THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF ENGLISH
The English language is divided into nine classes. These classes are:
- Noun
- Article
- Adjective
- Pronoun
- Verb
- Adverb
- Preposition
- Conjunction
- Interjection
Of these classes, the noun is the most important, as the other classes depend on the noun to some extent.
A Noun identifies the name of any person, place or object. There are two types of Nouns, Proper and Common.
Common Nouns are names which belong in common to a group, such as man or city. Proper Nouns, however, distinguish individual members of a group, such as John or Philadelphia.
Nouns can also vary by Person, Number, Gender, and Case.
Person:
Person is the relation between the speaker, the individual(s) addressed and the relevant subject. Persons are First, Second and Third and they represent the speaker, the person addressed, and the person or object mentioned respectively. The difference between the first, second, and third person is if the speaker says, “I, you, or him/her.”
If the speaker is speaking in the first person, he or she is talking about himself or herself.
Examples:
– I love math! (Singular)
– We love math! (Plural)
The second person is the opposite of the first person, so instead of referring to “I” or “we”, the speaker refers to “you”.
Examples:
– You love math!
– You should learn the fundamentals of engineering before going into the more complex material.
The second person is rarely used; however, it is used in technical writing, such as giving instructions.
If a person is speaking in the third person singular, the speaker is referring to “he” or “she”. For the third person singular, the singular form of the verb is used:
Examples:
– He loves math!
– She likes working with user interfaces.
For the third person plural, however, the speaker would use the plural form of the verb: Example:
– They like working with user interfaces.
As you can see above, the only change in verb form is the third person singular. For the majority of cases, however, the verb form will remain stable.
Number:
Number is the distinction of one from more than one. Singular denotes one person, place, or object while the plural form refers to two or more.
Examples of Singular Form: Cat, Dog, House, Woman, School Examples of Plural Form: Cats, Dogs, Houses, Women, Schools
The plural is generally formed from the singular by the addition of s or es.
Gender:
Gender has the same relation to nouns that sex has to individuals, but while there are only two sexes, there are four gender types for nouns: masculine, feminine, neutral and common. The masculine gender denotes all those of the male kind, the feminine gender all those of the female kind, the neutral gender denotes inanimate objects or whatever is non-living, and common gender is applied to animate beings in which the gender is indeterminable, such as fish, mouse, bird, etc.
Case:
Case is the relation one noun has with another noun, verb, or preposition. There are three cases, the Nominative, the Possessive and the Objective. The nominative is the subject which directs the action of the verb. The possessive case denotes possession, and the objective indicates the person or object which is affected by the action of the verb.
Article:
An article is a word placed before a noun. The articles show if the noun is particular or general.
General Articles: A, AN Particular Articles: THE
Typically, you should “a” before words that being with consonants and “an” before words that begin with vowels.
Examples:
- a blueprint
- a computer
- a programmer
- an egg
- an issue
- an orbit
Exceptions:
Use “an” before unsounded “h”. Since the unsounded h has no audible sound, the sound that follows the article is a vowel.
Examples:
O an honorable public servant O an honest technical error
When “u” makes the same sound as “y”, such as in you, or “w” makes the same sound as “w” in won, then “a” is used.
Examples:
O a union
O a united alliance
O a one-armed man
O a wonton
ADJECTIVE:
An adjective is a word which qualifies a noun with some distinguishing characteristic. Examples of Adjectives used in Business:
accredited C-to-C multinational
all-night cut-price non-profit
anticompetitive drive-through not-for-profit
B2B fly-by-night offshore
B2C imperial one-stop
big incorporated overstaffed
bloated infant paperless
bricks-and-mortar land-based predatory
brisk large self-financing
business lean self-service
business-to-business limited service
collective market-driven short-staffed
commercial market-led tertiary
competitive market-driven top-heavy
consumer-facing mercantile undermanned
consumer-to-business mom-and-pop understaffed
cooperative monopolistic unlisted
corporate multi-agency upstart
PRONOUN:
A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun to prevent the writer from using the noun repetitiously.
Subject & Object Pronouns
Subject and object pronouns are used frequently in everyday English language. A subject pronoun always takes action, and an object pronoun is part of the activity.
Example:
Jeremy likes playing tennis with Nicole.
Jeremy is the subject, so you could also say “He likes playing tennis with Nicole.” In this sentence, Jeremy performs the action of playing tennis with Nicole, so she is the object because she does not perform the action. Subject and object pronouns perform in the same way.
Subject pronouns: I, you, he, she, it, they, we Object pronouns: me, you, him, her, it, us, them
Examples:
Subject Pronouns
O I might see the movie later.
O You have to try the pie.
O He lives in Texas.
O She visited Europe.
O It might be too hot to do the yard work.
O They missed the last bus.
O We can’t see the road because of the rain.
Object Pronouns
O Sammie hit me on the head.
O I need to tell you something about our manager. O Nancy outperformed him, so she got a bigger raise.
