COMMUNICATIVE

ENGLISH
MODULE-3 GRAMMAR & VOCABULARY PART-1
PARTS OF SPEECH, ARTICLES AND PREPOSITION PREPOSITIONS OFTEN CONFUSED.
USE OF ARTICLES- INDEFINITE & DEFINITE ARTICLES, PRONUNCIATION OF “THE” ,
WORDS ENDING WITH “AGE”, SOME PLURAL FORMS.
BASIC GRAMMAR

• Grammar is the system and structure of a language.

• Grammar is the base of any language.
• “A philosopher once said, half of good
philosophy is good Grammar.”
• A.P Martinich

The rules of grammar help us decide the order we

put words in and which form of a word to use.
BASICS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR

• Sentence: Sentences are nice little packages of words that comes

together to express complete thoughts. They make it easy to understand
ideas and learn information. Sentence help us communicate better.
• Basic to any language is the sentence, which express a complete thought
and consists of a subject and a predicate.
• Subject: is the star of the sentence. A person, animal, place, thing or
concept that does an action. You can determine the subject in a sentence
by asking the question who or what ?
• Predicate: the predicate will the action that the subject is taking or tell
something about the subject
BASICS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR

• Example 1): The dog ran

The dog is the subject of the sentence, because the sentence is telling
us something about the dog. So Subject is Dog and Predicate is
Ran
• Example 2): The dog ran after the cat
Here we have more details, to find the subject of a sentence, first find
the verb and then ask who? Or what? In this sentence the verb is ran.
So the question who ran and we are supposed to say Dog hence it is
the Subject of the Sentence.
 BASICS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR

• Parts of Speech: In English language, words can be considered as the smallest

elements that have distinctive meanings. Based on their use and functions, words are
categorized
Parts of into several types or partsDefinition
of speech Examples
Speech
Noun names a person, animal, place, thing quality, idea, activity or feeling. A noun can be
singular plural or possessive

Pronoun A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun I, you or they
Verb • Verb shows the action and can be a main verb or a helping verb. Like, were, has
• Verbs also indicate tense and sometimes change their form to show past, present
and future tense
• Linking verbs link the subject to the rest of the sentence
Adjective An adjective modifies s noun or a pronoun. It adds meaning by telling which one, what
kind or describing it in other ways.
Adverb An adverb will modify a verb and tell more about it. How, when,
where, why, how
much
Preposition A preposition shows a relationship btw noun and pronouns. Beside, in or on
Its often used with a noun to show location. It can also show time, direction, motion
manner, reason, or possession
Conjunction Conjunctions connect two words, phrases, or clauses And, but, or
s
NOUN

• A noun is a word that identifies a person, place, thing or idea.

• A noun is a word that function as the name of something.
• Nouns are the most common class of word in English.
• Noun is the simplest among 8 parts of speech.
• Examples of Nouns: Anirudha, Hassan, table, cat, lecturer, pen,
city, happiness, hope
• Examples :
a) Anil lives in Davanagere.
b) Justin uses pen and paper to write letters.
 NOUN
• The English word noun has its root in the Latin word ‘nomen’ which means name. every
language has words that are noun

