DIRECT – INDIRECT SPEECH

Introduction

When we want to repeat (say or report) what another person(s) says, we say it in two ways:

Mr. Penguin and Mrs. Penguin are talking.  Mr. Monkey overhears their conversation, and goes to Miss Penguin, their daughter, to report what he hears…

Your father said to your mother, “I am leaving you.” (the exact words)

This kind of repeating somebody else’s exact words is called DIRECT SPEECH.

However, Mr. Monkey tells (reports to) Miss Penguin what he hears…

Your father told your mother that he was leaving her.

Mr. Monkey does not use the exact words said by Mr. Penguin but tells her in a different way,changing the exact words… This way of repeating somebody else’s words in an indirect way is called INDIRECT SPEECH OR REPORTED SPEECH. 

Another example:

1. The girl said to her father, “I want to become a teacher.”

(‘The girl said to her father’ — introductory (main) clause; “I want to become a teacher” — the actual quoted words – subordinate clause)

2. The girl told her father that she wanted to become a teacher.

(‘The girl told her father’ — introductory (main) clause; ‘That she wanted to become a teacher’ — subordinate clause;  ‘that’ – conjunction)

Please refer to the topic ‘SENTENCE’.

In sentence 1 we quote (say or report or repeat) the exact words of the girl.

This is called “DIRECT SPEECH”.  The girl’s words are put within inverted commas or quotation marks or speech marks.  [ “…” – double quotation marks;  ‘…’ – single quotation marks]

In sentence 2, however, we report what the girl said without quoting the exact words, but using different words without changing the meaning of the actual spoken words.

This is called “INDIRECT (reported) SPEECH”.  There are no inverted commas or quotation marks.

The Direct Speech construction is normally used in writing.

The Indirect (reported) Speech construction is mostly used in conversation, because it is not convenient to use punctuation marks, such as commas and inverted commas, in speech.

To report a direct speech sentence in indirect speech, we need to know what changes the words take while being changed.

The changes effected in the “indirect speech” sentence are:

1. the comma (,) after ‘said’ in the introductory clause and the quotation marks (“…”) are removed

2. the introductory verb ‘said to’ is changed to ‘told’

3. the conjunction ‘that’ is put between the main clause and the subordinate clause [only in statement sentences]

4. the personal pronoun ‘I’ is changed to ‘she’

5. the verb ‘want’ is changed into ‘wanted’

The changes depend on the Kinds of Sentence (according to expression); the TENSE of the main verb of the sentence; and the subject of the sentence, whether it is a noun or a pronoun.

When there are so many points and rules to be applied to change a Direct Speech sentence into an Indirect Speech sentence, it is best we start from the beginning and to discuss each rule separately and elaborately.

For power presentation slides on Direct-Indirect Speech, please, click here on direct-indirect.speech .  For continuity, please keep clicking after each feature in each slide.]

There are some important points we should all know well before going to discuss the rules for changing Direct Speech sentence into Indirect Speech.

They are:

Note very well that the following rules for changing Speech are applicable only when the Main Verb in the introductory or main clause is in PAST TENSE.

There are special rules for changing Speech when the main verb in the main clause is in Present or Future Tense, which are given in the “TENSE” part of this main topic.

For example.

The girl said to her father, “I want to become a teacher.”

(‘said to’ – main verb of main clause – simple past; “I want to become a teacher”     subordinate clause – within quotation marks)

The changes take place mostly in the subordinate clause; however, there are some changes that take place even in the main (introductory) clause.  The changes depend on the kind of sentence (according to the expression).

For example,

He saidto me, “This is a book.”

He told me that that was a book.

(‘said to’ – changed to ‘told’ – statement sentence)

She said to me, “Is this a book?”

She asked me if that was a book.

(‘said to’ – changed to ‘asked’ – interrogative/question sentence)

You said to him, “Fetch me a bucket of water!”

You ordered him to fetch you a bucket of water.

(‘said to’ – changed to ‘ordered’ – imperative sentence)

She said, “Ricky, open the window, please.”

She requested Ricky to open the window.

(‘said Ricky’ – changed to ‘requested Ricky’ – imperative sentence with ‘please’)

It may be noticed that in the first pair of sentences ‘said to’ is changed to ‘told’ because the first sentence of the pair is a statement sentence; in the second pair, ‘said to’ is changed to ‘asked’ because the first sentence of the pair is an interrogative (question) sentence; in the third pair, ‘said to’ is changed to ‘ordered’ because the first sentence of the pair is an imperative (order, request, command, etc.) sentence; and in the fourth pair, ‘said to’ is changed to ‘requested’ because the first sentence of the pair is an imperative sentence with a request word ‘please’. The verb words ‘say’ and ‘tell’ need to be addressed at this stage as they keep coming quite frequently in our examples… The verb word ‘say’ takes a preposition when used with an object, and an object of it may or may not be present in the sentence. The verb word ‘tell’ does not take a preposition when used with an object and an object of it is always present.

e.g.

He said, “I am the boss.”  [without an object after ‘said’]

He said to me, “I am the boss.”  [with ‘to’ before an object ‘me’]

He told me that he was the boss. [‘told’ – without ‘to’; with an object ‘me’]

Remember that ‘tell’ is never used in the introductory (main) clause in Direct Speech.

The changes we are going to discuss hereafter are applicable to only the subordinate clause, and only when the main verb in the introductory (main) clause is in PAST tense!

RULES FOR CHANGING THE SPEECH OF A SENTENCE:

STATEMENT (DECLARATIVE) SENTENCE

The common conjunction is: that

[conjunction ‘that’ is usually omitted, particularly in conversation]

{Before going for the rules, we should have a quick look at the topic of Tense.}

The Rules:

All the PRESENT TENSE forms of the main verbs in the subordinate clause are changed into their corresponding PAST TENSE forms: ‘is’ and ‘am’ become ‘was’; ‘are’ becomes ‘were’; ‘shall’ becomes ‘should’; ‘come’ becomes ‘came’; and so on… e.g.

The boy said, “I like to eat sweets.”  Direct

[‘like’ – main verb – simple present tense]

The boy said that he liked to eat sweets.  Indirect

[‘liked’ – main verb – simple PAST]

Even though the main verb of the main clause of the Direct Speech sentence is in PAST TENSE, the main verb in the Subordinate Clause is not changed in the Indirect Speech when that Verb expresses a regular habit, a universal truth or a natural occurrence:

e.g.

He said, “The Sun rises in the East.”   Direct

He said that the Sun rises in the East.    Indirect

Though the verb ‘said’ is in Past Tense, the verb ‘rises’ in the subordinate clause of the Indirect Speech is not changed because

the expression in the actual quoted words is a universal truth.

We must be extremely careful in deciding which one is a special expression that needs no change and which is to be changed!

The SIMPLE PAST TENSE form sometimes remains unchanged and sometimes changes into the PAST PERFECT TENSE form.

But the PAST PERFECT TENSE form is not changed; it remains the same in Indirect, too.

[When there is no need to express one action being the first and the other being the second, we keep the  ‘simple past tense’ as it is, but when we want to indicate that of the two actions one action happened before another, we use ‘past perfect tense’.]

e.g.

(a)

He said, “I had a dream last night.”     Direct

[‘had’ – main verb – simple past]

He said that he had a dream the previous night.”  Indirect

[‘had’ – main verb – UNCHANGED]

(b)

He said, “I bought a big house.”   Direct

[‘bought’ – main verb – simple past]

He said that he had bought a big house.  Indirect

[‘had bought’ – main verb – past perfect – CHANGED]

The PAST CONTINUOUS TENSE form becomes the PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS form.

e.g.

He said, “Molly was swimmingin the pond.”     Direct

[‘was swimming’ – main verb – past continuous tense]

He said that Molly had been swimming in the pond.  Indirect

[‘had been swimming’ – main verb – past perfect continuous]

{Before discussing the other rules, we should have a quick look at the topic of PERSONAL PRONOUNS.}

The PERSONAL PRONOUNS and POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES of the first and second persons in the Direct Speech are changed into their corresponding THIRD PERSON in the Indirect Speech.  {Please go to  topic PERSONAL PRONOUNS to find out how to relate or identify the corresponding pronouns in relation to Speech.}

The COMMON & PROPERNOUNS in the Direct Speech sentence are not changed in the Indirect Speech; only the PERSONAL PRONOUNS AND THE POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES are changed.

e.g.

He said to me, “Polly is my friend.”    Direct

[‘Polly’ – Proper Noun – name of a particular person]

He told me that Polly was his friend.   Indirect

[‘Polly’ – Proper Noun – not changed]

He said to her, “The manager is on leave.”    Direct

[‘The manager’ – Common Noun – a general name given to a person who looks after an office]

He told her that the manager was on leave.    Indirect

[‘the manager’ – common noun – not changed]

“Personal Pronouns & POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES” continues:

e.g.   He said to them, “I shall pay your wages tomorrow.”  Direct

He told them that he would paytheir wages the next day.  Indirect

Analysis:

STEP 1    Direct Speech Sentence

He said to them, “I shall pay your wages tomorrow.”     Direct

(‘He’ – 3^rd person singular in the introductory clause is related to the ‘I’ in the actual quoted words; ‘them’ – 3^rd person plural in the introductory clause is related to the ‘your’ – 2^nd person, plural, possessive case in the actual quoted words.)

step 2   Indirect Speech Sentence

He told them that he would pay their wages the next day.    Indirect

(‘He’ corresponds with ‘he’; and ‘your’ corresponds with ‘their’ – 3^rd person, plural, possessive case)

step 3 Direct & Indirect together

He said to them, “I shall pay your wages tomorrow.”   Direct

He told them   that he would pay their wages the next day. Indirect

The personal pronouns in the introductory clause of direct speech sentence do not change. The personal pronoun “I” in the main clause of direct is changed into ‘he’ in the indirect. The possessive adjective ‘your’ in the main clause of direct is changed into ‘their’ in the indirect.

Explanation:

The 1^st person pronoun “I” in the subordinate clause of the Direct Speech sentence corresponds with the 3^rd person pronoun ‘He’ in the main clause, so when the speech is changed, 1^st person is changed into its corresponding 3^rd person ‘he’; the 2^nd person possessive adjective “your” in the subordinate clause corresponds to the 3^rd person pronoun ‘them’ in the main clause in the Direct speech sentence, so when the speech is changed, the 2^nd person possessive adjective is changed into its corresponding 3^rd person possessive adjective ‘their’ in the subordinate clause in the Indirect speech.

Let’s consider another example:

She said to him, “I can give you my book.”  Direct

‘She’ in the main clause is related to ‘I’ and ‘my’ in the subordinate clause in the Direct.

‘Him’ in the main clause is related to ‘you’ in the subordinate clause in the Direct.

The corresponding personal pronoun of ‘I’ is “she”, and the corresponding possessive adjective of ‘my’ is “her”. The corresponding personal pronoun in objective case of ‘you’ in 3^rd person is “him”. Therefore, when the Speech is changed:  She said to him, “I can give you my book.” becomes …

She told him that she could give him her book.            Indirect

When the Person Addressed reports the Speech him- or herself, the Second Person is changed into the First Person.

e.g.

He said to me, “You alone can save her.” Direct

He told me that I alone could save her. Indirect

Explanation:

The personal pronoun ‘You’ in the subordinate clause of the Direct Speech sentence is the PERSON ADDRESSED and related to ‘me’ which is the PERSON REPORTING, in the main clause, and so, when the Speech is changed, the 2^nd person pronoun ‘you’ which is in the nominative case is changed into the 1^st person pronoun “I” which is also in the nominative case.

The words are said to ‘me’ and ‘I’ am the one telling others.

Both the PERSON ADDRESSED and the PERSON REPORTING are one person in this sentence.

However, the 3^rd person pronoun ‘her’ remains unchanged because it is the 1^st and the 2^nd Persons in the subordinate clause of the Direct Speech sentence that take the changes!

The Nominative of Addressee in the subordinate clause of Direct Speech Sentence becomes the Person Spoken to in the main clause of the Indirect Speech Sentence.

e.g.

Sam said, “Teacher, I don’t understand this question.”       Direct

(‘Teacher’ in the actual quoted words is the person addressed – ‘Sam said to the teacher’ therefore, in the indirect speech it becomes ‘Sam told his teacher’ – person spoken to.)

Sam told his teacher that he did not understand that question.   Indirect

Compare:

Sam said to his teacher, “I don’t understand this question.”   Direct

Sam told his teacher that he didn’t understand that question.  Indirect

Sam said to me, “Her teacher didn’t understand this question.”    Direct

(‘Her teacher’ – somebody else’s teacher)

Sam told me that her teacher had not understood that question.   Indirect

Certain words expressing ‘nearness’ in the subordinate clause of the Direct Speech Sentence are changed into words expressing “distance” in the Indirect Speech.  

e.g.

