9789144104997

A

University Grammar of English with a Swedish Perspective

M A RIA ESTL ING VA NNESTĂ… L

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Art. No 31718 ISBN 978-91-44-10499-7 Second edition 2:1 © Maria Estling Vannestål and Studentlitteratur 2007, 2015 www.studentlitteratur.se Studentlitteratur AB, Lund Cover illustration: “Charing Cross Bridge” by Claude Monet, 1903 Cover photo: Malin Enestubbe Design: Werner Schmidt Layout: Henrik Hast Drawings: Mats Ekman, Jonny Hallberg Printed by Pozkal, Poland 2015

Table of contents Preface 13 Symbols and abbreviations 15 The phonetic alphabet 16 1 Introduction 17 1.1 What’s

the point in studying grammar? 19 1.2 Ideas and structure 21 2 What is grammar? 27 Questions for discussion and problem-solving 29 “grammar” 32 2.2 Grammar has meaning 34 2.3 How grammar can be used for specific functions 35 2.4 Chatting with a friend or writing a job application: stylistic variation in grammar 36 2.5 English around the world: regional variation in grammar 38 2.6 The never-ending story: grammar and change 40 2.7 A window on reality: grammar and language corpora 42 2.8 Grammar in English and other languages 44 2.1 Defining

3 The building blocks of language 47 Questions for discussion and problem-solving 49 3.1 Word classes vs. clause elements 55 3.2 Word classes 57 3.2.1 Nouns 58 3.2.2 Verbs 59 3.2.3 Adjectives 60 3.2.4 Adverbs 61 3.2.5 Pronouns 62 3.2.6 Numerals 62 3.2.7 Prepositions 63 3.2.8 Conjunctions 63 3.2.9 Interjections 64 3.2.10 Open and closed word classes 64

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3.3 Grammatical

phrases 65 3.3.1 The noun phrase 66 3.3.2 The verb phrase 69 3.3.3 The adjective phrase 70 3.3.4 The adverb phrase 70 3.3.5 The prepositional phrase 70 3.4 Clause elements 71 3.4.1 The subject element 72

3.4.2 The verb element 74 3.4.3 The object element 74 3.4.4 The predicative element 76 3.4.5 The adverbial element 78 3.4.6 Summary of word classes, phrases and clause elements 80 3.4.7 Clause types 81 3.4.7.1 Main clauses and dependent clauses 82 3.5 Why learn about the building blocks? 86 3.5.1 Avoiding run-on sentences and sentence fragments 86 3.5.1.1 Run-on sentences 86 3.5.1.2 Sentence fragments 87 3.5.2 Avoiding subject-verb agreement mistakes 88 Brief revision 91 Exercises 93 4 People, places, things and abstractions: dealing with nouns 97 Questions for discussion and problem-solving 99 4.1 The importance of being a noun /phrase/ 107 4.2 Common and proper nouns 108 4.3 Countable and uncountable nouns 109 4.3.1 Uncountables in English – countables in Swedish 110 4.3.2 An overview of differences between countables and uncountables 113 4.3.3 Nouns that can be either countable or uncountable 115 4.4 Singular and plural nouns 117 4.4.1 Irregular plurals 117 4.4.2 Invariable nouns 120 4.4.2.1 Nouns which are always singular 121 4.4.2.2 Nouns which are always plural 122 4.4.3 Nouns with different meanings in the singular and the plural 125 4.4.4 Collective nouns 126 © The author and Studentlitteratur

