English Grammar: Conditional Sentences, Relative Clauses, and Verb Tenses
Conditional Sentences
1st Conditional
if + present + will (can, shall, ought to, may, might, must)
-> Talk about a possible future action or situation
ex: If they ask for an explanation, they will understand the reason
– You must pay attention, if you want to understand the lesson.
-If they go to the interview, the might get the job
2nd Conditional
iF + past + would (could, might..)
Type A: hypothetical but possible in the present/future
ex: If she asked her friends for help, they would help her.
Type B: hypothetical, unreal or even impossible in the present or future
ex: if her sister wasn’t blind, shw would take them to the gallery.
3rd Conditional
If + past perfect ( had + past participle ) + would, have + past participle
-> Unreal past situations
…. situation that did not happen
ex: if you had asked me, i would have told you
if you work harder, you would have passed in the test.
Defining Relative clauses
● No comas
● O pronome relativo é frequentemente omitido.
Tal acontece quando o pronome relativo é complemento.
Ex: This is the man(whom) i saw
the man (who)lives next door is…
Ex
: The people who live next door are English. Ex: He took the Job which paid the highest salary.
Ex: Animals that live in apartments deserve more space.
Ex: I know a man whose wife won 20 million euros in the lottery. Usamas whose (= cujo/a, cujos/as) em lugar de his, her, their.)
Ex: I know a good restaurant where you can eat very cheaply.
As duas frases ficam em contacto. São chamadas “contact clauses”.
Ex: Jackie is the girl (who) you met last Friday.
Ex: They didn’t have the book (that) I wanted.
● O pronome that é muito usado nas defining clauses, podendo substituir who, whom, which.
Ex: A person that (who) teaches is a teacher.
● That nunca pode ser precedido de preposição. Usa-se whom.
Ex: She is the girl to whom I was talking.
nonDefining Relative clauses
● Ex: London, which has over 6 million inhabitants, is the capital of the United Kingdom.
● É parentética, ficando entre vírgulas.
● Em formas preposicionais, o pronome relativo é sempre precedido pela preposição.
Ex: Mr. Chadwick, to whom I spoke on the phone, is arriving on Monday.
Ex: Tiger Woods, who studied at Stanford University, has won many major golf prizes.
● O pronome that não pode empregar-se nas non-defining.
☻ Atenção – Quando o pronome relativo se refere a toda a ideia contida na oração anterior, deve empregar-se which (o que, coisa que) precedido por uma vírgula. Esta oração é sempre non-defining.
We often work in groups, which is very stimulating.
Present Simple
permanet situations repeated/habitual actions
permanent truths or laws of nature
timetables
Reviews
time expressions: Every day/week/year, usually, offen, always, rarely, never, sometimes, in the morning/evening/afternoon, at night, on saturdays
Present Continuous (be+v+ing)
Temporary situations
actions at the moment of speaking
expressing annoyance about repeated action
fixed plans in the near future
changing situations
Time expressions: now, at the moment, at present, nowadays, today, toninght, always, still
Present perfect(have+past participle)
Acção que decorre num tempo indefinido.
Acção que começa no passado e continua até ao presente.
Acção que acontece num passado muito recente.
Usa-se com just.
time expressions: just, ever, never, already, yet, always, so far, recently, for, today, this week/month/year, lately ,up to now,it’s the first time
Present perfect continuous(have+been*v+ing)
Equivale ao present perfect; usa-se no mesmo sentido e nas mesmas condições.
Exprime, além disso, reforço de continuidade e duração.
time expressions: how long, for, since, all morning/day, verbs: expect, learn , sleep, live, sit, study, stand, stay, work, rest, lie
Past Simple
events which happened in the past and aare now finished
regular or habitual actions in the past
somethins that you think ins unlikely to happen
reporting what someone said
timeexpresions: yesterday, last month, in2005, from 2001 to 2005, agoro, in those days
Past perfect (had+past participle)
action begun before the time of our conversation, continued up to it or finish just before it( since, for, always, never, just, eveer)
indirect speech
in an unreal condition clause
in time clauses (showa which one happened firts) ex: when tey arrived he had already left ; after she had phoned i went away
Past perfect continuous (had+been+v*ing)
Ex: They had been laughing at him all the time
Equivale ao past perfect; usa-se no mesmo sentido ;Exprime reforço de duração e continuidade ;sa-se com certos verbos que exprimem uma ação que dura e que se prolonga no tempo (Expect , learn, lie…)
Reported Speech
Simple present-Simple past
Present continuous-Past continuous
Simple past-Past perfect
Present perfect-Past perfect
Past perfect-Past perfect
Will / shall-Would / should
This / these-That / those
Here / now There-then, at the moment
Today / tonight / tomorrow -That day / that night / the following day
Yesterday / ago -The previous day , the day before / before
Next / last (week, month…)-The following / previous (week, month…)
● Interrogative statements.
▪ No inversion of the subject;
▪ Connectors: If / whether;
▪ Introducing sentence + verb meaning ask;
▪ No auxiliary do;
“Do you like muffins?”
He asked her if / whether she liked muffins.
● WH questions
▪ No inversion of the subject;
▪ No auxiliary do;
“What are you arguing about?”
He wanted to know what I was arguing about.
● Commands
▪ Imperative – infinitive;
▪ Introducing sentence – a verb meaning order;
▪ The person addressed must be included after the introducing verb;
“Keep trying hard!”
They advised me to keep trying hard.
“Don’t laugh so loud!”
He warned her not to laugh so loud.
● Mixed types
▪ When we want to change a conversation into indirect speech often statements, questions and exclamations are involved. In this case, notice that an adequate introducing verb is needed for each part.
“Hi! I haven’t spoken to you for such a long time. When were you here for the last time?”
An old friend greeted me, said he hadn’t spoken to me for such a long time and asked when I had been there for the last time.