Tuesday 10 January 2012

Uncle Adverbs! Tell us about yourself!


Now that you have know him, lets see a video between him and Mr. Adjective. Remember Mr. Adjective the painter? Let see how they affect each other.


As you can see, when Uncle Adverbs sits beside Mr. Adjective, he gives more information about Mr. Adjective current condition. 

Lets have a little exercise on this :) 



Don't forget to write down your name so that I can get back to you later :) Love!

Hello Uncle Adverbs!

Before we get to know Uncle Adverbs, let see what how he got his name :)


An adverb is a modifying part of speech. It describes verbs, other adverbs, adjectives, and phrases. They are used to describe how, where, when, how often and why something happens. Here are a few examples:
Verb- The cat climbed quickly up the tree. (quickly describes how the cat climbed)
Adverb- Mike worked very carefully on his paper. (very shows how carefully he worked) Adjective- She is nearly ready to go. (nearly tells to what extent she is ready)
Adverbs of manner describe how something happens. Where there are two or more verbs in a sentence, adverb placement affects the meaning. Some commonly used adverbs of manner include:
carefully
correctly
eagerly
easily
fast
loudly
patiently
quickly
quietly
and well.
Consider the following example:
She decided to write her paper. (no adverbs)
She quickly decided to write her paper. (her decision was quick)
She decided to write her paper quickly. (her writing was quick)
Adverbs of place describe where something happens. Most adverbs of place are also used as prepositions. Some commonly used examples include the following:
abroad
anywhere
downstairs
here
home
in
nowhere
out
outside
somewhere
there
underground
upstairs.
I wanted to go upstairs.
She has lived in the city since June. (in the city – prepositional phrase)
Adverbs of purpose describe why something happens. Here are some common examples:
so
so that
to
in order to
because
since
accidentally
intentionally
and purposely.
Jenny walks carefully to avoid falling.
Bob accidentally broke the vase.
Adverbs of frequency describe how often something happens. The following adverbs are commonly used in this way:
always
every
never
often
rarely
seldom
sometimes
and usually.
Mackenzie gets a ride from her brother every day.
The fish usually swims near the top of its tank.
Adverbs of time describe when something happens. These examples are commonly used:
after
already
during
finally
just
last
later
next
now
recently
soon
then
tomorrow
when
while
and yesterday.
He came home before dark.
It will be too dark to play outside soon.
Jessica finished her supper first.
Andy left school early.
Some adverbs often get overused, such as very, extremely, and really. Using there is/are or it is at the beginning of a sentence adds nothing. Sentences with these adverb phrases become wordy, boring, and less clear. Look at some examples:
* There are many bird species living in the sanctuary. Many bird species live in the sanctuary.
* It is important to hold hands when crossing the street. Holding hands when crossing the street is important.
* There may be more than one way to solve the problem. The problem may be solved in more than one way.

So now that you know him, lets get deeper by what he wanted to tell us in the next entry!

Lets go deeper into Adjective! Hello Mr. Adjective!

So lets meet up with our Mr. Adjective! Read the following biography about him and he will give clues on what is an adjective.


So lets meet up with Mr. Alien! Submit your answer in the comment box :) Good Luck!


Don't forget to give out your name as well :)

Welcoming Adjectives!

