Comparatives and superlatives

               

                Comparatives and superlatives       

      When we talk about two things, we can "compare" them. We can see if they are the same or different. Perhaps they are the same in some ways and different in other ways. We can use comparative adjectives to describe the differences.

FormOne syllable adjectives
Comparative: add er (cheaper)
Superlative: add est (the cheapest)

One syllable adjectives ending in 'e'
Comparative: add r (nicer)
Superlative: add st (the nicest)

One syllable adjectives ending in consonant - vowel - consonant
Comparative: add consonant + er (hotter)
Superlative: add consonant + est (the hottest)

Two syllable adjectives ending in 'y'

Comparative: replace 'y' with ier (happier)
Superlative: replace 'y' with iest (the happiest)


Two or more syllable adjectives
Comparative: add more / less (more / less beautiful)
Superlative: add the most / the least (the most / least beautiful)


Irregular adjectives
good - better - the best
bad - worse - the worst
far - further - the furthest

Functions and examples

We use comparatives to compare two things.
John is thinner than Bob.
It's more expensive to travel by train than by bus.
My house is smaller than my friend's house.

We use superlatives to compare one thing with the rest of the group it belongs to.
John is the tallest in the class.
He's the best football player in the team.
This is the most expensive hotel I've ever stayed in.

Important points

We do not use the with the superlative if there is a possessive.
His strongest point is his ambition.

We use as + adjective + as to say that two things are equal in some way.
He's as tall as me.
Jim's car is as fast as mine.

We use not as to say that two things are not equal in some way.
He's not as tall as me.
Jim's car is not as fast as mine.

We can modify comparatives with much, a lot, far, a little, a bit, slightly.
Bob is much richer than I am.
My mother's hair is slightly longer than mine.

We can modify superlative with by far, easily and nearly.           
Mario's is by far the best restaurant in town.
I'm nearly the oldest in the class.

If the second part of a comparative or superlative sentence is clear from what comes before or from the context, we can omit it.
Going by bus is very fast, but the train is more comfortable.

We can repeat comparatives to say that something is changing.
These exams are getting worse and worse every year.
She gets more and more beautiful every time I see her.

Formation of Comparative Adjectives

There are two ways to make or form a comparative adjective:

• short adjectives: add "-er"
• long adjectives: use "more"

Short adjectives
1-syllable adjectives	old, fast
2-syllable adjectives ending in -y	happy, easy
Normal rule: add "-er"	old → older
Variation: if the adjective ends in -e, just add -r	late → later
Variation: if the adjective ends in consonant, vowel, consonant, double the last consonant	big → bigger
Variation: if the adjective ends in -y, change the y to i	happy → happier
Long adjectives
2-syllable adjectives not ending in -y	modern, pleasant
all adjectives of 3 or more syllables	expensive, intellectual
Normal rule: use "more"	modern → more modern expensive → more expensive

 

With some 2-syllable adjectives, we can use '-er' or 'more':

• quiet → quieter/more quiet
• clever → cleverer/more clever
• narrow → narrower/more narrow

• simple → simpler/more simple                          

Exception
The following adjectives have irregular forms:

• good → better
• well (healthy) → better
• bad → worse
• far → farther/further

 Referenceshttp://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives-comparative_1.htm
http://esl.about.com/cs/beginner/a/beg_compsup.htm


More Video

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmnfche6lsU

Past Simple tense

         Past Simple Tense

         The simple past tense is used to talk about actions that happened at a specific time in the past. You state when it happened using a time adverb.
You form the simple past of a verb by adding -ed onto the end of a regular verb but, irregular verb forms have to be learned.

      

       Simple past is formed for regular verbs by adding -d or – ed to the root of a word. Examples: He walked to the store, or They danced all night.. A negation is produced by adding did not and the verb in its infinitive form. Example: He did not walk to the store. Question sentences are started with did as in Did he walk to the store?
Simple past is used for describing acts that have already been concluded and whose exact time of occurrence is known. Furthermore, simple past is used for retelling successive events. That is why it is commonly used in storytelling.

