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PEP LANGUAGE ARTS SUMMARY

Written by Janice Gaynor

Techno Teacher JA

The entire book takes just about three hours to read. You can read it all in one day if you want. If time permits, read it over and over.

Use it along with your regular school books.

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A sentence is a group of words that expresses a complete thought.

There are four types of sentences.

The four types of sentences are: (1) declarative, (2) interrogative, (3) imperative and (4) exclamatory.

A declarative sentence makes a statement. It ends with a full stop (.). Example: I live in the island of Jamaica.

An interrogative sentence asks a question. It ends with a question mark (?). Example: What is your name?

An imperative sentence gives a command. It ends with a full stop (.). Example: Please close the door.

An exclamatory sentence expresses excitement. It ends with an exclamation mark (!). Example: He is drowning!

Every sentence must start with a capital letter and end with the correct punctuation mark depending on the type of sentence that it is.

A simple sentence contains two main parts – the subject and the predicate.

The subject of a sentence is also called the naming part.

The subject of a sentence names the person, place, animal or thing that is being spoken about. Example: The dog barked all night, * The subject of the sentence is ‘the dog’.

The predicate of a sentence is also called the telling part.

The predicate of a sentence tells us something about the subject. Example: The dog barked all night. The predicate of the sentence is “barked all night”.

A clause is a part of a sentence. Example: a glass of water.

A phrase is also a part of a sentence. Example: the tower bell.

There are eight parts of speech.

The eight parts of speech are: (1) nouns, (2) verbs, (3) pronouns, (4) adjectives, (5) adverbs, (6) conjunctions, (7) prepositions, (8) interjections.

A noun is a person, place, animal or thing. Examples: television, gate, cat

A verb is an action word. Examples: eat, run, sing

A pronoun takes the place of a noun. Example – instead of saying ‘Sasha and Paul’, say ‘they’. ‘They’ is the pronoun.

An adjective describes a noun or pronoun. Examples: red, large, loud, dark

An adverb describes a verb or adjective. Examples: very, badly, early, often, yesterday, there

A conjunction joins together words, phrases or sentences. Examples: and, so, because, or, but

A preposition shows the relationship between two nouns or pronouns in a sentence. Examples: into, on, at, around, to

An interjection is an exclamation that shows excitement. Examples: Oh no!, My goodness!, Ouch!, Yuck!, Rats!, Cheers!, Congratulations!

A common noun is a type of person, place, animal, or thing. Examples: swimmer, concert, pig, door

A proper noun is a specific person, place, thing or event. Examples: Paul Brown, Savers Supermarket, Olympics, Techno Teacher JA, Faith Church

A concrete noun is a noun that can be physically touched. Examples: bag, clock, book, house, breeze, water

An abstract noun is a noun that is a state of being or quality. It cannot be physically touched. Examples: hardship, youth, strength, love, loudness

A collective noun is a group of persons, animals or things taken as a whole. Examples: a band of musicians, a gang of robbers, a bouquet of flowers, a herd of cattle

A singular noun in one noun – a single noun.

A plural noun is more than one noun – two or more nouns.

Plural nouns are formed in different ways.

Regular nouns form their plural by adding ‘s’. Examples: pencil – pencils, phone – phones, blouse – blouses, cloud – clouds, car – cars

Irregular nouns form their plural by changing the word in some way. Examples: mouse – mice, man – men, foot – feet, child – children, tooth – teeth

Nouns that end with ‘s’, ‘sh’, ‘ch’, ‘x’, and ‘z’ form their plural by adding ‘es’. Examples: glass – glasses, dish – dishes, watch – watches, fox – foxes

You may double the last letter before adding ‘es’. Example: quiz – quizzes.

