GRAMMAR IN USE

The Present
Present simple
To talk about:
 Things that is always true
 Things in general
 Permanent situations or habits

I / You / We / They Verb

He / She / It Verb -s/-es
I live in Dubai
one plus one is tow
She plays tennis once a week

Present continuous
To talk about:
 Activities that are in progress at the moment
 Unfinished actions
 Temporary situations or habits

I Am
He / She / It Is Verb-ing
You / We / They Are
I am working now
I m living in Dubai from 2 years
He is eating a lot these days

Present perfect simple

To talk about:
 Completed action that still have an effect on the present moment
 New information or recent events
 Life experience

I / You / We / They Have PP verb

He / She / It Has PP verb
I’ve lost me keys
The queen has given a speech
I’ve been to Tokyo

Present perfect continuous

To talk about:
 Finished or unfinished activities that still have an effect on the present moment

I / You / We / They Have Been Verb -ing

He / She / It Has Been Verb -ing
I’ve been working all day, that is why I feel tired
I’ve been living in Dubai for 3 years
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The Past
Past simple
To talk about:
Past action that happened at a specific time in the past
Actions in stories

I / You / We / They Verb -ed

He / She / It Verb -ed
I went to the movies yesterday
He sat down and ordered a coffee
Leonardo painted the Mona Lisa

Past continuous
To talk about:
Activities that were in progress at a specific time in the past
Story background
Past habits

I / You / We / They Was Verb -ing

He / She / It were Verb -ing
I was walking to the station when I met john
The birds were singing and the sun was shining, Amy sat down in the garden
She was constantly singing

Past perfect
To talk about an action that happened further back in the past before another action happened in the past.

I / You / We / They Had PP verb

He / She / It Had PP verb

Past perfect continuous

To talk about an activity that happened further back in the past before another action happened in the past.

I / You / We / They Had Been Verb -ing

He / She / It Had Been Verb -ing

”have” is the same meaning as “have got”, we can use either.

I have a cold, I’ve got a cold

“used to” is used to talk about something I did often in the past, but not anymore.
I used to do this but not anymore, or this used to be a cinema

The Future
Present tenses for the future
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To talk about things that is already decided and arranged.

 “I am doing”: I’ve already decided and arrange to do it

 “I do”: usually to talk about timetables & scheduled programs

*always used with any future term (tomorrow, next week, this evening, tonight, ……)

Am going to
To talk about things that is already decided, time may or may not fixed and arranged.

I Am
He / She / It Is Going to
You / We / They Are

Was going to
To talk about thangs that was going to happen, but it didn’t.

I / You / We / They Was Going to

He / She / It were Going to

Will
To talk about things that have just decided, it’s like an announcing the decision.
To talk about what we think, believe, or know

I / You / We / They Will

He / She / It Will

Will is often used with:

I think, probably, I’m sure, I wonder

Future continuous
To talk about an activity that will be in progress at a specific time in the future.

I / You / We / They Will be Verb -ing

He / She / It Will be Verb -ing

More about the future

We normally use the present tense to talk about the future after these words:
If, When, after, until, till, as soon as
I’ll call you when I arrive

Modal Verbs
1- Can
To say something is possible, allowed, or the ability to do something.
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Can Verb

“be able to” or “managed to” can be used when someone succeeded to do something in a specific situation.
I (was able to / managed to) escape the fire

For the past we use “Could”

2- Could
Although “Could” is the past of “Can”, we can use could by itself.

To talk about actions that is not realistic

I could sleep for a week

To talk about possible things but not sure about it

Maybe, I could stay with my friend when travel

Could Verb

For the past we use “could have”

3- Must
To say that we believe that something is certain
You’ve been travelling all day. You must be tired

Verb
Must be + verb -ing
be + adjective

For the past we use “must have”

PP Verb
Must have been + verb -ing
been + adjective

Must have irregular negative form, for negative forms we use “Can’t” & “Can’t have”
You’ve just ate lunch. You can’t be hungry

4- May, Might
To say that something is one of the possibilities, it is used instead of “perhaps”

Verb
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May / Might be + verb -ing
be + adjective

* may & might are the same meaning, we can use either except when we are talking about something that is not real.
If they paid me better, I might work harder

For the past we use “may have, might have”

PP Verb
May have / Might have been + verb -ing
been + adjective

5- Have to
To say that something is necessary

Has to / Have to Verb

We can use “will, am going to, may, might” before “have to”
“Must” can be used instead of “have to”

For the past we use had to

6- Should
To say that it is the right thing to do.

Verb
Should be + verb -ing
be + adjective

Usually we use should with “ I think, I believe, in my opinion ….”

Should is not strong as “must & have to”
We can use should after “insist
For the past we use “should have”

PP Verb
Should have been + verb -ing
been + adjective

7- Would
To talk about something that is not real, when we imagine an action or situation.

Verb
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Would be + verb -ing
be + adjective

For the past we use would have

PP Verb
Would have been + verb -ing
been + adjective

We often use “would” with “if”

8- Requests, permissions, offers, and invitations

 Asking people to do things we use “Can, Could”
Can you do me a favour?

 Asking for a thing we use “Can, Could”

Can I have the menu, please?

 Asking to do things “Can, Could, May, do you mind, is it alright”

Can/May I ask you a question?

 Offering to do something “Can, May”

Can I help you?

 To offer or to invite “Would you like”

Would you like some tea?

