UPCAT Language Proficiency Exhaustive Study Guide

Instructor Profile and Course Introduction

  • Instructor: Harold Garcia.
  • Academic Background: B.A. in English Studies from the University of the Philippines Diliman, graduating magna cum laude.
  • Academic Focus: Anglo-American literature, creative writing, and disability studies.
  • Context: This review session is hosted by TENTEN'S ACADEMY Online Review Center, specifically designed for preparation for the University of the Philippines College Admission Test (UPCAT).
  • Scope of Study: Language Proficiency, covering Parts of Speech, Punctuation, Capitalization, and Correct Spelling.

Philosophy of Language and Standard English

  • Points of Inquiry:
    • Why do we use language?
    • The role of language in the academe.
    • The role of language in the world at large.
    • The concept of "World Englishes."
  • Standard English: While many English variations exist globally, formal exams (like the UPCAT) utilize "Standard English." This term refers to both an actual variety of the language and an idealized norm of English that is acceptable in most professional and social situations. It serves as the basis for the rules discussed in this guide.

Parts of Speech: Nouns

  • Definition: A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea.
  • Syntactic Function: In a sentence, a noun acts as a subject or as a complement (such as a direct object, indirect object of a verb, or object of a preposition).
  • Kinds of Nouns:
    • Common Nouns: General names for things. They use a lowercase first letter (e.g., school, car).
    • Proper Nouns: Specific names for things. They use an UPPERCASE first letter (e.g., U.P., Mitsubishi).
    • Concrete Nouns: Nouns that can be perceived using the five senses (e.g., grapes, music).
    • Abstract Nouns: Nouns that cannot be perceived physically (e.g., courage, happiness).
    • Collective Nouns: Words that represent groups or collections as a single unit (e.g., flock, team).
    • Compound Nouns: Formed by two or more words creating a single noun (e.g., toothbrush, greenhouse).

Parts of Speech: Pronouns

  • Definition: A word that takes the place of a noun.
  • The Utility of Pronouns: Without pronouns, language becomes repetitive and irritating.
  • Example Comparison:
    • Without Pronouns: "When Mrs. Anne Marie Schreiner came into the room, Mrs. Anne Marie Schreiner thought to Mrs. Anne Marie Schreiner's self, 'Is the situation just Mrs. Anne Marie Schreiner, or is the temperature really hot in here?' Mrs. Anne Marie Schreiner went to the window and opened the lower part of the window, only to have a number of mosquitoes quickly fly right at Mrs. Anne Marie Schreiner."
    • With Pronouns: "When Mrs. Anne Marie Schreiner came into the room, she thought to herself, 'Is it just me, or is it really hot in here?' She went to the window and opened the lower part of it, only to have a number of mosquitoes quickly fly right at her."
  • Types of Pronouns:
    • Personal Pronouns: Represent people or things (I, me, you, he, him, she, her, it, we, us, they, them).
    • Possessive Pronouns: Show ownership or possession (mine, yours, hers, his, theirs, ours).
    • Demonstrative Pronouns: Point out specific people or things (this, that, these, those).
    • Relative Pronouns: Relate one part of a sentence to another (who, whom, which, that, whose).
      • Example: "The man whom I almost hit…" (Whom relates back to man).
    • 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…"
    • Intensive Pronouns: Non-essential words used to place emphasis on the subject. They share forms with reflexive pronouns.
      • Example: "He himself must realize…"
    • Interrogative Pronouns: Used to ask questions (who, whom, which, whose, what).
    • Indefinite Pronouns: Refer to non-specific people or things (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, something).

Parts of Speech: Adjectives and Articles

  • Definition: An adjective is a word that modifies a noun or pronoun.
  • Adjective Order (NOSASCOMP Acronym):
    • Number (e.g., 10)
    • Opinion
    • Size
    • Age
    • Shape
    • Colour
    • Origin
    • Material
    • Purpose
  • Articles: A special category of adjectives consisting of three words: a, an, the.
    • Indefinite Articles (a, an): Used for non-specific items (e.g., a house, an honor).
    • Definite Article (the): Used for specific items (e.g., the owl, the transit system).

