Tanta University

Faculty of Education
English Department

English Grammar
1st Year Students

A course compiled by:

Associate Professor Dr. Doha Mahmoud

 Faculty of Education
Department of Foreign Languages: English Department
Course Code: ENG 123
Course title: Grammar
Pre- requisite: None
Units: 3
Level: 1st year students
Textbook: A compiled course
Meeting hours: Saturday 12: 2

1. Course Description

The aim of this course is to provide the students with a general introduction to
the basics of English grammar. It provides students with theoretical background
about traditional grammar in addition to practice in fundamental grammar units.
It aims to provide a review of traditional grammatical concepts and terminology.

2. Course Objectives

1. Students acquire the knowledge of the basic structure and features of

traditional English grammar.

2. Students are able to identify the basic elements in English.

3. Students acquire an understanding of the categories of English grammar.

3. Evaluation Scheme
30 marks will be given for continuous assessment, i.e. (year work which will be given
on a quiz, class participation, home assignments and attendance).
The final exam will have 120 marks. The total course mark will be derived as
follows:
30+120 = 150
 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

What is Grammar?

Grammar accounts for the fact that words can be combined

in a limited number of patterns.

Ex. The lucky boys

We recognize this phrase as well formed in English while the

following two phrases as ill formed:

* boys the lucky

* Lucky boys the

Thus, the process of describing the structure of phrases and

sentences in a way that we account for all the grammatical
sequences and rule out all the ungrammatical sequences is one
way of defining grammar.

According to David Crystal:

“Grammar is the business of taking a language to pieces, to see
how it works.” It is the system of a language. People sometimes
describe grammar as the "rules" of a language.

How does Grammar evolve?

Languages started by people making sounds which evolved into

words, phrases and sentences. No commonly-spoken language is
fixed. All languages change over time. What we call "grammar"
is simply a reflection of a language at a particular time. The
following definitions describe the term "Grammar":
1. Grammar is the mental system of rules and categories that
allows humans to form and interpret the words and sentences of
their language.
2. Grammar adds meanings that are not easily inferable from
the immediate context.

What are the kinds of meanings realized by grammar?

The kinds of meanings realized by grammar are principally:

1. Representational - that is, grammar enables us to use
language to describe the world in terms of how, when and where
things happen
Ex. The sun set at 7.30.
The children are playing in the garden.
2. Interpersonal - that is, grammar facilitates the way we
interact with other people when, for example, we need to get
things done using language.
e.g. There is a difference between:
Tickets!
Tickets, please.
Can you show me your tickets?
May see your tickets?
Would you mind if I had a look at your tickets.
Grammar is used to fine-tune the meanings we wish to express.

There are different types of grammar:

1. Traditional grammar
2. Functional grammar
3. Transformational grammar

Traditional grammar:
Terms such as article, adjective and noun which are used to
label grammatical categories of the words in a phrase such as
"the lucky boys" come from traditional grammar which has its
origins in the description of languages such as Latin and Greek.
There are two approaches to the study of traditional grammar:
1) The prescriptive approach: 18th century

Prescriptive grammarians ask “What should English be like-

what forms should people use and what functions should they
serve?” Prescriptivists follow the tradition of the classical
grammars of Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin, which aimed to
preserve earlier forms of those languages so that readers in
subsequent generations could understand sacred texts and
historical documents.
Prescriptive rules are rules intended to tell people how they
should speak or write according to some pre-established
(arbitrary) standard. Prescriptive rules are of dubious origin and
have no linguistic justification.

Some Prescriptive Rules of English

Don’t split infinitives

Don’t use double negation
Don’t end a sentence with a preposition
Don’t use who in place of whom

Some of these rules stem from an attempt to make English look

like Latin. Thus in Latin an infinitive, being a single word, could
never be split. But of course from this it does not follow that the
same should hold of English.

2) The Descriptive approach: 19th century

Descriptive grammarians ask the question, “What is English

(or another language) like--what are its forms and how do they
function in various situations?” In other words, descriptive
grammar's goal is to describe what the native speakers of a
language do (verbally when they speak their language.

Modern grammarians aim to describe rather than prescribe

linguistic forms and their uses. Dictionary makers also strive for
descriptive accuracy in reporting which words are in use and
which senses they carry.

Outline structure of English:

Sentences are analyzed into clauses.

Clauses are analyzed into phrases.
Phrases are analyzed into words.
Words are analyzed into morphemes.

Key concepts in Grammar:

Parts of speech
Sentences
Clauses
Phrases
Words
Morphemes
 CHAPTER TWO: word classes or Parts of Speech

Every statement is a combination of words, and every

statement says something to communicate information. The
simplest possible kind of statement - for example, Dogs bark -
has two kinds of words in it. It has a word, dogs, and a what
happens word, bark. These kinds of words are the most basic
parts of any statement. If a person only says dog, no statement is
made, and no information is conveyed. A sound is made that
calls to mind a common, four-footed animal, but nothing
regarding it is learned.
The what words are called nouns. They tell what is being talked
about.

Nouns
Nouns are commonly thought of as "naming" words, and
specifically as the names of "people, places, or things". Nouns
such as John, London, and computer certainly fit this
description, but the class of nouns is much broader than this.
Nouns also denote abstract and intangible concepts such as
birth, happiness, evolution, technology, management,
imagination, revenge, politics, hope, cookery, sport, literacy....

Because of this enormous diversity of reference, it is not very

useful to study nouns solely in terms of their meaning. It is
much more fruitful to consider them from the point of view of
their formal characteristics.

Characteristics of Nouns

1. Many nouns can be recognized by their endings. Typical

noun endings include:
-er/-or actor, painter, plumber, writer
-ism criticism, egotism, magnetism, vandalism
-ist artist, capitalist, journalist, scientist
-ment arrangement, development, establishment, government
-tion foundation, organization, recognition, supposition

2. Most nouns have distinctive SINGULAR and PLURAL

forms. The plural of regular nouns is formed by adding -s
to the singular:

Singular Plural
car cars
dog dogs
house houses

However, there are many irregular nouns which do not form the
plural in this way:

Singular Plural
man men
child children
sheep sheep

The distinction between singular and plural is known as

NUMBER CONTRAST.
 3. We can recognize many nouns because they often have
the, a, or an in front of them:

the car
an artist
a surprise
the egg
a review
These words are called determiners.

4. Nouns may take an -'s ("apostrophe s") or GENITIVE

MARKER to indicate possession:

the boy's pen

a spider's web
my girlfriend's brother
John's house
If the noun already has an -s ending to mark the plural, then the
genitive marker appears only as an apostrophe after the plural
form:

the boys' pens

the spiders' webs
the Browns' house
The genitive marker should not be confused with the 's form of
contracted verbs, as in John's a good boy (= John is a good
boy).

5. Nouns often co-occur without a genitive marker between

them:

rally car
table top
cheese grater
University entrance examination
We will look at these in more detail later, when we discuss noun
phrases.

Common and Proper Nouns

Nouns which name specific people or places are known as

PROPER NOUNS.

John
Mary
London
France
Many names consist of more than one word:

John Wesley
Queen Mary
South Africa
Atlantic Ocean
Buckingham Palace
Proper nouns may also refer to times or to dates in the
calendar:

January, February, Monday, Tuesday, Christmas,

Thanksgiving
All other nouns are COMMON NOUNS.

Since proper nouns usually refer to something or someone

unique, they do not normally take plurals. However, they may
do so, especially when number is being specifically referred to:

There are three Davids in my class

We met two Christmases ago
For the same reason, names of people and places are not
normally preceded by determiners the or a/an, though they can
be in certain circumstances:
 It's nothing like the America I remember
My brother is an Einstein at math

Exercise
Identify all the nouns in the following extract.

Underline all the words that you think are nouns in the
following text:
The major thoroughfares were already lit by the new gas, but this was not the
bright and even glare of the late Victorian period: the light flared and diminished,
casting a flickering light across the streets and lending to the houses and
pedestrians a faintly unreal or even theatrical quality.

Count and Non-count Nouns

Common nouns are either count or non-count. COUNT nouns
can be "counted", as follows:

one pen, two pens, three pens, four pens...

NON-COUNT nouns, on the other hand, cannot be counted in
this way:

one software, *two softwares, *three softwares,

*four softwares...
From the point of view of grammar, this means that count
nouns have singular as well as plural forms, whereas non-count
nouns have only a singular form.

It also means that non-count nouns do not take a/an before

them:

Count Non-count
a pen *a software

In general, non-count nouns are considered to refer to indivisible

wholes. For this reason, they are sometimes called MASS
nouns.
Some common nouns may be either count or non-count,
depending on the kind of reference they have. For example, in I
made a cake, cake is a count noun, and the/ a before it indicates
singular number. However, in I like cake, the reference is less
specific. It refers to "cake in general", and so cake is non-count
in this sentence.

Exercise:

In each of the following sentences, indicate whether the

highlighted noun is count or non-count.

1. The board will meet tomorrow to consider your

application.
2. The information you gave to the detective was very
misleading.
3. I thought it was a strange comment to make.
4. Smoking damages your health.
5. Jean is studying music at college.
6. I'll have a brandy, please.

