A GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

GRAMMARTICAL UNITS (p.30)

1. What are grammartical units? Give examples to illustrate?
Grammartical units include: sentences, clauses, pharses, words,
morphemes
EX: Sentences: The shop stays open until 9 p.m
The game ended early
Clauses: He plays football regulary
May is my best friend
Phrases: My best friend
The sport car
Words: Football
Come
Morphemes: s/able/es/ ness
2. What is a morpheme/ Free morphemes/ Bound Morphemes?
Morphemes are the smallest grammartical meaningful units
Free morphemes: the morphemes that can stand alone as independent
words since they carryfull sematic weight
Bound morphemes: the morphemes that can not stand alone in the
language. They only modify the meaning or grammartical function of a
free morphemes
3. How many types of phrases are there? What are they? Give example
There are 5 types of phrases:
Noun phrases: I have a very old house
Verbs phrases: She will be flying tomorrow
Adjective phrases: That’s a lovely cake
Averb phrases: very quickly
Prepositional phrases: on the table
4. What are sytactic functions? Give examples for illustrate.
Subjects: I love K-pop
The woman in the picture is my mother
Object:
+ Direct/ Indirect object: She threw me the ball
Complemets:
+ Subject complement: He is a farmer
+ Object complemet: He made me so happy
Attributes:
+ Attribute: He is an old man
 + Predicative (or subject complement): He seems strong
Adverbials:
+ a word: She dances well
+ a phrases: The key is under the chair
+ a clauses: I couldn’t go to the party because I am sick

