BBA/B.Com/ B.

Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

SYLLABUS

Subject – English

UNIT – I
1. Where the mind is without fear: Rabindranath Tagore

2. National Education: M. K. Gandhi

3. The Axe: R. K. Narayan
4. The Wonder that was India: A. L. Basham (an excerpt)

5. Preface to Mahabharata : C. Rajagopalachari

UNIT – II
Comprehension Skill: Unseen Passage followed by Multiple
choice questions
UNIT – III
Basic Language Skills: 1. Vocabulary Building: Suffix, Prefix,
Synonyms, Antonyms, Homophones, Homonyms and One-
Word Substitution.

2. Basic Grammar: Noun, Pronoun, Adjective, Verb, Adverb,

Prepositions, Articles, Time and Tense.
 BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

UNIT I Lesson-1

'Where the Mind is Without Fear' by Rabindranath Tagore

Text of the poem:

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

Glossary:-
1. Domestic- related to family
2. Fragments-pieces
3. Tireless- without getting tired
4. Striving-to exert much efforts
 BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

5. Dreary- dull
6. Dead habit- old customs
7. Thee- you

Analysis of the poetry:

“Where the Mind is Without Fear” is an emotional prayer by Rabindranath Tagore

before almighty God. He is an intellectual who was also popularly known as
‘Gurudev’ & ‘Bard of Bengal’; he was not only a composer but a painter, a
humanist, a philosopher, a novelist as well as an educator who wrote on different
subjects. This poetry is included in ‘Gitanjali’ an anthology which was composed
by him during pre-independence era of India. Initially Rabindranath Tagore
authored this poem in Bengali in 1901 written for a collection of divine prayers
titled ‘Naibedya’ later translating it in English in the year 1911 for ‘Gitanjali’. He
won Nobel for ‘Gitanjali’ in the year 1913 as well as the reputation of being the
first Non-European to be a Nobel laureate. He was knighted in the year 1915, but
he renounced this title in 1919 as he was anguished and as a sign of his protest
against the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre (Amritsar massacre) due to the He is the
composer of ‘Jana Gana Mana’ & ‘Amar Shonar Bangla’ the national anthems of
India and Bangladesh respectively.

The original poem bears the title ‘Prarthana' i.e. prayer. The poem is a prayer to
the universal father as well as the fellow Indians presenting his vision of an
independent India. Patriotism is the core theme of this poem solely centered on
the vision of independence. The nation was under the British Rule, the society was
full of disharmony and social unjust. The people were eagerly waiting to get their
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

freedom. This poem had given a lot of strength to the people who were struggling
for India’s independence.

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free

The poet prays to the Almighty that his country should be free from any kind of
external pressures and oppressive factors which would create fear. He believed
that freedom from such repressive situations would generate a sense of respect in
individuals which was crushed due to presence of these overwhelming situations.
He wants that everyone in his country should be free to live a dignified life and
hold their heads high with respect for themselves and for one another. He dreams
of a nation where knowledge or education would be free and available for all.
Education should not be restricted to the upper class only but everybody should
be free to acquire knowledge without any caste or gender distinctions.

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments

By narrow domestic walls
Tagore envisions a world which is not disintegrated by biases based on caste,
creed, color, religion, status or gender. He wants his people to reject any kinds of
baseless superstitions and should not endorse any kinds of social evils. He lays
emphasis on the rationality of mind because clear thinking would prevent people
from becoming prey to such tribulations. He also stresses on the fact that all the
external forces like prejudices and superstitions as well as internal forces like
narrow-mindedness should not divide the people in groups and destroy their
unity.
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

Where words come out from the depth of truth

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
He wishes the people of his nation to be truthful; he is of the view that people
should not distort the truth for their personal benefits. The words spoken should
be full of sincerity and not mere empty words which come from the bottom of the
heart and soul. The poet expresses his deep desire where people of his country
strive towards perfection or development free from all the biases and
superstitions without giving up or getting exhausted.
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
The poet visualizes that his fellow countrymen should not lose their reasoning
due to baseless superstitions and preconceived notions which is referred as dead
habits as they hinder the unity of a nation and progress of an individual. He
believes that these habits are like a lifeless barren region where no life can
prevail. So he emphasizes on the fact that the every individual should posses a
clear intellect which resembles to a clear stream free from any kinds of
stagnation.
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
The poet prays to the almighty to bestow his countrymen the purity of thoughts,
actions and rational intellect. He wishes that God awakens the shackled mind of
the people and lead them towards a heavenly country. He wants his natives not to
be bound by any internal or external factors which pull them back from the path
of progress. Tagore makes a plea before almighty ‘Father’, to awaken his country
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

into such a heaven of freedom.

BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

UNIT I Lesson-2
National Education by M. K. Gandhi
Text:

NEW EDUCATION
New Education to be rooted in the Culture and Life of the People
National Education
The curriculum and pedagogic ideas which form the fabric of modern education
were imported from Oxford and Cambridge, Edinburgh and London. But they are
essentially foreign, and till they are repudiated, there never can be national
education. For the moment, we are not going to discuss the problem whether it is
possible for India to do without European education; (and in this connection let us
say that we regard the English as a mere special phenomenon of the European
system). If India decides in the light of the need there is of fighting Europe with
her own weapons, Industrialism, Capitalism, Militarism, and all the rest, in favor
of making counterfeit Europeans of her children, soldiers, inventors of explosives,
prostitutors of Science, forgetters of God, she must go forward on her path stern
and open eyed, whatever the disaster. But in that case, she should make up her
mind to do without national education, for, national education will not secure
those ends, will not make her sons and daughters fit for the fulfillment of those
functions. The fact to be realized is that India by the very fact of her long
established and elaborated civilization had once the advantage of an educational
system of her own, the only thing entitled to be called 'national'. But it was
fundamentally distinct from the Anglo-Indian type and from the pseudo-national
type that is its descendant. The question then is this: The choice must be clearly
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

and finally made between national and foreign education, the choice of type and
archetype, of meaning and purpose, of end and means. It has so far not been
made. We are almost certain that the necessity for choosing is hardly realized. As
long as confusion on this matter exists, 'national' education cannot flourish. And
that for a simple reason. The Government is already imparting one type of
education in respect of which it is impossible for any purely non-official body to
complete. Official organization is bigger, it has more money, it has more prizes to
offer. We believe that this root paradox will last as long as there is no hard and
clear thinking about fundamentals. If, as a result of careful decisions, we promise
to the people that the education we offer will be truly Indian and not a mere
inferior prototype of the education offered in the schools and colleges of
Government, people are bound to listen to us. We believe that the folk who suffer
from the effects of the existing arrangements, who deplore social disruption, who
are stricken by the waste of youth, will be thankful to find an avenue of escape.
Institutions that stand for the inevitable revolution for the restoration of national
and social continuum will have in their hands the secret of the future. For that
which should be remembered is this. The greatest visible evil of the present
educational method, in itself evidence of deeper defects, is, that it has broken up
the continuity of our existence. All sound education is meant to fit one generation
to take up the burden of the previous and to keep up the life of the community
without breach or disaster. The burden of social life is continuous, and if at at any
stage one generation gets completely out of touch with the efforts of its
predecessors or in anywise gets ashamed of itself or its culture, it is lost. The force
that maintains society together is a series of high loyalties, loyalty to faith, calling,
parents, family, dharma. The ancient educational system in India certainly
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

maintained the long tradition of pride and service, the place of every order within
the body social and body politic. It is equally certain that modern, foreign, non-
national education makes young people unfit for any useful function in life. The
vast majority of people that sent their children to the English schools were
agriculturists, men and women with a deep and abiding faith in God. There is no
doubt that the young people when they came back knew not a thing about
agriculture, were indeed deeply contemptuous of the calling of their fathers and
professed to have outgrown all faith in God or in His fulfilling providence. The fact
that the tragedy of this destructive breach was limited by the need of Government
for only a specified number of clerks and deputies, should not really mask the
reality of the transaction. 'Reforms' have succeeded 'Reforms' in the educational
system, Commissions have considered the case of the Universities, primary
instruction has been sought to be made compulsory ; but there has never been the
remotest perception of the fact that the whole thing is an evil because it was
destroying the very foundations of all national life and growth. The system must
be scrapped; enquiry must be made promptly as to what constituted the elements
of education before Indian Universities were constituted, before Lord Macaulay
wrote his fatal minutes. Promptness is essential, because the race of old teachers
is nearly extinct and the secret of their methods may die with them. The
resuscitation of those curricula may mean the disappearance of political history
and geography; but the prospect does not disturb us in the slightest. We have
been trying to get at the elements of the old curricula at least in one part of the
country and we dare aver in all conscience that they strike us as infinitely more
efficient and satisfactory than the latest thing come out of Europe. But we confess
it is a layman's opinion. That is why we should like to have the matter
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

investigated by experts. If it is done and its consequences faced, we are confident

that the people of the land will have reason to be highly thankful.
Almost from the commencement, the text-books (today) deal, not with things the
boys and the girls have always to deal with in their homes, but things to which
they are perfect strangers. It is not through the text-books that a lad learns what
is right and what is wrong in the home life. He is never taught to have any pride in
his surroundings. The higher he goes, the farther he is removed from his home, so
that at the end of his education he becomes estranged from his surroundings. He
feels no poetry about the home life. The village scenes are all a sealed book to him.
His own civilization is presented to him as imbecile, barbarous, superstitious and
useless for all practical purposes. His education is calculated to wean him from his
traditional culture. And if the mass of educated youths are not entirely
denationalized, it is because the ancient culture is too deeply imbedded in them to
be altogether uprooted even by an education adverse to its growth. If I had my
way, I would certainly destroy the majority of the present textbooks and cause to
be written text-books which have a bearing on and correspondence with the
home life, so that a boy as he learns may react upon his immediate surroundings.

No Relation to Environment
Unfortunately the system of education has no connection with our surroundings
which therefore remain practically untouched by the education received by a
microscopic minority of boys and girls of the nation.

With the best motives in the world, the English tutors could not wholly
understand the difference between English and Indian requirements. Our climate
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

does not require the buildings which they need. Nor do our children brought up in
predominantly rural environment need the type of education the English children
brought up in surroundings predominantly urban need. When our children are
admitted to schools, they need, not slate and pencil and books, but simple village
tools which they can handle freely and remuneratively. This means a revolution in
educational methods. But nothing short of a revolution can put education within
reach of every child of school-going age. It is admitted that so-called knowledge of
the three R's that is at present given in Government schools is of little use to the
boys and girls in afterlife. Most of it is forgotten inside of one year, if only for want
of use. It is not required in their village surroundings. But if a vocational training
in keeping with their surroundings was given to the children, they would not only
repay the expenses incurred in the schools but would turn that training to use in
afterlife. I can imagine a school entirely self-supporting, if it became, say, a
spinning and weaving institution with perhaps & cotton field attached to it. The
scheme I am adumbrating does not exclude literary training. No course of primary
instruction would considered complete that did not include reading, writing and
arithmetic. Only, reading and writing would come during the last year when really
the boy or girl is readiest for learning the alphabet correctly. Handwriting is an
art. Every letter must be correctly drawn, as an artist would draw his figures. This
can only be done if the boys and girls are first taught elementary drawing. Thus
side by side with vocational training which occupy most of the day at school, they
would be receiving vocal instruction in elementary history, geography and
arithmetic. They would learn manners, have object lessons in practical sanitation
and hygiene, all of which they would take their homes in which they would
become silent revolutionists.
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

Glossary:-
Pedagogic – related to teaching
Repudiated – to reject
Capitalism – economic system based on the private ownership
Counterfeit – fake
Pseudo – artificial
Descendant – successor
Archetype – example
Paradox – a statement that contradicts itself
Deplore – express strong disapproval of something
Contemptuous – expressing deep hatred
Layman – a person without professional or specialized knowledge in a particular
subject
Scrapped – discard
Promptness – doing something quickly
Imbecile – stupid
Wean – to detach from a source of dependence
Three R’s – reading, writing and arithmetic
About the author:

Mahatma Gandhi is known as the ‘Father of the Nation’ because he laid the true
foundation of independent India with his noble ideals and supreme sacrifice. He
was fondly called ‘Bapu’. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on 2nd October
1869 at Porbandar, a small town on the Western Coast of India, which was then a
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

tiny state in Kathiawar. Mohandas went to England to study law and returned as a
lawyer in 1890. He moved to South Africa in 1893 to represent an Indian
merchant in a lawsuit. He lived for twenty-one years in South Africa. He started
the Satyagraha movement in South Africa against the unjust treatment done to the
Indians there by the British. In January 1914 Gandhi returned to India with only
one ambition to serve his people and bring freedom in his country. After much
wandering for a year, he finally settled down on the banks of the river Sabarmati
on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, where he founded an Ashram in 1915. He named
it Satyagraha Ashram. When the Rowlatt Act was passed that denied the civil
liberties of the Indians, Gandhi finally got into active Indian politics. He became
the forefront of the freedom struggle and within a few years he became the
undisputed leader of the national movement for freedom. He became the
President of Indian National Congress. Gandhi launched three mass movements,
namely Non-cooperation movement in 1920, Civil Disobedience movement in
1939 with his famous ‘Dandi March’ to break the salt law and Quit India
movement in 1942. Those three movements shook the foundation of British
Empire in India and brought millions of Indians together into the freedom
struggle movement. Gandhi advocated non-violence and Satyagraha as his chief
weapons to achieve freedom. Gandhi’s guidance and influence also empowered
and encouraged many women to be a part of the freedom movement. Finally our
country attained freedom on 15th August 1947.

Summary:

Gandhiji in this essay ‘National Education; presented his views on that kind of
education which is most suitable for India. There have been various kinds of
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

reaction to his views but he is firm in his opinion that the system of education
prevailing in India is defective. It has been introduced by an unjust government.
Thoroughly unrelated to Indian culture this kind of education is merely
intellectual. It does not fulfill the needs of the heart. In other words, it does not
inculcate the virtue of sympathy, fellow-feeling, kindness and compassion in the
young pupils. It does not teach the virtue of physical culture.

Secondly the existing education is imparted through a foreign language and in the
India context this is unreal. The text books prescribed for our students deal with
matters unrelated to the home life and village life of the pupils. The contents of
text books are unknown to them. Therefore these text books do not inspire the
students to take pride in their surroundings. The higher the education the more
separated are the students from their home life and environment. They become
cut off from villagers where they belong.

Gandhiji continues that the present system of education teaches the learners that
their civilization is stupid, savage, superstitious and practically useless. So the
students are separated from their traditional culture. Indian children are so firmly
set in their ancient culture that the existing defective system of education has not
been able to separate them completely from it. If the author had his way he would
destroy all the present text books and replace them with new ones related to the
real life of children.