Pronouns

Pronouns are a major subclass of nouns. We call them a

subclass of nouns because they can sometimes replace a
noun in a sentence:

Noun Pronoun
John got a new job ~He got a new job
Children should watch ~They should watch less
less television television

In these examples the pronouns have the same reference

as the nouns which they replace. In each case, they refer
to people, and so we call them PERSONAL
PRONOUNS. However, we also include in this group
the pronoun it, although this pronoun does not usually
refer to a person. There are three personal pronouns, and
each has a singular and a plural form:

Person Singular Plural

1st I we
2nd you you
3rd he/she/it they

These pronouns also have another set of forms, which

we show here:

Person Singular Plural

1st me us
2nd you you
3rd him/her/it them

The first set of forms (I, you, he...) exemplifies the

SUBJECTIVE CASE, and the second set (me, you,
him...) exemplifies the OBJECTIVE CASE. The
distinction between the two cases relates to how they
can be used in sentences. For instance, in our first
example above, we say that he can replace John
John got a new job ~He got a new job

But he cannot replace John in I gave John a new job.

Here, we have to use the objective form him: I gave him
a new job.
 Other Types of Pronoun

As well as personal pronouns, there are many other

types, which we summarize here.

Members
Pronoun Type of the Example
Subclass
mine, yours,
The white
Possessive his, hers,
car is mine
ours, theirs
myself,
yourself,
himself,
He injured
herself,
himself
Reflexive itself,
playing
oneself,
football
ourselves,
yourselves,
themselves
They really
each other,
Reciprocal hate each
one another
other
Relative The book
that, which,
that you
who, whose,
gave me
whom,
was really
where, when
boring
this, that, This is a
Demonstrative
these, those new car
who, what,
why, where, What did he
Interrogative
when, say to you?
whatever
 Indefinite anything,
anybody,
anyone,
something,
There's
somebody,
something
someone,
in my shoe
nothing,
nobody,
none, no
one

Case and number distinctions do not apply to all

pronoun types. In fact, they apply only to personal
pronouns, possessive pronouns, and reflexive pronouns.
It is only in these types, too, that gender differences are
shown (personal he/she, possessive his/hers, reflexive
himself/herself). All other types are unvarying in their
form.

Many of the pronouns listed above also belong to

another word class - the class of determiners. They are
pronouns when they occur independently, that is,
without a noun following them, as in This is a new car.
But when a noun follows them - This car is new - they
are determiners. We will look at determiners in the next
section.

A major difference between pronouns and nouns

generally is that pronouns do not take the or a/an before
them. Further, pronouns do not take adjectives before
them, except in very restricted constructions involving
some indefinite pronouns (a little something, a certain
someone).

While the class of nouns as a whole is an open class, the

subclass of pronouns is closed.
 Open classes & Closed classes

Some classes of words are called closed because they

contain a relatively small number of items to which no
new words can normally be added. These are:
(prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns and determiners
like the, some, and each that co-occur with nouns .

Other classes of words are constantly being added to.

They are open to new words being introduced. The open
classes are nouns, verbs and the words which qualify
them, adjectives and adverbs. These form the bulk of a
language's vocabulary or lexis (lexicon). These classes
may be called lexical whereas the closed-class words
are structural or functional.

Exercise

In each of the following sentences a pronoun has been

highlighted. What type of pronoun is it?

Personal
Reflexive
1. Let's contact one Possessive
another once we've made Relative
some progress. Indefinite
Reciprocal
Interrogative

Personal
Reflexive
2. She wants to do it Possessive
herself. Relative
Indefinite
Reciprocal
 Interrogative

Personal
Reflexive
Possessive
3. I can't find them. Relative
Indefinite
Reciprocal
Interrogative

Personal
Reflexive
Possessive
4. I can't believe it's
Relative
finally ours.
Indefinite
Reciprocal
Interrogative

Personal
Reflexive
5. The girl who usually Possessive
cuts my hair has won the Relative
lottery. Indefinite
Reciprocal
Interrogative

Personal
Reflexive
Possessive
6. He wants to go to
Relative
Scarborough.
Indefinite
Reciprocal
Interrogative

Personal
7. Why are you shouting
Reflexive
at me?
Possessive
 Relative
Indefinite
Reciprocal
Interrogative

Personal
Reflexive
Possessive
8. Jim gave me the last
Relative
copy.
Indefinite
Reciprocal
Interrogative

Personal
Reflexive
Possessive
9. Nobody said a word all
Relative
night.
Indefinite
Reciprocal
Interrogative

Numerals

Numerals include all numbers, whether as words or as

digits. They may be divided into two major types.
CARDINAL numerals include words like:

naught, zero, one, two, 3, fifty-six, 100, a

thousand
ORDINAL numerals include

first, 2nd, third, fourth, 500th

We classify numerals as a subclass of nouns because in
certain circumstances they can take plurals:

five twos are ten

he's in his eighties
They may also take the:

the fourth of July

a product of the 1960s
And some plural numerals can take an adjective before
them, just like other nouns:

the house was built in the late 1960s

he's in his early twenties
the temperature is in the high nineties
In each of our examples, the numerals occur
independently, that is, without a noun following them.
In these positions, we can classify them as a type of
noun because they behave in much the same way as
nouns do. Notice, for example, that we can replace the
numerals in our examples with common nouns:

he is in his eighties ~he is in his bedroom

the fourth of July ~the beginning of July
~a product of the
a product of the 1960s
revolution

Numerals do not always occur independently. They

often occur before a noun, as in

one day
three pages
the fourth day of July
In this position, we classify them as determiners, which
we will examine in the next section.
Finally, see if you can answer this question:

Is the subclass of numerals open or closed?

The Gender of Nouns

The gender of nouns plays an important role in the

grammar of some languages. In French, for instance, a
masculine noun can only take the masculine form of an
adjective. If the noun is feminine, then it will take a
different form of the same adjective - its feminine
form.

In English, however, nouns are not in themselves

masculine or feminine. They do not have grammatical
gender, though they may refer to male or female people
or animals:

~the waitress is very

the waiter is very prompt
prompt
the lion roars at night ~the lioness roars at night

These distinctions in spelling reflect differences in sex,

but they have no grammatical implications. For
instance, we use the same form of an adjective whether
we are referring to a waiter or to a waitress:

an efficient waiter ~an efficient waitress

Similarly, the natural distinctions reflected in such pairs

as brother/sister, nephew/niece, and king/queen have no
consequence for grammar. While they refer to specific
sexes, these words are not masculine or feminine in
themselves.

However, gender is significant in the choice of a

personal pronoun to replace a noun:

John is late ~He is late

Mary is late ~She is late

Here the choice of pronoun is determined by the sex of

the person being referred to. However, this distinction is
lost in the plural:

John and Mary are late ~They are late

John and David are late ~They are late
Mary and Jane are late ~They are late

Gender differences are also manifested in possessive

pronouns (his/hers) and in reflexive pronouns
(himself/herself).

When the notion of sex does not apply -- when we refer

to inanimate objects, for instance -- we use the pronoun
it:

the letter arrived late ~it arrived late

Determiners
Nouns are often preceded by the words the, a, or an. These
words are called DETERMINERS. They indicate the kind of
reference which the noun has. The determiner the is known as
the DEFINITE ARTICLE. It is used before both singular and
plural nouns:

Singular Plural
the taxi the taxis
the paper the papers
the apple the apples

The determiner a (or an, when the following noun begins with a
vowel) is the INDEFINITE ARTICLE. It is used when the noun
is singular:

a taxi
a paper
an apple
The articles the and a/an are the most common determiners, but
there are many others:

any taxi
that question
those apples
this paper
some apple
whatever taxi
whichever taxi
Many determiners express quantity:

all examples
both parents
many people
 each person
every night
several computers
few excuses
enough water
no escape
Perhaps the most common way to express quantity is to use a
numeral. We look at numerals as determiners in the next
section.

Numerals and Determiners

Numerals are determiners when they appear before a noun. In

this position, cardinal numerals express quantity:

one book
two books
twenty books
In the same position, ordinal numerals express sequence:

first impressions
second chance
third prize
The subclass of ordinals includes a set of words which are not
directly related to numbers (as first is related to one, second is
related to two, etc). These are called general ordinals, and they
include last, latter, next, previous, and subsequent. These words
also function as determiners:

next week
last orders
previous engagement
subsequent developments
When they do not come before a noun, as we've already seen,
numerals are a subclass of nouns. And like nouns, they can take
determiners:

the two of us
the first of many
They can even have numerals as determiners before them:

five twos are ten

In this example, twos is a plural noun and it has the determiner
five before it.

Exercise:
In each of the following sentences, indicate whether the
highlighted word is a numeral or a determiner:

1. Five twos are ten Numeral

Determiner

2. Seven is my lucky Numeral

number Determiner

3. Each team consists of Numeral

eleven players Determiner

4. They've invited me to a Numeral

second interview Determiner

5. He was the last to arrive, Numeral

as usual Determiner
 Pronouns and Determiners

There is considerable overlap between the determiner class

and the subclass of pronouns. Many words can be both:

Pronoun Determiner
This is a very boring book This book is very boring
That's an excellent film That film is excellent

As this table shows, determiners always come before a

noun, but pronouns are more independent than this. They
function in much the same way as nouns, and they can be
replaced by nouns in the sentences above:

This is a very boring ~Ivanhoe is a very boring

book book
That's an excellent film ~Witness is an excellent film

On the other hand, when these words are determiners, they

cannot be replaced by nouns:

This book is very boring ~*Ivanhoe book is very boring

~*Witness film is excellent
That film is excellent
The personal pronouns (I, you, he, etc) cannot be
determiners. This is also true of the possessive pronouns
(mine, yours, his/hers, ours, and theirs). However, these
pronouns do have corresponding forms which are
determiners:
 Possessive Pronoun Determiner
The white car is mine My car is white
Yours is the blue coat Your coat is blue
The car in the garage is His/her car is in the
his/hers garage
David's house is big, but Our house is bigger than
ours is bigger David's
Theirs is the house on
Their house is on the left
the left

The definite and the indefinite articles can never be

pronouns. They are always determiners.

