Modal verbs

This lesson explains the grammar of modal verbs and where they are placed in a sentence or question.

Negative adverbs

Negative adverbs are used to make negative statements. English negative adverbs include not, never, and nowhere. This lesson explains how to form negative statements using these adverbs.

Negative prefixes

Negative statements are the opposite of affirmative statements. In English, one way to make negative statements is by adding negative prefixes to nouns and adjectives.

Past participle

The past participle is a verb form that indicates a completed action. It is used in perfect aspects, adverb clauses, and the passive voice.

Past perfect

The past perfect, or pluperfect, is a compound verb form which requires two verbs: had and a past participle.

Past perfect progressive

The past perfect progressive, also called the pluperfect progressive is a compound verb form. It requires three verbs: had + been + verb+ing.

Past progressive

The past progressive is used to describe an action that began in the past, continued for a period of time, and then ended in the past. It is formed with the verb BE conjugated in the simple past plus the present participle.

Past tense

In English, there are four different verb forms, or aspects, that together comprise the past tense.

Perfect aspect

English has four "perfect" verb forms, each of which is an "aspect" of the two English tenses.

Possessive adjectives

Possessive adjectives describe to whom or to what something belongs. There is one possessive adjective for each grammatical person.