Action Verbs in English

Verbs are important part of the sentences. They describe the action of a person or subject. For example:

·         She is writing a novel.

·         Mahesh is a clever person. 

In the first sentence, ‘writing’ is an action verb and in the second sentence ‘is’ is an auxiliary verbs because it shows the state of Mahesh that is ‘clever’. 

Look at more examples:

·         Ria is dancing.

·         She is talking to her friend. 

In the above sentences, ‘dancing’ and ‘talking’ are verbs. They are very easily identified. If you want to know the verb in the sentence just ask yourself ‘what is the subject doing?’ Here, the subjects are ‘She’ and ‘Ria’. What is Ria doing? Ria is dancing. So ‘dancing’ is an action verb. What is she doing? She is talking to her friend. Hence, ‘talking’ is an action verb. 

There are two kinds of action verbs:

Transitive Verbs 

Transitive verbs have two features. First it is an action verb which expresses an activity that is doable like swim, paint, write, cook, dance etc. Secondly, it must have a direct object on which the action is performed.

Following are the sentences with transitive verbs:

·         Shyam painted the wall.

Here ‘paint’ is a transitive verb and ‘wall’ is an object on which the action is performed.

·         He kicked the football.

Here ‘kick’ is a transitive verb and ‘football’ is an object on which the action is performed. 

Intransitive Verbs 

Intransitive verbs also have two features. First it is an action verb which expresses an activity that is doable like sit, die, go, lie etc. Secondly, unlike transitive verb they do not have any direct object that receives an action. 

Following are the sentences with intransitive verbs:

·         She eats early in the evening.

Here ‘eat’ is an intransitive verb because there is no direct object receiving the action.

Articles in English- A, An and The

Articles are words that modify nouns. In this sense, articles are also adjectives because like adjective they modify. Articles are used before nouns to show whether something is specific or not. 

Types of articles

There are basically two types of articles in English language. These are as follows:

Definite Article:  ‘The’

Definite article ‘the’ is used before singular or plural nouns when the noun that is being talked about is particular or specific. Definite means something that is exact or clear and for this reason we call the article ‘the’ definite because it specifies nouns. If a speaker uses the definite article before noun it means that s/he is talking about some particular thing. Look at the following examples to understand the usage of definite article ‘the’: 

·         I want to go to the school.

In the above sentence, the speaker is talking about a particular ‘school’ and not just any school that s/he wants to go to.

·         The dog bit me.

Here the speaker is talking about a specific dog that bit him or her. It could be a dog that must living in the street or a dog that she must knowing because she is talking not just about any dog but a particular one.

Indefinite Articles: ‘A’ and ‘An’

When indefinite articles ‘a’ and ‘an’ are placed before nouns it means that the noun are not something specific or particular. The noun could be any member of a group. The meaning of indefinite is something which is not clear or exact. For example:

·         I have a pen.

·         Do you have a car?

In the above sentences, speakers are talking about things like ‘pen’ and ‘car’ which are not specific. They are talking about just any ‘pen’ and ‘car’ respectively.

Basic English Grammar

Grammar is the foundation to learning any new language. New learners of English language first need to know the basic rules of English grammar. It is very essential to build a strong base in grammar because it will help you to form sentences that are correct and will improve your communicating skills in both written and spoken language. Whether you’re going out for shopping or going abroad- learning to speak in English correctly will help you in your daily activities and will give boost to your confidence. 

It has been found that one of the biggest challenges that the new learners face while learning English is using correct tenses in their spoken and written English. There is plenty of grammar material online for free.

 Here we will look at few most important grammar rules that will help you improve your English:

Nouns

Noun is a name given to a person, thing, event or a place. For example Rahul, Jaipur, table, pride etc. Most of the nouns can be made plural by adding ‘s’ or ‘es’ at the end of it. For examples, ‘dogs’, ‘chairs’, ‘boxes’ etc. 

For nouns ending with letter ‘y’ we add ‘ies’ and remove ‘y’. For example, ‘city’ becomes ‘cities’, ‘quantity’ becomes ‘quantities’. 

Verbs 

Verbs are important components in a sentence. Verbs describe the action or state of a noun or subject. For example:

·         She is watching a movie.

·         Mahesh is an intelligent person. 

In the first sentence, ‘watching’ is an action verbs and in the second sentence ‘is’ is an auxiliary verb because it shows the state of Mahesh that is ‘intelligent’. 