Exercise:
In each of the following sentences, indicate whether the
highlighted word is a determiner or a pronoun:

1. These questions are easy Determiner

Pronoun

2. Is this yours? Determiner

Pronoun

3. Can I borrow some Determiner

sugar? Pronoun

4. This play of yours - Determiner

what's it about? Pronoun
5. These are really tasty Determiner
Pronoun

The Ordering of Determiners

Determiners occur before nouns, and they indicate the kind of

reference which the nouns have. Depending on their relative
position before a noun, we distinguish three classes of
determiners.

Central Post
Predeterminer Noun
Determiner determiner
I
all my many friends
met

A sentence like this is somewhat unusual, because it is rare

for all three determiner slots to be filled in the same sentence.
Generally, only one or two slots are filled.

Predeterminers

Predeterminers specify quantity in the noun which follows

them, and they are of three major types:

1. "Multiplying" expressions, including expressions ending in

times:

twice my salary
double my salary
ten times my salary
2. Fractions

half my salary
one-third my salary
3. The words all and both:

all my salary
both my salaries
Predeterminers do not normally co-occur:

*all half my salary

Central Determiners

The definite article the and the indefinite article a/an are the
most common central determiners:

all the book

half a chapter
As many of our previous examples show, the word my can
also occupy the central determiner slot. This is equally true of
the other possessives:

all your money

all his/her money
all our money
all their money
The demonstratives, too, are central determiners:

all these problems

twice that size
four times this amount

Postdeterminers

Cardinal and ordinal numerals occupy the postdeterminer

slot:

the two children

his fourth birthday
This applies also to general ordinals:

my next project
our last meeting
your previous remark
her subsequent letter
Other quantifying expressions are also postdeterminers:

my many friends
our several achievements
the few friends that I have
Unlike predeterminers, postdeterminers can co-occur:

my next two projects

several other people

Exercise:
Identify all the determiners in each of the following
sentences.

1. I'll just have half a cup

2. She calls her two children twice a week

3. Your photograph is in all the papers

 4. Both these books were published last year

5. Other people get double the amount we get

6. I really need a new computer

Verbs

Verbs have traditionally been defined as "action" words or

"doing" words. The verb in the following sentence is rides:
Paul rides a bicycle
Here, the verb rides certainly denotes an action which Paul
performs - the action of riding a bicycle. However, there are
many verbs which do not denote an action at all. For example, in
Paul seems unhappy, we cannot say that the verb seems denotes
an action. We would hardly say that Paul is performing any
action when he seems unhappy. So the notion of verbs as
"action" words is somewhat limited.

We can achieve a more robust definition of verbs by looking

first at their formal features.

The Base Form

Here are some examples of verbs in sentences:

[1] She travels to work by train
[2] David sings in the choir
[3] We walked five miles to a garage
[4] I cooked a meal for the family
Notice that in [1] and [2], the verbs have an -s ending, while in
[3] and [4], they have an -ed ending. These endings are known
as INFLECTIONS, and they are added to the BASE FORM of
the verb. In [1], for instance, the -s inflection is added to the
base form travel.

Certain endings are characteristic of the base forms of verbs:

Ending Base Form

-ate concentrate, demonstrate, illustrate
-ify clarify, dignify, magnify
-ise/-ize baptize, conceptualize, realise

Past and Present Forms

When we refer to a verb in general terms, we usually cite its

base form, as in "the verb travel", "the verb sing". We then add
inflections to the base form as required.

Base
+ Inflection
Form
[1] She travel + s to work by train
[2]
sing + s in the choir
David
[3] We walk + ed five miles to a garage
a meal for the whole
[4] I cook + ed
family
These inflections indicate TENSE. The -s inflection indicates
the PRESENT TENSE, and the -ed inflection indicates the
PAST TENSE.

Verb endings also indicate PERSON. Recall that when we

looked at nouns and pronouns, we saw that there are three
persons, each with a singular and a plural form. These are
shown in the table below.

Person Singular Plural

1st Person I we
2nd person you you
3rd Person he/she/John/the dog they/the dogs

In sentence [1], She travels to work by train, we have a third

person singular pronoun she, and the present tense ending -s.
However, if we replace she with a plural pronoun, then the verb
will change:

[1] She travels to work by train

[1a] They travel to work by train
The verb travel in [1a] is still in the present tense, but it has
changed because the pronoun in front of it has changed. This
correspondence between the pronoun (or noun) and the verb is
called AGREEMENT or CONCORD. Agreement applies only
to verbs in the present tense. In the past tense, there is no
distinction between verb forms: she travelled/they travelled.

Exercise:
Identify all the verbs in the following extract.
Her pace slowed and an ache spread from between her shoulders. Vapours swirled
and banked; the light of on-coming headlights drained out of the car. [...] Sodium
street lamps burned phosphorescent holes in the fog, but as she turned off Main
Street to the cottage she noticed the one which illuminated the alley was out.

The Infinitive Form

The INFINITIVE form of a verb is the form which

follows to:

to ask to protect
to believe to sing
to cry to talk
to go to wish

This form is indistinguishable from the base form.

Indeed, many people cite this form when they identify a
verb, as in "This is the verb to be", although to is not part
of the verb.

Infinitives with to are referred to specifically as TO-

INFINITIVES, in order to distinguish them from BARE
INFINITIVES, in which to is absent:
 To-infinitive Bare infinitive
Help me to open the gate Help me open the gate

More Verb Forms: -ing and -ed

So far we have looked at three verb forms: the present

form, the past form, and the infinitive/base form. Verbs
have two further forms which we will look at now.
[1] The old lady is writing a play
[2] The film was produced in Hollywood
The verb form writing in [1] is known as the -ing form, or
the -ING PARTICIPLE form. In [2], the verb form
produced is called the -ed form, or -ED PARTICIPLE
form.

Many so-called -ed participle forms do not end in -ed at

all:

The film was written by John Brown

The film was bought by a British company
The film was made in Hollywood
All of these forms are called -ed participle forms, despite
their various endings. The term "-ed participle form" is
simply a cover term for all of these forms.

The -ed participle form should not be confused with the -

ed inflection which is used to indicate the past tense of
many verbs.

We have now looked at all five verb forms. By way of

summary, let us bring them together and see how they
look for different verbs. For convenience, we will
illustrate only the third person singular forms (the forms
which agree with he/she/it) of each verb. Notice that
some verbs have irregular past forms and -ed forms.

Present Past
Base/Infinitive -ing -ed
Tense Tense
Form Form Form
Form Form
he he he is he has
cook
cooks cooked cooking cooked
he he he is he has
walk
walks walked walking walked
he he is he has
take he took
takes taking taken
he he he is he has
bring
brings brought bringing brought
he is he has
be he is he was
being been

Exercise:
A verb has been highlighted in each of the following
sentences. Indicate the form of the verb by selecting one
of the choices given.

1. He plays the piano in a Present

jazz club Past
Infinitive
-ed
-ing

2. David is singing in the Present

shower again Past
Infinitive
 -ed
-ing

3. He was told not to laugh Present

at policemen Past
Infinitive
-ed
-ing

4. His arm swelled up after Present

the accident Past
Infinitive
-ed
-ing

5. The population has Present

increased by 6% since Past
1970 Infinitive
-ed
-ing

Finite and Nonfinite Verbs

Verbs which have the past or the present form are called
FINITE verbs. Verbs in any other form (infinitive, -ing,
or -ed) are called NONFINITE verbs. This means that
verbs with tense are finite, and verbs without tense are
nonfinite. The distinction between finite and nonfinite
verbs is a very important one in grammar, since it affects
how verbs behave in sentences. Here are some examples
of each type:
 Finite or
Tense
Nonfinite?
David plays the
Present Finite
piano
My sister spoke
Past Finite
French on holiday
It took courage to NONE -- the
continue after the verb has the Nonfinite
accident infinitive form
NONE -- the
Leaving home can
verb has the - Nonfinite
be very traumatic
ing form
Leave immediately NONE -- the
when you are verb has the - Nonfinite
asked to do so ed form

Exercise:
In each of the following sentences, indicate whether the
highlighted verb is finite or nonfinite.

1. Paul runs to work every Finite

day Nonfinite

2. They have run away Finite

together Nonfinite

3. Tim gave Paul a Finite

menacing look Nonfinite
 4. Katie was watching TV Finite
when the phone rang Nonfinite

5. We found him smoking Finite

behind the shed Nonfinite

Auxiliary Verbs

In the examples of -ing and -ed forms which we looked

at, you may have noticed that in each case two verbs
appeared:

[1] The old lady is writing a play

[2] The film was produced in Hollywood
Writing and produced each has another verb before it.
These other verbs (is and was) are known as
AUXILIARY VERBS, while writing and produced are
known as MAIN VERBS or LEXICAL VERBS. In fact,
all the verbs we have looked at on the previous pages
have been main verbs.

Auxiliary verbs are sometimes called HELPING VERBS.

This is because they may be said to "help" the main verb
which comes after them. For example, in The old lady is
writing a play, the auxiliary is helps the main verb
writing by specifying that the action it denotes is still in
progress.

Auxiliary Verb Types

In this section we will give a brief account of of each type

of auxiliary verb in English. There are five types in total:
Passive be This is used to form passive
constructions, eg.

