jueves, 15 de marzo de 2012

Quantifiers

Quantifiers show how many things or how much of somehting we are talking about. 


some quatifiers combine with countable nouns; some with uncountable and some with both kinds. 


Examples: 


1- The majority of people in El Salvador are afraid about violence. 


2- A bit of bread is useful when you are hungry at night. 




3- There are enough students in that school. 




4- Lucy has read each book that she has in her casebook. 

Pronouns.

We use pronouns in place of nouns. They may be subject (she) or object (her).
We already studied thta topic, but there are many things that we don`t know yet.




Examples: 


Personals: 


She bought a new car yesterday.


We were making the dinner the last month. 


Objective: 


Carmen helped me with my homework the last night.


My boyfriend invited us to a party. 


Possessive: 


That wallet which is on the bed is mine.


The cellphone that has my brother is yours. 


Reflexive: 


Sindy has finished to wash the dishes by herself. 


The soccer player scored goals by themselves. 




Besides. we have indefinite pronouns: 



they have an important characteristic, they are always 3rd person singular.


Examples: 



  • Can somebody help me?
  • No body helped the elder that fell down in the subway. 


In addition we have demonstrative pronouns. They can be use subject and object. 

Examples: 

These roses belong to my mother. 


I would like to buy that blue jacket which is in that boutique. 



Relative pronouns. 

Examples: 

  • The man who is on that corner is my father. 
  • The dog which bite my daughter is yours. 


Articles.





a) The indefinite articles. A/an 


both of the indefinite articles have the same meaning, the diference is that, we use "a" in front of consonant, on the other hand we use "an" in front of vowel, also both of them are general. 


Examples with "a" .


-My father gave to my mother a flower. 




-Lucy is drinking a bottle of water. 






examples with "an" 


My cousin bought an umbrella yesterday.






She has an ugly animal which bought the last Friday. 






THE PLURAL OF "A" IS ZERO! 




b) The definite article. 


When we want to refer an specific thing or something that is known, we must use "the".
Also, we sue "the" when thing are unique, its doesn`t matter if it is plural or singular. 


Examples. 


The children whose are in my school are smart.




The boyfriend of my sister is handsome and attractive.





The Suchitlan lake is one of the most beautiful places in Suchitoto. 




The National University of El Salvador has students whose are poor, but intelligent. 


The genitive case [s'] of.

We use apostrophe to so show possessions.


Exaample:




  • That`s Lucy`s car 
Its means that the car belongs to Lucy.





  • My father`s garden is really beautiful and the weather is cold.






The basic rule that you need to know is: Add 's to any personal noun unless it is in the form of a plural ending in -s- in which case, just add an apostrophe (`) .


Examples:



  • My teacher`s book is very interesting. 
  • Beatris`s watch is very nice. 
  • Lucy`s ring is new. 



Plural endings. 



  • The girls`uniforms are the most fascinating of the town. 
  • The wives`kitchens are very clean. 
  • The elephan`s legs are very fat. 




The nouns.

 A noun is a word used to name someone or something. 

There are differents types of nouns. 

1- Proper: the proper noun represents the specific name of person, place or things.

Examples: 
a) The United State is one of the most important country around the world. 


b) Sindy and Carmen enjoy to have a party all friday. 

   


2- Concrete: is a noun which names anyhing (or anyone) thta you can  perceive through your physical  senses. 

Examples: 

a) The computer that is on the corner is my brother`s.



b) That books which are on the table contain the story of  El Salvador. 

3- Abstract: is sothing that you can see, but you can´t touch, its means spirituals. 

Examples: 

a)  The friendship between that two girls is very interesting. 

b) My parents love my brother a lot. 

4- Collective: is a noun naming group of thing or people.

a) The army of El Salvador isalways ready for defending people.

b) The school in the place where students get knoledge for being good professional in the future. 

5-Compound: two words that mean one thing.

a) The flight attendant use to take trip for 3 days.

b) The police officer arrested thta thief who was stealing the wallet to that boy. 

6- Common: The general name that give to the things. 

a) Every sunday people use to go the church.

b) My daughter lost my new pencil yesterday.

7- Countable: you can count. 

a) The elephant which is in the zoo is very fat. 

b) The donkey is a funny animal.

8- Uncountable: you can`t touch. 

a) The old house use to have too much dust. 

b) The sand is useful for building castle around the sea. 


One thing which is important to know is that when we add suffix to a noun for making others, it is not a compound noun, it is deriver noun. 

we can use diffferent suffixes to make nouns. 

for example: 

Examples: 

Child-childhood.
Friend-friendship.
Column-columnist. 

As you can notice,  when we make derived nouns the words that is used has meaning by itself. 


If you have any doubt you can check the following video...




Now, if you are ready,  try to put in practice your knowledge with the following exercises, go to this link. 





Subject/ Verb agreement.

Subject-verb agreement.

Being able to find the right subject and verb conrrectly will also help you with commas and semicolons, on that way is important to have knowledge toward subject-verb agreement. 

There are many rules, but we are going to study some of them. 

1- Two singular subjects connected by or or nor require a singular verb. 

Examples: 

  • My nephew or my mother is going to help me with my asingment .

  • My teacher nor my classmate knows the answer of my question. 

2- Two singular subjects connected by either/or or neither/nor  require a singular verb. 

  • Neither my friend nor my boyfriend is going to help you. 

  • Either Karly or Sebastian is the right person for the job.

3- When a singular subject is connected by or or nor to a plural subject, put the plural subject last and use a plural verb.

Examples: 

  • The cellphone or the computers go on that table. 

  • The internet or the books are going to help you with your homework. 

4- As a general rule use a plural verb with two or more subjects, when they are connected by "and".

Examples: 

  • Carmen and Morena are washing their father`s car. 

  • Flor and Lucy are fighting for Midey, because both of them want to be with her.