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A NEW METHOD OF

TEACHING ENGLISH

TO LEARNERS FROM NON‐ENGLISH SPEAKING

COUNTRIES. By

Israel Jayakaran, Colonel (Retd)

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Israel Jayakaran is a post graduate Electronics and Communication engineer from the Indian Army. After his retirement, he had taken to English in order to keep himself occupied. Has done considerable research on English grammar and has evolved a new and novel method of teaching English to learners from non‐English speaking homes and countries. Has written several English grammar books in his new method to suit various levels of learners right from school to Under graduate level.

He is a freelance writer as well and has been pursuing writing as a hobby right from his Army service days. Has published over 200 articles/short stories/political articles in various Indian newspapers and magazines. His specialization is on satires and short stories reflecting the Indian way of life and philosophy. Besides teaching English, he also writes as of now and is currently a regular contributor of “light pieces of human interest” to the e‐magazines, THE CHEERS and TRIOND..

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For more details and direct class please visit

www.jayakaran.co.cc

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A NEW METHOD OF TEACHING ENGLISH TO LEARNERS FROM NON‐ENGLISH SPEAKING

COUNTRIES. By

Israel Jayakaran, Colonel (Retd)

Introduction

English learners from Non– English speaking countries require a

new method altogether; a logical and .a foolproof one at that. The

traditional grammar or the British approach of functional grammar

have not proved effective in their case at all.

Many graduates and Post graduates come to me for learning

English. They understand every word and sentence I speak with

them. And when I ask a question, they know what they want to say in

answer but do not know how to put those words in a proper English

sentence.

Their problem is obviously how an English sentence is

constructed; which word will go in which slot and so on? If they are

given a standard formula in this regard, they would have no problem

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Whatever. And they are likely to bubble with a new confidence as

well.

I have evolved such a formula and simplified the complete

technique of teaching English from a low level to high level.

This article gives a glimpse of the new method of teaching English

to learners from non‐English speaking countries and homes.

Composition of a Simple sentence

The traditional grammar divides a Simple sentence into Subject

and

Predicate. This division appears rather lose and makes the reader none

the wiser. Why not teach, “ every Simple sentence can be divided

into two parts “ like this,

Tom has kicked / a poor street dog. | |

Grammar part Meaning part

What worries a learner most of the time is the “grammar part” and

seldom the meaning part. Once he/she masters the grammar part

and how to frame it in various tenses, they will be absolutely happy in

writing out or speaking out a sentence with total ease.

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The grammar part will have 3 sections like this,

Tom has kicked | | |

Subject Auxiliary Verb

And the Meaning part will have OBJECT/ COMPLEMENT which may be

in any combination. Both O and C will contribute to the meaning

of a sentence.

Phrases like ‘objective complement’ ‘subjective complement’ should be abandoned.

Some books talk about ‘direct object’ and ‘indirect object’. Is it

necessary that every sentence should have two objects? What if there

is only one object? Will it be ‘direct’ or ‘indirect’? What if a sentence

has 3 or 4 objects?

Summarising the above arguments, we may convey that the

components of any Simple sentence will be,

SUBJECT + AUXILIARY + VERB |

grammar part + OBJECT/ COMPLEMENT

| meaning part

This is an Universal formula and holds good for any Simple sentence in any tense in the English language.

For each tense, the S+A+V part will be different. The O/C part is

independent of the grammar part. The O/C part of one sentence

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could be attached to the grammar part of another sentence and vice

versa.

A sentence need not have the O/C part at all. But, while the

S+A+V part will give some small meaning, it is the O/C part that will

reveal the full meaning.

The formula we have discussed so far is for a Positive answer.(a1).

Categories of sentences

Traditional grammar says that there are “4 types of

sentences, viz,

Declarative/Assertive, Interrogative, Imperative and Exclamatory.“ Is

this statement foolproof? Do all these 4 types apply to every tense?

