Download GRAMMAR PRESENTATION LESSON1 1 Auxiliaries and Phrasal

GRAMMAR PRESENTATION
LESSON1 1
Auxiliaries and Phrasal Verbs
Auxiliaries
A. There are four categories of auxiliaries in English:
a) the verb – be: am / is / are / was / were –
b) the verb – do: do / does / did –
c) the verb – have: have / has / had
d) the modal verbs: can / could / shall / should / will / would / may / might / must / ought to
B. We often use auxiliaries to refer to verbs or verb phrases that have already been mentioned. In this way, we
don’t have to repeat the verb or verb phrase:
▪ Let’s see if you can answer the following question. No doubt you can.
C. Notice how auxiliaries are used with the words –too – either – so – neither -:
▪ Steve is a perfectionist. So is Jerry. – Jerry is too.
▪ Jerry has never liked ‘liberal’ ideas. Neither has Steve. – Steve hasn’t either.
Be careful! When we make comparative statements with ‘so’ and ‘neither’, we place these words at the beginning
of the sentence and invert the subject and the auxiliary.
D. When speakers want to place special emphasis on a verb (or any other word), they pronounce it with stress.
Speakers stress words for insistence or for contrast with a preceding statement:
▪ They are not twins. But they are both firstborns. (Stressing are makes a contrast with the first statement.)
E. In the simple present and simple past tenses, the auxiliaries – do – does – did – are used in affirmative sentences
to show contrast and emphasis:
▪ Neither man went to college. Both did become successful businessmen, though.
Phrasal Verbs
A. English has many two-word verbs, made up of a verb and a small word. Two-word verbs are very common an
informal style and they are called phrasal verbs.
Phrasal verbs are verbs which change their meaning in some way by adding ‘particles’ or ‘words’ down, away, in,
up, after, off, across etc. Some of these ‘words’ can be adverbs or prepositions :
▪ Please sit down.
▪ I’ll throw away the rubbish.
▪ Could you turn on the TV?
B. There are 4 types of phrasal verbs. Type 1 is inseparable. The meaning of a phrasal verb is a combination of the
meanings of its separate parts. They are easy to understand:
▪ Tom asked Melanie to come in and sit down.
The meanings are clear if you know the words come, in, sit, down.
▪ She stood up and walked out.
C. Both Type 2 and Type 3 phrasal verbs have an object. In Type 2 (separable) , the particle can move.
Usually there are two possible positions for the object which can go either before or after the adverb:
▪ I turn on the light. I turn the light on.
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▪ Could you fill in this form? Could you fill this form in?
If the object is a pronoun (it / them / me / him etc.), only one position is possible:
▪ I turned it on.
D. In Type 3 (inseparable) the particle cannot move. The phrasal verb has a different meaning to the meanings of
its separate parts. They are idiomatic (the verb + adverb):
▪ He gave up eating meat. (= He stopped eating meat.)
▪ Sue takes after her mother. (= She looks like her mother.)
▪ Looking after a baby is hard work. (= Taking care of a baby…)
▪ It was my first flight. I was nervous as the plane took off. (= went into the air)
▪ My French isn’t very good, but it’s enough to get by. (= manage)
E. Sometimes a phrasal verb has the same meaning as a one-word verb.
▪ find out = discover
▪ go back = return
▪ go on = continue
▪ leave out = omit
▪ make up = invent (a story)
▪ put off = postpone
▪ send out = distribute
▪ throw away = discard
▪ turn up = arrive
F. We often use ON / OFF / OUT / ROUND etc. with verbs of movement. For example:
▪ The bus was full. We couldn’t get on.
▪ A woman got into the car and drove off.
▪ When I touched him on the shoulder, he turned round.
G. Type 4 phrasal verbs consist of a verb + an adverb + a preposition. The preposition has an object:
▪ Do you get on with your neighbours?
▪ We’ve run out of sugar.
The word order cannot change.
▪ Do you get on with them?
H. Like other verbs, phrasal verbs can be used in all tenses and as gerunds, infinitives, and participles:
▪ She would have made a parallel mistake by opening the gift right on the spot and not setting it aside for
later. (Gerund)
▪ But there are other things to be concerned with. (Infinitive)
▪ Looking forward to unwrapping it in the privacy of her home, she answered, ‘Oh, no!’ I don’t want to
open it now. (Participle)
I. In pronouncing phrasal verbs, we place the main stress on the preposition:
▪ You don’t want to show off, so don’t overvalue the gift.
When we make nouns from phrasal verbs, we move the stress to the beginning of the combination. We usually write
the noun with a hyphen or as one word:
▪ You don’t want to be a show-off, so don’t overvalue the gift.
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