Question Tags,short resp. - 34

         Question tags and short responses 

                 

Introduction                       

We use question tags, short responses, prompts etc. during talk, without these things the conversation would become mechanical, boring and monotonous. 
              

Prior information

Subject:   The person or thing that we speak about in a sentence is called subject. A subject can be a noun, pronoun, common noun, collective noun adjectives etc. In the structures below we have used  pronouns as subjects. Subject normally comes at the beginning of a sentence. It is more convenient  to make sentences if the subject is in the form of a pronoun.  Whey you make a sentence always convert subject to it’s pronoun form mentally ( If the subject is not in the pronoun form). They are only nine pronouns (Personal) of all the subjects in the world, namely I, we, you, he, she, it, they

                                                                                     

Auxiliary Verb

Helping verb like am, is, are, was, were etc. are called auxiliary verbs.

Question tags in conversation

It is  common practice in talks to make a statement and ask  for confirmation .

It’s a nice place to stay (‘isn’t it?)  - ‘isn’t it’ is called a question tag.

Sentence pattern

If the statement is positive the question tag is negative (Auxiliary  verb + not + subject)

If the statement is negative the question tag is positive  (Auxiliary + subject)

Model sentences

 It was raining last night, wasn’t it ?

Julia isn’t in the office, is she?

You look beautiful, aren’t you

They are Italians, aren’t they

The boss isn’t  busy, is he?

Those aren’t your shoes, are they?

Those are your books,  aren’t they

Shane won’t come tomorrow, Will she?

They can win, can’t they?

Joe can’t swim, can he?

Off  the Pattern sentences

I am on time today, aren’t I?

Let’s have some coffee, shall we?

Have some more drink, will you?

There is someone behind the wall,  isn’t there?

Wait a minute, can you?

Short response in conversation

Short responses are common with questions beginning with auxiliary

Are they coming now? Yes they are / no they aren’t

Is you father a pilot? Yes he is / no he isn’t.

Can you play chess? Yes I can/ no I can’t

Will you come tomorrow? Yes I will / No I won’t

Was she  in Berlin last week? Yes she was/ no she wasn’t

                                    

End of the blog

am is are-33

                                                                                                                                                

                              am is are  

Prior information

Subject:   The person or thing that we speak about in a sentence is called subject. A subject can be a noun, or a pronoun, or a common noun, or a collective noun or an adjective or a noun phrase. In the structures below we have used  pronouns as subjects. Subject normally comes at the beginning of a sentence. It is more convenient to make sentences if the subject is in the form of a pronoun.  Whey you make a sentence always  convert subject to its pronoun form mentally ( If the subject is not in the pronoun form). They are only nine pronouns (Personal) of all the subjects in the world, namely I, we, you, he, she, it, they

Phrase: A group of words which makes sense but not a complete sense

Noun Phrase: Shane is a Teacher ( Shane = noun)

                        Shane the fair lady is a teacher (Shane the fair     

                        lady =  a noun phrase

Am/is/are: Helping verbs that denote state /existence/non existence description of  someone/something

Yes/no question: The question for which the response would be either ‘yes’ or ‘no’

‘Wh’ question: The questions that start with ‘wh’ words, what/when/why/where/how etc.

First person : One who  speaks. 

Second person:  One who is spoken to.

Third person : The person spoken of.

e.g. Obama Called Putin to discuss Middle east developments.

(Obama = first person, Putin = Second person, Syrian development = third Person)

NOTE: First , second and third person include both living and non living things.

Conversion of noun to pronoun

NOUN Father Mother Teacher President Manager Customer Brother Clerk Driver Friend Students Machine animal

PRONOUN He She He/she He/she He/she He/she He He/she He/she He/she They It It

NOUN Pain Fever Crowd Team Nation Herd Audience Water Tea House Shops Chairs meeting

PRONOUN It It It It It It It It It It They They It

Five types of important sentences in communication 

1. Simple statement. 2. Negative sentences. 3. Yes/no question 

4. Negative yes/no question. 5. wh question

The above five types of sentences can be used to convey most of our thoughts, intentions, messages etc.  

