Lesson IV: Hyperbole & Nouns

In the previous blog post Lesson III: Conjunction, Determinant we briefly breezed past conjunctions and determinants in English language. Now we would move alphabetically forward to Hyperbole & Nouns and will have a look at its different examples.

Starting with Hyperbole we would go through examples and then move on to the concept of Noun in English.

Hyperbole

The hyperbole in the English language is exactly parallel to the "अतिशयोक्ति अलंकार" in Hindi language. While hyperbole (or exaggeration) is used largely in prose form, it is also used artistically as a comparison tool in poetry. Examples will explain this accessory tool better.

Prose

First of all we need to understand what prose is if we're to understand the usage of hyperbole in prose. Prose is just the regular form of language that we use for conversation in day-to-day life. Hyperbole or exaggeration is quite frequently used daily by people in India across all the linguistic regions. In English, few examples would better explain the use of hyperbole in English prose.

Examples of Hyperbole in Prose

• He roared like a storm in the cool, calm evening air to offend the nearby authorities.
• How the corrupt authorities reacted to this growl of a common student in anguish was not unexpected at all.
• He carried the few slaps by corrupt officials felt on his cheeks like an award for speaking against corruption.

In first example the hyperbole (exaggerated comparison) appears right in the beginning of the sentence, in the middle of the second example and in the last of the third example.

Poetry

Poetry apart from containing poems can also include couplets and songs. We keep listening to songs and reading couplets in various languages day to day. But as this is an English Grammar Lessons post, we will only go through English examples of hyperbole in poetry.

Examples of Hyperbole in Poetry

In poems:

• "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
  Clean from my hand? No. This my hand will rather
  The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
  Making the green one red,"
  William Shakespeare, Act II, Scene II of Macbeth
  
  Right from the first line mentioned here in this post Shakespeare uses the hyperbole tool. The protagonist exaggerates his introspection in asking himself will he be ever able to forget the sins he made even if he put his hands in the ocean.

• "If thou dost slander her and torture me,
  Never pray more;
  abandon all remorse;
  On horror's head accumulate;
  Do deeds to make heaven weep,
  all earth amazed;
  For nothing canst thou to damnation add
  Greater than that."
  William Shakespeare, Act III, Scene III of Othello
  
  Even here it is evident from the fourth line 'On horror's head accumulate;' that Shakespeare has used hyperbole in the Act III, Scene III of Othello. The protagonist asks the immediate antagonist in agony if the antagonist is going to add more horrific slandering (defamation) and torture to what the protagonist and the female companion of the protagonist have suffered so far will add up to the extent of damnation.

In couplets:

Though couplets are not many in English, I have given time to look for examples over the web and I've managed to pick out certain examples that relate to this field to much extent.

Couplets from Alexander Pope followed a satirical poetic fashion and many present day poets, satirists still follow the fashion he inspired. Examples of his couplets from his poems are given below.

• "A little learning is a dangerous thing;
  Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring."
  
  In the second line of the couplet 'Drink deep or taste not the Pierian spring', Pope has conveyed duly how just a little learning or the incomplete knowledge about something is as dangerous as going to the fictional Pierian spring - a metaphor of expertise at art and science.
• "Be not the first by whom the new are tried,
  Nor the last to lay the old aside."
  
  In the couplet, Alexander has warned the people against the not-so-rare human nature to try new things on others and checking whether things are safe and he also cautions people not to spend much too time in waiting till a favorable new thing loses its value.

In songs:

Songs are the best example of hyperbole-usage. I pick a set of lines from Metallica's song 'Master of Puppets' for citing the example of hyperbole in songs.

"Needlework the way, never you betray

Life of death becoming clearer

Pain monopoly, ritual misery

chop your breakfast on a mirror."

The first line is about working your way to the devil through a series of sins, and in the next line the protagonist is coming to a realization of the fact that he goes to hell to live a 'life of death'. The third line means cheating oneself and parents, repeatedly causing them pain, and in the final line here the protagonist repents getting addicted to drugs like cocaine and so finding difficulty in even facing the mirror he hides his face in the mirror by shattering it.

So the idea of hyperbole is clarified and the examples justified.

Nouns

A noun is parallel to 'संज्ञा' in हिंदी. However, being a bit different from Hindi, it still needs re-introduction. The standard definition of noun accepted all over the world defines noun as "A noun is a part of speech typically denoting a person, thing, place or idea."

Examples of a noun is your or your best buddy's name; your laptop's name; place where you live as in your hometown, languages you generally speak and the city you study in; or the name of Einstein's most famous theory.

