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English Questions And Answers Preparation For Exams

Verb Usage

Different classes of verbs are used in different ways. Finite verbs should always be preceded by subjects (nouns or noun - equivalents), which number and person limit the application of the verb. There are three categories of finite verbs - stative, action, and causative - Which usage demands proper understanding.

Stative Verb (E.g. hate, have, hear, know, love, own, perceive, possess, see, taste, or understand) neither requires ing ending to show it's progressive aspect nor appears in imperative and embedded sentences; e.g. Don't say: I am seeing/Understanding you. Better say: I see/understand you. 

Action Verbs (e.g. look, listen, work, etc) are used in all aspects, moods and sentences; e.g. listen! She listens. We are listening. 

Causative verbs (e g. break, Force, kill, make, open , raise, ring, stop, etc) are used to indicate that somebody or something causes an action to occur; e.g. She forced me to slam the door in her face. 

It should be noted that while a good many verbs are obligatorily transitive (e g. Enjoy, elect, hate, love, teach, devour, comprise, abhor, choose, etc) and others are consistently intransitive (e.g. swim, sleep, fly, lie, arrive, go, elapse, evaporate, etc), some verbs may be used both transitive and intransitively (e.g break, fed, etc) in certain contexts; e.g she broke her mirror in two . The mirror broke in two. 

Transitive and intransitive verbs may be used in both finite and non - finite forms as show below:
Auxiliary Verbs and their usage
An auxiliary verb helps a main verb to form it's tense.

Classes of Auxiliaries
There are two classes of Auxiliary Verbs '
(I) primary Auxiliaries
These are three in number - be, do and have: they have two features: they end with s in 3rd person singular present and they can be used as lexical Verbs. See the following illustration: 
BE: He is dancing. They are rich
DO: He does not know you. They did the work.
HAVE: He has seen you. They have a car.

(ii) Modal Auxiliaries 
        The 13 finites shall, should, will, would, can, could, may, might, must, ought, need, dare, and used (to) are called modal auxiliaries to distinguish them from primary Auxiliaries. Their common features is that they are always used as auxiliaries and cannot be used as lexical Verbs.

Functions and Usage
(I) Auxiliary Verbs function as structural words used to form negative and interrogative expressions; e g.

Negative
He can't (cannot) dance .
He wasn't invited.
He doesn't like it.

Interrogative
Can he dance?
Was he invited?
Does he like it?

(ii) Auxiliary Verbs are used to avoid repetition in answers to short questions; e.g. Have you seen it?
Yes, I have. Did you invite that man? Yes, I did .


(iii). Auxiliaries are used in tag questions, added to statements; e.g.
You saw me, didn't you?
I didn't call him; did I ?
This is your pen; isn't it?

(Iv). Primary Auxiliaries exhibit both finite and non infinite forms while modal auxiliaries have only finite forms and are used as such. See the following table: 


Underline the Correct verbs and/or Pronouns in the following sentences. 

1) The Umbrella (Have, Has) been returned to (it's, their) owner 

2) Mary and James (has, have) fixed (his, her, their) wedding date. 

3) I (prefers ,prefer) doing my own washing myself.

4) That Man ( do, does) not remember (his, her, their) telephone number.

5) The Governor and visitor of the university (is, are) here.

6) Illegal structure along chime Avenue (has, have) been levelled.

7) Buying and selling (is, are) his job.

8) Edith is the only one of the micro credit loam recipients (who, which) (has, have) repaid the loan.

9) Alice lost (his, their, her, ) life in the crash.

10) Members of staff who (wishes, wish) to have (his or her, their) leave rescheduled must see the director.

11) Thean ( who, whom) guards the premises is Mr. Arinze.

12) Make sure you submit your forms by Thursday, ( Which, That) is deadline.

13) Is this the seminar (Who, which) you said would interest me?


RULES OF CONCORD
Concord is also called agreement. Concord or agreement is achieved when the words in a sentence are grammatically related. For example, when the Verb is singular because the subject of the sentence is singular , or when the verb is plural because the subject of the sentence is plural, Concord is achieved.

SUBJECT - VERB AGREEMENT
Verb agree with their subjects in number (singular or plural) and in person ( first, Second or third). Note that in the present tense, the third person singular form of most verbs ends in - s or - es except for be and have.

The boy likes orange (singular)

The boys like Orange (Plural)

I like Oranges (first person singular/singular VERB)

He likes oranges (third person singular/singular verb).

We like Oranges (first person plural/plural verb).

They like Oranges (Third person plural/plural verb).

