- •Grammar
- •Oxford University Press
- •Preface to the fourth edition
- •Contents
- •Only a few of our customers have accounts.
- •Tourists come here but few stay overnight =
- •Our team is the best
- •The news is good
- •He had an exciting experience/some exciting experiences
- •Mr Jones's (w Mr Jones' house) Yeats's (or Yeats') poems
- •Sotheby's, Claridge's
- •King's Road Waterloo Bridge Leicester Square
- •She danced beautifully
- •How much (money) do you want? How many (pictures) did you buy?
- •It is better to be early instead of
- •Ann opened the door herself
- •The man who told me this refused to give me his name
- •The man from whom I bought it told me to oil it or
- •The car which/that I hired broke down or The car I hired …
- •I told Peter, who said it wasn't his business
- •I do the cooking and help Tom besides
- •Nobody knew the way except Tom
- •100 Classes of verbs
- •101 Principal parts of the active verb
- •Present participle and gerund working not working
- •102 Active tenses
- •C Stress
- •103 Negatives of tenses
- •B Negative contractions
- •104 Interrogative for questions and requests
- •Does Peter enjoy parties? Did he enjoy Ann's party?
- •B Contractions of be, have, will, would, shall, should and do in the interrogative
- •How will/How 'II he get there? What has/What's happened?
- •When is/When's he coming?
- •Would you mind moving your car?
- •Do you think you could give me a hand?
- •105 Negative interrogative
- •Did you not see her? Is he not coming?
- •Didn't you see her? Isn't he coming?
- •106 Auxiliaries and modal auxiliaries
- •107 Auxiliaries: forms and patterns
- •Does he have to go?
- •What do you do in the evenings?
- •108 Auxiliaries in short answers
- •Why did you travel first class? ~ But I didn't!
- •110 Question tags
- •Peter helped you, didn't he?
- •D Intonation
- •111 Comment tags
- •112 Additions to remarks
- •114 Use to form tenses
- •A First person
- •B Second person
- •A Form
- •Although the pilot was badly hurt he was able to explain what had happened. (He could and did explain.)
- •You should send in accurate income tax returns
- •You must read this. It's marvellous!
- •I have to take two of these pills a day
- •167 Other possible uses of the present continuous
- •When did you meet him?
- •Tom was talking on the phone
- •Has he just gone out?
- •I have seen wolves in that/west
- •I used to see wolves here and
- •Has the postman come yet/this morning?
- •Did the postman come this morning?
- •How long have you been here? — I've, been here six months
- •I'm going to sell the car
- •I will wait for you = I intend to wait for you
- •Would you like a drink? or Will you have a drink?
- •I'll write to Mr Pitt and tell him about Tom's new house
- •What are you doing/going to do on Saturday?
- •Will you be working all day?
- •I intend to sell it
- •Could you please show me the way?
B |
Affirmative contractions |
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The auxiliaries be, have, will, would are contracted as follows: |
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am |
'm |
have |
've |
will |
'II |
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is |
's |
has |
's |
would |
'd |
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are |
're |
had |
'd |
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Note that 's can be is or has and 'd can be had or would:
He's going = He is going. He's gone = He has gone. He'd paid = He had paid.
He'd like a drink = He would like a drink.
These contractions are used after pronouns, here, there, some question words (see 104), and short nouns:
Here's your pen. The twins've arrived. The car'd broken down.
Affirmative contractions are not used at the end of sentences:
You aren't in a hurry but I am. (I'm would not be possible here.)
shall/should, was and were are not written in a contracted form but are often contracted in speech to /∫l, ∫ĕd, wĕz/ and /wĕ(r)/.
C Stress
Auxiliaries used to form tenses are normally unstressed. The stress falls on the main verb.
103 Negatives of tenses
A The simple present tense: third person singular does not/doesn't + infinitive; other persons do not/don't + infinitive.
The simple past tense negative for all persons is did not/didn't + infinitive. Contractions are usual in speech:
He does not/doesn't answer letters. They do not/don't live here.
I did not/didn't phone her. She did not/didn't wait/or me.
The negative of all other tenses is formed by putting not after the auxiliary. Contractions are usual in speech:
He has not/hasn't finished. He would not/wouldn't come.
B Negative contractions
The auxiliaries be, have, will, would, shall, should, do are contracted
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as follows: |
am not |
'm not |
is not |
isn’t or 's not |
are not |
aren't or 're not |
I'm not going and Tom isn't going/Tom's not going. We aren't going/We're not going.
have not and has not contract to haven't and hasn't, but in perfect tenses 've not and 's not are also possible:
We haven't seen him/We've not seen him. He hasn't/He 's not come yet.
will not contracts to won't, though 'll not is also possible, shall not contracts to shan't:
I won't go/I'll not go till I hear and I shan't hear till tomorrow.
Other verb forms are contracted in the usual way by adding n't. Negative contractions can come at the end of a sentence:
I saw it but he didn't.
C In English a negative sentence can have only one negative expression in it. Two negative expressions give the sentence an affirmative meaning:
Nobody did nothing means that everyone did something.
So never, no (adjective), none, nobody, no one, nothing, hardly, hardly ever etc. are used with an affirmative verb. We can say:
A Practical English Grammar |
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