9- If
To talk about something that will not happen, or expected to not happen we use If + past
If we went by bus, it would be cheaper

Verb -ed
If + past Would
Could/Might

For the past we use If + Past participle

PP Verb
If + had + PP verb Would have
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Could have/Might have

10- Wish & Hope

To wish somebody something “luck / all the best / success”
I wish you all the best

To regret something, we use wish + past

I wish I knew how to solve the problem

To regret about something that happened before, we use wish + had + PP verb
I wish I had said it

We use “hope” to wish something happens

I hope you feel better soon

Passive
Present simple
Am / is / are PP Verb
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I am invited to the party
Past simple
Was / Were PP Verb
I was invited to the party

Present continuous
Am / is / are being PP verb
The room is being cleaned at the moment
Past continuous
Was / were being PP verb
The room was being cleaned when we arrived

Present perfect
Has / Have Been PP verb
The room looks nice, it has been cleaned
Past perfect
Had Been PP verb
The room looked nice; it had been cleaned

Future
Will / going to Be PP verb
This room will be cleaned
Modals
Modal Be PP verb
This room must be cleaned

Reported speech
In general, for reported speech, all tenses are going one step back except:
 Past simple changes to past perfect or it can remain the same
 Present stays the same for ongoing situations and things that is always true.

Reporting verbs to be used:

Said that, told, admitted, explained, added, ordered, asked, encouraged…..”

Reporting verb That (optional) Verb

Questions
Questions starts with a question verb
Verb questions like (Be, Do, auxiliary verbs)
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Question verb Subject Rest of sentence
Are you Canadian?
Was I wrong?
Could you tell me about it?
Did you know?

Questions start with question words

There are nine questions words in English (What, Why, where, when, How, Who, Which, Whom, Whose)

Question word Question verb Subject Rest of sentence

What is your name?
Where are you from?
Why did you go?
Who should I call?

Negative questions to show surprise

Why don’t we go out tonight?
Didn’t you hear the doorbell?

Reported questions
Reporting questions like (he asked me…, do you know…, please tell me…, I don’t know why…)

Reporting questions Question word Subject verb Rest of sentence

Do you know what time it is?
Can you tell me where I can find it?
He asked me where he has gone?

Questions tags
In general, we use negative questions tags after positive statements and positive question tags after negative statements

Ashley plays the violin, doesn’t she?

You didn’t lock the door, did you?

Verbs
In general, some verbs can only be followed with Verb-ing while other verbs can only be followed by to-verb after it, and
some verbs can be followed with either.

Verbs that followed with “Verb-ing”

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Enjoy Mind Suggest Recommend Consider
Admit Stop Finish Avoid Imagine
Deny Risk Fancy Give up Put off
Go on Carry on Keep Keep on

Verbs that followed with “To-verb”

Offer Manage Plan Deserve Agree

Arrange Fail Afford Refuse Hope
Promise Learn Decide Forget Threaten
Tend Dare Seem Pretend Claim
Appear Show Tell Ask Advise

Verbs that followed with “To - subject – verb”

Want Tell Ask Advise Expect

Help Like Prefer Remind Warn
Invite Encourage Persuade Get Force
Teach Allow Enable

Special phrases that followed with verb -ing

There’s no point in What’s the point of It’s no use

It’s no good It’s worth It’s not worth
Have trouble Have difficulty Have a/no problem
Spent time Waste time Go “sports and activities”

prepositions
In general, prepositions is followed by objects or verbs
(to, by, in, at, of, for, about, with, without, before, after, in spite of, instead of, despite)

Preposition + verb -ing

When prepositions are followed with a verb, we use the verb -ing
Preposition Verb -ing
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I said this without thinking
I can improve my English by reading more

*We can add somebody after the preposition and still use verb -ing
*We can use either “verb -ing or to verb” with “after & before”

Preposition “To”
 Verb -ing & Verb
To + verb
It is used after specific verbs or to talk about the purpose of something
I decided to travel
I called the restaurant to reserve a table

To + Verb -ing
When “to” is used as a preposition, we use “to + verb -ing”
I am looking forward to hearing from you
I prefer driving to travelling

 “Am used to doing” & “Used to do”

am used to doing
It is used to talk about something that is not new or strange for me and comfortable with.
I am used to living alone

used to do
It is used to talk about something I did often in the past, but not anymore.
I used to do this but not anymore, or this used to be a cinema

 Adjective + to
We can use adjective + to in different structures

Adjective + to + verb
He is hard to understand

Adjective + noun + to + verb

This is a difficult question to answer

Adjective + of + subject + to + verb

It was nice of you to pick me
 The next, the last, the first, the second ……
We can use “ to verb” after ranking words
I was the first to arrive
The train is the last to departure

 Afraid to & Afraid of

Afraid to do something
I am afraid to walk alone in the night
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Afraid of something happening to me
I am afraid of failing

 Interested to & interested in

Interested to in general
I am interested to hear that Ashley is going to Canada

Interesting in doing something

I am interested in joining the club

 Sorry to & sorry for

Sorry to is to regret something happen
I am sorry to hear that

Sorry for is to apologize

I am sorry for shouting at you

 To + verb & for + noun

To + verb to do something
We stopped to get petrol

For + noun for something needed

We stopped for petrol

 To & So / So that
We use so or so that with modals
She is learning English so that she can go to Canada
She is learning English so she can go to Canada

Nouns
Countable Vs. Uncountable
Countable nouns Uncountable nouns
“a, an, the” must be used with singulars Can’t use any determiners with singulars
Numbers can be used Numbers can’t be used
Some & any can be used Some and any can be used
Many & few is used Much & little is used
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Determiners

Pronouns

Relative clauses

Adjectives

Comparatives

Superlative