The film was produced in

Hollywood

It has a corresponding
present form:

The film is produced in

Hollywood

We will return to passives

later, when we look at voice.
Progressive As the name suggests, the
be progressive expresses action
in progress:

The old lady is writing a play

It also has a past form:

The old lady was writing a

play
Perfective The perfective auxiliary
have expresses an action
accomplished in the past but
retaining current relevance:

She has broken her leg

(Compare: She broke her

leg)

Together with the

progressive auxiliary, the
 perfective auxiliary encodes
aspect, which we will look at
later.
Modal Modals express permission,
can/could ability, obligation, or
may/might prediction:
shall/should
will/would You can have a sweet if you
must like
He may arrive early
Paul will be a footballer
someday
I really should leave now
Dummy Do This subclass contains only
the verb do. It is used to
form questions:

Do you like cheese?

to form negative statements:

I do not like cheese

and in giving orders:

Do not eat the cheese

Finally, dummy do can be

used for emphasis:

I do like cheese

An important difference between auxiliary verbs and

main verbs is that auxiliaries never occur alone in a
sentence. For instance, we cannot remove the main verb
from a sentence, leaving only the auxiliary:
 I would like a new job ~*I would a new job
You should buy a new car ~*You should a new car
She must be crazy ~*She must crazy

Auxiliaries always occur with a main verb. On the other

hand, main verbs can occur without an auxiliary.

I like my new job

I bought a new car
She sings like a bird
In some sentences, it may appear that an auxiliary does
occur alone. This is especially true in responses to
questions:

Q. Can you sing?

A. Yes, I can
Here the auxiliary can does not really occur without a
main verb, since the main verb -- sing -- is in the
question. The response is understood to mean:

Yes, I can sing

This is known as ellipsis -- the main verb has been

ellipted from the response.

Auxiliaries often appear in a shortened or contracted

form, especially in informal contexts. For instance,
auxiliary have is often shortened to 've:

I have won the lottery ~I've won the lottery

These shortened forms are called enclitic forms.
Sometimes different auxiliaries have the same enclitic
forms, so you should distinguish carefully between them:

I'd like a new job ( = modal auxiliary would)

We'd already spent the money by then ( =
perfective auxiliary had)

He's been in there for ages ( = perfective

auxiliary has)
She's eating her lunch ( = progressive
auxiliary is)

The following exercise concentrates on three of the most

important auxiliaries -- be, have, and do.

Exercise:
Is the highlighted verb a main verb or an auxiliary verb?

1. I will have the soup Main Verb

Auxiliary
Verb

2. Police are investigating the Main Verb

incident Auxiliary
Verb

3. It is very peaceful here Main Verb

Auxiliary
Verb

4. Where does your brother Main Verb

work? Auxiliary
Verb

5. They have decided to Main Verb

 advertise your job Auxiliary
Verb

Main Verb
6. He does his homework on
Auxiliary
the way to school
Verb

The NICE Properties of Auxiliaries

The so-called NICE properties of auxiliaries serve to

distinguish them from main verbs. NICE is an acronym
for:

Negation Auxiliaries take not or n't to form the

negative, eg. cannot, don't, wouldn't
Inversion Auxiliaries invert with what precedes
them when we form questions:

[I will] see you soon ~[Will I] see you

soon?
Code Auxiliaries may occur "stranded"
where a main verb has been omitted:

John never sings, but Mary does

Emphasis Auxiliaries can be used for emphasis:

I do like cheese

Main verbs do not exhibit these properties. For instance,

when we form a question using a main verb, we cannot
invert:

[John sings] in the choir ~*[Sings John] in the

choir?
Instead, we have to use the auxiliary verb do:

[John sings] in the choir ~[Does John sing] in

the choir?

Semi-auxiliaries

Among the auxiliary verbs, we distinguish a large number

of multi-word verbs, which are called SEMI-
AUXILIARIES. These are two-or three-word
combinations, and they include the following:

get to seem to be about to

happen to tend to be going to
have to turn out to be likely to
mean to used to be supposed to

Like other auxiliaries, the semi-auxiliaries occur before

main verbs:

The film is about to start

I'm going to interview the Lord Mayor

I have to leave early today

You are supposed to sign both forms

I used to live in that house

Some of these combinations may, of course, occur in

other contexts in which they are not semi-auxiliaries. For
example:

I'm going to London

Here, the combination is not a semi-auxiliary, since it
does not occur with a main verb. In this sentence, going is
a main verb. Notice that it could be replaced by another
main verb such as travel (I'm travelling to London). The
word 'm is the contracted form of am, the progressive
auxiliary, and to, as we'll see later, is a preposition.

Tense and Aspect

TENSE refers to the absolute location of an event or

action in time, either the present or the past. It is marked
by an inflection of the verb:
David walks to school (present tense)
David walked to school (past tense)

Reference to other times -- the future, for instance -- can

be made in a number of ways, by using the modal
auxiliary will, or the semi-auxiliary be going to:

David will walk to school tomorrow

David is going to walk to school tomorrow.

Since the expression of future time does not involve any

inflection of the verb, we do not refer to a "future tense".
Strictly speaking, there are only two tenses in English:
present and past.

ASPECT refers to how an event or action is to be viewed

with respect to time, rather than to its actual location in
time. We can illustrate this using the following
examples:

[1] David fell in love on his eighteenth

birthday
 [2] David has fallen in love
[3] David is falling in love

In [1], the verb fell tells us that David fell in love in the
past, and specifically on his eighteenth birthday. This is a
simple past tense verb.

In [2] also, the action took place in the past, but it is

implied that it took place quite recently. Furthermore, it is
implied that is still relevant at the time of speaking --
David has fallen in love, and that's why he's behaving
strangely. It is worth noting that we cannot say *David
has fallen in love on his eighteenth birthday. The
auxiliary has here encodes what is known as
PERFECTIVE ASPECT, and the auxiliary itself is
known as the PERFECTIVE AUXILIARY.

In [3], the action of falling in love is still in progress --

David is falling in love at the time of speaking. For this
reason, we call it PROGRESSIVE ASPECT, and the
auxiliary is called the PROGRESSIVE AUXILIARY.

Aspect always includes tense. In [2] and [3] above, the

aspectual auxiliaries are in the present tense, but they
could also be in the past tense:

David had fallen in love -- Perfective Aspect,

Past Tense
David was falling in love -- Progressive
Aspect, Past Tense

The perfective auxiliary is always followed by a main

verb in the -ed form, while the progressive auxiliary is
followed by a main verb in the -ing form. We exemplify
these points in the table below:
 Perfective Aspect Progressive Aspect
Present Tense has fallen is falling
Past Tense had fallen was falling

While aspect always includes tense, tense can occur

without aspect (David falls in love, David fell in love).

Exercise:
Each of the following sentences exhibits aspect. Is it
perfective aspect or progressive aspect?

1. David has bought a new Perfective

house Progressive

2. I think we have seen this Perfective

film already Progressive

3. The whole class is going Perfective

to the theatre tonight Progressive

4. John's left his coat in the Perfective

car Progressive

5. Susan's leaving today Perfective

Progressive
 Voice

There are two voices in English, the active voice and the
passive voice:

Active Voice Passive Voice

[1] Paul congratulated [2] David was
David congratulated by Paul

Passive constructions are formed using the PASSIVE

AUXILIARY be, and the main verb has an -ed inflection.
In active constructions, there is no passive auxiliary,
though other auxiliaries may occur:

Paul is congratulating David

Paul will congratulate David
Paul has congratulated David

All of these examples are active constructions, since they

contain no passive auxiliary. Notice that in the first
example (Paul is congratulating David), the auxiliary is
the progressive auxiliary, not the passive auxiliary. We
know this because the main verb congratulate has an -ing
inflection, not an -ed inflection.

In the passive construction in [2], we refer to Paul as the

AGENT. This is the one who performs the action of
congratulating David. Sometimes no agent is specified:

David was congratulated

We refer to this as an AGENTLESS PASSIVE

Exercise:
Are the following constructions active or passive?
 1. Jane decided to cancel Active
the party Passive

2. The lecturer was Active

impressed by your essay Passive

3. Your horse is walking on Active

our lawn Passive

4. The top floor was Active

destroyed Passive

5. The pills should be taken Active

twice a day Passive

Adjectives
Adjectives can be identified using a number of formal criteria.
However, we may begin by saying that they typically describe
an attribute of a noun:

cold weather
large windows
violent storms

Some adjectives can be identified by their endings. Typical

adjective endings include:

-able/-ible achievable, capable, illegible, remarkable

-al biographical, functional, internal, logical
 -ful beautiful, careful, grateful, harmful
-ic cubic, manic, rustic, terrific
-ive attractive, dismissive, inventive, persuasive
-less breathless, careless, groundless, restless
-ous courageous, dangerous, disastrous, fabulous

However, a large number of very common adjectives cannot be

identified in this way. They do not have typical adjectival
form:

bad distant quiet

bright elementary real
clever good red
cold great silent
common honest simple
complete hot strange
dark main wicked
deep morose wide
difficult old young

As this list shows, adjectives are formally very diverse.

However, they have a number of characteristics which we can
use to identify them.

