TRANSCRIPT EPISODE 25: GRAMMAR CHECKLIST Hello, and welcome to Study English, IELTS Preparation I'm Margot Politis Today we'll look at some aspects of grammar and spelling that often cause problems Concentrating on these areas will help reduce the number of mistakes you might make and improve your score First, let's listen to this man: I'm Andrew Mac I'm the director of City Lights project It's an arts project that focuses on art in public spaces We're here in Hosier lane It's right in the middle of Melbourne city One of the areas to be aware of is agreement The noun has to agree with the verb in number and person He said: 'It's an arts project which focuses on art in public spaces' The arts project is singular – it's one thing It's also in the third person So you have to use the third person singular form of the verb 'focus' - focuses Listen: It's an arts project that focuses on art in public spaces Now let's look at subject-verb agreement When you use the first person – I – you don't add an 's' to the verb He says 'I think' Listen: I think what's great about these lanes is that it's, it actually makes the lanes intimate and it invites you in 'It' is third person singular, so he adds an 's' to invite and says 'invites': I think what's great about these lanes is that it's, it actually makes the lanes intimate and it invites you in In the next clip, listen for the form of the verb used with the second person - 'you' and the third person plural - 'they': You see a lot of really interesting uses of the street Strangely enough people come to shoot weddings here on the weekends Sometimes there will be up to or weddings They line up for a particular spot School groups come here They go to the national gallery and then for contrast the teachers bring them to this street He says 'you see' You is the second person, which, like the first person, agrees with the base form of the verb in the present tense – see Listen: You see a lot of really interesting uses of the street You use the base form of the verb with a third person plural as well, so he says 'they line up' and 'they go': Sometimes there will be up to or weddings They line up for a particular spot School groups come here They go to the national gallery and then for contrast the teachers bring them to this street Page of What form of the verb 'to be' – is or are - is used in the next examples? It's important because there are so few avenues for free speech and increasingly we're clamped down on - there are so many rules and regulations about what you can and can't in a city …there are so few avenues … …there are so many rules … You use 'are' with plural subjects and 'is' with singular subjects There are many rules There is one rule What about have or has? Listen: A lot of cities have chosen a zero tolerance approach to graffiti Sydney has the opposite approach to Melbourne where there is some tolerance here for what happens There are at least streets here in the CBD that are like this one and they've all grown organically Usually they have somebody like me involved in the street who helps to kind of facilitate what goes on Melbourne has grown to really love the graffiti Cities is plural, so he uses have - 'cities have' But Sydney is singular, so he uses 'has' – 'Sydney has' Listen again: A lot of cities have chosen a zero tolerance approach to graffiti Sydney has the opposite approach to Melbourne Take a look at this sentence: The graffiti grown with the light boxes and businesses been attracted to this street After 'The graffiti', you use have or has? And what about after 'businesses'? Listen: The graffiti has grown with the light boxes and then businesses have been attracted to this street and other streets A subject such as 'the graffiti' is treated as singular even though it refers to more than one piece of work So you say 'the graffiti has grown' And 'businesses' is clearly a plural subject, so you use have – 'businesses have been attracted' Another area that is useful to review is countable and uncountable nouns Uncountable nouns are words like pollution that don't have a plural with an 's' on the end and are treated as singular subjects We say pollution is, not pollution are Countable nouns have the plural form with the final 's' when they refer to more than one or things in general, such as the word laneways in this clip: Page of In the mid-90s when I started the City Lights project, Melbourne city was a lot quieter and actually people didn't use these laneways The city is on a grid structure which is state of the art city design in the 1850s Over years the laneways became misused and unused and so people didn't come down here Uncountable nouns refer to things that can't be counted or are referred to as a general mass, such as water or pollution or graffiti Listen for graffiti and another uncountable noun in this clip: A lot of cities have chosen a zero tolerance approach to graffiti Sydney has the opposite approach to Melbourne where there is some tolerance here for what happens 'Some tolerance' Tolerance is an uncountable noun It doesn't take an 's' ending It's a good idea to memorise the uncountable nouns that are frequently used in essays such as education, equipment, experience, health, information, knowledge, pollution, technology, traffic, transport and work Practise using them in sentences It's important to check your spelling in the IELTS Test There are some features of English spelling that can be troublesome Many words have double consonants such as 'pollution' and need to be memorised Which words in the next clip have double consonants? We're here in Hosier lane It's right in the middle of Melbourne city We devised this project to be in public so that we could reach a very wide audience Inside a gallery you might get 30 to 50 people a day but in the street and in this street in particular thousands of people come down here every day so it's primarily about reaching a big audience Middle and gallery Middle has 'd's and gallery has 'l's Here are some other words with double consonants that are frequently used in IELTS and you should be careful to spell correctly: accommodation - Notice that there are 'c's and 'm's recommend - Only one double consonant this time – the 'm's in the middle opportunity - a double 'p' at the start different - a double 'f' support tennis success - a double 'c' and a double 's' and possibility - another double 's' Page of Misspellings can also occur when a letter is silent in the word You should learn how to spell: doubt - notice the silent 'b' foreign - a 'g' that you don't hear Wednesday - don't forget the 'd-n-e' and that it needs a capital letter autumn - a silent 'n' on the end through - one of the awkward 'o-u-g-h' words business – people don't pronounce the 'i' – bus'ness Sometime misspellings occur because some letters in the word aren't clearly heard Look out for the 'n' in environment and government and the 'c-h' in technology, ache and technical That's all for today In the test, try to use your time efficiently and wisely Leave to minutes to check your writing Using these few minutes to correct some errors can make a difference to your score Don't forget spelling It counts too! See you next time Page of