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English-1 W1-9 - English week 1 to week 9 notes

Programming and data science (Indian Institute of Technology Madras)

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IIT MADRAS
BSC PROGRAMING & DATA SCIENCE

ENGLISH-1 NOTES W1-9

NOTES BY- ADITYA DHAR DWIVEDI

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ENGLISH - 1
PROFESSOR RAJESH KUMAR
DR. LEENA ANIL
DR. RENNET SAMSON
DR. MANJULA RAJAN
SUDHA RAVI
DR. USHA MAHADEVAN
KARTHIKA SATHYANATHAN
PADMINI VAIDYNATHAN

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Sounds and Writing Symbols in English

English Letter – UPPER CASE and Lower Case
A B C D E F G H I J K L MN O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
a b c d e f g h I j k l m n o p q r s t u w x y z
English Rhyme

UPPER CASE and Lower-Case Letter

English Letters

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Vowel sounds in English Consonant sounds in English

Consonant sound in English

Consonant Sounds

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Speech Sounds (Vowels) in English

Articulation of Vowel Sounds

Understanding vowel sounds

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Articulation of Consonant Sounds

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❖ LISTENING
THE FOUR SKILLS
• Listening Speaking Reading Writing
• Good listeners Good readers
• Become good speakers Become good at Writing

WHY IS LISTENING IMPORTANT?

• Only if we listen can we understand/comprehend and only then can we assimilate
ideas/thoughts that are spoken
• It is also important because listening leads to thinking
• Thinking leads to decision-making
• Research shows that poor listening habits and skills can cause as many failures of
communication as ineffective expression of ideas.
• We have to understand that successful listening is not a passive act.
• It involves active processing, reformulation and revision.

LISTENING-THE FIRST LANGUAGE SKILL

• Most children come to school armed with only one way to learn – listening.
• Almost all of us were born doing it.
• Indeed, for the first few years of formal education, listening is an integral part of teaching.
• But something happens around first and second grade, when students learn to read and
write.
• Slowly the read aloud books and story time are phased out, replaced instead by silent
reading.

WHAT DO WE LISTEN FOR?

1.Understanding detailed information for a purpose
• Can understand straightforward factual information about common topics; understand
simple technical information
2. Understanding & interpreting a range of features of context
• Can follow the main points of extended discussion
3. Understanding the topic & the main points
• Can understand the main points of familiar matters; can understand the main points &
information content of news bulletins & TV programmes
4. Distinguishing main points from sub points
• Can identify general messages and specific detail.
• Can follow a lecture or talk on familiar subject matter detail.
WE LISTEN FOR:
• Comprehension • Acquisition
• Listening and listening comprehension are one and the same thing. It is believed that
people listen for understanding the spoken language.
• When we say listening for acquisition it means listening will provide us inputs for
developing our second language skills. In this case English.
• It means when we listen, we also acquire vocabulary of that language, words, phrases and
how to use them and where to use them while speaking or writing.

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• The challenge of listening is the manner in which the speaker is delivering the spoken
language, their pronunciation, intonation and above all speed of delivery.
MOVING FROM LANGUAGE TO MEANINGCOMPREHENSION
• Comprehension begins with first understanding………. sounds………. words........clauses…….
sentence…….text……. till meaning is derived

MOVING FROM MEANING TO LANGUAGE-ACQUISITION

• In the second method we move from meaning to language.
• For this the listener need to have background knowledge of the topic of discourse.

UNDERSTANDING BOTH PROCESSES

• Let us take an example to understand both the processes.
• Situation: Visit to a doctor.
• Your friend tells you she is going to visit her doctor in the evening as she has been having
stomach ache. She tells you that the pain is severe.
• First process:
• Words and expressions: • Stomach Ache • Visit the doctor • In the evening • Severe pain
These chunks help us identify the underlying meaning the words express.

LET US LOOK AT THE SECOND PROCESS

Situation: I heard on the TV last night that Japan has suffered an earthquake. As many as 200
people were killed.
• The moment the word ‘earthquake’ is uttered a set of questions come up in the mind of
the listener.
• Where exactly was the earthquake?
• How big was it?
• Did it cause a lot of damage?
• What rescue efforts are under way?
• These questions guide us through the understanding of any subsequent spoken discourse
that one will hear.
• The first one is called the Bottom-up Approach
• The second one is called the Top-down approach
• When we start listening to a language for the first time, we tend to use the ‘Bottom-up
Approach’ to listening. We are looking for familiar ‘words’ and ‘phrases’ to get some
meaning.
• An expert user of the language uses the ‘Top-down Approach’ to listening.
• Most of us are somewhere in between these two. If we wish to become an expert user of
the language, we need to move towards the second approach.

APPROACHES TO LISTENING
ACTIVITY
• Based on what you have understood till now answer the following questions:
1. Say whether the following statements are T/F
a. Comprehension is possible even if we do not listen to the speaker.
b. Thinking is an important aspect of language processing.
c. A good listener is a good communicator.

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BOTTOM UP PROCESS
• - Recognize words and clauses
• - Recognize key words
• - Recognize key transition words/phrases in a discourse/speech
• - Recognize grammatical relationships between key words in the sentence
• - Recognize the order in which words occur in a sentence
TASKS THAT DEVELOP BOTTOM UP PROCESS
• Listening to positive and negative statements and choose an appropriate response. These
are statements from a longer spoken discourse.
• Statement Options
• a. That’s a nice bag Yes No
• b. That’s not a very good idea Yes No
• c. This tea isn’t hot Yes No
ACTIVITY TO DEVELOP IDENTIFYING KEY WORDS
• Listen to the following:
• My town is a nice place to visit as it is close to a forest, there are lots of interesting short
walks one can do before going into the deep. The town is surrounded by greenery.
• Task:
• Which of these words do you hear?
• Town, forest, walks, greenery, shops, countryside

ACTIVITY FOR TOP DOWN PROCESS

• Imagine I make the following statement to my friend:
• “I am going to the dentist tomorrow”
• The moment I say this a thought process is activated around “going to the dentist”. This
includes:
• A setting (dentist office)
• People there (the dentist, his assistant, the other patients)
• Reason (to have a check-up, filling, replacing a tooth)
• Procedure (drilling, rinsing, injection)
• Outcome (fixing the problem, pain, discomfort)
• The next day when I meet my friend, I ask him:
• How was it?
• Fine, not as painful as I thought it would be.
• Without giving any background the two people involved in the conversation are able to
understand what it is about as the listener understands what “going to the dentist” means.

TOP DOWN PROCESS

• A listener who develops this ability can do the following:
- Can use key words to construct the ideas involved in a conversation/discourse
- Can infer the setting for a text
- Can infer the role of the participants and their goals
- Can infer cause and effect relationship
- Can guess unsaid details of a situation/ guess
- Can guess/anticipate questions related to a given top

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ACTIVITY TO DEVELOP TOP DOWN PROCESS

• Imagine you are going to listen to a talk on Birds of India:
• Prepare a set of five questions which you think might get answered during the talk
• Read this conversation about “going abroad to study”. You are provided with what the first
person says, predict the speaker’s part
• Text of first speaker:
• Speaker 1: Going abroad to study has become very common these days. Many students
from India wish to go the US, Canada, or European countries for studies.
• Speaker 2: ……………………………………………………………………….
• Speaker 1: Many students prefer the US the next destination is Canada these days and
after that comes Australia and UK
• Speaker 2: ……………………………………………………………………….

Words
Simple words
• Most of the words are a sequence of consonants and vowel sounds.
• CVCV papa, daddy, mom
• CVC dad, mom,
• VCVC
• CVV
• CCVC what, glass
• CVCC sink
• Words only with vowels sounds
• Eye /aai/

Consonants
• Sounds produced by modification of the flow of exhaling air in the vocal tract
• /k/ – velar king, class
• /g/ -- velar great, glass
• /p/ -- bilabial pink, pure
• /b/ -- bilabial bliss, bless
• They have an inbuilt vowel sound ‘a’ with all of them.

Assimilation
• Impossible • Incomplete • Accident

Clusters in English Words

Consonants
• Sounds produced by modification of the flow of exhaling air in the vocal tract
• /k/ – velar [-asp, - voice] king, class
• /g/ -- velar [-asp, + voice] great, glass

• /p/ -- bilabial [- asp, - voice] pink, pure

• /b/ -- bilabial [- asp, + voice] bliss, bless
• They have an inbuilt vowel sound ‘a’ with all of them.

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Words
• Words are sequence of consonants and vowel sounds.
• CVCVCV papa, daddy, mom
• CVC dad, mom,
• VCVC
• CVV
• CCVC glass
• CVCC sink
• Sounds from same places of articulation do not come next to each other.
Pb bp td
• Words only with vowels sounds
• Eye /aai/
Consonant Clusters
• Two consonant sounds together
• Reduction of the inbuilt vowel sounds from the first one
• Not in random order
• Cluster - /klǝstǝr/ CCVCCVC
• Bliss - /blis/ CCVC
• School - /skuul/ CCVC
• Scooter - /skutar/ CCVCVC
• Blast - /blast/ CCVCC
Clusters of three consonants
• Spring /spring/ s p r cccvc
• Stress /stres/ s t r cccvc
• Screw /skrue/ s k r cccvv
• Splash /splash/ s p l cccvc
• String /string/ s t r cccvc
• Scrub /skrub/ s k r cccvc

• Scream • Scroll • Scrutiny • Stress • Scrap • Strand • Strict • Strip • Spring

Syllables and Words

Syllables
• A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds.
• Syllables have nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically,
consonants).
• Words can have several syllables.
• One syllable words
• Two syllable word,
• Three syllable words,
• Four syllable words

Words and Syllables

• One word may have one or more syllables
• Words with one syllable ------ sun, life, break, tongue

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• Words with two syllables

• tiger (ti-ger), police (po-lice), between( bet-ween), marriage(mar-riage)
• Examples of three syllable words :
energy (e-ner-gii), capital (ka-pi-tal), heritage (he-ri-teg), suffering (saf-far-ing)
• Examples of four syllable words:
Invisible(in-vi-si-ble), education (e-du-ke-shan), aquarium (a-qua-rii-am), infinity (in-fi-ni-tii)

• A syllable consists of three segments –

• nucleus, onset, rhyme, coda
• Nucleus: a vowel or syllabic consonant, obligatory in most languages
• Onset- a consonant or consonant clusters
• Rhyme – contrasts with onset and splits into nucleus and coda
• Coda: a consonant, optional in some languages, highly restricted or prohibited in others.
• Whenever words in English have more than two syllables, one of them is more accentuated.
For example, the word ba_NA_na.

