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An introduction to and Summary of Grammar

(How to Improve English Speaking – The start)

General grammatical structures in English are simple, continuous, perfect simple and perfect continuous

The next step in our journey is to then take a look at the question forms (interrogative) and the negative forms of these basic grammatical structures

As you can see in the table above, we need words in order to make the question and negative forms. These words are known as auxiliary verbs. The auxiliary verb for the simple tense is the verb ‘do’. the auxiliary verb for the continuous tense is ‘be’. The auxiliary verb for the perfect tenses is ‘have’.

The next thing to do is to make sure that we know how to manipulate these three basic structures into the past tense. This is very easy, all that we must do is change the first verb of any sentence into the past

This is incredibly easy. Now let’s try the same thing with the question forms (interrogative) and the negative forms

Did you notice that only one verb was changed into the past tense. Easy isn’t it? Now that we have accomplished this, let’s try the future tense.

The future tense is a little different because we need to use a modal verb. Modal verbs will be explained in more detail later on. But for now we must focus on the idea that modal verbs are actually called modal auxiliary verbs. This means that we must understand them differently in order to make a question form and a negative. Basically, we don’t need to use ‘do’, ‘be’ or ‘have’.

Did you notice that we only did one thing? We only put in the word “will”. But more specifically, please notice that after the word “will”, we must use the infinitive form of the verb. It is not possible to say “I will am eating”, “I will are eating” nor “I will is eating”. This is true for all other verbs. It is also true for all modal verbs, such as “you must go”, “he should eat” or “it would be better”. It is impossible to hear phrases such as “you must goes”, “he should eats” or “it would is better”.

Now, to make the question and negative forms it is quite easy. Let’s take a look.

That’s it!! Easy right?See you again http://www.howtoimproveenglishspeaking.org