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ENGLISH TEACHING NOTES FREE IN PDF

Maverick John

ENGLISH NOTES

NOUNS

These are words that name things ,people, ideas, qualities ,state and places.

Examples:

Nouns can be divided into different categories.

Types of nouns

 

  1. Common nouns

These are names of ordinary things. They include;

Some common nouns have antonyms. They include:

 

  1. Proper nouns

These are names given to specific people, places or things. They are always used with capital letters as follows;

 

  1. Concrete nouns

These are nouns naming things that can be seen and touched. The refer to:

 

  1. Abstract nouns

Abstract nouns are nouns naming things one cannot see or touch.

They refer to:

 

  1. Count nouns/countable nouns

These are names of things which can be counted.

They have singular and plural forms.

They can be used with articles and numerals.

f)Non-count /uncountable nouns

These are nouns of things that cannot be counted.

They cannot be used with articles such as a/an or the.

They can be used with expressions like some, a handful of, a bit of, a lot of, much .

Examples

 

Regular and Irregular nouns

  1. Regular nouns

Regular nouns are nouns are nouns that form their plural by adding s or es to their singular forms.

Examples

Desk-desks

Pen pens

Box-boxes

Buffalo-buffaloes

  1. Irregular noun

 

These are nouns that form their plural by changing their forms or certain letters.

Examples

 

 

  1. Nouns that change oo to ee
  1. Nouns that omit us and add i
  1. Nouns that omit um and replace it with a
  1. Nouns that change I to ee
  1. Nouns that change on/n to a
  1. Nouns that add ee
  1. Nouns that change x to -ces

Collective nouns

These are names of groups of people, animals or things.

They take a singular verb since each individual making up the group is seen as part of a single unit.

Examples

 

Compound nouns

These are nouns made up of more than one word.

They may be written as single words, two separate words, that have to be used together to give the right meaning and they may also be hyphenated.

  1. Single words

 

 

 

  1. Two/three separate words

 

  1. Hyphenated words

 

Plurals of Compound nouns

Plurals of compound nouns are formed in various ways:

  1. Adding a plural marker to the last part of the compound noun
  1. Adding the plural ending after the first part of the compound noun

NOUN PHRASES

A noun phrase is a group of words that functions as as a noun(unit)

It may comprise of  a noun, a pronoun or a noun and other words modifying it.

These modifiers may include:

Examples of noun phrases

Noun

Corruption

Poverty

John

Nouns +articles

The cow

An umbrella

A dog

Noun + demonstrative

This cow

That jug

Noun + possessive adjective

My vehicle

His book

Noun +quantifiers

Some people

Many students

Noun + numerals

Two students

Three ladies

Noun + adjective

Handsome boys

Dirty pigs

Article + adjective + noun

The lonely pig

Article + numeral + adjective

The three dirty pigs

 

Functions of  noun phrases

  1. As a subject

A noun phrase is used as a subject if:

-it appears before the main verb

-it refers to the initiator of the action stated by the verb.

  1. As complement

A subject complement is a word/phrase that describes/defines the subject  of a sentence. They follow copular/ linking verbs. These verbs include ;am, was, are, were, been, become, appear, seen, sound and feel.

 

a)Direct object

A direct object is a word, phrase or clause that follows a transitive verb and answers the question ”who” or  “what?”

A direct object receives the action of the  of the verb.

b)Indirect object

An indirect object is a word/phrase that answers the question “to whom?” or “for whom” or for what is the action of the verb performed. Indirect object is the beneficiary/receives something or benefits from something.

 

CLAUSES

A clause is a group of words contain a subject and  a verb(predicate)

It can form either a sentence on its own, or be part of a longer sentence.

Types of clauses

  1. i) Independent clause

These are also called main clauses, they are clauses that can stand on their as sentences.

Examples

  1. ii) Coordinating clause

 

If two or more independent clauses are joined to make a sentence , each sentence is called a coordinating clause. This clause comprises sentences of equal importance but they work together.

