General English · English Language Proficiency

Phonetics is the scientific study of speech sounds: how they are made in the mouth, how they travel as sound-waves, and how they are heard. Subramaniam places it inside linguistics as the science of the spoken side of language, not of spelling. English spelling is a weak map of sound: put /pʊt/ and but /bʌt/ look alike and do not rhyme.

Phonetics has three branches. Articulatory phonetics studies how the body makes a sound — lungs, vocal cords, tongue, lips. Organs of speech, vowels and consonants belong to this branch. Acoustic phonetics studies the sound-wave: frequency and amplitude. Auditory phonetics studies how the ear and the brain receive the sound. English speech uses a pulmonic egressive air-stream.

Phonetic symbols are IPA letters: one symbol, one sound. Slashes mark a phoneme. A colon ː marks length. ˈ is primary stress. Language /ˈlæŋɡwɪdʒ/. Phonetics /fəˈnetɪks/. Ship /ʃɪp/. Sheep /ʃiːp/. Length keeps ship and sheep two words.

RP has 44 phonemes: 12 monophthongs, 8 diphthongs, 24 consonants. A diphthong is one gliding vowel, written with two IPA letters but counted as one sound: /eɪ/ in day, /aɪ/ in my, /əʊ/ in go.

A consonant is named by voicing, place and manner. /f/ voiceless labio-dental fricative (fan). /tʃ/ voiceless palato-alveolar affricate (church). /j/ voiced palatal approximant (yes). /θ/ voiceless dental fricative (thin). /r/ voiced post-alveolar approximant (red).

IPA /j/ is the sound in yes, not the letter j in jam (/dʒ/). /θ/ is not /t/: thin /θɪn/ is not tin /tɪn/. /r/ is post-alveolar, not retroflex.

Intonation is the rise and fall of pitch across a phrase. The main pitch movement sits on the nucleus, usually the last important content word. Stress chooses the strong syllable inside the word; intonation chooses the direction of the last strong beat.

A falling tone is the tune of a finished statement, a command, and a wh-question: “The room closes at ˈsix.” “What is your ˈname?” A rising tone is the tune of a yes–no question: “Is she ˈhere?” Subramaniam’s four kinetic tones are falling, rising, fall-rise (reservation) and rise-fall (surprise). A question mark does not always mean a rise: “Where do you ˈlive?” normally falls.

A prefix is added at the front of a base: un-, re-, dis-, in-/im-. A suffix is added at the end: -ness, -ly, -tion, -er. Prefixes often change meaning; suffixes often change word-class: quick (adjective) → quickly (adverb).

Ms Rao — noun (proper); quickly — adverb; issued — verb (past); two — determiner (numeral); day-passes — noun. Eight word-classes are named: noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, interjection. Articles sit with determiners.

Seven patterns: SV, SVO, SVC, SVA, SVOO, SVOC, SVOA. S subject, V finite verb, O object, C complement, A adverbial.

SV: The sparrow dropped. SVO: Anil borrowed a book. SVC: Ms Rao is a librarian. SVA: The jug is beside the cooler. SVOO: She gave him a register. SVOC: They made the room quiet. SVOA: He put the card on the desk. SVC describes the same person as the subject (“She became a doctor”); SVO names a different thing (“She visited a doctor”).

An comes before a vowel sound: an hour, an identity card, an old notice. A comes before a consonant sound: a university, a useful jug, a day-pass. The choice is sound, not spelling.

The is definite: second mention, unique things (the sun, the Ganga), superlatives. Zero article marks a general sense: Water is useful. Books are costly. A countable singular needs a determiner: a book or the book.

Twelve forms: three times × four aspects. A present perfect is not used with a finished past-time word: She wrote yesterday, not She has written yesterday. State verbs such as know are not normally continuous.

She writes a letter. She is writing a letter. She has written a letter. She has been writing a letter. She wrote a letter. She was writing a letter. She had written a letter. She had been writing a letter. She will write a letter. She will be writing a letter. She will have written a letter. She will have been writing a letter.

Modals add the speaker’s attitude. They take no -s and are followed by the base form. Two modals do not sit together. Ought to keeps to.

May: permission or possibility — You may sit after you write the register. Might: weaker possibility — It might rain in Bikaner. Will: prediction or promise — The room will close at six. Would: past of will in reported speech, or a polite request — Would you stamp the date? Ought to: duty — You ought to return the book on the stamped date.

The finite verb follows the subject. Everyone, somebody, nobody, each, every take a singular verb: Everyone is in the queue. Phrases with as well as or with do not change the first subject: The librarian, as well as the students, is here.

There agrees with the real noun: There is a jug beside the cooler. There are two newspapers on the shelf. The news is always singular. Ten rupees is a fine.

(i) A book was borrowed by Anil. (ii) Notes were being written by her. (iii) The room will be closed by them. (iv) A pass has been issued by the librarian. (v) Let the register be opened. The object of the active becomes the subject of the passive; be matches the tense; the past participle follows; she becomes her after by. Imperatives take Let.

(i) She said that she was copying the page. (ii) He said that he had paid the fine. (iii) Anil asked Ms Rao if he might sit there. (iv) She said that they had gone home the previous day. (v) He exclaimed that it was a very quiet room. Said to becomes asked in a question. Tenses step back when the reporting verb is past. Here/yesterday become there/the previous day. Exclamations become a that-clause with very.

(i) Simple — one finite verb (waited); Seeing is a participle. (ii) Compound — but joins two independent clauses. (iii) Complex — a that-clause. (iv) The sparrow which sits on the tree is small. (v) He copied the page and he closed the book. “He copied the page and closed the book” is simple with a compound predicate.

(i) The jug is not full. / Is the jug full? (ii) He does not copy the page. / Does he copy the page? (iii) She did not pay the fine. / Did she pay the fine? (iv) You may not sit. / May you sit? (v) There are not two newspapers. / Are there two newspapers? If an auxiliary is there, not follows it. If not, do/does/did is inserted. Be as a main verb does not take do.

