English Expressions

English Expressions

1. Catch On

-         To understand or realize something.

Ex: She finally caught on to what the man was telling her.  

2. Keep an ear to the ground

          - To listen for new information.

          Ex: I will keep an ear to the ground for any updates on the project.

3. A quick buck

          - An easy way to make money quickly.

          Ex: Translation work is boring for me, but it’s a quick buck.

4. Wear out

          - When something is damaged or weakened from use and age.

Ex: The carpet looks worn out, we should replace it.

5. Count on

          - To rely on someone for support when you need it most.

          Ex: I can always count on my best friend to be there for me.

  

10 USEFUL TELEPHONE PHRASAL VERBS

 

Personal and Impersonal Passive Voice

 

Personal Passive

When we put an object of an active sentence into passive, it becomes subject of the passive sentence.

• Active sentence → The professor gave the students the books.
• Passive sentence → The students were given the books.

We sometimes use a pronoun for the students or the books in its subject form (here: they).

• Active sentence → The professor gave them the books.
• Passive sentence → They were given the books.

We very often leave out the by-agent in the passive sentence (here: by the professor).

Impersonal Passive 

The phrase It is said ... is an impersonal passive construction. This construction is used informally. It is said ... is used when one doesn't want to, or is unable to, site legitimate sources for what you are saying. It is, essentially, a way of claiming any position without justifying it.

• Passive sentence 1 → It is said that children are afraid of ghosts.
• Passive sentence 2 → Children are said to be afraid of ghosts.

The correct active sentence would be:

• Active sentence → People say that children are afraid of ghosts.

AUTHOR

Dr L Suresh

Assistant Professor of English

Sri Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya College of Arts and Science

Coimbatore - 641020

Contact: 9944138137

e-mail ID: sureshenglit@rmv.ac.in

English Expressions

                                                    English Expressions

1. Eyeball it

          - Sometimes you do not need an exact measurement: a rough estimate is good enough. When you estimate an amount of something based on how it looks, you can say you are eyeballing it.

Ex: I have made this recipe often, so I did not bother to measure out a cup of rice; I just eyeballed it.

2. Living hand to mouth

          - This means you barely earn enough to survive: any money that comes into your hand is immediately spent on food to put in your mouth.

          Ex: I don’t make much from my job as a cashier, but I can make ends meet.  

3. A Stone’s throw from

          - a short distance

          Ex: The college is just a stone’s throw from his house.

4. Put something on ice

          - To stop the progress on something or put it on hold.

          Ex: Hey I need you to work on this project that’s due today so you will have to put what you are doing on ice.

5. Fortune favours the bold

          - Taking a risk can pay off.

          Ex: There is only a 10% chance of success but the payout is 20 times higher if I win. You know what they say, fortune favours the bold. 

Error Spotting

                                                                   Error Spotting

Error spotting is a systematic way of identifying and rectifying the mistakes in a sentence. It is commonly used while proofreading written documents. In error spotting, the candidate has to find the grammatical errors in the given paragraph using systematic rules that are already defined.

There are basically four kinds of sentences in English Grammar: declarative, exclamatory, imperative, and interrogatory. Identifying the type of sentence is necessary to know which specific part of speech needs correction.

There are eight parts of speech in English Grammar: interjection, adjective, pronoun, verb, noun, preposition, adverb, and conjunction. For finding the part of speech of any sentence, check the function and role of words in a sentence. 

• If the word is a naming word, like having a name of any place, person and so forth, then the sentence is a noun. 
• If the word is replacing the noun, then it is the pronoun. 
• If the word is showing an action, then it is the verb. 
• If the word depicts the quality of a noun, then it is an adjective. 
• If the word is modifying the verb and adjective, it is an adverb. 
• If the word connects the other words, then it is a conjunction. 
• If the word describes the relationship between noun and pronoun, then it is a proposition. 

AUTHOR

Dr L Suresh

Assistant Professor of English

Sri Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya College of Arts and Science

Coimbatore - 641020

Contact: 9944138137

e-mail ID: sureshenglit@rmv.ac.in