Person A term for person, whether proper name, gender, tittle or class is a noun
Animal A term for an animal, whether proper name, species, gender or class is a noun
Place A term for a place, whether proper name, physical location is a noun
Thing A term for a thing, whether it exists now, will exist or existed in the past is a noun
Idea A term for an idea, be it a real, workable idea or a fantasy that might never come into
action is a noun
 TYPES OF NOUN
• There are different types of nouns they are as follows:
• Proper noun : it is a name that identifies a particular person, place or thing. It always
begins with capital letter.
• Ex- India, Monday, Prajwal
• Common noun : refers to people or things in general. These are just generic names of
a person, things or places
• Ex- car, samosa, laptop
• Concrete noun : it’s a noun which refers to people and to things that exist physically
and can be seen, touched, smelled, heard, or tasted. This kind refers to nouns which
you can perceive through your senses.
• Ex- folder, sand, board, coffee, beach, tune
• Abstract noun : it is a noun which refers to ideas, qualities, and conditions. They are
things that cannot be seen or touched and things which have no physical reality,
unlike concrete nouns, abstract nouns are those which you can’t perceive through your
senses.
• Ex- happiness, truth, danger, time, friendship,
 TYPES OF NOUN
• Countable noun : Countable (or count) nouns are those refer to something that can be
counted. These noun can occur in both single and plural forms, can be modified by
numerals, and co-occur with quantificational determiners like many, most, more, several.
• Anything that can be counted whether singular (a dog, a house, a friend) or plural (a few
books, lots of students) is countable noun
• Ex- bike, coin, cup, plate.
• Mass noun : This is the opposite of countable noun. This is also called as non-countable
nouns. This refers to usually things that cant be counted so they don’t have a regular
plural form.
• Ex- rice, flour, wood, water, cheese,
Collectivenoun
• Collective noun : Collective nounrefers toGroup of
the names for a collection or a number of
people or things Faculty Teachers
Pride Lion
library Books
panel Experts
 PRONOUNS
• A pronoun is a part of a speech which functions as a replacement for a noun or noun phrase
to avoid repetition. Some examples of pronouns are: I, it, he, she, mine, his, her, we, they,
theirs, & ours.
• Ex- John is tired. He wants to sleep.
• We are number one
• The largest slice is mine.

• The pronoun it can refer to just about anything: a bike, a tree, a movie, a feeling. That’s why
you can need an Antecedent. An antecedent is a noun or noun phrase that you mention at
the beginning of a sentence or story and later replace with a pronoun.
• There are different types of Pronouns they are
1. Personal pronouns 5. Indefinite Pronouns 9. Possessive Pronouns
2. Relative pronouns 6. Intensive Pronouns 10. Interrogative
Pronouns
3. Demonstrative pronouns 7. Subject Pronouns
4. Reflexive pronouns 8. Object Pronouns
 ADJECTIVES
• Adjectives are words that describe or modify other words, making and speaking much more
specific, and a whole lot more interesting. Words like small, blue and sharp are descriptive,
and they are all examples of adjectives.

• Because adjectives are used to identify or quantify individual people and unique things,
they are usually positioned before the noun or pronoun that they modify. Some sentences
contain multiple adjectives.
• Ex- Wow that burger is huge!

• There are different types of Adjectives they are

1. Possessive Adjectives (My, Your, His, Her, Its, Our, Their)
2. Demonstrative Adjectives (These Those, This, That)
3. Coordinative Adjectives (Big, Bold, Bright)
4. Quantity Adjectives ( few, 12 hour, 24-inch)
5. Quantity Adjectives ( usually explains what kind of – Baby has soft skin.)
 VERBS
• A verb is a word, which tells something about some person or thing.
• A verb may be one word or more than one word.

• This is the most important parts of the speech, without a verb, a sentence wouldn’t exist.
Simply put, Verb in syntax is a part of speech which conveys:
 Action- Physical or mental( bring, read, walk, run, learn)
 State of being of the subject in a sentence (exist, stand).

• Examples of verbs: am, is was, are and were.

• All verbs have three forms: Base Form, Past Tense and Past participial but , Auxiliary verb
do not have any.
• There are different types of Verbs they are :
1. Auxiliary Verbs 3. Action Verbs

2. Linking Verbs 4. Modal Verbs

 VERBS
• Auxiliary Verbs:- Also called as helping verbs that are helpers pf the other verbs. They have
no meaning on their own. They are necessary for the grammatical structure of the
sentence, but they do not tell us much alone. They are used together with a main verb to
show the verb’s tense or to form a question or negative.

Examples:
1. People must start donating their organs.
2. We are learning about helping verbs.