(i) Let the door be shut. (ii) She asked where the jug was. (iii) She is so tired that she cannot copy. (iv) Everybody was on time. (v) The room is very quiet. Imperative passive takes Let. A wh-question keeps the wh-word and statement order. Too…to becomes so…that…cannot.

(a) On 20 September. (b) A dust storm in Bikaner. (c) Beside the cooler. (d) Two rupees a day. (e) A closed afternoon in the reading room. (f) Shut with a lock so that it would not open.

A sparrow comes down to the courtyard tree. The college bell rings once. We stay under the shade with our notes. The dust of Bikaner hangs in the air. The jug by the cooler waits. We will return when the afternoon is open again.

The picture is a stone that never rests: no moss can grow on it. The meaning is that a person who keeps changing place, book, or plan never gathers the small gain that stays with one work. A student who starts Thomson–Martinet on Monday, Murphy on Tuesday, and a new notebook on Wednesday has motion and no page. The same student who sits with one grammar for a week gathers the moss of a finished unit. A librarian who starts a second register before the first is ruled has two books and no usable fine-column. The saying is not “never move.” A day-pass is a short move that still lets the afternoon’s work grow. A rolling stone gathers no moss because the kept place — one desk, one page, one stamped date — is where the small true gain can sit.

To: principal@college.ac.in

Subject: Request — reading room until 7 p.m., 22–27 September — roll 2145

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am a student of B.A. Semester II, roll number 2145. I request that the reading room remain open until seven in the evening from 22 to 27 September, so that exam groups may sit after class. I shall keep the bag on the rack and return any day-pass at the door.

Yours faithfully,

Anil Sharma

At the door, 8 a.m.

Anil: Good morning, ma’am. The identity card is at home. May I take a day-pass?

Ms Rao: Good morning. Write your name, class and roll number. The queue starts here.

Anil: Anil Sharma, B.A. Semester II, 2145. Where is the water jug?

Ms Rao: Beside the cooler. Bags on the rack. The room closed yesterday afternoon for dust; it is open now.

Anil: Thank you. I shall return the pass at six.

Ms Rao: Please do. Next.

How to obtain a day-pass in the college reading room. 1. Join the queue at the door at eight. 2. Tell the librarian that the identity card is not with you. 3. Write your name, class and roll number in the day-pass register — for example Anil Sharma, B.A. Semester II, 2145. 4. Leave the bag on the rack. 5. Sit with the pass visible. 6. Return the pass when you leave, on or before six.

Speech sounds divide first into vowels and consonants. A vowel is made with an open mouth-path: the tongue shapes a cavity, and the air is not stopped or hissed. All RP vowels are voiced. The twelve RP monophthongs are /iː ɪ e æ ɑː ɒ ɔː ʊ uː ʌ ɜː ə/. Close vowels sit with the tongue high: /iː ɪ uː ʊ/. Open vowels sit with the tongue low: /æ ɑː ɒ/. Front, central and back name the place along the mouth. Rounded lips mark /ɒ ɔː ʊ uː/. A monophthong stays on one quality: /e/ in bed. A diphthong glides: /aɪ/ in time. RP’s eight diphthongs are /eɪ aɪ ɔɪ əʊ aʊ ɪə eə ʊə/ — day, my, boy, go, now, here, hair, poor. A diphthong is one sound, written with two IPA letters. Indian English often uses a pure /o/ where RP has /əʊ/; the RP symbol is still /əʊ/.

A consonant has a closure or a narrow gap. It is named by voicing, place and manner. /p/ is a voiceless bilabial plosive; /s/ a voiceless alveolar fricative; /m/ a voiced bilabial nasal. Place runs from both lips to the glottis: bilabial, labio-dental, dental, alveolar, post-alveolar, palato-alveolar, palatal, velar, labial-velar, glottal. Manner names how the air is treated: plosive, affricate, fricative, nasal, lateral, approximant. /w/ is a voiced labial-velar approximant, not labio-dental /v/. RP /r/ is post-alveolar.

Three contrasts Indian speakers often merge, so two English words stay two words only if the RP sound is kept. Dental /θ ð/ are friction with the tongue on the teeth: thin /θɪn/ is not tin /tɪn/. /v/ is labio-dental friction; /w/ is a rounded approximant — vest /vest/ is not west /west/. Many Indian languages use retroflex /ʈ ɖ/; RP /t d/ are alveolar, made on the ridge, not curled back. The same three labels that name a consonant also keep these pairs apart. Vowels, consonants and diphthongs together make Subramaniam’s forty-four phonemes: twelve pure vowels, eight glides, twenty-four consonants. So dental /θ ð/, labio-dental /v/ against labial-velar /w/, and alveolar /t d/ against retroflex /ʈ ɖ/ keep English words apart: day /deɪ/, thin, west, tin.

Tense places the verb in time. Twelve forms arise from three times and four aspects. Present simple names a habit or a fact: Anil writes his roll in the register every morning. Present continuous names an act now: He is writing 2145. Present perfect names a past act with a present result: He has written the register; the line is full. Past simple names a finished past, often with a time: The room closed at two on 20 September. “The room has closed at two yesterday” is not standard English. Past perfect names the earlier of two past acts: He had written the pass before the door was locked. Future simple names a prediction or a promise: The room will open at eight. State verbs such as know and believe are not normally continuous. A student knows the fine. The continuous form is not used with know.

Modals add the speaker’s attitude to the main verb: ability, permission, possibility, obligation, advice. The closed group is can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, would, ought to, and the semi-modals need, dare, used to. A modal does not take -s: She can write. The form She cans write is not used. After a modal the base form is used, without to — except ought to, used to, have to. Two modals do not sit together. Can marks ability or permission: Anil can sit when the pass is written. May marks permission: You may take a day-pass. Must marks obligation or a strong deduction: You must wear the card. He is not in the queue; he must be at the rack. Must not is prohibition; need not is absence of obligation. You need not wait after six; the room is closed. Should and ought to mark advice: You should copy the missed page. You ought to return the book on the stamped date. Dare as a modal is chiefly negative: She dare not speak in the queue. Would marks a polite request or the past of will: Would you stamp the date? He said he would return the pass.

