Likes, dislikes and preferences

like love enjoy prefer dislike hate + ing

These verbs are used to express likes or dislikes and are followed by an –ing form.

e.g. Mark loves studying. Do you enjoy driving? I don't like skiing. Sue prefers eating out.

These verbs are not normally used in the Present Continuous. They are verbs that describe a state.

They are used in the Simple Present form even if the action is happening now.

e.g. I enjoy dancing. NOT I am enjoying dancing.

NOTE: He prefers singing to dancing.

Simple Present Tense

We use the present simple for • things that are true in general (general truth) • things that happen sometimes or all the time (states) • routines • timetables and programmes

e.g. I live in Sparta but my sister lives in Athens. Jenny reads a lot.

Spelling

Be careful!

he/she/it -s: e.g. he takes, my father makes

ss, sh, ch, x, o ø -es e.g. I do – he does / You pass – she passes / I finish – he finishes

y ø -ies e.g. I try – he tries / You cry – she cries / I study – he studies

But: I play – he plays / I stay – she stays / You buy – he buys

Prepositions of time: At - On - In

We can use prepositions of time with the Simple Present. They can go at the beginning or the end of the sentence.

Adverbs of frequency

always- usually - often – sometimes – rarely/seldom - never

We can use adverbs of frequency with the Simple Present to show how often an action happens.

These words are often with the verb in the middle of the sentence.

e.g. He's always late.

They sometimes go to the opera. / I rarely eat chinese food. / We usually play basketball at school.

Be careful!

The adverbs of frequency come before the main verbs but after the verb to be.

e.g. We usually have milk for breakfast. / We are never late for school.

If there are two verbs they come between them.

e.g. It doesn't usually rain here. / Does she often go to school by bus?

Expressing opinions / Making suggestions

In English we use some phrases to express our opinion to other people or to make suggestions on specific matters. Some of these phrases are followed by the –ing form of the verb and some others are followed by the base form of the verb.

Expressing opinions

I think that / I don't think that / It seems to me that / In my opinion -ing

e.g. I think that walking to school is the best idea.

It seems to me that recycling is the only solution to save the planet.

In my opinion, keeping our school clean makes us feel better.

Making suggestions

Why don't we / you • Let's (all) base form of the verb (infinitive)

e.g. Why don't you ride your bike to school?

Let's all find a solution to the problem.

How about -ing

e.g. How about speaking to your friends about the problems of the environment?

Facts and habits vs. actions happening now

We know that we use the Simple Present tense to talk about states and routines. We also know that we use the Present Continuous tense to talk about things that are happening now, at the time of speaking. Of course, we can have both tenses in one sentence to express two different situations.

e.g. Jack usually goes to New York for holidays, but this year he is spending holidays in London.

We can also use the following time expressions with each verb tense:

Feelings

In English we express feelings with the verbs of senses: look – smell – taste – feel.

These verbs do not usually have a continuous tense, because they describe a state and not an action

(see also Unit 1 – Likes, dislikes and preferences)

e.g. You look nice in your new coat! / It tastes delicious. What is it?

Talking about intentions

In English we can use three different ways to talk about the future.

A. Simple future - will B. be going to C. Present continuous (future meaning)

A. Simple future - will

We use will

e.g. Ok. I'll come with you. / Will you get me some eggs from the super market? / They will probably come later.

We can use these time expressions with the simple future:

tomorrow, next week/month/year, soon, later

B. be going to

e.g. I am going to play football tomorrow. / He is going to study Medicine when he grows up. /

What are you going to do to save animals in danger?

C. Present continuous (future meaning)

We can use the Present continuous tense to talk about plans or arrangements we've made for the future.

e.g. We're visiting our grandmother tomorrow.

Abilities, obligations, advice

In English we use verbs like can, must, should to talk about abilities and obligations or to give advice.

These verbs are called modal verbs.

They go before other verbs.

They are always followed by the base form of these verbs.

e.g. He can't come with us because he doesn't feel very well.

• Can / Can't

We use can to talk about ability in the present and the future.

e.g. Mary can swim very well, but her brother can't. He's afraid of water.

• Must / Mustn't

We use must to talk about obligation in the present and the future. We use mustn't to talk about things we are not allowed to do in the present and the future.

e.g. We must follow the rules.

• Should / Shouldn't

We use should to give advice to people. We often use think with should.

e.g. It's a nice play. You should go and see it.

What do you think I should do?

NOTE: Must is stronger than should.

e.g. He doesn't feel very well. He should go to the doctor.

Comparatives

We use comparatives to compare two people, animals or things. We often use the word than after the comparative form.

e.g. Bob is taller than Mark. / Your car is bigger than mine.

• Short adjectives: Add –er to short adjectives to make the comparative form.

strong – stronger

NOTE: If the adjective ends in –y , you take off –y and you add –ier.

e.g. healthy - healthier / easy - easier / pretty - prettier

• Long adjectives: With long adjectives we use the word more before the adjective

to make the comparative form. e.g. beautiful - more beautiful

Superlatives

We use superlatives to compare one person or thing to several others.

e.g. This is the youngest pupil in the class.

• Short adjectives: To form the superlative of short adjectives, we put the word the before the

adjective and add the ending –est.

clever - cleverest

NOTE: If the adjective ends in –y, you take off -y and you add –iest.

lazy - laziest / crazy – craziest / pretty - prettiest

• Long adjectives: To make the superlative form of a long adjective, we put the words the most

before the adjective.

expensive - the most expensive / difficult - the most difficult

Be careful! Some adjectives have irregular comparative and superlative forms.

e.g. Sue is a better singer than Mary.

Talking about the past

In English we use the Simple Past tense for

• actions that happened in the past at a definite time

• routines or states in the past that are now finished

e.g. Napoleon died in 1821.

I finished my homework yesterday.

Last night we visited our parents.

He had a small boat when he was young.

NOTE: Of course you have noticed that the last part of the past tense verbs (-ed) is the same for

all persons and is used only in the Positive form. Spelling!

Be careful!

• •verbs ending in e add only d e.g. lived loved smoked
• verbs ending in y change y to ied e.g. try-tried cry-cried study-studied
• most verbs ending in one vowel + one consonant
  (not w or y) change to one vowel + double consonant
  e.g. travel-travelled shop-shopped

With the Past Simple we can use the following time expressions:

yesterday, then, ago, last night/week/month/year, in 1995…

Actions in progress

In English we can use the Past continuous tense to

• talk about events or actions which were in progress for some time in the past
  e.g. We were dancing all night long.
• talk for two or more actions which happened at the same time in the past
  e.g. Sue was washing the car while Mark was watering the flowers.
• create the atmosphere and the background of a story.
  e.g. All small creatures were happy in the forest. The birds were singing, the rabbits
  were playing and the wild ducks were swimming in the lake.

With the Past Continuous tense we can use these time expressions:

while, when, as…

The perfect tense

We use the present perfect tense in order to talk about:

• actions which started in the past and continue up to now
  e.g. I have worked here for many years.
• actions which happened in the past but we do not know the exact time. Here the action is more important than the time.(compare with the past simple)
  e.g. They have finished their homework.
• past experiences
  e.g. I have travelled to France before.

Time expressions usually used with the present perfect are:

for, since, ever, never, yet, already, how long…