Search results for 'tag:English grammar tag:Vowels' matching tags 'English grammar' and 'Vowels'

Re: AMERICANS PLEASE HELP!!

Kooyeen — Sun, 04 May 2008 18:19:02 GMT

First of all, you need some grammar too, because I noticed typical Asian mistakes, or non native constructions anyway.

Anonymous
i'm live in PRC <-- I live in...

Here's the best tips I can give you:

1 - Get a grammar book, and read it, learning the most common structures. "English grammar in use" by Cambridge University Press seems a good one.
2 - Learn how to recognize the sounds of vowels and how to speak like a native speaker. I used "American Accent Training", by Ann Cook. It is one of the best.
3 - Practice, replacing your first language with English every time you feel like it. You should start to think in English.

Point #2 is the most important. I improved my listening skills by at least 50% (from understanding 25% to understanding 80%). The link is http://www.americanaccent.com/ ,if you want to take a look.

Re: IS "w" A VOWEL

Anonymous — Sun, 27 May 2007 06:19:47 GMT

Dear Cyndi:

You have actually asked two questions in your posting: (1) Is the letter w a vowel? and (2) For how long have schools been teaching that the letter w is a vowel?

Regarding (1), the answer is that w can be both a vowel and a consonant.

Regarding (2), at least since 1861 in the United States.

My proof is the following: I quote from an American English grammar textbook from the year 1861:

What I find particularly interesting about the following section I quote is that, at the very end of it, the author points out that the letters u and i as well can be either vowels or consonants.

"The vowels are a, e, i, o, u; also w and y, when not followed by a vowel sound in the same syllable [emphasis added].

"They can be sounded alone, and represent each several inarticulate elementary sounds. (Except w.)

"Ex. -- Fate, fare, fat, far, fall; me, met; fine, fin, fatigue; no, not, dove, prove, book; use, us, full; city, cry; brow, dew, boy.

"The consonants are all the letters except the vowels.

"They are so called because they can not be sounded alone; or rather, when they are uttered alone, the sound of a vowel is always heard with them.

"Ex.--B, c, d, f, m, k, are pronouned as if written be, se, de, ef, em, ka.

"W or y is a consant when a vowel sound follows it in the same syllable; as in water, young, year, Iowa, Buynan.

U and i are consonants when equivalent to the consants w and y; as in persuade, poniard.--X=ks, gz, or z; as in tax, exalt, Xerxes."

"An" Exception?

Anonymous — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 22:02:27 GMT

I know that measuring grammar by "sound" is not the best way to approach English grammar, but something just does not sound correct; perhaps someone can help me.

"The following applies to a user:"
vs.
"The following applies to an user:"

If I remember by grammar, the bottom one should be correct due to "user" starting with a vowel. But it just does not sound correct. Am I going crazy or could there be an exception here?

Thanks for the help.

Re: How to improve English grammar without reading grammar book?:^)

Marianat — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 21:32:46 GMT

Here are a few basic grammar rules to pay close attention to:

When you write "a" or "an" before a noun, it has to match the noun. This is done simply by using "a" if the word starts with a consonant, and using "an" if the word starts with a vowel.

Vowels: a, e, i, o, u.

An exception is the word "hour" because you can't hear the "h", and therefore it sounds like it begins with the vowel "o."

Examples:

An hour

A dog

An example

A key

___________________________________________________

Another thing to be careful about is verb agreement.

If the subject is plural, then the verb has to be singular (in most cases)

Example:

The dog runs. ("dog" does not end in an "s" and therefore the verb, "runs" has to end with an "s".)

The dogs run. ("dogs" ends with and "s", so "run" does not.

There are a few exceptions to this rule, one of the most common exceptions is verb "to be", but just use the following rule:

I am

You are

He is

She is

It is

We are

They are

Also, watch out for the words "everyone", "one of", "and", "or", etc.

Everyone is referred to as a group of people; therefore, it is a singular subject which requires a singular verb.

Ex: Everyone reads.

"One of" is what confuses most native English speakers. You have to watch out for this one. The most logical way to think about these sentences is to identify the subject.

One of the dogs runs. One is the subject in this sentence because only "one" of the dogs runs. If all the dogs were running, the sentence would look like this: The dogs run.

