Secrets of Antonyms & Synonyms

Synonyms & Antonyms are an integral part of grammar. Primarily, they enhance the vocabulary. They also encourage replacing the old words with new one & thus bring newness in your speech. Exploring new words is very motivating & interesting. Besides, using different synonyms & antonyms attracts the readers and listeners. Hence the speaker can leave an excellent and everlasting impression. A brief about synonyms and antonyms is given below.

Synonyms are defined as the words which have identical meanings. All the words can have synonyms. Even all the parts of speech including nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and prepositions can have a synonym. However, The meanings may or may not be exact.

For example the synonym of ‘big’ is ‘large’ & of ‘small’ is ‘little’. The synonyms for the word student are pupil, scholar, undergraduate, learner etc. The word student means a person studying in a school or a college while pupil means a person or child studying in school or privately with a teacher. Their usage will be clearer with the following examples.

• I am an engineering student.
• He is a pupil of famous singer Lata Mangeshkar.

Similarly the word scholar means someone who has expertise in some field. For Example: Raman is a maths scholar. This means that Raman in expert in Maths. Thus the reader or speaker should ensure that the synonyms are used efficiently.

Likewise, using the antonyms effectively brings vividness in speaking & writing and also makes them vibrant. The Antonyms are the words opposite to another word. They are basically used to show contrast. The distinction can be for time such as day- night or morning – evening, for colours like light – dark, dull – bright, for comparison like big – small, tall- short, for describing personality ugly- beautiful, elegant- inelegant etc.

The antonyms can be further categorized in three categories: -

• Graded Antonyms
• Relational Antonyms
• Complimentary Antonyms

A brief description of these subtypes along with their examples is given below.

1. Graded Antonyms: As the name suggests, the pair of antonyms fall in this category differ in their degree. They express relationship along a scale of degree.

   For Example:

• Good - Bad
• Happy - Sad
• Beautiful - Ugly
• Smart - Stupid
• Big - Little

2. Relational Antonyms:

The pair of antonyms which have a relationship between them fall in this category. In this pair a words couldn’t exist without the other.

   Examples:

• Back - Front
• Husband - Wife
• Black - White
• Open - Close
• Sell- Buy

3. Complimentary Antonyms: The pair of antonyms which have no degree of meaning fall in this category. They are complementary to each other.

   Examples:

• Dead - Alive
• Male - Female
• On - Off
• Present - Absent
• Pass - Fail
• Hit - Miss

While choosing an antonym, one should keep the context of the word in his/ her mind and then choose the best word which is opposite in its meaning. The appropriate use of antonyms & synonyms makes the text & speech striking. The usage of new words spices up the conversation. But this can only happen when these are used effectively & at the right place.

Visit our website to learn antonyms word here at http://www.englishleap.com/vocabulary/antonym and for synonyms word here at http://www.englishleap.com/vocabulary/synonyms

Secrets to improve spoken English

English is the recognized as the official language to communicate globally, for both oral and written communication. Therefore English learners are always striving to improve their communication skills. There should be discipline and enthusiasm to learn a language. Following are few tips to improve communication skills.

1. Watch English programs, news, movies etc. especially with subtitles to understand the meaning and usage of words. This way, you will have a better understanding of using the word in appropriation situation.  It may be monotonous in the beginning but will eventually improve your communication skills.

2. Note down all the difficult words you found in the conversation and look for their meanings.  Read at least five of these words daily and use them in your conversation. It’s better to use the newly learnt words while talking to a good English speaker to know whether or not you are using them correctly.  Use a dictionary to know the synonyms or antonyms of these words and also learn their usage in different scenarios.

3. To speak in English, think in English. While communicating, many English learners think in their native language and then translate to English. Remember that the grammar rules of your regional language may not be same as that of English. So the translation may not be the same and you won’t be able to say exactly what you want to.

4. Try to converse in English with your friends and family and with the people around you. In this way, you will be able to get rid of your hesitation of speaking in English. You can also practice alone by reading any article, book etc. in English. Stand in front of the mirror and read aloud. Practise whatever you want to say. It will make you comfortable with the words and use them in the conversation.

5. Build a community of English speakers at your school, college, office or your neighbourhood and make a commitment to speak in English only whenever you meet.  You may also use the social media to make such community.

6. Make a native English speaker your pen pal and start interacting. Ask him or her to be your mentor and focus on your mistakes pointed by them.

7. Read English news in different newspapers and see the difference in the ways it is presented. In this way you will have the understanding of using different words in same situation. But ensure using these words in your daily conversation to make your tongue habitual of them.

