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OYO STATE LECTURE NOTES (ENGLISH LANGUAGE)

1ST TERM SCHEME OF WORK

NOUN, DEFINITION AND TYPES
A noun is a naming word. It names persons, places, animals or things. Nouns also cover other
names like those of institutions, months and days and abstract ideas.
Examples of Nouns:
Effiong, Tinuke, Aminat
Onitsha, Lagos, Oyo
Nigeria, United States of America, Australia
Food, Chair, Stone
University of Ibadan, Queens’ school Ibadan
May, November, April
Joy, Wealth, Beauty, e.t.c.

TYPES OF NOUNS
Nouns can be divided into two large groups: Proper Noun and Common Noun

PROPER NOUN
These are specific names of people, places, countries, months, days, magazines, e.gTolu,
Ibadan, Nigeria, April, Monday, The Nigerian Tribune, etc.

Note that the first alphabet of a proper noun should be written in capital letters anywhere it
appears in a sentence.

Tade visited Osogboin December last year.

We had read Newswatchevery day.

COMMON NOUNS
Common nouns are names given to a group of persons, places, things, or ideas. Examples: boy,
man, woman, girl, (person); market, church, mosque, (places); Nigeria, Iraq (countries); spoon,
fork, box (things); wisdom, beauty, loyalty (ideas).

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 OYO STATE LECTURE NOTES (ENGLISH LANGUAGE)

Common nouns can be divided into:countable and uncountable nouns

A countable noun is a noun that can be counted. They usually have singular and plural forms.
Singular Plural

boy boys

Tooth teeth

Box boxes

Woman women

Uncountable nouns cannot be counted. Examples: water, bread, sand, cream, anger, education
and progress.

ABSTRACT NOUN-This noun relates to ideas. Some are countable and some are not:
idea, concept, admission, remark, (countable) education, anger,
happiness, wisdom, (uncountable)

COLLECTIVE NOUNS are names of groups of people or things. They are treated as singular
or plural depending on whether the group is seen as a single entity or made up of several
members:
The family has a house in town where it lives.
The families have a house in town where they live.

VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT: HOME AND FAMILY LIFE

Words Meaning
1. Niece A daughter of ones sibling, brother-in-law;
either the daughter of one brother or of
one’s sister
2. Sibling A person with whom one shares the same
parent. One’s brother or sister (older or
younger)
3. Aunt The younger or older sister or sister-in-law
of one’s parent.
4. Uncle The younger or older brother or brother-
inlaw of one’s parents.

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VERB, DEFINITION AND TYPES

A verb is a word that shows the action performed in a sentence or the state of being of a person
or thing.
A. They work in Abuja. (action)
B. The girls are happy. (state of being)

TYPES OF VERB
The verb be, is, am, are. They are used as follows:
Be- as a command – Be careful
Am- with ‘I’ – I am a year older today
Is- with he,she, it (or any noun that can replace them). – He/She/it is very happy
Are- with you, we,they (or any noun that can replace them). – You/we/they are very
happy
Have: have, has, (had-past). They are used as follows.

I, we, you, they + have

He, she, it +has

I have a pen.

They (Sola and Ayo) have many friends.

He/she (Bukola) has a pen.

It (the dog) has a tail.

do: do, does, did(past). They are used as

follows: does: he/she/it + does. ‘Does’ is a singular

verb. do: they/we/you/I + do. ‘Do’ is a plural verb.

Examples:
He/she (Tola) does her homework.
They (Biodun and Toro) do their homework.
The three types of verb mentioned above (be, have, do) are primary auxiliary verbs.
Modal Auxiliaries

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These are thirteen in number: can, could, may, might, shall, should, will, would, must, ought to,
used to, need and dare.

Examples:Can/Could
Tolu can go if he likes (permission in the present and future).
Tolu could go if he likes (permission in the present and future).
Tolu could go out whenever he liked. (Permission in the past).

May/Might
i. Fama may follow us, if he likes. (Permission).
ii. Tade may arrive from Jos today. (Possibility).

Shall/Will
Shall is used with the first person (I or we) while ‘will’ is used with second and third persons
(you, they, he, she or it).
Examples:
i. We shall attend the party. ( Express simple futurity)
ii. He will attend the party. iii. I will attend the party
(determination). iv. You shall obey me. (insistence or
compulsion).

Should
i. We should eat the food. (obligation and logical
necessity).
ii. It is a pity that he should behave like that. iii. I
should travel if I had the money( to express condition).

