Grammar Smart 1

 

Parts of Speech

 

Female: Parts of speech are what we call the basic building blocks of language. They are all words or at least made up of words, but they all play different roles in the sentence. The basic parts of speech are...

Male: The verbs.

Female: Verbs express actions. Examples of verbs are: to do, to eat, to be, to think, to sleep, per chance, to dream.

Male: Mmmm... how poetic¹! The next part of speech is the noun.

Female: A noun is a person, place, thing or idea. For example, a pie, a future, love or death.

Male: Plural² nouns are the same as nouns only they’re plural.

Female: Hmmm, brilliant. As in pies, futures³, loves, or deaths.

Male: Nouns can be replaced by pronouns. To avoid repeating everything too many times, the language allows you to use substitute words for those you’ve already used.

Female: For example, Youseff the Jordanian chemist can be replaced by the pronoun he and you need not repeat his name again. Other pronouns are she, him, her, it, they, them, those, who, that, me, you, I, their, whom and which. And there are more.

Male: Nouns, pronouns and verbs are the most basic building blocks of the language. They are all you need to make a simple sentence. For example, “The man shoots,” is a complete, if somewhat simple sentence. In order, however, to describe or modify these basic ideas, you need the following parts of speech: adjectives.

Female: Adjectives describe or modify nouns. Modify by the way is just another word for change or describe.

Male: There are countless⁴ adjectives but here are just some examples: blue, awful, sunny, shirtless, lazy, moving, upper, ¹⁾acrimonious⁵, sensual, sexy, curvy...

Female: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we get the idea. Next on our list are adverbs.

Male: Adverbs describe the way in which verbs happen. They change or modify the basic verb to fit the many different ways things can happen. For example, to eat becomes something new when you add an adverb like ²⁾sloppily⁶.

Female: Adverbs can also describe other adverbs and adjectives. For example, “The old man slowly turned a heavenly blue,”but more on those later.

Male: The other part of speech that helps to modify the sentence is the preposition. These are the little words that describe the relationships between things like: across, near, of, at, to, through, under, and about. There are many more prepositions and prepositional phrases and we’ll cover them on recording⁷ two.

Female: For now we’re going to cover verbs, and the ³⁾sneaky way they have of slipping through our verbal fingers.

Male: Hmm, “Slipping through our verbal fingers,” I like that.

Female: Now be nice. Let’s talk about verbs, OK?

Male: Well, as we know, verbs are words that express actions. They are easily the most important part of any sentence. The verb is the one part of the sentence without which one cannot do.

Female: Without which one cannot do? What kind of way is that to speak?

Male: The correct way.

Female: Really?

Male: Yes, really.

Female: I would have said, “That one can ⁴⁾do without.”

Male: Well, most people would, however, there are several problems with the way you constructed that phrase.

Female: The biggest problem most people have is making sure that the verbs they have chosen agree with the subjects that are doing them.

Male: By way of a quick review, the subject of a verb is that noun or pronoun that is committing the action of the verb. For example, Miss Missy ⁵⁾lip syncs beautifully. The verb, the word that expresses an action in that sentence is lip sync. I lip sync. You lip sync. He lip syncs, etc. In its infinitive⁸ or unused form it is “To lip sync”.

Female: The subject of the verb, the doer of it, in the above case is Miss Missy. A world-class lip syncer among many dubious⁹ lip talents. Now as stated, “Miss Missy lip syncs beautifully” is quite correct. Your ear is probably all you need to tell you that the subject and the verb in that sentence agree.CE

 

22、巧学语法

词性

 

女：词性是语言的基本结构。语言全是词语，或者至少是由词语组成，但词语在句子中充当的角色各自不同。基本的词性有……

男：动词。

女：动词表示行为。例如，动词可表示：做、吃、成为、想、睡眠，或是做梦。     

男：嗯……多有诗意啊！下一个词性是名词。

女：名词是人、地方、东西或意念。例如：馅饼、将来、爱情或死亡。

男：复数名词同样是名词，只是它们是复数而已。

女：嗯，精彩。例如：几个馅饼、很多未来，爱人们或数次死亡。

男：名词可以由代词代替。为了避免一切重复多次，语言可以让你对用过的词语使用其它代替词。

女：例如，约旦化学家尤塞夫可以用代词“他”来代替，你无需重复他的名字。其它代词有：她、他（宾格）、她（宾格）、它、他们、他们（宾格）、那些、谁、那、我（宾格）、你、我、他们的、谁（宾格）和哪一个。等等。

