Anglais · 2ème année Bac — Lettres

English Grammar

1. Definition and Rule

English grammar is a system of rules that governs how words are arranged and used to produce correct, meaningful language. At the 2nd-year Baccalaureate level, mastering grammar means understanding four core areas: word classes (parts of speech), sentence structures, the verb system, and complex clause formation. Together these areas give you full control over written and spoken English across every register, from informal conversation to formal academic writing.
A useful way to think about grammar is as a toolbox: each grammatical category is a distinct tool, and skilled writers know which tool to reach for and how to combine them effectively.

2. Form and Structure: The Eight Parts of Speech

All English sentences are built from eight parts of speech. Each class has a distinct grammatical role.

Nouns

Nouns name people, places, things, or ideas. They fall into two broad contrasts: common vs. proper (dog vs. Fido) and concrete vs. abstract (chair vs. freedom). Nouns are typically introduced by determiners such as the, a, this, or my.

Pronouns

Pronouns stand in for nouns when the reference is already clear. The main groups are: subjective (I, he, they), objective (me, him, them), possessive (mine, theirs), and demonstrative (this, those). A key rule: every pronoun must match its noun in number and gender.

Verbs

Verbs express actions (run, write) or states of being (am, seem). Action verbs are either transitive (taking a direct object: She ate an apple) or intransitive (complete without an object: She slept). Verbs are conjugated to show tense and aspect.

Adjectives

Adjectives describe or limit nouns, answering questions such as which one, what kind, or how many. When several adjectives precede a noun they follow a fixed sequence: opinion → size → age → shape → colour → origin → material → purpose. Breaking this order produces unnatural-sounding phrases.
"one beautiful old brick house" — opinion (beautiful) → age (old) → material (brick) → noun (house) ✓

Adverbs

Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs — answering how, when, where, why, or to what degree. Many end in -ly (slowly, carefully) but not all (well, fast, hard). An adverb can even modify an entire clause: "Unfortunately, she missed the deadline."

Prepositions, Conjunctions, and Interjections

Prepositions show relationships between words — direction (to, from), location (on, under), time (before, during), or cause (because of). Conjunctions connect elements: coordinating conjunctions (FANBOYS: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) link equal units, while subordinating conjunctions (because, although, if, when) introduce dependent clauses. Interjections (Wow!, Oops!) express strong emotion and are generally avoided in formal writing.

3. Uses of Grammar Knowledge

A solid command of English grammar allows you to:
  • Construct grammatically correct sentences across all contexts — academic essays, letters, reports, and conversations.
  • Express nuanced meanings through careful tense and aspect selection (simple facts vs. ongoing duration vs. completion relative to another moment).
  • Communicate degrees of certainty, obligation, or politeness using modal verbs (must, should, might, could).
  • Build complex ideas by embedding dependent clauses (relative, adverbial, noun clauses) within longer sentences.
  • Shift focus between actor and action by choosing between active and passive voice.
  • Report what others have said accurately using the rules of tense backshift, pronoun change, and time-expression adjustment.
  • Express real, hypothetical, and impossible conditions through the five conditional structures.
  • Adapt register — choosing formal conjunctions, complex passives, and impersonal structures for academic writing, or simpler active sentences for conversation.

4. Worked Examples

Tenses and Aspects

The twelve tenses combine three time periods with four aspects. A few contrasting examples illustrate how aspect changes meaning, not just time:
"She worked yesterday." — Past Simple: a completed action at a finished point in time.
"I was reading when he called." — Past Continuous: an ongoing past action interrupted by another event.
"I have worked here for five years." — Present Perfect: a past action with clear relevance to the present moment.
"By 2030, I will have completed my degree." — Future Perfect: an action that will be finished before a specified future point.

Active vs. Passive Voice

Active: "The teacher praised the students." — subject performs the action; agent is important.
Passive: "The students were praised." — subject receives the action; agent is omitted because it is unimportant or unknown.

Conditionals

Zero: "If you heat water to 100°C, it boils." — universal truth; both clauses use present simple.
First: "If you study hard, you will pass the exam." — realistic future possibility.
Second: "If I were rich, I would travel constantly." — hypothetical present/future; note 'were' not 'was' after 'I'.
Third: "If we had left earlier, we would have arrived on time." — impossible past situation; expresses regret.

Reported Speech

Direct: "I am happy," she said.
Reported: She said that she was happy. — present simple 'am' backshifts to past simple 'was'.
Direct: "Don't be late," she said. — command form.
Reported: She told him not to be late. — structure: tell + person + not to-infinitive.

Relative Clauses

Restrictive: "The student who finished first received a prize." — no commas; 'who finished first' is essential to identify which student.
Non-restrictive: "My brother, who lives in London, is a doctor." — commas set off extra information that can be removed without changing the core meaning.

5. Common Mistakes to Avoid

Modal Verbs

Never place to directly after a modal verb.
  • Wrong: "He can to speak English." — Correct: "He can speak English."
  • Wrong: "She must studied hard." — Correct: "She must study hard." or "She must have studied hard." (past reference).

