STRUCTURE
TOEFL
The Test Of
English as a Foreign Language (or TOEFL, pronounced "toe-full") evaluates the potential
success of an individual to use and understand standard American English at a
college level. The Structure and
Written Expression section contains sentences that
test your knowledge of important structural and grammatical elements of
standard written English.
The type of structure
of TOEFL are so many, as follow:
1. NOUNSà A noun is the name of a person, place, thing, or idea. Whatever
exists, we assume, can be named, and that name is a noun. Categories Noun:
a) Compound noun: A common noun is a noun that refers to people or
things in general. There are several different types of compound noun,
as follows:
· Countable compound nouns: address book
· Uncountable compound nouns: air conditioning
· Singular compound nouns: cost of living
· Plural compound nouns: armed forces
b) Countable nouns: nouns
are words which can be counted. They have a singular form
and a plural form. They usually refer to things. Most countable nouns become
plural by adding an ‘s’ at the end of the word.
Example: book ( I bought a book last week)
c) Collective nouns: Collective nouns refer to groups of people or things.
For example: the jury is trying to make ecision now ß that can be follow with singular and plural verb
d) Uncountable noun:
nouns are words which cannot be counted. Therefore, they only have a
singular form. They have no plural forms.
For example: I need a water (wrong)
I need some water (right)
2.PRONOUNSà a pronoun is a word or form that substitutes for a noun or noun phrase. It
is a particular case of a pro-form.
There are several different types of pronouns,
as follows:
a) Subjective pronouns:
Personal pronouns may be classified by person, number
and
case.
Example: Who is Mr. Black? à He is my new neighbour
b) Possessive adjective:
Example: Singular ( This is my English dictionary)
Example: Plural ( These are our dictionaries)
c) Possessive pronouns: Possessive pronouns are used to indicate possession or ownership. Some occur as independent
noun phrases: mine, yours, hers, ours, yours, theirs.
Example : Singular (This dictionary is mine)
Example : Plural (These English novels are ours)
d) Reflexive Pronouns: Reflexive pronouns are used when a person or thing
acts on itself.
Example : I enjoyed myself at the party last night
e) Indefinite pronouns:
Indefinite pronouns, the largest group
of pronouns, refer to one or more unspecified persons or things.
Example : I didn’t see anything when I entered the house last
night.
f) Demonstrative
pronouns:
Demonstrative pronouns (in English, this, that and their plurals these, those) often
distinguish their targets by pointing or some other indication of position
Example: This is a list of the new members.
3. HELPING VERBSà Helping verbs have no
meaning on their own. They are necessary for the grammatical structure of a
sentence, but they do not tell us very much alone.
a) TO BE: AM, IS, ARE
Example : I am an employee
b) TO BE: WAS, WERE
Example : I was an employee
c) TO BE: BEING, BEEN
Example : I will be very busy tomorrow morning.
d) TO BE + USED TO +
NOUN/VERB-ING
Example : I am used to hot weather
Example : He is used to having breakfast before leaving for
office
e) THERE IS – THERE ARE
Example : There is a book on the table
Example : There are five books on that table
4. TENSESà In grammar, tense is a category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes
place. Tense is the grammaticalisation of time
reference, often using three basic categories of "before now", the past;
"now", the present; and
"after now", the future
a) Simple Present Tense:
Example: I study English on Monday and Thursday
b) Present Continuos Tense:
Example: He is looking for his pen in that room
c) Present Perfect Tense:
Example: We have occupied this house for 3 years
d) Present Perfect Continuous
Example: Diana has been working for this company for 7 months
e) Simple Past Tense
Example: We studied English last Tuesday afternoon.
f) Past Continuous
Tense
Example: We were having breakfast at 7 o’clock this morning
g) Past Perfect Tense
Example: He had sold the car when I came too see it yesterday
afternoon.
h) Past Perfect Continuous
Example: Dhiana had been typing the monthly report for 2 hours
at 11 o’clock this morning.
i) Simple
Future Tense
Example: I will spend my holidays in Bali next month.
j) Future
Continuous Tense
Example: I will be leaving for Surabaya by train if you come to
my home at 7 o’clock tomorrow afternoon
k) Future Perfect Tense
Example: They will have finished painting this building by the
end of this month
l) Future
Perfect Continuous
Example: I will have been studying Englishfor there years by the
time I am 25 years old
5. ADJECTIVESà An
adjective is a word that describes, identifies, modifies, or quantifies
something (a noun or a pronoun). In the phrase, "the black cat" the word black is an adjective because it
describes the cat. Categorise adjectives:
a)
Position Adjective: When adjectives come in a
noun phrase they are normally immediately before the noun. Some adjectives are
used alone after nouns.