If a noun ends with ‘o’ with a vowel before the ‘o’, add ‘s’ to form its plural. Examples: video – videos, radio – radios

If a noun ends with ‘o’ with a consonant before the ‘o’, add ‘es’ to form its plural. Examples: mango – mangoes, hero – heroes, tomato – tomatoes

Most nouns that end with ‘f’ or ‘fe’ form their plural by changing the ‘f’ to ‘v’, then adding ‘es’. Examples: leaf – leaves, knife – knives

An exception is: roof – roofs

For nouns ending with ‘y’ with a consonant before the ‘y’, change the ‘y’ to ‘i’, then add ‘es’. Examples: family – families, country – countries, baby – babies, lady – ladies

For nouns ending with ‘y’ with a vowel before the ‘y’, form its plural by adding ‘s’. Examples: donkey – donkeys, key – keys, day – days

Some nouns are the same word for both the singular and the plural form. Examples: fish, sheep, aircraft, furniture, information

Some nouns have only a plural form. Examples: scissors, Mathematics, jeans, pliers, politics.

Verbs have a tense. The tense states when an action happens.

The present tense of a verb states an action that happens all the time or is happening now. Examples: The dog barks at people who pass the gate. Elsa goes to school five days per week.

The present tense is formed by adding ‘s’ or ‘es’ to verbs that are singular or refers to one person or thing. Examples: eats, drives, goes, sees, spins, sits. The baby walks very slowly. My bag feels heavy with so many book in it.

If the verb ends with ‘y’ and there is a consonant before the ‘y’, change the ‘y’ to ‘i’, then add ‘es’. Example: dry – dries, fly – flies, deny - denies.

The present of plural verb or verbs that refer to more than one person or thing is formed by not changing the verb at all. Examples: The babies walk very slowly. Our bags feel heavy with so many books in them.

The past tense of a verb states an action that has happened already. Examples: I ate as quickly as I could. The thief robbed the old couple.

The past tense of regular verbs is formed by adding ‘d’ or ‘ed’ to the verb. Examples: walk – walked, dance – danced, jump – jumped, phone – phoned

Note: when speaking, many times the ‘d’ or ‘ed’ sounds like a ‘t’.

The past tense of irregular verbs is formed by different words or a slight change in the spelling of the verb. Examples: sing – sang, eat – ate, spin – spun, drink – drank, teach – taught, buy – bought, think – thought, bring – brought, hear – heard, write – wrote, see – saw, sweep – swept, speak – spoke, sit – sat, wear – wore, swim – swam, draw – drew, do - did sleep – slept, run – ran, shine – shone, grow – grew, go – went, know–knew

Some verbs use the same word for the past tense as for the present tense. Examples: put – put, read – read, bet – bet, broadcast – broadcast

Note: The present and past tense of the word ‘read’, though spelt the same is pronounced differently (present tense – read, past tense is spelt ‘read’ also but pronounced as ‘red’).

The future tense of a verb states an action that is going to happen in the future. It has not happened as yet. The future tense is formed by putting the word ‘will’ or ‘shall’ before the present tense of the verb. Example: I will open door when you knock.

The future tense is formed by putting the word ‘will’ or ‘shall’ before the present tense of the verb. Example: He will give you the bag of fruits.

The present continuous tense states an action that is going on now. Example: Grandma is going to church.

The present continuous tense is formed by putting the word ‘is’, ‘are’ or ‘am’ in front of the verb ending with ‘ing’ on it. Examples: is jumping, are writing, am seeing, is sleeping, are working, am walking. It is raining in Kingston. The students are doing the exams. I am attending Techno Teacher JA’s extra classes.

The past continuous tense states an action that was going on when something interrupted it. Example: We were enjoying ourselves at the beach when it started to rain.

The past continuous tense is formed by putting the word ‘was’ or ‘were’ in front of the verb ending with ‘ing’. The children were playing in the school yard when the principal told them to go to their classrooms.

The verb ending with ‘ing’ is known as the present participle.

The main types of verbs are the present tense, the past tense, past participle, present participle, past perfect tense, present perfect tense, future tense, present continuous tense and past continuous tense.