Would
i. Every Sunday, we would attend the morning service in the
church. (expresses habitual actions).
ii. If I had a car, I would travel often (conditional sentences). iii.
I would like to come with you. (expresses a polite
request).
iv. That would be Kemi coming. (expresses a probability).

Must
i. You must tell me the truth. (obligation)
ii. He must be out of his mind to say that. (express logical necessity)

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Ought to
i. Every boarder ought to pay their fees. (expresses obligation).
ii. They ought to have finished the work. (expresses expectation).

Used to
i. Kola used to visit me frequently before he was transferred. (express habitual actions
in the past).

Need
i. You need to leave now. (express obligation). ii.
Need we all work so hard? (question).

Dare
i. Nobody dare insult our leader.

VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT: AGRICULTURE

WORDS MEANING

Transplanter a machine for transplanting trees.

Pesticides Anything, especially a synthetic

substance but also any substance or
virus, bacterium or any other organism,
which kills or suppresses the activities of
pests.
Silo a vertical building, usually circular, used
for the storage of grain.
Seedling A young plant grown from seed

INFORMAL LETTER

An informal letter is a letter written to friends and relatives. It is written to people we have a
close relationship with.

Features of informal letter

An informal letter has only one address, that is, the address of the writer.

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 OYO STATE LECTURE NOTES (ENGLISH LANGUAGE)

Methodist Grammar School,

P.M.B. 2967,

Bodija, Ibadan,
Oyo State.
15th November, 2016.
The use of slangs, jokes, idioms, informal expressions as well as abbreviated words are
permitted as long as they are not excessive.
The salutation is informal.Pet names can be used
Dear Tom, My Dear Ben, My very dear Tim, Dear Dad.

ADVERBS AND ADJECTIVES

Adverbs modify the verb and other parts of speech like adjectives, another adverb, or a
prepositional phrase. Examples: quickly, certainly, slowly, intelligently, forward, backward,
clockwise, moneywise, always, fat, very, soon, when, quite, if, how and often

Types of adverbs
1. Adverb of Manner: It tells us how an action occurs or will occur.
She speaks loudly.
You replied correctly.
2. Adverb of place: It tells us where an action occurs, will occur or occurred.
He will come here.
Olulives somewhere in the New York.
3. Adverb of time:It tells us when the action of the verbs takes place. e.g now, then, when,
soon,, tomorrow, early in the day, five years ago.
4. Adverb of frequency: It tells us how many times the action occurs.Is it daily, generally,
often, seldom, usually, always?
5. Adverb of degreeit tells the degree of qualities, properties, states, and conditions of an
action,e.g absolutely, enough, extremely, high, slightly.
6. Adverb of reasonexpresses the reason or purpose of an action. hence, therefore, thus
7. Adverbs of affirmation and negation confirm or deny the action of the verb in the
sentence,e.g surely, absolutely, definitely.
8. Adverbs of condition- e.g if, whether, provided, unless.
ADJECTIVES

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Adjectives are words that describe nouns and pronouns. Often, adjectives come before nouns.
Types of adjectives

1. Descriptive adjective: They are also called attributive adjectives. They are of different
kinds:
- Observation adjective: real, perfect, best, interesting - Size and shape adjectives: small,
large, square, poor, round - Age adjectives: old, young, new etc.
- Colour adjectives: pink, yellow, blue etc.
- Material adjectives: cotton, gold, wool. etc. - Qualifier adjectives: log, cabin, luxury,
etc - Adjectives numbers: six, five, seven, car, two, etc.
- Demonstrativeadjectives: these, those, that, this.
- Possessive adjectives: my, your, his, her, its, our, their, etc.
- Interrogative adjectives: what, which, whose, where, why,how.

2ND TERM SCHEME OF WORK

DETERMINERS (ARTICLES AND MODIFIERS)
A determiner is a word that comes before a noun. If an adjective already comes before the
noun, the determiner comes before the adjective. Examples:
Some cute babies
Determiners adjective noun
There are different categories of determiners and we will look at two of these categories which
are:
1. Articles and
2. Quantifiers
Articles

There are two articles commonly used in English Language which are a (or an) and the.
Note that a and an are indefinite articles.
‘A’ (or an) is used before singular countable nouns that we have not talked about before.
Example:
A dog was killed at the back of our house. (It is wrong to say, ‘One dog was killed at the back
of our house).
Note that ‘a’ is used before nouns that begin with consonant sounds while ‘an’ is used before
nouns that start with vowel sounds.
Examples:

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 OYO STATE LECTURE NOTES (ENGLISH LANGUAGE)

a An

a boy an apple

a handkerchief an umbrella

a university an opportunity

a cold-blooded animal an empire

‘The’ on the other hand is a definite article. It is used for both countable and uncountable
nouns. It is used to refer to a particular thing or person.
Examples:
1. The kitchen is neat. (Only one kitchen in the house).
2. The sun shines bright.
3. The girl is beautiful.

