General English · English Language Proficiency

Organs of speech produce the sounds that phonetics studies. Lungs supply air; the windpipe (trachea) 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. Active articulators move (lower lip, tongue); passive articulators stay (upper teeth, alveolar ridge, palates). English speech uses a pulmonic egressive air-stream: air is pushed out from the lungs.

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/. /p/ and /b/ share place and manner; only voicing keeps pin /pɪn/ apart from bin /bɪn/.

The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) writes speech with one symbol 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. A colon ː after a vowel marks length in RP. The mark ˈ is primary stress; ˌ is secondary. Schwa /ə/ is the most common vowel in unstressed syllables.

RP English 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/, and 24 consonants. A diphthong is one gliding vowel, counted as one sound: /eɪ/ in day. Transcriptions: sit /sɪt/; seat /siːt/; about /əˈbaʊt/; teacher /ˈtiːtʃə/. Length keeps sit and seat two words. IPA /j/ is the sound in yes, not the letter j in jam (/dʒ/).

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. A consonant has a closure or a narrow gap. Subramaniam names a consonant by three labels: voicing, place, and manner.

/p/ voiceless bilabial plosive. /ð/ voiced dental fricative (this). /ʃ/ voiceless palato-alveolar fricative (ship). /ŋ/ voiced velar nasal (sing). /w/ voiced labial-velar approximant (west). /w/ is not labio-dental; that is /v/. Dental /θ ð/ keep thin /θɪn/ apart from tin /tɪn/.

Word stress (word accent in Subramaniam) 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 before that syllable. 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.

Teacher /ˈtiːtʃə/. Education /ˌedʒʊˈkeɪʃn/. Phonetic /fəˈnetɪk/. Words in -tion, -sion and -ic take stress on the syllable just before the suffix. Noun–verb pair: ˈobject /ˈɒbdʒɪkt/ (noun) against obˈject /əbˈdʒekt/ (verb). The same letters; two beats; two 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) → kindness (noun) → kindly (adverb). A bound form cannot stand alone as a word.

In “The new librarian issued a day-pass quickly”: The — determiner (article); new — adjective; librarian — noun; issued — verb (past); a — determiner (article); day-pass — noun; quickly — adverb (manner, from adjective quick + -ly). Eight word-classes are named: noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, interjection. Articles a, an, the sit with determiners and mark a noun.

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.

SV: The cooler leaked. SVO: Ms Rao issues a day-pass. SVC: Anil is a student. SVA: The books are on the shelf. SVOO: She gave him a pass. SVOC: They made her librarian. SVOA: She put the bag on the rack. 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”).

A determiner sits at the front of a noun phrase and marks the noun. Articles, demonstratives (this, that, these, those), possessives (my, her), quantifiers and numerals belong here. A/an is indefinite; an comes before a vowel sound: an hour, an identity card, but a university, a useful book. 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 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? There are not any bags at the desks. Much goes with uncountable nouns: much water, much time. Many goes with countable plurals: many books, many seats. Each and every take a singular noun and a singular verb: Each student has a card.

Tense places the verb in time. Twelve forms arise from three times (present, past, future) and four aspects (simple, continuous, perfect, perfect continuous). State verbs such as know and believe are not normally continuous. A present perfect is not used with a finished past-time word: She sat yesterday, not She has sat yesterday.

Present simple: She sits in the reading room. Present continuous: She is sitting in the reading room. Present perfect: She has sat in the reading room. Present perfect continuous: She has been sitting in the reading room. Past simple: She sat in the reading room. Past continuous: She was sitting in the reading room. Past perfect: She had sat in the reading room before four. Past perfect continuous: She had been sitting in the reading room. Future simple: She will sit in the reading room. Future continuous: She will be sitting in the reading room. Future perfect: She will have sat in the reading room. Future perfect continuous: She will have been sitting in the reading room.

Modals are helping verbs that add the speaker’s attitude to the main verb: ability, permission, possibility, obligation, advice, habit. 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, not She cans write. After a modal the base form is used, without to — except ought to, used to, have to. Two modals do not sit together.

Can: present ability, permission, general possibility — She can read IPA. Must: speaker’s obligation, or a strong deduction — You must wear the card. He is not in class; he must be in the library. Must not = prohibition; absence of obligation = need not / don’t have to. You need not wait after six; the room is closed. Should: advice, duty — You should copy the missed page. Modal dare is chiefly negative or interrogative: She dare not speak. Each modal is named by its use: ability, permission, possibility, obligation, advice.

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 subject is box, singular. And normally makes a plural verb — “Ram and Sita are here.” With or, nor, either…or, neither…nor, the verb follows the nearer subject: “Neither the students nor the teacher is ready.” “Neither the teacher nor the students are ready.” Phrases with with, as well as do not change the first subject: “The teacher, with the students, is here.”

