How to teach English effectively.

8 PARTS OF SPEECH..ALL THE PARTS YOU NEED IN ORDER TO BUILD A CORRECT ENGLISH SENTENCE.

( 1) NOUNS

KINDS OF NOUNS:

§ Common Nouns – are names of people (e.g. man), things (e.g. books), animals (e.g. monkey) and places (church).

§ Proper Nouns – are special names of people (e.g. George Bush), things (e.g. Financial Times), animals (e.g. King Kong) and places (e.g. Paris). A proper noun begins with a Capital Letter.

§ Abstract Nouns – An abstract noun is the name of something that we can only think of or feel but cannot see (e.g. friendship).

§ Collective Nouns – are names used for a number of people,

things or animals together and treated as one. For example: a group of friends, a bunch of bananas, a litter of puppies.

§ Countable and Uncountable Nouns – Countable nouns are nouns which can be counted (e.g. trees). Uncountable nouns are nouns which cannot be counted. (e.g. smoke).

Countable and Uncountable Nouns are used with the following:

Countable Noun	Uncountable Noun
a, an, a few, several, many,	a little, much, some, plenty of,
some, plenty of, a lot of,	a lot of, a large amount of,
a large number of	a great deal of

Nouns have four genders:

1. Masculine Gender – The masculine gender is used for all males. Example: boy, man

2. Feminine Gender – The feminine gender is used for all females. Example: girl, woman

3. Common Gender – The common gender is used where the noun can be both male and female. Example: cousin, friend, person, child, student

4. Neuter Gender – The neuter gender is used for things which have no life or sex. Example: table, chair.

Singular and Plural Nouns – A noun that shows only one person (e.g. a girl), thing (e.g. pencil), animal (e.g. tiger) or place (e.g. market) is called a singular noun).

A noun that shows more than one person (e.g. girls), thing (e.g. pencils), animal (e.g. tigers) or place (e.g. markets) is called a plural noun.

How plural nouns are formed.

By adding –s.

By adding ‘es’ to nouns ending in –ch, –s, –sh and –x.

beach	beaches	peach	peaches
branch	branches	speech	speeches
ditch	ditches	watch	watches

boss	bosses	glass	glasses
bus	buses	lens	lenses
chorus	choruses	pass	passes

brush	brushes	fish	fishes
bush	bushes	lash	lashes
dish	dishes	wish	wishes

box	boxes	hoax	hoaxes
fax	faxes	six	sixes
fox	foxes	tax	taxes

By adding ‘es’ to nouns ending in –o.

buffalo	buffaloes	potato	potatoes
cargo	cargoes	mosquito	mosquitoes
echo	echoes	tomato	tomatoes

By adding ‘s’ to nouns ending in –o.

banjo	banjos	patio	patios
bamboo	bamboos	photo	photos
radio	radios	video	videos

By replacing ‘y’ with –ies.

baby	babies	lorry	lorries
fly	flies	navy	navies
hobby	hobbies	puppy	puppies

By adding ‘s’ to nouns ending in –y.

boy	boys	key	keys
day	days	toy	toys
donkey	donkeys	turkey	turkeys

By replaying ‘f’ or ‘fe’ with –ves.

calf	calves	loaf	loaves
half	halves	self	selves
life	lives	wife	wives

By adding ‘s’ to nouns ending in –f or –fe.

chief	chiefs	hoof	hoofs
dwarf	dwarfs	reef	reef
gulf	gulfs	roof	roofs

By changing vowels.

foot	feet	louse	lice
goose	geese	tooth	teeth
mouse	mice	woman	women

Some nouns have same words for plural and singular.

aircraft	aircraft	music	music
crossroads	crossroads	series	series
furniture	furniture	sheep	sheep

Exceptional plural.

child	children	ox	oxen
crisis	crises	passer-by	passers-by
mouse	mice	radius	radii

FORMING NOUNS

Nouns can be formed from nouns, verbs and adjectives. They are formed by adding certain letters to them.

Nouns	Nouns
widow	widowhood
friend	friendship
king	kingdom

Verbs	Nouns
add	addition
fail	failure
give	gift

Adjectives	Nouns
clean	cleanliness
sad	sadness
beautiful	beauty

( 2) VERBS

Verbs are words that show action. Every sentence must have a verb. A verb is not always one word. It may be made up of more than one word.