Text books in India instead of merely being related to studies should be relevant
to the real life of the people as most of them practice agriculture as a life-long
occupation. The existing system of education makes the students unfit for physical
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

work. Indian students when grow up have to earn their livelihood by manual
labor. So they should be taught the great virtues of physical labor. It is sad that
Indian students in school hate manual labor and consider it undignified to do it.

The vast majority of people in India are poor. Therefore Gandhiji recommends
that education in India should be free and universal, but if universal education is
introduced no government can finance it. Hence, our children must be made to
finance their own education wholly or partly. They can do it by any kind of
physical work, in general and spinning and weaving, in particular. Gandhiji’s view
is that cloth production by school students will be profitable and practicable. So it
should be introduced in all schools throughout India. This will enable them to pay
for their education and help them to adopt a suitable profession in their later life.
This will certainly go a long way in making our school students self-reliant.
Gandhiji pleads that contempt for manual labor must damage the interest of the
nation. So all must try to appreciate and respect manual labor.

Gandhiji further turns to the education of the heart which is as important as the
education of the mind. He says in this connection that books alone cannot take
care of the education of the heart. The living touch of the teacher in this important
matter is essential. Such persons are obviously incapable of imparting the
education of the heart that can inspire the children to be kind, sympathetic,
compassionate and patriotic. The medium of instruction in India is English which
is a foreign language. This puts a lot of mental strain on the pupils and they do not
feel interested to learn. Moreover, this makes them crammers and imitators.
Taught in a foreign medium, they cannot pass on their knowledge to the family
and the society.
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

What is most unfortunate is that education in an foreign medium has made our
boys and girls foreigners in their own country. It has also prevented the
development of Indian languages. In view of these problems, Gandhiji makes out a
strong case in favor of Indian languages to be used as medium of instruction in
our educational institutions. For this very reason text books should be prepared
in India languages and introduced in Schools.

In conclusion, Gandhiji clarifies that he is not hostile to the learning of English that
is very essential for carrying on International commerce and diplomacy. Those
who possess language learning talents should read this language because it
contains some if the richest treasures of human thought and culture. However one
should love and appreciate one’s own culture first and then turn to other cultures.
Our culture is one of the richest in the entire world and all should understand and
appreciate its virtues. Gandhiji finally says that an academic study of our culture
will never be useful unless it is practiced in our daily lives. But, he finally warns
that no one should look down upon other cultures. On the contrary, respect for
other cultures will benefit the growth and enrichment of our own culture.
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

UNIT I Lesson-3
The Axe by R. K. Narayan

Text:

An astrologer passing through the village foretold that Velan would live in a three-
storeyed house surrounded by many acres of garden. At this everybody gathered
round young Velan and made fun of him. For Koppal did not have a more ragged
and godforsaken family than Velan’s. His father had mortgaged every bit of
property he had, and worked, with his whole family, on other people’s lands in
return for a few annas a week . . . A three-storeyed house for Velan indeed! . . . But
the scoffers would have congratulated the astrologer if they had seen Velan about
thirty or forty years later. He became the sole occupant of Kumar Baugh—that
palatial house on the outskirts of Malgudi town.
When he was eighteen Velan left home. His father slapped his face one day for
coming late with the midday-meal, and he did that in the presence of others in the
field. Velan put down the basket, glared at his father and left the place. He just
walked out of the village, and walked on and on till he came to the town. He
starved for a couple of days, begged wherever he could and arrived in Malgudi,
where after much knocking about, an old man took him on to assist him in laying
out a garden. The garden existed only in the mind of the gardener. What they
could see now was acre upon acre of weed-covered land. Velan’s main business
consisted in destroying all the vegetation he saw. Day after day he sat in the sun
and tore up by hand the unwanted plants. And all the jungle gradually
disappeared and the land stood as bare as a football field. Three sides of the land
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

were marked off for an extensive garden, and on the rest was to be built a house.
By the time the mangoes had sprouted they were laying the foundation of the
house. About the time the margosa sapling had shot up a couple of yards, the walls
were also coming up.
The flowers—hibiscus, chrysanthemum, jasmine, roses and canna—in the front
park suddenly created a wonderland one early summer. Velan had to race with
the bricklayers. He was now the chief gardener, the old man he had come to assist
having suddenly fallen ill. Velan was proud of his position and responsibility. He
keenly watched the progress of the bricklayers and whispered to the plants as he
watered them, ‘Now look sharp, young fellows. The building is going up and up
every day. If it is ready and we aren’t, we shall be the laughingstock of the town.’
He heaped manure, aired the roots, trimmed the branches and watered the plants
twice a day, and on the whole gave an impression of hustling nature; and nature
seemed to respond. For he did present a good-sized garden to his master and his
family when they came to occupy the house.
The house proudly held up a dome. Balconies with intricately carved woodwork
hung down from the sides of the house; smooth, rounded pillars, deep verandas,
chequered marble floors and spacious halls, ranged one behind another, gave the
house such an imposing appearance that Velan asked himself, ‘Can any mortal live
in this? I thought such mansions existed only in Swarga Loka.’ When he saw the
kitchen and the dining room he said, ‘Why, our whole village could be
accommodated in this eating place alone!’ The house-builder’s assistant told him,
‘We have built bigger houses, things costing nearly two lakhs. What is this house?
It has hardly cost your master a lakh of rupees. It is just a little more than an
ordinary house, that is all . . .’ After returning to his hut Velan sat a long time
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

trying to grasp the vision, scope and calculations of the builders of the house, but
he felt dizzy. He went to the margosa plant, gripped its stem with his fingers and
said, ‘Is this all, you scraggy one? What if you wave your head so high above mine?
I can put my fingers around you and shake you up like this. Grow up, little one,
grow up. Grow fat. Have a trunk which two pairs of arms can’t hug, and go up and
spread. Be fit to stand beside this palace; otherwise I will pull you out.’
When the margosa tree came up approximately to this vision, the house had
acquired a mellowness in its appearance. Successive summers and monsoons had
robbed the paints on the doors and windows and woodwork of their brightness
and the walls of their original colour, and had put in their place tints and shades of
their own choice. And though the house had lost its resplendence, it had now a
more human look. Hundreds of parrots and mynas and unnamed birds lived in the
branches of the margosa, and under its shade the master’s great-grandchildren
and the (younger) grandchildren played and quarreled. The master walked about
leaning on a staff. The lady of the house, who had looked such a blooming creature
on the inauguration day, was shrunken and grey and spent most of her time in an
invalid’s chair on the veranda, gazing at the garden with dull eyes. Velan himself
was much changed. Now he had to depend more and more upon his assistants to
keep the garden in shape. He had lost his parents, his wife and eight children out
of fourteen. He had managed to reclaim his ancestral property, which was now
being looked after by his sons-in-law and sons. He went to the village for Pongal,
New Year’s and Deepavali, and brought back with him one or the other of his
grandchildren, of whom he was extremely fond.
Velan was perfectly contented and happy. He demanded nothing more of life. As
far as he could see, the people in the big house too seemed to be equally at peace
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

with life. One saw no reason why these good things should not go on and on
forever. But Death peeped around the corner. From the servants’ quarters
whispers reached the gardener in his hut that the master was very ill and lay in
his room downstairs (the bedroom upstairs so laboriously planned had to be
abandoned with advancing age). Doctors and visitors were constantly coming and
going, and Velan had to be more than ever on guard against ‘flower-pluckers’. One
midnight he was awakened and told that the master was dead. ‘What is to happen
to the garden and to me? The sons are no good,’ he thought at once.
And his fears proved to be not entirely groundless. The sons were no good, really.
They stayed for a year more, quarreled among themselves and went away to live
in another house. A year later some other family came in as tenants. The moment
they saw Velan they said, ‘Old gardener? Don’t be up to any tricks. We know the
sort you are. We will sack you if you don’t behave yourself.’ Velan found life
intolerable. These people had no regard for a garden. They walked on flower beds,
children climbed the fruit trees and plucked unripe fruits, and they dug pits on the
garden paths. Velan had no courage to protest. They ordered him about, sent him
on errands, made him wash the cow and lectured to him on how to grow a garden.
He detested the whole business and often thought of throwing up his work and
returning to his village. But the idea was unbearable: he couldn’t live away from
his plants. Fortune, however, soon favoured him. The tenants left. The house was
locked up for a few years. Occasionally one of the sons of the late owner came
round and inspected the garden. Gradually even this ceased. They left the keys of
the house with Velan. Occasionally a prospective tenant came down, had the
house opened and went away after remarking that it was in ruins—plaster was
falling off in flakes, paint on doors and windows remained only in a few small
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

patches and white ants were eating away all the cupboards and shelves . . . A year
later another tenant came, and then another, and then a third. No one remained
for more than a few months. And then the house acquired the reputation of being
haunted.
Even the owners dropped the practice of coming and seeing the house. Velan was
very nearly the master of the house now. The keys were with him. He was also
growing old. Although he did his best, grass grew on the paths, weeds and
creepers strangled the flowering plants in the front garden. The fruit trees yielded
their load punctually. The owners leased out the whole of the fruit garden for
three years.
Velan was too old. His hut was leaky and he had no energy to put up new thatch.
So he shifted his residence to the front veranda of the house. It was a deep
veranda running on three sides, paved with chequered marble. The old man saw
no reason why he should not live there. He had as good a right as the bats and the
rats.
When the mood seized him (about once a year) he opened the house and had the
floor swept and scrubbed. But gradually he gave up this practice. He was too old
to bother about these things.
Years and years passed without any change. It came to be known as the ‘Ghost
House’, and people avoided it. Velan found nothing to grumble about in this state
of affairs. It suited him excellently. Once a quarter he sent his son to the old family
in the town to fetch his wages. There was no reason why this should not have
gone on indefinitely. But one day a car sounded its horn angrily at the gate. Velan
hobbled up with the keys.
‘Have you the keys? Open the gate,’ commanded someone in the car.
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

‘There is a small side-gate,’ said Velan meekly.

‘Open the big gate for the car!’
Velan had to fetch a spade and clear the vegetation which blocked the entrance.
The gates opened on rusty hinges, creaking and groaning.
They threw open all the doors and windows, went through the house keenly
examining every portion and remarked, ‘Did you notice the crack on the dome?
The walls too are cracked . . . There is no other way. If we pull down the old
ramshackle carefully we may still be able to use some of the materials, though I
am not at all certain that the wooden portions are not hollow inside . . . Heaven
alone knows what madness is responsible for people building houses like this.’
They went round the garden and said, ‘We have to clear every bit of this jungle. All
this will have to go . . .’ Some mighty person looked Velan up and down and said,
‘You are the gardener, I suppose? We have not much use for a garden now. All the
trees, except half a dozen on the very boundary of the property, will have to go.
We can’t afford to waste space. This flower garden . . . H’m, it is . . . old-fashioned
and crude, and apart from that the front portion of the site is too valuable to be
wasted . . .’
A week later one of the sons of his old master came and told Velan, ‘You will have
to go back to your village, old fellow. The house is sold to a company. They are not
going to have a garden. They are cutting down even the fruit trees; they are
offering compensation to the leaseholder; they are wiping out the garden and
pulling down even the building. They are going to build small houses by the score
without leaving space even for a blade of grass.’
There was much bustle and activity, much coming and going, and Velan retired to
his old hut. When he felt tired he lay down and slept; at other times he went round
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

the garden and stood gazing at his plants. He was given a fortnight’s notice. Every
moment of it seemed to him precious, and he would have stayed till the last
second with his plants but for the sound of an axe which stirred him out of his
afternoon nap two days after he was given notice. The dull noise of a blade
meeting a tough surface reached his ears. He got up and rushed out. He saw four
men hacking the massive trunk of the old margosa tree. He let out a scream: ‘Stop
that!’ He took his staff and rushed at those who were hacking. They easily avoided
the blow he aimed. ‘What is the matter?’ they asked.
Velan wept. ‘This is my child. I planted it. I saw it grow. I loved it. Don’t cut it
down . . .’
‘But it is the company’s orders. What can we do? We shall be dismissed if we
don’t obey, and someone else will do it.’
Velan stood thinking for a while and said, ‘Will you at least do me this good turn?
Give me a little time. I will bundle up my clothes and go away. After I am gone do
what you like.’ They laid down their axes and waited.
Presently Velan came out of his hut with a bundle on his head. He looked at the
tree-cutters and said, ‘You are very kind to an old man. You are very kind to wait.’
He looked at the margosa and wiped his eyes. ‘Brothers, don’t start cutting till I
am really gone far, far away.’

The tree-cutters squatted on the ground and watched the old man go. Nearly half
an hour later his voice came from a distance, half-indistinctly: ‘Don’t cut yet. I am
still within hearing. Please wait till I am gone farther.’

About the author:

BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

Rasipuram Krishnaswami Narayanswami, who was known by the name R.K.

Narayan, was born in Madras, India, on Oct. 10, 1906. He was reared by his
grandmother; Narayan completed his education in 1930 and briefly worked as a
teacher, an editorial assistant, and a newspaperman before deciding to devote
himself to writing. His first novel, ‘Swami and Friends’ (1935), is an episodic
narrative recounting the adventures of a group of schoolboys. That book and
much of Narayan’s later works are set in the fictitious South Indian town of
Malgudi. Narayan's second novel, Bachelor of Arts (1939), marked the beginning
of his reputation in England. His fourth novel, The English Teacher, published in
1945, was partly autobiographical, concerning a teacher's struggle to cope with
the death of his wife. In 1953, Michigan State University published it under the
title ‘Grateful to Life and Death’, along with his novel ‘The Financial Expert’ they
were Narayan's first books published in the United States. Subsequent
publications of his novels, especially ‘Mr. Sampath’, ‘Waiting for the Mahatma’,
‘The Guide’, ‘The Man-eater of Malgudi’ and ‘The Vendor of Sweets’, established
Narayan's reputation in the West. Many critics consider ‘The Guide’ (1958) to be
Narayan's masterpiece. ‘The Guide’ is written in a complex series of flashbacks, it
concerns a tourist guide who seduces the wife of a client, prospers, and ends up in
jail. The novel won India's highest literary honor ‘Sahitya Akademi Award’ in
1960 and it was adapted for the off-Broadway stage in 1968. At least two of
Narayan's novels, ‘Mr. Sampath’ (1949) and ‘The Guide’ (1958), were adapted for
the movies. Narayan usually wrote for an hour or two a day, composing fast, often
writing as many as 2,000 words and seldom correcting or rewriting. Narayan
typically portrays the peculiarities of human relationships and the ironies of
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

Indian daily life, in which modern urban existence clashes with ancient tradition.
His style is graceful, marked by friendly humor, elegance, and simplicity.

