Have to must should

Modals for obligation and advice

Question tags. They are kind of cool, aren’t they?

We add question tags to the end of statements to turn them into questions. They are used in spoken language, especially when we want to check something is true, or invite people to agree with you.

They are mainly used in speech when we want to:

• confirm that something is true or not, or
• to encourage a reply from the person we are speaking to.

Question tags are formed with the auxiliary or modal verb from the statement and the appropriate subject.

A positive statement is followed by a negative question tag.

• Jack is from Spain, isn’t he?
• Mary can speak English, can’t she?

A negative statement is followed by a positive question tag.

• They aren’t funny, are they?
• He shouldn’t say things like that, should he?

When the verb in the main sentence is in the present simple we form the question tag with do / does.

• You play the guitar, don’t you?
• Alison likes tennis, doesn’t she?

If the verb is in the past simple we use did.

• They went to the cinema, didn’t they?
• She studied in New Zealand, didn’t she?

When the statement contains a word with a negative meaning, the question tag needs to be positive

• He hardly ever speaks, does he?
• They rarely eat in restaurants, do they?

Question Tags Summary Charts

(taken from http://www.grammar.cl/Intermediate/Question_Tags.htm)

Practice

tags 1

tags 2

tags 3

Comparatives and superlatives

Can you remember? What were the superlatives in the quiz?

• What do you know about comparatives and superlatives?
• When do we use them?
• How do we make them?

Look at the presentation below and answer the questions.

 

Phrasal Verbs

Watch these videos and learn more about this type of verbs 🙂

Master Modals!! Watch this video :)

Modal verbs

Here’s a list of the modal verbs in English:

can	could	may	might	will
would	must	shall	should	ought to

Modals are different from normal verbs:

1: They don’t use an ‘s’ for the third person singular.
2: They make questions by inversion (‘she can go’ becomes ‘can she go?’).
3: They are followed directly by the infinitive of another verb (without ‘to’).

Probability:

First, they can be used when we want to say how sure we are that something happened / is happening / will happen. We often call these ‘modals of deduction’ or ‘speculation’ or ‘certainty’ or ‘probability’.

For example:

• It’s snowing, so it must be very cold outside.
• I don’t know where John is. He could have missed the train.
• This bill can’t be right. £200 for two cups of coffee!

Ability

We use ‘can’ and ‘could’ to talk about a skill or ability.

For example:

• She can speak six languages.
• My grandfather could play golf very well.
• I can’t drive.

Obligation and Advice

We can use verbs such as ‘must’ or ‘should’ to say when something is necessary or unnecessary, or to give advice.

For example:

• Children must do their homework.
• We have to wear a uniform at work.
• You should stop smoking.

Permission

We can use verbs such as ‘can’, ‘could’ and ‘may’ to ask for and give permission. We also use modal verbs to say something is not allowed.

For example:

• Could I leave early today, please?
• You may not use the car tonight.
• Can we swim in the lake?

Habits

We can use ‘will’ and ‘would’ to talk about habits or things we usually do, or did in the past.

For example:

• When I lived in Italy, we would often eat in the restaurant next to my flat.
• John will always be late!

exercises 1

exercises 2

Reported Speech

We use a ‘reporting verb’ like ‘say’ or ‘tell’.

If this verb is in the present tense, it’s easy. We just put ‘she says’ and then the sentence:

• Direct speech: “I like ice cream”.
• Reported speech: She says she likes ice cream.

We don’t need to change the tense, though probably we do need to change the ‘person’ from ‘I’ to ‘she’, for example. We also may need to change words like ‘my’ and ‘your’.

But, if the reporting verb is in the past tense, then usually we change the tenses in the reported speech:

• Direct speech: “I like ice cream”.
• Reported speech: She said she liked ice cream.

