How to Improve English

The importance of the English language cannot be overemphasized. Comfort with English is almost a prerequisite for success in the world today. Regardless of the industry, proficiency in English is an important factor in both hiring and promotion decisions. A lot of us have studied English in school and are fairly comfortable with reading and writing. However, we hesitate while speaking because we feel that we lack the fluency and may make grammatical mistakes. We are afraid of speaking English in formal situations and we are quick to switch to our native language once we are in the company of our family and friends. There is no quick fix when it comes to improving your command over a particular language. It always requires a lot of time and effort. Here are EnglishLeaps top ten tips for success in achieving proficiency and fluencyin English:

1. Do not hesitate. Talk to whoever you can. Decide among your circle of friends that you will only talk in English with
each other. This way you can get rid of hesitation and also have your friends correct you when you are wrong.

2. Start a conversation with strangers in English. Since you do not know them personally, you will feel less conscious
about what they would feel about you.

3. Maintaining a diary to record the events of your day is a great way to practice your writing skills. Take your time to use
new words and phrases when you write in your diary.

4. Read the newspaper. Read it aloud when you can. Concentrate on each word. Note down the words you dont
understand and learn their meanings. Try to use these words in your own sentences.

5. Watch English movies and English shows on television. Initially, you can read the sub-titles to follow the conversation.
As you practice more, you will realize that you are able to follow the conversation without needing to read the sub-titles.

6. Set aside an hour every day to watch English news channels. This is one of the most effective ways of improving
your comprehension.

7. Podcasts are available on the internet. These are audio and video files and many of these can be downloaded for free.
These are a great way to practice listening skills and develop an understanding of different accents.

8. It is usually quite difficult for a beginner to understand the words of an English song as there is background music and the
accent of the artist may be unfamiliar to the listener. Read the lyrics while you listen to the song and you will comprehend better. Once you start following the voice of a particular singer, you will find it much easier to understand the singers other songs too.

9. Another effective way is to record your own voice and listen to it. You will notice hesitations and pauses. You may
also notice that you make some grammatical mistakes while speaking that you do not make while writing. You must aim to improve and rectify these mistakes in subsequent recordings.

10. Ask people who speak better for advice. There is no shame in seeking help especially if you are trying to improve
yourself. Talk to them in English and ask them to correct you whenever you are wrong.

Grammar - How to Improve Grammar

Grammar is the set of rules that govern the usage of English language. A strong grasp of English grammar is therefore of the greatest importance.

Most non-native English speakers make grammatical mistakes while speaking in English. Improving grammar takes time and effort but it is well worth it. Here are some tips which will help you improve English grammar

Understand the building blocks of grammar As a first step, it is important to know the different building blocks of grammar like nouns, pronouns, articles, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections. The internet is full of resources about these and it is usually a good idea to understand them well.

Pay attention to sentence structures When you read an article or watch a movie, it is important to pay attention to how sentences are constructed. This practice helps ingrain different sentence structures and will help your spoken and written English.

Practice when you can This tip can never be overemphasized. As an English learner, it is extremely important for you to talk in English at any given opportunity. If you do not have partners to practise with, then try to speak in front of the mirror.

Grammar exercises will help you Try doing different grammar exercises and find out your weaknesses. These exercises are freely available on the internet. It is only after you are able to correctly assess your weaknesses that you will be able to rectify them.

Find a mentor

Many learners have improved their grammar working with a mentor. A mentor could even be a friend who has a strong command over English grammar. You must speak only in English with your mentor and ask the mentor to point out your mistakes. This real time feedback is very beneficial in improving grammar.

Join a course Many students find that an English improvement course is the quickest way to improve English grammar. If joining a classroom program is difficult, then an online course is a great option.

Grammar Lessons
IMPORTANT BUILDING BLOCKS OF GRAMMAR

NOUNS A noun is a word used as the name of a person, place or thing. Examples: King, Mohan, Sarita, Mumbai, Table

PRONOUNS A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun. Examples: He, She, It, They

ARTICLES The words a, an and the are called articles. They are used before nouns.

