WEEK ONE & TWO

Parts of Speech
Noun– A noun is a naming word. It is a name of a person, animal, place, thing or and idea. Nouns also cover
names like those of institutions, months and days, and abstract ideas. Below are examples of nouns:

Names of people: Uche, Peterson, Adebisi, Falase

Names of places: Beijing, Meiran, Atan Ota, London, Sweden, Canada

Names of things: table, chair, house, lap top, radio etc

Names of Institutions: family, tribe, Christianity, Islam, university etc

Names of months and days: January, February, December, Sunday, Thursday, Friday.
Names of Abstract ideas: beauty, knowledge, emotion, hope, courage, wisdom, etc.

FEATURES OF NOUNS:
Most nouns form their plurals with ending – ‘s’ or –‘es’: girl – girls, box – boxes, church – churches
Nouns are often used with articles, demonstratives and adjectives, e.g a cup, an hour , a church, that house,
black girl, some people.
Words that end with the following morphemes are usually often nouns-
age– e,g damage, grainage, homage, image, stoppage.
al– e.g arrival, cabbinal, dismissal, mammal, refusal.
tion– e.g action,option, association, imagination, admonition, composition.
er- e,g adviser, marker, player, teacher, worker

Types of Nouns
Proper Nouns: These name a SPECIFIC person, place or thing. Note that the first letter of every proper noun
must be written in capital letter regardless of its position in a sentence. E.g We will travel to Atan-Ota on
Monday in the month of August. Proper nouns in the sentence above are: Atan-Ota, Monday and August.

Examples of proper nouns are:

Names of persons– Ade, Obi, Chike,
Names of places/countries– Ottawa in Canada, Oslo-Norway, Oshodi, Ado-Ekiti, Ibadan,
Days of the week and months of the years-January, December, Monday, Friday.
Note: The first letter of the proper noun must be written in capital letter regardless of its position in a
sentence.

Common Noun: This is the opposite of concrete noun. It is used to name things/person/places which are of
general kinds. E.g boy, man, lady, church, mosque, boxes, table, knives.
Concrete Noun: This type of noun can be seen and touched. It is the opposite of
abstract noun. Examples of concrete nouns are: books, tables, bag etc.
Abstract Nouns: These only exist in names. They can neither be seen nor touched. These can only be felt. E.g
hatred, hunger, pains, intelligence, etc
Countale nouns: These are nouns that can be counted. They usually have singular and plural forms, E.g one
man- five men, one orange-several oranges, a book-five books.
Non countable nouns: These cannot be counted, and they therefore have only singular form. Sand , soap, rice,
homework, water. Although, they may be counted when converted to units of measurement. E,g, three bags of
rice, a bar of soap, some loaves of bread,
NOTE- These uncountable nouns must not attract –s- to form their plurals. E.g All the students were
instructed to take their baggage. Not baggages
We have got information/some pieces of information about them. Not ‘an information’ or ‘informations’.
The rain wrecked serious damage to the building. Not ‘damages’. Note –The word damages means a fine
imposed on someone. E,g He was ordered by the court of law to pay damages for the damage to his car.
Collective nouns: These name a group of people or things. E.g A troupe of dancers, A troup of soldiers, A
band of thieves.

Possessive noun/ genitive: These indicate possession. E.g Dr Oyeyemi’s car. Mrs. Alalade’s dress. Mr
Jayeola’s house etc.

REGULAR PLURALS– s and es

▪ SINGULAR
⮚ PLURAL
▪ School
⮚ schools
▪ Mat
⮚ mats
▪ House
⮚ houses
▪ Box
⮚ boxes
▪ Bonus
⮚ bonuses
IRREGULAR PLURAL
SINGULAR
Man PLURAL
Ox men
Goose oxen
Crisis geese
Forum crises
Formula fora
Symposium formulae
Foot symposia
Parenthesis feet
medium parenthesis
index media
larva indices/indexes
louse larvae
mouse lice
curriculum mice
axis curricula
oasis axes
oases

ZERO PLURALS

SINGULAR
PLURAL
Gross
gross
Deer
deer
Sheep
sheep
Fish
fish or fishes
Series
series
Trout
trout
Salmon
salmon
Person
persons or people
OTHERS: machinery,information, equipment, advice, jewelry, stationery, furniture. baggage.

