Study English

Article

Dalam bahasa Inggris dikenal dua jenis artikel, yakni artikel tidak tentu (indefinite article) yakni ‘a’, ‘an’. Kemudian artikel tertentu (definite article) yakni ‘The’. Kedua-duanya apabila direkatkan pada suatu kata benda maka konteksnya akan berubah, dimana artikel tidak tentu digunakan untuk merujuk pada suatu benda umum, yang mana kita tidak memberikan penekanan apa-apa pada kata benda tersebut. 

Contoh:

A man sitting at bench (seorang pria duduk di bangku)

pada kalimat diatas kata ‘pria’ tersebut tidak diberikan penekanan apa-apa.

Contoh lagi:

A man sitting at bench, THE man is fat. (seorang pria duduk di bangku, pria itu sangat gemuk)

Pada kalimat yang kedua ini, kata THE digunakan karena memberikan penekanan pada pria itu bahwa ia gemuk.

Artikel tidak tentu (indefinite article)

Artikel tidak tentu dalam bahasa Inggris adalah a, an. Keduanya digunakan tergantung pada kata sifat/benda yang menyertainya.

Apabila kata sifat/benda itu berawalan huruf mati, atau huruf vokal yang dibunyikan seperti huruf mati, maka artikel ‘a’ digunakan.

Contoh:

a Helm

a England

a Handphone

a Television

Sedangkan an digunakan apabila kata sifat/benda yang menyertainya adalah berawalan vokal atau konsonan yang dibunyikan vokal:

Contoh:

an hour

an ear

an Islamic

Kata sandang ‘an’ digunakan pula untuk singkatan, atau huruf yang berdiri sendiri:

Contoh:

an MP4

an M

an MGB

Catatan:

1. Artikel a, an hanya digunakan untuk kata benda yang dapat dihitung (countable), jadi kata benda uncountable seperti sugar, sand, physics, mathematics tidak bisa diberikan artikel a, an.

2. Jangan gunakan artikel a, an pada kata frasa/kata benda JAMAK! kita tidak bisa mengatakan ‘a computers’ atau ‘a men’. Cukup katakan ‘computers’ atau ‘men’ saja.

Artikel Tertentu (Definite Article)

Artikel the digunakan tanpa memandang huruf awalan dari kata sifat/benda yang menyertainya.

Kegunaan Artikel Tertentu:

1. Digunakan pada frasa yang memiliki bilangan cardinal:

The second year of boycott (tahun kedua dari pemboikotan)

The third lesson (pelajaran ketiga)

JANGAN gunakan artikel tertentu pada kondisi berikut:

Pada frasa yang memiliki bilangan ordinal:

Lesson three (pelajaran tiga)

Pada kata benda yang sifatnya abstrak

Kindness, danger, criminality

Disiplin Ilmu

Mathematics, Calculus, Linear Algebra, dsb.

Phrase

Phrase adalah rangkaian kata yang sudah mengandung suatu pengertian atau satu kesatuan makna, tetapi tidak mempunyai subject dan predicate dan merupakan bagian dari suatu kalimat. Apabila kata-kata dalam phrase tersebut kita pisah, maka mempunyai makna yang berbeda apabila kata-kata tersebut disatukan.

Contoh:

* The girl at the door is my sister.

* The book on the table is mine.

* The man with the red hat is my teacher.

* The boys in the street are students.

Berdasarkan penggunaannya Phrase dapat diklasifikasikan menjadi 3 macam, yaitu:

1.      Noun Phrase.

§  my bag

Keterangan: my= possessive, bag= head

§  the next page

Keterangan: the= article, next= number, page= head

2. Adjective Phrase.

3. Adverbial Phrase.

The Parts of a Sentence

Sentence: a group of words that expresses a complete thought. Every sentence contains a subject and a predicate.

1.      Subject: the noun or noun phrase that tells whom or what the sentence addresses.

—Roger decided to save more money.

—Almost all cats dislike water.

o    Full or complete subject: the subject and all the words that modify it.

—Patrick Henry’s dream of freedom for all citizens compelled him to make his famous declaration.

o    Simple subject: the main noun of the complete subject.

—Patrick Henry’s dream of freedom for all citizens compelled him to make his famous declaration.

o    Compound subject: a complete subject with multiple simple subjects.

—Miguel and the young boy became friends.

2.      Predicate: a verb or verb phrase telling what the subject does or is.

o    Full or complete predicate: the verb of the sentence and all the words that modify it.