VERBS A verb is a word that describes an action or occurrence or indicates a state of being. Examples: He talks to Sameer, She sings a song

ADJECTIVES An adjective is a word used to describe a noun. Examples : Beautiful house, Tall man

ADVERBS An adverb is a word which modifies the meaning of a verb, adjective or another adverb. Examples: He runs fast,They fought bravely.

PREPOSITIONS A preposition is a word which shows the relation between the noun or pronoun and other words in the sentence.

Examples: The boy is in the room, The book is on the table. CONJUNCTIONS A conjunction is a word which joins to sentences to complete their meaning. Examples : They reached the station but it was too late. He put on his shoes because he was going for a run.

INTERJECTIONS An interjection is a word which expresses sudden feeling or emotion. Examples : Hello!, Alas!, Hurray!, Oh!

Nouns
A noun is a word used as the name of a person, place or thing.

Types of Nouns
There are four kinds of nouns which are commonly used:

1.

Proper Nouns:Proper Noun is the name of a particular person or place. Proper nouns always begin with a capital letter. Examples : Sita, Rajesh, Delhi, Kanpur

2.

Common Nouns:Common Noun is a name given in common to every person or thing of the group. Common nouns begin with a capital letter only if it is the first word of the sentence. Examples : Girl, Boy, City, Tiger

3.

Collective Nouns:Collective Nouns are those nouns that denote a group of people, animals, objects, concepts or ideas as a single entity. Examples : Army of Soldiers, Class of Students, Crew of Sailors, Band of Musicians

4.

Abstract Nouns: Abstract Noun is the name of a quality, action or state. You cannot see, hear, smell or taste an abstract noun. Examples : Kindness, Loyalty, Childhood, Sickness, Laughter

List of Nouns, Noun Examples

Actor

Garden

Oil Orange Oxygen

Advertisemen Gas t Afternoon Ghost

Airport Ambulance Animal Answer Apple Army Australia Balloon Banana Battery Beach Beard Bed Belgium Boy Branch Breakfast Brother Camera Candle Car Caravan Carpet Cartoon China Church Crayon Crowd

Girl Glass Gold Grass Greece Guitar Hair

Oyster Painting Parrot Pencil Piano Pillow Pizza

HamburgerPlanet Helicopter Plastic Helmet Holiday Honey Horse Hospital House Portugal Potato Queen Quill Rain Rainbow

Hydrogen Raincoat Ice Insect Refrigerato r Restaurant

Insurance River Iron Island Jackal Jelly Jewellery Jordan Juice Rocket Room Rose Russia Sandwich School Scooter

Kangaroo Shampoo King Shoe

Daughter Death Denmark Diamond Dinner Disease Doctor Dog Dream Dress Easter Egg Eggplant Egypt Elephant Energy Engine England Evening Eye Family Finland Fish Flag Flower Football

Kitchen Kite Knife Lamp Lawyer Leather Library Lighter Lion Lizard Lock London Lunch Machine

Soccer Spoon Stone Sugar Sweden Teacher Telephone Television Tent Thailand Tomato Toothbrush Traffic Train

Magazine Truck Magician Uganda

Mancheste Umbrella r Market Match Van Vase

Microphon Vegetable e Monkey Morning Vulture Wall

Motorcycle Whale Nail Napkin Needle Window Wire Xylophone

Forest Fountain France Furniture Garage

Nest Nigeria Night

Yacht Yak Zebra

Notebook Zoo Ocean

Collective Nouns
Collective nouns are those nouns that denote a group of people, animals, objects, concepts or ideas as a single entity. These collective nouns are commonly used under the category of people. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. A class of students. An army of soldiers. A choir of singers. A crew of sailors. A band of musicians. A bunch of crooks. A crowd of people/spectators. A gang of thieves. A group of dancers. A team of players. A troupe of artists/dancers. A pack of thieves. A staff of employees. A regiment of soldiers. A tribe of natives. An audience of listeners. A panel of experts. A gang of labourers. A flock of tourists. A board of directors.

The following collective nouns are used for animals. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. A catch of fish. An army of ants. A flight of birds. A flock of birds. A haul of fish. A flock of sheep. A herd of deer/cattle/elephants/goats/buffaloes. A hive of bees. A litter of cubs. A host of sparrows. A team of horses. A troop of lions. A zoo of wild animals.

14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.