NOTE: THESE ARE IN PLURAL FORMS

aircraft(pl) – aircraft
cattle(pl) – cattle
THESE NATURALLY ‘GO’ WITH ‘S’ OR ‘ES’
Goods, remains (a body of a dead person), ashes,headquarters, quarters, congratulations,
manners, surroundings, wages, arms, works – (Public works such as road construction)
 WEEK THREE & FOUR
PRONOUNS AND ADJECTIVES
Pronouns- Pronouns are words which are used to replace nouns in a sentence. They are mostly used in order to
avoid unnecessary repetition of nouns in a sentence. Both nouns and pronouns are used interchangeably in a
sentence, therefore they both perform the same function. Examples are: he, they, we etc.
TYPES OF PRONOUNS
Personal pronouns: Examples I, we, they , us etc.
Possessive pronouns: yours, his, hers, theirs, its, yours etc.
Demonstrative pronouns: this that these those.
Interrogative pronouns: who which, whom, whose, etc.
Reflexive pronouns: myself, themselves, yourselves/yourself, ourselves, oneself etc.
Reciprocal pronouns: each other and one another.
Relative pronoun: which, whom, whose, who, that etc.
Indefinite pronouns: someone, somebody, anything, anyone, everything, everyone, nobody, nothing etc.
ADJECTIVES
These are words that describe or qualify nouns. Adjectives are said to perform attributive functions when they
are placed before noun. E.g, A red shirt, a gentle lady.
However, an adjective performs a predicative function if it is placed after a link verb. E.g the shirt is red, the
lady is gentle.

Kind of Adjectives

Adjectives of Colour: red, green, black – a red shirt, a green basket

Adjectives of Size – e.g big , small, long
Adjectives of Age – old young
Adjectives of Shape – rectangular, circular, round, spherical
Adjectives of Origin – Nigerian, Ghanaian, Canadian
Adjectives of Number– one , two, three, twenty
Demonstrative Adjectives – this, these, that, those
Possessive Adjectives – your, my, her, their
Distributive Adjectives – each, some, every , any

FORMATION OF ADJECTIVES

– cal – grammatical, classical,

– ic – authentic historic, workaholic
– eous advantageous
– ious– melodious, odious, copious, superstitious
– uous – promiscuous, continuous, conspicuous
– ive – meditative, sedative, curative
– able – edible, curable, sensible, marketable
– al – illegal, regal, digital, rural, brutal
– ial – social, crucial

VERB

A verb expresses action and a state of being. Examples of verbs are sing, dance, jump, is, are, am, etc.

TYPES OF VERBS

Lexical Verb: This type of verb expresses action. It can stand on its own without depending on other type of
verb. Another name for lexical verb is ‘main verb’. Examples are: speak, pray, write etc.

Auxiliary verbs: There are two types of auxiliary verbs. Those that are not capable of independent existence,
and those that can stand on their own while they express a state. Those that can stand on their own and
function like main verbs are called PRIMARY AUXILIARY VERBS- E.g be, am, is , are, was, were, being,
been. While those that can stand on their own are called MODAL AUXILIARY VERBS-E.g can, could, may,
might, shall, should, will, would. Others are ought to, dare, need.

Finite and Non-Finite Verbs

Finite verb agrees with the subject in terms of person, tense and number. E.g She works hard – Present tense.
She worked hard- Past tense.

Olu speaks good English Language- Singular subject + singular verb

Olu and Bola speak good English Language- Plural subject + plural verb.

Non-Finite Verbs– They do not agree with the subject in terms of person, number and tense
They belong to the following group. Infinitive- ‘to work’, ‘to eat’, ‘to dance’. They usually
have –ing- ending. E.g dancing, singing, praying, cooking, etc.

Transitive Verb: This type of verb receives object. E.g He killed a snake.[ a snake is the dirtect object of the
verb killed].

