Advanced English Grammar and Vocabulary Concepts

Key English Grammar and Vocabulary Topics

Generic Pronouns

Pronouns used to refer to people in general:

• You: Refers to people in general.
• One: A formal way to refer to people in general.
• We: A general reference that includes the reader or listener.
• They: Refers to other people in general or people in authority.
• They/Their/Them: Used to refer to a single person who may be male or female, as an alternative to he/she.

Narrative Tenses

Tenses used for storytelling:

• Simple Past: e.g., -ed, was, went.
• Past Continuous: e.g., was/were + -ing.
• Past Perfect: e.g., had gone, had saved, had given.
• Past Perfect Continuous: e.g., had been walking, had been waiting.

Expressing Past Habits

• Used to + Infinitive: For past actions and states that are no longer true.
• Would + Infinitive: For repeated past actions only (not states).

Abstract Nouns

Common suffixes used to form abstract nouns:

• -hood: childhood, adulthood, neighborhood
• -ship: partnership, membership, relationship, friendship
• -dom: freedom, wisdom, boredom
• -ness: happiness, sadness, sickness, kindness
• -tion: celebration, competition, imagination

Other abstract nouns are formed by changing the word itself: death, belief, loss, shame, fear, poverty, hatred.

Vocabulary: Language Terms

1. Idiom: A group of words with a meaning different from the individual words.
2. Collocation: A frequent and natural combination of words in a language.
3. Register: The style of written or spoken language appropriate for a situation (e.g., formal, informal).
4. Phrasal Verb: A verb combined with an adverb or a preposition to create a new meaning.
5. Slang: Very informal words and expressions used in common language.
6. Colloquial: Words and phrases used in conversations or informal writing but not in formal situations.
7. Synonym: A word or expression that has the same or nearly the same meaning as another.
8. Metaphor: A word or phrase used in an imaginative way to show that it has the same qualities as another thing.

Vocabulary: History and Warfare

• Overthrow: To bring about the downfall or destruction of a government or leader.
• Side: One team or group in a conflict.
• Troops: Soldiers.
• Outnumbered: To be fewer in number than the enemy.
• Victorious: Having won a battle; triumphant.
• Rebel: A person who resists a government or ruler.
• Besiege: To surround a place with an army in order to capture it.
• Civil War: A war fought between groups from the same country.
• Arrows: Pointed weapons shot from a bow.
• Casualties: People injured or killed in a battle.

Grammar: Speculation and Deduction

Using modal verbs to express degrees of certainty:

• must be, must have seen
• can't be playing, can't/couldn't have spent
• may/might/could be
• should, should have

Vocabulary: Sounds

Ticking, clicking, banged, tapped, hissing, buzzing, slurp, drip, splashing, rattling, hissed, whistled, crashed, roared, snoring, sniffling, creaking, crunching, bang, slam.

Vocabulary: Describing Books

Depressing, entertaining, fast-paced, riveting, haunting, slow-paced, implausible, intriguing, moving, thought-provoking.

Grammar: Adding Emphasis

Using inversion after certain negative or limiting adverbs placed at the beginning of a sentence:

• Hardly...
• Never...
• No sooner...
• Not only...
• Not until...
• Only...
• Rarely...