Adverbs of Place

Objectives: i. Define adverbs ii. Identify adverbs iii. Make sentences using adverbs of place. Adverbs are words that add meaning to verbs. They tell us more about verbs. Today we shall look at adverbs of place. These are words that answer the question: “where?” Read the poem below and identify all the words that answer the question: “where?” Called away I meant to do my work today…/ But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,/ And a butterfly flitted across the field,/ And all the leaves were calling me./ And the wind went sighing over the land,/ Tossing the grasses to and fro,/ And a rainbow held out its shining hand…/ So what could I do but laugh and go?/ By Richard Le Gallienne Most adverbs of place are made of a group of words. In the poem “Called away” the adverbs of place are in the apple tree, across the field, over the land and to and fro. Now that we have the answers, we shall ask the questions and supply the answers in complete sentences. a) Where did the bird sing? It sang in the apple tree. b) Where did the butterfly flit? The butterfly flitted across the field. c) Where did the wind go? The wind went over the land. d) Where did the wind toss the grass? It tossed the grass to and fro. Now list all the places you visited during your vacation. Get a friend to ask you the question, “Where did you visit?”. Supply the answers from your list. Notice, when names of places answer the question “where”, they are no longer nouns. They have become adverbs of place. You can extend this lesson by asking your friends to list the places they visited and then ask them the same question they had asked you. Let them supply the answers based on the list. Make sure they make complete sentences. Well, we have come to the end of this lesson. I hope that you are now able to use adverbs of place confidently.

Abstract Nouns (Passage)

Objective: Identify and list all the abstract nouns in the passage. Do you think school is important? We go to school to learn. When we learn three things happen. We get knowledge, skills and values. These things will in future help us to serve our nation. So what is knowledge? In our grammar series we began by studying verbs. We learned that verbs are action or state words. We are even able to give examples of action and state words. This is what we know about verbs. When you know something then you have knowledge about it. You also have knowledge about nouns. You know that nouns are naming words. You know that nouns name people, places and things. Further, you know that we have different types of nouns. We have proper nouns, common nouns, concrete nouns and abstract nouns. And what do you know about skills? Can you throw a ball? That is a skill. Can you catch a ball thrown at you? That too is a skill. If I gave you a phone and asked you to call your parents, would you do it? Well, that too is a skill. Think about anything that requires you to use your limbs, that is, your hands or legs, and you have a skill. But some skills do not require our limbs. Are you able to read this passage on your own? That is a skill. Are you good with numbers? Can you add, subtract, divide and multiply? You guessed it right, that too is a skill. Let’s now turn our attention to values. We do things that our elders like. For example, we always say thank you when somebody gives us something. What do you do when you meet somebody for the first time every day? You greet them of course. If you do not greet them, they will be very cross with you. So “thank you” and “how are you” are not just phrases we like using. They are values of our people. Are you one of those people who jump queues? Our people frown upon anyone who cannot keep order. Without order there is no harmony. Harmony is a very important value. We lose it when we jump queues, use bad language or even fight. We are a nation of forty- four tribes and the only reason there is peace is because we are taught to live in harmony with everybody around us. So once we have a lot of knowledge, skills and values we are ready to serve the nation. Wait a bit, for you to get enough of these three things to serve your nation; you have to be in school for at least sixteen years. By this time you will be an adult. Remember, adulthood is that stage in life when you become independent. You buy your own clothes, food and shelter. You are now responsible enough to be of service. But what responsibility will you be given? This will depend on the knowledge, skills and values that you have. So you are not too young to start thinking of how you want to serve your nation when you grow up. How many abstract nouns can you find in this passage? By Walter Akach

