SUMMARY NOTES

Topics :

 Nouns
 Pronouns
 Verbs
 Adverbs and conjunctions
 Phrases and clauses
 Concord
 Active and passive voice
 Question Tags
 Conditional clause
 Tenses and Parallelism
 Phrasal verbs
 Idioms
 Use of the definite articles
 Oral English

Nouns

 Noun is a naming word

 Common Noun & Proper Noun, Mass Noun and Count Noun, Collective Noun, all these are the
forms of Noun.
 We have singular nouns, plural nouns, compound nouns, masculine, feminine and neuter
nouns.
 When pluralising compound nouns, the rules are to be followed.
 Singularia Tantums are nouns that exist only in the singular form while pluralia tantums are
nouns that exist in the plural form only to refer to the meaning of what they're used for.
 Zero marked plurals are plural nouns that have the same form with their singular forms.
 While singularia tantums can't be used with numbers and an indefinite article, Zero marked
plurals can be numbered and used with an indefinite article.
 Examples of singularia tantums : Information, news, baggage, equipment etc
 Examples of pluralia tantums : Arms, scissors, trousers, pyjamas
 Examples of Zero marked plurals : Deer, sheep, cattle, fish

How to pluralise a compound noun

 Compound nouns can be formed from;

1. Noun + Noun
 2. Adjective + Noun (and vice versa)
3. Noun + preposition
4. Noun + preposition+ noun

 Rules to follow when pluralising compound nouns

Rule 1 : Noun + Noun

 The second noun is pluralised. E.g

Headmaster - Headmasters
Headmistress - Headmistresses

Rule 2 : Noun + Adjective

 The Noun gets pluralised. E.g

Secretary General - Secretaries General

Accountant General - Accountants General

Rule 3 : Adjectives + Noun ; The Noun gets pluralised as well.

Examples;

Gentleman - Gentlemen

Gentlewoman - Gentlewomen

Rule 4 : Noun + preposition

 The Noun will be pluralised. E.g

hanger-on -- hangers-on

passer-by --- passers-by

Rule 5 : Noun+prep+Noun

 Here, the first Noun gets pluralised. E.g

 Man-of-war --- Men-of-war

Lady-in-waiting --- Ladies-in-waiting

Father-in-law ---- Fathers-in-law

Rule 6: Compound nouns with the noun "woman" or "man"

 Both Nouns will be pluralised. E.g

Woman doctor : Women doctors

Man Nurse - Men Nurses

Pronouns:

 Pronouns are used to replace nouns.

 The types include: personal, numeric, demonstrative, reflexive, emphatic, reciprocal,
possessive, interrogative, relative and indefinite pronouns.
 Whenever a pronoun is to be used after a preposition, the objective case should be used.
 When arranging pronouns, the 3rd person comes first, then second person, then third person.
If a noun is present, the noun precedes the 3rd person.
 Numeric adjectives and Demonstrative adjectives are differentiated from Numeric and
Demonstrative pronouns, by the nouns they qualify or modify.
 Demonstrative and Numeric pronouns replace the nouns, they do not modify nor qualify it.
 Reciprocal pronouns are used to show reciprocation, each other for two persons and one
another for more than persons.
 Possessive pronouns are used to show possession. They include; mine, yours, hers, his, ours,
it's, theirs etc. Possessive pronouns do not take apostrophe.
 Possessive adjectives have a noun they're qualifying or modifying. They include: my, her,
their, our, his, your, etc.
 Interrogative pronouns are used where there's the need to ask questions. They include: Who,
whom, which, what, whose etc.
 Who is used for the subjective case while whom is used for the subjective case and are
specifically used for living things.
 Relative Pronouns are used to introduce relative clause. They include: which, that, whose,
who, whom etc.
 Indefinite pronouns are used for things unknown or unspecified. They include: someone,
something, everyone, everything etc
 A little and little is used for uncountable nouns. While a little denotes a large quantity, little
denotes a small quantity. (Listen to the VN I explained it in it again for the examples).
  A few and few are used for countable nouns. While a few is used for a large quantity, few is
used for small quantity.

