PEP LANGUAGE ARTS SUMMARY

Written by Janice Gaynor

Techno Teacher JA

for private tutoring classes at your home island wide or for quick-read books

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.

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 flowers smells good. A herd of cattle is very large. The choir sings 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. The sun 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.

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