Gateway to Mains Exam : English (Verb)

Gateway to  Mains Exam : English (Verb)

Verb 

A Verb is a word that tells or asserts something about a person or thing. It tells about the person or thing in the state of -

(a) doing, (b) being or (c) being acted up on. Thus a verb is a doing or being word. 

Kinds of verbs : 

Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

A Transitive verb is a verb that denotes an action which passes over from the doer or agent to an object, 

Transitive means passing over. For example, 

India won the World Cup.

An Intransitive verb is a verb that denotes an action which does not pass over to an object, 

or that expresses a state of an object, or that expresses a state of being. Intransitive means not passing over.

 For example,

The sun shines brightly.

Rule: When an intransitive verb is used in a causative sense, it becomes transitive.

1. He sat in a chair.

2. He sat me on chair. 

Rule: Verbs like, fall, lie, rise and sit are made transitive by a slight change in their spellings. 

The transitive is the causative of the corresponding intransitive verb. 

Incorrect: The poachers were caught yesterday when they fell trees illegally.

Correct : The poachers were caught yesterday when they felled trees illegally.

Verbs of Incomplete Predication

The intransitive verb which requires something to make the sense complete is called a verb of incomplete predication.

For example be, become, seem, grow, taste, appear. 

That which is required to make the sense (of these verbs) complete is known as the complement of the verb or the completion of the predicate. 

For example,

The family appears.

Rule: When the subjective complement is a noun (or a pronoun), it is in the same case as the subject, that is, in the nominative case.

For example

The lawyer called the witness a liar.

Rule: When the objective complement is a noun it is in the objective case in agreement with the object.

Subject-Verb Agreement : 

Language has its base in logic and harmony.
The subject and the verb are the essential parts of a sentence. It is imperative that the verb agree with the subject in number and person.

Rule: Two or more singular subjects connected by and usually take a verb in the plural.

Incorrect: Computer and telecommunication has metamorphosed information technology.

Correct: Computer and telecommunication have metamorphosed information technology.

Rule: If two singular nouns refer to the same person or thing, the verb must be singular.

Incorrect : The poet and critic have been honoured.

Correct : The poet and critic has been honoured.

Rule: If two subjects together express one idea, the verb is in the singular.

Incorrect: Bread and butter are essential for one's life.

Correct: Bread and butter is essential for one's life.

Rule: If the singular subjects are preceded by each or every, the verb is usually singular.

Incorrect: Every man and woman in a family are responsible for the upbringing of a child.

Correct: Every man and woman in a family is responsible for the upbringing of a child.

Rule : Two or more singular subjects connected by or, nor, either ... or, neither... nor take a verb in the singular.

Incorrect: Either Manoj or Madhukar have the key to this problem.

Correct: Either Manoj or Madhukar has the key to this problem.

Rule: When the subjects, joined by or or nor are of different numbers, the verb must be plural, and the plural subject must be placed next to the verb.

Incorrect : Neither Rekha nor her friends was present at the party.

Correct : Neither Rekha nor her friends were present at the party.

Rule: When the subjects, joined by or or nor are of different persons, the verb agrees in person with the one nearest to it.

Incorrect : Either she or I pays the fees.

Correct : Either she or I pay the fees.

Error of Proximity: The verb is made to agree in number with a noun near it instead of with its proper subject. This is wrong and should be avoided.

Incorrect : The behaviour of the students were not proper.

Correct: The behaviour of the students was not proper.

Rule: Words joined to a singular subject by with, as well as, etc. are parenthetical. The verb should therefore be put in the singular.

Incorrect: The guru as well as his disciples are committed to celibacy.

Correct: The guru as well as his disciples is committed to celibacy.

Rule: Either, neither, each, everyone, many a must be followed by a singular verb.

Incorrect: Many a man have resigned in crisis.

Correct: Many a man has resigned in crisis.

Rule: When a plural noun denotes some specific quantity or amount considered as a whole, the verb is generally singular.

Incorrect: Five hours are too short a time to judge one's character.

Correct: Five hours is too short a time to judge one's character.

The Infinitive

Usually a verb is limited by the number and person of its subject.

For example,

He plays cricket.

They play cricket.

A verb, which is not limited by person and number as a verb that has a subject, is called the verb infinite or the infinitive. Infinitives are of two kinds. 

(1) Simple Infinitive and 

(2) Gerundial or Qualifying Infinitive.

(1) Simple Infinitive - when the infinitive is used like a noun.

(i) as the subject of a verb. To name is to give an identity.