Verbs

 Non finite verbs identification :

 Verbs that come after 'do'
 Verbs that come after 'to' infinitives
 Verbs that come after make/made.
 Verbs that come after 'let"
 Verbs that come after modals
 Hang, past tense (Hanged) - for living thing like humans.
 Hang, past tense (Hung) - for non living things like picture frame.

Adverbs

 Adverbs are words used to modify a verb, an adjectives and other adverbs. The types include :
Adverbs of manner, time, frequency, place, degree and Conjunctive Adverbs.
 Examples include; steadily, now, rarely, there,too and however.(respectively).

Conjunctions

 Conjunctions are words used to link grammatical properties. They join word classes.
 There are 3 main types of conjunctions, they are : Coordinating conjuction, subordinating
conjunction and Correlative Conjunctions.
 Coordinating conjunctions: FANBOYS
1. F(for)
2. A(and)
3. N(nor)
4. B(but)
5. O(or)
6. Y(yet)
7. S (so)

 Subordinating conjunctions: Unless, though, although, but, yet, still, etc.

 Whenever "Though", "Although" are used, avoid the use of yet and but.
 You don't say: Although I love him, but I can't marry him.
 Correlative Conjunctions: they exist in pairs. They Include: Either....or, Neither.....nor
Phrases and clauses

 Phrase is a word or group of words without a finite verbs.

 The types include: Noun phrase, Verb phrase, adverbial phrase, adjectival phrase etc
 A noun phrase is a phrase that's headed by a noun. The noun could have as many modifiers as
possible. The pre modifiers are articles, determiners, adjectives, while the post modifiers are
relative clause and prepositional phrase.
 Noun phrase functions as subject of a verb, object of a verb, subject complement, object
complement etc
 Verb phrases are groups of verbs.
 Adverbial phrases are phrases with an adverb as their headword. Adverbial phrases function
like an adverb.
 Adverbial phrases modifies a verb, adjectives and other adverbs.
 Adjectival phrase has an adjective as its headword and it modifies or qualifies a noun.
 Gerund phrase/Gerundive has a gerund (verb ending in "ING") as its headword. It performs
the function of ; subject of a verb, object of a verb, subject complement and appositive
element.
 Infinitival phrase: has a to-infinitive as its headword. It performs the function of: subject of a
verb, object of a verb, adverbial function etc
 Participial phrase: modifies a nominal entity and has a verb in present or past participle as its
headword.
 Prepositional phrase: has a preposition as its headword. It can function as: complement of a
copula, as an adjective and as an adverb.
 A clause is a group of words that has a finite verbs which may make a complete sense and may
not. The main types are: Main clause and Subordinate clause
 A main clause can stand on its own to make a complete meaning.
 A subordinate clause is a dependent clause. The types are ; Noun clause, adjectival clause and
adverbial clause.
 A Noun clause performs the function of a noun. It can be replaced with a pronoun and it
answers the question "what".
 An adjectival clause also known as a relative clause performs the function of an adjective. It is
introduced by relative pronouns.
 Adverbial clause performs the function of an adverb. Its types include: adverbial clause of
reason, time, place,manner etc.