Words
• A single distinct meaningful element of speech or writing, used with others (or sometimes
alone) to form a sentence and typically shown with a space on either side when written or
printed.
Examples of words: bees, hair, matter, tall etc.

Words combine to form phrases and sentences. All words belong to categories called word
classes (or parts of speech) according to the part they play in a sentence. The main word
classes in English are listed below.
Noun – Book, cat, Ram
Verb – play, sing, cry
Adjective – tall, beautiful, red
Adverb – loudly, really, very
Pronoun – She, him, that
Preposition – on, at, in, above
Conjunction – but, for, if
Determiner – a, an, the
Interjection – Hello!

BUILDING VOCABULARY
WHAT ARE THESE WORDS & PHRASES?
Unhappy Measurement Living room To appear = appearance
Multicultural Inflatable Ice cream To improve = improvement
Overwork Woollen Full moon Effective = effectiveness
Cyberspace Beautiful High school Difficult = difficulty
Supermarket Flexible

A see-through material

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DEVELOPING VOCABULARY THROUGH WORD FORMATION

➢ There are four main kinds of word formation

PREFIXES
We add prefixes before the base or stem of a word.
monorail, monolingual mono- means „one‟
multipurpose, multicultural multi- means „many‟
post-war, postgraduate post- means „after‟
unusual, undemocratic un- means „not‟ or „opposite to‟

SUFFIXES
We add suffixes after the base or stem of a word. The main purpose of a suffix is to show what
class of word it is (e.g. noun or adjective).

terrorism, sexis -ism and -dom are used to form nouns

employer, actor -er and -or are used to form nouns to
describe people who do things
widen, simplify -en and -If y are used to form verbs
reasonable, unprofitable -able is used to form adjectives
unhappily, naturally -ly is a common suffix used to form
adverbs

Conversion
Conversion involves the change of a word from one-word class to another.
For example, the verbs to email and to microwave are formed from the nouns email and
microwave
GOOGLE → GOOGLE THE INFORMATION
SEE THROUGH →SEE THROUGH FABRIC
STAND UP →STAND UP COMEDIAN

COMMON CONVERSIONS
Can you text her? (verb from noun text, meaning to send a text-message) They are always
jetting somewhere. (verb from noun jet) If you’re not careful, some downloads can damage
your computer. (noun from verb download) OK, so the meeting’s on Tuesday. That’s a definite.
(noun from adjective) It’s a very big if and I’m not at all sure we can afford it. (noun from
conjunction, meaning ‘it’s not at all certain’) All companies have their ups and downs. (nouns
from prepositions) We also use conversion when we change a proper noun into a common
noun: Has anybody seen my Dickens? (copy of a book by Dickens)

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COMPOUNDING
When we use compounding, we link together
two or more bases to create a new word.

Nouns: car park, rock band

Adjectives: heart-breaking, sugar-free
Verbs: baby-sit, chain-smoke
Adverbs: good-naturedly, nevertheless
BUILDING VOCABULARY

DENOTATION & CONNOTATION

“I know what you said, but what did you mean?”
In order to use words more effectively and accurately,
you must be aware that there is more to a word than
just its dictionary meaning. Native speakers are aware
of this distinction and use it quite unconsciously,
non-native speakers have difficulty in this area.

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Rank the words in order from positive to negative

Thin, slim, lanky, skinny, gaunt, slender
Aggressive, assertive, domineering, dynamic, pushy, forceful
Shrewd, egghead, bright, clever, brilliant, cunning, smart, intelligent, brainy

ENRICH YOUR VOCABULARY

•Vocabulary refers to the words a person knows and uses •Vocabulary can be passive or active
Why should you improve your vocabulary?
• Words are catalysts for learning and thinking
• More words one can command, the more accurate one‟s thinking is
• Wide vocabulary improves academic scope
• Students who build vocabulary get better grades
• Words allow one to communicate one‟s thoughts and feelings
• Words help you to persuade and influence others
• A good repertoire of vocabulary reflects the personality of the speaker

How should you improve your vocabulary?

• Learning is fun…like playing games
• Go for playing games … say with root words, foreign words
[Greek, Latin, French, American, Indian]
• Play prefixing games, suffixing games,
• Synonym games and antonym games
• Use one word to learn many.
• Price refers to the amount of money for which something may be bought or sold.
• There are other words related to payment of money,
• Fare • Fee • Fine • Tax • Toll
• Likewise, there are words related to travel, but a journey is not a voyage!
• An excursion is different from a tour and so on.
• Learn to use the right word.

Synonyms
• A synonym is a word which has the same or nearly the same meaning in one or more
senses as another word.
• Use the right word… not almost the right word
• “THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE RIGHT WORD AND THE ALMOST RIGHT WORD IS THE
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIGHTNING AND THE LIGHTNING BUG”—Mark Twain
• A student who knows a lot of synonyms will have the ability to use the right word in the
right context. e.g. • Vigorous/lively/energetic • Elderly people who are frail should refrain
from ----exercise • Wrecked/demolished/ruined • The old mansion was ----to make way for
an expressway

Antonyms
• An antonym is a word that is opposite in meaning to another word
• Look at the following Examples.
• 1.Beating up a smaller person is not something brave. In fact it is a -----act

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• 2. Some people are optimistic about the country’s economy while others are quite-----
about it.
• 3.Mr. Sharma’s frugality is in sharp contrast to his son’s -------.
Homophones
• These are words with the same pronunciation, but they are spelt differently and have
different meanings. Most of them are short and monosyllabic:
• Tail and tale • Bow and bough • Hail and hale
• Pail and pale • Blue and blew • Bear and bare • Fare and fair
Homonyms
• These are words spelt and pronounced alike, but have different meanings
• Bear • Stalk • Charge • Row • Bow • Swallow • Fine
Words with Classical roots
• -cide, -phile, -phobia are parts of words which can help you to multiply your vocab. They
are words with Greek or Latin origins
• Cide is an act of killing
• Suicide, Genocide, Patricide, Matricide, Insecticide, Regicide, ecocide
• Phobia is a strong unreasonable fear about something • Claustrophobia, Autophobia,
Xenophobia, Ornithophobia, Aerophobia, Sociophobia, Astrophobia
• Phile refers to fondness for, affinity towards a particular thing
• Anglophile • Bibliophile • Paedophile • Hellenophile
• Think of words commonly used like Bon voyage, viva voce
Idioms and slangs
• Knowing idioms and slangs can give a boost to your confidence.
• They cannot be understood literally. You must familiarize yourself with them.
• They can give you an edge over others who are not familiar with these phrases.
• American idioms and slangs are a huge part of American culture
Look at the following passage:
• Did you ever plan an exciting vacation only to get as sick as a dog when it was time to
leave? Being under the weather is no fun at all, but being sick on a vacation can make it
really hard to keep your chin up. Just scarf down some hot chicken soup and get better
lickety split…
Semantic field
• Words belong to different semantic fields like Medicine, Law, Journalism etc.
• Given below are set of words. Classify them according to four different semantic fields:
• Law, Cookery, Journalism, Politics
• Boil, Ballot, Appeal, Witness, Coverage, Court, Vote, Special Correspondent, Scoop, Knead,
Barbecue, Manifesto, Spices, Adjourn, Seasoning, Reporter, Nomination, Public Prosecutor,
Stir, Anaesthetics.
Loan words or foreign words
• American English /British English
• Dumb • Candy • Apartment • Gas • Druggist • Bill • Fall • French fries

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Use New words

• There are plenty of words…interesting words, right words.
• Do not repeat the same words. That reflects a poor store of vocabulary.
• You don’t like to repeat the same dress, do you?
• Why repeat words? Like its super, a college student’s favourite word!
Look at the following letter written by a student who has joined the hostel. It was written
some 10 years ago
• My dear Shashi,
• How are you? When I told you, I have joined the college and hostel you had asked me how
I have adjusted to the new surroundings.
• The rooms are nice and my roommates are nice. The teachers are nice but the classrooms
are not very nice. There is, however a nice auditorium which can accommodate a thousand.
Every week some nice programmes are held there.
• When are you leaving for Jaipur? Have a nice trip.

• Now, help Veena who has a limited vocab.Try replacing „nice‟ with other suitable
adjectives
So, empower yourselves with a rich vocabulary.
All the Best.
Stress in Words
Words
• A single distinct meaningful element of speech or writing, used with others (or sometimes
alone) to form a sentence and typically shown with a space on either side when written or
printed.
Examples of words: bees, hair, matter, tall etc.
Syllables
• A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds.
• Syllables have nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically,
consonants).
• Words can have several syllables.
• One syllable words • Two syllable word • Three syllable words • Four syllable words
• Words with one syllables → • sun life break tongue
• Words with two syllables
→ tiger /tai-gar/ police /po-lis/ Between /bit-wiin/ marriage /mae-rij/
• Examples of three syllable words :
energy /e-ner-jii/ capital /kae-pi-tal/ heritage /he-ri-tez/ suffering /saf-far-ing/
• Examples of four syllable words:
Invisible /in-vi-si-ble/ education /e-du-ke-shan/
aquarium /a-kwae-rii-am/ infinity /in-fi-ni-tii/
Stress Patterns
Stress patterns in words are mostly unpredictable in English. However, some general rules
can be applied to many words

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• When a noun or adjective stems from a one-syllable word, (for example break and friend),
the stress usually stays on the syllable of the original word.
Example: break – BREAKable, friend – FRIENDly
• With most of the disyllabic nouns and adjectives, stress is on the first syllable.
Examples: Nouns→ PRE-sent TI-ger BREAK-fast
Adjectives→ HAND-some EA-sy HA-ppi

• With most disyllabic verbs, stress is on the last syllable.