Intransitive Verb: This type of verb does not require an object. E.g She died, They cooked, We prayed.

Spelling: Doubling of Consonants. Rules of Spelling

Words of one syllable with one vowel and a consonant at the end double the consonant before adding suffixes
beginning with a vowel.

Examples:

big –bigger
bat –batting
drop –dropped
drum –drummer

When the vowel is doubled (o,a) ,do not double the consonant.

Examples:
boat – boating
boil – boiled
cheap –cheapest
sweet – sweeter

Exception: wool – woollen

Words of more than one syllable (ad/mit) –i-vowel, t-consonant

Double the final consonant when the accent is on the last syllable:

Examples:

admit –admittance
begin –beginning
forget –forgetting
occur –occurrence

Words of more than one syllable not accented on the last syllable.

Do not double the consonant if you add an ending that begins with a vowel Examples

enter – entering
happen –happened
inhabit – inhabitant
refer – reference
Note – A final “p” is doubled
Examples:
Handicap –Handicapped
Kidnap –kidnapped
Worship – Worshipped
Exception : Develop – Developed
In words ending with “c” add “k” before the suffix

Examples:

frolic – frolicked
mimic – mimicked
panic – panicky
WEEKEND ASSIGNMENT
What are monophthongs?
State at least four types of essay and define them.

WEEK FIVE & SIX

STRUCTURE: INTRODUCTION TO PHRASAL VERBS. ADVERBS, CONJUNCTIONS AND
PREPOSITIONS

Phrasal Verbs: Verbs often combine with adverbial particles to form multi-word verbs or phrasal verbs.Its
meanings cannot be determined from the meaning of the verb and the particles in isolation, rather, it has to be
comprehended from the entire phrase

Examples

turn down: refuse :I turned down the offer

give in: surrender: Our team refused to give in to their opponents.
run across: meet by chance: We ran across an old friend yesterday at Aba.
call off: cancel: The workers have called off their strike.
turn up: appear: He turned up as soon as we arrived.
put off: postpone: The election was put off till the next meeting.
come across: meet by chance: We came across Ledogo in the street.
come through: experience: He has come through a lot of hardship in life.
Phrasal verbs with double particles, and the whole combination has a single meaning e.g.put up with= tolerate (
I cannot put up with his insulting behaviour)
cut down on: reduce: We have been advised to cut down on our expenses.
get away with: go free from: He cannot get away with the crime.
look forward to: anticipate: We look forward to your next visit.
stay away from: avoid: You have been warned to stay away from the building.

ASSIGNMENT: Look up the meaning of each of the following phrasal verbs:

Big up, give up,

round off, round up,

turn out, break into,

touch down, cut in,

C. Adverbs, Conjunction and Preposition

ADVERB

An adverb is a word which modifies verbs, adjectives and other adverbs.

FORMATION OF ADVERBS

Many adverbs are formed from adjectives. e.g certain- certainly fortunate-fortunately, careful-carefully, quick-
quickly, indoor-indoors, outdoor-outdoors

Some Adverbs showing direction end in –wards– E.g downwards, forwards, backwards,
Some adverbs expressing manner or viewpoint end in –wise– E.g clockwise, foodwise, moneywise.
Many other adverbs have no special ending– always, early , fast, if, how, quite, often, very, when, hard, late, so,
very.

TYPES OF ADVERBS

ADJUNCTS: These normally tell us how, when, where, to what extent, etc, the action of the verb is performed.

Examples:
a. He came at 6 O’clock (when)
b. She ran fast. (how?)
DISJUNCTS: These normally express an attitude or a viewpoint, often of the speaker.

E.g, Luckily She arrived

Frankly, we were in the wrong. Ola is certainly the best. Foolishly, he fell. Other examples are honestly,
seriously, strangely, undoubtedly, happily, fortunately

CONJUNCTS: These perform a connective function: they join two sentences or clauses.

E.g, It was a hard task, nevertheless, we performed well.

She is hardworking, besides, she is intelligent.
Other examples are, consequently, meanwhile, otherwise, similarly, then, alternately etc.

