Year 7 Language Skills Program

Contents

Section 1 – Punctuation
 commas
 the comma splice
 colons
 semi-colons
 apostrophes

Section 2 – Word Classes

 nouns
 noun groups
 prepositions and prepositional phrases
 verbs
 types of verbs
 adverbs
 verb groups

Section 3 – Sentence Construction

 sentence types and clauses
 simple sentences
 embedded clauses
 compound sentences
 complex sentences
 subject-verb agreement
 active and passive
 subject and agent

Section 4 – Vocabulary and Spelling

 vowel rules
 prefixes and suffixes
 consonant rules
 the richness of English
 Latinate and Germanic pairs
 better alternatives ot common words
 slang and jargon

Section 5 – Assessment
 30 minute test 1
 30 minute test 2
 Section 1 – Punctuation

Pre-Quiz

1. How many different types of punctuation marks do you think there are?
List them.

2. Read the following passage and punctuate it correctly.

every time I go to my local supermarket which is a short drive away i buy

three things chocolate milk treats for my dog and half a kilogram of
almonds to which I am addicted my dogs favourite treats are biscuits that
taste like beef and shaped like stars its lucky that there always on special
because im not fond of buying things at full price

Commas

The following are some of the situations in which a comma should be used:

 To separate the elements in a list of three or more items.

The potion included gobstoppers, chewing gum, bran flakes and coleslaw.

 To separate introductory elements in a sentence.

Use a comma to separate introductory elements in a sentence from the

main part of that sentence.

Given the appalling weather conditions, Michael was lucky to survive the
storm.

As the night drew to a close, the party-goers wandered home.

If the introductory element of the sentence is very short, it is permissible

to omit the comma. If the introductory phrase is more than about three
words, the comma is recommended.

Shortly we will be leaving for the port.

After his nap Sam felt a lot better.

After a deliciously long nap in his hammock, Sam felt a lot better.

If a brief introductory phrase, however short, is likely to merge with the

rest of the sentence and confuse the reader, the comma is required.
 Inside the house was a total mess.

Inside, the house was a total mess.

 To separate parenthetical elements in a sentence.

A comma is used to set off parenthetical elements in a sentence. The

parenthetical element (also known as an aside) is part of the sentence
that can be removed without changing the essential meaning of the
sentence.

Sarah, the most intelligent pupil in the class, was always late for school.

The pyramids, one of the wonders of the ancient world, lie just outside
Cairo.

If you are using a comma to do this, it is important that the aside is

opened and closed with a comma. A common mistake is to omit the
second comma.

***Jill, his wife was a high flyer in the city.

Jill, his wife, was a high flyer in the city.

 To separate direct speech or quoted elements from the rest of the

sentence.

Commas are used to separate direct speech or quoted elements from the
rest of a sentence. Use a comma to separate the quoted material from the
rest of the sentence.

"That house there," he whispered, "is where I grew up."

"Give me the money," he snarled, "unless you want to meet your maker."

Note that a comma is not always needed in direct speech if another

punctuation mark serves to separate the quoted element from the rest of
the sentence. Look at the following example:

"Give me the money!" he snarled.

 Commas are used to separate several adjectives.

The old, ramshackle, dilapidated house had a charm of its own.

That rather dull-looking, badly-dressed, clumsy man is actually a university

professor.
  Commas are used to separate elements in a sentence that express
contrast.

He was first attracted by her money, not her stunning looks.

She is intelligent, not pretty.

He thought the building was enormous, but ugly.

Exercise: Insert commas where appropriate

1. After a hard day at the office I like to relax with a large gin.

2. The recipe needed jam flour sugar fruit eggs ketchup and baking powder.

3. "Look at this" he whispered.

4. Paulina his wife of many years had decided to go and live in Greece.

5. As the sun began to sink over the sea Karen got ready to go out.

6. She was intelligent not especially practical.

7. The thief was wearing impractical high heels so she could not run fast.

8. We go to Blackpool for the cuisine not the weather.

9. "I advise you" said the teacher "not to cross me again today."

10. Steven his head still spinning walked out of the office for the last time.

The comma splice

One of the main errors students make with commas is the comma splice. This is
when a comma is used to separate two clauses that make sense on their own and
could be separate sentences on their own.

***Tim is a nice guy, he’s never mean to anyone.

In the above example, ‘Tim is a nice guy’ and ‘He’s never mean to anyone’
could both be sentences by themselves. Therefore, it’s wrong to split them
with a comma. Here are some more examples:

***I went to the movies today, I’ll go to the amusement park tomorrow.
 ***There are three things on the menu for entrée, they all have seafood in
them.

There are three things you can do to correct a comma splice.

 Rewrite as separate sentences with a full stop.

 Use a semi-colon if the two clauses are close enough in meaning.

 Use a contraction (and, but, or, therefore, because, etc)

So our example above could correctly be written as:

I went to the movies today and I’ll go to the amusement park tomorrow.

I went to the movies today; I’ll go to the amusement park tomorrow.

I went to the movies today. I’ll go to the amusement park tomorrow.

Exercises: Identify the splice commas and rewrite the sentences to correct
the error.

1. Mangoes are a summer fruit, apples are a winter fruit.

2. The first restaurant was expensive, which suited me but not my friends.

3. There are eleven players on a cricket team, there are fifteen on a rugby
team.

4. Dogs obey commands very well, cats just want to be fussed over.

5. My hometown, the tiny settlement of Menindee, was flooded twice in the

last decade.