Look at more examples:

·         Ria is writing a book.

·         She is cooking pizza. 

In the above sentences, ‘writing’ and ‘painting’ are verbs. They are very easily identified. If you want to know the verb in the sentence just ask yourself ‘what is the subject doing?’ Here, the subjects are ‘She’ and ‘Ria’. What is Ria doing? Ria is writing a book. So ‘writing’ is an action verb. What is she doing? She is cooking pizza. Hence, ‘cooking’ is an action verb.

Types of Collocations

A collocation is a group of two or more words that often go together. There are different types of collocations in English. It is required to memorize collocations as an entire chunk of words because a word in a collocation may mean different from its actual meaning. 

In order to make an effective use of collocations non-native English speakers need to practice them often by reading and speaking. You might ask, ‘why do I need to learn collocations?’ Mastering the use collocations in your daily language will your language sound natural and you will be understood well. 

Following are the samples of collocations:

‘Fast food is not good for health.’

‘We need to leave now. Have a quick meal.’

In the above sentences, ‘fast food’ and ‘quick meal’ are collocations. We cannot replace ‘fast’ with ‘quick’ in ‘fast food’ and ‘quick’ with ‘fast’ in ‘quick meal.’ 

Do Make Collocations

Make your bed.

I do cleaning once a week.

I only made two mistakes in my paper.

Can you do me a favour?

Did he even make an effort?

I’ll do your dishes.

Don’t make a mess in the kitchen.

Do your hair. They’re looking shabby. 

Collocations of Time

With the word ‘time’ different prepositions and verbs are used. Look at the following collocations of time and understand their meanings through sentences.

The guests arrived bang on time (=exactly on time)

I water plants in my free time.

Students couldn’t finish their exam because they ran out of time.

Will you be able to make time for cleaning? (find time)

Following are the collocations that use verbs like ‘keep’, ‘save’, ‘pay’, ‘come’, ‘go’ and ‘get’. 

All of you keep quiet.

Turn off the lights when not in use. It saves electricity.

You must pay him a visit. He is not well.

Try to come early tomorrow.

Go abroad for higher studies.

He got married in his early thirties. 

There are several kinds of collocations made from combinations of noun, adjective and verb etc. 

Read the following different types of collocations:

Adverb and Adjective

It was an utterly stupid thing to do.

They were completely satisfied with our performance. 

Adjectives and Nouns

Corruption is a major problem faced by many of the developing nations.  

Consuming fast food has serious side-effects. 

Nouns and Verbs

We heard dogs barking at midnight.

Snow was falling when we reached New York. 

Noun and Noun 

I’d like to have a cup of tea please.

Diya received a round of applause.

Verb and noun 

She always does her home work before going to sleep.

I have to give a presentation in an hour.

Verbs and expression with prepositions 

She was filled with joy when she was honored for her outstanding performance.

He was fuming with anger when I went to his place.

List of Metaphor

what is a metaphor ?

A metaphor is a literary device or figure of speech in which comparison is made between two unlike or dissimilar things. It is the comparison of a situation with a real thing. For Example: a blanket of snow, a heart of stone, etc. Here is a list of metaphors with their meanings:

1. Albatross: A burden that is psychological and sometimes may make you feel cursed
2. Broken Heart: Used to describe intense suffering or emotional pain due to the loss of a loved one
3. Belling the cat: To perform a task that is very difficult or dangerous
4. Battle of egos: Competitions based on just pride
5. A heart of gold. : A person who is sweet, kind, generous and of good nature
6. A heart of stone: A person who cannot show sympathy and have a cold nature
7. A rainbow of flavours: A variety of unique choices to pick from
8. Apple of my eye: Used for someone very beloved
9. Cold feet: Having doubt that's so strong that it prevents a course of action that was planned
10. It’s raining men:  The abundance of male suitors
11. Late bloomer: A person who might be slow to develop
12. Rollercoaster of emotions: It refers to the situation which alternates between the feeling of happiness and sadness
13. White elephant: Having a possession which is either troublesome or useless and one that might be very expensive or difficult to maintain
14. Yin and yang : There's good in bad and bad in good
15. You are the sun in my sky: A person who gives you hope
16. You are the light in my life: A person that you love too much
17. Fade off to sleep: To go to sleep