NigelBarksfield.co.uk practical English language studies lesson 2 

Topics 
Introduction (conversation)
Nouns
Singular or plural
Articles
Adjectives
Verbs

Introduction
Nana : Nigel, this is my friend Soi. She works with me at the bar.
Nigel : Hallo! Nice to meet you! We have a saying in my country,
	"Any friend of hers is a friend of mine!"
Soi : Thanks. I know about your websites already. They're very interesting.
Nigel : Thank you. I'm glad you like them.

Nouns
The nouns in the conversation are shown in bold type below. Nouns are things, objects, people or places. In English, nouns have a capital letter if they are names of people or places e.g. Deliverer Safelist, Soi.

Nana : Nigel, this is my friend Soi. She works with me at the bar.
Nigel : Hallo! Nice to meet you! We have a saying in my country,
	"Any friend of hers is a friend of mine!"
Soi : Thanks. I know about your web sites already. They're very interesting.
Nigel : Thank you. I'm glad you like them.

Singular or plural 
Nouns usually have two main forms: the singular form and the plural form. If you are thinking or talking about more than one object or thing you have to use a plural form and add an 's', e.g. one safelist but two safelists , or one apple but six apples. Sometimes you don't just add an 's' but you have to use an irregular plural form, e.g. one mouse, but two mice.

Articles
Nouns also need an article, either zero, a, an, or the. If the noun begins with a, e, i, o, or u then the article is usually 'an', e.g. an apple. If the noun begins with a consonant then the article is usually 'a', e.g. a ball. If the noun has been mentioned already on a page or in a conversation then the article is usually 'the', e.g. the ball. But we use 'the' with many nouns all the time and you will have to learn them as you go along, e.g. The Sun, The United States of America. Many nouns need the zero article (or nothing) e.g. work or Bangkok, not the work or the Bangkok.

Adjectives
Adjectives describe nouns and tell us more about them e.g. red apple or interesting web site. Red and interesting are adjectives. Adjectives usually come before nouns in English.

Verbs
There are two sorts of verbs: state verbs and action verbs. In the conversation below the state verbs are underlined and the action verbs are in italics.

Nana : Nigel, this is my friend Soi. She works with me at the bar.
Nigel : Hallo! Nice to meet you! We have a saying in my country,
	"Any friend of hers is a friend of mine!"
Soi : Thanks. I know about your websites already. They're very interesting.
Nigel : Thank you. I'm glad you like them.

Exercises
1
Write 4 sentences to continue the conversation between the 3 people. E.g. Where are you staying?
2
Look up these words in a dictionary and write a sentence using each word.
Safe (noun)
Safe (adjective)
3
Can you think of 3 adjectives to describe a safe (noun)? E.g. tough.
4
Look up the meaning of the word ‘spam’ on the Internet. How many English words can you make from the letters S P A M? E.g. as.
5
How many different greetings can you think of? E.g. Hallo.
6
Design a greeting for a Christmas card or similar. E.g. Have a Super Christmas!
7
How many English words can you find in the wordsearch table – across and down only?

M	I	N	E	A	H	O	W	
D	H	L	O	P	B	A	R	
E	H	G	M	P	N	F	R	
S	A	F	E	L	I	S	T	
I	L	S	N	E	C	G	S	
G	L	V	O	W	E	L	K	
N	O	G	U	V	E	R	B	
W	B	A	N	G	K	O	K	

Write your answers below and return the floppy diskette to Nigel Barksfield or send your answers by email to webmaster@nigelbarksfield.co.uk