Quantifiers
These are determiners that show the quantity or amount of something. They are used before
plural, countable and uncountable nouns, depending on the quantifier on the quantifier in
question. Look at the table below:

Quantifiers Before Plural Countable Before Plural Uncountable Nouns

Nouns
Some Yes Yes
Any Yes Yes
Much No Yes
Many Yes No
No Yes No
All Yes Yes
A little No Yes
A few Yes No

Examples in sentences:
Peju bought some oranges.
She didn’t give us any money.

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Manyvehicles pass along this road.

She put too much sugar in the tea.

ELEMENT OF SENTENCE STRUCTURE

The sentence is the largest unit of grammatical description. It can be defined as a group of
words that expresses a meaningful thought.
Example: Adaobi wrote the letter.
There are five basic elements of sentence structure in English Language namely:
Subject, verb, object, complement, adjunct

SUBJECT
This is referred to as the performer of an action in a sentence or the person or thing that is being
talked about. Examples:
1. Rabiu wrote the letter.
2. The woman is slim.
3. They are hungry.
The subject is usually a pronoun, noun, and noun phrase or noun clause. An example of a noun
clause as subject is written below:
4. That he was insulted pained me.

VERB
A verb is an action word or a word that shows the state of being of a particular person or thing
in a sentence. A sentence can consist of a single verb or a group of verbs.
The Governor will pay the workers.
Niyi eats well.

OBJECT
An object receives an action in a sentence. We can have direct and indirect objects in a single
sentence. The direct object answers the question whom or what after the verb, the answer is the
direct object. The indirect object asks the question to whom/ what or for whom/ what after the
verb. The answer is the indirect object. Where we have both direct and indirect objects in a
sentence, the indirect object comes before the direct object.
Kayode bought a book.
Kayode bought me a book.
His friends lost it.
They gave Adindu the book.

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Objects could be nouns, pronouns, noun phrases or noun clauses.

COMPLEMENTS
A complement is a word which completes the meaning of a sentence. The complement is
usually a noun, noun phrase or an adjective.
1. Mrs Olalere is tall. (adjective as complement)
2. Mrs Olalere is a doctor. (noun phrase as complement.
A complement can be a subject or an object complement. Subject complement describes or
tells something about the subject while object complement describes or tells something about
the object.
1. Mrs. Oladele is a journalist. (Subject Complement)
2. The people elected Mrs. Olalere the local government chairman. (Object complement)

ADJUNCTS
An adjunct is a word or group of words that functions like an adverb within the sentence. An
adverb modifies a verb by telling how, when, where, to what extent, e.t.c. the action is
performed.
The adjunct may be an adverb, a noun phrase or a prepositional phrase.
My cousin writes slowly. (adverb)
I read the notice last month. (Noun phrase)
The technician sleeps on the couch. (prepositional phrase)

FUNCTIONS OF NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES

A noun is a word that names, e.g Williams, Tribune, Ministry of Education, air, knowledge.

Functions of a Noun
i. Subject of the verb A.
Tobi is a doctor.
B. A vehicle killed the dog. (Subject of the verb, ‘killed’.) ii.
Object of the verb
A. The goat ate the yam. (object of the verb ‘ate’)
B. The physics teacher welcomed the new students. (object of the verb
‘welcomed’) iii. Subject complement A. Binta is a lawyer.
B. The chocolate is sweet.
v. Object complement
A. They call him a professor.
B. The Governor appointed Nneka the commissioner of finance.
vi. Complement of a preposition A.
She is from Togo.

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B. The baby gave the carrot to the boy. vi.

Appositive
An appositive gives another name to a noun in a sentence.Examples:
A. Iyamu, the English language teacher, is coming.
B. “Sagging”, a common trend among male youths, is not dignifying.
Functions of adjectives
An adjective modifies a noun or a pronoun. That is, it describes the noun or pronoun.
1. Tall ladies are beautiful (pre-modifying the noun).
2. Those books are complex.
3. The lady appears rough. (Predicative Adjectives).
4. The money available cannot be enough.
Adjectives can be used as head word of a noun phrase.
The rich are very proud.
The government should cater for the handicapped.