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4.4.5 Logical

plurals and singulars 127 4.4.5.1 Logical plurals 127 4.4.5.2 Logical singulars 128 4.5 The genitive and the of-construction 130 4.5.1 The genitive 130 4.5.2 The of-construction 132 4.5.3 The “double” genitive: a friend of my sister’s 133 4.6 The use of articles 134 4.6.1 The indefinite article 135 4.6.2 The definite article 138 4.6.3 No article in English 140 4.6.3.1 Uncountables and plurals used in a generic sense 142 4.6.3.2 Place names preceded by adjectives 145 Brief revision 146 Exercises 148 5 What we do, experience, feel and say: dealing with verbs 153 Questions for discussion and problem-solving 155 and non-finite verb forms 166 5.2 Auxiliaries and main verbs 169 5.2.1 Primary auxiliaries 171 5.2.1.1 Be: passive constructions and the progressive form 171 5.2.1.2 Do: negations, questions, emphasis and substitution 174 5.2.1.3 Have: the present perfect and the past perfect 175 5.2.1.4 Be, do and have used as main verbs 175 5.2.2 Modal auxiliaries 178 5.2.2.1 Can – could 179 5.2.2.2 May – might 181 5.2.2.3 Must – have /got/ to 182 5.2.2.4 Will – would 183 5.2.2.5 Shall – should 185 5.2.2.6 Marginal modals: dare, need, used to and ought to 188 5.2.3 Tag questions 190 5.3 Regular and irregular verbs 192 5.4 Expressing time in English verb phrases 194 5.4.1 I love grammar: the present tense 195 5.4.2 I loved grammar when I was a child: the past tense 196 5.4.3 I have always loved grammar: the present perfect 199 5.4.4 I had always loved grammar, but …: the past perfect 202 5.1 Finite

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5.4.5 Soon

you will love grammar too: the future in English 202 5.4.5.1 The simple present expressing the future 205 5.4.5.2 Two special kinds of future 206 5.4.6 I would love grammar if …: conditional constructions 207 5.4.7 Differences between English and Swedish – a summary 209 5.5 The progressive and the simple form 210 5.5.1 The simple present 212 5.5.2 The present progressive 213 5.5.3 The simple form and the progressive form in the past and the perfect 214 5.5.4 The simple form and the progressive form with different meanings 215 5.5.5 Summary of the simple form and the progressive form 215 5.6 Mood: the imperative and the subjunctive 216 5.6.1 The imperative 217 5.6.2 The subjunctive 218 5.7 Verbs followed by dependent clauses 219 5.7.1 Verbs followed by a dependent clause with a verb in the to-infinitive form 220 5.7.2 Verbs followed by a dependent clause with a verb in the bare infinitive form 222 5.7.3 Verbs followed by a dependent clause with a verb in the -ing form 222 5.7.4 Verbs followed by a dependent clause with either a to-infinitive or a verb in the -ing form 224 5.7.5 Verbs followed by a dependent clause with either a bare infinitive or a verb in the -ing form 226 Brief revision 228 Exercises 230 6 Describing and classifying: dealing with adjectives 235 Questions for discussion and problem-solving 237 6.1 The two main functions of adjectives 242 6.2 Adjective comparison 244 6.2.1 Four groups of comparison 245 6.2.2 The spelling of compared adjectives 248 6.2.3 Variation in the comparative and the superlative 248 6.2.3.1 Further/furthest vs. farther/farthest 248 6.2.3.2 Later/latest vs. latter/last 249 6.2.3.3 Nearest vs. next 250 6.2.3.4 Older vs. elder 250 6.2.4 Comparing only two things 250 6.2.5 Other kinds of comparison 251 6.2.6 The Swedish “absolute comparative” 251 © The author and Studentlitteratur

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6.3 Adjectives

and word order 252 6.3.1 Adjectives following their heads 253 6.3.2 Word order with two or more adjectives 254 6.3.3 Word order in phrases with last, past, next and first 256 6.4 Adjectives functioning as heads of noun phrases 256 6.4.1 Referring to a group of people in a generic sense 256 6.4.2 Referring to an abstract phenomenon in a generic sense 258 6.4.3 Referring to specific people, situations, details etc. 259 6.4.3.1 Specific people 259 6.4.3.2 Specific situations, details etc. 261 6.4.3.3 Substitution with one/ones 262 6.5 Adjective complementation 263 6.6 Nationality words 263 Brief revision 267 Exercises 269 7 Giving more information: dealing with adverbs and adverbials 273 Questions for discussion and problem-solving 275 between adjectives and adverbs 280 7.2 Adverb endings 281 7.2.1 Adverbs which look the same as adjectives 284 7.2.2 Adverbs with two forms 285 7.2.3 Adverbs which are not related to adjectives 285 7.2.4 Degree adverbs 286 7.3 Modification of adverbs 287 7.4 Adverb comparison 287 7.5 The difference between adverbs and adverbials 288 7.6 The meanings of adverbials 290 7.7 Word order difficulties with certain types of adverbial 295 7.7.1 Adverbials in initial position 296 7.7.1.1 Negating and restricting adverbials in initial position 297 7.7.2 One-word adverbials 298 7.7.3 Complex adverbials 299 7.7.4 The split infinitive 300 Brief revision 301 Exercises 303 7.1 The difference

