73512-1 - Fine Tune Your English,Revision notes PDF

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Fine Tune Your English,Revision notes...

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Fine-tune Your English Section – A The Sentence and its Structure

CHAPTER- 1 How to Write an Effective Sentence ฀ Effective Sentence฀ ―If a sentence serves the purpose for which it is meant, it can be called an effective sentence.‖ ฀ Two Parts of a Sentence - Subject and Predicate฀ The subject is always a noun or a noun equivalent. The key word in a predicate is a verb.

The children are playing. (Subject –Noun Part) (Predicate–Verb Part)

A simple sentence can be made more complicated by enlarging the subject and extending the predicate by adding modifiers. Eg:-Children are playing Chita‘s children are playing hide and seek. (Enlargement)

(Extension)

Guidelines for writing an effective sentence 1. Effective writing cautions the writer to be positive rather than negative. (Avoid negatives –‗no‘, ‗not‘) 2. Good sentence prefers Specificity to Generality. 3. Judicious use of Figurative language. An abstract idea receives concreteness when expressed in Figurative language.

4. Monotony must be got over. 5. Put important words and ideas in the beginning and end of a sentence. #

Periodic Sentence-Keeps the reader in suspense by placing the verb at the very end.

6. Use appropriate/precise words- Ample justification for each word. 7. Inadequate subordination of lesser ideas makes a sentence clumsy. Use subordinate conjunctions to combine ideas. 8. Avoid Faulty Parallelism and Mixed Metaphors. To avoid Faulty Parallelism- All the ideas of a series should be of the same word class. 9. Golden rule of writing- Avoid dangling modifiers

Extra Points ฀ Knowledge of figure of speech helps in writing an effective sentence ฀ Use passive voice only if there is a real need.

฀ Avoid informal and slangy expressions.

CHAPTER- 2 Phrases • A group of words, which makes sense, but not complete sense, is called a Phrase. • It has no finite verbs • There may be verbal elements like participles • Not sentence-like, no subject and predicate • It functions like noun, adjective or adverb.

E.g.:

The sun rises in the east. (Phrase) There came a snake to my door. (Phrase)

TYPES OF PHRASES Noun Phrase Eg: The boy wants something. (Noun) The boy wants to go home.(Noun Phrase) Adjective Phrase Eg: Bill Gates is a wealthy man. (Adjective) Bill Gates is a man of great wealth. (Adjective Phrase) Adverb Phrase- Act like adverbs in a sentence Eg: Rama Ran quickly. (Adverb) Rama ran with great speed. (Adverb Phrase)

Prepositional Phrase- Prepositional phrase is a series of words made up of a preposition and its object. The object may be a noun, pronoun, gerund or clause. A prepositional phrase functions as an adjective or adverb. Eg: The boy with him is his son. The store at the corner sells sandwiches

Absolute Phrase A phrase with a subject and a partial predicate of its own is called an absolute phrase. Verbless Phrase A phrase that contains no element of verb is called a verbless phrase. Eg: When young, Blunt the donkey was a champion.

Finite and Non-Finite verbs • Finite verbs show tense, person, number etc. Eg: is, are, am • Non finite verbs do not show tense, person, number etc. Infinitives and participles are also non finite verbs or verbals. Eg: be, being , been

Bare Infinitive: Play

To Infinitive: Toplay

Present Participles: Playing

Past Participle: Played

CHAPTER-3 Clauses • A group of words which forms part of a sentence, and contains a subject and predicate, is called a clause. Eg: I think that youhave made a mistake. (Clause) ฀

Main Clause / Independent Clause: The part of the sentence that can stand alone as its own sentence.

Subordinate / Dependent Clause: The part of the sentence that cannot stand alone as its own sentence.

Types of Dependant / Subordinate Clause

NOUN CLAUSE

DEPENDANT / SUBORDINATE

ADVERB CLAUSE

ADJECTIVE CLAUSE

CHAPTER-3 NOUN CLAUSE ฀ A noun clause is a dependent clause that does the function of a Noun in a sentence.฀

Eg: I expect to get a prize. (Noun Phrase)

You must remember that you are not children. Functions of a Noun Clause

1. Noun clause can be used as a Subject in a sentence. Eg: What he said is totally false. 2. Noun clause can be used as an object of a verb Eg: We were really surprised at what has happened. 3. Noun clauses can be used as complements. Eg: The question is why such things should happen. 4. Noun clause functions as appositives. Eg: The belief that diseases are God‘s punishment is absolutely wrong.

CHAPTER- 4 ADVERB CLAUSE

An adverb clause is a dependent clause that does the work of an adverb in a sentence. Types of Adverb Clauses •

Adverb clause of TIME

•

Adverb clause of PLACE

•

Adverb clause of PURPOSE

• Adverb clause of EFFECT •

Adverb clause of DEGREE

•

Adverb clause of CONDITION

•

Adverb clause of CONCESSION

•

Adverb clause of REASON

•

Adverb clause of MANNER

CHAPTER-5 CONDITIONAL CLAUSE Conditional tenses are used to speculate about what could happen, what might have happened, and what we wish would happen. In English, most sentences using the conditional contain the word if or unless. Conditional sentences are sentences expressing factual implications, or hypothetical situations and their consequences.

Conditional Sentence Type

Usage

Zero

General truths

Type 1

A possible condition and its probable result

Type 2

A hypothetical condition and its probable result

Type 3

An unreal past condition and its probable result in the past

Zero

Type -I

Type-II

Type-III

CHAPTER -6 THE RELATIVE CLAUSE Relative clauses are clauses starting with the relative pronouns who, that, which, whose, where, when. They are most often used to define or identify the noun that precedes them.

Defining Relative Clause: A relative clause which identifies the noun it qualifies is a defining relative clause. The removal of a defining relative clause will collapse the whole sentence as it is an integral part of the sentence. It is also called a restrictive / essential relative clause. E.g.: The woman who supplies milk is moving out.

Non Defining Relative Clause: This relative clause merely imparts information. The removal of a non-defining relative clause does not affect the structure of a sentence. E.g.: The elephant, which is largest of all land animals, is found in Asia and Africa.

CHAPTER -7 TYPES OF CONJUNCTIONS A conjunction is defined as a word or word class that connects words or constructions. Co-ordinating Conjunctions: Used to connect two sentences of equal rank 1. Cumulative Conjunction (and, also, both) 2. Alternative Conjunction (either…or, neither…nor) 3. Adversative Conjunction (still, yet, however, but) 4. Illative Conjunction(therefore, so, then) Subordinate Conjunctions: Used to connect one main idea to a dependent idea TIME (when, as soon as, before, after), PURPOSE (in order that, so that), CONDITION (if, unless, that), CONCESSION (though, although), REASON (because, since, as), MANNER (so far as, as if) COMPARISON (than, no less than), RESULT (so… that)...