I think not. For instance, we can write out an Imperative sentence only

in the Simple present tense and in no other. What then about the

opposite of a Declarative/Assertive sentence? The above

categorization is incomplete. I would say that every Simple sentence

could be expressed in 7 different ways or in 7 categories – 5 in

Question form and 2 in Answer form as discussed here:

(1)‘General Question’ = I + A +S+ V+ O/C (Why has Tom

I A S kicked / this poor street dog?

V ……O/C…..

The English language uses only 9 interrogatives. They are, WHO,

WHAT,WHICH,WHOSE,WHOM (named as “Interrogative Pronouns”)

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WHEN,WHERE,WHY,HOW(How many, How much, How far, How long,

How often) (named as ” Interrogative Adverbs”). A General question

will always start with one of these Interrogative words.

(2)‘Specific Question’ = A+S+V+O/C (Has Tom kicked / this poor street dog

A S V ……..O/C……….. (3)‘Negative Question’ = Neg A +S+V+O/C (Hasn’t Tom kicked / this

poor street dog?)

A Negative question sounds quite powerful, doesn’t it?

(4) Negative answer (a2) = S+ NegA +V+O/C (Tom hasn’t kicked /

S NegA V

this spoor street dog.

O/C

(5) Positive answer (a1)= S+A+V+O/C (Tom has kicked / this poor

street dog.)

Then, there are two more powerful questions for which we

make use of the

Positive and Negative answer along with a Question tag like this:

(6)‘Emphatic Question 1’(EQ1) = S + A+ V+ O/C + Neg A + Pronoun of the Subject ( Tom has

kicked / this poor street

dog, hasn’t he?).

(7)‘Emphatic Question 2’ (EQ2) = Tom hasn’t kicked / this poor

street dog, has he?)

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We must introduce the structure of the 7 categories at the

earliest. These 7 formulae hold good for every Simple sentence

in every tense, both in Active and Passive voice, and once these are

memorized, a student will be able to compose a Simple sentence

on his/her own very confidently.

Next, given one category, a student must write out the

remaining 6. Here is an example: Given (a2) “Jane has not read her

lessons well at all .”

a1: Jane has read her lessons well.

Gen Q: How has Jane read her lessons?

SpQ: Has Jane read her lessons well?

NegQ: Hasn’t Jane read her lessons well?

EQ1: Jane has read her lessons well, hasn’t she?

EQ2: Jane hasn’t read her lessons well, has she?

Types of sentences

According to me, the English language uses only “3 types of

sentences.” They are, Simple sentence, Complex sentence and

Compound sentence. A Complex sentence will have 2 Simple

sentences with one conjunction. A Compound sentence will have 3 or

more Simples and 2 or more conjunctions. A compound sentence may

have clauses also in place of one or more Simples.

This paper has been devoted primarily to Simple sentences.

Once a learner masters the Simple sentence, he/she would have no

problem learning about the other two varieties.

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Parts of speech

Many books as of now state that there are 8 parts of speech

and a few say there are 9. Those who say 9, have included “Articles”

as a separate part of speech instead of treating it as Adjectives. This

argument sounds very reasonable for the simple reason, that articles

will refer to the number of a noun while adjectives will describe a

common noun in some qualitative way.

Why then are we treating Auxiliaries as part of

Verbs? Shouldn’t we treat ‘Auxiliary’ as the 10 th part of speech? An

Auxiliary is a helper only to a verb. According to my study, we can

never use a Verb by itself nor an Auxiliary by itself. They must always

appear as a pair (A+V), as an inseparable pair, in any sentence and in

any Tense.

Next, Auxiliaries are meaningless words. Even the dictionary

only tells how to use these auxiliaries in a sentence and for what kind

of situations.