Auxiliary verbs

The words: am, is, are, was, and were are verbs. They are forms of the verb ‘to be’. They are helping verbs called auxiliary verbs.
If the subject of a sentence is singular, the verb must be singular. If the subject of a sentence is plural, the verb must be plural. The verb must agree with the subject in number.
Examples of ‘subjects’ and ‘verbs’ being singular: The man is sleeping. She goes to the market. The student does his homework every day. The train has arrived.
‘Man’, ‘she’, ‘student’ and ‘train’ are known as subjects.The subjects are all singular.The verbs ‘is’, ‘goes’, ‘does’ and ‘has’ are all singular too.
Examples of ‘subjects’ and ‘verbs’ being plural: The men are sleeping. They go to the market. The students do their homework every day. The trains have arrived.
‘Men’, ‘they’, ‘students’ and ‘trains’ are known as subjects. The subjects are all plural. The verbs ‘are’, ‘go’, ‘do’ and ‘have’ are all plural too.

	Singular subject/verb					Plural subject/verb
1^st	I	am	do	have	eat	We	are	do	have	eat
2^nd	You	are	do	have	eat	You	are	do	have	eat
3^rd	He	is	does	has	eats	They	are	do	have	eat
	She	is	does	has	eats	They	are	do	have	eat
	It	is	does	has	eats	They	are	do	have	eat

Other singular and plural subjects that take on singular and plural verbs:
¨ Subjects with words like ‘each’, ‘every’, ‘any’, ‘no’, ‘none’ and ‘nobody’ take on the singular verbs.

Examples:	Each student is given a pen.
	Every child is happy watching the show.
	Nobody is allowed to walk on the grass.

¨ Uncountable nouns always take singular verbs.

Examples:	Rice is eaten in many countries.
	There is oil on the floor.
	Salt is added to make the food taste better.

¨ Subjects with words like ‘both’, ‘all’, ‘many’, ‘some’, ‘several’ and ‘a number of’ take on a plural verb.

Examples:	Both of you have to come home early.
	All of us want to be happy.
	Some of my friends are female.

¨ Two or more subjects joined by ‘and’ always take a plural verb.

Examples:	My brother and his friends like to play football.
	His father and mother are watching television.

Transitive and intransitive verbs

The verb which needs an object to make its meaning clear or complete is called a transitive verb.
Example: He feeds a cat. The word ‘cat’ is called the object of the verb ‘feeds’. The object can be a noun or a pronoun.
The intransitive verb does not need an object but the meaning is clear or complete.
Example: He ran. The verb ‘ran’ does not need an object. She reads every day. (No object) He eats quickly. (No object)

The Finite verb

The finite verb changes with the subject. The subject is the person, thing, animal or place we refer to. When the subject is in the first or second person or is plural, the verb does not change. When the subject is in the third person or is singular, the verb changes from, say, ‘eat’ to ‘eats’. The verb ‘eat’ is a finite verb. Every sentence must have a finite verb.

Subject	Singular subject	Plural subject
First Person	I eat	We eat
Second Person	You eat	You eat
Third Person	He eats	They eat
Third Person	She eats	They eat
Third Person	It eats	They eat
The pen/s	The pen is	The pens are
The elephant/s	The elephant does	The elephants do not
The house/s	The house has	The houses have

The Infinitive

The infinitive is a verb that is followed by ‘to’ and does not change with the subject.

Subject	Singular Subject	Plural Subject
First Person	I want to play.	We want to play.
Second Person	You want to play.	You want to play.
Third Person	He wants to play.	They want to play.
	She wants to play.	They want to play.
	It wants to play.	They want to play.

The infinitive can take on an object. For example: He likes to read book. (To read = infinitive; book = object).

Other usage of verbs to remember

1. When “and” is used to join two nouns or pronouns together, the verb is usually in the plural.

Examples:	Beef and mutton are meat.
	He and I were classmates.

2. When we use two nouns for the same person or thing, the verb should be in the singular.

Examples:	My friend and classmate is very helpful.
	Bread and butter is his only food.

3. When we use two nouns for the same person, we use the article ‘the’ only once and the verb should be in the singular.

Example:

The shopkeeper and owner of the shop is my uncle.

4. When we refer to two different persons, we use the article twice and the verb must be in the plural.

Example:

The shopkeeper and the owner of the shop are my good friends.

5. When we join two nouns and treat them as a whole, the verb is in the singular.

Example:

Bread and butter is his usual breakfast.

6. When a noun is a quantity or an amount, it is treated as a whole and the verb is in the singular.

Examples:	Ten kilometers is not a long way to travel.
	Nowadays, fifty dollars is not a lot of money.

A verb is used in different forms as follow:

Simple Present Tense	eat
Simple Past Tense	ate
Present Particle	is eating
Past Particle	has eaten
Future Tense	will eat

THE PRESENT TENSE
1. The Present Simple

① Used for a habitual or repeated action, that is, for something that we do always, every day, often, usually, etc.

Example:

He plays football on Sundays.

② Used for a general truth or a fact, that is, for something that is true.