6. Fifteen brave men, who were all ex-Army, pulled old ladies from the
floodwaters, they were given awards for bravery.

Colons (:)

These are avoided by some people because they aren’t sure how to use them, but
if you can use them well you can impress your teachers and people who read
your writing. This is when they can be used.

 To introduce an idea

You are left with only one option: study hard and pass your exams.
 There is one thing you need to know about coleslaw: it looks and tastes like
slurry.

In the above examples you have some idea of what will come after the
colon. It is important to note that the clause that comes before the colon
can stand alone and make complete sense on its own.

If the initial clause cannot stand alone and make complete sense, you
should not use a colon.

 To introduce a list

The second main use of the colon is to introduce a list. You need to take
care; many people assume that a colon always precedes a list. This is not
the case. Again it is important to remember that the clause that precedes
the colon must make complete sense on its own.

The potion contained some exotic ingredients: snails' eyes, bats' tongues
and garlic.

***The magic potion contained: sesame seeds, bran flakes and coleslaw.

 To introduce quoted material.

The colon has other uses: it can also be used after a clause introducing
quoted material.

The director often used her favourite quotation from Monty Python: 'I
wasn't expecting the Spanish Inquisition.'

Semi-colons (;)

I often see this used incorrectly to introduce a list instead of a colon. Here are the
situations in which it is properly used.

 In complicated lists.

The semicolon can be used to sort out a complicated list containing many
items, many of which themselves contain commas.

In the meeting today we have Professor Wilson, University of Barnsley; Dr

Watson, University of Barrow in Furness; Colonel Custard, Metropolitan
Police and Dr Mable Syrup, Genius General, University of Otago, New Zealand.

 Separating closely-related independent clauses.

Terry always slept with the light on; he was afraid of the dark.
 The two clauses here are closely connected but the link has not been
made explicit. They could have been separated by a full stop.

Terry always slept with the light on. He was afraid of the dark.

They could have been connected by a conjunction.

Terry always slept with the light on because he was afraid of the dark.

Terry always slept with the light on, as he was afraid of the dark.

Exercises: Insert a colon or semi-colon as appropriate. If you need to add

other punctuation, do so.

1. I love a hearty dinner roast meat potatoes carrots and peas

2. He has only one choice left start behaving himself at school

3. The punch constrained lemonade tinned fruit and green food colouring

4. I don’t eat chicken I prefer fish

5. My nanna keeps procrastinating about calling a painter hers wall look

neglected.

6. I want to buy meaty bones for my dog who digs holes all day at least when
he isn’t sleeping carrots peas and corn for my soup a cake for my friends
Bill Joe and Sue and three bars of chocolate dark milk and white

Apostrophes

There are essentially two types of apostrophe:

 Apostrophe of contraction

One use of the apostrophe is in contracted words. The apostrophe is used to

indicate that a letter or letters has/have been removed. If you follow this rule
then it will avoid confusion about where the apostrophe should be.

He is = he's

I am = I'm

Do not = Don't
 They have = They've

It is = It's

Tom is = Tom’s

 Apostrophe of possession

A second and trickier use of the apostrophe is to show possession. If the

possessor is a singular noun, an -'s is added to the end of the noun. This is
true for both proper nouns (people and places beginning with a capital letter)
and common nouns (other nouns). Here are some examples of the
apostrophe at work showing possession:

He found himself lost in Madrid's winding streets.

I cannot understand Tim's point of view.

The building's foundations were very unstable.

The poet's work was highly regarded around the world.

If the possessor is a plural noun ending in s, simply adding an apostrophe after

the final s indicates possession.

The teacher was always losing her pupils' books.

The monks' meals were served in a cold and damp dining room.

I can never understand the politicians' obsession with spin.

The most common mistake is inserting an apostrophe in any word that ends with
s, even when it’s not needed.

***He bought apple’s, pear’s and banana’s.

This is sometimes called the greengrocer’s apostrophe. Can you figure out why?

Exercises: In each question, only one of the sentences has all the
apostrophes correctly placed. Click next to the correct sentence.

1.

a. Bristol's harbour is one of the countrys most beautiful.

 b. Bristols harbour is one of the country's most beautiful.
c. Bristol's harbour is one of the country's most beautiful.
d. Bristols' harbour is one of the countrys' most beautiful.

2.

a. The two boy's bags were lying at the river's edge.

b. The two boys bag's were lying at the rivers' edge.
c. The two boys' bags were lying at the river's edge.
d. The two boys' bags' were lying at the rivers edge.

3.

a. My parent's flat is in one of the city's finest areas.

b. My parents' flat is in one of the citys finest areas'.
c. My parents' flat is in one of the citys' finest areas.
d. My parents' flat is in one of the city's finest areas.

4.

a. The world's experts were quick to praise the two girls' courage.
b. The world's experts were quick to praise the two girl's courage.
c. The worlds expert's were quick to praise the two girls' courage.
d. The worlds' experts were quick to praise the two girls' courage.

5.

a. Steve's mothers house is right next to his only sister's flat.

b. Steves mother's house is right next to his only sister's flat.
c. Steve's mothers' house is right next to his only sisters' flat.
d. Steve's mother's house is right next to his only sister's flat.

Section 2 – Word Classes

Pre-Quiz

1. Nouns are one class of words. How many others can you list?

2. Look at the following sentence and identify as many different word

classes you can in it.
 The three white iPhones were sold by Mr Jones on Saturday.