O I completed it last week.
O Work was terribly boring for us.
O Earl introduced them to the regional manager.
Possessive Pronouns
Possessive pronouns show who owns something. Possessive pronouns are similar to posessiveadjectives, however the possessive adjective comes before the object in the sentence and the possessive pronoun is the object of the sentence.
Possessive pronouns: mine, his, hers, its, ours, yours, their, theirs
Examples:
That poodle is my dog. (Possessive adjective, my, comes before the object, dog) The dog is mine. (Possessive pronoun, mine, is the object in the sentence)
Here is a list of common pronouns used in the English language:
all herself neither
another him no one
any himself nobody
anybody his none
anyone I nothing
anything it one
both its other
each itself others
either many our
everybody me mine ours
everyone more ourselves
everything most several
few much she
he my some
her myself somebody
someone this whoever
something those whom
that us whomever
their we whose
theirs what you
them whatever your
themselves which yours
these whichever yourself
they who yourselves
COMMON MISTAKES FOR ENGLISH LEARNERS
These are common mistakes both English learners and native English speakers make frequently:
Examples of Incorrect English Phrases
Incorrect: It’s nine thirty o’clock.
Correct: It’s nine thirty.
Incorrect: Your pants are
Correct: Your pants are torn.
Incorrect: Stephanie didn’t make a
Correct: Stephanie didn’t make am is take.
Incorrect: Would you mind posting this ad for me.Yes, I will.
Correct: Would you posting this ad for me.Of course not, I will do it now.
Incorrect: She becomes
Correct: She got better.
Incorrect: The class will have a hearing test tomorrow.
Correct: The class will have a listening test tomorrow.
Incorrect: I recommend you to get some sleep.
Correct: I recommend that you get some sleep.
Incorrect: The last train leaves at ten o’clock. It’s about ten now, so hurry up!
Correct: The last train leaves at ten o’clock. It’s nearly/almost ten now, so hurry up!
Incorrect: It is still bright
Correct: It is still light outside.
Incorrect: I like blue color.
Correct: I like blue.
Incorrect: I have been waiting here since three hours.
Correct: I have been waiting here for two hours.
Incorrect: My mother is
Correct: My mother is a teacher.
Incorrect: It is more cold than yesterday.
Correct: It is colder today than yesterday.
Incorrect: I have seven years old.
Correct: I am seven years old.
Incorrect: Shanghai is the largest city of the world.
Correct: Shanghai is the largest city in the world.
Incorrect: We ran for two
Correct: We ran for two hours.
Incorrect: According to me, the wedding singer was terrible.
Correct: In my opinion, the wedding singer was terrible.
Correct: It’s becoming fall.
Incorrect: Except Alvin, we were all there.
Correct: Except for Alvin, we were all there.
Incorrect: Did I do any mistakes?
Correct: Did I make any mistakes?
Incorrect: Come to here.
Correct: Come here.
Incorrect: Common students in the US don’t wear uniforms.
Correct: Average students in the US don’t wear uniforms.
Incorrect: Who cooked this salad?
Correct: Who made this salad?
Incorrect: Different from me, she is proficient in Chinese.
Correct: Unlike me, she is proficient in Chinese.
Incorrect: Little children are difficult to understand that.
Correct: It is difficult for children to understand that.
Incorrect: I get my salary
Correct: I get paid bi-weekly.
Incorrect: Would you like a drink?
Correct: Would you like something to drink?
Incorrect: Let me examine your pulse.
Correct: Let me feel your pulse.
Incorrect: Cynthia has no exercise talent.
Correct: Cynthia is not athletic.
Incorrect: Don’t expect me too much.
Correct: Don’t expect too much from/of me.
Incorrect: Laura forgot her purse in the restaurant.
Correct: Laura left her purse in the restaurant.
Incorrect: Kathy, lend me some money, for instance fifty dollars.
Correct: Kathy, lend me some money,say fifty dollars.
Incorrect: Vibhu has a free time.
Correct: Vibhu is free.
Incorrect: The sunsets from the West.
Correct: The sunsets in the West.
Incorrect: The intruder got in from the chimney.
Correct: The intruder got in through the chimney.
Incorrect: Bart, begin reading from page 22.
Correct: Bart, begin reading on page page 22.
Incorrect: Did you attend college?
Correct: Did you go to college?
Incorrect: Sharon wanted to go to Brazil last summer, but it was too expensive so she gave up to go.
Correct: Sharon wanted to go to Brazil last summer, but it was too expensive so she did not go.
Incorrect: Tina is going back to her home.
Correct: Tina is going home.
Incorrect: Cameron’s temperature went
Correct: Cameron’s temperature came down.
Incorrect: The department store has his favorite brand of cologne.
Correct: The department store carries his favorite brand of cologne.
Incorrect: Give me sugar, if you
Correct: Give me sugar, if you have any.
Incorrect: Somebody’s knocking on the door. Go and see who he is.