Tense and modal meet in one spoken line. “May I sit here?” is present permission. “He said that he might sit there” is the same permission reported. “The room will close at six” is future simple; “The room would close at six, he said” is that future in the past. Concord still holds under both: Everyone is in the queue. There are two newspapers. The news is on the shelf. May, might, will and ought to sit on the same queue: permission at the desk, a weaker chance of rain, the close at six, and the duty of the stamped date.

Transformation keeps the meaning and changes the form. In the active voice the subject is the doer: Anil borrowed a book. In the passive the subject is the receiver: A book was borrowed by Anil. The object of the active becomes the subject of the passive; a form of be matches the tense; the past participle follows; by plus the old subject stays if the doer still matters. Pronouns change: she was writing notes becomes notes were being written by her. Present perfect has issued becomes has been issued. Future will close becomes will be closed. Imperatives take Let: Open the register becomes Let the register be opened. Intransitive verbs have no passive: The sparrow dropped has no object to promote. The cooler leaked has no object either.

Direct speech quotes the exact words inside inverted commas. Indirect speech reports those words as a clause. Said to plus object becomes told or asked. When the reporting verb is past, tenses step back: I am copying becomes she was copying; I have paid becomes he had paid; May I sit here becomes Anil asked if he might sit there; We went home yesterday becomes they had gone home the previous day. What a quiet room becomes he exclaimed that it was a very quiet room. Where is the jug becomes she asked where the jug was, with statement order. No back-shift when the fact is always true: water boils at 100°C stays in the present. Inverted commas are dropped.

A declarative states; a negative denies; an interrogative asks. If there is an auxiliary, not follows it and the auxiliary comes before the subject: The jug is full; The jug is not full; Is the jug full? If there is no auxiliary, do, does or did is inserted: He copies the page; He does not copy the page; Does he copy the page? She paid the fine; She did not pay the fine; Did she pay the fine? Be as a main verb does not take do. There are two newspapers; Are there two newspapers? Too tired to copy becomes so tired that she cannot copy. Nobody was late becomes Everybody was on time. How quiet the room is becomes The room is very quiet. The meaning stays; only the form changes.

The proverb first gives a picture of a jump. A leap without a look lands in a drain, a locked door, or a fine. The meaning is that a small look before the act costs less than a large repair after it. Look here is not delay for its own sake. It is the check that names the next fact: the hours, the stamped date, the dust in the air, the identity card still at home.

A student who looks at the notice before he walks to the stair on 20 September sees that the afternoon is closed for dust in Bikaner, and does not leap toward a locked door. The same student who leaps first stands in the heat with a bag and no seat. A student who looks at the stamped date before he leaves a book in his locker does not later pay two rupees a day. A student who looks for the identity card at eight, and finds it missing, takes the day-pass queue rather than arguing at the desk. Ms Rao’s register is that look made into a line: name, class, roll 2145. A water jug placed beside the cooler is a look by the college: students need not leap out of their seats for a drink. The courtyard tree is shade only if one looks up before noon in Bikaner heat.

The saying has a limit. A look that never leaps is only delay. A page copied without being read is a look that did not land. A notice printed without a date looks careful and is not. Look before you leap because the small true check — the hours, the card, the dust, the stamp — spares the leap that would have met a locked door, a fine, or an empty afternoon.

College reading room — public notice. Last updated 21 September. This page states hours, a day-pass, bags, a fine, and one closed afternoon.

Hours. The room is open from eight in the morning to six in the evening, Monday to Saturday, except the second Saturday of each month. On 20 September the room closed for one afternoon because of a dust storm in Bikaner; it opened again at eight the next morning. A request that the room stay open until seven for exam week may be sent to the Principal; until that is granted, six remains the close.

Entry. Students show an identity card at the door. If the card is at home, Ms Rao issues a day-pass when the name, class and roll number are written in the register. Bags stay on the rack. A water jug stands beside the cooler so that a seat need not be left. Newspapers in Hindi and English lie on two shelves; they were covered with a cloth on the dust afternoon.

Books. Write the title, the accession number and the class in the issue register before a book is taken. A book returned after the stamped date is fined two rupees a day. Return a day-pass when you leave. Thomson and Martinet, Practical English Grammar, is accession 421; the same rule of stamp and fine applies to that copy as to every other book.

Seats. The room has eighty seats. After four in the afternoon the room is often quiet; exam groups remain. The courtyard tree gives a little shade. Read the notice of hours on the stair on the way in. Silence is expected after four. Newspapers may be read at the shelves; they are not issued. Questions about a day-pass, a fine or a missing card may be asked at the librarian’s desk.

A phoneme is a contrast-unit of the language: a sound-difference that makes two words. /pɪn/ pin and /bɪn/ bin are two English words because /p/ and /b/ contrast. Slashes / / mark a phoneme. Square brackets [ ] mark a fine phonetic detail.

Phonetics describes the sound itself: how it is made, how it travels, how it is heard. Phonology asks which differences a language treats as different words. Phonetics gives the IPA map; phonology names which IPA differences matter in English.

RP has 44 phonemes: 12 monophthongs /iː ɪ e æ ɑː ɒ ɔː ʊ uː ʌ ɜː ə/, 8 diphthongs /eɪ aɪ ɔɪ əʊ aʊ ɪə eə ʊə/, 24 consonants. A diphthong is one gliding vowel, counted as one sound.

Day /deɪ/. My /maɪ/. Go /ɡəʊ/. About /əˈbaʊt/. Schwa /ə/ is the unstressed vowel in about. /eɪ/ is one phoneme, not two.

Dental /θ ð/ against alveolar /t d/: thin /θɪn/ is not tin /tɪn/; this /ðɪs/ is not /dɪs/. The tongue is on the teeth for /θ ð/, on the ridge for /t d/.