Characteristics of Adjectives

Adjectives can take a modifying word, such as very, extremely,

or less, before them:

very cold weather

extremely large windows
less violent storms

Here, the modifying word locates the adjective on a scale of

comparison, at a position higher or lower than the one indicated
by the adjective alone.
This characteristic is known as GRADABILITY. Most
adjectives are gradable, though if the adjective already denotes
the highest position on a scale, then it is non-gradable:

my main reason for ~*my very main reason for

coming coming

the principal role in the ~*the very principal role in the

play play

As well as taking modifying words like very and extremely,

adjectives also take different forms to indicate their position on
a scale of comparison:

big bigger biggest

The lowest point on the scale is known as the ABSOLUTE

form, the middle point is known as the COMPARATIVE form,
and the highest point is known as the SUPERLATIVE form.
Here are some more examples:

Absolute Comparative Superlative

dark darker darkest
new newer newest
old older oldest
young younger youngest

In most cases, the comparative is formed by adding -er , and the

superlative is formed by adding -est, to the absolute form.
However, a number of very common adjectives are irregular in
this respect:
 Absolute Comparative Superlative
good better best
bad worse worst
far farther farthest

Some adjectives form the comparative and superlative using

more and most respectively:

Absolute Comparative Superlative

important more important most important
miserable more miserable most miserable
recent more recent most recent

Exercise:
In the following sentences, the highlighted words are adjectives.
Choose the adjective features (a-c) that each exhibits.

1. His new car was stolen.

a. It has a typical adjective shape.
b. It is gradable.
c. It can undergo comparison.
2. Something smells good.

a. It has a typical adjective shape.

b. It is gradable.
c. It can undergo comparison.
3. Their restaurant is very successful.

a. It has a typical adjective shape.

b. It is gradable.
 c. It can undergo comparison.
4. What an unbelievable story!

a. It has a typical adjective shape.

b. It is gradable.
c. It can undergo comparison.

5. My uncle is an atomic scientist.

a. It has a typical adjective shape.
b. It is gradable.
c. It can undergo comparison.

Attributive and Predicative Adjectives

Most adjectives can occur both before and after a noun:

the blue sea ~ the sea is blue

the old man ~ the man is old
happy ~ the children are
children happy

Adjectives in the first position - before the noun - are

called ATTRIBUTIVE adjectives. Those in the second
position - after the noun - are called PREDICATIVE
adjectives. Notice that predicative adjectives do not
occur immediately after the noun. Instead, they follow a
verb.

Sometimes an adjective does occur immediately after a

noun, especially in certain institutionalized expressions:

the Governor General

 the Princess Royal
times past
We refer to these as POSTPOSITIVE adjectives.
Postposition is obligatory when the adjective modifies a
pronoun:
something useful
everyone present
those responsible
Postpositive adjectives are commonly found together
with superlative, attributive adjectives:
the shortest route possible
the worst conditions imaginable
the best hotel available

Most adjectives can freely occur in both the attributive

and the predicative positions. However, a small number
of adjectives are restricted to one position only. For
example, the adjective main (the main reason) can only
occur in the attributive position (predicative: *the reason
is main). Conversely, the adjective afraid (the child was
afraid) can only occur predicatively (attributive: *an
afraid child).

Exercise:
Assign the highlighted adjectives in each of the
following examples to one of the three positions.

1. The green door opened Attributive

slowly. Predicative
Postpositive

2. This stretch of water is Attributive

dangerous. Predicative
Postpositive
 3. The share-holders present Attributive
voted against the Chairman. Predicative
Postpositive

4. Jan feels ill. Attributive

Predicative
Postpositive

5. A larger than normal pay Attributive

increase was awarded to the Predicative
nurses. Postpositive

We have now looked at the main criteria for the adjective class -
gradability, comparative and superlative forms, and the ability to
occur attributively and predicatively. Most adjectives fulfill all
these criteria, and are known as CENTRAL adjectives. Those
which do not fulfill all the criteria are known as PERIPHERAL
adjectives.

We will now examine the adjective class in more detail.

Inherent and Non-inherent Adjectives

Most attributive adjectives denote some attribute of the noun

which they modify. For instance, the phrase a red car may be
said to denote a car which is red. In fact most adjective-noun
sequences such as this can be loosely reformulated in a similar
way:
an old man ~a man who is old
difficult questions ~questions which are difficult
round glasses ~glasses which are round
This applies equally to postpositive adjectives:

something understood ~something which is

understood
the people responsible ~the people who are
responsible
In each case the adjective denotes an attribute or quality of the
noun, as the reformulations show. Adjectives of this type are
known as INHERENT adjectives. The attribute they denote is,
as it were, inherent in the noun which they modify.

However, not all adjectives are related to the noun in the same
way. For example, the adjective small in a small businessman
does not describe an attribute of the businessman. It cannot be
reformulated as a businessman who is small. Instead, it refers to
a businessman whose business is small. We refer to adjectives
of this type as NON-INHERENT adjectives. They refer less
directly to an attribute of the noun than inherent adjectives do.
Here are some more examples, showing the contrast betwen
inherent and non-inherent:

Inherent Non-inherent
distant hills distant relatives
a complete chapter a complete idiot
a heavy burden a heavy smoker
a social survey a social animal
an old man an old friend

Stative and Dynamic Adjectives

As their name suggests, STATIVE adjectives denote a state or

condition, which may generally be considered permanent, such
as big, red, small. Stative adjectives cannot normally be used in
imperative constructions:

*Be big/red/small
Further, they cannot normally be used in progressive
constructions:

*He is being big/red/small

In contrast, DYNAMIC adjectives denote attributes which are,
to some extent at least, under the control of the one who
possesses them. For instance, brave denotes an attribute which
may not always be in evidence (unlike red, for example), but
which may be called upon as it is required. For this reason, it is
appropriate to use it in an imperative:

Be brave!
Dynamic adjectives include:

calm mannerly
careful patient
cruel rude
disruptive shy
foolish suspicious
friendly tidy
good vacuous
impatient vain

All dynamic adjectives can be used in imperatives (Be careful!,

Don't be cruel!), and they can also be used predicatively in
progressive constructions:

Your son is being disruptive in class.

My friends are being foolish again.
We're being very patient with you.
The majority of adjectives are stative. The
stative/dynamic contrast, as it relates to adjectives, is
largely a semantic one, though as we have seen it also
has syntactic implications.
 Nominal Adjectives

Certain adjectives are used to denote a class by

describing one of the attributes of the class. For
example, the poor denotes a class of people who share a
similar financial status. Other nominal adjectives are:
the old
the sick
the wealthy
the blind
the innocent
A major subclass of nominal adjectives refers to
nationalities:

the French
the British
the Japanese
However, not all nationalities have corresponding
nominal adjectives. Many of them are denoted by plural,
proper nouns:

the Germans
the Russians
the Americans
the Poles

Nominal adjectives do not refer exclusively to classes of

people. Indeed some of them do not denote classes at
all:

the opposite
the contrary
the good
Comparative and superlative forms can also be nominal
adjectives:

the best is yet to come

 the elder of the two
the greatest of these
the most important among them
We refer to all of these types as nominal adjectives
because they share some of the characteristics of nouns
(hence `nominal') and some of the characteristics of
adjectives. They have the following nominal
characteristics:

 they are preceded by a determiner (usually

the definite article the)
 they can be modified by adjectives (the
gallant French, the unfortunate poor)

They have the following adjectival features:

 they are gradable (the very old, the

extremely wealthy)
 many can take comparative and superlative
forms (the poorer, the poorest)

Adjectives and Nouns

We have seen that attributive adjectives occur before a

noun which they modify, for example, red in red car.
We need to distinguish these clearly from nouns which
occur in the same position, and fulfill the same syntactic
function. Consider the following:

rally car
saloon car
family car

Here, the first word modifies the second, that is, it tells
us something further about the car. For example, a rally
car is a car which is driven in rallies. These modifiers
occur in the same position as red in the example above,
but they are not adjectives. We can show this by
applying our criteria for the adjective class.

Firstly, they do not take very:

*a very rally car

*a very saloon car
*a very family car
Secondly, they do not have comparative or superlative
forms:

*rallier *ralliest / *more rally / *most rally

*salooner *saloonest / *more saloon / *most
saloon
*familier *familiest / *more family / *most
family

And finally, they cannot occur in predicative position:

*the car is rally

*the car is saloon
*the car is family

So although these words occupy the typical adjective

position, they are not adjectives. They are nouns.

However, certain adjectives are derived from nouns, and

are known as DENOMINAL adjectives. Examples
include:

a mathematical puzzle [`a puzzle based on

mathematics']
a biological experiment [`an experiment in
biology']
a wooden boat [`a boat made of wood']
Denominals include adjectives which refer to
nationality:

a Russian lady [`a lady who comes from

Russia']
German goods [`goods produced in
Germany']

Denominal adjectives of this type should be carefully

distinguished from nominal adjectives denoting
nationalities. Compare:

Nominal Adjective: The French are noted

for their wines
Denominal Adjective: The French people are
noted for their wines

Exercise:
In each of the following sentences, indicate whether the
highlighted word is an adjective or a noun.

1. Life insurance is not Adjective

cheap. Noun

2. The Prime Minister is a Adjective

close friend of mine. Noun

3. The Chinese Embassy is Adjective

just down the road. Noun
 4. Friday is a busy day for Adjective
me. Noun

5. Our patient records are Adjective

confidential. Noun

Participial Adjectives

We saw in an earlier section that many adjectives can be

identified by their endings. Another major subclass of
adjectives can also be formally distinguished by
endings, this time by -ed or -ing endings:

computerized, determined, excited,

-ed
misunderstood, renowned, self-centred,
form
talented, unknown
annoying, exasperating, frightening,
-ing
gratifying, misleading, thrilling, time-
form
consuming, worrying

Remember that some -ed forms, such as misunderstood

and unknown, do not end in -ed at all. This is simply a
cover term for this form. Adjectives with -ed or -ing
endings are known as PARTICIPIAL ADJECTIVES,
because they have the same endings as verb participles
(he was training for the Olympics, he had trained for the
Olympics). In some cases there is a verb which
corresponds to these adjectives (to annoy, to
computerize, to excite, etc), while in others there is no
corresponding verb (*to renown, *to self-centre, *to
talent). Like other adjectives, participial adjectives can
usually be modified by very, extremely, or less (very
determined, extremely self-centred, less frightening,
etc). They can also take more and most to form
comparatives and superlatives (annoying, more
annoying, most annoying). Finally, most participial
adjectives can be used both attributively and
predicatively:

Attributive Predicative
That's an irritating noise That noise is irritating
This is an exciting film This film is exciting
He's a talented footballer That footballer is talented

Many participial adjectives, which have no

corresponding verb, are formed by combining a noun
with a participle:

alcohol-based chemicals
battle-hardened soldiers
drug-induced coma
energy-saving devices
fact-finding mission
purpose-built accommodation
These, too, can be used predicatively (the chemicals are
alcohol-based, the soldiers were battle-hardened, etc).