3. What is interesting about the word surprise in these two sentences?

I will surprise him on his birthday.

Winning the lottery was a wonderful surprise.

Nouns

These are easy. Here are the different types:

 Abstract.

These are ‘thing’ but not things you cannot perceive through the five
senses. Abstract nouns include ideas, emotions, feelings and concepts.
Trust, happiness, ingratitude and mathematics are examples.

 Concrete

These are real, tangible things. Chairs, bananas, oceans and galaxies are some
examples.

 Proper

These are things we give titles to, including names. Examples are Mr Smith,
Tom, New Zealand, the Milky Way. They are generally capitalised.

Noun Groups

One of the great things about English, and indeed languages generally, is how
nouns can be ‘built up’ to become more detailed and more specifics. Consider this
progression:

Trees

These trees

These three trees

These three tall trees

These three tall jacaranda trees

These three tall jacaranda tress near the road

These three tall jacaranda trees near the road that shed leaves in autumn
You can see how the italicised part adds further meaning each time. The
important thing to realise that each of the above lines just refers to one thing – a
single noun group. If we break down the above examples we can look at what
can make up a noun group.

trees – the head noun; each noun group needs one

these – this is a deictic, which is a pointing word – it tells us which trees

three – a numerative – tells us how many

tall – a descriptive – describes the noun

jacaranda – a classifier – tells us what type

near the road – a prepositional phrase – tells us something about location or

position

that shed leaves in autumn – a relative clause – tells us what the noun does

Exercise: modify these nouns with the class of word given

 Giraffe (prepositional phrase)

 Lemon (classifier)

 Happiness (descriptive)

 Mrs Croft (deictic)

 Jeremy (relative clause)

Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases

In the above example we saw that a prepositional phrase can be part of a noun
group. A prepositional phrase generally tells about the location of something.
Here are some other examples:

 under the bench

 over the hills

 around here

 between jobs
In each of the above, the first word of the phrase is a preposition.

Exercise: List five other prepositions and put them into prepositional
phrases

It is important to know that some prepositional phrases are part of noun groups
and some aren’t. ‘The student in the classroom’ is an example of a prepositional
phrase inside a noun group, but ‘The student was in the classroom’ isn’t; it just
tells us where they were.

Exercise: Circle the sentences where the prepositional phrase is used

inside a noun group.

 The fish in the bowl swim all day long.

 The fish swim around the bowl.

 The tree by the lake is good for climbing.

 The tree was climbed by Jeremy.

Verbs

Most people know from school that verbs are ‘doing words’, but this doesn’t
really capture some of the different functions of verbs in English. For example,
what would you say are the verbs in the following examples?

 Parakeets are my favourite bird.

 There is an elephant in the room.

 She wasn’t here.

 I am six feet tall.

The correct answers are ‘are’, ‘is’ and ‘wasn’t’, and ‘am’ but they’re not really
what you’d call ‘doing words’, are they?

Types of verbs

To understand how diverse verbs are, we need to look at various categories of

them.

 Action verbs.
 There are perhaps the verbs most people think of when they’re asked
what a verb is. They refer to physical activity. Circle all the action verbs in
this passage.

First, put some soil in the pot. Then, place the plant in the centre. Compact
the soil slightly before watering the new plant. Fertilise every four to six
weeks.

 Saying verbs

Another type of verb are the saying verbs, which include ‘said’ and all the
better alternatives – scream, plead, whisper, moan, explain, etc.

 Mental verbs

There refer to mental processes like thinking and feeling. Here are some
examples: know, decide, believe, enjoy, notice, sense, see.
 Relating verbs

There verbs don’t refer to actions, speaking or mental processes, but just
link two bits of information together. To make this clear, here are some
examples:

Jeremy was my best friend.

Here, the relating verb ‘is’ links two bits of information, ‘Jeremy’ and ‘my
best friend’, to show us that these two things are actually the same thing.

I have a new car.

In this example, the relating verb ‘have’ links ‘I’ and ‘a new car’, to show
that one of these htings possesses the other thing; it is a relationship
between them. There is no action or thought involved.

Here’s a few other examples:

The sky became darker.

She seems happy.

My class includes eighteen boys.

 Existing verbs

The last category is in a way the most simple. These verbs just mean that
something exists.

There was an old house.

 There is a hole in my jeans.

There are no good shows on TV.

As you can see, these verns are often introduced by ‘there.’

Exercise: In this passage, categories all the verbs as action, saying, mental,
relating or existing.

It was a lovely day. There were floating toys in the pool and everyone
laughed and gossiped with joy. I sat alone and wished life was always like
this. My little sister strolled over. ‘I’ll race you to the deep end’, she shrieked.
I leaped up immediately. The water was as warm as I thought it was. Thirty
seconds later we were catching our breath, wondering who has actually
touched the wall first.

Adverbs

Adverb can add to the meaning of a verb, y giving it more detail. Many adverbs
end with –ly, but not all. Here are some example adverbs:

 I ate horridly
 He ran fast
 She humiliated me needlessly
 Tom dropped the ball clumsily.

As you can see, the adverb does not need to be right next to the verb it refers to.

Exercise: insert at least three adverbs into this passage to make it a more
descriptive piece of writing.