Example:

Night follows day.

③ Used for something or an action happening now.

Example:

See how she walks.

④ Used instead of the future tense.

Example:

He arrives tomorrow.

⑤ Used instead of the past tense, to make something look more real.

Example:

The tiger comes; it catches the boy.

⑥ Used instead of the present perfect tense.

Example:

We hear that the king is dead.

⑦ Used to introduce a quotation, that is, to repeat words spoken or written by someone else.

Example:

Shakespeare says: “Neither a borrower nor a lender be.”

2. The Present Continuous Tense

① Used to show that something is still happening, that is, an action is still going on at the time of speaking. It shows that the action is not yet complete.

Example:

He is writing a letter.

② Used instead of the future tense. We usually say the time when this future action will take place

Example:

He is going to Japan next week.

③ Used to use the phrase ‘is going’ which means ‘about to’.

Example:

It is going to rain.

④ Used to show an action which happens many times. We often use ‘always’ with this expression.

Example:

He is always getting into trouble.

3. The Present Perfect Tense

① Used to show an action which has just been completed or a past action when the time is not mentioned. The action may be a recent one or it may be one which happened a long time ago.

Example:	I have finished reading the book.
	There have been many changes in this country.

② Used for an action that has been going on from the past until now, that is, something that happened in the past but is going on still.

Example:

I have lived here for ten years.

③ Used often with ‘just’, ‘already’, ‘recently’, ‘never’, ‘yet’ and (in questions) with ‘ever’.

Example:	I have already told them about the plan
	She has never replied to my letter.
	Have you ever been to London?

④ Used often to answer questions which contain a verb in the Present Perfect tense.

Example:	Where have you been? I have been to London to see the Queen.
	What have you lost? I have lost all my money.

4. The Present Perfect Continuous Tense

① Used for an action just completed or continued up to now.

Example:

He has been talking for an hour.

THE PAST TENSE
1. The Past Simple Tense

① Used to describe a completed past action when the time of the action is mentioned.

Example:

I went to the cinema yesterday.

② Used to show for a past action that was completely done in the past.

Example:

My mother made a cake and we all ate it.

③ Used to express a habitual past action.

Example:

He always came home late.

2. The Past Continuous Tense

① Used for an action that was going on in the past when something else happened.

Example:

While they were watching television, the light went out.

② Used to show an action that was going on at a certain time in the past.

Example:

I was eating my dinner at 7 o’clock last night.

③ Used for two actions that were going on at the same time in the past.

Example:

While his father was reading the newspaper, his mother was cooking.

3. The Past Perfect Tense

① Used for an action that was completed before another action took place.

Example:

I had left the house before he arrived.

② Used in the Indirect or Reported Speech.

Example:

“I have read the book”. He said that he had read the book.

4. The Past Perfect Continuous Tense

① Used for an action that had been going on in the past before another action occurred in the past.

Example:

She had been cooking when we visited her.

THE FUTURE TENSE
The Future Tense is used to show some action or happening in the future. Future Simple + ‘Going To”

1. Simple Future Tense is used to show future action or that something will happen in the future.

Example:

We will complete the work tomorrow.

2. ‘Going to’ is used to express a future action that has been planned in advance.

Example:

We are going to Japan next week.

3. Future Continuous Tense is used to show continuous action at some future time.

Example:

I shall be seeing both of you tomorrow.

4. Future Perfect Tense is used for an action which will have finished by some future time or date which is mentioned or before another action has begun.

Example:	I shall have finished this job by seven o’clock.
	I shall have finished this job by the time you arrive.

5. Future Perfect Continuous Tense. This continuous tense is formed with ‘shall/will have been’ + a present particle.

Example:

I shall have been married for exactly ten years next Saturday.

( 3) ADJECTIVES

An adjective is a word that tells us something about a noun, that is, about a person, an animal, a thing or a place.

For example:

She is a pretty girl.

A giraffe has a long neck.

The table is round.

That is an old temple.

There are various kinds of adjectives:

1. An adjective which tells us about the quality of the noun.

For example: the blue sky, a big house, a square table, a cold morning.

2. An adjective which tells us about the quatity of the noun.

For example: The zoo has many animals.

The pen has not much ink left.

3. An adjective which tells us about the ownership of the noun.

For example: That is my dog.

Those are their bicycles.

4. An adjective which poses question in an ‘interrogative’ manner.

For example: Which school do you go to?

Whose car is this?

5. An adjective which specifies a noun.

For example: This boy is a member of the club.

That girl is my sister.

