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Verb Phrase "used to."
Have students write 25 sentences for each meaning.
1. Simple Present tense (as in habitual actions) eg. I am
used to waking up at 5 A.M. every morning. *Use the verb to be,
then the phrase, and then a verb participle as in:
I am used to......
He is used to......
We are used to......
2. Simple Past tense eg. I used to play basketball when I
was in high school.
I used to ...
Uses the phrase then a verb
I used to ...
He used to....
3. To suggest that something was used to make a certain craft.
eg. Clay was used to make pottery
Uses the phrase then a verb indicating construction: make/bake/build/
etc then a noun. Hope this helps!
1. simple present tense (as in habitual actions) eg.
I am used to waking up at 5 A.M. every morning.
2. simple past tense eg. I used to play basketball when I was in
high school.
3. to suggest that something was used to make a certain craft. eg.
Clay was used to make pottery such as pots, cups and ladles etc.
by the Indians.
Articles
Articles, determiners, and quantifiers are
those little words that precede and modify nouns: the teacher, a
college, a bit of honey, that person, those people, whatever purpose,
either way, your choice
These words will tell the reader whether we're referring to a specific
or general thing (the garage out back; A horse! A horse! My kingdom
for a horse!); sometimes they tell how much or how many (lots of
trees, several books, a great deal of confusion). The choice of
the proper article or determiner to precede a noun or noun phrase
is usually not a problem for writers who have grown up speaking
English, nor is it a serious problem for non-native writers whose
first language is a romance language such as Spanish. For other
writers, though, this can be a considerable obstacle on the way
to their mastery of English. In fact, some students from eastern
European countries, where their native language has either no articles
or an altogether different system of choosing articles and determiners,
find that these "little words" can create problems long after every
other aspect of English has been mastered.
One family of determiners, the demonstratives (this, that, these,
those, such), is discussed in the section on Demonstrative Pronouns.
Some Notes on Quantifiers
Like articles, quantifiers are words that precede and modify nouns.
They tell us how many or how much. Selecting the correct quantifier
depends on your understanding the distinction between Count and
Non-Count Nouns.
For our purposes, we will choose the count noun trees and the non-count
noun dancing:
The following quantifiers will work with count nouns:
many trees
a few trees
few trees
several trees
a couple of trees
none of the trees
The following quantifiers will work with non-count nouns:
not much dancing
a little dancing
little dancing
a bit of dancing
a good deal of dancing
a great deal of dancing
no dancing
The following quantifiers will work with both count and non-count
nouns:
all of the trees/dancing
some trees/dancing
most of the trees/dancing
enough trees/dancing a lot of trees/dancing
lots of trees/dancing
plenty of trees/dancing
a lack of trees/dancing
In formal academic writing, it is usually better to use many and
much rather than phrases such as a lot of, lots of and plenty of.
There is an important difference between "a little" and "little"
(used with non-count words) and between "a few" and "few" (used
with count words).
If I say that Tashonda has a little experience in management that
means that although Tashonda is no great expert she does have some
experience and that experience might well be enough for our purposes.
If I say that Tashonda has little experience in management that
means that she doesn't have enough experience.
If I say that Charlie owns a few books on Latin American literature
that means that he has some some books — not a lot of books, but
probably enough for our purposes.
If I say that Charlie owns few books on Latin American literature,
that means he doesn't have enough for our purposes and we'd better
go to the library.
Unless it is combined with of, the quantifier "much" is reserved
for questions and negative statements: Much of the snow has already
melted. How much snow fell yesterday? Not much. Note that the quantifier
"most of the" must include the definite article the when it modifies
a specific noun, whether it's a count or a non-count noun: "most
of the instructors at this college have a
doctorate"; "most of the water has evaporated." With a general plural
noun, however (when you are not referring to a specific entity),
the "of the" is dropped: Most colleges have their own admissions
policy. Most students apply to several colleges.
Authority for this last paragraph: The Scott, Foresman
Handbook for Writers by Maxine Hairston and John J. Ruszkiewicz.
4th ed. HarperCollins: New York. 1996.
Predeterminers
The predeterminers occur prior to other determiners
(as you would probably guess from their name). This class of words
includes multipliers (double, twice, four/five times . . . .); fractional
expressions (one-third, three-quarters, etc.); the words both, half,
and all; and intensifiers such as quite, rather, and such. The multipliers
precede plural count and mass nouns and occur with singular count
nouns denoting number or amount :
This van holds three times the passengers as that sports car.
My wife is making double my / twice my salary.
This time we added five times the amount of water.
In fractional expressions, we have a similar construction, but here
it can be replaced with "of" construction.
Charlie finished in one-fourth [of] the time his brother took.
Two-fifths of the respondents reported that half the medication
was sufficient.
The intensifiers occur in this construction primarily in casual
speech and writing and are more common in British English than they
are in American English.
The intensifier "what" is often found in stylistic fragments: "We
visited my brother in his dorm room. What a mess!" This room is
rather a mess, isn't it?
The ticket-holders made quite a fuss when they couldn't get in.
What an idiot he turned out to be.
Our vacation was such a grand experience.
Half, both, and all can occur with singular and plural count nouns;
half and all can occur with mass nouns. There are also "of constructions"
with these words ("all [of] the grain," "half [of] his salary");
the "of construction" is required with personal pronouns ("both
of them," "all of it").
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