Lesson 1 : An Introduction

Read the following letter written by a student to a friend.

Now, discuss these questions in pair.

1. How many sentences are there in the letter?
2. What are some of the essential features of a sentence?
3. What does each sentence begin with and what does it have at the end?
4. What are the two parts in a sentence?

Now read the following and check your answers to the questions.

A sentence is a set of oral or written words in proper order that expresses a complete thought.These words are commonly named as Parts of Speech.These Parts of Speech are placed according to the work they do in a sentence. The first word of a sentence is capitalised and the sentence ends with a full stop (.), question mark (?) or exclamation mark (!).

A sentence contains a subject and a predicate. Sometimes, the subject is not mentioned explicitly in some sentences. It is only 'understood.' Examples of such sentences can be found in the letter above: (You) Give me details about your vacation plan. Here the subject you is not mentioned by the letter writer but we understand that Dalia was asking her friend Mahjabin to give her the details of her vacation plan.

Rearrange these words to make meaningful sentences.

1. ship violently the storm rocked the
2. painting artist with great patience the his worked at
3. gift free a he offered the hotel by the was.
4. I read paper in the road was blocked the that.
5. began cricketers the ground at their familiar practising.
6. wore a hat he of coconut made fibre his on head.
7. parts many coffee popular in world the is very of.
8. cave could explore not they torch the without a.
9. the storm shed damaged the was during.
10. the poor girl Jamil and talked sat next to her.

Can you say what a subject and a predicate are in a sentence? Identify subjects and predicates in the following sentences.

1. The results of the test are not known yet.
2. There have been many incidents of robbery in the past.
3. Why did he take the new bike back to the dealer?
4. My name was written on the document in three places.
5. She will be going to the dentist later this afternoon.
6. Will Jewel be taking his cricket bat on this trip?

Lesson 2 : Affirmative and Negative sentences

Read the sentences in column A and B of the following table. In pairs, discuss the differences between the sentences given in column A and B.

What differences have you identified between the two types of sentences? You might have already found that we call these two types of sentences as Affirmative Sentences and Negative Sentences.

In pairs, discuss what you know about the formation and use of Affirmative Sentences and Negative Sentences.

Affirmative Sentences

One of the commonly used structures in English is subject-verb-object. 

     e.g. The rabbit eats carrots.

     The rabbit is the subject, eats is the main verb, and carrots is the object.

Negative Sentences

      The negative form of this sentence is a little different.
      The rabbit does not eat carrots.

Choose the sentence from column B to match the sentences having the same meaning in column A.

Lesson 3 : Interrogative Sentences

Read the short text on a popular sport star. Make a list of what you have already known about her.

Stephanie Rice is renowned as one of Australia's golden girls. She is Olympic Gold Medalist and world record-breaking swimmer. Stephanie knew she wanted to be an Olympic swimmer from the young age of four. The talented swimmer first caught Australia's attention in 2006. Then at 17 years of age, she won gold at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games. She then went on to win more medals at international levels. She showed her best at the 2008 Beijing Olympic swimming when she won three Gold Medals and set new world records.

[adapted]

Imagine that you have a chance to meet Stephanie Rice who offers advice to young athletes. You will be allowed to ask her questions only. Now write the five questions that you would like to ask her.

Compare your questions with a partner. Make a final list of 5 questions to ask Stefanie Rice.

You might have already discussed that the sentences we use for asking questions are known as Interrogative Sentence.

Read the sections below to check your understanding of the form and use of Interrogative Sentences.

Interrogative sentences are used to ask questions: They are also easy to spot because they end in a question mark.

'yes' 'no' interrogative: 

Example : Is it raining?

Notice that the interrogative above is a simple 'yes' 'no' question. The response may be given by 'yes' or 'no'.

Alternative interrogatives offer two or more alternative responses :

Example :

Should I telephone you or send an email? Do you want tea or coffee?

Yes/no interrogatives and alternative interrogatives are introduced by an auxiliary verb.
WH- interrogatives are introduced by a wh- word, and the response is open-ended.

Examples :
What happened?
Where do you work?
Where do you live?

