. Types of Sentences by Structure .

• Simple Sentence – “I love chocolate.” One independent clause (underlined).

• Compound Sentence - “I love chocolate, and I love eating chocolate.” Two or more independent clauses.

• Complex Sentence – “I love chocolate because it’s decadent.” One independent clause and one or more dependent clauses (italicized). Note: according to Wikipedia, a sentence like “The dog chewed up the shoes that I just bought” is a simple sentence, not a complex sentence, because the relative clause “that I just bought” simply modifies the noun without performing any other function. I’m not sure how accurate this is, however.

• Complex-Compound Sentence – “I love chocolate because it’s decadent, and I love eating chocolate because it’s delicious.” Two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses.

Those four categories apply to normal, grammatical sentences. However, some of our most common expressions are sentences that don’t follow the rules — see Major and Minor Sentences.

Note: obsessive syntacticians (is there any other kind?) have also named more specific types of sentences, which I’ll address when I start learning about the finer points of writing style.

posted by : Teacher Kirin :)

. Proverbs for kids .

PROVERBS FOR KIDS

 
Fill in the gaps with a suitable word and complete the proverbs listed below, see the missing words which are:

HANDS            FENCES             CANDLE    HORSE
FRIENDS         MOUNTAIN           HEART        WISE
BETTER           FRUIT


1    Absence makes the _______ grow fonder.
2    Books and _______ should be few but good.
3    Don't make a _______ out of a molehill.
4    Good _______ make good neighbors.
5    It is easy to be _______ after the event. 
6    Many _______ make light work.
7    Never look a gift _______ in the mouth.
8    Prevention is _______ than cure.  
9    You cannot burn the _______ at both ends.
10    Forbidden _______ is sweetest. 

Answers:

1    Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
2    Books and friends should be few but good.
3    Don't make a mountain out of a molehill.
4    Good fences make good neighbors.
5    It is easy to be wise after the event. 
6    Many hands make light work.
7    Never look a gift horse in the mouth.
8    Prevention is better than cure.
9    You cannot burn the candle at both ends.
10    Forbidden  fruit is sweetest.


Posted by : Teacher Syu Syu :)

. Tips for speaking English fluently! .

  Where do you get input from?

 

There is English input available everywhere. Here are a few tips and suggestions for you to find input of English around you and improve your English speech:

Rent or buy an English movie DVD

Rent or buy an English movie DVD. Put the English subtitles on. Follow the movie.
This has many advantages:

• You will be able to compare the written words to the correct pronunciations.
• You will get a feel of how real English sentences are formed when speaking.
• You will be learning English but it will not be frustrating and boring because you will be watching a movie.

Please note: When you watch the movie be sure to keep your dictionary handy. Whenever you come across a new word, pause the movie and look it up in the dictionary. If you don’t do this, the whole experience will be quite pointless.

Read about any subject that interests you

 

There are a lot of English magazines available on a lot of different topics.
No matter what subject interests you, there must be some magazine that talks about it. There are English magazines about Business, Brides, Guns and Ammo, House Keeping, Stock Market, Sports, Computers, Electronics, Linux, Graphic Designing, Cooking etc.
Find the magazine that interests you and read it cover to cover. Be sure to look out for new words and new phrases and look them up in the dictionary as you go.
If you cannot find a magazine of your choice, look for information you are interested in on the Internet. There is information available on every topic under the sun on the Internet.

Read Internet forums of subject matter that interests you

 

Got to Internet forums of the subject matter that interests you. Generally most of the forums are in English language and are a great source of English input.
For those of you who are not familiar with Internet forums, these are places where people interested in a particular subject can get together and share their views and opinions about a particular subject. You can also ask specific questions to other people and they will help you out if they can. On the Internet, there are forums available about each and every subject.
Forums are a great source of information. Also in forums real people talk about real problems. Most of the information typed in forums is written in an informal way. Because of this the forums make a good source for English input. Reading forums exposes you to a lot of phrases of daily use.
You could find forums on any subject matter that interests you at: Google Groups
You could also go to "Google" and search for the forum of the subject matter you are interested in by typing in something like “C programming forum” or “Cooking forum” etc.
When reading forums also make sure you find out the meaning of every new word or phrase you come across or the whole exercise will be useless.

Read English fiction novels

 

Read English fiction of your choice. This is our India. Books are not costly here. You get cheap book in every nook and corner. If you want to pick up an interesting cheap English novel, go to the closest "raddi walla" (You know, the guy you sell your old daily news papers to...) They will generally also have old novels, book and magazines. These wont be good quality. They will all be second hand. But that’s okay, they will be nice and cheap. Pick up some thing that interests you. Take it home and read it. Be sure to look up all the new words you come across in the book.

Listen to the radio and TV

 

Our "All India Radio" has some good programs that are designed to teach English to the listener.
Besides this, there are also many different radio stations available now-a-days in the big cities. Some of these radio stations are in English. Listen to them to get a feel of the language.
Besides the radio, you could also listen to the "News In English". It’s available on a wide variety of channels. The news is a good place to get input of the English language because it is spoken in a very clear, easy to understand way.

Chat with fluent English speakers

 

Chat with fluent English speakers real or online. Make friends with interesting English speakers. Become pen-pals with a fluent English speaker.
While talking to them look at their lip movement for tips on how to pronounce words correctly.

Most effective tip: "Think in English"

 

One of the most common mistakes that English learners make is, they think in their mother tongue. When they want to say something in English, they think in their mother tongue, translate it to English and then say it in English. The result is a very flawed English sentence. Never do this!
If you want to speak in English fluently you will have to learn to "think" in English. When you are constructing sentences in your mind before saying them, think in English and form them in English in your mind.

