IELTS Preparation Series 3, Episode 25: Grammar Checklist

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Hello,

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and welcome to Study English, IELTS Preparation. I'm Margot Politis.

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Today we'll look at some aspects of grammar and spelling that often cause problems. Concentrating

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on these areas will help reduce the number of mistakes you might make and improve your

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score. First, let's listen to this man:

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I'm Andrew Mac. I'm the director of City Lights project. It's an arts project that focuses

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on art in public spaces. We're here in Hosier lane. It's right in the middle of Melbourne

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city.

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One of the areas to be aware of is agreement. The noun has to agree with the verb in number

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and person.

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He said: 'It's an arts project which focuses on art in public spaces'.

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The arts project is singular - it's one thing. It's also in the third person. So you have

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to use the third person singular form of the verb 'focus' - focuses. Listen:

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It's an arts project that focuses on art in public spaces.

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Now let's look at subject-verb agreement. When you use the first person - I - you don't

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add an 's' to the verb. He says 'I think'. Listen:

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I think what's great about these lanes is that it's, it actually makes the lanes intimate

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and it invites you in.

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'It' is third person singular, so he adds an 's' to invite and says 'invites':

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I think what's great about these lanes is that it's, it actually makes the lanes intimate

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and it invites you in.

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In the next clip, listen for the form of the verb used with the second person - 'you' and

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the third person plural - 'they':

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You see a lot of really interesting uses of the street. Strangely enough people come to

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shoot weddings here on the weekends. Sometimes there will be up to 5 or 6 weddings. They

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line up for a particular spot. School groups come here. They go to the national gallery

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and then for contrast the teachers bring them to this street.

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He says 'you see'. You is the second person, which, like the first person, agrees with

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the base form of the verb in the present tense - see. Listen:

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You see a lot of really interesting uses of the street.

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You use the base form of the verb with a third person plural as well, so he says 'they line

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up' and 'they go': Sometimes there will be up to 5 or 6 weddings.

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They line up for a particular spot. School groups come here. They go to the national

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gallery and then for contrast the teachers bring them to this street.

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What form of the verb 'to be' - is or are - is used in the next examples?

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It's important because there are so few avenues for free speech and increasingly we're clamped

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down on - there are so many rules and regulations about what you can and can't do in a city.

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there are so few avenues there are so many rules

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You use 'are' with plural subjects and 'is' with singular subjects.

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There are many rules. There is one rule.

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What about have or has? Listen:

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A lot of cities have chosen a zero tolerance approach to graffiti. Sydney has the opposite

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approach to Melbourne where there is some tolerance here for what happens. There are

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at least 8 streets here in the CBD that are like this one and they've all grown organically.

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Usually they have somebody like me involved in the street who helps to kind of facilitate

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what goes on. Melbourne has grown to really love the graffiti.

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Cities is plural, so he uses have - 'cities have'. But Sydney is singular, so he uses

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'has' - 'Sydney has'. Listen again:

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A lot of cities have chosen a zero tolerance approach to graffiti. Sydney has the opposite

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approach to Melbourne.

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Take a look at this sentence:

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After 'The graffiti', do you use have or has? And what about after 'businesses'? Listen:

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The graffiti has grown with the light boxes and then businesses have been attracted to

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this street and other streets.

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A subject such as 'the graffiti' is treated as singular even though it refers to more

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than one piece of work. So you say 'the graffiti has grown'. And 'businesses' is clearly a

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plural subject, so you use have - 'businesses have been attracted'.

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Another area that is useful to review is countable and uncountable nouns.

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Uncountable nouns are words like pollution that don't have a plural with an 's' on the

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end and are treated as singular subjects. We say pollution is, not pollution are.

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Countable nouns have the plural form with the final 's' when they refer to more than

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one or things in general, such as the word laneways in this clip:

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In the mid-90s when I started the City Lights project, Melbourne city was a lot quieter

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and actually people didn't use these laneways. The city is on a grid structure which is state

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of the art city design in the 1850s. Over years the laneways became misused and unused

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and so people didn't come down here.

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Uncountable nouns refer to things that can't be counted or are referred to as a general

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mass, such as water or pollution or graffiti. Listen for graffiti and another uncountable

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noun in this clip:

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A lot of cities have chosen a zero tolerance approach to graffiti. Sydney has the opposite

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approach to Melbourne where there is some tolerance here for what happens.

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'Some tolerance'. Tolerance is an uncountable noun. It doesn't take an 's' ending.

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It's a good idea to memorise the uncountable nouns that are frequently used in essays such

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as education, equipment, experience, health, information, knowledge, pollution, technology,

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traffic, transport and work. Practise using them in sentences.

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It's important to check your spelling in the IELTS Test.

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There are some features of English spelling that can be troublesome. Many words have double

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consonants such as 'pollution' and need to be memorised. Which words in the next clip

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have double consonants?

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We're here in Hosier lane. It's right in the middle of Melbourne city. We devised this

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project to be in public so that we could reach a very wide audience. Inside a gallery you

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might get 30 to 50 people a day but in the street and in this street in particular thousands

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of people come down here every day so it's primarily about reaching a big audience.

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Middle and gallery. Middle has 2 'd's and gallery has 2 'l's.

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Here are some other words with double consonants that are frequently used in IELTS and you

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should be careful to spell correctly:

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accommodation - Notice that there are 2 'c's and 2 'm's.

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recommend - Only one double consonant this time - the 'm's in the middle.

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opportunity - a double 'p' at the start different - a double 'f'

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support tennis

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success - a double 'c' and a double 's' and possibility - another double 's'

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Misspellings can also occur when a letter is silent in the word. You should learn how

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to spell:

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doubt - notice the silent 'b'. foreign - a 'g' that you don't hear.

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Wednesday - don't forget the 'd-n-e' and that it needs a capital letter.

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autumn - a silent 'n' on the end. through - one of the awkward 'o-u-g-h' words.

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business - people don't pronounce the 'i' - bus'ness.

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Sometime misspellings occur because some letters in the word aren't clearly heard.

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Look out for the 'n' in environment and government and the 'c-h' in technology, ache and technical.

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That's all for today.

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In the test, try to use your time efficiently and wisely. Leave 2 to 3 minutes to check

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your writing. Using these few minutes to correct some errors can make a difference to your

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score.

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Don't forget spelling. It counts too!

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See you next time.

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