LANGUAGE
-enables people to express idea clearly; 2. Case of Pronouns
ideas are expressed in words, sentences, and
paragraphs.
PARTS OF SPEECH
 Noun/Pronoun – identify or refer to the
subject
 Verb – say something about the subject
by expressing an action or a state of
being
 Adjective – describe nouns
 Adverb – modify verbs
 Conjunctions – connect words, phrases
or clauses
IMPORTANT POINTS
1. Subject – Verb Agreement
a. Verb must agree with its subject
in number (singular/plural) and in
person (first, second, third)
b. Number of the subject does not
change in the presence of
phrases like in addition to,
including, as well as, together
with
c. The verb must agree to the
subject closer to it
d. Indefinite pronouns everyone,
someone, anybody,
everybody, etc are always
singular
e. “a number” requires plural verb;
“the number” requires singular
verb
f. Know mass nouns (is) and
count nouns (are)
g. Amount of money is singular
a. Subject Pronoun – replaces a
noun used as subject or
predicate noun or subject
complement
b. Object Pronoun – replaces a
noun used as object of the verb
whether direct or indirect, and
object of the preposition
3. Pronoun – Antecedent Agreement
a. A pronoun and the noun it is
replacing or its Antecedent must
agree in number, gender, and
person
b. Default gender – he, his, him
4. Adjectives
a. May come in series
Limiting adjective – age – size –
description – opinion – shape –
color – origin – material or kind –
common or proper noun
b. Never use double comparison
c. Use little/much for mass
nouns; use few/many for count
nouns
5. Adverbs
a. Adverbs modify a verb to show
how, when, why, how often the
action is done
b. Most adverbs are formed by
adding -ly to an adjective; but
not all
c. An adverbial is a group of
words, maybe a phrase or a
clause that is used as an adverb
Adverb of place: inside,
outside, here, there
Adverbial of place: in the
house, at school, near the river
 Adverb of time: tomorrow,
yesterday, now, later
Adverbial of time: at noon,
before midnight
Adverb of manner:
gracefully, carefully
Adverbial of manner: (walk)
with a limp, (sing) out of tune
Adverb of frequency:
almost, often, never, always
Adverbial of frequency: all
the time, every Tuesday
d. Negative adverbs such as
never, hardly, scarcely, only
should never be used with a not
e. Do not use not with indefinite
pronouns – none, neither,
never, nothing, nobody
6. Verbs
a. Indicative mood – does not only
indicates action; also indicates
when the action was carried out
based on its tense
i. Simple tense
Present: I live in Quezon now.
Past: I lived in Quezon last year.
Future: I will live in Quezon next
month.
ii. Perfect tense
Present Perfect: I have lived in Quezon
for five years now.
Past Perfect: I had lived in Quezon
before I moved to the province.
Future Perfect: By next month, I shall
have lived here for ten years.
iii. Progressive tense
Present Progressive: I am studying for
the quarterly test.
Past Progressive: We were walking
home when it rained last night.
Future Progressive: I will be coming
back next month
Present Perfect Progressive: I have
been receiving text messages from
him.
Past Perfect Progressive: I had been
gaining weight since I stopped
exercising.
b. Voice of the verb
i. Active voice – the subject
of the sentence performs
the action
ii. Passive voice – the
subject is the receiver of
the action
7. Prepositions
a. Connective words that denotes
relationships.
i. Between – two
ii. Among – three or more
iii. Afraid of
something/someone
iv. Afraid to do something
v. Angry with somebody
vi. Angry at something
vii. Learn from somebody
viii. Learn about something
ix. Prefer dancing to singing
x. In – position
xi. Into – motion from
outside to inside
xii. To – motion towards a
place
xiii. At – presence in
8. Conjunctions
a. Coordinate conjunctions
i. Or, and, but, (FANBOYS)
b. Correlative conjunctions
i. In pairs – as long as,
neither-nor, either-or
c. Subordinate conjunctions
i. Time – since, as soon as,
as long as
ii. Reason/cause – as, for,
because, since
iii. Contingency/supposition
– if, though, unless,
provided
SENTENCE CONSTRUCTION
1. Run – on Sentence
a. Two or more sentences are
should be separated by the
proper punctuation, a proper
conjunction or using a comma
i. I looked everywhere but I
could not find the missing
earring.
ii. I looked everywhere. I
could not find the missing
earring
2. Sentence Fragment
a. Sentence fragment is an
incomplete sentence; supply
either the subject or the
predicate
i. Manuel studied hard and
passed all his tests.
ii. Manuel studied hard. He
passed all his tests.
3. Parallel structure
a. The elements of a sentence
which perform the same purpose
must be the same form.
i. I like swimming,
dancing, and if there is
time, taking a long walk.
ii. The movie was
entertaining and
instructive.
4. Modifiers
a. Place the modifier nearest the
word it modifies
i. Kevin cut himself badly
while shaving.
ii. To pass the UPCAT, one
must take review lessons
seriously.
iii. Walking along the
highway, I saw a goat
pass by.
5. Logical Errors
a. When dissimilar things are
compared, verb should be
repeated
i. I like ice cream better
than I like cake.
b. Words such as “as” and “else”
shouldn’t be omitted when
comparing
i. Kay is as bright as if not
brighter than her sister
ii. She cooks better than
anyone else in the class
c. Complete the sentence when
comparing to avoid confusion
i. Our house is bigger than
Lolo’s house.
COMMONLY CONFUSED WORDS
a. Continual – repeated
a. Continually disturbed
b. Continuous – in one go
a. Continuously for 2 hours
c. Can – indicate ability to do
something
a. I can eat this.
d. May – used when permission is
sought
a. May I have a bite?
e. Few – for count nouns
a. Few people came.
f. Less – for mass nouns
a. Less water in the dam.
READING
3. WORD ANALOGY
1. SYNONYM AND ANTONYM
a. Types of relationships
a. For unfamiliar words, make
i. Synonyms
use of etymology or word
Shout:yell
attack by using context
clues
ii. Antonyms
i. Geocentric = geo +
Wicked:good
centric = earth +
center = earth is the
iii. Part to whole
center
Star:constellation
2. CONTEXT
a. Getting meaning through
iv. Worker:action
context; clues that reveals
Chauffeur:drive
the meaning of a word may
be given as an example,
v. Worker:tool
synonym, and antonym.
Surgeon:scapel
i. Example : introduced
by for example, for
vi. Worker:creation
instance, and such
Author:novel
as
ii. Synonym: introduced
vii. Class and member
by or, that is, or by
Homo sapien:man
using italics or
comma
viii. Defining
1. Affluent or
characteristics
wealthy
individuals King:noble
should show
more ix. Degree of intensity
compassion Nudge:push
(we now know
that affluent and x. Action and
wealthy are significance
synonyms) Hug:affection
iii. Antonym: introduced
by however, but, yet, xi. Cause and effect
on the other hand Virus:colds
1. Most teachers
are too lenient –
xii. Gender
they have no
rules – but Doe:stag
others are quite
strict. (we now
know lenient Check the
and strict are relationship=check
antonyms) the parts of
speech=check the
order