Words are built up from vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and consonants (b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, z). Vowels and consonants are combined to make syllables, building blocks of sound, which is one unit of sound.
God has one syllable, God.
Jesus has two syllables, Je and sus.
2. Long and short vowels
Vowels have different sounds depending on the word they are in.
God, map and did all have short vowel sounds at the beginning – say the words. Do you hear how the o, a and i sound?
Jesus, made and life all have long vowel sounds at the beginning. Say these words. Do you hear the longer, more breathy sound of the e, a and i?
Double consonants
Vowels followed by twin consonants have a short sound and make words that have more than one syllable.
daddy, penny, witty, mommy, sunny
Long vowel sounds can be made by adding a magic e
Change the short vowel sound into a long vowel sound by adding a silent e to the end of the word. Silent final e makes the preceding vowel say its name.
kit –> kite
to-> toe
bath -> bathe
Silent final e ensures that we never end an English word with u or v.
Exceptions: love, give, have, true, blue, glue
Vowel Sounds
'eh' - as in 'let', 'ih' - as in 'hit', 'ee' - as in 'see', and 'ae'- as in 'cat'
'long ah' - as in 'car', 'short ah' - as in 'got'
'long uh' - as in 'put', 'short uh' - as in 'up', 'oo' - as in 'through'
Some words have two vowels together. When this happens, the vowels usually make one sound rather than two.
You can practice them HERE!
Diphthong Sounds
'ay' - as in 'day', 'ai' - as in 'sky'
| 'ay' as in 'day' | 'ai' as in 'die' |
| bay | buy |
| pay | pie |
| day | die |
| table | tie |
| gay | guy |
| cake | kite |
| say | sigh |
| zany | Zaire |
| shape | shy |
| Jake | jive |
| chase | child |
| hey! | hi |
'ou' - as in 'home', 'ow' - as in 'mouse', 'oi' - as in 'boy'
| 'ou' as in 'home' | 'ow' as in 'house' | 'oi' as in 'boy' |
| bowl | bow | boy |
| Pope | pow-wow | poise |
| don't | Dow | doily |
| toe | towel | toy |
| go | gouge | goiter |
| cope | cow | coy |
| soap | sour | soy sauce |
| zone | zowie! | (none) |
| show | shower | (none) |
| Jones | jowl | join |
| chose | ciao! | choice |
| home | howl | hoist |
'ieh(r)' - as in 'near', 'ehi(r)' - as in 'hair'
| 'ieh(r)' as in 'near' | 'ehi(r)' as in 'hair' |
| beer | bear |
| peer | pear |
| dear | dare |
| tear (drop of water) | tear (rip) |
| gear | garish |
| clear | Claire |
| seer | snare |
| sheer | share |
| jeer | Jerry |
| cheer | chair |
| here | hair |
Captain, taught, bead, weight, believe, boat, does, boil, sound, guess, build
When you find i and e together
i usually comes before e unless it follows c; if we say /ā/, we can also use ei.
Words that don’t have a c before the ie, it’s i before e:
believe, piece, niece
Words that have a c before the ei, it’s e before i:
receive, deceive, conceit, ceiling
/ā/: vein, neighbour
exception: Their has an ei but no c.
neither, foreign, sovereign, seized, leisure, either, weird, protein, heifer
/ur/ - Complex diphthong:
4. Hard and soft consonants
c does not have it's own sound. Hard c sounds like k and soft c sounds like s
The letter c followed by e, i, or y says /s/:
cent, city, cycle
followed by another vowel c is said as /k/:
cat, cot, cut, scar, scotch, scuttle
Hard g and soft g
The letter g can also make a hard or a soft sound.
The g followed by e, i, or y usually sounds like /j/ but can say /g/:
gentle, giant, gypsum;
BUT exceptions: get, girl, give.
Followed by any other letter g says /g/: gap, God, gut
5. Plurals
A plural is more than one thing. Plurals can be tricky to spell, but there are some simple rules that will help you. It all depends what the word ends with.
For most nouns, the plural form includes the letter "s" at the end of the word:dogs
trees
turtles
Nouns ending in s, z, ch, sh, and x
Nouns with these letters at the end call for an "es" in the plural form. This added syllable makes pronunciation easier.
beaches
foxes
wishes
Nouns ending in o
Some nouns ending in o are pluralized with an "s," while others call for "es." These words must be memorized, because there is no simple rule to explain the differences.
| echoes | heroes | potatoes | vetoes |
| autos | memos | pimentos | pros |
Source: Hodges' Harbrace Handbook, 13th edition
If a word ends in f, change the f to a v and add es.
half -> halves
leaf -> leaves
hoof -> hooves
Nouns ending in y
To form the plural of nouns ending in y, drop the y and add "ies."
