Grammar and ESL Vocabulary 1

A word placed before a noun to show whether it is specific or general. 'The' is the definite article and refers to something specific, while 'a' and 'an' are indefinite articles and refer to something general.

I saw a dog in the park; the dog was barking loudly at a cat.

A grammatical feature that shows how an action relates to time, particularly whether it is ongoing or completed. The progressive aspect shows an action in progress, while the perfect aspect shows a completed action.

He has already eaten dinner, which uses the perfect aspect, but she is still eating, which uses the progressive aspect.

A helping verb used together with a main verb to form tenses, questions, or negatives. Common examples are 'be,' 'do,' and 'have.'

In the sentence 'She is running,' the word 'is' is an auxiliary verb that helps form the present continuous tense.

A group of words that contains a subject and a verb. An independent clause can stand alone as a sentence, while a dependent clause cannot stand alone and needs an independent clause to complete its meaning.

Although she was tired, she finished her homework — 'she finished her homework' is the independent clause, and 'although she was tired' is the dependent clause.

A pair or group of words that are often used together naturally by native speakers. For example, we say 'make a mistake,' not 'do a mistake.'

It is important to learn collocations like 'take a photo' and 'do your homework' to sound more natural in English.

Simple questions that a teacher asks to check whether students have truly understood the meaning of a word, structure, or concept, without simply asking 'Do you understand?'

After teaching the word 'exhausted,' the teacher asked concept checking questions like 'Is the person tired or full of energy?' to make sure students understood.

Countable nouns are things you can count individually, like 'apple' or 'book.' Uncountable nouns are things you cannot count separately, like 'water' or 'information.'

I need some information about the train schedule, and I also want to buy two tickets.

A word that comes before a noun to give more information about it, such as how many or which one. Examples include 'the,' 'a,' 'some,' 'this,' 'many,' and 'every.'

Every student in the class needs to bring some paper and a pen tomorrow.

The technique used by teachers to draw out answers, ideas, or language from students by asking questions or giving clues, instead of simply telling students the answer directly.

Instead of explaining the new word, the teacher used a picture for eliciting the vocabulary from the students.

A verb form that ends in '-ing' and is used as a noun in a sentence. It can be the subject or object of a sentence.

Swimming is great exercise, and I really enjoy running in the morning.

The base form of a verb, usually used with 'to' in front of it, such as 'to eat,' 'to go,' or 'to learn.' It can function as a noun, adjective, or adverb.

She wants to learn Spanish, so she decided to take classes online.

The rise and fall of the voice when speaking, which can change the meaning or feeling of what you say, such as showing a question, surprise, or statement.

When you ask a yes or no question in English, your intonation usually rises at the end of the sentence.

Two words that sound almost exactly the same but differ by only one sound, such as 'ship' and 'sheep' or 'bit' and 'beat.' They are used to practice hearing and producing different sounds.

The teacher used the minimal pairs 'cat' and 'cut' to help students hear the difference between two vowel sounds.

A type of auxiliary verb that expresses ability, possibility, permission, or necessity. Examples include 'can,' 'could,' 'must,' 'should,' and 'will.'

You should study every day if you want to improve your English.

The categories that words are grouped into based on their function in a sentence, such as noun, verb, adjective, and adverb.

Learning the parts of speech helps you understand how sentences are built in English.

A phrase made of a verb and one or more small words like 'up,' 'out,' or 'on' that together have a meaning different from the original verb. For example, 'give up' means to stop trying.

Don't give up when learning English gets difficult; just keep on practicing every day.

The level of formality in language that changes depending on the situation and who you are speaking to. For example, you use formal register in a job interview and informal register with friends.

When writing an email to your professor, you should use a formal register and avoid slang or casual expressions.

The most common vowel sound in English, shown by the symbol /ə/. It is a short, weak, unstressed sound, like the 'a' in 'about' or the 'e' in 'taken.'

The word 'banana' has two schwa sounds: ba-NA-na, where the first and last 'a' are both pronounced as /ə/.

A grammatical feature that shows whether the subject of a sentence does the action or receives it. In the active voice, the subject does the action. In the passive voice, the subject receives the action.

In the active voice we say 'The chef cooked the meal,' but in the passive voice we say 'The meal was cooked by the chef.'

The emphasis placed on one syllable in a word when speaking, making it sound louder, longer, or higher than the other syllables.

The word stress in 'photograph' is on the first syllable, so we say PHO-to-graph, not pho-TO-graph.