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Master English Vocabulary and Grammar

Study English Grammar — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 04:55:52 +0000

One of the basic things that you need to know as a learner of the English language is that you should know the rules of grammar while at the same time improve your vocabulary. Vocabulary refers to the list of words that you should know in order to communicate with others in everyday life in English.

Grammar and vocabulary are therefore the twin major aspects of the language and you can learn them using traditional means or through ordinary easy methods. You need to study the rules, read books on miscellaneous topics in the language and pay attention to the instructions and signs on products of everyday use.

Look Up a Grammar Book: A grammar book will acquaint you with the rules of the language and increase your vocabulary. These books can be purchased online or from stores and explain the basic principles of formulation and construction of sentences, subject-verb agreement and help you with useful words which recur in the language.

By going through the rules continuously, you can use the grammar and vocabulary books for getting a basic understanding of the language and then apply the laws to eve... Read more...

Phonetic Transcription and Learning English

Study English Grammar — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 23:07:50 +0000

Do you want to pronounce well? Of course you do, who doesn’t? When you hear someone speaking English in perfect manner you may have been scourged with envy and dream to be one such a good speaker of English. You are not wrong. Who does not want to be a perfect speaker of the English language?

Well if you want to know how to speak English in an elegant manner you have to learn to pronounce every word accordingly. It is the IPA or the International Phonetic Alphabet that may guide you step by step to learn how to pronounce English quite correctly. With the help of IPA you can master the art but what you need to do in the very beginning is to follow some steps so that you can be sure that you are pronouncing accurately.

The first thing you have to do is to collect a copy of the sounds represented by symbols. You are sure to be confused in the very beginning. Next try to copy the symbols on a sheet of paper. You would find in the chart about 44 sounds among which there are 20 vowels along with 24 consonants. There is controversy regarding the number of the sounds but anyway try to learn them by heart.

Now it i... Read more...

How to Use Proofreaders Marks

Study English Grammar — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 01:09:28 +0000

Suppose you have been burdened with the work of marking up a document. What would you do then? I think you have no other way than to use the proofreader’s specific marks. Nowadays the use of proofreading on the hard copy is a rare mater, still if you have to do it for your own sake or to edit some writing of someone you have to be too cautious to use the marks in a very standard fashion.

It seems that if someone reads and you proofread it is beer for you. You may locate the mistakes when someone reads it aloud. Your eyes may miss the mistakes but your ears can never prove wrong. Generally the proofreader’s marks are used in publishing houses and the world of business.

When you proofread you must take care of some things that are available at hand:

*a pencil or a red pen

*the matter that you have to proofread

*the list where the marks are inscribed

Actually a pen with red ink or a pencil is necessary to highlight the wrongs on the white sheet of paper. In his way you can highlight the wrongs to the writer or the man who i... Read more...

The Use of Movies to Learn English

Study English Grammar — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:29:23 +0000

One of the major advantages for learners to master the art of the English language is to watch movies as much as possible. This is extremely engaging as a learning procedure as it is fun, thrilling and exciting, and at the same time it teaches you the basic aspects of mastering a language and excel in your linguistic skills and abilities.

Why Watch Films?

Are you a movie buff? Yes? Then get the movie theater rolling! Watching a movie in their original version, instead of going for the dubbed variety, is always a rewarding experience as everything there is for real – from the voice of the actors, to their acting styles and the background music too. You are watching everything in the real ambience, just as had been perceived by the director.

Learn through Input

Picking up your linguistic skills through watching the English movies is a procedure where you are gaining knowledge about the language through inputs. First of all, there are all those appropriate sentences that are going within your head. Other than that, your mind can impersonate them for preparing sentences of ... Read more...

English books Vs English Online Courses for Kids- Pros and Cons

Study English Grammar — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:54:00 +0000

Nobody can refuse the fact that books will be of great use in learning any language. Books have been the source of education since time immemorial and books are the great teachers when you would like to teach a language to your kid on your own. But, with the improvement of technology, most of the people are using internet nowadays for teaching English to their kids and some are even getting the help of online courses in this connection. With these two options available in learning the language, most of us might wonder which would be the right option for making our child to learn the language. Let us compare the pros and cons of these two options and find a solution to our confusion.

Learning English through books:

If you opt to teach English to your kids though books, you can find many books in the market which are helpful for easily understanding English. You can start the process of teaching English with the help of picture based storybooks containing simple English terms. When you think that your kid is progressing, you can use some advanced books like children’s dictionary, which will be extr... Read more...