‘This’ in the subordinate clause of the Direct Speech Sentence is changed to ‘that’ in the Indirect Speech.

Kim said to his sister, “I like this shirt.” Direct

Kim told his sister that he liked that shirt.   Indirect

words expressing ‘nearness’   ——–   words expressing “distance”

this                                                                          that

these                                                                      those

now                                                                        then

today                                                                      that day

tomorrow                                                              the next day

yesterday                                                              the previous day

last night                                                                the previous night

or

the night before

ago                                                                          before

come                                                                      go

The words expressing ‘distance’ in the Direct Speech remain unchanged in the Indirect Speech Sentence. And these words are not changed if the Speech is reported during the same period (a little later, of course) or at the same place.

e.g.

He said, “I want to go there.”     Direct

He said that he wanted to go there.  Indirect

The word ‘there’ is not changed because it is a word expressing ‘distance’.

RULES FOR CHANGING THE SPEECH OF A SENTENCE:

INTERROGATIVE (QUESTION)  SENTENCE:

The common conjunctions are:  if and whether

[There is some slight difference between ‘if’ and ‘whether’, we, at this basic level, need not worry much about it.]

When we report an Interrogative (question) Sentence in the Indirect Speech, we must change the introductory verb, usually ‘said to’, into ‘asked’, ‘inquired’, ‘demanded to know’, etc. related

e.g.    He said to me, “Is this seat taken?”  Direct

(‘said to’ — verb in the main clause; ‘question mark’ shows that this is a question)

He asked me if that seat was taken. Indirect

(‘said to’ is changed to ‘asked’ because it is an interrogative/question sentence) The conjunction ‘that’ is not used between the main clause and the subordinate clause of the Indirect Speech Sentence; instead ‘if or whether’ is used for the ‘yes or no’ questions, and the ‘wh-’ word is used as it is for the ‘wh-’ questions.

{‘Yes or No’ questions are those questions that begin with ‘Is’, ‘are’, ‘can’, ‘shall’, ‘must’, etc. and the answer to these questions are ‘yes or no’; ‘wh-’ questions are those questions that begin with ‘wh-’ words, such as ‘where’, ‘when’, ‘why’, ‘how’, ‘whose’, etc.}

e.g.

“Yes or No” questions:

Is this your book?  =   Yes, it is.

Are you an employee here? =  No, I am not.

Have you gone mad?  =  No, certainly not!

Can you help me?  =  Yes, I can.

Will she come here?  =  No, she won’t.

“Wh-’ questions:

Who are you?  =  I am a student. /  My name is John.

What is this?  =  This is a book.

Where did he go?  =  He went to hospital.

How do you open this?  =  I don’t know

Now back to the main point:

e.g.

“yes or No”  questions:

He said to me, “Are you the manager here?”    Direct

[‘yes or no’ question  -- begins with ‘are’]

He asked me if I was the manager there.  Indirect

[conjunction ‘if’ for ‘yes or no’ question]

“wh-” questions:

She said to me, “What do you want?”  Direct

[‘wh-’ question – begins with ‘what’]

She asked me what I wanted.  Indirect

[‘what’ is used as it is in place of a conjunction]

The Word Order:

In a Statement Sentence the word order is: ‘subject comes first and the verb comes next and the objects or complements follow the verb’, but in an Interrogative (question) Sentence the word order is: ‘verb comes first and the subject comes next and the objects or complements follow the subject’. Therefore, when we change an Interrogative Sentence from Direct to Indirect Speech, we have to change its interrogative word order into the Statement Sentence word order!

e.g.

They said to me, “Is the manager available?” Direct

[interrogative order:  ‘is’ – verb – first; ‘the manager’ – subject – second]

They asked me if the manager was available.  Indirect

[statement order: ‘the manager’ – subject – first; ‘was’ – verb – second]

Punctuation Marks:

When we change the interrogative order in the Direct Speech Sentence into the statement order in the Indirect Speech Sentence, we do not use the question mark (?) (that comes at the end of every question) in the Indirect Speech Sentence because once a question is changed into a statement it does not need a question mark but needs a full stop/period (.).

e.g.

He said to me, “Is this your book?”   Direct

[(?) question mark for a question]

He said to me if that was my book. Indirect

[(.) full stop/period for a statement]

In addition to the specific rules for the Interrogative Sentence we have discussed, the rules on TENSE, PERSONAL PRONOUNS and WORDS EXPRESSING ‘NEARNESS’, ETC.  we have discussed for the Statement Sentence are applicable to the Interrogative Sentence too!

Let’s analyse some more Interrogative Sentences:

YES OR NO QUESTION:

step 1 Direct Speech

The little girl said to him, “Do you know my father?”      Direct

The words: The little girl , him and father are not changed because ‘The little girl’ and ‘him’ are in the main (introductory) clause of the Direct and ‘father’ in the subordinate clause is a noun.

step 2 Direct Speech

The little girl said to him, “Do you know my father?”

(verb comes first; subject follows)

The verb word ‘know’ is a non-anomalous verb, so it cannot make a question on its own; therefore, it takes the help of ‘do’, an anomalous verb, to make this question. As this sentence is a question, the ‘question’ word order is used: the verb, with its helping verb, comes first and the subject ‘you’ comes next.

step 3 Direct and Indirect together

The little girl said to him, “Do you know my father?”      Direct

The little girl asked him if he knew her father.  Indirect

The changes that took place:

‘said to’ becomes ‘asked’  because the sentence is a question ; ‘comma and quotation marks’ are removed; conjunction ‘if’ is used because it is a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question; ‘he’ is used in place of ‘you’ because ‘you’ is related to ‘him’; ‘do…know’ is changed to ‘knew’ because ‘simple present’ is changed to simple past; and as the interrogative order is changed into statement order, the subject ‘he’ is placed first and the verb ‘knew’ is placed next; ‘my’ is changed into ‘her’ because ‘my’ is related to the ‘little girl’, the subject in the main clause of the Direct, and the corresponding possessive adjective is ‘her’ ; the question mark (?) is removed and a full stop (.) is used in its place because an interrogative sentence in Direct changes into a statement sentence in Indirect.

WH QUESTION:

She said to me, “What do you want from me?”  Direct

She asked me what I wanted from her. 

The words she, me, what, and from are not changed because ‘she’ and ‘me’ are in the main clause of the Direct Sentence; ‘what’ is not changed because ‘wh’ word in the ‘wh’ question is used as it is in place of a conjunction; and ‘from’ is not changed because it is a preposition. 

RULES FOR CHANGING THE SPEECH OF A SENTENCE:

IMPERATIVE SENTENCE:

The Common Conjunction:  — nil –

[The Imperative sentence in Indirect Speech does not take any conjunction; instead, it takes “to-infinitive” form of the FINITE verb in the subordinate clause of Direct.]

Sentences containing orders, requests, warnings, advice, etc. are in the Imperative Mood and are called Imperative Sentences.  In reporting them in the Indirect Speech, the Introductory Verb ‘said’ has to be replaced by ‘asked’, ‘ordered’, ‘advised’, ‘requested’, ‘warned’, ‘commanded’, etc. depending on the context. 

The Subject of the subordinate clause in the Direct ‘you’ is not mentioned but understood. This is because an order, warning or request is usually given to the listener, the Second Person Pronoun ‘YOU’, and therefore, there is no need to mention it specifically.

The main verb in the subordinate clause in the Direct Speech Sentence is changed into the “to-infinitive” form; consequently, the whole complex sentence is changed into a simple sentence in the Indirect Speech.  

e.g.

John said to me, “Give me your pen!”  Direct

The words John, me and pen are not changed because John and me are in the main clause of the Direct Speech. Pen is not changed because it is a NOUN. 

John ordered me to give him my pen.  Indirect

‘Said to’ is changed to ‘ordered’ because the exclamation mark (!) shows that this expression is an order; ‘Give’ is changed into ‘to give’, the ‘to-infinitive’ form of the verb word ‘give’; ‘me’ is changed into ‘him’ because it is related to ‘John’, the subject of the main clause, and it is in the objective case; ‘your’ is changed into ‘my’ because it is related to ‘me’ in the main clause, and ‘I’ am the one reporting the speech; and, finally, the exclamation mark (!) is dropped and the full stop is used in its place. 

In addition to the special rule mentioned above, the rules we have discussed in connection with the Personal Pronouns and Words expressing ‘nearness’, and the changes in the punctuation marks are applicable to the Imperative Sentences too. 

Let’s analyse another sentences: 

James said to her, “Open the window for me now, please.”   Direct         

James requested her to open the window for him then.  Indirect 

The words James, her, the window and for are not changed because James and her are in the main clause of the Direct Speech Sentence; the window and for are not changed because ‘window’ is a noun and ‘for’ is a preposition, which do not take any changes.

‘Said to’ is changed into ‘requested’ because in the Direct Speech Sentence we have the polite word ‘please’ which is not repeated in the Indirect Speech because the verb word ‘requested’ does the purpose of showing politeness; the Imperative Mood verb word ‘open’ is changed into its ‘to-infinitive’ form ‘to open’; the pronoun ‘me’ which is related to the Subject of the Main clause in its Objective Case is changed into ‘him’ – James; and finally, the word expressing nearness ‘now’ is changed into ‘then’ a word expressing distance.

When the Imperative Mood Verb in the subordinate clause of the Direct Speech Sentence is with a NEGATIVE, the same ‘NEGATIVE’ word without the auxiliary (helping) verb, if any, is placed before the ‘to-infinitive’ form of that verb in the Indirect Speech Sentence.

e.g.

She said to him, “Don’t break my doll!”   Direct

She shouted at him not to break her doll.   Indirect

‘Said to’ is changed into ‘shouted’ because there is an exclamation mark (!) in the subordinate clause of the Direct Speech Sentence which shows some strong emotion; ‘Don’t = do not’ which is negative is changed into only ‘not’ because the auxiliary verb word ‘do’ is dropped in the Indirect Speech Sentence.

Another example:

His girl-friend said to Mike, “Don’t send your assistant to my office today.”       Direct

his girl-friend                         my   =  her

said to                                   warned/ asked/ told

Mike                                       your = his

don’t                                      not

send                                       to send

today                                      that day

His girl-friend warned/told Mike not to send his assistant to her office that day.  Indirect

Exception:

When the verb word ‘let’ is in the subordinate clause of the Direct Speech Sentence, we change the introductory verb into suggested or proposed; and use the modal auxiliary (helping) verb should with the main verb in the subordinate clause of the Indirect Speech Sentence. And the verb word ‘let’ is dropped because it expresses a ‘suggestion’ in this context and as the ‘suggestion’ is already mentioned in the main clause by the introductory verb ‘suggested’ there is no point in using ‘let’ again!

e.g.

She said to them, “Let’s have a picnic on Sunday.”   Direct

She suggested that they should have a picnic on Sunday. Indirect

Though this sentence comes under the Imperative Sentence, it is not a true Imperative Sentence because it does not have any order, request or command in it, but has a “suggestion”; therefore, this sentence is changed into Indirect like a Statement Sentence – using the conjunction ‘that’, and the subject ‘they’ in the subordinate clause.

RULES FOR CHANGING THE SPEECH OF A SENTENCE:

EXCLAMAROTY SENTECE:

The Common Conjunction:  that 

Exclamatory Sentences are strong feelings of wonder, fear, pleasure or appreciation; and so, while changing them from Direct Speech to Indirect Speech, the sentences are rephrased (re-written) to suit the emotion or feeling given in the original sentences.

Though the Exclamatory Sentences begin mostly with ‘wh-’ words, they are not questions like the interrogative sentences, and so the subordinate clauses do not begin with the conjunction word ‘wh-’ as is the case with Interrogative Sentences, but they begin with the conjunction “that” as in the Statement Sentences when they are changed from Direct Speech to Indirect Speech.  And the word order is the same as the one in the Statements.

As Exclamatory Sentences are strong feelings, each group of words in th subordinate clauses each takes an Exclamation Mark (!).  There may be some extraordinary sentence where just a full stop is used, but for now, it is advisable to use an exclamation mark.

Nevertheless, in the Indirect Speech the Exclamation Mark is changed to a full stop, just like in the statement sentences.

e.g.

He said, “What a beautiful house it is!”    Direct

He wondered that it was a beautiful house.   Indirect

“Never! I will never agree to such a proposal,” he said.   Direct

He said that he would absolutely never agree to such a proposal. Indirect

“Good gracious! I have never heard of such a thing,” he said.  Direct

He was very surprised and said that he had never heard of such a thing.  Indirect

She said to me, “Oh, what a cute little thing you are!”  Direct

She was very excited and said that I was a cute little thing.  Indirect 

SOME IMPORTANT POINTS ON THE AUXILIARY VERB ‘MUST’:

It is essential to know the difference between the “three uses of Must”.

