“If I were you, I would [start exercising].”

How often have you heard someone say that statement?  Our teachers have taught us that singular subjects are followed by singular verbs. Check out my post on Subject-verb Agreement.

Back to the above statement. Why do we use the verb “were” instead of “was“? The answer is, it has something to do with “mood” of the verbs used. There are three types of mood:

• indicative: “You have to come.”
• imperative: “Come here!”
• subjunctive: “If I were taller, I would be able to reach it.”

(a) Present subjunctive

In the present subjunctive, use “were” for people.

Example:

• If I were rich, I would be a philanthropist.

→ I am not rich (this is a factual statement).

(b) Past subjunctive

In the past subjunctive mood, use “had” in all cases.

Examples:

• If the police had arrived sooner, the robber wouldn’t have escaped.

→ The police arrived late (this is a factual statement).

Remember this:
Subjunctive mood is the use of “mood” verbs to express conditions, hypotheses, and wishes.

Learners of grammar know that nouns are words that name people, objects and abstract ideas. For instance, words like house, John, insect, happiness etc. are all nouns. Click here for more details on nouns.

Some nouns can be quantified, or counted. These are called countable nouns (e.g.: house – houses; child – children; book – books); others cannot be counted. These are mass nouns or uncountable nouns.

Here are some mass nouns:

Examples:

• news
• information
• furniture
• stationery
• equipment
• baggage
• jewellery
• hardware
• machinery
• scenery

Mass nouns cannot be pluralised as they are considered as ONE unit.  That means, you cannot add an “-s” or “-ies” at the end of the word. So, it is incorrect to say these:

1. I need informations about that case immediately. (X)
2. My parents are going to IKEA to look at a few furnitures. (X)
3. We took pictures of beautiful sceneries when we were in Paris. (X)
4. I’m going to the bookstore to get my stationeries. (X)
5. A few jewelleries were stolen from the goldsmith last night. (X)

Mass nouns should be preceded by “some” or “the” only, and always use singular verbs.

1. I need some information about that case immediately. (√)
2. My parents are going to IKEA to look at some furniture. (√)
3. We took pictures of beautiful scenery when we were in Paris. (√)
4. I’m going to the bookstore to get my stationery. (√)
5. The jewellery was (not “were”) stolen from the goldsmith last night. (√)

A gerund is a special noun. It is a verb that has been transformed into a noun by adding the “-ing” suffix.

Using gerunds in a sentence:

(a) as a Subject

• Swimming is my favourite past time.
• I find that reading and writing are difficult language skills to master.
  

(b) as a Complement

• My favourite past time is swimming.
• The most difficult skills to learn are reading and writing.

(c) as an Object

• Mary loves drinking hot chocolate with her boyfriend.
• My students dislike watching romantic movies.

(d) with articles and adjectives

• The (art.) actual (adj.) making of the movie will be shown on TV.
• The (art.) strange (adj.) writing on the wall is a mystery.

So, a gerund is a verbot that deceptively transforms into a nounbot to confuse our fellow humans. If you haven’t been watching “Transformers“, you obviously wouldn’t understand.

Modals are special verbs, sometimes known as auxiliary verbs. A modal verb always has the same form and never has the -s, -ing or -ed suffixes. That means, modal verbs are always followed by the base form. Here’s a list of modals:

MODALS

• can
• could
• must
• should
• ought
• may
• might
• will
• would
• shall

Look at the following examples. You will see that modals are followed by the base word come instead of came or coming, and run instead of ran or running:

Examples:

1. You can come in when you’re ready. (√)
   You can came in when you’re ready. (X)
2. We should run if you want to catch the bus. (√)
   We should ran if you want to catch the bus. (X)

Functions of modal verbs in sentences

Take note that modals change form in the past and future tenses. For example:

• I can do it. – present tense
• I could do it just now. – past tense
• I could do it later today. – future tense

The table above gives some example sentences to illustrate this point.

Verbs generally are action words. When written in a sentence, verbs may change in form to suit the verb tense used in the sentence. However, verb forms do not always change. There are instances when the forms remain the same no matter what the tense. That’s why there is a need to learn regular and irregular verbs.

Verbs that have quite the same spelling and pronunciation in any tense are called regular verbs. On the other hand, verbs that remain unchanged or are spelt differently are called irregular verbs.

Examples of regular verbs in use:

All the verbs below come from the root word collect. The change in spelling and sound is very minimal.

• I collect stamps. (simple present)
• I collected stamps last time. (simple past)
• I have collected stamps before. (present perfect)

Examples of irregular verbs in use:

All the verbs below come from the root word drink. Notice that the spelling and pronunciation change as the tenses change.

• She drinks milk. (simple present)
• She drank milk a few minutes ago. (simple past)
• She has drunk a bottle of milk. (present perfect)

In the following examples, nothing changes! You’ll see that the verb “put” is spelt the same in all tenses.

• They put their books on the desk. (simple present)
• They put their books on the desk and left. (simple past)
• They have put their books on the desk. (present perfect)

Here are some examples of irregular verbs:

IMPORTANT:
* founded (v.) = established, started - it’s not the same meaning as “found”
** loose (adj.) =  The word “loose” is an adjective, not a verb. Take note of the difference in spelling, too.