Family becomes families
Story becomes stories
Baby becomes babies
But, if a word ends in ey, just add an s.
monkey -> monkeys
Some words are the same when they are singular (just one) and plural.
I’ve got one sheep.
I’ve got lots of sheep.
And some words change without an s:
child -> children
mouse -> mice
Irregular plural forms
There are several other irregularities in the plural forms of English nouns. Here are examples:
Man becomes men
Woman becomes women
Fungus becomes fungi
Thief becomes thieves (note that not all words ending in "f" follow this patttern: roof/roofs)
Species remains species
Medium becomes media
Person becomes people
6. Prefixes
A prefix is placed at the beginning of a word to modify or change its meaning. This is a list of the most common prefixes in English, together with their basic meaning and some examples.
| Prefix | Meaning | Examples | |
| a- | also an- | not, without | atheist, anaemic |
| a- | to, towards | aside, aback | |
| in the process of, in a particular state | a-hunting, aglow | ||
| a- | of | anew | |
| completely | abashed | ||
| ab- | also abs- | away, from | abdicate, abstract |
| ad- | also a-, ac-, af-, ag- al-, an-, ap-, at- as-, at- | movement to, change into, addition or increase | advance, adulterate, adjunct, ascend, affiliate, affirm, aggravate, alleviate, annotate, apprehend, arrive, assemble, attend |
| ante- | before, preceding | antecedent, ante-room | |
| anti- | also ant- | opposing, against, the opposite | anti-aircraft, antibiotic, anticlimax, Antarctic |
| be- | all over, all around | bespatter, beset | |
| completely | bewitch, bemuse | ||
| having, covered with | bejewelled | ||
| affect with (added to nouns) | befog | ||
| cause to be (added to adjectives) | becalm | ||
| com- | also co-, col-, con-, cor- | with, jointly, completely | combat, codriver, collude, confide, corrode |
| contra- | against, opposite | contraceptive | |
| counter- | opposition, opposite direction | counter-attack, counteract | |
| de- | down, away | descend, despair, depend, deduct | |
| completely | denude, denigrate | ||
| removal, reversal | de-ice, decamp | ||
| dia- | also di- | through, across | diagonal |
| dis- | also di- | negation, removal, expulsion | disadvantage, dismount, disbud, disbar |
| en- | also em- | put into or on | engulf, enmesh |
| bring into the condition of | enlighten, embitter | ||
| intensification | entangle, enrage | ||
| ex- | also e-, ef- | out | exit, exclude, expand |
| upward | exalt, extol | ||
| completely | excruciate, exasperate | ||
| previous | ex-wife | ||
| extra- | outside, beyond | extracurricular | |
| hemi- | half | hemisphere | |
| hyper- | beyond, more than, more than normal | hypersonic, hyperactive | |
| hypo- | under | hypodermic, hypothermia | |
| in- | also il-, im- | not, without | infertile, inappropriate, impossible |
| also il-, im-, ir- | in, into, towards, inside | influence, influx, imbibe | |
| infra- | below | infrared, infrastructure | |
| inter- | between, among | interact, interchange | |
| intra- | inside, within | intramural, intravenous | |
| non- | absence, negation | non-smoker, non-alcoholic | |
| ob- | also oc-, of-, op- | blocking, against, concealing | obstruct, occult, offend, oppose |
| out- | surpassing, exceeding | outperform | |
| external, away from | outbuilding, outboard | ||
| over- | excessively, completely | overconfident, overburdened, overjoyed | |
| upper, outer, over, above | overcoat, overcast | ||
| peri- | round, about | perimeter | |
| post- | after in time or order | postpone | |
| pre- | before in time, place, order or importance | pre-adolescent, prelude, precondition | |
| pro- | favouring, in support of | pro-African | |
| acting for | proconsul | ||
| motion forwards or away | propulsion | ||
| before in time, place or order | prologue | ||
| re- | again | repaint, reappraise, reawake | |
| semi- | half, partly | semicircle, semi-conscious | |
| sub- | also suc-, suf-, sug-, sup-, sur-, sus- | at a lower position | submarine, subsoil |
| lower in rank | sub-lieutenant | ||
| nearly, approximately | sub-tropical | ||
| syn- | also sym- | in union, acting together | synchronize, symmetry |
| trans- | across, beyond | transnational, transatlantic | |
| into a different state | translate | ||
| ultra- | beyond | ultraviolet, ultrasonic | |
| extreme | ultramicroscopic | ||
| un- | not | unacceptable, unreal, unhappy, unmanned | |
| reversal or cancellation of action or state | unplug, unmask | ||
| under- | beneath, below | underarm, undercarriage | |
| lower in rank | undersecretary | ||
| not enough | underdevelope | ||
Suffixes are letters you can add to the end of words to change their meanings. For example, the suffix -less means without.
