Current Affairs 8th Class

Category : 8th Class

NOUNS/ PRONOUNS/VERBS/ ADVERBS

A noun is a word that identifies:

• a person (woman, boy, doctor, neighbour)
• a thing (dog, building, tree, country)
• an idea, quality, or state (truth, danger, birth, happiness).

There are several different types of nouns, which are as follows:

COMMON NOUN

          A common noun is a noun that refers to people or things in general, e.g., boy, country, bridge, city, birth, day, happiness.

PROPER NOUN

          A proper noun is a name that identifies a particular person, place, or thing, e.g., Rohit, Africa, Tower Bridge, London, Monday. In written English, proper nouns begin with capital letters.

CONCRETE NOUN

          A concrete noun is a noun which refers to people and to things that exist physically and can be seen, touched, smelled, heard, or tasted. Examples include, dog, building, tree, rain, beach, tune, Tower Bridge.

ABSTRACT NOUN

          An abstract noun is a noun which refers to ideas, qualities, and conditions - things that cannot be seen or touched and things which have no physical reality, e.g., truth, danger, happiness, time, friendship, humour.

COLLECTIVE NOUNS

          Collective nouns refer to groups of people or things, e.g., audience, family, government, team, jury. Collective nouns can usually be treated as singular or plural, with either a singular or plural verb. Both the following sentences are grammatically correct:

          The whole family was at the table.

          The whole family were at the table.

          A noun may belong to more than one category. For example, happiness is both a common noun and an abstract noun, while Tower Bridge is both a concrete noun and a proper noun.

 COUNTABLE AND UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS

          Nouns can be either countable or uncountable. Countable nouns (or count nouns) are those that refer to something that can be counted. Uncountable nouns (or mass nouns) do not typically refer to things that can be counted and so they do not regularly have a plural form.

PRONOUNS

          Pronouns are used in place of a noun that has already been mentioned or that is already known, often to avoid repeating the noun.

        For example:

          Rita was tired so she went to bed.

          Kiran sent the children with him.

          Rajat's face was close to mine.

          That is a good idea.

          Anything might happen.

 PERSONAL PRONOUNS

          Personal pronouns are used in place of nouns referring to specific people or things, for example /, me, mine, you, yours, his, her, hers, we, they, or them. They can be divided into various different categories according to their role in a sentence, as follows:

• subjective pronouns
• objective pronouns
• possessive pronouns
• reflexive pronouns

SUBJECTIVE PRONOUNS

          The personal pronouns /, you, we, he, she, it, we, and they are known as subjective pronouns because they act as the subjects of verbs:

        She saw Manjula.

        We drove Rakesh home.

        I waved at her.

 OBJECTIVE PRONOUNS                                  

          The personal pronouns me, you, us, him, her, it, and them are called objective pronouns because they act as the objects of verbs and prepositions:

          Raghav saw her.

          Rita drove us home.

          She waved at me.

          Here's a table setting out the different forms:

Notice that the personal pronouns you and it stay the same, whether they are being used in the subjective or objective roles.

POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS

          The personal pronouns mine, yours, hers, his, ours, and theirs are known as possessive pronouns: they refer to something owned by the speaker or by someone or something previously mentioned.

        For example:

          That book is mine.

          John's eyes met hers.

        Ours is a family farm.

REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS

          Reflexive personal pronouns include myself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, and themselves. These are used to refer back to the subject of the clause in which they are used:

        I fell and hurt myself.

        Daisy prepared herself for the journey.

          The children had to look after themselves.

 VERBS

          A verb describes what a person or thing does or what happens. For example, verbs describe:

          an action - run, hit, travel

          an event - rain, occur

          a situation - be, seem, have

          a change - become, grow, develop

          The basic form of a verb is known as the infinitive. It's often preceded by the word 'to':

          Molly decided to follow him.

          He began to run back.

 Regular and Irregular Verbs

          In the context of verbs, we use the term inflection to talk about the process of changing a verb form to show tense, mood, number (i.e., singular or plural), and person (i.e., first person, second person, or third person). This section deals with inflecting verbs to show tenses and participles, and is divided into two main sections:

• Regular verbs
• Irregular verbs

 REGULAR VERBS

          Many English verbs are regular, which means that they form their different tenses according to an established pattern. Such verbs work like this:

Present tense formation

          In the present simple tense, the basic form of a regular verb only changes in the 3rd person singular, as follows:

          Most verbs just add -s to the basic form (e.g. take/takes, seem/seems, look/looks).

