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Language Proficiency Notes for UP College Admission Test
About the Instructor
Harold Garcia, from the English Studies program of UP Diliman.
Major in Anglo-American literature and creative writing (fiction).
Topics
Parts of speech
Punctuations
Capitalization
Spelling
Language
Points of Inquiry
What is language?
Why do we use it?
Role in the academe.
Role in the world at large.
The World Englishes.
Standard English
Used in formal exams.
Refers to an actual variety of language and an idealized norm acceptable in many social situations.
The following slides will discuss the rules in the Standard English grammar.
Parts of Speech
Noun
Gives the name of a person, place, thing, or idea.
Acts as a subject or some type of complement (direct or indirect object of a verb or a preposition) in a sentence.
Kinds of Nouns
Common Nouns: General names (e.g., "school," "car"). Lowercase first letter.
Proper Nouns: Specific names (e.g., "Mitsubishi," "U.P."). UPPERCASE first letter.
Concrete Nouns: Use of the five senses (e.g., "grapes," "music").
Abstract Nouns: Cannot be perceived (e.g., "courage," "happiness").
Collective Nouns: Groups or collections (e.g., "flock," "team"). Singular unit.
Compound Nouns: Two or more words creating one noun (e.g., "toothbrush," "greenhouse").
Pronouns
A word that takes the place of a noun.
Types of Pronouns
Personal Pronouns: Represent people or things (I, me, you, he, him, she, her, it, we, us, they, them).
Example: “I came to see you, them, and him today.”
Possessive Pronouns: Show ownership (mine, yours, hers, his, theirs, ours).
Example: “These parking spaces are yours; ours are next to the door,” the teachers explained to the students.
Demonstrative Pronouns: Demonstrate or point out someone or something (this, that, these, those).
Example: “This is his umbrella; that is your umbrella.”
Relative Pronouns: Relate one part of the sentence to another (who, whom, which, that, whose).
Example: “The man whom I almost hit last night works in this shop.” (Whom relates back to man.)
Example: “One country that l'd like to visit someday is France.” (That relates to country.)
Reflexive Pronouns: Reflect back to someone or something else in the sentence (myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves).
Example: “You must ask yourself what you would do in such a situation.” (Yourself relates back to you.)
Intensive Pronouns: Place emphasis on the subject and are not essential.
Include many of the same words as reflexive pronouns (myself, himself, herself, yourself, themselves, etc.).
Example: “He himself must realize he's in the wrong.” (Himself intensifies he.)
Interrogative Pronouns: Interrogate (ask a question) (who, whom, which, whose, what).
Example: “What in the world was that politician talking about?”
Indefinite Pronouns: Include all, another, any, anybody, anyone, anything, both, each, either, everybody, everyone, everything, few, little, many, more, most, much, neither, no one, nobody, none, nothing, one, other, others, several, some, somebody, someone, and something.
Adjectives
A word that modifies a noun or pronoun.
Example: “The framed picture came crashing off the wall during the recent earthquake.”
“Framed” gives you information about “picture,” and picture is a thing (a noun), so “framed” must be an adjective.
The Acronym of Adjective Order: NOSASCOMP
Number
Opinion
Size
Age
Shape
Colour
Origin
Material
Purpose
Articles: A special category of adjectives consists of just three words: a, an, and the.
“A” and “an” are called indefinite articles because they do not indicate anyone or anything specific (a house, an honor).
“The” is called a definite article because it names someone or something specific (the owl, the transit system).
Verb
A word that expresses action or being.
Verbs that express action are action verbs.
Example: “Marilyn jumped for joy when Frank called her.” (Jumped & called both show action.)
Action verbs can be divided into two categories: transitive and intransitive.
Transitive Verb: A verb that takes an object.
If you can answer whom? or what? to the verb in a sentence, then the verb is transitive.
Example: “I carried the injured boy to the waiting ambulance.” Carried whom or what? Since boy answers that question, the verb carried is transitive in that sentence.
Intransitive Verb: A verb that does not require a direct object to complete its meaning.
The action stops with the subject and doesn’t transfer to another noun.
Example: “She sleeps early.” → "Sleeps " is intransitive. There's no object receiving the action.
Example: “They arrived late.” → "Arrived" is intransitive. You can't "arrive" something—there's no object.
Lay vs. Lie: Knowing about transitive and intransitive verbs can help you with some easily confused verbs, such as lie and lay, and sit and set.
Lay is transitive – it requires a direct object (you lay something down).
Lie is intransitive – it does not take a direct object (you lie yourself down or just lie down).
“Being” Verbs: Show a state of existence or condition, not an action.
Examples: am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been.
These forms also include has been, should have been, may be, and might be.
Example: I am sitting on the dock of the bay. (Am is a present tense form of be.)
Example: Yesterday she was sitting on the dock of the bay. (Was is a past tense form of be.)
Example: Jessica might be going to the animation convention, if her friend had gone too. (Might be is a past tense form of may be.)
Verb (Ir)regularity
Regular verbs form their past tense and past participle by simply adding -ed or -d to the base form.
Irregular verbs do not follow a fixed pattern. Their past forms can change completely or stay the same.
If you can add -ed to form the past tense, it’s regular. If the word changes or stays the same without -ed, it’s irregular.
Adverb
A word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.
Example: “During the volleyball game, the quite exhausted libero very quickly dove for the ball and expertly returned it.”
The adverbs in that sentence are quite (modifies the adjective exhausted), very (modifies the adverb quickly), quickly (modifies the verb dove), and expertly (modifies the verb returned).
Ask yourself if the word you're wondering about answers one of these questions: How? Under what circumstances? When? How much? Where? How often? Why? To what extent?
