Test preparation

If you are discussing a specific amount of time, money, weight, distance, or volumne, which is considered as one unit or a total quantity, use singular verb. It is because measurements are treated as a single idea, instead of individual parts.

Examples:

• Ten miles is too far to walk.
• Five hundred rupees is not enough for the Rakhi gift.
• Two liters of water is enough for the recipe.
• Three hours is a long time to wait.

Titles of books, plays, movies, etc., may appear plural but are treated as singular. It is because these books, plays, or movies refer to a single entity.

Examples:

• "The Great Gatsby" is a wonderful movie.
• "Pride and Prejudice" is a classic novel by Jane Austen.

The direct and indirect speech or narration refers to reporting a speaker's words. Some of the popular key rules include:

• Tense shift (present to past)

• Changing personal pronouns

• Using proper reporting verbs

Adjusting time expressions (e.g., “now”? “then”)
However, these rules differ for assertive, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences.

In a sentence, when two subjects are joined by 'or' or 'nor', the verb should agree with the nearest subject. The rule followed here is the proximity rule.

Examples:

• Either the teacher or the students have the answer.
• Either the students or the teacher has made a mistake.

When two subjects in a sentence are joined by 'and', usually the plural verb is used to make the sentence gramatically correct. However, if both nouns refer to a single idea,  singular verb is used.

Examples:

• My brother and I are going on a trip.
• Fish and chips is a popular dish in the UK.

A subject in a sentence is singular,  if it refers to one person, place, or thing. However, a subject is plural,  if it refers to more than one person, place, or thing.

Another way to identify the subject as singular or plural, is by looking at the pronoun used. Singular nouns often do not end in '-s', while plural nouns usually do.

Examples:

• The child plays in the garden. (Singular)
• The children play in the garden. (Plural)

Students can follow he following tips to form words in English:

·       Students should know and understand where to use noun, verb, adjective, adverb in sentences.

·       Students can read the whole sentence or paragraph to understand the right prefix and suffix to be used with the root word.

·       The key to ace word formation is reading and writing a lot. This will build up the vocabulary and students will be able to easily form different words appropriate to the sentence meaning and context.

As the name suggests, clipping is a phenomenon where we clip or cut short an existing word, to form a new word. The shortened word, formed by removing one or more syllables, sometimes work as the abbreviations for the root word. There can be back clipping, fore clipping and middle clipping of the words. For example:

·       Laboratory-Lab (fore clipping)

·       Advertisement-Ad (fore clipping)

Students can consider following books to study word formation in English as they provide a thorough exploration of word formation processes in English language.

The above mentioned books cover various aspects, including derivation, compounding, and conversion, delving into the intricacies of word formation, vocabulary expansion, and grammatical nuances.