Basic English Grammar with Exercises

Exercise 4

Exercise 4

a John sneezed.

b Dogs hate cats.

c The boy was waiting for the girl.

d The president sent a message to the parliament

e I do not believe that you have won the game.

f I never smoke.

g Sometimes John eats a hamburger.

h John sometimes eats a hamburger.

i John eats a hamburger sometimes.

j Have you ever been to England?

k Joe went to the cinema with a beautiful girl.

l The old computer in my office is very slow.

m Students of English like difficult exercises.

n John told me that he had never been to Paris.

o The little dog chased a black cat.

p This exercise is considered easy.

q I rarely listen to classical music

r This sentence is short.

Exercise 5

Predicates are heads that take arguments. Depending on the number of arguments a

predicate has, predicates can be classified into different groups like one-place

predicates, two-place predicates, etc. A one-place predicate is a predicate with one

argument. It can be a verb (1a), an adjective (1b), a noun (1c) or a preposition (1d). A

two-place predicate is a predicate that takes two arguments like the noun in (2a), the

verb (2b), the adjective (2c) or the preposition in (2d). A three-place predicate has

three arguments. In (3a) the three-place predicate is a noun; in (3b) it is a verb.

(1) a. John is sleeping.

b. John is nice.

c. student of Linguistics

d. in the room

(2) a. the enemy’s destruction of the city

b. John hates pets.

c. John is afraid of dogs.

d. I want you out of my room.

(3) a. Mary’s gift of a book to John.

b John gave a book to Mary.