Posts

NOUNS

  NOUNS The first real word you ever used probably was a noun-a word like  mama ,  daddy ,  car , or  cookie . Most children begin building their vocabularies with nouns. A noun names some thing : a person, place, or thing. Most other parts of our language either describe nouns, tell what a noun is doing, or take the place of a noun. Nouns have these characteristics: They are abstract or concrete. They are proper or common. Most are singular or plural, but...  Some are collective. In English, nouns are often preceded by  noun markers --the articles/adjectives  a ,  an ,  the , or  some  for example; or possessive words like  my  or  your . A noun always follows a noun marker, though adjectives or other words may come between them: my  former  roommate a  sunny June  day an  objective and very thorough  evaluation some  existential  angst Because of their noun markers, you c...
Post a Comment
Read more

THE EIGHT PARTS OF SPEECH

THE EIGHT PARTS OF SPEECH   There are eight parts of speech in the English language: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb,           preposition, conjunction, and interjection. The part of speech indicates how the word functions in meaning as well as grammatically within the sentence. An individual word can function as more than one part of speech when used in different circumstances. Understanding parts of speech is essential for determining the correct definition of a word when using the dictionary. 1. NOUN A noun is the name of a person, place, thing, or idea. man... Butte College... house... happiness A noun is a word for a person, place, thing, or idea. Nouns are often used with an article (the, a, an), but not always. Proper nouns always start with a capital letter; common nouns do not. Nouns can be singular or plural, concrete or abstract. Nouns show possession by adding 's. Nouns can function in different roles within a sentence; for example,...
Post a Comment
Read more

12 Practical Tips for Learning & Improving English Grammar

  12 Practical Tips for Learning & Improving English Grammar  B elow are some practical solutions to help you improve English grammar. Grammar is like a game. Some who are well-versed with the language learn grammar intuitively; some struggle with tenses, clauses, sentences, and so on. Below we put forward some effective ways to learn & improve English grammar. 1. Make a commitment Learning English grammar needs a lot of motivation. Once you are ready to begin studying, stick by it until the end. 2. Keep a grammar book at your disposal Keeping an English  g rammar book will allow you to revise what you have learnt in class, as well as force you to learn grammar as often as you can. 3. Utilise a grammar app Nowadays, everyone has a smartphone. Make use of it. Download a dictionary app and a grammar app. You can use it while commuting or in your free time. 4. Practise everyday One of the best ways to improve your grammar is to solve as many exercises as possible....
Post a Comment
Read more

TWO-WORD (PHRASAL) VERBS

  TWO-WORD (PHRASAL) VERBS Verbs can be single words or can have "helpers" such as  has ,  have ,  had ,  is ,  am ,  was , or  were . Verbs can be accompanied by modals such as  could ,  would ,  might , or  may . As if that were not confusing enough, there exists another kind of verb,  phrasal verbs , which look like verbs with prepositions (or adverbs) attached:  hand in ,  break up ,  fill out ,  run into . Some are three words:  come up with ,  check up on . You probably have run into many verbs like these without experiencing any discomfort. You might never even need to know that phrasal verbs exist. However, if you have learned to identify the subject and verb of a sentence by crossing out all the prepositional phrases ( up the stairs ,  out the door ), then phrasal verbs may be problematic. For instance, in the phrasal verb  come up with , is  with  a preposition? T...
Post a Comment
Read more

DEFINITE AND INDEFINITE ARTICLES

  DEFINITE AND INDEFINITE ARTICLES In English there are three articles:  a ,  an , and  the . Articles are used before nouns or noun equivalents and are a type of adjective. The definite article ( the ) is used before a noun to indicate that the identity of the noun is known to the reader. The indefinite article ( a ,  an ) is used before a noun that is general or when its identity is not known. There are certain situations in which a noun takes no article. As a guide, the following definitions and table summarize the basic use of articles. Continue reading for a more detailed explanation of the rules and for examples of how and when to apply them. Definite article the  (before a singular or plural noun) Indefinite article a  (before a singular noun beginning with a consonant sound) an  (before a singular noun beginning with a vowel sound) Count nouns  - refers to items that can be counted and are either singular or plural Non-count nouns ...
Post a Comment
Read more

ACHIEVING PARALLELISM

  ACHIEVING PARALLELISM Effective writing requires a certain amount of variety. You vary word choice, for example, as well as sentence length and structure. But effective writing is also patterned.  Parallelism  is the way that we pattern writing so that similar elements in a sentence are grammatically equivalent. That is, if there are two or more subjects, they are all nouns or noun phrases. If there are two or more verbs, they are all of the same form. If there are two prepositional phrases, they are similar in form (with no verbs snuck in to transform one of them into a clause). Achieving parallelism smoothes out writing and increases its impact. For example, without their subject-verb pattern, these words by Confucius would not have nearly the impact they do: "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand." What he means, of course, is "We learn best by doing." But there would be nothing particularly memorable about saying so!  Parallelism is ...
Post a Comment
Read more