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8 Pointing out, referring back, replacing, questioning etc.: dealing with pronouns 305 Questions for discussion and problem-solving 307 pronouns 317 8.1.1 Personal pronouns after prepositions 320 8.1.2 There and it 321 8.1.2.1 There 321 8.1.2.2 It 322 8.1.3 So and neither/nor 324 8.2 Reflexive pronouns 325 8.3 Possessive pronouns 326 8.3.1 Possessive pronouns with words for body parts etc. 328 8.4 Demonstrative pronouns 329 8.5 Interrogative pronouns 330 8.5.1 Who, what and which 331 8.5.2 Which vs. what – limited or unlimited choice 332 8.5.3 Who, whom and whose 333 8.5.4 Indirect questions 334 8.6 Relative pronouns 334 8.6.1 Who, which and whom 335 8.6.2 That and the zero relative 337 8.6.3 Whose and of which/whom 338 8.6.4 What 339 8.6.5 Restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses 340 8.7 Exclamatory pronouns 341 8.8 Quantifying (or indefinite) pronouns 341 8.8.1 Some, any, no and their compounds 342 8.8.1.1 Some and any 342 8.8.1.2 No 345 8.8.1.3 Compounds with some, any and no 345 8.8.2 Either and neither 346 8.8.3 All, whole, both and half 347 8.8.4 Every, each, everyone and everybody 348 8.8.5 Many, much, /a/ few, /a/ little, a great deal of, most etc. 350 8.8.6 Quantifying pronouns in relation to plural and uncountable nouns 351 8.8.6.1 Amount vs. number and similar words 353 8.8.6.2 Less and fewer 354 8.1 Personal

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8.9 The wastebasket:

one/s/, such, else, another and other/s/ 354

8.9.1 One/s/ 354 8.9.2 Such 355 8.9.3 Else 356 8.9.4 Another

and other/s/ 356 8.10 Referring generically to anyone (Swedish man, en and den som, de som) 357 8.11 Referring back to a gender-neutral noun phrase 359 Brief revision 361 Exercises 364 9 Mathematics in grammar: dealing with numerals 369 Questions for discussion and problem-solving 371 9.1 Cardinal and ordinal numbers 375 9.2 Dates 377 9.3 Other expressions of time 379 9.3.1 Minutes, hours and days 379 9.3.2 Weeks, months and years 380 9.3.3 Decades and centuries 382 9.4 Fractions, decimals and per cent 383 9.5 Ten million people and millions of people 384 9.6 A two-hour lecture 384 9.7 Every two, every second and every other 385 Brief revision 386 Exercises 387 10 Establishing relations: dealing with prepositions 389 Questions for discussion and problem-solving 391 10.1 Simple and complex prepositions 396 10.2 Preposition or adverb? 398 10.3 Prepositional phrases 399 10.4 Some differences between English and Swedish 400 10.4.1 Different prepositions in English and Swedish 400 10.4.2 Preposition in Swedish – no preposition in English and vice versa 401 10.4.3 A few other problematic cases 402 10.4.4 Preposition + Swedish att 404 10.4.4.1 Non-finite clauses introduced by att 405

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dependent clauses introduced by att 406 10.5 Prepositional variation in English 408 Brief revision 411 Exercises 413 10.4.4.2 Finite

11 Joining words, phrases and clauses: dealing with conjunctions 417 Questions for discussion and problem-solving 419 11.1 Coordinators 423 11.2 Subordinators 425 Brief revision 432 Exercises 433 12 Information structure and sentence form 435 Questions for discussion and problem-solving 437 12.1 What is information structure? 439 12.2 Word order differences in English and Swedish 439 12.2.1 Adverbials 439 12.2.2 Reporting clauses 440 12.2.3 The indefinite article 441 12.2.4 Adjectives and pronouns 442 12.3 The theme of a clause 442 12.4 Giving something extra focus 443 12.4.1 Cleft sentences 444 12.4.2 Fronting 445 12.4.3 So, either and neither 445 12.5 Active and passive clauses 446 Brief revision 447 Exercises 448 13 Revision exercises 449 13.1 Questions

for discussion and problem-solving 451 13.2 Spot-the-mistake sentences 458 13.3 Spot-the-mistake text 460

