ENGLISH

Grammar
Subject and Predicate
• The term ‘subject’ refers to the doer of the action in a sentence.
• It is either a noun, a pronoun, or a noun phrase.
• According to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, a subject is de ned as “a noun, noun
phrase or pronoun representing the person or thing that performs the action of the verb
(I in I sat down.), about which something is stated (the house in the house is very old) or,
in a passive sentence, that is a ected by the action of the verb (the tree in the tree was
blown down in the storm)”.
• Sentences can have more than one subject. It can either be a compound subject or two
completely di erent subjects performing various actions in the same context.

• A predicate contains the verb that represents the action done by the subject, the
receiver of the action, other information about the subject, the verb or the time/place of
the action and so on.
• The Oxford Learner’s Dictionary de nes a predicate as “a part of a sentence containing
a verb that makes a statement about the subject of the verb, such as went home in
John went home.”
• Predicates are of di erent types – they can be one-word predicates, short predicates,
long predicates, or compound predicates. Take a look at the following examples for a
clearer understanding. The predicates have been underlined for your reference.
Identify Subjects and Predicates : ( subject underlined)
1. The teacher gave her students homework.
2. She painted her bedroom black and blue.
3. Sudhir won a trophy in the sports competition
4. The bank opened at noon.
5. The cat stretched.

Phrase and Clause

• A phrase is a part of a sentence which consists of a group of words that give more information
about the subject, action or event in a sentence. A phrase cannot stand on its own and will not
convey meaning if separated from the sentence.
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 • A clause is also a part of a sentence that consists of a subject and a verb, unlike phrases. They
can be divided into two main types depending on how they behave in a sentence. The di erent
types of clauses are:

Phrases Clauses

• A phrase does not have a • A clause has a subject and a

subject and predicate. predicate

• A phrase is not complete, • In some cases, a clause can

cannot make sense or convey look complete, convey
meaning if it stands on its own. meaning and make sense
when separated from the
sentence.

• There are ve types of phrases • There are two types of

namely noun phrase, verb clauses namely independent
phrase, adverb phrase, clause and dependent
adjective phrase and clause.
prepositional phrase.

• Example: There is an • Example: I am sick, so I am

unidenti ed vehicle in front of going to see the doctor.
our house.

Gender
• Gender is a category of noun. If the word does not denote something obviously masculine or
feminine, then it is a neuter word.
• In English, nouns are categorized as masculine, feminine, or neuter depending on their meaning.
Most nouns are neuter, unless they obviously refer to something male or female. (Only the third
person pronouns (i.e., he, his, she, her, hers, it, and its) re ect gender.)
• In many other languages (e.g., Russian, Serbo-Croat, and German), the spelling of a noun (as
opposed to its meaning) often determines its gender.
•
• For example, if a noun ends -a (in Russian or Serbo-Croat) or ends -heit (in German), then it will
be feminine. This is not how it works in English, where gender is directly linked to whether
something is male or female. In English, gender can even change.
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Example
• man (masculine gender)
• woman (feminine gender)
• house (neuter gender)
• chicken (neuter gender – if we don't know if it's a rooster or a hen)

Tenses
The tense of a verb is determined by when the action took place. The three main tenses
are as follows:
• The Past Tense - The term "past tense" is used for all past activities or past states of
being. However, the past tense is categorized further depending on whether the
action was in progress or has been completed.(e.g., I walked.)
• The Present Tense - The present tense is a verb tense that describes a current
activity or state of being. (e.g., I walk.)
• The Future Tense - The future tense is a verb tense used for a future activity or a
future state of being.(e.g., I will walk.)
The tense of a verb can also tell us things like whether the action is habitual, ongoing, or
completed. This is called the aspect of the verb, which is part of tense.

Active - Passive
• An active sentence is a sentence where the subject performs the action of the verb. For
example:
• John kicked the ball.
• Active sentences are shorter.
• Active sentences are more direct.
• Active sentences are more informative (and therefore potentially less ambiguous).
• Active sentences are generally more authoritative.
• Active sentences are more engaging for the reader.

A passive sentence is a sentence where the subject does not perform the action of the verb. In
fact, in a passive sentence, the action of the verb is done to the subject. For example:
• The cake was eaten.
Passive sentences are useful to avoid blame.
Passive sentences can show a neutral or objective tone.
Passive sentences are appropriate when the doer of the action is unimportant, unknown, or
obvious.
 Passive sentences allow you to put something you want to emphasize at the start of your
sentence.
A passive construction allows you to use the same subject twice.