This technique works very well with almost all sentences.

If you have a sentence like "John and Jerry run" You have to remember that TWO boys are running, not just one; therefore, you have to think about it like "they run", and then you will find it easier to understand.

The word "or" is a little harder to figure out:

The girl or the boy runs. This is one of the easier examples because you can tell that only one of the children runs.

The girl or the boys run. This one is a bit harder because the subject could either be singular (the girl), or it could be plural (the boys); in this case, you have to use the subject which is closest to the verb. In this sentece, the subject which is closest to the verb (run) is the one you have to consider. So, think of it as "he boys run."

Commonly misspelled words:

accidentally, agreement, argument, analyze, benefited, existence, parallel, receive, weird, therefore, subtle, pastime, particularly, etc.

I hope this little guide helped some people more than confusing them. Feel free to correct any mistakes I might have made, nobody's perfect.

Thanks for reading this,

Marianat

Re: Pls correct my translation homework

abbie1948 — Wed, 20 Apr 2005 12:57:21 GMT

Hi Lyn,

Here is one of my posts from a previous thread on the topic of articles. It might help.

Posted: 03-30-2005 12:26 PM

The correct use of articles is acknowledged to be one of the most difficult points of English grammar, so don't be despondant Ali; mistakes don't usually matter too much, as you will still be understood.

First, we don't usually use an article with plural or uncountable nouns. e.g. "there are lots of fish in the sea" NOT "Lots of the fish in the sea". "I love cats" NOT "I love the cats".

"The" is a definite article, as Jazz says. We use it for the following:

* to refer to something which has already been mentioned

"Ali posted a question to English Forum; THE question was about articles."

*when both the speaker and listener know what is being talked about, even if it has not been mentioned before.

"Have you done the housework?"

* when we are speaking about a particular person or object
"The man over there is a famous film actor."

* objects which are regarded as unique
"The sun" "the moon" "the sea" "The world"

* with adjectives which refer to a whole group of people
"The English" "The Americans"

* names of geographical areas
"The Indian Ocean" "the Sahara Desert"

and finally
* with groups of years
"the seventies" "the 1800's"

a/an are indefinite articles.

We use 'a' when the word which follows begins with a consonant. (i.e. any letter whch is not a vowel),
"a book" "a film"

We also use 'a' in front of a word which begins with vowels which sound like a consonant (e.g. 'u' & 'eu' sound like 'y', so we say "a university", "a euphoric experience"

We use 'an' when the word which follows begins with a vowel (a,e,i,o,u).

"an apple" "an exciting time"

As Jazz says, sometimes 'h' isa silent letter, i.e. we don't pronounce it, and we use 'an' in front of these words. I'm afraid these just have to be learned, but there aren't many of them. (e.g. "an hour" "an honest boy" "an hotel".)

Indefinite articles are used:

* When we talk about something for the first time.
"lets go to see a film"

* when we talk about particular groups of people (don't confuse this with the groups mentioned above)

e.g.
*jobs "a doctor"
*nationalities "an Englishwoman",
*religions " a Muslim"
*musical instruments "a piano" (but, if we are describing an action we say "he is playing THE piano", because we are speaking about one particular piano)
*names of days "I go to town on a Monday"
*with numbers "a hundred pounds" "a thousand and one uses"
*when we talk about one particular thing or person "she has a beautiful silver bracelet", " a thief stole it"

Ok - that's a fairly long explanation! Now how about some practice? Go to this site

http://a4esl.org/

Click on English grammar quizes, easy, then look at level 2 "Articles". You will find some exercises there to help you.

Re: Hello

abbie1948 — Wed, 30 Mar 2005 12:26:54 GMT

An excellent reply, Jazz. I hope you won't mind if I expand on it a little.

The correct use of articles is acknowledged to be one of the most difficult points of English grammar, so don't be despondant Ali; mistakes don't usually matter too much, as you will still be understood.

First, we don't usually use an article with plural or uncountable nouns. e.g. "there are lots of fish in the sea" NOT "Lots of the fish in the sea". "I love cats" NOT "I love the cats".

"The" is a definite article, as Jazz says. We use it for the following:

* to refer to something which has already been mentioned

"Ali posted a question to English Forum; THE question was about articles."

