Archive for November, 2009

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Common Errors with Pronouns – Part II

November 30th, 2009 in Common Mistakes, English Grammar, English Learning

Incorrect: The boy who works hard he will win.
Correct: The boy who works hard will win.

Explanation

This sentence has two clauses ‘the boy will win’ and ‘who works hard’ and each clause has its own subject. There is no need to use a pronoun when the noun it stands for is already present in the clause.

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Common Errors with Pronouns – Part I

November 30th, 2009 in Common Mistakes, ESL, English Grammar, English Learning

Incorrect: Each of these girls sing well.
Correct: Each of these girls sings well.
Incorrect: None of my student attended the class today.
Correct: None of my students attended the class today.
Incorrect: One of my servant has gone on leave.
Correct: One of my servants has gone on leave.
Incorrect: Some of my servants has gone on leave.
Correct: Some of my servants have gone on leave.

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If Clauses – Part II

November 29th, 2009 in ESL, English Grammar, English Learning, Improve English

Type 3 conditional (Impossible condition)

Here we use a past perfect tense in the if clause and would have + past participle in the result clause.

He would have come if you had invited him.

The type 3 conditional sentences are used to talk about unreal and impossible situations.

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If Clauses

November 29th, 2009 in ESL, English Grammar, English Learning, Improve English

A conditional sentence must have at least two clauses: a conditional clause and a result clause. The conditional clause usually states a condition and the result clause states what will happen if the condition is fulfilled.

Read the sentences given below:

If you come tomorrow, I will tell you a secret.

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Position of Frequency Adverbs

November 29th, 2009 in ESL, English Grammar, English Learning, Improve English

Frequency adverbs tell how often something happens. Examples are: often, never, always, sometimes, generally, usually, seldom, rarely, hardly, ever, frequently etc.

Position of Frequency Adverbs

Frequency adverbs can go in the following positions in a sentence:

Before the principal verb

Structure: subject + adverb + verb + object etc.

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More on Subject and Object Complements

November 28th, 2009 in ESL, English Grammar, English Learning, Improve English

Subject Complement

Read the sentences given below:

The birds fly.
The wind blows.
The moon shines.
Here the verbs fly, blows and shines are intransitive because they do not have objects. Still they express a complete thought without the help of any other words. Hence, they are called verbs of complete predication.

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The Predicate

November 28th, 2009 in ESL, English Grammar, English Learning, Improve English

That part of the sentence which does not include the subject is called the predicate.

The most important word in the predicate is the verb. The verb is usually modified by an adverb or its equivalent which is called the extension of the verb or adverbial qualification. The adverbial qualification may be of different kinds.

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The Subject

November 28th, 2009 in ESL, English Grammar, English Learning, Improve English

An English sentence must have at least one subject and one predicate. The subject denotes the person or thing about which something is said.
The subject is usually the first noun or noun phrase in a sentence and it represents the thing that the rest of the sentence is about. The subject may consist of one word or several words but it must still have a noun or pronoun it. The main word in the subject is called the subject-word.

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Anomalous Finites – Part III

November 26th, 2009 in ESL, English Grammar, English Learning, Improve English

To emphasize an affirmative statement

The anomalous finites do, does and did can be placed before the verb to show emphasis. Note that after do, does and did, we use a verb in its present tense form.

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Anomalous Finites – Part II

November 26th, 2009 in ESL, English Grammar, English Learning, Improve English

Verbs in the simple present and simple past tense do not consist of auxiliary verbs. Their negatives are made by the addition of the anomalous finites do not, does not or did not before the main verb.