Functions and Forms of the English Language

You have to learn many things when you learn a new language. The first things you pro­bably studied were pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. But these are not enough. Another important thing to learn is the language used to:

• Say greetings and farewells
• Apologize and forgive
• Tell someone to be quiet
• Ask for or offer help
• Ask for or give examples
• Ask about or express impatience or anger
• Ask about or state opinions
• and many others . . .

These things are called interpersonal functions because we do these things in rela­tion to other people. We use the above and other functions many, many times in our everyday lives.

This online book will help you to learn the language of these functions. You will learn polite and more informal ways of doing these things. You will also learn some ways of doing them that you need to be careful about. If you're not careful with the ways that are mark­ed with an asterisk (*), you may say something a little strange, or you may insult someone without really meaning to.

You will learn these interpersonal functions actively. You will need to read, think about, discuss and act. The acting part may be difficult at first, but it will become easier as you get used to it. By the end of your English classes, we hope that you will be able to recognize these things in your everyday life easily and that you'll be able to use this online book to help you by yourself.