Learning English - blogger

The subject and the verb are the most important in a sentence. The relation between the subject and verb depends on person and number. The verb of a sentence must agree with the subject according to person and number. The number of the subject can be singular and plural. Singular verb is used if the subject is singular and the verb must be plural if the subject is plural. So, identifying the number of the subject is required to take a verb. The person of the subject can be first, second, and third. The verb changes according to the number and person of the subject. Rules of Subject-Verb Agreement: Rule 1: Singular subjects need singular verbs, while plural subjects require plural verbs. ‘Be’ verbs  change the most according to the number and person of the subject.  Other verbs do not change much on the basis of the subjects except the verbs of the simple present tense. If the subjects are a third person singular number, the verbs are used with s/es when they are in simple pres...

Prepositions are words that help define the relationship between elements in a sentence. The word preposition means a word that is positioned before (pre means before) another word. However in some cases, prepositions are placed after the word. Note: A preposition is usually placed before a noun or a pronouns. Types of prepositions Prepositions of time A number of prepositions may be used to denote time: On Monday,  before  night,   During the vacation, till noon, by evening ( a) At usually denotes a definite point of time but can also be used for indefinite periods:        at 5 pm sharp,     at  midnight (b)  On is used with days and dates:     on Monday,  on  5th December (c) In is used with parts of the day, month, year, season:           in the morning,  in  winter (d) By denotes the  latest time at which an action will be over: The show will be over  by ...

Direct and Indirect Speech The teacher said, " We studied chapter 1 yesterday." The teacher said that they had studied chapter 1 a day before. The sentences in bold above shows that the speech of a speaker can be reported in two different ways. 1. Expressing the actual words spoken by the speaker. This method is known as Direct Speech. The teacher said, " We studied chapter 1 yesterday." The verb which introduces the direct speech is known as Reporting Verb.   For example, 'said' in the sentence above is the reporting verb. a. The  words generally used by the speaker are put within inverted commas. Reporting Verb                    Reported Speech The teacher said,          " We studied chapter                                                  1  yesterday." b.  A comma i...

As we know that adjectives are used to describe or qualify a noun, and degrees of comparison is used to compare place or person to another place or person. Adjectives of Quality have three degrees of comparison, they are  positive degree, comparative degree and superlative degree. Adjectives in the base form is known as positive degree . It is used when there is no comparison at all. It is used to shown only the existence of quality of what we speak about. Example:  Good, bad, heavy, light etc... As : Hari is a good boy. Comparative degree is used when a comparison is made between two objects. Example: better, worse, heavier, lighter etc... As : Shyam is better than Hari. Note : 'than' is placed just after the comparative degree. Superlative degree : Superlative degree is used when three or more place/persons are compared. Example: best, worst, heaviest, lightest etc...  As: Ram is the best boy among than. Note : 'the' is place before superlative degree. Most adjectiv...

Look at the following sentences and observe the words in bold letters. It was a very hot summer. A lion was taking rest under a tree. A tiny mouse was so hungry and it was running all around searching food. It didn't notice the lion and ran over him. The lion was disturbed. Angrily, the lion placed his large paw on the small creature. What did you understand? These words point out the noun placed  after them. They describe them. They give additional information about the nouns they describe. For example tiny mouse tells us that the mouse was small in size. Large paw describes the paw of the lion that it was relatively great in size. Definition of Adjective: A word placed before a noun which tells us about the qualities of the noun or describes it, is known as Adjective. Types of Adjectives: Adjectives of Quality Adjectives of Quantity Adjectives of Number Demonstrative Adjectives Interrogative Adjectives Possessive Adjectives Adjectives of Quality:  They are used to describe...

