Tag: cat

Figure of Speech – Simile

Simile

A simile is a figure of speech that explicitly compares two unlike objects or persons. It uses words ‘like’, ‘as’ to bring out the comparison. Similes are used to make descriptions more emphatic or vivid, e.g.

  • Her eyes are like pearls. (pure and beautiful) (Clear comparison between ‘eyes’ and ‘pearls’ with the help of the word ‘like’).
  • She eats like a bird. (eats very little)
  • They fought like cats and dogs. (fought fiercely)
  • He works like a dog. (works very hard)
  • He is as strong as a lion. (very strong)
  • She walks as softly and gracefully as a cat. (walks without making any noise)
  • The old man is as blind as a bat. (completely blind)

     

                                                                                           

Basic Sentence Patterns

Basic Sentence Patterns

To learn a language (in our case English), it helps if we know the basic sentence patterns. And if we are able to make basic sentences, transformations become easy i.e. from affirmative to negative and interrogative; active to passive or simple to compound and complex (use of more than one finite verb).

A Basic Sentence is the smallest grammatical structure that can make sense. It is affirmative in form and has only one finite verb. Negative, interrogative, imperative and exclamatory sentences are simply not basic sentences. Similarly, sentences in passive voice are not basic. A basic sentence can be expanded into any imaginable length or changed into any other forms. It has a fixed word order i.e. noun phrase comes first and then verb phrase.

Pattern 1: Noun Phrase (NP) + Verb (intransitive)

  1. Birds fly.
  2. Dogs bark.
  3. Stars twinkle.
  4. Snow falls.
  5. The water level increased.

Pattern 2: NP + Verb (be-type & become-type) + NP

  1. Raj is a doctor.
  2. Sheila became a nurse.
  3. She turned an artist.
  4. He remained a clerk.
  5. Mr. Brown looks a gentleman.

Pattern 3: NP + Verb (be-type & become-type) +Adjective Phrase

  1. Rene is honest.
  2. He became mad.
  3. Minnie looked beautiful.
  4. John appeared handsome.
  5. The crowd turned nasty.

Pattern 4: NP + Verb (be-type) + Adverbial

  1. Bob is here.
  2. The monkey is on the tree.
  3. They are all upstairs.
  4. Nobody is there.
  5. The cat is under the table.

Pattern 5: NP +Verb (have-type) + NP

  1. My mother has a beautiful umbrella.
  2. Mr. Mehta has a car.
  3. The pen costs ten rupees.
  4. Students lack discipline.
  5. He has a fit body.

Pattern 6: NP + verb (transitive) + NP

  1. The horse kicked the cat.
  2. The hunter killed the lion.
  3. Children like chocolates.
  4. A barber cuts hair.
  5. I play chess.

Pattern 7: NP + Verb (transitive) + NP (Indirect Object) + NP (Direct Object)

  1. My friend wrote me a letter.
  2. They sent us a gift.
  3. He taught us English.
  4. My grandmother told me a story.
  5. We showed them our house.

Pattern 8: NP + Verb (transitive) + NP (Direct Object) + NP (Object Complement)

  1. The people elected her the Prime Minister.
  2. The manager appointed her secretary.
  3. They named their daughter ‘Sweetie’.
  4. The war made him a millionaire.
  5. Everybody considers him a gentleman.

Pattern 9: NP + Verb (transitive) + NP + Adjective Phrase

  1. She likes her tea hot.
  2. Exercise keeps our body fit.
  3. He opened the door wide.
  4. The Sun keeps us warm.
  5. They painted the house white.

Nouns – Common and Proper

  • Look at the following sentences:

 

  1. Jack is boy.
  2. Tom is a boy.
  3. John is a boy.
  4. Dick is a boy.

 

  • The word boy occurs in all the four sentences. It is a common name used for all the boys. But all boys have special names too. Jack, Tom, John and Dick are special names of these four boys.
  • Pets and places also have special names. Cat and dog are common names used for all cats and dogs. But we often give special names to our pets:

       1.   My cat’s name is Silky. 

      2.   I call my dog, Naughty.

  • Jackie, Jimmy, Buddy, Molly, Rover, Rustam, Rosebud, Tiger, Pussy, Snowy, Snowball, Rocky, Jumbo, Appu, are some special names of our pets.
  • Places also have both common and special names. The words village, city, town, country, school, college, hospital, park, street are common names. But India, Australia, Delhi, Aton School, Sony Hospital, White Park are special names of places.
  • Similarly books, newspapers, magazines, days, months, festivals, institutions, companies, products etc. also have special names .The Bible, The Gita, Great Expectations, Harry Potter, The Times, Femina, Sunday, January, Christmas, Diwali, are all special names.
  • These special names are called Proper Nouns and common names are called Common Nouns.
  • Special names or Proper nouns always begin with a capital letter.
  • Some examples:
  1. Susan is a good girl.      
  2.  Peter is a smart boy.
  3. Bombay is a big city.
  4. Jackie is my dog.     
  5. Ganga is a holy river
  6. Femina is a woman’s magazine.

 

Susan, Peter, Bombay, Jackie, Ganga and Femina are Proper Nouns and girl, boy, city, dog, river, woman, magazine are Common Nouns.

 

  • A Proper Noun is the special name of a particular person, place or thing.
  • A Common Noun is a name given in common to all persons or things of the same class or kind.

 

 

 

Nouns

Nouns – Naming Words

  • Look  at the following words:

Apple, airplane, bat, ball, butter, bread, balloon, bus, banana, bag, car, cat, crow, cow, cap, chair, chocolate, doll, dog, donkey, egg, elephant, fan, fish, flower, goat, grass, gun, hen, helicopter, ice-cream, ink, jam, jug, kite, kangaroo, lion, lamp, monkey, mango, orange, owl, parrot, peacock, park, queen, rat, shoes, school, ship, tap, tiger, umbrella, van, watch, zoo, mummy, papa, uncle, aunt, Mary, John, etc.

 

  • All these words are names of something, somebody or someplace.
  • Names are usually the first words which small children learn.
  • These naming-words are called Nouns.

 

  • Read the following  sentences carefully:

 

  1. James is a good boy.
  2. The cat ran after the rat.
  3. India is in Asia.
  4. The book is on the table.
  • The words James and boy are the names of persons.
  • The words cat and rat are the names of animals.
  • The word India and Asia are the names of places.
  • The words book and table are the names of things.
  • Words which are used as the names of persons, animals or birds, places or things are called Nouns.