¨ Adjectives which end in ‘-ing’, e.g. an interesting film, an amazing player, an annoying habit,

¨ Adjectives which end in ‘-ed, e.g. the damaged goods, the escaped prisoners, improved version,

Forming adjectives

Adding ‘y’.Drop ‘e’.	Add ‘ful’.* Change ‘y’ to ‘i’.	Add ‘ous’ or ‘ious’. *Drop ‘y’.	Add ‘less’.
anger	care	mountain	aim
ease*	doubt	danger	end
greed	peace	industry	harm
ice*	beauty*	mystery*	sense
oil	pity*	glory*	use

Add ‘al’. * Drop ‘e’.	Add ‘able’.	Add ‘ic’.*Drop ‘y’.	Add ‘ive’.
music	accept	acrobat	attract
nation	comfort	artist	effect
person	enjoy	photograph	act
nature*	fashion	sympathy*	instruct
agriculture*	respect	robot	progress

Adjectives can be formed from Nouns.

Noun	Adjective
accident	accidental
danger	dangerous
length	long
star	starry
wind	windy

Adjectives can be formed from Verbs.

Verb	Adjective
enjoy	enjoyable
help	helpful
obey	obedient
play	playful
talk	talkative

Adjectives can be formed from Adjectives.

Adjective	Adjective
comic	comical
correct	corrective
elder	elderly
red	reddish
sick	sickly

Comparison of adjectives

· We use the Positive degree to compare two equal nouns. For example: His house is as big as my house.

· We use the Comparative degree to compare two unequal nouns. For example: His house is bigger than my house.

· We use the Superlative degree to compare three or more Nouns. For example: His house is the biggest in the neighbourhood.

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
bold	bolder	boldest
deep	deeper	deepest
near	nearer	nearest
rich	richer	richest
tall	taller	tallest

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
careful	more careful	most careful
enjoyable	more enjoyable	most enjoyable
forgetful	more forgetful	most forgetful
useful	more useful	most useful
wonderful	more wonderful	most wonderful

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
bad	worse	worst
good	better	best
little	less	least

( 4) ADVERBS

An adverb adds more to the meaning of a verb, an adjective or another adverb.

.I called you last night. (called=verb; last night=adverb)

Your dress is very beautiful. (beautiful=adjective; very=adverb)

The rain stopped quite suddenly. (suddenly=adverb; quite=adverb)

Types of Adverbs

Adverb of Time – This shows when an action or something is done or happens. It answers the question “When?” It is either placed at the beginning or at the end of a sentence.

Example: I phoned you yesterday. / I saw her walking along the river last week.

Adverb of Place – This shows where an action or something is done or happens. It answers the question “Where?” It is placed after the verb.

Example: I live here. / He fell down.

Adverb of Manner – This shows how an action or something is done. It answers the question “How?” It is usually placed just after the verb.

Example: She sleeps soundly. / He drives quickly.

Adverb of Degree or Quantity – This answers the questions, “To what degree?” or “How much?” It is usually placed before the adjective and the adverb.

Example: It is too dark for us to see anything. / Last night it rained very heavily..

Adverb of Frequency – This answers the question “How often?”

Example: He will never have finished in time. / We always go to school by bus.

Affirmative Adverb (yes) and Adverb of negation (No)

Example: yes, surely, certainly, indeed, by all means, no, not at all, by no means.

Interrogative Adverb (Question) For example: When? Where? How? Why? How much/often?

Relative Adverb: when, where, how, why These words are the same in form as Interrogative Adverbs; but they are not questions.

Example: The time when he arrived. / The scene where the accident occurred. / He knows how to do it. / The reason why he left.

Comparison of Adverbs

Similar to the comparison of adjectives, adverbs have three degrees of comparison – the Positive, the Comparative and the Superlative. Most adverbs which end in ‘-ly’ form the Comparative with ‘more’ and the Superlative with ‘most’.

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
comfortably	more comfortably	most comfortably
happily	more happily	most happily
kindly	more kindly	most kindly
loudly	more loudly	most loudly
noisily	more noisily	most noisily

Forming Adverbs Adverbs can be formed from nouns, adjectives and verbs. Most adverbs end in ‘-ly’.

Nouns	Adjectives	Verbs	Adverbs
beauty			beautifully
success			successfully
	angry		angrily
	foolish		foolishly
		continue	continually
		know	knowingly

( 6) THE ARTICLES

Definite Article – ‘The’

Indefinite Article – ‘A’ or ‘An’

‘A’ is used:

¨ Before a word which begins with a consonant. Example: a woman

¨ Before a singular, countable noun. Example: a banana

¨ When we mention something for the first time. Example: I saw a dog.

¨ Before a word with a long sound of ‘u’. Example: a university, a uniform, a useful book, a European, etc.

¨ Before the word one. Example: a one-way street, a one-eyed man, a one-year course, a one-day holiday, etc.