Tense	Direct Speech	Reported Speech
present simple	“I like ice cream”	She said (that) she liked ice cream.
present continuous	“I am living in London”	She said she was living in London.
past simple	“I bought a car”	She said she had bought a car OR She said she bought a car.
past continuous	“I was walking along the street”	She said she had been walking along the street.
present perfect	“I haven’t seen Julie”	She said she hadn’t seen Julie.
past perfect*	“I had taken English lessons before”	She said she had taken English lessons before.
will	“I’ll see you later”	She said she would see me later.
would*	“I would help, but..”	She said she would help but…
can	“I can speak perfect English”	She said she could speak perfect English.
could*	“I could swim when I was four”	She said she could swim when she was four.
shall	“I shall come later”	She said she would come later.
should*	“I should call my mother”	She said she should call her mother
might*	“I might be late”	She said she might be late
must	“I must study at the weekend”	She said she must study at the weekend OR She said she had to study at the weekend

* doesn’t change.

Reported Questions

So now you have no problem with making reported speech from positive and negative sentences. But how about questions?

• Direct speech: “Where do you live?”

How can we make the reported speech here?

In fact, it’s not so different from reported statements. The tense changes are the same, and we keep the question word. The very important thing though is that, once we tell the question to someone else, it isn’t a question any more. So we need to change the grammar to a normal positive sentence. Confusing? Sorry, maybe this example will help:

• Direct speech: “Where do you live?”
• Reported speech: She asked me where I lived.

Do you see how I made it? The direct question is in the present simple tense. We make a present simple question with ‘do’ or ‘does’ so I need to take that away. Then I need to change the verb to the past simple.

Another example:

• Direct speech: “where is Julie?”
• Reported speech: She asked me where Julie was.

The direct question is the present simple of ‘be’. We make the question form of the present simple of be by inverting (changing the position of)the subject and verb. So, we need to change them back before putting the verb into the past simple.

Here are some more examples:

Direct Question	Reported Question
“Where is the Post Office, please?”	She asked me where the Post Office was.
“What are you doing?”	She asked me what I was doing.
“Who was that fantastic man?”	She asked me who that fantastic man had been.

So much for ‘wh’ questions. But, what if you need to report a ‘yes / no’ question? We don’t have any question words to help us. Instead, we use ‘if’:

• Direct speech: “Do you like chocolate?”
• Reported speech: She asked me if I liked chocolate.

No problem? Here are a few more examples:

Direct Question	Reported Question
“Do you love me?”	He asked me if I loved him.
“Have you ever been to Mexico?”	She asked me if I had ever been to Mexico.
“Are you living here?”	She asked me if I was living here.

Reported Requests

There’s more! What if someone asks you to do something (in a polite way)? For example:

• Direct speech: “Close the window, please”
• Or: “Could you close the window please?”
• Or: “Would you mind closing the window please?”

All of these requests mean the same thing, so we don’t need to report every word when we tell another person about it. We simply use ‘ask me + to + infinitive’:

• Reported speech: She asked me to close the window.

Here are a few more examples:

Direct Request	Reported Request
“Please help me”.	She asked me to help her.
“Please don’t smoke”.	She asked me not to smoke.
“Could you bring my book tonight?”	She asked me to bring her book that night.
“Could you pass the milk, please?”	She asked me to pass the milk.
“Would you mind coming early tomorrow?”	She asked me to come early the next day.

To report a negative request, use ‘not’:

• Direct speech: “Please don’t be late.”
• Reported speech: She asked us not to be late.

Reported Orders

And finally, how about if someone doesn’t ask so politely? We can call this an ‘order’ in English, when someone tells you very directly to do something. For example:

• Direct speech: “Sit down!”

In fact, we make this into reported speech in the same way as a request. We just use ‘tell’ instead of ‘ask’:

• Reported speech: She told me to sit down.

Direct Order	Reported Order
“Go to bed!”	He told the child to go to bed.
“Don’t worry!”	He told her not to worry.
“Be on time!”	He told me to be on time.
“Don’t smoke!”	He told us not to smoke.

 

Time Expressions with Reported Speech

Sometimes when we change direct speech into reported speech we have to change time expressions too. We don’t always have to do this, however. It depends on when we heard the direct speech and when we say the reported speech.

For example:

It’s Monday. Julie says “I’m leaving today“.

