Inglese per la moda - Function words

Grammar reviewEnglish Language Structure: Part one ­ function words

Language is made up of words and words can be divided into 2 basic groups.

I. Content or lexical words that carry meaning and are divided into:

Nouns ­ nomi

Adjectives ­ aggettivi

Verbs ­ verbi

Adverbs ­ avverbi

Numerals – numerali

Exclamations and yes and no answers – esclamazioni e risposte si e no.

ΙΙ. Function words are as the name suggests functional to the grammatical structure of the text. They carry little meaning (have no

synonyms) and typically “help” another word.

Function words are:

Determiners ­ determinativo

Conjunctions ­ congiunzioni

Prepositions ­ preposizioni

Pronouns ­ pronomi

Particles – particelle

Modal verbs ­ verbi modali

Auxiliary verbs – verbi ausiliari

1. Determiners are used in front of nouns to indicate whether you are referring to something specific or

something of a particular type.

a/an/the

The definite and indefinite articles are all determiners.

a) You use a specific determiner when people know exactly which thing(s) or person/people you are

talking about.

The specific determiners are:

the definite article : the

demonstratives : this, that, these, those

possessives : my, your, his, her, its, our, their

2. Conjunctions

A conjunction is a word that "joins" two parts of a sentence. They can be either:

Coordinating Conjunctions: and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so

Subordinating Conjunctions: although, because, since, unless

You use general determiners to talk about people or things without saying exactly who or what they are.

The general determiners are:

the indefinite articles : a, an

Other indefinite determiners are:

a few, a little, all, another, any

both, each, either, enough, every

few, fewer, less, little, many, more, most, much

neither, no, other, several, some

Conjunctions are divided into three parts. Form Conjunctions have three basic forms:

• Single Word

and, but, because, although

for example:

• Compound (often ending with or

as that)

provided that, as long as, in order that

for example:

• Correlative (surrounding an adverb or adjective)

so that.

for example: he may know

Function Conjunctions have two basic functions or "jobs":

• Coordinating conjunctions are used to join two parts of a sentence that are grammatically equal. The two parts may be single words

or clauses, for example:

• and

­ Jack Jill went up the hill.

but

­ The water was warm, I didn't go swimming.

• Subordinating conjunctions are used to join a subordinate dependent clause to a main clause, for example:

although

­ I went swimming it was cold.

Position

• Coordinating conjunctions always come between the words or clauses that they join.

• Subordinating conjunctions usually come at the beginning of the subordinate clause.

3. Prepositions ­ show the relationships among other words in the sentence. The relationships include direction,

place, time

Ex.

Prepositions of time:

at two o'clock

on Wednesday

in in in

an hour, January; 1992

for a day

Prepositions of place:

at my house

in in

New York, my hand

on the table

near the library

across the street

under the bed

between the books

Prepositions of direction

to

Go the post office onto

After school she went her friends house.

into

George jumped the pool.

towards

Walk down the street the bank.

through

I drove the tunnel.

from?

Where did you come

4. Pronouns ­ Generally (but not always) pronouns stand for or refer to a noun, an individual or individuals or thing

or things that have already been introduced earlier in the text.

Ex. Mary She

went to the store. wants to buy some bread.

Italians They

are very creative. have an important history of art

There are four types of pronouns: Subject Pronouns, Object Pronoun, Possessive Pronouns and Demonstrative

Pronouns.

The different types of pronouns are as follows

• Subject Pronouns ­ I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they I

function as the subject of a sentence: live in New York.

you

Do like playing tennis?

He doesn't want to come this evening.

She works in London.

It won't be easy.

We are studying pronouns at the moment.

You went to Paris last year, didn't you?

They bought a new car last month.

• Object Pronouns ­ me, you, him, her, it, us, you, them serve as the object of a verb.

me you him

Give the book.He told to come tonight.She asked to help.

her it us you

They visited when they came to New York.She bought at the store. He picked up at the airport.The teacher asked to

finish your homework.

them

I invited to a party.