ENGLISH - FORM 3

Grammar

Nouns
A noun is a word that is used as the name of a person, animal, place, thing or an idea. There
are four types of nouns :
1 Common Nouns
A common noun is the general name given to every person, animal, thing, or place.

- child
- monkey

- city
- cockroach

2 Proper Nouns
A proper noun is the name of a specific person, place or thing. The first letter of a
proper noun is
in capital letter.
- Desmond
- Parliament House
- Kuala Lumpur
- New Atraits Times
3 Abstract Nouns
An abstract noun refers to a quality, condition or action. It is abstract or intangible in
nature.
- love
- health
- poverty
- patience
4 Collective Nouns
A collective noun stands for a group of people, animals or things taken as a whole.\

Singular and Plural Nouns

A noun can be singular or plural. A singular noun refers to a person or thing which is one in
number. A plural noun refers to nouns that are more than one in number.

Formation of Plurals
- By adding - s for regular words

- By adding - es for words ending in - s, - sh, - ch and - x

- By changing - y into - ies for words ending in - y

- By changing -f or - fe into - ves for words ending in - f or - fe

- By changing the vowel

Some nouns occur only in the plural form such us :

- pants
- goggles
- braces
- shorts
- pyjamas
- spectacles
Some nouns have the same form for both the singular and the plural.

- shears
- pincers

Subject-Verb Agreement (Concord)

Every snetence has a subject and a verb. The subject and the verb must agree with each
other.
-

A singular subject takes a singular verb.

- A plural subject takes a plural verb.

Gender
Masculine nouns are words used for men and boys as well as male animals. On the other
hand, feminine nouns are words used for women and girls, and female animals.
- Common nouns are words used for either men and boys or women and girls. Neuter nouns
are
words used for things which do not have any sex.
Here are some masculine and feminine nouns used for human.

Here are some masculine and feminine nouns used for animals.

Here are some common nouns ansd neuter nouns.

Articles

Indefinite Articles : a, an
We use a and an in the following ways.

Definite Articles : the

We use the in the following ways.

Zero Article
We do not use any article before the following :

Adjectives
Adjectives are descriptive words that describe nouns, that is, the person, thing or place.
Adjectives tell us about the nouns in size, colour, shape and condition or quality.
- Our national flower is the red hibiscus.

- The pizza is round and the cake is square.

- We had an exciting time watching the wild wolves in their habitats over Animal Planet.
- He has a plasma television with a big 42-inch screen while I have a small 14-inch
television.
Adjectives can be formed by adding prefixes. Examples :

The negatives of adjectives are formed by adding prefixes. Examples :

Adjectives have three forms of comparison : positive, comparative and superlative.

1 We use comparative adjectives when we are comparating two nouns.
- Jacky is richer than Raju
2 We use superlatives when we are comparating more than two nouns.
- Joe is the richest of the three businessmen.
Other examples :

3 We use more and most for comparative and superlative forms of some two-syllable
adjectives,
adjectives with three or more syllables and adjectives ending in -ful.
- The table is more expensive than the stand fan.
- The cupboard is the most expensive furniture among the three.
- My younger brother is more helpful than my elder brother.

- My youngest sister is the most helpful among the three siblings.

Other examples :

Irregular forms :

Pronouns

Verbs
verbs are action words. They tell us about an action.
Example:

Negative Verbs
We make negative verbs by adding the word not to the verb.
Example :

Contracted Forms : Affirmative and Negative

When we speak, we sometimes use the contracted form of a verb with a pronoun or with not.
Example :

Others examples :

Tenses
The tense of a verb tells us when an action takes place.

Here are some examples of the different tenses of words.

The Simple Present Tense

We use the simple present tense to :
- show habitual actions
Example :

- give instructions and directions

Example :

- describe feelings and senses

Example :

- to talk about facts that are generally true

Example :

The Simple Past Tense

We use the simple past tense to show that an action happened in the past.
Example :

- To make the past tense of regular verbs, we add -d, -t or -ed

Example :

- To get the past tense of irregular verbs, we change the spelling.