CONCORDS

 Concord refers to the agreement between a subject and its verb. Here are some of its rules:
1. Subject - verb: singular verb to singular verb; plural subject to singular subject.
2. More than rule : the numerical adjective determines the nature of the verb .
3. Many a/an: this takes a singular subject and singular verb.
 4. Pseudo conjunction: these conjunctions include: as well as, in conjunction with, in addition to,
with, together with etc. They don't affect the verbs.
5. one of/none of rule: these take a singular verb.
6. Relative pronouns rule: The nominal entity before the relative pronouns determine the nature
of the verb.
7. Indefinite pronouns: they include: everyone, everything,someone etc. They take a singular
verb
8. A number of/The number of : Both takes a plural noun, but "The number of" takes a singular
verb while "A number of " takes a plural verb.
9. Rule of proximity/nearness : The subject closer to the verb determines the nature of the verb
whenever a correlating conjunction is used.
10. Collective nouns (e g range of options, series of experiments etc) - take a singular verb. (if it's
not pluralised i.e two range of options, two series of experiments), but if pluralised, it takes a
plural verb.
11. Combination of food : takes singular verb.
12. Mathematical outcome : takes singular verb as well as plural verbs, but singular verb is
usually used.
13. Measurement: in any form, it takes singular verb. Whenever fractions and percentage is used,
if it refers to humans, it takes a plural verb, but if it's non humans, it takes a singular verb.
14. Twin Siamese/Double title rule : Whenever a subject has a double title, it takes a singular verb
15. Most/much: whenever most is used, the nominal entity it's referring to determines the nature
of the verb i.e if it's singular, it takes a singular verb. If it's plural, it takes a plural verb.
16. But whenever "much" is used, it takes a singular verb.
17. Rule of Mandative subjunctive mood :
18.
19. Whenever recommendation, resolution, demand, prayer
20. demand or wish, is used the verb following it should be plural irregardless of the nature of the
subject. Examples:
 I pray God bless you.
 I suggest she go now

Active and passive voice

 Active voice - a subject assumes its logical position and an object assumes its logical position
as well i.e S...V...O
 Passive voice: an object assumes the logical position of a subject and vice versa.
 How to convert an Active voice to passive voice:
1. The verb must be a main verb transitive.
2. The tenses must be maintained.
3. Adverbs must be retained in their original form.
4. In a passive voice any main verb coming after is, are, was, must be in the past participle.
 5. The rules of concord must be obeyed.

Question Tags

 Question Tags are used to convert sentences to questions. This is guided by a number of rules:
1. A correct antecedent must be used to agree with the subject.
2. A negative verb attracts a positive tag and vice versa (a positive tag attracts a negative tag).
3. Primary and modal auxiliary verbs when present in the sentence, they're repeated in the
question tag.
4. Any main verb used without an auxiliary verb, the verb "do" of the verb will be used in the
question tag.
5. Whenever "must", "ought to" or "should" is used to show necessity and command, the
following statement or question will be "need" or "needn't".
6. If there is the subject of the sentence, it should be returned in the second part.
7. Whenever everyone, somebody, nobody , everybody etc are used, the antecedent will be
"they".
8. Whenever "mind" is used in a question, it's used to ask if one thinks the idea is bad, if you
think it's bad, you reply with "yes, I do" and if otherwise you say "No, I don't".

Conditional Sentence

 Conditional sentence refers to a hypothetical situation and its possible whoever follows their
step till the day of judgement.
 The types are: Zero conditional, First conditional, Second conditional, third conditional.
 Zero conditional expresses a fact or habit.
 First conditional: expresses a realistic future consequence.
 Second conditional: expresses an unlikely or impossible future consequence.
 Third conditional: expresses an unrealistic past consequence.

Tenses and Parallelism

 Tenses indicate the time the action in the verb was performed.
 Basically we have, present tense, past tense and future tense.
 For the present tense, we have:
1. Simple present tense
2. present progressive tense
3. Present perfect tense
4. Present perfect progressive tense
  For past tense:
1. Simple past tense
2. Past progressive tense
3. Past perfect tense
4. Past perfect progressive

 For Future Tense:

1. Future present tense
2. Future present progressive
3. Future present perfect
4. Future present perfect continuous
5. Future past tense

 Parallelism refers to the balance in a sentence in order to be grammatically coherent.

 We have parallelism and words, parallelism and phrases, and parallelism and clauses.

