Lesson no.

1
The basics of English

Greetings and introduction English phonetics Nouns Articles Pronouns Degrees of comparison Auxiliary verbs Numbers

Lesson AIMS
REAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS:
THE ABILITY TO GREET AND TO COMMUNICATE WITH OTHERS AND UNDERSTAND THEIR MESSAGES

TO UNDERSTAND THE FULL CONCEPT OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR BEGINNING WITH ESSENTIAL NOTIONS

THE ALPHABET
English alphabet (the alphabet) contains 26 letters, including 5 vowels (a, e, i, o, u), 2 semivowel (w, y) and 19 consonants. In English, the word is pronounced differently from how it is written. Consonants are all almost like in Romanian, but the vowels are pronounced very differently.

THE QUANDARY OF PRONUNCIATION

NOUNS
a person, place, or thing. Can be the subject or object of a sentence. Ex: cat, horse, mother, Denmark SINGULAR AND PLURAL NOUNS
TO MAKE A SINGULAR NOUN PLURAL ADD S PLURALS: OTHER SPELLINGS words ending in consonant + y =>i+es words ending in ch, x, sh, ss, s => add es ONE BABY A MATCH TWO BABIES IRREGULAR PLURAS

ONE DOG

TWO DOGS

A MAN

TWO MEN

ONE APPLE TWO APPLES

TWO MATCHES A WOMAN TWO WOMEN

ONE BOY

TWO BOYS

A BOX

TWO BOXES

A CHILD

TWO CHILDREN

WE ADD ES TO A FEW WORDS A BRUSH ENDING IN O A PATATO A TOMATO TWO PATATOES TWO TOMATOES NUCLEI STIMULI MICE A GLASS A BUS

TWO BRUSHES A PERSON TWO PEOPLE TWO GLASSES A FOOT TWO BUSES VERTEBRAE NEBULAE APPENDICES A TOOTH TWO FEET TWO TEETH WIVES KNIVES LOAVES

US => I
NUCLEUS STIMULUS OUS => ICE MOUSE

A => AE
VERTEBRA NEBULA IX => ICES APPENDIX

FE => VE
WIFE KNIFE F => V+ES LOAF

ARTICLES
a = indefinite article (not a specific object, one of a number of the same objects) with consonants She has a dog. / I work in a factory. an = indefinite article (not a specific object, one of a number of the same objects) with vowels (a,e,i,o,u) Can I have an apple? / She is an English teacher. / Ill be there in an hour. the = definite article (a specific object that both the person speaking and the listener know) The car over there is fast. / The teacher is very good, isn't he? The first time you speak of something use "a or an", the next time you repeat that object use "the". I live in a house. The house is quite old and has four bedrooms. I ate in a Chinese restaurant. The restaurant was very good. DO NOT use an article with countries, states, counties or provinces, lakes and mountains except when the country is a collection of states such as "The United States. He lives in Washington near Mount Rainier. / They live in northern British Columbia. DO NOT use an article when you are speaking about things in general. I like Russian tea. / She likes reading books. DO NOT use an article when you are speaking about meals, places, and transport. He has breakfast at home. / I go to university. / He comes to work by taxi.

PRONOUNS
Subjective personal pronouns act as subjects within sentences Objective personal pronouns act as the object of verbs within sentences Possessive personal pronouns are used to indicate possession, and they are placed after the object in question (as opposed to possessive adjectives like my and your, which are placed before the object). Reflexive pronouns are used when the object is the same as the subject on the sentence I YOU SHE/HE/IT WE THEY I am going to the bank while he is going to the market. ME YOU HER/HIM/IT US THEM The ball was going to hit me in the face. MINE YOURS HERS/HIS/ITS OURS THEIRS

Possessive adjective: This is my car. Possessive pronoun: This car is mine. HERSELF HIMSELF ITSELF

MYSELF

YOURSELF

OURSELVES THEMSELVES

I managed to cut myself in the kitchen. Interrogative pronouns. are used to ask questions Demonstrative pronouns are used to indicate a noun and distinguish it from other entities. Notice that demonstrative pronouns replace the noun (while demonstrative determiners modify them). Indefinite pronouns do not refer to a specific thing, place or person. WHAT WHICH WHO WHOM WHOSE

What are the odds?

