Learning English Grammar : Past Continuous Tense.

Assalamualaikum WBT,

Hi, have you heard about MH370 and they said that they have confirmed that debris that on the Indian Ocean were from MH370.

As for me, I will not believe it until it is really confirmed and confirmed means here that they include the images of those debris. Thank you.

Well, for this entry, I will continue on Past Continuous Tense.

What is Past Continuous Tense?

The Past Continuous tense is used for an action that was going on in the past when something else happened. The past continuous tense is most often used for actions happening at some time in the past.

The past continuous is formed from the past tense of be with the -ing form of the verb:
We use the past continuous to talk about the past:

• for something which continued before and after another action:

The children were doing their homework when I got home.

Compare:

I got home. The children did their homework.
and
The children did their homework when I got home.

As I was watching television the telephone rang.

This use of the past continuous is very common at the beginning of a story:

The other day I was waiting for a bus when …
Last week as I was driving to work … 

• for something that happened before and after a particular time:

It was eight o’clock. I was writing a letter.

Compare:

At eight o’clock I wrote some letters.

In July she was working in McDonald’s.

• .to show that something continued for some time:

My head was aching.
Everyone was shouting.

• for something that was happening again and again:

I was practising every day, three times a day.
They were meeting secretly after school.
They were always quarrelling.

• with verbs which show change or growth:

The children were growing up quickly.
Her English was improving.
My hair was going grey.
The town was changing quickly.

Source : English Grammar
Source : ESL

So, how was the explanation? Clear right? Let me tell you are short story.

On Monday, when I was typing on the keyboard, there was a bird chirping outside my window. I was curious and looked outside and while I was searching for the birding, I saw the bird was hurt and I just do not know what happened to it.

Now, I do not want to finish the story because it was not even real, but if you could see there, I was using past continuous tense several times right? So, can you spot the usage of it?

Assalamualaikum WBT

p/s: Toodles! read a lot!!

Learning English Grammar : Present Continuous Tense.

Assalamualaikum WBT,

I am so sorry for not writing these few days, I have things to do, plus the internet connection is not that good. I just have to bear with it, well, because its free.

Now, for this entry, I will be writing on Present Continuous Tense.

Wow, wow, wait a minute. We did not yet learn on the tenses right? Its okay because tenses are quite easy and it is not that difficult. Okay, lets focus first on this topic. Present Continuous Tense.

See these two sentences :

I am drawing now.
They are talking.

Since we are discussing on Present Tense, you have to bear in mind that, Present Tense is what is happening now. This present time. Okay?

'Am' is a special finite that only given to 'I' and it cannot be used by any other noun.

The Present Continuous Tense is used to show actions that are going on at the time speaking.

These are the indicators to differentiate between Present Continuous Tense with others. In Present Continuous Tense there are several indicators that you need to know, which are, Verb-to-be in present tense which are 'am', 'is' and 'are', the verb used and also after verb-to-be it has in form of continuous which it has -ing.

Is that clear? A little twisted right? hahaha..

Exercise:

1. What ......... you looking at? (is, are)
2. The sun ........ shining brightly. ( are, is)
3. I ....... writing to my pen-pal now. ( is, am)
4. My little brother .........(not sleep) now.
5. Let's chase him. He ..... (run) away.
6. The phone ........ (ring) now. Go and answer it.
7. We .......... (wait) for Mei Ling.
8. Listen! The dogs ......... (bark) now.
9. It .......... (rain) very heavily now. Let's run for shelter.

Do this exercise and you will familiar with the sentence structure and in the end you will able to create your own sentences. Trust me.

Assalamualaikum WBT

p/s. Keep reading.

Learning English Grammar : Forming Verbs

Assalamualaikum WBT,

How do you do my darling readers and followers? Lovely right?

Well, how was the last entry? This : Learning English Grammar : Forms of Verb

Hope you got the brief meaning on forms of verb and now we are going to see on the forming verbs.

Actually forming verb is not that difficult, we just need to know how to form the verb.

Now, let just give you some examples, see these sentences,

'joy', 'friend' and also 'food'. There are all noun right? 

So, how are we going to form verbs from these words?

Now, this is the answer,

'en+joy= enjoy'

'be+friend= befriend'

'food+ change vowels=feed"

and nowadays, there is something happened to the word 'friend', because of the social media effect, especially Facebook, the word 'friend' created another word, which is "un+friend= unfriend" and it immediately socially accepted but not really on the linguists' point of views, because most of them think that it would easily affect the word. Well, on what term? I do not know really but as long as we understood the word, than to me its okay, and the meaning of the word has expanded right? At least, we use the word more than before. 

Now, verbs can also be formed from adjectives such as 'black', 'large' and also 'fertile'. Well, you know it right?

