SPOKEN ENGLISH MADE EASY

Author: Mrs.Hari Shyamala Dharmar

This book is only a sample of the original book Spoken English Made Easy. Only 4-5 topics have been covered in this sample book. To get access to all the tutorials, please purchase the tutorials (Book and Video Tutorials) from the website www.learnspokenenglish.net Free Video Tutorials are also available online. Visit the website www.learnspokenenglish.net and access the free online tutorial.

The original book consists of more than 100 practice exercise questions and answers.

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CONTENTS OF THE ORIGINAL BOOK

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

PREFACE FOREWORD TIPS TO LEARN A NEW LANGUAGE THE PROCESS OF LEARNING A NEW LANGUAGE BASICS OF ENGLISH a. NOUN b. VERB c. ADJECTIVE d. ADVERB e. PRONOUN f. ARTICLE g. PREPOSITION h. CONJUNCTION i. INTERROGATION j. EXCLAMATION 6. NUMBER 7. GENDER 8. OPPOSITES 9. DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH 10. ACTIVE AND PASSIVE VOICE 11. KINDS OF SENTENCES a. SIMPLE SENTENCE b. COMPOUND SENTENCE c. COMPLEX SENTENCE 12. PHRASES 13. TRANSLATION 14. COMPREHENSION 15. USAGE OF TENSE AND OTHER PARTS OF SPEECH 16. TONGUE-TWISTERS 17. HOMOPHONES 18. LEARN AND KNOW 19. ANSWERS TO ALL EXERCISES

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SPOKEN ENGLISH MADE EASY

PREFACE
There is always a fear, a little bit of hesitancy and a mental block when we venture into a new attempt- be it a highly complicated project or an endeavor as simple as learning a new language. It need not be so, if the method of learning has been made simple and the learner has a positive approach to learn the language. English, the language of the great Anglo-Saxon and the British, has become the linking language which unites people all over the world as one as it makes communication much easier. In India, where diversity in languages, culture and tradition, is quite predominant, English language plays a vital role in uniting the people through communication and strengthens the relationship between the people of one state with another. So, it has become essential to learn the language, not only for survival, but to be united and show our strength to the world. Some of the students are very fortunate to study in English medium schools and learn to speak the language fluently. But most of the Indian Students especially from villages are not so lucky, since they have to study in their mother tongue and are unable to speak English fluently. This book is written to assist those students who want to learn the language from the basic and then speak fluently. We hope this book will be useful and enable every reader to speak the language not only in the level of survival, but in a confident level to face the competition in this highly competitive world. Wishing you all the Best in your new endeavor, HARI SHYAMALA DHARMAR

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TIPS TO LEARN A NEW LANGUAGE

Tip I Our Attitude plays an important role in our life. Those who have a positive attitude achieve success at any cost while those with negative attitude fail miserably. Our attitude determines our Altitude. This applies to learning a language also. The learner should never think it is difficult to learn a foreign language. He/She should always think I can learn English and I will speak English. This should be the mantra of the positive learner. Tip II Secondly, we should not be afraid of speaking/using the language in public. Whether right or wrong, start speaking in English, though your vocabulary will be limited. Do not be ashamed or feel inferior when you make mistakes. Even if somebody laughs at you, always remember that English is not your mother tongue and you are not a native speaker. If you make mistakes while speaking your mother-tongue, you should be really ashamed. But English is the Universal language and you are learning it to improve your communication skills. Can you imagine a foreigner speaking our mother-tongue without making any mistakes? Dont we get excited and thrilled when they say namaste in Hindi and Vanakam in Tamil? So, using simple words, start speaking. A healthy and confident child never learns to walk without falling down. Tip III Reading aloud helps a lot in improving your Vocabulary (words) and pronunciation. So, every day, preferably in the morning read the English news paper like The Hindu or any book aloud. If you do not understand the meaning of the words, do not run and get the dictionary immediately. Very few people understand and know the meaning of the words in the first attempt itself. Read the same paragraph thrice and try to relate the meaning with the context. Slowly, the meaning will be registered in the mind vaguely. Now, if the dictionary is referred, you will be quite surprised and excited to know that you have almost guessed it right. The Hindu news paper is suggested for good reading, because of the perfect construction of sentences, good vocabulary and error-free grammar. Tip IV Another way to improve your vocabulary is to take five words from the dictionary and learn the meaning and use them in sentences. This practice will help you a lot in improving the 4|Page

vocabulary. Please remember that without words, no sentence can be framed or spoken. If you know many words only, people will be interested in listening to you. They will not be interested, if the same words are used again and again or you get stuck in the middle of the sentences due to lack of suitable words. Reading loudly for thirty minutes is suggested as a regular exercise to improve the vocabulary and pronunciation. Tip V Last, but not the least, whenever you watch Television, watch English News, English Commentaries and then English movies. It will sound as Greek and Latin in the beginning. But dont give up. Keep on watching and Listening. Listening is a wonderful skill which enables us to learn everything. While watching the movies, please observe the following: 1. How do the characters start the conversation? 2. What kind of words are they using? 3. How do they form (construct) the sentences? 4. How do they use their tone & voice? 5. Which tense is used in the dialogue? These observations will be very useful for spoken English. Try to frame your sentences in the same pattern, while beginning a conversation.