“Must” used for the actual present tense in the Direct Speech becomes ‘had to’ in the Indirect Speech:

e.g.

“I must write to my father,” my friend said to me.  [present time – now] Direct

My friend told me that he had to write to his father. Indirect

“Must” used for the future time in the Direct Speech becomes ‘would have to’ in the Indirect Speech:

e.g.

“I must leave for Kenya next week,” he said to her.   [future]       Direct

He told her that he would have to leave for Kenya the following week. Indirect

“Must”, when expresses a rule that always applies, used in the Direct Speech, remains unchanged in the Indirect Speech:

e.g.

Grandma said, “Children must obey their parents.”  [a rule]      Direct

Grandma said that children must obey their parents.  Indirect (unchanged)

SOME IMPORTANT POINTS ON THE SEQUENCE OF TENSE & PUNCTUATION:

When the main verb in the introductory clause is in the PAST TENSE’, the main verb in the subordinate clause should be in the PAST TENSE.

There is, however, an exception to this strict rule: when the subordinate clause expresses a UNIVERSAL TRUTH, it may be put in the Present Tense in the Indirect Speech:

e.g.

Our teacher said to us, “Honesty isthe best policy.”  [truth]     Direct

Our teacher told us that honesty is the best policy.   Indirect  (Tense unchanged – a universal truth)

another very important aspect one should consider very seriously while doing the direct-indirect speech is the PUNCTUATION MARKS!  We have noticed how a simple mark, like a comma (,), makes a lot of difference to the entire sentence.  Therefore, let’s discuss each point in detail:

There are many punctuation marks, but the common Punctuation Marks (along with the other marks, of course) used in Direct-Indirect Speech are: inverted or quotation marks – “…” (double quotations) & ‘…’ (single quotations)

comma — ,

question mark — ?

exclamation mark — !

full stop/period — .

the Capital Letter — A  B  C  D  E  F  …  Z

The position of the introductory (main) clause & the punctuation marks in Direct –Indirect Speech Sentences:

STATEMENT SENTENCE

The introductory (main) clause of the Direct speech sentence comes… before the subordinate clause (in other words the main clause comes at the beginning of the Direct Speech Sentence) in most cases:

e.g.

He said to his brother, “They will help you with your work.”  Direct

((introductory (main) clause before the sub-clause)

Note the Punctuation Marks:

1.  the first word ‘He’, of course, begins with a Capital Letter

2.  a comma (,) is used at the end of the introductory (main) clause

3.  quotation marks (“…) begin the subordinate clause

4.  the first letter of the first word within the quotation marks is written

with a Capital Letter

5.  a punctuation mark — a full stop (.) for Statement Sentence; a question

mark (?) for an Interrogative Sentence; or an exclamation mark (!)

for an Exclamatory Sentence, ends the subordinate clause

6.  quotation marks (…”) close the subordinate clause

7.  the sentence end punctuation mark (.) – full stop in this case –

is put within the end quotation marks. 

In the Indirect Speech Sentence, however, the Punctuation Marks change:

e.g.

He told his brother that they would help him with his work.  Indirect

1.  the sentence begins with He with a Capital Letter

2.  the comma and the quotation marks are dropped, instead the conjunction ‘that’ is used (in this example sentence)

3.  the word ‘they’ is written with a small letter instead of a Capital because now it is in the middle of the sentence, not within quotations [If the first word within the quotation marks is a PROPER NOUN (name of a particular person, thing or place) or the personal pronoun “I”, the Capital Letter is not changed into a small letter.]

4.  the end punctuation mark is a full stop.

after the subordinate clause (in other words the main clause comes at the end of the Direct Speech Sentence) in some cases:

e.g.  “They will help you with your work,” he said to his brother.      Direct

(‘subordinate clause comes before the main clause)

Note the Punctuation Marks:

1.  the first word ‘They’ within the quotation marks is written with a Capital Letter

2.  a comma is used at the end of the subordinate clause (within the end quotation marks)

3.  the word ‘he’ is written with a small letter, unlike in the sentence where the introductory clause (main) clause comes before

4.  the sentence end punctuation mark is a full stop

In the Indirect Speech Sentence, however, the Punctuation Marks change:

e.g.

He told his brother that they would help him with his work.   Indirect

Though the introductory (main) clause comes after the subordinate clause in the DIRECT SPEECH SENTENCE, in the Indirect Speech Sentence, however, the main clause always comes before the subordinate clause!

1.  the sentence begins with the MAIN CLAUSE, and the first word ‘He’ is written with a Capital Letter

2.  the quotation marks and the comma are dropped, and a conjunction ‘that’ is used instead

3.  the first letter T of the first word within the quotation marks is written in small letter ‘t’ because now it is in the middle of the Indirect Speech Sentence (nevertheless, if the first word within quotation marks is a PROPER NOUN, the first letter is always a Capital Letter, placed within or out of quotation marks)

4.  the sentence end punctuation mark – a full stop – is unchanged

in the middle of the subordinate clause (in other words the subordinate clause is SPLIT and the main clause is placed between the two parts of the sub-clause):

In this kind we have two types —

A: a single sentence is split into two;

B: two separate sentences are separated by the main clause.

Type A

one sentence split into two:

e.g.

“You are teaching her,” he said to me, “all dirty habits.” Direct

1.  the first word ‘you’ within the quotation marks is written with a Capital Letter

2.  the first part of the subordinate clause ends with a comma and the quotation marks close

3.  the introductory clause begins with a small letter because it is now in the middle of the Direct Speech Sentence

4.  the introductory clause ends with a comma because it is in the middle of the Direct Speech Sentence and another part of sub-clause follow

5. the first letter of the first word within the quotation marks is writtenwith a small letter because it is only a part of a long sentence, not a sentence by itself

6. the end punctuation mark is a full stop and is placed within the end quotation marks.

In the Indirect Speech, however, the Punctuation Marks change:

e.g.

He told me that I was teaching her all dirty habits.   Indirect

1.  the Indirect Speech Sentence begins with the MAIN CLAUSE, and the first word is written with a Capital Letter

2.  the comma and the quotation marks are dropped, and a conjunction ‘that’ is used instead

3.  the two parts of the subordinate clause are joined together and placed after the main clause

4.  the sentence end punctuation mark – a full stop – is unchanged.

Type B

two sentences written separately:

e.g.

“We don’t have any money,” said to him. “You must earn some now.” Direct

1.  the first word within the quotation marks is written with a Capital Letter because it begins the Direct Speech Sentence

2.  the first sentence of the subordinate clause ends with a comma, and the quotation marks close

3.  the main clause starts with a small letter because it is now placed between the two separate sentences of the subordinate clause, and ends with a full stop because the other sentence of the subordinate clause following it is a separate sentence by itself

4. the first letter of the first word in the second part of the subordinate clause is written with a CAPITAL LETTER because it is a complete sentence by itself, not a part as is the case with Type A sentence

5.  the end punctuation mark – a full stop – is placed within the quotation marks

In the Indirect Speech Sentence, however, the Punctuation Marks change:

e.g.

She told him that they did not have any money and he had to earn some then.    Indirect

(main clause before the subordinate clause — the two separate sentences of the subordinate clause joined together by ‘and’;  placed after the main clause)

SPLIT clause punctuation marks rule in simple:

1. when we want to say that the two parts of the subordinate clause SPLIT with the main clause in between are only one expression, we use a comma after the main clause and use a small letter for the first letter of the first word of the second part:

e.g.

“You alone,” she said to me, “can save me.”

[a comma after the main clause and a small letter for the first letter of the first word of the second part of the sub-clause]

= She said to me, “You alone can save me.”  — One expression

2. when we want to say that the two parts of the subordinate clause SPLIT with the main clause in between are two separate sentences, we use a full stop after the main clause and use a Capital Letter to the first letter of the first word of the second part:

e.g.

“We have to leave this place,” she said to me. “There is no water here.”

[a full stop after the main clause and a Capital Letter for the first letter of the first word of the second part of the sub-clause]

=  She said to me, “We have to leave this place. There is no water here.” – Two expressions

The position of the introductory (main) clause & the punctuation marks in Direct –Indirect Speech Sentences:

Interrogative (question) Sentence & Imperative Sentence:

All the rules we have discussed above for STATEMENT SENTENCE are applicable to the Interrogative and Imperative Sentence also. In addition, the other punctuation marks: a question mark (?) after a question and  an exclamation mark (!) after a strong imperative sentence are also observed when punctuating interrogative and imperative sentences.

e.g.

He said to her, “Are you the manager here?”

He asked her if she was the manager there.

Notice that the question mark (?) is dropped and a full stop is used in the Indirect.

The conjunction ‘if’ is used and the word order is changed – subject first and verb next.

e.g.

He said to her, “Shut up!”

He ordered her to shut up.

Notice that the exclamation mark (!) is dropped and a full stop is used in the Indirect.

The finite verb ‘shut’ is changed into the to-infinitive form. No conjunction is used.

<<< Back to The Verb /  Next Tense >>>

Additions to Remarks

Introduction

The other important category of Tag-questions is the ‘Additions to Remarks’.

These Remarks are mostly used in conversations.  While agreeing or disagreeing with others in conversation, we do not repeat the entire expression (sentence) the other person says; instead, we use some Additions to give our opinion of the topic of discussion. And learning some standard rules will help us to make our Additions relevant to the matter in discussion and clear to the person(s) we are conversing with.

e.g.

Mr. A.:  “Bob would enjoy a game of chess in the evenings.”

Mr. B.:  “Yes, yes.  Tom also would enjoy a game of chess in the evenings.”

In this dialogue what Mr. B. says may not be grammatically wrong, but repeating the others’ expressions may not sound very interesting or wise, particularly when the other person(s) is sensitive to such things.

Suppose Mr. B. responds in this way…

Mr. A.:  “Bob would enjoy a game of chess in the evenings.”

Mr. B.:  “Tom would too.”    OR      “So would Tom.”

listeners will definitely receive this response well!

Some standard ‘additions to remarks’:

1. Affirmative (positive) additions to affirmative (positive) remarks can be made      by “subject + auxiliary (helping) verb + too/also” or “so + auxiliary verb +  subject”.

e.g.

Remark:

George will answer my call.

[‘will answer’ – verb – ‘will’ auxiliary verb, ‘answer’ – main verb – positive]

Addition:

Kate will too.       OR            So will Kate.

When there is an auxiliary verb in the first remark, the same is used in the Addition. But when the expression does not have any auxiliary verb, or if it is a non-anomalous verb, we must take the help of the ‘anomalous’ verb words “do/does; did” depending on the person and number of the subject and tense of the main verb:

e.g.

Remark: Mike is coming.

Addition: So is Jane. OR  Jane is too.

[‘is’ – anomalous verb – used as auxiliary (helping) verb]

But…

Remark: Mike draws pictures well.   [‘draws’ – non-anomalous verb]

Addition: So draws Jane.       OR     Jane draws too.   [wrong]

[‘draws’ – non-anomalous verb – simple present tense -- cannot be used]

Therefore…

Addition: So does Jane.        OR     Jane does too.  [correct]

[‘does’ – anomalous verb --  helping verb -- simple present tense]

e.g.

Remark: Men told lies.

[‘told’ – non-anomalous verb – simple past]

Addition: So did women.   OR      Women did too.

[‘did’ – anomalous verb – helping verb -- simple past tense]

2. Negative Additions to negative Remarks are made with “neither/nor + auxiliary    verb + subject”.

e.g.

Remark: David never goes to see films.

[‘goes’ – non-anomalous verb --  ‘never’ – adverb – negative]

Addition: Neither does his friend.   [‘neither’ – negative]

e.g.

Remark:  Ann hasn’t got any spare time.

[* ‘Ann’ – 3^rd person – singular; “hasn’t” – verb – singular – present perfect tense – with negative ---- ‘has not’ = hasn’t]

Addition: Neither have I.      OR        Nor have I.

[** ‘I’ – 1^st person; ‘have’ – verb – positive ----- ‘has’ in the Remark is changed to “have” to agree with the subject “I” in the Addition]

e.g.

Remark: I didn’t get much sleep last night.

Addition: Neither did I.    OR           Nor did I.

These negative Additions to negative Remarks can also be made with “subject + negative auxiliary + either

e.g.

Remark: He didn’t like that book.

Addition: She didn’t either.

e.g.

Remark: They haven’t made that noise.

Addition: We haven’t either.

3.  Affirmative (positive) Additions to negative Remarks are made with “but + subject + auxiliary (helping) verb”.

e.g.

Remark: Jenny hasn’t got a driving licence.

[subject = Jenny;  ‘hasn’t’ – verb – negative]

Addition: But Lee has.