8. Tongue twisters are the best sources for improving fluency. In the beginning, read them slowly and when you get the words say as fast as you can. The tongue twisters make your tongue habitual for pronouncing difficult and same sounding words easily. Try this one:

High roller, low roller, lower roller

Remember that you can have good command over the language only through consistent practice. The more you practise; the better will be the speaking skills. Communication is the way of expressing what you feel or believe so it should be effective and the listener should understand it.

To learn more about improving spoken English visit our website - http://www.englishleap.com/improve-english

Learn spoken English through Telugu easily

Telugu is a Dravidian language and is mostly spoken in Andhra Pradesh, India. It borrows several features of Sanskrit. Learning English for a native Telugu speaker is no more a dream now. Several organisations are offering the English speaking courses for native Telugu speaker. Here are few suggestions to learn English through Telugu.

Firstly analyse your requirement and the way you want to learn. Decide if your preference is classroom coaching or online learning. However online learning is best if you have time constraint. It makes you to learn at your convenience.

After choosing the mode of learning, decide how you want to learn like you need a teacher assisted course or a self learning program. The later is the best again because it saves time. The former needs your presence in the classroom at the specified time whereas the later gives you the liberty of time. A self learning course is better for those who have busy schedules. With the help of such courses the learners can learn English at their own pace. There is no compulsion to be present in the classes at the specified time. You can learn anytime when free.

If online learning is not feasible then get a book. A lot of text materials like books; magazines etc. may be available for self study for those who wish to learn English as a second language. The books can also be found at the Public library or over the internet.

The next step is to look for a tutor who can teach English through Telugu. You can find them over the net. A lot of teachers are available who can teach English as a second language through various languages.

Get a Telugu- English dictionary and English- Telugu dictionary so you don’t get stuck on any word while learning. Immediately look for the meaning of difficult word you come around and memorise its meaning. Jot down all such words in a notebook and read them every day. Use the newly learnt word in everyday conversation so you become habitual of using them.

Use social media to improve your learning. Look for a community of learners who learn English through Telugu. Contact them and be a part of their community. Introduce new topics for discussion. Set a rule that everybody should speak in English. However while clarifying something, Telugu can be used. Appoint a mentor, if possible, who can identify your mistake and correct them. Use chats, blogs, and podcast to enhance your learning.

You can also learn English through Telugu by watching Telugu movies with English subtitles. You will be able to learn the exact English translation of a Telugu word. Also instead of few words, you can learn to speak long sentences.

Read two newspapers every day - one in Telugu and then the English version of the same newspaper. Look at how the news is presented in English. This will not only enhance your vocabulary but also you will learn how to speak in real- life situations.

To know more on how to learn spoken english through telugu visit our website - http://www.englishleap.com/other-resources/learn-english-through-telugu

Conjunctions

Conjunctions, in its simplest form, are known as those words which connect two sentences or phrases together. These words are used in order to remove the need of full stops and to make the sentences flow. For example:

James went to the market. James bought a new t-shirt.
James went to the market and bought a new t-shirt.

The word ‘and’ works as a connection between the two sentences and joins them. There are primarily three kinds of conjunctions and we shall learn about them one by one in the sections below:

Coordinating Conjunctions: This category of conjunctions deals with those sentences which are equal in importance. Both the sentences joined by these conjunctions are grammatically correct and complete in themselves.

There are mainly seven coordinating conjunctions and they are – for, and, nor, but, yet, or, soon.
Few examples regarding the use of these conjunctions are:
James went to the mall and bought a cap.
Katy doesn’t want Chinese or Thai food.
He reached the station but still missed the train.

In the examples cited above, the use of conjunctions can be seen clearly. The words marked in bold connect two equally important and meaningful sentences together in order to make the sentence flow better.

Subordinating Conjunctions: These are those conjunctions, which join an independent sentence with a subordinate sentence. One of the sentences is complete in itself, while the other depends on the first sentence for complete meaning. In order to understand better, here are some examples:

She went to watch the game because it was her favorite team.
Although it was chilly, they still went outside.

In the first sentence, the word ‘because’ is joining the complete sentence ‘she went to watch the game’ with the dependent sentence ‘it was her favorite team’. Similar action of ‘although’ can be seen in the second sentence.

Correlative Conjunctions: These types of conjunctions come in pairs and their objective is to join groups of words together in a sentence. They do not link sentences, but link words having the same importance together within the sentence.

Some examples of correlative conjunctions are:
Not only did he slap him, but also broke his glasses.
Both the girls and the boys were to blame for the chaos.
You need to choose between either chess or carom.

The words marked in bold are pairs of conjunctions which are joining the group of words together.