When participial adjectives are used predicatively, it

may sometimes be difficult to distinguish between
adjectival and verbal uses:

[1] the workers are striking

In the absence of any further context, the grammatical
status of striking is indeterminate here. The following
expansions illustrate possible adjectival [1a] and verbal
[1b] readings of [1]:

[1a] the workers are very striking in their

new uniforms (=`impressive',
`conspicuous')

[1b] the workers are striking outside the

factory gates (=`on strike')

Consider the following pair:

[2] the noise is annoying

[3] the noise is annoying the neighbours
In [2], we can modify annoying using very:

[2a] the noise is (very) annoying

But we cannot modify it in the same way in [3]:

[3a] *the noise is (very) annoying the

neighbors
The acceptability of [2a] indicates that annoying is an
adjective in this construction. In [3], the verbal nature of
annoying is indicated by the fact that we cannot add
very, as in [3a]. It is further indicated by the presence of
the neighbours (the direct object) after annoying. Notice
also that we can turn [3] into a passive sentence (the
neighbors were annoyed by the noise). In this case,
annoying is the main verb of the sentence, and it is
preceded by the progressive auxiliary verb is. In [2],
there is only one verb, the main verb is.

We can distinguish between the following pairs using

the same criteria:
 Adjectival Verbal
This film is terrifying the
This film is terrifying
children
Your comments are Your comments are
alarming alarming the people
The defendant's
The defendant's answers
answers were
were misleading the jury
misleading

We can also identify -ing forms as verbal if it is possible

to change the -ing form into a non-progressive verb:

Progressive Non-progressive
The children are dancing The children dance
My eyes are stinging My eyes sting
The wood is drying The wood dries

Compare these changes from progressive to non-

progressive with the following:

the work is rewarding ~*the work rewards

the job was exacting ~*the job exacted
your paper was interesting ~*your paper interested
In these instances, the inability to produce fully
acceptable non-progressive sentences indicates
adjectival use.

Similar indeterminacy occurs with -ed forms. Again, we

can generally use very to determine whether the -ed
word is adjectival or verbal:

The bomb was ~*The bomb was very

detonated detonated
This document is ~*This document is very
hand-written hand-written
~*My house was very
My house was built in
built in only twelve
only twelve weeks
weeks
Ten people were ~*Ten people were very
killed killed

The inability to supply very in these cases indicates a

verbal rather than an adjectival construction. However,
this test is less reliable with -ed forms than it is with -
ing forms, since very can sometimes be supplied in both
the adjectival and the verbal constructions:

Adjectival Verbal
I was embarrassed by your
I was embarrassed
behaviour
I was very
I was very embarrassed by your
embarrassed
behaviour
She was surprised by my
She was surprised
reaction
She was very
She was very surprised by my
surprised
reaction

The presence of a by-agent phrase (by your behaviour,

by my reaction) indicates that the -ed form is verbal.
Conversely, the presence of a complement, such as a
that-clause, indicates that it is adjectival. Compare the
following two constructions:

The jury was convinced that the defendant

Adjectival:
was innocent
The jury was convinced by the lawyer's
Verbal:
argument

Here are some further examples of adjectival

constructions (with complements) and verbal
constructions (with by-agent phrases):

Adjectival Verbal
I was delighted to meet I was delighted by his
you again compliments
John is terrified of John is terrified by his
losing his job boss
I was frightened that I'd I was frightened by
be late your expression
I was disappointed to I was disappointed by
hear your decision your decision

If the -ed form is verbal, we can change the passive

construction in which it occurs into an active one:

Passive: I was delighted by his compliments

Active: His compliments delighted me
Discriminating between adjectival and verbal
constructions is sometimes facilitated by the presence of
additional context, such as by-agent phrases or adjective
complements. However, when none of these indicators
is present, grammatical indeterminacy remains.
Consider the following examples from conversational
English:

And you know if you don't know the simple

command how to get out of something you're
sunk.
But that's convenient because it's edged with
wood isn't it.
With -ed and -ing participial forms, there is no
grammatical indeterminacy if there is no corresponding
verb. For example, in the job was time-consuming, and
the allegations were unfounded, the participial forms are
adjectives.

Similarly, the problem does not arise if the main verb is

not be. For example, the participial forms in this book
seems boring, and he remained offended are all
adjectives. Compare the following:
John was depressed
John felt depressed

Exercise:
In each of the following sentences, indicate whether the
highlighted word is a participial adjective or a verb.

1. He told me a moving Participial

story about his childhood. Adjective
 Verb

2. Our piano was tuned by a Participial

Mr. Beethoven. Adjective
Verb

3. I spent four hours Participial

calculating your tax Adjective
returns. Verb

4. His new novel is open- Participial

ended. Adjective
Verb

5. The whole affair became Participial

terribly complicated. Adjective
Verb

The Ordering of Adjectives

When two or more adjectives come before a noun, their

relative order is fixed to a certain degree. This means,
for instance, that while complex mathematical studies is
grammatically acceptable, mathematical complex
studies is less so. Similarly:

a huge red bomber ~*a red huge bomber

a long narrow road ~*a narrow long road
the lovely little black ~*the Japanese black
Japanese box little lovely box
Here we will discuss some of the most common
sequences which occur, though these should not be seen
as ordering rules. Counter examples can often be found
quite easily.

Central adjectives, as we saw earlier, are adjectives

which fulfill all the criteria for the adjective class. In
this sense, they are more "adjectival" than, say,
denominal adjectives, which also have some of the
properties of nouns.

This distinction has some significance in the ordering of

adjectives. In general, the more adjectival a word is, the
farther from the noun it will be. Conversely, the less
adjectival it is (the more nominal), the nearer to the
noun it will be. The relative order of these adjective
types, then, is:

Sequence (1): CENTRAL -- DENOMINAL -- NOUN

This is the ordering found in complex mathematical

studies, for instance, and also in the following
examples:

expensive Russian dolls

heavy woolen clothes
huge polar bears
Colour adjectives are also central adjectives, but if they
co-occur with another central adjective, they come after
it:

Sequence (2): CENTRAL -- COLOUR -- NOUN

expensive green dolls

heavy black clothes
 huge white bears
and before denominal adjectives:

Sequence (3): COLOUR -- DENOMINAL -- NOUN

green Russian dolls

black woolen clothes
white polar bears
Participial adjectives also follow central adjectives:

Sequence (4): CENTRAL -- PARTICIPIAL --

DENOMINAL -- NOUN

expensive carved Russian dolls

heavy knitted woolen clothes
huge dancing polar bears
(1) - (4) account for many sequences of up to three
adjectives, in which each adjective is a different type. In
practice it is rare to find more than three attributive
adjectives together, especially if they are all different
types. However, such a sequence may occur:

certain expensive green Russian dolls

Here the sequence is:

Sequence (5): NON-GRADABLE -- CENTRAL --

COLOUR -- DENOMINAL -- NOUN

Non-gradable adjectives, in fact, are always first in an

adjective sequence. Here are some more examples:

Sequence (5a): NON-GRADABLE -- CENTRAL --

NOUN
certain difficult problems

Sequence (5b): NON-GRADABLE -- PARTICIPIAL --

NOUN
sheer unadulterated nonsense
Sequence (5c): NON-GRADABLE -- DENOMINAL --
NOUN
major medical advances
So far we have looked at sequences in which each
adjective is a different type. However, we very often
find adjectives of the same type occurring together:

big old buildings

beautiful little flowers
rich young people
Here all the adjectives are central adjectives, and in
sequences like these it is much more difficult to
determine the general principles governing their order.
Several schemes have been proposed, though none is
completely satisfactory or comprehensive.

The ordering of adjectives is influenced to some degree

by the presence of premodification. If one or more of
the adjectives in a sequence is premodified, say, by
very, then it generally comes at the start of the
sequence.

The laryngograph provides us with a very

accurate non-invasive physical measure of
voice.
It would be unusual, perhaps, to find very accurate
elsewhere in this sequence:

The laryngograph provides us with a non-

invasive very accurate physical measure of
voice.

The laryngograph provides us with a non-

invasive physical very accurate measure of
voice.
Conversely, adjective order restricts the degree to which
attributive adjectives may be premodified. Consider the
following:

a wealthy young businessman

a very wealthy young businessman
We cannot modify young in this example, while keeping
wealthy and young in the same relative order:

*a wealthy very young businessman

Nor can we move young to the first position and modify
it there, while retaining the same degree of
acceptability:

a very young wealthy businessman

Adverbs
Adverbs are used to modify a verb, an adjective, or another
adverb:
[1] Mary sings beautifully
[2] David is extremely clever
[3] This car goes incredibly fast
In [1], the adverb beautifully tells us how Mary sings. In [2],
extremely tells us the degree to which David is clever. Finally,
in [3], the adverb incredibly tells us how fast the car goes.

