English for Foreign Students

By Gopal Rayappa Kolekar

In this book I have specifically excluded all grammar principles because it's a never ending game throughout life. I am not saying that you should not read a grammar book; I recommend that you please read your own language grammar book first and then read the Engl

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blue Rose Publishers
• Release date: Oct 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9789354724619

Book preview

CHAPTER I

NECESSITIES OF SPEECH

Man can produce many words by employing sounds. Man invented language for his communication. Combination of sounds refers to a certain thing. When man realized that it is tough to convey his voice across long distances he established the written language to convey the same meaning.

A letter of the alphabet that denotes a speech sound created by the free passage of breath through the oral cavity is a vowel. Written English has five vowel letters, A, E, I, O, and U. Letters that are not vowels are called consonants. In English, the 26 letters of the alphabet contain 5 vowels and 21 consonants. In spoken English, there are 20 vowels and 24 consonants. It is because of this difference there is complexity and inconsistency in English spelling.

Grammar is the study of language; we are studying the rules of that language. We should follow these rules when we speak or write. It is easy to learn how to speak and write correctly. For all purposes of normal conversation and communication, only about 2,000 different words are needed. The proper grasp of just 2,000 words, the knowledge of where to place them, will make us experts of correct speaking and writing. It is a small number compared to what is in the dictionary. No one ever uses all the words in the dictionary and there is no need for using them.

There are more than 2,00,000 words in the large dictionaries, but just one per cent of this is sufficient for us. Of course you may not be comfortable to call things by their common names; you may want to show-off before others. You may not want to call a spade a spade. You may want to call it a spatulous device for digging the surface of the soil. However it is better to stick to the old simple name that has stood the test of time.

To use a big word when a small word or a familiar one will answer the same purpose is a sign of inexperience. Great scholars and polite speakers always use simple words.

For all practical purposes of conversation and writing, 2,000 words is sufficient and a great many people in society who are polished, refined and less educated use less, for they know less. The greatest scholar alive hasn’t more than four thousand words at his command, and he has no occasion to use half of it.

In the works of Shakespeare, there are 15,000 different words, but almost 10,000 of them are meaningless today. All persons of intelligence should be able to use his mother tongue correctly. It only requires a little pain, a little care, a little study to enable one to do so, and the recompense is great.

Consider the difference between the polite man who knows how to choose and use his words correctly and the underbred, whose language grates upon the ear and jars the sensitiveness. The mistakes of the latter, his infringement of all rules of grammar, make his very presence a pain, and one is glad to be rid of his company.

The proper grammatical formation of the English language, so that one may be a correct conversationalist or be able to write and express his thoughts in the right manner, may be achieved in a few lessons.

The purpose of this book is to briefly direct the reader along a straight course, pointing out the mistakes that he must avoid and giving him such assistance as will make him reach the goal of correct knowledge of English. It is not Grammar in any sense, but a silent guide pointing the way in the right direction.

English language put in a nutshell

All words in English are divided into nine classes called the Parts of Speech. They are Article, Noun, Adjective, Pronoun, Verb, Adverb, Preposition, Conjunction and Interjection. The Noun is the most important, as all the others are dependent on it. A Noun is the name of any person, place or thing. In fact there are two kinds of Nouns - Proper Noun and Common Noun. Common Nouns are names which belong in common to a class, as man, city. Proper Nouns distinguish individual members of a class as John, New York. In the former case man is a name which belongs in common to the whole race of mankind, and city is also a name which is common to all large centers of population, but John signifies a particular individual of the race, while New York denotes a particular one from the other cities of the world.

Nouns are varied by Person, Gender, Number, and Case. Person is that relationship existing between the speaker, those addressed and the subject under consideration. The Persons are First, Second and Third and they represent respectively the speaker, the person addressed and the person or thing under consideration.

A Number is the distinction of one from more than one. There are two numbers, singular and plural; the singular denotes one, the plural two or more than two. The plural is normally formed from the singular by the addition of s or es.

The Gender has the same relation to nouns that sex has to persons, but while there are two sexes, there are 4 genders, namely, masculine, feminine, common and neutral. The masculine gender denotes all the male kind, the feminine gender all the female kind, the neutral gender denotes inanimate things or that without life and common gender is animate beings, the sex of which is indeterminable, such as fish, bird, etc. Sometimes things which are without life and which belong to the neutral gender, are by a figure of speech called Personification, changed into the masculine / feminine gender, as, for example, of the sun, He is rising; of the moon, She is setting.

Article is a word placed before a noun to show whether it is used in a particular or general sense. There are but two articles - a / an and the. Adjective is a word that qualifies a noun, which shows some unique characteristic of belonging to the noun.

