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April 16, 2019

Bank Exams English Preparation Tips

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In many competitive examinations especially Bank Examinations these days as you blow, English is one of the subjects in which your knowledge is tested. In fact your proficiency in English comes handy and plays a decisive role not only in the written exam but also in the interview and in your job and career later. Therefore it is imperative on your part to have a good working knowledge of English. 

Generally in these exams questions are set to test a candidate's four language skills namely Reading, Writing, listening and Speaking While in the written exam his tier reading an writing skills are put to test, in the interview his/ her listening and speaking skills are tested Acquiring some sound knowledge in these skill needs a prolonged and well planned practice Again in the Preliminary exam, 30 questions in English language are to be answered in 15 - 20 minutes. Candidates need to have speed an accuracy here and a thorough practical knowledge of aspects like grammar and vocabulary immensely helps them. That "How t acquire these four skills and practical know) edge in them" may be a big question before you. In fact this is the problem of most of the candidates who appear for bank and other competitive exams.
  • According to one survey only 10 percent of Indians today can understand what is sal and written in English and just two percent o us are really proficient in this language Among us again there are many great writer than great speakers in English.
  • There are two ways in which you can acquire skills to use English effectively. First of all pick up the habit of reading English newspapers and magazines daily. This helps yo understand grammar, usage and vocabulary besides improving your levels of general awareness. Listening to people who speak i English and watching English programmes on T V will also help you understand belle the nuances in listening and speaking skill Secondly, learn English grammar and other aspects in an orderly and systematic way. One popular method is first of all to have thorough knowledge of Parts of Speech. This is essential as it makes learning about other things like the use of Articles, Tenses, Voice and Transformation Sentences easier.

Parts Of Speech

Parts of Speech are nothing but different kinds of words in English. There are about one million words in the language today and all these words, depending on the roles they play in a sentence, can be divided into eight groups. They are Nouns, Pronouns, Verbs, Adverbs, Adjectives, Prepositions, Conjunctions, and Interjections. Let us talk about Nouns in a nut-shell.

Nouns

What is a Noun? The word Noun is from the Latin word,"Nomen" meaning 'Name'. So a noun is a 'word used for the name of a person, place and a thing'. Here Thing' means visible items like gold, silver, and wood, and invisible items like, anger, hunger, love, and wisdom. In the following examples :
    1. Balu is a great singer. 
    2. Bengaluru is a beautful city. 
  • Here Balu, singer, Bengaluru and city are nouns. Since there are many thousands of nouns, experts have divided them into Five groups and they have some striking and distinctive features. 
Kinds of Nouns 
  1. Proper Nouns 
  2. Common Nouns 
  3. Collective Nouns 
  4. Abstract Nouns
  5. Material Nouns

Proper Nouns

It is a noun used for the name of a particular person, place, or a thing. In the above examples both Balu and Bengaluru are proper nouns. 

Features
  1. They usually begin with a capital letter. For example Modi, Prasad, London, Mumbai. 
  2. We do not generally use Articles with them (Except in some special cases). 

Common Nouns :

It is a noun used in general or commonly. We can use them to anybody without any restrictions. For example in place of Balu, we can say 'Suneetha is a singer or Geethamadhud is a singer' Therefore they are called Common Nouns.

Features :
  1. Most of Them have both singular and plural forms. For example, boy - boys, book - books, teacher - teachers. 
  2. We as a rule use Articles with them (except in some special cases). 

Collective Nouns

It is a noun used for a group of persons and a collection of things. For example in the sentence The class is studying grammar', the word "class" stands for a group of students.

Features :
  1. Most of them have bath singular and plural forms. For example team - teams, army -armies, pack - packs, family - families. 
  2. We use Articles with them (except in some special cases). 

Abstract Nouns

These are nouns used for our ideas, thoughts, feelings and stages in our life. For example Anger, Hunger, Love, and Knowledge, Childhood, Motherhood, English and Physics. are Abstract nouns. As these nouns stand for 'Shapeless' or 'Formless' things, we call them "Abstract Nouns". As the word Motherhood is 'drawn' from the common noun, Mother, and the word Childhood is taken' from the common noun Child, they are called 'Abstract" Nouns.

Features :
  1. Most of them have only one form. (in journal-ism some use words like 'deaths', 'moneys', 'hungers'). 
  2. We do not usually use Articles with them (except in some special cases when talking about a particular situation like The health of the CM is improving').

Material Nouns

Nouns used for the names of materials are Material Nouns. Gold, Silver, Iron, Copper, and Sugar. Since these materials have a shape and form, we can call them "Concrete Nouns'. 

Features
  1. Most of them have only one form. 
  2. We do not use Articles with them (except in some special cases like in comparisons -'The Iron of India is superior to the Iron of Japan') 
  • Note: For some grammarians, Nouns are of just two kinds - Concrete Nouns and Abstract Nouns. They put Proper Nouns, Common Nouns, Collective Nouns, and Material Nouns under the 'Concrete Nouns' category. 
In many Competitive exams questions on Nouns often appear. Here are a few examples :
  1. Mohan (1)/ always gives me (2)/ some good (3)/ advices (4)/. No error (5). 
    • (Answer 4 as Advice has no plural form) 
  2. This (1)/ chair (2)/ is made (3)/ of the Iron (4)/ No error (5). 
    • (Answer 4 as no Article is used before a material noun when used in a general sense). 
  3. My son (1)/ has learnt (2)/ alphabets (3)/ very easily (4)/ No error (5). 
    • (Answer 3 as 'alphabet' is used in singular to mean 'English letters')

Countable Nouns 

Nouns which have both singular and plural forms are Countable Nouns. Most of our Common Nouns and Collective Nouns are Countable Nouns.

Uncountable Nouns

Nouns which cannot be counted as 1, 2, 3, are Uncountable Nouns. Most of our Abstract Nouns, and Material Nouns come under this group. 

Some Special Points

  1. Some nouns are always plural: Trousers, shorts, ashes, tidings, riches, alms, proceeds, spectacles, scales, annals, stairs, customs, and wages. They usually take a plural verb except words like Wages'- "The wages of sin is death" (The Bible). It also takes a plural verb some limes like in the sentence,Their wages are paid in full'. 
  2. Some Nouns are always Singular: information, luggage, money, fun, health, luck, staff, poetry, paper, stationery, harm, rubbish, pollution, leisure, conduct. 
  3. Some Nouns are Plural in form but Singular in meaning: innings, civics, linguistics, news, gallows. and subjects like physics, economics, mathematics. 
  4. Some Nouns are Singular in form but Plural in meaning: police, infantry, alphabet, cattle, poultry, peasantry, clergy. 
  5. Some Nouns have only one form but we can use them both as Singular and Plural : head quarters, deer, sheep, means, species, yolk. 
A thorough knowledge of nouns helps you a lot in many ways and especially it helps you understand other Parts of Speech easily. And using just nouns, you can write powerful, and excellent sentences. Here are some such sentences :
  • "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat" - Winston Churchill 
  • "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears: I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him" - Shakespeare 
  • "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself' - Shakespeare 
  • 'Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life" )  -The Bible 
  • "When beggars die there are no comets seen : The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes" - Shakespeare
Shared by Shravan Varma Gadhiraju
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