English Grammar through Stories
by Alan Townend
English Grammar through Stories
Table of Contents
1. Present simple tense or «It never gets you anywhere».............. 2
2. Present continuous or «What a performance!»........................ 5
3. Future tense or «Jealousy»......................................................... 7
4. Articles in English or «Charlie the Brave»................................. 9
5. Progressive forms or «Going, going, gone!»............................ 12
6. Passive voice or «Haunted»......................................................... 15
7. Relative pronoun......................................................................... 17
8. Usage of pronouns or «One thing or another»................... 21
9. Prepositions or «How I got that job»......................................... 22
10. Spot the preposition.................................................................... 24
11. English adverb or «High hopes»............................................. 25
12. Types of adverbs........................................................................ 27
13. Indirect speech or «Say it again»............................................ 30
14. Conjunctions or «Joined up writing»......................................... 32
15. Conditionals or «On condition».................................................. 33
16. Subjunctive or «Wishful thinking»................................................... 35
17. Reflections.................................................................................... 37
18. Start or begin?.......................................................................... 39
19. Make or do? or «Doing time»................................................... 41
20. Phrasal verb break or «Breaking up»..................................... 45
21. Expressions with break or «Have a break!»........................... 47
22. Phrasal verb bring or «Upbringing»......................................... 49
23. Phrasal verb hold or «Hold on»............................................... 55
24. Phrasal verb take or «Take on»............................................. 58
25. Phrasal verb look or «Look out!»......................................... 65
26. Phrasal verb go or «Going on».............................................. 68
27. Phrasal verb run or «A Christmas postman».......................... 71
28. Phrasal verb fall....................................................................... 73
29. Phrasal verb get....................................................................... 75
30. Word story: Health....................................................................... 77
31. Word story: Jokes....................................................................... 78
32. Word story: Dictionary................................................................. 79
33. Word story: Search engines....................................................... 80
34. Word story: Weather.................................................................... 81
35. Saying it twice or «Save our animals»..................................... 82
36. Colour idioms or «A silver lining»............................................. 84
37. Cool expressions or «From one extreme to the other»........... 86
38. Book expressions or «Have you seen this book?»................ 88
39. Greeting expressions or «Well, hello!»...................................... 90
40. Sea expressions.......................................................................... 92
41. Head expressions........................................................................ 93
42. Expressions with the word order or «Order into chaos»............ 95
43. Expressions with the word name or «The name of the game» 97
44. Usage of the word chip or «Potatoes».................................. 99
45. Usage of the word learn or «Learning to learn?»................. 101
46. Usage of the word turn or «My turn».................................... 103
47. Usage of the word talk or «Small talk».............................. 105
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English Grammar through Stories
by Alan Townend
1. Present simple tense or «It never gets you anywhere»
In this story you will find many examples of how the Present Simple Tense can be used. As you know we use the present simple for things that are true in general, or for things that happen sometimes or all the time:
■ She likes black tea.
■ I start work at 9 o'clock and finish at 5:30.
■ Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius.
■ We usually visit our friends on the weekend.
You probably remember that after he/she/it an «s» is added to the verb as in these examples:
■ She speak s excellent French.
■ He sometimes call s her «my darling».
■ It make s perfect sense to me.
When we want to make a negative sentence we use the following structure:
subject (I/you/we/they) + auxiliary verb (don't) + main verb
(infinitive)
subject (he/she/it) + auxiliary verb (doesn't) + main verb (infinitive)
Examples:
■ I don't speak Chinese.
■ You don't work very hard
■ She doesn't call me every day.
When we want to make a question we also use don't after I/you/we/they and doesn't after he/she/it:
- Do you speak Chinese?
■ Does she work here?
■ What do you do for a living?
■ How do you usually get to work?
Now enjoy the following story and find the present simple in italics.
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English Grammar through Stories
by Alan Townend
«It never gets you anywhere»
Andrew Smodley is a natural worrier. It is something he has inherited from his father — the king of all worriers. But then there are those who are never happy unless they have a problem to solve. Andrew worried about the weather, the state of the pound, his health, the cost of living and once he even worried because he thought he wasn't worrying enough. But that was in the past. Things have changed because something happened to him exactly two years ago.
It was in the spring when leaves appear on trees and nature prepares herself for renewal. Other things happen too — people often fall in love. Now Andrew doesn't have a romantic disposition. He never looks up at the leaves starting to grow, sighs and says: «Ah here comes the spring!» He simply thinks to himself: «I live in a small village by a little stream and around this time of year lots of creatures start to wake up and make a lot of noise.» In London, which stands on the River Thames, people make a lot of noise all the time.»
I apologize for the simplicity of these statements but I want to illustrate the unimaginative nature which Andrew possesses. Towards the end of this story I give examples to show the extent of the change that he underwent.
The other character in this anecdote is a young woman called Sally Fairweather. She too lives in this tiny and remote village where Andrew has his cottage. Now Sally is an entirely different kettle of fish. Her philosophy runs as follows: «Worrying never gets you anywhere and life is too short to waste time imagining the worst.»
In a word she is the complete opposite in temperament of Andrew. Here comes another cliche: Opposites attract. But you must remember that two years ago the two main characters hadn't met, which was surprising when you consider the proximity of Andrew's cottage and Sally's flat. If you take the first left after the post office, you come to Sally's place and if you take the second turning to the right after that you come to the cottage where Andrew lives.
The next participant in this village drama is the weather, which plays a very significant part in English life. It was late April and the sun had disappeared behind dark heavy rain clouds but Andrew had already set off for the local pub. Naturally he had his umbrella with him and a heavy coat following that aphorism his mother always used: «Never cast a clout (remove an article of clothing) before May is out.»
Fortunately he made it to the pub before the storm broke. The moment he crossed the doorstep an old schoolfriend comes up to Andrew, offers to buy him a drink and tells him not to look so worried. Andrew showed him the newspaper headlines: «Petrol prices rise again.» — «But you haven't got a car» said his friend. — «I know», retorted Andrew, «still it means everything else will go up in price, too.»
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