Summary:

Velan's father was a poor man and nobody could have thought that one day
Velan would live in a three- storied building. But the prophesy by an astrologer
came true and in his later life he became the sole occupant of Kumar Baugh, a
palatial town on the outskirts of Malgudi town.
When Velan was eighteen he left home. His father slapped him one day for
coming late with the midday meal. This enraged Velan so much that he decided to
leave home. He walked out of the village and walked on till he came to the town.
Here he starved for a couple of days. Then he finally came to Malgudi. Here an old
man took him as his assistant for laying a garden. Velan accepted the job and sat
day after day in the sun to clear the land of the unwanted plants. Gradually the
garden took shape. As the house came up, the garden also developed. By the time
the margosa tree came up to the vision of Velan, the house had taken mellowness
in its appearance. Its original brightness had disappeared.
Velan was contented and happy. In the meantime the old gardener who had
originally employed him had died. Now he became the chief gardener. Velan
married and had children. He lived in the servants' quarters. In the meantime the
owner of the house became old. One day the master died. The sons of the old man
were no good.
They stayed for a year more, quarreled among themselves, and went away
to live in another house. The house was rented out. A year later another tenant
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

came, and then another, and then another. No one remained for more than a few
months. And then the house acquired the reputation of being haunted.
Gradually the owners of the house stopped coming to the house and see it.
Velan became the sole occupant of the house. He was also growing old. Although
he did his best, grass grew on paths, weeds and creepers also sprang up, the fruit
garden was leased out by the owners for three years.
Years and years passed without any change. It came to be known as the
'Ghost House' and people avoided it. But Velan did not complain about anything.
Once a quarter he sent his son to the old family in the town to fetch his wages.
Velan wanted this state of affairs to go on indefinitely. But one day a car came up
to the house. The doors and windows of the old house were thrown open. The
people who came in the car belonged to a firm which wanted to purchase this
house. They told Velan that they would cut the plants and naturally they would
not require his services anymore.
There was much hustle and activity in and around the house. Soon cutter
came to clean the surroundings. Velan was unhappy that they wanted to cut the
margosa tree as well. Velan loved this tree like his own child. So he decided to
leave the house. He requested the cutters to wait till he had gone out of the reach
of the sound of their axes. He collected his belongs in a bundle and left the house.
He requested them not cut the margosa tree till he was gone far away.

Critical Appreciation of the Axe:

In The Axe by R.K. Narayan we have the theme of independence, making an

identity, pride, dedication, prosperity, loss, control, change and acceptance. Taken
from his Malgudi Days collection, the story is narrated in the third person by an
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

unnamed narrator and after reading the story the reader realizes that Narayan may
be exploring the theme of independence. After Velan has been slapped by his father
he abandons his father and sets out to find work for himself eventually becoming a
gardener. This may be important as Velan is displaying an independent streak. He is
showing his father that he can make it on his own. That he does not need to be guided by
his father. The old man who employs Velan is also interesting as he allows Velan to
have complete control of the garden which would further suggest that Velan has a
degree of independence in his life. Though he is answerable to the old man, the old
man does not get in Velan’s way. He leaves him to his own devices. It is also interesting
that despite claiming his father’s property on his father’s death. Velan does not leave
the garden preferring to stay in his hut by the garden. This may be important as it
suggests that Velan is dedicated to the garden. Something that is also noticeable by
the fact that Velan also talks to each plant and flower urging them on in growth. If
anything Velan’s world is dedicated or devoted to the garden.
It might also be a case that Narayan is comparing Velan’s father to the old man who
owns the garden. Both men treat Velan differently. Where Velan’s father has treated
Velan inappropriately the relationship between the old man who owns the garden
and Velan is good. It is possible that Narayan is suggesting that should a person (the old
man) treat another person (Velan) correctly than that person (Velan) will prosper
which appears to be the case for Velan.

Since moving to his hut by the garden, Velan’s life has prospered and he is
happy. In many ways the growth of the garden and the blooming of the flowers match
the prosperity and happiness in Velan’s life. He has managed to get married and have
children. Something that may not have been possible should he have stayed working
with his father. Narayan might also be exploring the theme of loss. Despite having
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

gotten married Velan has lost his wife and eight of his children all dying before Velan.
However it is noticeable that despite this loss Velan has persevered. He has not
been beaten by circumstances. He again has continued to prosper just as the garden
has.
What is also interesting about Velan is that despite his age he never gives up.
This along with the fact that he is answerable to a different master may be important
as Narayan may be again highlighting how dedicated Velan is regardless of the
circumstances he finds himself in. It is also obvious to the reader that Velan takes great
pride in the work he has done in the garden. He has taken a patch of land and changed
what was an eyesore into a thing of beauty. Despite his hard work, dedication and
devotion, his work was not being appreciated by his new masters. They have no
interest in the house or the garden. Despite this Velan still tries his best to keep the
garden as tidy and well-preserved as possible. In reality the garden is Velan’s whole
world. He knows no other life. Though some critics might suggest Velan has lived a
limited life due to his dedication to the garden. It is important to remember that the
garden brings joy to Velan. He is at his happiest when he is in the garden. Velan has
never strived for complexity in his life. He is a simple man who likes simple things.
The end of the story is also interesting as Narayan may be exploring the theme
of control. When Velan hears the axe hitting against the margosa tree, he knows that
his life is about to change. He is no longer in control of his environment for the first
time since he was eighteen. This alone is something that would be difficult for
someone to accept but what makes it worse in many ways is the fact that Velan had no
opportunity to prepare himself for the events that were about to happen. Change is
difficult for anybody but even more difficult for someone as old as Velan. Even though
Velan accepts what is happening the reader senses as though he is leaving the garden
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

as a broken man. All the effort he has put in over the years will be in vain as the new
owners plan on building houses in place of garden.
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

UNIT I Lesson-4
The Wonder that was India by A. L. Basham (an excerpt)
Text:

Hindu civilization will, we believe, retain its continuity. The Bhagavad Gita will
not cease to inspire men of action, and the Upanishads men of thought. The charm
and graciousness of the Indian way of life will continue, however much affected it
may be by the labour- saving devices of the West People will still love the tales of
the heroes of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, and of the loves of Dusyanta
and Sakuntala and Pururavas and Urvasi. The quiet and gentle happiness which
has at all times pervaded Indian life where oppression, disease and poverty have
not overclouded it will surely not vanish before the more hectic ways of the West

Much that was useless in ancient Indian culture has already perished. The
extravagant and barbarous hecatombs of the Vedic age have long since been
forgotten, though animal sacrifice continues in some sects. Widows have long
ceased to be burnt on their husbands' pyres. Girls may not by law be married in
childhood. In buses and trains all over India brahmans rub shoulders with the
lower castes without consciousness of grave pollution, and the temples are open
to all by law. Caste is vanishing; the process began long ago, but its pace is now so
rapid that the more objectionable features of caste may have disappeared within a
generation or so. The old family system is adapting itself to present-day
conditions. In fact the whole face of India altering, but the cultural tradition
continues, and it will never be lost.
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

The whole of South-East Asia received most of its culture from India. Early in the
5th century B.C. colonists from Western India settled in Ceylon, which was finally
converted to Buddhism in the reign of Ashoka. By this time a few Indian
merchants had probably found their way to Malaya, Sumatra, and other parts of
South-East Asia. Gradually they established permanent settlements, often, no
doubt, marrying native women. They were followed by brahmans and Buddhist
monks, and Indian influence gradually leavened the indigenous culture, until by
the 4th century A.D. Sanskrit was the official language of the region, and there
arose great civilizations, capable of organizing large maritime empires, and of
building such wonderful memorials as their greatness as the Buddhist stupa of
Borobodur in Java, or the Saivite temples of Angkor in Cambodia. Other cultural
influences, from China and the Islamic world, were felt in South-East Asia, but the
primary impetus to civilization came from India.

Indian historians, proud of their country's past, often refer to this region as
"Greater India", and speak of Indian "colonies". In its usual modern sense the term
"colony" is hardly accurate, however. Vijaya, the legendary Aryan conqueror of
Ceylon, is said to have gained the island by the sword, but beyond this we have no
real evidence of any permanent Indian conquest outside the bounds of India. The
Indian "colonies" were peaceful ones, and the Indianized kings of the region were
indigenous chieftains who had learnt what India had to teach them.

Northwards Indian cultural influence spread through Central Asia to China. Faint
and weak contact between China and India was probably made in Mauryan times,
if not before, but only when, some 2,000 years ago, the Han Empire began to drive
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

its frontiers towards the Caspian did India and China really meet. Unlike South-
East Asia, China did not assimilate Indian ideas in every aspect of her culture, but
the whole of the Far East is in India's debt for Buddhism, which helped to mould
the distinctive civilizations of China, Korea, Japan and Tibet.

As well as her special gifts to Asia, India has conferred many practical blessings on
the world at large; notably rice, cotton, the sugarcane, many spices, the domestic
fowl, the game of chess and most important of all, the decimal system of numeral
notation, the invention of an unknown Indian mathematician early in the
Christian era. The extent of the spiritual influence of India on the ancient West is
much disputed. The heterodox Jewish sect of the Essenes, which probably
influenced early Christianity, followed monastic practices in some respects
similar to those of Buddhism. Parallels may be traced between a few passages in
the New Testament and the Pali scriptures. Similarities between the teachings of
western philosophers and mystics from Pythagoras to Plotinus and those of the
Upanisads have frequently been noticed. None of these similarities, however, is
close enough to give certainty, especially as we have no evidence that any classical
writer had a deep knowledge of Indian religion. We can only say that there was
always some contact between the Hellenic world and India, mediated first by the
Achaemenid Empire, then by that of the Seleucids, and finally, under the Romans,
by the traders of the Indian ocean. Christianity began to spread at the time when
this contact was closest. We know that Indian ascetics occasionally visited the
West, and that there was a colony of Indian merchants at Alexandria. The
possibility of Indian influence on Neo-platonism and early Christianity cannot be
ruled out.
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

Many authorities may doubt that Indian thought had any effect on that of the
ancient West, but there can be no doubt of its direct and indirect influence on the
thought of Europe and America in the last century and a half, though this has not
received adequate recognition. This influence has not come by way of organized
neo-Hindu missions. The last eighty years have seen the foundation of the
Theosophical Society, of various Buddhist societies, and of societies in Europe and
America looking for inspiration to the saintly 19th-century Bengali mystic,
Paramahamsa Ramakrishna, and to his equally saintly disciple, Swami
Vivekananda. Lesser organizations and groups have been founded in the West by
other Indian mystics and their disciples, some of them noble, earnest and
spiritual, others of more dubious character. Here and there Westerners
themselves, sometimes armed with a working knowledge of Sanskrit and first-
hand Indian experience, have tried to convert the West to a streamlined Yoga or
Vedanta. We would in no way disparage these teachers or their followers, many of
whom are of great intellectual and spiritual caliber; but whatever we may think of
the Western propagators of Indian mysticism, we cannot claim that they have had
any great effect on our civilization. More subtle, but more powerful, has been the
influence of Mahatma Gandhi, through the many friends of India in the West who
were impressed by his burning sincerity and energy, and by the ultimate success
of his policy of non-violence in achieving India's independence. Greater than any
of these influences, however, has been the influence of ancient Indian religious
literature through philosophy.
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

The pioneers of the Asiatic Society of Bengal quickly gained a small but
enthusiastic following in Europe, and Goethe and many other writers of the early
19th century read all they could of ancient Indian literature in translation. We
know that Goethe borrowed a device of Indian dramaturgy for the prologue to
"Faust" and who can say that the triumphant final chorus of the second part of
that work was not in part inspired by the monism of Indian thought as he
understood it? From Goethe onwards most of the great German philosophers
knew something of Indian philosophy. Schopenhauer, whose influence on
literature and psychology has been so considerable, indeed openly admitted his
debt, and his outlook was virtually that of Buddhism. The monisms of Fichte and
Hegel might never have taken the forms they did if it had not been for Anquetil-
Duperron's translation of the Upanisads and the work of other pioneer
Indologists. In the English-speaking world the strongest Indian influence was felt
in America, where Emerson, Thoreau and other New England writers avidly
studied much Indian religious literature in translation, and exerted immense
influence on their contemporaries and successors, notably Walt Whitman.
Through Carlyle and others the German philosophers in their turn made their
mark on England, as did the Americans through many late 19th-century writers
such as Richard Jeffries and Edward Carpenter.

Though in the contemporary philosophical schools of Europe and America the

monistic and idealist philosophies of the last century carry little weight, their
influence has been considerable, and all of them owe something at least to ancient
India. The sages who meditated in the jungles of the Ganges Valley six hundred
years or more before Christ are still forces in the world.
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

It is today something of an anachronism to speak of Western civilization or Indian

civilization. Until very recently cultures were sharply divided, but now, when
India is but a thirty hours' journey from London, cultural divisions are beginning
to disappear. If a modus vivendi is reached between liberal democracy and
communism, and civilization survives, the world of the future will have a single
culture with, it is to be hoped, many local differences and variations. India's
contribution to the world's cultural stock has already been very large, and it will
continue and grow as her prestige and influence increases. For this reason if for
no other we must take account of her ancient heritage in its successes and its
failures, for it is no longer the heritage of India alone, but of all mankind.

About the Author:

Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, informally called Rajaji or C.R., was an Indian

lawyer, independence activist, politician, writer, and statesman. Rajagopalachari
was the last Governor-General of India. He also served as leader of the Indian
National Congress, Premier of the Madras Presidency, Governor of West Bengal,
Minister for Home Affairs of the Indian Union, and Chief Minister of Madras state,
and as such, he rendered yeomen service to the nation.Rajagopalachari founded
the Swatantra Party and was one of the first recipients of India's highest civilian
award, the Bharat Ratna. He vehemently opposed the use of nuclear weapons and
was a proponent of world peace and disarmament. During his lifetime, he also
acquired the nickname 'Mango of Salem'. Rajaji was a great patriot, astute
politician, incisive thinker, great visionary, and one of the greatest statesmen of all
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

time. He was a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi, hailed as conscious-keeper of

the Mahatma. Rajaji was closely associated with Kulapati Munshiji and he was
among the distinguished founder-members of the Bhavan (Bharatiya Vidya
Bhavan). The Bhavan has published 18 books by him so far, the copyright of
which he gifted to the Bhavan. Rajaji wrote not only in English but also in chaste
Tamil, his mother-tongue. He was at his best as a short-story writer.