  หลักการใช้

 

ใช้กับเหตุการณ์หรือการกระทำที่ได้เกิดขึ้นแล้วในอดีตและก็จบลงไปแล้วในอดีตโน้นก่อนที่จะพูด
ประโยคนี้ออกมา ในกรณีเช่นนี้มักจะมีคำ กลุ่มคำหรือประโยค (Clause) ที่แสดงความเป็นอดีตมากำกับไว้เสมอได้แก่

    คำ                             กลุ่มคำ                                 ประโยค

 ago                          last night                         When he was young
 once                        last week (month)           When he was fifteen
 yesterday                 last year                          After he had gone
 formerly                    in 1980                           Whenever he saw me
                               yesterday mornig               When I lived in Paris
                               during the wa
            เช่น
                (1) Simon went to the cinema yesterday.
                     ไซมอนไปดูหนังเมื่อวานนี้                                                                              

                (2) I lived in America three years ago.
                     ฉันอยู่อเมริกาเมื่อ 3 ปีล่วงมาแล้ว (เดี๋ยวนี้ไม่ได้อยู่แล้ว)

2. ใช้กับการกระทำซึ่งกระทำเป็นประจำในอดีตแต่ปัจจุบันมิได้กระทำการณ์นั้นอีกแล้ว ในกรณีนี้จะมี Adverb บอกความถี่ บ่อยๆ มาร่วมด้วยก็ได้แต่ต้องมีคำบอกเวลาที่เป็นอดีตแน่นอนมากำกับไว้ตลอดไป

เช่น
                (1) She walk to school every day last week.           
                     หล่อนเดินไปโรงเรียนทุกวันเมื่อสัปดาห์ที่ผ่านมา

                (2) I always got up late last year.
                     ผมนอนตื่นสายเสมอๆ เมื่อปีกลายนี้

3. ใช้กับการกระทำในอดีต แสดงลำดับความต่อเนื่องของเหตุการณื กรณีนี้ verb ทุกตัวต้องเป็น Past Simple Tense ตลอดไปเช่น

                (1) I opened my bag, took out some money and gave it to my friend.
                     ผมเปิดกระเป๋าเอาเงินออกมาและก็ให้เพื่อนไป

                (2) He jumped out of the house, saw a police man and ran away.
                     เขากระโดดออกมาจากบ้านเห็นตำรวจก็วิ่งหนีไป

Exercise

1. Where ______ on vacation last summer?
a) went you
b) did you went
c) did you go

2. They ______ until 5 o'clock in the afternoon.
a) not arrived
b) didn't arrive
c) doesn't arrive

3. We _____ a bus to Chicago last week.
a) taked
b) did took
c) took
4. _____ to the party last weekend?
a) Did you go
b) Went you
c) Where went

5. They _____ a swimming pool into their backyard last summer.
a) did put
b) put
c) putted

6. Where _____ this afternoon?
a) did go
b) did he go
c) did he went

7. She _____ home early from the party yesterday.
a) camed
b) came
c) didn't came

8. How much _____ for it?
a) does you pay
b) did you pay
c) paid you

9. They _____ the play very much.
a) didn't enjoys
b) didn't enjoyed
c) didn't enjoy

10. When ____ that crazy idea?
a) did you get
b) did you got
c) got you

References

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/

Imperative Sentence

                                   An imperative sentence       

          An imperative sentence gives a command. It usually end with a period, but it may also end with an exclamation point (!).
Commands ask or tell people to do something.
"Please pass the salt." is a command, that does not sound as commanding as, "Get out of my way!" But, both of these sentences are imperatives because they are both asking or telling someone to do something.

An imperative sentence is a sentence that clearly states a command or order toward another peron or an animal. For example: "Shut the door", or "Feed the dog".