You like Oranges (Second person singular/plural verb)

We are upstairs (First person plural/Plural verb)

She is upstairs (Third person singular/singular verb)

John has arrived (Singular verb/singular subject).

We have arrived (Plural Verb/plural subject.



A compound subject ( Two or more subject joined by and) takes a plural verb.

Mary and John have arrived.
Jane's competence and her ability to work under pressure have landed her top job in the company.

When a compound subject refers to the same person or thing, or form a single unit, they take a singular verb.

The president and commander in chief of the armed force's is here.

The owner and sales manager if Joel enterprises is on the phone.

Rice and stew is available

Buying and selling is his job

Gin and tonic is a great drink.

The verb agrees with its subject, not with a word that comes between them.

Illegal structures near the airport are under threat of demolition.
NOT: Illegal structures near the airport is under threat of demolition.

In this sentence, the subject of the verb is structures, not airport.

When two or more subject are joined by or or nor, the verb agrees with the subject to it .

Either you or she has to come.

Neither the man nor his children were able to escape.

Two passport photographys or a driver's license is required.

Neither Henry nor his parents have called.

When two subjects are joined by as well as , together with, in addition to, with, along with, not to mention, no less than, including, accompanied by , the verb is singular if the first subject is singular.
The carpenter together with his apprentices attends night school. 
That woman as well as her children is anaemic.
Mary accompanied by her friends has arrived.

Most indefinite pronouns take a singular verb in formal English (anybody, anyone, anything, everybody, everyone, everything, neither, nobody, none, no one, somebody, someone, something).

Everyone in my group has reported for duty.
Is anybody home?
None has declined the invitation.
Neither is acceptable.
No one was absent.
Everything is ready.

A determiners every and each are used with a singular noun and a singular verb.
Each child is precious.
Every lamp is lit
Each new day is different.
Every room is occupied.


A compound subject preceded by each or every takes a singular verb whether or not they are joined by the conjunction and

Every drink, every crumb has been carted away.
Each person and each item in board has to be accounted for.
Each week, day and moment counts.
Every man, woman and child is important.

The determiner many followed by a, an and a singular noun takes a singular verb.
Many a student has registered for the Course.
Many a girl wants to marry a Rich man 

But when many is preceded by a great or a good , it takes a plural noun and plural verb.
A great many guests have arrived.
A good many companies are hiring staff.



VERB - VERB CONCORD

Verb-verb Concord is another expression for tense sequence. It is important to know the appropriate verb tenses to use within a sentence or a passage as unnecessary shifts from one tense to another may confuse readers.

She said she could play the piano.( Reported speech: the reporting verb in the past tense attracts another verb in the past tense. Direct Speech: " I can play the piano"). 

As the match progressed he Found himself relaxing and getting a feel of the game.  
               (Past tense/past tense)

The only thing to do is to go to the police station and bail him.
                         (link verb + infinite Phrase)

If I had known it, I Would have told you. 
             (If + past perfect, would have + past participle)

If I knew about it, I would tell you.
         ( if + past, would + infinitive without to).



COLLOCATIONS

Collocation refers to the appropriate combination or co- occurrence of two or more words in a sentence. It is the way in which two or more particular words are frequently used together in any sentence. This implies that one should know, for instance, which nouns go with a particular adjective , which verbs are used with a particular noun, which prepositions go with a particular verb, noun, or adjective. 

Words that share the same range of collocation possibilities constitute a lexical set. Some collocations are pairs of words that express ideas or things that go together such as: 
(I) hustle and bustle
(i i) day and night
(iii) pen and pepper
(iv) bread and butter
(v) hammer and nail
(vi) needle and thread
(vii) mortar and pestle 

Some collocations are idiomatic, showing fixed expressions with fixed meanings, as in: 
(a) Nonun Idioms, exemplified by:
(I) A silver lining
(ii) The lion's Share
(iii) A storm in a tea cup
(iv) A rope of sand 
(V) A white elephant

(b) Verb idioms, exemplified by:
(I) Go for (attack)
(ii) Make up for (compensate)
(iii) To make a clean breast (to confess)
(iv) To pass the buck (to shift responsibility)

(C) Phrasal Verb, exemplified by: 
(I) back up, back out, bach down (From), etc.
(ii) go on, though, go over, go in go out , etc
(iii) get off, get out , get over , get at, get up to,etc
(iv) call at , call on , call, for call, call for , call up, etc
(v) give away, five in give up, give out etc


(D) Prepositional Phrase, exemplified by:
(I) according to
(ii) along with
(iii) in spite of 
(iv) in front of 
(v) on account of 
(vi) because of 
(vii) due to
(viii) instead of
(ix) together with
(x) apart from

(E) Prepositional idioms, exemplified by:
(I) abreast of
(ii) absolve of
(iii) accrue to
(iv) adhere to
(v) absent from
(Vi) accede to
(vii) adapt to
(viii) head for



PHRASES

A phrase is a group of words without a finite verb. It is commonly defined as a grammatically ordered group of related words that lacks a subject or a predicte or both and functions as a single part of speech. Hence, phrase are organize words clusters that can act as single parts of speech. They are, therefore, named by the word classes they stand for. For example, a noun phrase plays the roles of a noun; an adjective phrase, an adjective; an adverb phrase, an adverb; a verb Phrase, a verb; and , a prepositional phrase , a preposition. 