Modals
• Modal verbs (or modal auxiliary verbs) express modality. Modality refers to properties such as
possibility, ability, permission, obligation, and condition.
• The main modal verbs are "can," "could," "may," "might," "shall," "should," "will," "would," and
“must.
• This is the main format for using modal verbs:
• Modal Verbs Showing Possibility
• Modal Verbs Showing Ability
• Modal Verbs Showing Permission
• Modal Verbs Showing Obligation
• Modal Verbs Showing Condition
Preposition
• Prepositions link nearby words to show how they relate to each other. For example: The
rat is in the corner.
• (The preposition "in" shows the relationship between "corner" and "rat.")
• The role of a preposition is to show the relationship between two nearby words. Most of
the time, but not always, the relationship expressed by a preposition is about
positioning (e.g., "a glass slipper on the stair") or time (e.g., "the spell ended at
midnight"). In other words, many prepositions tell us where or when things are.
• The word "preposition" means "positioned before." A preposition sits before a word
(either a noun or a pronoun) to show that word's relationship to another nearby word.
In nitives
An in nitive verb is a verb form that takes a ‘to’ before the base form, as in ‘to make’, ‘to
bring’, ‘to exercise’, etc. It is a term that is also used to refer to the base verb that does
not function as the verb in the sentence.
Example
• All lights and fans have to be turned o when you leave the classroom.
• You must be joking; I don’t think Derrick will want a bicycle.
• We are expecting someone to help us.
• To reach after sunset felt meaningless, but it was still worth the long trek.
• Why make a fuss over everything?
Articles
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 In English grammar, the articles are "a," "an," and "the." They de ne whether something
is speci c or unspeci c. There are two types of article:

(1) The De nite Article ("The"). "The" is called the de nite article. It de nes its noun as
something speci c (e.g., something previously mentioned or known, something unique,
something being identi ed by the speaker).
• This is the lake.
(This is a previously speci ed lake, i.e., one already known to the readers.)
(2) The Inde nite Article ("A" or "An"). "A" and "an" are called the inde nite articles. They
de ne their noun as something unspeci c (e.g., something generic, something mentioned
for the rst time).
• This is a lake.
(This is a previously unspeci ed lake.)
The articles are classi ed as determiners. A determiner sits before a noun to indicate
quantity, possession, speci city, or de niteness. Read more about determiners.
Here are some more examples of the articles in use:
• I fell over the chair again.
• (The chair is speci c. It is known to the audience.)
• Can you pass me a chair?
• (This means an unspeci c chair, i.e., any chair.)
• I loved the apple pie after the meal.
• (In this example, the audience knows which apple pie is being praised, e.g., the one
at last night's dinner.)
• I love an apple pie after dinner.
(The audience understands that the speaker likes to eat an apple pie after dinner (any
apple pie will do).)

Gerunds
A gerund is a verb form that functions as a noun. A gerund is created by adding the su x
"-ing" to the base form of a verb. Like all nouns, gerunds can be used as subjects,
objects of verbs, objects of prepositions, or complements. For example:
• Swimming is permitted in the lake. (subject of "is")
• I hate running. (object of the verb "hate")
• I was accepted after learning some Italian. (object of the preposition "after")
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 • Her passion is dancing. (complement of the subject "her passion")

Unlike a normal noun, a gerund maintains some verb-like properties. For example, like a
verb, a gerund can take a direct object and be modi ed with an adverb.
• drinking a agon
• (The gerund drinking has a direct object, a agon.)
• driving erratically
• (The gerund driving is modi ed with an adverb, erratically.)
• regularly visiting the hospital
• (The gerund visiting is modi ed with an adverb, regularly, and has a direct object, the
hospital. )

Degrees of comparison
In grammar, the degrees of comparison relate to adjectives and adverbs. Every adjective
and adverb can be written in one of three degrees:
• The Positive Degree. This o ers no comparison. It just tells us about the existence of
a quality. For example:
• adjectives: slow, beautiful, happy
• adverbs: slowly, beautifully, happily
• The Comparative Degree. This compares two things to show which has the lesser or
greater degree of the quality. For example:
• adjectives: slower, more beautiful, happier
• adverbs: more slowly, more beautifully, more happily
• The Superlative Degree. This compares more than two things to show which has the
least or greatest degree of the quality.For example:
• adjectives: slowest, most beautiful, happiest
• adverbs: most slowly, most beautifully, most happily
Here is the adjective "hungry" in all three degrees of comparison:
• Lee is hungry. (positive degree)
• Lee is hungrier than Mark. (comparative degree)
• Lee is the hungriest of all. (superlative degree)
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Editing and Omission
Editing is generally done during proof reading.
It can be of two types – Error or Omission
A short text with is one error/omission in each line is given. Numbered blanks are provided with
each line for writing the corrected/omitted word.
Identify the error/omission keeping in mind the PPACTS rule.
PPACTS RULE – error/omission would be any of the following:
• P – Preposition
• P – Pronoun
• A – Article/determiner
• C – Conjunction
• T – Tense/Verb Forms (singular/plural)
• S – Spelling
After reading the passage, identify the tense and see whether it is appropriate to the context.
Check the subject-verb agreement.
Check the areas where word is missing in case of omission and check the errors as mentioned
above for error correction.
Mention the answer against the given blank number.
In case of omission write the word before and the word after the omitted word along with the
supplied word.
In case of error correction write the incorrect as well as the corrected word in two columns.