Soft Skills (Composite)

A Composite Study Material to Develop

Technical/Professional/Business Communication

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 Compiled & Edited by:
Partha Basu

Public Relations Officer (NITRA) & Professor (NITRA Technical Campus)

Professional Experience: 32 years. Contact: [email protected]

Copyright © 2002 by Harcourt, Inc. All rights reserved.

 UNIT -1
Applied Grammar and Usage
• Transformation of Sentences: Simple, Complex
and Compound
• Subject-Verb Agreement
• Defining Vocabulary
• New Word Formation and Word Power
• Prefixes and Suffixes
• Synonyms, Antonyms and Homophones

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 Structure of A Sentence
• Sentence: A Sentence is a word or a group of
words giving a complete sense.
• Sentences are divided into three classes as par
their structure. They are
• Simple sentence
• Complex sentence
• Compound sentence.
• A Simple Sentence is a sentence which has
only one part.
• Eg. Raman won the first prize in English.

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 Structure of A Sentence
• A Compound Sentence has two or more parts.
Eg.1 It was raining and the night was dark.
This is a compound sentence and has two parts,
• (i) It was raining
• (ii) The night was dark
• Eg.2 He went to the window and looked out, but
saw nobody. This is also a compound sentence
and is made up of three parts, such as
• (i) He went to the window,
• (ii) (He) looked out,
• (iii) (He) saw nobody.
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 Structure of A Sentence
• A Complex Sentence is one that is made up of two or
more complete sentences separated by one or more
adverbs like where, when, while, though, although etc.
• Eg.1: I do not know where he lives
• This sentence consists of two parts I do not know and
where he lives.
• Eg.2: I do not know where he lives though he is my
friend
• This sentence consists of three parts I do not know
and where he lives and though he is my friend.
• Each of the above parts have complete sense by itself
and part of a larger sentence.
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 Transformation of sentences

• The meaning of Transformation of sentences

is changing sentence of a particular form to
another form without changing its meaning.
Examples:
• Simple into Complex
• Simple - He confessed his crime.
• Complex - He confessed that he was guilty
• Simple: He is too weak to carry this heavy bag.
• Complex: He is so weak that he cannot carry that
heavy bag.
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 Transformation of sentences
• Complex into Simple
• Complex - He was so tired that he could not stand.
• Simple - He was too tired to stand
• Complex-Although I was ill, I attended the meeting.
• Simple-In spite of my illness I attended the meeting.
• Simple into Compound
• Simple - Coming home, he began to work.
• Compound - He came home and began to work
• Simple – You must work hard to succeed.
• Compound – You must work hard, or you will fail.

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 Transformation of sentences
• Compound into Simple
• Compound - You try and you will succeed
• Simple – If you try you will succeed
• Compound-Though he was poor, he was honest
• Simple-In spite of his poverty, he was honest
• Complex into Compound
• Complex - Though he was poor, he was honest
• Compound - He was poor but he was honest
• Complex – If you don’t go there you will be fined
• Compound – Go there, or you will be fined

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 Transformation of sentences
• Compound into Complex
• Compound - He wanted to see you, and so came
home
• Complex - He came home in order that he might see
you
• Compound- Ram was ill; therefore he could not
come
• Complex- Ram could not come because he was ill
• Three forms of a single sentence
• Simple – You must work hard to succeed.
• Compound – You must work hard, or you will fail.
• Complex- In order to succeed, you must work hard
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 Subject-Verb Agreement
Subject-Verb Agreement: It is the grammatical
rule that the verb/verbs in a sentence must match
the number, person, and gender of the subject.
Basic Rules:
• Singular subjects have singular verbs and plural
subjects have plural verbs.
Ex1: Nitin walks to the store.
Ex 2: Nitin and Neha walk to the store.
• When connecting nouns with “of”, the noun
before “of” is the subject:
Ex1: The bag of groceries is on the table.
Ex 2: The bags of groceries are on the table.
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 Subject-Verb Agreement
• When indicate portions (“some of”, “half of”, etc.),
the verb matches the noun after “of”.
Ex1: Many of the people want to go home.
Ex 2: Some of the cake is gone.
Ex:3: Few of the students are serious.
• Two subjects joined by “and” have a plural verb:
Ex: The bike and the car race down the road.
• When multiple subjects connected with “or” or
“nor”, the verb matches the closest subject:
Ex1: Mummy or papa washes clothes regularly
Ex 2: Neither the mother nor her children want to
take out the garbage.
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 Subject-Verb Agreement

