VERB ,1

Verb plays an important role in a sentence. It initiates the predicate of a sentence and it expresses the action and emotion of the subject it is associated with.

Example:

1.      Fire burnt the house (here fire is the subject  and burnt the house is the predicate which is initiated by the verb burnt)

2.      He goes to school regularly.

3.      He is going to school on foot.

4.      He has gone to school with his brother.

5.      He went to school yesterday

6.      He did not go to school yesterday.

7.      He will go to school tomorrow.

Definition: A verb is a word (or group of words) that refers to the physical or mental activities of the subject it is associated with and it also includes the state of affairs and time of  happening the activities of the verb by the subject.

Verbs are used in the following forms:

Present form(V1)	Ing-form	Past form(v2)	Past participle(v3)
Do	doing	did	done
Play	playing	played	played
Give	giving	gave	given
Write	writing	wrote	written

N.B - There is no future form of verbs. Future forms are formed with present form (v₁) of verbs in addition with modal auxiliaries (shall/will ; as in 7 above). The action of a verb indicates a time that is called tense.

KINDS OF VERBS:

Dynamic Verb:

Dynamic verb indicates the moving or changing condition of things. Dynamic verb expresses the progressive condition and the Imperative mood.

Example:

1.      The girl prepares her lessons regularly.

2.      The girl is preparing her home task

3.      Prepare your home task carefully.

Stative Verb:

Stative verb is that verb which is not used in continuous tense and in the Imperative mood.

Example:

1.      I feel sad.   (Feel followed by adjectives of emotion happy/sad/cold/angry/pleased is used in Present Indefinite tense but it is used in continuous form when it means touch(to learn something/ to try to find something by the feeling of touch )  as-                                          (a) The doctor is feeling the patient’s pulse.  (b) She is feeling the door bell in the dark.

2.      I see the dog.  ( See is used in continuous form when it indicates an interview or appointment/visiting as a tourist and in the combinations of- see about, see to, see off ) as- (a) I am seeing the doctor(appointment) tomorrow (b) The manager is seeing (interview)the applicants in the afternoon. (c) Bill is seeing (the sights of the village) the village. (d) I am seeing about (trying to arrange) a house for you. (e) The mechanic is seeing to (set right /repair) the engine. (f) The ministers will see the president off (say goodbye) at the airport.

3.      She is a dancer. 

4.      She looks tired.

5.      I have a car.

POSTMODIFIERS OF NOUN

 

Postmodifiers of a noun are words or  phrases put after a noun to modify it. They specify additional information about the noun they modify. Post modifiers fall into the following categories

 

(a)                Adjectives:                         (i)  The books available are very costly.

(b)               Prepositional phrases :    (ii)  The tree in front of the building is old. (ii)  The book on the reading    table is new.        (iii)  The boy in blue shirt looks smart.

(c)                Participle phrases :          (i)  The students residing in the college hostel will play cricket. (ii)  The tiger wounded by bullets could not go far.  (iii)  The house destroyed by flood needs mending.  (iv)  The passerby run over by a car was hospitalized.

Note :  These phrases  postmodifying a noun  may be either  present participle or past participle phrases. Present participle phrases indicate the action in progress and the head word is the doer of the action whereas past participle phrases indicate the action already completed and the headword indicates the goal the action follows   

  

(d)                Infinitive phrases :          (i)  He has to sons to educate.  (ii)  I have an urgent letter to post now.  (iii) I have been waiting for the guest to arrive soon.

(e)               Adverbs :                         (i)  The roof above needs painting.  (ii)  The quotations above are very philosophical.      (iii)  The school opposite to the park is two storied.

(f)                Reflexive pronouns :      (i)  He himself did the work  (ii)  I myself did the sum.

(g)               Appositives :                   (i)  Mr. John ,a renowned eye specialist, lives in this house.  (ii)  Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, is a populous city.  (iii)  Nazrul, the rebel poet, is our pride.

            Note :  An appositive may be a noun , a noun phrase or a noun clause which is put after a noun and it begins and ends with a comma (,) to be separated from the rest of the sentence as it does not take part in the grammar of the sentence. It only modifies the noun preceding it.

PREMODIFIERS OF NOUN

Premodifiers of  nouns are adjectives, verbal adjectives, adverbial; particles, prepositional group and noun-adjectives (noun modifying a noun; e,g - gold ring, book shelf ) :

(a) Adjectives :
                       (i)    A black cow is grazing in the field.
                       (ii)  This is an interesting story.