The list of adjectives is something of wonder. Behold the modest adjective. It can leap tall buildings in a single bound. It makes the average citizen smarter and kinder. It keeps you in the cleanest car on the block. Such potent words should be used wisely. Read on and learn how to use your adjective powers for good.
An adjective's job is to modify a noun or pronoun. They are always near the noun or pronoun they are describing. Be careful how you use adjectives such as interesting, beautiful, great, wonderful, or exciting. Many adjectives like these are overused and add little definition to a sentence. Instead, show your reader or listener what you are talking about by using verbs and nouns creatively. Sprinkle fewer well-chosen adjectives for interest.
Adjectives are often used to describe the degree of modification.
The adjective forms are positive, comparative, and superlative.
This tree is tall. (positive)
That tree is taller. (comparative)
The last tree in the row is the tallest. (superlative)
A handful of adjectives have irregular forms of positive, comparative, and superlative usage.
These include good/better/best, bad/worse/worst, little/less/least, much-many-some/more/most, far/further/furthest.
My lunch was good, hers was better, and yours was the best.
Proper adjectives are derived from proper nouns. They commonly describe something in terms of nationality, religious affiliation, or culture. Like proper nouns, proper adjectives have their first letter capitalized. Some examples of proper adjectives include:
American
French
Japanese
Latino
Asian
Australian
Catholic
Lutheran
Jewish
So lets have some fun with an adjective song!!



Now that you have some idea of what an adjective is, lets have a little exercise :D

Lets do some verb exercise

So of course you guys would now understand what verb is! So lets do some exercise, just simple simple exercise to see your understanding :) Chill! Have fun!


Ok! First lets test your skill in action verbs!!





And now! Lets do some test on helping verb!



And one last test which on Linking verb!


Submit the answers and I will tell you whether you got it right or not! :)

Lets see if you can understand verb!





Lets sing a song about 'helping verb'





Take a deep breath as we are going deeper into VERB!!

Being Verbs tell about something in a state of being. A noun or pronoun does not always take action. Sometime, it just is. For that purpose, you use a being verb. Here are the being verbs in all the past, present, and future tenses.
Present tense - I am, you are, he/she/it is, we are, they are
Past Tense - I was, you were, he/she/it, was, we were, they were
Future Tense - I will be, you will be, he/she/it will be, we will be, they will be
Present Perfect Tense - I have been, you have been, he/she/it has been, we have been, they have been
Past Perfect Tense -I had been, you had been, he/she/it had been, we had been, they had been
Future Perfect Tense - I will have been, you will have been, he/she/it will have been, we will have been, they will have been
Helping verbs do not stand alone or express action. They are part of verb phrases that "help" the main verb. Helping verbs define the tense (past, present, future) or change the meaning of the main verb. Consider these examples:
Do you need a tissue?
We are helping the third-grade class.
Hank might have been driving the wrong way.
This list has commonly-used helping verbs:
may
might
must
be
being
been
am
are
is
was
were
do
does
did
should
could
would
have
had
has
will
can
shall

Linking verbs
 do not show action. Instead, they connect nouns and pronouns to other information in the sentence. Here are some examples:
My sister is smart.
The picture appeared blurry.
Your supper smells delicious.
The most common linking verbs are listed here:
am
are
are
being
appear
be
become
feel
get
grow
have/has been
is
lie
look
might be
might have been
prove
remain
seem
sit
smell
sound
stay
taste
turn
were

Irregular Verbs
 are verbs that don't follow the rules for changing tense. The best way to understand irregular verbs is to practice and memorize them.
Here are some common examples shown in the present/past/past participle:
The dog wants to bite me.
The dog bit me.
The dog has bitten me.
My arm hurts.
I hurt my arm yesterday.
I have hurt my arm before.
bite/bit/bitten
choose/chose/chosen
eat/ate/eaten
fall/fell/fallen
hurt/hurt/hurt
go/went/gone
lay/laid/laid
ring/rang/rung
send/sent/sent
teach/taught/taught
write/wrote/written

Verbs do a lot of work in the English language. Some are busy action verbs; others are modest helping or linking verbs. No matter what kind they are, verbs keep the English language movin' and shakin'.”
So now that you got the idea of what a verb is and how it works, in the next entry we will see whether you really understand it :D

It's verb time!