(ii) as the object of a verb. I have decided to leave the place.

(iii) as the complement of a verb. Her hobby is to dance.

(iv) as the object of a preposition. He is about to go.

(v) as the complement of the object. She heard her weep.

(2) Gerundial or Qualifying Infinitive-when the infinitive is used for the following purposes:

(i) to qualify a verb. He slept to refresh himself.

(ii) to qualify an adjective. Tea is easy to prepare.

(iii) to qualify a noun. He has a point to make.

(iv) to qualify a sentence. To be very frank, I hate your smile.

Rule: The infinitive is used without to after verbs like help, watch, bid, dare, hear, let, make, need and see.

Incorrect : I bid him to quit the organisation.

Correct : I bid him quit the organisation.

Rule: If, however, the structure is do + dare or do + need, the infinitive is used with to.

Incorrect: You do not need worry about us.

Correct: You do not need to worry about us.

Rule: The following verbs are followed by the infinitive. 

Agree, arrange, attempt, care, cease, consent, decide, determine, endeavour, fall, forget, hesitate,
hope,learn, manage, neglect, prepare, promise, propose, refuse, regret, remember, seem, swear, undertake.

Incorrect: I agree for helping you out in trouble.

Correct: I agree to help you out in trouble.

Rule: Prepositions but and except take the infinitive without to.

Incorrect: There is no alternative but to help him out.

Correct : There is no alternative but help him out.

Rule: Expressions would rather, would sooner, rather than, sooner than, had better are followed by infinitive without to.

Incorrect : I would rather to go for batting.

Correct : I would rather go for batting.

Participle

(1) Present Participle

(2) Past Participle

(3) Perfect Participle

Rule: Present participle is used when all the parts of a sentence have the same subject;

Incorrect: Opened the drawer, he took out his gun.

Correct: Opening the drawer, he took out his gun.

Rule: When a sentence has two different subjects, avoid using present participle. Instead a clause should be used in such instances.

Incorrect: While going to school, a dog jumped at me.

Correct: While I was going to school, a dog jumped at me.

Rule: Some past participles are used only as adjectives and qualify a noun. They can be used as past participles with changed spellings. 

For example, shrunken, drunken, sunken, graven, molten.

Incorrect: He and his brother have drunken wine last night.

Correct: He and his brother have drunk wine last night.

Rule: Perfect participle is used when one activity is completely over. Having worked hard, he felt tired.

Auxiliary Verb

Auxiliary literally means giving help, So an auxiliary verb is one that helps the main verb form in tenses, moods, voices etc. 

The following verbs are auxiliaries:-

 is, are, am, was, were, be, can, could, dare, do, does, did, have, has, had, may, might, must, need, ought, shall, should, will, would, used to.

1. May implies permission, doubt or possibility.

Ex. May I come in? (permission)

It may rain tonight. (possibility)

2. Might is the past form of “may” and it implies more doubt than “may”.

Ex. If the clouds are salted, the rains might come.

3. Can is used to express ability.

Ex. He can do the work.

4. Could is the past form of can but it does not necessarily represent past time. Often it implies a more uncertain condition.

Ex. He could refuse, but she never does.

5. Should expresses the idea that something must be done or is important. 

Should and ought to have similar meanings, 

but ought is followed by “to” “Ought to” has a more objective force and is used when we are talking about laws, duties and regulations.

Ex. We ought to see her tomorrow.

6. Must is used to give strong advice or orders.

Ex. He really must stop drinking.

7. Do is used to make question and negative forms of ordinary verbs.

Ex. Do you know him?

I don’t like swimming.

“Do” is always used in question-tags.

Ex. You know painting, do you?

Quiz based on above concepts: 

Directions: In the following questions, some of the sentences have errors and some have none. 

Find out which part of the sentence has an error. If there is no mistake, the answer is ‘No error’.

1. Many a student (a)/ are frustrated (b)/ because of unemployment. (c)/ No error (d)

2. It is true (a)/ that the poor is unable (b)/ to get nourishing food even today. (c)/ No error (d)

3. People have a right to criticise (a)/ but at the same time each of them (b)/ have to remember his duty also. (c)/ No error (d)

4. The child (a)/ picked up a burned paper (b)/ from the street. (c)/ No error (d)

5. Never did this exhibition of contempt and anger ceased (a)/ so long as British rule remained (b)/ a live thing in India. (c)/ No error (d)