Conditional Forms

  • Wrong: "If I would know, I would help." — would cannot appear in the if-clause. Correct: "If I knew, I would help."
  • Wrong: "If he will come, I'll be happy." — Use present simple, not will, in the if-clause. Correct: "If he comes, I'll be happy."

Relative Pronouns

  • Wrong: "The student which got the highest score was rewarded." — Use who for people. Correct: "The student who got the highest score was rewarded."
  • Wrong: "The girl that I saw her yesterday is my friend." — Never repeat the pronoun inside the relative clause. Correct: "The girl that I saw yesterday is my friend."

Reported Speech

  • Wrong: "He said that he is happy." — Backshift is required when the reporting verb is past. Correct: "He said that he was happy."

Comma Splices and Sentence Fragments

  • Comma splice — Wrong: "The weather was beautiful, we went to the park." Two independent clauses cannot be joined by a comma alone. Fix with a coordinating conjunction: "The weather was beautiful, so we went to the park.", a semicolon, or a full stop.
  • Fragment — Wrong: "Although it was raining." A dependent clause cannot stand alone. Fix by adding an independent clause: "Although it was raining, we went outside."

Adjective vs. Adverb Confusion

  • Wrong: "She spoke clear about her intentions." — An adjective cannot modify a verb. Correct: "She spoke clearly about her intentions."

Double Negatives

  • Wrong: "I don't want nothing." — Use either a negative auxiliary or a negative pronoun, not both. Correct: "I don't want anything." or "I want nothing."

Adjective Order

  • Wrong: "a beautiful blue old house." — Age comes before colour. Correct: "a beautiful old blue house."

Tense Inconsistency

  • Wrong: "She walked to the store and bought milk and returns home." — Maintain the same tense unless the timeline changes. Correct: "She walked to the store, bought milk, and returned home."

6. Key-Point Callout

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Key point: Every grammatical choice carries a meaning consequence. Tense and aspect tell the reader when and how an action relates to time. Voice (active/passive) controls what the sentence emphasises. Mood and modals signal the speaker's attitude — certainty, obligation, possibility. Keeping subjects and verbs in agreement, placing modifiers close to what they describe, and never leaving a dependent clause alone are the three non-negotiable rules that prevent the most common Bac-level errors.

7. The English Verb System at a Glance

English has twelve main tenses formed by combining three time periods (past, present, future) with four grammatical aspects (simple, continuous, perfect, perfect continuous).
  1. Simple aspect — focuses on the action or state itself without emphasising duration: "I work here every day."
  1. Continuous aspect (be + -ing) — highlights ongoing duration: "She is reading right now." Not normally used with stative verbs such as want, love, or believe.
  1. Perfect aspect (have + past participle) — links a past action to another point in time, stressing completion or relevance: "I have studied for two hours."
  1. Perfect continuous aspect (have + been + -ing) — combines duration with relevance to another moment: "They have been studying all morning."

8. Sentence Types: From Simple to Compound-Complex

All sentences are built from independent clauses (complete thoughts that can stand alone) and dependent clauses (word groups with a subject and verb that cannot stand alone). The combination of these units creates four sentence types.
  • Simple — one independent clause. It can have compound subjects or verbs: "Lewis and Alice played in the backyard."
  • Compound — two or more independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction or semicolon: "I kicked the ball, and it hit Tom."
  • Complex — one independent clause plus at least one dependent clause introduced by a subordinating conjunction or relative pronoun: "Tom cried because the ball hit him."
  • Compound-complex — at least two independent clauses and at least one dependent clause combined: "Tom cried because the ball hit him, and I apologised immediately."

9. Modal Verbs: Expressing Attitude and Condition

Modal verbs (can, could, may, might, must, should, would, will, shall, ought to) are auxiliary verbs that add layers of meaning — ability, permission, possibility, necessity, advice, or probability — without changing the base verb. Two fixed rules apply to all modals:
  • They are always followed by the base infinitive without 'to': "She can speak French" (never "can to speak").
  • They never add -s for third-person singular: "He must leave" (never "He musts leave").
Key modal meanings at Bac level:
  • Ability: can / could — "She can swim. When I was young, I could run very fast."
  • Obligation: must / have to — "You must wear a seatbelt."
  • Advice: should / ought to — "You should study for the exam."
  • Probability: must / should — "They must be exhausted after that journey."
  • Past unrealised possibility (modal perfect): modal + have + past participle — "You should have studied more."

10. Core Principles That Tie Everything Together

Whatever the specific topic — tenses, passives, conditionals, reported speech — the same overarching principles govern all of English grammar:
  1. Consistency: maintain the same tense, person, and voice throughout a passage unless the timeline genuinely changes.
  1. Agreement: subjects and verbs must agree in number and person; pronouns must match their antecedents in number and gender.
  1. Clarity: place every modifier close to the word it modifies to prevent ambiguity.
  1. Fixed word order: English is a relatively rigid Subject–Verb–Object language; changing this order usually requires a specific grammatical rule (questions, inversions, passives).
  1. Context determines form: the same word can act as different parts of speech depending on its position — 'work' as a noun ('I have work to do') or a verb ('I work here').
  1. Register awareness: passive constructions, formal connectors (whereas, furthermore), and complex structures suit academic writing; active voice and simpler structures suit conversation.