Teach English in Graskop - TEFL Courses

Nouns A noun names people, animals, place, things, qualities and states. Mainly, there are 5 types of nouns; common proper, compound, abstract and collective. Noun plurals usually ends with an 's'. In cases where the noun ends in 'ch', 'sh', 'x' and 's', we usually add 'es'. A noun that ends in consonant plus 'y' (family) usually changes to an 'i' followed by 'es' ( families). A noun ending in 'f' will usually replace the 'f' with a 'v' and then add 'es'. Example, thief - thieves. There are exceptional cases, brief-briefs and nouns that don't change between singular and plural. Unfortunately, learners will have to practice and be familiar to the latter. In additional, there are countable and uncountable nouns. Countable nouns can be counted, preceded by articles a/an/the and used in plural while uncountable nouns cannot be counted, cannot have a/an Before them or be used in plural. Some nouns can be counted or uncounted depending on the context. Adjectives Adjectives describe nouns such as people and things. It is used in groups of 2 or 3 where, in case of 'list form', the last adjective is separated by 'and'. There is an order to the adjectives although not set in stone as there are exceptions and differences. First, learner should begin with the object's size, age, colour, material and noun. Comparisons The adjective is either followed by a comparative form,that is, (adjective+ 'er' than) to describe 2 or more things or people or followed by superlative, that is, ( the 'adjective'+ ... est ) which describes adjectives with 3 syllables or more. The superlative is preceded by the word 'most' to form superlative. Articles Articles consist of definite ( the) and indefinite( a, an). The use of these articles depends on whether one is referring to any member of a group (therefore, indefinite article) or to a specific member of a group (therefore, definite article). Indefinite: 'a' and 'and' If the noun is modified by an adjective, the choice between 'a' and 'and' depends on the initial sound of the adjective that immediately followed the articles than the noun itself. Definite: 'the' It is used before singular or plural nouns when the noun is particular or specific. 'The' is used to refer to something which is unique, specific geographical uses, before some geographical nouns. Zero article It is used for general ideas about countable nouns when the nouns is always pluralized. Verb Verb is a 'doing' word and can refer to states. They are either transitive or intransitive. Transitive These verbs are followed directly by an object. However, some do not have to be followed by an object if the verbs simple describe what someone is doing and not doing it to anyone or anything in particular. They behave like intransitive verbs. Intransitive These are not followed directly by an object. It does not do anything to anyone or anything. It simple 'does' an action. Infinitives All transitive and intransitive verbs have a base form and we refer to the infinitive of a verb. This means we refer to the action as a whole and is formed by preceding the base form with 'to'. Some intransitive verbs are followed by infinitives to denote a consequence of action. English verbs have 4 principal forms: Base Past simple Past participle Past present For regular verbs, the past simple and past participle end in 'ed'. Most common verbs are irregular and are without rules as to their formation. Auxiliary verbs Auxiliary verbs is not the verb that carries the main meaning but simply helps to form a structure. There are only 3 auxiliary verbs; do, have and be. Adverbs There are 5 main types of adverbs: Manner Place Time degree Frequency They add meaning to meaning or infer to the action, quality or state denoted by a verb. It can also modify an adjective or another adverb in a sentence. To a certain degree, adverbs may modify an adjective or another adverb. An adverb is placed after the object of a transitive verb or immediately after an intransitive verb. Adverbs of frequency are placed between the subject and verb or between auxiliary verb and verb. There are no rule for multiple adverbs but the sequence below is useful: Place-manner- time Gerunds It is a form of a verb and used as a noun, that is, as a subject or an object. Pronouns They are used in place of more precise nouns or noun phrases. There are types of pronouns: personal, possessive, reflexive and relative. Preposition & Conjunction Preposition They show the relationship between a noun or a pronoun and some other word in the sentence.There is no uniformity in prepositional placement although there are at least 3 categories, place, time and movement. Certain preposition can be placed in all categories. Mainly, time/ Date, movement and place/position. Conjunction They join words or groups in a sentence. They can join words of the same class or clauses of sentences.