| Suffix | used to make | meaning | example |
|---|---|---|---|
| -able, -ible, -ble | adjectives | possible to | acceptable, noticable, convertible, divisible, irresistible |
| -age | nouns | a process or state | shortage, storage |
| -al | adjectives | connected with | experimental, accidental, environmental |
| -ance, -ancy, | nouns | an action, process or state | appearance, performance, pregnancy, constancy |
| -ant, -ent | nouns | a person who does it | assistant, immigrant, student |
| -ation | nouns | a state or action | examination, imagination, organization |
| -ee | nouns | a person to whom something is done | employee, trainee |
| -en | verbs | to give something a particular quality, to make something more | to strengthen |
| -ence, -ency, | nouns | an action, process or state | coincidence, patience, potency, presidency |
| -er | nouns | a person who does something | rider, painter, baker, builder, teacher |
| -ese | adjectives | from a place | Japanese, Chinese, Viennese |
| -ess | nouns | a woman who does somthing as a job | waitress, actress |
| -ful | adjectives | having a particular quality | beautiful, helpful, useful, thankful |
| -hood | nouns | a state, often during a particular period of time | childhood, motherhood |
| -ian | nouns | a person who does something as a job or hobby | historian, comedian, politician |
| -ical | adjectives from nouns ending -y or -ics | connected with | economical, mathematical, physical |
| -ify | verbs | to produce a state or quality | beautify, simplify, purify |
| -ish | adjectives | 1.describing nationality or language | English, Swedish, Polish |
| 2.like something | babyish, foolish | ||
| 3.rather, quite | longish, youngish, brownish | ||
| -ist | nouns | 1.a person who has studied something or does something as a job | scientist, typist |
| 2.a person who believes in something or belongs to a particular group | capitalist, pacifist, feminist | ||
| -ion | nouns | a state or process | action, connection, exhibition |
| -ive | adjectives | to be able to, having a particular quality | active, effective |
| -ize, -ise | verbs | actions producing a particular state | to magnetize, to generalize, to modernise, to standardise |
| -less | adjectives | not having something | hopeless, friendless |
| -like | adjectives | similar to | childlike |
| -ly | adverbs | in a particular way | badly, beautifully, completely |
| -ment | nouns | a state, action or quality | development, arrangement, excitement, achievement |
| -ness | nouns | a state or quality | kindness, sadness, happiness, weakness |
| -ology | nouns | the study of a subject | biology, psychology, zoology |
| -or | nouns | a person who does something, often as a job | actor, conductor, sailor |
| -ous | adjectives | having a particular quality | dangerous, generous, religous |
| -ship | nouns | showing status | membership, citizenship, friendship |
| -wards | adverbs | in a particular direction | backwards, upwards |
| -wise | adverbs | in a particular way | anticlockwise |
| -y | adjectives | having the quality of the thing metioned | cloudy, rainy, fatty, thirsty, greeny |
A phrase is a group of words that could be replaced by a single part of speech – for example, a noun.
is a group of words that functions as a single unit of a sentence.
Examples:
the house at the end of the street (example 1) is a phrase. It acts like a noun.
It contains the phrase at the end of the street (example 2), a prepositional phrase which acts like an adjective.
Example 2 could be replaced by white, to make the phrase the white house.
Examples 1 and 2 contain the phrase the end of the street (example 3) which acts like a noun.
It could be replaced by the cross-roads to give the house at the cross-roads.
2. Sentences
A sentence is a grammatical unit of one or more words. A sentence has a capital letter at the beginning and ends with a full stop, a question mark or an exclamation mark. It must have a verb in it and make sense.Different types of sentence do different jobs.
Statements
A statement is a sentence that simply tells the reader something.
The fox Jumps.