STRESS
Stress has to do with syllables. A syllable is a unit of pronunciation. There are words that
have only one syllable. They are called monosyllable words. Examples: give, height, go.
Two-syllable words: ignore, perfect, dental, above
Three-syllable words: candidates, accountants, compulsory, majority
Stress is the greater emphasis or force with which a particular syllable is pronounced.
A stressed syllable carries greater force or emphasis than other syllables in the word.
The following words are not stressed:
i. Articles, demonstratives and possessives: a, an, the,
this, those, that, these, some, any, your, my, his,
ours, e.t.c
ii. Helping verbs, e.g am, is, are, have, can, shall, will.
iii. Personal pronouns, e.g you, he, she, it, we.
iv. Conjunctions e.g and, but, for.
Some of these words can be stressed for the purpose of emphasis. Other classes of words
like noun, main/lexical verbs, and adjectives are however stressed. Stress is marked in two
ways. It is either capitalized (that is stresses syllable) or preceded by a stroke.
Example:
1. The MAN is a TAIlor

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The ‘man is a ‘tailor

Stress can change the grammatical name of a word. Examples:

Noun Verb
‘project pro’ject
‘import im’port
‘present pre’sent
GUIDELINES TO STRESS PLACEMENT
1. Words ending with ‘ion’, ‘ic’, ‘ial’ and ‘ian’ are usually stressed on the second to the
last syllable. Example: introDUCtion, fanTAStic
2. Words that end in ‘ate’, ‘cal’, ‘ty’, and ‘al’ are usually stressed on the third to the last
syllable. Examples: coMMUnicate, sabBAtical, coMMUnity.
3. When a verb of two syllable end with ‘ate’ the second syllable is stressed. Example:
dicTATE, preDATE, lacTATE
4. Words that end with ‘ism’are stressed on the first syllable. Examples: TErrorism,
JOURnalism, RAdicalism.
5. Words that end in ‘ish’ are stressed on second to the last syllables. Examples: RUbbish,
FOOlish, malNOUrished, eSTAblish.
6. Words that end with ‘fy’ are usually stressed on the third to the last syllable. Examples:
FORtify, MAGnify, iDENtify, inTENsify.

CONJUCTIONS AND USE

Conjunctions join words, phrases, clauses or sentences together. There are different types of
conjunctions.
1. Coordinating conjunctions: and, but, or yet: A.
Bayo and Kemi went to Oyo.
B. I like theatre arts but Daddy prefers medicine.
‘But’ shows contrast.
Bola is intelligent but Grace is not.
‘Or’ shows alternatives.
Would you like egg or beans.
Ade must be in the bathroom or kitchen.
2. Correlating conjunctions: These are conjunctions used in pairs. They are:
Either…or: We can go to either Dubai or South Africa for holidays.
Neither…nor: Neither Manchester United nor Man City would win the cup.

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Both…and: I invited both Jumai and Ache for the party.

Not only… but also: Not only is he a disciplinarian, he is also a workaholic.
Not…but: What matters in a marriage relationship is not money, but love.
Whether…or: I don’t know whether I am hungry or not.
No sooner…than: No sooner had I finished spreading the cloth than it started raining.
3. Subordinating conjunctions: These are conjunctions used to join a main clause and a
subordinating clause together.
The students were suspended because they misbehaved.

Main clause: The students were suspended.

Subordinate clause: they misbehaved.
His brother came in when he had slept.
Other subordinating conjunctions include: after, although, as, before, if, in order that, since,
so that, unless, when, whom, which, who, whose, that.

FORMAL LETTER
A formal letter is an official letter. It is also called a business letter. It is written to addresss
official issues.

Features of Formal Letters

Writer’s Address- like an informal letter, it appears on the right hand corner of your book
with the date under it.

Ladigbolu Grammar School,

P.M.B. 278,
Oyo.
2nd August, 2017.

Receiver’s Designation and Address-This appears on the left-hand corner of your book
immediately after the writer’s address and date.
The Principal,
Ladigbolu Grammar School,
Oyo.

