[approx. transl.- by tradition, the circumstances are placed in the sentence, as in the name of the game "What? Where? When?", Namely: "How?" ( modus operandi) ---- Where? ( circumstance of place) ---- When? ( circumstance of time). But this is only the simplest scheme.]
A grammar book asks you to choose the right sentence:
The grammar book asks you to choose the correct sentence from three:
I"ll meet you _____.
(a) Sunday at 8 o'clock at Heathrow Airport
(b) at Heathrow Airport at 8 o'clock on Sunday
(c) at Heathrow Airport on Sunday at 8 o'clock
Apparently the key says that only (b) is acceptable. But are the others ungrammatical?
And in the answers you will see that only option (b) is correct. So the other two are wrong?
Not in the slightest! Though that isn't to say that they would all be equally frequent. Grammar books point out positional preferences governing adverbials of place, time, manner, and so on. But all options will be heard - including the other three possibilities.
By no means! Although it cannot be said that all three options are equally common. Grammar guides give advice on "ranking" circumstances of place, time, manner of action etc. in a sentence. But in speech you will hear not only all options a, b, c, but also three more options d, e, f:
(d) at 8 o'clock on Sunday at Heathrow Airport
(e) at 8 o'clock at Heathrow Airport on Sunday
(f) on Sunday at Heathrow Airport at 8 o "clock
Which will be used, on any particular occasion, depends on many factors. Here are a few:
The choice of option in each case depends on many factors. Here are some such factors:
The preceding context: e.g. if the preceding question had been "Where shall we meet - and when?" that would privilege reply (b) or (c), whereas "When shall we meet - and where?" would privilege (a) or (d).
- prior context. If before that you were asked the question: "Where will we meet - and when?", then it is better to choose options (b) or (c). And in response to the question "When will we meet - and where?" options (a) or (d) are better.
Rhythm: the strong stresses on "Heathrow Airport" disturb the underlying stress-timed rhythm less if they are in final position.
- speech rhythm: the heavy emphasis on "Heathrow Airport" breaks the overall rhythm less if these words are placed at the end of the sentence.
Weight: longer elements tend to occur later in the sentence, which motivates the use of "Heathrow Airport" in final position.
- weight: longer groups of words tend to be placed at the end of the sentence. This, too, may serve as a motive to put "Heathrow Airport" at the end of the sentence.
Emphasis expressed by tonicity, usually on the last content word: this could push any of the three elements into final position, depending on which meaning is most in mind - time, day, or place.
- semantic stress expressed by the force of sound (accent) and usually falls at the end of a sentence: it can move any of the three circumstances to the end. It all depends on what the speaker wants to emphasize: time, day or place.
Semantic bonding between the verb and the following adverbial: the locative element in the meaning of meet is stronger than the temporal, and would pull "Heathrow Aiport" towards the verb.
- semantic connection between the main verb and the circumstance. For verb meet stronger connection with place (where?) than time (when?) - this is what can pull "Heathrow Aiport" closer to the verb.
These factors pull our intuition in different directions, of course. We must expect considerable usage variation here.
All these factors naturally pull our intuition in different directions. Therefore, in real speech, we should expect different arrangements of circumstances in different situations.
Some people think that it is flat-out ungrammatical EVER to put an adverb of time before an adverb of place. Where does this rule come from? I "m not sure. It" s been a standard part of ELT for a long time. But context is everything. Sentences like these should never be judged in isolation. Being able to give ELT students ‘a rule’ makes life simpler both for the students and the teacher. Sometimes you have to withhold part of the truth. This is fair enough when students are in the early stages of learning, but once they become advanced they need to know that what you call a "rule" is in fact only a tendency. If they don't realize that the alternatives exist, they will fail to appreciate the range of usage which actually exists in the language, and cut themselves off from actively controlling the full expressive richness of English.
Some people think that you should never put circumstance of time front circumstance of place. Where did this rule come from? I do not know. It has long been an integral part of the training of teachers of English (ELT = English Language Teaching). But it all depends on the context. Sentences with circumstances cannot be considered in isolation from the context. Perhaps a simple rule makes life easier for both the teacher and the students. (And therefore) sometimes you have to hide part of the truth. This is justified at the initial stage of learning, but advanced students need to know that the learned "rule" reflects only the trend. If they are not aware of the existence of other alternatives, they will not be able to correctly navigate all the possibilities of the language and will be cut off from the active use of the expressiveness of the English language in all its richness.
In order to build even the simplest sentence in English, you need to know the word order in the language. This seemingly simple but very important topic is the starting point in learning English grammar.
Subject + predicate + direct object
In an ordinary affirmative sentence, the subject is placed immediately before the predicate (verb). direct complement, when present, comes immediately after the verb. For instance:
- They bought a car. — They bought a car.