CONJUNCTIONS
A conjunction is a word which joins words, or groups of words, together.

TYPES OF CONJUNCTIONS
Co-ordinating Conjunctions: These conjunctions join words or groups of words that are of the grammatical
rank. Examples are; and, or, but, E.g Joy and Jane, In the garden and in the room, Bolu or Joy, We came but
you were not around, We went and we saw him.
Correlative Conjunctions: These are conjunctions that are used in pairs. E.g either….or, not only….but also,
both……and, neither….nor. E.g Both James and Jerry attended the party, She is not only intelligent but also
kind.

Either the teacher or the man comes here regularly.

Subordinating Conjunctions: These conjunctions introduce subordinating clauses. They include the following
conjunctions: after, because, before, if, in order that, since, which, when, who, whose, that etc. Consider
these:He left when she was cooking. We cooked before they arrived.
PREPOSITION

This shows relationship between two words in a sentence. Examples are: within, before, at , in, on , over etc.

Some prepositions go with certain words

allergic to, subjected to, arrive in, live in, live

on, live at, stare at, indict
convicted victim
for, of, of,
 WEEK SEVEN & EIGHT
TOPICS: ESSAY WRITING: TYPES OF ESSAYS; SPEECH WORK: MONOTHONGS, IDIOMS

Essay writing is an art of communication, it requires the acquisition of the necessary skills to attain excellence.

Types of Essays
Narrative
Descriptive
Expository
Argumentative

Creative Writing

REPORT WRITING: FORMAL REPORT.

A formal report can be that of a robbery, an accident, the proceedings of a meeting, a work-camp or a petition.
One important requirement for writing a report is good knowledge of the use of the direct and indirect speech
forms.
Suppose you have to report to your principal, then, you will have to follow the procedure for writing a formal
letter, giving your address.

Example:

Class1A
14th December,2010
The Principal,
Oxford College,
Zaria.
Sir,

Report of the Robbery in Amina Hostel.

(Text of the Report)

Signature

Peter Andrew

Prefect (Amina Hostel)

Minutes of the Meetings

Another form of report is the minutes of meeting. These are a record of the events and discussion that have
taken place at a meeting. For every meeting, there should have been a prepared agenda, that is a list of items to
be considered or discussed during the meeting.

Your report should begin with the name of your club, the date and venue of the meeting

and the list of members

SPEECH WORK: MONOTHONGS

Definition

Examples

Monothongs are the pure vowels, they are those realized as single element vowels such as /e/ and /i/ while
diphthongs are those realized as double element vowels such as /ei/, /iƏ/.

Monothongs are twelve in number.

They are:

/i:/ as in seat, cheap, sheep, feel, field, seize, foetus, amoeba, oesophagus.

/I/ as in sit, chip, ship, build, biscuits, English, pretty, many.

/e/ as in set, bread, friend, ate, bury, leopard, many, said, pet, peasant….

/æ/ as in sat, chat, match, catch, plait, marry, mad, chant, dad, mad, pat.

/a:/ as in far, pass, father, calm, heart, bath, farm, bard, path, bath.

/Ɔ/ as in dog, hot, what, was, want, quantity, spot, pot, dot

/Ɔ : / as in port, lord, ward, warm, call, talk, soar, roar, law, flaw, sword, sport, sorry.

/u/ as in full, pull, would, book, fool, sugar, cook, book, should.

/u:/ as in fool, pool, coup, move, suit, rule, woo, coup, soup, school.

/Ʌ/ as in fun, cut, tongue, touch, come, love, blood, flood, hunger, son, sun, hunger, worry.

/э:/ as in first, nurse, word, learn, verb, flirt, firm, burn, turn, journey, first, sir, stir, courtesy.

/Ə/ as in again, away, forget, perhaps, police, favour, structure, mother, father, surprise, suppose
 WEEK NINE
IDIOMS

An idiom is an expression with a meaning that cannot be guessed from the meanings of the individual words.
E.g He shed crocodile tears. This does not mean that ‘he cried like a crocodile’. It is just a kind of expression
that is formed based on certain principle.

