Back to Basics in Literacy Part Two Students frequently make some basic grammatical and syntactical errors in their written responses. As a result, the English Department is aiming to alleviate this problem by teaching grammar lessons to year 7 and 8 students. The students have their yellow exercise books that they use in these lessons. Please encourage them to refer to the relevant information in these books whenever you require them to complete any written responses.
Back to Basics in Literacy Part Two The eight parts of speech are the building blocks of sentences. When you learn to use the parts of speech correctly, your sentences will mean just what you want them to mean. The parts of speech are: Noun, Verb, Adverb, Adjective, Pronoun, Preposition, Interjection and Conjunction. 1) Nouns A noun is a word used to name a person, animal, place, thing or idea. For example: teacher (person), bear (animal), school (place), computer (thing), wisdom (idea) Kinds of nouns singular and plural nouns Singular means one of something. Plural means more than one. Five ways to make nouns plural 1. You can make most nouns plural by just adding s e.g. One pencil, four pencils 2. If the noun ends with s, ch, sh, x or z, add es to make it plural. e.g. dress dresses, church churches, fox foxes 3. To make some nouns that end with f or fe plural, change the f to v and es. e.g. knife knives, half halves 4. Add s if the letter in front of the y is a vowel, to make plural a noun that ends in y. e.g. toy toys 5. Drop the y and add ies if the letter in front of the y is a consonant. e.g. dictionary dictionaries Some irregular plurals are: appendix appendixes/appendices, tooth teeth, bacterium bacteria, deer deer, sheep sheep
Common and proper nouns A common noun names any regular, ordinary person, animal, place, thing or idea. Nothing specific. For example: woman, dog, house, city A proper noun names a very specific, or particular person, animal, place, thing or idea. For example: Tony Blair, Black Beauty, The Chalfonts Community College. A proper noun always begins with a capital letter. A concrete noun names a person, animal, place or thing that you can actually see, touch, taste, hear or smell. For example: girl, horse, hotel, onion An abstract noun names an idea, feeling, emotion or quality. For example: beauty, happiness, fear A collective noun names a group of people, animals or things. For example: audience, herd, bouquet A compound noun is made up of two or more words used together. Compound nouns can be one word (shoelace), two words (seat belt), hyphenated (baby sitter). 2) Verbs A verb is a word that describes an action, state, or occurrence. It also forms the main part of the predicate (the part of the sentence that contains the verb) of a sentence. e.g. play, comprehend, think Helping/auxiliary verbs help the main verb express tenses. There are twenty three of these verbs. Some of these verbs are: am, is, are, was, were, be, being, has, have Verb tenses tense means time in grammar. The tense of a verb tells you when the action of the verb takes place. There are six main tenses. 1. Present tense means now. E.g. I ride my bike this very minute. 2. Past tense means before now. E.g. I rode my horse yesterday.
3. Future tense means not yet (but any time after now). E.g. I will ride my horse to school this morning. 4. Present perfect tense means started in the past and just recently finished or still going on. E.g. I have ridden my moped around the park three times and I am still riding it. 5. Past perfect tense means finished before some other past action. E.g. I had ridden my wagon for a mile before I fell off. 6. Future perfect tense means the action will be started and finished in the future. E.g. I will have ridden the camel for hours before I get there. 3) Adverbs An adverb modifies a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a phrase, or a clause. An adverb indicates manner, time, place, cause, or degree and answers questions such as "how," "when," "where," "how often". Some adverbs that tell how are: loudly, well, brilliantly, too Some adverbs that tell where are: above, there, everywhere Some adverbs that tell when are: tomorrow, early, eventually Some adverbs that tell how often are: frequently, regularly. 4) Adjectives Adjectives are describing words (like good, beautiful, or blue) which are usually used with nouns. An adjective usually precedes the noun or the pronoun which it modifies. Adjectives usually answer three questions about the nouns they describe: 1) What kind of? 2) How many? 3) Which one? What kind of? Mary spotted a huge monster in the cave. How many? May I have six ice cream cones please? Which one (or which ones)?