• Linking Verbs:- These verbs explain a link between the subject of the sentence and a noun
or adjective being linked to it. Many linking verbs are of forms of to be.
Examples:
1. The flowers are bright.
2. Justin is a nice person.
Just as action verbs describe what a subject does, linking verbs describe the subject in some other
way. They define or describe the subject of the sentence.
 VERBS
• Action Verbs: They are also called as Main verbs. These verbs will have a meaning of their own.
They usually tell us something.

Example:
a) I write.
b) The horse neighs.
c) The dog runs.

• There are two types of action verbs:

1) Transitive Verb: is one which must have an object to complete its meaning and to receive the action
expressed. It expresses an action directed towards a person, place or thing. The action expressed by a
transitive verb passes from the doer or the subject to the receiver of the action. Words that receive the action
of a transitive verb are called objects
Examples
a) Justin kicked the ball
b) Prasad cut the cake
c) The lecturer made the question paper.
 VERBS
• Intransitive Verb: A verb which is complete in itself and which does not need an object to
complete sense is called an intransitive verb. It expresses action (or tells something about the
subject) without the action passing to a receiver or object. It can stand alone in the predicate
because its meaning is complete.

Examples:
a) Elon musk Talked.
b) Katrina looks very beautiful.

Modal verbs: is a type of auxiliary (helping) verb that is used to express: ability, possibility,
permission, obligation and so on. These verbs tell us whether something is probable or about
the skills of a noun etc.
There are 10 modal verbs in total and each have an important part in sentence formation.
They are:
Can, Could, May, Might, Will, Would, Must, Shall, Should, Ought. (Ought express ideas such as
duty, necessity and moral obligation. Its not as forceful as must, but its stronger that should.)
 ADVERBS

• An adverb is a word that is used to change or qualify the meaning of an adjective, a

verb, a clause or any other type of word or phrase with the exception of determiners
and adjectives that directly modify nouns.

• Just like adjectives, adverbs are also used to describe words, but the difference is
that adverbs describe adjectives, verbs or another adverb. Adverb is a word or
phrase that modifies the meaning of an adjective, verb or other adverb, expressing
manner, place, time or degree.
• Examples - Gently, here, now, very
 CONJUNCTIONS
• The conjunction is a part of speech which joins words, phrases or clauses together. A
conjunction joins two words, ideas, phrases or clauses together in a sentence and shows
how they are connected.

• Examples of Conjunctions: and, yet, but, for, nor, or and so.

a) This cup of tea is delicious and very soothing.
b) Krishne has to start all over again because she didn’t follow the instructions.
c) Rahim always wanted to join the play, but he didn’t have the guts to audition.
• Correlative Conjunctions: - Either/or, Neither/nor, Not only/ but also.
 PREPOSITION
• A preposition is a word or group of words used before a noun, pronoun or noun phrase to
show direction , time, place, location or to introduce an object.
• Some examples of preposition are words like in , at, on, of, and to
• It is used to link nouns , pronouns or phrases to other words within a sentence. Prepositions
are normally placed directly in front of nouns. In some cases, you will find prepositions in
front of gerund verbs.
• Commonly used preposition are : in, at, on, of, to above, below, throughout, outside, before,
near and since.
• Examples:
1)Cat is hiding under the bed.
2) During the game, the audience never stopped cheering for their team.

• Preposition on time – In, At, On

• Preposition of Direction – To, towards, through, into
• Preposition of Place – In, on or at
 PREPOSITIONS
• Preposition of Movements – to, into, towards, through.
• Preposition on Measure – of , by

Kinds of Preposition: There are 5 different Kinds:

1. Simple Preposition
2. Compound Preposition
3. Double Preposition
4. Participle Preposition
5. Phrase Preposition
 PREPOSITION OFTEN CONFUSED
• About and On : Both About and on can mean ‘ regarding’. There is a slight difference of
meaning.
Examples:
a) We had a discussion about money. b) He gave a lecture on finance.