1. Structure – Simple statement/information/message etc

Person                     Singular                              Plural

 First                               I + am                                  We + are

 Second                          You + are                             You + are

 Third                            He/she/it  +  is                    They + are

I am Shane.

I am 32.

He is  married.

We are classmates

She is my cousin.

The  weather is fine.

It’s very playful (it= a puppy)

                                                     

2. Structure – Negative sentence

Person                     Singular                              Plural

 First                         I + am + not                        We + are + not

 Second                     You + are + not                  You + are + not

 Third                       He/she/it + is + not          They + are + not

He is not Jim. 

I am not a student .

They aren’t Indians.

The president is not in the Capital

We are in office.

NOTE:  are not = aren’t  and is not = isn’t

3. Structure – ‘yes/no’ question

Person                     Singular                              Plural

 First                              am + I                                 are + we

 Second                         are + you                            are + You

 Third                           is + (He/she/it)                 are + They                  

Are you Clara?

Is she busy now? 

Am I late today?

Is Joe in the office?

Are they ready to come?

4. Structure – ‘yes/no’ negative question

Person                     Singular                              Plural

 First                          am + I + not                       are + we + not

 Second                     are + you + not                  are + You + not

 Third                        is + (He/she/it) + not      are + They + not

NOTE:  are we not = aren’t we, are you not = aren’t you, is he not = isn’t he, are they not = aren’t they

Aren’t you Lee?

Isn’t she an American?

Aren’t they busy?

Isn’t it right?

Isn’t he sure?

5. Structure – ‘wh’ question

Person                     Singular                              Plural

 First                       ‘wh’+ am + I                             ‘wh’ + are + we

 Second                  ‘wh’ + are + you                        ‘wh’ + are + You

 Third                      ‘wh’ + is + (He/she/it)           ‘wh’ + are + They

‘Wh’ indicates ‘wh’ question words  like when, what, where, why etc.

Where is she?

How are you? 

What is he?

Who are they?

Why is she late?                                                                                                

NOTE: ‘He’ and ‘she’ include all singular nouns, ‘it’ includes all collective nouns, proper nouns, common nouns etc. ‘they’ includes all plural nouns (related to  he, she, and it)

               

Conjunctions-32

                          
                     Conjunctions 

NOTE: The opinion expressed in the following sentences is of author's own.        

                                

Prior Information

Sentence- A group of words which makes complete sense is called a sentence.

Preposition- word that  relates a noun or pronoun to something else is called preposition.

e.g. in, of , for etc.                                                       

                      

A conjunction is a word which joins two sentences or sometimes two words.

Read the following

They must hurry or they will miss the train.

Tow and two make two (These days two and two make twenty two.)

NOTE: And and  or  are called conjunctions. In the first two sentences the conjunctions join two sentences, in the third sentence the conjunction joins two words.

Preposition  and conjunction -  Difference

All member countries but Russia were present at G-20 – Preposition

All member countries attended G-20 meet but Russia couldn’t  attend….  Conjunction.

She hasn’t attend the work since 1^st March – Preposition

She hasn’t attended the work on 1^st March since she was ill. – Conjunction

He died (fighting) for his country – Preposition

He died (fighting) for his country was in danger. – Conjunction

Conjunction pair

a. Not only but also

Bill gate is not only a Technocrat but also a Philanthropist.

Ronal Reagan was not only the President of  USA, but also an actor .

Obama  has not only the challenge of Mitt  Romney but also the prevailing unemployment problem.

b. Whether……. Or

The  rich don’t care whether the oil prices go up or down.

Drones (some tines) don't recognize  whether the target is genuine or innocent people.

(After Fukushima the Nuclear powers have second thought). Whether to go for Nuclear Energy or do away with it.

c. Both  ……. And

US and Israel are  both allies and strategic partners. (Despite  spying on each other)

Hillary and Clinton  are both spouses  and political leaders.

Prince Harry has embarrassed  both  the royal family and  the Government by his Las Vegas antics.

d. Though…. Yet

Though the linux is a  free software yet it is not popular.