[subject = Lee – different subject; ‘has’ – verb – positive]

e.g.

Remark & Addition:  She doesn’t eat meat, but her husband does.

<<< Back to The Verb

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Tag-questions or Question Tags

Introduction

A “Tag-question or Question Tag” is rather like a ‘reply question’ we add to our Statement or Imperative sentence, like a price tag tied to an item for sale. It is made up of an Auxiliary (helping verb) + a Personal Pronoun in Nominative Case.

It is used at the end of the main part of a Statement or Imperative Sentence to ask for confirmation or something we are not certain about, or just to ask for agreement.

A ‘Tag-question’ means something like “Is this true?” or “Do you ( Don’t you) agree?”

e.g.

You are the new watchman, aren’t you?

(‘You are the new watchman’ — main part of the sentence — ‘are’ – verb; ‘aren’t you’ — tag-question —  ‘aren’t’ – verb)

Some grammarians prescribe that the sentence, starting from the first ‘You’ to the question mark (?) at the end is the “Question Tag” and the question part at the end ‘aren’t you?’ is the “Tag-question”.  But some others use either name for the end part “aren’t you?”.

Whatever be the name, the rules and the examples are the same.

So learners are not to be worried about the name given to this type of sentence.  You get the same rules either way.  The main point is to understand, learn and use this structure correctly!

1. A ‘Tag-question’ is not used with an Interrogative Sentence which is already a question.

e.g.

Are you the new clerk?  — Interrogative Sentence (a question by itself)

Are you the new clerk, aren’t you? — [wrong]

You are the new clerk, aren’t you? — [correct]     (a statement sentence)

2. The ‘Tag’ is made on the Main Verb of the main part of the Statement or Imperative Sentence. when the main verb is in the positive, the tag verb is in the negative; when the main verb is in the negative, the tag verb is in the positive.

e.g.

You like fish, don’t you?

(‘like’ – verb in the main part – positive; ‘don’t’ – negative in the tag part)

You do not like fish, do you?

(‘do not like’ — verb in the main part – negative; ‘do’ – positive in the tag part)

3. The negative verb form in the ‘tag’ is, in almost all the cases, used in its contracted form:   is = is not = isn’t;    do = do not = don’t;    has = has not = hasn’t;

may = may not = mayn’t …

is not = isn’t

*am not = aren’t

are not = aren’t

will not = won’t

was not = wasn’t

shall not = shan’t

were not = weren’t

do not = don’t

cannot = can’t

did not = didn’t

must not = mustn’t

has not =  hasn’t

could not = couldn’t

have  not =  haven’t

would not = wouldn’t

Remember that though ANOMALOUS take the negative directly, Non-anomalous Verbs do not take the negative directly but take the help of ‘do/does’ in Simple Present Tense and ‘did’ in Simple Past Tense to form negative.

Do not use “isn’t it?” for every tag! The verb in the ‘tag’ is made on the verb in the main part!!

e.g.

You like fish, don’t you?

She likes fish, doesn’t she?

You liked fish, didn’t you?

She liked fish, didn’t she?

The verb words ‘don’t’, ‘doesn’t’ and ‘didn’t’ are the auxiliary (helping) verbs, helping the non-anomalous verbs ‘like’, ‘likes’ and ‘liked’ to form negative.

*The contracted form of ‘am not’ is controversial.  Different grammarians have different opinions.  Some say “ain’t I” is acceptable; a few say that there is nothing wrong in using “amn’t I” but most agree on the use of “aren’t I” being the best alternative.   We, at this basic level, do take the most standard one, and so, in this course material, we take “aren’t I” to be the contracted form of ‘am not I’ for granted.

4. Though the main part of a sentence has a common or proper noun as its subject,  the ‘tag’ takes only the corresponding Personal Pronoun of that noun. When a Personal Pronoun is the subject, however, the same Pronoun is used as it is.

e.g.

Ahmed is the best boxer in town, isn’t he?

(‘Ahmed’ –  3^rd person — singular – male – PROPER NOUN

‘he’ – 3rd person – singular — male – personal pronoun)

Mary does not cook at home, does she?

(‘Mary’ – 3^rd person – singular – female – PROPER NOUN

‘she’ – 3^rd person – singular — female – personal pronoun)

The children cried for toys, didn’t they?

(‘The children’ – 3^rd person – plural – common gender – COMMON NOUN

‘they’ –  3^rd person – plural — common gender – personal pronoun)

Your dog bites its own tail, doesn’t it?

(‘Your dog’ – 3^rd person – singular – (neuter) common gender – COMMON NOUN

‘it’ – 3^rd person – singular – (neuter) common gender – personal pronoun)

You have all passed the test, haven’t you?

(‘You’ – 2^nd person – plural (all) – common gender – PERSONAL PRONOUN

‘you’ –  2^nd person –  plural — common gender – personal pronoun)

Exceptions:

5. With the Imperative Mood Sentences, however, the ‘tag’ is not made on the main verb of the main part, but the standard ‘tag’ “will you?” is used.

e.g.

Leave me alone, will you? [IMPERATIVE SENTENCE]

Close the door, will you?

6. The verb word “let’s” (= let us — some suggestion) takes ‘shall + we?’ in the ‘tag’.

e.g.

Let’s go out for a drink, shall we?

7. The statement sentences with words such as neither, no, none, no one, no body, nothing, scarcely, barely, hardly, hardly ever, seldom, etc. which are, strictly speaking, treated as negative, are followed by an ordinary positive ‘tag’.

e.g.

No salt is allowed, is it?

Nothing was lost, was it?

Lee hardly worked, did he?

Sarah seldom visits us, does she?

8. When the subject of the main part of the sentence is anyone, anybody, no one, nobody, none, neither, everyone, somebody, someone, everybody, etc., we use the Personal Pronoun “they” as the subject of the ‘tag’ part.

e.g.

Neither of them explained, did they?

I don’t suppose anyone will help us, will they?

Everybody has left, haven’t they?

[‘everybody’ – singular + ‘has’ singular; ‘they’ – plural + ‘have’ plural]

{Note: With No one, none or neither, nobody and nothing, the verb in the tag part does not take a ‘negative’ because the negative is already present in the main part with the subject — ‘no one’ or ‘nobody’ = not a/any person; ‘neither’ = not this one or not that one; ‘nothing’ = not a thing, etc:

e.g.

Nobody visited you, did they?

‘visited’ = a positive verb but ‘did’ also a positive verb, because the subject is ‘nobody’ which shows negative!}

9. The apostrophe and ‘s’ (’s) with the Nouns and Personal Pronouns (other than the function of showing the possession) in the Subject of the main part, used before a verb word, can be “is or has”; and (’d) can be “had or would”.

(“Abe’s car was stolen.”  Here the “apostrophe and s” show possession.  The next word after Abe’s is ‘car’ which is a noun. This sentence gives us the meaning: ‘The car of Abe was stolen.’) But the question here is not with nouns that follow the nouns or pronouns in the subject part of a sentence, but with the verb words used as parts of a verb.

e.g.

She’s going.

He’s done it.

I’d like to have some coffee.

She’d have gone there…

We are bound to make mistakes in identifying the  ’s or ’d — whether it is “has or is” or “had or would”.

The difficulty of identifying the form becomes simple when we follow the explanation: if the other part of the Verb is in ‘past participle’ V3 form, the apostrophe and s mean “has” but if the other part is in ‘present participle (ing)’  form, they mean “is”.  And the same is the case with ’d, too. If the other part of  the verb is in past participle V3 form, they mean “had”, and if the other part is in  bare-infinitive form, they mean “would”.

e.g.

Sam’s gone mad, hasn’t he?

(‘gone’ is the past participle V3 form of the verb word ‘go’, and so the apostrophe and s mean “has”)

Sam’s going home, isn’t he?

(‘going’ is the present participle (ing) form of the verb word ‘go’, and so the apostrophe and s mean “is”)

He’d written the report before you called him, hadn’t he?

(‘written’ is the past participle V3 form of the verb word ‘write’, and so the apostrophe and d mean “had”)

He’d like to have some rest, wouldn’t he?

(‘like’ is the bare-infinitive form of the verb word ‘like’, and so the apostrophe and d mean “would”)

10. Negative interrogative without contraction is sometimes possible in ‘Tag’, but the word order is different.  This type of construction is used to show disbelief or doubt or even to give more force to the expression.

e.g.

You saw him stealing the purse, did you not?

*11. ‘Will you’, ‘won’t you’, would you’, ‘can you’, ‘can’t you’ and ‘could you’ are used in ‘tag-questions’ after imperative mood sentences [refer to item 5].

They are actually not questions: they mean something like “please”!

[‘Won’t’ is used to invite somebody; ‘will’, ‘would’, ‘can’ and ‘can’t’ are used to tell people to do things.]

e.g.

Do sit down, won’t you? [inviting somebody politely]

Give me a hand, will you? [asking somebody to help]

Open the door, would you?

[asking somebody to open the door politely]

Shut up, can’t you? [ordering somebody to keep quiet]

**12. After a negative imperative verb word in the main part of the sentence,

only ‘will you’ is used in the ‘tag’.

e.g.

Don’t wake me up early in the morning, will you?

***13.  In this type of construction, we use positive verb in the ‘tag’ even if the

verb in the main part of the sentence is positive.  When use this positive verb in the ‘tag’, we almost mean ‘really’ or ‘indeed!’.

e.g.

You saw him going, did you? [= Oh, so you saw him going]

You’ve found a job, have you? [= Ah, finally you got a job!]

<<< Back to The Verb /  Next Additions to Remarks >>>

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Active & Passive Voice

Introduction

When the subject of a sentence does something, i.e. if the subject of a sentence is the ‘doer’ of some action, we say that the sentence or the verb of that sentence is in Active Voice.

When the subject of a sentence does not do anything, i.e. if the subject is ‘not the doer’ of any action

but allows the Object of the preposition to do something to it, we say that the sentence or the verb of that sentence is in PASSIVE VOICE.

Confusing…?  Now look at these examples:

The cat killed the rat.          Active Voice

The cat = subject of the sentence

killed     = verb of the sentence

the rat  = the object of the verb

Now, who killed whom?  =

‘the cat’ – the subject of the sentence killed “the rat” – the object of the verb.

We say that this sentence or the verb of this sentence is in Active Voice because

the subject ‘the cat’ does the killing.

Let’s see what this sentence is about…

The rat was killed by the cat.    PASSIVE VOICE

The rat = subject of the sentence

was killed = verb of the sentence

the cat = the object of the preposition “by”

Now, who killed whom?    ‘The rat killed the cat’?  Noooooo….

Even in his sentence ‘the cat’ killed ‘the rat’, but not ‘the rat’ killed ‘the cat’!

Though ‘the rat’ is actually the subject of the sentence, it is not doing anything

but passively allowing ‘the cat’ which is the object of the preposition ‘by’ to kill it.

As the subject of the sentence does not do anything but allows passively something

to be done to it, we say that this sentence or the verb of this sentence is in PASSIVE VOICE.

How do we know who does what?  Well, the answer is in the VERB – ‘was killed’!

the verb – was killed – one verb, two parts — simple past tense – Passive Voice.

Suppose the second sentence was like this: ‘The rat killed the cat.’ (which might be correct according to the grammar rules but would not be sensible) we would say that this sentence or the verb of this sentence was in Active Voice.

Why do we use Active Voice and Passive Voice?

We use Active Voice when we want to say something about the subject of the sentence – who does what.

We use Passive Voice when we want to say what happened to something or someone rather than who does it – the result.

For example,

He broke the window.    Active Voice

In this Active Voice sentence, we emphasise ‘who does the action of breaking’ –

‘He’.  So he is responsible or he should be punished and so on…

The window is broken (by him or somebody).    PASSIVE VOICE

In this Passive Voice sentence, we emphasise on ‘what happened’ rather than

‘who did it’.  So the window must be repaired or boarded up and so on…

Though we have an agent ‘who did the action’, we are more concerned about

the result rather than the person responsible for that.

In normal conversation, we first think of who should be given importance – the agent responsible for the action or the result of the action – and then make the sentence. But to get the practice of making these different expressions, we need to learn some rules and important points.

There are certain changes that take place when we change an Active Voice sentence into a Passive Voice sentence.  Though the meaning or the sense of the sentence makes it clear for us whether the sentence or the verb of the sentence is Active or Passive, at the initial stage, as we are now, it may help us to understand the Voice better if we know the changes first.  The real purpose or use of the Voices will be dealt later in this sub-topic.

The changes…

a) The cat killed the rat.   Active Voice

The rat was killed by the cat.    PASSIVE VOICE

*The Subject of the sentence “the cat” in the Active Voice is changed into

the Object of the preposition ‘by’ in the Passive Voice.