6. The teacher was angry (a)/ when he found that (b)/ you are not there. (c)/ No error (d)

7. I would like you to (a)/ complete this assignment (b) before you will leave for Mumbai. (c)/ No error (d)

8. Ordinarily, when in difficulty (a)/ Ruchi prefers keeping her counsel (b)/ than running about taking advice. (c)/ No error (d)

9. One of the drawbacks (a)/ of modern education are (b)/ that it does not encourage original thinking. (c)/ No error (d)

10. I enquired of him (a)/ why he is so negligent (b)/ in his studies. (c)/ No error (d)

Answers:

1. b; Replace ‘are’ with ‘is’
‘Many a’ takes singular subject and singular verb.
2. b; Replace ‘is’ with ‘are’
Here, ‘poor’ stands for ‘poor people’.
3. c; Replace ‘have’ with ‘has’
4. b; Replace ‘burned’ with ‘burnt’
5. a; Replace ‘ceased’ with ‘cease’
6. c; Replace ‘are’ with ‘were’
7. c; Remove ‘will’
8. c; Replace “than” with “to”
9. b; Replace ‘are’ with ‘is’

10. b; Replace ‘is’ with ‘was’

Study Notes On English Grammar: PRONOUNS

PRONOUNS

Personal Pronoun

            “A pronoun is a word used instead of a Noun”.

            (I, we, you, he, she, it, they) are called personal pronouns because they stand for the three persons.

(i)       The person speaking

(ii)      The person spoken to, and

(iii)     The person spoken of.

‘You’ is both singular and Plural.

	Nominative case (Subjective)	Objective case (Accusative)	Possessive case (Genitive)
First Person	I we	me us	my, mine, our, ours
Second Person	you	you	your, yours
Third person	he she it they	him her it them	his her, hers its their, theirs

           

Pronouns are used so that our language is not cumbersome with the same nouns being repeated over and over in a paragraph.

Subject Pronoun: (Subjective case)

(I, we, you, he, she, it, they)

Example:     She is at work.

‘She’ is main subject of the sentence, hence in the sentence, ‘She’ is the subjective personal pronoun.

 Objective pronoun (objective case)

Example:  He will meet us later.

‘Us’ is the objective personal pronoun, as it is the object of the verb ‘meet.’

Possessive pronoun (possessive case)

Example: That is our clubhouse.

‘Our’ shows the possession of the object ‘clubhouse’.

Gender

Example:  He went to the market.

He is used for male gender.

Other examples – (his, him, he etc.)

Example:  She is doing the laundry.

‘she’ is used for female gender.

(Her, hers, etc.)

Example:  It is important to them.

‘It’ is gender neutral as it shows an object,

 ‘Them’ is also gender neutral as ‘Them’ can consists of both genders.

Others gender neutral pronouns are - (Their, they, its.)

Number

Singular Pronoun – where the pronoun is only referring to one specific Noun.

Example: That book belongs to me.

Plural Pronoun – where the pronoun is used to refer to a number of nouns.

Example: That is Their book, not yours.

REFLEXIVE PRONOUN

“They are object pronouns that we use when the subject and the object are the same Noun.”

Example: I told myself not to bet all my money on one horse.

Example: The robber hurt himself chasing me through the alley.

“Reflexive pronouns are those which are used to indicate a noun which has been used in an earlier part of the same sentence.

(myself, themselves, yourself, ourselves, herself, himself, itself.)

Example: She blamed herself for the accident.

He is himself today.

EMPHATIC/INTENSIVE PRONOUN

“These pronouns are used to emphasize a Noun or pronoun. 

(myself, himself, herself, themselves, itself, yourself, yourselves and ourselves.)

Example: He himself is his worst critic.

“These pronouns act as appositives of nouns or pronouns for the sake of emphasis,”

Example: You yourself wrote those words.

This request came from the employee themselves.

They themselves know that the Prank was in bad taste.

Avoid reporting things that you yourself haven’t witnessed.

DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUN

“Demonstrative pronouns are used to show or identify one or a number of nouns that may be far or near in distance or time.

They are only four in number (This, that, these, those)

This, that → Singular demonstrative pronoun

These, those → Plural demonstrative pronouns.

Example: That is a beautiful house.

They can also be used to show an unspecified quantity in a sentence.

Example: These were made by me.

(These is showing an unspecified quantity of something that was made by a person.)

Example: Everyone remembers those days.

(Those is showing a particular time or period of days in the past, it is being used in place of a noun that could be – school, summer, college etc.)

Example: This is what he is charging.

This is used as pronoun in place of a number.

These pronouns point out someone or something.

