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Adverb complements

April 11, 2012

Some sentences are incomplete without adverb complements. For example, a sentence with put will not make sense if you do not say where something is put. In the same way, a sentence with go will not make sense if you do not say where somebody goes. If we want to say how long something lasts, [...]

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The need for auxiliary verbs

March 26, 2012

English verbs have only a limited number of forms. For example, the typical English verb write has the following forms: write, writes, wrote, written, writing. But these forms are not always sufficient to express all the meanings. For example, ideas like questioning, negation, time, repetition, completion, willingness, obligation etc cannot be expressed by using the [...]

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Get with infinitives and –ing forms

March 25, 2012

Get can be followed by –ing forms and infinitives. There is usually a difference of meaning. Get + -ing form is sometimes used to mean ‘start doing something’. Common expressions are: get going and get moving. Let’s get going. The structure get + object + -ing form means ‘make somebody / something start doing something’. [...]

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Verbs with two objects

March 23, 2012

Many verbs can be followed by two objects – one indirect and one direct object. The indirect object usually refers to a person, and comes first. I gave him a watch for his birthday. Could you send me the report? I will lend you some money. Let me get you some coffee. She told me [...]

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