The Sunday News
Study this list of adjectives: expensive, positive, inquisitive, annual, artificial, hideous, courteous, handsome, brilliant, stubborn, vague, guilty, doubtful, satisfactory, ridiculous, square, practical, ignorant, audible and incredible.
Choose the adjective from the above list that is the opposite of — dull. Real, ugly, sensible, negative, impolite, certain, innocent, believable, beautiful, cheap, and knowledgeable.
Choose from the same list a synonym for: polite, absurd, prying, unsightly, obstinate, shiny, definite, yearly, dear, passable, indefinite and unbelievable.
Make adjectives to correspond with these nouns. The one is done for you: doubt — doubtful, expense, courtesy, ridicule, ignorance, guilt, brilliance, artifice.
List of things used by people: ambulance, bandage, calendar, cushion, chimney, telescope, telephone, television, scissors, refrigerator, directory, laboratory, cupboard, envelope, handkerchief, programme, quarry, bulldozer, umbrella and camera.
State which of the things named here people use for each of the following purposes. Write complete sentences like this: To study the stars, people use a telescope. — to speak to someone at a distance, to take people to hospital, to perform scientific experiments, to rest their head on while lying down, to let the smoke escape from a room, to find out the order of events at a concert and to cut out a paper pattern.
To watch and hear events at a distance, to wrap up a wound, to keep food cool, to take photographs, to blow the nose, to find the date, to send a letter, to store belongings, to keep of the rain, to level rough ground and to mine stone.
Word building: In front of –ual write: grad, contin, man, ann, perpet. In front of –rive write: st, de, ar, dep, th, cont, In front of –ument write: arg, mon, doc. After grad- write: ual, uate, ation, and ient.
Match each first word with its synonym from this list: globe certain, sure, married, victor, sphere, expensive, valuable, wedded, conqueror, precious, costly, magnify, enough, whole grumble, complain, normal, immediately, capture, arrest, unlimited, examine, complete, instantly, obstinate and inspect.
Pair the following as opposites: unlikely, rough, failure, innocent, smooth, ample, definite, success, guilty, probable, artificial, vague, niggardly, lazy, energetic, natural, courage, subtraction, generous, forbidden, addition, cowardice, expert, assistance, selfish, permitted, departure, condemned, hindrance, arrival and amateur.
Verb-tense agreement — Remember a verb is a part of a sentence. We use verbs to express an action, for example:
He rides a bicycle. We use a verb to express feelings and states of mind, for example: She loves her children.
A tense is a verb form that indicates time. For example: He walked (past). He walks (present). He will walk (future).
To make clear sense in your writing, the verb form must be in the correct tense. For example, it is incorrect to say:
He drives a car last week, but it is correct to say, he drove a car last week. Experts say: Very few writers get it right first time all the time. They make mistakes and have to revise their writing for accuracy of grammar, spelling and punctuation.
The trick is to: develop your skills in spotting your mistakes, be aware of your weak areas — the things you often get wrong and develop your skills in correcting correctly!
Correct the following sentences so that the verb in brackets is in the correct tense: He walked down the path and (looks) through the window. When the sun goes down the desert (came) to life. The couple (see) the film yesterday.
The teacher told them to close their eyes and (listened). She (realised) there are two unused discs in the pack. When the shop was opened, the crowds (push) forward.
Subject-verb agreement: The subject in a sentence is the person or thing about which something is said.
The verb should always agree with the subject. Agreement: The choir is over there. The subject is- The choir, is — is the verb. The choir and is agree in the sentence.
Non-agreement — The girls is over there. The girls is the subject and is the verb. The girls and is do not agree — so there is no subject-verb agreement in this sentence hence it’s incorrect.
Correct the following sentences so that the verb agrees with the subject. Both the teacher and the learner was in the canteen at the time. Someone have taken the pens away. IsiNdebele classes is very interesting. The boys kicks the ball against the wall. Peter and Rachel has been to the shop. The dog were waiting by the front door.
Spelling rules: We have dealt with this quite a number of times. Occasionally, spelling mistakes are made because the writer does not know the rules. People often make mistakes many times. If they can learn the rules and remember their mistakes, they can spell the words correctly. For example: If a word ending in y has a consonant before the last letter, change the y to an (i) and add -es.
Using the above rules, write the plurals of the following words: day, donkey, try, toy, tray, party, anxiety, essay, baby, bully, body, casualty, country, play, factory, reality, photocopy, monkey, conspiracy and memory.
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