—The old dog climbs slowly up the stairs.

o    Simple predicate: the main verb in the full predicate that indicates the action or state of being of the simple subject.

—The old dog climbs slowly up the stairs.

o    Compound predicate: a complete predicate with multiple verbs.

—He thought of his lover and missed her dearly.

—The goose was looking straight ahead and running for the pond.

3.      Clause: a part of a sentence that contains its own subject and predicate.

o    Independent clause: a clause that could function as its own sentence.

—When the Mets are playing, the stadium is full.

o    Dependent clause: a clause that cannot function as its own sentence. A dependent clause relies on an independent clause to complete its meaning.

§  A dependent clause can function as a noun,

—I realized that I owed Patrick fifty dollars.

§  as an adverb,

—When the Mets are playing, the stadium is full.

§  or as an adjective.

—The beef that I ate for dinner made me queasy.

o    Elliptical clause: a type of dependent clause with a subject and verb that are implied rather than expressed.

—Though unhappy, she still smiled.

In the clause Though unhappy, the subject and verb she was are implied: Although (she was) unhappy.

4.      Phrase: a group of related words without a subject or predicate.

o    Noun phrase: a phrase that acts as a noun. A noun phrase can function as a subject,

—The snarling dog strained against its chain.

object,

—He gave her the book of poems.

prepositional object,

—The acrobat fell into the safety net.

gerund phrase,

—Dancing the tango is a popular activity in Argentina.

or infinitive phrase.

—To dream is to be human.

o    Adjective phrase: a phrase that modifies nouns or pronouns. Participial phrases and many prepositional phrases are adjective phrases.

—The actor playing Puck left much to be desired.

o    Adverb phrase: a phrase that begins with a preposition, and that functions as an adverb.

—The theater was crowded with the actor’s fans.

o    Prepositional phrase: a phrase made up of a preposition, its object, and its modifiers.

—The roof of the old theater was leaking badly.

5.      Modifier: a word or phrase that modifies or adds information to other parts of a sentence. Adjectives, adverbs, and many phrases and clauses are modifiers.

o    Limiting modifier: a word or phrase that limits the scope or degree of an idea. Words like almost, only, or barely are modifiers.

—It was almost time for dinner.

o    Restricting modifier: a phrase or clause that restricts the meaning of what it modifies and is necessary to the idea of its sentence.

—Any dog that has not had its shots should be taken to a veterinarian immediately.

o    Nonrestricting modifier: a modifier that adds information but is not necessary to the sentence. Commas, dashes, or parentheses set apart nonrestricting modifiers.

—Seventeenth-century poets, many of whom were also devout Christians, wrote excellent poetry.

—We could hear the singing bird—a wren, perhaps, or a robin—throughout the forest.

Conjunction

The word “book,” for example, usually calls to mind the noun with the cover, pages and all that printing in between, but it could easily be used as a verbwhen you schedule a flight to Hawai’i or Singapore or Roswell, New Mexico. I am sure just about anyone could come up with a few dozen words with multiple meanings and multiple forms in a little less than a minute or two.

One word that gets caught up in this multiple meaning and multiple form melee is the word “however.” This seems a bit odd at first since the two different forms that exist have similar meanings but are used differently. In most instances, “however” is used as a conjunctive adverb, which is basically a fancy grammatical term used to confuse students and please grammarians. But the important thing to notice is that “however” is an adverb, not aconjunction like “and,” “but” and “or.” As an adverb, it is not essential to the clause it modifies and could be either moved around the sentence or eliminated without doing much harm to the sentence. So these sentences would be perfectly acceptable:

Jim, however, was late for the party.
Jim was late for the party, however.
Jim was late for the party.

The “however” in the first sentence is joining the meaning of the sentence with a previous sentence; it is not, however, joining it grammatically to the previous sentence. Joining the sentences grammatically would require a conjunctionin the form of a either a coordinating conjunction or a subordinating conjunction. Both of these sentences use such conjunctions and would also be acceptable:

Terry wanted to be early for the party, but Jim was late.
Terry showed up early for the party even though Jim was late.

In these sentences, two different types of conjunctions are joining the clause “Jim was late” to the clause right before it. The first conjunction “but” is acoordinating conjunction that joins two independent clauses. Notice that each half of the sentence could stand alone, but the coordinating conjunction glues them together. The second conjunction “even though” is asubordinating conjunction that makes the second clause into a dependent clause and then joins it to the independent clause in front of it.