Analysis of the Chapter:

The most important quality of Indian culture is that it is able to maintain its
continuity even after the passage of so many years. The message of Karma
mentioned in the Bhagvad Geeta will always inspire the men who believe in doing
karma. The Upanishads are the treasure house of Indian Philosophy and they will
keep influencing the thinkers. The teachings of Bhagvad Geeta are globally
renowned and they even taught in the world’s top most institutes. The Indian way
of living is quite peaceful in comparison to the lives of the people of the Western
countries this phenomenon increases the charisma of Indian life.
Indian culture consisted of some ill-traditions like sati system, animal
sacrifice, child marriage, caste system or untouchability but now things are
changing. The identity and character of the whole country is changing but the only
thing that didn’t change was legacy of the Indian culture.
The whole of South-East Asia was influenced by the Indian culture
especially of Buddhism to a greater extent. In 5th century BC people from the
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

Western India settled in Ceylon i.e. present day Sri Lanka. This region was wholly
converted to Buddhism especially during the reign or the efforts of King Ashoka.
Even Indian merchants discovered routes to Malaya, Sumatra and other parts of
South-East Asia. After the merchants the Buddhist monks and the Brahmans also
went to these regions and spread Indian culture in those parts. Sanskrit was the
official language of this area and even some civilizations who successfully
established their empire due to their naval power. Even some memorials like
Buddhist stupa of Borobodur in Java, or the Saivite temples of Angkor in
Cambodia were built. Though; many countries like China and the Islamic world in
South-East Asia but mainly the influence came from India.
Indian Historians proudly called this region or colonies as the “Greater
India”. Atyan king Vijaya of Ceylon had won over an island apart from him no
other conquest were done out of India. The Indians colonies were peaceful and
their chiefs were took in all the learning from India. Indian culture was spreading
towards north and during Mauryan period India and China came in contact with
each other or around 2000 years ago during the Han empire conquest. China
didn’t include the Indian ideas in their culture in totality but one cannot deny the
debt of India for Buddhism.
India also gave gifts like rice, cotton, sugarcane, spices, the domestication of
fowls, game of chess and the decimal system. The influence of Indian culture over
the Ancient West is disputed. Early Christianity was influenced by Jewish sect but
the monastic principles they followed were similar to the Buddhism. Similarities
have been found between the Indian culture especially Upanishads and the New
Testament, teachings of the Western philosophers, various spiritual philosophers.
Though there is no evidence that the Indian teachings had direct influence but the
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

contact between the Indian and the Western world cannot be denied.
The effect of the Indian influence was not due to a planned mission of the
Hinduism. Many societies like Theosophical society, Buddhist society or the
European or American societies desired to learn the teachings of Paramhamsa
and Swami Vivekanand. Many groups were found in the Western countries and
many Westerners had the working knowledge of Sanskrit. They tried to bring a
change to Yoga or Vedanta. Though they had many teachers who propagated
these thoughts but it cannot be said that they didn’t had much effect on India.
Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violence is one of the finest instances that the Indian
thought was popularized in the West.
Many writers gained the knowledge of translated versions of Indian
literature. Like the writer Goethe used dramaturgy i.e. the theory and practice of
dramatic composition in the introduction of his play ‘Faust’ and its ending was
inspired by the Indian monism. The German philosophers like Schopenhauer, was
the only one who accepted that he was indebted to the Buddhism which was
reflected in his literature and psychology. In America and other European
countries many thinkers and writers studied Indian religious literatures which
were translated. The German philosophers influenced England deeply. All the
countries in some or the other way followed Indian philosophies and Indian
culture existed in a since a long time back even before Christ. The cultures are
avidly divided due to geographical boundaries if all the nations leave other aspect
and reach to common point between democracy and communism the whole
world will be painted in one color which would reflect Indian Culture. Therefore
Indian culture not only belongs to India alone but also to the whole world.
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

UNIT I Lesson-5
Preface to Mahabharata by C. Rajagopalachari
Text:

It is not an exaggeration to say that the persons and incidents portrayed in the
great literature of a people influence national character no less potently than the
actual heroes and events enshrined in its history. It may be claimed that the
former play an even more important part in the formation of ideals, which give to
character its impulse of growth.

In the moving history of our land, from time immemorial great minds have been
formed and nourished and touched to heroic deeds by the Ramayana and the
Mahabharata. In most Indian homes, children formerly learnt these immortal
stories as they learnt their mother tongue at the mother's knee. And the
sweetness and sorrows of Sita and Draupadi, the heroic fortitude of Rama and
Arjuna and the loving fidelity of Lakshmana and Hanuman became the stuff of
their young philosophy of life.

The growing complexity of life has changed the simple pattern of early home life.
Still, there are few in our lands who do not know the Ramayana and the
Mahabharata. Though the stories come to them so embroidered with the garish
fancies of the Kalakshepam (devotional meeting where an expert scholar and
singer tells a story to his audience) and the cinema as to retain but little of the
dignity and approach to truth of Vyasa or Valmiki. Vyasa's Mahabharata is one of
our noblest heritages. And it is my cherished belief that to hear it faithfully told is
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

to love it and come under its elevating influence. It strengthens the soul and
drives home, as nothing else does, the vanity of ambition and the evil and futility
of anger and hatred.

The realities of life are idealised by genius and given the form that makes drama,
poetry or great prose. Since literature is closely related to life, so long as the
human family is divided into nations, literature cannot escape the effects of such
division.

But the highest literature transcends regionalism and through it, when we are
properly attuned, we realise the essential oneness of the human family. The
Mahabharata is of this class. It belongs to the world and not only to India. To the
people of India, indeed, this epic has been an unfailing and perennial source of
spiritual strength. Learnt at the mother's knee with reverence and love, it has
inspired great men to heroic deeds as well as enabled the humble to face their
trials with fortitude and faith.

The Mahabharata was composed many thousand years ago. But generations of
gifted reciters have added to Vyasa's original a great mass of material. All the
floating literature that was thought to be worth preserving, historical,
geographical, legendary, political, theological and philosophical, of nearly thirty
centuries, found a place in it.

In those days, when there was no printing, interpolation in a recognized classic

seemed to correspond to inclusion in the national library. Divested of these
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

accretions, the Mahabharata is a noble poem possessing in a supreme degree the

characteristics of a true epic, great and fateful movement, heroic characters and
stately diction.

The characters in the epic move with the vitality of real life. It is difficult to find
anywhere such vivid portraiture on so ample a canvas. Bhishma, the perfect
knight; the venerable Drona; the vain but chivalrous Karna; Duryodhana, whose
perverse pride is redeemed by great courage in adversity; the high souled
Pandavas with godlike strength as well as power of suffering; Draupadi, most
unfortunate of queens; Kunti, the worthy mother of heroes; Gandhari, the devoted
wife and sad mother of the wicked sons of Dhritarashtra, these are some of the
immortal figures on that crowded, but never confused, canvas.

Then there is great Krishna himself, most energetic of men, whose divinity
scintillates through a cloud of very human characteristics. His high
purposefulness pervades the whole epic. One can read even a translation and feel
the over whelming power of the incomparable vastness and sublimity of the
poem.

The Mahabharata discloses a rich civilisation and a highly evolved society, which
though of an older world, strangely resembles the India of our own time, with the
same values and ideals. When India was divided into a number of independent
kingdoms, occasionally, one king, more distinguished or ambitious than the rest,
would assume the title of emperor, securing the acquiescence of other royalties,
and signalised it by a great sacrificial feast. The adherence was generally
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

voluntary. The assumption of imperial title conferred no over lordship. The

emperor was only first among his peers.

The art of war was highly developed and military prowess and skill were held in
high esteem. We read in the Mahabharata of standardised phalanxes and of
various tactical movements. There was an accepted code of honorable warfare,
deviations from which met with reproof among Kshatriyas. The advent of the Kali
age is marked by many breaches of these conventions in the Kurukshetra battle,
on account of the bitterness of conflict, frustration and bereavements. Some of the
most impressive passages in the epic center round these breaches of dharma. The
population lived in cities and villages. The cities were the headquarters of kings
and their household and staff. There were beautiful palaces and gardens and the
lives led were cultured and luxurious. There was trade in the cities, but the mass
of the people were agriculturists.

Besides this urban and rural life, there was a very highly cultured life in the
seclusion of forest recesses, centered round ascetic teachers. These ashramas kept
alive the bright fires of learning and spiritual thought. Young men of noble birth
eagerly sought education at these ashramas. World-weary aged went there for
peace. These centers of culture were cherished by the rulers of the land and not
the proudest of them would dare to treat the members of the hermitages
otherwise than with respect and consideration.
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

Women were highly honored and entered largely in the lives of their husbands
and sons. The caste system prevailed, but inter-caste marriages were not
unknown.

Some of the greatest warriors in the Mahabharata were brahmanas. The

Mahabharata has moulded the character and civilization of one of the most
numerous of the world's people.

How did it fulfill, how is it still continuing to fulfill, this function? By its gospel of
dharma which like a golden thread runs through all the complex movements in
the epic by its lesson that hatred breeds hatred, that covetousness and violence
lead inevitably to ruin, that the only real conquest is in the battle against one's
lower nature.

About the Author:

Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (9 December 1878 – 25 December 1972), popularly

known as Rajaji or C.R., also known as Mootharignar Rajaji (Rajaji, the Scholar
Emeritus), was an Indian statesman, writer, lawyer, and independence activist.
Rajagopalachari was the last Governor-General of India, as India soon became a
Republic in 1950. He was also the first Indian-born governor-general, as all
previous holders of the post were British nationals. He also served as leader of the
Indian National Congress, Premier of the Madras Presidency, Governor of West
Bengal, Minister for Home Affairs of the Indian Union and Chief Minister of
Madras state. Rajagopalachari founded the Swatantra Party and was one of the
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

first recipients of India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna. He vehemently
opposed the use of nuclear weapons and was a proponent of world peace and
disarmament. During his lifetime, he also acquired the nickname 'Mango of
Salem'. Rajagopalachari was born in the Thorapalli village of Hosur taluk in the
Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu and was educated at Central College, Bangalore,
and Presidency College, Madras. In the 1900s he started legal practice at the
Salem court. On entering politics, he became a member and later Chairperson of
the Salem municipality. One of Mahatma Gandhi's earliest political lieutenants, he
joined the Indian National Congress and participated in the agitations against the
Rowlatt Act, joining the Non-Cooperation movement, the Vaikom Satyagraha, and
the Civil Disobedience movement. In 1930, Rajagopalachari risked imprisonment
when he led the Vedaranyam Salt Satyagraha in response to the Dandi March. In
1937, Rajagopalachari was elected Prime minister of the Madras Presidency and
served until 1940, when he resigned due to Britain's declaration of war on
Germany. He later advocated co-operation over Britain's war effort and opposed
the Quit India Movement. He favoured talks with both Muhammad Ali Jinnah and
the Muslim League and proposed what later came to be known as the C. R.
formula. In 1946, Rajagopalachari was appointed Minister of Industry, Supply,
Education and Finance in the Interim Government of India, and then as the
Governor of West Bengal from 1947 to 1948, Governor-General of India from
1948 to 1950, Union Home Minister from 1951 to 1952 and as Chief Minister of
Madras state from 1952 to 1954. In 1959, he resigned from the Indian National
Congress and founded the Swatantra Party, which fought against the Congress in
the 1962, 1967 and 1971 elections. Rajagopalachari was instrumental in setting
up a united Anti-Congress front in Madras state under C. N. Annadurai, which
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

swept the 1967 elections. He died on 25 December 1972 at the age of 94.
Rajagopalachari was an accomplished writer who made lasting contributions to
Indian English literature and is also credited with the composition of the song
Kurai Onrum Illai set to Carnatic music. He pioneered temperance and temple
entry movements in India and advocated Dalit upliftment. He has been criticized
for introducing the compulsory study of Hindi and the controversial Madras
Scheme of Elementary Education in Madras State which was criticized as
Hereditary Education Policy created with an intention to preserve caste
hierarchy. Critics have often attributed his pre-eminence in politics to his
standing as a favorite of both Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru.
Rajagopalachari was described by Gandhi as the "keeper of my conscience".

Analysis of the Chapter:

Indian mythology has always been an integral part of the lives world. It has
molded the character and civilization of not only India but of the of Indians.
Mahabharata is no exception. It is the longest epic of not only India but of
numerous people of the world. By the gospel of dharma, which runs like a golden
thread in the complex movements of the epic, it fulfills the function of molding the
character. We learn lessons like the real battle is the battle against one's lower
nature. Hatred breeds hatred, covetousness and violence will lead inevitably to
ruin, the real battle is the battle against one's lower nature. It is an excellent
source to know the social, cultural, political and economic conditions of the
people during those times. Through vivid portraiture of characters, we learn to
live an ideal life. In short Mahabharata is an epic, which teaches an individual how
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

to become selfless, understand the importance of Karma and fight against our
own lowly desires.

UNIT II
Comprehension Skill: Unseen Passage followed by multiple choice
questions
Tips for solving Unseen passages:
• Concentrate. Put aside your worries and distractions. Get ready to
get down to business!
• Don't rely too much on prior knowledge. Although you may
know about the subject, the information that is presented will be
the source from which your answer should come.

• Read the question first. Why read the question before the passage?
Because it saves time to know what you are reading for!
• Make sure you understand the question. What kind of information
will you need to gather when you read? Will you be looking for facts?
Or will you be using the passage to come up with your own answer?
• Read the passage. Read the passage as quickly as you can. Look for the
answer as you read. When you find it, take notice of it, but -- and this is
important -- don't stop reading yet! Read to the end. That way you can
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

be sure that your answer is the best, most complete answer possible. If
you are reading the passage in order to provide a written response,
read more carefully. Make sure you understand everything.
• Providing the answer. Feel free to look back at the passage to double-
check your answer.

Passage 1:

The Indian education system is quite an old education system that still exists. It
has produced so many genius minds that are making India proud all over the
world. However, while it is one of the oldest systems, it is still not that developed
when compared to others, which are in fact newer. This is so as the other
countries have gone through growth and advancement, but the Indian education
system is still stuck in old age. It faces a lot of problems that need to be sorted to
let it reach its full potential. Our Indian education system faces a lot of problems
that do not let it prosper and help other children succeed in life. The biggest
problem which it has to face is the poor grading system. It judges the intelligence
of a student on the basis of academics which is in the form of exam papers. That is
very unfair to students who are good in their overall performance but not that
good at specific subjects. Moreover, they only strive to get good marks not paying
attention to understanding what is taught. In other words, this encourages getting
good marks through mugging up and not actually grasping the concept efficiently.
Furthermore, we see how the Indian education system focuses on theory more.
Only a little percentage is given for practical. This makes them run after the
bookish knowledge and not actually applying it to the real world. This practice
makes them perplexed when they go out in the real world due to lack of practical
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

knowledge. Most importantly, the Indian education system does not emphasize
enough on the importance of sports and arts. Students are always asked to study
all the time where they get no time for other activities like sports and arts. As the
Indian Education System is facing so many problems, we need to come up with
effective solutions so it improves and creates a brighter future for students. We
can start by focusing on the skill development of the students. The schools and
colleges must not only focus on the ranks and grades but on the analytical and
creative skills of children. In addition, subjects must not be merely taught
theoretically but with practical. This will help in a better understanding of the
subject without them having to mug up the whole thing due to lack of practical
knowledge. Also, the syllabus must be updated with the changing times and not
follow the old age pattern. Other than that, the government and private colleges
must now increase the payroll of teachers. As they clearly deserve more than
what they offer. To save money, the schools hire teachers who are not qualified
enough. This creates a very bad classroom environment and learning. They must
be hired if they are fit for the job and not because they are working at a lesser
salary.

