Essential grammar terms 2
Decide whether the following are true or false:
1 ) The word “leg” is singular.
Please write your answer here:[ANSWER]
2) The word “work” is uncountable. [ANSWER]
3) In the sentence “The sun
rises at seven in the morning”, “rises” is an intransitive verb. [ANSWER]
4) In the sentence “I kissed your wife”, the word “wife”
is the direct object. [ANSWER]
5) In the sentence “I must leave”, the word “must” is an
auxiliary verb. [ANSWER]
Do you need some hints and clues (pieces of helpful information)? Then scroll down...................
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Hints and clues:
1 ) The word “leg” is singular.
SINGULAR means.....
... only one.
PLURALMore than one. [ANSWER]
2) The word "work" is uncountable.
UNCOUNTABLE NOUNSNouns which cannot be counted: e.g. information, news, advice, bread, milk, etc… (Two informations is not possible) [ANSWER]
3) In the sentence "The sun rises at seven in the morning", "rises" is an intransitive verb. [ANSWER]
4) In the sentence “I kissed your wife”, the word “wife”is the direct object.
A TRANSITIVE VERB has a ……
DIRECT OBJECT
“I missed the train”. (Question: What did you miss? Answer: The train. This is the direct object.)
INTRANSITIVE VERB
Does not take a direct object : “The sun is shining.” ... but may take an ...
INDIRECT OBJECT(which usually has a preposition in front of it) “The sun is shining on my bald head.”
Here is an example where the indirect object doesn’t have a preposition in front of it: “I gave her a do-nut.” Here “Do-nut” is the direct object…. that’s what you gave… and “her” is the indirect object …. who you gave it to. See also: “I gave a do-nut to her”, which means the same thing. [ANSWER]
.
5) In the sentence “I must leave”, the word “must” is an auxilliary verb.
An auxilliary verb is often thought of as a "helper" verb, which tells us more about the "main" verb which follows it, either in terms of grammar or meaning. [ANSWER]
Check your answers, then read on.....................
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Answers:
.
1 ) The word “leg” is singular.
True. “Leg” is singular, “legs” is plural.
2) The word “work” is uncountable.
True (and false). “Work” is uncountable when it
means “what you do for a living”, as in “Work is said
to be important for good mental health”. Here it must
be used in the singular. But it is countable and can be
used in the plural when it means “a piece of work” as
in “the works of Shakespeare”.
3) In the sentence “The sun rises at seven in the morning”, “rises” is an intransitive verb.
True. The sun doesn’t “rise” anything, it just rises!
In the sentence “The sun burned my skin” the verb
“burns” is used transitively. It does burn something.
It burns your skin. “Burn” is a verb which can be both
transitive and intransitive. In the sentence “The fire
burned brightly”, it is used intransitively. Here it is
followed by an adjective, and an adjective cannot act
as an object.
4) In the sentence “I kissed your wife”, the word “wife”is the direct object.
True. Your wife is who (or “whom” to put it more
formally) I kissed.
5) In the sentence “I must leave”, the word “must” is an auxilliary verb.
True. Or false. It’s more properly called a modal verb, like
“should, may, could,would”, etc.
To simplify the
grammar, modal verbs generally have only two
forms, one with present and future meaning (“He
should go”) and one with past meaning (“He should
have gone”).
Auxilliary verbs can usually take a range of tenses. For example: "I have to leave; I will have to leave; I will have had to leave; I had had to leave" etc.
(Yes - these are all possible. But you're not likely to hear the last two in everyday speaking. Most English people speak English very badly anyway, so don't worry if yours is less than perfect!)
Photo Album
Happy iguana (a type of lizard) on Santa Fe, Galapagos islands. Charles Darwin studied the wildlife on these islands during his famous sea voyage which led to the development of his "Modern Theory of E........". Supply the rest of the missing word.
Answer:
Evolution.
.
Grammar note:
"....which led to the development of his 'Modern Theory of Evolution'" is an example of a defining relative clause. This actually defines the sea voyage and tells us which sea voyage we are talking about. Notice there is no comma before "which".
Here is an example of a non-defining relative clause:
This ship's previous voyage, which had ended in disaster for the captain, is described in Chapter 2.
This just gives us additional information. Notice the comma before "which", and the one after captain.
.
(Darwin believed we were descended from monkeys. Do you agree?)
Photo
Taken on the Galapagos islands by my Colleague Mary. Sadly, I've never been there.
Grammar Note
In the last sentence above, "sadly" is a sentence adverb. Most adverbs just describe verbs, but sentence adverbs describe the whole sentence. They are a very useful "linking" device. They don't link individual sentences, but the do connect the general meaning of a whole piece of writing..
.
.
Do you get it?
There are only two basic rules of good comedy:
The first is to always leave people wanting more......
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