'black+en=blacken'

'en+large=enlarge'

'fertile+ize=fertilize'

Same as nouns, verbs are also formed by adding certain letters, e.g. en-, -en, be-, -ize.

Here is a list on the formation of verbs. You may study the words given carefully.

so, that is all!

Luv.

Assalamualaikum WBT

p/s: study carefully, my darlings.

Learning English Grammar: Forms of Verb.

Assalamualaikum WBT,

Now, I am going to write on Forms of the Verb.

What is verb? 

Verb is the words use to show actions done by the subject or in Malay we called it kata kerja. Now you know it right?

Now, there are four (4) different forms of verb, in 4 different tenses.

Present Tense

Present Participle

Past Tense

Past Participle

Why these just for tense right? Where is Future tense? Simple present tense? 

You see later on the similarities between these tenses but for now, let me explain to you about this forms of verb. 

All the verbs in the sentences are different in form. The verb 'eat' is used in the Simple Present tense. 'Ate' is used in the Simple Past tense. Which of the verbs end in -ing? Well, it is 'eating'. This word cannot stand by itself. 

It is used with the 'helping word' or Special finite 'am'. 'Eating' is called the Present Participle of 'eat'. Like the Present Participle, the word 'eaten' needs a 'helping word' too. 

It is used with 'have'.

It is the Past Participle of 'eat'.

Okay? Now you understand right? But you have to bear in mind that, there are forms that in these (past tense and past participle) that not changed at all it uses the same spelling. Okay? Love you. Read more and you will know the difference. 

Assalamualaikum WBT

p/s: I too read more English language books.

Learning English Grammar : Singular and Plural Nouns.

Assalamualaikum WBT,

I am so really sorry for not updating any information on grammar, well, the internet connection was not that good for these past two days, so, I was struggling a bit to actually write something just because the internet connection was not good. 

But now, its okay! So, lets move on to our English grammar lesson, Singular and Plural Nouns.

Well, Singular Nouns form is quite easy because its just one. One thing, one person, one animal. And for more that one it is called Plural Nouns which is a little tricky actually.

There are thirteen forms of Plural Nouns, buckle up and lets run! 

1. By adding -s.

For examples :

son-sons    goat-goats    house-houses    table-tables    picture-pictures

2. By adding -es to nouns ending in -s,-sh,-ch and -x.

For examples :

glass-glasses    bus-buses    inch-inches    match-matches    brush-brushes    dish-dishes    box-boxes

fox-foxes         tax-taxes

3. By adding -es to SOME nouns ending in -o

For examples :

buffalo-buffaloes    hero-heroes    potato-potatoes    volcano-volcanoes

4. By adding -s to SOME nouns ending in -o

For examples :

bamboo-bamboos    piano-pianos    radio-radios    photo-photos

5. By changing -y into -ies

For examples :

baby-babies    lady-ladies    fly-flies    army-armies   cry-cries

6. By adding -s to some nouns ending in -y

For example :

monkey-monkeys    way-ways    day-days    key-keys

7. By adding -f to -fe into -ves

For examples :

loaf-loaves    leaf-leaves    calf-calves   thief-thieves    knife-knives   wife-wives   life-lives

8. By adding -s to SOME nouns ending in -f or -fe

For examples :

chief-chiefs    hoof-hoofs    roof-roofs    root-roots    gulf-gulfs

9. By changing the inside vowels

For examples :

man-men    goose-geese    tooth-teeth    mouse-mice    louse-lice    woman-women    foot-feet

10. By adding -en

For examples :

ox-oxen    child-children

11. SOME nouns have their singular and plural alike

For examples :

sheep-sheep    deer-deer   cod-cod   fish-fish(es)

12. SOME unusual nouns form their plural in a different way. NOTE where the -s is placed.

For examples :

brother-in-law    brothers-in-law

son-in-law          sons-in-law

step-mother        step-mothers

step-son             step-sons

13. SOME nouns are used only in the plural.

scissors     shears     pliers   clothes    pincers

Okay that is all, but you need to bare in mind that learning is not just by read the technical grammar book, you need to do you own exercise and also you have to read a lot. This is because only through reading you will find these amazing, fancy words that will add up to your lexicon. Plus, when you read lots of books, you will be able to familiarise with the sentence structures. So, if you want to know more, read more okay?

Assalamualaikum WBT

p/s: learning is fun!

Learning English Grammar : Collective Nouns.

Assalamualaikum WBT,

Today, I am going to write more on Nouns and for today's topic would be, Collective Nouns

Now, I will be explaining about the Collective Nouns.

What is Collective Nouns?

Collective nouns is the name of a number (or collection) of people or things taken together and spoken of as one whole. For example, "a troupe of dancers".