[The Object of the preposition ‘by’ is normally omitted in speech and in writing; we, however, keep using it in every sentence we make or change to get ourselves used to this point.

Remember that just because we do not see or hear an Object of the preposition in any Passive Voice sentence, we cannot say that it is not passive. By the time we are through with some rules and important points, we will be able to recognize the difference.  We need some patience, of course. In fact, knowing the difference between the Active and Passive is what we are actually doing right now!]

b) The cat killed the rat.       Active Voice

The rat was killed by the cat.      PASSIVE VOICE

**The Verb of the Active Voice ‘killed’ is changed into “was killed’ in the

Passive Voice.  [More in the ‘Tense – Passive Voice’]

c)  The cat killed the rat.        Active Voice

The rat was killed by the cat.        PASSIVE VOICE

***The Object of the verb ‘the rat’ in the Active Voice is changed into the

subject of the Passive Voice sentence.

Some important points:

To change an Active Voice verb into Passive, the Verb must be a TRANSITIVE VERB, i.e. the Verb must have, at least, one direct or indirect object because that object becomes the subject of the Passive Voice sentence. The Subject of the Active sentence which becomes the Object of the preposition (normally ‘by’, but depending on the context, it may be ‘with’) in the Passive is usually placed at the end of the sentence, and is omitted in most of the expressions. There are some Verbs which can never be used in the Passive even if they are in Transitive Verb position, i.e. even if they have an Object. There are certain situations where using the Passive Voice makes the sentence meaningless, senseless and ridiculous.

Transitive and Intransitive Verbs:

Now that we have come to know that to change a sentence or verb from Active to Passive we need that Verb to be a Transitive one, we must know what Transitive and Intransitive Verbs are.

A transitive verb is the one which has an Object, a direct or an indirect or both.

An intransitive verb is the one which does not have any Object, direct or indirect.

TRANSITIVE VERB

e.g.

He drew a picture.

A Transitive Verb in a sentence answers the question ‘what?’ or ‘whom?’ or ‘both’.

In this sentence, the verb word ‘drew’ is a Transitive Verb because it answers

the question ‘what?’.  What did he draw? = ‘a picture’.

And the answer to the question ‘what?’ = ‘a picture’ is a Direct Object.

e.g.

He told me.

In this sentence, the verb word ‘told’ is a Transitive Verb because it has an answer

to the question ‘whom?’.  Whom did he tell? = ‘me’.

And the answer to the question ‘whom?’ = ‘me’ is an Indirect Object.

In other words, a Verb word in a sentence which answers the question ‘what?’ or

‘whom?’ is a Transitive Verb. And the Active Voice sentence which has a Transitive Verb can be changed into Passive.

INTRANSITIVE VERB

e.g.

He went away.

He went… what? = — no answer –

He went… whom? = — no answer –

He went… where? = away

In this sentence, the verb word ‘went’ is an Intransitive Verb because it

does not answer the question ‘what?’ or ‘whom?’; and, consequently, it

does not have any Object – direct or indirect. Though there is the word ‘away’ after the verb, it is not an Object because it is not the answer to ‘what?’ or ‘whom?’.  It is the answer to the question ‘where?’.  The word ‘away’ in this sentence is a complement and categorically it is an adverb. Consequently, this sentence cannot be changed into Passive Voice.

Object or Complement?

We have learned that a Direct Object is usually a noun – a thing, and an Indirect

Object can be a noun or a pronoun – usually a person, and it is normally placed

after the verb. However, not all nouns, representing things or persons, that come after a verb in a sentence can be objects though they are the answers  to the question ‘what?’ or ‘whom?’.

The nouns that come after a LINK VERB OR VERB OF INCOMPLETE PREDICATION are called ‘complements’.

Explanation:

Some verbs give us complete sense without the support of any other word or words in a sentence.

For example:

Birds fly.

We eat.

I can hear.

Ice melts.

They left.

But there are some other verb words which need to take the support of some other

word or words to give us complete sense.

For example:

I am…

She appears…

They remain…

He feels…

In these examples the verb words ‘am’, ‘appears’, ‘remain’ and ‘feels’ do not give us the complete sense; they need the support of some other words, such as ‘clean’, ‘confused’, ‘silent’, and ‘sorry’, for instance, to make us get the intention of the speaker or writer of these expressions.

Now look at these sentences:

I am clean.

She appears to be confused.

They remain silent.

He feels sorry for what he has done.

And words that help the Linking Verbs to give us complete sense are called

complements.  The words ‘clean’, ‘confused’, ‘silent’, and ‘sorry’ in the example sentences above are complements. We some times come across expressions with only the linking verbs without the complements.  In such cases the other part of the sentence may be omitted because the listener or the reader has some idea of what has happened before.  For example,

Mr. A. :  “Are you the new-comer?”

Mr. B. :  “Yes, I am.”   [Here ‘the new-comer’ is understood because this expression is an answer to the question. The sentence in complete would be “Yes. I am the new-comer.”]

WHAT ARE LINK VERBS or VERBS OF INCOMPLETE PREDICATION or COPULAS?

Link/linking verbs normally do not express actions.  Instead they connect the subject of the verb to some additional information about that subject mentioned in the sentence. The most common linking verbs are ‘be’ forms – is, am, are, was, were (when used as main verbs) – become, seem, stay, appear, feel, grow, look, prove, remain, turn, and some of the verbs of perception, such as smell, taste, feel, etc. Some of these verbs can be either linking verbs or action verbs, depending on the context.

e.g.

He is an accountant.

In this sentence, the verb ‘is’ does not show any action; it shows only the existence of a person.  Though the phrase ‘an accountant’ is a noun and is the answer to the question ‘what?’, it is not an object because it does not answer an ‘action’ verb!  The action does not pass from the verb to ‘an accountant’; and such a verb is called Link/linking Verb or Verb of Incomplete Predication or Copula, and the word that follows it is called a complement.

Compare:

[A]

She teaches English.

The verb ‘teaches’ is an action verb – a Transitive Verb. The noun ‘English’ is its object – a direct object. This sentence can be changed from Active to Passive.

She is English.      [= she comes from England – her nationality]

The verb ‘is’ expresses ‘a state of being’ – there is no mentioning of what ‘she’ is doing.  The noun ‘English’ is a complement because it tells us about what ‘she’ is but not what ‘she’ has done; and therefore, ‘is’ is a linking Verb.

This sentence cannot be changed to Passive. 

She is teaching us English.  

The verb word ‘is’ is not the main verb in this sentence and it is not showing any ‘state of being’ but is acting as a helping verb to form the ‘present continuous’ tense of the main verb ‘teach’; it is a part of an action verb and the words that follow it – ‘us’ and ‘English’ – are the Objects of the verb “is teaching”, not of ‘is’ alone. And this verb is a Transitive Verb and this sentence (or verb) can be changed into Passive.

[B]

The milk turned sour.

In this sentence the verb word ‘turned’ is a linking Verb.  The word ‘sour’ is not an object because it is not the answer to the question ‘what?’ and it is not a noun or pronoun; it is an adjective . It is the complement of the subject, not the Object of the Verb. The verb word ‘turned’ shows us how the milk, the subject of the sentence, was. The action does not pass from the verb to the other word.  Therefore, the verb ‘turned’ in this sentence is a linking verb, and it or the sentence cannot be changed into Passive.

The teacher turned suddenly towards the boy who dozed off.

In this sentence the verb word ‘turned’ is Intransitive, which means it does not have an object.  The word ‘suddenly’ is an adverb; the word ‘towards’ is a preposition; and the phrase ‘the boy’, though a noun, is not the object of the verb but it is the object of the preposition ‘towards’.

Therefore, the word ‘turned’ in this sentence is an Intransitive Verb, and so this sentence cannot be changed into Passive.

He turned the picture upside down.

In this sentence the action verb word ‘turned’ is Transitive, which means it has an object.  ‘The picture’, a noun phrase, is the Direct Object of the verb because it is the answer to the question ‘what?’. Therefore, the word ‘turned’ in this sentence is a Transitive Verb, and so this sentence can be changed into Passive.

SOME MORE EXAMPLES:

He seems tired.    ‘seems’ –linking Verb;  ‘tired’ — complement

She looks charming.  ‘looks’ — linking Verb;  ‘charming’ — complement

His clothes smelled awful.    ‘smelled’ — linking Verb; ‘awful’ — complement

This medicine tastes sweet.    ‘tastes’ — linking Verb;  ‘sweet’ — complement

His theory was proved wrong.

‘was proved’ — linking Verb; ‘wrong’ – complement

My boss felt annoyed when I gave him an incomplete report.

‘felt’ — linking Verb;  ‘annoyed’ — complement

My elder brother grew taller than our father.

‘grew’ — linking Verb;  ‘taller’ — complement

We stayed indoors the whole day.

‘stayed’ — linking Verb;  ‘indoors’ — complement

A COMPLEMENT OR AN OBJECT?

1.  He was my teacher.                    = complement

He told my teacher.                         = object

2.  She grew a garden.                     = object

She grew pale.                                   = complement

3.  They looked up the number.    = object

They looked disappointed.             = complement

4.  He was a professor.                    = complement

He was examining a professor. = object

5.  You are the President.              = complement

You are guiding the President. = object

__________________________________

Tense – Passive Voice

Introduction

1.  Simple Past

2.  Past continuous

3. Past Perfect

4. Past Perfect Continuous

1.  Simple Present

2.  Present Continuous

3.  Present Perfect

4.  present Perfect continuous

1.  Simple Future

2.  future continuous

3.  Future Perfect

4.  Future Perfect Continuous

There are only EIGHT TENSES in Passive Voice.

The ‘Past Perfect Continuous’, ‘Present Perfect Continuous’, ‘Future Continuous’ and the ‘Future Perfect Continuous’ Tenses are not used in Passive Voice in modern English. The Active Voice sentences having these four Tenses are not changed into Passive Voice.

The Main Verb in any Tense in Passive Voice takes only the Past Participle — V3 – form!

PAST

1. Simple Past

formula:  was/were + the past participle V3 form of the Main Verb

go/goes  –  went  — gone  –  going

walk/walks  –  walked  — walked –  walking

e.g.

(i).  He built a large house.     [‘built’ – simple past – active voice]

A large house was built by him.   [‘was built’ – simple past – passive voice]

(ii).  They flew several kites.  [‘flew’ – simple past – active voice]

Several kites were flown by them.

[‘were flown’ – simple past – passive voice]

2. Past Continuous

formula:  was/were + being + the past participle V3 form of the Main Verb

e.g.

(i).  She was cooking dinner.      [‘was cooking’ – past continuous – active voice]

Dinner was being cooked by her.

[‘was being cooked’ – past continuous – passive voice]

(ii).  They were painting some attractive pictures on the wall.

[‘were painting’ – past continuous – active voice]

Some attractive pictures were being painted on the wall by them.

[‘were being painted’ – past continuous – passive voice]

3. Past Perfect

formula:  had + been + the Past Participle V3 form of the Main Verb

e.g.

(i).  She had posted the letter before she got the phone call.

[‘had posted’ – past perfect – active voice; and in this sentence “got” in the second part is better kept in the active voice]

The letter had been posted (by her) before she got the phone call.

[‘had been posted’ – past perfect – passive voice]

(ii).  Mac had answered five questions before the final bell went.

[‘had answered’ – past perfect – active voice]

Five questions had been answered (by Mac) before the final bell went.

[‘had been answered’ – past perfect – passive voice]

4.  Past Perfect Continuous

—— no passive voice for this tense ——

PRESENT

1. Simple Present

formula:  is/am/are + the Past Participle V3 form of the Main Verb

e.g.

(i). The grocer sells fresh vegetables.   [‘sells’ – simple present – active voice]

Fresh vegetables are sold by the grocer.

[‘are sold’ – simple present – passive voice]

(ii). He gives me an expensive watch.

[‘gives’ – simple present – active voice]

The verb ‘gives’ in this sentence has two objects:  ‘me’ and ‘an expensive watch’, and so this sentence can be changed in two ways:

*(a)  I am given an expensive watch by him.  [‘am given’ – simple present – passive voice]

*(b)  An expensive watch is given to me by him.

[‘is given’ – simple present – passive voice]

2. Present Continuous

formula:  is/am/are + being + the Past Participle V3 form of the Main Verb

e.g.

(i).  My boss is giving many assignments.

[‘is giving’ – present continuous – active voice]

Many assignments are being given by my boss.

[‘are being given’ – present continuous – passive voice]

(ii).  She is giving some lecture.

[‘is giving’ – present continuous – active voice]

Some lecture is being given by her.

[‘is being given’ – present continuous – passive voice]

3. Present Perfect

formula:  has/have + been + the past participle V3 form of the Main Verb

e.g.

(i).  I have taken him out.    [‘have taken’ – present perfect – active voice]

He has been taken out by me.