For all this, there are only 32 auxiliaries in the language and

they are used both for Active and Passive voices. Auxiliaries are of

two kinds: Pure auxiliaries (or Universal Auxiliaries), whose job is only

to partner/help a verb in any of its 3 forms(21) and Auxiliary cum

Verbs (11). Auxiliary cum Verbs abbreviated as A.V (A dot V) are

12 

basically auxiliaries but we can use them as Verbs in which case, it

acts as its own auxiliary simultaneously. These 11 are 2‐in‐1 words.

The A.Vs are: AM, IS, ARE, HAS, HAVE, WAS, WERE, HAD, DO, DOES

and DID (11).

Every normal Verb is a ‘word of action’. You can see some

movements or activities in verbs like, EAT,WRITE etc. All such Verbs

will compulsively need an auxiliary or auxiliary set as its helper. A

Verb is analogous to a lame man; he will need a pair of crutches or a

stick to move about. An auxiliary (auxiliary set) plays that role. That’s

how they become an inseparable pair: A + V

But, the English language seems to use some ‘action less verbs’ as

well. They are.

AM, IS,ARE,,WAS and WERE. They happen to be A.Vs. Examine the

following sentences for any activity in them:

(a) Where is my house? (b) Are these pencils yours? (c) Amn’t I your neighbour in this colony? (d) Was your essay any better than mine? (e) How were your friends in studies last year?

No action/movement whatever! So, can’t we say then that the tenses

that use these A.Vs would be the action less varieties. These 5 action

less ‘auxiliary cum verbs’ are used in only two tenses. I propose we

call them PRESENT tense (with AM,IS,ARE) and PAST tense (with WAS,

WERE). More about this a little later.

13 

Tenses

We recognize the tense of a sentence through the “Auxiliary +

Verb” or “A.V” combination and not by looking at the Verb alone.

There are 18 such A,V combinations. It is the S+A+V or S+A.V part that

will tell us the tense because the A+V of one tense is not repeated in

any other. [This stipulation however, applies only when we use the

Basic Auxiliaries, which are: AM, IS, ARE, HAS, HAVE, WAS WERE,

HAD, DO, DOES, DID, WILL, SHALL, BE and BEEN (15)].

At school level, we must cover the first 16 tenses leaving the

balance two (viz, PAST IN THE PRESENT and PAST IN THE PRESENT

CONTINUOUS) to the Plus 2 or first year in College level. Of the 16,

14 are the action‐oriented types, which are: SIMPLE PRESENT,

PRESENT CONTINUOUS, SIMPLE PAST, PAST CONTINUOUS, FUTURE,

FUTURE CONTINUOUS, PRESENT PERFECT, PRESENT PERFECT

CONTINUOUS, PAST PERFECT, PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS, FUTURE

PERFECT, FUTURE PERFECT CONTINUOUS, FUTURE IN THE PAST (FIP)

and FUTURE IN THE PAST CONTINUOUS. (14)

Many books have bulked the PRESENT tense and SIMPLE PRESENT

and call them “Present tense”. I beg to differ. While one is an ‘action

less tense’, the other is an ‘action‐oriented tense.’ They cannot be

grouped together.

14 

In the same way, there is a clear distinction between PAST tense

and SIMPLE PAST tense.

This is how the language uses in all 16 tenses – 2 action less and

14 action based.

Some new information about a Simple sentence

Take the sentence,

“James is writing a letter to his mother.” S A V O1 O2

“Writing” is the activity. .

The Meaning part consists of two objects.

We can look at the O/C part in another way also. “It tells us

the details of the activity of ‘writing’. “

We have already noted that a normal Verb will reveal the nature

of the activity. Someone must be performing this activity. That

someone is the Subject. So, we can look at the Subject, not only as

one having a simple Noun but also as the “Doer” of an activity. This

activity must be directed upon something; some Noun of person or

Thing only. That something is the Object.

We must view a Complement as a Manner or Time or Place, the

Subject is being led into.