5. Why is this sentences ambigous? Explain the possible meanings of

the following sentences.
I like the vase on the table
The sentence above is ambiguous because the function of this prepositional
phrase is dull
- As an adjective phrase: I like the vase which is on the table
- As an adverb phrase: I like to put the vase on the table
NOUNS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (p.108)
1. How many kinds of nouns are there? What are they?
There are 10 kinds of nouns: One-word nouns, Compound nouns,
Common nouns, Proper nouns, Countable nouns, Uncountable nouns,
Collective nouns, Material nouns, Abstract nouns, Concrete nouns
2. What functions do nouns have? Give examples.
Subject: The man is watching TV
Object:
+ Direct/ Indirect: She gave me a present
+ Prepositional: We are talking about Mary
Complement:
+ Subject complement: I am a student
+ Object complement: They made him the president
Attribute:
+ Attributive: Where is my bottle opener?
+ Predicative: The soup smells good
Part of adverbial: They are learning in the classroom
Apposition: The capital of Thailand, Bangkok, is extremly nice
3. What kinds of morphemes can be used to form coumpound/ derived
nouns? Give examples.
Free morphemes can be used to form compound nouns
Ex: Noun+Noun: Post Office, Classroom
 Verb+Noun: Pickpocket, Breakfast
The derived nouns are formed by adding bound phornemes to free
morphemes
Ex: Adjective+ness: Happiness, Goodness
Noun+ship: leadership, scholarship
4. Give two examples for each pattern of noun formation:
Adj + dom
Freedom, Wisdom
Verb + Noun
Playground, Telltale
5. Give two examples to show that some nouns with 2 plural forms and
two different meanings.
Brother – Brothers (sons of one mother)/ Brethres (members of one
community)
Cloth – Cloths (pieces of cloth for cleaning)/ clothes (pieces of cloth
worn by people)
6. Explain the rules of forming plural form of the following nouns:
Tomato + es  Tomatoes (ends in –o, a consonant before –o)
But: Studio + s  Studios (ends in -o, a vowel before –o)
Photo + s  Photos (the shortened form of nouns)
Photo  Photograph
Filipino + s  Filipinos (Proper nouns/ names)
Piano + s  Pianos (musical terms)
PRONOUNS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (p.135)
1. What is a pronoun? Give examples
A pronoun is a word can be used to replace a noun or a noun phrase, as
the word itself tell us: “Pro-noun”
Pronouns have certain characteristics of their own with regard to both
meaning and form, although their syntactical functions are simmilar to
those of nouns and adjectives
Pronouns make sentences less repetitive while showing how the subjects
and the objects of a clause or a series of a clause are connected
Ex: himself, him
2. What are the features of a pronouns when it is compared with a
noun?
- Do not admit determiners (a/the/one chairX it)
- Often have an objective case (always go after the noun/ noun phrase they
replace)
- Ex: Mary gets up early in the morning and then she goes to school
- Often have person distinction
- Ex: Chair – it But Singer- he or she
- Often have overt gender contrast
- Ex: Singer – he/she?
- Singular and plural forms are often not morpholofically related
- Ex: Chair  Chairs (morphologically related)
But It  They (not morphologically related)
3. How many kinds of pronoun are there? What are they? Give
examples
There are 9 kinds of pronouns:
Demonstrative pronouns: This is my book
Interrogative pronouns: Who did you go with last night?
Relative pronouns: The girl who is singing on the stage, is my idol
Indefinite pronouns: Is there anyone here?
Personal pronouns: I think I have to try once more
Impersonal pronouns: It is raining
Possessive pronouns: I can’t find my mind
Reflextive pronouns: He lives by himself
Reciprocal (tương hổ) pronouns: We love each other.
4. How is a possessive adjective different form a possessive pronoun?
Give examples to support your ideas.
Possessive pronouns always stand alone while possessive adjectives must
have a noun after them
Ex: This cake is hers
I left my book
5. What kinds of pronoun can be used for emphasis? Give examples to
illustrate
Possessive and impersonal pronouns can be used to emphasis
Ex: Personal pronouns: We are my best friend
Impersonal pronouns: It is good to know that story
6. What are syntactical functions of a pronouns? Give examples
Subject: He is my nephew
Object: She gave me a special gift
Prepositional object: She is talking about Daisy
Complement:
+ Subject: Those bags are hers
+ Object: I am myself today
Attribute: The girl who is singing on the stage is my idol
Part of abverbial modifer: She lived by herself
Apposition: He himself told me the news
 ADJECTIVES IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (p.121)
1. What are the functions of adjectives? Give examples to illustrate
Used as an attribute: A beautiful girl
Used as a complement:
+ Subject: She is pretty
+ Object: They proved me wrong
Used as a predicate: She is fine today
Used a noun:
+ Wholly substantivized: a black, the blacks
+ Partly substantivized: the deaf, the rich
2. What are substantivized adjectives? Give examples
Wholly substantivized (dtu hóa): acquire all the characteristics of nouns,
they have plural and possessive case inflections and may be as with the
definite and indefinite articles
Ex: A white, two whites
Partly substantivized: take only the definite article, but are neither
inflected for plural nor can they be used in the possessive case
Ex: the useful, the rich
3. Identify the patterns of the following adjectives and give two more
examples for each
a. Warm-hearted (a compound adj + N + ed): Open-minded, cold
blooded
b. Impossible (a derived adjective): Impatient, impolite
c. Golden (a derived adjective): wooden, silken
d. Inconvinient (a deirved adjective): incorrect, independent

ADVERBS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (p.129)