Last year my football team won the premiership. We lost our first three
games of the season, but then our goalkeeper returned from injury. In his
first game, he stopped five shots on goal and scored a penalty five minutes
from full time. In the semi final we opposed Grammarians FC, and beat them
3-0. On the day of the grand final, I ate my breakfast and ran to the ground.
My teammates we playing! The game started at eight o’clock, not eight-
thirty as I thought. I replaced our main striker during the second half. Who
do you think scored the winning goal?

Verb Groups

Just like noun groups, verb groups are group of words that build up the meaning
of a simple verb. A verb group can just be a single word (which will be a verb):

The soldier shot above their heads.

Or it can be a number of words:

 I will not go to the beach today.

There are a few different ways how we can get multi-word verb groups. Here is
an overview:

 Negatives

Negatives occur when we want the opposite meaning to the simple verb.

I thought about her last night.

I did not think about her last night.

Tom loves the beach.

Tom doesn’t love the beach

You’ll notice here that as well as the negative word (not), there is another
word (did, does). These are called auxiliary verbs, which means that they
help the main verb.

 Time and tense

Consider the following, which all use the same main (base) verb:

I read.

I am reading.

I have read.

I was reading.

I will read.

I will have read.

I have been reading.

I will have been reading.

As you can see, there different forms all have something to do with when
the action (reading) is taking place.

Exercise: using the above example as a guide, fill in the table below, giving
the equivalent verb groups for the verbs ‘go’ and ‘walk’.
 I read.

I am reading.
I am going

I have read.

I was reading.

I will read.
I will walk

I will have read.

I have been
reading.

I will have been

reading.

What did you notice about how the verbs themselves change?

 Modality

Modality is another way that verbs build up meaning to become verb groups.
Modal verbs are words that we add to ordinary verbs to express an idea
about how likely something is, or how much we should do something. Some
examples will make this clearer.

Modal Verb Base Verb

Can write
Should go
Might attend
Must consider

Of course, we can add negatives into these groups as well:

Cannot write

Mightn’t attend
 Must not consider

And we can add tense and time aspects:

Must not have considered

 Phrasal Verbs

Finally, some English verbs are multi-worded even in their simplest form.
These are called phrasal verbs. They usually are made up of a main verb and
one or two prepositions:

Wake up

Put up with

Turn up

Give in

Many, perhaps all, of these phrasal verbs have a one word equivalent.

Exercise: what are the one-word equivalents of the phrasal verbs above?

An interesting thing about phrasal verbs is how they can use one base verb
but change the meaning depending on the preposition:

Come in

Come up

Come down

Come by

Come apart

Exercise: How many phrasal verbs can you make from ‘go…’?

Section 3 – Sentence Construction

Pre-Quiz
 1. How would you define a sentence? What does it need to have and what is
optional?

2. What do you think is the shortest grammatically correct sentence in

English?

3. Look at the following three sentences and try to identify what is different
about their construction (not what they are about!)

The dog bit the cat.

The dog bit the cat and the man shouted at the dog.

The dog bit the cat because the cat was teasing it.

Sentence Types and Clauses

We can identify three types of sentence in English. They are:

 Simple

 Compound

 Complex

Before we can understand what there are, we need to understand a feature of

English language called the clause.

A clause is a group of words where something is said about someone or

something. Once again, some examples make this clear:

 The soup burnt my mouth.

Here, there is a thing – the soup, and there is also something said about it
– it burnt my mouth. ‘The soup’ by itself is not a clause, because it is only a
thing with nothing said about it. ‘Burnt my mouth’ by itself isn’t a clause
either, because something is said about something, but we don’t know
what that something is.

 France is known for its excellent food and wine.

Here there is a person or thing referred to – France, and something is said

about it – that it is known for its excellent food and wine.

 because he went to the park

 This is a clause, even though it isn’t a sentence by itself. There is
something or someone which is being referred to – ‘he’, and something is
being said about it – ‘went to the park’.

Here are some groups of words that aren’t clauses. Look at them and work out
why they aren’t clauses.

 The tall, good looking man at the back of the room

 Between Wollongong and North Wollongong stations

 Have been to the Gold Coast in the past

Now that we have an idea about what a clause it and what it isn’t, we can
consider sentences. Sentences in English are made up of one or more clauses.

Simple Sentence

In a simple sentence, there is just one clause. These sentences are often fairly
short and easy to understand. They are the sorts of sentences you find in picture
books aimed at small children who are learning to read. Here are some examples:

 The cat sat on the mat

 James and I ate lunch together.

 English is almost as interesting as maths.

In each of these, there is one thing involved, and we find out something about it.
You will also notice that in the above two simple sentences there is just one verb
– ‘sat, ‘ate’ and ‘is’. This could also be a single verb group.

Embedded Clauses

But here are some other examples of simple sentences:

 Doing maths is my favourite thing.

 I like that dish we had yesterday for lunch.

When you look at these, you’ll notice they each have two verbs: ‘doing’ and ‘is’ in
the first sentence and ‘like’ and ‘had’ in the second. But they are still simple
sentences. Let’s look at the closely:

 [Doing maths] is my favourite thing.

Remember how a clause refers to something or someone and says something

about it? In this case, the something is ‘doing maths’, which is an activity; and the
thing which is said about it is ‘is my favourite thing’. Really, this sentence is as
simple as saying ‘It is my favourite thing’, which is clearly a simple sentence. The
part in the square brackets above is called an embedded clause. It makes no
sense by itself and is just part of something else – in this case, a single clause and
a simple sentence.

