English Grammar Essentials: Reported Speech & Verb Forms

Reported Speech

• Present Simple → Past Simple
• Present Continuous → Past Continuous
• Present Perfect → Past Perfect
• Future with will → Future in the Past
• Imperative → Infinitive
• I / We → He / She / They
• My / Our → His / Her / Their
• Your → My / Her / His / Their
• Here → There
• Now / At the moment → Then / At the time
• Today → That day
• Tomorrow → The next day / The following day
• Yesterday → The day before / The previous day
• This → That
• Last → The previous / Before

Zero Conditional

If + present tense → present tense or infinitive

Use: General truths, habitual actions, repeated events, or instructions.

First Conditional

If + present simple → will

Use: To talk about a possible future event. If can appear at the beginning or in the middle of the sentence.

Second Conditional

If + past simple → would (or could, might, etc.)

Infinitive with to

After these verbs - agree; appear; arrange; choose; decide; fail; happen; hope; learn; manage; plan; prepare; promise; refuse; seem; want

After these adjectives - sorry; pleased; glad; happy; delighted

Infinitive Without To

After verbs: let and make

Help - can be followed with to or without to

Modal verbs - can, could, may, might, shall, should, will, would, must

Gerund

Form: verb + -ing

Use: When verbs are followed by: admit; deny; avoid; dislike; enjoy; finish; imagine; mention; mind; miss; practise; risk; stop; suggest.

After prepositions: at; on; of; for; in; about; by; before; after; without.

After a verb, if we want to talk about a particular activity

As a noun

After some expressions: can't help; can't stand; it's no use; it's no good; have difficulty

Relative Clauses

• Who → people
• That → things / animals / people
• Which → things / animals
• Whose → indicates possession

Clauses of Purpose

• To + infinitive
• In order to / So as to + infinitive
• So that + can / could

The Passive

• Present Simple → is / are + past participle (+ by ...)
• Past Simple → was / were + past participle (+ by ...)
• Will → will + be + past participle (+ by ...)
• Present Continuous → is / are being + past participle (+ by ...)
• Past Continuous → was / were being + past participle (+ by ...)
• Present Perfect → has / have been + past participle (+ by ...)
• Past Perfect → had been + past participle (+ by ...)
• Be going to → is / are going to be + past participle (+ by ...)
• Modal verbs → should / can / must + be + past participle (+ by ...)

Pronouns

• She → her
• He → him
• They → them