男：名词、代词和动词是语言最基本的结构。它们是你造简单句所必需的。例如：“男人射击。”是一个完成了的简单句。然而为了描述或修饰这些基本概念，你需要以下词性：形容词。

女∶形容词是用来描述或修饰名词的。修饰词是为了改变或描述而运用的另一个词。

男∶形容词有无数个，这里只列举一些：蓝色的、糟糕的、阳光灿烂的、没穿衬衫的、懒惰的、活动的、上面的、苛刻的、感觉的、性感的、曲线的……

女∶是的……我们明白了。下面我们要说的是副词。

男∶副词用于描述动词发生的方式。它们改变或修饰基本动词，以适应事物发生的许多不同方式。例如，当你加上副词“马马虎虎”去修饰“吃”，吃也就吃得不一样了。

女∶副词还可以修饰其它副词和形容词。例如∶“那个老人渐渐地变得脸色铁青。”以后我们还会提到更多例句。

男∶另一个用于修饰句子的词性是介词。这些是修饰事物之间的关系的小词，例如∶横过、附近、（属于）……的、在……、也、通过、在……下面、关于。后面部分我们会谈及更多的介词和介词短语。

女∶现在我们打算讲述动词,讲它们鬼鬼祟祟地从我们口齿间滑出。

男∶嗯，“鬼鬼祟祟地从我们口齿间滑出”，我喜欢这句话。

女∶正经点。现在我们谈一下动词，好吗？

男∶我们知道，动词是表示行为的。它们轻易地成为了任何句子的最重要成分。没有动词则句不成句。

女∶没有则句不成句？这是什么话？

男：正确的话。

女：真的吗？

男：是真的。

女：我会说“没有它也行。”

男∶嗯，大多数人会这样说，但是你构造短语的方式会遇到几个问题。

女：大多数人存在的最大问题是贯彻主语与动词的一致性。

男：粗略一看，动词的主语是施行动作的名词或代词。例如：米西小姐对口型对得很棒。在这个句子中表达动作的动词是“对口型”，你对口型，他对口型，等等。它的不定式或非习惯式是“to lip-sink”。

女：在上面的句子中，动词的主语、动作的施行者是米西小姐。一个世界级的口型师出自很多持怀疑态度的嘴唇天才。“米西小姐对口型很棒”是很正确的。你需要用耳朵听清楚句子的主语和动词是否一致。CE

 

1) acrimonious [Akri5mEuniEs] a.（语言、态度、脾气等的）刻毒的，讥讽的，苛刻的

2) sloppily [5slCpili] adv.草率地，粗心地

3) sneaky [5sni:ki]a.偷偷摸摸的，鬼鬼祟祟的

4) do without 没有……也行

5) lip sync [lip-siNk] v. 对口型

 

1 poetic   

adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的

参考例句：

• His poetic idiom is stamped with expressions describing group feeling and thought.他的诗中的措辞往往带有描写群体感情和思想的印记。
• His poetic novels have gone through three different historical stages.他的诗情小说创作经历了三个不同的历史阶段。

2 plural   

n.复数；复数形式；adj.复数的

参考例句：

• Most plural nouns in English end in's '.英语的复数名词多以s结尾。
• Here you should use plural pronoun.这里你应该用复数代词。

3 futures   

n.期货，期货交易

参考例句：

• He continued his operations in cotton futures.他继续进行棉花期货交易。
• Cotton futures are selling at high prices.棉花期货交易的卖价是很高的。

4 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

5 acrimonious   

adj.严厉的，辛辣的，刻毒的

参考例句：

• He had an acrimonious quarrel with his girlfriend yesterday.昨天他跟他的女朋友激烈争吵了一番。
• His parents went through an acrimonious divorce.他的父母在激烈吵吵闹闹中离了婚。

6 sloppily   

adv.马虎地，草率地

参考例句：

• Do things neatly, not sloppily. 办事要利落，不要拖泥带水。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Land market after behind-the-scenes plotting concern: how much land can act sloppily? 关注土地市场重重黑幕：有多少土地可以胡来？ 来自互联网

7 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

8 infinitive   

n.不定词；adj.不定词的

参考例句：

• The use of the split infinitive is now generally acceptable.分裂不定式的用法现在已被广泛接受。
• Modal verbs generally take the bare infinitive.情态动词通常用不带to的不定式。

9 dubious   

adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的

参考例句：

• What he said yesterday was dubious.他昨天说的话很含糊。
• He uses some dubious shifts to get money.他用一些可疑的手段去赚钱。