 I like that dish [we had yesterday for lunch].

Here we have something different. The bit in the square brackets is an embedded
clause and is part of a noun phrase. This sentence is simple; it’s as simple, in fact,
as saying ‘I like that tasty dish’.

This idea of embedded clauses is a tricky one, probably the trickiest part of this
language skills course. To help you, here are some examples of simple sentences
with and without embedded clauses. Where there is an embedded clause it is in
square brackets. The main verb in the sentence, which is the non-embedded one,
is on bold.

 Australia is a dry country.

 The country [we live in] is a dry one.

 All I want is [to sleep in until 11].

 This morning I slept until 11.

 I know [that sleeping in is a waste].

 Shakespeare was a writer [who is considered the greatest of all time].

 I enjoy Shakespearian plays.

Exercise: there are six sentences below. They are all simple sentences, but
three have embedded clauses. Identify there and show the main verb and
the embedded clause.

 Chicken salad is sold on Saturdays.

 The reason I got a chicken salad was hunger!

 My aim is to eat free range chicken only.

 I eat free range chicken only.

 English so damn hard!

 I study English so hard that I fall asleep on the bus.

Compound Sentences

The next type of sentence is the compound sentence. A compound sentence is

basically two or more simple sentences joined together with conjunctions like
‘and’, ‘or’ and ‘but’. This means that there will be two or more clauses. The
important thing with compound sentences is all the clauses in it would make
perfect sense if they were on their own. This means that they are both
independent caluses. Here are some examples of compound sentences:

 Little Timmy climbed into bed and he fell fast asleep.

 I like to go to the beach and I’m a good surfer

 Either I’ll go to Smith’s Hill or to my local high school.

It’s easy to see how the first two examples are compound sentences, because
both parts would be fine as sentences by themselves. The third one is a little
trickier. ‘I’ll go to Smith’s Hill’ is a good sentence’, but ‘to my local high school’
doesn’t seem to be a good one at all. The reason for this is that in English we
often leave words out when we know what they are. So, when you think about it,
what this sentence really means is:

 Either I’ll go to Smith’s Hill or I’ll go to my local high school.

When we see it like that, we clearly see it’s a compound sentence with two
clauses that could be by themselves.

Complex Sentences

Complex sentences are more sophisticated than simple or compound sentences.

In a complex sentences, there are at least two clauses, but one of them cannot
stand by itself. Its job is to help the other clause/s in the sentence. Consider this:

 I get grumpy if I don’t get nine hours’ sleep.

‘If I don’t get none hours’ sleep’ isn’t something that makes sense by itself. For it
to have any meaning, we need to connect it to the main part of the sentence ‘I get
grumpy.’ This main idea is the independent clause and the other clause is the
dependent clause.

I get grumpy Independent Clause

if I don’t get nine hours’ sleep. Dependent Clause

Here’s another:

 They swam as if they were being chased by sharks.

‘They swam’ could be a sentence by itself. It’s the independent clause.

They swam Independent Clause

as if they were being chased by sharks Dependent Clause

And some more:

 Although I hate asparagus, I like vegetables generally.

 Because I woke up early, I got to school much earlier than usual.

 Walking in the park, I saw an old friend from years ago.

These are interesting because they show us that the dependent clause can come
before the dependent clause.

Although I hate asparagus Dependent Clause

I like vegetables generally Independent Clause

Because I woke up early Dependent Clause

I got to school much earlier than usual Independent Clause

Walking in the park Dependent Clause

I saw an old friend from years ago Independent Clause

Exercise: Some of these are compound sentences and some of these are
complex sentences. Sort them into two groups.

 I know him well and I don’t think he would lie.

 Instead of making me happy, Christmas makes me think of sad things.

 Chocolate is nice but ice cream is better on a hot day.

 I’ll buy an iPod or visit my friend in Victoria.

 As we drove on, I started feeling more and more carsick.

 Since you keep coming to work late, you’re fired!

 Whenever I eat too much chocolate, I get pimples.

  I complain it’s hot in summer but I complain it’s cold in winter.

 I got all my homework done by staying up until 2 a.m.

 You’ll have to sit here until your mother comes to collect you.

Subject-Verb Agreement

Look at the following:

 I am happy
 He is happy
 They are happy

 I was missing.
 She was missing.
 The pies were missing.

 I seem to know what I’m doing.

 You seem to know too.
 He never seems to know.

 An apple was eaten.

 Two apples were eaten.
 Many apples were eaten.

In these examples, you can see how the form of the verb changes depending on
the subject (who is doing the action), including whether the subject is singular or
plural. ‘Am’, ‘is’ and ‘are’ have precisely the same meaning, and so do ‘was’ and
‘were’, but their form changes depending on the subject. Ensuring that you use
the correct form of the verb for the subject is called subject-verb agreement, or
sometimes just agreement.

Exercise: Subject-verb agreement is something we just understand when

we can speak a language. These examples all have incorrect subject-verb
agreement. Correct them all.

 Everyone on the jury have to give up a lot of time.

 Many of the crops has failed due to drought this year.

 Three men am going to collect the Christmas tree.

There are some tricky circumstances where deciding on the correct form of the
verb can be harder.
  Neither Jeremy nor I am going to that party.

This would be ‘Jeremy is…’ or ‘I am…’. In this case, you take the noun
closet to the verb, which is ‘I’.

 Half the grapes, as well as a whole cake, were eaten before I got here.