                                  Finding the Subject

This may sound strange, but every single command has the same subject! Yikes! How is that even possible?

Well, since commands are always speaking to someone or something (you've got to address them if you're going to ask them to do something), the subject is always the word you.

You may have noticed, the word "you" is not even in a command. Because of this, the subject is actually called you understood, and it is written like this: (you)

This means that the subject is the word you, but since it is not written or spoken in the sentence, it is understood and is therefore in parentheses.

<Imperative Sentence> = <predicate> = <verb> <complement>

   Examples:

• "All hope abandon, ye who enter here!"
  (Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy)
• "Think Small"
  (slogan of Volkswagen)
• "Do not on any account attempt to write on both sides of the paper at once."
  (W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman, 1066 and All That. Methuen, 1930)
• "Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest."
  (Mark Twain)
• "Take me out to the ball game,
  Take me out with the crowd.
  Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack,
  I don't care if I never get back."
  (Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game")
• "Seek simplicity, and distrust it."
  (Alfred North Whitehead)
• Westley: Give us the gate key.
  Yellin: I have no gate key.
  Inigo Montoya: Fezzik, tear his arms off.
  Yellin: Oh, you mean this gate key.
  (The Princess Bride, 1987)
• Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened."
  (Theodor Geisel)
• "Take this quarter, go downtown, and have a rat gnaw that thing off your face!"
  (John Candy as Buck Russell in Uncle Buck, 1989)
• "Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force."
  (Darth Vader, Star Wars, 1977)
• "We're going in the attic now, folks. Keep your accessories with you at all times."
  (Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story 3, 2010)
• "Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut."
  (Ernest Hemingway)
• "Forget them, Wendy. Forget them all. Come with me where you'll never, never have to worry about grown up things again."
  (Peter in film adaptation of Peter Pan, 2003)
• "Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline to dry; don't walk barehead in the hot sun; cook pumpkin fritters in very hot sweet oil; soak your little cloths right after you take them off; when buying cotton to make yourself a nice blouse, be sure that it doesn't have gum on it, because that way it won't hold up well after a wash; soak salt fish overnight before you cook it . . .."

               

    Pay Attention: In the above-mentioned sentences, the verbs in their base form are "believe, worship, be, deceive, speak, send, get up, lose, do, pluck, drink, tease, advise, work, bring, keep, think, discipline, attend, come, pay, try, mend".
In the following sentences, 'you' is addressed but the subject of the verb is in the first person [me, us] or in the third person [him, her, them, it]. In such sentences, 'let' is used in the very beginning of the sentences or the clauses with bare infinitive [infinitive without 'to'].
Study the following sentences: -
1. Let us find out the truth.
2. Let me study what has happened with you.
3. Let the children play in the garden. Don't disturb them.
4. Let her decide what she wants.
5. Let the strangers not come into the office.
6. Let the students play in their vacant period.
7. Let all the doors and windows be shut.
8. Let us wait. Let the case be decided. Let the law take its own course.

References

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:6TKagOzEFKQJ:grammar.about.com/od/il/g/impersent09.htm+How+to+Imperative+sentence&cd=3&hl=th&ct=clnk&gl=th

www.learnenglish.be/gr1_impe_ex1.htm

Ordering Sentence

          

         The Order of a Sentence

Not all sentences make a single point -- compound sentences, especially, may present several equally-important pieces of information -- but most of the time, when you write a sentence, there is a single argument, statement, question, or command which you wish to get across.

When you are writing your sentences, do not bury your main point in the middle; instead, use one of the positions of emphasis at the beginning or end of the sentence.

The Loose Sentence

If you put your main point at the beginning of a long sentence, you are writing a loose sentence:

loose

I am willing to pay slightly higher taxes for the privilege of living in Canada, considering the free health care, the cheap tuition fees, the low crime rate, the comprehensive social programs, and the wonderful winters.

