All ready means “completely ready”.
For example: “Are you all ready for the test?”
Already is an adverb that means before the present time or earlier than the time expected.
For example:
“I asked him to come to the cinema but he’d already seen the film.”
Or
“Are you buying Christmas cards already? It’s only September!”
Alone, can be used as an adjective or adverb. Either use means without other people or on your own.
For example:
“He likes living alone.”
“I think we’re alone now.” = There are just the two of us here.
Lonely is an adjective which means you are unhappy because you are not with other people.
For example:
“The house feels lonely now that all the children have left home.”
Note – Just because you’re alone, doesn’t mean you’re lonely.
All right has multiple meanings. It can mean ok, acceptable, unhurt.
The single word spelling alright has never been accepted as standard.
However in a search on Google you’ll get around 68,700,000 hits for alright and 163,000,000 for “all right”. So, it might become a respected alternative spelling. Personally I have no problem with it, but what do other people think:-
Kingsley Amis The King’s English 1997: “I still feel that to inscribe alright is gross, crass, coarse and to be avoided, and I now say so. Its interdiction is as pure an example as possible of a rule without a reason, and in my case may well show nothing but how tenacious a hold early training can take.”
Bill Bryson Troublesome Words 1997: “A good case could be made for shortening all right to alright. … English, however, is a fickle tongue and alright continues to be looked on as illiterate and unacceptable and consequently it ought never to appear in serious writing.”
Robert Burchfield The New Fowler’s Modern English Usage 1997: “Alright … is the demotic form. It is preferred, to judge from the evidence I have assembled, by popular sources like the British magazines The Face … New Musical Express and Sounds, the American magazine Black World, the Australian journal Southerly, the Socialist Worker, by popular singers … and hardly ever by writers of standing … It is commonplace in private correspondence, especially in that of the moderately educated young. Almost all other printed works in Britain and abroad use the more traditional form … ”
Graham King The Times Writer’s Guide 2001: If we accept already, altogether and almost, why not alright? Although it carries with it the whiff of grammatical illegitimacy it is and has been in common use for a century …”
There are four groups of words which some speakers and writers have difficulty with. In each case it has to do with the agreements of plurals or plural-looking words with the verbs or other words they go with.
Plural-looking Nouns.
Some nouns that end in -s look like they are plural, but they really are singular. This is particularly true of branches of knowledge, certain foods or dishes, and certain diseases.
Branches of knowledge like mathematics, physics, ethics, politics, or social studies are singular.
Names of foods, while plural, are treated singularly when they are treated as a single dish.
Some diseases, while plural in origin, are treated singularly because just one disease is discussed: measles, mumps, rickets, or pox.
Examples:
Politics is a rough life.
Baked beans is one of my favorite dishes.
Mumps has been nearly eradicated in the U.S.
A few words, though singular in nature, are made of paired items and generally treated as plural: scissors, pants, trousers, glasses, pliers, tongs, tweezers, and the like. Many are often used with the word pair as in pair of pants or pair of scissors.
Example: These scissors are too dull to cut with.
Nouns Expressing Measurement.
A noun expressing an amount or measurement is normally singular.
If the unit of measurement refers to a number of individual items, then it treated as a plural.
Examples: Two spoons of sugar is too much for me.
(A single measurement)
Twelve dollars is less than what I want to sell it for.
(A single sum of money)
Four-fifths of the country is satisfied with its health insurance.
(One part of a whole)
Four-fifths of the people are satisfied with their health insurance.
(Four-fifths refers to many individuals.)
Titles.
Titles of books and other works of art are always considered singular even if the title sounds plural.
The Alfred Hitchcock film The Birds was successfully advertised with a campaign that said, “The Birds is coming!” Unlike so many ads, that one was grammatically correct.
Plurals That Do Not End in -s
A number of plurals, mostly derived from Latin, do not end in -s. Nevertheless, they are plural and should be treated as such. Words such as criteria, phenomena, memoranda, and media are plural. Their singular forms are criterion, phenomenon, memorandum, and medium.
The word data is also technically plural, but the singular form, datum, is rare in English, so using data as singular is tolerated, but not precisely correct. Say “piece of data” or “item of data” for the singular if datum sounds too affected.
See also “Alumni” and other listings in Spelling Slammer.
Possessive forms.
A possessive form of a noun signifies that the noun owns something:
A musician’s talent.
A woman’s ambition.
