Pronoun Definition

Pronouns are words that function as replacements for nouns especially to avoid repetition of the nouns already mentioned in a sentence or paragraph context

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Indefinite Pronouns - What Kind of Verb Goes with It

Indefinite pronouns form a group under the types of pronouns.

What is the pronoun?

This is a word that can be used instead of a noun especially in order to prevent repetition of the noun.

Take for instance:

John was traveling yesterday with John's new jeep to visit John's elder brother who is staying in Manchester City. John after the visitation to John's elder brother, John went straight to Georgia to meet with John's workers who were John's backbone.

If an adequate note is being taken, it will be deduced that the above passage is clumsy, boring even looks almost. meaningless. Compare the passage below with this:

John was traveling yesterday with his new jeep to visit his elder brother who is staying in Manchester City. John after the visitation to his elder brother, he went straight to Georgia to meet with his workers who were his company backbone.

His and he that replaced John in the above second expression are prefect examples of pronouns. While the following can be considered as more examples of pronouns: he, she, we, they, it, her, their, her, him, them, us, mine.

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What is Indefinite Pronoun?

Indefinite pronouns are only used to replace nouns that are not definite or specific to point at any exact noun. When someone is used in a sentence, it does not specify the person who is being referred to. Therefore, that can refer to anybody.

That is why it is called "indefinite pronoun".

The pronouns that are not definite include the following: some, someone, anyone, somebody, none, no one, nobody, nothing, any, anyone, anything, every, everybody, everyone, everything, each.

What Kind of Verb Agree with Indefinite Pronouns?

Singular verb is to be chosen to agree with indefinite pronoun.

Consider:

1. There is nobody in the hostel.

2. Everybody is free to contribute to this discussion

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Borrow and Lend - Difference

A lot of students misuse these two lexical verbs by using "borrow" in a right context for "lend" and "lend" instead of "borrow".

To make it clear, it is for a giver to lend while it is for a receiver to borrow.

When you as a giver is sending something out to a person without getting paid or receiving something different in return but with an aim of collecting the exact what you give to the person back after a period of time, in that case you "lend". Its past tense is 'lent'.

Consider:

1. John, please lend me your motorcycle for two hours.

2. When will you return it if I lend you $10,000 now?

Whereas, if you as a receiver intends to receive something from someone else with an aim to return it after some time, you "borrow".

Consider:

3. John, please can I borrow your motorcycle for two hours?

4. I will return it in two days time, if I borrow the $10,000 from you.

Therefore, it is incorrect to say:

5. Please, borrow me your pen until tomorrow evening - X Incorrect

Or

6. Let me lend your computer for tonight.  - X Incorrect

Consider the following for practice:

1. The doctor and his wife promise to ............... the man their second car to travel.

            A .    lent
            B.     Borrowed
            C.     Borrow
            D.     Lend

2. Madam Smart used to ............. money from me almost every time. 

            A.    borrowed
            B.    lending
            C.    borrow
            D.    vorrows

3. I ............ Mr. Smart my most favorite car yesterday by has failed his promise to return it today.

            A.     lent
            B.     borrow
            C.     rent
            D.     lend

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Who, Whom, Whose, Which and That Differences And Their Agreement Status With Verb

The three words are relative pronouns than help in adding more information a specific noun.

They can also be regarded as relative clause indicator as each of them can be utilised to showcase a relative clause that is giving an additional description to an initial noun. Take for instance:

1. The counselor who just arrived from Togo has summoned every one of us.

Considering the above sentence, it is cleared that "who" introduces a clause "just arrived from Togo". The clause is classified as a relative one because it attaches more information to the noun phrase "The counselor".

It is possible to have more than one counselor in the utterance live context but the additional description given will help in revealing identity of the actual one talking about.

Consider these sentences:

2. The pen which I bought in from Dorcas yesterday had been stolen.

3. The woman whose children were taken to abroad last year has gone has been named for an award.

What do you understand about the sentences if you compare each of them with the first sentence above?

Let take them one after another:

"Who" is a pronoun that is used in giving more information about a human being who has been mentioned already in a sentence.

Consider:

4. Mary who got married to Smith last year has been transferred to another branch of our company.

It is also used to make enquiry about someone's identity especially name. In that essence, the sentence will be ended by question mark to indicate that is it a question that requires an answer

Consider:

5. Who is that big man?

6. Who exactly are you going with on the journey?

"Whom" is also a pronoun that has the same function as who. It usually assumes the position of object in sentence. In order to make a correct use of "whom", it should be preceded by a preposition such as to, on, for, with, in, against and so on.

It can be used to add more information about somebody just like who and it is also useful to ask questions. Note that "whom" must be preceded by a preposition.

Consider:

7. Janet, on whom I depend has failed me.

8. To whom did you give the credit card?

9. The chairman and doctors, with whom I worked were very kind to me

Should you use "whom" without any preposition, use "who" instead.

"Whose" is also a pronoun that adds more information to someone's identity but in terms of belongings or possession. It is used to ask question about ownership of something. It still performs the similar if compared with "who".