/v/ against /w/: vest /vest/ is not west /west/. /v/ is labio-dental friction; /w/ is a labial-velar approximant. Retroflex /ʈ ɖ/ against alveolar /t d/: RP /t d/ are made on the ridge, not curled back.

Word stress is the extra force on one syllable. ˈ marks primary stress; ˌ secondary. Stress is not intonation.

ˈrecord /ˈrekɔːd/ (noun) against reˈcord /rɪˈkɔːd/ (verb). ˈpresent /ˈpreznt/ (noun) against preˈsent /prɪˈzent/ (verb). Education /ˌedʒʊˈkeɪʃn/. Words in -tion take stress on the syllable just before the suffix.

Noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, interjection. Articles sit with determiners and mark a noun.

The — determiner (article); old — adjective; notice — noun; on — preposition; the — determiner; stair — noun; was torn — verb (past passive); yesterday — adverb of time.

If the word after the verb describes the same person as the subject, the pattern is SVC: She became a doctor. If it names a different person or thing, it is SVO: She visited a doctor. The torn notice is old — SVC.

SV: The notice hung. SVO: Anil copied a page. SVC: The notice is old. SVA: The books are on the shelf. SVOO: She gave him a pen. SVOC: They made her librarian. SVOA: She put the notice on the stair.

Some in a positive sentence: There are some newspapers on the shelf. Any in a negative or a question: Are there any seats? There are not any bags at the desks.

Much with uncountable nouns: much water, much time. Many with countable plurals: many books, many seats. Few with countable plurals (not many): few seats after four. Little with uncountable (not much): little time before six. A few / a little mark a small amount that is still enough.

She issues a day-pass. She is issuing a day-pass. She has issued a day-pass. She has been issuing a day-pass. She issued a day-pass. She was issuing a day-pass. She had issued a day-pass. She had been issuing a day-pass. She will issue a day-pass. She will be issuing a day-pass. She will have issued a day-pass. She will have been issuing a day-pass.

Present perfect is not used with a finished past-time word: She issued a pass yesterday, not She has issued a pass yesterday.

Could is past ability, polite permission, or weaker possibility: She could read IPA last year. Could I sit here? Might is weaker possibility: The notice might be on the stair. Shall with I/we offers or asks: Shall I write the register? Need as a modal is chiefly negative: You need not wait after six. Absence of obligation is need not; prohibition is must not.

A modal takes no -s and is followed by the base form. Two modals do not sit together.

Collective nouns take singular when the group is one unit, plural when the members are in view: The team is strong. The team are wearing their colours. The news is always singular. Physics is a subject.

Scissors and trousers are plural unless a pair of scissors is is used. None of + plural noun: None of the seats is empty; none of the seats are empty is also used. The finite verb follows the subject, not a nearer noun: The box of books is heavy.

(i) The page was copied by her. (ii) The newspapers are being covered by them. (iii) The date will be stamped by Ms Rao. (iv) The notice has been torn by him. (v) Let the door not be shut. She becomes her after by. A negative imperative keeps not with Let.

(i) She said that she worked at the desk. (ii) He asked me if I had paid. (iii) Ms Rao told me not to tear the notice. (iv) Anil said that he would write 2145. (v) She said that she might sit there. A negative command becomes not to. Shall becomes would. May becomes might.

(i) Simple — one finite verb (hung); Torn is a participle. (ii) Compound — so joins two independent clauses. (iii) Complex — although opens a subordinate clause. (iv) I met Ms Rao who stamps the date. (v) The cloth slipped and the newspapers were dusty.

(i) The notice is not torn. / Is the notice torn? (ii) She does not stamp the date. / Does she stamp the date? (iii) He did not tear the paper. / Did he tear the paper? (iv) You should not wait. / Should you wait? (v) There is not a cloth on the shelf. / There is no cloth on the shelf. / Is there a cloth on the shelf?

(i) You are requested to stamp the date. (ii) She asked who had torn the notice. (iii) The notice is so torn that it cannot be read. (iv) Everybody was out of the queue. / The queue was empty. (v) This is a very dusty shelf.

(a) 421. (b) Thomson and Martinet, Practical English Grammar. (c) On the stair. (d) With a cloth. (e) Accession 421 and a torn notice. (f) The number given to a book in the library record.

Dust lies on the newspapers even after they have been covered. The torn notice on the stair still names the hours if the loose corner is held. We copy one page and go. The red stamp stays on the date. Tomorrow the same stair will meet us.

The picture is a bright surface that is not the metal it pretends to be. The meaning is that a shining look is not the same as true worth. A new notebook that glitters on the first page is not gold if the page is not read. A torn notice that still names the hours is gold without glitter. A day-pass written in a hurry, with the roll number wrong, glitters as entry and is not a usable line in the register. Accession 421 on Thomson–Martinet is a dull number and a true book. The saying is not “never enjoy brightness.” It is that the test is the use, not the shine. All that glitters is not gold because the kept fact — a stamped date, a copied page, a correct roll 2145 — is worth more than a bright cover that does not open.

To: librarian@college.ac.in

Subject: Torn notice on the stair — hours not fully readable — roll 2145

Dear Ms Rao,

I am Anil Sharma, B.A. Semester II, roll 2145. The notice of hours on the stair is torn at the corner. The hours can be read only if the loose edge is held. I request a fresh copy of the same notice, with the date of printing, so that students on the stair can see eight to six without stopping twice.

Yours faithfully,

Anil Sharma

At the issue desk

Anil: Good afternoon, ma’am. The notice on the stair is torn. The hours are hard to read.

Ms Rao: Good afternoon. I have seen the corner. A fresh copy will go up this evening, with the date.

Anil: Thank you. I have written accession 421 — Thomson and Martinet. When must I return it?

Ms Rao: On the stamped date. Two rupees a day if it is late. Bag on the rack.

Anil: I shall. Good afternoon.

Ms Rao: Next.

Aim. To count how many of the eighty seats were in use at 4:15 p.m. on 19 September in the college reading room.