Possessive forms call for a properly placed apostrophe. The placement is different for singular and plural nouns. For this reason, you must know the correct singular and possessive nouns before you can make them possessive.
Singular possessive.
The possessive form of a singular noun is an apostrophe followed by the letter “s.”
Kramer’s hair.
Daphne’s patience.
the car’s engine.
Words ending with “s”, “z” or “x” generally omit the “s”.
Dr. Seuss’ sense of humor.
Plural possessive.
In order to place the apostrophe correctly in plural nouns, you must first be certain of the plural form. If you have questions about these forms, you may want to browse the section on plural nouns above.
For plural nouns ending in “s”, add only an apostrophe:
Singers’ voices.
The cousins’ favorite uncle.
Nouns ending in “y”
To form the plural of nouns ending in “y”, drop the “y” and add “ies.”
Family becomes families.
Story becomes stories.
Baby becomes babies.
Irregular plural forms
There are several other irregularities in the plural forms of English nouns. Here are examples:
Man becomes men.
Woman becomes women.
Fungus becomes fungi.
Thief becomes thieves (note that not all words ending in “f” follow this pattern: roof/roofs).
Species remains species.
Medium becomes media.
Person becomes people.
Plural forms and the apostrophe.
A common error is to form the plural of a noun by adding “s” to the singular form. Try to get out the habit of doing this. A trick for remembering that the apostrophe signifies the plural is that possessive means “having” and so the possessive form of the word “has” an apostrophe. How do you tell the difference in between plural and possessive? Check the meaning of the sentence. Does the noun simply refer to more than one thing? Or does the sentence mention something that belongs to the noun?
Although usage has changed in recent years, some handbooks call for an apostrophe in the plural forms of numbers, letters, and words used as words:
How many 1’s do we have in the line?
We put x’s on the incorrect answers.
The no’s resounded loudly throughout the chamber.
This is the First of a Three Part Study on the correct use of plural and possessive forms. This may seem like a minor issue but among educated persons, however, incorrect forms, especially misuses of apostrophes, stand out like red flags.
Let us start by understanding some rules for forming the plural and possessive forms of nouns.
Plural forms.
The plural form of a noun indicates simply that there are more than one of the person or thing in question.
For most nouns, the plural form includes the letter “s” at the end of the word:
Dogs.
Trees.
Turtles.
Nouns ending in “s”, “z”, “ch”, “sh” and “x”.
Nouns with these letters at the end call for an “es” in the plural form. This added syllable makes pronunciation easier.
Beaches.
Foxes.
Wishes.
Nouns ending in “o”
Some nouns ending in “o” are pluralized with an “s”, while others call for “es”. These words must be memorized, because there is no simple rule to explain the differences.
echoes; heroes; potatoes; vetoes; autos ; memos; pimentos; pros
A – Put in the verbs in brackets into the gaps.
1) I ____________________ thirsty. (to be)
2) John often ____________________ sugar in his coffee. (to take)
3) Listen! They ____________________ home. (to come)
4) I usually ____________________ as a teacher in Germany, but this summer I ____________________ as a language assistant in Rome. (to work)
5) Anne ____________________ red hair. (to have)
6) The flowers ____________________ beautiful. (to smell)
7) The bus to New York ____________________ at 6.30). (to leave)
My history teacher ____________________ too much. (to talk)
9) Right now Christine ____________________ on the computer. (to work)
10) Hey! What ____________________ you ____________________ there? (to do)
B – Which sentences are correct? Sometimes both sentences are correct.
1)
a) I feel fine.
b) I’m feeling fine.
2)
a) I am tasting the soup.
b) The soup tastes good.
3)
a) She is weighing the turkey.
b) She weighs 60 kilos.
4)
a) You are being very silly about this.
b) You are silly.
5)
a) I am remembering my first date.
b) I remember my first day at school.
6)
a) I love holidays.
b) I’m loving every minute of my holiday.
7)
a) I am needing an umbrella now.
b) I need a new computer.
a) I see what the teacher means.
b) I’m seeing what the teacher means.
9)
a) I am thinking we should go.
b) I think we should go.
10)
a) Andy repairs things at the moment.
b) Andy sometimes repairs things.
C – Which answers are correct?
1) What are typical signal words for the Present Progressive?
a) Listen!
b) Look!
c) ago
d) at the moment
e) just
f) never
g) now h) yet
2) What are typical signal words for the Simple Present?
a) already
b) at the moment
c) every day
d) last week
e) normally
f) now
g) seldom
h) usually
3) Which sentences/questions are in the Present Progressive?
a) He had a shower in the morning.
b) He was sitting on the beach.
c) He’s having a shower.
d) I don’t think so.
e) We’re thinking of buying a new car.