Abstract Nouns

Objective: Make sentences using abstract nouns. We have looked at proper and common nouns. Common nouns also give us concrete and abstract nouns. All the nouns we have looked at so far are concrete nouns. We can use our five senses to determine that they exist. You can see, touch, hear, smell and taste them. Another group of nouns exists that those senses can not help you determine their existence. These are called abstract nouns. Read the following poem: Who has seen the wind?/ Neither I nor you./ But when the leaves hang trembling,/ The wind is passing through. Who has seen the wind?/ Neither you nor I:/ But when the trees bow down their heads/ The wind is passing by. (“Who Has Seen the Wind?” Christina Rossetti)NB:Each backslash marks the end of a line so you can rewrite it to get a feel of its structure. List all the nouns in this poem. You should have listed wind, leaves, trees and heads. One of these is an abstract noun, which one? If you picked wind your answer is right. Your teachers always ask you to be honest. The noun formed from honest is honesty. This is a quality that people admire in you. Other qualities that people admire in you include bravery, loyalty and courage. These are abstract nouns. Other abstract nouns refer to a state in our lives: childhood, youth, adolescence and adulthood. Other abstract nouns refer to the ideas we have: dream, truth, thought, faith and truth. Making sentences using abstract nouns is not very easy. Complete these sentences using one of the nouns on this list: faith, childhood, dreams, truth, honesty, bravery/courage and dreams. Make sure you look up the meanings of all these words in a dictionary before you start this exercise. a) The boy who returned the lost phone was praised for his_____________. b) She showed a lot of _____________ when she got five stitches on her cut without making a noise. c) In the bible, Job was healed because of his________________. d) During our______________ we depend on our parents for food, clothing and shelter. e) Are _____________real? f) Do you know of any child who always speaks the _____________?

Common Nouns

Objective: Use common nouns in sentences. In the last lesson we said that nouns are naming words. Nouns can be broken into two groups: proper nouns and common nouns. We saw that proper nouns name specific people and places. We saw that the things we named were not specific. Nouns that name things in a general way are called common nouns. Is it possible to name people in a general way? Look at the words boy, girl, man, woman, etc. These nouns name people in a general way. Nouns that name people in a general way are common nouns. The things we find around us are normally named in a general way. If you make a list of all the things you use in school, it will look like this: pen, pencil, book, ruler, eraser, bag etc. All these items are general names. They do not name a specific thing. They are common nouns. Common nouns are further divided into count and mass nouns. All the nouns we have listed so far are count nouns. Count nouns can form plurals: boy – boys, girl – girls, man –men, pen –pens etc. Count nouns in the singular take “a” or “the “before them: a boy, a girl, a pen, the boy, the girl, the pen etc. In the plural they take “some” or “the” before them: some boys, some girls, some pens, the boys, the girls, the pens etc. We shall now write sentences in the singular and plural. We shall use the Noun+ verb with –s pattern. a) A boy watches movies. b) A boy washes clothes. c) A boy dries dishes. d) A boy makes toys. Great! You can now make more sentences using the nouns and verbs we had identified. Take note that movies, clothes, dishes and toys are common nouns. Look for more appropriate nouns to use after the verbs. We shall now use Noun + verb without –s pattern. a) Some boys watch movies. b) The boys wash clothes. c) Some boys dry dishes. d) The boys make toys. Make your own sentences following this pattern. Now let us look at mass nouns. These do not have plural forms. We do not use “a” before them. Examples of mass nouns include ink, sugar, salt, sand. They can take “the” or “some” before them: the ink, some ink, the salt, some salt, the sand, some sand. A man bought some ink. A man bought some salt. A man bought some sand. Now make as many sentences using this pattern. In the next post we shall look at other proper nouns.