- We can't do that. - We can't do that.
- The girl in a blue dress was playing the piano. — girl in blue dress played the piano.
Predicate
Note that by subject here we mean not only the main noun or pronoun, but also the adjectives or descriptive phrases that refer to it. The rest of the sentence, which does not refer to the subject, is called the predicate. For instance:
- The girl in a blue dress was playing the piano.
Indirect additions and circumstances
If there are any other parts in the sentence - indirect objects or circumstances - they usually occupy a strictly defined place.
Position of indirect object
after direct object if it contains the preposition to.
An indirect addition is put front by direct object when to is absent. For instance:
- The teacher gave dictionaries to the pupils. The teacher handed out dictionaries to the students.
- The teacher gave them dictionaries. The teacher gave them dictionaries.
Position of circumstance
The circumstance can be placed in three places:
Before the subject (usually these are circumstances of time)
- In the morning he was reading a book. — He was reading a book in the morning.
After the addition (here you can put almost any adverb or adverbial phrase):
- He was reading a book at the library. — He was reading a book in the library.
Between the auxiliary and the main verb (as a rule, these are short adverbs):
- He has already read this book. He has already read the book.
Normally, in standard English, no other words are placed between the subject and the predicate, or between the predicate and the object. But there are a few exceptions. Here are the most important ones:
Adverbs of frequency of action and indirect objects without the preposition to
- I sometimes drink coffee in the morning. - I AM sometimes I drink coffee in the morning.
- He showed the driver his bus pass. - He showed driver your bus pass.
If you follow these simple rules, you will be able to avoid mistakes in the arrangement of words in an English sentence. The examples given are intentionally simple - but the same rules can be applied to more . For instance:
- The woman,, never went to sleep before - A woman [who often felt lonely] never went to bed [without calling her sister].
Stylistic change in word order
Of course, there are exceptions to the rules, and writers or speakers often use non-standard word order for special effect. But if we now focus on exceptions, we digress from the main principles, and the problem of word order in a sentence can seem very complicated.
So here are some more examples: you should be aware that such offers exist, but don't try to use them without emergency, until you master the principles of normal word order (remember to learn how to walk first and then run!):
- Never before had he felt so miserable. He had never felt so miserable before.
If the sentence begins with never or never before, the subject and verb are often inverted, i.e. change places. Don't use inversion when never follows the subject!
- Hardly had I finished cleaning the house, my friend called. I had hardly finished cleaning the house when my friend called.
(When a sentence begins with hardly, the subject and verb must always be inverted.)
- Had they known, they "d never have done that." - If they knew this, they would never have done that.
(The inversion is used in hypothetical condition structures when the if is omitted.)
- Whatever you can tell me, I know already. “Whatever you tell me, I already know it.
Here's the extended addendum, Whatever you can tell me, placed at the beginning of a sentence for artistic reasons: this sentence structure is not necessary, it's just .
Now, having mastered the rules for constructing simple sentences, you can move on to more complex sentences with accessory structures.
How do you feel about non-standard word order in English? Difficult, don't you understand? Share in the comments!
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Do you want to make your speech in English richer and brighter? Does it annoy you when you often use the word “very” to an adjective in your speech and cannot find another, more emotional synonym? Then this article is for you!
Under the strange name "adjective modifiers (intensifiers)" (adjective modifiers, amplifiers), adjectives and adverbs are hidden, which have a bright color, giving liveliness, emotionality and beauty to speech. Such words are placed before the usual neutral adjective, reinforcing the meaning of the word. You all know amplifiers as very, really, absolutely, totally, etc.
In this article, we will not only write a list of such amplifiers, but also tell you when and how to use them. Let's start with a list of the most used ones. That's how varied you can say about the weather.
Now let's look at more detailed examples.
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Thus, examples show us that amplifiers (modifiers) are placed before the adjectives hot (hot) and cold (cold), giving them a different color and making them more or less strong.
Please note that in the examples above, adjectives in the positive degree are used. The question is: can modifiers be used with comparative adjectives? Yes they can. You can add a few modifiers to enhance the comparative degree of adjectives. Here are those modifiers:
a bit/a little taller (slightly/slightly taller)
E.g. My father is a bit/a little taller than my mother.(My dad is a little taller than my mom.)
much/far/a lot older (much older)
E.g. He is much older than his wife.(He is much older than his wife)
Surely you remember the function comparative adjectives(to compare two or more things/persons, etc.) But what's the difference between huge (huge) and tiny (tiny)? Modifiers like this help us express the degree of difference between two objects.
However, not all modifiers can be used with adjectives. In English, there are adjectives such as non-gradable (no degree) or strong / extreme (strong). That's it, they cannot be modified, because they already have opposite meanings. For instance:
Doesn't it sound "very disgusting" and "very awful"?