• First sentence suggests that the discussion was ordinary. On used in the second sentence
suggests that the lecture was serious or academic.
• Across and through : Through is used for movement in a three dimensional space, with
things on all sides Across cant be used with meaning.
a) We went through the wood b) We walked across the desert.

• Other such words are as follows- Among/Between, Above/over, Around/ about, From/of
 ARTICLES
• Articles are words that define a noun as specific or unspecific.
• Articles (A, An, The) are determiners or noun makers that function to specify if the noun is
general or specific in its reference.
• Articles are not used in many languages, or if they do exist, The way they are used may be
different than in English .
• There are main 2 main types of articles they are:
1. Indefinite Article; The article A and An are indefinite articles. They are used with a singular
countable noun when the noun referred to is Generic or Not specific.
 I do not own a Car.

In this sentence, car is singular countable noun that is not specific. It could be any car.
 She would like to go to a university that specializes in cooking.
University is a singular countable noun. Although it begins with a vowel, the first sound of the word
is “Y” . Thus, a instead of an is used. In this sentence, it is also generic(it could be any university
with this specialization, not a specific one).
 ARTICLES
 I would like to an apple.
In this sentence , Apple is a singular countable noun that is not specific. It could be any apple.

A is used when the noun that follows begins with a consonant sound:
 A book
 A pen
 A uniform (starts with “Y” therefore a instead of an)

An is used when the noun that follows begins with a vowel sound:
 An elephant
 An American
 An MBA( First sound is E – em therefore An instead of A)
 ARTICLES
• Sometimes A or An can be used for 1st mention (the first time the noun is mentioned). Then
in subsequent sentences, the article the is used instead.

• He would like to live in a large house. The house should at least three bedrooms and two Garages.

• In 1st sentence (first mention). A is used because it is referring to non specified house. In
the 2nd sentence, The is used because now the house has been specified.
2) Definite Articles: (THE) its is used to show specific reference and can be used with both
singular and plural nouns and with both countable and uncountable nouns.
1. The book that I read last night was great.
In this sentence, book is a singular, countable noun. It is also specific because of the phrase “ that
I read last night.” The speaker and listener know which book is being referred to.
2. The books assigned for this class are very useful.
In this sentence, books is a plural, countable noun. It is also specific because of the phrase “for
the class”
 PRONUNCIATION OF “THE”
• Normally, we pronounce The with a short sound (like thuh). But when the comes before a
vowel sound, we pronounce it as a long thee.
• There are 2 ways to pronounce The.
• The pronunciation of the word the depends on the first sound of the word that comes after
it:
1. The other sound like thee, rhymes with free.
This is used when the word after the begins with a vowel sound.
2. One sounds like thuh as in rhyming with duh.
This is often used when the word after the begins with a consonant sound.
Its important to understand that it is what we say that matters, not what we write. It’s the
sound that matters, not the
letter used in writing a word. So we use long Thee before a vowel sound, not necessarily before
vowel letter.
Ex- The house, The honest man(thee), The university (thuh), The Umbrella(thee).

• The big exception to this rule is that people also use “THEE” pronunciation when they want
 WORDS ENDING WITH “AGE”
• In English, there are many words that end in –age, Engage, Advantage, Garage, Language,
Mirage, Encourage, Usage,
Baggage, Heritage etc. However, -Age is not Pronounced the same in all cases:

A) Backstage: this is the case of some words ending in –age when the last syllable is
stressed (especially in Spanish). This is what happens with Engage or Enrage
B) Sabotage: This usually happens when the word is of French origin and the pronunciation
was kept more or less the same. This is the case of words like mirage, collage,
camouflage, garage, massage.
C) Language: This is the most common Pronunciation of this syllable, this usually happens
when the stress is not on –age, but on the syllables before it. Ex- advantage, encourage,
usage, luggage, manage, coverage, voyage, vintage.
• Read these :- I like the Vintage feel of this image. , how did you manage to find the
garage?, We bought a cottage in a little village. The advantage is
that there is no mortgage on it.
THANK YOU