Week 1

Basic Grammatical Terms

 Sentence: This has got to have a subject, an object and a verb. It ends with full-stop. 
o A small group of words that has got a verb in it is a clause; a small group of words
WITHOUT a verb in it is a phrase.
 Subject: The person or thing who performs the action of a verb.  'The man beat the dog'.
 Object: Usually the thing to which the action of a verb is done e.g. 'the man beat the dog',
'the woman was reading the book'. An indirect object is something only indirectly affected
- ‘I gave the book to him’.
 Verb: an ‘action word’ or ‘doing’ word - 'he reads the poem'. A transitive verb takes an
object - “I saw an elephant” - an intransitive verb has no object - “He has arrived.” The
main verb is the ‘chief’ verb in a sentence - the most important action. “Without waiting for
her to reply, he walked away, pausing only long enough to put on his jacket.”   [what the
sentence ‘boils down to’ is “he walked away”]

Summary of sentence structure:

Subject = the one who does the action; object is the one the action is done to - and the ‘action
word’ is the verb]

Note that ‘who’ refers to the subject of the sentence; but ‘whom’ refers to the object.  This is
called inflection, and it’s not often used in English; it’s more common in ‘inflected’ languages
like Latin where word endings change according to where they are grammatically in the
sentence.

 Adjective: A word which describes a noun; as in a 'red hat' or a 'quick fox'. They often end
in things like '-able' (lovable), '-ful' (heedful), '-ic' (heroic), '-ish' (foolish), '-ive' (combative), '-
ous' (famous), or '-y' (needy).
 Adverb: A word which describes a verb: as in 'he ran quickly', or 'he ran fast'. They often
end in '-ly': 'playfully', 'combatively', 'foolishly'. They can also sometimes end in '-wise':
clockwise.
 Conjunction: A word used to connect words together - words like ‘and’ ‘but’  'if', 'although'.
 Noun: A word used as the name of a person or thing, such as ‘cow’ or 'river'. 
 Participle: an adjective made up from a verb.  Present participles end in '-ing' - kicking,
sleeping.   Past participles end in '-ed' [or sometimes '-en']  - kicked, smashed, broken.
 Preposition: A ‘connecting’ word - like 'to', 'with', 'by' or 'from'. 'He went to China'
 Pronoun: A part of speech which stands for a noun: 'he', 'she', 'him', 'her', 'them'. 
 Syntax (Greek = 'arrangement together'): the way words are arranged in a sentence.
 1.     TOPIC: COUNT NOUNS AND PLURAL VERBS

General Description:

- Count nouns are nouns that can be counted. Both singular and plural verbs can be used
for this kind of noun.

Count Nouns

Singular Plural

A document Documents

A chair Three chairs

Remember: Only count nouns can use numerical determiners or ‘expressions of

quantity’ [a word that tells you “how many there are”] - such as each, every and several.

Examples:

Noun and Verb

Singular The folder is on the table. A file was deleted.

Plural The folders are on the table. Five files were deleted. Several chairs are empty.

Comprehension Check:

What verb will you use for the following count nouns? Singular or plural verbs?

four tables - plural a computer - singular many applicants - plural

Exercise: Incomplete Sentences

1. Some employees _______ in the meeting yesterday.

a. is b. was c. are d. were

2. A ________ was fired because of stealing. 

a. secretary b. employee c. secretaries d. employees

3. Four _______ are missing.

a. picture b. furniture c. document d. documents

 2.     TOPIC: COUNT NOUNS AND NON-COUNT NOUNS

General Description:

- A noun is a word that is used to name a person, animal, place, thing, or an idea. Count
They are nouns are nouns that can be counted.
- But Non-count nouns are nouns that cannot be counted - they have no ‘plural’!

Count nouns: Non-count nouns

 officer—officers  leadership (no plural form)

 company—companies  recruitment (no plural form)
 requirement—requirements  Water—a glass of water

Remember: Count nouns have a plural form. A singular count noun becomes plural, usually
by adding –s to the word.

Non-Count nouns do not have a plural form. To make it countable, a word before the noun is
added [e.g. a glass of water, a cup of tea].

Count Nouns Non-Count Nouns

There were four applicants for the position. Flexibility is a requirement for the job.

The manager needed two new team Sir Barrie was drinking a glass of whisky
members. during the grammar lesson.

