Nouns

Dear all,

Nouns name people, places, and things. One class of nouns is concrete. You can experience this group of nouns with your five senses. You can see them. 

Ice cream, for example, is a concrete noun. You can see the colour. You can taste the flavour. You can feel your tongue growing numb from the cold. Any noun that you can experience with at least one of your five senses is a concrete noun.

A second class of nouns is abstract. They cannot be seen directly. 

Disapproval is an example of an abstract noun. What color is disapproval? You don't know because you cannot see it. What texture is disapproval? Who knows? You cannot touch it. What flavor is disapproval? No clue! You cannot taste it! Does it make a sound? Of course not! Does it smell? Not a bit!

The changing of adjectives to nouns is also important. 

Adjective                    Nouns
sad                               sadness
happy                          happiness
angry                           anger
worried                       worry
amused                       amusement 
thoughtful                  thoughtfulness
sincere                        sincerity 

Regards,
Mr Nelson Ong

Grammar Rules

Dear all,

Here is a recap of the grammar rules taught in class this week.

Types of Conjunctions

To show an action plus a consequence/result

- Consequently
- As a result
- Therefore

To show a difference

- In contrast
- But
- Yet
- However

To link actions or events

- So
- Then
- Before
- After

To reinforce about the truth

- In fact

Conjunctions are important as they link ideas/events together. However, you need to know the types of conjunctions to be used and how to apply them. This is especially useful in your writing and for grammar cloze which often tests on conjunctions and prepositions.

Synthesis & Transformation

Neither....nor....... 

We learnt about the two ways to use this particular synthesis structure. It can also apply to the structure of 'either....or...'

1st way to use the structure is to focus on the comparison of 2 nouns.
Neither Noun 1 nor Noun 2 verb ....................
For this, 'neither...nor.' is often placed at the start of the sentence.

Whether the verb is in the singular/plural form will then depend on Noun 2. This is known as the proximity rule.

e.g Neither the boys nor the girls are at the field.
      Neither the boys nor the girl is at the field.

2nd way to use the structure is to focus on the comparison/uses of the verbs and for this, 'neither....nor...' is often placed in the middle of the sentence.

When there is only 1 similar verb, the verb is placed before 'neither'
When there are 2 different verbs, the first verb is placed after 'neither' and the next verb is placed after 'nor'.

e.g Peter eats neither sweet nor salty food. (1 verb only)
      Peter neither bakes cakes nor cooks vegetables. (2 different verbs)

Homework reminder:
- Vocabulary Booklet by next Friday with the research on the meanings!

Sincerely,
Mr Nelson Ong