A Quick Review of Key Grammar Points for Students of English as a Second Language 1.

General Tips to help you learn English Grammar Studying too much grammar can actually make your speaking worse, not better! Most students studythen forget, study and forget, study and forget. Instead of memorizing, Super Students learn Englishgrammar in context, the natural way.Focus your efforts on grammar points that you can use again and again in your conversations. The mostimportant are NOUNS, VERBS and ASKING QUESTIONS.Do not worry so much about English prepositions, transitive and intransitive verbs, phrasal verbs, etc.These are details that you will master in time. You should focus first on sentence patterns that you can useover and over again. 2. Master these three grammar points and you WILL be a better speaker! Asking and Answering Questions Verb Tenses: Past, Present and Future Noun Phrases Asking and Answering Questions:The First Key to Using English Grammar There are two question types you must master before you can speak English well: 1) Yes/No Questions and 2) Wh- Questions 1) Yes/No Questions - Listen carefully to these questions, then use the same questionwords when you answer.1. Do or Did Do you like pizza? Yes I do .2. Can Can you play the piano? No I can't .3. Be ( Is / Are

/ Was / Were ) Are you from Singapore? Were you at home last night?4. Will Will you come here tomorrow?5. Have + past participle Have you seen any good movies lately? 2) Wh- Questions - use a Wh- question word with a Yes/No question word.1. Who Who is your favorite singer?2. What What kind of music do you like?3. When When will you finish your work?

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Where Where can I buy a good suit?5. Why + past participle Why didn't you call me last week?6. How + past participle How can we get to the supermarket from here? How long does it take to get there? How far is it from here? VerbTenses:The Second Key to English Grammar I don't usually recommend memorizing anything, but this is one table you should tryto remember completely. (The seven tenses in blue are the most common. You will usethese almost every day, so learn them first.) Twelve BasicVerbTenses Past Present Future 1) Simple Tenses walked walk will walk 2) ContinuousTenses was walking am walking will be walking 3) Perfect Tenses had walked have walked will have walked 4) PerfectContinuous Tenses

had been walking have been walking will have beenwalking Sample Sentences: 1) Simple Tenses describe actions that are only one moment in time.I walked to school yesterday.I walk to school every day.I will walk to school next Tuesday. 2) Continuous Tenses describe actions that continue, then another action happensmore quickly.I was walking to school last Friday when it suddenly started to rain.He is walking to school now, but you can find him if you hurry.I will be walking to school this time next week, so you will be able to findme easily.

 3) Perfect Tenses describe TWO moments in time, with emphasis on the secondone.I had walked halfway to school before I remembered that I didn't have my books.I have always walked to school. (Emphasis is not spoken! It is on theexperience I have now - I am a person NOW who walks, not drives or takesa bus or rides a bicycle.)By the time the year is over, I will have walked a total of 300 kilometers! 4) Perfect Continuous Tenses describe actions that continue between TWOmoments in time.I had already been walking halfway to school when I remembered that Ileft my book at home.I have been walking to school since I was 6 years old.When I finish

high school, I will have been walking to school for 12 years! Longer Noun Phrases:The Third Key to English Grammar Students must move beyond single words and start to use longer andlonger phrases Example 1 - adding details boya boya tall boya tall, slim boya tall, slim boy with black hair a tall, slim boy with long black hair Example 2 - giving more information a girla girl who likes basketballa girl who is good at basketballa girl who is quite good at basketballa girl who is quite good at shooting a basketball Learn Noun Phrases in Context There are many kinds of noun phrases. By reading and listening to English as often as youcan, you will learn to use these kinds of phrases naturally and easily. Good luck