Example: in-CREASE be-GIN

• To differentiate between a noun and a verb with the same spelling, stress position changes.
Example: a DEcrease (Noun) to deCREASE (Verb)
an OBject (Noun) to obJECT (Verb)

• In compound nouns (two words merged into one) the stress is on the first part.
Example:→ BOOKshop NOTEbook

• The words ending in -TION, -SION and -CIAN are usually stressed on the second last syllable.
Example: e-du-CA-tion per-MIS-sion phy- SI- cian
• Words ending with -IC are usually stressed on the second last syllable.
Example:→ rea-LIS-tic stra-TE-gic
• Words ending with –ee or –oo are usually stressed on the last syllable.
Example:→ gau- rent- EE shamp-OO
• Note: When in doubt, do not stress. It is better to not stress than stress the wrong syllable.
Plurality in English
Words (nouns)
• Nouns are naming words.
• All words denoting/referring to names are nouns.
• They could be:→ • Singular • Plural
Singular and Plural Nouns
•Dog Dogs •Friend Friends
•Judge Judges •Bench Benches
•Baby Babies •Book Books •Cap Caps
Plural Marking sounds
• Plural markers in English appear to be sounds like: /z/, /iz/, and /s/.
• Dogs /z/
• Friends /z/
• Judges /iz/
• Benches /iz/
• Babies /z/
• Books /s/
• Caps /s/

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Morphemes
•sit •seats •Sits
•Five instances of the sound /s/
•Two types
•In [seats], the first /s/ does not mean anything, whereas the second /s/ is a plural marker.
•In [sits], the first /s/ does not have any meaning whereas the second /s/ is a singular marker.
Understanding Plurals in English
• In words ending in sounds /p/, /t/, and /k/, the plural markers sound as /s/.
• Everywhere else the plural marker in English is /z/.
• There does not seem to be much of a difference between /z/ and /iz/.
Plural rule
• The rule is:
• /Z/becomes /S/ (in the environment of /p/, /t/, /k/
• Everywhere else it remains /z/.
• The reason for this is the following: /p/, /t/, and /k/ are voiceless sounds, where /z/ is a
voiced sound. In the environment of a voiceless sound, a voiced plural marker becomes
voiceless.
Aspiration in English Words

Some English Words

• Pen • Pin • Pan
• Car • Can • King
Aspirated or non-aspirated?
→Pi Spy → Pan Span →Pin Spin
→Pot Spot →Top Stop →Cot Scot
→Cat Cube →Tame Happy →Kite Lucky
[p], [t], [k] …. Voiceless stop sounds
•[p] [𝒑𝒉 ] •[t] [𝒕𝒉 ] •[k] [𝒌𝒉 ]

Rules:
• Voiceless stops are aspirated at the beginning of a word, and at the beginning of a stressed
syllable.
• Voiceless stops are unaspirated at the beginning of an unstressed syllable. They’re also
unaspirated in any other position, like at the end of a syllable or the end of a word.
• Even if a syllable is stressed, a voiceless stop is unaspirated if it follows [s].
• Voiced stops are never aspirated. They’re always unaspirated.

Aspiration at the Syllable Initial Position in English Words

Elements of words
•Aspiration – A feature of sound
•Syllable – A unit of words
•Stress – A feature of vowels in a syllable

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→[-asp, -voice ]------ •[p] •[t] •[k]

→[+asp, -voice ]------ • [𝒑𝒉 ] • [𝒕𝒉 ] • [𝒌𝒉 ]
Some English words

→ Take a piece of cake. ------------------ 𝑻𝒉 ake a 𝑷𝒉 iece of 𝑪𝒉 ake.

Aspiration in stressed syllable

Stress on 1st syllable – 2nd syllable unstressed and unaspirated

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SYLLABLES & STRESS IN WORDS

SYLLABLES
– A syllable is a unit in which the word is divided while pronouncing it.
– A syllable should have a vowel with one or more consonants.
– One syllable words : cat, buy, force, drink , walk etc.
– Two syllable words : begin, bury, equal, happy, funny etc.
– Three syllable words: mosquito, September, department, camera, vitamin etc.
– Four syllabled words: information, January, American, discovery, dictionary etc.
That’s not all ! There are words with many more syllables.

SYLLABIFICATION
TWO SYLLABLE WORDS ONE SYLLABLE WORDS
1. Begin - / bih-gin / 1. Cat - / kat /
2. Bury - / ber-ee / 2. Buy - / bahy /
3. Equal - / ee-qwul / 3. Force - / force /
4. Happy - / hap-ee / 4. Drink - / dringk /
5. Funny - / fun-ee / 5. Walk - / wahk /

STRESS- POINTS TO KNOW

Syllables uttered with greater degree of force is said to be stressed. The three golden rules of
stress in English words are :

1. A word can only have one stress.

2. Only vowels are stressed, not consonants.
3. There are many exceptions to the rules.

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WORD STRESS & RULES

1. water: wa-ter 2. people: peo-ple
3. television: tel-e-vi-sion 4. together: to-geth-er
5. potato: po-ta-to 6. Banana : ba-na-na 7. begin: be-gin

Two-syllable nouns & adjectives

→Rainy , Samples , Carton, Content
→In most two syllable nouns and adjectives, the first syllable takes on the stress.
→RAI-ny →SAM-ples →CAR-ton →CON-tent

Two-syllable verbs & preposition

→In most two syllable verbs and prepositions, the stress is on the second syllable.
→re-LAX →re-CEIVE →di-RECT →a-MONG
→About 80% of two-syllable words get their stress on the first syllable. There are exceptions
to this rule, but very few nouns and adjectives get stress on their second syllable. Verbs and
prepositions usually get stress placed on the second syllable, but there are exceptions to this
too.
Suffix -Word ending in er, or and ly
→Stress is placed on the first syllable.
1. DI-rec-tor 2. OR-der-ly 3. MA-nag-er

Suffix - Words ending in consonants and y

→Stress is placed on the first syllable.
1. RA-ri-ty 2. OP-ti-mal 3. GRA-di-ent 4. CON-tain-er

Suffix – words with different endings

Takes stress on the syllable right before the suffix. This applies to words of all syllable lengths.
→The suffixes are – able, ary, cian, cial, ery, graphy, ial, ian, ible, ic, ical, ics, ion, ity, ium,
imum, logy, tal
1. able: Understandable / un-der-STAND-a-ble / DURable /DU-ra-ble /
2. ary: PRIMary / PRI-ma-ry / Diary /DI-a-ry/

Suffix – words with different endings

3. ible: VIsible / VIS-i-ble / terRIble, / TER-ri-ble /
4. ical: MAgical / MAG-i-cal / CRItical / CRIT-I-cal /
5. ics: GeNETics / ge-NET-ics / paediAtrics /pe-di-AT-rics /

Suffix – words ending with ee, ese, ique and ette

→the primary stress is placed on the suffix.
1. ee: agrEE / a-GREE / guarantee / gaur-en-TEE /
2. Ique : unIQUE / u-NIQUE / physique / phy-SIQUE /

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PREFIX
→Usually, prefixes do not take the stress of a word.
→There are a few exceptions to this rule, however, like: un, in, pre, ex and mis, which are all
stressed in their prefix. in: IN-side, IN-efficient, IN-terest
→pre: PRE-cede, PRE-ar-range, PRE-li-min-ary
COMPOUND WORDS
→Compound nouns : a noun made out of two nouns in order to form one word. In a
compound noun, the first word usually takes on the stress.
→SEA-food →TOOTH-paste
→Compound adjectives : an adjective composed of at least two words.
→Rock- SOLID → Sparkling- RED
Words and Phrases in English
Determiners and Nouns
• The postman • A policeman • An architect
• A boy • The boy
• A man • An hour
Adjectives and nouns
• Big box • Brown monkey • Thick book
• Nice person • Pretty girl • Good guy
Preposition and nouns
• On the table • In the classroom • About a book
• In an empty box • In a big brown empty box
Phrases
• The student of English • Students from Chennai • The student of English from Chennai
• * The student from Chennai of English • The student of English from Chennai in long hair
Sentences
• Sit. • Get up.
• This is a book. • Raju likes books.
• Raju likes pizza with friends at the pizza-hut.

Sentences in English
Phrases
• [The [student [of English]]]
• [Students [from Chennai]]
• [The [student [of English]] [from Chennai]]
• * The student from Chennai of English
• The student [of English] [from Chennai] [with long hair]

Sentences
• Please (you) sit down. • (You) get up.
• This is a book. • [Raju] [likes books].

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• [Raju] [likes pizza with friends at the pizza-hut].

Subjects and Predicates in Sentences

•John loves Mary.
•John likes pizza with his friends.

Imperative Sentences
•Come here.
•Sit down.
•Drink a glass of water.

Things to notice …
• Only sentences have full stops. • Imperative sentences have subjects (you).
• All sentences will have subjects and predicates. • Order of words in a sentence
• Subject verb object adverbs
• Order of words in a sentence in Hindi or any other Indian languages
• [subject] [adverbs [[object verb] ] ]

Command or Request?
Imperative Sentences in English
Order of words (place of a verb) in a sentence:
• English (verb medial):
• Raju likes pizza from the pizza hut.
• Hindi (verb final)
• Raju ko pizza hut meN pizza pasand hai.
Phrases to sentences …
• [The [student [of English]]] is working in a printing press.
• [Students [from Chennai]] love music.
• [The [student [of English]] [from Chennai]] works hard in the institute.
• The student [of English] [from Chennai] [with long hair] came to meet with me yesterday.
Command or request?
• Please (you) sit down. • (You) get up.
• Come home tomorrow. • Please give me a glass of water.
• Please bring a pen for me.
Subject in imperative sentences
•(You) come here.
•(You) sit down.
•(You) drink a glass of water.
Hindi Imperative Sentences
• (aap) baith-iye (You) please sit.
• (aap) andar aa-iye (You) please come in.
• (tum) baith-o (You) sit.
• (tum) andar aa-o (You) come in.

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Tamil Imperative Sentences

• ningaa pongaa (You) please go.
• nii po (You) go.
• ningaa waangaa (You) please come.
• nii waa (You) come.
Malayalam Imperative Sentences
• ni-ngal poiikollu (You) please go.
• nii po (You) go.
• ningal wannukollu (You) please come.
• nii waa (You) come.

Agreement in English Sentences

Things to notice………
•Subject and verb in predicate agree with each other.