Questions:

• What are the major problems faced by the Indian education system?

a) Non development
b) Poor grading system
c) Stuck in old time
d) Discrimination
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

Ans. b

• What are the steps that could be taken by schools for the development of
children?

a) Focusing on ranks and grades

b) Analytical and creative skills
c) Both a and b
d) None of the above

Ans. b

• According to the passage what is ironical about the Indian education

system?

a) New yet not developed

b) Old yet developed
c) New yet developed
d) Old yet not developed

Ans. d

• Which of the following factors is responsible for creating the bad

environment in classroom?

a) Lack of knowledge
b) Mere theoretical teaching
c) Unqualified teachers
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

d) Old pattern of study

Ans. c

• State the antonym of the word ‘perplex’.

a) Bewilder
b) Explicate
c) Perturb
d) Confound

Ans. b

UNIT III

Basic Language Skills: 1. Vocabulary Building: Suffix, Prefix, Synonyms,

Antonyms, Homophones, Homonyms and One-Word Substitution. 2.
Basic Grammar: Noun, Pronoun, Adjective, Verb, Adverb, Prepositions,
Articles, Time and Tense

Prefixes:
A morpheme added to the beginning of a word to modify its
meaning is called prefix. Un: unkind, unwise, unwanted, unfair
Dis: disloyal, dislike,
disrespect
Non: non-stop, non-
violence
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

Mis: misbehave, misconduct, mismanagement

Suffixes:-
A morpheme added at the end of a word to modify the word’s
meaning is called suffix. Ness: kindness, meanness
Ity: rapidity,
insanity Ist:
specialist,
racialist
Ize: symbolize,
hospitalize Ment:
appointment,
amazement
Al: refusal, dismissal
Full: doubtful,
wonderful Ish:
foolish, childish
Y: sandy,
meaty, salty
En: ripen,
widen
Ify: simplify, diversify

Synonyms:
They are different words with almost identical or similar meanings.
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

Synonyms can be any part of speech e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs or
prepositions, for e.g.
Noun-
student,
pupil Verb-
buy,
purchase
Adjective-
sick, ill
Preposition-
on, upon

List of Synonyms:
Abduct kidnap
Admit confess
Aggravate worsen
Also too
Answer response
Bliss happiness
Calamity disaster
Celestial heavenly
Conclude deduce
Dumb mute
Egocentric self-centered
Egocentric self-centered
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

Luminous bright
Malice ill will
Epoch era
Rough coarse
Reckless rough
Vogue fashion

Word Synonym Synonym

Narrow Confined restricted

Nature Aspect character
Necessary Mandatory requisite
Negate Contradict refute
Negligent Careless remiss
Negotiate Bargain deal
Nice Affable benign
Noble Aristocratic distinguished
Novice Beginner nonprofessional
Nuisance Annoyance offense
Obedient Faithful loyal
Objection Disapproval protest
Obligatory Compulsory required
Observe Notice watch
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

Obvious Conspicuous definite

Offend Anger irritate
Offer Bid proposal
Omen Premonition sign
Omit Exclude remove
Opportune Advantageous auspicious
Pacify Appease placate
Pain Ache discomfort
Paramount Chief leading
Partisan Biased dogmatic
Passive Inactive lethargic
Pause Break cease
Permeate Diffuse disseminate
Perpetuate Endure preserve
Perplex Astonish baffle
Persecute Afflict harass
Radiate Effuse emanate
Radical Basic fundamental
Range Anger furor
Rank Arrange classify
Realize Accomplish fulfill
Recalcitrant Obstinate stubborn
Receptacle Container repository
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

Reconcile Atone conciliate

Regret Deplore grieve
Reliable Dependable trustworthy
Sanction Approval permit
Scope Aim extent
Section Division portion
Settle Adjust compromise
Shallow Superficial trivial
Shrewd Careful calculating
Significant Distinctive important
Slight Delicate slender
Spontaneous Impromptu unplanned
Spread Announce broadcast
Stabilize Balance steady
Tame Domesticate subdue
Tangle Intertwine twist
Temper Mood nature
Tendency Inclination trend
Term Cycle duration
Thrift Conservation prudence
Tough Aggressive unyielding
Transfer Convey exchange
Tumult Agitation commotion
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

Turbulent Disordered violent

Vain Boastful inflated
Valid Authorized legitimate
Variety Assortment diversify
Verify Authenticate substantiate

Antonyms:-
They are more commonly known
as opposites. Cheap expensive
Quite noisy
Generous mean
Messy tidy
Asleep awake
Shallow deep
Sharp blunt
Wise foolish
Wet dry
Odd even
Flexible rigid
Brave cowardly
Rude polite
Shiny dull
Tame wild

Antonym Examples
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

Achieve – Fail
Idle – Active
Afraid – Confident
Ancient – Modern
Arrive – Depart
Arrogant – Humble
Ascend – Descend
Attack – Defend
Blunt – Sharp
Brave – Cowardl
Cautious – Careless
Complex – Simple
Compliment – Insult
Crazy – Sane
Crooked – Straight
Decrease – Increase
Demand – Supply
Destroy – Create
Divide – Unite
Drunk – Sober
Expand – Contract
Freeze - Boil
Full – Empty
Generous – Stingy
Giant – Dwarf
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

Gloomy – Cheerful
Guilty – Innocent
Hire – Fire
Include – Exclude
Individual – Group
Innocent – Guilty
Knowledge – Ignorance
Liquid – Solid
Lonely – Crowded
Major – Minor
Marvelous – Terrible
Mature – Immature
Maximum - Minimum
Noisy – Quiet
Optimist - Pessimist
Ordinary – Extraordinary
Partial – Complete
Passive – Active
Permanent – Unstable
Plentiful – Sparse
Positive – Negative
Powerful – Weak
Praise – Criticism
Private – Public
Problem – Solution
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

Professional – Amateur
Profit – Loss
Quality – Inferiority
Random – Specific
Rigid – Flexible
Segregate – Integrate
Shame – Honor
Simple - Complicated
Single – Married
Stiff – Flexible
Strength – Weakness
Sturdy – Weak
Sunny - Cloudy
Superb – Inferior
Temporary – Permanent

Timid – Bold
Toward – Away
Tragic – Comic
Transparent - Opaque
Triumph – Defeat
Union – Separation
Unique – Common
Upset – Relaxed
Urge – Deter
Vacant – Occupied
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

Vague – Definite
Vertical – Horizontal
Villain – Hero
Visible - Invisible
Wax – Wane
Wealth – Poverty
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

Below is a list of common antonyms:

Destroy Create
Dim Bright
Doubt Trust
Dull Sharp
Earth Sky
Easy Hard
End Begin
Evening Morning
Exceptional Common
Fail Pass
False True
Fancy Plain
Fat Thin
Find Lose
Firm Flabby
Bring Take away
Busy Idle
Capture Release
Cautious Careless
Change Remain
same
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

Child Adult
Ancient Modern
Clean Dirty
Arrive Depart
Cold Warm
Ascend Descend
Countryme Foreigner
Attract Repel
n
Awkward Graceful
Crooked Straight
Bad Good
Cry Laugh
Beautiful Ugly
Damage Improve
Bent Straight
Dawn Sunset
Big Small
Deep shallow
Bitter Sweet
Difficulty Easy
Blunt Sharp
Divide Unite
Bold Timid
Brave Cowardly
Brief Long
Bright Dull
Boy Girl
Buy Sell
Cause Effect
Center Edge
Cheap Expensive
Chilly Warm
Close Open
Command Obey
 BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

Complimen Insult
Above Below t

Accident Intent Continue Interrupt

Add Subtract Copy Original

Admit Reject Crazy Sane

Advance Retreat Cruel Kind

Afraid Confident Curse Bless

Alive Dead Dark Light

Alone Together Day Night

Amuse Bore
Annoy Soothe
Argue Agree
Arrogant Humble
Attack Defend
Awake Asleep
Back Front
Bare Covered
Before After
Better Worse
Birth Death
Black White
Body Soul
Bottom Top
Break Repair
 BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

Absent Present
Achieve Fail
Admire Detest
Adore Hate Pain Pleasure
Affirm Deny Part Whole
After Before Particular General
Allow Forbid Passive Active
Amateur Profession Perceive Ignore
al Life Death
Likely Unlikely
Little Big
Lonely Crowded
Lost Founded
Love Hate
Make Destroy
Man Women
Marvelous Terrible
Melt Freeze
Miscellaneo Specific
us
Mix Separate
More Less
Mother Father
Naïve Sophisticat
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

ed
Near Far
New Old
Nobody Everybody
None All
Nothing Something
Obese Thin
Odd Even
offer Refuse
Old Young
One Several
Other Same
Pacify Agitate
Panic Calm
Partial Complete
Pass Fail
Peace disturbanc
e
Permanent Unstable
Permit Refuse
Physical Spiritual
Plain Fancy
Plentiful Sparse
Polish Dull
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

Pollute Purify
Positive Negative
Praise Criticism
Pretty Ugly
Pride Modesty
Problem Solution
Prohibit Allow
pupil
Push Pull
Quick Slow
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English
Glossy Dull
Great Small
Grief Joy
Guard Attack
Handsome Ugly
Hard Soft
He She
Heaven Hell
Height Depth
Hero Coward
Hill Valley
Hire Fire
Hot Cold
Huge Tiny
Hurt Help
In Out
Innocent Guilty
Intelligent Stupid
Joy Sadness
Kind Cruel
Large Small
Laugh Cry
Leave Arrive
Less More
Level Uneven
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

Lie Truth
Like Dislike
Liquid Solid
Lively Inactive
Loose Tight
Loud Soft
Major Minor
Male Female
Many Few
Mature Immature
Mess Tidiness
Mistake Accuracy
Moist Dry
Move Stay
Nasty Nice
Never Always
No Yes
Noise Quiet
North South
Now Then
Obvious Hidden
Offend Please
Often Seldom
On Off
 BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English
Drunk Sober
Dumb Smart
East West
Elementary Advanced Ordinary Uncommo
Even Odd
Evil Good n
Expand Shrink
Failure Success Over Under
Famous Unknown
Fast Slow
Fiction Fact
Finish Start
Fix Break
Follow Lead
Forward Backward
Fresh Stale
Funny Sad
Gain Lose
Gentle Harsh
Give Receive
Gloomy Cheerful
Greed Generous
Ground Sky
Guess Know
Happy Sad
hate Love
Head Foot
Heavy Light
Help Hinder
High Low
Him Her
His Hers
Horrible Pleasant
Hurry Slow
Idle Active
Individual Group
Inside Outside
Jolly Serious
Keep Lose
Knowledge Ignorance Up Down
Last First
Leading Following Urge Deter
Left Right
Let Prevent Vague Definite
Forgive Blame
Free Restricted vanish Appear
Friend Enemy
Full Empty Vertical Horizontal
Generous Stingy
Get Give Visitor Host/hoste
Glad Sad
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

ss
Wake Sleep
Weep Laugh
Wet Dry
Wild Tame
With Without
Vast Limited
Villain Hero
Waive Require
Wealth Poverty
Well Badly
White Black
Win lose
 Quit Start
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English
Random Specific
Rare Common
Ready Unprepare
d
Reduce Increase
Relax Tighten
Repair Destroy
Revenge Forgivenes
s
Right wrong
Rise Sink
Rude Polite
Satisfy Displease
Segregate Integrate
Send Receive
Servant Master
Shame honor
She Trusting
Silence Sound
Pessimistic Optimistic
Place Misplace
Play Work
Plump Thin
Polite Rude
Poor Rich
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

Powerful Weak
Preceding Following
Prevent Encourage
Private Public
Profit Loss
Teacher
Quality Inferiority
Quiet Noisy
Raise Lower
Rapid Slow
Raw Cooked
Rear Front
Regret Rejoice
Remember Forget
Retain Lose
Ridiculous Sensible
Rigid Flexible
Rough Smooth
Same Different
Secluded Public
Seldom Often
Sensational Dull
Shade Light
Show Hide
 Salve Master
Slow Fast
Soak
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Dry Subject: English

Some None
Sick Healthy
Sour Sweet
Single Married
Spend Earn
Singular Plural
Start Stop
Stay Leave
Sterile Fertile
Still Moving
Stop Go
Strength Weakness
Sturdy Weak
Superb Inferior
Survive Die
Take Give
Tame Wild
Temporary Permanent
There Here
Thorough Incomplete
Tidy Messy
Timid Bold
Together Apart
Top Bottom
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

Tragic Comic
Transparen Opaque
t
True False
Ultimate Primary
Unique Common
Upset Stabilize
Vacant Full
Sit Stand
Slender Fat
Small Large
Sober Drunk
Something Nothing
Speechless Talkative
Stale Fresh
Started Finished
Steal Provide
Thaw Freeze
Thin Thick
Thrifty Wasteful
Tie Loosen
To From
Told Asked
Toward Away
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English

Transform Retain
Triumph Defeat
Truth Lie
Union Separation
BBA/B.Com/ B.Com (Hons)/BAJMC/ Ist Year Subject: English
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

One Word Substitution:

One word substitution is the use of one word in place of a wordy phrase in order
to make the sentence structure clearer. The meaning, with the replacement of the
phrase remains identical while the sentence becomes shorter.