Consider:

10. Whose laptop is that Acer?

11. The manager, whose workers embark on indefinite strike has called on the workers' leaders for negotiation.

In sentences 10, it is noted that the Acer laptop belongs to someone whose identity remains unknown. "Whose" depicts belonging.

While in sentence 11, the workers are the manager's workers not someone else's. That is a belonging.

"Which" as who is used to attach more information to somebody, "which" is used to add more information to something.

In other words, it is used to find out from someone exact about one or more people or things from a group of people or things earlier mentioned in the conversational context.

Consider:

12. The result of the examination which I sat for last week has been released.

13. Which of the songs do you prefer?

14. Which girl are you referring to?

In regard to sentence 12, let us assume that the speaker wrote more than one examination at different points in time; while uttering the declaration above, the listener may need to ask "which of the examinations?". But since the additional description has been given "which I sat for last week" the question is no longer needed.

In regard to sentence 13, the speaker needs to know the exact song that the listener prefer.

To be updated soon.....

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Orderliness of Adjectives/ Order of Adjectives in English Sentence

Adjective as a word that gives additional information about a noun or pronoun in a sentence can also serve as modifier modifying the noun or pronoun that follows it. In some cases there will be many adjectives appearing before a particular noun or pronoun in a sentence. For such group of adjectives, there is need for correct arrangement. There is a rule that states which adjective should come before another and which one should appear after another. There are various forms of adjectives expressing different things.

Adjectives depending on their appearances can express:

Number: that indicates numbers such as two, four, forty, three hundred, five million, a, an, first, third, sixth, seventeenth, hundredth and so on.

Attributes: these are words indicating qualities or attributes of something. Such attributes or qualities can be ugly, beautiful, courageous, gorgeous,  achiever, active, ambitious, elegant, extravagant, rich, expensive, poor, incredible, insightful, sensitive, wise, lazy and so on.

Size or Weight: instances under this category include tall, short, small, large, big, little, heavy, gigantic, high, giant, tiny, elfin and so on.

Age: this includes young, old, new, outdated, archaic, barbaric, old-fashioned, new-fashioned, modern, ancient, obsolete, out of date, obsolescent, ageing, aged, recent, contemporary, brand-new, late, latest among others.

Shape: this includes fat, thin, lanky, oblong, rectangular, stout, round, slender, lean, slight, wispy, plump, rotund, fleshy, bellied, flabby, elephantine, spherical, globular, orbicular, curve, ball-shaped, annular, loose-jointed and so on.

Colours: among the colours that can function as adjective are yellow, red, green, purple, white, blue, dark, black, dark-skinned, fair-skinned, light, fair, blonde, pink, golden, bronze, orange and so on.

Nationality/Origin: this is speculated for origin of human being or animal and sometimes things. For example, Nigerian, Togolese, Japanese, American, Ghanaian, Senegalese, Malaysian, etcetera.

Nouns Used as Adjectives: these are nouns that are used as adjectives in order to qualify another noun or pronoun. The words under this category are also known as MATERIALS The following and others are nouns but can be used as adjectives - sports, table, cotton, leather, metal, iron, wooden, plastic, racing, Queen, and the like.

Each of the adjective classification can be represented by the first letter starting each of them:

"N" for Number which is the adjective number one in the order of adjectives.

"A" for Attributes which is the adjective number two in the order of adjectives,

"S/W" standing for Size/Weight and the number three in the order of adjectives.

"A" representing Age that take the forth position in the order of adjectives.

"S" for Shape appears fifth.

"C" representing Colour and stands number six among the adjectives orderliness.

" N /O" substitutes for Nationality/Origin and assumes number seven while underlining adjectives to suit right usage.

"N" is for Nouns that are used as adjectives so as to qualify another nouns or pronouns.

Let us consider the following examples:

1. The brave hunter killed the black big spitting cobra in the forest.

Note: the way the adjectives are arranged is correct while any other structure of arrangement that can be introduced will always be incorrect. Colour comes first (black), follows by size (big), then by noun used as an adjective (spitting) also known as participle; and lastly the noun (cobra).

2. As things are now, I have to look for a cheap second-hand rubber tire.

Note: a is under the number, cheap is under the attributes, second-hand is under the quality, rubber lies under material or participle while tire is the noun that all the adjectives qualify.

                           Exercise

Choose the most suitable adjectives arrangement for each of the following:

1. Mrs. Janet Valenzuela has to get a ............handbag before she can come us.
       (a) red beautiful leather
       (b) beautiful leather red
       (c) beautiful red leather
       (d) leather beautiful red

2. Please do ensure to include............ sites for our excursions so as to make the journey a memorable one.

       (a) all the many, interesting, historical
       (b) the many historical, interesting all
       (c) interesting, historical, the all many
       (d) all the historical, interesting many

3. The political leader who is living in the glass had bought her own ................ last week.

       (a) very party first dress
       (b) very first party dress
       (c) party dress first very
       (d) dress first party very

4. The Queen while coming to my party yesterday wore ................ that attracted some of my guests.

      (a) gold, very glittering expensive
      (b) very expensive, glittering, gold
      (c) gold, very expensive glittering
      (d) very expensive, gold glittering

5. The new elected senators had jointly purchased and donated .............to assist the project on ground.

     (a) large duplicating modern machine
     (b) large modern duplicating machine
     (c) modern large duplicating machine
     (d) machine modern duplicating large

Attempt all the exercises above. If you wish, you can drop your answers in comment section.