Questions are sometimes tagged at the end of a statement.

Examples:
Sumon plays the piano, doesn't he?
We've forgotten the milk, haven't we?
It's hot today, isn't it?

These are known as tag questions. They consist of a main or auxiliary verb followed by a pronoun or introductory there.

Transformation of assertive sentences to interrogative

Read the following rules to remember while transforming assertive sentences to interrogative.

• You cannot change the meaning of sentences.
• If the assertive sentence is in affirmative or positive, you have to use negative expression in interrogative and if it is in negative, you will use the affirmative or positive expression in interrogative.
• An interrogative sentence may start with either a wh-word or an auxiliary verb.

Here are some examples with explanations.

Examples :
Assertive: He is a famous player of this country. Interrogative: Is he not a famous player of this country? (To show positive sense)
Assertive: We do not play in the sun.
Interrogative: Do we play in the sun? (To show negative sense)
 

Explanation : Here, you only have to place the auxiliary verb at first and then the subject. And, the sentence which is positive, is changed into negative and which is in negative, is changed into positive.

Examples :
Assertive: My brother has never visited India. Interrogative: 

Has my brother ever visited India?

Explanation : Here, only the word 'never' is changed into 'ever' and the rest are in the same structure.

Examples :

Assertive: He has nothing to do in this situation. Interrogative :

Has he anything to do in this situation?

Explanation : Here, only the word 'nothing' is changed into 'anything' and the rest are in the same structure.

Examples :

Assertive : Everybody wants to be happy in life. 

Interrogative : Who does not want to be happy in life?

Assertive : All were present in the last meeting.

Interrogative : Who were not present in the last meeting?

Explanation :
Here, you have to use a wh-words-'who' in the beginning and the rest parts are in same structure. And 'Everybody/everyone/all' are positive in sense, so the interrogative structure should be negative.

Examples:

Assertive : Nobody believes a liar in this world. 

Interrogative : Who believe a liar?

Assertive : None helped him yesterday. 

Interrogative : Who helped him yesterday?

Explanation : Here, you have to use a wh-word-'who' in the beginning and the rest are in same structure. And 'Nobody/none/no one' are negative in sense so the interrogative structure should be affirmative.

Exercise

Change the following assertive sentences into interrogative.

1. It was a great sight.
2. No one can tolerate this.
3. Nobody salutes the setting sun.
4. Gulliver could hear his watch ticking in his pocket.
5. It is useless to cry over spilt milk.
6. The beauty of nature is beyond description.
7. Everybody has heard of Darwin.
8. He has his dinner at seven every evening.
9. I told him to practise regularly.
10. Virtue has its own reward.

Lesson 4 : Imperative Sentence

Look at the following sentences. What do they have in common? 

What do all of the following sentences have in common?

1. Enjoy yourselves.
2. Give me some time to decide.
3. Feel free to write when you need.
4. Give me your phone number
5. Don't shut the door
6. Stop!

Imperative sentences are used for requests, suggestions, advice, or commands. Generally the subjects are missing here and the sentences begin with verbs. Imperative sentences are widely used in social communication especially in conversation. The above sentences are positive imperatives. However, in the negative imperative sentences, we commonly use contracted forms. Now look at the examples below :

1. Don't eat my banana.
2. Don't wait for my answer.
3. Don't neglect your study.
4. Don't shout.

Work in pairs. Make a list of some of the instructions your teachers give you in the classroom. Example :

1. Read the passage.
2. Look at the picture.

The following text shows the procedure of cooking chicken biryani. Some words are missing here. Now work in pairs to complete the text; you may select words from the given box below:

Cut and _ the chicken. _ water from the chicken. _ red chili powder, garammasala powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, ginger paste, garlic paste, jaifal, jaiotri, yogurt and one tablespoon salt to the chicken and mix all of them very well. Leave it to _ for one hour. Wash the rice. _ five cups of water in a deep pan and bring the water boil. When the water boils, add rice, two pieces of cardamom, two pieces of cinnamon sticks, two pieces of bay leaves and one table spoon of salt. _  the rice until nearly done. Drain and keep it aside. _ oil in a pan. Add one chopped onion and fry until deep golden brown. _ the fried onion from the pan and keep aside. Add marinated chicken. Cook it in medium heat around 25-30 minutes or until chicken becomes tender. Take a heavy bottom pan and  alternate layers of chicken and rice. Carefully _ it with rice layer and spread ghee on top of the rice.  the pan with lid. If the lid is not tight, seal the edge with flour dough. Cook it in low flame around 20-25 minutes. _ the burner and leave it for another 20 minutes. Spread the fried onion over the biryani.