15 

How to identify O and C

We can identify O and C only through test questions using the

Interrogative Pronouns to identify the Object(s) and Interrogative

Adverbs for Complement(s). There is no other reliable method. Shall

we take a test case?

“ Sneha won’t buy cheap things S NegA V O1

from any market any day C1(Place) C2(time)

“Sneha won’t buy” WHAT? The answer is “cheap things”, hence it

is the Object. “Sneha won’t buy cheap things from” WHERE? Answer

is, “any market”, which is a Complement of place; Sneha……. WHEN?

The answer is “any day” which is a Complement of time.

Put the test question after S+A+V along with any other word(s)

found in the sentence, if necessary, to identify the end words.

Both O and C contribute to the meaning of the sentence or both

will contain the details of the ‘activity’ concerned.

The Complement of ‘time’ and ‘place’ will be always Nouns.

This fact is to be explained to the learners very clearly because some

students seem to think that any Noun found in the Meaning part will be

an Object. Not at all.

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The main word in an Object will be a Noun (of a Person or Thing)

which may be supported by words of all parts of speech except A and

V.

The main word in a Complement will be an Adverb (Adverb of

MANNER or Adverb of TIME or Adverb of PLACE) which may be

supported by words of all parts of speech except A and V.

Sentence analysis

“Analysing a sentence” means, breaking it into S,A,V,O,C

components.

The Grammar rules for all tenses

There is an S+A+V rule for every tense. Every student must

memorise these rules, which are given below:

Subject Auxiliary Verb form

1. Present tense (With A.V. Action less)

I AM AM

WE, YOU,THEY ARE ARE

HE,SHE,IT IS IS

2.Present continuous tense (with A+V)

I AM Present in ING

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WE,YOU,THEY ARE “

HE,SHE,IT IS “

3. Simple present tense (with A+V)

I,WE,YOU,THEY DO Present

HE,SHE,IT DOES “

WERE WERE I,HE,SHE,IT WAS WAS

5. Past continuous tense (With A+V)

I,HE,SHE,IT WAS Cont. verb WE,YOU,THEY WERE “

6. Simple past tense (With A +V)

All persons DID Present

7. Future tense (With A+V)

All Persons WILL/SHALL Present

8. Future continuous tense (With A+V)

All persons WILL BE Cont. verb SHALL BE “

9. Present perfect tense (With A+V)

HE,SHE,IT HAS PP verb I,WE,YOU,THEY HAVE “

10. Present perfect cont. (With A+V)

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I,WE,YOU,THEY HAVE BEEN Cont. verb

HE,SHE,IT HAS BEEN “

11. Past perfect tense (with A+V)

All persons HAD PP form

12. Past perfect cont. (with A+V)

All persons HAD BEEN Cont. verb

13. Future perfect tense (with A+V)

All persons WILL HAVE PP verb SHALL HAVE “

14. Future perfect cont. (with A+V)

All persons WILL HAVE BEEN Cont. verb SHALL HAVE BEEN “

15 Future in the past (FIP) (with A+V)

All persons WOULD HAVE PP verb COULD HAVE “ SHOULD HAVE “ MUST HAVE “ OUGH TO HAVE “ NEED HAVE “ MIGHT HAVE “

Would/could/should/must/ } ought to/need got/become/ } use only been USED TO } the verb in bold

. Was/were GOING TO Present

(9 auxiliary sets)

19 

16. FIP continuous (with A+V)

All persons WOULD HAVE BEEN ING verb COULD “ “ or Cont. verb SHOULD “ “ “ MUST “ “ “ OUGH TO “ “ “ NEED “ “ “ MIGHT “ “ “

(all above) getting/becoming getting/becoming only

USED TO (all above) HAVE KEPT ING verb

(9 Auxiliary sets)

The FIP tense uses only Universal auxiliaries. We use this tense “to

talk about an action we wanted to do in some past time but didn’t do

it. ” Isn’t it strange that we have been using this tense in our

conversation (incidentally in all Indian languages as well) and yet have

not given it a suitable name! Even the British and American authors

have not. I propose that we call it by the name “Future in the Past

tense (FIP).”This is a new name from my side. Here are some

examples:

(a) We couldn’t have attended your party yesterday because there

was heavy snow on our route.