Each coordinating clause is connected to the other using a coordinating conjunction(fanboys)

Examples

John likes to play football but Joseph plays volleyball.

iii)  Dependent/subordinate clause

These are clauses that depend on independent clauses to be meaningful.

They do not express a complete thought and cannot stand on their own.

These clauses are used with subordinate conjunctions such as : if, although, before, while, as, until unless, despite ,since etc

Examples

Unless you read newspapers, you cannot be informed.

Although I revised well, I failed terribly.

 

NOUN CLAUSES

A noun clause is a subordinate clause that does the same work as that of a noun phrase.

It has a subject and a verb and may be used as a subject or an object of a sentence.

Noun clause are introduced by words such as when, that, whoever, how, where, whoever, which, who,  how, why and whatever.

Examples

 

Types of noun clauses

  1. That noun clause

 

 

  1. Wh-noun clauses

 

What she did was seen.

 

Functions of noun clauses

Subject of a sentence

Object of a sentence

Complement

 

NOUN DERIVATIONS

Noun derivation is the process of forming nouns from other lexical categories(words) by adding affixes(prefixes, suffixes, infixes)

Nouns are formed by adding prefixes to verbs ,adjectives or nouns

Prefixes are elements added at the end of words

Examples

  1. Nouns derived from verbs

By adding –er

By adding –ee

Divorce-divorcee

 

By adding –or

By adding –ation/-ition

By adding –ment/ent

By adding –ance/ence

 

By adding –al

By adding –age

By adding –ery

  1. Nouns derived from adjectives

By adding –ness

By adding –ism

By adding –ery

By adding –ity

By adding

By adding-ship

Friend-friendship

 

Censor-censorship

 

By adding –dom

By adding –ery

PRONOUNS

Pronouns are words used in place of pronouns.

Person and number

Personal pronouns are divided into three classes:

  1. First person pronouns

These are  pronouns that refer to the person who is speaking/writing

They include:

             singular         plural
                  I              we
                me              us

 

  1. Second person pronouns

These are pronouns that refer to person who is listening or reading.

They include:

            singular              plural
              you              you

 

  1. Third person pronouns

These  pronouns that refer to the person being spoken about.

They include:

               singular                plural
He/him They/them
She/her They/them
it They/them

 

Pronouns that refer to the doer of the action are called subject pronouns. They include:

I, we, you, he, she, it and they.

Pronouns that refer to the recipient/receiver of the action are called object pronouns. They include:

Me, us, you, him, her, it and them.

 

Indefinite Pronouns

Indefinite pronouns are pronouns which do not refer to definite number of things or people. They refer to things in general without identifying them.

Examples

Indefinite pronouns can be categorized into:

Singular indefinite pronouns

Plural indefinite pronouns

i)singular indefinite pronouns

These are indefinite pronouns that refer to one person/thing.

Examples

Singular indefinite pronouns take singular verbs such as has, is, and says.

  1. ii) Plural indefinite pronouns

These are indefinite pronouns that refer to more than one person or thing.

Examples

These take plural verbs such as are, were, have

Indefinite pronouns can be made to be gender sensitive by using his/her.

 

Pronouns and Case

A case is different positions that pronouns take in a sentence. They can take the subject or the object position.

  1. i) Subjective Case

A pronoun is said to be in subjective case when it appears before/precedes a verb.

Examples

Pronouns used in subjective case include: I, we, you, he, she, it and they.

Person singular plural
1st I we
2nd you you
3rd He/she  
  it  

NB: Pronouns in subjective case are also used in comparison after than.

She is taller  than he.

ii)objective case

A pronoun is said to be in the objective case when it appears/comes after the verb or preposition.

Examples

Pronouns used in objective case are:

Person singular plural
1st person me Us
2nd person You you
3rd person Him  
  Her They
  it  

 

NB: Relative pronouns also take either subjective case.

Who is used in the subjective case; it refers to the doer of the action.

Example

This man who gave me a gift.

Whom is used as an object; it refers to the recipient of the action.

It can also be used with prepositions.

Example

The student whom you sent home has returned.

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