The past participle is used when speaking already in the past tense and then referring to something else that happened before that time in the past. Examples: It had already begun to rain when I arrived at school. Dad had bought the food for the party, so I felt it was alright to invite the guests. The comedian had given that joke many times before, so it was no longer funny.

The past participle is formed by placing the auxiliary verb ‘had’ before the past participle verb. Examples: had done, had swept, had eaten, had seen.

Regular verbs has the same past participle as the past tense. Examples: play-played-had played, walk-walked-had walked, use-used-had used.

Irregular verbs use different words for the past participle from the past tense. Examples: write-wrote-had written, speak-spoke-had spoken, see-saw-had seen, spin-spun-had spun, sweep-swept-had swept.

Present Past Past Participle

is, are, am was, were had been

drink drank had drunk

drive drove had driven

swim swam had swum

teach taught had taught

think thought had thought

thank thanked had thanked

buy bought had bought

fly flew had flown

wear wore had worn

run ran had run

hear heard had heard

put put had put

bet bet had bet

fry fried had fried

sing sang had sung

read read had read (pronounced ‘red’)

lead led had led

see saw had seen

grow grew had grown

eat ate had eaten

sit sat had sat

live lived had lived

spin spun had spun

speak spoke had spoken

shine shone had shone

dress dressed had dressed

go went had gone

do did had done

has had had

freeze froze frozen

sweep swept had swept

hold held held

dream dreamed/dreamt had dreamed/dreamt

bring brought had brought

learn learned/learnt had learned/learnt

sleep slept had slept

mean meant had meant

know knew had known

understand understood had understood

forget forgot had forgotten

stand stood had stood

study studied had studied

win won had won

smell smelled/smelt had smelled/smelt

come came had come

find found had founded

lie lay laid

keep kept had kept

stop stopped had stopped

give gave had given

take took had taken

listen listened had listened

sell sold had sold

comb combed had combed

wake woke had woken

dry dried had dried

ride rode had ridden

fight fought had fought

rise rose had risen

light lit had lit

show showed had shown

enjoy enjoyed had enjoyed

begin began had begun

start started had started

end ended had ended

empty emptied had emptied

look looked had looked

play played had played

The present perfect tense states an action that started in the past and continues in the present. Examples: I have done my homework. She has worn that dress already. The light has been on all day.

To form the present perfect tense, place the word ‘has’ or ‘have’ in front of the past participle of the verb. Examples: have heard, have seen, has gone.

The past perfect tense is basically the same as the past participle. It refers to an action that happened in the past before an action that is already in the past. Examples: The guest speaker had begun to speak when I arrived. The thief had escaped when the police went to the house. I had gone to that school for the past three years, so I did not want to go to another school.

Singular means one. A single thing. Examples: one – apple, bag, computer

The subject of a sentence is the doer of the action. The boy shouted loudly. The girls played well in the last match. The song was sung nicely by the choir. This summary was written by me. The stove is silver and shiny.

A singular subject needs a singular verb. Add ‘s’ or ‘es’ to the verb to make it singular. Examples: My brother plays football after school. She goes to that school. He lives in Hanover.

Plural means more than one.

A plural subject needs a plural verb. To make the verb plural, leave it as it is. Do not add ‘s’ or ‘es’. Examples: The children sing hymns at devotion. Those men eat a lot of food. My dogs bark all night.

Note: singular – is ; plural – are. Examples: These bananas are very delicious. Today is rather hot. My phone is ringing. The women are working.

The previous singular and plural verbs were in the present tense. If the verbs are in the past tense, use the usual past tenses. The past tense of ‘is’ would be ‘was’ and the past tense of ‘are’ would be ‘were’. Examples: It was raining all day. They played a match yesterday. I heard a sound just then. The babies were sleeping soundly. The boy moved the chair without permission.

The following pronouns are used with a singular verb: anybody, nobody, anyone, someone, somebody, one of, either, neither, every, everyone and each. Examples: Everyone knows the name of the president. Nobody moves, nobody gets hurt.

