Review Your Grammar and Ace Exams

Content

Copyright

Preface

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Section 5

Answer Key

About The Authors

REVIEW YOUR GRAMMAR and ACE EXAMS

A Comprehensive Reviewer to Boost Your Confidence in Passing Exams, Speaking in Public, Writing Compositions, and Posting Ideas Online

©Copyright 2018 by Florian Navarroza-Flores and Roger Victor Flores

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system without prior consent or written permission from the copyright owners.

ISBN – 978-621-95725-1-4

Book Cover Design by Rovik Lemuel N. Flores

Illustrations by Rovik Lemuel N. Flores and Orvik Samuel Flores

Published and Distributed by:

Mind Stirrers Publishing

www.mindstirrers.com

PREFACE

With nearly everyone in the world having internet access, our world today has indeed become a small village. Through various digital platforms, we can interact with many people across the globe, accessing and exchanging information at lightning speed. Our access to the information highway, while enabling us to transcend geographical and cultural barriers, has also greatly raised quality standards in the way things are done – in business, in the academe and other areas in our personal and professional life.

Undoubtedly, improving quality standards has pushed competition to become stiffer and stiffer every day. In order to stay afloat above the rest, we have to persistently commit ourselves to continuous improvement. Among the skills needed today is the ability to communicate in English clearly and confidently which stands out as a major advantage among other skills.

An important component of a clear and effective communication is the mastery in English Grammar.

This book, Review Your Grammar and Ace Exams, is an offshoot of our book, Master English Grammar without Cracking Your Brain published in 2011 designed to address the dearth of reference books for self-directed learners. Seven years after its publication and after more than a decade of teaching homeschooling learners and running seminars and workshops for professionals, we decided to make an enhanced reference book under a new title, yet following the same principles and presentations as in our first book.

What differentiates this resource material from other books in the market?

The lessons follow a whole-to-parts approach (also known as Synthesis), which shows the relationships of concepts with one another.

1. Key lessons are presented through colorful illustrations and diagrams to boost learners’ interest. All in all there are 40 pages of illustrated lessons in this book.

2. Practice Exercises are included after each key lesson to check one’s knowledge and mastery of the concepts.

3. Agreement rules (Subject-Verb Agreement and Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement) are clearly presented under each illustrated category (e.g. Subjects that Require Singular Verbs, Subjects that Require Plural Verbs & Complications of S-V Agreement ).

Again, compared to other reference books that are normally textual, this book uses illustrations that will help learners understand with ease grammatical concepts and rules. Non-native speakers of the English language, in particular, who find the study of grammar both a boring and rigorous exercise, will benefit more from this book.

We recommend this resource material for intermediate and advanced learners in English as a Second Language and for anyone who wants to review and polish their knowledge in grammar whether they are students or professionals from different walks of life.

While many can express themselves in English, not everyone can do so with clarity and confidence. Indeed, we all need the confidence that we are speaking and writing the right way and in a manner that will be clearly understood. Although others may contend that it is mutual understanding that matters (it being the chief goal of communication), it bears emphasizing that grammar largely contributes in facilitating this mutual understanding between the speaker (or writer) and the listener (or reader).

It is for this reason that we came up with this valuable resource.

We earnestly hope that anyone who gets a copy of this book, after poring over its contents and engaging in the exercises, will be more confident in taking exams, speaking in public, writing compositions and posting their ideas online.

THE AUTHORS

SECTION 1

PARTS OF SPEECH

PARTS OF SPEECH

Parts of Speech (taken here as a single unit) refers to the function or usage of words in a sentence. There are eight (8) parts of speech in the English Language:

1. Noun

2. Pronoun

3. Verb

4. Adjective

5. Adverb

6. Preposition

7. Conjunction

8. Interjection

•Nouns are labels given to people, things, places or ideas.

•Pronouns are words that substitute or take the place of nouns.

•Verbs are words or groups of words that show action or existence.

•Adjectives are words that describe a noun or a pronoun.

•Adverbs are words that describe a verb, an adjective or another adverb. They answer the questions when, where, in what manner, and to what extent.

•Prepositions are words that show relationships between words in a sentence. They indicate time, location, direction, or motion.

•Conjunctions are words that join or connect other words, phrases and sentences.

•Interjections are words that express feeling or emotion.

Again, when we hear the phrase parts of speech, it simply means the use or function of words. This means that one cannot determine what part of speech a particular word is, unless it is used in a sentence. Consider the word report. Is it a noun? A verb? An adjective? We cannot provide a definite answer unless we know how the word is used in a sentence.