Lesson 5 : Exclamatory Sentence

Exclamatory sentences express strong emotions. It doesn't really matter what the emotion is; an exclamatory sentence is the type of sentence needed to express it. Exclamatory sentences always end in an exclamation mark. So it's easy to spot them.

Examples :

     What a stupid person he is! 

     How wonderful you look!

It is very important to know how to make exclamations because they are very common both in speaking and writing.

Look at the sentence below -

That is a piece of awful news. This is an assertive sentence expressing strong feeling. We can express the feeling more strongly using an exclamatory sentence. Look at the following sentence.

What an awful news!

Or

How awful the news is!
Look at another example:

Assertive: The baby has a very lovely smile.
Exclamatory: What a lovely smile the baby has!

Or
What a lovely smile the baby has!

Look at some more examples of exclamatory sentences below :

• The river is rising!
• I don't know what I'll do if I don't pass this test!
• Suddenly, a snake appeared in my path!
• This is the best day of my life!

Exercise

Change the following into exclamatory sentences:

     1. It is very cold outside.
     2. She sings very well.
     3. He looks annoyed.
     4. He is a very cruel man.
     5. The weather is very foul today.
     6. That is very interesting.
     7. She is very tall.
     8. It is very nice afternoon.

Lesson 6 : Introductory there

Amin has his own room in a small house. Look at the picture of Amin's room and read the description below. As you read, notice the sentences beginning with there.

I have got my own room. In my room there is a bed, a table, a chair, a wardrobe and a television. There is a window above the table. The television is opposite my bed so I can watch it when I am in bed.

The wardrobe is on the left and my bed is on the right. There is a computer on the table and books, pens and CDs are near the computer. There is a magazine and a camera on the bed.

Discuss these questions in pairs.

1. Does the description mention everything you see in the picture? What is not mentioned in the description?
2. How many sentences start with there.
3. How do you start a sentence to say where something is?

Look at some more examples of sentences beginning with there.

     There is a discussion this afternoon. It will start at four. There has been an accident. I hope no one is hurt.

There in the sentences above are known as introductory there. In these sentences there is used as the subject. Can you write more sentences with introductory there?

Complete the sentences to introduce a new topic or piece of information.

     There is a ----------------------------------------

     There has been------------------------------------

     There was ----------------------------------------

In pairs discuss when and where you may use this kind of there.

Now, read the following section to know more about the use of there

In English, the introductory there is used to introduce the sentence.

• There is a hole in my shoes. (More natural than A hole is in my shoes.)
• There is a bridge over the river.

There are is used with plural subjects. Examples:

• There are two people in the room.
• Once upon a time there were three bears in a forest.

Read the following section to check the use of introductory there :

When we talk about numbers or quantities, we frequently say-

     There was a lot of rain yesterday. There were less than two hundred people in the hall.

Again, if we want to say where something/somebody is/was/likely to be, we use sentences as follows :

There used to be a playground at the end of the lane. There are many gardens in the city. I wonder if there will be anyone there. (= at that place)

There is also used with infinitives :
There was nothing to watch on television. There is a lot of work to do.
We use a singular verb if the noun phrase is singular :

There is a meeting this evening. It will start at seven. There was a lot of rain last night. There is someone waiting to see you.

We use a plural verb if the noun phrase is plural :

There are more than ten people waiting to see my father. There were a lot of people doing the work.

Exercise
Look at the picture of a room. In pairs, say ten sentences to describe the things that you can see in the room. Use There is../There are... .Then, write ten sentences to describe your classroom using the same expression/s..