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Soft Skills Unit 1 Part-1

Soft Skills-I (Delhi Technological University)

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Unit-1 Soft Skills

(UNIT I- Basics of Applied Grammar and usage)

Tenses: Part of Speech, Active & Passive Voice, Articles, Subject-

verb agreement, Antonyms, Synonyms, Prefix and Suffix,
Narration, Conditional sentences, Concord, Tag questions,

The table below shows a chart of tenses in English:-

Past Present Future

Simple I wrote an email yesterday. I write an email every day. I will write an email
tomorrow.

Continuous I was writing an email I am writing an email right I will be writing an email
yesterday at 5 p.m. now. tomorrow at 5 p.m.

Perfect I had written an email before I have written an email. I will have written an email
you arrived. tomorrow by 5 p.m.

Perfect I had been writing emails for I have been writing emails I will have been
Continuous one hour when you arrived. for one hour. writing emails for one hour
tomorrow by 5 p.m.

ACTIVE / PASSIVE VOICE

Active voice

In most English sentences with an action verb, the subject performs the action denoted by
the verb.

These examples show that the subject is doing the verb's action.

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Because the subject does or "acts upon" the verb in such sentences, the sentences are said to be in
the active voice.

Passive voice

One can change the normal word order of many active sentences (those with a direct object) so
that the subject is no longer active, but is, instead, being acted upon by the verb - or passive.

Note in these examples how the subject-verb relationship has changed.

Because the subject is being "acted upon" (or is passive), such sentences are said to be in
the passive voice.

NOTE: Colorful parrots live in the rainforests cannot be changed to passive voice because the
sentence does not have a direct object.

To change a sentence from active to passive voice, do the following:

1. Move the active sentence's direct object into the sentence's subject slot

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2. Place the active sentence's subject into a phrase beginning with the preposition by

3. Add a form of the auxiliary verb be to the main verb and change the main verb's form

Because passive voice sentences necessarily add words and change the normal doer-action-
receiver of action direction, they may make the reader work harder to understand the intended
meaning.

As the examples below illustrate, a sentence in active voice flows more smoothly and is easier
to understand than the same sentence in passive
voice.

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It is generally preferable to use the ACTIVE voice.

To change a passive voice sentence into an active voice sentence, simply reverse the steps shown
above.

1. Move the passive sentence's subject into the active sentence's direct object slot

2. Remove the auxiliary verb be from the main verb and change main verb's form if needed

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3. Place the passive sentence's object of the preposition by into the subject slot.

Because it is more direct, most writers prefer to use the active voice whenever possible.

The passive voice may be a better choice, however, when

 the doer of the action is unknown, unwanted, or unneeded in the sentence

Examples

 the writer wishes to emphasize the action of the sentence rather than the doer of the
action

Examples:

Parts of Speech

1. Nouns -Nouns name people, places, things, or ideas.

2. Pronouns-Pronouns take the place of nouns.

3. Verbs-Verbs show actions or states of being.

4. Adjectives-Adjectives describe, or modify, nouns and pronouns.

5. Adverbs-Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs

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6. Prepositions-Prepositions show the relationship between a noun or a pronoun and some other
word in the rest of the sentence.

7. Conjunctions-Conjunctions join two or more words, phrases, or clauses

8. Interjections-Interjections show excitement or emotion. They are not grammatically related to

the rest of the sentence.

Examples:-

1-A noun is the name of anything,

As school or garden, hoop or swing.

2-Adjectives tell the kind of noun,

As great, small, pretty, white, or brown.

3-Instead of nouns, the pronouns stand,

Her head, his face, your arm, my hand.

4-Verbs tell of something being done--

To read, count, laugh, sing, jump, or run.

5-How things are done the adverbs tell,

As slowly, quickly, ill, or well.

6-Conjunctions join the words together--

As men and women, wind or weather.

7-The preposition stands before

A noun, as in or through a door.

8-The interjection shows surprise,

As Oh! how pretty! Ah! How wise!

Articles:- An article is a word that modifies or describes the Noun. It is used before the noun to
show whether it refers to something specific or not. So, in a way, articles can also be described
as a type of adjectives as they also tell us something about the nouns, like adjectives.

Types of Articles

There are two types of Articles in the English language. They are as follows:

Definite article: Definite means to be clear, exact or obvious about something. It is called
definite because it is used in relation to a particular thing or person. “The” is the definite article
in English, which is used to refer to particular nouns, the identities of which are known. The

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definite article indicates that the noun is specific. The speaker talks about a particular thing. For
example:

The cat sat on the couch.

The dog attacked me and ran away.

Notice how the reference is not left indefinite in both the sentences. It is clear that a particular cat
sat on the couch in the first sentence and a specific dog that attacked the speaker is being spoken
about in the second example.

Indefinite articles: Indefinite means something which is not clear, obvious or exact. They are
called indefinite because the identity of the thing or person being spoken about is left unclear or
indefinite. The indefinite article indicates that the noun is not someone or something in
particular. The speaker talks about any one of that type of things. The indefinite articles in
English are "a" and "an." For example:

Do you have a pencil?

I want to have an apple.

Difference between “A” and “An”

Indefinite articles ‘a/an’ are used as follows:

‘A’ is used before a word beginning with a consonant sound. Consonant letters in the English
alphabet are B,C,D,F,G,H,J,K,L,M,N,P,Q,R,S,T,V,W,X,Y,Z.

For example: A boy, a cat, a dog, a fight, a gym, a horse, a joke, a kite, a lion, a mirror, a noise, a
pin, a quilt, etc.

‘An’ is used before a word beginning with a vowel sound. Vowel letters in the English alphabet
are A, E, I, O, U.

For example: An apple, an elephant, an idiot, an orange, an umbrella, etc.

On the basis of sound and not only the letter the word starts with.

For example:

“An hour”
“An honest man”
“A one eyed dog”

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