• "Atul Kaushal" is my name.
  In this particular sentence, my name Atul Kaushal is the noun.
• "Abhishek Thakur" was my friend in childhood.
  In this case, his name Abhishek Thakur is the noun.
• I write these posts on a "MacBook Pro" laptop.
  Here, my laptop's name is a noun.
• Currently we live in "Rohtak" for my studies, I was born in "Karnal", my father in "Kurukshetra" and my mother was born in "Mysore" in Karnataka.
• I generally speak "Hindi", "Kannada", "Punjabi" and "English" languages.
• Among the most famous theories for which Einstein is acclaimed worldwide is "the theory of relativity" and "the photoelectric effect".

So, both hyperbole and nouns are elaborately explained in a friendly manner.

Friendly comments are invited; critics can email me on aks23121990@gmail.com for any suggestions.

Lesson III: Conjunction, Determinant

In the previous blog post, Lesson II, Adjectives & Adverbs were discussed in a reader-friendly way with appropriate examples. Now two more pillars supporting English language are going to be discussed in a similar manner.

Conjunction: A conjunction is simply the part of speech that connects two words, sentences, phrases or clauses to form a sentence. Examples of all types of conjunction with explanation are given below:

Coordinating conjunctions - The acronym FANBOYS explains it better:

For presents a reason; He has been gambling with his health far too long, for he has been smoking daily.

And presents similar reasons; He gambles daily and he smokes.

Nor presents similar negative idea; I do not gamble, nor do I smoke.

But presents a contrast or an exception; They do gamble, but don't smoke.

Or presents an alternative term or idea; Hands up or I'll shoot you.

Yet also presents a contrast or an exception; They do booze, yet they don't smoke.

So presents a consequence; His results were marked absent by MDU, so he was angry & cursed them.

Correlative conjunctions - These work in pairs to join words and group of words of equal weight in a sentence. These are listed below with examples;

1. either...or: Akshant was either going to survive the coma or it was going to be just a comma in his life before the untimely full stop.
2. neither...nor: Aditya neither recognized his mistake nor did he stop to check on Akshant.
3. whether...or: Akshant's parents were confused whether to take him to New Delhi or Chandigarh for higher treatment.
4. not only...but (also): Not only was his cheek ridge fractured after the accident, but also he went into the horrific comatose stage.
5. just as...so: Just as Akshant was over-taking him Aditya turned, so colliding into Akshant.
6. both...and: Both Akshant and Anamika made love all night.

Subordinating conjunctions - Also called subordinators, these are conjunctions that conjoin an independent clause and a dependent clause in a sentence. There are 26 subordinators in all:

1. after: I followed her after she stomped away angrily.
2. although: She still loved me although I hurt her.
3. as: We danced well as we had practiced for days.
4. as far as: Throw your sorrows as far as you can.
5. as if: Live today as if there's no tomorrow.
6. as long as: Anamika told me that she is with me as long as time survives.
7. as soon as: Gurleen ditched me and got another boyfriend as soon as I met with that accident.
8. as though: Me & Anamika made love that night as though there's no tomorrow.
9. because: I love my parents because they are.
10. before: Stop me if you can before I finish this sentence.
11. if: The doctor called out my name to check if I respond.
12. in order that: Natural fortifications are provided to human body by skin, mucus lining and similar material in order that no pathogens can enter the circulatory system and cause diseases.
13. only if: We should press the alarm only if there's really an emergency.
14. since: Akshant was waiting for her since nine in the morning.
15. so: He was tired waiting three hours, the sun burned overhead so he went away in frustration.
16. so that: He called her so that he could complain.
17. than: I got more attention than anybody else in the surroundings.
18. though: I ignored his mistakes though much loss was suffered to the shop due to his inexperience.
19. unless: Don't bother me unless there is an emergency.
20. until: We were instructed to wait until it was sunset.
21. when: I don't know how they marked me 'absent' in three exams when I gave all ten exams.
22. whenever: I regard him my best friend and call him whenever I am in a bad mood.
23. where: Gurleen took Akshant outside in the lonely garden where she started to strip off erotically.
24. whereas: I yelled at her furiously, whereas she reacted calmly.
25. wherever: You can call 100 in India wherever you need the police to help you.
26. while: You can play the drillmaster while I play the bandmaster.

