Practice and Improve Your Grammar part 2

You are always making snide remarks about my cooking! He is continually interrupting!

• the description of a changing situation:

The weather is getting better!

More and more people are giving up smoking.

EXERCISE 5. Conjugate the following verbs in Present Continuous and read them.

1. read	4. do	7. walk	10. prepare	13. paint
2. write	5. watch	8. sing	11. eat	14. carry
3. sleep	6. try on	9. work	12. break	15. have

EXERCISE 6. Rachel is in the computer room at college. Complete her conversation with Andrew. Put in a present continuous form of the verb.

Andrew:	What …are you doing…? (you / do)
Rachel:	…I'm writing… (I / write) a letter to a friend. He's a disc jockey.
	Vicky and I (1) ….. (try) to organize a disco.
Andrew:	That sounds a lot of work. How (2) ….. (you / find) time for your
	studies?
Rachel:	Well, as I said, Vicky (3) …. (help) me. (4) …. (we / get) on all
	right. (5) …. (we / not / spend) too much time on it. (6) …. (it / not /
	take) me away from my studies, don't worry about that. Oh, sorry,
	(7) …. (you / wait) for this computer?
Andrew:	Yes, but there's no hurry.
Rachel:	(8) …. (I / correct) the last bit of the letter. I've nearly finished.

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EXERCISE 7. What can you say in these situations? Add a sentence with the present continuous.

Example: A friend rings you up in the middle of 'Neighbours', your favourite soap opera. Is it important? …I'm watching 'Neighbours'….

1.A friend is at your flat and suggests going out, but you can see rain outside. I don't want to go out now. Look, …..

2.A friend rings you up at work. Sorry, I can't talk now. …..

3.You want to get off the bus, but the man next to you is sitting on your coat. Excuse me, …..

4.A friend wants to talk to you, but you have just started to write an important letter.

Can I talk to you later? …..

5.You have been ill, but you're better now than you were. I'm OK now …..

Present Simple – Present Continuous

•We use the Present Simple for permanent situations and the Present Continuous for temporary situations:

My brother John lives in London and works for a magazine.

My sister Helen is living with John just now. She isn’t working yet.

•Some verbs have meanings which refer to states or conditions, and others have meanings which refer to actions. State verbs are either only used in simple form, or have a different meaning when used in continuous form.

There are several groups of state verbs:

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belong	consist of	contain	cost	own	matter
depend on	deserve	possess	resemble	believe
imagine	know	prefer	realize	understand
mean	seem	regret	think	suppose
expect	doubt	agree	remember	forget
like	love	hate	wish	want
admit	hope	have	hear	see
feel	taste	smell	weigh	…

Does this belong to you?

I understand this point.

Verbs with state and action meanings:

	state	action
do	What do you do? (=What is	What are you doing? (=explain
	your job?)	your actions.)
be	This house is old.	He is being very silly!
	state	action
have	Do you have a cat? (possess,	She is having a bath. (a set-
	own)	phrase)
imagine	I imagine you feel the same.	Ghosts! No, you are imagining
		things!
suppose	I suppose this is John.	She is supposing he is
		guilty. (=make an assumption)
think	I think you are right. (=have	I am thinking of going to the
	an opinion)	cinema. (=considering)
expect	I don’t expect him to	Are you expecting someone?
	understand me.
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appear	Your visa appears to be out	He is appearing in Hamlet at the
	of date.	Grand Theatre.
look	This book looks interesting.	Jim is looking out of the
	(=seem)	window.
see	We saw a bird.	Jane is seeing Max. (=spending
		time with)
hear	I didn’t hear anything.	You are hearing things!
		(=imagining)
smell	The cheese smells awful.	I am smelling the flowers.
weigh	This bag weighs more than 5	I am weighing the parcel before
	kilos.	I post it.

EXERCISE 8. Underline the correct word or phrase in each sentence.

1.Every year I visit/I’m visiting Madrid to improve my Spanish.

