Practice and Improve Your Grammar part 1

1….. northwest Scotland is mountainous and largely uninhabited, so there's ….. to do there, unless you enjoy hiking and camping in rugged places.

2I think it's going to be very crowded because Marjorie invited ….. people tо her party for such a small place. She said she wasn't sure ….. would actually come.

3….. research has been done on bow this recently identified type of virus is being transmitted and we still have ….. questions than answers.

4We're obviously not being very efficient because, with ….. workers involved in this project, we should be making ….. progress than we are.

(A) few and (a) little, fewer/fewest and less/least

A few and a little

When we talk about small numbers and amounts in a vague way, we can use a few before plural nouns (1) and a little before uncountable nouns (2). We can also use a few and a little without nouns (3).

1There may be a few minutes left at the end. • I brought a few pieces of paper.

2There may be a little time left at the end. • If you add a little salt, the soup will taste better.

3Do you want milk? ~ Just a little. • Did you see any stars? ~ There were a few. (NOT There was a few.)

When we talk about a small number or amount in a specific way, we use a few of before determiners or plural pronouns (4) and a little of before determiners or singular pronouns (5).

4I've seen a few of those cartoons that Gary Larson draws. Mary has a few of them on her wall.

5I use a little of this moisturizing cream when my skin feels dry. You only

need a little of it.

71

We can use a little as an adverb after verbs or before participle adjectives and comparatives.

6 I only slept a little. • We were a little annoyed at first. • My mother is feeling a little better now.

Few and little

We use few (not a few) and little (not a little) when we are talking about 'not many or much', usually in formal situations (7). We often use not (very) many (instead of few) and not (very) much (instead of little) to emphasize a negative view of the quantity (8).

7The refugees have few possessions and little hope of returning home soon. (NOT a little hope)

8They don't have (very) many possessions. They don't have (very) much

hope.

We also use few and little between determiners and nouns when we want to emphasize that the small quantity is the complete number or amount, usually in formal situations.

9I quickly packed my few belongings and spent the little money I had on a one-way ticket home.

Fewer/fewest and less/least

We use fewer and less instead of few/little in comparisons. We use fewer (for 'a smaller number of') before plural nouns and less (for 'a smaller amount of') before uncountable nouns.

10 I've been trying to eat fewer snacks and less junk food as part of my

diet.

In informal situations, less is also used with plural nouns: There were less questions than last time.

72

We can use fewer of and less of before determiners (11) and pronouns

(12).

11 There are fewer of those small shops now. • I'd like to spend less of my time in meetings.

12 The swans are back, but there are fewer of them this year. • Sugar isn't good for you. Eat less of it!

We use the fewest (13) and the least (14) when we talk about the smallest number or amount.

13 Ali made the fewest mistakes. Nick is the most cheerful and seems to have the fewest worries.

14 You complain that you make the least money here, but that's because you do the least work.

We also use least and less before adjectives/adverbs: less quickly, the least expensive.

Exercise 39. Choose an ending (a-e) for each beginning (1-5) and add a few, few, a little or little, plus of where necessary.

1	We had very ….. problems living here	a	and the ….. water that was left.
	(...)	b	so I only ate ….. it.
2	The teacher seemed ….. disappointed	с	and we've had ….. sunny days
	(...)		too.
3	The home-made soup was very salty	d until our car was stolen ….. days
	(...)		ago.
4	We shared the ….. pieces of fruit (...)	e	that only ….. us had done the
5	It's been ….. warmer recently (...)		work.

73

Exercise 40. Rewrite these sentences using a few, a little, fewer and less where possible.

1At first I only knew some words, but gradually my English is getting sоme better.

2The cake had pieces of coconut in it, which I don't really like, so I only didn't eat very much of it.

3I quite like my new job because I don't work as many hours and I don't have as much responsibility.

4People don't get as much coal delivered now because there aren't as many houses with open fireplaces.

Exercise 41. Complete each of the definitions with an adjective and

less, little or few.
cheap petty	rare skimpy sparse	trivial

1A ….. mailer is one that has ….. importance.

2….. items are often valuable because there are so ….. of them.

3….. items cost ….. money or ….. than expected.

4An area with ….. vegetation has ….. plants.

5A ….. piece of clothing is very small and covers very ….. of the body of the person who is wearing it.

6A ….. crime is one that is ….. serious than other crimes. An example would be stealing items that have ….. value.

Exercise 42. Correct the fourteen mistakes in these sentences.

1 With little luck, there will be fewer delays on the return trip and we'll get home twice as fast.

74

2We used to meet two or three lime week, but now it's about once

month.

3The rent at my old flat cost a half my pay and at the new place it's less than two-fifth my pay.

4Their productivity goal is to get twice as much done with fewer the workers than theу had before.

5There are about ten times as many English people than Scottish people.

6Instead of feeling a lot better the next day, I started feeling little worse.

7Now that I have my own computer at home, I can spend less my time at

school.

8Ninety per cent those using Gatwick airport reported having least inconvenience.

9We only ate few pieces of the pie and at least two-thirds of it are still left.

10Fewer people, now less than twenty per cent the population, would support a change in the law.

Multipliers, fractions and percentages

Multipliers

Multipliers are words and phrases such as once, twice or three times that we use before determiners when we are talking about how often something happens (1) or how much more something is (2). We can also use multipliers plus as ... as with many or much, adjectives and adverbs (3).

1I play tennis once a week. • I see my sister about four times a year. • We eat three times a day.

2He sold it for twice the original price. • Those tomatoes are two or three times the average size.