• Sometimes multiple items make up a single

unit and thus use a singular verb. This is
common with periods of time, amounts of
money, and measures of distance:
• Ex1: Forty-five minutes is a long wait.
Ex 2: Ten thousand rupees is a fair price.
• With “here” or “there”, the verb matches the
noun after the verb.
• Example 1: There are the documents.
Example 2: Here is a pencil.
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 Defining Vocabulary

• Vocabulary is a list of all the words used by or

known to a particular person or a group, or
contained in a language as a whole.
• These words can begin and end with any letter
(A to Z or otherwise) in the alphabet.
• You may also call it “one’s stock of word”.
• All words, starting with any of the 26 letters of
English alphabet and makes a sense, is part of
English vocabulary.

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 Eight processes of new word formation
Word formation is the creation of new word.
Coinage: A new word is created either
deliberately or accidentally.
• Ex: GlucoVita (glucose and vitamin), Edu-
tainmemt (education and entertainment)
• Borrowing: A word from one language is
borrowed directly into another language.
• Ex: algebra(Arabic), boss (Dutch), café(French).
• Compounding: Combines two different words.
It occurs when two or more words are joined to
make a new word.
• Ex: bookcase, sunglasses, fingerprint.
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 Eight processes of new word formation
• Blending: Joining the beginning and end of 2
words to make a new word with a new meaning.
• Ex: Smog, from smoke and fog, and brunch, from
breakfast and lunch.
• Clipping: A word of more than one syllable is
reduced to a shorter form and used.
• Ex: Gas (gas-o-line), Maths (math-e-matics).
• Conversion: Changing the function of a word
and its character.
• Ex: My mother regularly garden (noun-verb) our
lawn, Did you butter (noun-verb) the toast? Slice
(noun-verb) the loaf..
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 Eight processes of new word formation

• Back-formation: A word of one type, is reduced to

form another word of a different type and the parts of
speech often changes.
• Ex: televise-verb (form television-noun), babysitter-
noun (form babysit - verb)
• Acronyms: Only initial letters are pronounced as
a word. Also called ‘abbreviation’.
• Ex: GOI (Govt. of India), NTC (NITRA Technical
Campus), IIT (Indian Institute of Technology.)
• Derivation: Derivation composed of small bits (affixes)
of English language. Its is different from the original.
• Ex: Unhappy, Misrepresent, Joyful, Careless etc.
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 How to develop Word Power
• Tips to help you boost your word power.
• Learn by doing! The body learns faster than the
brain! ...
• Be active in trying to discover new words.
• Read much and use new words learnt
• Listen carefully and use new words heard
• Playing word games helps expand vocabulary.
• Make use of internet, multimedia and English
learning software like Grammarly etc.
• Take a guess and try your own word!
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 Prefix-Suffix- Homophone

• A prefix occurs at the beginning of a word or

stem (sub-mit, pre-determine, un-willing).
• A suffix at the end of a word (wonder-ful,
depend-ent, act-ion).

• A homophone is a word that sounds or

pronounced the same as another word but
differs in meaning.
• Ex: allowed (permitted), aloud (loudly) OR
course (curriculum), coarse (rough)
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 Synonyms
• A synonym is a word or phrase that means
exactly or nearly the same as another word in
the same language.
• Examples of some synonyms:
• Still – motionless, unmoving, static
• Dress – clothing, attire, apparel
• Bluff – lie, bogus, feign
• Shape – form, structure, configuration
• Almirah – wardrobe, cupboard
• Rich – affluent, wealthy
• Loud – shout, noisy
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 Antonyms
• Antonyms are words that have contrasting or
opposite meanings.
• Examples of some antonyms:
• Happy – sad, aggrieved
• Attractive – repulsive
• Earlier – later
• Love – hate
• Abundant – scarce
• Bold – timid, coward
• Reveal – conceal
• Question - answer
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