Examples:

The investigators are ready to present their report. (Here, report is used as a noun.)

The team members will report their findings. (The word report in this sentence acts as an action word or a verb.)

The parents received their child’s report card. (In this sentence, report describes or qualifies the noun card, thereby functioning as an adjective.)

KINDS OF NOUNS

Nouns can be classified into two groups: Common Nouns and Proper Nouns.

A common noun is a general name for a person, place or thing. It begins with a small letter.

A proper noun names a particular or specific person, place or thing. It always begins with a capital letter.

Examples: Common Noun — Proper Noun

hero — Dr. Jose Rizal

city — Manila City

continent — North America

organization — Rotary Club

watch — Rolex

woman — Julie de Torres

cartoon character — Bugs Bunny

Nouns can either be concrete or abstract.

A concrete noun can be physically seen or touched.

Examples: chair, food, book

An abstract noun cannot be perceived through any of the five senses. (Five senses include touch, hear, smell, see and taste.)

Examples:

feelings — forgiveness, love, hatred, joy, confusion, fear

ideas — sovereignty, freedom, courage, justice

condition — health, beauty, poverty

Concrete Nouns can be countable (or count) or non-countable (non-count).

Count Nouns are nouns that can be measured or counted. They make use of determiners such as a, an, a few, several, plenty, many, or a number of.

Examples:

buildings — few buildings

students — several students

books — many books

Non-count Nouns cannot be counted. They make use of determiners and measuring words (also known as quantifiers) such as a little, much, plenty of, or a large amount of.

Examples:

water — a cup of water

milk — a carton of milk

sugar — a tablespoon of sugar

sand — a bag of sand

Collective Nouns name groups of people, animals or things.

Examples:

family, team

band, orchestra

class, committee

Compound Nouns are composed of two or more words acting as a single unit.

Types of Compound Nouns — Examples:

Separated — dining table, Ferris wheel, subway train

Hyphenated — sister-in-law, Jack-in-the-box

Combined — weekend, grandfather, notebook, newspaper

Nouns can either be singular or plural.

A singular noun names only one person, place or thing.

A plural noun names more than one.

Nouns can also be regular or irregular depending on how the plural is formed. A regular noun adds s or es to form its plural. An irregular noun changes its spelling when in plural form. The following rules govern regular nouns ending in y such as city or lady, and nouns ending in f such as elf or leaf.

For some nouns ending in y, change y to i and add es.

Examples:

city—cities

policy—policies

baby—babies

lady—ladies

nappy—nappies

For some nouns ending in f, change f to v and add es.

Examples:

elf—elves

knife—knives

life—lives

leaf—leaves

loaf—loaves

The following words are nouns that retain their spelling when in plural form. They are classified under irregular nouns.

Singular—Plural

Examples:

deer—deer

sheep—sheep

moose—moose

species—species

equipment—equipment

aircraft—aircraft

attire—attire

feedback—feedback

information—information

Possessive Nouns show ownership. The possessive form of a noun is formed by adding an apostrophe (‘) or an apostrophe and s (‘s). The matrix below shows when to use (‘) and (‘s).

You can use either apostrophe (‘) or apostrophe and s (‘s) to form the possessive of singular proper nouns ending in s depending on the style guide you choose to adopt. The key is to be consistent once you have made the choice.

EXERCISE 1. COMMON AND PROPER NOUNS

Direction: Encircle the common nouns and underline the proper nouns in the paragraph below.

Billy Joe is a hardworking police officer. He works at the Central Police Agency as head of the Intelligence Unit. His wife, Angel, stays at home and takes care of their two sons namely, Carl and Max. On weekends, Billy Joe spends time with his family. He usually takes them to Bloomwood Park on Sunday afternoon where the kids can play to their hearts’ content. They also go to Dreampeak, a mall where they can shop for toys and eat their favorite snacks—a platter of Spaghetti and chicken wings.

EXERCISE 2. COMMON AND PROPER NOUNS

Direction: Supply the appropriate common noun for the following list of proper nouns:

1. Starbucks_____________________

2. Annapolis Street_____________________

3. Congressman Pike_____________________

4. Mark Twain_____________________

5. Holy Bible_____________________

6. Nile River_____________________

7. Asia_____________________

8. Google_____________________

9. Twitter_____________________

10. University of Hong Kong_____________________

11. Atty. Matt Borjinski_____________________

12. Asian Hospital_____________________

13. Dr. Ariel Birch_____________________

14. Miss Universe_____________________

15. Snoopy_____________________

EXERCISE 3. ABSTRACT