love fish and chips.
It was dry so I walked home.
You can have a biscuit or a cake.
She has neither mother nor father.
It can also show a contrast between two things:
Joe is having a birthday party but he hasn’t invited me.
Subordinating conjunctions
A subordinating conjunction introduces a clause which is less important than the main part of the sentence:
The teacher was angry because the pupils would not pay attention.
Mark read his book while he waited for his mum to arrive.
I must tell you some exciting news before we get started.
Some dogs go a bit crazy when it’s windy.
Pronouns
A pronoun is a word that is used in place of a noun. You use a pronoun instead of repeating the name of a person, place or thing:
Rachel lives next door to me. Rachel is in my class.
> Rachel lives next door to me. She is in my class.
That is the book I am reading just now. The book is very funny.
> That is the book I am reading just now. It is very funny.
I like to sit in the garden. The garden is very sunny.
> I like to sit in the garden. It is very sunny.
Personal pronouns
You use a personal pronoun instead of the subject or object of a sentence:
She is good at maths.
Nobody likes him.
Possessive pronouns
You use a possessive pronoun to show that something belongs to a person or thing:
We had to move out when our house was flooded.
I think the blue jacket is mine.
The dog buried its bone in the garden.
Relative pronouns
You use a relative pronoun instead of a noun to join two different parts of a sentence. The relative pronouns are who, whom, whose, which and that. They introduce information about a noun in an earlier part of the sentence. This noun is known as the antecedent. You use who, whom and whose when the antecedent is a person, and which and that when it is not a person.
who: You use who when the antecedent is the subject of the second clause.
I have an aunt who lives in Australia.
whom: You use whom when the antecedent is the object of the second clause.
It was the same man whom we had seen earlier.
whose: You use whose to show that something belongs to the antecedent.
Scott has a brother whose name is Jamie.
which: You use which when the antecedent is not a person.
We took the road which leads to the sea.
that: You use that when the antecedent is not a person.
George brought the sandwiches that he had made the night before.
Determiners
A determiner is a word that you put in front of a noun to show more clearly what you are talking about. There are different kinds of determiners:
Articles
The word the is called the definite article.
the robot
the traffic
the footballers
The word a is called the indefinite article.
a caravan
a giraffe
a scooter
If the word after a begins with a vowel, you use an instead:
an animal
an umbrella
an orange pencil
Other determiners
Other types of determiners give different information about the noun:
• the distance between the speaker and the thing they are talking about:
| this shoe | these books |
| that man | those houses |
• who owns the thing:
| my bag | your phone |
| his kite | her mug |
| its door | our car |
| their garden |
• how much or how many:
| some sugar | much money |
| both girls |
| few people | many adults |
| several birds |
• the exact number:
one melon
the two brothers
fifty roses
ten thousand years
• how something is shared out:
Every child got a prize.
Each runner is given a number.
Either team could win on the day.
Neither side is playing well at the moment.
Verbs
A verb is a word that tells you about an action.
Emily plays the guitar.
The children ran across the field.
We always listen to the radio in the car.
Andrew is a Scout.
Tense
The tense of a verb tells us when the action takes place.
Present tense
If the action is happening now, you use the present tense. There are two types of present tense you can use:
Simple present tense: For this you use the verb as it is, or add an ‑s at the end:
I like broccoli.
You love peas.
Max hates carrots.
We enjoy swimming.
Martin and Kate play the piano.
Progressive present tense: This is also known as the continuous present tense. For this you add the ending ‑ing to the verb and put a form of the verb be