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14 Key 461 Chapter 3 463 Chapter 4 465 Chapter 5 467 Chapter 6 469 Chapter 7 471 Chapter 8 472 Chapter 9 474 Chapter 10 476 Chapter 11 477 Chapter 12 478 Chapter 13 479 Appendix 489 1 Capital letters 491 2 Articles with proper nouns 492 3 Useful expressions with and without articles – differences between English and Swedish 495 4 Do and have used as main verbs 498 5 The spelling of some regular verbs 500 6 Irregular verbs – principal parts 502 7 Nationality words 508 8 Adjectives and adverbs with the same form 514 9 Adverbs with two forms 515 10 Useful expressions with it in English and det in Swedish 518 11 Verbs which are reflexive in Swedish but not in English 520 12 Useful expressions with different types of pronoun 522 13 Useful expressions related to numerals 524 14 Useful expressions with prepositions 526 15 Preposition used in Swedish and not in English and vice versa 540 16 Prepositional variation 543 17 English-Swedish glossary 547 18 Swedish-English glossary 558 Works consulted 563 Text sources 567 Index 569

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Preface Before writing this book I taught English grammar at the A-course level at university for quite a few years. All the time, my colleagues, our students and I felt frustrated about our course literature. The course is taught in English but most books with a contrastive Swedish perspective are in Swedish, which made many of our students confused. Using an English grammar book not written for Swedish students was a problematic alternative, since such a book does not bring up the specific difficulties facing Swedish learners of English. Another problem is that the format of many grammar books is very traditional, with a lot of details and unnatural examples made up by the author/s/, which do nothing to improve the already negative attitude that many students bring with them to university. Furthermore, owing to the shift of focus in Swedish schools in the last few decades, from grammar and translation into (especially oral) communication, many of today’s students are not familiar with the grammatical terminology which is taken for granted in many of the previous grammar books. My other role as a corpus linguist and researcher of English grammar further provided me with many insights and material that I could apply directly to the book. I hope that it will fill a gap and be appreciated by students and teachers alike.

There are a number of people that I would like to thank for helping out in various ways in the process of writing the book: • Staffan Klintborg – a great source of inspiration – with whom I first started developing the exercise material that is the origin of this book • Hans Lindquist and Solveig Granath for reading the book carefully and giving me valuable feedback of many different kinds, and Hans for also providing useful comments on the manuscript for the second edition • Ian Hinchliffe and Phil Holmes for conscientious proofreading • Lennart Peterson for many interesting e-mail discussions about intriguing aspects of English usage, Erik Smitterberg for many useful comments on the first manuscript and Sölve Ohlander for help with finding sources on multi-contrastive information • all my former students at Växjö University and Blekinge Institute of Technology for interesting questions, good ideas and useful examples from their essays

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P r e fa c e

• a number of friends, colleagues and students speaking other languages than Swedish for checking that claims about differences between English and these languages are correct: Wirginia Bogatic, Gülşen Eryiğit, Maria Fohlin, Anna Forné, Ehsan Hosseini, Vicky Johnsson Gatzouras, Jia Li, Ibolya Maricic, Angela Marx Åberg, Marina Nogueira Mårtensson, Maria Olaussen, Kerstin Rydén, Anna Sopelsa, Björn Strömwall and Aiko Yokoyama • Lennart Peterson, Jenny Hartman, students and other readers for useful comments on the first edition of the book, contributing to improvements in the second one • my husband Anders and my children, Sanna, Maya, Lova and Adam, for their extraordinary patience with me while writing and rewriting the book Maria Estling Vannestål

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Symbols and abbreviations A adverbial AmE American English BrE British English e.g. for example i.e. that is O object Od direct object / /

Oi indirect object Op prepositional object Po objective predicative Ps subjective predicative S subject V verb

used for phonetic script (indicating pronunciation) and around words that can be omitted

information about an important, typical difficulty for Swedish and often other learners of English – also marked in the margin

information about a typical difficulty for one or several other languages (i.e. not Swedish) – examples written in small capitals, as in she is gone out

information about a construction used in informal language, but not generally accepted in formal writing information about a case where usage differs between British and American English

an audio lecture on a specific aspect of grammar

a question where there is an alternative corpus exercise

*

marks an incorrect sentence

(*)

marks a sentence that is not generally accepted in academic writing, although it may be acceptable in other forms of language

