Master English Grammar: Modals, Passive, and Conditionals

Modal Verbs

• Ability and capacity: can, could, be able to.
• Possibility and deduction: may, might, could, can't, must.
• Advice: should, ought to, had better.
• Obligation and necessity: must, have to, need to.
• Prohibition: mustn't, can't.
• Absence of obligation: don't have to, needn't.
• Permission: can, be allowed to.

Active and Passive Voice

Transforming active sentences into the passive voice:

• makes → is made
• is making → is being made
• made → was made
• was making → was being made
• has made → has been made
• had made → had been been made
• will make → will be made
• would make → would be made

Reported Speech: Direct and Indirect

Tense and Word Shifts

• is seeing → was seeing
• sees → saw
• saw → had seen
• has seen → had seen
• will see → would see
• is going to see → was going to see
• can see → could see
• here → there
• this → that
• these → those
• now → then
• today → that day
• yesterday → the previous day
• tomorrow → the next day

Reported Questions, Commands, and Suggestions

• Reported Questions: "How are you?" she asked → She asked me how I was.
• Reported Commands: "Sit down!" he ordered → He ordered them to sit down.
• Reported Suggestions: "Let's go for a walk," he suggested → He suggested that we go for a walk.

The Four Types of Conditionals

• Zero Conditional: if + present + present/imperatives. Used for general situations (e.g., "If you do it like this, it means...").
• First Conditional: if + present + will/may/might/can. Used for specific moments (e.g., "If my parents buy me a computer, I'll be very pleased").
• Second Conditional: if + past + would/could/might. Used for improbable or hypothetical situations (e.g., "If I saw my boyfriend with another girl, I would feel jealous").
• Third Conditional: if + past perfect + would have + past participle. Used for unreal situations in the past (e.g., "If Rivaldo hadn't trained hard, he wouldn't have become a great player").

Gerunds and Infinitives

Verbs Followed by Gerunds (-ing)

Appreciate, dislike, keep, practice, delay, enjoy, miss, risk, discuss, finish, put off, suggest, postpone, imagine, mind, feel like, can't help, give up, can't stand, be used to, get used to, there's/it's no use, be worth.

Verbs Followed by Infinitives (to + verb)

Afford, agree, arrange, decide, hope, manage, plan, prepare, promise, refuse, make up, up to, turn out, be about, advise, enable, invite, persuade, tell, allow, forbid, order, remind, want, convince, force, permit, teach, warn.

Verbs Followed by Both

Advise, allow, begin, can't bear, can't stand, cease, hate, like, love, permit, recommend, start, continue.