What would happen if we didn't have verbs? Not much at all. Verbs are perhaps the most important part of speech in the English language. You can't do or be anything unless a verb lets you. Verbs are everywhere, and it's about time you got to know them with this list of verbs of many types.
Action verbs tell about something a person, animal, force of nature or thing can do or be. Can you cry, march, rinse, or turn? Can the wind blow or a cup fall? Yes, those are all actions. Use this list to think of other action verbs.
add
allow
bake
bang
call
chase
damage
drop
end
escape
fasten
fix
gather
grab
hang
hug
imagine
itch
jog
jump
kick
knit
land
lock
march
mix
name
notice
obey
open
pass
promise
question
reach
rinse
scatter
stay
talk
turn
untie
use
vanish
visit
walk
work
yawn
yell
zip
zoom

Verbs also use special rules for telling when something happened - in the past, the present, or the future. Here is a list of examples for each verb tense using the verb break. Try putting other verbs in the place of break.
Present tense – I/you/we/they break, he/she/it breaks
Past Tense – I/you/he/she/it/we/they broke
Future Tense - I/you/he/she/it/we/they will break
Present Perfect Tense – I/you/he/she/it/we/they have broken
Past Perfect Tense – I/you/he/she/it/we/they had broken
Future Perfect Tense – I/you/he/she/it/we/they will have broken

And now! It's the verb song time!



Don't worry. It is not that hard. We'll go deeper to understanding verb in the next entry. You are one step closer to become the next Grammar Guru!

It's the Pronoun Master!

Lets refresh our memory on pronoun



Lets listen to a video.



As you can see, Billy (noun) has been taken over by a pronoun I.

So let's see if you could understand by answering a few questions.


Please answer it in the comment box people :) Lots of love xx



Lets go deeper into "Pronoun"

Possessive pronouns show who owns something described in a sentence. They include mine, his, hers, its, ours, yours, their, and theirs. Possessive adjectives are similar to possessive pronouns. However, the possessive adjective comes before the object of the sentence; the possessive pronoun is the object of the sentence. See the difference here:

That is my dog. (possessive adjective, before the object “dog”)
The dog is mine. (possessive pronoun, which is the object)

Intensive pronouns and reflexive pronouns look the same. However, they act differently in a sentence. Intensive pronouns put an emphasis on other pronouns or nouns. Reflexive pronouns rename the subject in a sentence. Look at the following examples:

Intensive pronoun – She herself will go to the bank. (herself emphasizes the pronoun she)
Reflexive pronoun – She cut herself on the arm. (herself renames the pronoun she)

Intensive and reflexive pronouns include:
myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, and themselves.
Demonstrative pronouns refer to things in relation to distance.
This and these refer to things that are close by. That and those refer to things farther away.

This is your shirt.
That is my house on the corner.
These good friends are sitting next to me.
Those roads in the next town are bumpy.

Indefinite pronouns replace nouns that are not specified. They include the following: all, another, any, anybody, anyone, anything, both, each, either, everybody, everyone, everything, few, many, neither, nobody, none, no one, nothing, one, several, some, somebody, someone, and something. Read the example sentences for a better understanding.

We gave everything to the homeless shelter
All were sad to see the children go.
Give a present to each as they come in.

Interrogative pronouns are used to ask a question. They include who, whom, what, which, whose, whoever, whomever, whatever, and whichever. Consider the example sentences below:

Which of these do you like best?
Who was just in this room?
Whatever happens next, I am prepared.

Relative pronouns connect (relate) noun or pronoun clauses with other parts of a sentence. They include who, whom, what, which, whose, whoever, whomever, whatever, whichever, and that. See how these are used in the sentences below.

The paper that she just wrote is due tomorrow.
Learning is easier for people who have a good teacher.
Whoever leaves the room needs to turn off the light.

Pronouns do a lot in the English language, don't they? They are the no-name workhorses, jumping in for thesuperstar nouns when they get exhausted. Hey, someone's got to do something about the work nobody wants to do!

