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Unit 18 is the final grammar unit, covering modal verbs, passive voice, phrasal verbs and relative clauses This unit covered some extremely important and common grammar structures that I realize can be quite difficult to learn and use correctly. I found the unit helpful for being able to convey this information to students in a clear and concise manner. The unit summary follows - Modal Auxiliary Verbs, basic rules: Modals are used before other verbs to add meaning to the main verb. A modal verb doesn't change form according to person. For the present and future they are followed by a base verb, but the past tense can be more complicated. Modal verbs can be used to express a number of different ideas, and the specific modal verb used will often express the degree of that idea. Modals with more than one meaning may express past ideas in different ways according to meaning. The modal auxiliary verbs along with their uses are as follows: > May - 1. Polite request, 2. Formal permission, 3. Less than 50% certainty > Might - 1. Much less than 50% certainty, 2. Polite requests (rare) > Need to - 1. Need or necessity, 2. Lack of need or necessity, 3. Optional need or necessity > Must - 1. Obligation, 2. Prohibition (negative only), 3. 95% certainty or assumption > Have to - 1. Necessity or obligation, 2. Lack of necessity or obligation (negative only) > Have got to - 1. Strong necessity > Should/ought to - 1. Advisability or moral obligation, 2. 90% certainty > Should - 3. Unexpected past result > Can - 1. Ability/possibility, 2. Informal permission, 3. Informal polite request, 4. Assumed impossibility (rare) > Could - 1. Past ability, 2. Polite request, 3. Suggestion, 4. Less than 50% certainty, 5. Improbability > Be able to - 1. ability > Would - 1. Polite request, 2. Preference, 3. Repeated past action The passive voice: There are two voices used in English: active and passive. In the passive voice, the object of an active verb becomes the subject of the passive verb. The two voices have the same meaning but different focus. With the active voice, the focus is on the agent; for the passive voice, the focus is on the recipient. Only transitive verbs can be used in the passive voice. Both voices have the same tense, but with the passive voice, the tense is indicated by the aux verb "be". For the active voice, the main verb changes tense. Active -> Passive formation is as follows: > 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 - perfect continuous tenses are not normally used in the passive Passive voice usage: Most frequently used when it's not known, not important, or we don't want to say exactly who performed an action. To inform the audience who performed the action, use the passive with a "by" phrase. Relative Clauses: A "clause" is a group of words containing a subject and a verb. There are three categories of clauses: > Independent - a complete sentence containing the main subject and verb > Dependent - not a complete sentence and must be connected to an independent clause > Relative or Adjective - a dependent clause that modifies a noun Relative clauses are introduced by a relative pronoun (who, which, that, whose, whom, etc.), or there may not be a relative pronoun. There are two types of relative clauses: > Defining - Information given by this clause is essential to the meaning of the sentence > Non-defining - Information given is not essential and must be offset with commas Phrasal Verbs: Phrasal verbs are multi-word verbs consisting of a verb plus one or two particles, but operate as one item. Examples include: drop off, pull over, speed up, slow down, get in, bump into, catch up with, run over, keep up with, pull out, turn over, look out for, pull into, fill up, break down, run out of, pick up, etc. There three basic types of phrasal verbs: > Type 1, Intransitive - cannot be followed by a direct object > Type 2, Transitive separable - An object noun can come between the main verb and first particle, but an object pronoun must follow after the particle. > Type 3, Transitive inseparable - Nothing can separate the main verb from the particle(s). This type can have more than one particle, eg., an adverb followed by a preposition.