The main point of this sentence is that the writer prefers to live in Canada, and the writer makes the point at the very beginning: everything which follows is simply extra information. When the readers read about the free health care, the cheap tuition fees, the low crime rate, the comprehensive social programs, and the wonderful winters, they will already know that these are reasons for living in Canada, and as a result, they will be more likely to understand the sentence on a first reading.

Loose sentences are the most natural for English speakers, who almost always talk in loose sentences: even the most sophisticated English writers tend to use loose sentences much more often than periodic sentences. While a periodic sentence can be useful for making an important point or for a special dramatic effect, it is also much more difficult to read, and often requires readers to go back and reread the sentence once they understand the main point.

Finally, it is important to remember that you have to structure a loose sentence as carefully as you would structure a periodic sentence: it is very easy to lose control of a loose sentence so that by the end the reader has forgotten what your main point was.

The Periodic Sentence

If your main point is at the end of a long sentence, you are writing a periodic sentence:

periodic

Considering the free health care, the cheap tuition fees, the low crime rate, the comprehensive social programs, and the wonderful winters, I am willing to pay slightly higher taxes for the privilege of living in Canada.

The main point of this sentence is that the writer prefers to live in Canada. At the beginning of this sentence, the reader does not know what point the writer is going to make: what about the free health care, cheap tuition fees, low crime rate, comprehensive social programs, and wonderful winters? The reader has to read all of this information without knowing what the conclusion will be.

The periodic sentence has become much rarer in formal English writing over the past hundred years, and it has never been common in informal spoken English (outside of bad political speeches). Still, it is a powerful rhetorical tool. An occasional periodic sentence is not only dramatic but persuasive: even if the readers do not agree with your conclusion, they will read your evidence first with open minds. If you use a loose sentence with hostile readers, the readers will probably close their minds before considering any of your evidence.

Finally, it is important to remember that periodic sentences are like exclamatory sentences: used once or twice in a piece of writing, they can be very effective; used any more than that, they can make you sound dull and pompous.

In questions below, each passage consist of six sentences. The first and sixth sentence are given in the begining. The middle four sentences in each have been removed and jumbled up. These are labelled as P, Q, R

 

S1:	In the middle of one side of the square sits the Chairman of the and S. Find out the proper order for the four sentences. committee, the most important person in the room.
P :	For a committee is not just a mere collection of individuals.
Q :	On him rests much of the responsibility for the success or failure of the committee.
R :	While this is happening we have an opportunity to get the 'feel' of this committe.
S :	As the meeting opens, he runs briskly through a number of formalities.
S6:	From the moment its members meet, it begins to have a sort nebulous life of its own.

 Reference
 www.arts.uottawa.ca/writcent/hypergrammar/sntorder.html
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:-TCnDknJ0Z4J:www.writingcentre.uottawa.ca/hypergrammar/sntorder.html+ordering+sentence&cd=2&hl=th&ct=clnk&gl=th&source=www.google.co.th

Present Simple

                                    Present simple tense

Structure      S+V.to be + v.1

Form of the Simple Present Tense
We add -s or -es to the base form of the verb in the third person singular.

I work >
You work >
He works >                                                     
She works >                                                                                 
It works > in an office.

We work >
You work >
They work >

Uses of the Simple Present Tense

Permanent truths

We use the Simple Present for statements that are always true:

• Summer follows spring. Gases expand when heated.

'The present period'

We use the Simple Present to refer to events, actions or situations which are true in the present period of time and which, for all we know, may continue indefinitely. What we are saying, in effect, is 'this is the situation as it stands at present':

• My father works in a bank. My sister wears glasses.

Habitual actions

The Simple Present can be used with or without an adverb of time to describe habitual actions, things that happen repeatedly:

• I get up at 7. John smokes a lot.                 

We can be more precise about habitual actions by using the Simple Present with adverbs of indefinite frequency (always, never, etc.) or with adverbial phrases such as every day:

• I sometimes stay up till midnight.
• She visits her parents every day.