Comprehension Check: Are the following count nouns or non-count nouns?

employee - count intelligence - non-count applicant - count

Exercise: Incomplete Sentences

1. The English language ________ of the applicant was evaluated.

a. fluencies b. fluency c. fluentness d. fluentl

2. Three ______ passed the recruitment process.

a. applicant b. application c. applicants d. applications

3. All the applicants who passed the test have a ________ in business management.

a. degrees b. degree c. experiences d. experience

 
 3.     TOPIC: ARTICLES

General Description:

- Articles are words used to specify nouns. In English, there are only three articles namely:
A, AN, and THE. These articles are classified into:

a. Definite (The) - refers to specific nouns b. Indefinite (A, An) - refers to non-specific nouns or
any member of a group of nouns

E.g. The job applicant is waiting for the E.g. A job fair will be held in an auditorium in California.
interview.
The applicant = refers to a particular applicant A job fair = refers to an unknown job fair

 the interview = refers to a definite/exact time an auditorium = refers to an unidentified auditorium

Remember: “A” is used before words beginning with consonants while AN is used before
words beginning with vowelS. THE can be used with both vowels and consonants

Article Sample sentence

 A  A degree in Biology is required.

 AN  Sam wants to be an employee of this corporation.
 THE  Sir Barrie has the experience needed by SPCBA.

What was your dream job when you were a child? (E.g. You wanted to be a pilot, an engineer,
etc.) Please make use of the articles ‘a’, ‘an’ and ‘the’ in your answer.

Exercise: Incomplete Sentences

1. The applicants will have to the pass examination. (specific)

2. An endorsement letter will also be very helpful. (non-specific)

3. He should be able to present a diploma in Engineering. (non-specific)
4. Quick thinking is important in a job interview. (not specific)
5. The company hired me. (Specific)
6. They sent him an invitation for interview. (Not specific)

4.    TOPIC: UNSPECIFIED COUNT NOUNS WITHOUT THE ARTICLE THE

 
General Description:
 - Articles are words placed in front of a noun to make it clear.
- There are two types of articles: Specified (The) and Unspecified (A, An)
- A and an are used if the noun can be counted.
- Unspecified articles [a and an] are used to indicate membership in any group such as a
profession, animals, fruits, nation or religion.

Remember: Use a and an when referring to any member of a group.

Examples:

 Gwen is an accountant. (accountant is a profession)

 Peter drank a glass of milk. (a glass of milk can be counted
 Angelina saw an apple tree. (apple trees can be counted)

 
Comprehension Check:
What indefinite article would you use for the following countable nouns?

(a, an ) award (a, an) benefit (a, an) privilege

Exercise: Incomplete Sentences (3-4 minutes)

1. She recently received ______ salary increase.

a. the b. an c. a d. some

2. Health insurance is _____topic of our discussion.

a. a b. the c. an d. this

3. She will be on ________ vacation next month.

a. an b. the c. a d. those

5.    TOPIC: SPECIFIED COUNT NOUNS WITH ARTICLE THE

General Description:

The definite article ‘the’ is used to tell us that the noun is definite, that it refers to a specific
object.
Example:

 The black dog at the corner is looking at  He wants a black dog for a pet.
us.
a black dog in general -“any black dog will do”
[that specific black dog, the one in the corner]

Exercise: Incomplete Sentences

1. Most students have heard the rumor about their English teacher.
2. My mother asked the carpenter to fix my cabinet.
3. The board meeting ended sooner than expected.

6.     TOPIC: MORE ABOUT COUNT NOUNS…

The word farmer is an example of a count noun

 Farmer [singular]  Many farmers [expression of quantity

 Farmers [plural] that can be counted]
 A farmer [indefinite article]  Two farmers [how many of them there
were - you can count them!]

But the expression much farmer is WRONG - you can’t say that. “Much” has the sense of ‘a
great big blob of things all lumped together that cannot be counted’.

 Exercise: Incomplete Sentences

1. The new manager held a general meeting yesterday. 

2. Nine employees prepared a presentation for the dinner party. 
3. A famous company will be given an award for its high sales.

7.    TOPIC: MORE ABOUT THE INDEFINITE ARTICLE [A AND AN]

AND THE DEFINITE ARTICLE [THE] …

 
Remember:  the articles A or An go with a singular noun, but plural nouns do not need an
article at all - you do not need to write A or An.

Examples:

Article                     Sentence

An An employee of the company works five times a week.

A A worker of the company works five days a week.
(no article) Employees of most companies work five days a week.

Comprehension Check:

Companies – no article Office - an Desk - a

Exercise: Incomplete Sentences

1. I received a memo today about the changes that will be made.

2. A boss should have a good relationship with employees.
3. An office needs to be well organized for efficient work.

 “The” can be used

a. when both you and the person you’re speaking to know what you’re talking about –
speaking and the listener know.
- Ex. The workers need the protective equipment.
b. when something is said repeatedly.
- Ex. I went to school yesterday. The school was full of people.
 Sometimes, you can get rid of the altogether - when you are talking about non count
nouns
oSPCBA provided the information.  [can’t count information]
oShe likes paperwork.  [can’t count paperwork - there just gets to be more & more of it!]

Exercise: Incomplete Sentences

1. Today, a lot of people know that the world’s resources are limited.
2. The company offers no article world-class machinery.
3. The workers are advised to have the formal training.