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Modals, phrasal verbs and passive voice Grammar In this unit we will finish our look at English grammar. Please be aware that you will have only covered the essential basic grammar that is commonly taught in EFL. To cover the whole grammatical system you would need at least four years of full time study. What has been covered in this course should allow you to cover the vast majority of grammatical issues that you will probably face as an English teacher of foreign students. As you progress through your teaching career you will probably pick up more grammar and may want to do more reading on the subject. A good grammar reference is a useful tool for teaching. In this unit we will examine modal auxiliary verbs and the passive voice in detail, as well as a brief overview of phrasal verbs and relative clauses. Modal Auxiliary Verbs Basic rules The 'modals' are: can, could, may, might, shall, should, will, would, must, have to, have got to, need to, needn't and ought to. They are used before other verbs to add to express a number of different ideas, such as: *Obligation- I really must go now, my friends expecting me. *Possibility/probability- I might go shopping tomorrow. *Permission/prohibition- You may leave now. *Ability- I can speak six languages. *Advice- You should see a doctor. Modal auxiliary verbs can also be used to express differing degrees of formality. compare "Can I borrow some money?" with "May I borrow some money?". Even though they have similar meanings, they would be used in different situations, as the second sentence is more polite than the other. Modal verbs don't change in form according to person. Compare the modal I can play/he can play with the present simple I play/he plays. Modal verbs are followed by a verb in its base form- I might. This applies for both present and future meanings. To use modals to express ideas in the past situation is somewhat more complicated; modals with more than one meaning may express past ideas in different ways according to meaning. Have a look at the chart below for more information. Please note that not all of the xpressions below are 'true' modals but do express similar ideas. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Auxiliary | Uses | Present/Future | Past May | 1.polite request | May I borrow your pen? | | 2.formal permission | You may leave the room. | | 3.less than 50% certainty | Wheres the doctor? | He may have been at | | He may be at the surgery.| the surgery. ________________|______________________________|___________________________|____________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Auxiliary | Uses | Present/Future | Past Might | 1.much less than 50% | Wheres John? | He might have been at | certainly | He might be at the library. | the library. | 2.polite request (rare) | Might I borrow your pen? | ________________|______________________________|______________________________|_________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Auxiliary | Uses | Present/Future | Past need to | 1.need or necessity | You need to see a doctor. | You needed to see a | | | doctor. | 2.lack of need or | You don't need to see a | You didn't need to see | necessity | doctor. | a doctor. | 3.optional need or | You needn't see a doctor. | You didn't need to see | necessity | | a doctor. ________________|______________________________|______________________________|_________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Auxiliary | Uses | Present/Future | Past must | 1. obligation | I must go to class today. | | 2.prohibition (negative | You must not open that door.| | only) | | | 3.95% certainty or | Mary isn't in class. She | Mary must have been | assumption | must be sick. (present only)| sick yesterday. ________________|______________________________|______________________________|_________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Auxiliary | Uses | Present/Future | Past have to | 1.Necessity or obligation | I have to go to class today.| i had to go to class | | | yesterday. | 2.lack of necessity or | I don't have to go to class | I didn't have to go to | obligation (negative only| today. | class yesterday. ________________|______________________________|______________________________|_________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Auxiliary | usage | Present/future | Past have got to | 1.strong necessity | I've got to go to class | | | today. | ________________|______________________________|______________________________|_________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Auxiliary | Usage | Present/Future | Past should/ought to | 1.advisability or moral | I should let them know your | I should have let them | obligation | not coming tonight. | know I wasn't coming. | 2.90% certainty | She should do well on the | She should have done | | test.