NOTE 7: SINGULAR & PLURAL

A noun is the name of a person, place or thing. A singular noun refers to 1 only; a plural noun refers to 2 or more.

There are two things to note about singular and plural nouns. The first is that they change their form depending on whether they are singular or plural:

1 car

2 cars

In most cases this means adding an –s to a singular noun to make it plural.

The second point to note is to do with the verb which goes with the noun. The subject of a sentence ( which is usually a noun ) must agree with the verb which follows it. This means that if the subject is singular then the verb must be singular and if the subject is plural then the verb must be plural:

The car is in the garage.

The cars are in the garage.

Form

Most nouns in English are regular. To make them plural we simply add –s to the end:

singular	plural
1 book	2 books
1 car	4 cars
1 house	8 houses

Singular	Plural
1 tooth	2 teeth
1 goose	4 geese
1 foot	2 feet
1 child	6 children
1 ox	2 oxen
1 oasis	3 oases
1 axis	2 axes
1 man	2 men
1 woman	2 women
1 mouse	2 mice
1 medium	2 media

Singular	Plural
1 sheep	2 sheep
1 salmon	4 salmon
1 aircraft	8 aircraft

Singular	Plural
1 penny	2 pence/pennies
1 person	4 persons/people
1 fish	8 fish/fishes

Irregular Nouns

Some nouns have two very different words for the singular and the plural:

Alternatively, some nouns are the same whether tey are singular or plural:

Finally, some nouns have alternative plurals.

These can have different meanings in different contexts. For example, we can say:

I went out fishing last weekend and in four hours caught just 2 tiny fish.

However, if we want to refer to different types of fish we might say:

These fishes live together even though some of the bigger fishes could easily eat the smaller ones.

Miscellaneous

Some nouns have a plural but no singular, for example:

Clothes, contents, earnings, goods, riches, savings, thanks, troops

These nouns take a plural verb:

The contents are labeled on the jar.

His saving were wiped out in the crash.

Some nouns look plural but are, in fact, singular, for example:

Athletics, gymnastics, mathematics, measles, news, politics

The verb is singular here:

His measles is spreading.

Politics is boring!

Some words can be either plural or singular, for example:

Headquarters. Means, work ( =factory/workshop, etc.)

The verb can be either singular or plural; there is no real difference:

Their headquarters are situated in central London.

Their headquarters is situated in central London.

Meanwhile a collective noun is a group of nouns describing the same thing, for example:

Army, Arsenal, audience, class, club, committee, company, crowd, gang, group

We use singular verb if we think of the group as a whole:

Arsenal is playing well today.

Or plural if we are thinking of the individuals:

Arsenal are a mixed bunch of players.

Some groups, however, are always plural:

The police are coming!

The cattle are lowing.

When we have a noun phrase‏‎ of measurement‏‎, we use a singular verb:

Twenty kilos is the maximum weight for suitcases.

Six feet six inches is tall for a man.

But when we talk about a pair of things, we always use the plural, for example:

a pair of: glasses, jeans, scissors, trousers

My glasses are broken.

Your jeans are ripped.

NOTE 6: PRESENT / PAST / FUTURE TENSE

SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE

 Repeated Action

Use the Simple Present to express the idea that an action is repeated or usual. The action can be a habit, a hobby, a daily event, a scheduled event or something that often happens. It can also be something a person often forgets or usually does not do.

            Example : I play tennis


 Facts or Generalization

The Simple Present can also indicate the speaker believes that a fact was true before, is true now, and will be true in the future. It is not important if the speaker is correct about the fact. It is also used to make generalizations about people or things.

             Example : California is in America.


Scheduled Events in the Near Future

Speakers occasionally use Simple Present to talk about scheduled events in the near future. This is most commonly done when talking about public transportation, but it can be used with other scheduled events as well.

             Example : The bus does not arrive at 11 AM, it arrives at 11 PM    


Now (Non-Continuous Verbs)

Speakers sometimes use the Simple Present to express the idea that an action is happening or is not happening now. This can only be done with Non-Continuous Verbs and certain Mixed Verbs.