Method. A visit was made at 4:15 p.m. Occupied seats were counted from the door to the far window. Bags on the rack were not counted as seats. The librarian’s desk was not counted as a student seat.

Result. Eleven seats were occupied, all by exam groups. Sixty-nine seats were empty. The room was quiet. The count can be repeated on another weekday at the same time.

Word stress is the extra force on one syllable of a word. A syllable is a beat with a vowel at its centre: tea has one, teacher two, education four. In a word of two or more syllables, one beat is stronger — the primary stress, marked ˈ. A long word may also carry secondary stress ˌ. Stress is not spelling, and it is not intonation. Intonation is the tune of a whole phrase. English uses stress to keep words apart. ˈRecord /ˈrekɔːd/ is the noun; reˈcord /rɪˈkɔːd/ is the verb. ˈPresent is the noun; preˈsent is the verb. Words in -tion, -sion and -ic take stress on the syllable just before the suffix: eduˈcation, phoˈnetic. A dictionary entry is unfinished without these marks. Schwa /ə/ is the most common vowel in unstressed syllables: about /əˈbaʊt/, teacher /ˈtiːtʃə/.

Morphology studies how sounds build words. A prefix is a bound form added at the front of a base: un- (unhappy), re- (rewrite), dis- (disagree), in-/im- (impossible), pre- (prefix). A suffix is added at the end: -ness (kindness), -ly (quickly), -tion (education), -er (teacher), -ful (useful). Prefixes often change meaning; suffixes often change word-class: kind (adjective) becomes kindness (noun) and kindly (adverb). A bound form cannot stand alone as a word. Free forms can: book, sit, old.

Eight parts of speech are named: noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, interjection. Articles a, an, the sit with determiners and mark a noun. In “The old notice on the stair was torn yesterday”: The — determiner; old — adjective; notice — noun; on — preposition; stair — noun; was torn — verb; yesterday — adverb. In “Ms Rao quickly issued two day-passes”: Ms Rao — noun; quickly — adverb from quick + -ly; issued — verb; two — determiner; day-passes — noun. Stress, prefix, suffix and word-class therefore meet on one line: the strong syllable is marked, the bound form is named, and the slot in the sentence is named. Prefix, suffix and word-class are named on the same line as the stress mark.

A determiner sits at the front of a noun phrase and marks the noun. Articles, demonstratives, possessives, quantifiers and numerals belong here. A/an is indefinite; an comes before a vowel sound: an hour, an identity card, an old notice, an accession number. A comes before a consonant sound: a university, a useful book, a day-pass, a torn corner. The is definite: the issue register, the Ganga, the sun, second mention of the notice. Zero article marks a general sense: Water is useful. Books are costly. A countable singular noun needs a determiner: a book or the book, not a bare book as a whole noun phrase. Some stands in a positive sentence: There are some newspapers on the shelf. Any stands in a negative or a question: Are there any seats after four? Much goes with uncountable nouns; many with countable plurals: much time, many seats. Few and little mark small amounts; a few and a little mark a small amount that is still enough. Each student has a card. Two rupees is the fine — the numeral two is a determiner; the verb is still singular because a sum is singular.

Concord is the rule that the finite verb matches the subject in number and person. The finite verb follows the subject, not a noun that sits nearer the verb. The box of books is heavy. The row of magazines was wet. The accession number of the books is 421. With neither…nor the verb follows the nearer subject: Neither the students nor the librarian is at the desk. Neither the librarian nor the students are at the desk. Everyone is in the queue. None of the seats is empty in careful style; none of the seats are empty is also heard. The news is always singular. A pair of scissors is on the desk; scissors are on the desk. There agrees with the real noun: There is a cloth on the shelf. There are two newspapers. Titles, sums and distances are singular: The Arabian Nights is a book. Ten rupees is the fine. Two kilometres is a short walk. The teacher, with the students, is here. The team is strong when the group is one unit; the team are wearing their colours when the members are in view.

Determiner and concord therefore work together. The determiner marks which noun is meant; the verb then matches that noun. An old notice was torn — was matches notice, not stair. Two day-passes were issued — were matches passes. The news is on the shelf — is matches news, even though newspapers lie beside it. Was matches notice, not stair; were matches day-passes; is matches news.

A simple sentence has one finite verb. Torn at the edge, the notice still hung is simple: hung is the only finite verb; Torn is a participle. Seeing the queue, we waited is simple for the same reason. A compound sentence joins two independent clauses with and, but, or, so: She was late so she ran. The cloth slipped and the newspapers were dusty. He copied the page and he closed the book. He copied the page and closed the book is simple with a compound predicate — one subject, two verbs — not a compound sentence. A complex sentence hangs a subordinate clause on a main clause with when, because, although, who, which or that: Although the notice was torn, we read it. I know that the fine is two rupees. I met Ms Rao who stamps the date. The sparrow which sits on the tree is small.

Transformation of clause-type keeps the meaning. Two simple sentences The sparrow is small. It sits on the tree become the complex The sparrow which sits on the tree is small, or the compound The sparrow is small and it sits on the tree. Two simples He copied the page. He closed the book become the compound He copied the page and he closed the book. A participle phrase can keep the sentence simple: Copying the page, he closed the book still has one finite verb.

A declarative states; a negative denies; an interrogative asks. If there is an auxiliary, not follows it and the auxiliary comes before the subject: The notice is torn; The notice is not torn; Is the notice torn? You should wait; You should not wait; Should you wait? If there is no auxiliary, do, does or did is inserted and the main verb returns to the base: She stamps the date; She does not stamp the date; Does she stamp the date? He tore the paper; He did not tear the paper; Did he tear the paper? Be as a main verb does not take do. There is a cloth on the shelf; Is there a cloth on the shelf? Too torn to read becomes so torn that it cannot be read. Nobody was in the queue becomes Everybody was out of the queue, or The queue was empty. What a dusty shelf this is becomes This is a very dusty shelf. The meaning stays; only the form changes.

