Essential English Grammar Rules and Phrasal Verbs

Modal Verbs and Their Uses

• Can: Ability, request, and possibility.
• Be able to: Ability.
• Can't: Inability or prohibition.
• Could: Past ability, polite request, polite suggestion, or possibility.
• May/Might: Possibility.
• Would: Polite request or offer.
• Have to: Obligation or necessity.
• Need to: Obligation or necessity.
• Don't have to: Lack of obligation (contrary to necessity).
• Should: Advice.
• Shall: Offer or suggestions.

Perfect Modals

• Must have: Logical conclusion after certain facts.
• May/Might have: Supposition about a past event.
• Could have: Something that could have been done.
• Couldn't have: Certainty that something did not happen.
• Would have: Something not done for a specific reason.
• Should have: Regretting what did not happen.
• Shouldn't have: Criticism; it should not have happened.
• Needn't have: There was no necessity.

Reported Speech Tense Shifts

• "We eat healthy food" becomes: She said that they ate healthy food.
• Ate changes to had eaten.
• Will eat changes to would eat.
• Are eating changes to were eating.
• Were eating changes to had been eating.
• Have eaten changes to had eaten.
• Have been eating changes to had been eating.
• Had eaten remains had eaten.
• Had been eating remains had been eating.

Passive Voice Transformations

• "This singer writes many songs" becomes: "Many songs are written by this singer."
• Wrote changes to were written.
• Will write changes to will be written.
• Is writing changes to are being written.
• Was writing changes to were being written.
• Has written changes to have been written.
• Had written changes to had been written.
• Should write changes to should be written.
• Must have written changes to must have been written.
• Has to write changes to have to be written.
• Is going to write changes to are going to be written.

Common Phrasal Verbs with Put

• Put up with it: To tolerate, build, or erect.
• Put it out: To extinguish (e.g., a cigarette).
• Put forward: To propose or present.
• Put it off: To postpone or delay.
• Put me down: To humiliate, belittle, or write down.
• Put up: To increase or build.

Common Idioms and Expressions

• Have a go: To try.
• On the go: On the move or busy.
• Go broke: To go bankrupt.
• Go mad: To become angry or insane.
• Go bald: To lose one's hair.
• Go from bad to worse: To deteriorate further.
• The next best thing: The second-best option.
• The real thing: Something authentic.
• No such thing: Something that does not exist.
• Make a big thing about: To exaggerate the importance of something.
• Have a thing about: To have a strong feeling or obsession.
• Just the thing for: Exactly what is needed.