If I tell someone on Monday, I say “Julie said she was leaving today“.
If I tell someone on Tuesday, I say “Julie said she was leaving yesterday“.
If I tell someone on Wednesday, I say “Julie said she was leaving on Monday“.
If I tell someone a month later, I say “Julie said she was leaving that day“.

So, there’s no easy conversion. You really have to think about when the direct speech was said.

Here’s a table of some possible conversions:

now	then / at that time
today	yesterday / that day / Tuesday / the 27th of June
yesterday	the day before yesterday / the day before / Wednesday / the 5th of December
last night	the night before, Thursday night
last week	the week before / the previous week
tomorrow	today / the next day / the following day / Friday

Click here to do exercises on Reported Speech

Or click here too!

Conditionals! Explanation plus exercises

Conditional Sentences are also known as Conditional Clauses or If Clauses. They are used to express that the action in the main clause (without if) can only take place if a certain condition (in the clause with if) is fulfilled.

There are four kinds:

• The Zero Conditional:
  (if + present simple, … present simple)
  If you heat water to 100 degrees, it boils.

This conditional is used when the result will always happen. So, if water reaches 100 degrees, it always boils. It’s a fact. I’m talking in general, not about one particular situation. The result of the ‘if clause’ is always the main clause.

For example: If water reaches 100 degrees, it boils. (It is always true, there can’t be a different result sometimes). If I eat peanuts, I am sick. (This is true only for me, maybe, not for everyone, but it’s still true that I’m sick every time I eat peanuts)

Click HERE for exercises.

• The First Conditional:
  (if + present simple, … will + infinitive)
  If it rains tomorrow, we’ll go to the cinema.

It’s used to talk about things which might happen in the future. Of course, we can’t know what will happen in the future, but this describes possible things, which could easily come true.

• If it rains, I won’t go to the park.
• If I study today, I‘ll go to the party tonight.
• If I have enough money, I‘ll buy some new shoes.
• She‘ll be late if the train is delayed.
• She‘ll miss the bus if she doesn’t leave soon.
• If I see her, I‘ll tell her.

First vs. Zero Conditional:

The first conditional describes a particular situation, whereas the zero conditional describes what happens in general.

Click HERE for doing some practice

• The Second Conditional:
  (if + past simple, … would + infinitive)
  If I had a lot of money, I would travel around the world.

First, we can use it to talk about things in the future that are probably not going to be true. Maybe I’m imagining some dream for example.

• If I won the lottery, I would buy a big house.(I probably won’t win the lottery)
• If I met the Queen of England, I would say hello.
• She would travel all over the world if she were rich.
• She would pass the exam if she ever studied.(She never studies, so this won’t happen)

Second, we can use it to talk about something in the present which is impossible, because it’s not true. Is that clear? Have a look at the examples:

• If I had his number, I would call him. (I don’t have his number now, so it’s impossible for me to call him).
• If I were you, I wouldn’t go out with that man.

How is this different from the first conditional?

This kind of conditional sentence is different from the first conditional because this is a lot more unlikely.

For example (second conditional): If I had enough money I would buy a house with twenty bedrooms and a swimming pool (I’m probably not going to have this much money, it’s just a dream, not very real)

But (first conditional): If I have enough money, I’ll buy some new shoes (It’s much more likely that I’ll have enough money to buy some shoes)

Click HERE for some exercises

• The Third Conditional
  (if + past perfect, … would + have + past participle)
  If I had gone to bed early, I would have caught the train.

It talks about the past. It’s used to describe a situation that didn’t happen, and to imagine the result of this situation.

• If she had studied, she would have passed the exam (but, really we know she didn’t study and so she didn’t pass)
• If I hadn’t eaten so much, I wouldn’t have felt sick (but I did eat a lot, and so I did feel sick).
• If we had taken a taxi, we wouldn’t have missed the plane
• She wouldn’t have been tired if she had gone to bed earlier
• She would have become a teacher if she had gone to university
• He would have been on time for the interview if he had left the house at nine.

Click HERE for some exercises