‘An’ is used:

¨ Before a noun which begins with a vowel. Example: an apple.

¨ Before a word which begins with a vowel sound or a silent ‘h’. Example: an hour, an honest man, an heir, an honour, an honourable man, etc

¨ Before a singular, countable noun which begins with a vowel or silent ‘h’. Example: an orange

‘The’ is used:

1. When the same thing or person mentioned again, that is, a particular thing or person. Example: I bought an orange. The orange is sweet..

2. When there is only one such thing. Example: the earth, the sun, the moon.

3. Before the names of famous buildings, etc. Example: The Eiffel Tower, The Great Wall of China.

4. When a singular noun is used to point out a whole class, race, group, etc. Example: The bear is a strong animal.

5. Before the special names of a rivers, seas, oceans, mountain ranges, groups of islands, certain organizations, political parties, and countries such as the U.S.A., the U.K., the U.S.S.R. and the U.A.R., The Nile, The Dead Sea, The Pacific Ocean, The Himalayas, The United Nations, The Republican Party, etc.

6. Before the names of holy or important books. Example: The Koran, The Bible.

7. Before an adjective when the noun is understood. Example: The poor need help.

Articles are not used:

1. Before the name of a person: Example: I am a fan of Michael Jackson. (not A or The Michael Jackson)

2. Before the name of a place, town, country, street, or road. Example: Barcelona is a beautiful city. (not A or The Barcelona)

3. Before names of materials. Example: Gold is found in Australia. (not A or The gold)

4. Before abstract nouns used in a general sense. Example: We love all beauty. (not a beauty or the beauty)

( 7) PRONOUNS

A Pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. It refers to a person or thing without giving the name.

There are two types of Personal Pronouns:

(1) those used as subjects; and

(2) those used as objects.

Personal Pronouns

	Singular		Plural
	Subject	Object	Subject	Object
First Person	I	Me	We	Us
Second Person	You	You	You	You
Third Person	He She It	Him Her It	They They They	Them Them Them

Reflexive Pronouns

We use the Reflexive Pronoun when the action of the doer goes back to himself so that the Subject of the sentence is the same person as the object.

Example: He has hurt himself.

Pronouns like ‘himself' are called Reflexive Pronouns. They always end in ‘self '.

Reflexive Pronouns	Singular	Plural
First Person	Myself	Ourselves
Second Person	Yourself	Yourselves
Third Person	Himself Herself Itself	Themselves Themselves Themselves

Relative Pronouns

The Relative Pronouns take the place of Nouns or Pronouns; and they are used to join two sentences about the same person or thing.

Examples of relative pronouns: who, which, that, whom and whose.

In most cases, we use who, whose and whom to make statements about people.

§ ¨ We use who to join two sentences.

Example: "The man is an artist. He drew that picture."

"The man is an artist who drew that picture."

§ ¨ We use whose to show possession or relationship.

Example: "That is my uncle whose son is my cousin."

§ ¨ We use which or that in almost the same way as we use who but it refers to things, not human beings. There is one other difference in the way we use who and which. After who we put a verb. After which we can put a verb, a pronoun or a noun.

Example: That is the camera which costs fifty dollars. That is the camera which he bought. That is the camera which John likes.

§ ¨ We use whom to make a statement about human beings. It is used in place of who (a) when it is the object of a verb or (b) when it comes after a preposition.

Example: (a) The man whom they caught was sent to prison. (b) The man to whom you should speak is my uncle.

( 8) PREPOSITIONS

Prepositions are words placed before Nouns and Pronouns. They are used to show time, position and direction.

§ ¨ Examples of Prepositions showing time:

My birthday falls in September.

Most shops are closed on Sunday.

I have an appointment at 9 o'clock.

§ ¨ Examples of Prepositions showing position:

He is standing at the door.

The glass is on the table.

The cat is sleeping under the chair.

§ ¨ Examples of Prepositions showing direction:

She got into the taxi.

The girl is walking towards her mother.

I have to go to town.

Other examples of expressions using prepositions:

§ ¨ The picture was drawn by his brother.

§ ¨ She likes to go out with her friends.

§ ¨ They say I walk like my father.

§ ¨ Her parents give her a box of sweets.

Expressions using Prepositions:

good at	get up	fall off	interested in
clever at	wake up	get off	involved in
bad at	look up	set off	send in
point at	clean up	break off	work in
stare at	add up	finish off	fill in

fight against	get into	turn on	made of
speak against	cash into	switch on	built of
vote against	jump into	get on	a box of
hit against	turn into	carry on	half of
lean against	dive into	put it on	many of

( 9) CONJUNCTIONS

Conjunctions join words, phrases and sentences together.

