1. TABLE OF GRAMMATICAL DESCRIPTIONS
(Larsen-Freeman & Celce-Murcia 1999)
STRUCTURE FORM MEANING
1. Subject-and-Verb FORM The General Rule
Agreement
Third Person In the most straightforward cases, the subject and verb
number choice will agree: In the present tense we use the third
Standard grammatical treatments state that for
person singular inflection (-s or the be form) if the subject refers to
verbs other than be, number agreement between the subject
one entity, whether it is a singular proper name, a singular common
and verb (sometimes referred to as subject-verb concord)
noun, a non-count noun, or a third person singular pronoun.
poses a problem only in the present tense, where third
Elsewhere—for nouns or pronouns referring to more than one entity,
person singular forms are explicitly inflected while other
or for first or second person pronouns referring to one entity—no
forms are not.
inflection is used in the present tense:
NUMBER
Third person singular No inflection on verb
inflection on verb
Person Singular Plural
Ist I speak Filipino. We speak Alain walks to school The Reyeses walk to church
Filipino. The bus stops here. These books contain
nd
2 You speak You speak
Filipino. Filipino. good information.
3rd He/she/it (the They speak This mango tastes sweet. I/You want guava.
parrot) speaks Filipino.
Filipino. She wants guava. We/You/They want
guava.
Some Typical Errors
To this formulation, we should add that if the predicate of the
Given the complexity of the choice, the beginning sentence begins with an inflectable tense-bearing auxiliary verbs
such as be or have, it is the auxiliary verb that indicates the third
ESL/EFL learner tends to simplify and leave off altogether the
third person singular inflection. person singular inflection. (nont the main verb):
*Warren live in Vigan. *Vince say he

2. will come. Glenn is walking to school.
Occasionally, however, some learners will This water has boiled for ten minutes.
overgeneralize the inflection and apply it to uninflected
forms, such as modal auxiliaries, or to verbs following
modals.
*Lance cans dance disco. or
*Lance can dances disco.
They also may overuse it as an agreement marker
with subjects of inappropriate person and/or number:
*I/They/You goes to Baguio.
Yet another reason why some learners overuse this
form is that they interpret the –s ending as a plural marker on
the verb to be used in agreement with plural subjects:
*They/The boys goes to malls often.
Agreement errors may be due to phonological or
perceptual factors rather than syntactic or morphological
differences. ESL teachers should be aware of the fact that
some learners of English fully understand the third person
singular present ending and can even produce it
systematically when they write in English; however, they omit
it frequently when they are speaking. One reason for this
according to Larsen-Freeman & Celce-Murcia (1999) is
because the sound system of their native language tends not
to permit final /s/ sounds in particular or final consonants in
general. This supports the fact of similar error committed by
most Filipino ESL learners.

3. 2. The Tense-Aspect
The Formal Characteristics of the Tense-Aspect System Meaning in the English Tense-Aspect System
System
The Grammar Book clearly discussed tense-aspect Simple Aspect refers to events that are conceptualized as complete
system should not be mistakenly understood to tense- wholes. The events are not presented as allowing for further
aspect combinations. The book explains that tense simply development. This aspect stands in contrast to progressive aspect,
relates to time, while aspect concerns with the internal which is incomplete or imperfective—where the event or state is
structure of the action occurring at any time. Hence, the viewed as some portion of a whole and where there is room for
authors argued that the ―long-considered future tense‖ is not further development or change. (Hirtle, 1967) in Murcia (1999).
entirely a tense, but an aspect as explained above. In
addition, future does not carry inflection for future time unlike Examples: Jeffrey and Erwin live in Bulacan. (simple present tense)
others—the simple past, and simple present for either regular Jeffrey and Erwin are living in Bulacan. (present
or irregular verb. In this sense, what have long known, as 12 progressive)
―tenses‖ was trim down only into two, thus, past tense and Simple Present Tenses conveys immediate factuality. (Lewis, 1986
present tense. For the future aspect, modals will and shall in Murcia, 1999)
are used. They further explained that one of the reasons for Examples: I skim the The Philippine Daily Inquirer at breakfast.
displaying the tense-aspect combinations (see the chart The earth rotates around the sun.
below) is to demonstrate that the 12 ―tenses‖ are simply My mother loves orchids.
combinations of tense and aspect aspect. Since the perfect It is a beautiful day.
and progressive aspect markers contribute consistent Simple Past Tense also states facts. What the core meaning of the
meaning regardless of tense, in effect, ESL students have to past tense adds is a sense of remoteness (Knowles 1979 in Murcia
1
learn only the form and meaning of the three tenses (in their 1999). The event can be remote in time , and even if the event is a
2
simple form) and the two aspects (perfect and progressive) to recent one .
develop an understanding of the tense-aspect system of Examples: 1. Princess Lara Quigaman won the Miss International
English. crown in 2006.
2. I finished my term paper!
Simple Future with will (or Contracted ‘ll) is used when the event
is conceptualized a s a whole. One difference in its core meaning is
that events in the future time cannot be factually knowable in the
same way as those in the past or present can. Therefore, because,
strictly speaking, the future can’t be reported on factually, will is said
to be used for strong predictions, not factual reports.

