English2Easy

Types and order of modifiers in front of a noun:

The modifier refers to all words that relate in their function to the noun. This includes:

A. Articles:

Definite article: the + (singular and plural nouns)

Indefinite article:

a, an + (singular)

no indefinite article with plural nouns

e.g. a book > books

B. Determiners:

Positive quantifiers:

A great deal of + un countable nouns

Much + uncountable nouns

Many + uncountable nouns

A great many + countable

A lot of + countable and uncountable nouns

Lots of

Plenty of + both types

Most

All

Negative quantifiers:

none

no

not any

not all

few + countable

little + uncountable

hardly any + both countable and un countable

scarcely any + both

not many + countable

not much + uncountable

C. demonstrative pronouns :

this + (singular) / these + (plural)

that + (singular) / those + (plural)

D. possessive personal pronouns:

my

his

her

their

our

your

E. possessive nouns:

e.g. Mary's book

The Chairman's office

The order of modifiers in front of a noun :

1. determiner

2. sequence

3. number

4. quality or character

5. size

6. shape

7. age

8. temperature

9. shape (it can either be no.٦ or ٩ in the order)

10. colour

11. origin

12. location

13. noun

14. noun head (the described noun)

The above list is a full list. However, it is not common that we have more than tree adjectives in front of a single noun or else it would be difficult to understand them.

However, the adjectives can stand alone without a noun and come after the verb only with "verb to be", and similar verbs like:

seem

prove

look These verbs are called linking verbs,

smell i.e., they do not involve any action.

appear

feel

taste

adj.

I Am happy.

He looks sad.

seems

appears

feels

Except with such verbs, you cannot end your sentence with an adjective but with an adverb:

He writes (quick)> quickly.

He draws (beautiful)> beautifully.

• You can describe an adjective with an adverb.

adv. adj.

I feel extremely happy.

adv. adj.

He was completely sad.

Here the adverb does not modify the verb but it modifies the adjective.

2. Adverbs and adverbial phrases

You can complete your sentence with one or more of the following adverbials:

1.  of time: yesterday, at 6 o'clock, in the morning.

2.  of place: in the garden, here, there, at home.

3.  of manner: [adjective + ly] quickly, slowly [irregular : well, hard, fast]

4.  of purpose : to lose weight, to get more money.

5.  of direction : to the house, from the library.

6.  of frequency : every morning, every Tuesday.

Order of adverbs

•  There are three positions of the place of adverb in the simple sentence :

1. Initial position.

2. Mid position.

3. Final position.

However, you cannot place all the adverbs in the three positions but there is a preferable position for each king of adverb.

1. Adverbs of place usually take the end position:

      Correct: Ali is sitting outside.

      Incorrect: Outside Ali is sitting.

Other common adverbs of place include: inside, here, there.

2. Adverbs of definite time usually take the beginning or end position.

     Correct: I went to my aerobics class yesterday.

     Incorrect: I yesterday went to my aerobics class.

     (Other common adverbs of definite time include: today, tomorrow, now)

3. Adverbs of indefinite time can take the initial, middle, or end position.

      Correct: Recently I've become interested in karate.

      Correct: I've recently become interested in karate.

      Correct: I've become interested in karate recently.

Other adverbs of indefinite time include lately.

4. Adverbs used to evaluate usually take the end position:

      Correct : Hesham did that cleaning job well.

      Incorrect : Hesham did well that cleaning job.

      (other common adverbs used to evaluate include badly, poorly)

5. Adverbs of manner usually take the middle or end position but can not take the initial position:

     Correct : Noha quietly opened the door to the baby's room.

     Correct : Noha opened the door to the baby quietly.

     Incorrect : Quietly, Noha opened the baby's room.

Other common adverbs of manner include quickly, carelessly, softly.

6. Adverbs of frequency follow very specific rules regarding their position in the sentence:

Common adverbs of frequency include always, frequently, occasionally, seldom, continually, hardly, ever, often, sometimes, ever, never, rarely, usually.

 a. With the verb to be – after the verb

       Correct: Sheriff is never at home when I call him.

       Correct : Ali is continually busy.

b. With the verb to be + not - after not

       Correct: James is not always nice to his little sister.

       Correct: It is not usually so hot here during the summer.

c. With other verbs – before the verb

        Correct: Jane always skates on the boardwalk.

        Correct: I never ride my bicycle to class

d. In a verb phrase – after the first auxiliary verb

      Correct: John can always hit the target.

      Correct: I have never seen a comet.

e. In a verb phrase with not –  after not

      Correct: She does not always type her paper.

      Correct: He does not usually have time to read the newspaper. 

3. Adjectives.

      The function of the adjective is to describe a noun and in English, it comes before the noun. Adjectives are of various kinds and you can use more than one before the noun.

      The adjective can describe the size, colour, shape, material or an opinion about noun:

big, small, large,  green, red, yellow, round, square, rectangular, wooden, metallic,  good, bad, wonderful

3. Prerequisites of the constituents of a simple sentence:

Or

Or

A) The Subject:

The subject is a noun, a pronoun or a noun phrase:

Nouns: boy, girl, garden, Washington, corruption, etc.

Pronouns: I, you, he, she, it, we, they {Subject Case}.

Noun phrases: a little boy, the Iraqis, the Parliament Speaker,

etc.

The noun phrase is a group of words (two or more) with a

noun as its head, e.g.:

The modifier can also occur after the noun, e.g.:

B) The Verb:

It comes in the 2nd place of the sentence.

It changes according to time focus and its form changes to show the time of the sentence. This form is called tense.

C) The Complement:

This item includes many elements that can complete the sentence. (You can choose one or more of these elements to complete the meaning of your sentence).

1. Objects: (obligatory with transitive verbs only; [explained later])

They can be nouns, pronouns or noun phrases.

My friends bought books. {noun}

Sarah also bought a book. {noun phrase}

I’ve got an extremely good book. {noun phrase}

I thanked him. {pronoun [object case]}

To know the personal pronouns in the object case, compare:

With the transitive verbs that take two objects there are two

kinds of objects: direct & indirect.

indirect O. direct O.

I gave my friend a book.

Note:

There is another way to write this sentence with the use of “to”:

{direct object indirect object}

I gave the book to my friend.

Parts of Speech and Word Order

1. Parts of Speech:

If you know the part of speech of the word you are using, you can use it correctly and if you do not know the part of speech of your word, look this up in a dictionary.

The parts of speech in English are:

2. Word Order:

Word order in English, unlike some other languages, is relatively fixed and the first step of mastering the English language is to know the word order and the parts of speech. The following is the word order in simple sentences:

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