Though the Central Bank pumped in $23 trillions into the US economy yet nearly  8% of the people are unemployed.

Though China invested heavily on infrastructures yet it failed to energize its economy.                                                                                                                

                        

If conditionals-31

             

                      

               Practical usage of  if conditionals

                                           

If I  had ……..I  would have ,  If   I were…… I would - Structures

  

NOTE: The opinion expressed in the following sentences is of author's.        

              

Prior Information

Present/past  form of the verb – In verbs go, went, and gone. ‘go’ is the present form and went is the past form of the verb

Subject:   The person or thing that we speak about in a sentence is called subject. A subject can be a noun,        

pronoun, common noun, collective noun adjectives etc. In the structures below we have used  pronouns as subjects. Subject normally comes at the beginning of a sentence. It is mor convenient  to make sentences if the subject is in the form of a pronoun.  When you make sentence always convert subject to it’s pronoun form mentally ( If the subject is not in the pronoun form). They are only nine pronouns (Personal) of the subjects namely I, we, you, he, she, it, they

Conditional Sentences          

This types of sentences tells us that something  will happened if certain condition is fulfilled

There are two parts in conditional sentence, namely if clause and main clause. Main clause is standalone clause ,the if clause is dependent clause (It depends on main clause to make itself sensible)

Look at this sentence

If  your share your wealth the national will prosper

There are two clauses  in the above sentence . If clause ( not underlined) and the main clause (underlined)

There are three types of conditionals namely open condition, unreal or imaginary condition and unfulfilled condition.

a. Open condition

In this type of condition, the condition may or not be fulfilled , it’s left open.

Structure: If clause contains present form of the verb. The main clause contains helping verb (will/shall, may ,can etc.) + other words. The reference is to present or future.

Model sentences

If Spain and Greece take realistic measures they can save EU .

Crisis in the Middle Ease can be diffused, if UN Secretary General intervenes.

If  you switch over to E-cigarettes you can minimize the health risk.

If  the dollar weakens further the gold will touch new heights.

If  China and India minimize  oil consumption the oil prices can brought down

If  Mitt Romney soften his stand on Taxes  he might gain more popularity.

If Mr. O’Malley wants to be Democratic nominee in 2016 he must be ready with new economic bailout plans and health insurance policies.

If you leave now, you can catch the train. Or  You can catch the train, if you leave now.

If she gets the admission she will join the course.

If his relatives arrive he may not come.

b. Unreal or imaginary condition

When we  talk about unreal or imaginary things we use this condition.  

Structure: If clause contain  past verb form or the verb were.  The main clause contains the helping verb like Should, could, would, might etc, + present verb form. The reference is to present or future.

Model sentences

If  The west cut emission the world would breath fresh air. (‘cut’ is present as well as past form of the verb)

If  Hillary were the president the US policies would be totally different.

If  Hong kong were under UK, It would feel the shocks of economic recession.

If  The space craft flew with the speed of light, it could reach the Mars in a few minutes.

If  I were you , I wouldn’t decline the offer.(Reference  to the present. With all subjects were is used.)

If they  started, now they might reach school in time.

c. Unfulfilled condition

This condition says the certain things didn’t  happen because certain conditions were not fulfilled.

Structure: If  clause contains had + Past perfect verb (e.g. Gone, called, slept, drunk, swum etc.) + other words. The main   clause contains should, could, would, might  + have + Past perfect verb + other words.

Model Sentences (If is optional in some cases)

Had European Central ban taken drastic measures, Spain and Italy wouldn’t have fallen into the debt trap.

Had Bill gate pursued studies, the world might have missed windows of the fresh air.

Had  Steve Jobs and Bill gate collaborated the world would have got a  better deal.

If the authorities  had taken adequate precautions the Colorado shooting could  have been avoided.

If  the director/produced  had not concede the Green’s demand, she wouldn’t have Played a role in Apparition.

(Ashley Green’s demand was that she wouldn’t be a typical scream queen.)

If he  had walked fast he would have caught the train.

If we had good rainfall, we would have saved the crops.