Use of The Definite Article

 The Definite article is "the" while the indefinite articles are "a" and "an". It's used with nouns
or whatever is used to mean a noun ( like adjectives used as a noun)
 The definite article is used necessarily in some situations with certain nouns. Here are some of
the nouns/situations where the definite article is used:
1. When something that's known is being referred to, the definite article is used.
2. It is used with United Nations, United States, United Kingdom, and USSR.
3. With names of Newspapers and Magazines. E.g The Guardian, The Daily times, The Al-
Hudah.
4. With names of Organization. E.g The FOMWAN, The Agesin Islamic Foundation.
5. With names of plural proper nouns. E.g The blacks, The Himalayas.
6. With tribes marked by language. E.g The Arabs, The Fulanis, The Igbo.
7. Wiith names of Families. E.g The Abyadiyys, The Ades.
8. With Geographical names(canals, seas, rivers)
9. With names of public places (hotels, restaurants, museums, libraries, cinemas, art
theartres).
10. . With titles. E.g The Governor of Oyo state, The President of Nigeria.
11. Of any two or more people or things, the one known better takes the definite article.
12. When referring to nationalities, use the definite article. E.g The British.
️Phrasal Verbs

 Phrasal verbs are obtained from the combination of verbs and adverbs, or preposition. It
could be as a combination of the three parts of speech as well.
 Examples: Take on : to hire

Bring up : to raise an issue

Go through : to experience

 Difference between Phrasal Verbs and Idioms

The main difference between a phrasal verb and idioms is that phrasal verbs denote actions and are
made up of verbs along with preposition or an adverb, While Idioms are expressions made up of a
combination of words while presenting a figurative meaning.

Idioms

 Idioms are phrases or expressions that have figurative meaning different from the literal
meaning of the words used.
 The meaning of an idiom may not be understood from the words used as its literal meaning is
different from its figurative meaning.
 Examples of some Idiomatic expressions
a. Under the weather: feeling ill
b. Apple of the my eye - used to refer to someone whom you're very fond of or you like
c. Kill two birds with a stone : to achieve two results by doing one thing.

️How to answer comprehension passages effectively

1. Read the questions before the passage.

2. Read and digest the passage.
3. Understand what the passage is about. If there's any grammar you don't know the
meaning, check how it's used in the passage.
4. Then, go back to the questions and answer them.
5. If you're asked the meaning of a particular word that you don't know, check how it's
used in the passage then check out the options provided. That'd give you an idea about
the word.
 Oral English
 There are two categories of sounds in english language, the vowel sounds and consonant
sounds.

The vowel sounds.

 Basically we have the monopthongs(one sound) and diphthongs(combination of two

sounds).
 There are 12 Monopthongs (Vowels). Short and long sounds
Short Vowels

1. /ɪ/- pit, bit, sit, tilt, kit

2. /e/- pet, set, egg, let,led

3. /æ/- pat,cat, bat,dad,rat

4. /ʊ/ -put,look,cook,book

5. /ɒ/- dog,hot,tot,cot

6. /ʌ/ - cut,but,sun,cup,blood

7. /ə/- about, popular, around, arrive

Long vowels

8. /i:/-week, seat, reel, heed

9. /ɑ:/- farm, harm, hard, tardy

10. /ɔ:/- fork, fall, tall, core

11. /ɜ:/- heard, bird, earth, courtesy

12. /u:/- boot, coup, loot, root,

Vowel Diphthongs

 Vowel Diphthongs are combinations of two vowel sounds.

1. /aɪ/ (as in "eye") : kite, bite, pie, kind, bright

2. /aʊ/ (as in "now") : loud, cow, about, round, hour

 3. /ɔɪ/ (as in "boy") : toy, coin, joy, loin, coy
4. /eɪ/ (as in "say") : fade, brain, eight, clay, day
5. /oʊ/ (as in "go") : foam, coat, no, row, grow
6. /ɪə/ (as in "ear") : deer, clear, idea, fear, rear
7. /eə/ (as in "air") : hair, care, fair, bear, there,share
8. /ʊə/ (as in "tour") : cure, lure, pure, sure, tourist