[‘has been taken’ – present perfect – passive voice]

(ii).  She has shown them an interesting book.

[‘has shown’ – present perfect – active voice]

*a) They have been shown an interesting book by her.

[‘have been shown’ – present perfect – passive voice]

*b) An interesting book has been shown to them by her.

[‘has been shown’ – present perfect – passive voice]

4. Present Perfect Continuous

——— no passive voice for this tense ———

Future

1. Simple Future

formula:  will/shall + be + the Past Participle V3 form of the Main Verb

e.g.

I will give you a present.    [‘will give’  --  simple present – active voice]

*a) You shall be given a present by me.

[‘will be given’  -- simple future – passive voice]

*b) A present will be given to you by me.

[‘will be given’ – simple future – passive voice]

2. Future Continuous

——— no passive voice for this tense ———

3. Future Perfect

formula:

will/shall + have + been + the Past Participle V3 form of the Main Verb

e.g.

The doctor shall have examined ten patients by 10 O’clock.

[‘shall have examined’ – future perfect – active voice]

Ten patients will have been examined by 10 O’clock by the doctor.

[‘will have been examined’ – future perfect – passive voice]

4. Future Perfect Continuous

——— no passive form for this tense ———

******************************

Round up of Tenses – Active & Passive

A SPECIAL NOTE ON THE VERB WORD “LET”:

The verb word ‘let’ has no passive form; and therefore, Active sentences with ‘let’ would take “allowed” or “permitted” in Passive

For example,

She didn’t let her children go out alone.   Active Voice

The children were not allowed (or permitted) to go out alone  by her.  Passive Voice

ABOUT THE USE OF THE ACTIVE AND PASSIVE:

Learning how the different Passive forms are constructed may be easy once we understand the rules, but what is often difficult to understand is when it is proper to use an Active Voice sentence and when it is appropriate to use a Passive Voice sentence.

We must remember that Active and Passive forms are often not equivalent and we cannot use either of them to suit a particular context.

Luckily for us there are some clear-cut cases, such as:

Doctor:  “What’s the matter?”

Patient:   “I broke my arm.”   Active Voice

But not…

Patient:   “My arm was broken by me.”   Passive Voice

It would be ridiculous using Passive in this expression!

However, not all situations are so clear as the one given above.

That is the main reason we are often given several rules and are regularly asked to do several exercises – only to give us more exposure and practice in constructing expressions with Passive. But that is only one side of the coin; the other side is the learners themselves!  We must be observant and must take note of the expressions we find in the books, and more importantly, the ones we hear from others. We must make use of every situation we are faced with in putting our skills to test.

<<< Back to The Verb /  Next Subject — Verb Agreement >>>

Main (principal) Verb and Auxiliary (helping) Verb

Introduction:

Read these sentences:

James has a new bicycle.

They have a big garden.

I go to school every day.

She teaches English.

In these sentences, the verb words has, have, go and teaches express a meaning of their own, the idea of possession or physical action.  Verbs which have a meaning of their own, agree with the Person and Number of the Subject of a sentence and show the time (tense) at which the activities happen are called MAIN (PRINCIPAL) VERBS.

Now read these sentences:

James has returned from his office.     one verb – two parts

They have caught the thief.                     one verb – two parts

I am going to school now.                         one verb – two parts

She will teach English next year.             one verb – two parts

In these sentences, though the verb words has, have, am and will are used, they do not express any idea of possession or they do not have meaning of their own.

They merely help to form the TENSES – present perfect, present continuous and simple future of the verb words return, catch, go and teach.

And those verb words which help the other verb words to form tenses (in Active & Passive) are called AUXILIARY (HELPING) VERBS.

There are different kinds of these auxiliary (helping) verbs.  Some can be used as main verbs and helping verbs, but some can never be used as main verbs at all.  The following notes will help us to understand the several complications involved in making a verb word a sensible VERB in any give sentence.

The following are the Auxiliary (helping) Verbs in English:

“Be” and its forms — am, is, are, was were, been and being

“Have” and its forms — has, had and been

“Do” and its forms — does and did

with shall, should; will, would; can, could; may, might; must; ought (to); need; dare; used (to).

{These verb words and their forms are also called ANOMALOUS VERBS!}

Before going any further in this topic, let’s take a quick look at the Anomalous Verbs.

Of all the verb words, the above-mentioned verb words are the only verbs that can take a negation (no, never and not) directly and can make a question on their own.  The rest of the hundreds of verb words which cannot take a negative directly and which cannot make a question on their own are called NON-ANOMALOUS VERBS.

Compare:

You are not a teacher.   [‘are’ with negative ‘not’ -- correct]

You are a teacher.

Are you a teacher?        [‘are’ used to make a question -- correct]

But…

He goes not to school.        [wrong – ‘goes’ cannot take a negative]

He goes to school.

Goes he to school?              [wrong – ‘goes’ cannot make a question]

Because…

‘goes’ is a non-anomalous verb, it cannot take a negative directly and cannot make a question on its own.  An auxiliary verb form of one of the anomalous verbs must be present depending on the context and tense.

Therefore…

He does not go to school. [correct]

He goes to school.

Does he go to school?         [correct]

KINDS OF AUXILIARY (HELPING) VERBS

PRIMARY AUXILIARIES & MODAL AUXILIARIES:

Introduction

Read these sentences:

The cow is grazing.

You do not write carefully.

He has done something wrong.

They had worked for hours before they rested.

The verb words is, do, has and had are auxiliary (helping) verbs in these sentences.

They just help us to express statements of fact or some physical activities.

And those verb words which merely help to express statements of fact are called

PRIMARY AUXILIARIES.  “Be” and its forms; “do” and its forms and “have” and its forms belong to this group.

These Primary Auxiliaries can be used as Main Verbs as well as Helping Verbs.

And of all the Verb Words, only the ‘BE’ forms — is, am, are, was and were — can be used with present participle (ing) form!

For example,

He is going.

I am writing.

We are playing.

She was crying.

They were working.

But no other verb word can be used with ‘ing’ form directly:

I do not playing. [wrong]    He has running. [wrong]   You have doing. [wrong]

Those incorrect verbs can be corrected with the help of one of the ‘BE’ forms – “been”:

He has been running. You have been doing… I have been playing. (positive)

He has not been running. You have not been doing… I have not been playing. (negative)

[‘has been running’ – one verb – three parts: ‘has’ helping verb, ‘been’ helping verb and ‘running’ present participle form of the main verb ‘go’ to show continuous action; this verb is in PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE!]

Now read the following sentences:

He will come.        He can come.                        He must come.

He need not come.            He would come He may come.

These sentences are not just statements of fact.  They are not expressing any physical activities.

Though they express actions or events, they exist only as conceptions of the mind — probability, possibility, obligation, wishes, etc.  Several factors may prevent these possibilities, wishes, etc. from being fulfilled.

Auxiliary verbs which help to express such conceptions of the mind are called MODAL AUXILIARY VERBS.   The word ‘Modal’ comes from the word “mood” which is related to the mind!

Modal Auxiliary (helping) verbs:

Shall, should; will, would; can, could; may, might; must; ought (to); need; dare; (used to)

These Modal Auxiliaries have three common characteristics:

a) They are never used alone – a Main Verb in its ‘bare-infinitive’ form is either present or understood: {except ‘need’, ‘dare’ and ‘used to’}

e.g.

He can fly an aeroplane.     Will you go there?

Must you do it alone?         Yes, I must.   [= Yes, I must do it alone.]

Therefore,

I will to school.  [wrong – no main verb]

I will go to school.   [correct – main verb ‘go’ is present]

b) These Auxiliaries have a ‘single form’ through out the Present Tense, whatever be the Person and Number of the subject of the sentence:

e.g.

I can swim.  You can swim.   She can swim.

Compare:

The Primary Auxiliaries have different forms depending on the

Person and Number of the subject of the sentence:

I am swimming.     You are swimming.    She is swimming.

The Finite Forms also have different forms:

I swim.   You swim.     He swims.    My friend swims.

c) The Modal Auxiliaries do not take the ‘to-infinitive’ or the ‘participle’ – present or past – forms directly:

e.g.

You shall to go. [wrong]

She can gone.  [wrong]

He may coming here. [wrong]

You shall go.   [correct]

She can go.      [correct]

He may come here.   [correct]

As these Modal Auxiliaries do not take the Infinitive forms, except, of course, the Bare-infinitive form, they are sometimes called “Defective Verbs”.

The Uses of Modal Auxiliary Verbs:

Shall

“Shall” with the First Person subject of a sentence expresses ‘simple futurity’; with the Second Person and Third Person, it may express a command, promise, threat, determination, etc.

e.g.  I shall go at once.  [ I – First Person -- simple futurity]

You shall go at once.  [you – Second Person – a command]

He shall be dismissed for negligence of duty.  [He – Third Person – a threat]

You all shall get some reward if you work hard.  [you – Second Person – a promise.]

Will

“Will” with the Second and Third Person subject of a sentence expresses ‘simple futurity’; with the First Person, it expresses determination, threat, willingness, etc.

These two rules are not given much importance these days because we use  ’ll, the contracted form of either ‘will’ or ‘shall’.

And there is little difference if it is ‘shall’ or ‘will’.  For example, “He’ll meet us at the airport.” in this sentence “He’ll” can be ‘He will’ or ‘He shall’.

When we actually want to show the difference, we use the word ‘will’ or ‘shall’ in full or rephrase the entire sentence to give us the desired meaning.

Should

‘Should’ is the Past Tense of “shall” and is used as such in the Indirect (reported) Speech.

He said, “I shall do it now.”  Direct Speech

He said that he should do it then. Indirect Speech

‘Should’ expresses duty, obligation, possibility, likelihood or doubt.

He should pay the fee in time.

We should all work for the common good.

You should be more careful.

‘Should’ expresses less possibility than ‘shall’.

Compare:

I shall be happy to meet my boss.   [more possibility of being happy]

I should be happy to meet my boss.  [less possibility of being happy]

should is the only Auxiliary that is used after the conjunction “lest”.

The police surrounded the house lest the thief should escape.

Would

‘Would’ is the Past Tense form of ‘will’ and is used as such in Indirect (reported) Speech.

She said, “I will do it tomorrow.” Direct Speech

She said that she would do it the next day. Indirect Speech

‘Would’ expresses willingness or determination.

The doctor said that he would visit us.  [willingness]

She would have her own way.    [determination]

‘Would’ and ‘would like to’ express a wish.

I would like to know what my duty is.

‘Would’ is used for asking polite questions.

Would you like a cup of coffee?

(This is more polite than using ‘will’.) 

Can

“Can” expresses ability.

She can play tennis very well.

“Can” is also used in the sense of ‘may’ to give permission thought ‘may’ is correct.

You can go now.

* “Can” is the only verb word which takes ‘not’ without a space in between; for example,

I am not done yet.               He was not in.

But…

I cannot do it alone.             He cannot come in now.

** The learners are advised to keep the distinction (difference)

between can and may in respect to giving permission and used only may for asking permission.

Could

“Could” is the past tense form of ‘can’ and is used as such in Indirect Speech.

e.g.

She said, “I can play the piano.”

She said that she could play the piano.

“Could” is used to indicate ability that a person or animal had in the past.

In my younger days I could run four miles at a stretch.

‘Could’ refers to Past only when the context makes the time clear.

In the above example, the phrase ‘In my younger days’ refers to Past time.

** Use ‘was/were + able to’ when referring to a purpose achieved in the past with some specific time:

Yesterday I could swim across the river.  [wrong]

Yesterday I was able to swim across the river.  [correct]

“Could” is used to express possibility, uncertainty or unreal condition.

You could do it if you tried hard.  (less possibility)

“Could” is also used to ask polite questions (almost asking permission politely)

Could I have a word with you, Sir?

May

“May” is used to express permission, possibility, wish, etc.

e.g.

May I come in, please?  (permission)

He may be elected chairman of the Party.   (possibility)

May God bless you!     (wish)

Compare:

The subtle difference between may and can:

Servant: “May I leave now, Sir?”

Master:  “Yes, you may.  But you cannot.  (go out now; it’s raining)

[In the second sentence the master gives permission – almost saying ‘I  have no objection if you leave’ but says the servant cannot go out because it is raining – almost saying ‘It is not possible for you to go out’.]

Might

“Might” is the past tense form of ‘may’ and is used as such in Indirect Speech.

e.g.

The man said to me, “You may leave now.”       Direct Speech

The man told me that I might leave then.        Indirect Speech

“Might” is used to indicate a more doubtful possibility than ‘may’.

e.g.

I might pass the exam.   [more doubtful – 70% doubt]

I may pass the exam.     [less doubtful – 30% doubt]

Must

“Must” expresses strong obligation or duty and also necessity, probability or

likelihood, strong determination.

e.g.