Examples of idioms and meanings are:

To chase one’s shadow– to deceive oneself.

To add insult to injury – to displease a person and still insult him.

To give an airy nothing – to make useless, empty remarks.

An acid test – a very severe test.

Achilles’ heel/ the heel of Achilles – the weak spot or one’s weak point.

An ample opportunity – various or many opportunities.

To play to the gallery – to try to achieve cheap popularity.

To throw light – to explain.

To have a light finger– to be disposed to stealing.

The breathe one’s last – to die.

To be armed to the teeth – to be fully equipped with ammunition.

An apple of discord – a source of disagreement.

To be at cross roads – to be at an important point of one’s life or career.

To be at sixes and sevens – to be in a state of perplexity or utter confusion or chaos.

Bed of roses – resting, comfortable point or place.

Baptism of fire – to experience the shot of bullets, directed to one.

To beat about the bush –to be incoherent and inexact.

Beginning of a new era– a historic period when great things have happened or about to happen.

To be in the same boat – to experience the same things as someone else.

To blaze a/the trail – to be the first person to do something.

To be a bird of a feather [not – birds of the same feather] – two things or persons that
are like.

To blow one’s trumpet – to praise or advertise oneself.

To burn candle at both ends – to work early and late or work hard and play hard.

To burn the midnight oil – to study through the night.

To bury the hatchet – to stop quarrelling.

By rule of thumb – unscientific, crude or non standard.

To call to a halt – to stop something.

Captain of industry – controller or manager of a big company or organization.

By hook or by crook – by all possible means; at all cost.

To bring someone or something to his/its knees – to humble, trivialize or make sober or dejected.

To build one’s castle in the air – to create hopes that may never be realized.

To be tied to one’s apron strings– to be under the influence of somebody.

To be at a loose end – to be idle.

To draw a line – to identify the limit.

To be behind closed doors – to be with no outsider present- confidential.

To nip a problem in the bud – to stop a problem from growing or escalating.

To hold an olive branch – to sue for peace.

A snail pace – very slowly.

A wet blanket– one who discourages others.

A stone’s throw – very close.

A backlog – arrears.

To kill someone in cold blood – to kill someone deliberately.

To be at low ebb– to be in a bad state.

To have first hand information – to have information from its main source.

To catch one’s eye– to attract someone.

To take a bull by the horn – to face a difficult situation boldly.

To live from hand to mouth – to have no savings.

To water down – to weaken or make less effective.

EVALUATION

Give two examples to each of the sounds taught.

 WEEK TEN
VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT: Words Associated with Entertainment.
Relevant Words: Entertainment is of various aspects. We have football ,athletics, theatre, and so on as aspects
of entertainment.

Athletics: Exercise of physical strength or speed.

Contingent: Group that is a part of a larger group.

Marathon: Long distance race.

Podium: Raised platform

Track Suit: Wooden clothes worn especially by athletes to keep warm before and after exercises.

Football:

Linesman: Official who assists the referee, especially by deciding whether the ball touches or crosses the ball
touches or crosses the line or not and where if it does.

Penalty: Punishment for a foul committed

Referee: Official who regulates a game and ensures Fair play.

Soccer (colloquial): a football game played by two teams of eleven players each.

RELEVANT: Theatre:

Actor: A person who takes part in a play on stage or in a film.

Box-office: Office where seats in the theatre are booked and tickets are paid for.
Cast: Actors of a play.

Curtain-Call: Call made by the audience to an actor at the end of the play to appear and acknowledge applause.

Director: A person who directs the performance of a play

Usher: A person who shows people to their seats.

GENERAL EVALUATION/ REVISION QUESTIONS:

From the words lettered A to D, choose the word or group of words that best completes each of the following
sentences.

