as well as

noun/adjective/adverb + as well as + noun/adjective/adverb
clause + as well as  -ing.. .
As well as -ing... + clause

1 As well as has a similar meaning to 'not only ... but also'.

• He's got a car as well as a motorbike.


• She's clever as well as beautiful.

2 When we put a verb after as well as, we use the -ing form.

• Smoking is dangerous, as well as making you smell bad.


• As well as breaking his leg, he hurt his arm. (NOT As well as he broke his leg . . .)

Note the difference between:

• She sings as well as playing the piano. ( = She not only plays, but also sings.)


• She sings as well as she plays the piano. ( = Her singing is as good as her playing.)

as much/many ... as ...

We use as much . . . as . . . with a singular (uncountable) noun, and as many ... as . . . with a plural.

• We need as much time as possible.


• We need as many cars as possible.

As much/many can be used without a following noun.

• I ate as much as I wanted.
  


• Rest as much as possible.
  


• 'Can I borrow some books?' 'Yes, as many as you like.'

as ... as ...

as + adjective + as	+ noun/pronoun/clause
as + adverb + as	+ noun/pronoun/clause

1. We use as ... as ... to say that two things are the same in some way.

• She's as tall as her brother.


• Can a man run as fast as a horse?


• It's not as good as I expected.

2. We can use object pronouns (me, him etc) after as, especially in an informal style.

• She doesn't sing as well as me

In a formal style, we use subject + verb.

• She doesn't sing as well as I do

3 After not, we can use as ... as ... or so ... as

• She's not as/so pretty as her sister.

4. Note the structure half as ... as ...; twice as ... as ...; three times as ... as . . .; ...

• The green one isn't half as good as the blue one.


• A colour TV is twice as expensive as a black and white.

articles: talking in general

1 We do not use the with uncountable or plural nouns to talk about things in general — to talk about all books, all people or all life, for example. The never means 'all'.

Compare:

• Did you remember to buy the books⁷ (= particular books which I asked you to buy)


• Books are expensive. (NOT The books are expensive. We are talking about books in general — all books.)


• I'm studying the Hie of Beethoven. (= one particular life)


• Life is hard. (NOT The life .... This means 'all life'.)


• 'Where's the cheese? ' I ate it:'


• Cheese is made from milk.


• Could you put the light on?


• Light travels at 300,000 km a second.

2 Sometimes we talk about things in general by using a singular noun as an example.
We use a/an with the noun (meaning 'any').

• A baby deer can stand as soon as it is born.


• A child needs plenty of love.

We can also use the with a singular countable noun in generalizations (but not with plural or uncountable nouns — see 1 above).
This is common with the names of scientific instruments and inventions, and musical instruments.

• Life would be quieter without the telephone


• The violin is more difficult than the piano.

3 These common expressions have a general meaning:
the town, the country, the sea, the seaside, the mountains, the rain, the wind, the sun(shine).

• I prefer the mountains to the sea


• I hate the rain
  


• Would you rather live in the town or the country?


• We usually go to the seaside for our holidays.


• I like lying in the sun(shine)
  


• I like the noise of the wind.

articles: the

The means something like 'you know which one I mean'.
It is used with uncountable, singular and plural nouns.

• the water (uncountable)


• the table (singular countable)


• the stars (plural countable)

We use the:

a. to talk about people and things that we have already mentioned.

• She's got two children: a girl and a boy.


• The boy's fourteen and the girl's eight.

b. when we are saying which people or things we mean.

• Who's the girl in the car over there with John?

c. when it is clear from the situation which people or things we mean.

• Could you close the door? (Only one door is open.)


• 'Where's Ann?' 'In the kitchen.'
  


• Could you pass the salt?

2   We do not use the with other determiners (for example my, this, some.)

• This is my uncle. (NOT . . . the my uncle.)


• I like this beer. (NOT . . . the this beer )

We do not usually use the with proper names (there are some exceptions).

• Mary lives in Switzerland. (NOT The Mary lives in the Switzerland.)
  

We do not usually use the to talk about things in general — the does not mean 'all'.

• Books are expensive. (NOT The books are expensive.)

Difference between a/an and the

Very simply:

a/an just means 'one of a class'
the means 'you know exactly which one'.

Compare:

• A doctor must like people. ( = any doctor, any one of that profession)
  


• My brother's a doctor. ( = one of that profession) I'm going to see the doctor. ( = you know which one: my doctor)
  


• I live in a small flat at the top of an old house near the town hall, (a small flat, there might be two or three at the top of the house — it could be any one of these.


• an old house: there are lots near the town hall — it could be any one.


• the top: we know which top: it's the top of the house where the person lives — a house only has one top.


• the town hall: we know exactly which town hall is meant: there's only one in the town.)

Articles: a/an

A noun like house, engineer, girl, name refers to a whole class of people or things.
We use a/an with a noun to talk about just one member of that class. (A/an means 'one'.)

• She lives in a nice big house.


• My father is an engineer. (NOT My father is engineer.)


• A girl phoned this morning.


• Tanaka is a Japanese name.

We use a/an when we define or describe people or things (when we say what class or kind they belong to).

• He's a doctor.


• She s a beautiful woman.


• 'What's that?' 'It's a calculator.'