(b) We might have caught the culprit but he was too strong for us.

(c) Some of us need have got used to giving evasive answers.

20 

Some comments about use of Simple Present and Simple past tenses

I had already stated that there is no English sentence without

S+A+V. Due to wrong or improper teaching, some students and even

highly qualified English professors seem to think that there is no

Auxiliary in a1 category sentences in Simple Present and Simple past.

We need to take corrective action on this immediately. Consider the

following a1 categories with analysis:

(a) Radha and I read our morning paper at 6 a. m S V O C(t)

Here, we have deliberately omitted (silenced) the auxiliary DO.to the

left of the verb ‘read’. The correct sentence should read, “Radha and

I do read our….”

To remind ourselves that the auxiliary DO is very much present

but hidden, we must show the sentence analysis like this,

“Radha and I read our morning……..” S (A)V O

Then, take a Simple present with HE,SHE,IT as Subject. We have

been teaching that “with Third person singular in the Subject, add

letter ‘s’ to the verb” like this,

“He eats his breakfast hurriedly.” S V O C

Such teaching will give an impression that there is no auxiliary. Wrong

again. Why not we teach that the real sentence is like this,

“He does eat his breakfast hurriedly.”

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S A V O C

Alternatively, we may silence the auxiliary and give an ‘s’ sound

to the verb. Thus,

DOES + eat = eats DOES + catch = catches DOES + fry = fries.

We will get the ‘s’ sound by adding letter ‘s’ to some verbs,

‘es’ to some and ‘ies’ If we write the verb with ‘s’ sound directly,

then we must show the auxiliary inside bracket like this,

“James eats his breakfast t hurriedly.” S (A)V O C(m)

In the same way, in Simple past a1 category sentences, we must

show the auxiliary DID like this,

“Raj did speak to me the other day. S A V O C(t)

“Raj spoke to me the other day.” S ( A)V O C(t)

Remembering, Spoke = DID + speak

Reached = DID + reach Wrote = DID + write

This confusion, I am afraid, prevails all over the English speaking

world, as it were. I have often heard such statements from HOD of

English departments in the Western world on the internet. What

about the other categories. i.e, a2, Gen Sp Q, EQ1 and EQ2. Isn’t

the auxiliary/auxiliary set staring at you in these sentences? As a

matter of fact, we can never write any a2 or any question type

22 

category in an y tens without using the auxiliary the auxiliary. Could

it then vanish in a1 category?

To reiterate, there is no English sentence without S+A+V.

Other elements in the O/C part

What we have covered so far concerns only the S+A+V part and

how to write Simple sentences in all the 16 tenses.

Now, three elements could enter the O/C part and enrich our

sentences making them look sophisticated in style.

They are Infinitive, Gerund and Participle.

Infinitive

What is an infinitive? It is a Present form verb with the preposition

“to” as shown below:

Run ‐ “to run”

Finish ‐ “to finish”

Thus, the English language has as many infinitives as the number of

Present form verbs.

Having formed an infinitive, we can use it as “verb” or as “noun”.

Infinitive as verb

Since we have derived it from a Present form verb, it is also a

phrase of action. If we want to show that a Doer in a Simple sentence

23 

can do two or three actions, one after another, we should use

infinitive‐verbs only for the second and subsequent actions like this,

“Peter had come here to see me and to discuss the English

grammar rules.”

Now, the sentence formula will be,

a1 : S+A+V+O or C + Infin‐V + O/C

a1 : S+A+V+ Infin‐V + O/C

a2 : S+NegA+V+O or C+Infin‐V+ Infin‐V + O/C

The infinitive‐verb may be in the continuous form as well like this,

To go ‐ to be going

To sell ‐ to be selling

To write ‐ to be writing.

