English Preparation

In English grammar, predicates are categorized as simple, compound, or complete. Let's take a look at them in detail, with examples:

To identify the predicate in a sentence, find the verb (the action word) and all words that describe the subject's action. The predicate also includes the words that modify verb or describe the action. This may include objects, adverbs, prepositional phrases, etc., that explain what the subject is doing or being. For example: The students are studying for the exam.

Predicate is the part of a sentence which has the verb, and which tells us what the subject is doing. Predicates must always include at least one verb to represent the action. For example: He went cycling after returning from school: In this sentence, he is the subject while 'went cycling after returning from school' is the predicate as it tells what the noun or the subject is doing.

Students can refer to following books to study Past Continuous Tense in a detailed manner. These books focus on the usage, exceptions and rules of using the tense in English grammar.

While most of the verbs (action words) can be used to form Past Continuous Tense in English language, Stative verbs cannot change their forms to form Past Continuous Tense sentences. Also known as state-of-being verbs, these verbs cannot be used in any continuous tense, including the past continuous. This is because Stative verbs describe feelings that can't be directly observed or measured in terms of progress. Many stative verbs describe states of mind, such as opinions, needs, and awareness. Example:

·       Incorrect: "I was knowing him."

·       Correct: "I knew him."

The past continuous tense is formed using the past tense of the verb "to be" (was/were) followed by the main verb's present participle (verb + -ing).

The structure is: Subject + was/were + verb + -ing. Examples:

·       She was reading a book.

·       They were playing cricket.

The past continuous tense, also called past progressive tense, talks about actions that were in progress at a specific time in the past. It's formed by using "was" or "were" with the -ing form of the verb. The past continuous helps in expressing an action that was ongoing at a specified time. It emphasizes the duration of something that occurred in the past and establishes context for something else in the past.

Usually, abstract nouns are not used in the plural form as they refer to uncountable ideas. However, when they are used to refer to different kinds or examples, abstract nouns can be used in the plural form.

Example: The freedoms we enjoy today were hard-won.

The abstract noun of dream is 'Dream' itself. It acts as an abstract noun when it refers to an idea or vision, and not the act of dreaming while sleeping.

For example,

Her dream of becoming a doctor is now fulfilled.