2.This fish smells/is smelling terrible!

3.I haven’t decided yet about whether to buy a new bicycle or a second-hand one. But I think about it/I’m thinking about it.

4.“What do you do/are you doing?” – “I am a doctor.”

5.Why do you look/are you looking at John like that?

6.Somebody knocks/is knocking at the door. Open it.

7.It gets/It’s getting colder every day.

8.Here comes/is coming the bus!

9.This play is very long. It lasts/It is lasting over three hours.

10.What do you think/are you thinking of Jane’s new car?

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EXERCISE 9. Put each verb in brackets into the Present Simple or Present Continuous.

1.“Where is John?” – “He … (read) the paper in the kitchen.”

2.I’m sorry, but I … (not/understand) you.

3.… (you/do) anything at the moment? I … (need) some help with the computer.

4.This product … (contain) no chemicals.

5.I … (suppose) I’ll have to do the work.

6.People … (drink) more and more wine.

7.Kate is away on holiday so Jane … (handle) her work.

8.I … (hear) that you have won the race. Congratulations!

9.I … (not/know) where John is at the moment.

10.She … (always/forget) everything!

EXERCISE 10. At work Mark is talking to Alan in the corridor. Complete their conversation. Put in the present continuous or present simple.

Mark:	…Are you looking… (you / look) for someone?
Alan:	Yes, …I need… (I / need) to speak to Neil. He isn't in his office.
Mark:	(1) ….. (he / talk) to the boss at the moment. (2) ….. (I / think) (3)
	….. (they / discuss) money.
Alan:	Oh, right. And what about you? (4) ….. (you / look) for someone
	too?
Mark:	Yes, Linda. (5) ….. (you / know) where she is?
Alan:	Oh, she isn't here today. She only (6) ….. (work) four days a week.
	(7) ….. (she / not / work) on Fridays. She'll be here on Monday.
Mark:	Thank you. (8) ….. (you / know) a lot about Linda.
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Alan:	Well, most days (9) ….. (I / give) her a lift, or (10) ….. (she / give)
	me one. (11) ….. (she / live) quite close to me. (12) ….. (it / save)
	petrol.
Mark:	Yes, of course. Good idea. Yes, (13) ….. (I / agree). Well, (14) …..
	(I / waste) my time here then. I'll get back to my computer.

EXERCISE 11. Complete the sentences. Put in the present continuous or simple of the verbs.

Example: …I'm writing… (I / write) to my parents. …I write… (I / write) to them every weekend.

1.….. (it / snow) outside. ….. (it / come) down quite hard, look.

2.Normally ….. (I / start) work at eight o'clock, but ….. (I / start) at seven this week. We're very busy at the moment.

3.I haven't got a car at the moment, so ….. (I / go) to work on the bus this week. Usually ….. (I / drive) to work.

4.The sun ….. (rise) in the east, remember. It's behind us so ….. (we / travel) west.

5.I'm afraid I have no time to help just now ….. (I / write) a report. But ….. (I / promise) I'll give you some help later.

6.….. (I / want) a new car ….. (I / save) up to buy one.

EXERCISE 12. Complete the sentences. Use always and the present continuous or simple.

Example:	Melanie: Tom talks too much, doesn't he?
	Rita:	Yes, and he's always talking about football.
	Laura:	You forget your keys every time.
	Trevor:	I try to remember them, but I always forget.
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1. Claire:

Sarah takes the train every day, doesn't she?

Mark:

Yes, ….. the train.

2. Vicky:

Rachel misses lectures much too often in my opinion.

Emma:

I agree. ….. lectures.

3. Mike:

Every time I drive along here, I go the wrong way.

Harriet:

But it's very simple, isn't it? Why ….. the wrong way?

4. David:

Trevor and Laura argue much too often, I think.

Melanie:

I know …..

Past Simple

Formation:

affirmative

negative

interrogative

sentences

sentences

sentences

Did + subject +

regular verbs

bare infinitive +

did + not + bare

ed

infinitive

bare infinitive?

