HOW TO MAKE POLITE REQUESTS

 

Requests:

We use could you … and would you … as polite ways of telling or asking someone to do something:

- Could you take a message, please?

- Would you carry this for me, please?

can and will are less polite:

- Can you take a message, please?

- Will you carry this for me, please?

Offers and invitations:

We use can I … to make offers:

- Can I help you?

- Can I do that for you?

We can also use shall I …:

- Shall I help you with that?

- Shall I call you on your mobile?

We sometimes say I can ... or I could ... or I'll (I will) ... to make an offer:

- I can do that for you if you like.

- I could give you a lift to the station.

- I'll do that for you if you like.

- I'll give you a lift to the station.

We use would you like (to) ... for invitations:

- Would you like to come round tomorrow?

- Would you like another drink?

We can use you must … or we must … for a very polite invitation:

- You must come round and see us.

- We must meet again soon.

Revision activities

https://usefulenglish.ru/grammar/modal-verbs-exercise-four

https://continuingstudies.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/330/grammar/330-modals-polite1/

CLAUSES OF CONTRAST AND PURPOSE

 

https://todayschool.es/grammar/grammar-practice-clauses-of-purpose-and-contrast/

https://www.englishpage.com/minitutorials/evenexercise.htm

CAUSATIVE VERBS

 

Revise this infographics and do this activity:

https://www.grammarbank.com/causative-exercise.html

THE PASSIVE

 

The passive voice is made with the different tenses of the verb to be + a past participle.

Present Simple: The sauce is made of oranges.

Present Continuous: Seven hundred staff are being made redundant.

Past Simple: It was invented in 1938 by Chester Carlson.

Present Perfect: All the money in the safe has been stolen.

Past Continuous: The factory was being built when I last came here.

Future with will: A weak signal will be emitted.

Future with going to: A division is going to be sold.

Modals: My boss may be given a pay rise this year.



- Verbs with two objects.

Verbs which have two objects can be made passive in two ways:

I was handed a note. / A note was handed to me.

Other common verbs of this type are: bring, give, lend, pass, pay promise, sell, send, show, tell.



- Verb with object and complement.

Some verbs have a noun or adjective which describes their object:

We elected him class representative.

Everyone considered him a failure.

When these are made passive, the complement goes directly after the verb:

Jim was elected class representative.

He was considered a failure.



Uses of the passive:

- When you do not know who or what does the action.

The cable TV is connected to our phone.

The eggs are made of chocolate.



- When you are not interested in who or what does something:

All the electrical appliances were shut down.



- When you want to take away the focus of personal responsibility, especially in sales brochures and product information to give an official tone.

It is believed that the fault will be repaired in due course.


We usually begin a passive sentence with the known information and end the sentence with the new information. You can use a passive infinitive as the subject of a sentence for emphasis.

To be connected by e-mail is not very sociable.


You can use a passive infinitive without to after modal verbs.

The Internet should be controlled by the government.


- To describe processes.

The data has to be collected, then it’s analyzed, and finally the results are published.

- When you have a generalized agent.

If the subject is ‘people in general’ or ‘you’, the agent is not mentioned.

Bicycles are widely used in the city instead of public transport.



Uses of the passive Gerund:

- As the subject of a sentence.

Being connected to an e-mail system is very useful.


- As the object of a sentence.

Most people like being contacted by e-mail.


- With a preposition.

People are afraid of being censored by the government.

Revision

https://test-english.com/grammar-points/b1-b2/passive-reporting-verbs/

https://www.english-grammar.at/online_exercises/passive-voice/pa002-incident-in-the-sky.htm

https://elt.oup.com/student/solutions/upperint/grammar/grammar_06_012e?cc=global&selLanguage=en

https://test-english.com/grammar-points/b2/distancing/

VOCABULARY PRACTICE ON CONFUSING VERBS

 

https://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/359.html

https://usefulenglish.ru/vocabulary/synonyms-exercise-seven

https://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/385.html

https://www.autoenglish.org/gr.seem.i.htm

https://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/vocabulary/esl-tell-speak-say-talk1.html

https://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/327.html

https://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/279.html

https://usefulenglish.ru/vocabulary/synonyms-exercise-six

https://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/274.html

TALKING ABOUT MUSIC IN C1

 

PERFECT AND PASSIVE INFINITIVE AND THE -ING FORM

 

The perfect infinitive has the following structure: (to) have + past participle. For example: to have missed, to have written, to have worked, to have left etc. The perfect infinitive often refers to things that might have happened in the past:

You seem to have annoyed him

But perfect infinitive can also refer to something that will be completed at a point in the future:

We hope to have finished the car repair by the end of May.

A perfect infinitive is an infinitive in the form of “to have + past participle”. It is mainly used after some verbs to emphasize that something happened in the past.

She seems to be very optimistic.

She seems to have been very optimistic.

The perfect infinitive also appears in the passive voice:

He is supposed to have met the American president.

Mia is considered to have been the best manager of the company.

The perfect infinitive continuous is an infinitive in the form of “to have been + verb + ing”. It is used after some verbs to emphasize that something happened in a particular moment in the past.

He seems to have waited for a long time.

When I saw him, he seemed to have been waiting for somebody.

She pretended to have been reading, but in fact, she was listening to their conversation.

The passive infinitive is used in some constructions of the passive voice and is common after modal verbs. We use the passive infinitive when we want to focus on the receiver, or when we do not want to mention the agent (the person who does the action):

The carpet needs to be washed.

These doors should be shut at night.

He is going to be interviewed tomorrow.

The passive perfect infinitive form is used to talk about the past.

The corporation may have been sold last week.
We should have been told about the dangers.

The passive -ing form is used to express a continuous action.

I don’t like being cheated.
He remembers being given the 

A passive gerund is a verb with -ing ending in the passive voice. It may appear in one of two forms: present (e.g. being shown) and past (e.g. having been shown).

I remember being taken to the hospital.
I hate being spoken to as if I’m a child.

He showed no signs of having been warned.
The notice, having been written in small letters, was not clearly visible.

Revision

http://passivecausality.weebly.com/passive-infinitives-and-gerunds.html

http://passivecausality.weebly.com/personal-and-impersonal-constructions.html

https://test-english.com/grammar-points/b2/gerunds-infinitives-complex-forms/

https://test-english.com/grammar-points/b2/gerunds-infinitives-complex-forms/2/

https://test-english.com/grammar-points/b2/gerunds-infinitives-complex-forms/3/