4. Examples: We will cover the first half of the book this term.
We will never know what cures tropical plants possess if
we don’t
become serious about preserving the forests in which
they grow.
Perfect Aspect. The core meaning of aspect is ―prior‖, and it is used
in relation to some other points in time. For instance, present perfect
is used retrospectively to refer to a time prior to now.
Examples: Have you done your homework? (present perfect)
He had left before I arrived. (past perfect)
Mark will have finished all his chores by the time we get
there. (future perfect)
Progressive Aspect is considered to be as being imperfective,
meaning that it portrays an event in a way that allows it to be
incomplete, somehow limited, and always specific.
a. Present Progressive (sometimes called Present
Continuous)
Activity in progress: He is attending a meeting now.
Extended present. I’m studying education at the
Philippine Normal University.
A temporary situation: Andrea is living with her parents.
Repetition or iteration: Marvin is kicking the soccer ball
around the backyard.
Express future: Maricel is coming tomorrow.
Emotional comment on present habit: He’s always
approving
delivering in a clutch situation.
disapproving
He’s forever acting up at these affairs.
A change in progress: Des is becoming more and more
like her mother.

5. b. Past Progressive
An action in progress: He was walking to school at 7:30
in the morning.
Past action simultaneous with some other event that is
usually started in the simple past.: Katie was washing
her hair when the phone rang.
Repetition or iteration of some ongoing past action:
Jober was coughing all night long.
Social distancing: I was hoping you could lend me
P1,000.
c. Future Progressive
An action that will be in progress at a specific time in
the future: Rocky will be taking a test at 8:00 A.M.
tomorrow.
Duration of some specific future action : Lovely will be
working on her thesis for the next three years.
Perfect Progressive Aspect combines the sense of ―prior‖ of the
perfect with the meaning of ―incompleteness‖ inherent in the
progressive aspect.
Example: Elaine has been working hard on a special project.
a. Present Perfect Progressive
A situation or habit that began in the past (recent or
distant) and that continues up to the present (and
possibly into the future: Ramiro has been going out
with Arlene.
An action in programs that is not yet completed: Lorna
has been reading that book.
A state that changes over time: The students have been
getting better and better.

6. An evaluative comment on something observed over
time triggered by current evidence: You’ve been
drinking again!
b. Past Perfect Progressive
An action or habit taking place over a period of time in
the past prior to some other past event or time: Vester
had been working hard, so his doctor told him to take a
vacation.
A past action in progress that was interrupted by a more
recent past action: Onin and Rowel had been planning
to vacation in El Nido, but changed their minds after
receiving the brochure on Boracay.
An ongoing past action or state that becomes satisfied
by some other event: Rellie had been wanting to see
that play, so he was pleased when he won the tickets.
c. Future Perfect Progressive
Durative or habitual action that is taking place in the
present and that will continue into the future up until or
through a specific future time: On Christmas Eve we will
have been living in same house for 20 years.
He will have been keeping a journal for 10 years next
month.
A preposition describes a relationship between other words in a
3. Prepositions
sentence.
Prepositions.Types