1. Something that cannot be heard – Inaudible

2. A song sung at a burial – Dirge
3. A period of ten years – Decade
4. One who leaves his own country to settle in another – Emigrant
5. A place where clothes are kept – Wardrobe
6. A person very reserved in speech – Reticent
7. Morals that govern one’s behavior – Ethics
8. Open refusal to obey orders – Defiance
9. One who loads and unloads ships – Stevedore
10. A sudden rush of a large number of frightened people or animals. –
Stampede
11. One who is preoccupied with his own interests – Egoist
12. A geometrical figure with eight sides – Octagon
13. One who loves his country – Patriot
14. Incapable of paying debts – Insolvent
15. A long and aggressive speech – Harangue
16. The school or college in which one has been educated – Alma Mater
17. Enclosed area where aircraft are kept and repaired – Hangar
18. A short story with a moral, usually with animals as characters. – Fable
19. Having two opposing feelings at the same time – Ambivalent
20. A group of ships – Fleet
77
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

21. Pertaining to an individual from birth – Congenital

22. To increase the speed – Accelerate
23. A person who attracts attention with a flashy style – Flamboyant
24. A person who preaches religion and is considered to be a messenger of
God. –Prophet
25. A game in which neither party wins – Draw
26. That which cannot be satisfied – Insatiable
27. A place where plants are grown for sale – Nursery
28. Putting to death painlessly to end suffering – Euthanasia
29. To rise in value – Appreciate
30. To brighten up with lights – Illuminate
31. Central character in a story or play – Protagonist
32. Person or animal living on another – Parasite
33. Having something more than required – Surplus
34. Anger about an unfair situation or about someone’s unfair behavior –
Indignation
35. A building where grain is kept or stored – Granary
36. Working very hard and very carefully – Diligent

Some more examples:

A book published after the

Posthumous
death of its author
A book written by an unknown
Anonymous
author
A flesh eating animal Carnivorous
78
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

A game in which no one wins Draw

A Government by a king or
Monarchy
queen
A Government by one Autocracy
A Government by the few Oligarchy
A Government by the Nobles Aristocracy
A Government by the officials Bureaucracy
A Government by the people Democracy
A Government by the rich Plutocracy
A grass eating animal Herbivorous
A handwriting that cannot be
Illegible
read
A life history written by
Autobiography
oneself
A life history written by
Biography
somebody else
A person’s peculiar habit Idiosyncrasy
A place where orphans live Orphanage
A position for which no salary
Honorary
is paid
A sentence whose meaning is
Ambiguous
unclear
A study of ancient things Archaeology

79
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

A study of animals Zoology

A study of birds Ornithology
A study of derivation of words Etymology
A study of man Anthropology
A study of races Ethnology
A study of the body Physiology
A thing no longer in use Obsolete
An animal who preys on other
Predator
animals
Murder of a father Patricide
Murder of a human being Homicide
Murder of a mother Matricide
Murder of an brother Fratricide
Murder of an infant Infanticide
Murder of self Suicide
Murder of the king Regicide
One incapable of being tired Indefatigable
One who always thinks himself
Valetudinarian
to be ill
One who believes in fate Fatalist
One who can do anything for
Mercenary
money
One who can speak two Bilingual

80
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

languages
One who can throw his voice Ventriloquist
One who changes sides Turncoat
One who copies from other
Plagiarist
writers
One who dies without a Will Intestate
One who does not make
Infallible
mistakes
One who doesn’t know how to
Illiterate
read and write
One who doubts the existence
Agnostic
of god
One who eats too much Glutton
One who goes on foot Pedestrian
One who has no money Pauper
One who has strange habits Eccentric
One who hates mankind Misanthrope
One who hates women Misogynist
One who is a newcomer Neophyte
One who is all powerful Omnipotent
One who is easily deceived Gullible
One who is fond of sensuous
Epicure
pleasures

81
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

One who is greedy for money Avaricious

One who is indifferent to
Stoic
pleasure or pain
One who is out to challenge a
Anarchist
government
One who is present
Omnipresent
everywhere
One who is quite like a woman Effeminate
One who is recovering from
Convalescent
illness
One who is unmarried Celibate
One who knows everything Omniscient
One who knows many
Polyglot
languages
One who lives in a foreign
Immigrant
country
One who looks on the bright
Optimist
side of things
One who looks on the dark side
Pessimist
of things
One who loves books Bibliophile
One who loves mankind Philanthropist
One who pretends to be what Hypocrite

82
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

he is not
One who questions everything Cynic
One who speaks less Reticent
One who thinks only of himself Egoist
One who thinks only of welfare
Feminist
of women
One who works for free Volunteer
People living at the same time Contemporaries
People who work together Colleagues
Practice of having one wife or
Monogamy
husband
Practice of having several
Polyandry
husbands
Practice of having several
Polygamy
wives
Practice of having two wives or
Bigamy
husbands
Rule by the mob Mobocracy
Something that cannot be
Inimitable
imitated
That through which light can
Translucent
partly pass
That through which light can Transparent

83
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

pass
That through which light
Opaque
cannot pass
That which cannot be avoided Inevitable
That which cannot be defended Indefensible
That which cannot be
Indescribable
described
That which cannot be imitated Inimitable
That which cannot be satisfied Insatiable
That which is against law Illegal
That which is not likely to
Improbable
happen
To free somebody from all
Exonerate
blame
To transfer one’s authority to
Delegate
another
To write under a different
Pseudonym
name
Violating the sanctity of a
Sacrilege
church
Words written on the tomb of
Epitaph
a person

84
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

Words likely to be confused and misused:

Homonyms:
Some words are so alike to each other in their meanings, spellings or
pronunciation that it becomes difficult to understand and use them correctly.
Such words are called Homonyms.
Bear- (a name
of animal) Bear-
(to sustain)
Bark- (the sound
of a dog) Bark –
(the skin of a
tree) Left- (to
leave)
Left- (related to the side of the
human body) Address- (to
speak to)
Address- (location)
Homophones:
A word that sounds the same but differs in spelling or meaning or origin is
called Homophone. Ex. See, sea.
Access- (approach)
Excess- (super
abundance)
Addition- (to
add)

85
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

Edition- (a number of books

printed at one time) Duel- (a
combat between two)
Dual- (double)
Gait- (manner of
walking) Gate-
(door)

List of Some Common Homophones

1) Whir- of a machine, make a continues noise
Wore- simple past tense or wear;
having clothes on Were- singular and
plural past of to be
2) Whirred- past tense of whir
Word- these very bunch of letters together, forming what you read
and comprehend
3) to - preposition

Too - also
Two - 2
4) Flour- A kitchen
supplement Flower- a
beautiful plant
5) Pause- bring to momentary stop
Paws- the feet of an animal, usually, containing pads and claws
6) Affects- make a difference. Used
as a verb. Effects- with the same
86
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

meaning used as noun

7) Through- moving in one side and out of
the other side of Threw- simple past of
throw
8) Throe- an intense or violent pain
Throw- propel with force through the air
9) Knot- a fastening made by
typing a lace No-
Negative
10) Know- become
aware of No-
negative
11) Bow- bend the body as a
sign of respect Bough- the main
branch of a free
Bo- a name
12) Sow- plant by scatting seeds on
the surface So- Submodifier
Sew- fasten or join threads together with a needle
13) Wright- maker or builder
Right- direction or correctness
Rite- religious or any solemn ceremony
Write- mark letters on surface
14) Wrought- simple past of
work Rot- become bad

87
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

in quality
15) Would- indicate the possibility of an
imagined event Wood-What tree are made
of
16) You- a pronoun
Ewe- female sheep
17) New-in a good
condition
18) Knew -past of know

19) Feat- an achievement requiring

great courage Feet- Plural of foot
20) Flew- simple past of fly
Flu- deadly disease
Flue- a duct for waste smoke produced by any fuel-
burning installation Dye- give a different color to (usually
hair)
Die- stop living; lack of vitality; mana
21) Four- 4
For- in support or in favor of
Fore- situated in front
22) Fourth- out from a
starting point Fourth- 4th
23) Way- Method of doing something; path
Weigh- act of finding out how heavy

88
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

something is Weight- a body’s quantity

of matter
24) Wait- delay someone’s
actions Weight- a body’s
quantity of matter
25) I- first person pronoun

Aye - yes
Eye- You need them to read all this
26) See- act of using
your eyes Sea- the
ocean
27) Liar- someone who tells
untruthful stories Lyre- a musical
instrument
28) Cite- mention
Site- an area
Sight- point of view; power of seeing
29) Coal- black rock used to fuel
Cole- cabbage, kale or rape
30) course- the route of something

Confusing and the Most Misused Words in English:

In English language, there are several words which sound alike though these are
spelled differently and have different meanings. Hence, one has to be very careful
in using these words because they are not only confusing but are likely to be
89
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

misused. Some of the most commonly confused and misused words in English
with their meanings and usage in sentence are given below:

Advice/Advise- Advice is a noun: John gave Naresh

good advice. Advise is a verb: John advised Sheela to
avoid the questionable chicken salad.

Affect/Effect- Affect is verb and effect is noun.

Example- Downed electricity affect citizens.
The effect of lazy daily routine is not good for health.

Among/Amongst- Among is the preferred and most common variant of

this word in American English.
Amongst is more common in British English.

Among/Between – Among expresses a collective or loose relationship of

several items: Harish found a letter hidden among the papers on the desk.
Between expresses the relationship of one thing, to another thing or to many
other things: Suresh spent all day carrying messages between Harish and the
other students.
The idea that between can be used only when talking about two things is a
myth-it's perfectly correct to use between if you are talking about multiple
binary relationships.

Assure/Ensure/Insure - Assure means to tell someone that something will

definitely happen or is definitely true: Naresh assured John that no one would

90
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

cheat at Chess.
Ensure means to guarantee or make sure of something: Aditya took steps to
ensure that no one cheated at Chess.
Insure means to take out an insurance policy: Prakash was glad the Chess
hall was insured against damage caused by rowdy people.

Breath/Breathe- Breath is a noun; it's the air that goes in and out of your
lungs: John held his breath while his kid was going down the stairs.
Breathe is a verb; it means to exhale or inhale: After Apoorva's safe landing,
Pratibha had to remind herself to breathe again.

Capital/Capitol- Capital has several meanings. It can refer to an uppercase

letter, money, or a city where a seat of government is located: Sheela visited
Delhi, the capital of India.
Capitol means the building where a legislature meets: Naresh visited the
cafe in the basement of the capitol.

Complement/Compliment- A complement is something that completes

something else. It's often used to describe things that go well together: his
black shoes were a perfect complement to his Jacket.
A compliment is a nice thing to say: she received many compliments on her
purple dress.

Disinterested/Uninterested - Disinterested means impartial: A panel of

disinterested judges had never met the accused before.

91
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

Uninterested means bored or not wanting to be involved with something:

she was uninterested in attending John's kinging class.

Defence/Defense- Defense is standard in American English. Defence is found

mainly in British English.

Emigrate/Immigrate - Emigrate means to move away from a city or

country to live somewhere else: Example- His grandfather emigrated from
Canada sixty years ago.
Immigrate means to move into a country
from somewhere else:
Example- Her sister immigrated to Ireland in 2004.

E.g./I.e. - These two Latin abbreviations are often mixed up, but e.g. means
"for example," while i.e. means "that is."

Empathy/Sympathy- Empathy is the ability to understand another person's

perspective or feelings. Sympathy is a feeling of sorrow for someone else's
suffering. A sympathizer is someone who agrees with a particular ideal or
cause.

Farther/Further- Farther refers to physical distance: She can run farther than
him.
Further refers to metaphorical distance: Prof. Subramanian is further away
from finishing his project than Prof., Martin is.

92
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

Flaunt/Flout- Flaunt means to show off: Example- He

his stylish new dress. Flout means to defy, especially in a
way that shows scorn:
Example- She flouted the institute's dress code by wearing a saree.

Gray/Grey- Gray is the standard American English spelling. Grey is the

standard British English spelling..

Historic/Historical - Historic means famous, important, and influential: Ile

visited the beach in Kitty Hawk where the Wright brothers made their historic
first airplane flight.
Historical means related to history: She visited the historical tomb of I lumayun.

Imply/Infer- Imply means to hint at something without saying it directly: She

implied that Naresh was in trouble, but he wouldn't tell her why.
Infer means to deduce something that hasn't been staled directly: Satya inferred
that John was nervous about something from the way he kept looking over her
shoulder.

It's/Its - lt's is a contraction of "it is".

Lay/Lie - To lay means to put or to place. One way to remember this is that
there is an a in both to lay and to place. For example- She will lay out her
overcoat before she goes to bed.

93
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

To lie means to recline. For example- She will lie down for a nap.

Lead/Led - Lead, when it rhymes with "bed." refers to a type of metal. Led is
the past tense of the verb to lead, which means to guide or to be first.
Example- He led thc way.

Loose/Lose- Loose is usually an adjective.

For example- Katy discovered that the cows were loose.
Lose is always a verb. It means to misplace something or not to be
victorious in a game or contest. Example- John was careful not to lose his
ticket.

Principal/Principle- Principal can be a noun or adjective. As a noun, it refers

to the person in charge of a school or organization. He was called into the
principal's office.
As an adjective, it means most important: The principal reason for this
meeting is to make plans for conducting the examination.
A principle (always a noun) is a firmly held belief or ideal: She doesn't like
surprise parties as a matter of principle.

Inquiry/Enquiry- Inquiry and enquiry both mean "a request for information."
Inquiry is the standard American English spelling. Enquiry is the British spelling.

Stationary/Stationery- Stationary, means un moving: The revolving door

remained stationary because he was , pushing it the wrong way.
94
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

Stationery refers to letter writing materials and especially to high quality

paper: John printed his resume on his best stationery.

Than/Then- Than is used for comparisons: He runs faster than John.

Then is used to indicate time or sequence: She took off running. and then
John came along and finished her breakfast.

Their/There/They're - Their is the possessive form of "they":

Students took their time. There indicates a place: It took them an
hour to get there.
They're is a contraction of "they are": Are Suresh and Sheela coming? They're
almost here.

To/Too - To is a preposition that can indicate direction: She walked to school.

She said hello to John when she saw him.
Too is used as an intensifier, and also means "also": Sheela waited too long to do
her homework.

Toward/Towards – Toward is standard in American English. Towards is

standard in British English.

Who's/Whose- Who's is a contraction of "who is": Who's calling John at this

hour?
Whose is a possessive pronoun that means "belonging to (someone)":
Sheela, whose phone hadn't stopped ringing all morning, barely ate anything

95
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

for breakfast. )

Basic Grammar: Noun, Pronoun, Adjective, Verb, Adverb,

Prepositions, Articles, Time and Tense

NOUN:

Noun is the name of person, place, thing, idea or feeling.

Noun has Seven Basic kinds. These are as follows:

1. Common Noun

2. Proper Noun

3. Collective Noun

4. Material Noun

5. Abstract Noun

6. Countable Noun

7. Uncountable Noun

1. Common Noun: Common Noun is a name given to any person, place, or thing
in general. The name ‘boy’ refers to all boys (Rakesh, Raju, Amit, Rajesh, Mayank
etc.) but does not mention any particular boy. Hence, the name ‘boy’ is a common

96
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

noun. Similarly, the name ‘city’ refers to any city in the world (Delhi, Patna, Japan,
New York, etc.) but does not mention any particular city. Thus, ‘city’ is a common
noun. (We must use an article before a singular Common noun.)

2. Proper Noun: Proper noun is the name given to a particular person, place or
thing.
For example, Rakesh and Amit are the names of boys; Delhi, the name of a city; Taj
Mahal, the name of a monument; Ganga the name of a river; Mt Everest, the name
of a mountain range. Hence Rakesh, Mayank, Delhi, Taj Mahal, Ganga and Mt.
Everest are proper nouns.
Note: A Proper noun always begins with a capital letter.

3. Collective Noun: A collective noun is a word or phrase that represents a group

of people or things but is treated as a singular entity (Hint: a “collection” of people
or things). Even though you can count the individual members of the group, you
usually think of the individuals as a group, a whole, or as one unit.