They are identical in form to demonstrative adjective/determiners.

The difference is that…

→ A demonstrative pronoun stands alone (because it is a substitute for a noun or noun phrase)

→ But a demonstrative adjective is accompanied by the noun it modifies.

Example: She gave me this gift.

(This – demonstrative adjective)

I like this.

(This – demonstrative pronoun)

(More example of demonstrative pronoun)

These are my children.

That is a good idea.

The streets of Delhi are more crowded than those of Mumbai. 

INDEFINITE PRONOUN

“These pronouns do stand for some person or thing, but we don’t know for exactly whom.”

When we say, “somebody stole my watch.”

(We don’t know to whom the word ‘somebody’ refers to.  The word ‘somebody’ is an indefinite pronoun.

Example: One should speak the truth.

                Somebody immediately called the doctor.

                Anybody can solve this problem.

                Nobody was present.

                Many are called, but few are chosen.

               Do good to others.

(Few, all, some, none, everything- indefinite pronouns)

DISTRIBUTIVE PRONOUN

“These Pronouns refer to individual elements in a group or a pair, one individual at a time.”

Example:     Each of the boys gets a prize.

                        Either of these roads leads to the railway station.

                        Either of you can go.

                        Neither of the accusations is true.

                        You may bring any of your friends

                        None of our students failed last year.

Each, either, neither are called distributive pronouns because they refer to persons or things, one at a time.

Each →used to denote every one of a number of persons or things taken singly.

Either means the one or the other of two.

Neither means not the one nor the other of two.

It is negative of either.

Either and Neither should be used only in speaking of two persons or things.

When more than two are spoken of (Any, No one, and none) should be used.

RECIPROCAL PRONOUN

Each and one really belong to the subject, Other and another are objects, butEach other and one another have become compound pronouns, (and are called reciprocal pronouns) and are rarely separated even by a preposition)

Example:     The brothers quarreled with each other.

                        They all gave evidence against one another.

                        Jamie and Jack always sit beside each other in break.

                      They haven’t seen one another since last year.

RELATIVE PRONOUN

These pronouns are used to connect a clause or phrase to a noun or pronoun.

These are: who, whom, which, whoever, whomever, whose, whichever and that.

Example: The driver who Ran the stop sign was careless.

Which and that are generally used for objects.

Who and whom are used for people and whose is used to show possession.

Example: she will choose the color which looks good on everyone

She is complaining to whoever she comes across nowadays.

There is a car in the parking lot that someone has painted a bright pink.

Is there anyone here whose mobile phone has a signal?

I met Hari who had just returned.

I have found the pen which I lost.

There is the book That you lent me.

INTERROGATIVE

Who, whom, which and what are interrogative pronouns as they are used to ask questions about a person or object that we do not know about.

Compounds of these words are made by attaching (–ever) to the words to strengthen the emphasis on the word.

Example:     which one would you like?

                        What is your Name?

                        Who will be managing the bullet?

                        Whom did you tell about this?

                        Whoever could have done this?

                        Whichever one will you choose?

                       

‘Who’ is always the subject of the verb.

‘Whom’ is never the subject of the verb.

It is object of the verb.

It is used to show the person to or for whom the action is being done.

                       

Example: whom were you meeting with?

English (Noun)

 English (Noun)

Noun
Words are divided into different kinds or classes according to the work they do in a sentence. 

These kinds or classes are known as Parts of Speech. They are eight in number:
1. Noun
2. Pronoun
3. Verb
4. Adjective
5. Adverb
6. Preposition
7. Conjunction
8. Interjection.
What is noun?
Noun is a word used to name a person, place or thing.
For example:
Rama was an epic king.

Kinds of Noun
1. Common Noun
A common noun is a name given in common to every person or thing of the same class or kind. For example;
I write with a pen.
The student asked me a few questions.

2. Proper Noun
A proper noun is the name of a particular person or place.
For example:
Ramu is a wise fellow.
Patna lacks basic civic amenities.

Rule: Proper nouns are always written with a capital letter at the beginning.
Incorrect: Earlier the capital of india was in calcutta.
Correct: Earlier the capital of India was in Calcutta.

Rule: Proper nouns are sometimes used as common nouns.
Incorrect: LK Advani is today regarded as Sardar
Patel of India.
Correct: LK Advani is today regarded as the Sardar Patel of India.

Rule: In this case proper nouns are always preceded by articles.
She is a Lata Mangeshkar.
Kalidas is the Shakespeare of India.