7. Prepositions of Time: at, on, and in
We use at to designate specific times.
The train is due at 12:15 p.m.
We use on to designate days and dates.
My brother is coming on Monday.
We're having a party on the Fourth of July.
We use in for nonspecific times during a day, a month, a
season, or a year.
She likes to jog in the morning.
It's too cold in winter to run outside.
He started the job in 1971.
He's going to quit in August.
Prepositions of Place: at, on, and in
We use at for specific addresses.
Daril lives at 350 Bgy. Sapang Bata in Malolos.
We use on to designate names of streets, avenues, etc.
Her house is on Quezon Road.
And we use in for the names of land-areas (towns, counties,
states, countries, and continents).
She lives in Durham.
Durham is in Windham County.
Windham County is in Connecticut.

8. Prepositions of Location: in, at, and on
IN AT ON
(the) bed* class* the bed*
the bedroom home the ceiling
the car the library* the floor
(the) class* the office the horse
the library* school* the plane
school* work the train
* You may sometimes use different
prepositions for these locations.
Prepositions of Movement: to and No Preposition
We use to in order to express movement toward a place.
They were driving to work together.
She's going to the dentist's office this morning.
Toward and towards are also helpful prepositions to express
movement. These are simply variant spellings of the same
word; use whichever sounds better to you.
We're moving toward the light.
This is a big step towards the project's completion.
With the words home, downtown, uptown, inside, outside,
downstairs, upstairs, we use no preposition.
Grandma went upstairs

9. Grandpa went home.
They both went outside.
To (Go to)
1. Under (Create Subfolder under this Folder)
2. In (The file is in the folder)
3. As (Save as)
4. From (Receive message from….)
Common Prepositions:
about by outside according to
above down over because of
across during since by way of
after except through in addition to
against for throughout in front of
around from till in place of
at in to in regard to
before inside toward in spite of
behind into under instead of
below like until on account of
beneath near up out of
beside of upon
besides off with
between on without
beyond out
Concrete and Abstract Nouns A noun is the name of a person, place, or thing.
4. Nouns
The categories of person or place are self-evident.

10. Concrete Nouns Abstract Nouns
PERSON: Bob, girl, swimmer, Ms. Yang, Uncle Bryan.
mother hope PLACE: kitchen, St. James Street, school, Hiroshima
fabric improvement
chocolate evil The category thing, on the other hand, contains several sub-
music desperation ategories: visible things, ideas, actions, conditions, and qualities.
perfume cooperation
VISIBLE THINGS: paper, chair, CD
A noun can also indicate number. Singular nouns IDEAS: harmony, freedom, recession
name one person, place, or thing. Plural nouns name more ACTIONS: competition, exercise, labor
than one person, place or thing. Most plural nouns are CONDITIONS: joy, health, happiness
formed by adding either –s or –es to their singular forms. QUALITIES: compassion, intelligence, drive
The plurals of some nouns, however, are formed in other
ways and must be memorized.
Collective Nouns
Collective nouns name groups of persons or things.
They can be either singular or plural depending on the
meaning.
5. Articles and
Determiners
The is used with specific nouns. The is required when the The Articles
noun it accompanies refers to something that is one of a kind: Articles: The three articles — a, an, the — are adjectives. The is
called the definite article because it names, specifically, a noun; a