Correct: Somebody’s knocking on the door. Go and see who it is.
Incorrect: The head office is in New York City.
Correct: The home/main office is in New York City.
Incorrect: I visited her ill mother in the nursing home.
Correct: I visited her sick mother in the nursing home.
Incorrect: There is a limit in my generosity.
Correct: There is a limit to my generosity.
Incorrect: Please wait in side the velvet rope.
Correct: Please wait behind the velvet rope.
Incorrect: I introduce Parker to you.
Correct: May I introduce you to Mr. Parker?
Incorrect: Becky was first place.
Correct: Becky took first place.
Incorrect: Do you have any digital cameras? Yes, I have
Correct: Do you have any digital cameras? Yes, I have one.
HOMOPHONES, HOMONYMS, & HOMOGRAPHS
Key Definitions:
– Homophones are words which have the same pronunciation but different meanings and spellings.
– Homonyms are words which have the same pronunciation and spelling but different meanings. It is important to pay attention to the context of the writing or conversation to determine the correct meaning.
– Homographs are words which have the same spellings but different meanings and pronunciations.
To determine the appropriate meaning of these types of words, it is important to pay
attention to the context of the writing or conversation.
Here is a list of common homophones, homonyms, and homographs:
Accept: (verb) – to receive willingly, to approve, to agree.
Except: (preposition or verb) – exclusion or to leave out.
Ad: an advertisement.
Add: to combine, join, unite or to find a sum.
Advice: (noun) – suggestion or recommendation.
Advise: (verb) – to suggest.
Affect: (verb) – to change.
Effect: (noun) – a result.
Ate: past tense of eat.
Eight: number 8.
Buy: (verb) – to purchase.
By: next to something, by way of something.
Bye: Used to express farewell. Short for goodbye.
Choose: (verb) to make a choice or selection.
Chose: past tense of choose.
Choice: (noun) selection.
Cite: to mention something or to quote somebody as an example or proof.
Site: the location of an event or object or a website.
Sight: ability to see, something that can be seen.
Decent: kind, tolerant, respectable, modest.
Descent: (noun) family origins or ancestry.(verb) The process of coming or going down Dissent: (noun) disagreement with a prevailing or official view.
Desert: (verb) to leave or abandon. (noun) water less land with no vegetation and covered with sand.Dessert: sweet food served after a meal.
Four: number 4
For : to indicate the object, aim, or purpose of an action or activity.
Here: in, at, or to this place.
Hear: to perceive a sound with the ear.
Knew: past simple version of the verb to know.
New: recently created.
Know: (verb) to be familiar with someone or something.
Now: at the present time or moment.
No: negative reply, refusal or disagreement.
Off: away, at a distance in space or time.
Of: belonging to or connected with someone or something.
Peace: freedom from war and violence.
Piece: a part of an object; a piece of art.
Then: refers to time or consequence.
Than: used to compare or contrast things.
There: place or position.
Their: possessive word that shows ownership of something.
To: preposition (I went to school) or part of an infinitive (to go, to work).
Too: also (I like you too) or in excess (That is too much).
Two: number 2
Wander: to walk aimlessly or without any destination.
Wonder: (noun) feeling of surprise and admiration. (verb) desire to know.
Weather: the atmospheric conditions in area, with regard to sun, cloud, temperature, wind and rain.
Whether: introduces indirect question involving alternative possibilities.
Where: to, at or in what place.
Were: past tense of the verb [to be]
Wear: to have clothing, glasses, etc. on your body.
Write: (verb) To form letters, words, or symbols on a surface (like paper) with a pen or pencil.
Right: morally good, proper. Also opposite of left.
COMMON LEARNING MISTAKES
1) Forcing Speech without Sufficient Practice
When learning any language, it is a mistake to force speaking without sufficient practice and study. The speaker speaks slowly and loses their confidence when they are unsuccessful. English learners should practice speaking only when they are comfortable in doing it!
2) Grammar Focus
Focusing on grammar when learning English can be a major obstacle in becoming comfortable with the language. There are too many grammar rules to learn and memorize and use in a conversation. English grammar skills have to be developed unconsciously. The best way to learn proper English grammar is to read reputable publications written in English, such as professional magazines, newspapers and news articles online.
3) Formal English Focus
Most English is learned from formal English books, however native English speakers use casual English in conversation. Casual English is filled with idioms, slang, and figurative language. When learning English, it is important to learn the formal structures and rules, however it is equally important to learn casual English through conversation with native or fluent speakers.
- Trying to be perfect
Even native speakers who speak English their entire lives are not perfect in speaking and writing. English is a complex language, so do not become discouraged when you cannot perfect it immediately. Concentrate on learning English as an ongoing learning experience.
- Relying Solely on English Schools
As in regular schools, English school will not give you all the preparation you need to become a fluent English speaker. Practice and careful study will help you achieve your goal of speaking and writing in English fluently.
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