Abstract Nouns

An abstract noun is a type of noun that refers to something with which a person cannot physically interact.

Some words might function as verbs in some cases and abstract nouns in other cases.

I love my husband.

[love = action = verb]

Send them my love.

[love = abstract noun]

Sarah could taste cilantro in the salsa.

[could + taste = illustrate action. She can physically taste the salsa.]

Sarah has great taste in clothes.

[taste = preference]

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Acoustic phonetics

Is a subfield of phonetics which deals with acoustic aspects of speech sounds. Acoustic phonetics investigates properties like the mean squared amplitude of a waveform, its duration, its fundamental frequency, or other properties of its frequency spectrum, and the relationship of these properties to other branches of phonetics (e.g. articulatory or auditory phonetics), and to abstract linguistic concepts like phones, phrases, or utterances.

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Adjective of Quantity or Numeric Adjective

Adjectives are used in the sentence to define nouns as well as characterize them to differentiate from other nouns. Adjectives are words that describe the kind of noun, its state, quality, quantity, amount, etc in the sentence. It does not provide exact number of noun however tell only amount. It indicates ‘how much’ noun is there in the sentence. For example:

·         He is so

·         He has many

·         She is very poor

·         He has enough money to start business.

·         Employees have completed most of the tasks.

In the above sentences, so, many, very, enough and most words are adjective of quantity as they are showing the amount of noun.

Adjectives of quantity are generally used when we do not require denoting the exact number of noun such as number of hairs, number of rice grains, number of sugar crystals in a packet or spoon, etc. Sometimes, some of the indefinite numeral adjectives are considered as adjectives of quantity. You can see the difference through the following sentences:

·         She has bought some

·         He has bought some

Ø  If there is need to use all the adjectives in a sentence, we should use them in the proper order such as quantity, quality, size, and age of the noun. After that, we can use shape and color of the noun. We should use all the adjectives as per the availability and requirement of the noun or pronoun description in a sentence.

Ø  If there is occurrence of more than one adjectives of same type in a sentence, we separate them with a ‘comma’ or ‘and’ is used between the last two. Do not place comma in between the noun and adjective.

List of Adjectives of Quantity:

Adjectives of quantity help us in describing nouns especially when they do not require the exact number. Below is the list of commonly used adjectives of quantity:

·         Any: is generally used in the negative and interrogative kind of sentences.

·         Some: it is generally used in the affirmative sentences.

·         Little: means ‘hardly any’ or ‘very small quantity’ and generally used with the singular uncountable nouns.

·         Double: means two but not clearly states two in number.

·         Substantial: means something in bulk

·         Enough: it is used as both, adverb and adjective. As an adjective, it is used before the noun and as an adverb it is used after the noun.

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Allophones

Is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds (or phones) or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, [pʰ] (as in pin) and [p] (as in spin) are allophones for the phoneme /p/ in the English language.

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Antonym

Is a word that has the exact opposite meaning of another word. Most antonyms are pretty obvious, like "good" and "bad," or "black" and "white." Some words can be transformed into their antonyms simply by adding the prefixes "un," "in," or "non," as when "likable" is changed into its antonym, "unlikable." The word antonym itself takes the Greek word anti, meaning "opposite," and adds it to -onym, which comes from the Greek onoma, or "name." So antonym literally means "opposite-name."

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Articulatory phonetics

The branch of phonetics dealing with the motive processes and anatomy involved in the production of the sounds of speech. Explain how humans produce speech sounds via the interaction of different physiological structures.

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Auditory phonetics

Focuses on the perception of sounds or the way in which sounds are heard and interpreted. Thus, we may say that while articulatory phonetics is mainly concerned with the speaker, auditory phonetics deals with the other important participant in verbal communication, the listener.

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Auxiliary Verb

Recognize an auxiliary verb when you see one. Every sentence must have a verb. To depict doable activities, writers use action verbs. To describe conditions, writers choose linking verbs. Sometimes an action or condition occurs just once—bang!—and it's over.

Nate stubbed his toe.

He is miserable with pain.

Other times, the activity or condition continues over a long stretch of time, happens predictably, or occurs in relationship to other events. In these instances, a single-word verb like stubbed or is cannot accurately describe what happened, so writers use multipart verb phrases to communicate what they mean. As many as four words can comprise a verb phrase.

A main or base verb indicates the type of action or condition, and auxiliary—or helping—verbs convey the other nuances that writers want to express. Read these three examples:

Sherylee smacked her lips as raspberry jelly dripped from the donut onto her white shirt.