Infinitive‐verbs in Emphatics

We can use the infinitive‐verbs to make very powerful a1 or a2

categories along with A.Vs in the Subject section, as shown below:

(a) I am / not to meet you ever again.

S A.V Infin. V O C(t)

(b)John is / to report to me at 1400 hours.

(c) The students are / to sit in the class by 0800 hours.

(d) The Headmaster has / to give a proper explanation to his

superiors.

24 

(e) All teachers have / not to take any leave during this month

(f) Wasn’t Krishna / to take part in the debate yesterday?

(g) Our team had / to abandon the trek programme due to heavy rain.

While we have used the A.Vs in the three tense families, we may

use in the S+A+V part the normal verb HAVE along with some

selected auxiliaries, for the action oriented tenses in the three

families, like this,

(h) Some of us don’t have / to be present in the meeting today.

(i) Roja doesn’t have / to sit for this test.

(j) Joe did have / to speak in yesterday’s debate.

(k) You will have / to take me to a movie this evening.

Thus, we can make use of all the A.Vs to make powerful positive

or negative statements. Have you noted that all the above sentences

are ‘future looking’ types wherein no action has taken place? We can’t

use the Emphatics for any past cases. For instance, the following

statement cannot be put in the Emphatic form:

“We didn’t see this man last night”.

Infinitive Noun as Object

. As Noun, we can use an infinitive as the Object in a sentence

like this,

“The king took part in the war to win”.

“Where shall we sit to discuss?”.

“We didn’t gather here to fight, did we?” S NegA V C O Q. tag

25 

In all the cases, the infinitive Nouns pass the object test. But,

make sure that the end word is the infinitive; only then we can treat

them as nouns. If there are any words after the infinitive, the

infinitive noun will turn into an infinitive‐verb.

Study the following example,

(a)Didn’t you attend this exam to pass? NegA S V O1 O2

(aa)Didn’t you attend exam to pass the examination? O1 Infin‐V O2

“to pass” has become an infinitive‐verb because of the end words ‐

“the examination”.

Infinitive Noun as Subject

“To read is a good habit.” S A.V O

“To swim was my hobby long back”

“To tell lies as a routine is ungodly”. Noun Ampli. words A.V C |…….Subject…………|

If the infinitive‐noun is not self explanatory, we can use

“amplifying words” for a clearer meaning. In which case, the Subject

will be the infinitive‐noun plus the amplifying words.

We can use an infinitive‐noun as S and O in the same sentence

like this,

“To work is to worship?

26 

“To give is better than to receive”

Have you noticed that all the sentences with infinitive‐noun‐

Subject are all in Present or Past tense only, i.e action less tenses.

Why? An infinitive‐noun is neither a Person nor a Thing. Therefore it

cannot be the ‘doer’ of an action. Being an unconventional noun we

have to use them only in action less tenses.

Infinitive verb as connectors

We can use an infinitive‐verb for connecting two Simple

sentences. Isn’t this a miracle that 2 Nos S+A+V+O/C becoming 1 No.

S+A+V+O/C. Consider the following pairs:

(a) Every playing team has a Captain. (b) A Captain leads the team in action.

We can combine these two into a single Simple sentence like this,

“Every playing team has a Captain to lead it in

action.”

(c)The thief flourished a knife at her. (d) The thief frightened the housewife.

“The thief flourished a knife to frighten the house wife.”

But, don’t think that every pair could be connected by an

infinitive. For instance, the infinitive‐connector method fails here:

(e)We went to the auditorium for a discussion. (f) The other party had not turned up.

27 

Gerund

What is a ‘gerund’?

It is a Present form verb ending in ING When so done, the verb

turns into a Noun, a verbal‐noun, and it is called GERUND.