Conjunctions joining words:

Example: I have a car and a house.

Conjunctions joining phrases:

Example: The fisherman is happy walking along the beach and carrying a bucket full of fish.

Conjunctions joining sentences:

§ ¨ He walked to his car. He got into it..

He walked to his car and got into it.

§ ¨ Will you have tea? Will you have coffee?

Will you have tea or coffee?

§ ¨ She is tired. She cannot sleep.

She is tired but she cannot sleep.

Besides ‘and', ‘or' and ‘but', other common conjunctions include: because, if, so, although, unless, therefore, etc.

Conjunctions can join nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.

Example:

I have a pen and a book. (Joining two nouns)

He joked and we laughed. (Joining two verbs)

She is beautiful and tall. (Joining two adjectives)

He eats quickly and noisily. (Joining two adverbs)

( 10) POSSESSION

There are three kinds of Possession: Possessive Nouns, Possessive Adjectives and Possessive Pronouns.

§ Possessive Nouns

Nouns that show possession are called Possessive Nouns. Possessive Nouns are formed:

§ 1. By adding an apostrophe (‘s) to singular nouns and plural nouns not ending in s;

Example: my father's car; the children's toys

§ 2. By adding an apostrophe (‘) to plural nouns ending in s;

Example: the boys' bicycles

§ 3. By using ‘of the' with names of non-living things.

Example: the roof of the house.

§ Possessive Adjectives

Adjectives that show possession are called Possessive Adjectives. Adjectives such as ‘my' and ‘his' are used before nouns such as ‘school' and ‘bicycle' to show possession. Such adjectives are examples of Possessive Adjectives.

Example: ‘This is my school' and ‘That is his bicycle'.

Possessive Adjectives	Singular	Plural
First Person	my	our
Second Person	your	your
Third Person	his her its	their their their

§ Possessive Pronouns

Pronouns that show possession are called Possessive Pronouns. Words like ‘mine' and ‘yours' are pronouns and as they show possession, they are known as Possessive Pronouns.

Example: ‘This is my car. It is mine' and ‘That is your van. It is yours'.

Possessive Pronouns	Singular	Plural
First Person	Mine	Ours
Second Person	Yours	Yours
Third Person	His Hers Its	Theirs Theirs Theirs

PUNCTUATION MARKS

A full stop or period ( . ) is used:

¨   to mark the end of a sentence.
Example: There are two sides to every question.

¨   to show the shortened form of a word
Example: exam

¨   at the end of an abbreviation.
Example: Dr.

Comma ( , ) is used:

¨    to separate words in a list.
Example: We saw monkeys, lions and tigers in the zoo.

¨ to show a pause in a sentence or reading.
Example: Yesterday, as I was jogging, I saw a big snake.

¨    before inverted commas of actual words spoken.
Example: He told us, “The world is round.”

¨    to separate the name of the person spoken to.
Example: “John, let’s start work straightaway.”

¨    to separate parts of an address.
Example: 99, Downing Street, Kingston.

¨    to separate relative clause from the rest of the sentence.
Example: The man, who lives next door, is a doctor.

Question Mark ( ? ) is used at the end of a sentence to show a question.
Example: “When will the train arrive?”

Exclamation Mark ( ! ) is used at the end of a sentence to show surprise, excited, or angry.
Example: We won! Quiet!

Colon ( : ) is used to introduce an example, quotation, etc.
Example: This box contains the following items: bandages,plasters, lotion, medicines and a pair of scissors.

Semicolon ( ; ) is used to join two sentences or two complete parts of a sentence which are closely connected in meaning.
Example: He gives up smoking; obviously, he fears smoking-related disease may strike him.

Apostrophe ( ‘ ) is used:

¨    to show that numbers or letters have been left out.
Example: ’86 (=1986); don’t (=do not).

¨    to show that something belongs to someone or something.
Example: John’s mother; Charles’ book

¨    to the plural of letters and numbers.
Example: Your c’s / 5’s are too big.

Hyphen ( - ) is used to join two words or more to form compound words.
Example: good-looking, pro-American, forty-one, mother-in-law.

Quotation Marks ( “ “ ) are used:

¨    to show the beginning and end of reported speech.
Example: “Turn on the light” she said to me.

¨    to show a quoted word, phrase or title.
Example: “War and Peace” is a novel by Leo Tolstoy.

Lesson 12- SOME and ANY

( 12) SOME and ANY

1. We use “some” in a positive statement and “any” in a negative statement or a question.

2. We use both “some” and “any” with countable or uncountable nouns.

3. We use “some” in a question if it is an invitation or a request.

4. We join “some” and “any” with “one”, “body” or “thing” to form positive sentences and negative sentences respectively.