This would be ‘a whole cake was’, but this is an interrupting or

parenthetical element (see section on commas above) and is ignored.

 My pants are on the bed.

‘Pants’ is just a single item like ‘hat’, but we treat it like a plural like ‘hats’.

 Forty percent of the students were successful in passing the course.

 Forty percent of the forest was destroyed by fire.

Even though it’s forty percent in both cases, whether it’s singular or plural
depends on the rest of the noun phrase making up the subject.

Exercise: Insert the correct form of the verb for agreement:

 The scissors ____________ found to be the murder weapon.

 One-third of the strawberries ____________ rotten.

 One-third of the population ____________ born overseas.

 The master criminal, along with all his associates, ____________ incarcerated.

 James and you _____________ being considered for the top job.

Active and Passive

By now you’ve probably gotten some idea of how tricky and complex putting
words together in English to make sentences is. This is the last bit in this section;
it’s about something called voice. There are two types of voice in English, active
and passive.

Consider these two sentences:

 Tom ate the apple. (active)

 The apple was eaten by Tom. (passive)

The meaning of these two sentences is precisely the same. In both sentences:
  Tom person or thing referred to

 Eating the apple is the thing said about him

 They are both past tense

In English, the active is the usual way of expressing sentences. Some sentences
can’t be expressed in passive voice:

 The man decided to read more books.

 ***More books were decided to be read by the man.

Even though the meaning is the same with active and passive sentences, the
different ways of saying or writing them allow us to emphasise things differently.
Another example will make this clear:

 Robbers broke into the unsecured house. (active)

 The unsecured house was broken into by robbers. (passive)

Once again, the actual meaning is exactly the same, but there is a change in
emphasis. What do you think is the effect of changing the active into passive
here?

Subject and Agent

We have already discussed what the subject of a clause is: it’s the person or thing
that something is being said about. Let’s look at the two sentences above again.

 Robbers broke into the unsecured house. (active)

 The unsecured house was broken into by robbers. (passive)

The subject of each sentence is highlighted in bold. In the active sentence, the
robbers are being talked about, and the thing about them that they broke into the
unsecured house. In the passive sentence, the unsecured house is thine thing
being talked about, and the thing about it was it was broken into by robbers.

However, this is strange in a way. The unsecured house never really does
anything; it just has something happen to it. For this reason, English has another
label to refer to the thing in a sentence that actually does something: the ‘agent’.

 Robbers (subject and agent) broke into the unsecured house.

 The unsecured house (subject) was broken into by robbers (agent).

As you can see, a passive sentence happens when the subject and the agent are
different.

Exercise: These are all passive sentences. Label the subject and the agent,
which will be different in each case.

 The surf club building has been freshly pained by a team of volunteers.

 The maximum ATAR was scored by one of our students last year.

 The police are about to be called by a concerned resident!

The Agentless Passive

An interesting feature of the passive is that the agent can be taken away and the
sentence will still be grammatically correct.

 The unsecured house was broken into by robbers. (passive)

 The unsecured house was broken into. (agentless passive)

What is the effect of such a change?

Exercise: Rewrite all the agentless passive sentences so that they have an
agent.

 Two escaped criminal were caught last night in the Mall.

 The pasta was served at eight o’clock.

 The company was established in 1994.

 The crops were harvested in record time.

Section 4 – Vocabulary and Spelling

English spelling isn’t easy. In languages like Italian and Spanish, spelling is quite
predictable, so that one letter makes the same sound in virtually all words.
English isn’t so and the reasons are complicated.

There are some spelling rules for English we can follow, but there are exceptions
to these rules. Nevertheless, knowing these rules will help you to be a much
better speller than if you don’t know them. In the end though, to be a great
speller you just need to remember how words are spelled – easier said than
done, I know.
Vowel Rules

Vowels can be divided into two sorts: long and short. It’s a rough distinction.
Pronounce the words in the following table and you’ll start to see (or hear) the
difference.

Short Long
cat Kate
sit site
bat bait
bet beet
sock south

The first thing you might notice here is that short vowel sound need one vowel to
spell them, but long vowel sounds generally need two. However, the second
vowel doesn’t need to be next to the first vowel, as examples like ‘Kate’ and ‘site’
show. With these, the final ‘e’ changes the first vowel sound from short to long.

How close does the second vowel have to be? Look at these ones:

 Din Dine Dinner

 Fat Fate Fatter

 Bit Bite Biting

 Fit Site Sitting

What does this tell us?

Exercise: Complete this rule: A second vowel can create a long vowel sound
if…

‘i’ before ‘e’

Many people have heard the rule ‘i before e except after c’. Knowing this means
were can spell words like:

 brief    
 ceiling   
 perceive    
 thief    
 field    
 deceive   
 achieve    
 receipt       
 conceited    
  relief
 chief   
 diesel   
 receive

So far, so good. But now we start with the exceptions. When the sound is ‘shen’,
then it’s ‘i before e’ even after c:

 ancient
 efficient
 sufficient
 conscience

And here’s another exception: when the sound is like the sound in ‘weigh’, then
it’s ‘e before i’ even when there’s no c involved:

 neighbour
 weigh
 vein
 reign

Now, if you can remember all that, you should be able to get it right 95% of the
time. Unfortunately, there are a few more exceptions that don’t follow the rules,
which just have to memorised:

 counterfeit
 either
 neither
 height
 leisure
 forfeit
 foreign
 science
 species
 seize
 weird
The ‘i before e’ rule is one of the best known in English. But even this good rule is
quite complex and has exceptions. It just shows what a difficult spelling system
English has.