Please observe …
• John like pizza.
• I likes pizza. I are a doctor.
• We likes pizza. We is a doctor.
• They likes pizza. They is teachers.
Subjects and Predicates in Sentences
•John loves Mary.
•I like0 pizza. • We like0 pizza.
•John likes pizza with his friends. •John and Mary0 like pizza.
Imperative Sentences
•(You) come here.
•(You) sit down.
•(You) drink a glass of water.
Agreement in English
• Something between the subject and the verb in predicate is obvious.
• This is called agreement.
• How does this work.
• Number SINGULAR PLURAL
• Person FIRST SECOND THIRD
Number and Person in Agreement
Number-------------------→ Singular Plural

Person
•I I We
• II You You
• II He, She, It They

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Examples:
• I am/was a doctor. I like-0 pizza.
•We are/were students. We like-0 pizza
• You are/were a teacher. You like-0 pizza.
• He/She is/was a teacher. He like-s pizza
• They are/were teachers. They like-0 pizza.

More on agreement in English …

1. Rekha and her brothers (is, are) in Delhi.
2. Either my mother or my father (is, are) coming to the meeting.
3. The dog or the cats (is, are) outside.
4. Either my shoes or my coat (is, are) always on the floor.
5. Rekha and Amala (doesn't, don't) want to see that movie.
6. Rekha (doesn't, don't) know the answer.
7. One of my sisters (is, are) going on a trip to France.
8. The man with all the birds (live, lives) on my street.
9. The movie, including all the previews, (take, takes) about two hours to watch.
10. The players, as well as the captain, (want, wants) to win.

TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR LANGUAGE SKILLS

❖ Why (are the varieties of) English of native speakers hard to understand?
1.ACCENT →English is a global language – Many accents around the world.
→Number of non-native speakers of English is higher than the number of native speakers of
English in the world. Influence of native tongue on English used by non-native speakers.
For e.g. Take a piece of cake.
2. SPEED →Native speakers of English talk fast that results in reductions. E.g. shoulda –
should have, coulda- could have, wanna – want to, kinda- kind of, gonna – going to etc.
→ Contractions – I’ll (I will), You’ll (you will), we’re (we are).
E.g: I’m gonna be really upset with you if you are gonna do this.

❖ Why is the English of native speakers hard to understand?

3. VOCABULARY AND GRAMMAR
– Adapted from "The Colors of Animals" by Sir John Lubbock inA Book of Natural History
(1902, ed. David Starr Jordan)
The colour of animals is by no means a matter of chance; it depends on many considerations,
but in the majority of cases tends to protect the animal from danger by rendering it less
conspicuous. Perhaps it may be said that if colouring is mainly protective, there ought to be
but few brightly coloured animals. There are, however, not a few cases in which vivid colours
are themselves protective. The kingfisher itself, though so brightly coloured, is by no means
easy to see. The blue harmonizes with the water, and the bird as it darts along the stream
looks almost like a flash of sunlight.
❖ Why is the English of native speakers hard to understand?
– The example of the kingfisher in the passage is intended to prove ______________.
– A) that the colour of an animal is not always adapted to match the background colour of its
environment

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– B) that the colour of an animal is always adapted to match the background colour of its
environment
– C) that the colour of an animal is an extraneous detail, evolutionarily speaking
– D) that the colour of an animal is, statistically speaking, most likely to be adapted to match
the background colour of its environment
– E) None of these answers; it is an anecdotal story designed to inject some levity into the
passage

❖ How to listen well in a conversation?

→Relax and focus.
→Do not translate English into your mother tongue (in your head) while listening.
→Tend to understand the context.
A: My name is Kaya. I want to book a room in this hotel.
B: May, I see your identification, please?
A: Here you go.
B: Thanks. Do you want a single, double, triple, quad, or a suite room?

❖ How to improve your listening & speaking skills?

→Listen to different varieties of English. →Listen to men, women, and children.
→Listen to as many different formats and sources as possible – songs, news, films, TV shows,
plays, audiobooks, podcasts, textbook exercises etc.
→Listen to something every day. Listen to some different every day. Listen without getting
bored. The more you listen, the better you get at it.
→Listen when you do other activities which doesn’t require much attention.
→How do you choose the material? – Understand more than 50% and less than 90% of the
content.

A few good sources

– News – BBC, CNN, Fox News, Indian News Channels in English etc.
– Radio – BBC Radio Service, available online - free of cost.
– Podcast – Radio shows that are available only on the internet.
– Movies – 2 Hollywood movies per week (Do not watch with subtitles)
– TV shows – Better than movies because they are longer.
– Songs – Opportunity for repetition.
– Audiobooks –YouTube, Audible, Blinkist, etc. (2X natural speed).
– TED talks – speeches and informational videos, professionally produced, highly suitable for
listening.
– Use dictionaries – pronunciation.
– Grammar books and worksheets ( beginner, intermediate, and advanced) available online
free of cost.
– Talk to your friends in English.

IMPROVE YOUR READING SKILLS

READING SKILLS
Reading improves your vocabulary. Vocabulary is most important in learning a language.

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By actively reading or observing the text (structure of sentences) , you can improve your
grammar.
This also leads to better writing and speaking (English for academic and business purposes).

THE RULES FOR COMPREHENSION

Read out loud (at times) – reading and listening Read a book with a pen.
Do a quick scanning of the book/passage for important key passages/ points.
Read the entire paragraph or the passage before you highlight something.
Pay attention to summary words – therefore, as a result, hence, in short, in conclusion etc.
Circle key words or difficult jargons in a passage.
Paraphrase what you read.
Interact and engage with the text (who is the main character, what issue does this article
address? What is the author trying to tell you? Does she make compelling points? Does the
author show any bias? ) Look for answers while you read.
READING COMPREHENSION FOR TESTS - TIPS
Budget your time
How many passages? How many exercises? How much time?
Less time on short/easy passages and more time on difficult/ longer passages.
Time yourself and stick to the plan.
Reading plan
1. Skim the text : Reading the surface of the text to understand the overall message.
- heading, subheading (subject of the text) - read the first few sentences of each paragraph.
Read the first line (marked in red) of the two paras and try to understand the main topic in
each paragraph.
Philosophy of Education is a label applied to the study of the purpose, process, nature and
ideals of education. It can be considered a branch of both philosophy and education. Education
can be defined as the teaching and learning of specific skills, and the imparting of knowledge,
judgment and wisdom, and is something broader than the societal institution of education we
often speak of.
Many educationalists consider it a weak and woolly field, too far removed from the practical
applications of the real world to be useful. But philosophers dating back to Plato and the
Ancient Greeks have given the area much thought and emphasis, and there is little doubt
that their work has helped shape the practice of education over the millennia.
2. Go ahead with the easiest exercises :
- read the questions and fully understand them.
- understand the keywords or their synonyms (help you identify the answers).
According to the passage given below, is the following statement True or False a)
Educationists consider philosophy a ‘weak and woolly’ field.
3. Read the text and find the answers.
4. Move on to the next exercise.
Challenges while reading – Lack of rich vocabulary and practise.

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❖ HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR READING SKILLS?

Read more and read widely
Read and read as much as possible – newspapers, magazines, books, articles etc.
Read something you like in the beginning) – history, films, sports, editorials etc.
Read something different everyday (different themes and genres).
Note down and review new vocabulary.
Keep a notebook and pen handy while you read.
Practise makes reading perfect – read it more than once.
CRITICAL READING
1. Separating facts from opinion.
Facts: information that can be proved true through objective evidence. Facts can be checked
for accuracy and thus proved true. Here is a fact: China is the most populous country in the
world. Opinion: belief, judgement or conclusion that cannot be objectively proved true. Here
is an opinion: the best treatment for thyroid is homeopathy. (There is no consensus in the
scientific community that it is true)
Note: Much of what we read is a mixture of fact and opinion.
2. Detecting propaganda.
Propaganda – information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a
political cause or point of view. (politicians and advertising agencies) Part of being a critical
reader is also to recognise propaganda techniques for the emotional fluff they are.
The most common type of propaganda technique is transfer, in which products or candidates
try to associate themselves with something that people admire or love. Politicians trying to
use a) national symbols (flag for example to invoke patriotism) or b) famous film actors (our
love and liking for the actor) to promote their political campaign – our feelings we have
towards the actor and the patriotism stirred in us by the national flag will get transferred to
the politicians, who gets us to vote for him.
Recognizing errors in reasoning.
Valid point – supported by rocklike foundation of solid support.
Fallacious point - based on a house of cards that offers no real support at all.
One common fallacy is circular reasoning – the supporting reasoning is really the same as the
conclusion. It is illogical. For example: Mahesh is a great swimmer, because he is so
wonderful at swimming. Supporting reason: he is so wonderful at swimming; Conclusion:
Mahesh is a great swimmer. We still do not know why he is a great swimmer. No real
reasons have been given.
False cause – a fallacy that oversimplifies the issue. That is, to assume that because event B
follows event A, event B was caused by event A. For example: Every day, I eat parata for
breakfast. One time, I had a dosa instead, and there was a major earthquake in my city.

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EXERCISE – READ THE RHYME AND THINK CRITICALLY

Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water;
Jack fell down and broke his crown,
And Jill came tumbling after.
Questions to ponder.
Who is Jack? Who is Jill? Is Jill a boy or a girl? Are they kids? Teenagers? Adults? How is Jack
and Jill related? Are they friends? Are they siblings? Are they lovers? Have you ever imagined
them as an old grandpa and grandma? Why would anybody go uphill to fetch water?
(because natural water sources like rivers and streams flow downhill). What happened after
the fall? Did they die?

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Negative Sentences in English

(Agreement and Verb-be)
Things to notice …
• Subject and verb in predicate agree with each other.
• Singular Subject agrees with singular verbs
• Number, person and gender are important concepts to understand.

Please observe … (not good/correct!)

• John like pizza.
•I likes pizza.
• We likes pizza.
• They likes pizza.

Agreement …
• John loves Mary.
•I like0 pizza.
• We like0 pizza.
• John likes pizza with his friends.
• John and Mary0 like pizza.

Correct Sentences
• John likes pizza.
•I like pizza.
• We like pizza.
• They like pizza.

Negation, Tense, and Agreement

• John likes pizza
• John does not like pizza.
•I like pizza
•I do not like pizza.
• We like pizza.
• We do not like pizza.
• They like pizza
• They do not like pizza.