Examples:

1. I have a sister. / I don’t have a sister. / Do you have any sister?

2. He bought some oranges. / He spent some time looking for his lost wallet. / There aren’t any eggs on sale here. / There isn’t any tea in the kettle.

3. Would you like to drink some milk? Can you do something for me?

4. Someone has taken my book. / Anyone could have taken it./ There’s somebody waiting to see you. / Has anybody seen the film? / I want something to eat. / Would you like anything else to eat?

Lesson 13- USED TO

( 13) USED TO

1. “USED TO” AS A VERB

We can use the expression “used to” when we wish to refer to a past habit which has now stopped.

Example: I used to go to that shop but now I don’t go there anymore.

The usual question form and possible answers with “used to” are:

question: “Did you use to see them very often?”

answers: “Yes, I used to.” / “No, I didn’t use to.” / “No, I never used to.”

Remember that “use” and not “used” is used after “did” and “didn’t”.

2. “USED TO” AS AN ADJECTIVE

We can show that somebody is accustomed to something by using “used to” as an adjective. It is often followed by a gerund but it can be followed by a noun or possessive.

Example: I am used to living in a warm climate. (followed by a gerund)

They are used to this weather. (followed by a noun)

He seems used to your brother’s jokes. (followed by possessive adjective)

Lesson 14- CAN and COULD

( 14) CAN and COULD

Can and could are modal verbs. They are used with other verbs to convey ideas such as possibility, permission, etc.

We use can to:

§ talk about possibility and ability;

Example: I can ride a horse. / He can speak three languages.

§ make requests or give orders;

Example: Can you buy me a can of beer. / Can you complete now what you are doing.

§ ask for or give permission.

Example: Can I come in now?

Note: we may also use could, may and might for permission.

Points to note:

§ We use can for the present. We also use it for the future when we decide we are able to do something.

Example: We can go swimming tomorrow.

§ We do not use can with infinitive verb.

Example: We can play football today. NOT: We can to play football today.

§ Sometimes it is necessary to use (be) able to in place of can.

Example: I can’t contact him. / I haven’t been able to contact him for two days. (It is not possible to use can with present perfect tense).

Could is one of the modal verbs. We use could:

§ as the past tense of can.

Example: Jane said she could get the tickets for us .

§ to show what was possible in the past.

Example: He could cycle when he was four years old.

§ to ask someone to do something.

Example: Could you buy some cigarettes for me?

§ to ask if someone is able or allowed to do something.

Example: My grandmother could speak Spanish. / Could I ask you a question?

Points to note:

§ Where the subject is singular, we do not add –s to the verb

Example: He can swim. NOT: He can swims.

§ We use could for actions now or in the future.

Example: It’s a nice day. We could go for a walk.

Example: When I go to London next week, I could stay with my uncle.

§ Could is less sure than can, so we use could when we do not really mean what we say.

Example: I am so hungry. I could eat the whole chicken. (NOT: I can eat the whole chicken).

§ We use could do for now and could have for the past.

Example: I am so tired. I could sleep the whole day. (now)

Example: I was so tired. I could have slept the whole day. (past)

§ We use could with present perfect tense for things which were possible to happen but didn’t or an event which we are not sure about.

Example: You could have taken a different route to avoid the traffic jam.

Example: He could have broken the glass. She couldn’t have broken the glass.

Lesson 15- GERUNDS and PRESENT PARTICIPLES

( 15) GERUNDS and PRESENT PARTICIPLES

Gerund is a word that functions as a noun. It is derived by adding ‘–ing’ to the end of a verb (jog), e.g. “Jogging is a good way of exercising”.

A present participle is formed by adding ‘-ing’ to the verb, as in ‘reading’., e.g. “He may be reading the newspaper now”.

A gerund is used:

· as the subject of the sentence.

Example: Waiting for a bus can take a long time.

· as the object of a verb.

Example: “Will you stop crying?”

· as a verbal noun, i.e. as a verb doing the work of a noun.

Example: Her scolding frightened her children.

· after a verb.

Example: The gate needs repainting.

· after “busy”.

Example: She is busy cooking for dinner.

· with a preposition.

Example: We are tired after walking for two hours.

· after a phrasal verb.

Example: If we carry on working, we can complete it today.

A present participle is used:

· immediately after a subject to which it refers.

Example: People driving in the rain have to drive carefully.

· after a verb.

Example: He went fishing with his friends.

· after a noun. It tells us what a person or thing is doing.

Example: She heard them talking about her.

Example: I saw a rock rolling down the hill.

· as an adjective.

Example: That twinkling star is much brighter than the rest.

· to show that a person is doing two things at the same time.

