learn english 2019

1.  Force yourself to listen for s sounds as you write.  In speaking, we sometimes drop these sounds as we fade one word into another. Because of this, we may forget the sounds are even there. Thus, we fail to make our subjects and verbs agree. Listening for those  s  sounds is the real key to getting rid of most agreement problems. 2.  Don't be misled by false subjects.  Be sure the word you make your verb agree with is actually the subject of the clause, not just another noun. Change: Those tomatoes from my brother looks juicy. to: Those tomatoes from my brother look juicy. The first sentence gives mixed signals because the verb has been made to agree with the false subject "brother" rather than the true subject, "tomatoes." Here's another example of the false subject. Change: Forgetting your tickets cause problems. to: Forgetting your tickets causes problems. At first glance "tickets" may look like the subject, but a moment's reflection tell

This rule comes first because understanding it can help you understand some of the others. In most sentences you follow it naturally, but it can cause trouble. The rule is as follows: The subject and verb of each clause must agree in number. The subject and verb of each clause must agree in number. If you have a  singular  subject, you need a singular verb. If you have a  plural subject, you need a plural verb. Singular and plural tell how many. Singular means one. Plural means more than one. Both your subject and verb must give the same signal as to how many you are talking about. Read the following sentences and see if you can find any problems with subject/verb agreement. 1. The cat come home tired. 2. The cat comes home tired. 3. The cats come home tired. 4. The cats comes home tired. Can you explain the problem in sentences one and four? If not, consider that with most nouns, our language forms the plural by adding an s, but with verbs, an s is added only in the third person singu

Besides the uses already described, coordination and subordination are two basic ways of linking clauses. Sometimes we don't have much choice about how to make the connection, but often, if we see the options, we do. These trees lose their leaves every winter, but they don't die. The clauses in the example above are joined by coordination, but could as easily have been joined by subordination. Although these trees lose their leaves every winter, they don't die. Now, the first clause is subordinate to the second. The two words that make the difference are called  conjunctions , or joining words. "But" belongs to a group of conjunctions that coordinate. "Although" belongs to a group that subordinates. Learning to recognize these two groups of conjunctions will not only help you with your sentence structure, but also with your punctuation. Coordinating Conjunctions Not too much needs to said about them. They are few in number:  and ,  or ,  but ,  for ,  no

A third way of expanding the basic pattern is substitution, which means replacing a single word with a word group. Again, an example will help. S V/C I saved/my meager wages. By substituting, we can expand the complement to read: S V/C I saved/what I earned, which wasn't much. "My wages" has been expanded to "what I earned" and "meager" to "which wasn't much." As you can see, this adds more words without adding much meaning and so could be objected to as uneconomical. Still it's a perfectly grammatical way of expanding sentences, and there may be times when it will suit your needs exactly, either to give emphasis or to improve sound and rhythm. Sometimes, as in the example below, you can use  substitution  to clarify or summarize your thoughts: Change: Harold and Arthur earn more than I do. This makes me furious. to: Getting paid less than my male coworkers makes me furious.

The basic S V/C pattern can also be expanded by  coordination . Whereas subordination ranks one element as more important than the other, coordination places elements on an equal footing. If the relationship of subordination is that of child to parent, the relationship of coordination is that of spouse to spouse. In a sentence it works like this: Esther types/letters. The subject can be expanded by adding a coordinate element: S V/C Lois and Esther type/letters. And coordination can also be used to expand the complement. S V/C Lois and Esther type/letters and memos. Or the verb. Lois and Esther type letters and memos but write-out short notes and signatures. Now each element has been compounded with a resulting structure that might be represented as follows: S V/C Lois and Esther type/letters and memos but write-out/short notes and signatures. This sentence has a compound subject, a compound verb, and two compound complements. In every case the compound elements are coordinate to each

Modification and Subordination The easiest and most common way of developing the  S V/C  pattern is by adding a  modifier . To modify means to change or alter. A modifier, therefore, is a word or word group that changes the meaning of another word or word group that is more basic to the sentence. S V/C Luis eats/apples. By adding a modifier to the complement, we can alter the meaning of "apples." S V/C Luis eats/green apples. We can also modify the subject. S V/C Little Luis eats/green apples. And even the verb. S V/C Little Luis never eats/green apples. Notice how the basic  S V/C  pattern remains even after several modifiers have been added. This is because modifiers cluster around base elements like iron filings around a magnet. The principle that describes this relationship between modifiers and more basic sentence elements is  subordination . Subordination means taking a position of lesser importance or rank. In the Army, for example, a private is subordinate to a captai

Our language organizes thoughts into  sentences . As a core, these sentences have a two-part structure. For simplicity and easy reference, we can represent the two parts as follows: SUBJECT   PREDICATE The  subject , a  noun  or noun-substitute, tells who or what is doing something. The  predicate  tells what the subject is doing. SUBJECT    PREDICATE This bird     sings. Marcus     plays soccer. My old Chevy     still runs. This pen    leaks. These books    are heavy. This two part structure is so basic that a thought doesn't feel complete when one part is missing. Both are needed for a complete sentence. Of course most sentences are longer and more sophisticated than those above, but even the most complex sentences are based on this two part principle. Learning to recognize it, to listen for it, and to use it are the first steps to mastering English sentence structure. The S V/C Pattern Another step, slightly less important but still useful, is to see that the predicate is often