This guide provides a systematic account of grammatical forms and the way they are used in standard British English today.

Introduction; Acknowledgements; Key to symbols; SENTENCE AND TEXT; 1. English grammar; 2. The simple sentence; 3. Statements, questions, imperatives and exclamations; 4. Questions and answers; 5. Leaving out and replacing words; 6. Information and emphasis; 7. Spoken English and written English; VERB FORMS; 8. The verb phrase; 9. Verb tenses and aspects; 10. The future; 11. Be, have, and do; 12. Modal verbs; 13. The passive; INFINITIVE, GERUND AND PARTICIPLES; 14. The infinitive; 15. The gerund; 16. Participles; THE NOUN PHRASE; 17. Nouns and noun phrases; 18. Agreement; 19. The articles: a/an and the; 20. Possessives and demonstratives; 21. Quantifiers; 22. Pronouns; 23. Numbers and measurements; ADJECTIVES, ADVERBS AND PREPOSITIONS; 24. Adjectives; 25. Adverbials; 26. Comparison; 27. Prepositions; 28. Phrasal verbs and patterns with prepositions; MAIN CLAUSES AND SUB CLAUSES; 29. Sentences with more than one clause; 30. And, or, but, so etc; 31. Adverbial clauses; 32. Conditional clauses; 33. Noun clauses; 34. Direct and indirect speech; 35. Relative clauses; WORD FORMS; 36. Word-building; 37. Word endings: pronunciation and spelling; 38. Irregular noun plurals; 39. Irregular verb forms; APPENDIX; American English; Glossary; Index