Example: They live in
a large house (attributive position)
Their
new house is large (predicative position)
b)
Function Adjective:
Example: I still felt
hungry after dinner
c)
Participle Adjective
Example: I was very
pleased when I met her
d)
Demonstrative Adjective
Example: I am
interested to buy this old shoes
e)
Formation of Adjective:
Example:
·
Noun
+ y : anger – angry
·
Noun
+ ful : power – powerful
·
Noun
+ al : crime – criminal
·
Noun
+ ous : danger – dangerous
·
Noun
+ less : taste – tasteless
·
Verb
+ able : obtain – obtainable
·
Verb
+ ive : talk – talkative
·
Im
+ adjective : possible – impossible
·
Ir
+ adjective : regular – irregular
·
Un
+ adjective : able – unable
·
Il
+ adjective : legal – illegal
·
In
+ adjective : capable – incapable
f)
Positive Degree: The positive form is the base
form of the adjective.
Example: The man is
as old as my father
g)
Comparative Degree: The comparative form
expresses a higher degree of some quality.
Example:
-
English book costs Rp 30.000,-
-
History book costs Rp 25.000,-
Ø
The
english book is more expenxive than the history book.
Or
Ø
The
history book is cheaper than the english book.
h)
Superlative Degree: The superlative form
expresses the highest degree.
Example:
-
The english book costs Rp 35.000,-
-
The history book costs Rp 25.000,-
-
The French book costs Rp 45.000,-
Ø
The
history book is the cheapest of three books.
Or
Ø
The
French book is the most expensive of the three books.
i)
Double Comparative
Example: As the
police chased him, the man run faster and faster.
j)
The Same as – The Same – Similar
Example: your
dictionary is the same as my dictionary
6. MODAL AUXILIARYà A verb that combines with another verb to indicate mood or tense. A modal (also known as a modal auxiliary) expresses necessity, uncertainty, ability, or permission. The modal auxiliaries (or modals) include the
following:
a)
Can – Could : I can translate this english novel into Indonesian.
b)
May – Might : You may come to my house if you have time.
c)
Must – Have To : I must help my parents in the garden every Sunday morning.
d)
Shall – Will : I’m very thirsty. I will drink a glass of water.
e)
Should – Ought To : We should respect our teachers.
f)
Would : What would you like to drink?
g)
Needn’t – Mustn’t : I needn’t have bought the apples because she had bought
some.
h)
Had Better : You had better not leave this place before they come.
i)
Would Rather : We would rather take a taxi.
j)
Used To : My little sister used to study French.
7.QUESTION WORD: We use question words to ask certain types of
questions (question word
questions). Categorise of question
word:
a)
What – Who(m) :
-
What book?
-
Who did you meet at the party last night?
-
Whom did you meet at the party last night?
b)
When – Where :
-
When will your brother go to America?
-
Where do you study English?
c)
Which – Whose :
-
Which book do you want to take?
-
Whose umbrella did you borrow?
d)
Why – How :
-
Why do you study English?
-
How many students are there in that room?
8. VERBSà Verbs
are doing words. A verb can express a physical action, a mental action, or a
state of being. The verbs which express a
state of being are the ones which take a little practice to spot, but,
actually, they are the most common. The most common verb is the verb to
be. There are several different types of
verbs, as follows:
a)
Infinitive : I was the first to come and the last to leave.
b)
Past Form : He took my money in the drawer.
c)
Past Participle : They have played for almost two hours.
d)
Present Participles : Tommy is repairing his car in the garage.
e)
Main Verb : The tallest student in Jane’s class has long black hair and blue
eyes.
f)
Verb + To Infinitive : They decided not to continue the construction of the
bridge.
g)
Verb + Gerund : The man denied taking all the money in this drawer.
h)
Verb Phrase + Gerund : My father gave up smoking because of his doctor’s
advice.
i)
Verb + Infinitive or Gerund : It was beginning to rain when I left the office
at 5 p.m yesterday.
9. ADVERBSà An
adverb is a word that’s used to give information about a verb, adjective, or
other adverb. Adverbs can make the meaning of a verb, adjective, or other
adverb stronger or weaker. There are several different types of adverbs, as
follows:
a)
Adverb of Manner : He speaks honestly.
b)
Adverb of Frequency : She will never be late in the afternoon.
c)
Adverb of Certainty : The man probably knows the location of the
accident.
10. PASSIVE VOICEà Passive
voice is used when the focus is on the action. It is not important or not
known, however, who or what is performing the action.
a)
Passive Voice in All Tenses : His father is always helped (by John) in the
garden (simple present tense).
b)
Passive Form of Modals : This novel can be translated (by his brother) into
Indonesia.
11.ARTICLESà The articles in English are
the definite article the and the indefinite articles a and an (and
sometimes some). Use of the definite article implies that the
speaker assumes the listener knows the identity of the noun's referent.
a)
Indefinite Article a-an : A lion is a wild animal.
b)
Definite Article : She is the lady we met at the supermarket yesterday morning.
c)
Zero Article : Cat’s don’t like cold weather.
12.CONJUNCTIONSà In grammar, a conjunction
is a part of speech that connects words, sentences, phrases
or clauses.