We must be loyal to our country.  [strong obligation]

We must build up a strong army to defend our country. [necessity]

We must go to visit our parents, whatever happens.[strong determination]

* “Must” remains unchanged (not inflected in form) whatever be its Tense, or the Number and Person of the subject.  It can point to the Present or Future.

It can refer to the Past only when it is used with the Present Perfect Tense form of the Main Verb.

e.g.

He must have gone home.  (past)

He must see the doctor now.  (present)

He must pay damages if he keeps breaking things.  (future)

** “Must” is much stronger than ‘should’.

Order of intensity:

I should do it now.   [strong obligation]

I ought to do it now.  [stronger]

I must do it now.    [the strongest]

Three special functions of MUST:

It is essential to know the difference between the “three uses of Must”.

“Must” used for the actual present tense in the Direct Speech becomes ‘had to’ in the Indirect Speech:

e.g.

“I must write to my father,” my friend said to me.  [present time – now] Direct

My friend told me that he had to write to his father. Indirect

“Must” used for the future time in the Direct Speech becomes ‘would have to’ in the Indirect Speech:

e.g.

“I must leave for Kenya next week,” he said to her.   [future]       Direct

He told her that he would have to leave for Kenya the following week. Indirect

“Must”, when expresses a rule that always applies, used in the Direct Speech, remains unchanged in the Indirect Speech:

e.g.

Grandma said, “Children must obey their parents.”  [a rule]      Direct

Grandma said that children must obey their parents.  Indirect (unchanged)

Ought to

“Ought” differs from other Auxiliaries in being followed by the ‘to-infinitive’.

“Ought to” expresses duty, necessity, fitness, moral obligation.

e.g.

They ought to help their friends.  (duty)

He ought to be six feet to join the Army.   (fitness)

Need

“Need” is used both as a Main Verb and as an Auxiliary Verb.  As a main verb it is used in the sense of ‘require’, in the conception of the mind, of course.

e.g.

He needs my help.

We needed some more money. 

[used as a finite verb taking ‘s’ to form singular as the subject ‘he’ is singular; taking ‘ed’ to form past tense]

He need not ask my permission.

[used as a ‘modal auxiliary’, and so, does not take ‘s’ or ‘es’ to change into singular to go with the subject ‘he’, just like other modal auxiliaries]

“Need”, when referring to Past time as an auxiliary, is followed by the ‘prefect Infinitive’. 

e.g.

He need not have lost his temper.  [but he lost his temper – Past] 

“Need” as an auxiliary in the negative answer takes ‘not’: ‘No, he need not/needn’t.’, but if the answer is in the positive, we should say: ‘Yes, he must.’

The opposite of ‘need not’ in such a context is must, not ‘need’!

Dare

“Dare” is used both as a Main Verb and as an Auxiliary.

As a main verb it is used in the sense of ‘challenge’ or ‘face something or someone boldly’, and it changes its form according to the subject and the tense of the sentence, just as “need” does:

e.g.

He dares me to a fight.

She dared to call him a liar.

As an auxiliary, “dare” is unchanged and is commonly used with ‘not’ or in interrogative sentences:

e.g.

He dare not do this. [he does not have the courage to do such a thing]

Dare he say that to the teacher?

Compare:

‘Dare & Need’

He needs my help.              [‘needs’ – main verb]

He does not need my help.

[‘does’ – helping verb with negative “not”; ‘need’ – main verb]

He need not answer my question.

[‘need’ – helping verb with negative “not”; ‘answer’ – main verb – bare infinitive]

He does not need to answer my question.

[‘does’ – helping verb with negative “not”; ‘need’ – main verb; “to answer” – ‘to-infinitive’]

I did not need to buy that book.

[‘did’—helping verb with negative “not”; ‘need’ – main verb;‘to buy’ – ‘to-infinitive’]

[= It was not necessary for me to buy that book and so I did not buy.]

I need not have bought that book.

[‘need’ – helping verb with negative “not”; ‘have bought’ --  perfect infinitive]

[= It was not necessary for me to buy that book, but I bought it!]

Same is the case with “Dare”:

He does not dare to speak to me.  [‘does’ – helping verb with negative “not”; ‘dare’ – main verb; ‘to speak’ – to-infinitive]

He dare not speak to me.     [‘dare’ – helping verb with negative “not”; ‘speak’ – main verb –  bare infinitive]

Used to

“Used to” is used to express things that happened regularly in the past but no longer happens now.

e.g.

I used to live in the country but I moved to the city three years ago.

She used to love him a lot in the early days of their marriage.

[= but now she does not love him or does not show much love to him]

Compare:

There is bound to be some confusion while using ‘used to’ and ‘be + used to’

Therefore, let’s take a quick look at these expressions:

e.g.

I used to smoke ten cigarettes a day.

[‘used’ – main verb; ‘to smoke’ – to-infinitive]

[It was my habit -- I smoked ten cigarettes a day, but now either I gave up smoking or I reduced the number.]

I am used to smoking only five cigarettes a day.

[‘am used’ – main verb; ‘to smoking’ – ‘ing’ form of ‘smoke’ with “to”]

[When I started smoking only five cigarettes a day, I found it very difficult to keep the number under control, now I am satisfied and limit myself to five cigarettes a day; it isn’t as difficult as it was in the beginning.]

conclusion:

‘used’ + to-infinitive –

I used to wake up late but now I wake up early.

‘be + used + ‘ing’ form with “to” — I am used to waking up early.

[= in the past I found it difficult to wake up early, but now I can wake up early without much difficulty]

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PERSONAL PRONOUNS

There are several kinds of PRONOUNS: Demonstrative Pronouns, Interrogative Pronouns, Indefinite Pronouns, Distributive Pronouns, Reciprocal Pronouns, Relative Pronouns and Personal pronouns.

Though all these kinds of Pronouns are used frequently in our sentence building, some of them are not so complicated as the PERSONAL PRONOUNS are, because these   PERSONAL PRONOUNS have different forms and they change their forms depending on the position they are placed in a sentence.

Of these kinds, the last two, Relative Pronouns and Personal Pronouns, are more important than the other kinds at this basic level.

{The ‘Relative Pronouns’ are dealt with in detail in the topic “SENTENCE” – Kinds of Clauses.}

The topic of PERSONAL PRONOUNS is even more important because we need to use them in other topics, such as DEGREES OF COMPARISON, ACTIVE-PASSIVE VOICE and DIRECT-INDIRECT SPEECH.

Therefore, here we are given a chance to know some important rules and points that are very, very essential in making decent and correct sentences.

Person =

1^st person – the person speaking or narrating something

2^nd person – the person spoken to (the person listening to the speaker)

3^rd person – the rest of all the persons, animals and things that are talked about, excluding the 1^st and the 2^nd persons

Number =

singular – only one person, animal or thing;

plural – more than one person, animal or thing (two, ten, a hundred, a million, etc.)

Gender =

{masculine gender & feminine gender} (the sex of the person or animal)

male or female = boy or girl, man or woman

neuter – very young babies of people; all the animals when spoken in general and all the things; not man,  not woman

common gender – either man or woman; for example, A teacher is a person who teaches.  “A teacher” can be a man or a woman, so it is ‘common gender’

CASE:

nominative (subjective) case = person, animal or thing that comes before the verb and does an action, state of being,  etc. in a sentence

e.g.  He is a good boy.            [‘He’ is the subject in this sentence.]

objective (accusative) case = person, animal or thing that comes after the verb or preposition in a sentence (expression)

e.g.  He gave her a book.     [‘Her’ is the object of the verb ‘gave’.]

He gave a book to her.       [‘Her’ is the object of the preposition ‘to’]

possessive (genitive) case = used to show that something belongs to somebody or something

e.g.  This is my book.       [‘My’ and ‘mine’ show that the book belongs to me.]

This book is mine.

‘My’, ‘our’, ‘your’, ‘your’, ‘his’, ‘her’, ‘its’, ‘their’, ‘their’ and ‘their’ are called POSSESSIVE  ADJECTIVES because they are always used before nouns.

“Mine”, “ours”, “yours”, “yours”, “his”, “hers”, “its”, “theirs”, “theirs”, and “theirs” are called POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS because they are used without nouns after them; the nouns whose possession they show are placed some where else in the sentence (expression).

Reflexive pronouns = the action of a subject in the sentence comes back to Subject (the doer of the action) when we use these Reflexive pronouns.

{They are also called reciprocal pronouns, but the function is different.}

e.g. I painted this picture myself.

[‘Myself’ in this sentence shows that the subject ‘I’ did the action of painting the picture, not bought or had somebody paint for ‘me’.  The action does not pass to any other object but comes back to the subject]

They taught themselves.      [‘Themselves’ in this sentence shows that the subject ‘they’ did not get their education from any teacher or they did not teach anybody else, but got their  education on their own.]

How to identify the personal pronouns?

Each of these PERSONAL PRONOUNS is given with description of its Person, Number, Gender and Case:

I

Person:    first

Number:  singular

Gender:   common (male or female)

Case:       subjective/nominative

me

Person:    first

Number:  singular

Gender:   common (male or female)

Case:       objective/accusative

my

Person:    first

Number:  singular

Gender:   common (male or female)

Case:       possessive/genitive – possessive adjective

mine

Person:    first

Number:  singular

Gender:   common (male or female)

Case:       possessive/genitive – possessive pronoun

myself

Person:    first

Number:  singular

Gender:   common (male or female)

Case:       reflexive

we

Person:    first

Number:  plural

Gender:   common (male or female, or male & female mixed)

case:        subjective/nominative

Us

Person:    first

Number:  plural

Gender:   common (male or female, or male & female mixed)

Case:       objective/accusative

our

Person:    first

Number:  plural

Gender:   common (male or female, or male & female mixed)

Case:       possessive/genitive – possessive adjective

ours

Person:    first

Number:  plural

Gender:   common (male or female, or male & female mixed)

Case:       possessive/genitive – possessive pronoun

ourselves

Person:    first

Number:  plural

Gender:   common (male or female, or male & female mixed)

Case:       reflexive

you (1)

Person:    second

Number:  singular

Gender:   common (male or female)

Case:       subjective/nominative

you (2)

Person:    second

Number:  singular

Gender:   common (male or female)

Case:       objective/accusative

your (1)

Person:    second

Number:  singular

Gender:   common (male or female)

Case:       possessive (genitive) – possessive adjective

yours (1)

Person:    second

Number:  singular

Gender:   common (male or female)

Case:       possessive (genitive) – possessive pronoun

yourself

Person:    second

Number:  singular

Gender:   common (male or female)

Case:       reflexive

you (3)

Person:    second

Number:  plural

Gender:   common (male or female)

Case:       subjective/nominative

you (4)

Person:    second

Number:  plural

Gender:   common (male or female)

Case:       objective/accusative

your (2)

Person:    second

Number:  plural

Gender:   common (male or female)

Case:       possessive/genitive – possessive adjective

yours (2)

Person:    second

Number:  plural

Gender:   common (male or female)

Case:       possessive/genitive – possessive pronoun

yourselves

Person:    second

Number:  plural

Gender:   common (male or female)

Case:       reflexive

he

Person:    third

Number:  singular

Gender:   masculine (male – boy or man)

Case:       subjective/nominative

him

Person:    third

Number:  singular

Gender:   masculine (male – boy or man)

Case:       objective/accusative

his (1)

Person:    third

Number:  singular

Gender:   masculine (male – boy or man)

Case:       possessive/genitive – possessive adjective

his (2)

Person:    third

Number:  singular

Gender:   masculine (male – boy or man)

Case:       possessive/genitive – possessive pronoun

himself

Person:    third

Number:  singular

Gender:   masculine (male – boy or man)

Case:       reflexive

she

Person:    third

Number:  singular

Gender:   feminine (female – girl or woman)

Case:       subjective/nominative

her (1)

Person:    third

Number:  singular

Gender:   feminine (female – girl or woman)

Case:       objective/accusative

her (2)

Person:    third

Number:  singular

Gender:   feminine (female – girl or woman)

Case:       possessive/genitive – possessive adjective

hers

Person:    third

Number:  singular

Gender:   feminine (female – girl or woman)

Case:       possessive/genitive – possessive pronoun

herself

Person:    third

Number:  singular

Gender:       feminine (female – girl or woman)

Case:       reflexive

it (1)

Person:    third

Number:  singular

Gender:   neuter (not male; not female – things, animals & very young babies)

Case:       subjective/nominative

it (2)

Person:    third

Number:  singular

Gender:   neuter (not male; not female – things, animals & very young babies)

Case:       objective/accusative

its (1)

Person:    third

Number:  singular

Gender:   neuter (not male; not female – things, animals & very young babies)