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Salutation: This is strictly formal. Examples: Dear Sir, Dear Madam, Dear Sir/Ma, (when you
are not sure of the receiver’s gender).
The title: The question determines the title of your letter. If the title is written in capital letters,
it should not be underlined. If it is written in initial capitals, it would be underlined.
Examples:
COMPLAINT ABOUT THE MALTREATMENT OF JUNIOR STUDENTS BY THE
SENIORS
OR
Complaints about the Maltreatment of Junior Students by the Senior Students.
Note, that for the title written in initial capitals, the prepositions and articles should appear in
lower case.
The body: The number of paragraphs depends on the question. However, the first paragraph
should state clearlythe purpose of the letter. Avoid greetings.
The last paragraph should state the expected response of the receivers and appreciation on the
anticipated response. Example:
First paragraph:
I am writing to complain about how the senior students maltreat the junior ones.
Last paragraph:
I hope that action would be taken in order to curb the senior students and to restore sanity to
the school.
Thank you Ma.
Avoid the use of slangs, jokes and any form of informal expression as well as short forms like
I’ll, can’t, won’t.
The complementary close: This appears on the low-right hand side of your note. The only
acceptable complementary close is:
Yours faithfully,
Writer’s signature,
Full name (first name and surname) and title.

NOUN PHRASE
A noun phrase is a group of words that has a noun (or indefinite pronoun) as its head word
(main word).

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Features of Noun Phrase

Noun phrase usually begins with: determiners, possessives, demonstratives, adjectives,
numerals or a combination of all.
A. The boys, a child, some women, a little salt, much knowledge.
B. Our pen, his money
C. That woman, these mangoes, those girls, this table
D. Stubborn children, pretty faces E. Two women, seven boys
F. he two tall boys, our three brilliant princesses.
Grammatical Functions
Noun phrase performs the same functions a noun performs in a sentence. They are:
Subject of the verb:
A. The three black puppies are in their cage.
B. Reading hard is necessary for success.
Note that ‘reading’ in example b is a gerund. A verb is a gerund when it functions as a noun. It
is also called nominalized verb.
Object of the verb:
A. The woman sold all her goods.
B. Mr. Pam taught the Governor in the secondary school.
Subject complement:
A. Tolani is the most intelligent girl in my class.
B. The principal is my best friend.
Object complement:
A. The villagers called her the chief matron.
B. Who made you the spokesperson?
Appositive:
A. Mrs.Boboye, the physics teacher is very hardworking.
B. Obaje, the tailor’s son, made nine A’s.
Complement of a preposition:
A. He is from the Middle-East.
B. The woman speaks to her physically challenged son very often.

ADJECTIVE PHRASE

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An adjective phrase is a group of words that describe a noun or pronoun in a sentence. It

can appear before or after the noun or pronoun in a sentence. The first word of an adjective phrase
should be an adverb, a preposition or an adjective.
Tapestry beautifully stitched by hand is worth the cost.
Something in the corner was moving.
The big bug under the blanket is moving towards me.

Functions of Adjectival Phrase

An adjective phrase describes the noun before it.
The books with red tags are available for sale.
She gave the money to the students with eye defects.

An adjective phrase serves as object complement when it gives more information about an
object.
Sitting in traffic for hours drives me crazy.
The incident has made his story more credible.

FIGURES OF SPEECH
Whenever you say something, but you do not mean it literally, you are using a figure of speech.
Figure of speech provides emphasis, freshness or clarity.

METAPHOR
A metaphor is a direct comparison between two objects.
A. The skies of his future began to darken. (Darkness is a threat; therefore, this implies that
the coming times are going to be hard for him). B. The teacher planted the seed of wisdom.
SIMILE
A simile is a comparison of two unlike things using ‘like’ or ‘as…as’.
A. My dog is like a tornado.
B. That man is as strong as a horse.
HYPERBOLE
A hyperbole is an overstatement. It is an exaggeration.
A. He said a thousand and one words before keeping quiet.
B. I am so hungry I could eat a house.

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IRONY
This is a figure of speech in which words are used in such a way that their intended meaning is
different from the actual meaning of the words. It is saying one thing and meaning another.
A. The butter is as soft as a marble piece.
B. Ronke won’t fail the examinations; she doesn’t need to read her books before passing.

3RD TERM SCHEME OF WORK

1. Punctuation, Inverted Comma And Comma
2. Prepositional phrase
3. Speech writing
4. Sequence of tenses
5. Adjectival clause
6. Article writing
7. Singular and Plural verbs
8. Auxiliary verbs
9. Pronouns and types

PUNCTUATION
INVERTED COMMA
Inverted comma is used to highlight slangs or technical words in order to draw attention to
them, e.g. I had to give him the ‘stuff’ when you didn’t show up.
It is used in direct speech to show the actual words of the speaker.
a) ‘Whao! We won,’ the boy exclaimed.
b) Olu asked, ‘Are you serious?’
It is also used to highlight the names of books in sentences.
‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ is written by Chimamanda Adichie.