A pack of wolves. A litter of puppies/kittens. A swarm of bees/ants/rats/flies. A team of horses/ducks/oxen. A murder of crows. A kennel of dogs. A pack of hounds.

The following collective nouns are used for things. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. A group of islands. A galaxy of stars. A wad of notes. A forest of trees. A stack of wood. A fleet of ships. A string of pearls. An album of stamps/autographs/photographs. A hedge of bushes. A library of books. A basket of fruit. A bowl of rice. A pack of cards. A pair of shoes. A bouquet of flowers. A bunch of keys. A chest of drawers. A pack of lies. A range of mountains. A cloud of dust.

Collective nouns are endless and these are just a list of those used more often. As you continue to work on improving your English, you will stumble across many more. Be sure to add them to your list and use them as frequently as you can.

Using Nouns to Show Possession

Possessive nouns are those nouns that show possession. Possessive Nouns are used to show ownership. A noun is possessive only when a phrase can be modified to say that an idea or commodity belongs to something or someone. Possessive nouns are an integral part of learning English, use them as often as you can to gain confidence.

In the singular form, the possessive case is formed by adding 's to the noun.

The clothes of the girl. The girls clothes. The toys of the boy. The boys toys. Mary goes to this school. This is Marys school.

Kings castle, grandfathers stick, my dogs bowl and all of the above are formed by adding the 's. Modify the following sentences by using the apostrophe (') to show possession: The kings servants. The computers cover. My phones charger.

The servants of the king. Cover of the computer. The charger of my phone.

For certain words, instead of 's, only ' is used to avoid a hissing noise. Keep this is mind when using possessive nouns.
Some examples would be:

Boss office. Dr.Briuss house. For goodness sake.

There are two rules to follow in case the noun is in plural form.

If the noun ends in s then the possessive case is formed by adding the apostrophe E.g. the donkeys tail, the boys hostel, the cousins aunt. If the noun does not end in s then the possessive case is formed by adding 's. E.g. the childrens park, the mens room.

Its simple as long as you know the plural form of the noun. The plural form of god will be gods and so the apostrophe will be used after 's' (gods). In case of nouns like woman, the plural form is women and so the apostrophe followed by 's' will be utilized(womens). Add the apostrophe in the following sentences.

Our cousins short uncle. Businessmens briefcase. The ladies washroom.

(Apostrophe can be before or after 's') (Businessmens) (Ladies)

Here are some more examples to show you other possible cases.

Alex and Philips shop. (Two nouns are used closely and showing joint possession; here, the apostrophe will be used with the second noun) Shakespeares and Wordsworths works. (Two nouns are used together yet separate possession is implied thus the apostrophe is used with both nouns)

Nouns as Adjective
Sometimes in the English language, a noun is used to describe another noun; in other words, the first noun performs the function of an adjective. Look at the following examples: Basketball coach here the noun basketball is being used to describe the noun coach Garment shop here the noun garment is being used to describe the noun shop Painting exhibition here the noun painting is being used to describe the noun exhibition

Note:

1. In general, like adjectives, nouns being used as adjectives are used in the singular form, although in the case of certain
words, like clothes, customs, sports, etc, an exception is made.

2. Multiple nouns can also be used as adjectives, as in school cricket team coach.

Pronouns
A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun. There are six kinds of commonly used pronouns:

1. 2. 3.

Personal Pronouns: Personal Pronouns are used are substitutes for proper or common nouns. Examples : I, he, she, mine, his, her, they, their Demonstrative Pronouns: Demonstrative Pronouns are used to point out objects Examples: this, that, these, those Indefinite Pronouns: Pronouns which refer to things in a general way and not to someone or something in particular. Examples: nobody, somebody, everybody, one (should not lie)

4. 5.

Distributive Pronouns: Pronouns which refer to persons or things one at a time are called Distributive pronouns. Examples: each, either, neither Relative Pronouns: A pronoun that relates a subordinate clause to the rest of the sentence is called a relative pronoun. Examples: who - (Raj is the boy) who (did the work) whose (Raj is the boy) whose (books were lost) Interrogative Pronouns: Pronouns used for asking questions are called Interrogative Pronouns. Examples : what, which, who, whose, whom

6.