Now that you have understand, we'll have a little exercise to see whether you have fun learning it in the next post :)

Friday 6 January 2012

Let us learn on 'Pronoun'

Pronouns are the stunt doubles of the English language. They keep communication going with or without the nouns. Pronouns come in to keep nouns from getting repetitive or when nouns are not clearly known. They do more work than you think, so read on to learn about them.
Subject and object pronouns are used in everyday language. However, it can be tricky to remember which is which. The subject always takes action. The object is part of the activity, but it does not do any acting. Here is an example:
Shelby likes talking to Marvin.

Shelby is the subject; she is liking and talking. Marvin is the object; all the liking and talking is done to Marvin but not by Marvin.

Subject and object pronouns function in the same way.
Subject pronouns include I, you, he, she, it, they, we.
Object pronouns include me, you, him, her, it, us, them. See the following examples:

Subject
I might see you later.
You have to come now.
She lives in Nebraska.
He makes me angry
It just might work.
They caught the last train.
We can’t see the end.

Object
Sarah hit me on the arm.
I need to tell you something.
Larry took him aside.
The message wasn’t for her.
Take it to the store.
Summer is fun for us.
Margaret took them downstairs.

And now it's the time for the 'Pronoun' Song!!



Thursday 5 January 2012

Introducing the 'Collective Nouns' people

Collective Nouns

Collective nouns refer to groups of people, animals, or things.
Examples:
audience, band, class, club, crowd, collection, committee
family, flock, group, herd, team

Example sentences:
Our class went to the museum today.

The audience clapped wildly at the end of the play.

I love my stamp collection!

class is made up of a group of students acting as one whole, anaudience is made up of a group of people acting as one whole, and acollection is made up of a group of things (in this case, stamps) acting as one whole.


Singular or Plural?

So, what do you think? Are they singular or plural? They name things that come together to act as one group.

If you said singular, you're right!

Even though each of these nouns is made up of many people, animals, or things, it names the group as a whole, which means that it is asingular noun.

You can make them plural the same way that you make other nouns plural. Usually, this means adding an s or es at the end of the word.

SingularPlural
classclasses
crowdcrowds
familyfamilies
flockflocks
For instance, schools are made up of more than one class of students. Because of this, we would say that there are multiple classes in a school.
Class is singular, and classes is plural.

So lets have a deeper view on nouns


Proper Nouns and Common Nouns

Proper

Proper nouns name specific people, places, things, or ideas.

Examples:
Siti, Najwa, Bangsar, Nike, Casio

Since these nouns are naming specific things, they always begin with a capital letter.
Sometimes, they contain two or more important words.

Examples:

Siti Nurhaliza, Mid Valley Mega Mall, Tutti Frutti
 
If this is the case, both important words are capitalized, and the whole thing is still considered to be one proper noun even though it's made up of more than one word. How about that?




Common

Common nouns are the opposite of proper nouns. They are your run of the mill, generic nouns. They name people, places, things or ideas that are not specific.


Examples:
woman, city, dog, shoe

Since these nouns are not naming anything specific, they do not need to start with a capital letter unless they begin a sentence.





Their Relationship


Every proper noun has a common noun equivalent, but not every common noun has a proper noun equivalent!


For example, dust is only a common noun. There is no specific kind of dust, so it's just common.

Monday 2 January 2012

Nountastic time!

As promised, today we are going to have some nountastic time!
I believe yo guys have now have the basic knowledge about noun is it? We have sing a song about nouns yesterday so let's see whether you get the song!

Lets describe the pictures!

Submit your answer to me, and I will get back to you later! :)

Sunday 1 January 2012

Lets get ready for..... NOUNS yay!

A noun is a word used to refer to people, animals, objects, substances, states, events and feelings.
Nouns can be a subject or an object of a verb, can be modified by an adjective and can take an article or determiner.

Nouns can be divided into two basic groups:

Countable Nouns have plural forms and Uncountable Nouns do not.

This is the basic of nouns:


Come on, it is not that hard. How about a song? Lets hear a song about nouns!!  




So did you have a better understanding about noun now?
Hope you do! Please post comments in case you have something to ask me.

That is all for today, we'll see you tomorrow for some nountastic time! Yay!