Indefinite pronouns everyone, somebody, nobody, each, every take a singular verb: “Everyone is present.” None of + plural noun may take a singular verb in careful style (“None of the seats is empty”) or a plural verb in easy style (“None of the seats are empty”). Always singular: news, physics, measles — The news is on the shelf. Always plural: scissors, trousers — unless a pair of scissors is is used. There agrees with the real noun: “There is a book.” “There are two books.” Titles, sums and distances are singular: Ten rupees is the fine. Two kilometres is a short walk.

(i) A day-pass is issued by Ms Rao. (ii) The magazines were dried by them. (iii) The room will be opened by the Principal. (iv) A letter is being written by her. (v) Was the book 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. Pronouns change with the new roles: she becomes her after by. A yes–no question in the passive inverts the first auxiliary.

(i) She said that she sat in the reading room. (ii) He asked me if I was ready. (iii) Ms Rao told Anil to return the pass. (iv) Anil said that he had bought that book the previous day. (v) She said that she could swim. Said to plus object becomes told plus object. When the reporting verb is past, tenses step back: present simple to past simple; past simple to past perfect; can to could; this/yesterday to that/the previous day. Questions take asked and if or a wh-word, with statement order. Commands take a to-infinitive. Inverted commas are dropped.

(i) Simple — one finite verb (left); Hearing is a participle, not a finite verb. (ii) Compound — two independent clauses joined by and. (iii) Complex — a subordinate that-clause hangs on the main clause. (iv) The tree which stands in the courtyard is old. / The tree that stands in the courtyard is old. (v) She finished the page and she closed the book. A simple sentence has one finite verb. A compound sentence joins two independent clauses with and, but, or, so. A complex sentence hangs a subordinate clause on a main clause with when, because, although, who, which, that. “She finished the page and closed the book” has one subject and two verbs; it is a simple sentence with a compound predicate, not a compound sentence.

(i) Negative: They are not here. Interrogative: Are they here? (ii) He does not write notes. / Does he write notes? (iii) She did not go home. / Did she go home? (iv) You must not wait. / Must you wait? (v) There is not a book. / There is no book. / Is there a book? If an auxiliary is already there, not follows it and the auxiliary comes before the subject in a yes–no question. If there is no auxiliary, do / does / did is inserted and the main verb returns to the base form. Be as a main verb does not take do. Must not is prohibition.

(i) Let the door be opened. (ii) She asked what my name was. (iii) She is so weak that she cannot walk. (iv) Everybody was present. (v) The tree is very beautiful. An imperative in the passive takes Let + object + be + past participle. A wh-question in indirect speech keeps the wh-word and uses statement order; tenses step back. Too…to becomes so…that…cannot. A negative nobody-sentence becomes an affirmative everybody-sentence. An exclamation becomes a statement with very.

(a) On 10 September. (b) Every Friday. (c) Two rupees a day. (d) The stair still shows an old Staff sign. (e) A notice about the college reading room / The leaking cooler. (f) Stuck / put up (on a board).

At six o’clock the newspapers are folded. The rack where bags are kept stands empty and cold. Ms Rao turns the last key slowly. The tree in the courtyard still holds the evening light. We take our notes with us. The seats remain. Tomorrow the room will open in the same way.

The words first name two kinds of labour: prevention, which stops a harm before it starts, and cure, which treats the harm after it has arrived. The meaning is that the first labour costs less than the second. A cooler checked every Friday does not later wet a row of magazines. A student who copies one missed page the same evening does not meet nine unread pages on the test day. A notice that prints true hours on 10 September does not later spend a week answering angry questions. A city that clears one drain in June does not wait for the July flood. The saying is not “never treat the sick.” Cure still has its hour, once the harm is there. Prevention is better because the small true act, done while the gap is still small, spares the larger act that a neglected gap would have demanded. The last line returns to the given words: prevention remains better than cure.

To: librarian@college.ac.in

Subject: Apology — book returned three days late — roll 2145

Dear Ms Rao,

I am a student of B.A. Semester II, roll number 2145. I returned Murphy, Intermediate English Grammar, three days after the stamped date. I am sorry for the delay. I have paid the fine of two rupees a day at the desk. I shall keep the next date in my notebook.

Yours faithfully,

Anil Sharma

At the issue desk

Anil: Good afternoon, ma’am. I should like to borrow Murphy, Intermediate English Grammar.

Ms Rao: Good afternoon. Show your identity card. Write the title, the accession number and your class in this register.

Anil: Here — Anil Sharma, B.A. Semester II, 2145. The accession number is 318. When must I return it?

Ms Rao: On or before the stamped date. A late book is fined two rupees a day. Leave your bag on the rack.