Prefixes and Suffixes

There are some interesting spelling rules in English that concern word endings.
First of all, we need to understand what prefixes and suffixes are.
English has a system where simple words can be built up by adding letters at the
beginning (called a prefix) and letters at the end (called a suffix). Consider these
examples:

 determine
 predetermine
 determining

 invite
 uninvite
 invited
 uninvited

There are some rules about what happens to spelling when we change words
with prefixes and suffixes, especially the latter.

‘y’ becomes ‘i’

When a word that end in ‘y’ and has a consonant before the ‘y’, the ‘y’ changes to
an ‘I’ before a new suffix is added:

 puppy  puppies
 fury  furious
 marry  marriage
 mystify  mystified

There’s couple of exceptions:

 dry  dryness
 shy shyness

However, if you’re adding ‘ing’, then keep the ‘y’:

 try  trying
 study  studying

And, when there is a vowel before the ‘y’, keep the ‘y’ even if the suffix isn’t ‘ing’.

 employ  employer
 convery  conveys

Dropping the ‘e’

Often a word that end with an ‘e’ loses that ‘e’ when a suffix is added. here are
the specific rules:

 Drop the final ‘e’ when the suffix is ‘ing’ or starts with another vowel:
 save  savable

trace  tracing

emerge  emerging

 Drop the final ‘e’ when the word ends with ‘dge’:

judge  judgement

 Don’t drop the ‘e’ if the word ends with ‘ce or ‘ge’:

manage manageable

trace  traceable

No rules apply

Some words just drop a letter when adding a suffix, and there’s no rule to cover
it.

 argue  argument

 proceed  procedure

 humour  humorous

 disaster  disastrous

 repeat  repetition

 administer  administration

The schwa and its spelling

The English sound and system has a sound in it called the schwa. It’s pronounced
like the ‘uh’ in ‘uh-oh’, the last syllable in ‘sofa’ or the first syllable in ‘about’. It’s a
sound that appears in many English words as we speak then naturally.
Unfortunately, we spell it in different ways in different words. For example, look
at the second last syllable in each of these words:

Schwa ‘i’ spelling Schwa ‘a’ spelling

negligible admirable
incredible preventable
invisible suitable
sensible dependable
Here’s another illustration. Look at the last syllable:

Schwa ‘a’ spelling Schwa ‘e’ spelling

attendance sentence
ignorance difference
nuisance independence
importance intelligence

There’s no rule covering this. They just have to be memorised!

Exercise: After you have worked through this section and had some
revision time, your teacher will give you a 20 word spelling test on words
that have been discussed in the above sections.

Consonant Rules

Dealing with consonant is a bit easier in English, mainly because there is a closer
connection between sounds and latter than there is with vowels.

Doubling the ‘t’

When a verb ends in ‘t’ and we are adding a suffix, there is a fairly reliable rule
that tells us whether or not we double the ‘t’.

 Double the ‘t’ if the rod has one syllable with a single vowel/short vowel
sound:

rot  rotting

knot  knotting

 Double the ‘t’ sound for words with more than one syllable where stress*
falls on the last syllable:
commit  committing

forget  forgetting

*The stressed syllable is the syllable we say with the most force; e.g.
super, candle, regret, parking, fantastic.

 But don’t double the ‘t’ for one syllable words that have a double/long
vowel sound:

treat  treated
 greet  greeted

Doubling the ‘r’

 This is a similar rule to the above one. When a vern ends with ‘r’ and there
is a noun before the ‘r’, double the ‘’ bfore adding the suffix:

star  starring

scar  scarring

 But where the single syllable word has an ‘r’ which is preceeded by a
double/long vowel, don’t double it:

fear  fearing

tear  tearing

 In words with more than one syllable, the ‘r’ is generally doubled:

concur  concurring

defer  deferring

prefer  preferred

refer  referred, referring, referral

 But not where the first syllable in the word is stressed:

prosper  prospering

Exercise: Using the ‘t’ and ‘r’ rules, correctly add ‘ing’ to these verbs:

 scar

 emit

 deter

 occur

 fit

Doubling the l’
This is quite easy: double the ‘l’ when it is preceded by a single vowel, but not
when it is preceded by a double/long vowel:

 cancel  cancelled
 level  levelled
 travel  travelling

But:

 conceal  concealing
 reveal  Revealed

Silent Letters

There’s a lot of words in English which have silent letters, which are letters
which are in the spelling of the word but which aren’t pronounced. For example:

 island
 subtle
 knowledge

Exercise: Write down five other words that have silent letters.