NOTE

a comment on a particular detail in the presentation

an appendix providing detailed information

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The phonetic alphabet Sound ʌ ɑ: æ e ǝ ᴈ: ɪ i: ɒ ɔ: ʊ u:

As in … cup calm hat bed alone, offer bird kiss green cost fall foot blue

Sound aɪ aʊ ǝʊ eǝ eɪ ɪǝ ɔɪ ʊǝ

As in … high cow know hair May here joy cure

Sound ŋ ʃ tʃ θ ð ӡ dӡ

As in … ring rush, sheep child, much both, thief father, there pleasure badge, jungle

The following symbols look the same as the corresponding letters: b, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w, z

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Introduction

Learning resources Chapter 1 Audio lecture: Summary 

1

Introduction

1

What’s the point in studying grammar?

1.1

Unfortunately, grammar is a word that gives unpleasant associations to many people, probably owing to bad experiences of grammar teaching at school. One problem could be that the grammatical system is felt to be difficult to understand, and another that teachers have failed to explain the usefulness of grammatical knowledge. But grammar is important, and it can actually be great fun as well, even though it sometimes feels like a jungle of rules with just as many exceptions. An important thing to rea­lize is that grammar can be encountered everywhere, in all the language we meet. As one of my students observed: actually stumbled upon this grammatical error as I was trying to take a short ” Ibreak from the assignment [which was to find examples – in authentic texts – of grammatical rules and violations of these]. Clearly, it is impossible to take a break from grammar, since it does indeed exist all around us.

”

When you realize this you may even start finding it interesting.

First of all, communicative competence in English does not only involve making yourself understood. It means that you can express yourself coherently and correctly in a number of different situations in both speech and writing. In order to do this you need to have a good command of all aspects of English, including its grammatical system. A poor knowledge of grammar may, especially in writing, where you cannot use non-verbal signals like gestures and facial expressions, lead to misunderstandings, irritation and sometimes communication breakdown. Secondly, if you are a teacher, part of your job is to correct your students’ texts. Moreover, anyone who has studied English at university level will be considered an “expert” by others – friends, colleagues etc. – and you will most certainly be asked to proofread other people’s writings.

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Many people understand the importance of improving their own grammar, but do not see why they should have to learn grammatical terminology.

However, the thing is that if we know some keywords (sometimes referred to as “meta-language”, i.e. language about language), it is so much easier to discuss and understand the principles. This can be compared with the jargon (i.e. the specific terminology) within any occupation, such as the language of doctors and hairdressers. Imagine a car mechanic not knowing his jargon. It would be very difficult if, every time he wanted to order some spare parts, he did not know words like carburettor or spark plugs.

Similarly, a visit to the dentist would take much longer than necessary if the dentist did not know the jargon and had to use long explanations instead of the precise words for the instruments needed.

To sum up, studying English at university does not only involve learning how to use grammar, i.e. how to use the language system in a way that is accepted by the English-speaking community – this is something you could equally well learn by, for instance, living in an English-speaking country for some time. It also concerns learning about grammar, i.e. acquiring grammatical terminology and learning to describe the language and explain why certain grammatical structures are used.

After working with this book, I hope that you will … … feel more confident about your own use of English grammar … have raised your awareness about differences between Swedish and English grammar and also have acquired some multi-contrastive knowledge, i.e. knowledge about some differences between English and other languages … have raised your awareness about differences between formal, neutral and informal grammatical features in the English language … have acquired a deeper understanding of English grammar so that you can explain grammatical principles to others more easily … have realized that the reality of language usage is not black and white, that there is not always a clear-cut distinction between right and wrong – it is often a question of tendencies and frequencies … have realized that grammar is all around us – not just in the grammar book

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Do not feel, however, that you have to remember all the details in this book. A good idea can be first of all to focus on those principles that I have marked as typical problem areas, and then expand your knowledge as much as you can during the course. As for the rest, use the book wisely, as a source of reference for lifelong learning, a tool where you can look up things whenever you feel uncertain.

Ideas and structure

1.2

There are two main ideas behind the structure of this book: interaction and integration. By interaction, I mean that I hope that this book will inspire you as a reader to a great deal of activity and interaction with other people and with the material. I am convinced that you learn much more easily and obtain more permanent knowledge if you are active in the learning process.