Before discussing the meaning of adverbs, however, we will

identify some of their formal characteristics.

Formal Characteristics of Adverbs

From our examples above, you can see that many adverbs end in
-ly. More precisely, they are formed by adding -ly to an
adjective:
 Adjective slow quick soft sudden gradual
Adverb slowly quickly softly suddenly gradually

Because of their distinctive endings, these adverbs are known as

-LY ADVERBS. However, by no means all adverbs end in -ly.
Note also that some adjectives also end in -ly, including costly,
deadly, friendly, kindly, likely, lively, manly, and timely.

Like adjectives, many adverbs are GRADABLE, that is, we can

modify them using very or extremely:

softly very softly

suddenly very suddenly
slowly extremely slowly

The modifying words very and extremely are themselves

adverbs. They are called DEGREE ADVERBS because they
specify the degree to which an adjective or another adverb
applies. Degree adverbs include almost, barely, entirely, highly,
quite, slightly, totally, and utterly. Degree adverbs are not
gradable (*extremely very).

Like adjectives, too, some adverbs can take COMPARATIVE

and SUPERLATIVE forms, with -er and -est:

John works hard -- Mary works harder -- I work

hardest
However, the majority of adverbs do not take these endings.
Instead, they form the comparative using more and the
superlative using most:
 Adverb Comparative Superlative
recently more recently most recently
effectively more effectively most effectively
frequently more frequently most frequently

In the formation of comparatives and superlatives, some adverbs

are irregular:

Adverb Comparative Superlative

well better best
badly worse worst
little less least
much more most

Adverbs and Adjectives

Adverbs and adjectives have important characteristics in
common -- in particular their gradability, and the fact that they
have comparative and superlative forms. However, an important
distinguishing feature is that adverbs do not modify nouns,
either attributively or predicatively:

Adjective Adverb
*David is a happily
David is a happy child
child
David is happy *David is happily

The following words, together with their comparative and

superlative forms, can be both adverbs and adjectives:
early, far, fast, hard, late

The following sentences illustrate the two uses of early:

Adjective Adverb
I awoke early this
I'll catch the early train
morning

The comparative better and the superlative best, as well as some

words denoting time intervals (daily, weekly, monthly), can also
be adverbs or adjectives, depending on how they are used.

We have incorporated some of these words into the following

exercise. See if you can distinguish between the adverbs and the
adjectives.

Exercise:
In each of the following pairs, indicate whether the highlighted
word is an adverb or an adjective:

1a. My train arrived late, as Adverb

usual Adjective

1b. I'm watching the late Adverb

film Adjective

2a. My brother loves fast Adverb

cars Adjective
2b. He drives too fast
Adverb
Adjective

3a. This exercise is harder Adverb

than I thought Adjective

3b. I hope you'll try harder Adverb

in future Adjective

4a. The Times is published Adverb

daily Adjective

4b. The Times is a daily Adverb

newspaper Adjective

5a. You've just ruined my Adverb

best shirt Adjective

5b. Computers work best if Adverb

you kick them Adjective

Although endings, gradability and comparison allow us to

identify many adverbs, there still remain a very large number of
them which cannot be identified in this way. In fact, taken as a
whole, the adverb class is the most diverse of all the word
classes, and its members exhibit a very wide range of forms and
functions. Many semantic classifications of adverbs have been
made, but here we will concentrate on just three of the most
distinctive classes, known collectively as circumstantial
adverbs.

Circumstantial Adverbs

Many adverbs convey information about the manner, time, or

place of an event or action. MANNER adverbs tell us how an
action is or should be performed:

She sang loudly in the bath.

The sky quickly grew dark.
They whispered softly.
I had to run fast to catch the bus.
TIME adverbs denote not only specific times but also
frequency:

I'll be checking out tomorrow

Give it back, now!
John rarely rings any more
I watch television sometimes
And finally, PLACE adverbs indicate where:

Put the box there, on the table

I've left my gloves somewhere
These three adverb types -- manner, time, and place -- are
collectively known as CIRCUMSTANTIAL ADVERBS. They
express one of the circumstances relating to an event or action -
how it happened (manner), when it happened (time), or where it
happened (place).

Exercise:
In each of the following sentences, indicate whether the
highlighted word is an adverb of manner, time, or place.

1. The thief crept silently Manner

across the rooftops Time
Place

2. I'm not feeling well today Manner

Time
Place

3. The teacher smiled Manner

enigmatically Time
Place

4. We'll meet here after the Manner

match Time
Place

5. My aunt never comes to Manner

visit Time
Place

Additives, Exclusives, and Particularizers

Additives "add" two or more items together, emphasizing

that they are all to be considered equal:
[1] Lynn's prewar success had been as a light
historical novelist; he employed similar
fanciful ideas in his war novels [...] Joseph
Hocking's war novels are also dominated by
romance and adventure.

[2] German firms have an existing advantage

as a greater number of their managers have
 technical or engineering degrees. Japanese
managers, too, have technical qualifications of
a high order.
In [1], the adverb also points to the similarities between
the war novels of Lynn and those of Hocking. In [2], the
adverb too functions in a similar way, emphasizing the
fact that the qualifications of Japanese managers are
similar to those of German managers.

In contrast with additives, EXCLUSIVE adverbs focus

attention on what follows them, to the exclusion of all
other possibilities:

[3] It's just a question of how we organize it.

[4] The federal convention [...] comes together

solely for the purpose of electing the
president.
In [3], just excludes all other potential questions from
consideration, while in [4], solely points out the fact that
the federal convention has no other function apart from
electing the president. Other exclusives include alone,
exactly, merely, and simply.

PARTICULARIZERS also focus attention on what

follows them, but they do not exclude other possibilities:

[5] The pastoralists are particularly found in

Africa.

[6] Now this book is mostly about what they

call modulation.
In [5], it is implied that Africa is not the only place where
pastoralists live. While most of them live there, some of
them live elsewhere. Sentence [6] implies that most of the
book is about modulation, though it deals with other,
unspecified topics as well.
Other particularizers include largely, mainly, primarily,
and predominantly.

Exercise:
An adverb has been highlighted in each of the following
sentences. Indicate whether it is additive, exclusive, or a
particularizer.

1. I was especially pleased to Additive

read about your award Exclusive
Particularizer

2. We're only trying to help, Additive

you know Exclusive
Particularizer

3. The rise in sea level is Additive

largely due to global Exclusive
warming Particularizer

4. Robert was both a Additive

coward and a thief Exclusive
Particularizer

5. Realism is precisely what Additive

I'm looking for Exclusive
Particularizer

Wh- Adverbs

A special subclass of adverbs includes a set of words

beginning with wh-. The most common are when, where,
and why, though the set also includes whence, whereby,
wherein, and whereupon. To this set we add the word
how, and we refer to the whole set as WH- ADVERBS.
Some members of the set can introduce an interrogative
sentence:

When are you going to New York?

Where did you leave the car?
Why did he resign?
How did you become interested in theatre?
They can also introduce various types of clause:

This is the town where Shakespeare was

born.
I've no idea how it works.

Sentence Adverbs

We conclude by looking at a set of adverbs which qualify

a whole sentence, and not just a part of it. Consider the
following:

Honestly, it doesn't matter

Here the sentence adverb honestly modifies the whole
sentence, and it expresses the speaker's opinion about
what is being said (When I say it doesn't matter, I am
speaking honestly). Here are some more examples:

Clearly, he has no excuse for such behaviour

Frankly, I don't care about your problems
Unfortunately, no refunds can be given
Some sentence adverbs link a sentence with a preceding
one:

England played well in the first half. However,

in the second half their weaknesses were
revealed.
Other sentence adverbs of this type are accordingly,
consequently, hence, moreover, similarly, and therefore.

Prepositions

Prepositions cannot be distinguished by any formal features. A

list of prepositions will illustrate this point:

across, after, at, before, by, during, from, in, into, of,
on, to, under, with, without
We can, say, however, that prepositions typically come before a
noun:

across town for lunch

after class in London
at home on fire
before Tuesday to school
by Shakespeare with pleasure

The noun does not necessarily come immediately after the

preposition, however, since determiners and adjectives can
intervene:

after the storm

on white horses
under the old regime
Whether or not there are any intervening determiners or
adjectives, prepositions are almost always followed by a noun.
In fact, this is so typical of prepositions that if they are not
followed by a noun, we call them "stranded" prepositions:

Preposition Stranded Preposition

This is the film John talked
John talked about the new film
about
Prepositions are invariable in their form, that is, they do not take
any inflections.

Exercise:
Identify all the prepositions in the following extract.

Dorothy Gilman attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts from 1940 to 1945,
the University of Pennsylvania, the Moore Institute of Art, and the Arts Students' League
from 1963 to 1964. She worked as an instructor of drawing in adult evening school for
two years at the Samuel Fleisher Art Memorial. She has also worked as a switchboard
operator for the American Bell Telephone Company, and as an instructor in creative
writing at Cherry Lawn School, Darien, Connecticut, from 1969 to 1970.

Complex Prepositions

The prepositions which we have looked at so far have all

consisted of a single word, such as in, of, at, and to. We
refer to these as SIMPLE PREPOSITIONS.