Common spelling mistakes

This is a list of 100 of the most commonly misspelled words in English. Note that
these use British/Australian spellings, which is a topic we haven’t looked at here.

acceptable, accidentally, accommodate, acquire, acquit, amateur, apparent,

argument, atheist, believe, bellwether, calendar, category, cemetery,
changeable, collectible, colonel, column, committed, conscience,
conscientious, conscious, consensus, daiquiri, definite, definitely, discipline,
drunkenness, dumbbell, embarrass, embarrassment, equipment, exceed,
exhilarate, existence, experience, fiery, foreign, gauge, grateful, guarantee,
harass, height, hierarchy, humorous, ignorance, immediate, independent,
indispensable, inoculate, intelligence, its, it's, jewellery, judgment, kernel,
leisure, liaison, library, license, lightning, maintenance, manoeuvre,
medieval, memento, millennium, miniature, minuscule, mischievous,
misspell, neighbour, noticeable, occasionally, occurrence, pastime,
perseverance, personnel, playwright, possession, precede, principal,
principle, privilege, pronunciation, publicly, questionnaire, receipt, receive,
recommend, refer, reference, relevant, restaurant, rhyme, rhythm, schedule,
separate, sergeant, supersede, their, there, they, threshold, twelfth, tyranny,
until, vacuum, weather, weird.
Exercise: Look through this list of 100 words. Pick 15 that you think are
tricky and circle them. Give your list to a partner and ask him or her to test
you, and then do the same for them.

The Richness of English

Here’s an interesting fact: English has about 500,000 words (this is the number
in the largest dictionaries) and the average person can understand 10,000-
20,000 of them, but most of us use only about 2,000 in everyday speech and
writing. To help us understand how there are so many words in English, let’s
consider the number of words that mean something very similar to the word
‘explain’:

define, expound, justify, account for, demonstrate, get across, portray, spell
out, illuminate, elaborate, brief, clarify, elucidate, illustrate, construe,
explicate, interpret…

Probably no other language has this richness of vocabulary. It’s not true that all
these words have the same meaning, but it’s clear that their meanings are
related.

Exercise: Here’s a long list of words. Sort them out into words that mean
roughly the same as ‘idea’ and words that mean roughly the same as
‘decide’:

belief, pick, elect, view, intention, choose, opt for, resolve, strategy,
understanding, notion, settle on, determine, project, blueprint, go for,
objective

As you can see, English gives us a lot of synonyms to choose from when we are
writing. It’s important that you use the resources of English, instead of using the
same words repetitively.

Exercise: Pick an event to write about. Write one paragraph about it in very
simple language (maximum of two syllables per word) and then write
about it again using more sophisticated vocabulary. You need to make at
least six changes.

Better alternatives to common words

There are some words which are badly over-used in English, such as ‘do’, ‘go’,
‘said’, ‘make’, ‘use’, ‘stop’, ‘look’, ‘really’, ‘move’, ‘big’, ‘good’, ‘bad’ and ’small’.
There are others too.

Exercise: In each of the sentences below, find the common, over-used word
and then suggest three better words that could be used it its place.
 ‘Unpack the dishwasher now,’ Mum said.

‘I went Europe last year,’ said Tom, ‘and it was cold.’

Jeremy went home disappointed after eating a bad meal in his favourite
restaurant.

The girl was really happy after scoring top marks in the spelling test.

The referee had to stop the game after the third punch up.

It’s a small house, but I like it!

Latinate-Germanic Pairs

The English language has been developing for 1000 years or more and has been
influenced by a lot of other languages during that time. For this reason, we have
words in English that originally come from Latin, Greek, French, German and
many others. An interesting result of this is that when we have more than one
word with a similar meaning, often one is from old German and one is from Latin.
Here are some examples:

Latinate Germanic
arrive come
complete end
soil dirt
canine dog
dine eat

In general, which words are more sophisticated or fancier?

Exercise: Here’s a similar table to the one above with gaps. Can you provide
the appropriate simple Germanic word?

Latinate Germanic
rapid
primary
liberty
provide
beneficial
assist
recognise
proper
multiple
perceive
Slang and Jargon

To finish this section, we’ll look at something we all naturally know something
about: slang. Before we start, what is your definition of slang?

Most people would agree that slang is informal language that is sometimes
acceptable and sometimes inappropriate. Have a look at this table. The first
column contains an item of slang.

Those bogans I live next to had another

baby!
I was gonna chuck a sickie but last time
the boss caught me.
My friend Joe’s a bit of a dag but he’s a
top bloke.
Did you see those greenies on the TV
who want to close down that mine?
My car’s rego is due next week but I
don’t have the cash.
I’m stoked! My little girl won her
netball final!

Exercise: Rewrite these sentences above in a more formal style,

appropriate if you were speaking to the Prime Minister on her birthday.

As you might have noticed, slang can be specific to a place. ‘Bogan’ would make
no sense in America or England, and no doubt there is slang from those places
that Australians wouldn’t recognise.

Slang is something that is outside the normal language that you would use in
English and in other subjects at school, but it does have its place. When might it
be a good idea to use slang language in English class?

If you’re interested, there’s some interesting slang dictionaries available online.

Jargon

Jargon is another type of language that sit outside ‘normal’ English, but it’s quite
different to slang. Jargon is the set of words that are specific to a particular
activity. An example will make this clear. For example, ‘horsepower’, ‘torque’ and
turbocharger’ are examples of car jargon; ‘byte’, ‘RAM’ and ‘USB’ belong to
computer jargon.

Exercise: Complete the table. Remember, it’s only jargon if you only use the
words when you’re talking about that activity. ‘Wing’ is a word that is
connected to planes, but it’s not jargon because we use the word when
talking about chickens and other things.
 Three Jargon Words Field or Activity
bogey, sand wedge, par
music
agentless passive, subject, clause

You can use jargon in your writing when it’s appropriate. If you’re writing a story
where one of the characters is a computer programmer, it’s natural that he
would use computer jargon when talking, at least sometimes. Remember not to
over-use jargon, especially where it might confuse whoever is going to read your
writing.