*it is different with Countable and Uncountable Nouns. Take notes.

Sometimes, we group certain nouns together and speak of them as a whole. We use special words for such nouns. And this called, Collective Nouns. In English language, there are tonnes of Collective Nouns impression, and its divided into three groups, animal, people and things.

People :

a company of actors
a troupe of dancers
a gang of labourers
a band of musicians
a team of players
a choir of singers
a class of pupils
a staff of servants

Animals:

a nest of ants
a flock of sheep
a pack of wolves
a school of whales
a team of oxen
a herd of buffalos
a litter of kitten

Things :

a flight of aeroplane
a collection of pictures
a set of tools
a flight of steps
a bundle of sticks
a bunch of grapes

And many more.

Well, this is easy right, you just need to read more, this is because, sometimes, you apply technically, but you have to read in order for you to get the knowledge. okay?

Understand?

Assalamualaikum WBT,

p/s: Love yourself because you are limited.

Learning English Grammar : Countable and Uncountable Nouns.

Assalamualaikum WBT,

Well, for this entry, I am still going to write about Noun. In the previous entry, I too talked about noun, but more to Number in Nouns. Click on the links given, it will direct you to the explanations made by me. Thank you.

For this entry, I will be briefly explaining on Countable and Uncountable Nouns. Hard to differentiate? Well, You will see that it is actually not that hard, trust me. With simple words given, you will understand it very well.

Well, what are Countable and Uncountable Nouns? As you can see there, the key word is Count, meaning numbers. This is different from Number in Nouns. Just do not mixed up between those two okay? 

Now, Countable Nouns is nouns that can be counted and Uncountable Nouns is nouns that cannot be counted. So, got the picture there right? Now, we move on to further explanation.

The expressions plenty of, a lot of, some and any are used with both countable and uncountable nouns. 

A, an, several, many, a few and  a large number of are only used with countable nouns.

A little, much, a large amount of and a great deal of are used with uncountable nouns.

A and an are never been used in uncountable nouns because A and An are both lead to Singular (one).

So, for examples,

She drank a glass of milk.

Our hen lays an egg every day.

Butter is made from milk.

There are some men in the boat.

Is there any work for me to do?

I need some more butter to make the cake.

There are too few chairs for so much guests.

There are a lot of biscuits left but not many coffee. 

She only ate a little food today.

He has collected a large number of stamps.

So, understood? Hehe.. easy right?

Assalamualaikum WBT

p/s: That is Countable and Uncountable Nouns.

Learning English Grammar : Number of Nouns.

Assalamualaikum WBT,

As promised in the last entry, I will try my hardest to share with you my knowledge on English Grammar and still this entry will linger around Noun.

Well, in nouns there is we called, Number of Nouns. 

Number of Nouns means that there are nouns that need differentiation. We need to differentiate between nouns.  Okay.

These are the number of nouns :

1. Number shows whether one is meant, or more than one.

2. There are two Numbers : --

The Singular Number

The Plural Number

The Singular number denotes only one object.

boy, girl

The Plural number denotes more than one object.

boys, girls.

The Plural is generally formed by adding s to the Singular :

pen      pens             chair       chairs

book    books          garden    gardens

When the noun ends in s, x, ch, or sh, the Plural is formed by adding es to the Singular : -

glass     glasses        watch    watches

box       boxes         dish       dishes

If the noun ends in y, and the y has consonant going before it, the Plural is formed by changing y into ies : -

duty    duties       army   armies

fly       flies           lady    ladies

But if the y has vowel going before it, the Plural is formed by simply adding s : --

day      days      key           keys

boy      boys     monkey   monkeys

Most nouns ending in f or fe form the Plural by changing f or fe into ves

calf      calves         life       lives

knife    knives         wife     wives

leaf      leaves         thief     thieves

If the noun in o, and the o is preceded by a consonant, the Plural is generally ( not always ) formed by adding es to the Singular : --

cargo    cargoes      negro     negroes

hero      heroes        potato   potatoes

But if the o is preceded by a vowel, the Plural is formed by simply adding s to the singular : --

bamboo    bamboos       curio    curios

cuckoo     cuckoos        studio   studios

Some nouns from their Plurals irregularly : 

man       men          tooth       teeth

woman  women      mouse    mice

foot       feet           ox           oxen

goose    geese        child       children

Some Nouns have the same from in the Plural as in the Singular : -

deer      deer             fish        fish     ( fishes )

sheep    sheep           dozen    dozen ( dozens )

Explanation above is simple and understandable. It uses simple words. Its easy.

So, if you have any questions in mind, feel free to ask me on the comment box, thank you.

Assalamualaikum WBT

p/s: English language is easy.

Learning English Grammar : Noun.

