adminTEACHING or learning language structures is uninteresting. Both teachers and learners are not as lively in language lessons as they would normally be on other topics. Literature lessons are lively and involve a lot of discussions. There is a lot of teacher-learner and learner to learner interaction in subjects like literature. That as it maybe, language structures have to be taught and learnt if learners are to do well in their English Language examinations.
We kick start today’s work by examining rules relating to prefixes and suffixes. Prefixes and suffixes are added to a word to change its meaning. Pre- means before hence prefixes go at the beginning of a word and suffixes go at the end. In simple terms prefixes and suffixes are used to make new words. Prefixes and suffixes are letters that do not make any sense by themselves, but when they are added to other words they change the word’s meaning.
Examples of prefixes: dis – apart, asunder: differ, dispel, divert. Disappear, disapprove, Appear is the root word. “dis –“ is the prefix. It changes the meaning of the root word appear to mean the opposite. Teach is the root word. Teacher “-er” is the suffix. It changes the meaning of the root word to mean someone who teachers learners. Rules for words ending in ‘e”. If the root word ends in “-e” and the first letter of the suffix is a vowel, you need to drop the “e”. Achieve — achievable.
If there is a soft “g” or “c” just before the “-e” in the root word, do not drop the “e”. Knowledge + -able — knowledgeable. If the first letter of the suffix is a consonant keep the “e”. Love — lovely. There are exceptions to this rule: argue -ment — argument.
A few more rules learners need to know: They should make sure to spell the suffix “-ful” with only one “l”. For example, dutiful, not dutifull. Pay attention to silent letters and unstressed vowels to have correct spellings.
Silent letters are letters you do not hear. These words are difficult to spell because you cannot hear all the words when you say the word. Make sure you learn the correct spellings of common words with silent letters for the examination. Here is a list of correct spelling of words with silent letters which learners need to learn. Words with a silent “h”: when, whether, white, chemist, while, and which. Words with a silent “b” climb, lamb, womb, tomb etc. Words with a silent “w”: write, wrong, two, answer, whole.
Words with a silent “k”: knot, knife, knight, know, and kneel. Words with a silent “c”: science, disciple, descend, and scent. Let us consider forming comparatives. Experts will tell you that at times comparing things is not enough. We need to say which is the best or worst. We will show this under the following headlines: adjective, comparative and superlative. Let us take an adjective such as good. We can say: She is good. Comparing her with someone else we say: She is better. But when it comes to the superlative, we say: She is the best of the three.
With the words under the comparative column learners need to put “than” after them or else they would not make sense. For example, we can say: Mildred is better than Jane at Maths. Under the superlative column are the most words. There is no need for any other comparative words, but there is need to use “the”. Mildred is the best. Do not confuse comparative and superlatives. You cannot say things like “more better” or “worst than”.
In the same context perhaps we can conclude today’s article by looking at commonly confused words. We have words that sound similar but mean different things. Some learners will agree that these words have given them nightmares and have struggled to master them. For example, maybe is an adverb but may be is a verb phrase. “Maybe” is one word, but “may be” is two words. They have different meanings. “Maybe” is an adverb which means “perhaps”. Adverbs give more information about a verb. For example, she ran swiftly. The verb ran is described by an adverb swiftly. How did she run? She ran swiftly.
Swiftly is the adverb.
“May be” is a verb phrase — it means that something is a possibility. “Anyway” and “Anybody” are both one word. Anyway is an adverb which means regardless. It is spelt as one word. Any way means “any method”. It is spelt as two separate words. It was a very long and dangerous journey, but I arrived safely anyway. Is there any way of bypassing this joint?
“Everybody” is a pronoun which means “every person”. It is spelt as one word. “Every body” means “every group” or “every physical body” — it is spelt as two separate words. Where is every body? The question is asking where all the people are? More examples could be given and learners can do justice to themselves by finding many more.
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