1. Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions that follow:
i) When you learn grammar, you come to know how to make words work for you, and you also learn a great deal about the way words behave. For instance, you find out that words are divided into different classes according to what they do. The words that name things, such as horse or train are called nouns; “action” words like run and see are verbs and there are several other kinds. They are called parts of speech.
ii) Another important things that grammar explains and provides rules, for is the way words change when they do different jobs. A word may change from one part of speech to another, and there are many occasions when this happens in English. Gold, Copper, Leather can be nouns or adjectives; clean, dry, free, open can be adjectives or verbs.
iii) A person says, “I see the dog” if he is speaking of something happening now, but “I saw the dog” if it happened yesterday. The change here from see to saw is a change from present to past tense. People say “one foot” but “two feet”, “a nice apple” but “the nicest apple”; “this boy” but “these boys”. Changes like these in the form of words, shown by spelling, are called inflections. Compared with some other languages, English does not have many inflections. French and German have many more, and ancient Greek and Latin had more still. A Latin verb has more than 100 different inflections, whereas most English verbs have only four.
iv) In a language with few inflections, the order of the words in sentence in very important because it is the chief way of showing how the meaning of the words are connected with each other. “The boy bites the dog” is obviously very different in meaning than “the dog bites the boy”. None of the words has changed in from or spelling, but the word order has changed and there for the meaning has too. It is usual in English for the subject of a sentence (“boy” in the first one, “dog” in the second) to come before the verb (“bites”) and for the object the thing or person to which something is done, to come after.
v) There are exceptions in English, there are some times sentences like “there goes the bell” or “Pop2 goes the weasel3” where the subject (“bell”, “weasel”) comes after instead of before the verb. These special and
uncommon ways of linking words are called idioms. The part of grammar that deals with the order and arrangement of words is called syntax.
Questions:
a)
i) How do small children come to learn that a particular expression is grammatically wrong?
ii) How does grammar help in learning a foreign language?
iii) What is meant by inflections?
iv) Why is it important to put the words in the correct order?
v) Where do we usually put the object in sentence? [5 × 1½ = 7½]
b) Find words in the passage which have the same meaning of each word/phrase given below:
i) that is easily perceived or understood (para iv)
ii) a small fierce animal with raddish fur that lives on rats (para v).
Answers
Explanation:
how does the knowledge of grammar helps us?
Answer:
Explanation:
i) Small children come to learn that a particular expression is grammatically wrong because grammar explains and provides rules, for is the way words change when they do different jobs.
ii) Grammer has changes in the form of words when it changes from past to present called inflection.English does not have many inflections. French and German have many more, and ancient Greek and Latin had more still.Thus it helps in learning a foreign language.
iii) Changes in the form of words when it changes from past to present called inflection. Such as “one foot” but “two feet”, “a nice apple” but “the nicest apple”Changes like these in the form of words, shown by spelling, are called inflections.
iv) It is important to put the words in the correct order so that the cheif meaning of the words are connected with each other.
v) Its is common for the object the thing or person to which something is done, to come after the verb.
vi)
i) obviously
ii) weasle