11. The moon circles the earth. and an are called indefinite articles because they don't. These words
are also called noun markers or determiners because they are
The is required when the noun it accompanies refers to followed by a noun.
something in the abstract:
The United States has encouraged the use of the private
automobile as opposed to the use of public transit.
The is required when the noun it accompanies refers to
something named earlier in the text. (See below..)
We use a before singular count-nouns that begin with
consonants (a cow, a barn, a sheep); we use an before
singular count-nouns that begin with vowels or vowel-like
sounds (an apple, an urban blight, an open door). If you
would like help with the distinction between count and non-
count nouns, please refer to Count and Non-Count Nouns.
Words that begin with an h sound often require an a (as in a
horse, a history book, a hotel), but if an h-word begins with
an actual vowel sound, use an an (as in an hour, an honor).
We would say a useful device and a union matter because
the u of those words actually sounds like yoo (as opposed,
say, to the u of an ugly incident). We would say a once-in-a-
lifetime experience or a one-time hero because the words
once and one begin with a w sound (as if they were spelled
wuntz and won).
6. Conjunctions and
Logical Connectors
Their relatives, correlative conjunctions, not only denote As their name implies, conjunctions join together elements of thought:
equality, but they also make the joining tighter and more words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs.

12. emphatic. Coordinating conjunctions are the simplest kind, and they denote
equality of relationship between the ideas they join.
Subordinating conjunctions allow a writer to show which idea is
Coordinating Correlative
more and which is less important. The idea in the main clause is the
Conjunctions Conjunctions
more important, while the idea in the subordinate clause (made
subordinate by the subordinating conjunction) is less important.
and both . . . and
but not only . . . but also
or either . . . or
nor neither . . . nor
for whether . . . or
so just as . . . so too
yet
Examples:
 John and Sally built a fish pond.
 The train was late, and Tom was tired.
 Just as the smell of baking brought back memories,
so too did the taste of the cider.
Coordinating and correlative conjunctions are great when
two ideas are of the same importance, but many times one
idea is more important than another.
The subordinate clause supplies a time, reason, and
condition, and so on for the main clause.
TIME : after, before, since, when, whenever, while, until, as
REASON: although, though, even though, while

13. CONCESSION: although, though, even though, while
PLACE: where, wherever
CONDITION: if , unless, until, in case, provided that,
assuming that, even if
MANNER: as if , as though, how
7. Word Form and
---still on progress--- ---still on progress---
Function
8. Phrases and Clauses
There are several types of dependant clauses: A phrase is a group of related words that lack a subject or a
verb, or both. A phrase cannot stand alone as a sentence, but is used
in sentences as single parts of speech.? There are several types of
phrases: See table of phrase types.
TABLE OF PHRASE AND CLAUSE TYPES
PHRASES A clause is a group of related words that contain both a subject and
function as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs
a verb/predicate, thus it may be able to stand alone as a sentence:
Type Definition Example
Prepositional Acts mostly as I walked to the White dogs are pretty (independent clause); or it may not: Although
phrases adverbs, store. (adverb) white dogs are pretty (dependant clause).?As shown in the
(most common sometimes as With a smile I
type of phrase) adjectives or told the joke. preceding example, a subordinating word is used in dependent
nouns ?begins (adjective) clauses. This word relates the dependent clause to an independent
with a preposition After sunset is
and ends with a a good time to clause, thus giving purpose to the dependent clause: Although white
noun or pronoun. go fishing. dogs are pretty, they are not popular. Such words are either
(noun)
Absolute phrases Has no An uncertain subordinating conjunctions (such as: as, if, while, since) or relative
(noun or pronoun grammatical future looming, pronouns (such as: which, that, who). Not all dependent clauses can
and a participle connection to any I forged ahead.
with modifiers) part of speech, stand alone simply by removing the subordinating word. Dependent
instead modifies clauses are used as single parts of speech being either: a noun, an
the entire rest of
the sentence adjective, or an adverb.
Appositive An appositive is a My English
phrases re-naming or teacher, an
amplification of a excellent
word that author, just
immediately published his
precedes it. second book.
Verbal phrases:
Infinitive phrases Acts as nouns I wanted to
leave.

