WORDS
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ENGLISH GRAMMAR FOR TODAY
Exercises
Exercise 3a      (answers on p. 202)
1. Which of the following nouns are count nouns (having a plural), and which are mass nouns?
weed, gold, rigidity, laugh, rubbish, employer, music.
2. Many nouns (like hair) are capable of acting as both count nouns and mass nouns, but with some difference of meaning. Explain such differences of meaning in the following:
paper, wood, grass, cake, coffee, success, kindness, motorway.
3. Some English nouns have irregular plural forms (e.g. the plural of man is men, not the regular *mans). Find two examples of each of the following kinds of irregular plural: (a) plurals involving change of vowel; (b) plurals ending in -i; (c) plurals ending in -a; (d) plurals which have the same form as the singular.
Exercise 3b      (answers on p. 202)
1. List the Vo, Vs, Ved, Ving and Ven forms for the following verbs: take, receive, begin, hang, sleep.
2. Find ten irregular verbs, and list their five forms. (Do not attempt the verb to be at this stage.)
Exercise 3c      (answers on p. 202)
Which of the following adjectives are gradable?
a kind thought
dirty water
a unique painting
criminal law
a Japanese wrestler
careful speech
a male pig
a chauvinist pig
an absolute pig
Be prepared to explain how you arrived at the answer.
Exercise 3d
Some adjectives are capable of being gradable or non-gradable with some difference of meaning: for example, in an odd expression, odd is gradable; while in an odd number, odd is non-gradable. Provide pairs pf phrases, like these, which exemplify the gradable and non-gradable use of these adjectives: human, guilty, musical, economic, magnetic, moral, correct, foreign. Discuss how the two uses of each adjective differ in meaning.
Exercise 3e     (answers on p. 203)
Many adverbs are derived from adjectives by the addition of -ly. Some adverbs, however, do not add the -ly, but have exactly the same form as adjectives. Which is the adjective and which is the adverb in the following? Why?
1. The earlyl train arrived early2,
2. I have long I hated long2 skirts.
3. She's not just a pretty1 face, she's also pretty2 good at grammar.
4. A daily1 newspaper is one that's printed daily2.
5. That's right1, turn right2 at the next stile.
6. The arrow fell a short1 distance short2 of the target.
7. When your health is better1, you'll play better2.
8. I tried hard1, but the exercise was too hard2.
Exercise 3f      (answers on p. 203)
Here are some further examples of word: forms which can belong to more than one word class. Identify the word classes of the repeated words in the following.
1. His fur coat1 was coated2 with ice.
2. Herman is more German1 than any of the Germans2 I've met.
3. He left1 her alone on the left2 bank" of the Seine.
4. There's no point in drying1 your clothes if they're already dry2.
5. Arabella pointed1 at me, and made a very pointed2 remark.
6. She drew the curtains to make the room lighter1, then lighted2 her cigarette with a lighter^.
7. After he had drunk1 the whisky, the drunk2 was very drunks indeed^ .....
8. The referee1 who refereed2 the match1 matched2 the toughness of the players.
Exercise 3g     (answers on p. 203)
Now that you have studied the open word classes, we can return to nonsense words such as those which occur in Jabberwocky. Identify the nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs in the following:
And then, whozing huffily, with cruppets in his spod, podulously priddling across the vomity, virjped Podshaw, that gleerful glup, brandling bindily a gioon and flupless whampet. Magistly, mimsiness and manity gumbled on Podshaw's blunk gooves. •
Exercise 3h     (answers on p. 203)
1. Here is a sentence which contains just one instance of each of the eleven word classes introduced in this chapter. Match the words to the word classes:
But alas, the two ugly sisters had gone home without her.
2. Find another example (preferably a better one!) of a sentence which, like the one above, contains just one member of each of the eleven word classes.