Imperative Sentences and Negation

• (You) come here.
• Do not (don’t) come here.
• (You) sit down.
• Do not (don’t) sit down
• (You) drink a glass of water.
• Do not (don’t) drink a glass of water.

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Number and Person in Agreement

Person (Number)→ Singular Plural
•I I We
• II You You
• II He, She, It They

Negation and Verb - be:

• I am/was not a doctor.
• We are/were not students.
• You are/were not a teacher.
• He/She is/was not a teacher.
• They are/were not teachers.

More on negation in agreement …

• 1. Rekha and her brothers (is, are) not in Delhi.
• 2. The dog or the cats (is, are) not outside.
• 3. Neither my shoes nor my coat (is, are) always on the floor.
• 4. Rekha and Amala (doesn't, don't) want to see that movie.
• 6. Rekha (doesn't, don't) know the answer.
• 7. One of my sisters (is, are) not going on a trip to France.
• 8. The man with all the birds [ ? ] (live, lives) on my street.
• 9. The movie, including all the previews, [ ? ] (take, takes) about two hours to watch.
• 10. The players, as well as the captain, [ ? ] (want, wants) to win.

Direct and Indirect Objects

Things to notice …
• Sentences end with a full stop.
• All sentences will have subjects and predicates.
•Order of words in a sentence
• [[Subject] [verb object adverbs]]
•Subject and verb in predicate agree with each other.

Verbs and Objects

• Some verbs do not have objects.
• Some verbs have one objects.
• Some verbs have two objects.
• Some verbs must have something but they are not objects.

Examples
• I sleep early.
• I like mangoes.
• I teach English to college students.
• I go home every week.

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Why objects and why not?

• It depends on the nature of verbs.
• Intransitive verbs - 0 objects
• Transitive verbs - 1 object
• Ditransitive verbs - 2 objects

When we have two objects …

• 1st is called Direct Object (DO)
• 2nd is called Indirect Object (IO)

• I gave my book.
• I gave a book to my friend.
• I teach English.
• I teach English to college students.

Agreement in English
• Something between the subject and the verb in predicate is obvious.
• This is called agreement.
• How does this work.

• Number SINGULAR PLURAL

• Person FIRST SECOND THIRD

Be in English – Auxiliary verbs?

• Be has different forms in modern English.
• IS • ARE • AM
• WAS • WERE

Will/Shall – Future Tense Marker

• Will Would
• Shall Should
• Can Could
• May Might

Examples of verbs ‘be’

• I am/was a doctor.
• We are/were students.
• You are/were a teacher.
• He/She is/was a teacher.
• They are/were teachers.

Verb be and agreement in English …

• 1. Rekha and her brothers (is, are) in Delhi.
• 2. Either my mother or my father (is, are) coming to the meeting.
• 3. The dog or the cats (is, are) outside.

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• 4. Either my shoes or my coat (is, are) always on the floor.

• 5. One of my sisters (is, are) going on a trip to France.

Use of Will/Shall
• 1. John will be a doctor.
• 9. I shall go home now.
• 10. The players, as well as the captain, will win the match.

PHRASES & IDIOMS YOU MUST KNOW

◦ In common usage, a phrase is usually a group of words with some special idiomatic meaning
or other significance, such as "all rights reserved", "economical with the truth", "kick the
bucket", and the like. It may be a euphemism, a saying or proverb, a fixed expression, a figure
of speech, etc.

◦ A euphemism is a polite word or expression that is used to refer to things which people may
find upsetting or embarrassing to talk about, for example sex, the human body, or death.

◦ A proverb is a simple, concrete, traditional saying that expresses a truth based on common
sense or experience.

◦ A saying is any concisely written or spoken expression that is especially memorable because
of its meaning or style.

◦ Idioms. An idiom is a phrase, saying or a group of words that has a metaphorical (not literal)
meaning, which has become accepted in common usage. An idiom's symbolic sense is quite
different from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is made.

❖ COMMON PHRASES
1. A dark horse – unexpected winner
2. Bite a bullet – to force yourself to do something that is unpleasant or difficult, or be brave
in a difficult situation.
3. Break a leg – Good luck
4. Make a mountain out of a molehill – to exaggerate a minor difficulty
5. Kill two birds with one stone – achieve two aims with single effort
6. Move heaven and earth – to make maximum efforts
7. Keep the ball rolling – to continue the work
8. Be in the driving seat – Bearing all responsibilities
9. Out of my league – the other person is superior, better, at a higher level
10. Blessing in disguise – a good thing that seemed bad at first
11. A piece of cake – very easy
12. Money burns a hole in your (one’s) pocket – to spend money quickly
13. Cut ones coat according to ones cloth – to live within one’s means
14. Once in a blue moon – rarely
15. Put in cold storage – to keep a work pending
16. Look for a needle in a haystack – to seek what is impossible to find
17. To miss the boat – to miss the opportunity to do something
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18. Pull yourself together – calm down and act normally

19. To hear on the grapevine – to hear a rumour or an unconfirmed story
20. Cut corners – To do something in the fastest and the cheapest way
21. Between the devil and the deep sea – between two difficult situations
22. Beat around the bush – avoid saying what you mean usually because it is uncomfortable
23. Better late than never – It is better to arrive or do something later than expected than to
not arrive or not do something at all
24. Out of order – not working properly
25. Out of place – to feel or look different from other people in a specific place
26. Flog a dead horse – waste ones effort
27. Actions speak louder than words – what someone actually does means more than what
they say they will do
28. Bite off more than you can chew – try to do something that is too difficult or too much
for you
29. Out of character – behaving differently than usual
30. To get a taste of your own medicine – get treated the way you have been treating other
People
31. Add insult to injury – to act in a way that makes bad situation worse
32. At the eleventh hour – at the last moment
33. Out of shape – Not physically strong, not fit, not in a healthy condition
34. Out of the loop – uninformed, not having the information that everyone else has
35. Apple of ones eyes – lovable
36. Crocodile tears – false tears
37. Hold ones tongue – remain silent
38. White elephant – A costly but useless possession
39. Out of touch – Not communicating with each other
40.Barking up the wrong tree – to be wrong about the way to achieve something or the
reason for something
41.To call it a day – to stop what you were doing because you think you have done enough
or do not want to do anymore.
42. Take the law into ones hand – to punish someone according to ones own idea of justice
43. Take the bull by horns – to face difficulties in a direct way (difficult and dangerous
situations)
44. Burn the candle at both ends – to work extremely hard
45. Break the ice – to make people who have not met each other before feel more relaxed
and comfortable.
46. A nine days’ wonder – short-lived
47. The ball is in your court – it is your turn to make the next step or decision
48. Cost an arm and a leg – to be very expensive
49. Put the cart before the horse – to do things wrongly
50. Get your act together – to organise yourself so that you can do things in an effective way.
51. Put all your eggs in one basket – to depend for success on a single person or plan
52. Every cloud has a silver lining – every negative has a positive
53. To get out of hand – become difficult to control
54. To cry wolf – to call for help when you don’t need it

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55. It takes two to tango – actions or communication needs more than one person
56. To get something out of your system – to get rid of a wish or emotion especially a
negative one, by allowing yourself to express it
57. To sit/ be on the fence – undecided / taking a neutral stand / not take sides
58. To step up ones game – to start performing better
59. To sell someone out – to snitch on someone or let their secret out
60. To be all Greek – be not understood

INTRODUCTION(SPOKEN ENGLISH)
In learning to speak, remember the following:
1. Have something to say.
2. Politeness is more important than even pronunciation and grammar.

3. SLOW TEMPO IS A MARKER OF POLITENESS.

• Slow tempo helps both, speakers and listeners.
• English is a slow tempo language.
• English speakers pause after phrase, clause & sentence.
• In English, different words are stressed differently.
• Vowels sounds in English are very long or very short.
• Good spoken English is a product of good listening habits.

• Pause is like the punctuation mark of spoken language.

• “A woman without her man is nothing.” This sentence can have different meanings depending
upon how you pause. Find other examples.
• Rapid speech causes distortions in sounds; they merge into one another, some sounds are
dropped, some sounds change form and shape, and become difficult to understand.
• Slow speech is easy for the listener to understand. • It is a mark of politeness.
• Slow speech gives the speaker time to think and use correct words in a correct manner.
• It may not be easy to learn to speak slowly; changing habit of a life time can be difficult. But
it is not impossible.
• If we learn one thing about Spoken English, we must learn to speak slowly, comfortably. All
else will follow.
Activity
1. Record a minute long speech on your favourite topic.
2. Count the number of words.
3. Now take another minute, and record your speech again. On the same topic. But this time
speak slowly. Count the number of words. You may have fewer words. Check with a listener
What is understood better?
4. Listen to some “good” speakers on television. Are they slow or fast?

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WORD STRESS
• In plays, films and theatres, artistes produce sounds in any manner.
• But in natural languages, no two sounds are produced equally loud or long.
• No two syllables are produced equally loud or long; one sound or one syllable is more
prominent than others.
• This is true of all languages.
• In English, difference between prominent syllable and other syllables in a word is much greater
than it is in other languages.
• The most prominent syllable in a word is also generally called stressed syllable.
• Stressed syllable is much louder, or longer or more prominent than others. And this difference
is more easily seen in English than in other languages.
• On words longer than one syllable, all English dictionaries show syllable with main or
prominent stress.
• But different dictionaries do it in different manners. In Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary,
a stressed syllable is preceded by a single inverted comma.
• Stress on words in many languages is fixed; a syllable in one or another part of the word is
stressed.
• In all words in the French language, for example, that have two or more syllables, the last
syllable has the most prominent stress. So, in Pa’ris in French, the second syllable is stressed.
• In Tamil, it is usually the first or the second syllable in a word of more than two syllables that
is stressed. such as for instance ‘Rajendran in Tamil, usually it is the first syllable that get
prominent stress.
• In Hindi, prominent stress is given on or near the final syllable of the word. So, the same word,
Ra’jendran, in Hindi may be stressed on the prefinal syllable.
• Unlike French, Tamil, Hindi, etc., word stress in English is not fixed for only a particular syllable
in a particular position.

