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1. The English Language in a
Nutshell
The English Language in a Nutshell
Customer Testimonials
“There are so many English language books out there, but I’m really glad I chose this
one. Step by step, section by section English guidance really helps you compile the
most suitable English learning for your needs and experience. Some excellent
examples to take inspiration from as well.”
Tan CheeSeng
Bachelor of Computing
National University of Singapore
“I originally purchased this book - having relocated from small town to big city – for my
higher studies. I needed an excellent resource to tailor my English and further develop
my study as well as career to fit the big city environment, and I found just what I
needed. I am an engineering student and till now I have written numbers of exams in my
study career. Upon purchasing The English Language in a Nutshell, I found it to be
extremely useful in terms of standardized.
The English Language in a Nutshell book, with so many examples, has allowed me to
understand what constitutes good English from the employer’s perspective in an easy
to understand and logical style, so good in fact I’m also waiting for future books from
Communication for Techies.”
Swati Sinha
PGDM-RM1
Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneshwar
‘’If you need update your English, then this is a brilliant book - it has everything you
need about how to structure your English, what to put in and what to leave out. There’s
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2. The English Language in a
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advice on how to deal with various tense as well as sentence making tips and hints
throughout.
The book also covers learning English for professional and for various professions
where `the rules’ are different, and there are examples and links to online resources too.
Highly recommended.’’
Blesswin Thomas
Sr. Analyst
LG CNS
A must read for those who want to improve and polish their English. I like the basic
language teaching style. The examples given in the book are very toughing, convincing
and they are very fundamental & extremely important to get a cutting edge, in all types
of professions. My thanks to the author & associated people, for writing “The English
Language in a Nutshell” now waiting for the next.
Sharmila Monosamy Naiker
University of Malaya
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Our mailing address is:
Communication for Techies, LLC
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PH: 001-281-742-0576
www.commfortechies.com
pr@commfortechies.com
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3. The English Language in a
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About this Book
The English Language in a Nutshell is targeted towards
professionals who are learning English as a Second
Language or for those English speakers who need to brush
up on their skills. It is a relatively short book, meant for
those busy professionals and students who don’t have time
to sift through hundreds of pages of material.
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Table of Contents
CHAPTER I – THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF ENGLISH..................................................... 8
Noun................................................................................................................................... 8
Person ............................................................................................................................ 8
Number ........................................................................................................................... 9
Gender............................................................................................................................ 9
Case ............................................................................................................................. 10
Article ............................................................................................................................... 10
Exceptions .................................................................................................................... 10
ADJECTIVE ..................................................................................................................... 11
PRONOUN ...................................................................................................................... 12
Subject & Object Pronouns ......................................................................................... 12
Possessive Pronouns .................................................................................................. 13
VERB ............................................................................................................................... 14
ADVERB .......................................................................................................................... 15
PREPOSITION ................................................................................................................ 16
CONJUNCTION .............................................................................................................. 17
and ................................................................................................................................... 17
INTERJECTION .............................................................................................................. 19
CHAPTER II: THE SENTENCE ................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
TYPES OF SENTENCES ............................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
SIMPLE SENTENCES ................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
COMPOUND SENTENCES ........................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
COMPLEX SENTENCES ............................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
ARRANGEMENT OF WORDS IN A SENTENCE ......... Error! Bookmark not defined.
When to use Singular Verb for Collective Noun......... Error! Bookmark not defined.
When to use Plural Verb ............................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
CHAPTER III: Punctuation .......................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
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Comma (,) ........................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
Semicolon (;).................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Colon (:) ........................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Period or Full Stop (.) ...................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Question Mark (?)............................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
Exclamation Mark (!) ....................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Quotation Mark (" ")......................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Apostrophe (') .................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Hyphen (-) ........................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
Dash (-) ............................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
Parentheses (also called 'Brackets' and 'Round Brackets) (()) ...Error! Bookmark not
defined.
