ENGLISH

COMMUNICATIO
N
PARTS OF SPEECH

Part of Function
speech

Example
words

Example
sentences

Verb

(to) be, have, do,

like, work, sing,
can, must

Siti is a student.

pen, dog, work,

music, town,
London, teacher,
John

This is my dog.
He lives in my house.
We live in London.

action or state

Ali writes good story.

Noun

thing or person

Adjective

describes a noun a/an, the, 2,

some, good, big,
red, well,
interesting

I have two dogs. My

dogs are big.
I like big dogs.

Adverb

describes a verb, quickly, silently,

adjective or
well, badly, very,
adverb
really

My dog eats quickly.

When he is
very hungry, he
eats really quickly.

Pronoun

replaces a noun

Tara is Indian. She is

beautiful.

I, you, he, she,

some

Part of Function
speech

Example
words

Example
sentences

Preposition

links a noun to
another word

to, at, after, on,

but

We
went to school on Mond
ay.

Conjunction

joins clauses or
sentences or
words

and, but, when

I like dogs and I like

cats. I like
cats and dogs. I like
dogs but I don't like
cats.

Interjection

short
exclamation,
sometimes
inserted into a
sentence

oh!, ouch!, hi!,

well

Ouch! That hurts! Hi!

How are you? Well, I
don't know.

Words with More than One Job

Many words in English can have more than one job, or be more than
one part of speech. In fact, if you look in a good dictionary you will
see
that the word "but" has six jobs to do:
verb,
pronoun,
preposition and conjunction!
word noun, adverb,
part of speech
example
work

but

well

afternoon

noun

My work is easy.

verb

I work in London.

conjunction

John came but Mary didn't come.

preposition

Everyone came but Mary.

adjective

Are you well?

adverb

She speaks well.

interjection

Well! That's expensive!

noun

We ate in the afternoon.

noun acting as
adjective

We had afternoon tea.

Verb (What is a Verb?)

Verbs have different forms

English

verbs have many different

forms. For example, we can add s, -ed,
or ing to most verbs. You MUST use
the correct form, according to :
Present or past time
Singular or plural
Whether a question is being asked
The verb following another verb

Past Tenses and Present

Tenses
This

is a very important difference in

English. When we speak or write, we must
always think : are we talking about the past
or not?
If we are talking about the past, we use a
past tense verb

We played badminton yesterday. (played :

past tense form)
We often play badminton. (play : present
tense form)

Regular and irregular verbs

Most

verbs are regular. They all have the same

kind of past tense, ending ed . But a few verbs
have different past tenses without -ed , for
example drink (past tense drank). Sometimes
the past tense is the same as the present tense
(e.g cut, past tense cut). The are only about
100 of these irregular (=not regular) verbs, and
unfortunately most of them are very common.
There is no easy rule about irregular verbs. You
must learn them all by heart.

The name of the verb the

basic form

The Simple Past

Simple

past verbs consist of one word

only
For normal regular verbs, add ed to
the basic form. (In this tense, we do not
use s after he, she, etc)
Irregular verbs have special simple
past forms :e.g the past of speak is
spoke
Note : was and were are the simple
past of is and are.

When do we use the simple

past?
The

simple past is the normal tense for

past actions. Use simple past verbs if
you want to talk about a finished action
or situation, and have no reason to use
one of the other special past tenses.
Remember that we do not use the
simple past for things which are
generally true (in both past and present)
. For this, use the simple present.

Choose the correct form

simple present or simple past
It had been hot that day until the rain had fallen.
Maria (1.walks/walked)___into her cool new
house and (2.slumps/slumped)___into a large
chair. She (3.kicks/kicked)___off her shoes and
(4.drops/dropped)__her head into her hands.
Then she (5.hears/heard)__a cough. There
(6.is/was) __someone in the house!
(7.Is/was)__there someone there? she
asked. (8.Show/Showed)__yourself, whoever
you (are/were)___. Her only answer
(10.is/was)__dead silence.

Decide which parts of speech are the

underline words
1. You have to believe inyourselfif you ever
expect to be successful at something.
2. Weleftfor the mountain just before six in the
morning.
3. We first wenttothe store to buy a few things.
4. We had abreakfastat a caf near the rail
station.
5. My friend wasn't strong enough to lift
hisheavyrucksack.

6. I helped him carryit.

7. The weather wasverycold.
8. My friend said, "Oh! What a cold weather!"
9. We didn't spend the nightthere.
10. We got back home late at nightbutwe didn't
go to sleep immediately. We were very hungry.

NOUNS

Countable

Uncountable

Things we may count

Things we cannot count

dog, cat, animal, man,

person
bottle, box, litre
coin, note, dollar
cup, plate, fork
table, chair, suitcase, bag

music, art, love, happiness

advice, information, news
furniture, luggage
rice, sugar, butter, water
electricity, gas, power
money, currency

Countable Nouns
Singular or plural
My cat is playing.
My cats are playing.
can use the indefinite articlea/an
A cat is an animal.
She is a student.
When a countable noun is singular, we must use a word
likea/the/my/thiswith it:
I wantanorange. (notI want orange.)
Where ismybottle? (notWhere is bottle?)
When a countable noun is plural, we can use it alone:
I like oranges.
Bottles can break.