PHRASES: FORMS AND FUNCTIONS

kinds and examples
NOUN PHRASE - Example (I) A cup of wine is enough (Subject)
(ii) It is a way of life. (complement)
Form(Appearance), It is usually begins with an article (or a determiner) and ends with a noun.
Functions (Uses), It is used as either subject or object, or complement of a verb, or object of a preposition, etc


ADJECTIVE PHRASE
Examples (I) His hoe in farm is bad
(ii) That pen on your table
Form(Appearance), It usually begins with a preposition and ends with a noun.
Functions (Uses) , It modifies nouns, pronouns, adjectives and participles.

ADVERB PHRASE
Examples (I) He is in the class.
(ii) He is out of his senses
Form (Appearance) , It usually begins with a preposition and ends with a noun. 
Functions (Uses) , It is used to modify verbs, adjectives, adverb and other words except nouns and pronouns.

PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE
Examples, (I) He is in front of the house.
(ii) He shouts with a view to attracting our attention
Forms (Appearance), It usually begins with a proposition and always ends with a preposition.
Functions (Uses), It is used as a single preposition or it merely does the duty of preposition: It controls or governs the noun or noun equivalent after it.

VERB PHRASE
Examples, (I) Before he come out, I will have gone.
(ii) But he has gone already.
Form(Appearance) , It usually begins with an auxiliary verb and always ends with a main verb (i.e. it is made up a verb and it's auxiliaries). 
Functions (Uses), It is used in the sentence as a verb, stating action or being of the subject.



DIRECT SPEECH 
Direct Speech refers to the actual words that come out of the same mouth of the speaker without any alteration whatsoever. In writing, the direct Speech is marked off by quotation marks e g " I am not a fool, " he retorted. 

Indirect speech, on the other hand, refers to the new form the direct Speech assumes when it is reported by someone else to another person. It is , therefore, sometimes known as reported speech. This new form is the result of the changes that take place during the conversion. The changes have the effect of maitge Sense of the original speech remote to reflect the passage time. It is usually introduced by main clauses or speech tags such as: He said/She retorted/They agreed/etc. (E.g. He said/retorted that he was not a fool).

Different between Direct Speech and Indirect Speech.

Direct Speech is the verbatim quotation of a speaker's words. The Quoted speech nay stay alone (e g, Get out of here,) Where it's introductory clause (e.g. He said) is understood, or it may be preceded or followed by the introductory clause, which indicates speaker and the reporting verb. 

There is always a comma between the introductory clause and the Quoted speech; eg. (a) John said, "Come here now."
(b) "Come here now," John said. 

Direct Speech always begins with a quotation mark and a capital letter. E.g. She said, "Let's go."

A direct Speech is often enclosure in inverted commas or quotation marks.

Vocatives such as Sir, Mr. Chairman", etc appear in direct Speech. 

There is never a conjunction between the introductory clause and the Quoted clause in the direct Speech.

In direct Speech, the comma which usually separates the introductory clause from the Quoted clause comes after the reporting verb if the introductory clause precedes the direct speech, or inside the closing quotations marks.



Indirect Speech (otherwise known as the Reported speech) is the reporting of only the substance of a speaker's speech to a third person. Usually, the introductory clause is not omitted, for the report speech (Substance) cannot stand alone as it is a subordinate clause, depending on the introductory clause. 

There is always a subordinate conjunction (eg. That, whether, or if( between the introductory clause and the indirect/Reported speech e.g. he said that they would go.

The reported substance in indirect speech begins with a small letter and has no opening quotation mark. E.g. She said that he should go with her. 

But indirect speech requires no quotation marks or inverted commas whatsoever. 

Vocatives (ie. Direct addresses) do not appear in indirect speech. 

There is never a comma between the introductory clause and the reported speech in indirect speech. 

Since no comma is needed here between the main and the dependent clauses, comma (or other punctuation marks position/Placement does not apply here; only a period is required at the end of an indirect speech.



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