English Preparation

The simple past tense describes a completed action in the past, while the past continuous tense describes an action in progress at a specific time in the past. For example: I went to the gym yesterday. (simple past tense); I was reading when the it started raining. (past continuous).

The simple past tense is a fundamental part of English grammar that expresses completed actions in the past, indicating a clear beginning and end to those actions. It helps in accurate storytelling, exam performance, and effective daily communication.

Here is a list of some books that students can consider to cover the topic of simple past tense extensively and effectively.

The simple past tense in English, according to Oxford Learner's Dictionaries, is used to 'describe actions or events that happened at a specific time in the past and are now completed. It's often used in narratives to recount completed actions in the past.'

There are 14 punctuation marks in English. Of these, the commonly used 5 punctuation marks are:

• Commas
• Period or Full Stop
• Apostrophes
• Exclamation mark
• Question mark

Punctuation is a set of marks used in a sentence to add clarity and meaning in the piece of writing. There are 14 punctuation marks in English. These punctuations are:

• Commas
• Period or Full Stop
• Apostrophes
• Colon
• Semicolon
• Exclamation mark
• Question mark
• Parenthesis
• Brackets
• Braces
• Dash
• Hyphen
• Ellipsis 
• Quotation mark

Etymology and word roots are crucial for understanding the structure and evolution of the English language, both in spoken and written forms. Semicolon by Cecelia Watso, The Adventure of English by Melvyn Bragg, History in English Words by Owen Barfield, Made in America by Bill Bryson, are some of the best books to study etymology and roots. 

The detailed study about etymology and roots helps in knowing word roots and prefixes/suffixes can help you learn and understand new words. Etymology is helpful in language learning because it helps you identify shared roots across languages.

Students need to be clear that while etymology is the study of the origin and history of words, roots are the core, unchangeable part of a word, often derived from ancient languages like Latin or Greek. Look for affixes (prefixes and suffixes): These are word parts added before or after the root, modifying the meaning but not the core of the word. Identify related words with the same root, showing the word's evolution.