A Sentence:

What is a sentence?
Sentence is a groups of words which give complete sense. A sentence which asserts or
states something is called an assertive sentence
Ex – Children love Music
A Sentence can ask a Question?
1. Where did you go?
2. Is your sister a teacher?
3. Where are they going?

These are called Interrogative sentence.

If a sentence begins with an auxiliary verb the subject comes after the Auxiliary
Ex. Is the train on time?
In Questions which began with Interrogative words also the word- ends in Inverted.
Eg. Why do they Quarrel?
A sentence which express a command a request, order, a prayer a wish or a piece of advise is
called imperative sentence
Ex. 1) Leave the room.
2) Take care of your heath.
Sentence which express sudden feelings are called Exclamatory sentence.
1. How cold it is!
2. How Humble he is!

Tenses
A verb is a word which suggests what a subject is, what it does or what happens to it.
Hence there is a possibilityof relating the functions of the verb to the past, present or future.

The forms of each Tense

1. Simple
2. Continuous
3. Perfect
4. Perfect continuous

Simple eat, eats

PresentContinuous is/am/are eating
Perfect Have/Has eaten
Perfect continuous have/has been eating
Past Simple ate
continuous was/were eating
Perfect had eaten
Perfect continuous had been eating
Future simple shall/will eat
Continuous shall/will be eating
Perfect shall/will have been eaten
perfect continuous shall/will have been eating

The simple present

Eat, eats do, does cows eat grass with a plural subject, the base from of the verb is
used - they, we, I, you.
Ex. cows eat grass
With singular subject (other than I & you) the s/es form of the verb in used (singular, he, she,
it none)
Acow eats grass
This tense denotes a permanent truth, habitual action, imperative& exclamatory

Present continuous
Is/an/are + (verb) ing
Important uses are
To show an action going on at the moment
1. The child is sleeping
To show an action in the immediate future.
1. I am going home next Monday

Present perfect
Singular has. Plural have.
Have/Has + Past participle
Ex- The plane has landed.
1. To express an action that has just finished
2. To express a past action the results of which are still felt or observed.
a. I have worked in this office for 2 years

Present Perfect continuous

 Have/has been + (verb) ing.
To show an action which began in the past and is still continuing

Simple past.
Did + verb = eat + did = Ate
Write + did = wrote

Important uses
To denote an action that occrued in the past.
Ex – My friend died last year
Habitual action in the past
Ex – when I was in Delhi I went to temple every week-end

Past continuous
Was/were + (verb) ing

Important uses
To show the continuity of a past action
Ex (1) he was working all the morning.
To denote an action that was continuing when another action took place.
Ex- It was raining so the match stopped.
To show repeated action.
He was always demanding more salary

Past Perfect
Had + past participle.
It is used to indicate the earlier of two actions. The later action is indicated by the simple part.
Ex. The train had left by the time I reached the station.

The past perfect continuous

Had been + (verb) ing
Shows an action which started sometime in the past and continued without break till a latter
point of time in the past when something happened
Ex- I had been reading for hours before he came
Simple Future
Shall / will + verb
Ex- I will come with you

Future Continuous
Shall/will + be + verb (ing)
I shall be visiting my friends during the vacation.

Future perfect
Shall /will + have + past + participle. This tense shows that a certain action will be completed
by a certain future time.
She will have finished cooking by now

Future perfect continuous

Shall/will + have been + verb (ing)
This tense is rarely used. Its purpose is served by future perfect.

Conditional sentences
This group has a simple present verb in the conditional clause and a verb. Indicating
future tense or the impetrative in main clause.
Conditional clause Main clause
Simple present shall/will/can/may + verb bare or impetrative
1. If you study you will pass
2. If you come early bring fruits
This group has a verb in simple past in the conditional clause and should,would,
could, might + verb base in the main.
If you invited her she would come
The conditional clause will have the past perfect tense and main clause will have should,
would, could + have + us
Ex- 1) If you had asked me I would have helped you.

Modal Auxiliary
Should is used to express duty,opinion, obligation, suggestion.
We should help the poor.

Would: would is the past of will & shall in reported speech according to meaning.
Would express haluted action in past
1. When I was with my grandma she would tell stories
2. The doctor said he would start a new medicine (determination)

Can: express present ability, possibility. It is used to ask permission, to make polite request,
possibility
I can lift this box

Could:is used for past ability. Polite request as for giving permission, making a suggestion.
1. Could I take some rest in your room

May: is used for asking permission / possibility wish, purpose, uncertainty

Ex – 1) May I go a little early today?
She may come today

Might: used to express doubtful possibility

It might rain.

Must: Expresses determination, obligation strong probability

1. He must apologize to the principal.
2. I must go home today

Used to: Shows habitual action in the past

Need: It Expresses necessity, suggestion obligation

1) You need not wait here

Voice
The form of verb which shows whether the subject acts, or is being acted upon is called its
Voice. If the subject acts it is called the Active Voice and if it is acted upon it is called the
Passive Voice.
Rama killed Ravana (Active)
Ravana was killed by Rama (Passive)

Active Passive
Simple Present Object is/am/are + past participle
Present Continuous Object is/am/are + being + V3
Present Perfect Object has/have + been + V3
Simple Past Object + was/were + V3
Past Continuous Object + was/were + being + V3
Past Perfect Object + had + been + V3
Compound form with as auxiliary Auxiliary + Be + P.P
Eg. Someone stole my watch
My watch was stolen

Prepositions – A preposition is a word which shows the relation of a noun or a pronoun to

some other word in a sentence.
These preposition are used to express time – at, within, since, until, till during, by from
The expression of place.
at, in, on
Ex - There was a BOMB explosion at the railway station
My brother is employed in Delhi
1. At is used to denote state or condition
2. Direction

Between is used when we refer two things, persons etc.