Another way to speak English Fluently ! Lets check it out ~ 

 


Posted by : Teacher Syu Syu :)

. Conjuction .

A conjunction is a word that "joins". A conjunction joins two parts of a sentence.
Here are some example conjunctions:

Coordinating Conjunctions	Subordinating Conjunctions
and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so	although, because, since, unless

We can consider conjunctions from three aspects.

Form

Conjunctions have three basic forms:

• Single Word
  for example: and, but, because, although
  
• Compound (often ending with as or that)
  for example: provided that, as long as, in order that
  
• Correlative (surrounding an adverb or adjective)
  for example: so...that

Function

Conjunctions have two basic functions or "jobs":

• Coordinating conjunctions are used to join two parts of a sentence that are grammatically equal. The two parts may be single words or clauses, for example:
  - Jack and Jill went up the hill.
  - The water was warm, but I didn't go swimming.
  
• Subordinating conjunctions are used to join a subordinate dependent clause to a main clause, for example:
  - I went swimming although it was cold.

Position

• Coordinating conjunctions always come between the words or clauses that they join.
  

Subordinating conjunctions usually come at the beginning of the subordinate clause

                                      Lets play game! :)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Across

 

3. He must be very popular, ___ everyone in school knows him.
5. John wanted to stay, ___ his sister persuaded him to go.
6. ___ the rain, we went to the beach.
7. ___ I got home, my sister had already left.
8. It's too late to go out; ___, it's beginning to rain.

Down

 

1. She wanted to go to the party; ___, she was not invited.
2. ___ it was cold, he went out without a sweater.
4. We can't buy it ___ we don't have enough money.
5. John had to go to the doctor ___ he was not feeling well.



Posted by : Teacher Syu Syu :)

What are verb ?

  The verb is king in English. The shortest sentence contains a verb. You can make a one-word sentence with a verb, for example: "Stop!" You cannot make a one-word sentence with any other type of word.

Verbs are sometimes described as "action words". This is partly true. Many verbs give the idea of action, of "doing" something. For example, words like run, fight, do and work all convey action.

But some verbs do not give the idea of action; they give the idea of existence, of state, of "being". For example, verbs like be, exist, seem and belong all convey state.

A verb always has a subject. (In the sentence "John speaks English", John is the subject and speaks is the verb.) In simple terms, therefore, we can say that verbs are words that tell us what a subject does or is; they describe:

• action (Ram plays football)
• state (Anthony seems kind)

There is something very special about verbs in English. Most other words (adjectives, adverbs, prepositions etc) do not change in form (although nouns can have singular and plural forms). But almost all verbs change in form. For example, the verb to work has five forms:

• to work, work, works, worked, working

Of course, this is still very few forms compared to some languages which may have thirty or more forms for a single verb.

words of verbs

*Posted by : Teacher Nina & Teacher Kirin (^_^)v

. Adjectives .

 
Definition of an adjectives

An adjective is a word that modifies or describes a noun or pronoun. An adjective can indicate what kind of, how many, whose, or which. The words "a" and "an" are called indefinite articles and the word "the" is a definite article. They are adjectives too.

In general, adjectives usually appear before the noun they modify or after a linking verb. For example: "That is a red ball" (adjective before the noun) or "That ball is red" (adjective after the linking verb).

The following are the twelve major categories of meaning that are expressed with English adjectives. A few exemplars are listed for each category, but there are several more possibilities. 

COLOR: blue, red, green, brown, yellow, black, white, etc.
SIZE: big, small, little, long, tall, short, same as,
SHAPE: round ( a ball ), circle (a door knob), triangle, rectangle ( a flag ),
square ( a block ), oval ( an egg )
DISTANCE: long, short, far, around, start, high, low
FEELINGS OR QUALITIES: good, pretty, right, good, old, better, best, full, funny, light, clean, new, fast, happy, sad, crooked, straight, noisy, quiet, full, empty, fast, slow, closed, open, soft, hard
QUANTITY: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, ten, many, few, all, some, every, any, first, once, much,
TEMPERATURE: cold, warm, hot, cool
TIME: late, early, bed, nap, dinner, lunch, day, morning, night,
NATIONALITY or ORIGIN: American, Mexican,
MATERIAL: wooden, sharp, paper, cloth,
AGE: new, old, young, child, adult, baby, teenage
PURPOSE: (These adjectives usually end in /ing/) sleeping bag, frying pan, swinging door.

Examples :

Lets singing togetha! :)

*Posted by : Teacher Syu Syu :)

. what is a noun ? .

The definition of a noun is a word that is used to define a person, animal or living object, place, thing or quality.

There are many different kinds of nouns in English.

Common Nouns - general nouns such as cat, bowl, hand, tree clock etc.

Countable Nouns - nouns that can be counted, such as car-cars, child-children etc.


Uncountable Nouns - nouns that can't be counted, such as water, fire, air etc.

Collective Nouns - nouns that refer to a group of things or people such as family, police, worker's union etc.

Proper Nouns - nouns that refer to a specific name of a person, corporation, company, product, such as IBM, Microsoft, Mr. David Green, Dr. Mary Jones.

Concrete Nouns - a noun that is a physical object, something that can be touched, seen, such as an animal, window, table, computer etc.

Abstract Nouns - is a noun is not a physical object, it can't be touched physically. They are ideas and feelings such as intelligence, love, hate, bravery etc.


                                             Example :

Posted by : Teacher Syu Syu :)