Communication and soft skills

Course Outline:
This course consists of three parts:
1. Basics of English Grammar
2. Communication Skills for Freelancers
3. Soft Skills for Freelancers
 English Language Basics

Language Basics: Use of “He”, “She” and “They”:

 “He”, “She” and “They” are third-person personal pronouns.
 Third-person pronouns are different for males and females.
 “They” is used as a plural pronoun.
 “He”, “She” and “They” are subjective forms.
 Singular verbs are used after He/She.
 “They” is used for plural pronoun.
 In the objective case, “He” changes to “Him” and “She” changes to “Her”.
(E.g. I gave a book to him, I called her, The principal wants to talk to them.)
 The possessive form of “He”, “She” and “They” are “Him”, “Her” and
“Their” respectively.
 Reflexive forms of “He”, “She” and “They” are “Himself”, “Herself” and
“Themselves” respectively.

Language Basics: Use of ”It” and “There”:

 “It” and “There” are generally used in place of pronouns.
 “It” is used for third person singular non-living things and animals. (E.g. I
saw a rat. It was running. , There are many flowers in the garden.)
 “It” and “There” are used for subjects that are not real like time and
weather. (E.g. It’s raining today.)
 “There” can be used with “Is” as well as “Are”.
 The subjective and objective form of “It” is “It”.
 “Its” is used to show possession. (E.g. I have a car. Its color is red.).
 The reflexive form of “It” is “Itself”. (E.g. The wound will heal itself.).

Language Basics: Use of “Was” and “Were”:

 “Was” and “Were” are the past forms of the verb “To be”.
 They tell us about the existence and state.
 “Was” is used with a singular subject, and “Were” is used with the plural
subject or when there is more than one noun.
  To form the negative form of the verb “To be”, add “not” after “Was” and
“Were”.
 A subjunctive mood is the form of a verb that is used to express a wish, or a
desire, or hope, or possibility, or doubt, or uncertainty. E.g.(If I were the
president, I will do a lot of reforms.).

Language Basics: Use of “Has” and “Have”:

 “To have” is a form of the verb that is used to tell what you possess or
someone else possesses or owns.
 “Have” is used with “I” “We”, “You” and plural nouns and pronouns to
show possession and ownership.
 “Has” is used with all other singular nouns and pronouns like he, she, and it.
(E.g. He has a bag.).
 “Have” is used with auxiliaries like should, would, could, may, might.
(She might have done the work.).
 The “Have” that is used with auxiliaries is not for possession or ownership.
It is used for the compulsion of some task.
 Add “not” after “Has” and “Have” to make negative. (She hasn’t a book.).
 We will use “Have” with “He”, and “She” or if an auxiliary like should,
would, may, or might come in between. (E.g. She might have done her
work.).

Parts of Speech: Introduction to Verbs (Do, Be):

 The verb describes an action, which can be physical (Eat, Drink) or mental
(Think, Feel).
 A verb that states something or describes the condition of a thing is called a
stative verb. (E.g. Feel, Look).
 The verb “To be” can be in present (Is, Am, Are), Past (Was, Were), and
Perfect (Has been, Have been).
 Auxiliary verbs are the helping verbs that are used with the main verb. (E.g.
Do, Does, Did, Have, Be).
 A model verb is a type of verb that contextually indicates a modality such as
a likelihood, ability, permission, request, capacity, suggestion, order,
obligation, or advice like Can/Could (showing ability), Must/Should (indicate
compulsion), May/Might (indicate possibility).
  Verbs that require an object to receive an action are transitive verbs. (E.g.
He hit a ball.).
 An intransitive verb doesn’t take an object. (E.g. Ali has gone.).
 Linking verbs are related to our feeling/emotions like ‘to feel’, ‘to think’ etc.

Use of “Want”, “Have”, “Give” and “Take”:

 As a verb “Want” means to have a desire to possess/own or do
(something); wish for. (E.g. I want an apple.).
 “Want” is also used when you want somebody to do something. (E.g. My
mother wants me to be a successful person.).
 “Have” is used to show ownership or possession. (E.g. I have a book.).
 “Have” is also used with several actions/activities like ‘I want to have a
haircut’.
 “To give” means to hand something to somebody so that they can look at
it, use it or keep it for a time. (E.g. Teacher gave an examination.).
 “Take” is the opposite of “Give”.
 “Take” should be used with the word “examination”. (E.g. I took a
mathematics examination.).
 “Take” is similar to “Have” in some cases. (E.g. I take an apple daily.).

