WRITTEN EXPRESSION SECTION (Skills from 20 60)

In Point Form: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Subject and Verb Agreement (skills 20 -23) Parallelism (skills 24 26) Comparatives and Superlatives (skills 27 29) Tenses/Verb Forms, Modality and Passive (skills 30 38) Nouns in Number (skills 39 41) + Nouns in Person (skill 42) Pronouns (skills 43 45) Adjectives Vs Adverbs (skills 45 49) + Types of Adjectives (skills 50 51 & skill 59) 8. Articles (skills 52 55 & skill 60) 9. Phrasal Verbs (skills 56 57) 10. Collocations/Make Vs Do (skill 58) In Detail: 1. Subject and Verb Agreement: The subject could be a single word or a whole phrase. No matter how long the subject is, the verb must agree with it. Your choice of the verb number depends on your identification of the subject. e.g.1 The student sings. /The children sing. e.g.2 The cat on the mats is asleep. /The cats on the mat are asleep. e.g.3 Under the tree sits the boy. / Under the trees sits the boy. Although the prepositional phrase in the second example is considered formally part of the subject, it is there only to qualify the original agent of the verb (cat /cats) with which the verb has to agree. Likewise, do not let it interfere again with your judgment of the verb number in example three since it is merely another qualifier - but this time for the verb- put frontally by means of transformation or inversion and hence necessitates the presence of the verb immediately next to it leaving the subject behind. The agreement relation is still binding between the subject and its verb.

Note for the existence of quantifiers (words indicating quantity) for they impinge upon the verb status. a. Neutral Quantifiers: They do not affect the verb; the nouns i.e. their object controls it. They are some, all, most, and half. b. Compound Quantifiers: some quantifiers combine with word body, one, thing and where. They are someone, somebody, something, somewhere, everyone, everybody, everything, everywhere, anything, anybody, anyone, anywhere, nobody, no one, nothing and nowhere. c. Singular Quantifiers: They always take singular verb even if their object is plural. They are each and every. e.g. Some juice every morning is good for your health. e.g. All farmers lawn the mow regularly to attain the best harvest. e.g. Somebody is coming over dinner tonight. e.g. Each of my students is required to turn in the assignment next week. *Note that all uncountable nouns take singular verbs. 2. Parallel Structures: Parallel Structures simply refer to similar grammatical forms. The forms can be words, phrases, clauses, or even sentences. Coordinating conjunctions always link parallel structures. In other words, parallel structures are similar structures being conjoined in any manner. For the well-formedness of the overall structure the sub or component structures must resemble (look alike). They must belong to the same part of speech, N, V, A, ADV, Phrase or Clause. e.g. Mary owns a house and a car. (nouns) e.g. Her house is white, gray, and green. (adjectives) e.g. She takes good care of her house and of her car. (prepositional phrases) e.g. Her house is old, but her car is new. (independent clauses)

Parallelism, in several respects, is inseparably entangled with co-relative or paired conjunctions. a. b. c. d. e. Neither S1 nor S2. Either S1 or S2. Both S1 and S2. Not only S1 but S2. Hardly S1 when S2.

*Note that with comparative expressions (-er than, more than, as as, the same as and similar to) e.g. Peter is more fluent than me in English. e.g. Dying rich is better than living poor. e.g. Deceit is as bad as injustice. 3. Comparatives and Superlatives: Comparatives and Superlatives are special forms of adjectives. They are used to compare two or more things. Generally, comparatives are formed using -er and superlatives are formed using -est. This applies to short adjectives, monosyllabic or disyllabic. But, with longer adjectives the form more and most are used for comparison and superlation respectively. (wider, finer, cuter, lighter, neater, faster, happier, sillier and lonelier) but (more modern, more interesting and more beautiful) (widest, finest cutest, lightest, neatest, fastest, happiest, silliest and loneliest) but (most modern, most interesting and most beautiful) *Note that with er, er structure or the more, more structure, parallelism must be in effect. Parallel structures in this respect are either noun phrases or whole clause with subjects and verbs. e.g. The later the exam, the better the results. e.g. The later the exam is, the better the results could be. e.g. The more I see, the less the world impassions me. 4. Tenses: see my hand out about tenses, passive and modality.

5. Nouns in Number: Nouns follow quantifiers in number. Singular quantifiers are followed by singular nouns; whereas, plural quantifiers are followed by plural nouns. SQ: each, every, a, one and single. (without a following of) PQ: both, two, many, several and various. Uncountable nouns are neither plural nor singular. They appear in one form only and always take singular verb while countable nouns have singular and plural forms and the verb agrees accordingly. a. Quantifiers such as some, plenty of, a lot of, lots of and a great deal of go with both countable and uncountable nouns. b. Quantifiers such as many, few, fewer, fewest, a group of and a number of go with countable nouns. c. Quantifiers such as much, little, less, least, an amount of and a quantity of go with uncountable nouns.

1. Either the physicians in this hospital or the chief

administrator ____ going to have to make a decision. is are

2. ______ my boss or my sisters in the union going to win this grievance?

Is Are

3. Some of the votes __________ to have been miscounted.

seem seems

4. The tornadoes that tear through this county every spring _____ more than just a
nuisance. are is

5. Everyone selected to serve on this jury _____ to be willing to give up a lot of time.
have has

6. Kara Wolters, together with her teammates, _________ a

formidable opponent on the basketball court. presents present

7. He seems to forget that there __________ things to be done before he can

graduate. are is

8. There _______ to be some people left in that town after

yesterday's flood. have has

9. Some of the grain __________ to be contaminated.

appear appears

10. Three-quarters of the students __________ against the tuition hike.

is are

11. Three-quarters of the student body __________ against the tuition hike.
is are

12. A high percentage of the population _________ voting for the new school.
is are

13. A high percentage of the people _________ voting for the new school.
was were