COLON
It is used to introduce list of items.
a) The qualities of a good teacher include: patriotism, dedication, honesty and
selflessness.
b) I bought some building materials: iron sheets, iron rod, bags of cements and sand.

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COMMA (,)
It is used to separate in a list of items,
(a) I have books, trays, wrapping papers and cutleries for sale.
(b) The Vice-Principal gave me text books, a ruler, a mathematical set and a pair of
uniform.
It is used to separate introductory words or phrases (e.g. Although, Henceforth, Also, First)
from the rest of the sentence.
(a) Therefore, I believe that he is eligible for the post. (b)
Henceforth, stay away from him.
Comma is also used before and after a clause or phrase which gives information about the noun
it follows.
(a) Kanu Nwankwo, the former international soccer star, is my cousin. (b)
Oduduwa, the father of the Yoruba, was a king in Ile-Ife.
PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE
A prepositional phrase shows the relationship between a noun phrase or a pronoun and other
words in a sentence.
(i) We satin the garden.
(ii) I heard the sound of loud music.
A prepositional phrase is a group of words that begins with a preposition and ends with a noun,
a pronoun or noun phrase. This noun, pronoun or noun phrase is called the ‘object of the
preposition’.
(i) For the man
(ii) At the bank
(iii) In the house

Functions of prepositional phrase

1. It performs the function of an adverb.
(a) Until today, I had never heard that (adverb of time).
(b) The tiger crept slowly over the grass. (Adverb of place). (c) It will climb up the
highest mountain tomorrow (adverb of place) (d) Despite warnings, she tried to skip
her medication.

2. It performs the function of an adjective.

(a) The book inside the big box is mine.
(b) All the passengers abroad the runaway train were frightened. (c) All rooms on the
third floor have been booked.

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3. It functions as the complement of a verb.

(a) We trust in God. (Complement of the verb, ‘trust’).
(b) The people believe in him. (complement of the verb, ‘believe’)

4. It functions as the complement ofan adjective.

(a) We are happy about his promotion. (Complement of the adjective happy). (b) She is
fairto us. (Complement of the adjective fair).

SPEECH WRITING
A speech is a talk a person gives to an audience. It is meant to be delivered orally after it has
been written. Speech permits some informality in the use of language because there are some
degree of familiarity between the speaker and his audience. Features of a speech

1. Unlike other forms of writing which is formal, there is a degree of warmth and personal
relationship in speech writing. Thus, the uses of slang are permissible.

2. Words or expressions that reflect common values or experiences are also used. Forms
like, “we are all aware that……”, “let us not forget how….”, “as our people will say”,
are allowed.

3. Qualities to look for in a speech are adequacy of treatment of subject matter, originality
of approach, appropriateness of language and clarity of expression. The speech should
be able to move the audience.

Opening or introduction
Here, the writer acknowledges the personalities and dignitaries present and states the purpose
of the speech.
“My Chairman, our respectable guest of honor”, distinguished invited guests, our highly
esteemed principal, our very dear teachers, my fellow students, good day.We are here to
critically examine the advantages and disadvantages of presidential and parliamentary systems
of governance.”

Closing or conclusion
Just as you started, you should acknowledge and thank the dignities and the people present.
“Mr. Chairman, our principal, teachers, invited guests, ladies and gentlemen; I thank you all
for your time.”

SEQUENCE OF TENSE (replace)

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Tense occur in verbs. Tense is not exactly the same thing as time. Rather, it refers to the change
that takes place in the form of the verb to indicate time.
There are three major forms of tense: present, past and future tense.
The present tense
This is used to express actions that take place in the present. There are different forms of the
present tense and they are;
1. Simple present tense used to: (a)
Express habitual actions.
Seye always smokes after meals.
The bell rings when this buttom is pressed.
(b) To express what is fixed.
The bus arrives at 8a.m.
We have English at 10a.m.
(c) To express eternal truths. Examples:
Sugar is sweet.
The sun sets in the west
(d) To express present action. I understand you.
She has a house

2. Present progressive tense: It is used

To talk about an action or situation that is going on at a particular time.
He is writing his book.

3. Present perfect tense: (has/ have + past participle). It is used:

(a) To talk about finished action and events which have some present importance.
The Governor of Oyo State has built more roads in the state. They
have kept all the files in the drawer.

The past Tense

This used to express actions that take place in the past. There are different forms of the
past tense:
1. Simple past tense is used to:
Refer to actions done in the past.
The women ran when they saw the mad man.
Tolu kept the book here.
a) Refer to the present or the future in the following cases:
After “if”
If we had money, we should be able to buy the book.
After its “time”,”would rather” and “wish” I
wish she had enough courage to say no.