We can use a Gerund‐noun as Subject or Object. Unlike the

infinitive‐noun, here we can use amplifying words both in Subject and

Object. Examine the following sentences:

(a)Ram doesn’t like copying my notes S NegA V Ger‐N ampl..words

|……O……………|

(b) Sleeping in the afternoon does not improve your health. |…… S …………………| NegA V O

(c) I don’t like eating in hotels? S NegA V Ger‐N‐O C

Do note that in(a) and (c), the gerund‐noun‐object comes

immediately after S+A+V.

We have used amplifying words to a Gerund‐noun‐object and

also Gerund‐noun‐subject.

We have used the Gerund‐N‐S in all action‐based sentences,

because a gerund is nearly equivalent to a conventional noun of

‘thing’.

28 

Gerund‐verb

Can we use a gerund with the force of a verb? Opinions differ

but I say, we can.

If we use some special prepositions to a gerund, it assumes the

force of a verb. Therefore, we should call them gerund‐verbs. Here

are some examples:

(a) Surely you could have reached my house for taking part in

various games.

“for taking” part is a verb, all because, we can replace it with an

infinitive‐verb like this,

(aa) Surely you could have reached my house to take part in

various games.

Here are more examples:

(b) My mother was very happy at meeting you yesterday.

(bb) My mother was very happy to meet you yesterday.

(c) Jennifer felt happy at winning the first prize.

(cc) Jennifer felt happy to win the first prize.

(d) Don’t all parents advise their children against fighting with

other children??

(dd) Don’t all parents advise their children not to fight with

others.

29 

Where we are unable to replace a gerund by an infinitive verb,

we should treat them as gerund‐noun‐object.

Summarising,

(a) We can use a gerund‐noun‐subject in any tense unlike the

infinitive‐noun‐subject.

(b) A gerund‐noun‐object will come immediately after S+A+V.

(c) If there is a preposition as a partner to a gerund, we may call it a

gerund‐verb if

we can replace it by an infinitive‐verb.

(d) A gerund‐verb will come like this,

S+A+V+ O or C+ gerund‐verb + O/C

Participle

What is a participle? A Participle is also a connector which can

convert two Simple sentences into a single Simple sentence.

Participles are of 3 types – Present, Past and Perfect. Using

Participles in your sentence will add beauty and style to your

language.

Present participle

A Present participle will look exactly like a gerund. We distinguish

it only by applying the ‘participle test’ and not just by looking at the

word. Consider the following sentence,

“I saw a dog playing with a child.”

S (A)V O1 ? O2

30 

“playing” here is a participle because it appears after O1(or C) . If it

is a gerund, it would have appeared immediately after S+A+V. It is not

a verb because there is no Auxiliary partner to it. This is the

‘participle test.’.

Here are more examples:

(a) We saw a small boy carrying a monkey on his shoulder.

(b) When we went to the shop we could not spot anyone

standing at the counter.

(c) John normally doesn’t lie to anyone remembering his father’s

advice.

We can also start the sentence with the Present participle but

only in some cases, like this,

(cc) Remembering his father’s advice, John normally doesn’t lie

to anyone.

We use the Present participle for ‘action not completed cases’.

Therefore the tense or the time period doesn’t matter at all.

Past participle

The Past participle is nothing but a PP verb, followed by one of

the three prepositions out of BY, AT,WITH.

We use the Past participle for ‘action completed cases’. Its

location would be, S+A+V+O or C + Past parti +O/C like in the other

case.

(a) We continued our trek charmed by the scenery around.

(b) Attracted with the light, several insects fell dead.

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(c) The interview board selected John impressed at his style of

English.

. Perfect participle

We use the Perfect participle to show completion of two actions

one following the other. Its location too will be the same as in the

other two cases. Here are the examples:

(a) We went out for a walk having finished our dinner, around

2000 hours.

(b) Having struck a deal, we started our work on the important

project.

