Mastering English Grammar: A Comprehensive Guide to Clauses, Modals, Conditionals, Passive Voice, Tenses, and More

Mastering English Grammar: A Comprehensive Guide

Relative Clauses: who; which (object); (can be replaced by that); whose (possession: whose); when; where.

• Defining: who can be omitted.
• Non-defining: commas indicate extra information.

Modal Verbs

• Ability: can, could, be able to.
• Advice: should, ought to, had better.
• Obligation: must, have to, need to.
• Not needing to do something: don't have to; needn't; don't need to.
• Prohibition: can't, mustn't.
• Possibility: may, could, might.
• Logical Deduction: must, can't.
• Requesting Something: may (formal), could (less certain), can.
• Permission (consent): may, can.

Perfect Modal: modal + have + past participle.

Conditionals

• 0: if + present, present. Universal truths.
• 1: Links: unless (if not) and provided (if). if + present, will. Always were. Possible results.
• 2: if + past simple (didn't), would + infinitive. Present. Suppositions in the present or future. Unlikely situations. Advice.
• 3: Past. if + past perfect (had (been) + past participle), would have (been) + past participle. Regrets. Suppositions in the past. Impossible conditions. (Condition_Result) if + verb negative = unless + positive.

Passive Voice

The receiver of the action + verb + ...

Verbs:

• use(s): am/is/are used (past participle).
• am/is/are using: was/were being used.
• used: was/were used.
• was/were using: was/were being used.
• have/has used: have/has been used.
• had used: had been used.
• will use: will be used.
• am/is/are going to use: am/is/are going to be used.
• will have used: will have been used.
• will be using: will be being used.
• can use: can be used.
• would have used: would have been used.
• must have used: must have been used.

Sentences with people's opinions have 2 options: It is + past participle (translated as: it is said). The person being referred to + is + past participle + to be. Note: don't use: is not used. was or were. has or have. Past Participle.

Tenses

Present

• Simple: routines, general truths, and permanent states. do, does.
• Continuous: actions happening at the moment or planned actions that will likely happen. is; are + -ing.
• Perfect Simple: (since, for, just...) actions that started in the past and continue in the present or finished in the past but the results are now, recent events, life experiences. have; has + past participle.
• Continuous Perfect: have been + -ing: actions that started in the past and continue in the present. for. have/has been + -ing.

Past

• Simple: did.
• Continuous: action is interrupted, action that is developing at a specific moment in the past. was, were + -ing.
• Perfect Simple: past actions prior to another past action. Actions that occurred before a specific time. had + past participle. (after, before, never, already)
• Perfect Continuous: past actions prior to another past action. had been + -ing.

Future

• Will: decisions made at the moment, expectations based on opinions.
• Be going to: plans that are going to be made and predictions based on evidence.
• Will be + -ing: an action that will be at a certain moment in the future.
• Will have + past participle: to say if something will be done or not.

Vocabulary: arson, crew, plot, scriptwriters, content, appealing, affordable, consistent, kidnapping, corporal punishment, electronic tagging, fraudster, identify theft, scam, kick off, rob, burgle, resemblance, forgery, concise, reasoning, phishing, domain name, ransomware.

Types of Art

Painting: Van Eyck - The Ghent Altarpiece (1432). Caravaggio - The Calling of St Matthew (1599).

Sculpture: Pierre Julien - The Dying Gladiator (1779). Donatello - David (1440).

Architecture: Zaha Hadid - Galaxy Soho in Beijing (2012). Lina Bo Bardi - Glass House (1951).

Opera: Giuseppe Verdi - La Traviata (1853). Georges Bizet - Carmen (1875).

Photography: Tina Modotti - The Musa (1921). Dorothea Lange - Migrant Mother (1936).

Cinema: Orson Welles - Citizen Kane (1941). D. W. Griffith - The Birth of a Nation (1915).

Literature: Gabriela Mistral - Desolación (1922). Sylvia Plath - The Colossus (1960).

Music: Rocio Jurado - Se nos rompio el amor (1985). Maurice Ravel - Boléro (1928).

What is Science?

A field of study that seeks to reach the truth, although it may not reach an absolute one. Its truth is historical, based on empirical facts (proven), universal (reproducible in different contexts), and uses the scientific method (observation, hypothesis, law, theory).

Mythological Thinking

Seeks to explain reality (physis - the essence or nature of things) with myths. An effect has more than one cause (an event can be caused by more than one supernatural force).

Rational Thinking

Explains physis using the scientific method. Effect-cause. Every phenomenon has an explanation.

The Transition from Myth to Logos

A change in the way of thinking in ancient Greece from myths and traditions to logical reason. Presocratics sought theories. Arché of the physis: the fundamental principle from which everything in nature originates, and identifying it would allow them to explain how the entire natural world arose. Presocratics: Arché: Heraclitus (fire); Pythagoras; Thales of Miletus (water); Anaximenes (air); Anaximander.

Thomas Kuhn

Book: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962). Paradigm: encompasses everything that is known at a given moment, truth in a historical context, rules and values that guide our way of thinking and acting. Science advances when a paradigm cannot solve questions, crisis, conservative or innovative, creating another, creation, normal science. When another is created, it is called a scientific revolution.

Cosmovisions

The way in which a person or group understands the world and their place in it, a vision of the universe. A set of beliefs and conceptions. Mythical: understanding the world based on myths. Scientific: research and scientific method. Stages: Ancient (4th-17th centuries).

Aristotelian Cosmos

Two worlds. Sublunar: below. Elements: fire, air, water, earth. Natural rectilinear movement. Supralunar: above. It is perfect. Uniform circular movement. Element: ether. End in the fixed stars. Different spheres. Modern (16th-19th centuries).