Language Reference – Level 1 Unit 1
Present simple
Form
affirmative I / You / We / They come from Cairo. He /
She / It comes from Cairo.
negative I / You / We / They do not (don’t) come
from Cairo.
He / She / It does not (doesn’t) come
from Cairo.
question Do I / you /me / they come from Cairo?
Does he / she / it come from Cairo?
Uses
We use the present simple:
• to describe something that is always true or something that is permanent:
Children learn languages more quickly than adults. Hanan lives in Muttrah.
• to describe an activity that happens regularly:
/ do my homework every Friday evening.
• with thoughts and feelings using these verbs: believe, know, remember, think [meaning
believe), feel [meaning believe), suppose, love, like, want, dislike, hate, prefer, etc.:
/ love my city.
Frequency Adverbs
We use some adverbs to describe how frequently we do an activity.
These are called adverbs of frequency and include:
Frequenc Adverb of
Example Sentence
y Frequency
100% always I always go to bed before 11 p.m.
90% usually I usually have cereal for breakfast.
normally /
80% I normally go to the gym.
generally
often* /
70% I often surf the internet.
frequently
50% sometimes I sometimes forget my wife's birthday.
30% occasionally I occasionally eat junk food.
10% seldom I seldom read the newspaper.
hardly ever /
5% I hardly ever drink alcohol.
rarely
0% never I never swim in the sea.
Present Continuous
Form
affirmative I am (I’m) eating lunch.
He / She / It is (He’s / She’s / It’s) eating
lunch.
We / You / They are (We’re / You’re /
negative They’re) eating
I am (I’m) lunch.
not studying.
He / She / It is not (isn’t) studying.
We / You / They are not (aren’t)
question Am I making too much noise?
Is he / she / it making too much noise?
Are we / you / they making too much
noise?
Uses
We use the present continuous to talk about:
• something happening now:
She’s making some notes.
• a situation which is changing or developing:
Your English is improving.
• an activity which is in progress, but not exactly now: She’s studying chemistry in Wuzan.
• a temporary situation:
He’s living in a student hostel while he’s in England.
Spelling changes when we make nouns plural
We make most nouns plural by adding -s: book —► books
However:
• for nouns ending in -ch, -o, -s and -sh, we add -es: match —* matches; mass —> masses
• for nouns ending in -y [e.g. study), we change -y to -/ and add -es:
study -* studies
• when the word ends in -ay, -ey or -oy, we don’t change -y to -/:
toy—► toys
• when the noun ends in -f or-fe, we often, but not always, change the -fto -v:
knife -* knives
Some nouns are irregular:
man —►men; woman —► women; child —► children;
foot -+ feet; tooth —»teeth
Notes
• Some nouns ending in -ics are singular: politics, physics
• These nouns ending in -s may be singular or plural:
species, series, means:
The zoo contains one species of elephant and two species of kangaroo.
Sequencer
We use words and phrases to show the start, middle and end of a process. We normally put them at the
beginning of a sentence and we put a comma after them.
• For the first stage in a process, we use First /Firstly /First of all / The process begins when ...:
First of all, they dig a canal.
• For the middle stages in the process, we often start sentences with Next /Then /After that / Second /
Secondly [for the second stage in a process):
After that, they put cement on the walls of the canal.
If there are a number of middle stages, we use different words and phrases to introduce each
stage, as this avoids repetition.
• We can also use when + a phrase or after + a phrase to show the middle stages in a process:
When they have put cement on the walls, they leave it to get hard.
• For the last stage in a process, we often start sentences with Lastly or Finally.
Finally, they pump water into the canal.
• Note that we don’t use at last to show the end of a process; at last suggests we think something has
taken more time than it should:
At last you’ve done your report. I've been waiting for ages!
The Passive
Sometimes we don’t know who or what does/did an action, or we don’t need to say who does/did it,
perhaps because it’s obvious. In these situations, we use a passive.
We often use the passive when describing a process, because it is not important to say who does the
action.
The passive is formed by to be + past participle [done/ changed/spoken).
With verbs like can, should, must, etc., the passive is formed by can/should/must+ be + past participle:
The pump must be placed next to the well.
Active Active Passive
People pour water into Water is poured into the barrel.
The water filter was built.
the barrel.
The canal has been finished.
People built the water filter. Water can be obtained by digging wells.
They have finished the canal.
People can obtain water
by digging wells.
Note: The passive uses a past participle. It is important to know the past participles of irregular verbs
[see page 131] in order to form the passive correctly.