Participle is a connector. Here are the examples of how to use all

the three models to connect two sentences into a single sentence:

(a)The Minister followed the CM’s instructions strictly. (b) He issued

suitable orders from his side.

The new combined sentences is,

(1) Following the CM’s instructions, the Minister issued suitable

orders from his side.

(Pr. Parti method)

(c )The dictator had come to know of the plot. (d) He refused to

eat anything on his dining table.

(2) Having come to know about the plot, the dictator refused to eat

anything on the dining table. (Perfect participle connector)

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(e) The MPs felt unsatisfied with the Minister’s reply. (f) They

demanded a statement right from the PM

(3) Not satisfied with the Minister’s reply, the MPs demanded a

statement right from the PM. (Past parti method)

When one of the sentences is with A.V (i.e. Present or Past tense),

use the participle BEING like this:

(g) I am your close friend. (h) Haven’t I the right to know some of

your secrets?

(d) Being your close friend, haven’t I the right to know some of

your secrets?(Pr Parti method)

Adjectives and Adverbs

There is some misconception about these two parts of speech.

Both will describe the quality of a common noun. We can use an

Adverb singly and it will pass the Adverb/Complement test. We can

use all Adverbs of Manner as Adjective by placing it to the left of a

common noun and describing it in some way except in terms of its

number.

Here is an example: (a) Banu is a beautiful girl. (b) Banu is beautiful.

Adj Adv

In (a) ‘beautiful’ is an adjective since it is to the left of a common

noun. In(b) the word stands on its own and passes the Complement

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test of Manner.(TQ: HOW) An Adverb will describe a noun standing far

away from that noun.

Passive voice

As of now, the Passive voice teaching method appears to be all

right. Here, I have two proposals for consideration

If the Object has a preposition with it, we cannot put such a

sentence in Passive form. Take the following sentence:

“Mala didn’t talk to me at all this morning.” O

Because of “to” along with the object ‘me’, we cannot convert this

sentence into Passive form Try and verify it yourself.

The present day grammar books don’t even make a mention of this

fact.

Continuous tenses in Passive form

Out of the 14 action based tenses, we cannot put in Passive form

5 tenses. They are: FUTURE CONTINUOUS, PRESENT PERFECT CONT,

PAST PERFECT CONT, FUTURE PERFECT CONT and FIP. CONT. TENSES.

The reason is “shortage of auxiliaries”. But, why not we use

auxiliary sets shown below.

(1) (A) We will be winning the prize.

(P) The prize will be being won by us.

(2) (A) Raj has been copying my answers.

(P) My answers have been being copied by Raj.)

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(3)A) Smitha had been seeing too many movies lately.

(P) Too many movies had been being seen by Smitha lately

(4) (A) We will have reached New Delhi by tomorrow morning.

(P) New Delhi will have been being reached by us by tomorrow

(5) (A) We could have been eating our lunch for over 30 minutes.

(P) Our lunch could have been being eaten by us for over

30minutes.

Conclusion

The Author’s claim is that if we teach English through the

S+A+V+O/C formula method, the students would learn the language

much faster, find themselves on firmer grounds and also attain a kind

of mastery in the English language..

Apart from the above, the article gives some new

definitions/terminologies and new approach/interpretations. It is up

to the various fora to examine the proposals and accept with

modification if any, or reject outright. We don’t have to look to

Britain or US or Australia or Canada or New Zealand for new ideas on

English grammar. We could do it equally well and as comprehensively

too. Once a few Forums, Seminars, a team of English teachers and

Conferences accept the new ideas, they become ‘law’ and must be

adopted in various schools and college books.

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This is how Isaac Newton’s theory of gravitation and Galeleo’s

theory of the Earth going round the Sun, Einstein’s theory of

relativity, were accepted. and adopted..

English grammar has remained untouched and unrevised ever since

its introduction in India by Wren and Martin. Isn’t it time we

modernized/updated this so called Traditional grammar.?

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