The following pronouns are used with a plural verb: few, many, several, others and both. Examples: A few of the mangoes are spoilt. Both of the songs sound good.

Two singular nouns joined by the word ‘and’ uses a plural verb. Example: Miss Thomas and Miss Simpson are on the choir.

A singular noun followed by the following words or phrases uses a singular verb: in addition to, together with, besides and as well as. Examples: Oxtail, together with beans, makes a delicious meal. Tuesday, as well as Thursday, is the day that she sells in the market.

Words joined by the following words uses a plural verb: both_____and, all_____but, Examples: Both the book and the pencil are mine. All the books written by her, but the ghost novel, are good.

Words joined by neither_____nor and either_____or use a singular verb. Neither the grape nor the apple is ripe. Either the chocolate or the biscuit costs $250.

A collective noun uses a singular verb. Examples: The bouquet of flowerssmells good. A herd of cattleis very large. The choirsings at churches.

A verb is in the active voice when the subject is the doer of the action. Examples: Peter drank the cup of milk. Thesun shines brightly. Sandra plays netball for that club. Frank’s cat stole my fish. The baby slept soundly. The nouns Peter, sun, Sandra, cat and baby are all the doers of the actions, therefore the corresponding verbs are said to be in the active voice.

A verb is in the passive voice when the subject is the receiver of the action. Examples: The cup of milk was drunk by Peter, My fish was stolen by Frank’s cat, The man was beaten up by the robbers.

A pronoun takes the place of a noun.

Personal pronouns take the place of a person’s name. Example: Instead of saying Tom, Terry and David, you would say ‘they’. They watched the television all night. They are the ladies who I was speaking about.

The two types of personal pronouns are subject pronouns and object pronouns.

Subject pronouns are used as the subject of a sentence.

Remember that the subject is the doer of the action. Example: We go to bed at 9 o’clock every night. ‘We’ is the subject pronoun here.

Subject pronouns are: he, she, it, I, you, we, they.

Subject pronouns are the doer of the action in sentences. Examples: He is the captain of the football team. It looks very old. You sing very nicely. I know the subject very well.

An object pronoun is the receiver of the action.

Object pronouns are: him, her, it, me, you, us, them.

Object pronouns are the receiver of the action. Examples: If Yvonne bathes her cat every weekend, you would say – Yvonne bathes it every weekend. More examples of object pronouns: Give him a chance to explain the reason why he stole the money. The rain poured down on us as we entered the venue. Please give the phone to me. I fell down on it when I tripped.

Note: The pronouns ‘you’ and ‘it’ can be both subject as well as object pronouns. Also ‘you’ can be singular as well as plural. Examples: You are being very rude(subject). Kerry-Ann will give you the book to read(object). It is very fancy(subject). Try your best not to break it(object). You are my one and only brother and I love you(singular). You are such a wonderful audience to clap after I recite each poem.

Possessive pronouns show ownership. Examples: The book is mine.

The possessive pronouns are: me, my, mine, our, ours, your, yours, his, her, hers, its, their, theirs.

Note: There is a difference between ‘its’ and ‘it’s’. ‘Its’ is the possessive pronoun that shows ownership, whereas ‘it’s’ is the contraction of ‘it is’.

Examples of possessive pronouns in sentences: This is my home. Greg will buy his shoes from that store. The cat is ours. Her book is well-written.

Reflexive pronouns add emphasis or goes back to the subject or object. They end with ‘self’ or ‘selves’. ‘Self’ is singular and ‘selves’ is plural. Reflexive pronouns are: myself, ourselves, yourself, yourselves, himself, herself, itself, themselves.

Examples of reflexive pronouns: I myself baked the cake. I baked the cake by myself. Believe in yourself. Kim treated herself to a birthday party. Do you love yourself? They themselves paid no money. We ourselves are the owners of the company. You yourselves know it is the wrong thing to do.

Relative pronouns refer to the other pronoun(s) or noun(s) in a sentence. They are: who, whom, that, what, which. Eg. - He is the man who robbed her.