KCSE FUNCTIONAL WRITING TIPS

FORMAL LETTER Objective: Write a letter through your Principal. Question: You are a candidate at Happy Secondary School in Bubari district. Since there will be no tuition in your school during the August holidays, you decide with the permission of your parents to do your studies at the Teachers Resource Centre (TRC) in your district headquarters. Write a letter through your Principal requesting the District Education Officer (DEO) to allow you to do so. (20 marks) (Courtesy Busia District Mock, 2011) Let’s get one thing very clear: this is not a prediction but an attempt to help you understand how to conduct your revision for question 1,101/1) The first thing you need to understand is the mark distribution in this paper. Make no mistake about this; you are writing the exam to score the highest mark that you possibly can. This question is allocated 20 marks. These 20 marks are divided into 3 sections: format, content and language. Depending on the nature of the question, format attracts between 6 and 8 marks. For this question I have allocated 8 marks. Make sure that for every item you revise you master the format. This way you guarantee yourself 40% of the 20 marks. The format for this question requires that you have 3 addresses. (I advise you use the block format. Therefore all your work will start on the left margin. Any deviation from this will be considered an indented format.)The first address is the sender’s. The question has already given you a school; don’t give the name of a different school. Remember not to include your name in the address. Skip a line and write the date. Skip another line and give the recipient’s address, in this case the DEO. Skip another line and write the word “Through”. Skip another line and write your Principal’s address. Skip a line and write your salutation: Dear Sir/Madam Skip a line and write the regards section. Remember it is “RE” and not “REF” follow this with the subject matter. A good interpretation of the question will be STUDIES at the TRC and underline neatly. The remaining format marks are in the complementary close and signing off. The close for this letter will be “Yours faithfully”. Below it put your legible signature and below that your full name. That’s it. You have the full marks for format. Next you need to earn the content marks. Strictly speaking the content marks are in the question if it has been constructed well. For this question I have allocated 6 marks for content. So what did this examiner want you to include in your letter? A rereading of the question will tell you that you are expected to i. Mention the name of your school ii. Give the reasons why you want to use the TRC iii. Inform the DEO that you have your parents’ permission to use the facility iv. Formally make a request to use the facility NB: two marks for tone usually form part of the content mark. In this case the tone expected should be that of making a request. Do not be worried about this. If you have listed the four items above you will most like be using the right tone. The examiner will be looking for expressions like “I wish to”, “I would like to”. Expressions like “I want”, “give me” will give your letter the wrong tone. You now have 60% of the marks for this question. Finally, let us earn the language marks. In this case I allocated 6 marks. Well we all know that a formal letter should be brief. The examiner’s dilemma is how to give you six marks for writing two lines. My advice: develop three paragraphs. In the introductory paragraph say how you learnt about the facility and state your request. That is all you need to do with the first paragraph. You must now skip a line and start your second paragraph. It is in the second paragraph that you will want to answer the remaining questions. Tell them who you are, why you want to use the facility, in this case you will not have April holiday tuition at your school. Tell them that you have your parents’ blessings and reiterate your request. You must now start your third paragraph. Use your imagination. Remember you want to earn the 6 language marks. Tell them that you are grateful that they developed such a facility. Promise them that you will use their facility conscientiously. Then ask them to give you a response before school’s close. That’s it. If you have used your best English no examiner will hesitate to award you the full mark. Congratulations! If you have written this letter as per the lesson you now have all the 20 marks. It is effort that makes successful students. Thank you.