(You watched the

(You didn’t watch

(Did you watch

film yesterday.)

the film yesterday.

the film

He didn’t read

yesterday? Did he

irregular verbs

the

2nd form

of

the verb

two books

read two books

(He

read

two

yesterday.)

yesterday?)

books yesterday.)

Exceptions:

to be

I was

we were

you were

you were

he, she, it was

they were

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Spelling (regular verbs):

• We drop the mute -e before -ed: to hope => hoped, to like => liked

•If a verb ends in a consonant + y, we change the y to i and add -ed: to carry => carried, to cry => cried

•If a verb ends in a vowel + y, we add only -ed:

to play => played, to enjoy => enjoyed

•We double the final consonant if the vowel before it is stressed and short: to stop => stopped, to chat => chatted

•We don’t double the final consonant if there is another consonant (or several consonants) before it:

to want => wanted

•We double the final consonant -r in a stressed syllable even if the vowel before it is long:

to refer => referred

•We double the final consonant -l even in an unstressed syllable (in British English) if the vowel before it is short:

to travel => travelled

Pronunciation (the suffix -ed):

•We pronounce -ed as [t] after voiceless consonants (exception: [t]): worked [wə:kt], dressed [drest]

•We pronounce -ed as [d] after voiced consonants and vowels (exception: [d]): filled [fild], played [pleid]

•We pronounce -ed as [id] after [t, d]:

added ['ædid], chatted ['t∫ætid]

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Use

The Past Simple is used for:

•two or more past actions in sequence, especially in narrative:

John shut the door, turned off the lights and went to bed.

•habitual actions in the past:

Every day I went to the park.

We can use the form used to to talk about habits in the past or to make a stronger contrast with the present. The negative form is didn’t use to or (more formally) used not to.

He used to smoke a lot. We didn’t use to drink beer.

They used not to buy expensive clothes.

Did they use to spend all their time together?

We can also use would to talk about typical actions or activities during a period in the past.

In summer, we would swim a lot.

•completed actions in the past or past states:

Mary bought a nice house two weeks ago. That necklace belonged to my mother.

•conditional sentences and sentences with it’s time:

It’s time we went to bed.

•being more polite or less direct:

Did you want to see me about anything?

	Adverbs
			once
yesterday	yesterday morning	just now
			last time
last week	last month	last Friday
			in 1934
a week ago	two months ago	the other day
When did … ?
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EXERCISE 13. Put the following verbs into the Past Simple.

1. know	4. offer	7. occur	10. dance	13. love	16. study
2. paint	5. see	8. equal	11. have	14. wear	17. ray
3. try	6. die	9. buy	12. open	15. forget

EXERCISE 14. Complete the newspaper story about a fire. Put in the past simple forms of the verbs.

Two people …died… (die) in a fire in Ellis Street, Oldport yesterday morning. They (1) ….. (be) Herbert and Molly Paynter, a couple in their seventies. The fire (2) ….. (start) at 3.20 am. A neighbour, Mr Aziz, (3) ….. (see) the flames and (4) ….. (call) the fire brigade. He also (5) ….. (try) to get into the house and rescue his neighbours, but the heat (6) ….. (be) too great. The fire brigade (7) ….. (arrive) in five minutes. Twenty fire-fighters (8) ….. (fight) the fire and finally (9) ….. (bring) it under control. Two fire-fighters (10) ….. (enter) the burning building but (11) ….. (find) the couple dead.

EXERCISE 15. Complete the conversation. Put in the past simple negatives and questions.

Claire:	…Did you have… (you / have) a nice weekend in Paris?
Mark:	Yes, thanks. It was good. We looked around and then we saw a
	show. (1) ….. (we / not / try) to do too much.
Claire:	What sights (2) ….. (you / see)?
Mark:	We had a look round the Louvre. (3) ….. (I / not / know) there was
	so much in there.
Claire:	And what show (4) ….. (you / go) to?
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