I. The English Language              4

1. Background              4

2. Parts of Speech              5

3. American (US) & British English              6

II. Verbs              7

1. Types of Verbs              8

Regular Verbs (follow a standard set pattern to form the various tenses)              8

Irregular Verbs (follow no standard set pattern and require separate attention)              8

2. Auxiliary Verbs (to be, to have) (are used with participles to form different tenses of verbs)              12

Verb Tense              12

Present Tense              12

Present Continuous Tense              13

Past Tense              14

Past Continous Tense              14

Future Tense              15

Future Perfect Tense              15

Participles              16

Present Participle              16

Past Participle              17

Nouns              17

Articles              19

Definite Article              19

Indefinite Article              20

Demonstratives              20

Pronouns              23

Personal Pronouns              24

Reflexive Pronouns              24

Indefinite Pronouns              25

Common Indefinite Pronouns              25

Relative Pronouns              25

Interrogative Pronouns              26

Prepositions              26

Numbers              31

Cardinal Numbers              31

Ordinal Numbers              32

Measurements              33

Distance              33

U.S. & British Currency              34

Sentence Structure              34

Word Order              35

Negatives              35

Questions              36

Indirect Questions              37

Contractions              38

Similar Sounding Words with Different Meanings              39

The English Language

Verbs

Nouns

Articles

Adjectives

Adverbs

Pronouns

Prepositions

Conjunctions

Capitalization

Time & Numbers

Sentence Structure

Contractions

Similar Sounding Words with Different Meanings

I. The English Language

1.                   Background

2.                   Parts of Speech

3.                   American (US) & British English

1. Background

English is the most widely spoken European language in the world with over 350 million native speakers -- about one-tenth of the world's population. It has become the almost universal language of aviation, commerce, medicine, technology, computer science, publishing, mass media and other endeavors.

English is the major language of the United States, the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Guyana, Jamaica, Bermuda, the Bahamas, Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados and Belize. English is also the major secondary language of Ireland, Israel, South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, the Sudan, Tanzania, Zambia, Ghana, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Burma, Hong Kong, Malaysia and the Philippines. In total, there are well over 750 million people in the world who speak English. Some would place the number at over a billion.

Of the world's almost 2,700 languages, English has arguably the richest vocabulary with over 500,000 catalogued words and an equal number of uncatalogued scientific and technical terms. In comparison, German has a vocabulary of approximately 185,000 words and French fewer than 100,000.

While the roots of English are Germanic and Scandinavian, it also has many Latin influences. English has also adopted numerous words from other languages and peoples. Such words as kosher, glitch, bagel, and schlock (Yiddish), pagoda (Portuguese), bonanza, adobe, mesa, maroon and rancher (Spanish), teepee, tomato, hickory, squash, raccoon, opposum, moose and toboggan (Native American), façade, rendevous, butte, dessert, saloon and depot (French), voodoo, jazz, banjo, yam, cola, tote and zombie (African), sleigh, stoop, boss, cookie and waffle (Dutch), hooligan and speakeasy (Irish), pretzel, kindergarten, flak and hoodlum (German), pasta, spaghetti, macaroni and ravioli (Italian), smorgasbord (Scandanavia) and many others all found there way into English from other languages. Conversely, English has contributed numerous words to other languages.

2. Parts of Speech

he English language is made up of eight basic types of words or parts of speech:

§         nouns

§         pronouns

§         verbs

§         adjectives

§         adverbs

§         prepositions

§         conjunctions

§         interjections

An individual word can often serve more than a single grammatical function depending upon its exact placement in a sentence. Consequently, the same word can be a different type of word or part of speech in different sentences. For example, the English word help is a noun (a thing) when used in this sentence:

We were grateful for his help.

But the same English word help is a verb (an action) when used in a different way in a different sentence:

They help every week by cleaning the classroom.

Because many single English words can work in different ways, you should always first determine how the word functions within a sentence before labeling it as a specific part of speech.

3. American (US) & British English

While there are many different varieties of English, American (US) English and British English are the two major forms used in the world today. Most other varieties of English are based at least somewhat on one of these two major forms. While both the Americans and the British use numerous idiomatic expressions, slang, words and phrases that are exclusively their own, the other major difference between these two major varieties of English are spelling and pronunciation and, to a lesser extent, punctuation and capitalization.

Pronunciation

There is a wide range of different pronunciations of both American (US) and British English but what can be called "general American" and "general British" pronunciation is usually considered the "average." These "general" forms of pronunciation are most often used by newscasters on national radio and television programs. Tune in.

Spelling

There are a few major areas of difference between British and American spelling, for example: