard,
   I have a sentence to critique. It was given me by a student who was trying to figure out the grammar of the dependent clause. I gave him Azar's answer with the help of a colleague who pointed me in that direction, but am not comfortable with it. The sentence in question is: "The chief cook hasn't changed since the restaurant opened, which is why the quality of the food has remained consistently good."
    Azar indicates this is an adjectival clause modifying the entire sentence. But it seems to me this is an odd answer because if this were so, why would it be adjectival? (I guess Azar assumes an entire sentence must be a noun.) It looks as if the main clause is really the dependent clause (Since..., the quality has ... ), but it really isn't in this case. Clearly, the main clause serves as the antecedent for which, but we don't have two independent clauses either. The clause seems more related to hasn't changed (the verb), making it adverbial. Can you help?
    Bill Trudeau
    Istanbul, Turkey

In closing, I'd like to say that I've had a marvelous run in TESOL Matters and hope that you've enjoyed reading my column in print. Grammatically Speaking will become an online column in December 2003 as it becomes part of Compleat Links, the Web based component of TESOL's new magazine, Essential Teacher. Check the Essential Teacher Web pages for a direct link.