Demonstrative pronouns point out nouns. They are: that, this, those, these. Eg. - These are the clothes which I bought.

An adjective describes a noun or a pronoun. An adjective can be used to compare persons, animals or things. The comparison may be in the positive, comparative or superlative form.

The positive form is the word in its basic form. Example: Today is hot.

The comparative is used to compare two nouns or pronouns. To form the comparative, add ‘er’ to one-syllable and some two-syllable adjectives. Example: Today is hotter than yesterday.

Note: Sometimes the last letter is doubled before adding ‘er’. If there is a vowel before the last consonant, double the last consonant. Also if there is a ‘y’ at the end of the word and there is a consonant before the ‘y’, change the ‘y’ to ‘i’, then add ‘er’. Examples: red - redder, busy - busier. If the adjective ends with ‘e’, just add ‘r’. Example: cute - cuter.

To form the comparative of adjectives with three or more syllables and some two-syllables, add ‘more’ before the adjective. Example: My husband is more handsome than yours.

The superlative is used to compare three or more nouns or pronouns. To form the superlative, add ‘est’ to one-syllable and some two-syllable adjectives. Example: He is the tallest boy in my class.

To form the superlative to adjectives with three or more syllables, add ‘most’ to the adjective. Example: Jim is the most handsome man in the room.

A few adjectives use different words for the comparative and superlative. Examples: well - better - best ; good - better - best ; few - less - least ; bad - worse - worst ; much - more - most ; far - farther - farthest

An adverb describes a verb or adjective. There are different types of adverbs. They are: Adverb of Degree - Example: Very ; Adverb of Frequency - Example: often ; Adverb of Time - Example: everyday ; Adverb of Manner - Example: loudly ; Adverb of Place - Example: there - Example: I came back yesterday.

A conjunction joins together words or phrases. Examples of conjunctions are: and, but, or, so, since, for, because, yet, as, therefore, moreover, until, if, after, though and even.

The following conjunctions travel in pairs: neither - nor ; either - or ; both - and ; not only - but also.

A preposition shows the relationship between nouns, pronouns or clauses in a sentence. Examples of prepositions are: in, into, on, at, of, to, from, within, between, among, upon, through, towards, below, behind, over, before, past.

Note: ‘In’ means position in a place in a stationery way, while ‘into’ means movement from one place to another place. Also ‘between’ means used by two persons, while ‘among’ means used by three or more persons. Also ‘beside’ means ‘next to’, while ‘besides’ means ‘as well’.

The following are some preposition pairs: agree - with ; excel - in ; similar - to ; deprived - of ; opposition - to ; victim - of ; recover - from ; aim - at ; differ - from ; compared - with

An interjection is an exclamation. Examples are: Yikes!, Oh no!, Yippee!, Goodness!, Goodness gracious!, Shoot!, Rats!, Congratulations!, Ouch!, Yuck!, Cheers!

Use the article ‘a’ infront of words that do not start with a vowel. Examples: a chair, a bag, a tree.

Use the article ‘an’ infront of words that start with a vowel. Examples: an egg, an icicle, an apple.

Negatives are words that say ‘no’, such as ‘not, none, nowhere, nothing, never and nobody’.

Do not use two ‘no’ words in a sentence. That is called a double negative. Example: Incorrect - I did not go nowhere. Instead say: Correct - I did not go anywhere.

Contractions are words that are shortened. Examples: are not - aren’t ; will not - won’t ; would not - wouldn’t ; did not - didn’t ; cannot - can’t ; does not - doesn’t ; is not - isn’t.

Punctuation is used in sentences to make the meaning of the sentence clearer.

There are different types of punctuation marks. They include: full stop, question mark, comma and colon.

The full stop (.) is used at the end of a sentence or between initials and abbreviations. The sentence has to be either a statement or a command. Example: I love the taste of this drink. ,N.W.C. (National Water Commission) , Tanya C. Smith (Tanya Cassandra Smith).