The proverb first names knowledge as a kind of power: not force, not a loud voice, but the ability to act because a fact is held. A student who knows the hours eight to six does not stand on a locked stair at two on a dust afternoon. A student who knows that a torn notice still names those hours, if the corner is held, has a small power the student who walks past does not have. Accession 421 is a dull number until it is knowledge: Thomson and Martinet, Practical English Grammar, on the issue register, roll 2145. That knowledge is the power to find the book again, to return it on the stamped date, and to pay two rupees only if the date is missed, not because the title was forgotten.

Power here is not rank. Ms Rao’s stamp in red is power because it is knowledge made visible: this date, this book, this fine. A day-pass is power for the afternoon because the name, class and roll are known in the register. A page copied and not read is not knowledge and is not power; it is motion. A bright notebook with no page finished is not knowledge. Knowledge that sits in one grammar for a week, one desk, one register line, gathers the power to write the next tense, the next passive, the next email without asking twice at the door.

The saying has a limit. Knowledge without a true act is only storage. A student who can name all twelve tenses and has not written one sentence in the register has a list and no power on the sheet. Knowledge is power because the kept fact — hours, accession, stamp, card — is what lets a student sit, borrow, return and write, when the stair is torn and the afternoon is dusty.

Report on the torn notice on the stair to the reading room

To: The Principal

From: Anil Sharma, B.A. Semester II, roll 2145

Date: 21 September

Subject: Notice of hours torn at the corner; hours hard to read from the stair

Introduction. A visit was made on 21 September to the stair that leads to the reading room, to note whether the notice of hours could still be read after the dust of 20 September, and what should be printed next.

Findings. The notice still hangs on the stair. The lower corner is torn. The hours eight to six can be read if the loose edge is held; a student who does not stop cannot see the second Saturday closure. The reading room itself is in use. Eighty seats; two shelves of newspapers, covered with a cloth after the dust afternoon. Bags stay on the rack. Ms Rao issues a day-pass and stamps dates in red. Accession 421, Thomson and Martinet, was issued on 21 September. A late book is fined two rupees a day. The room closed for one afternoon on 20 September because of a dust storm in Bikaner, and opened at eight the next morning.

Conclusion. The room’s rules are clear at the desk. They are not clear on the stair. The purpose of the visit was met: the tear, the hours, the dust date and the issue of one book were seen and can be stated in numbers.

Recommendations. A fresh notice of hours, with the date of printing, should replace the torn copy this evening. A second line naming the 20 September closure is not needed once that afternoon has passed. If the Principal wishes, a short line can add that a day-pass is issued when the identity card is not produced. The stair is the first fact a late student meets; the hours should be readable without a second stop.

If the vocal cords vibrate, the sound is voiced: /b/, /z/, /m/, and all vowels. If they stay apart, it is voiceless: /p/, /s/, /h/, /θ/. /p/ and /b/ share place and manner; only voicing keeps pin apart from bin.

English speech uses a pulmonic egressive air-stream: air is pushed out from the lungs. Active articulators move (lower lip, tongue); passive articulators stay (upper teeth, alveolar ridge, palates).

Slashes / / mark a phoneme. Square brackets [ ] mark a fine phonetic detail. A colon ː after a vowel marks length in RP: /iː/ in seat. Schwa /ə/ is the most common vowel in unstressed syllables.

Teacher /ˈtiːtʃə/. Unhappy /ʌnˈhæpi/. Rewrite /ˌriːˈraɪt/. Primary stress ˈ; secondary ˌ. IPA /j/ is yes, not jam (/dʒ/).

/k/ voiceless velar plosive (cat). /z/ voiced alveolar fricative (zoo). /m/ voiced bilabial nasal (mat). /l/ voiced alveolar lateral (let). /h/ voiceless glottal fricative (hat).

Place names where the obstruction sits. Manner names how the air is treated.

A syllable is a beat with a vowel at its centre. Tea has one; teacher two; education four; unhappy three. A one-syllable word still has stress as a beat.

Tea /tiː/. Teacher /ˈtiːtʃə/. Education /ˌedʒʊˈkeɪʃn/. Unhappy /ʌnˈhæpi/. The prefix un- is not the strong beat in unhappy; the base carries primary stress.

A free form can stand alone as a word: happy, write, kind. A bound form cannot: un-, re-, -ness. Unhappy is prefix + free base. Rewrite is prefix + free base. Kindness is free base + suffix. The suffix -ness changes an adjective into a noun.

Eight parts of speech name the job of the finished word. Unhappy is an adjective; rewrite is a verb; kindness is a noun.

SV, SVO, SVC, SVA, SVOO, SVOC, SVOA.

SVA: The books are on the desk. SVOO: She gave him a receipt. SVOA: He put the book on the counter. SV: The queue moved. SVO: Anil returned a book. SVC: The receipt is a slip. SVOC: They made her librarian.

This (near, singular) / these (near, plural); that (far, singular) / those (far, plural): this receipt, those newspapers. Each and every take a singular noun and a singular verb: Each student has a card. Every book has an accession number.

No is a determiner of zero: There is no queue at six. No late book is free of the fine. A/an still follows the vowel-sound rule: an old receipt, a useful slip.

She returns the book. She is returning the book. She has returned the book. She has been returning the book. She returned the book. She was returning the book. She had returned the book. She had been returning the book. She will return the book. She will be returning the book. She will have returned the book. She will have been returning the book.

She returned the book yesterday, not She has returned the book yesterday.

Must is the speaker’s obligation or a strong deduction: You must return the book today. He is not in the queue; he must be at the desk. Have to is outside obligation, often a rule: Students have to write the accession number. Should is advice: You should copy the missed page.

Absence of obligation: You need not wait / You don’t have to wait after six. Prohibition: You must not tear the notice. Need not is not the same as must not.

With or, nor, either…or, neither…nor, the verb follows the nearer subject. Either the librarian or the students are at the desk. Either the students or the librarian is at the desk. Neither the receipts nor the register is missing. Neither the register nor the receipts are missing.

And normally makes a plural verb: Ram and Sita are here. Phrases with with do not: The librarian, with the students, is here. Everyone is present. The news is on the shelf.