Parts of Speech: Verbs

  • Definition: A word that expresses action or being.
  • Action Verbs: Express physical or mental action (e.g., jumped, called).
    • Transitive Verbs: Take an object. Answer the question "Whom?" or "What?" (e.g., "I carried the boy." Carried what? Boy. "Carried" is transitive).
    • Intransitive Verbs: Do not require a direct object. The action stops with the subject (e.g., "She sleeps early." You cannot "sleep" something).
  • Common Verb Confusions:
    • Lay vs. Lie: "Lay" is transitive (you lay something down). "Lie" is intransitive (you lie down).
    • Sit vs. Set: "Set" is transitive; "Sit" is intransitive.
  • Being Verbs: Show a state of existence or condition (am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been). Includes forms like "has been," "should have been," and "might be."
  • Verb Regularity:
    • Regular Verbs: Form past tense and past participle by adding -ed or -d (e.g., turn/turned).
    • Irregular Verbs: No fixed pattern; forms may change or stay the same (e.g., bring/brought, rise/rose/risen, broadcast/broadcast).

Parts of Speech: Adverbs and Comparison

  • Definition: A word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.
  • Diagnostic Questions: Adverbs often answer: How? Under what circumstances? When? How much? Where? How often? Why? To what extent?
  • Intensifiers/Qualifiers: Adverbs that increase the intensity of the word modified (e.g., awfully, extremely, kind of, more, most, pretty, quite, rather, somewhat, sort of, too).
  • Degrees of Adjectives and Adverbs:
    1. Positive Degree: Simple statement (e.g., good, fast).
    2. Comparative Degree: Compares exactly two things. Uses -er or "more/less" (e.g., better, faster).
    3. Superlative Degree: Compares more than two things. Uses -est or "most/least" (e.g., best, fastest).

Parts of Speech: Prepositions

  • Definition: Words indicating the position of an object (direction, time, place, location).
  • Prepositions of Place:
    • IN: General areas (neighborhoods, cities, countries, places with boundaries).
    • ON: Streets, avenues, islands, large vehicles (bus/train), surfaces.
    • AT: Specific locations (addresses, the corner, home, specific points).
  • Prepositions of Time:
    • IN: Long periods (months, years, decades, centuries, seasons, historical periods like the Middle Ages, the morning/afternoon).
    • ON: Days and dates (Monday, March 14, the 8th of September).
    • AT: Precise times (3 A.M., midnight), mealtimes (lunchtime), festivals (Christmas), and "night."
  • Common Prepositions List: about, above, across, after, against, along, among, around, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, beyond, but, by, concerning, despite, down, during, except, for, from, in, inside, into, like, of, off, on, onto, out, outside, over, past, since, through, throughout, toward, under, underneath, until, up, upon, with, within, without.

Parts of Speech: Conjunctions

  • Definition: Words that join other words or clauses.
  • Coordinating Conjunctions: but, or, yet, so, for, and, nor.
  • Correlative Conjunctions: Pairs of words that work together (both/and, either/or, neither/nor, not only/also, not only/but also).
  • Subordinating Conjunctions: Used to start dependent (subordinate) clauses.
    • Examples: after, although, as if, because, before, if, since, unless, until, when, whenever, while, once, provided that.

Punctuations

  • The 12 Most Used Punctuations:
    1. Period (.): Ends a complete statement.
    2. Comma (,): Separates items in a list, follows introductory words, or joins clauses with conjunctions.
    3. Question Mark (?): Ends a direct question.
    4. Colon (:): Introduces a list, explanation, or quotation after a complete sentence.
    5. Exclamation Mark (!): Shows strong emotion or excitement.
    6. Semicolon (;): Connects two related independent sentences or separates complex items in a list that already contain commas.
    7. Apostrophe (’): Shows possession (Anna’s book) or forms contractions (It’s raining).
    8. Quotation Marks (“ ”): Enclose exact words or titles.
      • Note: Single quotes (‘ ’) are used for quotes within quotes.
    9. Parentheses ( ): Add extra information without disrupting the main sentence structure.
    10. Hyphen (-): Joins compound words (well-known) or splits words at the end of a line.
    11. En Dash (–): Shows a range of numbers or dates (e.g., 1990–2000).
    12. Em Dash (—): Creates a pause, shows interruption, or functions like parentheses.