History of English Language

Study English Grammar — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:12:16 +0000

English is a one of the members of the indo-European language. This broad family includes a number of European languages spoken nowadays. The indo-European family consists of many languages such as the Germanic language, Latin and French, the indo-Iranian languages, the salvic languages, the Baltic languages, the Celtic languages, Greek, etc. It was brought to Britain by the German invaders. Later on through the courts and government the Norman influence entered English. Thus, English was developed to be of great flexibility. There are a number of versions of English like old English, Middle English, early modern English and modern English. The main history behind the English language was that the language of German tribes has given rise to the English. In present day scenario English has become a famous language with the number of people speaking this language increasing day by day.

Old English is totally different from today’s modern English. There is a lot of difference between old English and modern English of today. People who know modern English use to face problem while trying to understand old English. The introduct... Read more...

How to spell words-alike correctly

Study English Grammar — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:56:40 +0000

English is a fantastic language that many of us have a great desire to learn and to speak in English. But many of us find it hard to speak English correctly because of pronunciation of the words. Many words in English are pronounced alike with different spelling. This mispronunciation of words makes it hard to identify the words when someone speaks. This also makes us to misspell the words.

In English some sounds like “t” are silent which comes at the end of word. This makes the chance of misspell the word. For example, let us consider the word “start”, many of us does not spell the “t” sound, which is at the end of the word, this makes the listener hard to identify the spoken word, he might understand the word as “star” which is also a valid word. This affects the meaning of the sentence.

Let us see another example “read”, we can use this word in past tense, present tense as well as future tense. While we use this word in past tense we pronounce it as “red” and when we use the same word in present or future tense we pronounce it as “read”. Hence, based on the sentence we have to pronounce t... Read more...

How to improve basic English Grammar

Study English Grammar — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:15:50 +0000

Proper basic English grammar is very much essential for effective international communication in terms of writing and speaking. We will be able to get the benefit of effective communication by practicing simple exercises, which will improve our grammar. The knowledge of English grammar cannot be acquired all of a sudden. It is a step-by-step process and the steps are given below:

Step 1:

Reading of good books: To develop our knowledge in any subject the first step is to try to read some good books written in that language. When it comes to learning of a language, you can select literary classics books for reading. You will be able to learn new words and you can develop your knowledge in that particular subject by reading these types of books. Here, it is obviously English.

Step 2:

Keep up with the news: The second step required to be done is listening to English news broadcasts via television, radio or through internet, which will of great use to train your ears to identify proper grammar and you will also be able to update yourself reg... Read more...

Spelling and pronunciation

Study English Grammar — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:26:20 +0000

In English, one spelling can have different pronunciations and the words with same sound can have different spellings. If you check the pronunciation of the whole word by looking at the phonetic script in a dictionary, you will find that the sound is very common in English. It is always unstressed. In this article, we will look at some of the sounds in English.

Words ending with ‘ough’ are spelled in different ways in English. Some examples are given below:

Now sound: plough, bough

Cuff sound: enough, tough, rough

Toe sound: though, dough

Off sound: cough.

Words containing ‘st’ where ‘t’ is not pronounced. Some examples are listen, whistle, whistle, bristle.
Words containing ‘bt’ and ‘mb’, where b is not heard. Some examples are given below:

‘bt’: debt, subtle, doubt

‘mb’: plumber, comb, dumb

Tips for Pronunciation and spelling English words:

The tips given below will help you to understand spelling and pronunciation of some words in English.

... Read more...

Essay Writing – Tone and Vocabulary

Study English Grammar — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 03:57:11 +0000

Can you see anything wrong with this paragraph?

The risk of damnation is made clear in Kyd’s “The Spanish Tragedy” by the use of a ghost from hell, called Revenge, who acts as a chorus to the play. This provides a formal framework which contrasts with the violent actions of the characters. There’s also something rather spooky about a ghost.

If you feel that the last sentence struck the wrong note, it is because the word ‘spooky’ is inappropriate. But why? Isn’t it a perfectly good word? It probably is, but the problem is that it’s an informal word, the kind of word that might be used in conversation, but which jars with the formal tone required in an essay. You might also feel that it is a rather lightweight word. Up until that point the writer has achieved a good level of analysis, but the final sentence unintentionally trivializes the subject For a moment the writer takes his/her eye off the topic and makes a rather vague, colloquial point. It is important in writing an essay to strive for a fairly formal tone. Contractions such as didn’t, wasn... Read more...