Copyright Published by Collins An imprint of (arperCollins Publishers Westerhill Road Bishopbriggs Glasgow G QT Fourth Edition © (arperCollins Publishers Collins® and COBU)LD® are registered trademarks of (arperCollins Publishers Limited www.com All rights reserved under )nternational and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non- exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of (arperCollins. Entered words that we have reason to believe constitute trademarks have been designated as such. 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E-mail: dictionaries@harpercollins.uk Acknowledgements We would like to thank those authors and publishers who kindly gave permission for copyright material to be used in the Collins Corpus. We would also like to thank Times Newspapers Ltd for providing valuable data. FOUND)NG ED)TOR-)N-C()EF: John Sinclair FOR T(E PUBL)S(ER: Maree Airlie, Robin Scrimgeour, Lisa Todd, Celia Wigley CONTR)BUTORS: Penny (ands, Kate Mohideen, Julie Moore, Damian Williams Acknowledgements The publishers would like to acknowledge the following for their invaluable contribution to the third edition: Managing Editor Penny (ands Editorial Consultant Roger Berry Lingnan University, (ong Kong Project Manager Senior Corpus Researcher Lisa Sutherland Kate Wild The Grammar of Academic English Corpus Researchers University of Glasgow Language Centre George Davidson Dr Esther Daborn Kate Mohideen Anneli Williams Elizabeth Potter Louis (arrison Elspeth Summers Laura Wedgeworth The Grammar of Business English American English Consultant Simon Clarke Orin (argraves Founding Editor-in-Chief John Sinclair We would also like to thank the following people for their contributions to previous editions of the text: Maree Airlie, Mona Baker, (enri Béjoint, Adriana Bolívar, Jane Bradbury, David Brazil, Dominic Bree, Nicholas Brownlees, Tony Buckby, Stephen Bullon, Annette Capel, Michela Clari, Jane Cullen, John Curtin, Richard Fay, Gwyneth Fox, Richard Francis, )ria Garcia, Gottfried Graustein, John (all, M. (alliday, Patrick (anks, Ron (ardie, Anthony (arvey, Lorna (easlip, Michael (oey, Roger (unt, Sue )nkster, Andy Kennedy, Lorna Knight, Ramesh Krishnamurthy, Tim Lane, Marcel Lemmens, (elen Liebeck, Alison Macaulay, Elizabeth Manning, Agnes Molnar, Rosamund Moon, Sue Ogden, Charles Owen, Georgina Pearce, Georgina Pert, Anne Pradeilles, Christopher Pratt, Christina Rammell, Clare Ramsey, Ramiro Restrepo, Christopher Royal-Dawson, Toňi Sanchez, Katy Shaw, Sue Smith, Mary Snell-(ornby, Tom Stableford, John Todd, Bob Walker, Laura Wedgeworth, (erman Wekker, Douglas Williamson, Jane Winn, Deborah Yuill About COBU)LD When the first COBU)LD dictionary was published in , it revolutionized dictionaries for learners. )t was the first of a new generation of language reference materials that were based on actual evidence of how English was used, rather than lexicographer intuition. Collins and the University of Birmingham, led by the linguist John Sinclair, developed an electronic corpus in the s, called the Collins Birmingham University )nternational Language Database COBU)LD . This corpus, which for several years was known as the Bank of English®, became the largest collection of English data in the world. COBU)LD dictionary editors use the corpus to analyse the way that people really use the language. The Collins Corpus now contains . billion words taken from websites, newspapers, magazines and books published around the world, and from spoken material from radio, TV and everyday conversations. New data is added to the corpus every month, to help COBU)LD editors identify new words, grammatical structures, and meanings from the moment they are first used. All COBU)LD language reference books are based on the information our editors find in the Collins Corpus. Because the corpus is so large, our editors can look at lots of examples of how people really use the language. The data tells us how the language is used; the function of different structures; which words are used together; and how often these words and structures are used. All of the examples in COBU)LD language materials are examples of real English, taken from the corpus. The examples have been carefully chosen to demonstrate typical grammatical patterns, typical vocabulary and typical contexts. COBU)LD English Grammar is no exception: Collins editors and researchers have been able to use this wealth of information to establish a unique and full description of English grammar, and to track the development of certain grammatical structures over time. The corpus lies at the heart of COBU)LD, and you can be confident that COBU)LD will show you what you need to know to be able to communicate easily and accurately in English. )f you would like to learn more about COBU)LD and the Collins Corpus, go to www.com and click on 'COBU)LD Reference'. Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Acknowledgements About Cobuild )ntroduction (ow to use this Grammar Glossary of grammatical terms Chapter Referring to people and things Nouns • Countable nouns • Uncountable nouns • Singular nouns • Plural nouns • Collective nouns • Proper nouns • Nouns that are rarely used alone • Adjectives used as nouns • Nouns referring to males or females • -ing nouns • Compound nouns Pronouns • Personal pronouns • Possessive pronouns • Reflexive pronouns • Generic pronouns • Demonstrative pronouns • )ndefinite pronouns • Reciprocal pronouns • Relative pronouns • )nterrogative pronouns Determiners • Definite determiners: the • Definite determiners: this, that, these and those • Possessive determiners: my, your, their, etc. • The possessive form: apostrophe s s • )ndefinite determiners: all, some, many etc. • )ndefinite determiners: a and an • Other indefinite determiners Chapter Giving information about people and things Adjectives • Qualitative adjectives • Classifying adjectives • Colour adjectives • Showing