We do not use a/an with a plural or uncountable noun, because a/an means 'one'.

• My parents are doctors (NOT . . . a doctors.)


• Would you like some salt?(NOT . . . a salt.)

We do not use a/an with an adjective alone (without a noun). Compare:

• She's a very good engineer.


• She s very good. (NOT She's a very good.)

We do not use a/an together with another determiner (for example my, your).

• He's a friend of mine (NOT He's a my friend)
  

Note that we write another in one word.

• Would you like another drink? (NOT . . . an other drink?)

After all

After all gives the idea that one thing was expected, but the opposite happened.
It means 'Although we expected something different'.

• I'm sorry. I thought I could come and see you this evening, but I'm not free after all


• I expected to fail the exam, but I passed after all

Position: usually at the end of the clause.

We can also use after all to mean 'We mustn't forget that ... '
It is used to introduce a good reason or an important argument which people seem to have forgotten.

• It's not surprising you're hungry. After all, you didn't have breakfast.


• I think we should go and see Granny. After all she only lives ten miles away, and we haven't seen her for ages.

Position: usually at the beginning of the clause.

Adjectives without nouns

We cannot usually leave out a noun after an adjective.

• Poor little boy.'(NOT poor little)

But there are some exceptions:

We sometimes leave out a noun when we are talking about a choice between two or three different kinds (of car, milk, cigarette, bread).

• Have you got any bread?¹ 'Do you want white or brown? '


• A pound of butter, please.' 'I've only got unsalted '

We can use superlative adjectives without nouns, if the meaning is clear.

• I'm the tallest in my family.


• 'Which one shall I get?' The cheapest'

We can use some adjectives with theto talk about people in a particular condition.

• He s collecting money for the blind

Note that this structure has a plural 'general' meaning: the blind means 'all blind people', not 'the blind person' or 'certain blind people'.

The most common expressions of this kind are:

• the dead
  


• the sick
  


• the blind
  


• the deaf
  


• the rich the poor
  


• the unemployed
  


• the young
  


• the old
  


• the handicapped
  


• the mentally ill

(In informal speech, we usually say old people, young people etc instead of the old, the young.)

These expressions cannot be used with a possessive's.

• the problems of the poor
  


• poor people s problems (NOT the poor's problems)

Adjectives: position

adjective + noun
subject + copula verb (be. seem, look..) + adjective

Most adjectives can go in two places in a sentence:

before a noun

• The new secretary doesn't like me.
  


• She married a rich businessman

after a 'copula verb' (be, seem, look, appear, feel and some other verbs)

• That dress is new, isn't it?


• He looks rich

A few adjectives can go before a noun, but not usually after a verb.
Examples are elder, eldest and little. After a verb we use older, oldest and small.

• My elder brother lives In Newcastle. (Compare: He's three years older than me.)


• He's a funny little boy. (Compare: He looks very small.)

Some adjectives can go after a verb, but not usually before a noun.
The most common are ill, well and afraid, alive, alone, asleep.
Before nouns we use sick, healthy, frightened, living, lone, sleeping.

• He looks ill (Compare: He's a sick man.)


• Your mother's very well (Compare: She's a very healthy woman.)


• She's asleep (Compare: a sleeping baby)

In expressions of measurement, the adjective comes after the measurement-noun.

• two metres high (NOT high two metres)


• ten years old


• two miles long

Adjectives: order

Before a noun, we put adjectives in a fixed order.
The exact rules are very complicated (and not very well understood).
Here are the most important rules:

Adjectives of colour, origin (where something comes from), material (what it is made of) and purpose (what it is for) go in that order.

colour   origin    material  purpose noun

red         Spanish      leather           riding      boots

• a Venetian glass ashtray (NOT a glass Venetian ashtray)


• a brown German beer-mug (NOT a German brown beer mug)

Other adjectives come before colour-adjectives
Their exact order is too complicated to give rules.

• a big black cat (NOT a black big cat)


• the round glass table (NOT the glass round table)

First, last and next usually come before numbers.

• the first three days (NOT the three first days)


• my last two jobs (NOT my two last jobs)

about to

be + about + to-infinitive

If you are about to do something, you are going to do it very soon.

• Don't go out now — we're about to have supper


• I was about to go to bed when the telephone rang.

Abbreviations

We usually write abbreviations without full stops in British English.

• Mr (NOT -Mfr) = Mister
  


• Ltd = Limited (company)
  


• kg = kilogram


• the BBC = the British Broadcasting Corporation


• the USA = the United States of America


• NATO = the North Atlantic Treaty Organization


• OPEC = the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries

Some abbreviations are made from the first letters of several words.
We usually pronounce these with the stress on the last letter.

• the BBC / bi:bi:'si:/


• the USA / ju:es'ei/

Some of these abbreviations are pronounced like one word.
We do not usually use articles with these.

• NATO (NOT the NATO)


• OPEC (NOT the OPEC)

Ages

We talk about people's ages with

be + number

• He is thirty-five.


• She will be twenty-one next year.

be + number + years old

• He is thirty-five years old

To ask about somebody's age, say

• How old are you?(What is your age ? is correct but not usual.)

Note the structure

be + .. . age (without preposition)

• When I was your age. I was already working.


• The two boys are the same age


• She's the same age as me.