Grammar

Unit-1 Language
Noun in apposition
In English, two nouns are often used together, one following the other. The second noun
tell us something about the first noun. Such two nouns are called noun in apposition. For example:

• Tokyo, the capital of Japan, ….

• U Ba Kyi, the great Myanmar artist, …

Unit-2 Literature
Adjectival Phrases
• An adjective phrase may begin with a preposition, or an -ing verb, or an -ed / -en verb as
in:
▪ on the table / under the tree / in the garden, etc.
▪ sitting all alone / talking to the teacher / watching TV, etc.
▪ painted by U Ba Kyi / written in Japanese / made in Germany, etc.

• In a sentence, an adjectival phrase modifies the noun in front if it as shown below with an
arrow:
▪ The book on that table belong to me.

Present Simple and Present Continuous

The present simple is used to talk about:
 a fact that is always true
 a current situation
 a habitual action

e.g. The sun rises in the east. (Always true)

The present continuous is used to talk about:

 an activity that is happening now

 a temporary activity
 a planned future arrangement
e.g. I am studying for my exam. (An activity that is happening now)

Unit-3 Zero
Subject and Predicate
Predicate = the part of a sentence or clause containing a verb and stating something about the
subject.
e.g. John went home. (John is subject and went home is predicate)

Either … or and Neither … nor

• The correlative conjunction, ‘either … or’ has a positive meaning and is used to offer a
choice between two things.
e.g. You can either meet me at home or at the office.

• The correlative conjunction, ‘neither …. nor’ has a negative meaning and is used to
negate both parts of a statement. It means not one and not the other.
e.g. Neither the blue blouse nor the red one is available in size 4.

Unit-4 Painting
Participial phrases
• A participial phrase is a group of words that begins with either an -ing or -ed / -en form of
a verb such as: reading in that room, trained by a good coach, working in the garden,
written by Wordsworth, etc.
e.g., The children came in making a lot of noise.

Past Simple and Past Continuous

Past Simple is used:

• to describe a completed action in the past time (the time is usually mentioned or implied.)
• to describe actions that happened one after the other in the past.
• to describe past habits or repeated actions in the past (often used with adverbs of
frequency).
e.g. My sister passed the matriculation examination in 2014. (a completed action in the past)
Past Continuous is used:

• to describe an action in progress at a specific moment in the past.

• to convey the idea that the action in the past continuous started before the action in the
simple past and probably continued after it.
• to describe parallel actions in the past.
• Verb such as feel, find, hear, see, smell, sound, and taste are not used in the progressive
when they refer to the action of the senses.
e.g. Were you listening while he was talking? (parallel actions in the past)
Unit-5 Trains
Used to
• Used to can be used for things that happened repeatedly or over a long period of time in
the past, but are usually not true now, for example, for things which happened when you
were a child.
e.g. I used to have a long hair. (now I have a short hair.)
I didn’t used to wear glasses. (now I am wearing glasses.)

Present Perfect and Present Perfect Continuous

• Present perfect [ have/has + V(-ed/-en)] is used to speak or write about:

 Completion of an activity e.g. I have done my homework.

 Experience e.g. I have been to Bagan once.
 Continuity of an activity (which began e.g. I have lived in Yangon for more
sometime in the past but continues up than 50 years.
to the present.
• Present perfect continuous [ have/has + been + V(-ing)] is used to speak or write about:
 Something that has been in progress e.g. She has been typing all day.
throughout a period
 Continuity of an activity (which happened e.g. U Min Maung has been working
over a period of time in the past but in Nissan Company since 2010.
Continues up to the present)
Note: Verbs like learn, lie, live, rain, sit, sleep, stand, study, wait, work, etc. naturally suggest
continuity (as in: I have been working here since 2009.)

• We use the present perfect to emphasize the result of an action.

• We use the present perfect continuous to emphasize the duration of an action.
e.g., I’ve called him three times this morning.
I’ve been calling him since 9 o’clock.

Unit-6 The Prodigal Son

Reported Speech
• Reported speech is an act of reporting something that was said.
• No quotation marks are used. Study the changes in the verb forms in the
following examples.
• If the reporting verb (the main verb of a sentence, e.g., said) is in the past,
the verb in the reported clause will usually be in a past form.
 • The present tense in retained when the reported sentence deals with a
general truth:
e.g. She said that the Earth is round.
• When changing the direct speech to the reported speech, the following
expressions in Column A are changed as follows:
Column A Column B
here there
this that
these those
now than
today that day
tonight, that night
yesterday the day before/ the previous day
ago before
tomorrow the next day/ the following day
next month / year the following month/ year

Statements
• To introduce the reported clause, ‘that’ is used.
e.g. He said, “I am doing my homework.”
He said that he was doing his homework.
Questions
• We use ‘ask’ as a reporting verb in the reported speech.
• In Yes/ No questions, if / whether is used to introduce the reported clause.
• In Wh- questions, the question words are retained.
• The questions in the reported speech must be changed to statements.
e.g. He said to the new secretary, “Can you type?”
He asked the new secretary if she could type.