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THE PROCESS OF LEARNING A LANGUAGE

The Five natural ways of learning a language:
1. Listening 2. Understanding 3. Speaking 4. Reading 5. Writing How do we learn our mother-tongue? We learn it through natural ways. Usually a Child learns his/her mother-tongue by listening to the parents, who in their excitement and anxiety always tell the child to say amma/appa (mummy & daddy). The baby blinks, but soon learns to associate the lady as his/her mother and the gentleman as his/her father and tries to say amma/appa. The understanding starts here. Soon the child is successful and begins to call his/her parents amma and appa. When the child goes to school at the age of 5, he/she learns to read and then to write. Since we learn our mother-tongue in this natural way, we are able to speak our mother-tongue fluently without making any mistakes. But this process is reversed when we learn a foreign language. We become familiar to the language when we go to school. We learn to: 1. Read 2. Write 3. Speak 4. Understand 5. Listen Exactly in the reverse process. That is why it is difficult for us to speak the language fluently as Listening does not take place either at home or in school. So, whenever you attend any coaching classes for spoken English, please always find out whether they are stressing on the 6|Page

natural way of learning and give enough exercises to improve your Listening, understanding and speaking abilities in English. Similarly, we need four skills to speak the language: 1. Grammar 2. Vocabulary 3. Pronunciation 4. Tone & Voice Modulation

Grammar:
Grammar is the backbone of any language. Without it, it is very difficult to frame the sentences. There is no literature without grammar. So, it is very important to learn and understand grammar to speak English fluently. Enough grammar is covered in this book to enable the reader to understand the basics of English grammar, so that they can speak fluently.

Vocabulary:
We have already talked in detail about vocabulary. Many suggestions have already been mentioned to improve your vocabulary.

Pronunciation:
Listening and Reading aloud help you a lot in improving your pronunciation. We, Indians, always have our Mother-Tongue-Influence (MTI). Listening and Watching the BBC News Channel help us a lot to overcome this problem. Many CDs like Linguaphone are available in the market to improve our listening skill and pronunciation.

Tone & Voice Modulation:

Our tone plays an important role in expressing our feelings. Be it Happiness, Sadness or Anger, we can make out from the tone itself. Voice Modulation also is necessary to express feelings, suggestions and advice. As a teacher of Spoken English I will casually ask my students Who is their favourite actor and whether they could quote any dialogue from their 7|Page

movies. Usually they will say one or two words or at the most, a single line. But when I mentioned, *Veerapandiya Kattabomman they immediately started narrating the famous dialogue in that movie. How is it possible? That movie was released in 1958. Many of the students were not even born at that time. At the most they might have watched the movie in TV on special occasions. Then how is it possible to quote the lengthy dialogue? It is because of the tone and the voice modulation of the actor *Mr. Sivaji Ganesan (who is no more) which has made a great impact on the audience. So, if we want to impress someone or show our aggressiveness, we should use our tone and voice accordingly to get the positive results.

Veerapandiya Kattabomman is a ruler who ruled the southern region of Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu in the 18th century. He is one of the famous rulers who opposed the British rule. In the movie, this famous & popular dialogue takes place when he meets Lord Jackson after being defeated by the British in the war. Finally, he was hanged by the British at Kayathar. Sivaji Ganesan was a versatile actor of Tamil movies who could attract the audience with his dialogue delivery. He was an acting legend who could impress the people with his baritone voice. He was considered as the Marlon Brando of Tamil Cinema.

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BASICS OF ENGLISH
The Parts of Speech 1. Noun 2. Verb 3. Adjective 4. Adverb 5. Pronoun 6. Article 7. Preposition 8. Conjunction 9. Interrogation 10. Exclamation These are called the parts of speech. The parts of our body are assimilated to form the human body by our Creator, God, to enable us to live comfortably on this earth. Similarly the parts of speech are important to form the structure of the language.

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NOUN
The Noun is a naming word. It denotes the names of people, places, things and animals. Examples: People Places Things Animals Rama, Sita, Ravi, Raji Mylapore, Chennai, India, Delhi Table, Chair, Computer, Car Lion, Tiger, Cat, Cow

There are five kinds of noun. 1. Proper Noun 2. Common Noun 3. Collective Noun 4. Abstract Noun 5. Material Noun (a) Proper Noun refers to the name of a particular person, place or animal. E.g. 1. Rama is a boy

Proper Noun

Common Noun

2.