1. In reported speech, ‘The earth revolves round the sun ‘becomes, it is said that the earth —–
round the sun. (a). has revolved (b). is revolving (c). revolved (d). revolves(e). was revolving

2. In reported speech, ‘I am innocent of any crime’ becomes, he said that he ——-innocent of

any crime. (a). has been (b). had been (c). is (d). was being (e). was

3. The suffix —– will combine with ‘endear’ to form ——- (a) able (b) ly (c) ment (d) ness (e)
y

4. The sentence, ‘He presented a good paper last week’ in the passive form becomes ——- (a.)
a good paper was presented by me last week (b) a good paper was presented by him previous week (c) he
presented a good paper the previous week (d,) he presented a good paper the other week (e) the previous week
a good paper was presented by me

5. A snake bit the hunter, in the passive form becomes ——- (a) a snake has bitten the hunter
(b) a snake bites the hunter (c) the hunter has been bitten by a snake

(d) the hunter had been bitten by a snake (e) the hunter was bitten by a snake
 WEEK ELEVEN
STRUCTURE: KINDS OF SENTENCES- SIMPLE, MULTIPLE, COMPOUND, COMPLEX AND
COMPOUND-COMPLEX

Essay Writing: Expository- “Honesty is the Best Legacy”

Vocabulary Development: Words Associated with Fisheries and Animal Husbandry

STRUCTURE: Kinds of Sentences

Simple Sentence

Compound Sentence

Compound / Complex Sentence

THE SENTENCE:

A Sentence is a group of words that contains a subject and a verbs / and expresses a complete sense or thought.

Types of Sentences

Simple Sentence: This contains one subject and one predicate or verb. It is made up of one main clause. Simple
sentences can be long, but each has only one subject and verb unit.

The woman ran.

He is in the room.

The thief has been caught

Compound Sentence: This contains two main clauses linked by co-ordinating conjunctions like and , but, or etc

Main clause Conjunction Main clause

The work stops but the tools are kept handy.

Ngozi found the goat and she took it to her mother.

Multiple Sentence: This contains more than two main clauses linked by co-ordinating conjunctions.Main clause
1

The child climbed onto my laps,

The choir master returned from the church

Main clause 2

urinated on my trousers

and (conj) asked for his flute

Conjunction Main clause 3

smiled at me
and
happily.

it could not be
but
found.The complex Sentence: This contains one main clause and one or more subordinate clause.

Subordinate clause Main clause

When it rains, he does not go to work.

Main clause

Grace did not do the assignment

Subordinate clause

which the English teacher gave her.

The Compound Complex sentence: This is made up of two or more main clauses and at least one subordinate
clause.

Subordinate Conjuncti
Main clause 1 clause on Main clause 2

The work the tools are kept very

stops when it rains but handy.

EVALUATION

Write five sentences and mention each type you have written.

WEEK NINE

ESSAY WRITING: EXPOSITORY

Content

Format (Sample Outline)

An expository essay is one that requires you to explain a thing or a process fully. The explanation demands
writing a great deal about what distinguishes the subject of the essay from all other things. It may also involve
some description.

Sample Outlines on Expository Essay

Write an article for publication in one of your local newspapers on the need to improve sanitation in your area.

Paragraph

Introduction: The state of sanitation / definition

The need for sanitation

First way to improve (detailed)

Second way to improve (detailed)

Third way to improve (detailed)

Conclusion: Hope that the new measures offered will be used

“A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed”

Write an article to illustrate this saying

VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT: STOCK EXCHANGE and INSURANCE-
Stock Exchange is a market where those who wish to buy or sell shares, stocks and government bonds,
debentures and other securities can do so through only members of the stock exchange. The stock exchange
provides the essential facilities for company and government to raise money for business expansion and
development projects through investors who own shares in companies.

Some relevant words:

Stock broker: One who operates in the stock exchange market by linking buyer and sellers of securies.

Security: A paper asset including government debt, company shares and company debt

Stock: This is synonymous to shares

Stock exchange: An institution through which shares are traded/ it is a security market

Bond: A security with a redemption date over a year later than its date of issue.

Shares: Any of the equal, usually small, part into which a company’s capital stock is divided.

Share certificate: A certificate specifying the number of shares owned by a person or a company,

Bond: A certificate issued by a government or a company promising to pay back borrowed money on a specific
date.

Debenture: A certificate that acknowledges the existence of a debt of a particular amount owed to somebody.

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