Sunday 16 October 2011

The meaning of articles a & an.

A Box An Apple
a box an apple

The twentysix alphabets of English language are divided into vowels and consonants.

A,e,i,o,u are vowels. All the other alphabets are consonants.

'A' is used when a word begins with a consonant. eg a pen. The letter 'p' is a consonant .

'An' word used when a word begins with a vowel. eg an orange. The letter 'o' is a vowel.

The usage of a or an also depends on the sound of the words.
For eg an heir . Although the letter 'h' is a consonant, we use the article 'an' because theconsonant 'h' is silent.

Similarly, we also say a university. Although the letter 'u' is a vowel, we use the article 'a' because the word university begins with the consonant sound 'yu'.

The meaning of genders.

The table below shows some nouns which belong to the three genders.

masculine gender feminine gender neuter gender
uncle, nephew, father, grand father, lion, elephant, peacock.
aunt, neice, mother, grand mother, lioness, she-elephant, peahen.
table, book, pen, pencil, chair, car, van, bus

The table below shows the pronouns which are part of the three genders.
masculine gender feminine gender neuter gender
he, his, him
she, her
it, its


All plants, trees and flowers belong to the neuter gender. The pronouns it and its which belong to the neuter gender are often used to refer to animals and birds. eg This is a dog. It barks loudly.

All non-living beings are part of the neuter gender.


Man Lady


Both nouns and pronouns have three genders - masculine, feminine neuter.

In the first picture we see a man. A man belongs to masculine gender.
In the second picture we see a woman. A woman belongs to feminine gender.
In the third picture we see a chair. A chair belong to neuter gender.

The meaning of conjuctions.

In the below sentence, and is used to join the two sentences, 'There is a table; There is achair.
Words which join two sentences or two sets of words are called Conjunctions. (Joining words)

There is a table.
There is a chair
There is a table and a chair


                   A table and a chair

The meaning of adjectives.

The word big says more (describes) about the noun animal.
How is the animal?
The animal is big.
The word one says more about the noun bat.
How many bats are there?
There is one bat.
In the same way, the word red says more about the saree.
What colour is the saree?
The saree is red in colour.

The words bigone and red are describing words or Adjectives.

Petu holding a bat Mrs Cow in a red saree
Petu is a big animal.
He has one bat.
         Mrs Cow wears a red saree.







The meaning of pronouns.

Words like heshe and it which are used instead of the nouns boygirl and pigeon are pronouns.
pronoun is used insted of a noun.
Other pronouns are his, him, her, its, I, you, your, they, them, their, my, mine and me.

instead of boy, the word 'He' is used.
instead of girl, the word 'She' is used.
instead of pigeon, the word 'It' is used.

Boy running Girl Sitting Pigeon Eating
This is a boy.
He is running.
This is a girl.
She is sitting.
This is a piegon.
It is eating

The meaning of verbs.

Words which say as to what the noun is doing are called Doing Words or Verbs.

In the first picture the noun Petu is eating.
In the second picture the noun Miss Kitty is knitting.

Petu eating sugarcane Kittty knitting sweater
What is Petu doing?
Petu is eating sugar cane
What is Miss Kitty doing?
Miss Kitty is knitting sweater

The meaning of nouns.

A nouns is the name of a person, place or things, names of animals, birds, vegetables, fruits, rivers, mountains, days and months are also nouns.

Man Lady Kid
London City New York City Bombay City
Cycle Kite Book