❖ It can be on the initial syllable, as in ‘Canada, ‘category, ‘dictionary, ‘India, ‘London, or on

the final syllable as in absen’tee, Ber’lin, bet’ween, Bra’zil, Ne’pal, Ja’pan, de’gree,
engi’neer, etc. or in the middle of the word, as in adminis’tration, bene’ficial, cer’tificate,
eco’nomic, etc.
• Is there no rule of stress assignment in English? No, not as simple and fixed as in many other
languages we noted above.
• In Hindi or Tamil, a syllable with a long vowel is stressed.
• In many words in English also, a syllable with a long vowel is stressed
a’go a’vow, a’way de’lay de’ny
• In many other words in English, a vowel followed by more than one consonant is stressed.
ac’count a’dept a’ford a’nounce a’mend ap’pend a’scend at’tend

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STRESS ON VERBS AND ADJECTIVES

• We have seen that word stress in English is not without some pattern, but it is best to do some
drill and to learn to speak some frequently used but mispronounced words correctly.

• Drill will turn speaking that way into a habit. Then new words and other words not practiced
can also be pronounced correctly. Do the drill.
• Just as in Nouns, Verbs and Adjectives also follow some patterns. Verbs and Adjectives are
mostly stressed on the final or pre-final syllable.
• Like verbs, most adjectives in English are also stressed on the final or pre-final syllable.

STRESS ON DERIVED WORDS

• So, for instance, to the word “God” you can add +ly→Godly
• To “Godly”, you can add +ness,→Godliness
• Or before “Godly”, you can add Un+,→Ungodly

• Adding these and/ or similar sounds, or letters when writing, to existing words, you can
make many new words.
• All languages make new words by adding sounds or letters to existing words. This is called
“Derivation”. In the READING MODULE of this course, we will look at the process in some detail.

• In grammar, existing word is called “Root” or “Root Word”. An added part to a Root Word is
called “Affix”. So “Un+” is an affix, “+ly” is an affix, “+ness” is an affix. We will see later in this
unit, and in some units in READING MODULE, that English has dozens of affixes.

• You may have seen that in English many suffixes can affect stress assignment. After a suffix is
added to the root, stress can move from one syllable to another.

• Finally, there are suffixes like +al, able, ary, ative, atory, ery, ible, ory, ous, utive, y, etc. These
suffixes do not affect stress on root words in a particularly fixed manner.

PHONETICS OF ENGLISH
➢ SOME VOWEL SOUNDS
• Most sounds in all languages are produced with air going out flowing out of lungs through the
glottis, pharynx and mouth.
• As speech air passes through them, these organs manipulate speech air.
• Glottis, which has vocal cords, can be wide open letting air pass freely; in that situation,
however, there is no voice, as is the case when you whisper.

• Glottis may be tightly shut. Air cannot pass, and there can be no speech.
• Within Glottis, vocal cords can be loosely together. Air passing through the glottis can, then,
vibrate these chords resulting into voice. If these chords do not vibrate, there can be no voice,
and we cannot be heard, at least not easily.

• Nothing much happens to the speech air in the pharynx.

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• Once it enters mouth, the oral passage, uvula and the tongue manipulate it. If Uvula is raised,
then all speech air passes through mouth; but if it is lowered, then some air can pass also
through nose, the nasal passage.

• In the mouth, tongue and lips and the opening between jaws mainly contribute to variety in
the production of sounds.

• To know more about the production of speech sounds, you can see some books suggested in
the desired reading list of this course.

• Vowels are voiced sounds produced without any obstruction in the oral passage, in the mouth.
This is how vowels are produced in all languages of the world.

• Though mouth does not create any obstruction in the production of vowel sounds, it can still
manipulate their length and type by changing the shape of lips, opening of the jaws, and
raising the tongue to different heights. All these things create various kinds of vowels in all
languages.

• “Pill” and “pull” are different words because vowel in one is produced by stretching the blade
or the front of the tongue towards the molar teeth, whereas in “pill” back of the tongue rises
towards but does not touch the soft palate.

• In the production of one the lips are spread; in the other, they are rounded. In the production
of “pit”, the jaws are very close to each other, though not closed; but in the production of
“part”, jaws are far apart.

• English has more vowel sounds than many other languages. Standard British English has 20
vowel sounds. American English has one or two fewer.
• Like all other languages, English also has both long and short vowel sounds.

• But English long vowels are:

1. Very long, almost twice as long as long vowel sounds in many Indian languages. They take
anything between 900 to 1100 nano-seconds, whereas many long vowels sound in Indian
languages hardly exceed 600 nano seconds.
2. Very many. Whereas Hindi has barely six or seven vowel sounds that may sound long, English
has at least 12 long vowels.
3. Many long vowels in English make minimal pairs with short vowels.

• Some English vowels are so long that the time they take equals almost to the production of
two vowels, a long and a short one. Vowels of this kind are called “Diphthongs”, that is two
bursts of voice vowels, or extra-long (XL) vowels.
• We have diphthongs in English words
“bite” “bout” “boat” “bait”

• It may be a good idea to learn to pronounce diphthongs as diphthongs. All English dictionaries
show the pronunciation of words, and by merely looking at them you can come to know which
vowels can be rendered as diphthongs. But even if you cannot render them as very long, you
should produce them at least as words with long vowels.
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➢ SOME CONSONANT SOUNDS

• Vowels are voiced sounds produced without obstruction.
• But almost all consonants are produced after some obstruction.

Only “w” as in “wet” and “y” as in “yet”, and other words, are produced without
obstruction and still called consonants.
• All other consonants in all other languages are produced only after some kind of obstruction
somewhere in the oral passage.
• Whereas all vowel sounds in all languages are voiced sounds, produced through the vibration
of vocal cords, some consonants may also be voiceless, may be produced when vocal cords
are wide apart, air from the lungs flows through the glottis freely without vibrating the vocal
chords.
• In the production of “h” and “s”, you feel no vibration under your finger; but you feel that
vocal cords vibrate when you produce “z”.
• For more on speech sounds, see books recommended for this course.
• It is important for us to learn to distinguish between voiced and voiceless consonants so that
we can pronounce words like “simple” and “symbol”, “temple” and “tumble”, “uncle” and
“angle”, etc. correctly.
• Many students of English have difficulty producing sounds like “v” in “van” and “w” in “wan”.
Sometimes they pronounce “v” like it were “bh”, or something closer to “w”, confusing their
listeners.
• They are both voiced sounds, but “v” as in “van”, “ever”, “move”, etc. is produced from the
lower lip coming close to upper teeth.

• “W”, as in “wan”, is produced with lips rounded like you do in the production of “u” in “put”,
“pull”, “push”, etc. In words like “quest”, “queen”, “quick”, you should round your lips before
you begin pronouncing them. You will produce “w” sound in these words quite correctly.

• English has many sounds, more than many Indian Asian languages, that are produced with
friction, though not with total obstruction. Just as we saw for “v” in “vet” above, one organ of
articulation, like lower lip, comes so close to the other, such as upper teeth in this case, that
even though there is no complete closure, there is audible friction. So, for instance, “s” as in
“sip” and “z’ as “zip” are produced by the tip of the tongue coming close to but not touching
the alveolar ridge, the line behind and above the upper teeth.

• All the other different sounds are produced by organs of articulation by moving from one
position to another. If you have difficulty with any English sound, look up the Better Spoken
English. It has lists of frequently used and mispronounced words of English. It also says how it
can be, and it tells you how you can pronounce them right.

CONCLUSION
1. Anyone who can speak one language can also speak another language equally well. All they
have to do is set their mind to it. We only have to pay attention and to follow the same specific

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manner to produce the same sound or sounds, almost as we learn to drive a car. Actually,
learning to speak another language is simpler, just as many who have learnt speaking another
language tell us.

2. Nobody else can learn it for you. Only you can teach yourself, and, thus, learn to speak a
language. Enthusiasm can help you learn any language.

3. This course does not pretend to teach you how to speak English, but it seeks to become a
guide.

PHRASE STRUCTURE
• Any sentence in any language uses a variety of words, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives,
adverbs, prepositions, etc.
• A phrase can have only one word, as “It”, or it can have more words, as in “was Monday
morning”.
• Here again there is a phrase within a phrase, as in Verb Phrase, verb “was” head the phrase,
but it has another phrase “Monday morning”.

• These two words coming together behave like one word, and complete the meaning of “was”.

• So, one word or more, a phrase is part of a sentence that performs a function in it.
• But why can “It” be a phrase by itself, but “his” cannot be a phrase by itself? That is because
“his” by itself is incomplete, “eyes” by itself is incomplete; Questions like “his” what? Whose
“eyes”? etc. arise. Phrases can be of many kinds. They can be noun phrases headed by nouns
and working like nouns; or, there can be verb phrase, adjectival phrase, adverbial phrase and
prepositional phrase.

WORD ORDER
Word order, which word can come after which word, is fixed in English.

• In English, a question sentence, also called “Interrogative Sentence”, begins either only with
“Is/Are/Am/Was/Were/Will...”, etc. or with “What / When/ where / which / who / why...?”etc

• You must first have Noun working as subject, then verb followed by object / complement.

English is a Subject – verb – Object (S – V – O) language. [ John drives a car.]

• In many other languages, word order is not so rigidly fixed. In Hindi or Tamil, for instance, one
can say SOMETHING LIKE the following:
[John a car drives.] [A car John drives.] [Drives John a car.]

• In, phrase, clause, sentence, at all levels, and in all kinds of sentences, word order is almost
fixed in English.

• Almost any two words or more come together in English only in a certain order.

• For instance, you can only say “a car”; you cannot say *“car a”.
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• If you have “a red car”, then again, the order is fixed; you cannot put these words together in
any other way.
• If it takes an adjective after itself, then it can come only as another phrase, such as in “a car
of red colour”, or “a car coloured red”, etc. Ordinarily, adjectives precede nouns in English.

[Even among adjectives, the order is fixed]

• If you have two adjectives, “costly” and “new” before the noun “car”, then you can only say
“costly new car”, and not “new costly car”.

• If you have three or four adjectives before noun, even then the order is fixed. You generally
say “costly new Maruti car” you do not say “Maruti new costly car”, etc.

• Word order is fixed also for noun + noun, such as “class room”, “History teacher”, “Stations
Master”, “Assistant Station Master”, “Physics Laboratory”, “Boys’ Hostel”, “Night Express”, etc.

[The principle is to go from modifier to the modified. So, if the “history” is not of the teacher,
teacher teaches history, then history modifies “teacher”. You can ask which teacher, and the
answer is “history teacher”.]