(i) The book was returned by her. (ii) Receipts are being written by them. (iii) He will be fined by the clerk. (iv) Two rupees have been paid by him. (v) Let the receipt be kept.

(i) She said that she returned the book that day. (ii) He said that he had paid the fine the previous day. (iii) Anil requested Ms Rao to keep that receipt. (iv) She asked if I would stamp it. (v) He exclaimed with sorrow that he had lost the slip. Today/yesterday/this become that day/the previous day/that.

(i) Simple — one finite verb (left); Having paid is a perfect participle. (ii) Compound — yet. (iii) Complex — that-clause. (iv) This is the receipt with which Anil paid. / This is the receipt that Anil paid with. (v) She stamped the date and she returned the pass.

(i) The receipt is not ready. / Is the receipt ready? (ii) She does not return the book. / Does she return the book? (iii) He did not lose the slip. / Did he lose the slip? (iv) You do not have to wait. / Do you have to wait? (v) There was not a queue. / There was no queue. / Was there a queue? Have to takes do in the negative and in the question.

(i) Let the slip be returned. (ii) She exclaimed that he was very late. (iii) He is so poor that he cannot pay twice. (iv) All the books were safe. (v) It was a very long queue.

(a) Seven. (b) Two rupees a day. (c) A small printed slip. (d) After six. (e) Late books and printed receipts. (f) Given back to the library.

At noon in Bikaner the courtyard is white with heat. We sit inside until six. A receipt for a fine is a small paper and a true record. The shelf takes the book back. Tomorrow the same heat will be there, and the same desk.

The picture is a race won not by the first leap but by the pace that does not stop. The meaning is that a small daily act, kept, finishes more than a loud start that dies. A student who returns one page to Thomson–Martinet each evening, accession 421 in the register, finishes the unit. The same student who copies seven pages the night before the test meets unread lines and a fine of panic. Seven late books on 22 September are a rush that arrived after the stamped date; two rupees a day is the cost of that rush. A receipt is slow paper and true. Slow here is not lazy. It is the pace that still moves: eight o’clock queue, one line in the register, one book back to the shelf. Slow and steady wins the race because the kept step — one page, one date, one slip in the notebook — is still walking when the leap has already sat down.

To: librarian@college.ac.in

Subject: Thank you — receipt for one-day fine — roll 2145

Dear Ms Rao,

I am Anil Sharma, B.A. Semester II, roll 2145. Thank you for the printed slip dated 22 September, which records that I have paid two rupees for one late day on Thomson and Martinet, accession 421. I have kept the receipt in my notebook. I shall return the next book on or before the stamped date.

Yours faithfully,

Anil Sharma

At the return desk

Anil: Good afternoon, ma’am. I am returning Thomson and Martinet, accession 421. It is one day late.

Ms Rao: Good afternoon. The fine is two rupees. Here is a printed slip when you pay.

Anil: Anil Sharma, roll 2145. I have two rupees. Please keep this receipt in the file if you need a copy; I shall keep mine.

Ms Rao: Keep your copy. The book goes on the shelf. There is no queue after six.

Anil: Thank you. I shall be on time next week.

Ms Rao: Please. Next.

22 September

A two-rupee slip

I am Anil Sharma, roll 2145. I returned Thomson and Martinet one day late. Two rupees is not a large sum. The printed slip is the part I liked: a date, a title, accession 421, my name. I felt foolish at the desk and then useful, because the book is on the shelf again. Bikaner was hot at noon; inside, until six, the room was still. I shall not be late next week. I have put the receipt next to the day-pass I used in the dust week.

Phonetic symbols are the letters of the International Phonetic Alphabet, used to write speech. One symbol stands for one sound. Ordinary English spelling uses 26 letters for far more sounds; the letter c is /k/ in cat and /s/ in city. Slashes / / mark a phoneme, the contrast-unit of the language. Square brackets [ ] mark a fine phonetic detail. A colon ː after a vowel marks length in RP: sit /sɪt/ against seat /siːt/. The mark ˈ is primary stress; ˌ is secondary. Schwa /ə/ is the most common vowel in unstressed syllables: about /əˈbaʊt/, teacher /ˈtiːtʃə/. RP English has forty-four phonemes: twelve monophthongs, eight diphthongs, twenty-four consonants. A diphthong is one gliding vowel: /eɪ/ in day, /aɪ/ in my, /əʊ/ in go. IPA /j/ is the sound in yes, not the letter j in jam (/dʒ/). Unhappy is /ʌnˈhæpi/; rewrite is /ˌriːˈraɪt/; teacher is /ˈtiːtʃə/.

The organs of speech produce those sounds. Lungs supply air; the windpipe carries it to the larynx, which holds the vocal cords. Above the larynx, the pharynx is the throat-cavity. The oral cavity is the mouth; the nasal cavity is the nose-chamber. The tongue is the most movable organ: tip, blade, front, back and root. The teeth and lips close or narrow the path. The alveolar ridge is the bumpy shelf behind the upper teeth — RP /t d n s z l/ are made there. The hard palate is the bony roof; the soft palate (velum) rises to shut the nose for oral sounds, or drops for nasals /m n ŋ/. The velum ends in the uvula. The glottis is the opening between the cords; /h/ is glottal friction. English speech uses a pulmonic egressive air-stream: air is pushed out from the lungs. If the vocal cords vibrate, the sound is voiced; if they stay apart, it is voiceless. Active articulators move; passive articulators stay.

Symbols and organs therefore meet. The ridge that the tongue touches is why /t/ is alveolar; the IPA letter names that contact. Length on the page is the extra time the organs hold a close vowel. Stress is extra force from the lungs on one syllable. Forty-four is the count; the marks are / / [ ] ː ˈ ˌ ə; the body from lungs to lips makes them.

