Soft Skills

Lecture 60
Applied Grammar
Dr. Binod Mishra
Department of HSS, IIT Roorkee

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 Some major items
 Nouns
 Capitalization
 Apostrophe
 Agreement
 Articles
 Question Tags
 Preposition
 Voice
 Transformation
 Confusing words

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 Look at these sentences
• I congratulate you for your success in UPSC
exams.
• My student is a S.D.O.
• Where is your particular?
• Diabetes kill people silently.
• The secretary and principal are on leave.
• The man, who is clad in jeans, are my neighbour.

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 Nouns
 Words such as clothes, police are always plural and
take plural verbs:
 The police are yet to arrive.
 Where are my clothes?

 Certain tools, instruments (binoculars, scissors,

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 Contd.
 Words ending in „s‟ may take singular verb.
 Politics is the art of the impossible.
 Physics is a very challenging subject.
 No news is good news.

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 Capitalization
 Capitalize titles(courtesy, religious, government, family, and
business)
Mr. Rathode, Mother Teresa, Dr./ Professor Mishra, Prime Minister,
Vice Chairman
 Avoid capitalization when the title is followed by an appositive;
Only one professor, Jonathan Reeves, objected to the new syllabus.
 Avoid capitalizing titles following names unless they form a part
of address:
 Pratysh Pant, director of the Anshul Enterprises has given his
consent.

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 Contd.
• Do not capitalize a title if it replaces a person’s
name;
The director and the finance manager will present
the budget.
Avoid capitalizing family titles used with
possessive pronouns;
my supervisor, your brother, his guide

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 Contd.
Capitalize the names of departments, divisions, or
committees within the organization and not
outside;
Dell has instructed its Quality Control Unit to concentrate on
adding some new features in its laptops.
He has sent a fresh request for compensation to the firm‟s
personnel department.
Nokia has introduced new plans in its Corporate Social
Responsibility unit.

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 Apostrophe
• You have to complete the course in one year‟s time.
• All the women‟s associations have welcomed the new regulations on
crime control.
• James‟ toys have earned a good reputation.
Use apostrophe(„plus „s‟) to ownership word but use
only apostrophe when the word ends in „s‟ sound.
Keats‟s Negative Capability, Keats‟ poetry
Students‟ views, Judges‟ verdict

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 Subject-verb agreement
None of these managers have submitted their reports.
I have been waiting for students but none of them has come.
• If the subject begins with „none of‟, the verb is
usually plural. But when none refers to
uncountable noun, the verb is singular. When it
refers to a countable noun in its plural form, the
verb can be either singular or plural.

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 Contd.
 Singular subjects joined by either….or, neither…nor
take singular verbs.
Either the works manager or shift in-charge has to take the responsibility of the
accident.
 When subjects joined by either….or, neither…nor
differ in number and person, the verb agrees with the
nearest subject.
Neither the doctor nor the nurses were seen on the accident site.

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 Contd.
 When the subject begins with each of, either/neither of , the
verb takes the form required by third person singular subject.
Each of these policies has its own limitations.
Neither of these two arguments was satisfactory.
 Sentences beginning with „ a good/great/ deal of‟, „a
lot/plenty of, most/some of, take verb agreeing with the object
of the preposition „of‟ as in the following:
A great deal of money has been spent on this bridge.
Most of the students feel nervous the night before their examinations.

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 Contd.
Indefinite pronouns such as anyone, anybody,
anything, each , either, every, everyone,
everything, neither, nobody, nothing, someone,
somebody, and something take singular verbs:
• Each of the employees has to follow the official norms.
• Everyone in both offices was recommended for
promotion.
• Nothing is impossible if you work hard.

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 Articles
• The Ganges is a holy river.
• I read the Times of India/The Telegraph/The
Ramayana/ The Bible everyday.
• One of my students is an S.D.O.
• “Let me smile with the wise and feed with the rich.”
-- Dr. Johnson
• Beauty without virtue is a flower without perfume.

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 Question Tags
• He is very intelligent, isn‟t he?
• They are honest, aren‟t they?
• It is really very hot these days, isn‟t it?
• One of you knows the answers, don‟t you?
• You have enjoyed this course, haven‟t you?
• I am teaching well, aren‟t I?

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 Preposition
 Words like senior, junior, superior, inferior are
always followed by preposition „to‟ and not
„than‟.
Mr. Rathore is senior to me by three years.
 His recommendations have no other aim than
improvement.
 He has been working in this organization since 1998.
 Mr. Deshmukh has been bedridden for the last three days.

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 Contd.
 He found a poor boy sitting beside the driver.
 Besides teaching, I write books.
 The priest was absorbed in his meditation when I reached the temple.
 Roorkee lies between Meerut and Haridwar.
 Beware of insidious friends.
 All of us must comply with the regulations.
 This course will make you confident of your success in various spheres.
 Has it been raining since morning?
 I agree with you on this point. But I do not agree to Mr. Ravi‟s proposal.
 The Child is the father of the Man.

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 Voice
• His long speech made no effect on the audience.
• You are requested to submit the report by the weekend.
• Everyone knows about his tricks.
• Your complaints will be heard in time.
• You are advised to submit your proposal again.
• The ministry has recommended his name for the award.
• The streets are swept every day.
• We expect good news.

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 Transformation
• This hall is too small to accommodate thirty guests.
• Hitesh is too poor to pay his tuition fees.
• The mountain is too high for me to climb.
• Can a leopard change its skin?
• No sooner did he see the tiger he fled.
• Ashoka was one of the greatest of Indian rulers.
• The aeroplane flies faster than birds.

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 Confusing words
• Affect, effect • Loose, lose
• Appraise, apprise • Principal, principle
• Compliment, • Stationary, stationery
complement • Deny, refuse
• Desert, dessert • Emigrant, immigrant
• Elicit, illicit • Later, Latter
• Formally, formerly
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