Capitalization Rules

  • General Rule: Three primary types of words are capitalized: The pronoun "I," the first word of a sentence, and proper nouns.
  • Specific Categories for Capitalization:
    • People's Names: First, middle, last names, nicknames, and suffixes (Jr.).
    • Titles: Principal words in titles of works (books, songs, movies). Small words (articles/prepositions) are lowercase unless they start the title.
    • Places: Names of specific places (Lake Victoria, Jupiter) but not general descriptions (a good canyon).
    • Countries, Nationalities, and Languages: Always capitalized (Haitian, French).
    • Institutions: Specific names of companies, brands, or departments (Volkswagen Group, Psychology Department).
    • Historical Eras: Specific names (Renaissance, Middle Ages) are capitalized, but general terms and centuries (twentieth century) are not.
    • Days, Months, and Holidays: Capitalized as proper nouns (Sunday, April, Father's Day).
    • Initials and Acronyms: Usually all caps (WHO, UFO), except for some that have evolved into common words (scuba).

Ten English Spelling Rules

  1. U Always Follows Q: Example: queen, quick. Rare exception: qi.
  2. S Never Follows X: Use "c" for the /s/ sound after "x" (e.g., excise, excite). Plurals of words ending in "x" add "es" (boxes).
  3. Every Syllable Includes a Vowel: All syllables must contain a, e, i, o, u, or y (e.g., ba-by).
  4. I Before E Except After C: Use "ie" usually (believe), but "ei" after "c" (receive) or when it sounds like /a/ (neighbor, weigh). Exceptions: height, weird, leisure, seize.
  5. End 1-Syllable Words with Double F and L: Use double letters (stiff, stall) unless the word ends in a consonant blend (dwarf, whirl).
  6. End 1-Syllable Words with Double S: Use double letters (bliss, class). Exceptions: us, this, his, was, plus.
  7. Drop the Silent E Before Most Suffixes: Remove "e" when adding a vowel suffix (race/racing). Exceptions: keep it for soft 'g' or 'c' sounds (changeable) or double 'e' (fleeing).
  8. The Prefix al- is One L: Words beginning with the prefix "al-" use only one "l" (almost, always, also).
  9. Apostrophes Go Where Letters Are Removed: Example: can’t (stands for "n" and "o" in cannot).
  10. Do Not End a Word with V or J: Standard English words end with a silent "e" after the /v/ sound (have, hive) or use -dge/-age for the /j/ sound (judge, cage).

Practice Exercises and Answer Key

  • Punctuation Quiz Results:
    1. Correct: He said, “ I’ll be late.” (B)
    2. Correct: She’s going to the store to buy milk, eggs, and bread. (B)
    3. Correct: The teacher said, “ Please open your books.” (Note: Colon is acceptable for formal introduction, but comma is standard for speech. Slide indicates A/B preference).
    4. Correct: It’s time to go. Are you ready? (B)
    5. Correct: He bought a well-known painting. (C)
    6. Correct: I have lived in Cebu, Philippines; Tokyo, Japan; and Seoul, Korea. (A)
    7. Correct: My sister (who lives in Canada) is visiting next week. (C)
    8. Correct: The match ended 3–2 in favor of the home team. (D - En Dash)
    9. Correct: She has three goals: to graduate, to work abroad, and to help her family. (A)
    10. Correct: Don’t forget to bring your ID, your ticket, and your umbrella. (C)

Chemistry Math Template

  • Problem #1:
  • 11=1\frac{1}{1} = 1