Subject-Verb Agreement

1) When the subject of a sentence is plural, then your verb must also be plural

The athletes run around the track every day.

2) When the subject of a sentence is singular, then your verb must also be singular

The athlete runs around the track every day.

3) When two or more subjects are connected by “and,” your verb must be plural.

James and his friends are from New York.

4) When two singular nouns are connected by “or” or “nor” for the subject, use the singular verb

The teacher or student returns the book to the library.

5) When the subject contains a singular and a plural noun, and connects them using “or” or “nor,” use the verb that agrees with the noun closest to the verb

The teacher or the students erase the board each morning.

The students or the teacher erases the board each morning.

6) “But what about “somebody?” There are always words that are confusing. But here’s a great list of words that will always have singular verbs:

each, neither, either
another, anyone, anybody, anything
somebody, someone, something
one, everyone
everybody, everything
no one, nobody, nothing

Punctuation

1. Apostrophe: indicates possession when added to a noun. An apotrophe also indicates that one or more letters have been left out in a contraction. —Philippa Foot’s mid-century philosophy is influential in certain academic corners. —I don’t speak French.

2. Brackets: indicate words, punctuation, and formatting inserted into a quote but not present in the original source. —“Fourscore and seven [eighty-seven] years ago. . .”

3. Colon: introduces a list, summary, or important conclusion. A colon must follow an independent clause and may not come between a verb and its object. —Incorrect: John gave his mother: a quilt, a book, and a bouquet of lilies. —Correct: John gave his mother three things: a quilt, a book, and a bouquet of lilies.

4. Comma: indicates slight pauses in reading, and differentiates sentence parts. Commas are used in the following situations. Before a coordinating conjunction that connects two independent clauses —I thought it would rain, and it did. After an introductory phrase —After the rainfall, the sun came out. To separate items in a series —I like rock, pop, jazz, blues, country, and hip-hop. To set off a parenthetical or nonrestrictive phrase —Amateur salsa dancers, many of whom have little familiarity with traditional Spanish music, often mistake very different dances such as the mambo and the samba. Between the day and year of a date —On August 8, 1976, the world of music changed forever. To set off quotations that occur within a sentence —Sarah said, “I love you,” and she meant it. —“It always happens this way,” he replied, “and I never know what to say.” To subdivide numbers into groups of three digits —9,023 —4,251,730 To indicate direct address —”Greg, give me the remote control.” To separate noncumulative adjectives —The hot, humid, nasty day made Alison irritable. To indicate omissions of verbs in parallel clauses: —Jenny likes the Mets; Pedro, the Angels; and Frank, the Marlins.

5. Dash: sets off a parenthetical phrase or points attention to a summary conclusion. —The new fabric—introduced at the fashion show two years ago—has become extremely popular. —Her lips, her eyes, her taste in poetry—they all were perfect.

6. Ellipsis: three periods separated by two spaces that indicate omissions in quoted material. —“And so, my fellow Americans, . . . ask what you can do for your country.”

7. Exclamation mark: ends declarative and imperative sentences with a sense of excitement or urgency. —Get out of here!

8. Hyphen: joins linked words together, especially if they are being used together as an adjective. —That kind of devil-may-care attitude will get you nowhere.

9. Parentheses: set off a loosely related phrase. —His idea (formed during long hours of driving in heavy traffic) was to begin riding the train.

10. Period: ends sentences that are not questions. —It was a cloudy day.

11. Question mark: ends sentences that are questions; indicates a query. —Was the house haunted?

12. Quotation marks: serve several purposes. They can: represent text as speech: —“I would have been great,” he insisted. indicate material excerpted from another writer’s work: —Not every love affair is “star-cross’d.” indicate titles of poems and short stories: —Shelley’s “Ode to a Skylark” is an extended meditation on spontaneous artistic creation. Periods and commas always go inside quotation marks. Question marks, exclamation marks, semicolons, colons, and dashes go outside quotation marks unless they are part of the quotation.

13. Semicolon: used to join independent clauses by taking the place of a conjunction. Semicolons are also used to separate items in series that contain commas within single-item descriptions. —Betsy liked to sew; it was her passion. —He had an old, unraveling sweater; a newer sweater; and a faded, torn pair of jeans.

14. Slash: used to indicate multiple possibilities: —Speak to the senator and/or the president.

15. Solidus: same symbol as the slash; indicates line breaks in quotations of multiple lines of poetry —“Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath, / And so live ever, or else swoon to death.”