Case:       possessive/genitive – possessive adjective

its (2)

Person:    third

Number:  singular

Gender:   neuter (not male; not female – things, animals & very young babies)

Case:       possessive/genitive – possessive pronoun

itself

Person:    third

Number:  singular

Gender:   neuter (not male; not female – things, animals & very young babies)

Case:       reflexive

they (1)

Person:    third

Number:  plural

Gender:   masculine (male – boy or man)

Case:       subjective/nominative

them (1)

Person:    third

Number:  plural

Gender:   masculine (male – boy or man)

Case:       objective/accusative

their (1)

Person:    third

Number:  plural

Gender:   masculine (male – boy or man)

Case:       possessive/genitive – possessive adjective

theirs (1)

Person:    third

Number:  plural

Gender:   masculine (male – boy or man)

Case:       possessive/genitive – possessive pronoun

themselves (1)

Person:    third

Number:  plural

Gender:   masculine (male – boy or man)

Case:       reflexive

they (2)

Person:    third

Number:  plural

Gender:   feminine (female – girl or woman)

Case:       subjective/nominative

them (2)

Person:    third

Number:  plural

Gender:   feminine (female – girl or woman)

Case:       objective/accusative

their (2)

Person:    third

Number:  plural

Gender:   feminine (female – girl or woman)

Case:       possessive/genitive – possessive adjective

theirs (2)

Person:    third

Number:  plural

Gender:   feminine (female – girl or woman)

Case:       possessive/genitive – possessive pronoun

themselves (2)

Person:    third

Number:  plural

Gender:   feminine (female – girl or woman)

Case:       reflexive

they (3)

Person:    third

Number:  plural

Gender:   neuter (not male; not female – things, animals & young babies)

Case:       subjective/nominative

them (3)

Person:    third

Number:  plural

Gender:   neuter (not male; not female – things, animals & young babies)

Case:       objective/accusative

their (3)

Person:    third

Number:  plural

Gender:   neuter (not male; not female – things, animals & young babies)

Case:       possessive/genitive – possessive adjective

theirs (3)

Person:    third

Number:  plural

Gender:   neuter (not male; not female – things, animals & young babies)

Case:       possessive/genitive – possessive pronoun

themselves (3)

Person:    third

Number:  plural

Gender:   neuter (not male; not female – things, animals & young babies)

Case:       reflexive

You may have noticed that the word “you” is used for 2^nd person singular and plural; subjective case and objective case. In old or Biblical Englishthere used to be different words for these forms and cases, but in modern English the same word “you” is being used.

Clarification:

thou – you (nominative case)

thee – you (objective case)

thy – your (possessive case – possessive adjective)

thine – yours (possessive – possessive pronoun)

As we are not using the Biblical words these days, we must use the word “you” in nominative and objective cases and for singular and plural numbers.

But how to know whether a particular ‘you’ in a particular sentence is nominative or objective or …?

The answer is simple: The sentence itself will tell us …

*You are a boy.   [‘a boy’ is singular, male and the sentence starts with ‘you’ so it is the subject]

Therefore, “You” in this sentence is in nominative case, singular and male gender.

*You are a girl.  [‘a girl’ is singular, female and the sentence starts with ‘you’]

Therefore, ‘you’ in this sentence is in nominative case, singular and female gender.

*I told you my secret because you are my friend.

[the first ‘you’ is in objective case because the subject of the first part of this sentence is “I” and ‘you’ comes after the verb, and the second ‘you’ is in nominative case because there is no other word that comes after the conjunction -- 'because';  and both these words are singular because ‘my friend’, which they refer to, is singular]

Therefore, the first ‘you’ in this sentence is in objective case, singular and common gender; the second “you” is in nominative case, singular and common gender.

*The teacher said to all the boy students, “Complete your assignments.”

In this sentence the word “your” is in possessive case, plural number because it is used for ‘all the boy students’ which is plural in number and male (masculine) gender because ‘the boy’ represents male.  It is possessive adjective because ‘assignments’, a noun, follows it.

Nominative (subjective) Case or Accusative (objective) Case or Possessive (genitive) Case?

There is a chance of our getting confused when using personal pronouns after ‘than’ in comparative degree because the personal pronouns take different forms in different cases.  For instance, the First Person Personal Pronoun in the Nominative Case is ‘I’, the same pronoun word in the Objective case (Accusative Case) is ‘me’ and again in the Genitive Case it is ‘my/mine’.  Therefore, while using them after the conjunction ‘than’ in the comparative degree, we are bound to make some mistakes in placing the case of the pronoun in its right form.

The following rules may clear some of the confusion:

a) When we compare two persons with one adjective or adverb in Comparative Degree, the PRONOUN used after ‘than’ must be in Nominative Case (subjective case). This is considered formal English.

e.g.  He speaks more fluently than I.  [‘I’ is the nominative case]

= He speaks more fluently than I speak.

In this sentence “He speaks more fluently than me speak.” sounds silly

[‘me’ is the Objective Case of the pronoun ‘I’]

Nevertheless, the Objective Case form of the pronoun is also used by many people, including some grammarians.  This is considered informal or spoken English.

For example:

He is taller than me.

The famous grammarian, John Silverlight, accepted the use of Objective Case of the Pronoun even when the context demands a nominative case in his book “More Words” (page 123) quoting a letter from Mr. Gideon Cohen Jerusalem, himself a famous person.

Therefore, we can say:   She has more money than he.  [‘he’ in nominative case form]  She has more money than he has.

Or

*She has more money than him.   [‘him’ in objective case form]

b) But the objective case form is the only form to be used in cases like this one:

Peter likes his books more than her.   [here ‘her’ could be a girl he knows]

Explanation:

Peter likes his books — 80%

Peter likes her            — 20% only

This sentence, if written in full, is:

Peter likes his books more than he (Peter) likes her.

Therefore, in this expression only the objective case ‘her’ should be used.

Let’s analyse another sentence:

James talked more about drinks than them.  [here ‘them’ could be his friends or associates]

‘them’ is the objective case of pronoun ‘they’

James talked about drinks — 80%

James talked about them — 20% only

_____________________

James talked about drinks more than they.

[more than they talked about drinks]

‘they’ is the nominative case form

James talked about drinks — 80%

They talked about drinks   — 20% only

_____________________

{Therefore, it is to be understood that the case of the pronoun in comparatives changes the meaning of the sentence.}

c) When the former (the first of the two persons, animals or things) in Comparative Degree is in the POSSESSIVE CASE,

the latter (the second of the two persons, animals or things) must be in the possessive case:

For example,

1. Abe’s book is more expensive than Jessica.    [wrong]

[“Abe’s” is in the possessive case, but ‘Jessica’ is not in possessive case]

Therefore, this sentence should be…

Abe’s book is more expensive than Jessica’s (book).

2. His car is bigger than them.  [wrong]

[‘His car’ is in possessive case, but ‘them’ is in objective case]

Therefore, this sentence should be…

His car is bigger than their car.  OR   His car is bigger than theirs.

The Agreement is between the Pronoun used in the Subject part and the corresponding pronoun that is to be followed in the Predicate part, if the context demands:

1.  The complement of the Verb ‘to be (is, am, are, was & were), when it is expressed by a personal pronoun , should be in the  Nominative (subjective) case…

e.g.  I was he.  (not him)

I am she whom you want.

It is I that give away the prizes.

It might have been he.  (not him)

2.  The Objective of a Verb or of a Preposition, when it is a Pronoun, should be in the Objective case…

e.g.  Between you and me, matters seem bleak.

Let her and me do it.   [ In this sentence the real or main subject is “you” which is not mentioned but understood: ‘You let her and me do it.’]

Please, let Liz and him go home. [In this sentence, too, the real or main subject is “you”.]

3.  A pronoun must agree with its Antecedent in Person, Number and Gender…

(‘antecedent’ = the noun that a relative pronoun refers to; please, see rule No. 8 of sub-topic ‘subject-verb agreement’)

e.g.  All passengers are requested to show their tickets to the conductor.

Every man is expected to carry his own bag.

Each of the girls got her answer sheet in time.

4.  The Personal Pronoun that follows expressions such as ‘everybody’, ‘every one’, ‘anyone’, ‘each’, etc. is used according to the context…

e.g.  A good father shall be glad to help every one of his boys in his studies.  [The word ‘his’ refers to every one of the boys individually, not to the ‘father’!]

Each of the ladies is spending her own money.

Compare:

He helped each of his sons with his home-work.

[‘sons’ – male gender; ‘his’ – male gender]

He helped each of his children with their home-work.

[‘children’ – common gender, ‘children’ can be boys or girls or both – ‘their’ – common gender, ‘their’ can be boys or girls or both]

But when the gender is not determined clearly, we use the Pronoun of male (masculine) gender, as there is no singular pronoun of the Third Person to represent both male and female:

e.g.   If anybody wants to say something, let him say it now.  (male)

Anyone can buy it if he has enough money.  (male)

OR

Anyone can buy it if he/she has enough money.  (male and female)

However, with the strong protest from the Feminist Groups (female supporters) the use of the male gender pronoun ‘he’ or ‘him’ is discontinued, and the plural pronoun ‘they’ or ‘them’ or ‘their’ is used as the best alternative. And they are given a new name ‘Zero Plural’…

e.g.   Everyone is asked to show their ID cards at the entrance.  [‘Everyone’ is common gender, so ‘their’ common gender pronoun in plural is used.]

5.  The Indefinite Pronoun ‘one’ (representing ‘everybody’, anybody’, ‘you’, ‘me’ or ‘they’) should be used throughout. When it is used in the Subject part, it must be used in the     predicate part if the context demands:

e.g.  One should not be careless about what one says.

[‘one’ = any person -- Every person should be careful about what he/she says]

Compare:

One should not be careless about what he says.   [wrong] do not agree

6.  Care should be taken while using the relative pronouns ‘who’ and ‘who

e.g.  This is Mr. Smith, who they say is a great philosopher.  [not ‘whom’]

They are a gang of thieves whom you should avoid meeting. [not ‘who’]

Whom does she wish to meet?   [not ‘who’]

Who did they believe her to be?  [not ‘whom’]

Examples of CORRESPONDING PERSONAL PRONOUNS:

We need to understand this rule perfectly well because in the topic DIRECT-INDIRECT SPEECH, we need to relate one Personal Pronoun to its corresponding pronoun in a different PERSON quite often.

The following examples show us how to indentify ‘corresponding Personal Pronouns’:

I

Person:    first

Number:  singular

Gender:   common (male or female)

case:        subjective/nominative

= (correspond)

he

Person:    third

Number:  singular

Gender:   masculine (male – boy or man)

Case:       subjective/nominative

= (correspond)

she

Person:    third

Number:  singular

Gender:   feminine (female – girl or woman)

Case:       subjective/nominative

In this example, the 1^st person singular in nominative case ‘I’ corresponds to “HE” when the person referred to is male and when the person referred to is female, it corresponds to “She”.

Therefore, what we understand is that the personal pronouns of different Persons may correspond to one another when the CASE and NUMBER are the same.

I = case – nominative; number – singular

He = case – nominative; number – singular

She = case – nominative; number – singular

_______

us

Person:    first

Number:  plural

Gender:   common (male or female, or male & female mixed)

Case:       objective/accusative

=

them (1)

person: 3^rd

number: plural

gender: male (common)

case: objective

In this example ‘Us’ and ‘them’ correspond to each other because both are Plural in Number and both are in Objective Case.

Compare:

hers

Person:    third

Number:  singular

Gender:   feminine (female – girl or woman)

Case:       possessive/genitive – possessive pronoun

= (do not correspond)

Me

Person: 1^st

Number: singular

Gender: common

Case: objective

In this example, ‘hers’ and ‘me’ do not correspond because, though the Number is singular in both pronouns, the CASE is different – ‘hers’ is in POSSESSIVE CASE and ‘me’ is in OBJECTIVE.

In this example either ‘me’ must be ‘mine’ or ‘hers’ must be ‘her’!

______

ours

Person:    first

Number:  plural

Gender:   common (male or female, or male & female mixed)

Case:       possessive/genitive – possessive pronoun

= (do not correspond)

their (3)

person: 3^rd

number: plural

gender: neuter

case: possessive

(possessive adjective)

= (correspond)

theirs (2)

Person:    third

Number:  plural

Gender:   feminine (female – girl or woman)

Case:       possessive/genitive – possessive pronoun

In the above example, ‘ours’ and ‘their’ do not correspond though the Number and Case are the same because the possessive case has two kinds in it ––  one is POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVE and the other is POSSESSIVE PRONOUN —- and ‘ours’ is POSSESSIVE PRONOUN but ‘their’ is POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVE.

However, the other pair ‘ours’ and ‘theirs’ correspond to each other because both are of the same Number, Case, and both are POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS.

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