Square Brackets ( [ ] ) ..................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Ellipsis (...) ....................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
CHAPTER IV: Building the Paragraph ....................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Topic Sentence: ........................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
The First Main Point:.................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
The Second Main Point: .............................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
The Third Main Point: .................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Conclusion:................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
CHAPTER V: Figurative Language ............................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
Simile ............................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Metaphor .......................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Personification ................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Hyperbole......................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Onomatopoeia ................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Idiom ................................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
Alliteration ........................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
CHAPTER VI: COMMON ENGLISH PHRASES ........................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
GOING TO BED/WAKING UP IN THE MORNING: ...... Error! Bookmark not defined.
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GETTING PEOPLE'S ATTENTION ............................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Urgent Situations ......................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
EXPRESSING SYMPATHY............................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
ASKING PEOPLE TO REPEAT ..................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
APOLOGIZING ................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
CHAPTER VII: IMPROVING ENGLISH CONVERSATION SKILLS ...... Error! Bookmark not
defined.
Introduction Questions: ................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
1) What is your name? ................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
2) Where do you live?.................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
3) What do you do? ..................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
4) Are you married? ..................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
5) Where are you from?............................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
HOBBIES/ LEISURE QUESTIONS:............................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
1) What do you like doing in your free time? .............. Error! Bookmark not defined.
2) Do you play any sports? Which sports?................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
3) What kind of films/food/vacations do you like? ...... Error! Bookmark not defined.
4) What do you like to do on weekends? ................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
CHAPTER VIII: COMMON MISTAKES FOR ENGLISH LEARNERS ... Error! Bookmark not
defined.
Examples of Incorrect English Phrases ......................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
HOMOPHONES, HOMONYMS, & HOMOGRAPHS .... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Key Definitions: ............................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
COMMON LEARNING MISTAKES ................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
1) Forcing Speech without Sufficient Practice............ Error! Bookmark not defined.
2) Grammar Focus....................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
3) Formal English Focus ............................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
4) Trying to be perfect ................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
5) Relying Solely on English Schools ......................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Chapter IX: BUSINESS ENGLISH VOCABULARY LIST .......... Error! Bookmark not defined.
ENRICHMENT EXERCISES ....................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
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Adjective or Adverb...................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
A, An, or The ................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
Order of Adjectives ...................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Grammar Check........................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Comparatives and Superlatives .................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Paragraph Writing Exercise 1: Building Effective Paragraphs ..Error! Bookmark not
defined.
Paragraph Writing Exercise 2: What Do You Like to Do for the Holidays? ........ Error!
Bookmark not defined.
Paragraph Writing Exercise 3: Identifying the Main Idea .........Error! Bookmark not
defined.
Reading Comprehension Beginner Exercise 1 .......... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Reading Comprehension Beginner Exercise 2 .......... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Reading Comprehension Intermediate Exercise 1 .... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Reading Comprehension Intermediate Exercise 2 .... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Reading Comprehension Intermediate Exercise 3 .... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Answers ........................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
About the Team ........................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
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CHAPTER I – THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF ENGLISH
The English language is divided into nine classes. These classes are:
 Noun
 Article
 Adjective
 Pronoun
 Verb
 Adverb
 Preposition
 Conjunction
 Interjection
Of these classes, the noun is the most important, as the other classes depend on the
noun to some extent.
Noun
A Noun identifies the name of any person, place or object. There are two types of
Nouns, Proper and Common.
Common Nouns are names which belong in common to a group, such
as man or city. Proper Nouns, however, distinguish individual members of a group,
such as John or Philadelphia.
Nouns can also vary by Person, Number, Gender, and Case.
Person
Person is the relation between the speaker, the individual(s) addressed and the relevant
subject. Persons are First, Second and Third and they represent the speaker, the
person addressed, and the person or object mentioned respectively. The difference
between the first, second, and third person is if the speaker says, “I, you, or him/her.”
If the speaker is speaking in the first person, he or she is talking about himself or
herself.
Examples:
 I love math! (Singular)
 We love math! (Plural)
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The second person is the opposite of the first person, so instead of referring to “I” or
“we”, the speaker refers to “you”.
Examples:
 You love math!
 You should learn the fundamentals of engineering before going into the more
complex material.
The second person is rarely used; however it is used in technical writing, such as giving
instructions.