Sherylee is always dripping something.

Since Sherylee is such a klutz, she should have been eating a cake donut, which would not have stained her shirt.

In the first sentence, smacked and dripped, single-word verbs, describe the quick actions of both Sherylee and the raspberry jelly.

Since Sherylee has a pattern of messiness, is dripping communicates the frequency of her clumsiness. The auxiliary verbs that comprise should have been eating and would have stained express not only time relationships but also evaluation of Sherylee's actions.

Below are the auxiliary verbs. You can conjugate be, do, and have; the modal auxiliaries, however, never change form. 

Understand the dual nature of be, do, and have.

Be, do, and have are both stand-alone verbs and auxiliary verbs. When these verbs are auxiliary, you will find them teamed with other verbs to complete the verb phrase. Compare these sentences:

Freddy is envious of Beatrice’s steaming bowl of squid eyeball stew.

Is = linking verb.

Freddy is studying Beatrice’s steaming bowl of squid eyeball stew with envy in his eyes.

Is = auxiliary verb; studying = present participle completing the verb phrase.

We did our homework for Mrs. Long.

Did = action verb.

We’re not slackers! We did prepare our homework for Mrs. Long.

Did = auxiliary verb; prepare = main verb completing the verb phrase.

Selena has twelve orange goldfish in her aquarium.

Has = action verb.

Selena has bought a catfish to help keep the tank clean.

Has = auxiliary verb; bought = past participle completing the verb phrase.

Form progressive tenses with the auxiliary verb be.

All progressive tenses use a form of be. Present progressive follows this pattern:

AM, IS, OR ARE + PRESENT PARTICIPLE

Use the present progressive tense to convey an action or condition happening right now.

I am baking chocolate-broccoli muffins today.

Am = auxiliary verb; baking = present participle completing the verb phrase.

Past progressive follows this pattern:

WAS OR WERE + PRESENT PARTICIPLE

Use the past progressive tense to show either 1) an action or condition that continued in the past or 2) an action or condition interrupted by another.

Naomi was hoping for an A in her organic chemistry class.

Was = auxiliary verb; hoping = present participle completing the verb phrase.

Future progressive looks like this:

WILL + BE + PRESENT PARTICIPLE

Use the future progressive tense to indicate an action that will continue in the future.

I will be growing broccoli in the backyard this spring.

Will, be = auxiliary verbs; growing = present participle completing the verb phrase.

Form passive voice with be.

You can make any transitive verb—an action verb that can take a direct object—passive with the auxiliary verb be.

Active voice looks like this:

SUBJECT + VERB + DIRECT OBJET

Example:

Frank devoured a bacon double cheeseburger.

Passive voice makes these changes:

DIRECT OBJET AS SUBJECT + FORM OF BE + PAST PARTICIPLE + BY + SUBJECT AS OBJECT OF THE PREPOSITION

The double bacon cheeseburger was being devoured by Frank.

Form perfect tenses with have.

All perfect tenses use a form of have. Present perfect follows this pattern:

HAS OR HAVE + PAST PARTICIPLE

Use the present perfect tense to convey an action or condition that began in the past but continues [or is finished] in the present.

Marge has bought earplugs to drown out her husband's snoring.

Has = auxiliary verb; bought = past participle completing the verb phrase.

Past perfect follows this pattern:

HAD + PAST PARTICIPLE

Use the past perfect tense to show that one action in the past occurred before another.

Because Marge had purchased the earplugs, she no longer fantasized about smothering George with a pillow.

Had = auxiliary verb; purchased = past participle completing the verb phrase.

Future perfect follows this pattern:

WILL + HAVE + PAST PARTICIPLE

Use the future perfect tense to indicate that an action will be finished in the future.

This Sunday, Marge will have gotten an entire week of uninterrupted sleep.

Will, have = auxiliary verbs; gotten = past participle completing the verb phrase.

Form emphatic tenses with do.

When you use a form of do as an auxiliary verb, you form the emphatic tense. This tense is useful for asking questions or emphasizing an action. The patterns look like these:

FORM OF DO + MAIN VERB

FORM OF DO + SUBJECT + MAIN VERB… ?

I did not eat your leftover pizza!

Did = auxiliary verb; eat = main verb completing the verb phrase.

Do you always accuse the first person you see?

Do = auxiliary verb; accuse = main verb completing the verb phrase.

Doesn't the evidence point to Samuel, who still has a bit of black olive stuck to his front tooth?