A discourse connective is a conjunction joining sentences. There are
several different types of conjunctions, as follows:
a)
Co-ordinating Conjunction: Coordinating conjunctions, also
called coordinators, are
conjunctions that join, or coordinate,
two or more items (such as words, main clauses, or sentences) of equal
syntactic importance.
Example : John and
I are leaving early tomorrow morning.
Example : The man
came after we had finished doing our job.
c)
Correlative Conjunction: Correlative conjunctions work in pairs to join
words and groups of words of equal weight in a sentence.
Example : Brenda is either
a typist or a secretary.
d)
Compound Conjunction
Example : He applied
for a job in order that he could help his parents.
13.PREPOSITIONSà A
preposition is a word such as after, in, to, on, and with.
Prepositions are usually used in front of nouns or pronouns and they show the
relationship between the noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence. They
describe, for example:
a)
Simple Preposition: about, above, across, after, etc.
b)
Compound Preposition: despite, beyond, upon, besides, etc
c)
Double Preposition: inspite of, due to, as regards, next to, etc
d)
Participal Preposition: regarding, barring, pending, during, etc
e)
Phrase Preposition: instead of, on account of, in line with, etc
14.CONDITIONALà Conditional
Sentences are also known as Conditional Clauses or If Clauses. They are used to
express that the action in the main clause (without if) can
only take place if a certain condition (in the clause with if) is
fulfilled. There are three types of Conditional Sentences.
a)
Conditional Clause Type 1: If I finish work early today, I will play tennis in
the afternoon.
b)
Conditional Clause Type 2: If I had much money I would by a new car
c)
Conditional Clause Type 3: If I had had much money,I would have bought a new
car
d)
As If – As Though: He speak as if he were my superior / He speak as though he
were my superior.
e)
Wish: I wish she would tell me the secret.
15.INDIRECT SPEECHà Indirect speech,
also called reported speech or indirect discourse, is a means of expressing the
content of statements, questions or other utterances, without quoting them explicitly as is done in direct speech.
a)
Indirect Speech – Statement
Direct: Jenni said,
“I buy this dictionary at a bookshop.”
Indirect: Jenni told
me (that) she bought this dictionary at a bookshop
b)
Indirect Speech – Question
Direct: John asked
me, “do you still take an English course?”
Indirect: John asked
me if I still took an English course.
c)
Indirect Speech – Question Words
Direct: He said,
“when did you buy this new car?”
Indirect: He asked me
when I had bought this new car
d)
Indirect Speech – Command
Direct: The
instructor said, “lie down on the grass?”
Indirect: The
instructor told me to lie down on the grass.
16.GERUNDà A
gerund is a verbal that ends in -ing and functions as a
noun. The term verbal indicates that a gerund, like the other
two kinds of verbals, is based on a verb and therefore expresses action or a
state of being. However, since a gerund functions as a noun, it occupies some
positions in a sentence that a noun ordinarily would.
a)
Gerund as subject : Running in the morning is good for health.
b)
Gerund as a complement: One of her hobbies is collecting foreign stamps.
c)
Gerund as an object: My father likes hunting in the forest.
d)
Gerund after preposition: He was not capable of doing the work.
e)
Gerund after possessive adjective: His leaving will make them sad.
f)
Gerund after certain verbs: We kept hoping he would come last night.
g)
Gerund after the verb go: We usually go to fishing on Saturday afternoon.
h)
Passive gerund: This old television set needs repairing
i)
Gerund to show prohibition: No smoking!
17.CAUSATIVEà The
causative is a common structure in English. It is used when one thing or person
causes another thing or person to do something.
a)
Causative – Have: I have him repair the window.
b)
Causative – Get: I often get my little brother to clean his room.
c)
Causative – Make: The robber made the teller give him all the money in the
drawer.
18.ADJECTIVE CLAUSEà An
adjective clause usually comes after the noun it modifies and
is made up of several words which, like all clauses, will include a subject and
a verb.
a)
Subject pronoun: who – which – that
Example:
-
The couple have two boys and two daughters.
-
They live next door.
Ø
The
couple who live next door have two boys and two daughters.
Or
Ø
The
couple that live next door have two boys and two daughters.
b)
Object pronoun: who – which – that
Example:
-
The man was my english teacher.
-
You saw him at the station last night.
Ø
The
man who/whom you saw at the station last night was my english teacher.
Or
Ø
The
man that you saw at the station last night was my english teacher.
c)
Using whose and where
Example:
-
The man is my next door neighbor.
-
His computer was stolen a few days ago.
Ø
The
man whose computer was stolen a few days ago is my next door neighbor.
19.NOUN
CLAUSEà A noun clause is a clause that
plays the role of a noun.
a)
Question word in noun clause:
Example: Where does
he work? I don’t know he works
b)
Whether – if in noun clause:
Example: Does she
live in Jakarta? I don’t know whether she live in Jakarta.
Source:
1.
en.wikipedia.org
2. Cyssco,
Dhanny R (2007). Comprehensive English Grammar Preparation For TOEFL.
Bekasi: Penerbit Kesaint Blanc.