If a person is speaking in the third person singular, the speaker is referring to “he” or
“she”. For the third person singular, the singular form of the verb is used:
Examples:
 He loves math!
 She likes working with user interfaces.
For the third person plural, however, the speaker would use the plural form of the verb:
Example:
 They like working with user interfaces.
As you can see above, the only change in verb form is the third person singular. For the
majority of cases, however, the verb form will remain stable.
Number
Number is the distinction of one from more than one. Singular denotes one person,
place, or object while the plural form refers to two or more.
Examples of Singular Form: Cat, Dog, House, Woman, School
Examples of Plural Form: Cats, Dogs, Houses, Women, Schools
The plural is generally formed from the singular by the addition of s or es.
Gender
Gender has the same relation to nouns that sex has to individuals, but while there are
only two sexes, there are four gender types for nouns: masculine, feminine, neutral and
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common. The masculine gender denotes all those of the male kind, the feminine gender
all those of the female kind, the neutral gender denotes inanimate objects or whatever is
non-living, and common gender is applied to animate beings in which the gender
is indeterminable, such as fish, mouse, bird, etc.
Case
Case is the relation one noun has with another noun, verb, or preposition. There
are three cases, the Nominative, the Possessive and the Objective. The nominative is
the subject which directs the action of the verb. The possessive case denotes
possession, and the objective indicates the person or object which is affected by the
action of the verb.
Article
An article is a word placed before a noun. The articles shows if the noun is particular or
general.
General Articles: A, AN
Particular Articles: THE
Typically, you should “a” before words that being with consonants and “an” before
words that begin with vowels.
Examples:
 a blueprint
 a computer
 a programmer
 an egg
 an issue
 an orbit
Exceptions
Use “an” before unsounded “h”. Since the unsounded h has no audible sound, the
sound that follows the article is a vowel.
Examples:
 an honorable public servant
 an honest technical error
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When “u” makes the same sound as “y”, such as in you, or “w” makes the same sound
as “w” in won, then “a” is used.
Examples:
 a union
 a united alliance
 a one-armed man
 a wonton
ADJECTIVE
An adjective is a word which qualifies a noun with some distinguishing characteristic.
Examples of Adjectives used in Business:
accredited cut-price offshore
all-night drive-through one-stop
anticompetitive fly-by-night overstaffed
B2B imperial paperless
B2C incorporated predatory
big infant self-financing
bloated land-based self-service
bricks-and-mortar large service
brisk lean short-staffed
business limited tertiary
business-to-business market-driven top-heavy
collective market-led undermanned
commercial mercantile understaffed
competitive mom-and-pop unlisted
consumer-facing monopolistic upstart
consumer-to-business multi-agency blue-chip
cooperative multinational corporately
corporate non-profit fly-by-night
C-to-C not-for-profit
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PRONOUN
A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun to prevent the writer from using the noun
repetitiously.
Subject & Object Pronouns
Subject and object pronouns are used frequently in everyday English language. A
subject pronoun always takes action, and an object pronoun is part of the activity.
Example:
Jeremy likes playing tennis with Nicole.
Jeremy is the subject, so you could also say “He likes playing tennis with Nicole.” In this
sentence, Jeremy performs the action of playing tennis with Nicole, so she is the object
because she does not perform the action. Subject and object pronouns perform in the
same way.
Subject pronouns: I, you, he, she, it, they, we
Object pronouns: me, you, him, her, it, us, them
Examples:
Subject Pronouns
 I might see the movie later.
 You have to try the pie.
 He lives in Texas.
 She visited Europe.
 It might be too hot to do the yard work.
 They missed the last bus.
 We can’t see the road because of the rain.
Object Pronouns
 Sammie hit me on the head.
 I need to tell you something about our manager.
 Nancy outperformed him, so she got a bigger raise.
 I completed it last week.
 Work was terribly boring for us.
 Earl introduced them to the regional manager.
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Possessive Pronouns
Possessive pronouns show who owns something. Possessive pronouns are similar to
possessive adjectives, however the possessive adjective comes before the object in the
sentence and the possessive pronoun is the object of the sentence.
