Cristina – Departamento de Inglés

Collocations -They are word partners.

Collocation is the relationship between two words or groups of words that often go together and form a common expression. If the expression is heard often, the words become ‘glued’ together in our minds. ‘Crystal clear’, ‘middle management’ ‘nuclear family’ and ‘cosmetic surgery‘ are examples of collocated pairs of words. Some words are often found together because they make up a compound noun, for example ‘riding boots‘ or ‘motor cyclist‘. You can usually find the meaning of them by looking int he dictionary under the verb.

If you want to learn more or practise collocations go to these links:

http://www.better-english.com/strongcollocation/collocations.htm

http://a4esl.org/q/f/z/zy37mjp.htm

http://www.nonstopenglish.com/exercise.asp?exid=844

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ADJECTIVES

 

• Adjectives are placed before a noun to describe them. They have the same form in singular and in plural.
• We use the + adjective to refer to a  group of people: The poor, the rich, the blind.
• When several adjectives describe the same noun the appear in the following order:

 

NUMBER	OPINION	SIZE	AGE	SHAPE	COLOUR	ORIGIN	MATERIAL	PURPOSE	NOUN
three	beautiful	small	old	oval	red	French	wooden	jewellery	boxes

 

COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES

• Comparative form :    adj+ er  than ( short adjectives, one syllable)/ more + adj + than ( long adjectives, two or more syllables. Except those which end in – er, -w and – y).  más…..que
• Superlative form:  The + adj + est ( short adjectives, one syllable)/ The most + adj ( long adjectives, two or more syllables. Except those which end in – er, -w and – y). el más…
• As……as  tan…. Como
• Less……than   menos…..que
• Not as …as  no tan….como
• Twice as ……as dos veces más ….que  ( petrol is twice as expensive as two years ago)

 

• EXPRESSIONS:

comparative + comparative = more and more expensive/ this is harder and harder

the + comparative + the better = cuanto más ……mejor ( Airam, the sooner you copy the language book the better; the less luggage you take with Iberia the better, they always lose it).

The + comparative ….the + comparative: the warmer the weather, the better I feel; the more expensive the hotel, the better the service.

 

• IRREGULAR:

 

POSITIVE	COMPARATIVE	SUPERLATIVE
Good Little Far   Bad Much / many   Old	Better Less Farther Further Worse More   Elder older	The best The least The farthest The furthest The worst The most   The eldest The oldest

 

 

 

 

 

 

PASSIVE VOICE

 

‘ The Internet, a computer network, has been developed so that information can be obtained on almost any subject.  Today, the Internet is being used by businesses, governments and students. In fact, The Internet can be used by anyone whose computer is connected to it. The Internet can also be used to send e- mail.’

 

We use the  passive voice to show that the subject does not act, but it receives the result of an action. Only transitive verbs can be used in the Passive Voice.

 

ACTIVE VOICE:

SUBJECT	VERB	OBJECT
The mechanic	repairs	cars

SUBJECT	VERB	OBJECT
cars	are repaired	by the mechanic

PASSIVE VOICE

 

            Interrogative: Are cars repaired by the mechanic?

            Negative: cars are not repaired by the mechanic.

 

TENSES	ACTIVE VOICE	PASSIVE VOICE
PRESENT SIMPLE	People watch TV all over the world	TV is watched all over the world
PRESENT PROGRESSIVE	Someone is following us	We are being followed by someone
PAST SIMPLE	Someone stole my car yesterday	My car was stolen yesterday
PAST PROGRESSIVE	The Scouts were pitching the tents	The tents were being pitched.
FUTURE “WILL”	They will announce the results in an hour.	The results will be announced in an hour
PRESENT PERFECT SIMPLE	The mechanic has repaired the car	The car has been repaired
PAST PERFECT SIMPLE	John had paid the bills before he left.	The bills had been paid before he left.
“GOING TO”	They are going to build a new hospital.	A new hospital is going to be built.
PRESENT INFINITIVE	He wants them to leave him alone.	He wants to be left alone.
MODALS	I must call a plumber	A plumber must be called.
IMPERATIVE	Do your homework!	Your homework must / should be done!

 

 

 

 

 

The passive voice is used:

o         When we want to emphasise the action, not who does it or who causes it.

o         When the agent is unknown or obvious from the context

o         In instructions or processes.

 

 

The agent:

o         We use BY + AGENT when we want to emphasise who does it or what causes the action.

The telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell

o         When we want to describe what caused the action or what the agent used to perform it, we use WITH instead of BY.

Fires are usually put out with water.

 

Verbs with two objects:

o         Some verbs like: GIVE, OFFER, TELL, BUY, SEND, SHOW etc can take two objects in the Active Voice: a DIRECT OBJECT ( thing) and an INDIRECT OBJECT ( a person). The passive voice is formed as follows:

 

They gave the boy a reward

 

 

 

1. the boy was given a reward                                          2. A reward was given to the boy

 

 

o         When the direct object of the active sentence is the subject of the passive one, we use the prepositions TO or FOR  before the indirect object.

 

They offered him the job       the job was offered to him

She bought me a present         a present was bought for me

 

That clauses in the passive voice:

 

o         Some verbs such as: BELIEVE, CONSIDER, EXPECT, FIND, KNOW, REPORT, SAY, THINK, UNDERSTAND etc take a that clause as an object in the Active voice. The passive voice is formed as follows:

 

People say that the film is excellent

It is said that the film is excellent OR  the film is said to be excellent

 Here you have a link to practise passive voice.

 

 http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/passive#exercises