THIS

THAT

THESE

THOSE

Demonstrative determiner: This house is ugly. Demonstrative pronoun: This is the right one.

ANYONE EVERYONE EVERYWHERE SOMEONE

NONE

Everyone is going to the party.

ADJECTIVES-ADVERBS

Adjectives stand in the following order: DIMENSION - AGE - SHAPE - COLOR - ORIGIN - MATERIAL - PURPOSE Eg. a small oval plate; an antique French table; a black metal walking stick Usually adverbs have the following order: MANNER - PLACE - TIME Eg. The baby slept well yesterday. Well go there tomorrow. Mark worked hard at school last year

POSITIVE, COMPARATIVE AND SUPERLATIVE DEGREES OF COMPARISON

In most cases, use -er/-est with one- and two-syllable adjectives or adverbs.

When an adjective or adverb has three or more syllables, use more and most or less and least to form the comparative and superlative degrees. All adverbs that end in -ly form their comparative and superlative degrees with more and most.

Irregular Adjectives and Adverbs

AUXILIARY VERBS

The verb be can be used as an auxiliary and a full verb. As an auxiliary we use this verb for compound tenses and the passive voice. The verb have, too, can be used both as an auxiliary and as a full verb. As an auxiliary we use this verb to form compound tenses in active and passive voice. The verb do can be both an auxiliary and a full verb. As an auxiliary we use do in negative sentences and questions for most verbs (except not for be, will, have got and modal verbs) in Simple Present and Simple Past. (Use the infinitive of the full verb.)

Cardinal Numbers 0 oh, zero, nil, nought * 1 one 2 two 3 three 4 four 5 five 6 six 7 seven 8 eight 9 nine 10 ten 11 eleven 12 twelve 13 thirteen 14 fourteen 15 fifteen 16 sixteen 17 seventeen 18 eighteen 19 nineteen 20 twenty 21 twenty-one 30 thirty 40 forty 50 fifty 60 sixty 70 seventy 80 90 100 1,000 10,000 100,000 1000,000 eighty ninety a/one hundred a/one thousand ten thousand a/one hundred thousand a/one million

Ordinal Numbers ---

1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th 20th 21st 22nd 23rd 30th Examples 105
1,124

first second third forth fifth sixth seventh eighth ninth tenth eleventh twelfth thirteenth fourteenth fifteenth sixteenth seventeenth eighteenth nineteenth twentieth twenty-first twenty-second twenty-third thirtieth
one hundred and five one thousand one hundred and twenty-four nineteen eightynine twelve hundred four hundred and fifty-six thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine nine point one seven two

Date Expression 21st July (the twenty-first of July) June 4th (the fourth of June) December 29 (the twenty-ninth of December) 23 April, 1989 (the twenty-third of April nineteen eightynine) Fraction: 1/2 - one half 3/4 - three quarters 7/8 - seven eights Hour: ten to one (unu fara zece) half past six (sase si jumatate) twelve and a quarter (douasprezece si un sfert) a quarter to two (doua fara un sfert)

Days of the week Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

1989 1200 456,789

Months of the year 1. January - Jan. 2. February - Feb. 3. March - Mar. 4. April - Apr. 5. May - May 6. June - Jun. 7. July - Jul. 8. August - Aug. 9. September - Sep. 10. October - Oct. 11. November - Nov. 12. December - Dec.
Four meals a day Breakfast Lunch Dinner Supper

1000,000,000 a/one billion

9.172

Seasons of the year Spring Summer Autumn Winter