Making Questions using “Do” and “Does”:

 Auxiliary verbs “Do” and “Does” are used to ask questions.
 “Do” is used with first-person (I, We), second-person and plural subjects.
(E.g. Do you speak English?)
 “Does” is used with “He”, “She”, “It” and singular subjects. (E.g. Does she
sleep late?)
 “Do” and “Does” are used for asking about routines or things people do
regularly.
 Sentence structure is “Auxiliary + Subject + Verb”

Making Answers using “Do” and “Does”:

 An informal answer to these questions could be yes/no.
 Example: Q: Do you speak French? A: Yes, I do/ No, I don’t/ Yes, I speak
French/ No, I don’t speak French.
Making Questions using “Don’t” and “Doesn’t”:
 We can make questions using “Don’t” and “Doesn’t” in the same way as
made using “Do” and “Does”. (E.g. Doesn’t he play cricket?).
 “Do”, “Don’t”, “Does” and “Doesn’t” are used in question tags.
 If a question is positive then use a negative tag and vice versa. (E.g. He likes
Cricket. Doesn’t he?).

Making Answers using “Don’t” and “Doesn’t”:

 We can make answers using “Don’t” and “Doesn’t” in the same way as
made using “Do” and “Does”.
 Example: Q: Don’t you speak French? A: Yes, I don’t/ No, I do/ Yes, I don’t
speak French/ No, I speak French.

Phrases: Most Common Phrases Used for Introduction:

 When we meet someone we greet them with “Hello” or “Hi”.
 We can use the following phrases. 1) I just want to introduce myself to you.
2) What’s your good name? 3) I don’t think we have met before. 4) My
name is Ahmad. What’s yours? 5) This is Altaf/Ahmad/Khalid. 6) I would like
you to meet my friend Ahmad. 7) I am very happy to see you/It’s great to
know you. 8) What brought/brings you here?

Use of One and Oneself:

 “One” is used as a gender-neutral third person singular to refer to an
unknown person. (E.g. One should always speak the truth.).
 The subjective and objective form of “One” is “One”.
 The reflexive form of “One” is “Oneself”. (E.g. One has to be honest with
oneself.)
 The possessive form of “One” is “One’s”. (E.g. One should take care of one’s
responsibilities.).

Introduction to Demonstrative Pronouns: “This” and “That”:

 Demonstrate means to give a practical exhibition and explanation of
something.
 “This” and “That” are used to refer to someone or something or for
indicating something or someone.
  “This” refers to someone or something near to the speaker. (E.g. This is a
book.).a
 “That” refers to identifying someone or something at a distance from the
speaker. (E.g. That is a book.).
 Plurals of “This” and “That” are “These” and “Those” respectively.
(E.g. These are books/Those are books.).

Use of “What”, “When”, “Where”, “Which” and “How”:

 These words are used in interrogative sentences.
 The sentence structure is “ Wh + auxiliary + subject + main verb + ?”.
(E.g. When do they go home?/Why has she left?).
 There is another method of asking questions with the “Wh” family in which
“Wh” is itself subject following a noun. (E.g. What color/Which book).
 A model auxiliary can also be used after “Wh”. (E.g. How may I help
you?/Where could they go?).

Use of ”Whom”, “Whose”, “Who” and “Who’s”:

 “Who” can be used as personal pronoun and relative pronoun.
 The sentence structure is same as described in previous lecture.
 Possessive form of “Who” is “Whose” and objective form is “Whom”. (E.g.
Whose book is this?/Whom do you call often?).
 “Who’s” is the abbreviated form of “Who is”.

Activity 2: Writing Interrogative Sentence – Asking Information About

Someone”:
 1) Do you like cake? 2) Does Ali play hockey? 3) Do/Don’t you want to go to
Karachi? 4) Does/Doesn’t she like to buy books? 5) Are you wearing a
helmet? 6) Where is your book? 7) How many brothers and sisters you
have? 8) When do you go to college? 9) Whom did you talk to? 10) Who is
your communication teacher? 11) Whose books are those? 12) What is the
name of your father? 13) Which subject do you like the most?