Learn English vocabulary & Basics - Shanath Kumar

Learning English takes a lot of patience. Unlike geography or physics, knowing a few tricks and formulas does not work. The more we listen to English, the better we learn the language. Speaking more does not work as we repeat the same mistakes, and we never learn proper English. Listening helps to improve our vocabulary and other language learning skills. When someone speaks English, we try to follow the same speaking style unconsciously. Considering a few of such techniques helps to improve the English language speaking and expressing capability.

Besides expressing, we also want to communicate with others. To have an effective conversation, one needs to speak appropriately and understand what the other person is saying. There are many ways to make communication engaging. Here, however, we shall be discussing one method.

Each student requires a different approach to learning. Customised learning methods work best in such a situation. There are three types of students: One with fundamental knowledge, others having intermediate expertise and the last one who needs to deal with foreign clients or speak with them for business purposes. Here in this article, we will try to learn English in a better way, with the help of a picture that will benefit all the three categories of students. Visualising a picture helps us to express it in a better way than any other abstract idea.

Activity 1- Write down all the words that you know in the picture- Look at the picture and note down all the words in a notebook that you can identify in the picture.

Activity 2- Say what each person is doing in the picture- Each person in the picture is doing some action. You would need to say what that action is.

Activity 3- Form sentences with different verb forms- You need to write sentences on those actions, which can also be termed as verb forms.

Activity 4 - Write at least 10 sentences describing the picture. Now, write sentences describing the picture.

While observing the picture, some of the words that we can easily identify are:

  Apart from all these, you can also find some other words. However, all these above-mentioned words are nouns as they represent the names of various things.

Definition of Noun

A noun is a word, which names a category or a particular person, thing, place, animal, an idea or a feeling.

Types of Nouns -  Common nouns, proper nouns, collective nouns, countable nouns, uncountable nouns, abstract nouns or compound nouns.

• Common nouns:   Common nouns are the names that come under a category like a man or a woman, a phone etc.

• Proper nouns:  Proper nouns are the nouns that can be identified by a unique name or a title. Suppose a man is a common noun, but Shakespeare, the name of a particular man, is a proper noun. Again, Delhi, the name of a particular city, is also a proper noun.

• Collective nouns:  Collective nouns are names given to groups of things. For example, an army of soldiers, family, family members, team members, a bunch of keys, a bouquet of flowers, a fleet of sheep etc are all collective nouns.

• Countable nouns:  Any noun or thing that you can count is countable nouns—for example, chairs, shirts, phones etc.

• Uncountable nouns:  The things or nouns that cannot be counted individually but can be measured away are uncountable nouns—for example, Rice, wheat, milk, oil, water.

• Abstract nouns:  Abstract nouns are those that we can perceive or feel but cannot touch—for example- hunger, love, passion, innovation, communication.

• Compound nouns:  The nouns, formed by joining two or more words, are known as compound nouns—for example, keychain, staircase, mother-in-law, brother-in-law.

Definition of Pronoun A pronoun is a substitute or replacement for a noun.

In the picture, you can see-

• The boy is plucking tomatoes.
• He is collecting them in a pail.

Here in the first sentence, the word ‘boy’ is a noun. In the second sentence, the term ‘boy’ is replaced or substituted with ‘He’. Here ‘He’ is thus a pronoun.

Going through the picture mentioned above, we can find out several pronouns. Some of those are:

• The father is pushing the trolley with pumpkins.
• He is taking them past the corn plants.
• The boy is plucking the tomatoes.
• He is collecting them in a pail.
• The girl is picking cucumbers.
• She is helping her mother collect them in a basket.
• A scarecrow is standing in the field.
• It has a bird standing on its hat.

Here you can find every alternative sentence starting with a pronoun. For example, in the first sentence, the ‘father’ is pushing the trolley. In the next sentence, the word has been replaced with the word ‘He’ which is a pronoun. Just like that, all the other sentences, starting with a noun, are replaced with appropriate pronouns. The ‘boy’ becomes ‘he’, ‘girl’ becomes ‘she’, and ‘scarecrow’ becomes ‘it’.

Verbs

In the picture, you can use any of these verbs mentioned. You can use all of these or some other those are not stated here.

  Verbs are also known as action words. However, not all verbs are action verbs. There is another form of verb: To be verb.

To be verbs are:  is, am, are, was, were, has, have

Sentences like: She is; I am; You are; She was.

 A sentence

A sentence is a group of words arranged in order to produce a meaningful communication.

A sentence has at least two parts. - A subject and a verb.

A subject is usually a noun or a pronoun. The Father pushes. Here the ‘father’ is the subject and a noun while ‘pushes’ is the action or verb. The Father pushes a cart. In this sentence, the word ‘cart’ complements the sentence and is a noun.

Forming sentences:  Sometimes we need to convey complex meaning and so using more words are essential. Examples

1).  The Father is pushing the trolley. 2).  The Father is pushing the trolley with pumpkins. 3).  The Father is pushing the trolley with pumpkins past the corn plants. 4).  The Father, wearing a hat, is pushing the trolley with pumpkins, past the corn plants. 5).  The happy Father, wearing a hat, is pushing the trolley with ripe pumpkins, past the corn plants.

With the gradual addition of words, the sentence becomes more detailed and informative. Therefore, each word has a definite role. Roles the words play are called parts of speech.

Tenses 

1).  The Father pushes the trolley- Present simple tense

2).  The Father is pushing the trolley- Present continuous tense (what the person is actually doing now)

3).  The Father pushed the trolley- Past simple

4).  The Father was pushing the trolley-Past continuous

5).  The Father will push the trolley- Future simple

6).  The Father will be pushing the trolley- Future continuous

So now, you have an idea about what the people in the picture are doing and what tense you should assign while you speak about the picture. To improve your vocabulary, regular practice of such an exercise is required.

Presentation

Step 1: Describe the place -  This is a picture showing a family working in their backyard garden. It is a sunny afternoon, and the sun shining. There are two houses with a compound wall in between them. There are tomato and cucumber plants in the garden.

Step 2: Who are there? -  The family has the Father, mother, the son and the daughter.

Step 3: What are they doing? -  The Father is pushing a cart with pumpkins.; The mother is carrying a basket with cucumbers.; The son is plucking tomatoes and collecting them in a pail.; The daughter is plucking the cucumbers and helping her mother collect them in a basket.

Now, you are done with the description of the picture. Adopting this methodology will benefit you to learn English vocabulary easily and properly.

Author Bio:  Shanath Kumar is a corporate trainer working for more than 25 years with companies like HCL, HP, INTEL and many others. He has trained nearly 2000 English teachers and lecturers. In this article, he has discussed a comprehensive idea to learn the English language.