Category: Grammar

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Learning punctuation

punctuations are the most important component of English. They allow the reader to better understand what the writer is trying to say. For example, consider the following sentence-
She is a really nice girl said Avinash

When reading the sentence one cannot make out when does the reader need to give pauses or are there any.
One has correctly said that punctuations bring out the real emotions of the writer.

While giving the IELTS exam it is very important that you are able to tell clearly with words what you want to express!

There are different kinds of punctuations that are available and can be used in English. They are –

  1. Period
  2. Question mark
  3. Exclamation point
  4. Comma
  5. Semi colon
  6. Colon
  7. Parentheses
  8. Brackets
  9. Quotation marks
  10. Dash
  11. Hyphen
  12. Italics
  13. Ellipses
  14. Apostrophe

The better you know how to use then, more are the chances of getting a high band in IELTS. So, in the “Learn punctuation” series to come you will learn how to use the different punctuation mmarks to make sure you write effectively.

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The Period # Learning Grammar

Punctuation are the most important aspect of the English grammar. If you do know the punctuation well, it is great, otherwise there are so many chances of you scattering around and not making sense of things. The period or as most people know it “full stop” is used in the following cases –

  1. At the end of sentence
  2. Abbreviations
  3. Quotations
  4. With parentheses
  5. With comma
AT THE END OF SENTENCE

This is the most common use of period. It is used to end a declarative sentence, an imperative sentence and a sentence fragment.

  • Declarative sentence are the sentences that make a statement. For example-

All the students decided to go by train.

  • Imperative sentence are those that make a command. For example-

Get out of the room.

  • A sentence fragment is an incomplete sentence. For example-

Who is responsible for the chaos in the class? The students themselves.

  • In abbreviations

A period is used to indicate an abbreviation. Example-

Ms. Avishi is a great doctor.

EXCEPTIONS
  1. A sentence ending in an abbreviation does not need a second period. Example – The seat has reserved for the M.L.A.
  2. If a sentence ends with a abbreviation but requires a punctuation mark except period, the appropriate mark must be put. Example- where did Avantika did her Ph.D.?
QUOTATIONS

When a sentence ends in quotation mark, a single period ends both quotation and the sentence. And this period is used inside the quotation mark. Example-

He said,”I can do anything that I want.”

When a sentence ends with a quotation mark but requires a final question mark, no period is used. For example- Did he really say,”I hate you”?

When the statement inside the quotation mark end with question mark, there is no need of a period. Example- Arun went on to ask,”Do you really want to do it?”

No matter the exclamation mark is required within a quotation mark or afterit, no period is used.

Example- What a terrible choice was made by ” the board “!

By now we know what Steve mean when he says, ” you are idiot!”

PARENTHESES

Period  may or may not be used inside a parentheses depending on the context. For example-

  • The economy of country in 1998 (see India Times Report, 1998) was at the verge of a steep slowdown.
  • The economy of country in 1998 was at the verge of a steep slowdown (see India Times Report,slowdown).
  • Economy of country in 1998 was at the verge of a steep slowdown.(see India Times Report, 1998.)
COMMAS

When a sentence includes an abbreviation that immediately precedes a comma, the period required in the abbreviation is retained.

Example – We will welcome Arun Rathore, M.A., to the class in next hour.

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Plurals For IELTS Listening

No matter how easy they seem to be, plurals are very important for IELTS listening. Even more, it is quite obvious that you will get questions, answers to which will be plural. This is because IELTS is an English test and will surely check if you can listen for plurals.

There are no half points in IELTS, so even if you write the correct answer but forget the ‘s’ you will be marked wrong. For instance, if the answer is books and you wrote book, you will not get any marks for it. Let us now understand plurals in English.

When you want to change the number of a particular thing, you change them from singular to plural. There are two types of plural nouns –

  1. Regular – If by adding ‘s’ to the singular noun, you are able to change the noun from singular to plural, it is said to be a singular noun. For instance, plural of book is books.
  2. Irregular – The nouns which do not follow the rule of simply adding ‘s’ are known as irregular nouns. Example, plural of fish is fish.

Rules For Making Plural –

  1. Nouns that end in -ch, x, s, z or s-like sounds are made plural by adding es. Example-
    witch witches
    box boxes
    gas gases
    bus buses
  2. Nouns that end in a vowel + y take the letter s. Example – plural of boy is boys.
  3. Nouns that end in a consonant + y drop the y and take ies. Example – plural of baby is babies.
  4. Plurals of nouns that end in f or fe usually change the f sound to a v sound and add s or -es. Example- plural of knife is knives.

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Irregular Plural Nouns

Irregular plural nouns are the ones, which don’t follow the general rule of merely adding a ‘s’. There are no easy ways to remember them, so they generally have to be memorized.

 

Latin-ate Plurals

Words ending in –is usually follow the original Latin form (basis/bases, crisis/crises) for reasons of euphony.

 SINGULAR  PLURAL
 addendum addenda
alga algae
alumnus alumni
amoeba  amoebae
 antenna antennae
bacterium bacteria
 cactus cacti
 curriculum curricula
 datum data
 fungus fungi
 genus genera
 larva larvae
 memorandum memoranda
radix radices
 referendum  referenda
 stigma  stigmas
 stratum  strata
 thesis  theses
 vortex  vortexes
 vertebra  vertebrae

OTHERS

 SINGULAR  PLURAL
 echo  echoes
embargo  embargoes
 tomato tomatoes
 hero  heroes
 torpedo torpedoes
 potato  potatoes
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