1. State the positions of adverbs of manner/ frequency. Give examples
+ After the object: He plays the guitar beautifully
+ After the verb: He swims well
+ Between the subject and the verb: He angryly slammed the door
+ At the beginning of the sentence for the sake of emphasis: Slowly, she
entered the room
The position of adverbs of frequency
+ At the beginning of the sentence: Sometimes, I don’t like doing
anything
+ At the end of the sentence: He doesn’t come here often
+ In the mid-position:
 Before normal verbs: I usually come home after work
After the verb “To be”: My cat is always hungry
2. What are the differences between the underlined words in the
following sentences?
a. I’ve just taken a short journey.  It’s an adjective
b. The coach stopped short and I felt uncomfortable.  It’s an adverb
Apart form this , these have two differences meanings:
a. “a short journey” means that the journey has lasted for a short time
b. “the coach stopped short” means that the coach stopped suddenly
3. When Here, There and adverbs of place are at the beginning of a
sentence, what is the inversion like? Give examples
Inversion after adv (here, there and adv of place):
After “here”, “there”, and after adverb articles, the noun subjects come
after the verb. This is common with verbs of motion (except the subject is
a pronoun)
Ex: there goes the last journey
When some adverbs of place at the beginning of the sentence, the noun
subject can follow the verb (not the pronoun)
Ex: In the distance could be seen the purple mountain
4. When negative, semi-negative adverbs are the beginning of a
sentence? Give examples
When negative, semi-negative adverbs are the beginning of a sentence,
the subject goes after the auxiliary verbs
Ex: Never have I seen such a beautiful flower show
5. What are intensifier? Give examples.
Intensifier are adverbs of degree, which are used with gradable adjectives
or adverbs and normally strengthen the meaning of the word(s) they
modify
Ex: she is quite pretty
 NUMERALS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (p.150)
1. What kinds of numerals can be used to form compound adjectives?
Give examples
- Cardinal numerals
Ex: He took out ten-dollar note
2. What are the uses of cardinals/ ordinals/ fractions? Give examples.
USES:
- Cardinal numerals are used to form compound adjectives which are
usually hyphenated
(cardinals + singular nouns)
Ex: He took out a ten-dollar note.
- Used as pronoun
When either the context makes it clear, or you think your listener already
knows something, you can see a cardinal without a noun
Ex: These two are quite different
Ordinal numerals are used when we want to identify or decribe
something by indicating where they come in a series or sequence
Ex: Flora’s flat is on the fourth floor of this five-storey block
Note: You can also use “following”, “next”, “preceding”, “previous”,
“then” , “last” like ordinal numerals to indicate where something comes
in a series or sequence
Ordinal numerals are used as
+ Pronouns: you can use an ordinal to refer to a member of a group that
you have already mentioned or to something of the kind already
mentioned, and you can see omit the noun which identifies the thing.
Ex: the third child tries to out the first and sencond
+ Adverbs: often used to indicate the order in which things are done.
Ex: First, boil the water
Ordinal numerals are used asa modifiers (they ae usually preceded by a
determiner)
Ex: The first day of autumn
The sencond day of the week
Fraction
When you want to indicate how large a apart of something is compared to
the whole of it, you use fraction, such as “a third”, followed by “of” and a
noun of group referring to the whole thing
Fraction can also be wrtitten in figures
Parts of a fraction
Note: Numerator  cardinal
A Numerator number
B Denominator  Ordinal number

Fraction line Ex: 1/5  one fifth

Denominator

USES:
1. Used as pronouns
When it is clear to your listener who or what you are refering to,
either because of the context or because you and your listener or
reader know what is meant, you can use fraction as pronoun without
“of”
Ex: Of the people who work here, half are French and half are English
2. Used after a whole number or amount:
The noun must be plural even if the number is one
Ex: One and a half kilos
Five and a quarter days
Note: If you are using “a” instead of “one”, the “and” and the fraction
come after the noun
Ex: A mile and a half
Identify the uses of numerals in the following sentences
- It was a two-hundred-page book.
- The program has a step
- The program has one step
- One-tenth the speed would be better
 CONJUNCTIONS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (p.154)
1. How many kinds of conjunctions are there? What are they? Give
examples
There are two kinds of conjunction
- The coorinative conjunctions (coordinators) (liên từ đẳng lập)
- The sub-ordinative conjunctions (Subordinators) (liên từ phụ thuộc)
Ex: I like listening to music and I often hang out with friends in free
time
The man who is standing over there is my father
2. In what kinds of sentences are coordinators used? Give examples
Connect words, groups of words and clauses that are independent on each
other.
Corordinators include:
For  Reason I failed in my exam, for I didn’t study
And  Similarity, addition My hobbies are playing soccer and
listening to music.
Nor  None of We don’t like doing homework nor do like doing exam
But  Contrast I love rain, but I don’t like being wet
Or  Choice Do you want to drink coffee or tea
Yet  (But) I work hard, yet I fail
So  Result You don’t do the homework, so you will get bad marks
3. In what kinds of sentences are subordinators used? Give examples
- Sub-ordinative conjunctions
- Ex: I’m not certain If he will be at home this afternoon.

