Miscellaneous Studies By Eguriase s. M. Okaka

 

MISCELLANEOUS STUDIES

BY EGURIASE S. M. OKAKA

 

Miscellaneous Studies

At least, I added this page of miscellaneous studies to cover other parts of English language, relevant to examination students at all levels. Our miscellaneous studies will take us from Proverbs to similes, from Interrogative pronouns to Participle phrases, from the uses of “All” and “the whole” to the uses of “much” and “many”. and to a passage on Hints and pronunciation for Foreigners and “Shall” and “Will”.

 

PROVERBS

 

Proverbs                                                      Meaning

 

·        A friend in need is a friend in                  A real friend is the one who  stands

deed.                                                                         by you even in difficulties.

·        A stitch in time saves nine                        A care or caution taken in time saves                                                                           you many troubles later.

·        Action speaks louder than words          Doing is better than saying

·        As one makes his bed, so must he

lie on it.                                                         Life is what one makes it.

·        As one sows, so one must reap              One’s action has consequences.

·        Birds of the same feather

flock together                                 People of the same character go          together. (Tell me with whom you go, I will tell you who you are).

·        Cut your coat according to                     Do not hand your bag higher than

your cloth                                                    your height.

·        Empty vessels make the most                Ignorant people make much mouth

noise                                                             of things.

·        Familiarity breed contempt                   Closeness or nearness to someone                                                                              makes for let-down (Insult).

·        Like father like son                                    An off-spring takes to its parent.

·        Out of the frying pan to fire                   From a worst trouble to the worst                                                                              one.

·        What is good for the goose is                What is good for one is good for his

good for the gander.                                neighbor.     

·        Between Sey lla and Charybdis             Between two equally deadly                                                                                         conditions. (Between the devil and                                                                             the deep blue sea).

·        To be in Davy Jone’s locker.                   To be in a condition from which                                                                                   escape is impossible.

·        Those who live in glass houses

should not throw stones.                        People who are guilty of something                                                                 should not condemn others. (To have                                                             plank in one’s eye and look for a spec

                                                                       In the eyes of another)

·        There is no smoke without fire.            There is no effect without a cause.

 

 

SIMILES

 

·        As black as coal.

·        As cool as cucumber.

·        As angry as a wasp.

·        As fond as hope.

·        As measureless as love.

·        As patient as Job.

·        As cunning as fox / tortoise.

·        As simple as ABC.

·        As wise as Solomon.

·        As ageless as the stars.

·        As cold as ice.

·        As fit as a fiddle.

·        As inconsistent as the moon / weather.

·        As proud as the peacock.

·        As wicked as Jezebel.

·        As loving as Christ.

·        As clear as crystal.

·        As quiet as mouse.

·        As malicious as the devil.

·        As sacred as the scripture.

 

COUNTABLE AND UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS:

Nouns that can be counted or reckoned in numbers are called countable nouns; while those that cannot be counted or reckoned in numbers are called Uncountable nouns. Countable nouns therefore can be singular (Boy, Church, Bamboo, et cetera) or plural (Boys, Churches, Bamboos, et cetera).

In the singular, countable nouns must be used with the articles “a” or “the”, but for the uncountable nouns, (and even the plural conditions of countable nouns), what has just been said of singular countable nouns is only of conditional importance. Examples:

 

·        A boy, The Church, A Bamboo.

·        The boys of today are bad. Boys are bad today.

·        This is Ada’s luggage. Ada has a piece of luggage. A piece of furniture is a necessity.

 

QUESTION TAGS

Question-tags are interrogative tags of agreement or disagreement, made up of an auxiliary verb plus do, used to confirm one’s doubt of something.

Usually, question-tags take after the main clause. Consequently, when the clausal statement declaration is positive, the question-tags that will follow must be negative. The reverse is also the case.

 

Example:

 

·        You went to the market, don’t you?

·        Shylock can’t love, can he?

·        You were at school by then, weren’t you?

·        Soyinka isn’t the author of the Pauper, is he?

 

INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS

Interrogative pronouns are words that stand in place of nouns that are used to ask questions about the conditions of person, things or places. Among other words, such words include the following: who, what, where, when, whose, and how.

 

 Examples:

·        Who are you?

·        What did you say?

·        Where do you live?

·        When will you come?

·        How did it happen?

 

PARTICIPLES PHRASES

Participle phrases are phrasal words formed from verbs when such a phrasal word begins a sentence, it usually take after the subject of the clause that follows.

 

Examples:

 

·        Seeing the condition of his wife, Mr. Eze cried heavily. (Mr. Eze saw the condition of his wife and cried heavily).

·        Manufactured in Japan, the gear-selector is a very strong one. (The gear-selector manufactured in Japan is a very strong one).

 

“ALL” and “THE WHOLE”

“All” is usually used with plural nouns that is, when reference is made to more than two persons or places or things. But, when a reference is made to a collective singular noun “the whole” is used.

 

Examples:

 

·        All things that glitter are not gold.

·        All my students are obedient.

·        The whole country is full of bribery and corruption.

·        The whole class laughed at the teacher.