• A herd of animals
• Class of students
• Flock of birds
• Pride of lions
• Choir of singers

4. Material Noun: It is simply a name of various raw materials or elements which

exist in nature or the environment. Also, some of them are evolved from animals
or plants after the biodegradation process. Material nouns are formed from
nature like gold, silver, iron, coal, rock, copper, aluminum, etc. The most

97
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

important thing about this noun is that it only indicated the materials or
substances and not people, places, etc.

Types of Material Noun

• Material nouns for plants: Food, oil, coffee, medicine, perfume, tea, cotton,
rubber, etc.
• Material nouns from animals: Wool, meat, honey, egg, milk, leather, silk, etc.
• Materials from nature: Sand, rock, rain, salt, water, silver, gold, diamond,
coal, air, etc.
• Human-made material nouns: Alcohol, cement, charcoal, cheese, paraffin,
cloth, utensil, brick, acid, etc.

5. Abstract Noun: An abstract noun is a person, place, or thing without a physical

form, meaning that a person cannot interact with abstract nouns using their five
senses: sight, scent, taste, touch, or hearing. Abstract nouns are abstract concepts,
such as philosophies or emotions. They are names given to some quality, feeling,
state or action. Charity is an abstract noun for it is the name of a quality which
cannot be seen but can only be understood by seeing certain actions or
behavioural pattern of a person. For example, “happiness” is an abstract noun you
identify through someone’s actions, but you cannot touch or smell “happiness.”

6. Countable Noun: Countable nouns are for things we can count using numbers.
They have a singular and a plural form. The singular form can use the determiner
"a" or "an".

Singular Plural

98
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

one cat two cats

one fish two fishes

one man two men

one idea two ideas

one dress two dresses

7. Uncountable Noun: Uncountable nouns are nouns that come in a state or

quantity that is impossible to count; liquids are uncountable, as are things that act
like liquids (sand, air). Abstract ideas like creativity or courage are also
uncountable. Uncountable nouns are always considered to be singular, and can
stand alone or be used with some, any, a little, and much. See the examples below
for reference:

Students don’t seem to have much homework these days.

A lot of equipment is required to play hockey safely.

Pronoun:

Pro means 'for' or 'acting as.' A pronoun is used as a substitute for a noun or a
noun phrase. In other words, it has all the characteristics of a noun: it can function
as a subject/object/complement in a sentence. A pronoun is used to avoid the
repetition of nouns or noun phrases:

99
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

1. Suresh went to the market because Suresh wanted to buy a pen. i.e. Suresh
went to the market because he wanted to buy a pen.

2. Walking is a form of exercise. Walking is easier than swimming. i.e. Walking is a

form of exercise. It is easier than swimming.

There are seven types of pronouns:

i) Personal Pronouns: A pronoun used to place instead of any person is called a
personal pronoun. Personal pronoun usually indicates persons. For example, I,
we, you, she, they, etc.

i) Personal pronouns: Personal Pronouns are pronouns that refer to a specific

person or thing in a sentence. Personal pronouns are marked in bold for easy
identification:

• I have a sweet puppet.

• We have been playing cards since morning.
• You are very good at English.
• He had an evergreen memory in his childhood.
• She is going to arrange a meeting with her colleagues.
• They will be played in the final match.

➢ The Pronouns which refer to the person or persons speaking are called
Pronouns of the First Person; as: I, we, me, us, mine, and ours.
➢ The Pronouns which refer to the person or persons spoken to are called
Pronouns of the Second Person; as: you, yours.

100
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

➢ The Pronouns which refer to the person or thing spoken of are called
Pronouns of the Third Person; as: he, she, him, his, her, hers, they, them,
theirs, and it.

ii) Possessive Pronouns: Possessive pronouns show who owns something

described in a sentence. They include mine, his, hers, its, ours, yours, their, and
theirs. Possessive adjectives are similar to possessive pronouns. However, the
possessive adjective comes before the object of the sentence; the possessive
pronoun is the object of the sentence.
Example: I had dinner with Jane and her brother, Michael.
His shoes were old and worn.

iii) Demonstrative Pronouns: Demonstrative pronouns point out a particular

person or thing. When used before nouns, however, they are considered
adjectives (these books, those houses, that flag).
Example: This, these, that, those.
Sentence Example 1: These are her books.
Sentence Example 2: That is the road she took.

iv) Reflective Pronouns: When a pronoun consists of a reflection of the self, it is

a reflexive pronoun. For example,

He hurt himself.

She herself turned up to the event.

Note: We can only use the reflexive pronoun as a reflection of the subject, but not
instead of the subject.
101
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

v) Relative Pronouns: A relative pronoun is a word that is related to the noun

mentioned before in the sentence. The relative pronoun also works as a
conjunction in the sentence, thus acting as a link between various sentences.

He works in that room which is also like his bedroom.

The man whose bike was stolen came to the police station today.

It is the best movie that I ever watched.

I have a friend whom I treat as my teacher.

vi) Interrogative Pronouns: Interrogative pronouns are used for asking

questions in the sentences. Examples of such pronouns are what, who, which,
when, where, why, etc.

What is your name?

Where is the Taj Mahal situated?

vii) Indefinite Pronouns: When the pronoun describes a general phenomenon

and no one specific in a sentence, that is an indefinite pronoun. For example,

One, all, some, no one, nobody, somebody, any, other, many, anyone, everyone,
someone etc.

One should be careful about one’s behavior in the class.

Adjectives:

102
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

An adjective describes or modifies noun/s and pronoun/s in a sentence. It

normally indicates quality, size, shape, duration, feelings, contents, and more
about a noun or pronoun. Adjectives usually provide relevant information about
the nouns/pronouns they modify/describe by answering the questions: What
kind? How many? Which one? How much? Adjectives enrich your writing by adding
precision and originality to it.

Example:

• The team has a dangerous batsman. (What kind?)

• I have ten candies in my pocket. (How many?)
• I loved that red car. (Which one?)
• I earn more money than he does. (How much?)

Degrees of Adjectives

Positive Degree – An adjective is said to be in positive degree, when there is no

comparison.

Comparative Degree – An adjective is said to be in comparative degree, when it

is used to compare between two nouns or pronouns.

Superlative Degree – An adjective is said to be in superlative degree, when it is

used to compare more than two nouns or pronouns.

103
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

Types of Adjectives:

1. Descriptive Objectives: As the name suggests, these are words which

describe nouns and pronouns. In other words, it adds an attribute to the
nouns/pronouns. They are also known as Qualitative Adjectives.

Examples: I have a fast car. (The word ‘fast’ is describing an attribute of the
car)

I am hungry. (The word ‘hungry’ is providing information about the subject)

2. Quantitative Adjectives: The quantity of the nouns or pronouns is defined

by quantitative adjectives. The question ‘how much?’ and ‘how many?’ is
addressed by this type.

Examples: I have 50 bucks in my purse. (How much)

Sunita has three kids. (How many)

3. Proper Adjectives: Proper nouns modifying or describing other

nouns/pronouns become proper adjectives. It means ‘specific’ or particular.

Examples: Indian kabaddi players are very strong.

I love Burger King’s burgers.

3. Demonstrative Adjective: Reference to something or someone is pointed

out by Demonstrative Adjectives. The words: this, that, these, those are used
as Demonstrative Adjectives.

104
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

Examples: That house is beautifully decorated.

(‘That’ refers to a singular noun far from the speaker)

This notebook is mine.

(‘This’ refers to a singular noun close to the speaker)

4. Possessive Adjectives: A possession or ownership is described by this

adjective. The ownership of something to someone/something is pointed
out. The most common words used: my, his, her, our, their, your.

Examples: My bicycle was parked outside.

His dog is very adorable.

5. Interrogative Adjectives: This adjective asks a Question. The adjective is

followed by a noun or a pronoun. The most common words are: which,
what, whose.

Examples: Which laptop do you use?

What game do you usually play?

6. Indefinite Adjectives: A non-specific modification of a noun is done by this

one. Provides indefinite information about the noun. The common words
are: few, many, much, most, all, any, each, every, either, nobody, several,
some, etc.

Examples: Manisha gave some rice to her.

Raj wanted a few moments alone.

105
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

7. Compound Adjectives: When compound nouns modify other nouns, they

become compound adjectives. They can be recognised by a hyphen or
joined together with a quotation mark.

Examples: I have a broken-down mattress.

Ramesh saw a six-foot-long snake.

8. Absolute Adjectives: An Absolute Adjective is an adjective with a meaning

that is generally not capable of being intensified or compared. Also known
as an incomparable, ultimate, or absolute modifier. According to some style
guides, absolute adjectives are always in the superlative degree. However,
some absolute adjectives can be quantified by the addition of the word
almost, nearly, or virtually.

Examples: He is dead. (We cannot use “dead” in a comparative sense; i.e. we

cannot say “He is deader than me.”)

That gem is unique. (We cannot use “more unique” as the word “unique” itself
means “one of a kind”.)

Verbs:
Verbs are “the little motors of action”—the principal vehicles or out
thoughts and feeling, without which to communicate will be rather difficult.

A word that indicates an action, event, or state is called verb. The verb can be
divided into two basic kinds-

Finite (Complete ) verbs are those that show tense and have a definite
106
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

relation with the subject or a noun and stand alone as a complete sentence.
Ex. I go, She went. They have completed.
Non-Finite (Incomplete) verbs do not show tense, person or number. Ex. He
wants to play football. The Police caught him driving without a license. Here
‘to play’ and ‘driving’ are considered as non-finite verbs. These Verbs are used
in various ways.
We have some more verbs and its kinds:

Kinds of verb
Transitive verb
Intransitive verb
Linking verb
Auxiliary verb/helping verb

Transitive verb
Transitive verb needs an object to complete its sense. It is SVO(subject, verb,
object,) As:
Dinesh saw a film.
We love our country.
Sunaina sings beautiful songs.
India will win the match.

In these sentence –
Verbs are- saw, love, sings and will win.
Object are- a film, our country, beautiful. Songs, and the match.
107
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

Note: If we combine subject and verb and ask the question “what” or “whom” and
get an answer (object), it is Transitive verb.

Examples:
S+verbs Question Answer(Object)
Dinesh saw What? a pen
We love Whom our country
Sunaina sings What? beautiful songs

Transitive verb can have two objects:

• One object
• Two objects

Transitive verb with one object

She is taking milk.
I like coffee.
Anand plays chess.
Our teachers teach us.
In these sentence milk, coffee, chess, and us are objects.

Transitive verb with Two object

In such cases one is the indirect object which is usually a human being and
one is direct object which is usually a thing, idea or thought etc.
Ms. Mamta teaches us English.
My friend gave me a book.

The stranger asked him a question.

108
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

She wrote me a letter.

In these sentence Indirect objects are- us, him, me , me and Direct object are-
English, a book, a question and a letter.

Intransitive verb
An intransitive verb has two characteristics. First, it is an action verb,
expressing a doable activity like arrive, go, lie, sneeze, sit, die, etc. Second,
unlike a transitive verb, it will not have a direct object receiving the action.
Here are some examples of intransitive verbs:

Meera arrived late in the class.

Arrived = intransitive verb.

James went to the library today.

Went = intransitive verb

The cats often lie in the shade under out cars.

Lie = intransitive verb

Shreya was grinding peppers so she

sneezed with violence. Sneezes=
intransitive

In the evenings, Geeta sits in her garden.

Sits = intransitive verbs.
109
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

Many people die in road accidents everyday.

Dies= intransitive verb.

Linking verb
It is called Intransitive verb of incomplete predication also. It is used as
complement to make the sense complete. As: In other words we can say that
linking verb connects a subjects and its complement. As:
Komal is a doctor.
Geeta looks happy.
The sun is a star.
Karina is beautiful.
My friend is present.
Music sounds sweet.
Linking verbs: is, am, are, was, were, looks, taste, feel, consider, sound,
appear, remain, seem, grow, get, come, go, run, become, has/have,
had+been.

Auxiliary verb or Helping verb

An auxiliary verbs are—
(i) Primary auxiliary- Be( is, am, was, were, been, being,), has ,have, had ,do,

does, did,
(ii) Modal auxiliary- Should, shall, will, should, may, might, can, could.

Primary Auxiliary Modal Auxiliaries

Varun is reading a novel. We shall come tomorrow.
Madhvi was singing a song. You should study.

110
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

I have done my work. It may rain today.

She has betrayed us. She can drive a car.
They do not waste their time. You need not worry.
Do you like the film Would you lend me some moey?

Conjugation of verb
Verb has four forms:
Present (first form)
Past (second form)
Past participle (third form)

Present participle (ing form)

First Form Second Form Third Form Four

Form
Accept Accepted Accepted Acceptin
g
Act Acted Acted Acting
Agree Agreed Agreed Agreeing
Buy Bought Bought Buying
Bleed Bled Bled Bleeding
Call Called Called Calling
Cry Cried Cried Crying

111
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

Close Closed Closed Closing

Drink Drank Drank Drinking
Enter Entered Entered Entering
Free Freed Freed Freeing
Give Gave Gave Giving
Help Helped Helped Helping
Insult Insult Insulted Insulting
Kill Killed Killed Killing
Lay Laid Laid Laying
Make Made Made Making
Meet Met Met Meeting
Pay Paid Paid Paying
Push Pushed Pushed Pushing

Adverb:

An adverb is a word that tells us more about a verb. It “qualifies” or “modifies” a

verb. Read the following sentences:

It “qualifies” or “modifies” a verb. Read the following sentences:

–Alice smiled sweetly.

112
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

– Those mangoes were very sweet.

– He spoke quite loudly.

In sentence 1, the adverb quickly shows how (or in what manner) Alice smiled. It
modifies the verb smiled.

In sentence 2, the adverb very says something about the sweetness of the
mangoes. It modifies the adjective sweet.

In sentence 3, quite says something about the manner in which he spoke. It

modifies the adverb loudly.

Note that the adverbs that are standing at the beginning of sentences sometimes
modify the whole sentence, rather than a particular word.

• Unfortunately, no one was present there. It was unfortunate that no one was
present there.)

• Probably I am mistaken. (It is probable that I am mistaken.)

Kinds of adverbs:

There are very many kinds of adverbs:

1. Adverbs of action: They are the adverbs which tell us when an action takes
place. Examples are today, yesterday, before, daily, already, ago, never etc.

113
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

Rule: Time adverbs cannot be used in the present perfect, instead the past
indefinite is used for them.
– I saw a 3D movie last night.

– I met him yesterday.

– His father died two years ago.

– I have seen him before.

2. Adverbs of frequency: They are the adverbs which tell us how often an action
takes place. examples are often, always, once, never, again, seldom, frequently
etc.

– The Delhi Police is always with you.

– They always come in time.

– We seldom go out on Sundays.

– I have seen him only once.

3. Adverbs of place They are the adverbs which tell us where an action takes
place. Examples are: here, there, up, down, everywhere, out, in etc.