Uncountable Nouns
We usually treat uncountable nouns as singular. We use a
singular verb. For example:
Thisnewsisvery important.
Your luggagelooksheavy.
We do not usually use the indefinite articlea/anwith uncountable
nouns. We cannot say "an information" or "a music". But we can
saya something of:
a piece ofnews
a bottle ofwater
a grain ofrice
We can usesomeandanywith uncountable nouns:
I've gotsomemoney.
Have you gotanyrice?
We can usea littleandmuchwith uncountable nouns:
I've gota littlemoney.
I haven't gotmuchrice.

Countable

Uncountable

dollar

money

song

music

suitcase

luggage

table

furniture

battery

electricity

bottle

wine

report

information

tip

advice

journey

travel

job

work

view

scenery

Plurals for Countable

Nouns

1. For most countable nouns add an s

2.Nouns ending in ch, sh, s, ss, or x, add es.

autos, condos, kilos, memos, photos.

The following words have es instead :

a) crutch crutches (b) dish dishes

3. For most nouns ending in with a o, add s to form the

plural.

a) cake cakes (b) lamp lamps

Heroes, tomatoes, potatoes

Some words can take both s and es.

Mangos mangoes, mosquitos mosquitoes, volcanos volcanoes

 Sometimes

a word ends with a y.

Boy boys
Baby babies
Plural for baby is babies as the y changed to an i.
But this did not happen in the word boy/boys
If the letter before the last y is a, e, o, u just add
s. In the word boy, the last letter before y is o,
so we add s.
With other y words (e.g baby), change y to i and
add es.
Some other words end with the letter f or fe . In
most of these words, the f changes to a v in the
plural form.
Calf calves
Chief chiefs

 Some

nouns have a special ending, or change

their sound and spelling when they are in the
plural.

Phenomenon phenomena
Medium media
Stratum strata
Stimulus stimuli

Some

nouns do not change their form at all in

the plural

Aircraft
Deer
Moose
Grapefruit
species

Fish and Fruit

Plural

for fish?
Fishes just referring to different kinds of fish.
Flesh of fish is always fish, never fishes!
Fruit or fruits?
Depends on the meaning, if you are referring
to the types of fruit, or a lot of it, you can
either add an s or leave it out. If you put a
number in front of the word, you have to add
an s.
Think before you use it. .

ARTICLES A/AN/THE
There are two
articles : The definite
article : a or an
The indefinite article :
the

A / An
The

article a is used before countable nouns beginning with

consonant sounds, b, c, d, f , etc. Or in which the beginning h
is sounded : house , hatchet
The article an is used before countable nouns beginning with
the vowel sounds of a, e, i, o, u, when this u does not have
sound.

An umbrella, a university

If

a word begins with a silent h. it is considered as beginning

with o :

An honest, an hour

If

there are descriptive words before the nouns, then the

article is placed before the descriptive words and follows the
first letter of the first descriptive word

A big umbrella, an ugly picture,

An extraordinary clever child

When to use A/An

A/An

are used in a sentence to mean :

General reference to a single countable
noun (one);
Any
Species or kind.
Example

Meaning

I bought a can of Coke

General reference to a
single countable noun

Please get me a drink

Zappel is a drink, not an Any drink will do
animal.
A kind of/ a species of

Using a / an in expressions
Sometimes

we use a or an in
expressions that refer to more than one
thing.
A few, a number of, a large number of, a
little, a lot of, a great many, an
enormous amount of
Without a or an these expressions have
Example
Meaning
a different meaning.
A few people came
Few people came

A large/small number
came
Large numbers came

Some did come

Less than the expected
number came.
Many/some/few came.
Big crowds came.

THE
Using

THE with nouns.

The article the can be used before any
noun, If there is an adjective before the
noun, the comes before the adjective.
We use the with nouns :
1. when referring to specific things or
people :

The colour of chalk, the end end of her

thesis, the table over there by the door,
the people of Sarawak

. Referring to previously mentioned things :

There

is a mistake in your calculation. The mistake

isnt serious

3.

Before objects which there is only one:

The

Great Wall of China, the Monalisa, the Eiffel

Tower

4.

before top posts or positions

The

5.

Prime Minister, the President,

before comparatives:
He

is the taller of the two

Which is the better answer?
6.

Before superlatives
The

7.

best, the tallest, the most difficult

before ordinals
The

first child, the second day, the third person

. In certain expressions of time

9. when referring to public places and amenities (when the
listener/reader is aware of which one we are referring to
10. to turn adjectives into nouns when referring to categories
of people
11. After many of, none of, some of, and similar phrases
ending in of
12. With a singular noun, referring to an entire group
13, Brand/Company and business names
14. Transportation
15. Magazines
16. Names of radio, or TV Stations
17. Names of buildings and places in Malay
18. Languages
19. Games
20. When initials are pronounced as a word
21 When referring to initials of businesses

Pronouns
Personal

Pronouns

 Personal

pronouns have the following

characteristics:
1. three persons (points of view) 1st
person - the one(s) speaking (I,me
,my, mine, we us, our ,ours)
2nd person - the one(s) spoken to (you,
your, yours)
3rd person - the one(s) spoken about
(he, him,his, she, her, hers, it, its,
they, their, theirs)

 2.

three genders

feminine (she her hers)

masculine (he him his)
neuter (it its they them their theirs)

 3.

two numbers

singular (I me my mine you your

yours he him his she her hers it its)
plural (we us our ours you your yours
they them their theirs)

 4.

three cases

subjective (I you he she it we they)

possessive (my mine your yours his
her hers our ours their theirs)
objective (me you him her it us
them)