                Example : He does not need help now

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SIMPLE PAST TENSE

Past Tense is used to talk about something that started and finished at a definite time in the past.

For example: The past tense of the verb want is wanted.

To change a regular verb into its past tense form, we normally add –ED to the end of the verb.

• play – played

• cook – cooked

• rain – rained

• wait – waited

There are some words that are not adding the –ED at the end of the verb.

• ·         Eat – ate
• ·         Drive – drove
• ·         Sing – sang
•           Drink – drank

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FUTURE TENSE

Indicates that an action is in the future relative to the speaker or writer. There are no inflected forms for the future in English (nothing like those -ed or -s endings in the other tenses). Instead, the future tense employs the helping verbs will or shall with the base form of the verb:

• She will leave soon.

• We shall overcome

The future is also formed with the use of a form of "go" plus the infinitive of the verb:

• He is going to faint.

NOTE 5: CONJUNCTION WORDS

Conjunctions are words used to link phrases and clauses. They are necessary to create compound sentences, or to join multiple ideas together. In English, conjunctions are classified as either coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions or correlative conjunctions. Using the right conjunction is essential to making your meaning clear and to making yourself understood.

Types of Conjunction :

There are six coordinating conjunctions in English :

• 
  
• ·         For
• ·         And
• ·         Nor
• ·         But
• ·         Or
• ·         Yet

NOTE 4: ADJECTIVES

Adjectives are words that describe or modify another person or thing in the sentence. The Articles — a, an, and the — are adjectives.

Before getting into other usage considerations, one general note about the use — or over-use — of adjectives: Adjectives are frail; don't ask them to do more work than they should. Let your broad-shouldered verbs and nouns do the hard work of description. Be particularly cautious in your use of adjectives that don't have much to say in the first place: interesting, beautiful, lovely, exciting. It is your job as a writer to create beauty and excitement and interest, and when you simply insist on its presence without showing it to your reader — well, you're convincing no one.

Position of Adjectives :

•      Adjectives nearly always appear immediately before the noun or noun phrase that they modify. Sometimes they appear in a string of adjectives, and when they do, they appear in a set order according to category

•     And there are certain adjectives that, in combination with certain words, are always "postpositive" (coming after the thing they modify)

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
rich	richer	richest
lovely	lovelier	loveliest
beautiful	more beautiful	most beautiful

•    Certain adjectives have irregular forms in the comparative and superlative degrees:

Irregular Comparative and Superlative Forms
good	better	best
bad	worse	worst
little	less	least
much many some	more	most
far	further	furthest

p/s : Be careful, also, not to use  more along with a comparative adjective formed with -er nor to use most along with a superlative adjective formed with -est (e.g., do not write that something is more heavier or most heaviest.

NOTE 3: VERBS

Verbs are doing words. A verb can express:

• ·         A physical action (e.g., to swim, to write, to climb).
• ·         A mental action (e.g., to think, to guess, to consider).
• ·         A state of being (e.g., to be, to exist, to appear).

The verbs which express a state of being are the ones which take a little practice to spot, but, actually, they are the most common. The most common verb is the verb to be.

Subject	Verb to be in the past tense	Verb to be in the present tense	Verb to be in the future tense
I	was	am	will be
You	were	are	will be
He / She / It	was	is	will be
We	were	are	will be
You	were	are	will be
They	were	are	will be

Verbs carry the idea of being or action in the sentence. verbs are classified in many ways. some verbs require an object to complete their meaning. a verb can be both transitive and intransitive. Verbs are also can be classified as either finite or non-finite. A finite verb makes an assertion or expresses a state of being and can stand by itself as the main verb of a sentence while non-finite verbs (think "unfinished") cannot, by themselves.

There are only four basic forms. Instead of forming complex tense forms with endings, English uses auxiliary verb forms. English does not even have a proper ending for future forms; instead, we use auxiliaries such as "I am going to read this afternoon." or "I will read." or even "I am reading this book tomorrow." It would be useful, however, to learn these four basic forms of verb construction.