Question Tags Question tags are short questions that are added to statements or imperatives to turn into questions.We use it to confirm information. Auxiliary verbs of Tags: Use the auxiliary of the statement as the auxiliary of the tag.Contracted forms should be used. He didn't invite you, did he? Use the first auxiliary verb to form tag questions. He will have a new bike, won't he? If there is no auxiliary verb in the sentences we use do verbs  to form tag questions. She sings well, doesn't she? Singular auxiliary verbs( is, was, has, does) change to plural auxiliary verbs (are, were, have, do) to form tags if the subjects of the statements are somebody, someone,nobody,etc. Somebody helps me, don't they? Subject of tags: Use the subject pronouns of the statements as the subjects of tags. If there are nouns, indefinite pronouns or two pronouns in the subject, replace them wth single pronouns. Chart showing subject of tag:  Statement Subject  Tag Subject  Example ...

The words a, an and the are called articles. These are the determiners and point out the names. Articles are used before a noun. There are two types of articles. Indefinite Articles  Definite article Indefinite Articles: ' A' and 'an' are known as indefinite articles in English. They are used before singular, countable and common noun. Examples: a boy, a book, an elephant, an island Uses of indefinite articles:  A is used before a word beginning with consonant letter and vowels with consonant sounds. Example: a flute, a university, a European, a lion, a child etc... An is used before a word beginning with vowel letter and consonants with vowel sound. Example: an apple, an iron, an egg, an honest man, an hour etc... Some abbreviations take 'an' before them if they are pronounced with vowel sound, otherwise they take 'a' before them. Example: an MLA, an MA, an LLB, a BA etc... Definite Article: ' The' is definite article in English. Uses of definit...

When we speak or write something, a meaning is required in order to make our speech or writing intelligible. So we use meaningful words or group of words. Let's observe these group of words. The sun rises in the east. The sailor looked through his glass. Asia is the largest continent in the world. Prithvi Narayan Shah unified Nepal. The above group of words give a complete sense. These are called sentences. Now let's observe these groups of words. The east in the sun rises. The glass through looked his sailor. Largest the Asia continent in the world is. Unified Shah Prithvi Narayan Nepal. These group of words do not express a complete sense, so they are not sentences. Definition of a sentence:  A group of words which makes a complete sense is called a sentence. Kinds of sentences: According to the sense or meaning expressed by a sentence, there are five kinds of sentences. Assertive or Declarative sentence Interrogative sentence Imperative sentence Optative sentence Exclamatory...

Voice is such a form of verb which shows whether the subject acts or is acted upon. For example, The boy read a book. In this sentence, "the boy" is the doer of action "read" as the boy is subject and a book is object, as the boy did something. So the verb "read" is active. A book was read by the boy. In this sentence "a book" is the is the receiver of the verb. Thus, the verb is passive. Definition of Active Voice:  When the subject is the doer of the action, the verb is said to be in active voice. Example: He taught us English. Subject "he" is the doer of the action "taught". Definition of Passive Voice: When the subject is the receiver of the action, the verb is said to be in passive voice. Example: We were taught English by him . Table of Active and their passive   Tense/Verb form  Active Voice  Passive Voice  Simple Present  v¹/v5  is/am/are+v³  Present Continuous is/are + v⁴  is/are + being+v³  Present Perfect  has/have ...

Changing a sentence from one grammatical form to another without changing its meaning is known as transformation of sentence. Interchanging  Affirmative and Negative Sentence Rule of Work 1. Remove adverb "too" and put "so......that"     Repeat the subject     Cannot/Could not according to the tense Example:  Affirmative: He is too weak to walk. Negative: He is so weak that he cannot walk. Affirmative: She is too intelligent to fool. Negative: She is so intelligent that she cannot be fooled. 2. For superlative degrees in Affirmative, use No other ............ as + positive degree Example:  Affirmative: Napoleon was the greatest European general. Negative: No other European general was as great as Napoleon. 3. For comparative degree, use as + positive degree + as Example:  Affirmative: Abhishek is better than any other  boy in the class. Negative: No other boy in the class is as good as Abhishek. 4. Replace phrases such as "As soon as","Hardly...