•You can also have two nouns joined by a preposition. For instance,
[King of England] [Captain of the team] [Gun of the soldier]
The head of the Noun Phrase comes first. Modifiers joined by prepositions or otherwise follow.

[Word order is fixed also among verbs.]

• If you have two or three words together making verbal group, such as

“ John has been driving car since morning”, then “has been driving” is a verbal group, where
“has” comes first, followed by “been” which shows a time coming from the past, then you can
bring main verb, in this case “drive”, and to show that the action continues you can attach “-
ing” at the end of the main verb, not at its beginning, so you have “has been driving”; you cannot
say the following:

*has been ingdrive, or *been drive hasing, or *drive beening has, etc.

• A common general principle is to show time of action unambiguously, so you begin with
tense and end it in the present time. For example, see the following:

a. It has been raining (since yesterday).

b. Robert has lived in Chennai (for decades).
c. Crops have been destroyed by floods or droughts.
d. Moral education had been given an important place in education.
e. The train is running to time.
• Even without words like “since yesterday” and “for decades”, we know that the speaker
means to say that it has been raining since some time in the past, and that John has lived in
Chennai for a period of time.

• Word order is generally fixed even in the verbal group of words.

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[You have tense (present/past) followed by aspect (has/have or had), voice (active/passive),
and then simple/progressive (v+ing)]

• An adverb qualifies adjectives and verbs, such as in the following sentences.

Swaminathan is a very good boy. He gets up early in the morning, and begins his studies
immediately.

• In the sentences above, underlined words are adverbs.

• They qualify either adjectives, as “very” before “good”.

• In the first sentence, or they qualify verbs, as “early in the morning” qualifies “gets up”, and
“immediately” qualifies “begins”.
• The first adverb intensifies goodness; how good is Swaminathan? He is very good. Similarly,
when does he get up? The answer is “early in the morning”. When does he begin his
studies? The answer is immediately. So adverb qualifies adjectives and verbs.
• For adjectives, an adverb is an intensifier. You can, for instance, say, “Radha is very pretty.”
One might ask “how pretty?”, the answer is “very”.
• For verbs, it indicates manner, purpose and/or reason, place and many shades of time, like
duration, frequency, etc. You can imagine a sentence such as follows.
“The night mail from New Delhi arrived late at Secunderabad due to fog this morning.”
• All the underlined words perform the work of an adverb, just as very does in the first
sentence. They indicate manner, reason/purpose, place and time.

COMPLEX SENTENCE
➢ Agreement Across Phrases & Clauses
• A “Complex Sentence” has a main clause and at least one subordinate clause.

• In the earlier units of this module we learnt how to identify a clause.

• Following is an instance of a complex sentence:

→He was the only boy in the class who wore socks and shoes.
[Main Clause--He was the only boy in the class]
[Subordinate Clause--who wore socks and shoes]

• Together these clauses make it a complex sentence.

• Let us look at another example.

→There were vague rumours that he had come from some English boys' school
somewhere in Madras.
[ Main Clause--There were vague rumours]
[ Subordinate Clause--that he had come from some English boys' school somewhere in
Madras]

• So, this is also a complex sentence.

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ACTIVITY
This Rajam was a rival to Mani. In his manner to Mani he assumed a certain nonchalance to
which Mani was not accustomed. If Mani jabbed, Rajam jabbed; if Mani clouted, he clouted; if
Mani kicked, he kicked. If Mani was the overlord of the class, Rajam seemed to be nothing less.
And add to all this the fact that Rajam was a regular seventy percenter, second only to Sankar.
There were sure indications that Rajam was the new power in the class.

• Rules of agreement of number apply across the clauses. Any reference to noun or pronoun
of the main clause in a noun, or pronoun or verb in the subordinate clause will have to have
the same number.
• If noun in the main clause is singular, then reference to it must be in singular. See the
following, for instance:
→These are the senior girls from this school who have been selected for training in life
saving skills.
[Main Clause--These are the senior girls from this school]
[Subordinate Clause--who have been selected for training in life saving skills]

• But in the subordinate clause, you cannot write *who has been... That is ungrammatical,
because “who” in this sentence refers to “girls”, a plural noun, in the earlier clause.
Therefore, it takes “have”, not “has”.
• Any verb or noun in the subordinate clause referring to a noun in the main clause must
agree with the noun in the main clause in number.

➢ NOUN CLAUSE
• We know that a complex sentence has a main clause and at least one sub-ordinate clause.
• A main clause necessarily has a noun phrase and at least one verb phrase, which has a verb
in either present or in past tense.
• But subordinate clause can be of many kinds, and may function in the sentence like a noun

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phrase, or noun, a verb phrase, or verb, an adjectival phrase, or an adjective, adverb or an

adverbial phrase, etc.
• In other words, a clause can also function like a phrase, or a word, performing the function
of its class, like an adjective, or an adverb, or a noun, or verb. In the following sentence, for
example, the subordinate clause works like an adjective.
→Only the wearer knows where shoe pinches.
[Main Clause--Only the wearer knows]
[Subordinate Clause--where shoe pinches]

• The sub-ordinate clause here works like a noun. It is the object to the verb ―” know”
in the main clause. What do you know – you know ―” where shoes pinches”.
• Let us look at another example.
→That the river is in spate here at this time of the year is well known.
• Here [That the river is in spate here at this time of the year] sub. noun clause functions like a
noun which is the subject to the verb -”is” within the main clause.
• The entire subordinate clause here functions like a simple word -”It” which has become the
subject of the sentence-”[[It] is well-known]”. The entire sentence could also be written or
spoken as:
→It is well known that the river is in spate here at this time of the year.

• So the subordinate clause [That the river is in spate here at this time of the year] is a noun
clause which is the subject of the main clause ―”[[ ] is well-known]”. So, like a noun, or like
a noun phrase, noun clause can also perform the function of a noun by becoming either
subject or object of a subordinate clause.
ACTIVITY
“...You don't know what a great fellow Rajam is.' He told her the story of the first enmity
between Rajam and Mani and the subsequent friendship. 'You know, he has a real police dress,'
said Swaminathan. 'Is it? What does he want a police dress for?' asked granny. 'His father is the
Police Superintendent. He is the master of every policeman here.' Granny was impressed. She
said that it must be a tremendous office indeed. She then recounted the days when her
husband, Swaminathan's grandfather, was a powerful Sub-Magistrate.

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➢ ADJECTIVAL CLAUSE
• We saw in the earlier unit that some clauses work like nouns, and can be subject, or object
of verbs in another clause.
• Some subordinate clauses, in a similar manner, can also function like adjectives. These are
called adjectival clauses. For example.
→He that is down needs fear no fall.
• There are two clauses in this sentence, as shown through brackets below.
[He [that is down] (adj Cl) needs fear no fall (main cl).]
• In the sentence above, we have two clauses, as follows.
[Main Clause—He needs fear no fall]
[Subordinate Clause—that is down]
• This subordinate clause is an adjectival clause as it qualifies the subject of main clause “He”.
What is the test? If you ask who needs fear no fall, the answer is “He that is down...”.

• Let us look at another sentence.

All that glitters is not gold.
[Main Clause—All is not gold]
[Sub adjectival clause—that glitters](it qualifies ‘’All”,the subject of the main clause.)
• So, any clause that qualifies a noun in another clause is an adjectival clause.
ACTIVITY
This was a great disappointment to Swaminathan and Mani, who were waiting with watering
mouths. Here Swaminathan's grandmother lived with all her belongings, which consisted of an
elaborate bed made of five carpets.

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➢ ADVERBIAL CLAUSE
• We have seen in earlier units of this module that a subordinate clause can function like a
noun clause and an adjectival clause.
• A subordinate clause can also function like an adverbial clause.
• See the following, for instance

[Main Clause→The fairy was so charming]

[Sub. Cl.1→that all the noisy children became silent]
[Sub. Cl.2→as she began singing.]
• Subordinate Clause 1 is actually an adjectival clause modifying the adjective “charming” in
the main clause.
• Subordinate Clause 2 is also an adverbial clause modifying the verb “became” in the
subordinate clause1.
• So just as adverbs do, adverbial clause also modifies, gives additional information about,
adjectives and verbs. That is why it is called adverb. Adverbs can be one word, like “very” in
an adjectival phrase like “very good”, can be “so” as in “so charming”, etc. They intensify
adjective.
• Adverbs can also be a phrase, as in :
→The Rajdhani Express is always on time.
• In this sentence, “always on time” is a phrase, where “always” indicates frequency of time,
and “on time” indicates manner. Incidentally, “on time” itself is a phrase within a phrase.
• So, we know that besides intensifying the adjectives, adverbs also indicate the following
about verbs. See the following table.
▪ Some Functions of Adverb

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• All of these functions of adverbs are also usually done by adverbial phrase and by adverbial
clause. See the following for example.
→Strike the iron while it is hot.
• “Strike the iron” is main clause, but “while it is hot” is the subordinate adverbial clause
indicating time of the verb “strike” in the main clause.
→As you sow, so you reap.
• “so you reap” is the main clause, but “As you sow” is the adverbial clause of manner
qualifying the verb “sow”.
→This is the night mail crossing the border.
• “crossing the border’ is the adverbial phrase indicating the place of verb “is”.
→The mail is bringing the cheques and the postal order.
• the adverbial phrase indicates the purpose of the verb “is”.

→Kate Kate you are always late.

• the adverbial phrase, “always late”, indicates frequency and manner of verb “are” within the
same clause. • the adverbial phrase, “always late”, indicates frequency and manner of verb
“are” within the same clause.

→ If you are not on time, you will miss the bus.

• a result is indicated for a certain condition.

• An adverbial clause can do all this. See the following examples.

→I removed the pendant when your father was born.

• Here “when your father was born” is the subordinate adverbial clause indicating time of the
verb “removed” in the main clause “ I removed the pendant”.

Activity
All adverbial clauses are underlined.

