CONDITIONALS

Conditional Sentence Type 1 It is possible and also very likely that the condition will be fulfilled.

Form: if + Simple Present, will-Future Example: If I find her address, Ill send her an invitation.

Conditional Sentence Type 2 It is possible but very unlikely, that the condition will be fulfilled.

Form: if + Simple Past, Conditional I (= would + Infinitive) Example: If I found her address, I would send her an
invitation.

Conditional Sentence Type 3 It is impossible that the condition will be fulfilled because it refers to the past.

Form: if + Past Perfect, Conditional II (= would + have + Past Participle) Example: If I had found her address, I would
have sent her an invitation.

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: 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.

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.

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!

Past modals The past modals 'could have + past participle', 'should have + past participle' and 'would have + past
participle' can be confusing.

Could have + past participle means that something was possible in the past, or you had the ability to do
something in the past, but that you didn't do it.

They could have won the race, but they didn't try hard enough.

He could have studied harder, but he was too lazy and that's why he failed the exam.

We use could/ might have + past participle when we want to make a guess about something that happened in
the past. In this case, we don't know if what we're saying is true or not true.

He could have forgotten that we were meeting today.

He might have forgotten that we were meeting today.

Couldn't have + past participle means that something wasn't possible in the past, even if you had wanted to do
it.

I couldn't have arrived any earlier. There was a terrible traffic jam

Should have + past participle means that you are regretting what you did or didn't do.

I should have studied harder! (= I didn't study very hard and so I failed the exam. I'm sorry about this now.

We can also use should/ must have + past participle to talk about something that has already happened.

His plane should/ must have arrived by now (= if everything is fine, the plane has arrived).

Shouldn't have + past participle means that something wasn't a good idea, but you did it anyway.

I shouldnt have gone to bed late (= I didn't go to bed early and now I'm tired).

Would have + past participle is used to talk about something you wanted to do but didn't.

I would have gone to the party, but I was really busy.

RELATIVE PRONOUNS

A relative pronoun is a pronoun that introduces a relative clause. It is called a "relative" pronoun because it "relates"
to the word that its relative clause modifies. Here is an example:

The person who phoned me last night is my teacher. In this example, "who": relates to "The person", which "who
phoned me last night" modifies and introduces the relative clause "who phoned me last night".
 There are five basic relative pronouns: who, whom, whose, which, that*

Who (subject) and whom (object) are generally only for people. Whose is for possession. Which is for things. That
can be used for things and people only in defining relative clauses (clauses that are essential to the sentence and do
not simply add extra information).

Look at these examples showing defining and non-defining relative clauses:

example sentences
notes
S=subject, O=object, P=possessive

- The person who/that phoned me last night is my teacher. "that" is preferable

S
- The car which/that hit me was yellow. "that" is preferable

- The person whom I phoned last night is my teacher. "whom" is correct but formal
- The people who/that I phoned last night are my teachers.
- The person I phoned last night is my teacher. relative pronoun is optional
defining relative
O
clauses
"that" is preferable to "which"
- The car which/that I drive is old.
- The car I drive is old.
relative pronoun is optional

- Students whose parents are wealthy pay extra.

P
- The police are looking for the car whose driver was masked.

- Mrs Pratt, who is very kind, is my teacher.

S
- The car, which was a taxi, exploded.

"whom" is correct but formal

non-defining - Mrs Pratt, whom I like very much, is my teacher.
relative clauses - Mrs Pratt, who I like very much, is my teacher. "who" is common in spoken
O
English and informal written
English

- The car, which I was driving at the time, suddenly caught fire.

P - My brother, whose phone you just heard, is a doctor.

PASSIVE VOICE

Passive voice is used when the focus is on the action. It is not important or not known who or what is performing
the action. Example: My bike was stolen. In this example, the focus is on the fact that my bike was stolen. I do not
know, however, who did it. Form of Passive:

Subject + finite form of to be + Past Participle (3rd column of irregular verbs) Example: A letter was
written.
When rewriting active sentences in passive voice, note the following:

the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence

the finite form of the verb is changed (to be + past participle)

the subject of the active sentence becomes the object of the passive sentence (or is dropped)

Tense Subject Verb Object

Active: Rita writes a letter.

Simple Present
Passive: A letter is written by Rita.

Active: Rita wrote a letter.

Simple Past
Passive: A letter was written by Rita.

Active: Rita has written a letter.

Present Perfect
Passive: A letter has been written by Rita.

Active: Rita will write a letter.

Future I
Passive: A letter will be written by Rita.

Active: Rita can write a letter.

Passive: A letter can be written by Rita.

Active: Rita is writing a letter.

Present Progressive
Passive: A letter is being written by Rita.

Active: Rita was writing a letter.

Past Progressive
Passive: A letter was being written by Rita.

Active: Rita had written a letter.

Past Perfect
Passive: A letter had been written by Rita.

Active: Rita will have written a letter.

Future II
Passive: A letter will have been written by Rita.

Active: Rita would write a letter.

Conditional I
Passive: A letter would be written by Rita.

Conditional II Active: Rita would have written a letter.

 Passive: A letter would have been written by Rita.

Passive Sentences with Two Objects

Rewriting an active sentence with two objects in passive voice means that one of the two objects
becomes the subject, the other one remains an object.

Subject Verb Object 1 Object 2

Active: Rita wrote a letter to me.

Passive: A letter was written to me by Rita.

Passive: I was written a letter by Rita.

As you can see in the examples, adding by Rita does not sound very elegant. Thats why it is usually dropped.

Impersonal Passive

If you want to use an intransitive verb in passive voice, you need an impersonal construction therefore this passive
is called Impersonal Passive. Example: he says it is said

Impersonal Passive is only possible with verbs of perception (e. g. say, think, know). Example: They say that women
live longer than men. It is said that women live longer than men. Although Impersonal Passive is possible here,
Personal Passive is more common. Example: They say that women live longer than men. Women are said to live
longer than men. The subject of the subordinate clause (women) goes to the beginning of the sentence; the verb of
perception is put into passive voice. The rest of the sentence is added using an infinitive construction with 'to'
(certain auxiliary verbs and that are dropped).

REPORTED SPEECH

We use a 'reporting verb' like 'say' or 'tell'. We just put 'she says' and then the sentence:

Direct speech: I like ice cream. Reported speech: She says (that) 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'. 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 (that) 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 (that) she was living in London.

She said (that) she had bought a car OR She said (that) she
past simple I bought a car
bought a car.
 past continuous I was walking along the street She said (that) she had been walking along the street.

present perfect I haven't seen Julie She said (that) she hadn't seen Julie.

I had taken English lessons

past perfect* She said (that) she had taken English lessons before.
before

will I'll see you later She said (that) she would see me later.

would* I would help, but.. She said (that) she would help but...

can I can speak perfect English She said (that) she could speak perfect English.

could* I could swim when I was four She said (that) she could swim when she was four.

should* I should call my mother She said (that) she should call her mother

might* "I might be late" She said (that) she might be late

She said (that) she must study at the weekend OR She said
must "I must study at the weekend"
she had to study at the weekend

* doesn't change.

Occasionally, we don't need to change the present tense into the past if the information in direct speech is still true
(but this is only for things which are general facts, and even then usually we like to change the tense):

Direct speech: The sky is blue. Reported speech: She said (that) the sky is/was blue.

Reported Questions

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:

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.

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

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 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

Direct speech: "Sit down!" 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.
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