Questions
Why did the fox jump over the lazy dog?
Wake up you lazy dog!
Commands
(Commands usually start with a verb.)
Catch the quick brown fox.
4. Paragraphs
A paragraph is a unit of sentences that are all about the same thing:
Begin with a topic sentence,
-states main point for this paragraph
Give details, reasons, and examples to support your topic,
-sentence
End with a closing sentence.
-Restate main point for this paragraph
example:
The fox jumped. The fox jumped high! Why did the fox jump over the dog? The dog was lazy. Wake up you lazy dog! The fox jumped over the lazy dog.
Do you see the indent?
Lessons in this series:
What is an adjective?
An adjective is a word that describes a noun (the name of a thing or a place).
It was a terrible book.
The word terrible is an adjective. It tells us what the book (the noun) was like.
Where can I put an adjective?
Adjectives can come before or after the noun.
The book he read on holiday was terrible.
Try putting adjectives in different places in your sentences to make your writing more interesting.
Using more than one adjective
If you want to describe a noun in detail, you can use more than one adjective.
He had a mouldy, smelly, overpriced sandwich for lunch.
When you have a list of adjectives like this, separate them with commas.
2. Adverbs
What is an adverb?
An adverb is a word that describes a verb (an action or a doing word).
He ate his breakfast quickly.
The word quickly is an adverb – it tells us how he ate (the verb) his breakfast.
What’s an adverbial phrase?
Sometimes more than one word can do the adverb’s job. This is called an adverbial phrase.
He ate his lunch really quickly.
The words really quickly are an adverbial phrase. Words like very, more, really and extremely are often used to make an adverb even stronger.
Where can I put an adverb?
Adverbs and adverbial phrases don’t always come after the verb.
He quickly ate his lunch.
Try putting adverbs and adverbial phrases in different places in your sentences to make your writing more interesting.
Lessons in this series:
The beginning of a story is where you introduce your readers to your style, setting and characters. Often a writer will give his characters a problem to solve. This keeps the reader interested, as they’ll want to find out what happens.
Style
It’s important to get your style right from the beginning of a story, so readers get the feel of your story early on.
Whatever sort of story you are writing, use adjectives (words that describe nouns) and adverbs (words that describe verbs) to make your writing more interesting.
If you are writing a ghost story, for example, choose dark, scary adjectives to create a dark, scary atmosphere (feeling).
You can also choose whether your story will have lots of characters, dialogue (people talking) and action, or long, slow descriptive pieces of writing. Or all of those things!
Setting
Your setting is the place and time where your story takes place. Letting your readers know where and when your story is set will help them picture the scene.
By using descriptive language and the right words you can create the right atmosphere around your setting. Two stories can be set in exactly the same place, but feel completely different because of the words the writer chooses to use.
Characters
When you introduce characters (people) you need to describe them so that the reader gets a feeling for what they are like. Some authors, such as Dickens, give their characters names that help describe what they are like. For example Mr Slyme is a slimy character.
Also think about the words you give your characters to say (dialogue). Make sure the words they use and the way they say things suit the sort of people they are.
Don’t leave any questions unanswered at the end of the story and make sure your reader knows what happens to all your characters - unless you are planning a sequel (second part), in which case don’t tell the reader everything! Then they’ll want to read your next story to find out what happens.
Narrative poems
Some poems tell stories. These poems tend to be quite long and often rhyme. Before writing and books were common, people used narrative poetry to tell stories. The rhymes and the rhythm made the stories easy to remember and pass on to other people.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is a good example of a narrative poem. It tells the story of a sailor left alone on a boat when the rest of the crew dies.
Poems that follow a fixed form (pattern)
Some types of poetry follow a particular pattern. Haiku, for example, is a form of Japanese poetry where there must be only three lines. The first line must have 5 syllables, the second 7 syllables and the third 5 syllables.
Revising English
Learning about poetry
Not all poems rhyme!
Shape (or concrete) poetry
Some poems are written in a shape that shows what the poem is about.
Nonsense poetry
Some poems use made-up words to describe things, or just to make a nice sound.
In the froogle
Did the Boogle
Make a grabjous cheep
Shushup right now
That squalky row
Is keeping me from sleep!
Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear and Spike Milligan are good authors to read if you like nonsense poetry.
There are some particular types of language you can look out for in poetry.
Rhyme
This is where words with the same sound are used.
Shushup right now
That squalky row
Is keeping me from sleep!
Now and row rhyme.
Alliteration
This is when words start with the same sound. You’ll also find this used in advertising and newspaper headlines.
The slippery snake came sliding.
Similes
A simile describes something by comparing it to another thing using like or as.
The snake moved like a ripple on a pond.
It was as slippery as an eel.
Metaphor
A metaphor is a word or a phrase used to describe something as if it were something else.
A wave of terror washed over him.
The terror isn’t actually a wave, but a wave is a good way of describing the feeling.
Metaphors and similes make poetry more descriptive and interesting and are often used in other forms of writing.
Personification
Poets often give human feelings and actions to objects or ideas.
The friendly rain fell gently over the fields.
Newspaper stories always start with a headline that catches your attention and tells you what the story is about. The first paragraph then summarises (sums up) the whole story briefly. The rest of the story gives the reader all the details.
Some newspapers are chatty and informal and use terrible puns (word-play) in their headlines.
Adverts use persuasive writing to get you to buy things. Because people are trying to make their products sound good, you’ll hear lots of positive, persuasive words such as great, free, improved, new, brilliant and exclusive.
Although an advert should be factual (true), the writer probably won’t tell you what is bad about the thing they are selling.
Adverts and brochures often use glossy photographs of the things they are selling. When you see pictures of people in adverts, they are often smiling to show how happy they are with the product.
Reference books usually focus on a particular subject (for example, plants, history or science) and should have a clear, straightforward style.
The information in reference books is organised to make things easy to find. The information in a dictionary, for example, is organised alphabetically.
Many reference books have an index. This is an alphabetical list of all the things you’ll find in the book, and tells you which page each thing is on.
Reference books are often illustrated to give the reader even more information about the subject. The pictures may also have labels that will give you even more information.
People writing about history and people’s lives (biographies) will often use an informal style of writing to make the subject more interesting. You’ll find lots of descriptive language (adjectives and adverbs) in this sort of writing, and the writer may try to describe how people from the past felt, not just list what they did on a particular date.
Even if a non-fiction book is as descriptive and atmospheric as a novel (fictional story), it should be based on fact and not made up!
There are probably more than 250,000 English words. Pocket-sized dictionaries have only the most common words in them. Most English dictionaries will tell you what a word means and what class of word it is (for example, a noun, a verb or an adjective).
Foreign language dictionaries
These won’t tell you what a word means, but will tell you what word or phrase you would use in a foreign language to say the same thing.
Thesauruses
A thesaurus is a special kind of dictionary. It gives you a list of similar words that might be more suitable for what you are trying to say. For example, if you look up the word happy, a thesaurus may tell you that you could also use cheerful, content, thrilled or jumping for joy. A thesaurus is really useful if you find yourself using the same word over and over again, and when you want to find words that will make your writing more interesting.
Specialist dictionaries
Some dictionaries concentrate on a particular subject. For example you can get dictionaries of science, animals and history. These dictionaries have information on the words, phrases, people and things to do with just that one subject.
Illustrated dictionaries
Some dictionaries have illustrations in them to help show you what the words mean. Specialist dictionaries are often illustrated. For example, a dictionary of plants may be illustrated to show the reader what each plant looks like, and what the parts of the plants are called.
Electronic dictionaries
Lots of dictionaries are on CD-ROM or on the Internet. Unlike a book, you can use the computer to search the dictionary to find what you are looking for. And you may find films and sounds as well as text and images.
English Dictionaries
All dictionaries arrange their information alphabetically. Each piece of information is called an entry. So you’ll find words beginning with a at the front, and z at the back.
Because there are lots of words beginning with, for example, the letter a, all those words are arranged by which letter comes next, and so on.
So the word ant will come after the word ankle in a dictionary. The first two letters are the same, but the third letter is different, and t comes after k in the alphabet.
Finding a word
Searching in books
Because words are arranged alphabetically, it’s easy to find a word in a dictionary, just narrow down your search one letter at a time.
If you are looking for the word sunny in a dictionary, first find the section for the letter s, then narrow down your search by finding words starting with su, then the words starting with sun and finally look for sunny.
Searching in dictionaries on CD-ROMs or the Internet
Dictionaries you’ll find on a computer (electronic dictionaries) can be searched by typing the word you are looking for into a search box. The computer will then either show you the information on that word, or list the things it has found to do with that word.
Most electronic dictionaries will also let you browse through the entries just as you would if you were using a printed dictionary.