Determinant: These are better known as determiners. These are the words which determine the nature of another word or phrase or a sentence that generally follows it. A determinant or determiner is better explained in the examples below:

1. then: How do you suggest that I should set my relationship status then?
2. that: She told me that she was crying her head off when I ditched her.
3. when: When I've appeared in all the exams, how can they mark me absent!

The first example under the heading of 'then' actually is a sentence which stands viable for both 'then' & 'that'. Examples of sentences depicting multiple determinants can be framed in a similar manner.

Language translation tools or websites like Google Translate can help you learn the language better.

References:

The Web; Wiktionary & Wikipedia

Lesson II: Adjectives, Adverbs

Adjectives and adverbs.

The words stated in the sentence above in this post form few of the basic concepts in all languages, including English. We'll go through them all quickly in brief starting alphabetically with Adjectives.

An adjective is a describing word, the main role of which in a sentence is to signify a noun, noun phrase or pronoun, giving more information about the word than the bare word would have. Four types of examples can be stated to explain adjectives better.

• A) Attributive Adjectives: These adjectives impart special traits to the noun that they precede. For example: "A beautiful girl attracts eyes from different people."
• B) Predicative Adjectives: These are linked via a copula or other linking mechanism to the noun or pronoun they modify. For example: happy is a predicate adjective in "My parents are happy" and in "that made me happy." A copula is a word used to link the subject of a sentence with a predicate.
• C) Absolute Adjectives: These do not belong to a larger construction (aside from a larger adjective phrase), and typically modify either the subject of a sentence or whatever noun or pronoun they are closest to; for example, happy is an absolute adjective in "The boy, happy with his lollipop, did not look where he was going."
• D) Nominal Adjectives: These are so called because they act like a noun. They are better explained in the example that follows; "We went to a music shop where I listened to some harsh rock and she preferred some light music."

Moving on to adverbs and getting familiar with their usage, their main role in a sentence is to signify a verb, adjective, another adverb, phrase, sentence or clause except that it does not directly modify nouns or pronouns. An example of each kind is given below to help understand adverbs better.

• Verb adverb: He drives (verb) fast (adverb).
• Adjective adverb: She is a very (adverb) beautiful (adjective) girl.
• Adverb adverb: I walked (verb) really (adverb) slowly (adverb) after meeting her.
• Phrase adverb: He is slowly (adverb) drowning inside his own sorrows (phrase).
• Sentence adverb: Quickly (adverb) she pounced upon me like a tigress (sentence).
• Clause adverb (also Adverb clause): Although (adverb) he suffered losses, still he donated (clause).

These were only two of the nine foundation stones of the English language. The others are Conjuction, Determinant, Hyperbole, Noun, Pronoun, Simile & Verb. Together all of these make up the very basics of the English language. Verbs, Adjectives and Adverbs have been discussed in sufficient detail till now.

Lesson I: Past, Present & Future Tenses

I'll help you guys and the future English teachers out there to revisit the three tenses - past, present & future tenses - along with their different forms. Not that you won't be knowing about any of them, but if you're reading this then the probability that you need to go through the overview of the English grammar basics is quite high.

Alright then what else type of tense is there apart from the three simple & obvious tenses?

The words stated in the title of this post form the basic concepts in all languages, including English. The English Language has 17 (yes, you read seventeen) tenses in total. The list given below depicts the possible tenses in rough detail.