4. Which conjunctions are used to introduce adverb clauses of place/

time? Give examples
- Sub-ordinative conjunctions

Ex:
+ Place: You can go wherever you like.
+ Time: When I arrived, she had already left.
5. What are the forms of conjunction? Give examples
Simple conjunctions: when, where, but, or, and, yet, so…
Correlative conjuctions: both…and, either…or, neither..nor
Partcipal conjunctions (coverted from participles): seeing, supposed,
provided…
 Phrase conjunctions: in case (that), as if, if only, as soon as, as long as,
no matter what…
6. What is the homonym in conjunctions? Give examples.
Homonym, or multiple meaning words, are words that share the same
spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meaning. For
example, bear.
Ex: A bear (the animal) can bear (tolerate) very cold temperatures
The driver turned left (opposite of right) and left (departed from) the
main road
In English, many conjunction, adverbs and prepositions are
homonymous. When we study we should make a distinction among them.
They are such words as: since, after, before, for…
Ex: She has been with us since she arrived here
She has been with us since her arrival
She got married and moved South and I haven’t seen her since.

SENTENCES IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE (p.164)

1. What is sentences? Gives examples?
The sentence is the largeest grammatical unit which expresses a complete
thought or idea and has a definite grammatical form (one finitr verb, one
subject) and a certain intonation.
Ex: The shops close at 8:30 p.m
I always don’t have time to study but when I do I still don’t
2. What is the Declarative sentences/ Interrogative sentences/
Imperative sentences/ Exclamtor sentences
Declarative
- They are used when the speaker or writer wants to communicate
something the person addressed
- A declarative sentence express some statements in the affirmative or
negative form
- The declarative sentences always have falling intonation
- Ex: I haven’t seen that film
Imterrogative
They are used when the speaker or writer wants to know of certain
thought, idea or confirm a thought or idea previously expressessed (to ask
questions)
 - There are the following types of interrogative sentence: General
question, Special questions, Alternative questions and Tag questions.
Ex: Did you know it ?
You are ready, aren’t you?
Imperative
The imperative sentences are used to include (cause to do) the person
addressed to fulfill a certain action. This may be done in form of a
command, order or reuqest
- Imperative sentences are mainly implied to the sencond person and the
verbs are in the form of imperative mood (inf. Without to)
- Ex: Open your book, please!
- Don’t ever come late

3. What is simple/ compound/ complex sentence? Give examples

Simple sentence is the smallest sentence unit. A simple sentence consist
of only one clause with a subject and a finite verb
Lam is beautiful
Compound sentence
When it is necessary to join ideas, thoughts, and so on, we can do this by
linking simple sentences to form compound sentences.
A compound sentence consist of two or more independent sentences
connected by means of co-ordination. Each independent sentence is
called an independent clause.
The following co-ordinative conjunctions (and adverbs) connect the
claused of a compound sentence:
A. Copulative: and, not only..but also…, neither…nor…, now, then, and
others.
EX: Not only was he dissatified but he was extremely indignat
B. Disjunctive: or, otherwise, else, either…or, ect
Ex: We must hurry or we will miss the train
C. Adversative: But, yet, still, nevertheless, however, etc
Ex: You can cross the river here, but be careful of the swift flow
D. Causual: For
Ex: We cannot see the moon, for dark clouds cover the sky
 E. Resultative: So, therefore, accordingly, then,…
Ex: It is getting late, then we had better go home
F. Sometimes, the semi-colon is also used to connect ideas to form
compound sentences.
Ex: We finished all day; we didn’t catch anything
Complex sentences
A complex sentence is a sentence which consists of a main cluase and one or
more subordinate clause.
The subordinate clause may either follow or precede the main clause.
The functions of subordinate clauses are similar to those of the parts of a simple
sentence.
Ex: Because it rains, we stay at home