Anil: Thank you. I shall return it on time.

Ms Rao: Please do. Next.

12 September

My first week in the reading room

I am Anil Sharma, roll 2145. I found the room on the second try because the stair still says Staff. After that the week was quiet and useful. I leave my bag on the rack. Ms Rao issues a day-pass if the card is at home. The hours are eight to six. After four the seats are empty except for exam groups. On Friday I sat under the cooler and a magazine near me was already damp; they have dried the row since. I like the two shelves of newspapers. I felt peaceful there. Tomorrow I shall come at eight.

Intonation is the rise and fall of pitch across a phrase. The stretch of speech under one tune is a tone group. Inside it there may be a pre-head, a head, a nucleus, and a tail. The nucleus is the main pitch movement, usually the last important content word. In “She ˈteaches ˈEnglish,” the nucleus is ˈEnglish. In “Leave the bag on the ˈrack,” the nucleus is ˈrack. Stress chooses the strong beats inside the word; intonation chooses the direction of the last strong beat in the phrase. A one-syllable word still has stress as a beat; in a phrase it may become the nucleus and then carry a fall or a rise. Weak forms of to, and, of and the are the unstressed shapes of those words in connected speech: “the rack” often has a weak the /ðə/ before a consonant. Intonation is not spelling, and it is not word stress. A dictionary marks stress on the word; the speaker still has to choose the tune of the sentence.

Subramaniam uses four kinetic tones. A falling tone is the tune of a finished statement, a command, and a wh-question: “The room closes at ˈsix.” “Leave your bag on the ˈrack.” “What is your ˈname?” “Where is the ˈpass?” The voice falls because the speaker treats the act as complete. A rising tone is the tune of a yes–no question and of a list that has not ended: “Is she ˈhere?” “May I sit without a ˈcard?” “Bags, notes, and —” A fall-rise marks reservation: “I ˈcan” (I can, though there is a condition — the identity card is at home). A rise-fall marks surprise or strong agreement: “ˈReally.” “The cooler is ˈleaking.” A question mark on the page does not always mean a rise: “Where do you ˈlive?” is a wh-question and normally falls. “Are you ˈready?” is a yes–no question and normally rises. Choice questions often fall on the last choice: “Will you sit here, or ˈthere?” A finished fact falls; an open question rises; a reserved yes fall-rises; a strong surprise rise-falls.

Ms Rao’s command “Return the ˈpass” falls. Anil’s check “Must I return it toˈday?” rises if it is a true yes–no, and falls if it is a surprised echo. “The news is on the ˈshelf” falls as a statement; “Is the news on the ˈshelf?” rises. A list of hours “eight, nine, ˈten” rises on the early items and falls on the last when the list is closed. A tag that expects agreement falls: “The room closes at six, ˈdoesn’t it?” A tag that asks for a real answer rises: “The room closes at six, doesn’t ˈit?” Intonation is the tune of the phrase. Word stress is the strong syllable inside the word.

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 reading room: SV — The cooler leaked. SVO — Ms Rao issues a day-pass. SVC — Anil is a student. SVA — The books are on the shelf. SVOO — She gave him a pass. SVOC — They made her librarian. SVOA — She put the bag on the rack. If the word after the verb describes the same person as the subject, the pattern is SVC. If it names a different person or thing, the pattern is SVO. “She became a doctor” is SVC; “She visited a doctor” is SVO. “The news is on the shelf” is SVA: on the shelf is an adverbial of place, not a complement of the same kind as a student.

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 Staff sign; a university, a useful book, a day-pass. The is definite: the reading room, the Ganga, the sun, second mention of the cooler. 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. Each student has a card. The and a both mark nouns; they do not replace concord. The verb still has to match the subject that the determiner has marked.

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. With neither…nor the verb follows the nearer subject: Neither the students nor the teacher is ready. Neither the teacher nor the students are ready. Everyone is present. None of the seats is empty in careful style; none of the seats are empty is also heard. The news is always singular: The news is on the shelf. A pair of scissors is on the desk; scissors are on the desk. There agrees with the real noun: There is a book. There are two books. Titles, sums and distances are singular: Ten rupees is the fine. Two kilometres is a short walk. The Arabian Nights is a book. 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.

Transformation keeps the meaning and changes the form. Voice shows whether the subject does the action or receives it. In the active voice the subject is the doer: Ms Rao issues a day-pass. In the passive the subject is the receiver: A day-pass is issued by Ms Rao. The formula is: object of the active becomes 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 with the new roles: she writes it becomes it is written by her. The old subject she becomes her after by; the old object it becomes the new subject. Present simple issues becomes is issued; present continuous is writing becomes is being written; past simple dried becomes were dried; future simple will open becomes will be opened; a question Did she return the book becomes Was the book returned by her. Two objects give two passives: She gave him a pen becomes He was given a pen, or A pen was given to him. Imperatives take Let: Open the door becomes Let the door be opened. Intransitive verbs have no passive. The cooler leaked has no object to promote.

