Apostrophe Practice

Rewrite the following sentences with apostrophes.

1.) Have you met Susans friend?

2.) About sixty people use the teachers room.

3.) Someone had taken Barbaras purse.

4.) Something was hurting the animals foot.

5.) I'm going to write to the childrens parents.

6.) Jane works in my mothers office.

7.) The dog doesn't like its food.

8.) Mary and Pat stayed at their friends house.

9.) Are you going to the secretaries meeting?

10.) I put the money in the waiters hand.


Remember, the apostrophe has three uses.

1) to form possessives of nouns
2) to form contractions
3) to indicate certain plurals of lowercase letters.



I will post the answers later.

Good luck with your studies,
ESL Study Guide

Article Practice

Complete the sentences with a or an, the or no article.

1 'How much are ......... beans?' 'They're 80 cents ......... pound.'
2 I went to ......... wonderful concert by ......... London Symphony Orchestra.
3 ......... local school is going to be closed soon.
4 I usually go to work by ......... train.
5 Is ......... meat in ......... oven?
6 Is this ......... first time you've been to ......... Isle of Man?
7 He's ......... art teacher and she's ......... electrician.
8 A lot of people give ......... money to charity at this time of year.
9 What ......... beautiful face that child's got!
10 ......... British usually have butter on their bread.
11 Life is very difficult for ......... unemployed these days.
12 ......... leader of ......... opposition is in danger of losing her seat at ......... next election.
13 I like to have ......... cup of tea when I wake up in ......... morning.
14 I saw ......... fox this morning. I think it must have been ......... same one that I saw last week.
15 Can I have ......... apple?
16 Have you ever seen ......... Acropolis in Athens?
17 ......... police have had a lot of support from ......... general public over this issue.
18 ......... shirts on ......... washing-line should be nearly dry now.
19 ......... people don't like him because of his selfish attitude.
20 I bought my sister ......... book and bottle of perfume for her birthday but I don't think she liked ......... perfume.




Try to complete all of the following questions. I will be posting the answers later.


Answers

1.) the, a
2.) a, the
3.) a
4.)
5.) the, the
6.) the, the
7.) an, an
8.)
9.) a
10.) the
11.) the
12.) the, the, the
13.) a, the
14.) a, the
15.) an
16.) the
17.) the, the
18.) the, the
19.)
20.) a, the




Good luck with your studies,
ESL Study Guide

Verb Tense practice

Complete the following sentences. Use yesterday, last, tomorrow, or next.

1. I went swimming ______ morning.
2. Ken is going to go to the beach ______ morning.
3. I'm going to take a trip ______ week.
4. Alice went to Miami ______ week for a short vacation.
5. We had a test in class ______ afternoon.
6. ______ afternoon we're going to go on a picnic.
7. My sister is going to arrive ______ Tuesday.
8. Sam bought a used car ______ Friday.
9. My brother is going to enter university ______ fall.
10. ______ spring I took a trip to San Francisco.
11. Ann is going to fly to London ______ month.
12. I'm going to study at the library ______ night.
13. ______ night I watched TV.
14. ______ evening I'm going to go to a baseball game.
15. Matt was at the laundromat ______ evening.



See if you can complete all 15 sentences. I will post the answers tomorrow.


Good luck with your studies,
ESL Study Guide



Answers
1. yesterday
2. tomorrow
3. next
4. last
5. yesterday
6. Tomorrow
7. next
8. last
9. next
10. Last
11. next
12. tomorrow
13. Last
14. Tomorrow
15. yesterday

Possessive adjectives

Pronouns each have a possessive adjective:


I —> my
we —> our
you —> your
you —> your
he —> his
they -> their
she —> her
it —> its

Comparative Forms

Complete the following sentences using the words in brackets.

1 It's _____________ here than in London. (hot)
2 She's _____________ her brother. (imaginative)
3 He's _____________ all the other students. (old)
4 Do you think Pat is _____________ Brian? (intelligent)
5 This school is _____________ ours. (old-fashioned)
6 The computer was _____________ I thought. (expensive)
7 The rooms are _____________ they used to be. (clean)
8 He's _____________ he was a year ago. (healthy)
9 Do you think English is _____________ French. (difficult)
10 He eats a lot - he's getting _____________ before. (fat)


Answers

1 hotter
2 more imaginative than
3 older than
4 more intelligent than
5 more old-fashioned than
6 more expensive than
7 cleaner than
8 healthier than
9 more difficult than
10 fatter than

Basic Grammar Review - Making Comparisons

There are three basic ways to compare objects:

The same (as), similar (to), different (from)


1. Is the population of China and India the same?
3. Is the culture of China and Japan similar?
4. Do you think College and University are different?
5. Do you think Michael and Sean are similar?
6. Are Richmond and Vancouver different?

Using Pronouns Correctly

Only two parts of speech, nouns and pronouns, have case. This means that they change form depending on how they are used in a sentence. English has three cases: nominative, objective, and possessive.


Nominative case
- the pronoun is used as a subject.

example:
I threw the ball.


Objective case
- the pronoun is used as an object.

example:
Give the ball to me.


Possessive case
- the pronoun is used to show ownership.

example:
The ball is mine.



Nominative Objective Possessive
(Pronoun as subject) (Pronoun as object) (Ownership)
I me my, mine
you you your, yours
he him his
she her her, hers
it it its
we us our, ours
they them their, theirs
who whom whose
whoever whomever whoever

A Tip for Reference and Paraphrased Sentence Questions

SENTENCES that ask you to identify a reference or the best paraphrase for a sentence are testing a similar skill. In both cases, you need to show that you understand what a particular sentence means.

The following strategy will help you pick the correct answer.


First, eliminate any answers that you know are incorrect. Take the remaining choices and place them one at a time into the sentence or paragraph. Does the answer make sense in the context of the sentence or paragraph? If it does not, it is not the correct answer.


For example, notice how this works with the following reference question:

The word they in paragraph 3 refers to:
a. people suffering from bipolar disorder.
b. symptoms of bipolar disorder.
c. family members of people with bipolar disorder.
d. people who have occasional mood swings.

Here's the sentence in which they is used:

They are often greatly relieved to learn that they suffer from a treatable medical condition.

It's clear that 'they' refers to people, not symptoms, so we can immediately rule out answer b. Now, we can begin the process of elimination by replacing 'they' with each of the remaining answers:

a. People who suffer from bipolar disorder are often greatly relieved to learn that they suffer from a treatable medical condition.
c. Family members of people with bipolar disorder are often greatly relieved to learn that they suffer from a treatable medical condition.
d. People who have occasional mood swings are often greatly relieved to learn that they suffer from a treatable medical condition.

This process makes it clear that a is the correct answer.