New Delhi

is

the capital

of

India

Proper Noun 10 | P a g e

Common Noun

Proper Noun

(b) Common Noun refers to the names of objects or people in common. E.g. 1. India is a big country

Proper Noun 2. The Lion is

Common Noun known as the king of the jungle

Proper Noun

Common Noun

Common Noun

c) Collective Noun: As the name denotes the collective noun refers to the group of people or objects. E.g: 1. The herd of sheep crosses the road.

Collective Noun 2. The army is fighting

Collective Noun Please note that the following verb of any collective noun should be in singular. d) Abstract Noun: The emotions which can be felt by us, but cannot be seen are classified as abstract nouns. E.g: Oh! God, Save me!!, Kindness, Sincerity 11 | P a g e

e) Material Noun: All minerals and metals are known as Material Noun. E.g: Coal, Gold, Silver Iron and Steel are exported from India.

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Noun has Gender and Number Noun

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Gender --------------------------------------Number ------------------------------

Masculine

Feminine

Singular

Plural

Male

Female

Only one

More than one

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VERB
The Verb is an action word. It describes the action of the noun. It also shows the time of action. 1. The Verb has the distinct quality of forming the sentence with one word which can give complete meaning. E.g. Go Come Sit Stand Read Write Eat Sleep 2. The sentences can be formed by two words also One noun + One verb. E.g. Birds fly Fish swims Boy runs Babies cry 3. A simple sentence can be framed like this. This is a book. That is a car. He is a boy. She is a girl. It is a pen. They are boys 14 | P a g e Here the verb is / are show the be / being of the object or people. These verbs are commanding words with complete meaning.

4. Any main sentence is constructed with a. Subject b. Predicate Verb + Complement/Object c. Object d. Complement a. The Subject is the noun part of the sentence and the doer of the action. E.g. Sita sings a song. Subject b. The Predicate shows the action of noun with relation to the object or complement. E.g. Sita sings a song.

Verb c. The Object is also a noun which shows what is being done. E.g. Sita sings a song. Object d. The Complement completes the sentence and also gives additional information about it. E.g. Sita sings a song to the audience.

Complement 5. Important Verbs: There are four kinds of verb which are needed to construct a sentence. 15 | P a g e

a. Main verb: No sentence can be framed without a main verb. E.g. Rama is a boy He drives a car They play foot ball Main verb b. Auxiliary verb: Auxiliary verb is mainly used in Continuous and Perfect tenses. E.g. a. The teacher is Aux Verb teaching a lesson. Main verb

b. Many people were running a marathon for an AIDS awareness programme. Aux.V M.V. c. I have spoken to my friend regarding the appointment. Aux.V M.V. c. Transitive Verb: The verb which has an object in a sentence is called a transitive verb. E.g. 1. Rama ate the food.
Sub verb Object

2. The students are electing their leader today.

Subject

Verb

Object

Complement

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d. Intransitive Verb: Mostly intransitive verbs will not have an object. But they may have a complement. E.g. 1. Birds fly No object / No complement Birds fly in the sky. Complement. 2. The trains are arriving late due to heavy rains Complement. Some of the Intransitive Verbs: 1. Sit. 2. Stand 3. Cry. 4. Fly. 5. Arrive. 6. Depart. 7. Sleep.

8. Bathe 9. Call. 10. Go.

11. Come. 12. Fall.

Please note: The Intransitive verbs cannot be changed into Passive Voice as they do not have an object.

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A list of words with different tense forms, are given to learn by heart. If they are learnt thoroughly, it will improve your vocabulary as well as help you to construct the sentence correctly. SAMPLE: S.No. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Present Tense Arise Bear Beat Become Begin Bid Bind Bite Blow Break Arose Bore Beat Became Began Bade Bound Bit Blew Broke Past Tense Participle Arisen Borne Beaten Become Begun Bidden Bound Bitten Blown Broken

A total of 150 words are provided in the original book.

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ADJECTIVE
The Adjective describes the noun. It shows the quality of the noun. The Adjective has degrees of comparison. There are three degrees of comparison. 1. Positive 2. Comparative 3. Superlative 1. Positive degree: E.g. Rama is a kind boy. Here we are just making a statement about Rama. 2. Comparative degree: E.g. Rama is kinder than Ravi. Here we are comparing Rama with Ravi. 3. Superlative degree: E.g. Rama is the kindest boy in the class. Here there is no comparison at all. Rama is the BEST in the class. Please note the definite article the is used in front of the superlative degree kindest. Positive: Alexander was a great king. Comparative: Alexander was greater than Napoleon. Superlative: Alexander was the greatest king the world had ever seen.