We commonly use the Simple Present to ask and answer questions which begin with How often?:

• How often do you go to the dentist? - I go every six months.

Questions relating to habit can be asked with ever and answered with never:

• Do you ever eat meat? - No, I never eat meat.

Future reference

This use is often related to timetables and programmes or to events in the calendar:

• The exhibition opens on January 1st and closes on January 31st.
• The concert begins at 7.30 and ends at 9.30.
• We leave tomorrow at 11.15 and arrive at 17.50.
• Wednesday, May 24th marks our 25th wedding anniversary.

Observations and declarations

We commonly use the Simple Present with stative and other verbs to make observations and declarations in the course of conversation: e.g.

• I hope/assume/suppose/promise everything will be all right.
• I bet you were nervous just before your driving test.
• It says here that the police expect more trouble in the city.
• I declare this exhibition open.
• I see/hear there are roadworks in the street again.
• I love you. I hate him.
• We live in difficult times. - I agree.

Simple Present Tense in adverbial clauses of time: 'no future after temporals'

When the time clause refers to the future, we normally use the simple present after after, as soon as, before, by the time, directly, immediately, the moment, till, until and when where we might expect a Simple Future.

• The Owens will move to a new flat when their baby is born.
• I will go to the cinema after I finish my homework.                          

You will get the dessert as soon as you finish your dinner.

How to use Present Tense? The present, simple.

We hope, we need not explain what tense is and what the present tense is.
Let us go straight to answer How to use Present Tense:

The Simple Present Tense is used:

1. To express general truths:

Examples:

• The Sun rises in the east.                                   

• Honey is sweet.

• Fortune favors the brave.

• London is the Capital city of United Kingdom.

• Two thirds of this earth is full of water.


2. To express the habitual actions:

Examples:

• He drinks tea every morning.

• Mary comes to college by car.

• My watch keeps correct time.

• My son does not like tea. He prefers coffee.

• I get up at 4 o’clock every morning.


3. In the exclamatory sentences beginning with here and there to express what is actually taking place in the present.

Examples:

• Here comes the bus!

• There she goes!

• What a beautiful building that is!

• Oh! He is so smart!                                                    

• There the procession goes a long time!


4. In vivid narrative, as substitute for simple past tense:

Examples:

• Shoran now rushes forward and deals a heavy blow to Rosa.

• Immediately The Sultan hurries to the hospital.


5. To express a future event that is part of a fixed programme.

Examples:

• The next flight is at 7.00am tomorrow.

• The match starts at 9 o’clock in the morning.

• The train leaves at 5.35 pm.

• When does the hotel reopen?


6. To introduce Quotations:

Examples:

• Keats says, “A thing of beauty is joy for ever”.

• Tagore says, “Beauty is the ultimate reality”.

• Osho says, “Self-knowledge is the ultimate knowledge”.


7. It is used, instead of the Simple Future tense, in clauses of time and of condition.

Examples:

• I shall wait till you finish your lunch.

• If it rains we shall get wet.


We hope, we need not explain what tense is and what the present tense is.

We have come staright to answer How to use Present Tense:

Exercise

1. She __________ to school every day.
walk
walks
walkes

2. They __________ like deer.
likes
like
liked

3. We don’t ___________ snake.
like
likes
liked

4. My father _________ in the farm every day.
work
works
worked

5. My mother always ________ in the morning.
get up
got up
gets up

6. She __________ English book everyday.
reads
readed
read

7. We __________ every morning.
run
runs
running

8. It always__________ under the tree.
sleep
sleeping
sleeps

9. I and my sister __________ TV. every night.
watches
watchs
watch

10. Sara and Dara __________ a song everyday week.
sing
sings
singing 

References

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:c24XX2ESMVsJ:www.english-for-students.com/How-to-use-Present-Tense.html+How+to+use+Present+simple+tense&cd=7&hl=th&ct=clnk&gl=th

www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_present.htm

More video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWccPqg1DbI