Balu sits between Gopu and Raju

Among is used when we refer to more than two things, persons etc
1. Divide the sweets among the 3 of you

Beside means by the side of

My house is beside the river
Besides in addition to

Besides a car, he has a Jeep

With is used for instruments

He wrote with a pen

Direct and Indirect Speech

Direct speech has two parts
1. Reporting part and the speech part

Direct Speech Indirect Speech

Simple Present Simple Past
Present Continuous Past Continuous
Present Perfect Past Perfect
Present Perfect Continuous Past Perfect Continuous
Simple Past Past or Past Perfect
Past Continuous Past Perfect Continuous
Future Conditional
Conjunctions
A conjunction establishes a link between two or more words, phrases and clauses.
And, but, so, as, though, even though, not only – but also, neither nor, either or, unless
nevertheless, hence, therefore, least, because, so that, yet, still, in case, whether, if or else, no
sooner that, hardly, if not as though, as etc.

Words often confused

Accept - to receive with favour
Except - other than
Affect - to act upon
Effect - to bring about
Ancient - old
Antique - old fashioned
Accident - happening by chance
Incident - event
Adapt - adjust
Adopt - to take a child as one’s own
Altar - sacred place of worship
Alter - change
Amiable - lovable
Amicable - or a friendly way
Advice (N) - Opinion above what could be done
Advise (V) - Opinion above what could be done
Bare - uncovered
Bear - tolerate
Canvas - a rough cloth
Canvass - ask for a vote
Coma - unconscious state
Comma - punctuation mark
Congenial - suitable
Congenital - by birth
Credible - believable
Creditable - what brings credit
Eligible - qualified sufficiently
Illegible - not readable
Fair - right, just
Fare - money charged for a journey

Idioms & Phrases

1. To keep wolf from door – to escape from starvation

2. Bad blood – ill feeling

3. Good books – a favourite of

4. Both ends meet – meet his expense

5. Hangs in a balance – continues in uncertain state

6. Lent me a hand – helped me

7. Poke your nose – interfere

8. Nut shell – briefly

9. Red letter day – important day

10. Thick and thin – through every trouble

11. At the beck and call – at one’s command call

12. With the silver spoon – born rich

13. By hook or by crook – by fair or foul

14. Shed crocodile tears – pretend sorrow

15. Bolt from blue – sudden surprise

16. Pour oil in fire – increase the excitement

17. Blue blood – of high birth

18. Gift of gab – power of speech

19. Slow coach – person slow in action

20. Flesh creep – frighten

ADJECTIVES
Look at the following sentences.
1. Rama’s house is new
 2. Hari’s house is newer than Rama’s
3. Gopi’s house is the newest of all
In sentence 1, the Adjective new tells us only that Rama’s house has the quality of
newness. In sentence 2, the Adjective newer tells us that Hari’s house has more newness than
Rama’s house. In sentence 3, the Adjective newest tells us that, of the three houses, Gopi’s
house has the maximum newness. We learn now that the Adjective in these sentences has
three forms: new, newer, newest, which are called its different Degrees of Comparison.
The form new is in the Positive Degree. It is the simplest form of the Adjective.
Newer is in the Comparative Degree, a higher degree of quality than the Positive Degree,
and is used when two units are compared. Newest is the highest degree of quality, and is used
when three or more units are compared. It is called the Superlative Degree and is always
preceded by the.
The elephant is the strongest animal on land
Dick is the tallest boy in the class

Ways of forming comparatives and superlatives

1. Most Adjectives form the Comparative by adding –er, and the Superlative by adding –est
to the Positive Degree.

Positive Comparative Superlative

tall taller tallest
big bigger biggest
happy happier happiest
easy easier easiest
wise wiser wisest
large larger largest
red redder reddest
thin thinner thinnest

2. Most Adjectives of two syllables, and all Adjectives of more than three syllables, form the
Comparative by using the Adverb more, and the Superlative by using the Adverb most,
with the Positive.

Positive Comparative Superlative

splendid more splendid most splendid
wonderful more wonderful most wonderful
beautiful more beautiful most beautiful
Note: (i) Though the Adjective early is a disyllabic word, it takes only the forms earlier
and earliest. This is the case with ugly also, but more ugly and most ugly also
exist.
(ii) The Comparative –er is not used when we compare two qualities in the same
person or thing.
Bob is more industrious than intelligent
She is more jealous than greedy

Irregular comparatives
Look at the words in the table below. Some comparatives and Superlatives are not formed
from the Positive. They are compared irregularly.

Positive Comparative Superlative

good, well better best
bad, ill, evil, badly worse worst
little less, lesser least
much, many more most
near nearer nearest, next
late later, latter latest, last
old older, elder oldest, eldest
far farther, further farthest, furthest
in inner inmost, innermost
up upper uppermost
out outer, utter outermost, uttermost, utmost