(talking about the | well on the test. (an | | future only) | assumption about the | | | present or past) ________________|______________________________|______________________________|_________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Auxiliary | Uses | Present/future | past should | 3.unexpected past result | | She should have done | | | well on the test. (but | | | she didn't) ________________|______________________________|______________________________|________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Auxiliary | Uses | Present/Future | Past can | 1.ability/possibility | i can run fast. | I could run fast when I | | | was young but now I | | | can't. | 2.informal permissions | You can use my car tomorrow.| | 3.informal polite request | Can I borrow your pen? | | 4.assumed impossibility | that can't be true! | That can't have been | (rare) | | true! ________________|______________________________|______________________________|_________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Auxiliary | Uses | Present/Future | past could | 1.past ability | | I could run fast when I | | | was a child. | 2.polite request | Could you help me? | | 3.suggestion | you could talk to your | You could have talked | | teacher if you need help. | to your teacher. (but | | | you didn't!) | 4.less than 50% certainty | where's John? | He could have been | | He could be at home. | at home. | 5.improbability | that couldn't be true! | That couldn't have been | | | true! ________________|______________________________|______________________________|_________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Auxiliary | Uses | Present/Future | Past be able to | 1.ability | I am able to help you | I was able to help you. | | I will be able to help you | ________________|______________________________|______________________________|_________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Auxiliary | Uses | Present/Future | Past would | 1.polite request | would you please pass the | | | salt. | | 2.preference | I would rather go to the | I would rather have | | park than stay home. | gone to the park. | 3.repeated past action | | When I was a child, I | | | would visit | | | grandmother every | | | weekend. ________________|______________________________|______________________________|_________________________ teaching ideas Roleplay as modal verbs lend themselves to expressing ideas. For example a doctor-patient role-play would be quite productive for modals that can express advice and obligation "you should take these tablets and rest," etc. Rules Establishing rules and regulations for a hotel could provide a good opportunity for usage of modals of obligation, prohibition and permission "You cant have overnight guests,"etc. Sings guess meaning of traffic (or other) singns "You mustn't park here," etc. Passive voice There are two voices used in English: The active: And the passive: My wife chose the wallpaper. The wallpaper was chosen by my wife. in the passive, the object of an active verb becomes the subject of the passive verb. Both sentences basically have the same meaning, but the focus is different. In the active voice, the focus is on the agent, i.e. my wife-she's responsible! In the passive voice, the focus is also on the subject, (i.e. the wallpaper, this time). But in the passive voice, the agent (or 'doer' of the action) is much less important, or doesn't appear, as in the following examples: active passive I painted the door last week. The door was painted last week. (no agent) Only transitive verbs (verbs followed by an object, such as sell,take, buy, write, etc.) are used in the passive. It is not possible to use verbs such as happen, sleep, come and seem (intransitive verbs) in the passive. Form Auxiliary verb 'be' (as per table below)+past participle For both the active voice and the passive, the tense of the sentence remains the same. In the passive voice the tense is indicated by the auxiliary verb 'be', and in the active voice, the tense is shown by the main verb. Tense | Passive Formation Present simple | is/are+ past participle Present continuous | is/are being+ past participle Present perfect | have/has been+ past participle Past Simple | was/were+ past participle Past continuous | was/were being+ past participle Past perfect | had been+ past participle Future Simple | will be+ past participle Future continuous | will be being+ past participle Future perfect | will have been+ past participle 'Going to' future | going to be+ past participle Note that perfect continuous tenses are not normally used in the passive. Usage The passive is most frequently used when it is not known, not important, or we don't want to say, exactly who performs an action. E.g. Trespassers will be prosecuted. It is not important to know who will prosecute you if you trespass. Last night a man was murdered. It is not known who killed him. The passive may be used with a by phrase when the speaker or writer wants the listener or reader to know who performs the action. E.g. Life on the Mississippi was written by Mark Twain. In this example Mark Twain is important to the meaning and the emphasis is on'Life on the Mississippi'. Mark Twain wrote Life on the Mississippi would convey the same meaning but now the focus would be on Mark Twain. Typical student errors/mistakes *Leaving the verb 'to be' out of the sentence. *Using the verb 'to be' in the wrong tense. *Overuse of 'by'. Teaching ideas *Cutting up varied active/passive sentences and getting students to match them. *Students write a general knowledge quiz