This is so because the adjectives disgusting and awful already contain the 'very' (very) amplifier in their meaning - (disgusting - very unpleasant (very unpleasant), awful - very bad (very bad).
However, there are several enhancers that can be attached to these strong adjectives:
For instance:
- The movie was just terrible.
- He was an exceptionally outstanding child.
- The food smelled really disgusting.
As mentioned at the beginning of the article, modifiers (amplifiers) are often used in spoken, informal, semi-formal speech to make it brighter. Of course, adjectives have their own "special" intensifiers that are often used with them. Here are the most common ones:
The composition of both the English and Russian sentences, as you know, includes different members that carry a certain meaning and are individual syntactic units. Each of the members of the proposal has its own special role, which he performs, however, this does not mean that within one sentence all sentence members must be collected by translation, which will have a well-known subject, predicate, etc. The English grammar allows such situations, however, this or that sentence member will not always be present in a specific phrase. There are common proposals, and there are those that consist exclusively of the main members. All this explains the need to consider in more detail the members of the sentence in English, their classification and give examples of use, since difficulties can arise with both compound and complex sentences.
The main groups of members of the proposal
Before finding out which member of a sentence a particular word can be, it is necessary to clarify that there are two main groups of these structures: the first is the main, and the second is the secondary members of the sentence in English. In a simple undeveloped sentence, only the main members are found, expressed by the subject and predicate known to all. Secondary parts of the sentence are necessary to give the phrase a detailed look and add additional information.
Features of the main members of the proposal
It was already mentioned earlier that the main members of the proposal are subject and predicate. What is the subject predicate, children study in early age. These are the main parts of the sentence that convey its main meaning. The agreement of the subject and predicate in English is approximately the same as in Russian: the subject (in English translation subject) conveys the essence of the subject, and the predicate (predicate in English) denotes the action that this object or several objects perform. In order to understand how to find one or another member of the sentence, you can ask the question: subject answers the questions who? or what?, and if the word answers the question what to do?, then it is likely to be a predicate.
The role of the subject is expressed by a noun or a pronoun, and these cases are quite popular. The predicate in English usually expresses the verb, since it is this part of speech that shows the action. However, in both cases there are always exceptions.
So, for example, the subject in a sentence can form not only nouns or pronouns, but also, for example, tense forms, for example, a gerund or an infinitive as a subject, as well as numerals, substantiated adjectives and some other parts of speech. Here, for example, is the situation where the subject is expressed by the infinitive:
To do it, under the circumstances, is quite difficult - Doing it under such circumstances is quite difficult.
The verb represents predicate also not always. There are cases, for example, when the predicate is expressed by a noun. At the same time, the noun still conveys the very essence of the predicate: although it does not show the action, it is connected with another main member - subject, and therefore acts as a full-fledged main member. This is how the situation looks like, where the predicate is expressed by the noun:
My boss is an angel - My boss is an angel.
However, these cases are far from the only ones. There are other situations when the predicate can be expressed not only by a noun, but the subject in the phrase may not and does not exist at all.
Special cases of using the subject
In addition to the above cases of using subject, you can also find such a term as a complex subject in English. In this case we are talking about infinitive construction, which is based on three units: noun / pronouns in any number, passive construction and the required infinitive form:
He is said to be a good driver - They say he is a good driver (the first part of the sentence in this case is called the Complex Subject)
It is also not uncommon to encounter sentences without a subject, when this main member absent, but the meaning of the general phrase is clear. Such phrases are called impersonal, and here is an example of such an expression:
It is rather easy to play this game - Playing this game is quite easy
Special cases of using the predicate
As already specified, a regular verb does not always convey the meaning of predicate. Sometimes the structure of the predicate can be more complicated than just a single word. In particular, we are talking about such syntactic structures as a compound nominal predicate and compound verbal predicate. In the first case, predicate is a linking verb followed by a nominal part, which usually expresses the quality of the object:
They are heroes - They are heroes
The construction of a compound verb predicate includes a verb in a personal form and some kind of tense form (usually an infinitive or gerund):
I mean to drive to the south till the evening - I'm going to drive south until evening
Features of minor members of the proposal
The secondary members are addition circumstance and definition.