A pronoun is used for or instead of a noun to keep us from repeating the same noun. Pronouns have case, number, gender and person. There are three kinds of pronouns - personal, relative and adjective.

A verb signifies action or the doing of something. A verb is inflected by tense and by number and person, though these two belong to the subject of the verb.

An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, an adjective and sometimes another adverb.

A preposition connects words and to show the relationship between the objects which the words are expressing.

A conjunction is a word that joins words, clauses, phrases and sentences together.

An interjection is a word that expresses surprise or some unexpected emotion of the mind.

3 ESSENTIALS

The 3 essentials of the English language are - Purity, Perspicuity and Precision.

Purity signifies the use of good English. It excludes the use of all slang words, vulgar phrases, or any ungrammatical language. Neither does it allow the use of any newly formed word until it is adopted by the dictionary.

Perspicuity stresses the clearest expression of thought conveyed in language, so that there is no misunderstanding whatever of the thought the speaker or writer wants to convey. All vague words and words that might possibly be interpreted in a sense different from that intended are strictly forbidden. Perspicuity requires a style that is clear and comprehensive and completely free from pomp and affectation or any straining after effect.

Precision involves crisp and exact expression, free from, a style terse and clear and simple enough to allow the hearer or reader to comprehend immediately the meaning of the speaker or writer. It bans, on the one hand, all long and involved sentences, and, those that are too short and abrupt.

CHAPTER II

BASICS OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR

Divisions of Grammar Definitions--Etymology

In order to speak and write the English language correctly, it is vital that the necessary principles of the Grammar be understood, for no matter how much we may read or how much we may associate or imitate the best speakers, if we don’t know the basic principles of the proper formation of sentences and the relationship of words to each another, we will be like the parrot, which only repeats what it hears without understanding the meaning of what is spoken. Of course the parrot, being a creature without reason, cannot understand; it can just repeat what is said to it, and so by the same analogy, when we without having understood the grammar of the language, we may be making lot of blunders while thinking that we are speaking with great accuracy.

DIVISIONS OF GRAMMAR

There are 4 broad divisions of Grammar, namely:

Orthography, Etymology, Prosody and Syntax

Orthography treats letters of the alphabet and the way of combining them into words.

Etymology treats of the various types of words and the alterations that they undergo.

Syntax treats the link and arrangement of the words in a sentence.

Prosody treats the manner of speaking and reading and the different kinds of verse.

LETTERS

A letter is a character used to indicate a communicative sound. These letters (of the alphabet) are divided into vowels and consonants. A vowel is a letter which makes a separate sound by itself. Consonants cannot be expressed without the help of vowels. The five vowels are a, e, i, o, u, and at times w and y when they don’t begin a word or syllable.

WORDS AND SYLLABLES

A syllable is a separate sound produced by – e.g. shall, pig, dog. In each syllable there must be a minimum of one vowel. A word consists of one or a group of syllables.

There are many rules for the dividing of words into syllables.

THE PARTS OF SPEECH ARTICLE

An article is a letter or word placed in front of a noun to show whether the noun is used in a particular or a general sense.

There are three articles, ‘a’ or ‘an’ and ‘the’. A or an is called the indefinite article as it does not point to any particular person or thing but states the noun in its broadest sense.

‘The’ is definite article because it points out some particular person or thing; hence, the man means some single individual.

NOUN

A noun is the name of any person, place or thing as Peter, London, table. Nouns are proper and common.

Proper nouns are names given to particular persons or places.

Common nouns are names given to a whole kind or species.

Number is that inflection of the noun through which we indicate whether it signifies one or more than one.

Gender is that by which we signify whether the noun is the name of a male, a female, of an inert object or something which has no division of sex.

Case is that inflection of noun which signifies the state of the person, place or thing denoted, as the subject of an affirmation or question, the owner of something mentioned, or the object of an action.

For example, Peter tore the pages of Betty's book, the distinction between book which represents only one object and pages which represent two or more objects of the same type is called number; the distinction of sex between Peter, a male, and Betty, a female, and book and pages, things which are inert and neither male nor female is called Gender; and the difference of state between Peter, the person who tore the book, and the subject of the affirmation, Betty, the owner of the book.

ADJECTIVE

An adjective is a word which qualifies a noun, it points out some feature of the noun; for example - A white horse.

Adjectives have 3 forms called degrees of comparison, the positive, the comparative and the superlative.

The positive is the simple form of the adjective without expressing increase or decrease of the original quality: good.

The comparative is that form of the adjective which expresses increase or decrease of the quality: