ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
POETRY
Poetry is a form of literary expression that uses language to evoke emotion, convey meaning, and create beauty through the use of various techniques such as meter, rhyme, imagery, metaphor, and symbolism. It often employs a compact and condensed language…
THE SUBJECT OF A SENTENCE
Every simple sentence must have two basic elements which are: i. the thing/person we are talking about ii. what the thing/person is doing. The thing/person we are talking about indicated in (i) above is called the subject of the sentence.…
ADVERBIAL CLAUSES
The adverb clause is that part of a sentence which has a finite verb and as a unit behaves like an adverb. It may serve the following functions in a sentence. Adverbial clause of reason/cause. Adverbial clause of time. Adverbial…
ADJUNCTS
An adjunct is an adverbial, that is, a unit of language that performs the function of an adverb. What is unique or special about an adjunct is that it is part of the clause structure; that is, the adjunct is…
DECLENSION
Declension (otherwise known as the inflection of nouns and pronouns) is the change in form of nouns and pronouns to indicate person, number, case; and gender. Specifically, noun declension refers to the change in spelling or appearance of a noun…
ADJECTIVES
Adjectives are words that modify nouns or noun-equivalents and fellow adjectives. The italicised words below are some examples of adjectives: Professor Stefano is a seasoned scholar. He is prolific. He has produced many good works of art. Some people are…
VOICE
Voice refers to the form which a transitive verb assumes to show whether it acts or is acted upon. This implies that the verb has two voices: active and passive. The active voice is used when the subject of the…
PERSON, MOOD AND NUMBER AS GRAMMATICAL PROPERTIES OF VERBS
PERSON Person is the form of the verb which designates the person speaking (i.e. first person; e.g. I am), the person spoken to (i.e. second person; e.g. You are) and the person or thing spoken of (i.e. third person; e.g.…
THE FUTURE PERFECT TENSE
The Future Perfect Tense Form This tense is formed with shall/will + perfect infinitive (without to): shall + have spoken = (We) shall have spoken. will + have read = (You) will have read. Functions The future perfect tense…
THE PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE
The Present Perfect Continuous Tense Form The present perfect continuous tense is formed by adding the present participle to the present perfect tense of the verb to be: has/have + been + – ing. Examples She has been sleeping. We…
THE FUTURE TENSE AND FUTURE CONTINUOUS TENSE
The Future Tense Form The future tense is formed with shall/will + the bare infinitive: shall + sing = shall sing. will + dance = will dance. Usually, shall/will + bare infinitive is used for the first person singular and…
THE SIMPLE PAST TENSE AND PAST CONTINUOUS TENSE
The Simple Past Tense Form The past tense of regular verbs is formed by adding ed to the infinitive form of the verb or by adding d to the regular verb if its infinitive form ends in e: But the…
THE PRESENT CONTINUOUS TENSE
Form The Present continuous tense is made up of the present tense of the auxiliary verb to be and the present participle. (i.e. to be + the infinitive + ing): I am singing (am + sing +ing = am singing).…
SEQUENCE OF TENSES
Sequence of Tenses informs us that the tense of a verb in the subordinate clause agrees in a logical sequence with the tense of a verb in the main clause. This implies that verbs in the main and subordinate clauses…
GRAMMATICAL PROPERTIES OF VERBS
Verbs have five grammatical properties: Tense. Person. Mood. Number. Voice. These properties (otherwise known as features or characteristics of verbs) are sometimes called Verb Inflections because they show the changes in form or spelling exhibited by verbs to indicate…
ADVERBS
Adverbs are words that describe or modify verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, sentences, and sentence items, such as phrases and clauses, except nouns and nominals. Examples: Chinwe danced gracefully. Your food is almost/nearly ready. You acted too quickly. Lastly, we visited…
CONJUNCTIONAL IDIOMS
A conjunctional idiom is an idiom that performs the function of a conjunction. Usually, it appears as a compound conjunction or a conjunctional phrase. Some examples are: as long as (while). as if (as though). in that (because). for certain…
PREPOSITIONAL IDIOMS
Broadly speaking, prepositional idioms refer to the idiomatic use of prepositions after verbs, adjectives, verbal-nouns, etc, and with idiomatic phrases introduced by a preposition. Three striking differences exist between the idiomatic (prepositional idioms) and the unidiomatic uses of prepositions. The…
ADVERB IDIOMS
These function as adverbs and, as such, many of them can be replaced by simple adverbs. Some examples appear below: From the foregoing, it is evident that many adverb idioms begin with prepositions and end with nouns. But there are…
VERB IDIOMS
Verb idioms are variously referred to as group verbs, multi-word verbs or phrasal verbs, or action/being referent idioms. Some begin with verbs and end with adverb particles or prepositions [e.g. get at (reach), get off (escape), get through (succeed), hails…
NOUN IDIOMS
A noun idiom is a unique noun phrase with a unique meaning. It can be replaced by another noun phrase, usually a noun and its modifier(s), with a corresponding meaning. It normally begins with an article and ends with a…
NOUNS AND NOMINALS
The word “noun” is derived from the Latin word. “nomen”, which means name. Nouns are traditionally defined as names of persons, places, things, animals, days, months, associations, ideas, qualities, states, or actions. Examples Persons: John, Stephen, Innocent, Walter, Ngozi, Obi,…
DEFINITION OF PARTS OF SPEECH
Parts of speech are classes of words that perform different functions in the sentence. They are like members of a family, each member performing his assigned function for the smooth running of the entire family. And as every family has…
SYNTAX
Syntax, a very important branch of grammar, means the ordering or arrangement of words (from Greek syn “together” and taxis “arranging”) in a sentence and the grammatical rules governing this arrangement, the classification of sentences according to the class structure…
INTRODUCTION TO IDIOMS
An idiom is a group or sequence of words whose meaning cannot be deciphered logically through our knowledge of the constituent words in the group. It possesses a unique meaning and must be learnt as a whole. For instance, when…
INTRODUCTION TO VERBS AND VERBALS
When we talk of verbs and verbals in English, we loosely refer to finite and nonfinite verbs respectively. FINITE VERBS are of three kinds – transitive, intransitive and auxiliary. NON-FINITE (or INFINITE) VERBS are also of three kinds – gerunds,…
THE INFINITIVE
(Verb-noun, verb-adjective, and verb-adverb) Form The infinitive, derived from the Latin word infinitus, means infinity, unlimited, without end. It is, therefore, the form of the verb which is not limited by number or person. Although the infinitive form is…
RULES GOVERNING THE CONVERSION OF DIRECT SPEECH TO INDIRECT SPEECH
Seven cardinal principles (or changes) governing the conversion of direct speech to the indirect speech are: Verb changes. Pronoun changes. Adverb changes. Adjective changes. Structural changes. Punctuation/mechanical changes. Vocative changes. VERB CHANGES a) If the reporting verb in the…
SENTENCE PARTS
THE SUBJECT AND THE PREDICATE Notably, every sentence may be divided grammatically into two broad parts: Subject and Predicate. The subject may be a noun or a noun-equivalent, a noun phrase or a noun clause. The predicate embraces the verb…
THE GERUND
THE GERUND (a verb-noun: verb in appearance but noun in action) Form The gerund ends in -ing. (e.g. singing, swimming, teaching). It is the present. participial form of a verb employed as a noun in a sentence. Functions…
PHRASES AND CLAUSES
A Phrase is a group of words that contains neither a subject nor a predicate. It is used as a single part of speech. We have different kinds of phrases: noun phrase (which acts as a noun), adjective phrase (which…
DIRECT AND INDIRECT SPEECH
Direct Speech refers to the actual words that come out of the mouth of the speaker without any alteration whatsoever. In writing, the direct speech is marked off by quotation marks. E.g. “I am not a fool, ” he retorted.…
FIGURES OF SPEECH
Figures of speech refer to the connotative use of language. When a writer departs from (or moves beyond) the literal meanings (or denotations) of words for the sake of emphasis or vividness, we say that he is employing figures of…
ADVANTAGES OF READING LITERATURE
Literature is useful and beneficial to man in a number of ways: For Storage and Spread of Information: Like any other printed matter, literature stores and spreads information. It embodies fictive creations of various kinds and attempts to communicate emotions…
THE ESSENTIALS (ELEMENTS) OF LITERATURE (OR THE ESSENTIALS OF LITERARY WORKS)
The essential elements of literature or literary work (drama or fiction) are: Plot. Characterization. Theme. Point of view. Setting. Tone. Irony. Symbolism. 1) PLOT Plot is a pattern of carefully selected, causally related events containing conflict. It may be…
PROSE
Although drama and narrative poetry can be classified as fiction, the term fiction (or prose- fiction) is frequently associated with novels and short stories. For this reason, Fiction may be defined as a narrative writing drawn from the imagination or…
DRAMA
Drama is a story told in action by actors on a stage before an audience. Aristotle defined it as imitated human action. Most dramatic works can be classified as tragedy, comedy, tragicomedy, or melodrama. Drama is said to have originated…
THE LITERARY GENRES
Genre (a French word) means type or kind, and literary genres refer to aspects, kinds or types of literature. A general approach to literature recognises three broad genres: Poetry, Drama, and Prose -fiction (or Novel). POETRY Poetry refers to…
INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY APPRECIATION
THE MEANING OF LITERATURE The word “literature” is derived from the Latin word “littera meaning “a letter of the alphabet.” Literature in a wider sense, is the whole body of written or printed matter on any given subject, be it…
ERRORS IN SENTENCE STRUCTURE
The following errors are common in sentence structures. They should be avoided or corrected promptly wherever they intrude in our writing. (1) Sentence Fragment (or Period fault) A sentence fragment is an incomplete sentence, a phrase or a subordinate clause…
THE COLON
The colon (:) and the semicolon differ greatly in use. The semicolon is a strong separator almost equal to a period, and is used only between equal parts. The colon is an introducer: calling attention to something that is to…
RULES OF GRAMMATICAL CONCORD
Concord means agreement, and the rules of grammatical concord are the principles of agreement between words in the sentence. The two major forms of grammatical concord and the most rigorously applied in written English are: Subject – Verb Agreement. Pronoun…
THE SEMICOLON
The semicolon (;) is regularly a strong comma or a weak period. 1) The semicolon is used between two main clauses not joined by one of the simple co-ordinating conjunctions – ‘and’. ‘but’. ‘or’. ‘nor’. ‘for’. Property can be paid…
THE ORDER/PATTERN OF PREPOSITIONS AND QUESTION TAGS
The Order of Prepositions Usually, prepositions precede the words they govern. (e.g. Steve spoke to Sandra.) But sometimes, especially in questions, relative or interrogative clauses, idiomatic expressions, or commonly used expressions, prepositions come after the words they govern. He was…
THE SENTENCE
A sentence is a word or a group of words that makes a complete sense and stands separate from any other grammatical construction. It begins with a capital letter and ends with a period (for statements), a question mark (for…
THE COMMA
The comma (,) denotes a short pause. Commas are used for the following. 1. To separate items in a list or series; January, February, and March are the first three months of the year. 2. Words, phrases, or clauses…
NOMINALS
Nominals are words (such as pronouns and gerunds), phrases, or clauses which perform the functions of nouns. Functions: subject, direct object, indirect object, predicate noun, object complement, object of a preposition, etc. Kinds: There are six kinds of nominals in…
MODIFIERS
Modifiers are words that describe or qualify other words. Generally speaking, all adjectives and adverbs are called modifiers in contemporary English. Even adjective phrases and clauses, as well as adverb phrases and clauses, fall within the scope of this concept.…
CASE
In English, case refers to (the change in) the position or form of a noun (or pronoun) that indicates the grammatical relationship of the noun (or pronoun) to other words in the sentence. When a noun initiates an action, it…
CONCEPT OF LANGUAGE
Language may be defined as the general faculty of speech or as a nation’s unique means of communication. As the general faculty of speech, it refers to the aspect of human behaviour that involves the use of vocal sounds in…
