School of Academic English

08/02/2023

𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬

In modern English, questions are usually formed by placing an 𝐚𝐮𝐱𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐛 (𝘣𝘦, 𝘥𝘰, 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 or one of the 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝘤𝘢𝘯, 𝘮𝘢𝘺, 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵, 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭, or 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭) before the subject in the main clause. An 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 (𝘸𝘩𝘰, 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯, 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵, 𝘸𝘩𝘺, or 𝘩𝘰𝘸) is sometimes used to glean additional information. The whole sentence is then terminated with a question mark.

In archaic and literary usage, questions can be formed simply by placing the 𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐛 before the subject.

[interrogative] + auxiliary verb + subject + main verb + ? (or)
[interrogative] + main verb + subject + ? (archaic/literary)

e.g. Will water sublimate at this temperature?

(modal) auxiliary verb: will
subject: water

e.g. At what rate does flax grow during its vegetative stage?

interrogative: what
auxiliary verb: does
subject: flax
main verb: grow

e.g. Baa, baa, black sheep, have you any wool?

main verb: have
subject: you

07/02/2023

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬

The majority of clauses are arranged as 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬, with the subject placed before the verb. Often an 𝐚𝐮𝐱𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐛 or verbs precedes the 𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐛, altering or adding to its meaning.

subject + [auxiliary verb/s] + main verb

e.g. H**p grows up to ten centimetres each day.

subject: H**p
main verb: grows

e.g. Some species of bamboo can grow over a metre per day.

subject: Some species of bamboo
auxiliary verb: can
main verb: grow

e.g. The prisoners have been being humiliated.

subject: The prisoners
auxiliary verbs: have been being
main verb: humiliated

04/02/2023

𝐂𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐬

The foundation of every sentence is the clause. A clause consists of two components: a 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 and a 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐛.

The subject is the 𝘧𝘰𝘤𝘶𝘴 of the clause, and may represent one or more persons, things or ideas. Simply, the subject specifies whom or what the clause is talking about. It is most commonly the 𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭 (the holder or doer) of the verb.

The verb describes the 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞 or 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 pertaining to the agent.

23/01/2023

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲

English communication is made up of repeating functional units called 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀. In the simplest terms, a sentence introduces a 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 (one or more persons, things, or ideas) then says something about it.

By definition, a sentence must contain at least one 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲 (subject-verb pair) and communicate a complete idea. However, it may contain any number of clauses and 𝗽𝗵𝗿𝗮𝘀𝗲𝘀 to convey a more complex meaning.

Sentences must begin with a capital letter and end with a full stop, exclamation mark, or question mark.

20/11/2017

English grammar is generally taught in a manner that is both complex and complicated, if not plainly obfuscating. An abundance of vocabulary is introduced to refer to grammatical structure – sentence, clause, phrase, subject, predicate, object, complement, and adjunct to name a few – each one serving only to categorise its components, and often bringing the student no closer to an understanding of how to use them. And in many cases, even grammarians disagree upon their definitions, so it begs the question what value they have outside of the realm of pure theory.

Some students may have noticed that the earlier lessons found herein focus not on categorisation, but function. The same philosophy will be employed throughout this tutorial.

The following lessons will try to demystify the subject of the English sentence. Most of the terms mentioned above will be introduced, but they will be described not only so that they may be identified, but in order that the student will understand how and why they are used.

11/08/2017

24/07/2017