I will take that dress. Three kinds of adjectives are: 1. Demonstrative adjectives This, that, these and those are called demonstrative adjectives. They point out (demonstrate) nouns. They also answer the question which one(s)? E.g. These cookies taste great. N.B. this, that, these and those can also act as pronouns 2. Common adjectives like common nouns are just plain, ordinary, everyday adjectives. They describe a noun in a general way. E.g. My friend is wearing a colourful jacket. 3. Proper adjectives are made from proper nouns. They are always capitalized. E.g. Life in the Victorian era was very difficult. 5) Pronouns A pronoun is a word that is used 'in place of' a noun or a noun phrase. e.g. he, she, it, they, we, I and you To avoid repetition, we use a pronoun if we are referring to the same person or thing in the same written piece. For example: I saw the dog, I think it was chewing your shoe. A pronoun can be used wherever a noun or a noun phrase (the word which acts as the main word or phrase in the subject of the sentence) can be used in a sentence: As the subject of a verb. For example: The dog was barking. It was barking. As the object of a verb. For example: I heard the fire alarm. Did you hear it? 6) Prepositions Prepositions are the words that indicate location. Usually, prepositions show this location in the physical world. Check out the three examples below:
The puppy is on the floor. The puppy is in the trash can. The puppy is beside the phone. On, in, and beside are all prepositions. They are showing where the puppy is. Prepositions can also show location in time. For example: At midnight, Jill craved mashed potatoes with grape jelly. 7) Interjections Interjections are special words that show strong feelings or emotions like excitement, happiness, horror, shock, sadness, pain, anger and disgust. Interjections usually come at the beginning of a sentence. Some common interjections are: hooray, wow, oh 8) Conjunctions A Conjunction is a word that joins other words or parts of sentences together. For example: and, nor, but, so
More Easily Confused Words Know the Difference Between Allowed and Aloud The adverb 'aloud' means 'out loud' and refers to sound. For example: Please do not read aloud. You're disturbing everyone else in the library. 'Allowed' is the past tense of the verb 'to allow', which means 'to give permission to do something'. For example: Students are not allowed to eat in class. Using the Words A Lot and Allot The term 'a lot' is the opposite of 'a little'. As a noun, 'lot' means a large extent, a large amount or a large number. For example: Mark has a lot of toys. As an adverb, 'lot' means 'to a great extent' or 'to a great degree'. For example: He cheats a lot. The verb 'to allot' means 'to give out', 'to apportion', 'to divide' or 'to distribute'. For example: I will allot a radio to each group. N.B. The word ALOT does not exist. It is often mistakenly written instead of a lot.
Using the Words Amount and Number Correctly Amount is used when the thing being referred to cannot be counted individually. For example: Students deposited a large amount of money over the weekend. ( Money is an indivisible concept.) Number is used when the things referred to can be separated and counted individually. For example: The number of courses that we have to take next year has increased. (Courses are definitely divisible one course, two courses, and so on.) Using Borrow and Lend Correctly Borrow is a verb that means to use something that belongs to someone else, usually with the intention of returning it. For example: May I borrow your pen? Lend is a verb that means to allow someone to use something temporarily on the condition that it will be returned. For example: The library lends books to all county residents. Using Compliment and Complement Correctly Compliment (with an i) is an expression of praise. For example: My compliments to the chef for such a wonderful starter. (my praise to the chefs) Complement (with an e) is something that enhances something else or goes well with it. For example: The drums were a perfect complement to their dancing style. (drums enhanced their dancing style)
Using Different Different should always be followed by the preposition from. For example: Mary is different from her brothers in many ways. (correct) Different to and Different than are incorrect forms sometimes used in speech and writing. For example: Mary is different to her brothers in many ways. (incorrect) Mary is different than her brothers in many ways. (incorrect) Using I and Me Correctly "I" and "me" are both pronouns that we use to refer to ourselves. Use "I" when it is the subject of the verb, and use "me" when it is the object of the verb. Remember that "I" is always written as a capital letter. People most often make mistakes using "I" and "me" when they are talking about more than one person. For example: My husband and I are going on vacation to Hawaii. (correct) My husband and me are going on vacation to Hawaii. (incorrect) Using Much and Many Correctly We use the word much with nouns that we cannot count. For example: I cannot remember how much water I drank yesterday. We use the word many with nouns that we can count. For example: There are many girls at my school.