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OPPOSITES
SAMPLE: 1. Small 2. Thin 3. Wide 4. Short 5. Arrive 6. Fair 7. Initial 8. Active 9. Popular 10. Famous * * * * * * * * * * Big, large, huge. Thick, fat. Narrow Long, tall Depart Dark Final Lazy, inactive Unpopular Infamous

In the original book, you are provided with 75 opposites.

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KINDS OF SENTENCES
There are three kinds of sentences: 1. Simple sentences. 2. Compound sentences. 3. Complex sentences.

I. SIMPLE SENTENCE
A simple sentence has a subject, predicate, object or a complement. E.g: 1. Rama drives a car in a race. 2. The teacher teaches a lesson to the students. 3. I see a movie on Sundays Gerund: When a Verb is used as noun by adding ing, it is called a gerund. It is largely used in simple sentences. E.g. 1. Seeing the angry lion, he ran for life. 2. Helping others gives us more pleasure than being selfish. 3. Being a girl, she could not go out in the night.

II. COMPOUND SENTENCE

A compound sentence is made up of two simple sentences connected by any one of the following conjunctions:And, but, yet, else, therefore. E.g 1. He wrote the exams and waited for the results.

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2. He is old, but he is healthy. 3. He studied hard, yet he failed in the exams. 1. Learn well else you will fail in the exams. 2. She was sick, therefore she could not go to school.

III. COMPLEX SENTENCE

The Complex sentences consist of phrases and clauses. Phrase A string of words which cannot give meaning on its own is known as a phrase. E.g: The girl, (who) lives down the lane, is poor. There are three phrases in the above sentences. 1. The girl / 2. Lives down the lane / 3. is poor All these phrases are connected by a conjunction who to form a meaningful sentence. Clause: A simple sentence which can give meaning on its own is called as clause. E.g. (When) I was crossing the road, I saw the accident I was crossing the road. I saw the accident. These two simple sentences are connected by a conjunction-when-to form a complex sentence. The following conjunctions are used in complex sentences:-

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When, where, while, who, which, whose, whom, how, that, if, whether, as, since, because, though, although, eventhough, however, whatever, whichever, whenever, whomever. When we use the conjunctions in Complex sentences, we have to identify whether they are conjunction or question with reference to the context in which they are used. E.g: 1. The students were very attentive, when the teacher was teaching. 2. My friend asked me where I was going. 3. He snores loudly while sleeping. 4. This is the boy who carried my bags at the railway station. 5. The mango tree, which we planted recently in our garden, grows very slowly. 6. The leaders, whose footsteps are followed by the people, should lead an ethical life. 7. You can choose whichever career you want, if you study well. 8. You can ask me whenever you want money. 9. John did not know how he landed in India. 10. Since 1947, India has developed a lot.

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TONGUE TWISTERS
The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain. This is a famous line from Bernard Shaws Pygmalion in which the great English Professor Higgins teaches the common flower seller Ms. Eliza Dolittle to speak English perfectly with correct accent and pronunciation. This line stresses the sound of ain with reference to r, s, m, p. The tongue-twisters are to be read loudly and repeatedly to improve our pronunciation and voice modulation. Given below are some of the famous tongue-twisters which enable the readers to improve their pronunciation.

TONGUE TWISTERS
1. Betty bought bitter butter So she bought better butter To make the bitter butter better butter. 2. The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plains 3. Hurricane hardly happens 4. Weary Wily washes and wipes wet windows while Walter whistles. 5. Peter piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

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SAMPLE EXERCISE: Exercise: I. Change the following sentences into other tenses. The first one is done for you. 1. The teacher teaches a lesson. 2. The hen lays eggs. 3. The birds fly in the sky 4. We go to the Church regularly 5. He writes poems E.g. The teacher teaches a lesson Present tense The teacher taught a lesson Past tense The teacher will teach a lesson Future tense The teacher is teaching a lesson Present continuous. The teacher was teaching a lesson Past continuous. The teacher will be teaching a lesson Future continuous. The teacher has taught a lesson Present perfect The teacher had taught a lesson Past perfect The teacher will/shall have taught a lesson Future perfect The teacher has been teaching a lesson Present perfect continuous The teacher had been teaching a lesson Past perfect continuous The teacher will/shall have been teaching a lesson Future perfect Continuous.

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This book is only a sample of the original book Spoken English Made Easy. Only 4-5 topics have been covered in this sample book. To get access to all the tutorials, please purchase the tutorials (Book and Video Tutorials) from the website www.learnspokenenglish.net Free Video Tutorials are also available online. Visit the website www.learnspokenenglish.net and access the free online tutorial.

The original book consists of more than 100 practice exercise questions and answers.

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