To learn more on Conjunction, please visit our website -

http://www.englishleap.com/grammar/conjunctions

Adjectives

Adjectives deal with the section of Grammar that helps in identifying, quantifying or describing the kind of noun or pronoun.

For example: She was wearing a red skirt.

In the sentence above, red describes the type of skirt (noun) worn by the girl and thus red is said to be an adjective. Adjectives are very important in English Grammar as they help in differentiating the nouns from one another.

 

 

There are various kinds of adjectives depending on the usage. Some of the major types of adjectives along with some illustrative examples are explained below:

- Adjectives of Quality: These adjectives answer “what kind”. They describe the noun and help in knowing the characteristics of the noun. For example:

Amsterdam is a beautiful city.
Thames is a large river.
Australia is the smallest continent.

In all the examples given, the words beautiful, large and smallest describe the nature of the mentioned things or places or cities and so on. Thus, these adjectives are known as adjectives of quality.

- Adjectives of Quantity: These are the adjectives that help in quantifying the nouns or pronouns. They, however, do not provide with exact numbers and rather give us an approximate amount. For example:

The English army has many soldiers.
I only have a little money left.
They went and bought enough food for us.

The words marked in bold, clearly signify an approximate amount and thus these adjectives come under the category of adjectives of quantity.

- Adjectives of Number: These adjectives specify a number to the nouns or pronouns and give us a definite amount of the concerned item. For example:

I have ten apples with me.
She gave the beggar three bowls of rice.
Mary has seven sisters.

In the above example, the words marked in bold clearly signify the number of apples, bowls of rice and sisters respectively, and thus these words come under the category of adjectives of number.

- Demonstrative Adjectives: This category of adjectives make use of words like This, That, Those and These and are used to indicate some particular object or a person. For example:

This pencil belongs to my sister.
That painting is mine.
Those mangoes belong to our neighbor.

In all the examples, the words marked in bold signify or indicate to some particular object and tell us their relation with some other noun or pronoun.

- Interrogative Adjectives: This category deals with those words which are used to ask questions regarding the nouns or in relation to them. For example:

Whose phone is this?
What were you talking about?
Where were you going?

All these sentences are asking  questions to a noun or a pronoun and the words marked in bold are known as the interrogative adjectives.

To learn more about adjective visit our website -

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Common Errors in English

Every language has some confusing areas so does English. There are words that sound the same, some unusual spellings and complicated grammatical construction which puzzle a learner. Even native English speakers can find some of them difficult. Focus on the areas where you are consistently making mistakes. Study about it carefully or seek someone’s help in understanding it. Slowly and steadily you will get rid of your mistakes.

The most common errors in English are mentioned below along with their rules. You can abide by these rules and avoid these mistakes in your communication.

1. Usage of articles - A/ An:  Many of us get confused with the usage of articles - ‘A’ and ‘An’. We have learnt in schools that article ‘A’ is used before the consonants and ‘An’ is used before the vowels. Then why do we say an hour or a university?

• Rule: The rule for using articles says - Use article ‘A’ before the words starting with a consonant sound and ‘An’ before the words starting with a vowel sound. Thus we always put ‘an’ before hour as it is pronounced like the word ‘our’ and ‘a’ before university as it is pronounced like ‘yooniversity’.

2. Making plurals - The general rule for making plurals is to add the alphabet  ‘s’ after the word. This rule doesn’t hold well for the words ending in a consonant + Y and the words ending with O, -CH, -SH, -SS, -X, or -Z. 

For words ending with -O, -CH, -SH, -SS, -X, or -Z we add ‘es’ to make plurals. We drop ‘y’ and add ‘ies’ to make plural for the words ending with a consonant and alphabet ‘y’ we drop y and add ‘ies’ to make plural.

3. Capitalization:  This is the most common mistakes people make. Remember to always capitalize the proper noun which includes holidays, days of the week, places, and names.

4. Making participle: Most of the verbs do not change their spellings when they are changed to participles. For instance the past particle of put, shut and cut is put, shut and cut respectively.

5. Learn the difference between the most commonly misused words like

·         I and me

·         Your and you’re

·         Its and It’s

·         There, Their and They’re

·         Accept and Except etc.

6. Learn about using the apostrophe. Apostrophe is used to show possession like Mary’s, John’s etc.  and for contraction like It’s , you’re, they’re etc.  To show possession of a word ending with ‘s’ like Paras,  etc. we simply add apostrophe at the end of the word. The possession of Paras can be written as Paras’. 

You can seek help of your English teacher, grammar books or a grammar whiz friend to point out your mistakes and correct them. Else you can also look for them over the internet or find some good grammar book which can teach you about commonly made mistakes and how to avoid them. With your diligence you can be a pro in this global language for communication.

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