A small group of adverbs known as intensifiers or qualifiers increase the intensity of the adjectives and other adverbs they modify.
Other common intensifiers are awfully, extremely, kind of, more, most, pretty (as in pretty happy), quite, rather, somewhat, sort of, and too.
Degrees of Adjectives and Adverbs
The positive degree simply makes a statement about a person, place, or thing.
The comparative degree compares two (but only two) people, places, or things.
The superlative degree compares more than two people, places, or things.
Rules :
One-syllable adjectives and adverbs usually form their comparative form by adding -er and their superlative form by adding -est.
Adjectives of more than two syllables and adverbs ending in -ly usually form comparative forms by using “more” (or “less”) and superlative forms by using “most” (or “least”).
Confusion sometimes takes place in forming comparisons of words of two syllables only. Sometimes two-syllable words use the -er and -est forms, and sometimes they use the more and most (or less and least) forms.
Common Mistakes
One common mistake in both writing and speaking is to use the superlative form when the comparative should be used.
Remember that if you’re comparing two persons, places, or things, you use only the comparative form (not the superlative).
Another frequent mistake in comparisons is to use both the -er and more or -est and most forms with the same noun.
Remember that one form is the limit. In the examples, most and more need to be eliminated.
Exceptions to the rules
Positive
Comparative
Superlative
bad
worse
worst
far
farther/further
farthest/furthest
good
better
best
well
better
best
ill
worse
worst
little
littler/less/lesser
littlest/least
many
more
most
Preposition
Words that show the position of an object, e.g., direction, time, place, and location among others.
Prepositions of Place
Specific | General | |
|---|---|---|
IN | Neighborhoods (Chinatown) | Cities (Washington) |
Countries (The United States) | ||
*Places with a Boundary | ||
ON | Streets, Avenues (Pennsylvania Ave.) | Islands (Fiji) |
Large vehicles (train, bus, ship) | ||
*Surfaces | ||
AT | Addresses (1600 Pennsylvania Ave.) | Specific locations (home, the corner) |
*Points |
Preposition of time
ON: days and dates (on Monday, on March 14) on what day?
IN: months, years, decades, centuries, historical periods, and longer periods of time (in January, in 1999, in the 1950s, in the Middle Ages) in what year?
AT: precise time (at 3 A.M., at midnight) at what time?
seasons (e.g. spring, winter)
weeks (e.g. three weeks' time)
night
centuries (e.g. the 1800s, the 20th century)
days
decades
the afternoon
festivals
months
time
dates
the morning
at
mealtimes (e.g. lunchtime, dinnertime)
years
Conjunction
Joins words in a sentence; that is, it provides a junction between words. Conjunctions are divided into three categories.
Coordinating conjunctions: include but, or, yet, so, for, and, and nor.
Correlative conjunctions: cannot stand alone; they need a
Joins words in a sentence; that is, it provides a junction between words. Conjunctions are divided into three categories.- Coordinating conjunctions: include but, or, yet, so, for, and, and nor.
- Correlative conjunctions: cannot stand alone; they need a counterpart to complete their meaning. Common pairs include both/and, either/or, neither/nor, not only/but also, so/as, and whether/or.
- Example: "Both Mariah and Jessica are excited to go to the concert."
- Example: "Whether you like it or not, you have to go to school."
- **Subordinating conjunctions**: relate clauses to each other. The most common subordinating conjunctions are after, although, as, as if, as long as, because, before, even if, even though, if, if only, in order that, now that, once, rather than, since, so that, than, that, though, till, unless, until, when, whenever, where, whereas, wherever, and while.
- Examples: “We must finish the project *before* the deadline”
- Examples: “You cannot succeed *unless* you are willing to work hard.”
Interjections
A word that shows emotion or excitement.
Serves no grammatical purpose
Often set apart from a sentence with an exclamation point or commas.
Examples: Wow, Oops, Ouch
Punctuation Marks
Used to add style and clarity to the sentences.
Period
Used to end declarative sentences.
Example: I am Harold Garcia.
Question Mark
Used to end interrogative sentences.
Example: Are you Harold Garcia?
Exclamation Point
Used to express strong emotion.
Example: You are Harold Garcia!
Comma
Used to separate clauses, items in a list, and to set off introductory elements.
Example: I am, as you know, Harold Garcia.
Example: I like dogs, cats, and rabbits.
Example: After the show, we went out for dinner.
Semicolon
Used to connect two independent clauses.
Example: I like dogs; they're cute.
Colon
Used to introduce a list or an explanation.
Example: I like the following animals: dogs, cats, and rabbits.
Example: I like dogs: they're cute.
Dash
Used to indicate a sudden break or interruption in a sentence.
Example: I was about to leave—but then the phone rang.
Hyphen
Used to join words or parts of words.
Example: well-being
Parentheses
Used to add extra information or clarification.
Example: My dog (a golden retriever) loves to play fetch.
Brackets
Used to add editorial comments or corrections in a quote.
Example: "She said, 'I [Harold] am going to the store.'"
Apostrophe
Used to indicate possession or to form contractions.
Example: Harold's dog, can't
Quotation Marks
Used to indicate direct speech or to set off a word or phrase.
Example: "Hello," he said.
Example: The term "algorithm" is used in computer science.
Ellipsis
Used to indicate omitted words or a pause in speech.
Example: I don't know…
Capitalization
Use capital letters for the first word of a sentence, proper nouns, and other specific instances.
Spelling
Ensure correct spelling to maintain clarity and credibility in writing.
Utilize resources such as dictionaries and spell-checkers for accuracy.