The question mark (?) is placed at the end of a question. Example: Do you like mangoes?

The exclamation mark (!) is used at the end of a sentence to show excitement. Example: The house is on fire!

The comma (,) is used for a few different purposes:

(a) To show a pause in a sentence. Example: I stood at the bus stop, but no bus came.

(b) To separate certain words such as: yes , no , please , of course , sure , okay and however from the rest of the sentence. Example: Sure, I would like to have a seat.

(d) To separate words and numbers when they are in a series in a sentence. Example: Sharon bought at the market: pumpkin, peas, lettuce, yam and dasheen.

(e) To separate parts of an address. Example: Lot 298, Sunshine Close, Duhaney Park, Kingston 20.

(f) To separate parts of a date. Example: January 15, 2024.

(g) To separate the exact words spoken in a sentence. Example: Mother replied, “You may go to bed at 10’oclock.”

The colon (:) also has a few uses:

(a) The colon is used before a list of words. Example: Kevin has in his bag: books, pencils, pens, erasers, sharpeners, crayons and a ruler.

(b) Between the hour and minutes when telling the time. Example: 3:00

(d) After the salutation in a formal letter. Example: Dear Sir/Madam:

The semi-colon (;) also has a few uses:

(a) The semi-colon is used between compound sentences when they are joined by the following adverbs: however, in fact, hence, therefore and for instance. Example: I live near to my school; however I take the bus to travel to travel to and from there.

(b) Between two clauses in a sentence if a conjunction is not used. Example: It is very breezy today; the sea is rough.

The hyphen (-) also has a few uses:

(a) The hyphen is used between compound words. Example: attorney-at-law

(b) Between compound numbers. Example: fifty-three

(d) To divide a word at the end of a line when part of the word is carried to the following line. The word should be divided at a syllable. Examples: beau-ti-ful , com-mu-ni-ty , re-li-gion , con-gra-tu-la-tions.

The dash (-) is longer than the hyphen. It is used:

(a) To show emphasis in a sentence. Example: Crash - the car hit head-on in the wall.

(b) To say something noticeable in a sentence. Example: The little boy answered the Math question - and he was only four years old.

Note: The line used for the hyphen is shorter than the line used for the dash.

(a) The apostrophe (‘ ’) is used to show that a letter or letters or number(s) are left out. Examples: aren’t , ‘24 (2024).

(b) To show the possessive form of a noun. Example: boy’s , children’s , ladies’ , Mr. James’s

The quotation marks (“ ”) are used to show:

(a) The exact words spoken by a person in direct speech. Example: David asked, “Will you be driving?”

(b) To show the exact title of names of books, stories, poems, songs, movies, etc. Example: Today’s assignment is to write a story entitled “A Day at the Beach”.

The capital letter is used a number of different times:

(a) The capital letter is used at the beginning of a sentence. Example: Today is a sunny day.

(b) At the beginning of proper nouns. That is, at the beginning of names of special persons, places, events, etc. Example: Labour Day , Hope Gardens

(c) To write the pronoun ‘I’ anywhere in a sentence (even if it is in the middle of a sentence). Example: Yvonne and I went to the concert together.

(d) At the beginning of days of the week and months of the year. Example: Wednesday , April

(e) The first word spoken in a direct speech when quoting or using quotations. Example: Peter said, “Open the door, please.”

(f) The first word in every line of poetry. Example: The sun sets in the west, Today is the best, This is my vest, It was given to me as a jest.

(g) The letters in an abbreviation. Example: N.W.C.