strong feelings • Postdeterminers • Adjectives that are only used in front of a noun • Adjectives that always follow a linking verb • Position of adjectives in noun phrases • -ing adjectives • -ed adjectives • Compound adjectives Comparatives Superlatives Saying things are similar Talking about different amounts of a quality Saying things are different Noun modifiers Talking about amounts of things Numbers • Cardinal numbers • Ordinal numbers • Fractions • Measurements • Age Approximate amounts and measurements Expanding the noun phrase • with prepositional phrases • with adjectives • Nouns followed by to-infinitive, -ed participle, or -ing participle Chapter Types of verb )ntransitive verbs Transitive verbs Reflexive verbs Delexical verbs: verbs with little meaning Verbs that can be used both with and without an object Verbs that can take an object or a prepositional phrase Changing your focus by changing the subject Reciprocal verbs Verbs that can have two objects Phrasal verbs Compound verbs Linking verbs • Adjectives after linking verbs • Nouns after linking verbs • Other verbs with following adjectives Describing the object of a verb Using a prepositional phrase after a linking verb Using two main verbs together Chapter Expressing time: tenses and time adverbials The present • The present simple • The present progressive • Time adverbials with reference to the present The past • The past simple • The past progressive • The present perfect • The past perfect • Time adverbials with reference to the past Expressing future time • )ndicating the future using will • Other ways of talking about the future • Time adverbials with reference to the future Other uses of verb forms Using time adverbials to indicate past, present, or future Yet, still, already, etc. Time adverbials and prepositional phrases Non-specific times Expressing frequency and duration Chapter Modals, negatives, and ways of forming sentences Making statements: the declarative form Asking questions: the interrogative form • Yes/no-questions • )ndirect questions • Question tags • Wh-questions The imperative Other uses of the declarative, the interrogative, and the imperative Forming negative statements Broad negatives Using modals • Special features of modals • Uses of modals • Expressions used instead of modals • Semi-modals Chapter Expressing manner and place Adverbs • Types of adverb • Comparative and superlative adverbs • Adverbs of manner • Adverbs of degree • Adverbs of place • Destinations and directions Prepositions • Position of prepositional phrases • After verbs indicating movement • Showing position • Showing direction • Other uses of prepositional phrases • Prepositions used with verbs • Prepositional phrases after nouns and adjectives • Extended meanings of prepositions Other ways of giving information about place Chapter Reporting what people say or think Using reporting verbs Reporting someone s actual words: direct speech Reporting in your own words: reported speech • Reporting statements and thoughts • Reporting questions • Reporting orders, requests, advice, and intentions • Reporting uncertain things • Time reference in reported speech Using reporting verbs to perform an action Avoiding mention of the person speaking or thinking Referring to the speaker and hearer Other ways of indicating what is said Other ways of using reported clauses Chapter Combining messages Clauses and conjunctions • Time clauses • Conditional clauses • Purpose clauses • Reason clauses • Result clauses • Concessive clauses • Place clauses • Clauses of manner • Relative clauses Nominal that-clauses Non-finite clauses Linking words, phrases, and clauses together Chapter Changing the focus in a sentence The passive Split sentences Taking the focus off the subject: using impersonal it )ntroducing something new: there as subject Focusing using adverbials Emphasizing Putting something first )ntroducing your statement Focusing on the speaker s attitude Exclamations Addressing people Chapter Making a text hold together Referring back Referring forward Showing connections between sentences: sentence connectors Linking parts of a conversation together Leaving words out Reference section The grammar of business English The grammar of academic English )ndex About the Publisher )ntroduction This grammar is suitable for anyone who is interested in the English language and how it works in everyday current contexts. )t has been written mainly for advanced-level students and their teachers, but any serious learner will find it a valuable reference tool. The information in this book is taken from a long and careful study of present-day English involving the analysis of the Collins Corpus – a corpus of many millions of words of speech and writing. A functional approach Most people who study and use a language are interested in how they can do things with the language – how they can make meanings, get attention, influence people, and learn about the world. They are interested in the grammatical structure of the language as a way of getting things done. A grammar that puts together the patterns of the language and the things you can do with them is called a functional grammar. This is a functional grammar; that is to say, it is based on the important relation between structure and function. Each chapter is built around a major function of language, such as describing people and things, and reporting what someone said. Each of these functions is regularly expressed in English by particular structures. For example, describing people and things is usually expressed by adjectives, and reporting what people say or think typically involves a reporting verb such as say, followed by a clause beginning with that or a clause with quotation marks around it. This grammar follows up each major statement often called a rule in other grammars with a detailed description of the uses surrounding it – including any exceptions.
