IELTS Preparation Series 2, Episode 13: Welding

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Hello. I'm Margot Politis. Welcome to Study English IELTS preparation.

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Today we're going to focus on word form groups - noun, verb and preposition phrases.

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Then, we'll look at some words that can be used as both nouns and verbs, and we'll learn

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how to tell which is which.

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But first, we visit an automotive factory - a place where they build cars - and we see

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how a new piece of machinery is helping to avoid mistakes in the manufacturing process.

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Here, we have two faults, which are very common in the automotive industry, where the weld

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has deviated from the seam here.

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Paint and grease are very common faults in the automotive industry and where we've welded

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over the paint, you can see that there's bubbles in the weld. Typically we call this porosity.

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At the moment, you only take a sample of the cars. You're not able to test every weld in

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every car, and that's a major advantage of our technology. We can test every weld in

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every car.

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Understanding English is much easier if you understand how words can be grouped together.

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Knowing the function of a group of words can help you to follow a sequence of ideas when

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you're reading or listening.

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The main word form groups are noun phrases, verb phrases and preposition phrases.

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Let's begin with noun phrases.

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A noun phrase is made up of a determiner.

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That might be an article, like a, an or the.

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A determiner could be a number, like one, two or three.

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Or it could be a demonstrative adjective, for example this or those.

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As well as a determiner, a noun phrase can have a modifier.

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A modifier can be an adjective, like big, green or impressive.

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Or it could be a possessive, like my or John's.

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And finally, a noun phrase must have a noun.

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An example of a noun phrase is the IELTS test.

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It has a determiner, a modifier and a noun.

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Now, let's take a look at a verb phrase.

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There are a variety of verb phrases.

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The simplest verb phrase is a single main verb standing alone.

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Other verb phrases are formed by an auxiliary verb + main verb or different combinations

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of auxiliary verbs + main verbs.

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For example:

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She finished her homework.

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She had finished her homework.

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She was required to finish her homework.

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She finished doing her homework.

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OK. So that's noun phrases and verb phrases. There are also preposition phrases.

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A preposition phrase begins with a preposition. It could be a preposition of time, place or

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direction.

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So a preposition phrase starts with words such as at, on, during, up or down.

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Let's put a noun, verb and preposition phrase together.

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In the sentence: The IELTS test finished at one o'clock on Friday.

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we have a noun phrase, a verb phrase, and a preposition phrase.

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The function of verb, noun and preposition phrases depends on their position in the sentence.

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Noun phrases are often subjects.

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They usually come before the verb phrase in a sentence. The noun phrase tells us everything

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about the verb in the clause that follows.

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Let's listen to Dr Trevor Gore. He's talking about faults or weaknesses that occur at points

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that have been welded together.

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See if you can tell what is the function of the word 'weld'.

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Here, we have two faults, which are very common in the automotive industry, where the weld

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has deviated from the seam here.

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Dr Gore says: The weld has deviated from the seam.

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The weld is a noun phrase.

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It contains a determiner, the

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and a noun, weld.

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The weld is a noun phrase that functions as the subject of this clause.

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It's followed by the verb phrase has deviated, and then the preposition phrase from the seam.

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Let's listen to Dr Gore use the word 'weld' in a different clip. What is the function

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of 'weld' in this context?

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Paint and grease are very common faults in the automotive industry and where we've welded

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over the paint, you can see that there's bubbles in the weld.

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He says: We have welded over the paint.

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The subject is we.

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Have welded is the verb phrase. It functions as the verb of the sentence.

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So here, weld is used as a verb.

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Notice that over the paint is the preposition phrase.

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There's one more use of the word weld in the story.

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At the moment, you only take a sample of the cars.

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You're not able to test every weld in every car, and that's a major advantage of our technology.

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We can test every weld in every car.

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He uses weld twice.

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He says with the old technology: You are not able to test every weld.

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But when talking about the new technology he says: We can test every weld.

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In both of these sentences, weld occurs with a determiner.

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The determiner is every. So weld is used as part of a noun phrase - every weld. It's a

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noun.

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It occurs after the verb phrases are not able to test and can test.

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So here the noun phrase every weld is an object.

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We've seen how different word forms can perform different functions.

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For example, weld is used in today's story as both a noun and a verb.

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There are quite a few words in English that use the same word for both the noun and verb

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form.

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Listen for some other examples.

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Paint and grease are very common faults in the automotive industry and where we've welded

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over the paint, you can see that there's bubbles in the weld. Typically we call this porosity.

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At the moment you only take a sample of the cars. You're not able to test every weld in

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every car, and that's a major advantage of our technology. We can test every weld in

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every car.

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Dr Gore says that:

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You only take a sample of the cars.

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The word sample can be used as a verb or a noun. What is it in this sentence?

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Sample occurs after a determiner, a.

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So we know that it is the noun in a noun phrase.

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He also says: You are not able to test every weld in every car.

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Like 'sample', 'test' can be a noun and a verb. Here, test is part of the verb phrase,

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are not able to test. It's a verb.

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So you can see that it's a good idea to study a sentence closely for noun, verb and preposition

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phrases if you're confused about meaning.

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Let's take a quick look back over what we've looked at today.

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We practiced identifying and using noun and verb forms in different functions.

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We looked at what makes a noun phrase, a verb phrase and a preposition phrase.

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And we finished by looking at words that are both nouns and verbs.

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There are many more examples and exercises on the Study English website. So don't forget

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to log on for some more practice. It's at abcasiapacific.com/studyenglish.

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And I'll see you next time. Bye bye.

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