– He left his bag there.

– They looked everywhere.

– Please sit here.

114
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

– The car parked there.

4. Adverbs of manner: They are the adverbs which tell us how an action takes
place or in what manner. Examples are: quickly, carefully, sweetly, clearly,
bravely, beautifully, well, fast etc.

– Gautam Buddha left his family stealthily.

– They helped us cheerfully.

– he speaks slowly.

5. Adverb of Degree and quality – They are the adverbs which tell us how much
or in what degree or to what extent. Examples – very, quite, rather, enough, any,
partly, almost, utterly, as, entirely etc.

– Shamita is very beautiful

– The whistle did not please him anymore.

– I have pleaded enough and now I give up.

– He’s quite a good soccer player.

6. Adverbs of reason – They are the adverbs which tell us why an action takes
place.Examples – consequently, therefore, hence.

– It consequently has four vertices and six edges.

– He was therefore forced to relinquish his plan.

115
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

– Her triumphal progress through the skies. Hence he was called.

7. Adverbs of Adverbs of affirmation or negation – They are the adverbs which

tell us whether an action is done or not. Examples – surely, certainly, not,
probably etc.

– Surely he should have known she would get suspicious.

– He is a fool indeed.

– He is a fool indeed.

– I was not playing.

8. Interrogative adverbs – Adverbs which are used for asking questions are
called interrogative adverbs. Examples are: when, where, how, why etc.

– When will you go to New York ?

– How long will you stay here?

– Where are my keys ?

9. Relative adverbs – A relative pronoun is a type of pronoun that often

introduces dependent (or relative) clauses in sentences. They also can stand alone
as the subject or object of a sentence.Examples – who, whoever, whom,
whomever, that, which, when, where, and whose.

– Where are you going ?

– That was my book.

116
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

–With whom am I speaking?

Prepositions:

A preposition is a word placed before a noun, pronoun or gerund. It denotes the

relation of the person or thing with something else.

Examples:
a) The food is on the table. In this sentence, on shows the relation between the
nouns table and food.
ii) I am fond of chocolates. In this sentence, of shows the relation between the words
fond and chocolates.

As given in the examples above, a word such as a noun, pronoun or gerund

following a preposition is said to be the object of the preposition. It is always in
the objective case.

A preposition is always followed by a noun and never by a verb. If we want a verb

to follow a preposition, we must use the -ing form of that particular verb, which
should be a gerund (verb in a noun form). e.g. I am very fond of riding. (The base
verb ‘ride’ here takes the ‘ing’ form)

Kinds of Prepositions

i) Simple Preposition : They include at, by , for, in, of, off, on , out, through , till
, to, up, with etc.

117
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

ii) Compound Preposition : These are usually formed by prefixing a preposition

( a or be) to a noun, adjective or adverb.

These include about, above, across, along, amidst, among, amongst, around,
before, behind, beneath, beside, between, beyond, inside, outside ,
underneath, within, without etc.

iii) Phrasal/Group Preposition : These are formed by joining two or more

words.

These include phrases like according to, in accordance with, in place of,
agreeable to, in addition to, in reference to, along with, in (on) behalf of, in
regard to, away from, in case of, in spite of , because of, in comparison of ,
instead of , by dint of , in compliance with, in the event of, by means of, in
consequence of, an account of, by reason of, in course of, owing to, by virtue
of , in favour of, with a view to, by way of, in front of, with an eye to,
conformably to, in lieu of, with reference to, for the sake of, in order to, with
regard to etc.

iv) Participle Preposition : When present participles are used without any noun
or pronoun attached to them, these are called participle prepositions.

These include barring, concerning, passing, considering, during,

notwithstanding, pending, regarding, respecting, touching etc.

Classes of Preposition

To make a distinction, Simple Prepositions can also be divided into three classes:

118
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

i) Prepositions of Time and Date : These include at, on, in, by, to, till, until,
during, for, since, from, within , before, after, afterward, then etc.

ii) Prepositions of Place : These include at, in, on, to, behind etc.

iii) Prepositions of Travel and Movement : These include from, to, by , on, in,
into, at, out of, off etc.

Position of a Preposition

Prepositions normally precede nouns or pronouns. However, in certain cases it is

possible to move the preposition to the end of the sentence.

i) When an object of the preposition is an interrogative pronoun like what, who,

whom, which, where etc, the preposition can take the end or the beginning of a
sentence.
e.g. a) What are you thinking of?
b) To whom were you talking?

ii) When the object of the preposition is the relative pronoun ‘that’ , the
preposition takes the end position.
e.g. This is the dish that she is fond of.

iii) When the object of the preposition is infinitive (to + verb) , the preposition is
placed after the infinitive.
e.g. It is a beautiful house to live in.

119
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

iv) In some sentences, where the relative pronoun is hidden, the preposition takes
the end position.
e.g. This is the girl (that) I told you of.

v) In some sentences, prepositions is attached with the verb.

e.g. I hate being laughed at.

Common Usage

At/In

i) At shows stationary position or existing state.

e.g. She is at home.

Also, at noon, at the age of ninety.

ii) In shows movement.

e.g. The train is in motion.

Also, it is used to express a period of time.

e.g. in February, in the morning, in the yea 1992, in summer etc.

iii) At is also used for a small place and for a precise point of time.

e.g. a) He lives at Surajkund in Haryana.

b) The train will arrive at six in the morning.

In the above sentences, we can see that in is used for a big place, town, city etc and
for a period of time.
120
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

To/Into

i) To is used in the following cases

a) To specify direction : Turn to the left.

b) Destination : I am going to Jaipur.
c) Until : From Monday to Friday, five minutes to ten.
d) Comparison : They prefer cricket to hockey.
e) With indirect objective : Please give it to me.
f) As part of the infinitive : I want to help you.
g) In order to : We went to the store (in order) to buy soap.

ii) Into is used in the following cases

a) To the inside : We stepped into the room.

b) Change in condition : The boy changed into a man.
c) To denote movement : He jumped into the well.

Beside/Besides

i) Beside : at the side of

e.g. a) He was sitting beside Sarla.

b) We camped beside a lake.

ii) Besides : in addition to/as well as

e.g. a) He has a car besides a motorcycle.

b) Besides doing the cooking. I help him.

121
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

Between/Among

i) Between is used for two things or persons, but it can also be used for more than
two when we have a definite number in mind and there is a close
relationship/association within them.

e.g. a) He distributed his property between his two sons.

b) A treaty was signed between the three parties.

ii) Among is usually used for more than two persons or things when we have no
definite number in mind.

e.g. a) He was happy to be among his friends again.

b) He distributed his property among the poor.

With/By

With is used for instruments and by is used for agents.

e.g. The snakes was killed by him with a stick.

Under/Underneath

Under is used for living beings.

Underneath is used for non-living things only.

e.g. a) Hide this underneath the table.

b) I work under Mr Singh.
c) He is holding under the table.

122
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

On/Upon

On is used when two things are touching each other. Upon is used when one thing
is located directly above the other thing.

e.g. a) We sat on the chair.

b) The cat jumped upon the chair.

Of/Off

These are used in the following situations, referring to

i) Location : East of here, the middle of the road

ii) Possession : a friend of mine, the sound of music
iii) Part of group : one of us, a member of the team
iv) Measurement : a cup of milk, two metres of snow
v) Not on, away or from or removal : Please keep off the grass
vi) At some distance from : There are islands off the coast.

During/For

i) During is used with known periods of time i.e. period known by name, such as
Christmas, Diwali; or periods which already have been defined.

e.g. during the middle ages, during the winter etc.

ii) For may be used to denote purpose and may also be used before known
periods.

123
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

e.g. I went there for the summer.

They went to the club for partying.

Since/From

i) Since is used to denote a point in time and never for a period of time.

e.g. It has been raining since 6 o’clock.

Since can also be used as an adverb.

e.g. He left school in 1983. I haven’t seen him since.

ii) From is normally used with to or till/until.

e.g. Most people work from eight to six.

From can also be used to denote place.

e.g. He is from Mumbai.

Before/After/Afterwards

i) Before is used in reference of two events.

e.g. The train had left before he reached the station.

ii) After is a preposition while afterwards in an adverb. Afterwards can be used

at either end of a clause and can be modified by soon, immediately, not long etc.
After is followed by a noun, pronoun or gerund.

124
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

e.g. a) After visiting them, we came back.

b) We visited them and afterwards they came back.
c) Soon afterwards, I got a call from him.

Out/Out/Out of

i) On is used for a place of work and also for a mode of travel.

e.g. on an estate , on the railway, on a bicycle.

On is also used with days and dates.

e.g. on 25th February, on Thursday.

ii) Out is used mostly with get, like get out of a vehicle, get out of the house etc.

Till/Until

i) Till means up to. It can be used with ‘from’ or without it.

e.g. a) We work from 10 AM to/till 6:30 PM.

b) We work till 6:30 PM.

ii) Until means upto a time or before. We use until when the activity continues
throughout the period up to the time limit.

e.g. There were visa applicants in our waiting room until 7 PM.

Determiners and Articles

Determiners or Fixing words are the words which fix or modify the nouns
before which they are used.
125
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

This is a boy.
My birthday falls in August.
She is a doctor.
Everybody enjoyed the film.
Did you buy any book?
In these sentence the Determiners are-

This, my, a, every and any.

The nouns they modify are boy, birthday, doctor,
body and book,. Kind of Determiners are of five
kinds:
1. Article Determiners

2. Demonstrative Determiners

3. Possessive Determiners

4. Numeral Determiners

5. Quantitative Determiners

1. Article Determiners
There are three Article in English- A, An, The,
Articles are of two types:
(i) Indefinite Article
(ii) Definite Article

(i) Indefinite Article: A, and An, are called Indefinite Article because
they do not refer to any particular person or thing.

126
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

Usage of A
• Before a singular number which starts with a consonant or a
vowel with a consonant sound.
Example:
• A boy, a cat, a girl, a horse, a month, a year, a pencil etc.
• A unit, a university, a European, a useful thing, a uniform etc.
• A one-eyed person, a one-way ticket, a one-rupee note etc.

Usage of An
For example-
• An egg, an eagle, an apple, an ink-pot, an orange, an island, an uncle, an
umbrella, an army, an elephant etc.

Before a singular number starting with a consonant that

gives the sound of a vowel.
• An hour, an honest person, an heir, an M.L.A., an M.P., an S.S.P., an M.A., an
S.O.S.

(ii) Definite Article: The is called definite article because it refers to a

particular person or thing.

Usage of The
• Before the names of heavenly bodies.
The sun, the earth, the moon, the stars, the sky etc.

• Before the directions.

127
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

The east, the earth, the south, the north,

• Before a noun which is already mentioned:

I met a man in the train. The man was

very interesting. The children you met
were naughty.
• Before the names of the ocean, rivers, mountains, gulfs, plains,
deserts, bays, etc.

The Indian Ocean, The Ganga, The Himalayas, The Persian Gulf, The
Gangetic Plain, The Sahara Desert, The Bay of Bengal etc.
• Abbreviated names of states, countries etc.

The U.S.A. The M.P., The Punjab, The UAE etc.

• Before the superlative Degree of Adjective:

She is the best student of

the class. Australia is the
largest island in the world.
• Before two or more comparative degrees of Adjectives:

The earlier, the better.

The higher you go, the cooler it is

• Before the epithets used before the names of the person:

Ashoka the Great, Alexander the Great, Charles the First

• Before the names of holy books:

The Adi Granth, the Gita, the Koran, the Bible etc.
128
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

• Before the names of big organidsations:

The Taj Mahal, the Qutub Minar, the Agra fort

• Before the clans:

The Marathas, the Rathores, the Sikhs etc.

• Before the names of big organization:

The BJP, the CPI, the UNO etc.

• Before the names of big offices:

The Air Marshal, the Prime Minister, the President etc.

TENSES

Tenses denote time of action. Time can be divided into three parts: Present Past
and Future.

Present Tense

Present Tense Simple Present Tense:

The Simple Present
The Simple Present is a tense that expresses action in the present time,
habitual actions, or general truths.
Example: The sun rises in the east.

Present Continuous:
It describes an incomplete ongoing present action that is in the middle of
129
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

happening, but will finish at some point. This tense is formed by using the
auxiliary verb be (am/is/are) with the present participle verb form ending in
"ing".
Example: The boys are playing cricket.

Present Perfect Tense:

It signifies that an action started in the past and continued to present time, in
which it is completed. This tense is formed by using the auxiliary verb have
(have/has) with the past participle form of the verb.
Example: I have finished my work.
Note: Present perfect is never used with adverbs of past time.

Present Perfect Continuous:

It describes an action that began in the past and continued up to present time,
In which it is (or most of it) is completed. This tense is formed by using the
auxiliary verb have (have/has) together with the auxiliary verb been and the
present participle form of the verb ending with "ing"
Example: They have been doing the work since Eight o'clock.

Past Tense

Simple Past Tense

It is an action or situation that was finished in the absolute past and has no
connection with the present. Always second form of the verb is used in simple
past sentence.
Example: I learnt French in Delhi.
130
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

Past Continuous It describes action which went on during a stretch of time in

the past and finished. This tense in formed by using the verb be (was/were)
with the present participle form of the verb ending in “ing”
Example: when I met him, he was reading a novel.

Past Perfect Tense:

It describes an action completed in the past before certain point in time or an
action which happened in the very distant past. This tense is formed by using
the auxiliary verb have (had) with the Past participle form of the verb.
Example: you had studied English before you moved to New York.

Past Perfect Continuous:

It describes an action that began before a certain point in the past and
continued up to that time in past. This tense is formed by using the auxiliary
verb have (had) together with the auxiliary verb been and the present
participle form of the verb ending with "ing".
Example: She had been working at that company for three years when It went
out of business:

Future Tense

Simple Future Tense:

It describes an action or situation that has still to take place. This tense is
usually formed by using the auxiliary verb will with the base form of the verb.
Example: I will call you when I arrive.
131
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

Future Continuous:
It describes an ongoing action that will be in process around a point of time in
the future. This tense is usually formed by using the auxiliary verb will
together with the auxiliary verb be and the present participle form of the verb
ending in "ing".
Example: He will be waiting for her when she arrives home tonight.

Future Perfect Tense:

It describes that a future action will be completed before a point in time or
before another action in the future. This tense Is formed by using the auxiliary
verb will together with the auxiliary verb be and the past participle form of
the verb.
Example: BY next November, I will have received my promotion.

Future Perfect Continuous:

It is describes an along future action that will continuous and will be
completed before point in time or before another action in the future. This
tense is formed by using the auxiliary verb will, the auxiliary verb have
(have), and the auxiliary verb been together with the present participle form
of the verb ending in “ing”.
Example: They will have been talking for ever an hour by the time Madam
arrives.

132
B.Com 1st Year Subject- English

Perfect

133