Therefore, this book integrates exercises and presentations of grammatical principles. Some of the exercises are different from those you usually meet in grammar teaching. Indeed, the book does include some traditional practice exercises, like fill-ins and sentences to translate. There are also, however, some features that you have perhaps not come across before, and which – in my experience – tend to encourage interaction: • questions for discussion and problem-solving, introducing each chapter, before the presentation of the grammatical principles. A good idea may be to go through them with some of your peers to check how much you already know. In those cases where you do not know the answer, you will find explanations in the presentation. These questions are meant to help you develop a deeper understanding of the English grammatical system, to go beyond the application of rules.

• spot-the-mistake exercises, which are meant to help raise your awareness of grammatical difficulties and make you better at discovering your own and other people’s mistakes. Some teachers claim that one should never show students incorrect sentences, because the students tend to learn incorrect structures. However, many of my students have told me that they find this type of exercise helpful, although a bit difficult when they are not used to it. You can find more exercises of the same type in Spotting the Error by Erik Smitterberg (Studentlitteratur 2007).

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Chapter 14 provides a key to all the fill-the-gap, spot-the-mistake and translation exercises. For the discussion questions, however, the answers can be concluded from the presentations in each chapter (and sometimes there is no right and wrong). The reason for not providing a key to these parts of the book is that I really want you to read through the presentations and draw conclusions, since I strongly believe that this will give you a better chance of actually learning than if you just check quick explanations in a key. However, the most important issues turn up again as questions for problem-solving and discussion in the Revision part (Chapter 13). There is a key to these questions in Chapter 14.

Many of the exercises in the book are available in digital form. The website further provides more exercises of the type occurring in the book and a number of exercises where you are asked to draw your own conclusions about grammatical rules from examples of authentic texts (also see Section 2.7).

By integration I refer to the fact that I have tried to connect grammar to other aspects of English, such as meaning, style and language change (see Chapter 2), in order to show that English grammar is not an isolated phenomenon. I will also try to make you see that the principles of grammar are illustrated all around us, and do not just exist in a boring book of rules that you have to learn. Most grammar books have examples which the author has invented, but that is not the case in this book. Virtually all examples illustrating the grammatical system are taken from authentic written and spoken language: the Internet, newspapers, books, song lyrics etc. (which also means that they represent different styles and writing conventions, such as both British and American spelling). Imagine, for instance, how much grammar you can learn by listening to music: Everybody hurts (a song sung by REM): illustrates the principle that everybody is a singular word in English (-s added to the verb), although it refers to several people.

Of course, you may learn some non-standard grammar too: That don’t impress me much (a song sung by Shania Twain): illustrates a feature of non-standard grammar – the verb form don’t combined with a third person singular subject (that). The standard form would be that doesn’t.

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Furthermore, I have included a number of authentic sentences from students’ essays, illustrating various problematic areas.

What else makes this book different from previous books on English grammar used at Swedish universities? First of all, it is the first relatively compre­hensive English grammar which has a Swedish perspective but is written in English. Nowadays English grammar is usually taught in English, and students tend to be confused when faced with a grammar book in Swedish. Some people claim that first-term students are not able to understand grammatical explanations in English, but I do not agree. If we expect students of economics, law, medicine and mathematics to read course books in English, should we not expect students of English to read an English grammar book written in English? In my experience, after some initial confusion over terms, using English in grammatical explanations is not a big problem. I have even tried this with sixteen-year-old students in Swedish upper secondary education and it worked very well. Appendix 17 provides an English-Swedish glossary and Appendix 18 provides a SwedishEnglish glossary to help you with terminology. There are of course many grammar books written in English, but these are very general and do not bring up areas that can cause particular difficulties to Swedish students.

Secondly, I have aimed at a layout that makes the book more easily accessible than some other grammars. Areas which tend to be particularly problematic to Swedish (and many other) learners of English have been clearly indicated, so that you will easily find them, and a number of symbols have been used to mark various aspects. For instance, exclamation marks indicate particularly important points and flags are used for information about variations between American and British English (see further page 15).