Consonant sounds

1. /b/: Blue, Bag, Breath, Tribe, Bribe

2. /d/: did, dung, dad, tabbed, proud, played
3. /f/: full, cough, roof, puff puff, food, laugh
4. /g/: give, get, gain, grab, tag, bag
5. /h/: happy, humble, handkerchief, handsome.
6. /dz/: job, joy, jump, bridge, dodge, badge.
7. /k/: kit, cake, could, keep, bake.
8. /l/: love, lost, lust, loom,bloom.
9. /m/: murmur, mom, bomb, stumble, rim.
10. /n/; No, new, man, fend, barn, bant
11. /p/: pull, proud, pepper, people, clap
12. /z/- zoo, zinc, zag, zebra
13. /t/ - ten, top, toss, fist
14. /w/- waist,weave,worse, whip
15. /θ/- bath,think,thank,think
16. /ð/ - that, they, although, other
17. /ʃ/ -. should, fish, shark, wash, dish
18. /ʒ/ - vision, measure, treasure, decision
19. /tʃ/ - chair, cheap, match, picture
20. /ŋ/ - king, thing, ring, bing

How to pronounce words ending with "ED"

 When the last consonant sound is d or t, it's pronounced as "id".

Examples:

decide + ed = decidID

hurt + ed = hurtID

 When the last consonant sound is a voiceless one, the ed will be pronounced as "t".
 Examples:

slap + ed = slapT

work + ed = workT

 But if it's a voiced consonant, the "ed" will be pronounced as "d".

Examples:

stab + ed = stabbD

barb + ed = barbD

Pronunciation of s/es ending of words

 If it comes after a voiceless consonant, it is pronounced as "s"

Examples:

Tapes

Streets

Parks

 If it comes after a voiced consonant, it's pronounced as /z/.

Examples:

Ribs - RibZ

Kids - KidZ

STRESS

 Stress is the pitch - height of the voice as it goes up and down deeper in a syllable than the
other syllables in a word.
 Syllable is the amount of speech sound that can be produced per hearbeat.
Rules of stress

1. Words with "sm" and "ist" ending.

 Stress+@+@+ sm
 Stress+ @ + @ + ist

Examples

1. Capitalism = CA + pi + ta + li + sm
2. Capitalist = CA + pi + ta + list

If the words have prefix, it becomes:

 Prefix + stress + @ + @ + sm
 Prefix + stress + @ + @ + sm

2. Reflexive pronouns and numbers ending in Teen and Ty

 @ + SELF/SELVES
 @ + TEEN
 Stress + TY

Examples:

Myself - mySELF

Themselves - ThemSELVES

Sixteen -- sixTEEN

Nineteen - nineTEEN

Sixty - SIX-ty

Seventy - SEV-en-ty

4. Words ending in ical/cal, ible/ble, sis, ity, ise/ize, ate, ant, ent, ence, fy.

 @ + stress + @ + ical/cal
 @ + stress + @ + ible/ble
 @ + stress + @ + sis
 @ + stress + @ + ity
  @ + stress + @ + ical/
 @ + stress + @ + ise/ize
 @ + stress + @ + ate
 @ + stress + @ + ant/ent/ence
 @ + stress + @ + fy
 @ + stress + @ + ship
Examples:
Mechanical = Me + CHA + ni + cal

5. Words with ion, ian, ics, ient, eous, uous, ious, ual.

 @ + @ + stress+ ion
 @ + @ + stress+ ian
 @ + @ + stress+ ics
 @ + @ + stress + ient
 @ + @ + stress + eous
 @ + @ + stress + uous
 @ + @ + stress+ ious
 @ + @ + stress+ ual

Example:

Dictation - dic + TA + tion.

6. Words ending with -ment: The rule is to stress the base word.

Examples:

Argument - AR + gu + ment

Establishment - Es + TA + blish + ment.

THE END

Do not forget to read and pray. Both when combined work faster than anything. Do not give up even
when you get to the top.
Written by:

Aisha Ayoola.