Addition
One of the minor members is object (translation - addition). Usually it answers questions of indirect cases: what? to whom? about what? etc. It is important to note that there are two types of this structure: direct and indirect addition. A direct object in English, if we draw an analogy with the Russian language, implies a situation where a noun or pronoun is in the accusative case without any preposition, as is the case with a prepositional object, which is also called simply an indirect object. Here is what such a situation looks like:
She called me after lunch - She called me after lunch
The prepositional addition, or, as it is also called, the indirect addition, also usually acts as a noun or pronoun, but here the accusative case, when compared with the Russian language, will no longer be. That is why it is called so - a prepositional object, since it is impossible to do without preposition before it. Prepositional object can have various prepositions in front of it: to, for, of, etc. Here is what an indirect object looks like in English:
He didn't listen to me at all - He didn't listen to me at all
Definition
The definition in English (attribute) shows a sign of objects or objects and most often acts as an adjective or participle. However, as the grammar provides, the definition of not everything is transmitted precisely through these parts of speech, and sometimes attributes are expressed through other elements as well. In order to determine what an attribute is in front of us, we can pose a question; usually definitions answer the questions what? which? etc. It is quite possible to meet definitions expressed by nouns (a friend’s toy is a friend’s toy); it is not uncommon for Infinitive as an attribute to also occur. Here's what it looks like:
I have no time to argue with her - I don't have time to argue with her (what time? To argue with her)
Circumstance
One of the most meaningful parts of the sentence is the circumstance as a minor member of the sentence. The circumstance in English sounds like an adverbial modifier, but this element usually never stands alone, since the syntax rule provides for the division of the adverbial modifier into quite a few varieties. This syntactic structure can be individual adverbs, as well as entire speech constructions.
So, the following types of adverbial modifiers are distinguished:
· adverbial modifier of time – adverb of time;
adverbial modifier of purpose - circumstance of the purpose;
adverbial modifier of attendant circumstances - accompanying circumstances;
adverbial modifier of condition - conditions;
adverbial modifier of manner - mode of action;
adverbial modifier of cause - circumstance of the cause;
adverbial modifier of result - consequences;
adverbial modifier of comparison - comparisons;
adverbial modifier of concession - concession circumstance.
Any table with all possible variations of circumstance will display all these variations; it is important to note that entire constructions can act as these parts of the sentence.
Thus, all the above members of the sentence, although they have distinctive names in English, have quite a lot in common with Russian structures, and the general rules of syntax are largely the same. In order to better navigate the difference between all varieties, one should remember what questions this or that sentence unit answers and what part of speech it is (although the last point may be ambiguous).
Specifying where, when, how and why the action is performed. It gravitates toward the end of the English sentence, and in the initial position it enhances its meaning.
Circumstance expression
Adverb
Ilivethere - I live there
Participle (and turnover)
(While) reading,he made notes - Whenreadinghedidnotes
finishedhis experiments, he compared the results – Having finishedtheirexperiments, hecomparedresults
Prepositional infinitive
She went there to study physics - Shewenttherestudyphysics
Prepositional gerund
She went there for studying physics - Shewenttherefor studyingphysics
prepositional noun
They were walking in the forest - Theywalkedvforest
Subordinate clause
She'lldoitwhenshereturns - She will do this upon her return
Theplantgrowswheretheotherscouldn'tt - This plant grows where others could not
As it was rainingwe stayed at home – From-perrainwestayedHouses
Shemusthurrylestshebelate - She needs to hurry so as not to be late
I'lldothisworkifIhavetime - I will do this work in my free time
thought he was very young,he was a good worker - Despiteon theyouth, heOkaymanaged
These parts of speech can act as a circumstance in one word, in a phrase or syntactic complex.
He was walking slowly - Hewalkedslowly
He goes there tomorrow - Hegoestheretomorrow
We visit them every day - Wevisitingtheirdaily
The boy rushed in , his blue eyes shining happily- Boybroke inWithburningeyes
Types of circumstance
- time
Heroseatdawn - He got up at dawn
He seldom goes there - He rarely goes there
- places
He lives in the south of England - Heliveson thesouthEngland
He went south - He went south
- mode of action
He talked to her slowly choosing his words – HesaidWithher, slowlypicking upthe words
He talked to her walking up and down the room – HesaidWithherpacingonroom
- causes
Her eyes were red from want of sleep - Hereyeswereredfromlack of sleep
Notknowingwhattoaddshestopped - Not knowing what to add, she stopped
- goals
He set the alarm clock to get up at 7 - Hesetalarmon the7 am
- result
Usually after a predicative adjective preceded by too or followed by enough.
It was too hot to go out into town - Get outvtownIt wasstuffy
- conditional
Healwayscameifinvited - He always came if invited
- concessive
They managed in the end , in spite of great difficulties- Theyfinallymanageddespiteon theobstacles
- degrees (usually before the defined)
She'sawfullynice - She's terribly cute
I was a little uneasy - I felt uneasy
- comparative (usually with as if/though)
The infinitive expresses comparison on the basis of the goal, the participle - on the basis of the image.
He took her hand as if to shake it - Hetookherhandlikeforhandshakes
English Joke
The eminent financier was discoursing.
"The true secret of success," he said, "is to find out what the people want."
"And the next thing," someone suggested, "is to give it to them."
The financi shook his head contemptuously.