Example: He is sitting outside the house, watching people pass by.

· to form the continuous tense.

Example: He is washing his car.

· when one action is followed by another.

Example: Walking on the beach, he threw a ball to his friend.

http://www.myenglishgrammar.com/english/exercise-1-nouns.html

Writing Sentences

Sentence

A sentence is a group of words that usually contains a subject and a predicate.

A sentence must make sense.

It expresses a complete idea or asks a question.

It begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop.

A sentence may be a word or short sentence used to express a strong feeling such as surprise, excitement or anger.

The subject is what the sentence is about.

The subject is a noun, pronoun or noun phrase

It usually comes before a main verb.

It represents the person or thing that performs the action of the verb (Example: She scolds him.), or about which something is stated (Example: Bees are insect.)

The predicate tells us something about the subject.

It consists of a verb, which may be one word or a verb phrase as indicated in the following table.

Subject	Predicate
Noun	Verb	Noun	Pronoun	Adjective	Adverb
Jack	sleeps
Jill	loves		him
Pronoun
She	is crying
They	play	football
Noun Phrase
This lady	is			weak
That man	lives				here

Each sentence consists of one or more clauses.

A clause can be as short as one word (Example: Wait!) or a group of words that contains a subject and a predicate, and usually forms only part of a sentence.

Example: He could not lift the box because it was too heavy.

The first clause, “He could not lift the box” is clear in its meaning

and is called a Main Clause or Independent Clause. A main clause has a subject and a verb, and does not depend on the other clause to make a complete statement or question.

The second clause, “because it was too heavy” is incomplete in its meaning and is called a Subordinate clause. It too has a subject and verb but depends on the first clause preceding it to make sense. A Subordinate clause may also precede a Main clause.

A clause may also be inserted in the middle of another clause. Example: Orchids, which have air roots, are tropical flowers

The Main clause here is “Orchids are tropical flowers.”.

The Subordinate clause: “which have air roots”.

In a sentence, the subject agrees with its verb. A singular verb is used with a singular subject. A plural verb is used with a plural subject

Example: A dog barks / Dogs bark.

If two subjects are joined by “and”, the verb should be in the plural.

Example: My father and brother are going to Japan next month.

If two subjects are joined by “or” the verb agrees with the subject nearest to it..

Example: Either this book or those books are his.

Example: Either they or he is responsible.

A sentence must therefore have a main clause or more than one main clause.

Writing Paragraph

Writing Paragraph

A paragraph is a number of related sentences focused on one topic. It forms a part of a larger piece of writing such as a composition. The first sentence of each paragraph starts on a new line dented from the left.

The length of a paragraph varies. A paragraph with a length of five sentences is normally sufficient to expand on an idea. Anything more than this may be better organized into a separate paragraph. This ensures not more than one idea is covered in one paragraph. After all, the purpose of paragraphs is to separate ideas. A new paragraph means a new idea is being talked about.

A paragraph starts off with a topic sentence. This first sentence introduces the main idea of the paragraph. The sentences that follow the topic sentence discuss the idea. Some of the things the writer does here to expand on the idea include establishing the facts, providing details, and quoting examples. They must strictly be about the idea and not deviate to something else.

The last sentence in a paragraph is the concluding sentence of the paragraph. Use different words to restate the idea as introduced by the topic sentence in this concluding sentence – a summary of what has been discussed.

Writing Composition

WRITING COMPOSITIONS

Whatever you choose to write for a composition, you usually follow the same basic structure:

Introduction

Body

Conclusion

Begin a composition with an introduction which is the first paragraph. This paragraph begins with a specific sentence called the thesis statement. What you intend to convey in your composition is contained in this statement. It introduces the main idea of what your entire composition will be discussing. Ensure your thesis statement is a specific statement and is focused on a single idea rather than several.

The opening paragraph should be designed to capture the interest of your reader. It focuses on your assertion, on what you are going to write about.

The body is a group of paragraphs that develop on the main idea as introduced in the thesis statement. The main idea must now be elaborated with each developmental paragraph discussing a supporting point for the main idea. Each paragraph argues, describes, explains, discusses, defines, clarifies, illustrates or whatever on the thesis statement.

Each body paragraph has the same basic structure. It has a topic sentence followed by four or five supporting sentences. One idea is discussed in each paragraph. Introduce supporting details, facts, examples, quotations for each of these ideas. A concluding sentence summarizing or restating the idea ends each paragraph.

The conclusion is a summary paragraph. You complete the composition by summarizing, reviewing or restating the main idea in different words or briefly stating your opinion, feelings or suggesting a solution. Ensure the concluding paragraph is not too long; three or four sentences will be enough.

Your composition should leave the reader satisfied.