Grammar

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Contents

I. Verb

A. Participles -ing, -ed / -en

1. Describing what is - or was - happening

2. Describing what has - or had - happened

3. Describing what often happens or happened

  • See I.B.4 et I.B.4a
  • for generic present and pasts the simple present and simple past are used.

4. As nouns

  • See II.A.1.C.4

B. Verbal base.

1. Commands / Imperative (Order the pizza.)

2. Following modal verbs (We could order a pizza.)

3. Following "to" (I want you to order the pizza.)

4. Describing what often happens (I often order a pizza for lunch on Thursdays.)

a. the 3rd person s / z / iz

C. (Conjugated) Auxiliaries

Unlike Modal auxiliaries, conjugated auxiliaires take an -s for the third person singular for the present tense. They can be followed by different forms. Do (as an auxiliary) is only followed by V, be, have and get can all be an auxiliary to the present or past participle

1. do

a. interaction with the negative adverb not. No, I (don't / do not) want to do more work.

b. asking questions about states of mind... (do you know, do you like, do you think, do you want to...)

2. be

a. be + -ing (present imperfect)

b. be + -en (passive voice)

3. have

a. present perfect. (Have you finished the painting?) past + present: summing up (faire le bilan)

b. causative/medio-passive

  • Have them come down to my office when they get here.
  • She had us smiling again in a few minutes.

4. get (semi-auxiliary)

a. get + -ed: dynamic (middle) voice (The BNP is getting fined.)

b. get + -ing: inceptive (They got the ball rolling.)

Modal auxiliaries

The modal auxiliaries here defined are those that have two formal characteristics:

  • they cannot be immediately followed by to V, instead they take a bare V
  • they are not marked for the 3rd person singular with an -s. (She can / he should / it will... etc.)
They come in pairs, with the exception of must:

will / would

shall / should

can / could

may / might

must

II. Substantive

A. Nominals

1. Nouns

a. singular / plural, no gender, duals

  • s / z / iz
  • pair of

b. countability

c. determination

1. zero determination (no article)

proper nouns, generic plurals, present participles

2. definite determination (the, this, that, ...)

demonstrative determiners / pronouns: these / those ; situative pronouns: this / that

3. indefinite determination (a, some, any, ...)

d. deverbal nouns (-ing, -ed/-en, verbal base)

d. pronouns (one, -one, -body, -thing, -where)

B. Adjectivals

1. Quality vs. Quantity

In a sentence like "I would like to order four pizzas", or "I would like to order a pizza", for that matter, one says nothing about the desired qualities of the pizza (at least not yet). Such information can be added, of course, by adding an adjective or an adjectival: "I would like to order four four-cheese pizzas with extra jalapeno" Modern linguists separate the class "adjective" from the class "determiner", roughly along these lines: what in traditional grammar were "indeterminate" adjectives (some, any, (a) few, etc.) are now thought of as "determiners" because they circumscribe the ensemble of objects spoken about, without conferring qualities upon the objects themselves.

2. Scale / Degree

a. resultatives: the cat licked the saucer clean.

b. comparatives

as / as
like
same / different
-er / more and less

c. superlative particles

-est, most and least
very

3. Qualification in the complex noun phrase. (Germanic language)

e.g. city planners (Eng.) v. stadtplaner (Ger.) v. urbanistes (Fr.)

4. Adjective endings

  • -full / -less
  • -y
  • -ing / -ed (participles)
  • -like