Example :

- To signal the past tense, we often use words like these :

Example :

The Present Continous Tense

We use the present continuous tense to :
- show that an action is happening at the time of speaking
Example :

- talk about a future action that has been planned

Example :

- talk about something that we have decided to do in future. We use the words going to talk
about the future action.
Example :

The Simple Future Tense

We sue the simple future tense :
- when we decide to do something in the future
Example :

- when we decide to do something now

Example :

- when we think something will happen

Example :

Modals
Modals are helping or auxiliary verbs to help the main verb. They can be used to form
questions or make positive and negative statements.

Adverbs
Adverbs tell us more about a verb, an adjective or another adverb.

Adverbs of Manner
- They show how an action is done. They answer the question 'how'.
- They usually end with the suffis -ly.
Example :

We can form adverbs of manner by adding -ly to adjectives or by changing the ending y of
the adjective to -ily.
Example :

Adverbs of Time
- They show when an action is done. They answer the question 'when'.
Example :

Other Examples :

Adverbs of Place
- They show where an action is done. They answer the question 'where'.
Example :

Other Examples :

Prepositions
Prepositions are words used to show the relationship between one person or thing with
another person or thing Prepositions can be used to show time, direction, position, manner
and Quantity.

Connectors
Conjunctions
We use conjuctions to join words, phrases, ideas and sentences together.

Sequence Connectors
We use sequence connectors to link sentences that show a sequence or order of events.
They are used to give instructions or directions.

Example :
First, cut out the pieces carefully. Next, arrange the pieces as shown in the diagram.
Then, glue the pieces onto a piece of paper. finally, paint the picture.

Sentence Types : Simple and compound

Types Sentence

A simple sentence has only one verb.

- The girls exercise in the field.
- The traffic in town is very heavy.

Compound Sentence
A compound sentence has two or more main clauses or simple sentences. They are joined by
conjuctions.
- The boys are tired. The boys are hungry.
The boys are tired and hungry.
- Today is Prize Giving Day. Many parents are invited to school.
Today is Prize Giving Day so many parents are invited to school.

Positive and Negative Statements

A statements is a sentence that states something.
A positive statement shows that something is correct or possible.
Example :

A negative statement shows that something is incorrect or not possible.

Example :

Punctuation
We use punctuation marks to make our writing clear and easy to understand. They tell us
how we should read the sentences.
We use these punctuatuion marks in the following ways :

Positive Capital Letters (A. B, C, ...)

- for the first letter of a sentence
Example : Some poems are beautiful pieces of writing.
- for the pronouns 'I'
Example : If I were a social worker, I would want to work in war-torn countries.
- for the first letter of each proper noun
Example : Dr Jekyll,
the National Planetarium, Datuk Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Proton Satria,
Christmas Day, January

Full Stops (.)

- at the end of a sentence
Example : Oceans are much bigger areas of water than ;akes.

- after abbreviations
Example : Mister ------ Mr.
Bachelor of Science ------- B.Sc.

Doctor ------ Dr.

managing director ------ M. D.

- after initials
Example : Robert Louis Stevenson ----- R. L. Stevenson

Full Questions Marks (?)

- at the end of a question
Example : Is space exploration important?
Did man really land on the moon?

Commas (,)
- to separate items in a list
Example : The earthquake destroyed houses, office buildings, vehicles and other things.
- before question tags
Example : That was an earthquake, wasn't it?
- after the words 'Yes' and 'No' in positive and negative responses
Example : Yes, I've heard of Mahatma Gandhi.
No, he was not a aformer president of India.
- before the word 'please' when it comes at the end of a sentence
Example : Could you help me overcome my problem, please?

Commas Apostrophes (')

- for contractions

Example : I'm

she's

we're

- so show possession
Example : the earth's atmosphere
the people's homes

Exclamation marks (!)

- at the end of a greeting
Example : Hi!
Hello!

Happy New Year!

- at the ned of a sentence to show strong feelings

Example : Oh dear! How could she say such a thing!
Wow! Well done!