A sentence pattern is the order of slots in a clause. The five letters are S subject, V finite verb, O object, C complement and A adverbial. Seven patterns are SV, SVO, SVC, SVA, SVOO, SVOC and SVOA. From the return desk: SV — The queue moved. SVO — Anil returned a book. SVC — The receipt is a slip. SVA — The books are on the desk. SVOO — She gave him a receipt. SVOC — They made her librarian. SVOA — He put the book on the counter. If the word after the verb describes the same person as the subject, the pattern is SVC: She became a doctor. If it names a different person or thing, the pattern is SVO: She visited a doctor. The receipt is a slip is SVC; Anil returned a book is SVO. She became a doctor and She visited a doctor use the same letters after the verb and two different jobs.

Modals add the speaker’s attitude: ability, permission, possibility, obligation, advice. The closed group is can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, would, ought to, and the semi-modals need, dare, used to. A modal does not take -s: She can write. After a modal the base form is used, without to — except ought to, used to, have to. Two modals do not sit together. Must is the speaker’s obligation or a strong deduction: You must return the book today. He is not in the queue; he must be at the desk. Have to is outside obligation, often a rule: Students have to write the accession number. Should is advice: You should copy the missed page. Need not is absence of obligation: You need not wait after six. Must not is prohibition: You must not tear the notice. Could is past ability or polite permission: Could I sit here? Shall I write the register? offers help. Would you stamp the date? is a polite request. Dare as a modal is chiefly negative: She dare not speak in the queue.

Pattern and modal meet when the slots are right and the modal names the speaker’s attitude. You must put the book on the counter is SVOA plus obligation. She gave him a receipt is SVOO without a modal. May I return this book? is SVO inside a question whose first word is a modal. Concord still holds: Everyone is at the desk. There was a queue. Seven books were late. You must put the book on the counter is SVOA plus must; May I return this book? is a modal question.

Direct speech quotes the exact words inside inverted commas. Indirect speech reports those words as a clause. Said to plus object becomes told, asked or requested. When the reporting verb is past, tenses step back: I return the book today becomes she returned the book that day; I paid the fine yesterday becomes he had paid the fine the previous day; Will you stamp it becomes she asked if I would stamp it; Alas! I lost the slip becomes he exclaimed with sorrow that he had lost the slip. Please keep this receipt becomes Anil requested Ms Rao to keep that receipt. Commands take a to-infinitive; negative commands take not to. Questions take asked and if or a wh-word, with statement order. Today, yesterday and this become that day, the previous day and that. No back-shift when the fact is always true: water boils at 100°C stays in the present. Inverted commas are dropped.

Voice shows whether the subject does the action or receives it. Active: She returned the book. Passive: The book was returned by her. The object of the active becomes the subject of the passive; a form of be matches the tense; the past participle follows; by plus the old subject stays if the doer still matters. She becomes her after by. They are writing receipts becomes receipts are being written by them. The clerk will fine him becomes he will be fined by the clerk. A verb with two objects can give two passives: She gave him a receipt becomes He was given a receipt. He has paid two rupees becomes two rupees have been paid by him. Keep the receipt becomes Let the receipt be kept. Return the slip becomes Let the slip be returned. Intransitive verbs have no passive. The queue moved has no object to promote.

Narration and voice can both apply to one fact. She said, “I returned the book” becomes she said that she had returned the book, still active. The same fact in the passive: she said that the book had been returned by her. Transformation keeps the meaning. Seven late books on 22 September, two rupees, a printed slip, roll 2145 — those facts do not change when the form moves from inverted commas to a that-clause, or from Anil returned to the book was returned. The meaning stays; only the form changes.

The picture is a field and a weather. Hay is cut and dried while the sun is out; rain later will not wait for a second plan. The meaning is that a useful hour should be used while it is still that hour. Sun here is not luck only. It is the open door: eight to six, a desk, a stamp, a book on the shelf, a queue that is still short.

A student who sits with Thomson–Martinet, accession 421, on the afternoon the room is open, makes hay. The same student who says “I will copy seven pages after six” finds there is no queue after six because there is no room: the door is locked. 20 September’s dust storm closed one afternoon; the students who had already copied a page that morning had hay in the notebook. Seven late books on 22 September are hay left out in rain: the stamped date was the sun, and it had gone. A receipt printed the same day is hay made: two rupees, a slip, a fact in the file. Bikaner noon is a hard sun; the reading room until six is the shade in which the work can still be dried. A day-pass written at eight is hay while the morning shines; a quarrel at the desk at 5:55 is a field already dark.

The saying has a limit. Haste that is not timely is not hay; it is wet grass. A page copied unread, a notice printed without a date, a fine unpaid and then forgotten — each looks like use of the hour and is not. Make hay while the sun shines because the open hour — the desk before six, the stamp on the date, the short queue — will not stay, and the small true act done in that light is the only store the next locked door cannot take.

Report on late book returns, 22 September

To: The Principal

From: Anil Sharma, B.A. Semester II, roll 2145

Date: 23 September

Subject: Seven books returned late on 22 September; fines paid; receipts issued

Introduction. A visit was made on 22 September to the return desk of the reading room, to note how many books came back after the stamped date, what fine was taken, and whether a receipt was given.

Findings. Seven books came back late. The fine is two rupees a day. Ms Rao writes a small printed slip as a receipt when the fine is paid. Thomson and Martinet, accession 421, was among the seven; it is now on the shelf again. One of the seven was returned by the undersigned, roll 2145, late by one day; two rupees were paid and the slip was kept. There is no queue after six. The room is closed on the second Saturday of the month. Hours remain eight to six. Bags stay on the rack. A water jug stands beside the cooler. The stair notice of hours was replaced after 21 September and can be read without holding a torn corner.

Conclusion. The fine rule is in use and is recorded. The purpose of the visit was met: seven books, two rupees a day, printed slips, accession 421 and the close at six were all seen and can be stated in numbers and dates.

Recommendations. The printed slip should stay in use so that a paid day is a fact in the student’s notebook as well as in the desk file. If the Principal wishes, a short line on the new stair notice can remind students of the two-rupee fine. No change to hours is asked for in this report. Seven late books on one day is enough to print the reminder once.