3. Collective Noun
A Collective noun is the name of a group of persons or things. For example army, committee,

 crowd, fleet, flock, herd, jury, mob, parliament, team.

Rule: A collective noun usually takes a singular verb and is substituted by a singular pronoun.
Incorrect: The jury were unanimous in their opinion.
Correct: The jury was unanimous in its opinion.

Rule: A collective noun takes a plural verb and is substituted by a plural pronoun

 when the individuals of which it is composed are thought of net behaving as a single unit
Incorrect: The jury was divided in its opinions.
Correct: The jury were divided in their opinions.

4. Abstract Noun
An abstract noun is usually the name of a quality, action or state considered apart from the object

 ( which is usually a common noun and often qualified by an adjective) 

to which it belongs. For example:
Innocence is integral to a child.
Love knows no bound.

5. Material Noun
A material noun is the name of a material ( matter from which a thing is made). For example:
Cotton is the source of natural fibre.
Milk constitutes a nutritious food.

Rule: A material noun does not take an article (a, an, the) before it.
Incorrect: The tobacco is a cash crop.
Correct: Tobacco is a cash crop.

Rule: It takes articles when treated as common nouns.
Incorrect: They offered me glass of water.
Correct: They offered me a glass of water.
Numbers
Numbers are of two kinds-
(1) Singular Number
(2) Plural Number
Generally while changing singular noun to plural we add s, es in the end.
For example
cow-cows
chair-chairs
school-schools
Mango-Mangoes
On the surface some nouns appear to be singular but in meaning they are treated as plural.
For example,
cattle, clergy, people, children, police, poultry
Incorrect: The peasantry has always stood as rockstars for the development of a country.
Correct: The peasantry have always stood as rockstars for the development of a country.
Some nouns look like plural but are always used as singular. For example,
Subjects - Mathematics, economics, physics, ethics, politics, classics.

Rule: When these subjects denote qualities or property, they are used in plural sense. For example,
Incorrect: His mathematics is weak.
Correct: His mathematics are weak.
Diseases - Rickets, AIDS, diabetes, mumps, measles. Some other nouns - News, gallows, summons, innings.
Some nouns are plural in form and in meaning, normally they are instruments or dress articles which have two parts and make a kind of pair. 

Do not use a/an before these nouns.
For example,
Spectacles, tongs, scissors, pincers, bellows, trousers, drawers, breaches, pants, knickers, pantaloons.
Certain other nouns - caves, riches (valuables), alms, funds, proceeds (profit), annals (record).
Incorrect : I bought a trousers yesterday.
Correct :I bought a pair of trousers yesterday.
Some nouns are always singular and used as singular only. For example Poetry, information, machinery, dust, furniture, dirt, traffic,

 money, music. Some nouns have one meaning in singular form and another in plural.

Quiz based on above concepts :

1. When he returned (a)/ from America, he informed me (b)/ that he had come here (c)/ to do urgent work. (d)/ No error (e)2. 
I do my best (a)/ but I don’t understand (b)/ why I do not get expected (c)/ marks in the examination. (d)/ No error (e)3.
 The pretty woman (a)/ sitting in the car (b)/ is the daughter of one of (c)/ the headman of the village. (d)/ No error (e)4. 
You will not be (a)/ allowed to go (b)/ anywhere else to (c)/ play outdoor games. (d)/ No error (e)5. 
The beautiful surrounding (a)/ of the palace (b)/ attracted a large number of (c)/ tourists coming from abroad. (d)/ No error (e)6. 
He did not know (a)/ that the headquarter (b)/ of the army (c)/ was in Delhi. (d)/ No error (e)7.
 Liberalisation of economy (a)/ has given birth to (b)/ many uncommon (c)/ phenomenon in the society.(d)/ No error (e)8.
Thousand of young (a)/ protesters were standing (b)/ at Jantar Mantar and (c)/ supporting Anna Hazare. (d)/ No error (e)9.
 It is very difficult (a)/ to chase (b)/ a huge score in the (c)/ fourth inning. (d)/ No error (e)10. 
He gave me (a)/ a five-rupees note (b)/ and asked me to get (c)/ him a few cigarettes. (d)/ No error (e)

1. e; No error
2. e; No error
3. d; Replace “headman” with “headmen”
4. e; No error
5. a; Replace “surrounding” with “surroundings”
6. b; Replace “headquarter” with “headquarters”
7. d; Replace “phenomenon” with “phenomena”
8. a; Replace “thousand” with “thousands”
9. d; Replace “inning” with “innings”
10. b; Replace “rupees” with “rupee”