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
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