(h) The main words in titles of books, stories, movies, etc. Example: “ABad Day at the Beach”

(i) At the beginning of words referring to God. Example: Christ , Supreme Being

There are some words that have the same base word. Examples: amuse - amusement , pleasant - unpleasant , express - expression , joy - joyful , compute - computer present - presentation , poet - poetry , friend - friendship , live - livelihood , class - classify , free - freedom , pay - payment , act - action , happy - happily , agree - agreement , possible - impossible , maintain - maintenance

Some words form other words, using a base word that is somewhat different. Examples: compose - composure , separate - separation , die - death , clear - clarity , separate - separation , beauty - beautiful , decide - decision , academy - academic , audio - audience - audible , real - realize , fun - funny , true - truth , conclude - conclusion , complete - completion , wise - wisdom , excite - exciting - excitement

The prefix is an addition at the beginning of a base word. Example: port - transport , pleasant - unpleasant , focal - bifocal , dawn - predawn

A prefix can have a certain meaning and may change the meaning of the word when added to the base word. Here are some prefixes and their meanings: un - not , ex - out , anti - against , trans - across , bi - two , inter - between , pre - before Examples: internet , transport , unwind , exit , prepare , bicycle , disappear , misplace , nonsense , rewrite , forehead , universe , semicircle , microwave , subway

The suffix is an addition at the end of a base word. Examples: glory - glorify , serve - servant , guilt - guilty , assist - assistant , child - childhood , grace - graceful , decorate - decoration , conduct - conductor , decide - decision

A synonym is a word that has the same meaning as another word. Examples are: prohibit - forbid , robust - strong , weak - feeble , despise - hate , cease - stop , seize - hold , roam - wander , persuade - encourage , foul - stink , trudge - walk with difficulty , inquire - ask , enquire - ask , reliable - dependable , matrimony - marriage , demolish - destroy , happy - cheerful , tardy - late , valiant - brave , miniature - small , indolent - lazy , futile - useless , eminent - famous , ferocious - savage , hinder - stop , entrance - opening , colossal - big , ancient - old , summit - top , dismal - sad , adequate - enough

An antonym is a word with opposite meaning. Examples are: poverty - wealth , presence - absence , demolish - construct , captivity - liberty , flexible - rigid , generous - selfish , proud - ashamed , rough - smooth , immense - trivial , transparent - opaque , stationery - moving , vacant - occupied , illuminate - darken , forbid - permit , feeble - strong , punishment - reward , defend - attack , innocent -guilty , foreigner - native , import - export , miser - spendthrift , pedestrian - motorist

Homographs are words that have different meanings but are pronounced and spelled the same. Examples are: separate - the verb and the adjective, read - the present tense and past tense , lead - the verb and the noun , present - the verb and the noun , minute - the noun and the adjective. Examples in sentence forms: I want the boys to separate from the girls. - verb ; The brothers have separate room. - adjective Please read the fine print. - present tense verb ; She read her text books everyday when she was studying for the exams. - past tense verb Her class is in the lead in the game at the moment. - adjective ; The rock felt as heavy as lead. - noun‍ Lisa will present the winner with the medal of honour. - verb ; Bobby got a present for being the brightest boy in his class. - noun She closed the door the minute she saw the suspicious looking man. - noun ; Minute insects live in the abandoned house. - adjective‍

Examples of homophones are: eye - I - high ; cent - scent - sent ; there - their ; new - knew ; two - too

Homonyms are words that have more than one meaning. Examples of homographs are: bank , sewer , kind

When doing comprehension passages, read the passage two times if time permits. Also read each question, along with the multiple choice answers, two times to make sure that you understand the passage and the questions. Choose the best answer. You can do an odd-one-out thing. That is, say this answer could not be correct, this one either, it may be this one or this one, this one seems like the better answer, so I will choose this one.

Look at the context of how words are used to get an idea of their meanings.

Think about the cause and effect of actions when doing comprehension. The cause makes something happen. The effect is what ends up happening.

Think about fact and opinion when doing comprehension. A fact can be proven to be absolutely true. An opinion is someone’s feeling about something. Everyone will have a different opinion about something, but a fact is how the thing actually is for EVERYONE.

When doing comprehension, you can draw conclusions of what is not actually said.

When doing comprehension, you can predict outcomes. That is, tell what is expected to happen.