14. Participle phrases Acts as Flying high in
adjectives the air, the
rocket exploded.
Gerund phrases Acts as nouns Getting the
promotion is
my only hope.
CLAUSES (dependant)
function as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs
Type Definition Example
Relative or Acts as an Bob didn't get the
Adjective adjective and job in
clauses begins with a administration,
relative pronoun: which really
what, which, who, surprised his
that, whatever, friends.
whoever. The dress that
she bought on
Tuesday was torn.
Noun clauses Acts as a noun Whoever stole
my pen must give
it back.
Adverb Acts as an adverb Mary felt happy
clauses by telling when she found
something about her dog.
the verb
Elliptical Grammatically I recommend
clauses incomplete, but (that) you go to
clear in meaning the doctor.?May
omit ―that.?lt;o:p>
I knew he could fix
the car better than
I (could fix the
car). May omit
―could fix the
car.?lt;/i>
9. WH-Questions
FORM MEANING
Variety of Constituents
The following is an inventory of common whh-words and their

15. Statement: Aries wrote an angry memo to his boss before he syntactic/semantic correspondences.
quit.
Subject NP (+human)  who Who did it?
A variety of constituents can be questioned in a wh-question, Subject NP (-human)  what What went wrong?
as follows: Subject Noun Predicate (+human)  who Who is that?
Subject Noun Predicate (-human)  what What is that?
1
Subject NP: Who wrote an angry memo to his boss before Object NP (+human)  who(m) Who(m) did you
he quit? (Lee) tell? To whom did you tell the story?
Object NP : What did Lee write to his boss before he quit? Object NP (-human)  what What did she say?
(an angry memo) det (possessive)  whose+NP Whose idea was it?
Object of the Prep.: To whom did Lee write an angry memo det (demonstrtive)  which+NP Which excuse did they give?
before he quit? (his boss) or— What+NP What alibi did they use?
det (quantifier; count)  how much+(NP) How much (money)
Who(m) did Lee write an angry memo to before he quit? (his did they get?
boss) det quantifier; +count)  how many+(NP) How many thieves
were there?
2
Verb Phrase: What did Lee do before he quit? (He wrote an det quantifier+measure word  how long How long did it take
angry memo to his boss) them?
Determiner: Whose boss did Lee write an angry memo to ADJ (quality)  how How did they look?
before he quit? (his boss) what…like What did they look like?
Adjective: What kind of memo did Lee write? (an angry ADJ (color, size, nationality)  What color was it?
memo) Intensifier  how+ ADJ How calm did they seem?
Adverbial: When did Lee write the angry memo to his boss? How+ADV How fast did they get away?
(before he quit) VP  what..do What did they do next?
Advl (means)  how How did they get away?
Advl (direction)  where Where did they go?
Advl (position)  where Where did they hide?
Advl (time)  when When were they discovered?
Advl (manner)  how How did she take the news?
Advl (reason)  why Why did they confess?
Advl (purpose)  what..for What didi they do that for?
Advl (frequency)  how often How often does it end this

16. way?
10. Yes-No Questions L2 learners need to know that in a yes/no question the Yes/No questions are often defined as questions for which
first auxiliary verb in the sentence should appear before the either “yes” or “no” is the expected answer.
subject and carry the tense of the question (if there is a
tense). If there is no auxiliary verb, the be copula should be Form: SUBJECT-OPERATOR INVERSION
moved before the subject. If there is no auxiliary verb or be
A syntactic rule inverting the subject and operator gives rise to
copula, then do must be introduced in the auxiliary to make
the characteristics form of yes/no questions in English.
subject-operator inversion possible.
Example:
Consider the following examples:
Vester is studying in Baguio this summer.
With a modal Can she go? +Yes,she can. (+inversion + rising intonation): Is Vester studying in
-No, she can’t. Baguio this summer?
With a phrasal modal Is she able to go? +Yes, she is.
-No, she isn’t.
With perfect aspect Has she gone? +Yes, she has.
-No, she hasn’t.
With progressive aspect Is she going? +Yes, she is.
-No, she isn’t.
If do is the operator in the question, it is also used in
the short answer with the same tense used in the question.
Does she go there often? +Yes, she does. –No,
she doesn’t.