                       (iii)  His elder sister is a doctor.

(b) Verbal adjectives :

         (i)  A nice talking toy is costly.

         (ii)  A particoloured  flying  kite looks nice.

(c) Adverbial particle :

                       (i)  The down train is late.

                       (ii)  The then social condition was not good.

                       (iii)  The above question is very difficult to answer.

(d) Prepositional group:

                       (i)  A on the way business deal was cancelled.

                       (ii)  A under construction building collapsed.
(e) Noun-adjectives :
                        (i)   A gold ring is costly.
                        (ii)  A wood pencil is needed for drawing this diagram.
                        (iii) The play ground is very spacious.

Combination of all the premodifiers in a noun phrase :

                         *The very fast running on the way down train collided with a mail train.

Formation of noun phrases :

Determiner	Adverb	Adjective	Noun-adjective	Noun (head word)
an	exceptionally	big	water	Snake
a	very	nice	gold	ring
the	very	useful	road	vehicle

N.B :  The noun phrases in the chart could have been formed with a determiner and a noun ; e. g - a snake, a ring , the vehicle. Adverbs, adjectives and noun-adjectives provide additional information .

DETERMINER

Of is not used before either, neither, each and every when singular nouns follow them but of is used when they are followed by plural noun.

(i)  Neither John nor Zerin did the work.(Not neither of John )
(ii) Neither of the students got any prize.
(iii) Either of the students faced difficulty in understanding the poem.

Combination of Group A and  Group B determiners:

Some limited number of determiners like few, a few, little, least, many and most are used as follows:

(i) A few boys took part in the competition. 

(ii) A little milk is left for you.

(iii) The least time he got was very tough.

(iv) The most toys were very costly.

The determiners others, such, what, and only are Grouped in C category.

* Only and other come after Group A determiner :

   (i)  Their other cousin will reach tomorrow.

   (ii) This is the only chance of winning the game.

*  Indefinite articles comes after such and what :

   (i)  Such a beautiful sight is very rare

   (ii) What a shame! he was charged of theft.

 

DETERMINER

Determiners are words that are used before a noun or a noun phrase to specify the number or amount of the noun or the noun phrase they precede. Determiners are not adjectives.Determiners fall into the following categories:(a) Articles : a,an,the (b) Possessives : my.our,your,their,its.john's etc  (c) Demonstratives: this,that,these,those (d) Numerals : fall into two categories  (i) Cardinal: one, two, five and any number like this   (ii) Ordinal: first, second.third etc (e) Quantifiers : each,either,every,neither,any,no, some, more,most,much,many.several,enough,few,a few,both,all, half,what,whatever,whichever,which  (f) Miscellaneous : other,such, only and what
The above categories may be sub-divided into the following groups for better analysis :
GROUP : A (a) Articles (b) Possessives (c) Demonstratives  GROUP : B (e) Quantifiers GROUP :C (f) Miscellaneous

Here are some Do's and don'ts of the use of Determiners:

GROUP : B determiners can be used before nouns without preposition of :Examples : 
(i) Have you received any letter today? ( Not any of letter)
(ii) Most people supported the idea of development. (Not most of people)
GROUP : B determiners can be used before nouns without using of : 

(i) Some students attended the function. (Not some of students)
(ii) Most people here live below the poverty level. (Not most of people)
But to use GROUP : B determiner GROUP : A determiners (articles,possessives,demonstratives) preposition of is to be used:
(i)  Some of the students attended the function. (Not some the students)
(ii)  Most of the people here live below the poverty level. (Not most the people)
Every and no can not be followed by of  but none and everyone are followed by of :
Compare:
(i) Every student was given a prize.(Not every of student)
(ii) No lady attended the function.(Not no of lady)
But-
(iii) None of them was punished.(Not none them)
(iv) Everyone of this family has got relief goods.(Not everyone this family)
We have to use of  before  all,half and both when they follow a pronoun but of may be dropped if all,half and both follow a noun:
Compare:
(i) All of them attended the function (ii) Half of the them attended the function. (iii) Both of them were invited here.
But- 
(iv) All (of) their decisions were not wrong. (v) Half (of) our companions left us in the hotel. (vi) Both (of) sisters studied medicine.