Possessive pronouns: mine, his, hers, its, ours, yours, their, theirs
Examples:
That poodle is my dog. (Possessive adjective, my, comes before the object, dog)
The dog is mine. (Possessive pronoun, mine, is the object in the sentence)
Here is a list of common pronouns used in the English language:
all me their
another mine theirs
any more them
anybody most themselves
anyone much these
anything my they
both myself this
each neither those
either no one us
everybody nobody we
everyone none what
everything nothing whatever
few one which
he other whichever
her others who
hers our whoever
herself ours whom
him ourselves whomever
himself several whose
his she you
I some your
it somebody yours
its someone yourself
itself something yourselves
many that
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VERB
A verb refers to an action. The form of the verb is determined by tense, mood, and the
number and person of the noun.
Here is a list of common verbs used in business:
accept dismiss participate
add dispatch pay
admit distribute plan
advertise divide present
advise employ prevent
afford encourage process
approve establish produce
authorize estimate promise
avoid exchange promote
approve extend provide
authorize fix purchase
avoid fund raise
borrow improve reach
build increase receive
buy inform recruit
calculate install reduce
cancel invest refuse
change invoice reject
charge join remind
check lend remove
choose lengthen reply
complain lower resign
complete maintain respond
confirm manage return
consider measure rise
convince mention sell
count obtain send
decide order separate
decrease organize shorten
deliver owe split
develop own structure
discount pack succeed
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ADVERB
An adverb is a word which modifies a verb, adjective, or even another adverb.
Here is a list of common adverbs:
always easily inquisitively
angrily elegantly irritably
annually enormously joyously
anxiously enthusiastically justly
awkwardly equally kindly
badly even lazily
blindly eventually less
boastfully exactly loosely
boldly faithfully loudly
bravely far madly
briefly fondly merrily
brightly foolishly monthly
busily fortunately more
calmly frantically mortally
carefully gently mysteriously
carelessly gladly nearly
cautiously gracefully neatly
courageously greedily nervously
crossly happily never
cruelly hastily noisily
daily honestly not
defiantly hourly obediently
deliberately hungrily obnoxiously
doubtfully innocently often
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punctually seldom tenderly
quickly selfishly tensely
quietly seriously thoughtfully
rapidly shakily tightly
rarely sharply tomorrow
really shrilly too
recklessly sometimes truthfully
regularly soon unexpectedly
reluctantly speedily very
repeatedly stealthily victoriously
rightfully sternly violently
roughly successfully vivaciously
rudely suddenly
sadly suspiciously
safely swiftly
PREPOSITION
A preposition connects nouns, pronouns, and phrases to other words in a sentence.
The word or phrase that the preposition introduces is called the preposition’s object.
Examples:
 The calculator is on the table.
 The printer is beneath the desk.
 The blueprint is leaning against the wall.
 The servers are beside the restroom.
 Kevin held the lamp over the diagram.
 Li read her engineering book during chemistry.
Here is a list of common prepositions:
above after along
across against among
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around for since
at from through
before in throughout
behind inside till
below into to
beneath like toward
beside near under
between of underneath
beyond off until
but on up
by onto upon
despite out with
down outside within
during over without
except past
CONJUNCTION
A conjunction joins words, phrases, clauses, and sentences together.
Examples:
 Sanjay and Leonard analyzed the document.
 Joseph wanted Italian food, but Tasha opted for Thai.
 Nathan ate eggs and bacon before he went to class.
 Derrick went to sleep after playing football.
 Both my mother and my father are engineers.
 Dania is trying to decide whether to go law school or business school.
Here is a list of common conjunctions:
and nor yet
but for after
or so although
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as that both…and
because though either…or
before till neither…nor
how until not only… but also
if when so…as
once where whether…or
since whether
than while
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INTERJECTION
An interjection expresses surprise or a sudden emotion. An exclamation mark usually
follows an interjection.
Examples:
 Ouch, that hurt!
 Oh no! I forgot my biotechnology exam is today.
 Hey! Watch you coffee so it doesn’t spill on my laptop!
 Wow! His technical aptitude is unbelievable!
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