75

3 We have twice as many saucers as cups left. • She's paid three times as much as I am. • He can run twice as fast as me. • Some of the essays were twice as long as mine.

Fractions and percentages

We can use fractions (a quarter, two-thirds) with of before determiners and pronouns.

4It takes a quarter of an hour. • I only used two-thirds of the oil, so there's a third of it left.

We can use half without of before determiners: Half (of) my answers were wrong.

We use percentages (5 %, five per cent) before nouns, or with of before determiners and pronouns.

5There was a 10 % increase. • They take thirty per cent of my pay. I get seventy per cent of it.

Percent is sometimes written as one word, especially in American English.

Fractions and percentages with singular or uncountable nouns have singular verbs. With plural nouns, they have plural verbs.

6Two-thirds of the report is written. • About twenty per cent of the students are Asian.

Exercise 43. Using a dictionary if necessary, complete the sentences with these words and phrases. Add of, as, a and the where necessary.

eighth four times once quarter twenty per cent twice two-fifths

Example: A furlong is …an eighth of a… mile.

76

1The money was divided equally among the four brothers, so each received ….. it.

2….. year we have our annual family gathering at my grandparents'

house.

3A centimeter is about ….. inch, or 0.394 inches to be exact.

4A litre bottle holds almost ….. much as a pint.

5Did you know that at least ….. adult population can't read?

6At £200,000, the selling price is almost ….. price (£51,000) that Dan and Ginny Swisher paid for their house just six years ago.

Exercise 44. Add these words and phrases to this text. a few fewer fewest fifty per cent little

Although the world's population is still increasing, the rate of growth has slowed down from 64 % thirty years ago to about 48 % today. There is (l) ….. chance that population growth will level off before 2050 at the earliest, but there are (2) ….. indications that the growth rate will probably keep declining. Women in the wealthiest countries continue to have the (3) ….. children. However, partly because of better education and employment opportunities, many women in poorer countries are choosing to have (4) ….. babies. In some places, the birth rate is now (5) ….. lower than just thirty years ago.

77

Pronouns, substitution and ellipsis

Pronouns are forms such as it, someone, these, they, them, theirs, themselves and each other that we use instead of nouns and noun phrases.

(There was a five-pound note on the floor of the cafeteria. Someone must have dropped it. The boys looked at each other.)

Substitution is the use of forms such as one, ones, so and do so instead of noun phrases, verb phrases and clauses. ('Is it a real one?' asked Barney. 'I think so,' said Max.)

Ellipsis is the process of leaving out words and phrases instead of repeating them. (Max looked round quickly, then __ reached down, __ grabbed the money and __ hurried out of the room.)

Exercise 1. Read through these short texts and find:

1another example of it

2a sentence with she and an example of ellipsis

A I was born in 1939. The other big event of that year was the outbreak of the Second World War, but for the moment that did not affect me. Sydney in those days had all of its present attractions and few of the drawbacks. You can see it glittering in the background of the few photographs in which my father and I are together. Stocky was the word for me.

В In the 1940s, a couple of American scientists tried to raise a chimpanzee named Viki in their own home, treating her as a human child. They spent five years trying to get Viki to say English words by shaping her mouth as she made sounds.

С They always say that boys are better at maths than girls. When we

actually look at the test results, we find that girls generally do better than boys 78

during the primary school years, but the advantage shifts to boys in high school. That shift occurs when students are given more freedom to select the subjects they will study and girls tend not to go for more maths.

DYou know the feeling. You meet someone for the first time, and it's as if you've known each other all your lives. Everything goes smoothly. You know just what she means; she knows just what you mean. You laugh at the same time. Your sentences and hers have a perfect rhythm. You feel terrific. You're doing everything right.

EShe took his right hand and placed it against hers, palms touching. He didn't get the point at first. Then he realized that she was comparing the size of their hands. The difference made her laugh.

'What's funny?'

She told him his hand was funny.

'Why mine? Why not yours?' he said. 'If the difference is great, maybe you're the funny one, not me.'

'You're the funny one,' Lu Wan said.

She matched left hands now and fell sideways to the bed laughing. Maybe she thought they were two different species.

Exercise 2. Choose one of the following as the final sentence of each of the texts A-E above.

1And you think she's terrific too. (...)

2They are more likely to choose something else. (...)

3One of them was exotic and it wasn't her. (...)

4Handsome was the word for him. (...)

5 Despite their efforts, she never did speak. (...)

79

Personal, generic and possessive pronouns

Personal pronouns: I, me, they, them, etc.

The personal pronouns used as subject pronouns before verbs are I, you, he, she, it, we, they. Those used as object pronouns after verbs and prepositions are me, you, him, her, it, us, them.

1We like her. • She loves him. • He hates you. • You told them about me. • I hope they'll listen to us.

When we use a personal pronoun without a verb in a short response, we use the object form (2). We usually use the object form of the pronoun after as and than in comparisons (3).

2I'm feeling hungry. ~ Me too. • Who was making all that noise? ~

Them, not us.

3 We don't have as much as them. • Both of my brothers are older than

me.

Subject pronouns are sometimes used, but they sound very formal: They are older than I.

We usually use it for an animal. We can use he and she when we think of the animal as having human qualities or a special personality, for example, when it's a pet or a character in a story.

4Pooh is a friendly bear. He enjoys eating, singing and playing with his

friends.

We use the combination he or she (rather than he) when we are talking about a person who could be male or female (5). We often use a plural noun and they instead of he or she (6).

5By the age of two, a child can understand five times as many words as he or she can say.

6By the age of two, children can understand five times as many words as

they can say.

80