Direct speech quotes the exact words inside inverted commas. Indirect speech reports those words as a clause. Said to plus object becomes told plus object. When the reporting verb is past, tenses step back: I sit becomes she sat; I bought this yesterday becomes he had bought that the previous day; I can swim becomes she could swim. Questions take asked and if or a wh-word, with statement order: Are you ready becomes he asked me if I was ready. What is your name becomes she asked what my name was. Commands take a to-infinitive: Return the pass becomes Ms Rao told Anil to return the pass. No back-shift when the fact is always true: water boils at 100°C stays in the present. Inverted commas are dropped. A simple sentence has one finite verb. Hearing the bell, we left is simple; Hearing is a participle. A compound sentence joins two independent clauses with and, but, or, so: She was tired and she sat down. A complex sentence hangs a subordinate clause on a main clause with when, because, although, who, which or that: I know that the room closes at six. The tree which stands in the courtyard is old. She finished the page and closed the book is simple with a compound predicate. She finished the page and she closed the book is compound.

A declarative states; a negative denies; an interrogative asks. If there is an auxiliary, not follows it and the auxiliary comes before the subject: They are here; They are not here; Are they here? If there is no auxiliary, do, does or did is inserted and the main verb returns to the base: He writes notes; He does not write notes; Does he write notes? She went home; She did not go home; Did she go home? Be as a main verb does not take do. Must not is prohibition: You must not wait after six. Some often becomes any in a negative. Too weak to walk becomes so weak that she cannot walk. Nobody was absent becomes Everybody was present. How beautiful the tree is becomes The tree is very beautiful. Transformation is a change of shape, never a change of fact.

The proverb first names a will: a firm wish that stays when the first path is blocked. A way is the path that appears after that wish has been kept. The meaning is not that every wish becomes a fact. It is that labour directed by a clear will finds an opening that a vague wish never looks for. Will here is not a mood of one evening. It is a decision that returns the next morning. A way is not always the first door. It may be a second stair, a day-pass, a copied page, a paid fine.

A student who has left the identity card at home still has a will to sit and work. The way is the day-pass that Ms Rao issues when the name, class and roll number 2145 are written in the register. The same student who says “I cannot sit without the card” has already closed the way. A cooler that leaks on 12 September looks like a closed room; the way is a Friday check and a dried row of magazines, not a year of wet paper. A notice pasted on 10 September is a small will of the college: hours, fine, second Saturday closed. Students who read it once find the way; students who ignore it look twice at the old Staff sign and lose a class. A late book is not the end of borrowing. The way is the fine of two rupees a day, paid, and the next date written in a notebook. Bikaner heat at noon makes the courtyard tree a way: shade that the reading room also keeps after six, when newspapers are folded and the last key turns.

The saying has a limit. Will without a true act is only noise. A student who wills a whole unit the night before, and has not sat with one page in the week, has a slogan and no way the next morning. A notice printed without a date looks like a way and is not. The last sentence returns to the given words. Where there is a will there is a way because the kept wish looks for the next opening — a pass, a Friday check, a copied page — and walks it while the blocked door is still only one door.

Report on the leaking cooler in the college reading room

To: The Principal

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

Date: 13 September

Subject: Inspection of the cooler after a wet row of magazines on 12 September

Introduction. A visit was made on 12 September to the reading room, as asked, to note how the cooler had wet a row of magazines, whether the Friday check named in the notice of 10 September had been kept, and what repair is still needed.

Findings. The room holds eighty seats and two shelves of newspapers in Hindi and English. Hours are eight in the morning to six in the evening. Bags stay on the rack by the door. Ms Rao issues a day-pass when an identity card is not produced. On 12 September a wet row of magazines was found under the cooler; the copies have since been dried. The notice of 10 September says the cooler is to be checked every Friday. The issue register is in use. A late book is fined two rupees a day. The stair still shows an old Staff sign, so a few students look for the door twice. After four in the afternoon the room is quiet except for exam groups. The room is closed on the second Saturday of each month.

Conclusion. The reading room is in regular use and the rules on cards, bags and fines are clear. The cooler leak is a single repair that has already cost one row of magazines. The purpose of the visit was met: the wet row, the notice, the hours and the stair sign were all seen and can be stated in dates and numbers.

Recommendations. The cooler should be checked every Friday as the notice already says, and a short line should be added to the issue register when the check is done. A second sign on the stair would help students who still look for the old Staff door. If the Principal wishes, one spare tray can be kept under the cooler so that a second wet row is not needed.