 

“MUCH” and “MANY”

Both “much” and “many” can be used as an adjectives and nouns, while “many” points to something numerous. “Much” underlines the existence of sometime in great quantity. Consequently, while many is used with countable nouns, much is used with uncountable nouns.

 

Examples:

 

·        Many students

·        Many loaves

·        Many degrees

·        Much hope

·        Much information

·        Much permission

 

HINTS ON PRONUNCIATION FOR FOREIGNERS:

 

I take it you already know,

Of tough and bough and cough and dough,

Others may stumble but not you.

Oh hiccough, thorough, laugh and through?

Well done! And now you wish, perhaps.

To learn of less familiar traps,

Beware of heard, a dreadful word.

That looks like beard and sounds like bird.

And dead: it’s said like bed, not bead.

For goodness sake don’t call it “deed”!

Watch out for meat and great and threat.

(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt).

A moth is not a moth in mother.

Nor both in bother broth or brother

And here is not a match for there.

Nor dear and fear for bear and pear.

And then there’s does and rose and lose.

Just look them up – and goose and choose,

And cork and work and card and ward,

And do and go and thwart and cart –

Come, come, I’ve hardly make a start!

A dreadful language - Man alive

I’d mastered it when I was five.

 

 

“SHALL AND WILL”

Shall in the first person simply foretell? In Will a threat or else a promise dwells. Shall in the second and third, does threat. Will simply then foretells a future fact.

 

SHALL AND WILL AS AN AUXILIARY VERB

Shall and Will are used as auxiliary verb or helping verbs to form the future tense, that is, to indicate an action of simple futurity, an action that will happen in the future. An auxiliary verbs, shall takes to the first person and will, to the second and third persons.

 

Example:

·        I shall visit you tomorrow.

·        You will fail, if you don’t start study soon.

·        He will get the prize tomorrow.

·        They will know the result tomorrow.

 

SHALL AND WILL AS PRINCIPAL VERBS

When shall and will do something more than foretelling an action, that is, when they do something more than predicting what will simply take place in the future, they are used as principal verbs. As principal verbs, they have full significance, since they do not just express simple futurity and nothing more. As principal verbs, shall takes to the second and third persons, with the full significance of must, while will takes to the first person, with the full significance of determination (wish).

 

Examples:

·        I will read more books in future.

·        You shall not go there at all.

·        He shall have his prize.

·        They shall all come out of their graves, those that did good to the resurrection of life and those that did evil to the resurrection of death.

 

SHALL AND WILL IN INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES:

In interrogative sentences shall take to the first person: and will, to the second and third persons. In such interrogative or questioning sentence, shall and will normally come before everything else.

 

Examples:

·        “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”

·        Shall I go there for you?

·        Will you come here now?

·        Will he visit me tomorrow?

 

SHALL AND WILL IN THE EXPRESSION OF COMMAND OR DESIRE

In the expression of command or desire, both shall and will take the third person, but it has to be observed, that in the context under attention, will specifically express simple command-inquiries or desire-inquiries concerning what is in the future.

Examples:

·        Shall he take the wares to the market?

·        Will he be happy for it?

 

SHALL AND WILL IN QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:

Whether one will use shall or will in the answers to questions concerning them, depends as a matter of the second person on the helping verb or auxiliary to be made use of. Thus, if the significance of the answer expected will have the use of shall, shall must come into the asking of the question. The same thing goes for will.

Examples:

Question:                 Shall you go to school tomorrow?

Answer:                    Yes, I shall, or No, I shan’t.

Question:                 Will you go to school tomorrow?

Answer:                    Yes, I will, or No, I won’t.

 

SHOULD AND WOULD

Should is the past tense of shall, while would is the past tense of will. Consequently, the same rule that applies to shall and will, also applies to should and would, but in the past tense perspective.

 

SHOULD AND WOULD AS AUXILIARY VERBS:

As auxiliary verbs should and would are used to express an action that is past, but which is considered as, still, being in the future.

 

Example:

·        I said that I should go to the market now.

·        He said that he would go to the market now.

 

SHOULD AND WOULD AS PRINCIPAL VERBS:

As principal verbs, should and would do something more than expressing the future in the past. As principal verbs, the full significant or meaning of should is found in the expression of obligation, while that of would is found in determination.

 

Examples:

·        I should go now.

·        You should come here now.

·        He should see me today.

·        I would read it, though it was abstruse.

·        You would pass it, although you had not been taught.

·        She would try her best, for all it is worth.

 

SHOULD AND WOULD IN FORMING THE SUBJUNCTIVE MOOD OR SUBJUNCTIVE EQUIVALENT.

·        He entered through the windows, lest he should miss the evening-bus.

·        If you would accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you could succeed.

 

SHOULD AND WOULD IN REQUESTS:

In place of shall and will, should and will are used in making straight requests.

Examples:

·        I should be grateful to you, if you would let me see the doctor.

·        Would you become a priest?

 

OUGHT AND SHOULD

Both ought and should are used to indicate or express obligations. But, whereas ought (followed by an infinitive) expresses the obligation of a task, should, on the other hand, expresses the obligation of rightness or suitability.

 

Examples:

·        We ought to obey God.

·        We should obey God.

 

 

THE END