*when both the speaker and listener know what is being talked about, even if it has not been mentioned before.

"Have you done the housework?"

* when we are speaking about a particular person or object
"The man over there is a famous film actor."

* objects which are regarded as unique
"The sun" "the moon" "the sea" "The world"

* with adjectives which refer to a whole group of people
"The English" "The Americans"

* names of geographical areas
"The Indian Ocean" "the Sahara Desert"

and finally
* with groups of years
"the seventies" "the 1800's"

a/an are indefinite articles.

We use 'a' when the word which follows begins with a consonant. (i.e. any letter whch is not a vowel),
"a book" "a film"

We also use 'a' in front of a word which begins with vowels which sound like a consonant (e.g. 'u' & 'eu' sound like 'y', so we say "a university", "a euphoric experience"

We use 'an' when the word which follows begins with a vowel (a,e,i,o,u).

"an apple" "an exciting time"

As Jazz says, sometimes 'h' isa silent letter, i.e. we don't pronounce it, and we use 'an' in front of these words. I'm afraid these just have to be learned, but there aren't many of them. (e.g. "an hour" "an honest boy" "an hotel".)

Indefinite articles are used:

* When we talk about something for the first time.
"lets go to see a film"

* when we talk about particular groups of people (don't confuse this with the groups mentioned above)

e.g.
*jobs "a doctor"
*nationalities "an Englishwoman",
*religions " a Muslim"
*musical instruments "a piano" (but, if we are describing an action we say "he is playing THE piano", because we are speaking about one particular piano)
*names of days "I go to town on a Monday"
*with numbers "a hundred pounds" "a thousand and one uses"
*when we talk about one particular thing or person "she has a beautiful silver bracelet", " a thief stole it"

Ok - that's a fairly long explanation! Now how about some practice? Go to this site

http://a4esl.org/

Click on English grammar quizes, easy, then look at level 2 "Articles". You will find some exercises there to help you.

Re: Vowel

Mister Micawber — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 04:52:45 GMT

Vowels are sounds, not letters. Every word has a vowel sound. 'Y' is used to represent that vowel sound in some words, like 'by', 'my'', 'rhythm', etc.

PS: This-- 'There is no word in English that has not a vowel in it'-- hardly came from an English grammar book written by a native speaker.

Vowel

hanuman_2000 — Mon, 10 Jan 2005 04:18:13 GMT

Sir,

IT was written in a English grammar book

There is no word in English that has not a vowel in it.

but the words like "by" ,"my" do not have vowel.

Please explain it.

Thanks.

Re: Love/Hate

MrPedantic — Sun, 14 Nov 2004 22:57:58 GMT

Hello Julielai

Not at all dumb.

1. Cat- as in 'cat-astrophe'; + ull- as in 'pull'; + -us with the same vowel sound as
'pull' again. Stress on -ull-.

2. Contemporary and near-contemporary poets - Tibullus, Ovid, Martial - make allusions
to his poems; Virgil is especially influenced by him, and deliberately echoes phrases
from his poems. Roman grammarians also use his verses as examples. But even the
poems we have very nearly didn't survive; a large number of them derive from a
sole manuscript, which was found stuffed in a wine jar in the ?15th century. (Poems
in this batch were authenticated by reference to the odd lines preserved in the
Roman grammarians.)

Unfortunately, he makes a very disappointing read in English. I'm not sure it's
possible to reproduce the effect of poetry in languages as heavily inflected as
Latin and Greek in a word-order-orientated language like English. (In Latin and
Greek poetry, the word order is more or less decided by the poet; but
the English translator is restricted by English grammar.)

There's also the problem that Roman poets have a slightly different range of
subject matter from English poets. Once you put a Roman poet in an English
jacket and trousers, he starts to look extremely uncomfortable. Verses in
togas look very out-of-place in a London bookshop...

MrP

Re: Pronunciation (Doreen Leong)

doreenleong — Tue, 26 Aug 2003 18:52:59 GMT

Hello,

My question refers to the use of English grammar.

I have been taught that 'which' always refer to the nearest noun (rot). Does that mean that, the phrase 'which has a shorter vowel' should refer to rot?

Please advise.