COMPLEX PREPOSITIONS consist of two- or three-

word combinations acting as a single unit. Here are some
examples:

according to due to
along with except for
apart from instead of
because of prior to
contrary to regardless of

Like simple prepositions, these two-word combinations

come before a noun:

according to Shakespeare
contrary to my advice
due to illness

Three-word combinations often have the following

pattern:
Simple Preposition + Noun + Simple Preposition

We can see this pattern in the following examples:

in aid of in line with

on behalf of in relation to
in front of with reference to
in accordance with with respect to
in line with by means of

Again, these combinations come before a noun:

in aid of charity
in front of the window
in line with inflation

Marginal Prepositions

A number of prepositions have affinities with other word

classes. In particular, some prepositions are verbal in
form:

Following his resignation, the minister moved to the

country
I am writing to you regarding your overdraft
The whole team was there, including John

We refer to these as MARGINAL PREPOSITIONS.

Other marginal prepositions include:

concerning, considering, excluding, given, granted,

pending

Non-verbal marginal prepositions include worth (it's

worth ten pounds) and minus (ten minus two is eight).

Conjunctions:
Conjunctions are used to express a connection between words.
The most familiar conjunctions are and, but, and or:

Paul and David

cold and wet
tired but happy
slowly but surely
tea or coffee
hot or cold
They can also connect longer units:

Paul plays football and David plays chess

I play tennis but I don't play well
We can eat now or we can wait till later
There are two types of conjunctions. COORDINATING
CONJUNCTIONS (or simply COORDINATORS) connect
elements of `equal' syntactic status:

Paul and David

I play tennis but I don't play well
meat or fish
Items which are connected by a coordinator are known as
CONJOINS. So in I play tennis but I don't play well, the
conjoins are [I play tennis] and [ I don't play well].

On the other hand, SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS (or

SUBORDINATORS) connect elements of `unequal' syntactic
status:
I left early because I had an interview the next day
We visited Mrs. Cathy while we were in London
I'll be home at nine if I can get a taxi
Other subordinating conjunctions include although, because,
before, since, till, unless, whereas, whether

Coordination and subordination are quite distinct concepts in

grammar. Notice, for example, that coordinators must appear
between the conjoins:

[Paul plays football] and [David plays chess]

~*And [David plays chess] [Paul plays football]

However, we can reverse the order of the conjoins, provided we

keep the coordinator between them:

[David plays chess] and [Paul plays football]

In contrast with this, subordinators do not have to occur between
the items they connect::

I left early because I had an interview the next day

~Because I had an interview the next day, I left early

But if we reverse the order of the items, we either change the

meaning completely:
I left early because I had an interview the next day

~I had an interview the next day because I left early

or we produce a very dubious sentence:

I'll be home at nine if I can get a taxi

I can get a taxi if I'll be home at nine

This shows that items linked by a subordinator have a very

specific relationship to each other -- it is a relationship of
syntactic dependency. There is no syntactic dependency in the
relationship between conjoins. We will further explore this topic
when we look at the grammar of clauses.
Exercise:
In each of the following sentences a conjunction is highlighted.
Is it a coordinator or a subordinator?

1. The proposal could not have

been considered further unless it Coordinator
had been signed by all the Subordinator
members back in May

2. Last year we visited Venice Coordinator

and Pisa Subordinator

3. Have there been any Coordinator

developments since we last met? Subordinator

4. Conversation used to be
entertainment, whereas now it's a Coordinator
means of exchanging Subordinator
information

5. Meg will drink red or white Coordinator

wine Subordinator

6. I find it very difficult to Coordinator

forgive, although I do eventually Subordinator

7. Karen's definitely coming but I Coordinator

don't think Pete can make it Subordinator
Coordination Types
Conjoins are usually coordinated using one of the
coordinators and, but, or or. In [1], the bracketed conjoins are
coordinated using and:
[1] [Quickly] and [resolutely], he strode into the
bank
This type of coordination, with a coordinator present, is
called SYNDETIC COORDINATION.

Coordination can also occur without the presence of a

coordinator, as in [2]:

[2] [Quickly], [resolutely], he strode into the

bank
No coordinator is present here, but the conjoins are still
coordinated. This is known as ASYNDETIC
COORDINATION.

When three or more conjoins are coordinated, a coordinator

will usually appear between the final two conjoins only:

[3] I need [bread], [cheese], [eggs], and [milk]

This is syndetic coordination, since a coordinating
conjunction is present. It would be unusual to find a
coordinator between each conjoin:
[3a] I need [bread] and [cheese] and [eggs] and
[milk]
This is called POLYSYNDETIC COORDINATION. It is
sometimes used for effect, for instance to express
continuation:
[4] This play will [run] and [run] and [run]
[5] He just [talks] and [talks] and [talks]
Exercise:
Each of the following sentences exhibits coordination. Is it
syndetic, asyndetic or polysyndetic coordination? The
conjoins have been bracketed.
1. [Susie] and [Pippa] called Syndetic
for you this morning. Asyndetic
Polysyndetic

2. You wouldn't believe how

many exams I've got. I've
got [semantics] and Syndetic
[pragmatics] and Asyndetic
[sociolinguistics] and Polysyndetic
[psycholinguistics] and
[syntax].

3. This wine has a [rich], Syndetic

[fruity], [full-bodied] Asyndetic
quality. Polysyndetic

4. I'd like [ham], [eggs] and Syndetic

[fried bread] for breakfast. Asyndetic
Polysyndetic

5. It was [a happy time], [a Syndetic

carefree time], [a period of Asyndetic
our lives which we will Polysyndetic
never forget].

False Coordination
Coordinators are sometimes used without performing any
strictly coordinating role:
 I'll come when I'm good and ready
Here, the adjectives good and ready are not really being
coordinated with each other. If they were, the sentence
would mean something like:

I'll come [when I'm good] and [when I'm

ready]
Clearly, this is not the meaning which good and ready
conveys. Instead, good and intensifies the meaning of
ready. We might rephrase the sentence as

I'll come when I'm completely ready.

Good and ready is an example of FALSE
COORDINATION -- using a coordinator without any
coordinating role. It is sometimes called PSEUDO-
COORDINATION.

False coordination can also be found in informal

expressions using try and:

Please try and come early

I'll try and ring you from the office
Here, too, no real coordination is taking place. The first
sentence, for instance, does not mean Please try, and
please come early. Instead, it is semantically equivalent to
Please try to come early.

In informal spoken English, and and but are often used as

false coordinators, without any real coordinating role. The
following extract from a conversation illustrates this:

Speaker A: Well he told me it's this super high-flying

computer software stuff. I'm sure it's the old job he used to
have cleaning them

Speaker B: But it went off okay last night then did it? Did
 you have a good turnout?

Here, the word but used by Speaker B does not coordinate

any conjoins. Instead, it initiates her utterance, and
introduces a completely new topic.

Minor word classes:

We have now looked at the seven major word classes in English.

Most words can be assigned to at least one of these classes.
However, there are some words which will not fit the criteria for
any of them. Consider, for example, the word hello. It is clearly
not a noun, or an adjective, or a verb, or indeed any of the
classes we have looked at. It belongs to a minor word class,
which we call formulaic expressions.

Formulaic Expressions

To express greetings, farewell, thanks, or apologies, we use a

wide range of FORMULAIC EXPRESSIONS. These may
consist of a single word or of several words acting as a unit.
Here are some examples:

bye excuse me
goodbye thanks
hello thank you
farewell thanks a lot
hi sorry
so long pardon

Some formulaic expressions express agreement or disagreement

with a previous speaker:

yes, yeah, no, okay, right, sure

INTERJECTIONS generally occur only in spoken English, or in
the representation of speech in novels. They include the
following:

ah, eh, hmm, oh, ouch, phew, shit, , uhm, yuk

Interjections express a wide range of emotions, including

surprise (oh!), exasperation (shit!), and disgust (yuk!).

Formulaic expressions, including interjections, are unvarying in

their form, that is, they do not take any inflections.

Existential there
We have seen that the word there is an adverb, in
sentences such as:
You can't park there
I went there last year
Specifically, it is an adverb of place in these examples.

However, the word there has another use. As

EXISTENTIAL THERE, it often comes at the start of a
sentence:

There is a fly in my soup

There were six errors in your essay
Existential there is most commonly followed by a form of
the verb be. When it is used in a question, it follows the
verb:
Is there a problem with your car?
Was there a storm last night?
The two uses of there can occur in the same sentence:
There is a parking space there
In this example, the first there is existential there, and the
second is an adverb.
 Uses of It
In the section on pronouns, we saw that the word it is a
third person singular pronoun. However, this word also
has other roles which are not related to its pronominal
use. We look at some of these other uses here.

When we talk about time or the weather, we use

sentences such as:

What time is it?

It is four o'clock
It is snowing
It's going to rain

Here, we cannot identify precisely what it refers to. It

has a rather vague reference, and we call this DUMMY
IT. Dummy it is also used, equally vaguely, in other
expressions:

Hold it!
Take it easy!
Can you make it to my party?

It is sometimes used to "anticipate" something which

appears later in the same sentence:

It's great to see you

It's a pity you can't come to my party

In the first example, it "anticipates" to see you. We can

remove it from the sentence and replace it with to see
you:

To see you is great

Because of its role in this type of sentence, we call this

ANTICIPATORY IT.
Exercise:
In each of the following sentences, indicate whether the
highlighted word is pronoun it, dummy it, or anticipatory
it.

1. It won't do any good to Pronoun it

hide from me. Dummy it
Anticipatory it

2. I think you've broken it. Pronoun it

Dummy it
Anticipatory it

3. It's very kind of you to Pronoun it

see me at short notice. Dummy it
Anticipatory it

4. It was after midnight Pronoun it

when I left the office. Dummy it
Anticipatory it

5. I've had it with this place Pronoun it

- I'm leaving! Dummy it
Anticipatory it
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