Tense	Affirmative/Negative/Question	Use	Signal Words
Simple Present	A: He speaks. N: He does not speak. Q: Does he speak?	action in the present taking place once, never or several times facts actions taking place one after another action set by a timetable or schedule	always, every …, never, normally, often, seldom, sometimes, usually if sentences type I (If I talk, …)
Present Progressive	A: He is speaking. N: He is not speaking. Q: Is he speaking?	action taking place in the moment of speaking action taking place only for a limited period of time action arranged for the future	at the moment, just, just now, Listen!, Look!, now, right now
Simple Past	A: He spoke. N: He did not speak. Q: Did he speak?	action in the past taking place once, never or several times actions taking place one after another action taking place in the middle of another action	yesterday, 2 minutes ago, in 1990, the other day, last Friday if sentence type II (If I talked, …)
Past Progressive	A: He was speaking. N: He was not speaking. Q: Was he speaking?	action going on at a certain time in the past actions taking place at the same time action in the past that is interrupted by another action	when, while, as long as
Present Perfect Simple	A: He has spoken. N: He has not spoken. Q: Has he spoken?	putting emphasis on the result action that is still going on action that stopped recently finished action that has an influence on the present action that has taken place once, never or several times before the moment of speaking	already, ever, just, never, not yet, so far, till now, up to now
Present Perfect Progressive	A: He has been speaking. N: He has not been speaking. Q: Has he been speaking?	putting emphasis on the course or duration(not the result) action that recently stopped or is still going on finished action that influenced the present	all day, for 4 years, since 1993, how long?, the whole week
Past Perfect Simple	A: He had spoken. N: He had not spoken. Q: Had he spoken?	action taking place before a certain time in the past sometimes interchangeable with past perfect progressive putting emphasis only on the fact (not the duration)	already, just, never, not yet, once, until that day if sentence type III (If I had talked, …)
Past Perfect Progressive	A: He had been speaking. N: He had not been speaking. Q: Had he been speaking?	action taking place before a certain time in the past sometimes interchangeable with past perfect simple putting emphasis on the duration or course of an action	for, since, the whole day, all day
Future I Simple	A: He will speak. N: He will not speak. Q: Will he speak?	action in the future that cannot be influenced spontaneous decision assumption with regard to the future	in a year, next …, tomorrow If: (If you ask her, she will help you.) assumption: I think, probably, perhaps
Future I Simple (going to)	A: He is going to speak. N: He is not going to speak. Q: Is he going to speak?	decision made for the future conclusion with regard to the future	in one year, next week, tomorrow
Future I Progressive	A: He will be speaking. N: He will not be speaking. Q: Will he be speaking?	action that is going on at a certain time in the future action that is sure to happen in the near future	in one year, next week, tomorrow
Future II Simple	A: He will have spoken. N: He will not have spoken. Q: Will he have spoken?	action that will be finished at a certain time in the future	by Monday, in a week
Future II Progressive	A: He will have been speaking. N: He will not have been speaking. Q: Will he have been speaking?	action taking place before a certain time in the future putting emphasis on the course of an action	for …, the last couple of hours, all day long
Conditional I Simple	A: He would speak. N: He would not speak. Q: Would he speak?	action that might take place	if sentences type II (If I were you, I would go home.)
Conditional I Progressive	A: He would be speaking. N: He would not be speaking. Q: Would he be speaking?	action that might take place putting emphasis on the course/duration of the action
Conditional II Simple	A: He would have spoken. N: He would not have spoken. Q: Would he have spoken?	action that might have taken place in the past	if sentences type III (If I had seen that, I would have helped.)
Conditional II Progressive	A: He would have been speaking. N: He would not have been speaking. Q: Would he have been speaking?	action that might have taken place in the past puts emphasis on the course/duration of the action

These are the 17 generally used tenses in English language - both spoken & literary. An article about Adjectives, Adverbs, Conjuction, Hyperbole, Noun, Pronoun, Punctuation & Simile is given in the second lesson.

English is a very funny language

"Disclaimer: I challenge all the critics who would say that I copied this from somewhere over net to search for this material over net authored by somebody else on or before 8/10/12"

Alright - alright! Starting with the post, no suspense over why I have started it. For obvious reasons I would say if you asked me. Reading at four schools and a college before coming to the UIET, MDU Rohtak I have witnessed the discomfort Indian people experience when they are posed with the odds & ends of talking in English language. Students - I'm talking especially about Indian students - find this job of talking in English very difficult and often even a quick-speech rate student suddenly comes down to stammering & stuttering.

Okay, now another obvious question might be springing in your mind as you read this-

"When does the real lesson start, is Atul just going to flaunt his own skills at the language which he claims is funny?"

Good question. Well you can take this lesson to be a friendly way of learning the English language and the lesson has already started in case you didn't notice the flaw-pointing in the above body of the article. But another question that challenges the very basic concept of this blog would be "Why should I learn English if at all it's so funny?"

Okay I'd cite three reasons why English is an important language and being exceptionally able at it is the need of the hour. The reasons are:

1. Firstly the foremost reason; English is the universal tongue which is spoken by many people all over the world who often use it as the official language.
2. It is the working language in India and many other nations; spoken by government officials & private workers in the offices alike.
3. This language has been the working language of the Internet ever since its foundation; though other languages like Mandarin, Spanish, Japanese, German, French & Hindi are gaining their ground over internet, English is the undisputed working language of the Internet.

Having stated the above reasons it can be stated that English language, howsoever funny it may seem, is a must for all those people who aspire to make their life big the easy way.

While people might cite examples of business tycoons & government ministers not good at English, they should be aware of the fact that luck supports only a few people and hence, English must be learned well by students & workers alike.