Nouns

Objective: Use nouns as naming words in sentences. Always make sure that you can define the topic you are studying. So what is a noun? In order to define a noun we will look at what nouns do. Nouns name people, places and things. Therefore nouns are naming words. a) Nouns as names of people Every body in your class has a name. If they did not, it would not be possible to state clearly who you are talking to. Names that talk about a specific person are called proper nouns; therefore, all the names of your friends are proper nouns. All proper nouns start with a capital letter. Now make a list of all your friends. Make sure that each name starts with a capital letter. Names are not very easy to spell, when in doubt ask your friends how to spell their names. I hope you have at least ten names. Now let us take a journey back to one of our lessons on main verbs. Do you remember the verbs that we gave you rules on how to spell them? Well, here is the list: wash, polish, slash, watch, fetch, piss, fix, cry, dry and fly. You will now make sentences in the pattern: Noun + verb ending in –s. Use the names of your friends in the noun position and each one of the verbs above in the verb position. Complete this exercise before you read on. Do your sentences look like these? i. Eugene washes. ii. Joan watches. iii. Jane fetches. iv. Jim pisses. v. Don fixes. vi. Peter cries. vii. Joel dries. viii. Jean flies. b) Nouns as names of places How well do you know Africa? Well the names of towns and countries are proper nouns too. They name specific places. Words that name specific places are proper nouns. An atlas is a reference book most of us avoid. Well, in today’s lesson you will need one. I will name ten capital cities in Africa and you will name the countries they are in. Let’s see how our partnership works, shall we? Nairobi, Cairo, Kampala, Kigali, Lagos, Algiers, Johannesburg, Harare, Kismayu and Khartum. Well, I hope you had fun with your atlas. Find as many capital cities and countries in the world. Just remember that these nouns start in capital letters. c) Nouns as names of things Look around you. Everything you can touch is a noun. Make a list of as many things as possible. These nouns start in small letters. Now look for nouns that you can use to extend these sentences. i. Eugene washes. ii. Joan watches. iii. Jane fetches. iv. Don fixes. v. Joel dries. vi. Jean flies. Your sentences should look like these. i. Eugene washes clothes. ii. Joan watches movies. iii. Jane fetches firewood. iv. Don fixes cars. v. Joel dries dishes. vi. Jean flies kites. Well, we have come to the end of this lesson on nouns. Remember that a noun is a word that names people, places and things. Remember too that nouns that name specific people and places are called proper nouns. For proper nouns the first letter must be a capital letter. In the next post we shall look at common nouns.

Main Verbs (Simple Past Tense)

Objective: Write sentences in the simple past tense. When we began our lessons on main verbs I mentioned the difficulty resulting from subject and verb agreement. We have now put that behind us. Our new problem is in the nature of verbs in the past tense. Fortunately, as I have mentioned, the question of subject and verb agreement does not arise. But we have two kinds of verbs: regular and irregular verbs. The regular verbs add –ed to form their past tense and past participles. Once again we shall benefit from the list we had created. Regular verbs form their past tense and past participle by adding –ed to the main verb. From our list such verbs are 1) Play 2) Skip 3) Jump 4) Sip 5) Wash 6) Air 7) Watch 8) Kick 9) Cook 10) Fetch 11) Chew 12) Suck 13) Boil 14) Work 15) Milk 16) Brush 17) Paint 18) Laugh 19) Mill 20) Dance 21) Colour 22) Polish 23) Weld 24) Cry 25) Slash 26) Winnow 27) Slap 28) Smile 29) Call 30) Phone 31) Weed 32) Plant 33) Knock 34) Hammer 35) Cheer 36) Praise 37) Shell 38) Beg 39) Herd 40) Push 41) Close 42) Visit 43) Fish We can use any subject, singular or plural to form our sentences. a) John smiled. b) John and Joan smiled. c) He smiled. d) She smiled. e) They smiled. f) We smiled. g) It smiled. On the other hand, irregular verbs do not form their past tense and past participle in this way. In fact it is difficult to predict what these forms will be. The best advice is to learn them by heart. Examples from our list include: 1) Stand, stood, stood. 2) Sleep, slept, slept. 3) Sit, sat, sat. 4) Read, read, read. 5) Bath, bath, bath. 6) Run, ran, run. 7) Drink, drank, drunk. 8) Take, took, taken. 9) Think, thought, thought. 10) Hang, hung, hung. (hanged means to kill by hanging) 11) See, saw, seen. 12) Write, wrote, written. 13) Ride, rode, ridden. 14) Swing, swung, swung. 15) Draw, drew, drawn. You can see that our list has three items. For this lesson we need only the second item. The third item will be used in a future lesson but you need to know it. Again we do not have a subject and verb agreement problem. The problem here is to pick the right verb. In some cases the second and third item are similar. No problem. When they are not, be sure to use the second item. Thus: a) John ran. b) John and Joan wrote. c) He read. d) She saw. e) They rode. f) It drew. g) We thought. These verbs as I have mentioned present a special problem. You have to know them by heart. My list is very small. Any good dictionary has a huge list of these verbs. Make a habit of using this section of your dictionary every day to master the English sentence pattern of the day.