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Transitive And Intransitive Verbs Explained

Both transitive verb and its intransitive counterpart can be explicated under classification or categorization of verbs. Structurally, a complete and unabated sentence does feature subject as an action performer, predicate (also known as verb) which is an action being performed by the subject and an object or compliment and sometimes with an adjunct. The discrepancy or diversity between both transitive verb and intransitive verb lies on whether their contextual sentences procure or take an object or not. Some verb takes objects after them while some do not take any object but can be accompanied by adjuncts.

Therefore, a transitive verb is any verb that is conveyed by an object. That is, transitive verb structurally consists of subject (optional), verb (compulsory) and an object (mandatory specifically for the verb classification).

                    Transitive Verbs

For transitive verbs that usually attract object or compliment, let us consider the following sentences:

Consider:


1. The caretaker collected bribe from the tenants.

2. We saw our former class teacher last Friday.

The sentences above are examples of transitive verb as "bribe" in the first sentence is an object which now qualifies collected as a transitive verb while "our former class teacher" in the second sentence is also an object of the verb "saw" which qualifies it a transitive verb.

For further study, have proper look over the following sentences:

3. The project students saw a fearful bride of lions at the game reserve.

4. The new financial committee had submitted its report.

5. The newly elected governor bought a private jet last week.

               Intransitive Verbs

For intransitive verbs that are usually without object or compliment, let us study the following examples.

Consider:


6. She laughed mockingly.

7.The man denied stolen the company properties.

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"People Who Live In Glass Houses Shouldn't Throw Stones" Idiomatically Means What?

This is an idiom taken from warning. It is an expression of warning that means that one should abstain from criticizing others in order to avoid being criticized too.

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The Idiomatic Meaning of "The Icing to the Cake" or " The Frosting to the Cake".

Idiomatic Meaning of "The Icing on the Cake/ the Frosting on the Cake".

Introduction

"The icing on the cake" or "the frosting on the cake" is an idiom that is captivated from food. Ice and cake are togetherly used to bring out the idiom.

"The icing on the cake" or " the frosting on the cake" means:

An additional thing that becomes added to an already perfect situation or experience so as to make it looks better than current status. In other words, this an expression that elucidates standard fixing to what has been standardized already just to make it stands more standard, worthwhile and substantial.

Let us consider the following:

The manager orders his coworkers not to waste the new material on the building regarding such doing as the frosting on the cake.

Although it was not necessary that I applied additional paint on the wood table, but I did it just  for the icing on the cake.

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Concord Revisited: Subject Accompanied By Fake Subject- Predicate Agreement

In some cases, two nouns or noun phrases forming a subject of a verb usually precipitate confusion especially for English language learners.

Consider:

"The groom, with his friends has gotten ready to take group photography".

The sentence above has two subjects which are "the groom" and "his friends" joined by preposition with. It only introduced fake subject. Ordinarily, the predicate is supposed to be "have gotten" instead of "has gotten".

Regarding the simple rule to be followed in making verb choice, "his friends" is a fake subject which must be neglected, whilst "the groom" should be chosen as the actual subject and "the groom" is singular.

Let us put the sentence in this way:

"The groom has gotten ready to take group photography with his friends".

Base on that, choosing of singular anonymous verb "has" is justified.

Consider:

The groom, with his friends have gotten ready to take group photography". × Wrong.

The groom, with his friends has gotten ready to take group photography". √  Correct.

'With' is not the only fake subject indicator, but also "along with", "together with", "as well as", "in addition to", "besides" and so on. When any of the above mentioned conjunctions joins two subjects together, the first subject before the conjunction should be considered as the one needed while the other subject that appears after the conjunction must be ignored completely.

Therefore, if the first subject is singular, automatically, singular verb should be chosen and if the first subject is plural, then verb should also be plural.

Also consider:

1. Janet together with her class mates is attending Victor's birthday party tomorrow. √ Correct

Janet together with her class mates are attending Victor's birthday party tomorrow. × Wrong

2. The chairman as well as his wife receives the company award of honour. √ Right

The chairman as well as his wife receive the company award of honour. × Wrong

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Idiomatic Meaning of "Made Good".

"Made Good" is an idiom that means to make it happens. Therefore, making something good as an idiom simply implies that particular thing has been made happen.

Examples:

♣ Despite all the troubles he had gone through among his coworkers and their disdainful attitudes towards him, he at last made good with his promotion to office of Manager.

♣ The criminal made his escape good in spite of being surrounded by the police.

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