Using Practice and Practise Correctly In order to understand which to use, you must know the difference between a noun and a verb. This is because 'practice' is a noun; whereas, 'practise' is a verb. For examples: You need more practice. (practice noun) You should practise more. (practise verb) Using Sitting and Sat Correctly The verb sitting describes an action that is taking place now/at present. It is the present continuous tense of the verb sit. For example: The children are sitting quietly in the class. The verb sat is the past tense of the verb sit. It is used to describe an action that took place in the past. For example: Yesterday, the children sat quietly as they listened to the lecture on how to revise for their exams. Using Stationery and Stationary Correctly The adjective stationary means: remaining in one place, immobile, not moving. For example: The broken down bus has been stationary on the field since last Saturday. The noun stationery means writing materials such as: pens, pencils, paper, envelopes and other office supplies. For example: You are required to provide your own stationery ( paper, pen, pencil) for the exam.
Using the Words Affect and Effect Correctly Knowing when to use affect or effect in a sentence can be a challenge. These words are examples of homonyms. Homonyms are words that are similar, but have very different meanings. According to yourdictionary.com, the word AFFECT means: 1. To have an influence on or affect a change in. e.g. Inflation affects the buying power of the dollar. 2. To act on the emotions of; touch or move. 3. To attack or infect, as a disease. e.g. Rheumatic fever can affect the heart. Using the Words Between and Among Correctly Use between with two items. For example: Emily was standing between Sam and Adam. Use among with three or more items. For example: Robert divided his property equally among his three children. Using They re, There and Their Correctly They re means they are. For example: They re playing basketball in the gym. There means in that place. For example: The London Eye is over there. Their is a possessive adjective. For example: Susan and Mary are studying for their exam.
Using To and Too Correctly To has two functions. First, as a preposition, in which case it always comes before a noun. For example: This book belongs to David. Secondly, to indicates an infinitive when it comes before a verb. For example: I need to study for my exam. Too also has two uses. First, as a synonym for "also". For example: Can I go too? Secondly, too means excessively when it comes before an adjective or adverb. For example: He's walking too quickly. Using Were, We re and Where Correctly Were is the past tense of are. For example: We were going for a walk. We re is a shortened version of we are. For example: We re going to a restaurant for tea. Where relates to place and can be used when asking a question about direction. For example: Where are we going? Using Who s and Whose Correctly Use "Who's" as a contracted or short form of "Who is. For example: Who's the smartest in the class? Use "Whose" as a possessive meaning "belonging to." It always precedes (goes before) a noun. For example: Whose book is this?
Using Your and You re Correctly The word "your" is used to identify things that belong to you. For example: Your books are on the table. "You're" is a contraction of the words "you are". For example: You're going to have to remember what time you're supposed to get there. The apostrophe is placed between the u and r in you re to replace the missing letter. Use "you're" where you can substitute the words "you are" in its place. What is the Difference Between Its and It s? It's is a contraction of "it is" or "it has." For example: It's time to go. (it is) It's been a long time. (it has) Its is the possessive form of "it." For example: The bird lost some of its feathers.
Sources Elizabeth Weal (2010), English Grammar: Step by Step 2. Tenaya Press Tony Preston (2005), A Concise Grammar for English Language Teachers. TP Publications Terban M. (1993) Scholastic Guides Checking Your Grammar. Scholastic Inc. Compiled by BRK August 2012