Commands and Requests

• The reporting verb ‘tell’ is used in an imperative sentence.
• The reporting verb ‘tell’ is immediately followed by a noun or pronoun object.
• To introduce the reported clause, to infinitive/ not to infinitive is used.
e.g. Father said, “Htoo Htoo, stop making a noise.”
Father told Htoo Htoo to stop making a noise.
Unit-7 Typical Myanmar Snacks
The Active Voice and the Passive Voice
Passive verb = be + V ed/en Be1 = am, is, are Be2 = was, were

Active voice Passive voice

1. Subj + V1 + Obj Obj + Be1 V3 + by Subj
2. Subj + V2 + Obj Obj + Be2 V3 + by Subj
3. Subj +Be1 V4+ Obj Obj +Be1 being V3 + by Subj
4. Subj + Be2 V4 + Obj Obj + Be2 being V3 + by Subj
5. Subj + will V1 + Obj Obj + will be V3 + by Subj
6. Subj + Has/have V3 + Obj Obj + has/have been V3 + by Subj
7. Subj + had V3 + Obj Obj + had been V3 + by Subj
e.g. Mya Mya plays basketball every Friday.

Basketball is played by Mya Mya every Friday.

Note: In the first sentence, the doer is the subject of the sentence. In the second sentence the
recipient is the subject of the sentence.

Unit-8 Food Chain.

The Passive Voice without Agents
The passive is used:

• When the agent (= the person who does the action) is unknown, unimportant or not
obvious from the context.
e.g. That old house was built in 1959. (unimportant agent)

• When the action is more important than the agent as in process, instruction, events,
report, headlines, news items, and advertisements.
e.g. UFO has been seen in this area.

Omission of Verbs
• The verbs can be omitted if they are repeated in the same sentence.
e.g. I like playing basketball, and she like playing volleyball, and he like playing football.
I like playing basketball, and she like volleyball, and he like football.

Unit-9 Climate Change

The future tense
• The future tense [ will + V(inf-)] is used to speak or write about:
 What to think or believe will happen. e, g. You will fail if you do not study.
He will tell you when he gets here.
  The decision made at present time. E.g., It’s hot. I will turn on the fan.
I don’t want to see him. So, I won’t
come to the party.

Conditional Clauses
A conditional clause is a type of subordinate clause, most commonly introduced by the
conjunction if or unless.
e.g., If I study hard, I will pass the exam.
I will pass the exam if I study hard.
There are three types of conditional clauses.

If-clause Main clause Examples

Type 1 Simple present Future simple If he is late, we will have to go without
him.
Type 2 Simple past Future conditional If I, will you, I would study more.
Type 3 Past perfect Future perfect If you had warned me, I would not have
told your father about that party.

Unit-10 Food Safety

Not only…. but also
• The “not only… but also” construction is commonly used in formal context.
• This can be useful when presenting two qualities of a character, an action or an event.
• When using "not only…. but also” in a sentence, the word following the two parts, i.e.,
“not only… but also” should belong to the same part of speech.
e.g., He can not only play football but also basketball. (two objects are linked.)

The more/ less/ -er…., the more/ less/ -er….

• This structure is used to say how one thing changes in relation to another.
e.g., The more active you are, the more food you need.
• The subject and the verb of the second clause, or both clauses, may be omitted if their
meaning is obvious.
e.g., The more, the merrier. (if there are more people, the occasion will be merrier.)

The more/ less / -er + Subject + V …., the more / less/ -er + Subject + V
Unit-10 THANAKA, Uniquely Myanmar
Relative pronouns: who, whom and whose
• We use relative pronoun who to refer to people.
e.g., Daw Mya, who teaches English, is my class teacher.
• We use relative pronoun whom to refer to people when the person is the object of the
verb.
e.g., He got married to the girl, whom he met in university.
• We use relative pronoun whose to refer to possession of people and animals.
e.g., The prize will go to the student, whose story is the best.

Unit-12 Urbanization
Relative pronouns, ‘that’ and ‘which’
• When we talk about things, we use that or which in relative clause.
e.g., I do not like the stories that/ which have sad ending.

Making Comparisons: ‘as…. as’, and ‘not as…. as’

• We use ‘as + adjective/ adverb + as’ to make comparisons when the things we are
comparing are equal in some way.
• We use ‘not as + adjective/ adverb + as’ to make comparisons between things which are
not equal.