English Noun

1. How can we characterize the noun as a part of speech according to all the three criteria?

2. Nouns as a word class have a peculiar lexical meaning in common, don’t they? How can you name and explain it?

3. Are “like” and “dislike” nouns or verbs? How do you know?

4. What’s the typical combinability of the noun? How can the noun function in the sentence? Which of these characteristics are important in teaching?

5. What meaning do the singular and the plural forms have in common? What meanings make them different?

6. There are several formal signs of the plural in English (s, es, en, i, etc.)? Which of them can be called allomorphs? Which of them can’t, and why?

7. What do we need cases for? How can the English language do without cases? What are other means of expressing relations between nouns?

8. What does the English language need the possessive case for, if it has the of-phrase?

9. What relations do English cases (common and possessive) express? How is the possessive case marked? Is this sign always glued to the noun? Always noticeable?

10. Are all the categories of the noun indisputable? If not, why? Why do most scholars deny that there is gender in English?

11. What category can be treated as a limited one? Which is really a limited category: number or case? And what are the limitations?

12. What sort of determiner is the article? How can you oppose English articles (draw the scheme)?

13. How many articles are there in fact? Is the article a morpheme, a word, or what? Does the absence of article mean anything? In what cases does it render some meaning?

English Verb

1. Are tense and time equivalents? If not, why? Does “yesterday“ express tense?

2. What does tense as a category express? What does tense as a term (used in practical grammars) stand for?

3. How many tenses are there in English? How do some people find many more?

4. What is the main difference between English and Russian tense systems? Why are the forms of the English Verb (for example, have been doing) so difficult for Russian learners?

5. If there are three tenses, why are there so many tense forms?

6. What grammatical information does one verb form give you?

7. What role does the reference point play in the English tense system? How many reference points can there be?

8. What’s the difference between so called absolute and relative tenses?

9. Make sure that you can draw the scheme of the opposition in the English category of tense.

10. Why is it difficult to build a perfect opposition in the English category of tense? What tense forms won’t enter it easily?

11. Why should we discuss aspect, if some scholars say there is none in English?

12. What general meaning does aspect express as a rule? What makes the English aspect different? What aspective meaning is relevant in Russian? What sort of interference is possible?

13. Which of the terms (continuous, process, progress, development, progressive) reflect the nature of the English aspect best?

14. Is there a verbal form in English that expresses only aspect and nothing else? What else do the forms of the English verb usually express?

15. Make sure you can draw the opposition in the English category of aspect without looking in your notes.

16. What is the meaning of the marked member of the opposition in the category of aspect? Of the unmarked? Do all the marked aspective forms express the same meaning?

17. Russian learners often think that perfect forms in English render meanings similar to the Russian perfective aspect, don’t they? Why? Are there any grounds for it?

18. Teachers usually say that we use perfect forms to express result. What makes them say it? Do English perfect forms really express result? In what cases?

19. What’s the most general meaning of perfect forms and in what forms can it be seen most clearly?

20. Is there any meaning in non-perfect forms?

21. What should the opposition of perfect and non-perfect forms look like?

22. What do we use Present Perfect for?

23. Should we ever teach Future Perfect? Is its meaning different from the meaning of other perfect forms? In what exactly?

24. Do passive voice forms express direction at the object?

25. Do active and passive forms sometimes have similar meaning? How can it be if they are opposed in the category?

26. Which of the forms (active or passive) possesses a wider range of meanings? What is the general meaning of Voice?

27. How is passive meaning marked in English? Is it sometimes unmarked?

28. Are voice meanings expressed in isolation from tense and other categories?

29. Could you list all the passive voice forms and oppose them to active ones? Could you draw the scheme of the opposition?

30. What makes people say that there are 5 voices in English: active, passive, middle, reflexive, reciprocal? How many are there after all?

31. Do mere transformations of active forms into passive ones make sense? What do we need transformations for?

32. What is there in common between modal verbs and moods? What makes moods different from other means of expressing modality?

33. What is the general meaning of the category of mood? How do concrete mood forms express this general meaning?

34. Why isn’t it easy to oppose English mood forms? In form or in meaning?

35. Could you draw the scheme of the opposition?

36. How many moods are there in English? And how many mood forms?

37. Are all English mood forms equally easy to place in the opposition? What problems do some of them create?

38. The forms of the imperative and the indicative mood often look quite alike? What helps to distinguish them?

39. The subjunctive mood doesn’t always differ in form from the indicative. Are they different in meaning?

40. Can you single out at least some formal signs of English moods?

41. Why is it next to impossible for Russian pupils to master English moods? How can we teach English moods after all if there are so many problems?