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KNOW YOUR SENTENCE - GRAMMATICAL STEPS TOWARDS IMPRESSIVE ENGLISH

ADJECTIVES
1. Common Adjective Mistake #1: I’m not interesting in the movie.
Correction: I’m not interested in the movie.
2. Common Adjective Mistake #2: That is a French white old house.
Correction: That is a old white French house.
(Determiner, opinion, size, age, shape, color, origin, material and purpose)
3. Common Adjective Mistakes #3: He’s more stronger than his opponent.
Correction: He’s stronger than his opponent.
4. Common Adjective Mistakes #4: You’re the most perfect person I’ve ever seen.
Correction: You’re the perfect person I’ve seen.
Here are some examples of absolute adjectives: Supreme, Wonderful, Horrible, Brilliant,
Final, Obvious, Unique, Absolute, Complete, Ideal, Preferable, Dead etc.
5. Common Adjective Mistakes #5: Which is the shortest of these two routes?
Correction: Which is the shorter of these two routes?
PREPOSITIONS
1. Common Preposition Mistake #1 : My birthday is on July!
Correction: My birthday is in July!
2. Common Preposition Mistake #2 : Ram often goes out in the night.
Correction: Ram often goes out at night.
3. Common Preposition Mistake #3 : I’ve been working for this company since three years.
Correction: I’ve been working for this company for three years.
4. Common Preposition Mistake #4 : Ram is married with Sita.
Correction: Ram is married to Sita.
5. Common Preposition Mistake # 5 : Where is my phone at?
Correction: Where is my phone?
6. Common Preposition Mistake # 6 : She looked like she was tired.
Correction: She looked as though she was tired.
7. Common Preposition Mistake # 6 : They arrived to the school.
Correction: They arrived at the school.
8. Common Preposition Mistake # 7 : We went at the mall.
Correction: We went to the mall.
9. Common Preposition Mistake # 8 : Incorrect: I am afraid sharks.
Correction: I am afraid of sharks.
10.Common Preposition Mistake # 9 : I made sure to study my exam.
Correction: I made sure to study for my exam
11.Common Preposition Mistake # 10: I slept before run.
Correction: I slept before running.

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ARTICLES
1. Common Article Mistake # 1: I am doctor specialised in neurology.
Correction: I am a doctor specialised in neurology.
Rule: Always put a/an before a singular, common noun.
2. Common Article Mistake # 2: Ravi studies at an university.
Correction: Ravi studies at a university.
Rule: Use a before consonant sounds, an before vowel sounds
3. Common Article Mistake # 3: Savithri has best voice I have ever heard.
Correction: Savithri has the best voice I have ever heard.
Rule: Always put the before superlative degrees.
4. Common Article Mistake # 4: I need a advice from you about joining yoga class.
Correction: I need advice from you about joining yoga class.
Rule: Do not put a or an before uncountable nouns.(Idea-countable; advice- uncountable
5. Common Article Mistake # 5: The teachers should not punish their students.
Correction: Teachers should not punish their students.
Rule : Use no article when generalizing with plurals.
6. Common Article Mistake # 6: Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world.
Correction: The Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world.
Rule: Use the with oceans, rivers, valleys, deserts, mountain ranges, points on globe.

STRUCTURE OF QUESTION SENTENCES

• In many languages that we know of, there are no special rules for forming questions. In
English, however, question sentences are formed in only one of the two ways.
• Either, they start with “Is/was/Am/Are/were” or some other auxiliary verb, such as in the
following sentences:

• Or, they start with some “wh-” word, like “how, what, when, where, which, whose, whom,
why” and a few other “wh-” words, such as the following.

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• Notice that “How” does not begin with “wh-”, yet it is grouped with questions words of this
class, that is only for the sake of convenience. Since all other words here begin with “Wh-”,
this word is also clubbed with them.
• What is the difference between questions beginning with “Is/are” and the questions
beginning with “Wh-”?
• Depending upon what they begin with, they are either called “Wh-” questions, or “Yes/No”
questions. This seems arbitrary.
• Questions beginning with “Is/Are/...” are almost always answered in either “yes” or “no”.
Actually, therefore, they should rather be called “yes/no” answers, than “yes/no” questions.
But popular psychology and rule of convenience put them that way.
• “Wh-” questions, on the other hand, expect specific answers. You cannot say “yes” when
you are asked “what is the time, please?”, or, “What is your name, please?”. You will have
to answer these questions with specific words like It is 10:10 now, or, I am Shreesh, etc.
• So, let us first talk about the structure of “Yes/No” questions. All questions of this kind begin
with the first auxiliary verb in that sentence. See the following, for instance.

• In all of these sentences there are many auxiliary verbs. Some books of grammar also call
them helping verbs.

• If sentences mentioned above were to be written as assertive sentences, or as sentences

making statements, then they would be rewritten as follows.

[You are coming to the class tomorrow.]

• The verbal group has two full words, and “+ing”, but because the order is fixed, the question
sentence here begins with the first of them, that is “Are”.

[You have been coming to the class these days.]

• The verbal group has three words, “ have been come+ing”, but the question sentence begins
with “Have”, which comes first.

[Classes can be conducted on line for primary school students.]

• The verbal group here has three words, “can be conduct+ed”, but because “Can” comes first
in the group, the question sentence in this case also begins with “Can”.

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[People could have been told about the pandemic last year.]
• Verbal group has four words, “could have been tell + ed”, but because the group begins with
“Could”, the questions sentence is formed accordingly, beginning with “could”.

• There are some “yes/no” questions which begin with “Do/does/did” even when they are not
obviously there in the declarative sentence. Look at the following sentences, for instance.
→Devadutt rises with the sun every morning.
→Devadutt does not go to bed with the sun every evening.

• Questions for the sentences given above can be of the following kind.
→Does Devadutt rises with the sun every morning?
→Does Devadutt not go to bed with the sun every evening?

→Devadutt rises with the sun every morning.

→Devadutt does not go to bed with the sun every evening.
• In b., the first word of the verbal group is “does”. So it is all right if the question for this
sentence begins with “Does”. But questions sentence for “a.” will also begin with “Does”,
producing the question as shown in the previous slide.
• So the second rule for the construction of question sentences is that a sentence that does
not have a stand alone auxiliary verb can use “do/does/did” as appropriate to begin a
“yes/no” question with. See the following for example.

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• Helping verbs, “is” and “can”, are seen in c. and d. But in a. and d. no such verb is seen. To
change them into question sentences, therefore, English uses “do/does/did”, as appropriate.

• So we see that sentences that do not have a helping verb to be taken the front of the sentence
use “do’/does/did”, as appropriate for this purpose.
• How does English make negative questions, such as the following.
→Do Eskimos not live near the North Pole?
→Does a man not go out for morning walks in cold countries?

• Ordinarily, in their neutral, declarative form sentences as above. Are like those given below.
→Eskimos do not live near the North Pole.
→A man does not go out for morning walks in cold countries.

STRUCTURE OF SENTENCES IN PASSIVE VOICE

• Natural languages are designed to say almost anything in any manner. Sometimes we speak
about who has done what, but sometimes we also speak about what was done by whom.
For instance, we know that police arrests criminals. So when we talk about the arrest of
criminals, we need not say that Police have arrested the criminals. A shorter and appropriate
answer is, “Criminals have been arrested”.
• Look at the following sentences. We do not even need to know who did them.

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• In all of the sentences in 1. above, the doer or the cause or the agent is either well-known,
or not known at all, or does not need to be known. Say, for instance. In 1.a, the governor has
signed the order, and the chief minister’s resignation has been accepted. In 1.b, the agent is
likely to be the Director of the college or a higher authority; in 1.c. we can say “by the Dean”;
in 1.d., “by police”; 1.e. “by the company”. We can go on in this manner. Actually it may be a
good idea for you to write this “by...” for the other sentences in the group. Some have
already been done for you.

ACTIVITY
• For sentences given in 1. above, write the name of the possible agent. At the end of each
sentence, use “by....” and after “by” write the name of the possible agent/cause/doer, etc.

f. Some students have been expelled from the hostel by the warden.
g. The Taj Mahal was built in over 20 years, between 1632- 53, by Shah Jehan.
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h. Crops were destroyed even this year by floods.

i. Millions of young men have been rendered jobless by the pandemic.
j. Millions of men are employed worldwide at huge costs doing nothing by governments.
k. They are called variously as army or defence forces by governments.
l. Gandhi was called by various names by his friends and followers.
m. He was called an army by Mountbattten, a beggar by Prime Minister Churchill, Bapu by
Congressmen, Mahatma by Tagore, and father of the nation by Indian people.
n. He was also called a traitor by some other people, and killed by an assassin.
o. My wallet was stolen yesterday by thieves.

• Similar sentences are there in many languages. But, in English, again sentences of this kind,
called PASSIVE VOICE SENTENCES, have a fixed structure. They are constructed only in a
particular manner. If we look at their ACTIVE VOICE, we can soon and better understand
how they are constructed. See the following sentences.

• Sentences in 2. are in active voice. Agent or cause of action is at the beginning of the sentence.
But passive voice is done the other way round. Here the agent comes last, victim, result, effect,
etc. comes first, as follows:

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• Rules for making passive voice sentences are given in steps as follows.

• The following examples show how these rules apply.

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COMMON ERRORS IN ENGLISH

• In earlier units of this module, we have seen some aspects of English grammar.
• In this unit, we will look at some instances of some errors frequently made by students
learning English; we will correct these mistakes, see why these mistakes occurred and
ensure that they do not recur.
• The following, for example, is ungrammatical.
→We got some informations.
So, you can say:
a. I want some information
b. I can give some information

• Some nouns have no plural; you use them only in the singular number as given in the
dictionary.

• So, for instance, words like equipment, meat, oil, rice, wheat, milk, information, fish,
furniture do not have a singular or plural form.

• They are uncountable, and are shown in the dictionary with a “U”. So, for instance, for
“milk”, the dictionary cites milk as follows: “Milk (Noun) U”, meaning uncountable.

• Uncountable nouns do not take a/an, neither do they have a plural form. When milk is used
as a noun, you cannot say “milk+s”.

You cannot, for instance say, [*I like cow and buffalo milks.]

You can only say “I like both cow milk and buffalo milk.”

NOTE➔
• In a noun + noun combination, ordinarily the second noun is the head. See the following for
example:

[History Teacher, State Department, Home Minister, House Wife, Cinema Hall, etc.]

• But in a noun phrase created with a preposition, it is a noun before the preposition that is
usually the head.

[Inspector of Police, Captain of Guards, House of Cards, Head of Department, Secretary to

the Director, etc.]

ADITYA

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