When doing family trees, the persons at the top of the tree are the oldest persons. The lines underneath show the children they had. The ones beside each other are brothers and sisters, cousins, etc.

A dictionary gives you information about the spelling, meaning, parts of speech, pronunciation and other things about words. The words are listed in alphabetical order. That is: A, then B, then C, then D, etc. For example: slap, sleep, snap, step.

To open a web site on the internet, click inside the box at the top of the screen and type: www.(name of the website) and then press the enter key on the keyboard and the website will open. For example, type: youtube.com and then press the enter key. Or you may type: islandofjamaicalink.com and then press the enter key on the keyboard.

To select something on the screen, place the mouse pointer on the image or word/s. If the pointer becomes the picture of a hand, click the left mouse button and the screen associated with the image or word/s will open.

To search for specific topics, click inside the box near the top of the website, with the small photo of a magnifier at its right side. The box may have the word ‘search’ or ‘go’ beside it. When you see the mouse pointer blinking in the box, type your topic and then press the enter key on the keyboard. For example, you may open a search engine like google.com or yahoo.com and type something like ‘shoes’ or ‘Jamaican books’ or ‘movies’ or ‘private tutoring in Jamaica’ or ‘collective awakening’ or ‘children songs’ or ‘abc songs’, etc. depending on what you want to search for. If you are doing a research for school, you may want to type in something like ‘history of Jamaica’ or ‘slavery’ or ‘types of pollution’ or ‘how the ear works’, etc. depending on what your research is about. Whatever you want to research, type those words or word in the search box. The lesser the amount of words that you type in the search box for the computer to understand, the better and more accurate will be the results that the computer gives you. After you type in an appropriate topic, press the enter key on the keyboard. A screen will then open with many different websites that suit the topic. Look through one or more website/s as desired. If it seems that you did not put the proper topic in the search box, click in the search box again and try typing in a different topic, and then press the enter key on the keyboard to open it. You may then look through the new website links that come up to see if you have better luck this time.

To copy words from a website on the internet, place the mouse pointer at the beginning of the text you want to copy, then press down the left mouse button and draw it to the end of the text that you want to copy. This is called blocking text. A dark colour will be placed over the blocked text/area. The computer/laptop screen will scroll down by itself if needed. When you reach the end of the text, release the mouse button. A dark colour will appear the text. You have now blocked the text. If the text is not blocked properly, or becomes unblocked, click anywhere on the screen with the left mouse button to unblock it, then scroll up the screen and try to block it properly again. After you have blocked the screen properly, carefully place the mouse pointer over the blocked text, and then click the right mouse button. A box will appear with different options of things you can do to the blocked text. Select ‘copy’ by clicking on the word ‘copy’ with the left mouse button. The text is now copied. Next, you are going to place the text copied into a Microsoft Word document. Next, open Microsoft Word (or whichever other program into which you want to place the text you just copied). Then place the pointer where you want to place the text in the document. Next, keep the pointer steady and click the right pointer or mouse button. The box will appear again with the different things that you can do. Select or click on ‘paste’ by clicking the left button on the word ‘paste’. Next, the text that you had just blocked will appear in the document, starting from where you placed the pointer. You may go ahead and format the text as you wish. That is, change the font or letter size, colour, bold, centre text, etc. The box that appears when you click the right button on the mouse or laptop is called a dialogue box.

To copy an image or a photo or a picture on the internet and paste it into your document, place the pointer over the image or photo or picture. Next, click on the right button on the laptop. The dialogue box will appear with the different options of what you can do to the image or picture. Select the option ‘copy’. The image or picture is now copied. Next, open the document in the program into which you want to paste the photo, such as Microsoft Word. Next, place the pointer where you want the picture. Keep the pointer steady and click the right button on the laptop. Select ‘paste’ from the options in the dialogue box. The picture will now be placed in the document. Right-click (click the right button) on the picture and look through the different options of things that you can do with the picture.

Remember to save your document, giving it an appropriate name. Print the document also, if desired.

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