Assalamualaikum WBT,


To be honest, my passion for English grammar has never fade and I really love learning it over and over again. Trust me. I even have several books on English grammar and still have trouble in learning it, why? Well, English is not a language that I used daily so, I usually have trouble in differentiate a few tenses and the sentence structures. Yes.

Usually, when I want to use something in particular sentence, I would easily go back to the book, well, if I have the time but if I do not have the time, I would go for the simple ones, always.

Okay, for the beginning of this blog, the reason I made is because I want to share the English knowledge that I have and I better start it again right? So, for this entry, I will write on English grammar. NOUNS.

Nouns.

There are some people, animals, places and things in this world, and each person, animal, place and thing has a name. Do you know the names? Let see these given pictures.

Look at these two pictures, what do you see? A gorilla and also a group of small, cute baby penguins, right? These two are grouped in the animal section. Noun = animals, baby penguins, gorilla, grass, snow and also try to look around you, what do you see? pencils? mouse? comb? perhaps.. right? So those are nouns.

Nouns divided into five different kind, proper nouns, common nouns, collective nouns, material nouns and abstract nouns.

Proper nouns : John (person's name), The Chinese, The Malays (people), Cameron Highlands (place)

Common nouns : computer, mouse, monitor, comb (any things names)

Collective nouns : singular in form though denoting more than one. For example, herd, army, flock.

Material nouns : the name of substance. For example, milk, iron, wood.

Abstract nouns : the name of a quality. For example, love, pain, truth, colours.

So, that is about noun. Next time, I write more on the English grammar. Its not that difficult to learn it, trust me. Next, I will be writing more on noun. Yes, hope you will enjoy it, English is easy. We made it easy.

Assalamualaikum WBT

p/s: Its not that difficult.

We dare to hope when there is none. #MH370 #PrayforMH370

Assalamualaikum WBT,

Its not new but every single thing comes from that incident is all news to us.

Yes, I am talking about the crash. The plane crash *I cannot say that actually, #MAS #MH370 but I think I have to change it from crashed to Missing because its still not found yet so, we'd better hope for the best. We are humans, we dare to hope whenever it seems there is none.

I really still hoping that the passengers and also the cabin crews are fine and in my head, they landed somewhere safe but unknown. Where there is no phone signals, no people, no village, no nothing, the system of the planes was down and there is nothing they can do to let people know. I hope that would be the scenario. I really hope that would happen. Please Allah. Safe them.

Yes.

I am human, I hope they are safe. Even though there are no relatives of mine on that plane but being a human and gifted with good sense of empathy and sympathy really make us human. And when its happened to Malaysians and with such cause given to the extreme, I mean, I tried to feel the anxiety and also the sufferings, at night, no food, the baby, its all to much and I really hope that they are safe. Who cares if they are different, who cares? I DON'T, why? because safety beats all. Their safety is the main priority now. And in shaa Allah, they will safe and they will be saved. In shaa Allah.

Please, open you mind and pray for their safety.

Assalamualaikum WBT

p/s: In Shaa Allah.

Harry Potter series.

Assalamualaikum WBT,

"Clearly, fame isn't everything".- Professor Snape.

Well, obviously, those days people believe in everything but now, fame actually a stepping stone to seal lots of deals, really.

I am not watching the Harry Potter series. I really love visiting my those years and I just simply watching Harry Potter series and I will immediately remember my days. Hahaha.. really, no kidding.

Actually, revisiting the old days is very good, why? Because, we could easily learn a few things there.

Well, I need to watch this series. Love it.

Assalamualaikum WBT

p/s: Watching Hermoine, Harry and Ron makes me want to learn there, at Hogwarts. hahaha
p/s: And Harry Potter taught me English language too. Hows that?

Whatsoever.

Assalamualaikum WBT,

Being ignorance is actually one of the best ways to treat people that we hate. Haha, not really actually, just kidding. What hurt the most would be, not be able to talk like we used to, not being around like we used to and so other many things. So hard, trust me.

Well, things are not usually according to our plans right?

Today, I bank in some money to my friend because I am buying a few products from her. She has been around since like two years and today was the moment where I said,

"Well, I want to try this product!"

And actually, I have this kind of weird feeling on products, well, the beauty products. Really! I have tried a few products before, like one year ago and the result was not good, AT ALL. There was no effect on me, whatsoever and I was thinking, I'd better stop using this product and just stopped using that product. It gained many attentions from the people in Malaysia because they said the products work on them, well, I'd say, congratulations! haha.. Obviously, those products did not work on me. So..whatever.

Tomorrow I will be going to this one school and we need to clear up a few things because the rules applied were stupid and obviously did not work to discipline the students. Shit!

Assalamualaikum WBT

p/s: wish me luck!