Although the book includes many details (e.g. the rules for using capital letters (‘stor bokstav’), nationality adjectives and phrases including certain prepositions), many of these do not occur in the ordinary presentations, distracting your attention from more central issues. Instead they have been placed in a comprehensive appendix for easy access whenever you need the information.

Thirdly, the book highlights a number of multi-contrastive aspects, i.e. information about cases which may be particularly problematic for students with mother tongues other than Swedish, even though many of the difficulties encountered by Swedish learners are also experienced © The author and Studentlitteratur

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by learners of other linguistic backgrounds. It is of course impossible to discuss all the difficulties encountered by all students with other mother tongues, but I have tried to put the focus on some of the most typical differences in a number of languages that can be expected to be the mother tongues of some of our immigrant and exchange students. In cases where we look at differences between English and other languages, an example is usually provided to illustrate a particular difference. For the sake of clarity (and in order to avoid incorrect representations), these illustrations are in English rather than in the languages concerned and marked by small capitals, as in the following example: she is gone out

(illustrating the fact that in some languages a verb equivalent to

English be rather than have is used in some constructions; in English this would be She has gone out)

I suggest that those of you who do not have Swedish as your mother tongue get hold of a contrastive grammar written by a speaker of your own language to read alongside this one. If you are an exchange student and do not know any Swedish, you will of course have to skip exercises that are based on contrastive aspects (such as translations), or perhaps your teacher or Swedish-speaking fellow students can help you out?

Fourthly, there are sometimes two or more ways of expressing more or less the same thing grammatically. In those cases, I have generally indicated which form is the more frequent one, and also whether there are any known factors influencing the choice between the alternatives, such as dialect or style. For instance, I have pointed out cases where one form is more informal than another, which is important to know when you are learning to write academic texts. All the information about frequencies is based on studies of language corpora (i.e. large databases of autentic texts) (see 2.7).

Fifthly, repetition is often claimed to be crucial to learning. In this grammar book, most chapters end with a brief revision of the most central areas. Furthermore, here and there you will find summarizing overviews of complicated areas. Audio lectures provided at the coursebook website comprise summaries of each of the chapters and explanations of some specific areas often causing problems to learners of English. The book also provides a separate chapter in which all of the most important information

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from the previous chapters is revised in discussion questions and spot-themistake exercises. This means that you will meet the same issues several different times when working with this grammar book.

Finally, the book includes a comprehensive chapter describing the building blocks of language, i.e. word classes (‘ordklasser’), grammatical phrases and clause elements (‘satsdelar’) (see Chapter 3). From experience I know that, even if you have learnt about verbs, prepositions, subjects, objects etc. at school, many students tend to have a fairly fuzzy grasp of these concepts, which are in fact quite central if you are to be able to discuss grammar at all. If you feel that you are familiar with these things, you can skim through Chapter 3 very quickly.

Observe that the whole book is available in digital form. Besides references to all the interactive exercises and audio lectures mentioned above, the digital version also contains clickable cross-references between related parts of the book.

© The author and Studentlitteratur

Maria Estling Vannestål has a PhD in English linguistics and has taught grammar, academic writing, linguistics and language didactics for many years. Her main research interests are in language variation, learner language and the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in language learning. She has also written books and developed materials for English teachers who want to use ICT in their English teaching.

Maria is now working as a freelance writer and lecturer.

A University Grammar of English – with a Swedish Perspective This book is a corpus-based university grammar with a Swedish perspective, written in English and aimed mainly at first-semester students of English at Swedish universities. It gives a thorough, yet easily accessible, introduction to the study of grammar and the building blocks of language: word classes, phrases and clause elements. All examples are authentic, taken from English text types that students are acquainted with and often meet: for instance, spoken conversation, newspapers, academic texts, novels, Internet websites, song lyrics and students’ essays.

Throughout the grammar book, clear symbols indicate specific difficulties facing learners of English as well as other aspects of English usage, and extensive corpus-based information about language variation is provided.

A large number of activities of various kinds, such as problem-solving questions, translation sentences and spot-the-mistake exercises, contribute further to reinforcing the knowledge of grammar.

To accompany the book, there is an extensive website including exercises and audio lectures on particular grammatical issues. In this second edition of A University Grammar of English the whole book has been digitalized, with clickable cross-references between different sections, and the audio lectures now also include short summaries of each of the chapters.

Second edition

Art.nr 31718

www.studentlitteratur.se