Does = auxiliary verb; point = main verb completing the verb phrase.

Understand the job of modal auxiliary verbs.

Modal auxiliary verbs never change form. You cannot add an -ed, -ing, or -s ending to these words. Can, could, may, might, must, ought to, shall, should, will, and would have only one form.

You can use modal auxiliary verbs in these patterns:

MODAL + MAIN VERB

MODAL + BE + PRESENT PARTICIPLE

MODAL + HAVE + PAST PARTICIPLE

With modal auxiliaries, you can indicate necessity or obligation:

To lose her orange glow, Yvonne should eat fewer carrots.

John must remember his wife's birthday this year.

If Cecilia wants a nice lawn, she ought to be raking the leaves.

Or you can show possibility:

Fred might share his calculus homework if you offer him a slice of pizza.

Ann could have run the half marathon if she had started to train four months ago.

Modal auxiliaries also show willingness or ability:

Nicole will babysit your pet iguana for a reasonable fee.

Jason can pass chemistry this semester if he stops spending his study time at the arcade.

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Barbarism

The use of words, forms, or expressions considered incorrect or unacceptable

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Cacophony

Is a jarring, discordant mix of sounds that have no business being played together. In literature, however, the term refers to the use of words with sharp, harsh, hissing and unmelodious sounds primarily those of consonants to achieve desired results.

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Calque or Loan Translation

Is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word, or root-for-root translation. Used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language while translating its components so as to create a new lexeme in the target language.

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Collective Nouns

Collective nouns are nouns that refer to a group of something in a specific manner. Often, collective nouns are used to refer to groups of animals.

Consider the following sentences:

Look at the gaggle of geese.

There used to be herds of wild buffalo on the prairie.

A bevy of swans is swimming in the pond.

A colony of ants live in the anthill.

In the above examples, gaggle, herds, bevy, and colony are collective nouns.

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Common Noun

Common nouns are words used to name general items rather than specific ones.

Examples

You broke my favorite mug.

I really want a new pair of jeans.

I wish I could remember the name of that painter.

They’re all waiting for us at the restaurant.

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Comparative Adjectives

Comparative adjectives are those which imply increase or decrease of the quality or quantity of the nouns. It is used to compare two things in a clause. Adjectives are generally made comparative by adding 'er' to the original work like nicer, taller, smarter, etc; there are some exceptions also.

Other examples are:

·         The detective is younger than the thief

·         Science is more important than math in these days.

·         This school is better than the last one I attended.

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Connotation

             Refers to a meaning that is implied by a word apart from the thing which it describes explicitly. Words carry cultural and emotional associations or meanings in addition to their literal meanings or denotations.

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Compound Nouns

        A compound noun contains two or more words which join together to make a single noun.

Compound nouns can be:

·         words written together

softball        and      toothpaste

·         words that are hyphenated

six-pack       and    son-in-law

·         separate words

post office    and    upper class 

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Compound word

                Are formed when two or more words are put together to form a new word with a new meaning. They can function as different parts of speech, which can dictate what form the compound takes on. 

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Countable Nouns

          These count nouns can occur in both single and plural forms, can be modified by numerals, and can co-occur with quantificational determiners like many, most, more, several, etc.

For example, the noun bike is a countable noun.

Consider the following sentence:

There is a bike in that garage.

In this example, the word bike is singular as it refers to one bike.

However, bike can also occur in the plural form.

There are six broken bikes in that garage.

In this example, the noun bikes refers to more than one bike as it is being modified by the numeral six.

In addition, countable nouns can co-occur with quantificational determiners.

In that garage, several bikes are broken.

This sentence is grammatical, as the noun bike can take the modification of the quantificational determiner several.

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Definite Numeral Adjective

                Definite numeral adjectives are those adjectives which clearly show the exact number of nouns or its order.

For example:

·         One, two, three, four, twenty, thirty three, etc are known as cardinals.

·         First, second, third, fourth, seventh, tenth, etc are known as ordinals.

I saw two people playing football.

It was tenth football match in the city.

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Demonstrative Adjectives

                Demonstrative adjectives are used when there is a need to point specific things. The adjectives function as a way to demonstrate something and are similar to demonstrative pronouns. Here words such as this, that, these, those and what are used. Take, for instance, the sentence: 'If I hear that sound again, I will call the Police'. Here 'that' refers to a specific sound. Other examples are as follows:

    Whose is this bag?

    These mangoes are sour.

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