4) Which sentences/questions are in the Simple Present?
a) Anne is always coming late.
b) First I get up then I have breakfast.
c) He’s just finished the letter.
d) I was having breakfast.
e) I’m here.
f) She lives in Sofia.
D – Which actions – which tenses?
1) Which of the following action is in the Simple Present?
a) actions happening at the moment of speaking
b) action finished in the past
c) repeated actions
2) Which of the following action is in the Simple Present?
a) result of an action in the past is important in the present
b) things in general
c) planned action in the near future
3) Which of the following action is in the Simple Present?
a) actions beginning in the past and still continuing
b) actions in the present – one follows after the other
c) planned action in the future
4) Which of the following action is in the Simple Present?
a) actions were in progress at special time in the past
b) fixed arrangements, scheduled events in the future
c) spontaneous action in the future
5) Which of the following action is in the Present Progressive?
a) things in general
b) spontaneous action in the future
c) fixed plan in the near future
6) Which of the following action is in the Present Progressive?
a) actions happening at the moment of speaking
b) recently completed actions
c) repeated actions
E – Negate the following sentences.
1) They are using a dictionary.
2) Stacey works in the library.
3) She is good at sports.
4) The diary is lying on the floor.
5) Anne is smiling.
6) We are carrying a big box.
7) I like fish.
They are preparing the picnic.
9) My friend lives in Stockholm.
10) He is waiting for the bus.
F – Choose the correct verb forms.
1) _________ in ghosts?
a) Does your little brother believe
b) Is your little brother believing
2) This cake __________ wonderful.
a) is tasting
b) tastes
3) My father __________ tea for breakfast.
a) is prefering
b) prefers
4) Hey John! __________ about Peggy?
a) Are you thinking
b) Do you think
5) I have to go now. __________ dark.
a) It gets
b) It’s getting
6) We __________ music in the street.
a) are hearing
b) hear
7) I __________ his brother is football-crazy.
a) am thinking
b) think
__________ with you.
a) I agree
b) I am agreeing
9) He __________ with his grandmother until his mother comes back from China.
a) is living
b) lives
10) He __________ the newspaper at the moment.
a) is reading
b) reads
A – Put in the verbs in brackets into the gaps.
1) Pat often ____________________ to concerts. (to go)
2) Look! The boys ____________________ to the playground. (to run)
3) Every afternoon Jack ____________________ a cup of tea. (to have)
4) We ____________________ a computer game at the moment. (to play)
5) I ____________________ a nice film now. (to watch)
6) Tom never ____________________ picture postcards. (to write)
7) They ____________________ from Tokyo. (to be)
Listen! Anne and Susan ____________________ a song. (to sing)
9) Angela sometimes ____________________ a museum. (to visit)
10) The cat seldom ____________________ on the sofa. (to sleep)
B – Which sentences are correct?
1)
a) Timmy is asking a lot of questions now.
b) Timmy is sometimes asking a lot of questions.
2)
a) He often reads a book.
b) He reads a book now.
3)
a) Every afternoon Mum makes a cup of tea.
b) Listen! Mum makes a cup of tea.
4)
a) Every day the boy is making a snowball.
b) Look! The boy is making a snowball.
5)
a) Look! Stan is doing magic tricks.
b) Stan is usually doing magic tricks.
6)
a) Listen! The girls are making a lot of noise.
b) The girls are often making a lot of noise.
7)
a) Listen! We play the drums.
b) We never play the drums.
a) Dorothy helps with the cooking in the afternoons.
b) Look! Dorothy helps with the cooking.
9)
a) They always go to school by bus.
b) They go to school by bus at the moment.
10)
a) Andy repairs things at the moment.
b) Andy sometimes repairs things.
C – Which answers are correct?
1) What are typical signal words for the Simple Present?
a) yesterday
b) sometimes
c) at the moment
d) every day
e) often
f) now
2) What are typical signal words for the Present Progressive?
a) Listen!
b) sometimes
c) at the moment
d) now
e) often
f) every day
3) Which verb forms are used in the Simple Present?
a) infinitive
b) infinitive + -ed
c) infinitive + -s
d) are + infinitive + -ing
e) infinitive + -ing
4) Which verb forms are used in the Present Progressive?
a) infinitive
b) infinitive + -ing
c) am + infinitive + -ing
d) are + infinitive + -ing
e) is + infinitive + -ing
f) to be + infinitive + -ing
5) Which sentences/questions are in the Simple Present?
a) Do you like tea?
b) He is British.
c) She dropped a glass of milk.
d) She is sitting on a chair.
e) We don’t go by bus.
f) He’s chatting.