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b) In some polite expressions

I thought she might need a new note.
The boy wondered if you would be free tomorrow.
1. Past perfect tense: (had+ past participle) is used to:
a) Refer to actions which had already happened at the time we are talking about.
He was crying brcause he had lost his key.
I had given him already the bottle
b) To express an unrealized wish or hope. Examples: They
had wanted to come but you went out.
I had hoped to win but my opponent was too good for me.
c) Past progressive tense: its realized with the past tense
forms of the verb BE + verb ING.
Examples:
We were going home when he called. She
was dencing when I passed.
The Future Tense
This is used to express actions that would take place in the future. It is realized:
a) By using the modal auxiliary verbs “shall” and “will”. I shall travel soon.
You will see the manager when he arrives.
Note that: ‘shall’ is normally used with the first person while ‘will’ is used with the second and
third persons.
b) By using the form ‘be going to’ and an infinitive. Emeka is going to succeed. It’s
going to rain today.
c) By using the present progressive and an expression (adverb) indicating the future.
Toyin is learning next week.
They are writing the exam tomorrow.
d) By using the simple present and an expression indicating the future.
The bus leaves tomorrow. The
plane arrives tonight.
e) By using ‘shall’ or ‘will’ and the verb ‘be’ together with a verb ending ion ‘ing’. We
shall be writing to you.
They will be showing the film soon.
f) By using the form ‘be about to’ and an infinitive.
They are about to start the match.
She is about to leave for London.

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 OYO STATE LECTURE NOTES (ENGLISH LANGUAGE)

ADJECTIVAL CLAUSE
An adjectival clause does the work of an adjective by qualifying a noun or a pronoun. It is also
called relative clause. Adjectival clauses are usually introduced by the following relative
pronouns: who, whom, whose, which, what, that, when, and where.

i. The man who came here is a teacher. (‘who came here’ qualifies the noun ‘the
man’)
ii. The building, which was renovated recently collapsed yesterday. (‘which was
renovated’ qualifies the noun ‘house’).

ARTICLE WRITING
An article is a piece of writing on an issue of public interest. It is often addressed to a specific
audience. An article which you write for publication in your school magazine is meant for the
school audience made up of students, staff, parents and the school’s proprietor.

Articles which appear in national dailies such as the Punch, Nigeria Tribune, Daily Sun, are
written with a general audience in mind.

GUIDELINES
i. Set out the title of your article clearly in capital.
ii. Consider the interest of your audience and the effect you want to create on the
readers.
iii. Choose an appropriate tone. iv. Present your points logically.
v. Write your name in full at the end of the article. vi.
Write your address below your name.
Other important things to note are:
i. An article is not a letter to the editor.
ii. Write the topic and underline it. iii. Each idea that makes up the article
should be discussed in separate paragraph.
iv. An article requires a formal language.Avoid the use of contacted forms and impolite
expressions.
v. When writing on topics that have been considered earlier by some writers in
newspaper, you must acknowledge the previous contribution in your first
paragraph.
SINGULAR AND PLURAL VERBS
Number is the form that a verb takes to denote whether we are speaking of one thing or more
than one.
A. When ‘-s’, ‘-es’, ‘-ies’ is added to the present tense of a verb, it becomes a singular
verb. The verb is plural when it does not have any inflectional ending such as ‘-s’, ‘-es’
and ‘-ies’.

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 OYO STATE LECTURE NOTES (ENGLISH LANGUAGE)

Singular verbs Plural verbs

shifts Shift
carries Carry
tries Try
pays Pay
throws Throw
goes Go
professes Profess
assesses assess
B. There are some verbs that do not carry any inflectional endings to express their singular
forms. The finite forms of ‘be’ fall into this class.

Singular verbs Plural verbs

Is Are
Am are
Was were

AUXILIARY VERBS
Auxiliary verbs are of two types: primary and modal. The difference between the two is that
while the primary auxiliaries can also be used as lexical (main) verbs, the modal auxiliaries
cannot.
A. Primary auxiliaries
These are three: be, do, have.
(be)- is, am, are, was, were
i. We are students. (main verb) ii. We are
studying English (auxiliary to ‘studying)
(do)- does, do, did
i. Taiwo did her homework (main verb) ii. Taiwo
did not attend her class (auxiliary to attend’) (have)- has,
have, had
i. I have the English textbook (main verb) ii.
I have read the book. (auxiliary to ‘read’
B. Modal Auxiliaries

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 OYO STATE LECTURE NOTES (ENGLISH LANGUAGE)

These are thirteen in number:

Can, could, may, might, shall, will, would, must, ought to, used to, need, dare.
i. Dupe can go if she likes.
ii. Bayo could run fast when he was young.
iii. Kelechi may come with us. iv.
It might rain this afternoon. v.
We shall attend the party.
vi. Government should invest heavily in education.
vii. I will be at the occasion by 4.00 pm. viii. If I
had a car, I would travel often. ix. You must always
say the truth.
x. Every child ought to be obedient. xi.
You need not accept the inivitation.
xii. Nobody dare insult our leader.