          Verbs that end with a vowel other than e add -es (e.g., go/goes, veto/vetoes, do/does).

          Verbs that end with -s, -z, -ch, -sh, and -x add -es (e.g. kiss/kisses, fizz/fizzes, punch/punches, wash/washes, mix/mixes).

          If the verb ends in a consonant plus -y, change the y to an i before adding -es (e.g. hurry I hurries, clarify/ clarifies). But if the verb ends in a vowel plus -y, just add -s (e.g. play/plays, enjoy/enjoys).

Past Tense Formation

          Forming the past simple tense of regular verbs is mostly straightforward, and you use the same form for the first, second, and third persons, singular and plural:

          If the basic form of the verb ends in a consonant or a vowel other than e, add the letters -ed to the end (e.g. seem/seemed, laugh/laughed, look/looked).

          For verbs that end in -e, add -d (e.g. love/loved, recede/receded, hope/hoped).

          If the verb ends in a consonant plus -y, change they to an i before adding -ed (e.g. hurry I hurried, clarify/ clarified). But if the verb ends in a vowel plus -y, just add -ed (e.g. play/played, enjoy/enjoyed).

Forming participles

          To form the past participle of regular verbs, follow the same rules as for the past simple tense above.

          To make the present participle of regular verbs:

          If the basic form of the verb ends in a consonant or a vowel other than e, add the ending -ing (e.g., laugh/ laughing, boo/booing).

          If the verb ends in e, drop the e before adding -ing (e.g., love/loving, hope/hoping).

          If the basic form ends in y just add -ing (e.g., hurry/hurrying, clarify/clarifying).

IRREGULAR VERBS

          There are many irregular verbs that don't follow the normal rules. Here are the forms of some of the most common irregular verbs:

           Note that sometimes the spelling doesn't change but the pronunciation does (e.g. read).

Auxiliary Verbs

          Auxiliary verbs are so called because they help to form the various tenses, moods, and voices of other verbs.

          The principal ones are be, do, and have.

          Be is used with other verbs to form continuous tenses and the passive voice:

          She is reading a magazine.

          We were talking to them for ages.

          England were beaten by Germany in the final.

          Have is used to make perfect tenses:

          The judge had asked her to speak up.

          In two years, we will have established community gardens.

          Do is used:

          For emphasis:

          He did look tired.

          To make questions:

        Do you want a coffee?

          To form negative statements or questions:

          I don’t like meat.

          Didn't he know how to play football?

Modal Verbs

          There is a farther set of auxiliary verbs known as modal verbs or modal auxiliary verbs. These combine with other verbs to express necessity, possibility, intention, or ability. The modal auxiliary verbs are must, shall, will, should, would, ought (to), can, could, may, and might. For example:

          You must act promptly.

          Can you speak Spanish?

          I would go if I could afford it.

          He said he might reconsider his decision.

          I ought to visit my family.

          We should get to London before midday.

        May I come in?

ADVERBS

          An adverb is a word that's used to give information about a verb, adjective, or other adverb.

          When used with a verb, adverbs can give information about:

          How something happens or is done:

          She stretched lazily.

          He walked slowly.

          The town is easily accessible by road.

          Where something happens:

          I live here.

          She's travelling abroad.

          The children tiptoed upstairs.

          When something happens:

          They visited us yesterday.

          I have to leave soon.

          He still lives in London.

          Adverbs can make the meaning of a verb, adjective, or other adverb stronger or weaker:

          With a verb:

          I almost fell asleep.

          He really means it.

          With an adjective:

          These schemes are very clever.

          This is a slightly better result.

          With another adverb:

          They nearly always get home late.

          The answer to both questions is really rather simple.

          Adverbs are often found between the subject and its verb:

          She carefully avoided my eye.

          They can also come between an auxiliary verb (such as be or have) and a main verb:

          The concert was suddenly cancelled.

          He had quickly eaten his dinner.