using passive examples. For example "Who was 'Murder on the orient Express' written by?" Relative clauses A clause is a group of words containing a subject and a verb. There are three categories of clauses: Independent clause: An independent clause is a complete sentence. It contains the main subject and verb of a sentence. Dependent clause: A dependent clause is not a complete sentence. It must be connected to an independent clause. Relative clause: A relative clause is a dependent clause that modifies a noun. It describes, identifies, or gives further information about a noun. It can also be referred to as an adjective clause. A relative clause is introduced by a relative pronoun: who, which, that, whose, whom, etc or there may be no relative pronoun. There are two types of relative clauses defining and non-defining. The information given is a defining relative clause is essential to the meaning of the sentence. My girlfriend who lives at number 35 had been arrested. A defining relative clause makes clear which person or thing we are talking about. This sentence, without commas, actually strongly infers that I have several girlfriends. The information given in a non-defining relative clause is not essential to the meaning of the sentence. In fact, that information can be taken out without substantially changing the meaning of the sentence. My girlfriend, who lives at number 36, has been arrested. Commas are critical in non-defining relative clauses. A comma is put before the relative pronoun and at the end of the clause. It's clear that I only have one girlfriend here. Should we remove the commas and the who lives at number 36 clause, the same basis information would be conveyed by the sentence my girlfriend has been arrested. Examples of pronoun in defining relative clauses 1) This is the mechanic who fixes my car. In this case the relative pronoun who refers to the mechanic and is the subject of the verb fixes. 2) Things that bang in the night scare me. The relative pronoun that refers to things and is the subject of the verb bang. 3)They have arrested the man that I met last night. They have arrested the man whom I met last night. The relative pronouns that and whom refer to the man and are the object of the verb met. It is more common to leave each of these relative pronouns out completely (note that whom is more literary and used less nowadays). 4) I lost the pen you gave me. That refers to the pen and is the object of the verb gave. Its common to leave out that completely. 5) This is the student whose book you borrowed. Whose indicates possession, belonging to the student, and is the object of the verb borrowed. Whose cannot be left out of the sentence. Examples of pronouns 1) George, who smokes 20 cigarettes a day still plays great tennis. in this case relative pronoun who refers to George and is the subject of smokes. 2) This tie, which is made of silk, has had it. Which refers to this tie and is the subject of is. 3) Gladys, whom I adore, is married. Whom refers to Gladys and is the object of adore. 4) This watch, which Gladys gave me, is a fake. Which refers to this watch and is the object of gave. 5) Peter, whose book you borrowed, is a top student. Whose refers to Peter and is the object of borrowed. Phrasal Verbs Phrasal verbs, or multi-word verbs, consist of a verb plus one or two particles. (A particle may be a preposition or an adverb plus a preposition.) they operate as one item. As an example would be She told Paul off.=She criticized/scolded Paul. There are three basic types of phrasal verbs: Type 1-Intransitive Intransitive phrasal verbs cannot be followed by a direct object: He didn't turn up. (meaning that he didn't arrive) Type 2-Transitive separable With type 2 phrasal verbs an object pronoun can only come between the verb and the particle: She took her on. correct (meaning that she opposed her) She took on her. incorrect An object noun can come either between the verb and the particle or after the particle: She took Anna on. correct She took on Anna. correct Type 3-Transitive inseparable With this type of phrasal verb, the object phrase or object pronoun both come after the particle: She got over the operation. (meaning that she recovered) She got over it. This type also includes phrasal verbs that have two particles: an adverb followed by a preposition. She looks up to her grandmother. my wife puts up with a lot of criticism of her cooking. As the addition of the particle frequently changes for students to understand, and are perhaps best learned as vocabulary items. Teachers should keep track of the phrasal verbs that have been taught and try to use them naturally during uncontrolled practice/conversation. If they're dropped in every now and then, they should become more familiar to the students. Students will then hear them in various contexts and hopefully start using them naturally for themselves. Choosing a particular subject can also make the process of learning phrasal verbs easier. For example, the subject could be driving, which could cover drop off, pull over, speedup, slow down, get in, bump into, catch up with, run over, keep up with, pull out, turn off, look out for, pull into, fill up, break down, run out of, pick up, etc.