PRONOUNS
The pronoun is a word used in place of a noun in order to avoid the repetition. A pronoun
performs the functions of a noun.
i. He kicked the ball (subject). ii. The principal congratulated
her. (object) iii. Who are they? (complement of ‘who’) iv. We
can proof the genius to be you. (complement of the ‘genius’). v. We
gave the gift to him (cpmplement of the preposition ‘to’).

Types of pronouns
1. Personal pronoun: They refer to the person speaking (first person) the person spoken to
(second person) and the person spoken about (third person). They have singular and plural
forms as well as subject and object forms.
Singular plural
Subject Object Subject Object
(first person) I me We us
(second person) You you You you
(third person) He him They them
She her They them
It It They them

2. Possessive pronouns:They show possession and have singular, plural, adjective and
pronoun forms.
Singular plural

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 OYO STATE LECTURE NOTES (ENGLISH LANGUAGE)

Person Adjective Pronoun form Adjective Pronoun form

form form
First My Mine Our Ours
Second Your Yours Your Yours
Third His His Their Theirs
Her Hers Their Theirs
Its Their theirs

3. Reflexive pronouns refer to the subject in a sentence

Person Singular Plural

First Myself Ourselves
Second Yourself Yourselves
Third Himself Themselves
Herself Themselves
Itself Themselves

The reflexive pronoun is sometimes used for emphasis.

‘I’ myself did the work’ or ‘I did the work myself’.(‘myself’ emphasizes the pronoun
‘I’). Reflexive pronouns must not be used to replace personal pronouns as in:
Wale and myself will go. (Wrong)
Wale and I will go. (correct)
4. Reciprocal pronouns: These are pronouns used when the action expressed by the verb is
shared by those concerned in a sentence. Emeka and Chike like each other.

The players congratulated one another on their victory.

vi. Demonstrative pronouns: The pronouns point out specific persons or things.
Singular plural
This These
That Those

‘This’ and ‘these’ point to objects that are near while ‘that’ and ‘those’ point to objects that are
distant.

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 OYO STATE LECTURE NOTES (ENGLISH LANGUAGE)

This is my house.
These are my houses.
That is her house.
Those are her houses.
vii. Interrogative pronouns: The pronouns are used for asking questions. They are: who,
whom, what, which, where, when, how.
Who is the form leader? (‘who’ is the subject of the verb)

To whom did you give the gift? (object of the preposition ‘to’).

Which is the longest word in the dictionary? (‘which’ is the subject of the verb).
Interrogative pronouns can also function as adjectives.

Whose book is this? (‘whose’ modifies ‘book’)

What poem do you like best? (‘what’ modifies ‘poem’)

Note that ‘which’ is used when the choice is limited to a specific number and ‘what’ when the
choice is not restricted to a specific number.
Relative pronouns: They are used to introduce the relative (or adjective) clause. They are:
who, whom, whose, which, that, where, when, how.
a. He wrote the poem which won the prize
b. I saw the boy who wants to be a king.
Indefinite pronouns: the pronouns are not definite. They are:

Any Some All Non Few

Anybody Somebody Everybody Nobody Little
Anyone Someone Everyone No one Many
Anything Something Everything Nothing several

Some indefinite pronouns are used with singular verbs while others are used with plural verbs.
Singular: Everybody is annoyed with him.
Nobody wants to accommodate her.
Each candidate has a pen.
Plural: Few are required for the job.

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Many want to attend the class.

Both like rice.

Some indefinite pronouns change their forms in order to show possession.

i. somebody: somebody’s (You are using somebody’s

biro.) ii anyone: anyone’s (Don’t steal anyone’s property)
iii. everybody: everybody’s (Success is everybody’s concern)

Some indefinite pronouns are post modified by adjectives. Adjectives come after the pronouns
which they modify.

i. I shall do everything possible to win the contest. (the adjective is ‘possible’) ii.
We want something cold to drink. (the adjective is ‘cold’).

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