6) Which sentences/questions are in the Present Progressive?
a) He does not make the beds.
b) I often take photos.
c) Is the cat playing in the garden?
d) She’s doing her homework.
e) They are not cleaning their room.
f) We have a new car.
D – Which action – which tenses?
1) things in general
a) Simple Present
b) Present Progressive
2) repeated actions
a) Simple Present
b) Present Progressive
3) actions happening at the moment of speaking
a) Simple Present
b) Present Progressive
4) actions in the present – one follows after the other
a) Simple Present
b) Present Progressive
5) habitual actions
a) Simple Present
b) Present Progressive
E – Negate the sentences.
1) Cathy forgets her homework.
2) I collect picture postcards. 3) They play chess in a club.
4) The dog is sitting under the tree.
5) Sam and Max live with their mother.
6) Our teacher checks the homework every day. 7) You are having fun.
He is looking at a photo.
9) I am repairing my bike.
10) She does magic tricks.
A – What tense are the following Passive sentences?
1) The new computer chip will be produced in Dresden.
a) Simple Present
b) Simple Past
c) Present Perfect
d) will-future
2) The old vessel was being towed into harbour.
a) Simple Past
b) Past Progressive
c) Present Perfect Progressive
d) Past Perfect
3) A song is going to be sung.
a) will-future
b) Present Progressive
c) Past Progressive
d) going to-future
4) I’m being watched. a) Present Progressive
b) Past Progressive
c) will-future
d) going to-future
5) My car was broken into yesterday.
a) Simple Past
b) Present Perfect
c) Conditional I
d) Present Perfect
6) The president will be elected.
a) Conditional I
b) will-future
c) Simple Present
d) Present Progressive
7) The dog is being taken to the vet’s.
a) Simple Present b) Present Perfect
c) Present Perfect Progressive
d) Present Progressive
The tiger would be kept in the zoo.
a) will-future
b) Simple Present
c) Present Progressive
d) Conditional I
9) The people had not been warned by the coastguards.
a) Present Perfect
b) Simple Past c) Past Perfect
d) Simple Present
10) The patient is being prepared for the major operation. a) Simple Present b) Present Perfect
c) Present Perfect Progressive
d) Present Progressive
B – Make Passive forms from the given phrases. Mind the tenses in brackets.
1) the car – to repair (Present Perfect) ________________________________
2) computers – to replace (Past Progressive) ___________________________
3) the road – to close (Conditional I) _________________________________
4) eggs – to boil (Simple Past) ______________________________________
5) the table – to lay (will-future) _____________________________________
6) classrooms – to use (Past Perfect) _________________________________
7) penguins – to feed (Future Perfect) _________________________________
my house – to break in (Present Perfect) ____________________________
9) children – to see in the park (Simple Past) ____________________________
10) astronauts – to send to the moon (will-future) ________________________
C – Rewrite the Active sentences into Passive.
1) We must write to her.
____________________________________________________________________
2) People said that the President is ill.
____________________________________________________________________
3) The lady gave me the keys.
____________________________________________________________________
4) The professor is going to show the students an old bone.
____________________________________________________________________
5) Jack has installed a new computer software.
____________________________________________________________________
6) They develop a new type of washing powder.
____________________________________________________________________
7) Who said it?
____________________________________________________________________
Rick told Sue to give up smoking.
____________________________________________________________________
9) They expected us to build the road.
____________________________________________________________________
10) Snow covered the mountains.
____________________________________________________________________
D – Choose the correct Passive form.
1) The first computer ____________ in the 1940’s.
a) was invented
b) is invented
c) will be invented
2) I ____________________
a) was let go.
b) was let to go.
c) was let go to.
3) Yesterday a boy ___________ in an accident in High Street.
a) will be injured
b) has been injured
c) was injured
4) She ___________ to Jack’s birthday party.
a) are invited
b) has been invited
c) have been invited
5) The homework ________________ by tomorrow.
a) must be done
b) was done
c) will be made
6) The manager ____________ about the problem.
a) should has been told
b) should have been told
c) should been told
