Speech Work: Identification of Diphthongs in words

THE PRIMARY DIPHTHONGS

There are eight primary diphthongs in the English language, according to and. They are:

  • /eɪ/ as in day, pay, say, lay
  • /aɪ/ as in sky, buy, cry, tie
  • /ɔɪ/ as in boy, toy, coy or the first syllable of soya
  • /ɪə/ as in beerpierhear
  • /eə/ as in bearpair, and hair
  • /ʊə/ as in tour, poor or the first syllable of tourist
  • /əʊ/ as in oh, no, so, or phone
  • /aʊ/ as in all the words of “How now brown cow!”

Grammar: highlighting the active voice

What Is Active Voice? (With Examples)

A verb is said to be in active voice when the subject performs the verb.

Look at this example of the active voice:

Active voice is the quality of a verb that describes when its subject is acting out the verb. When the opposite is true (i.e., the subject of the sentence is being acted upon by the verb), it is said to be in passive voice.

Look at this example of the passive voice:

Examples of Verbs in the Active Voice

If a verb is in the active voice, its subject performs the action of the verb.

Examples of active verbs (active verbs shaded):

  • Curiosity killed the cat.

Step 1: Find the subject.

(In this example, it’s Curiosity.)

Step 2: Did the subject perform the verb?

(In this example, the verb is to kill, and Curiosity did perform the action of the verb. Therefore, killed is a verb in the active voice.)

  • All power corrupts.

Step 1: Find the subject.

(In this example, it’s All power.)

Step 2: Did the subject perform the verb?

(In this example, the verb is to corrupt, and All power did perform the action of the verb. Therefore, corrupts is a verb in the active voice.)

  • Some weasel removed the cork from my lunch. (W. C. Fields, 1880-1946)

Step 1: Find the subject.

(In this example, it’s some weasel.)

Step 2: Did the subject perform the verb?

(In this example, the verb is to remove, and some weasel did perform the action of the verb. Therefore, removed is a verb in the active voice.)

Sometimes, it’s a little trickier to spot whether the subject carried out the action of the verb. Look at the two examples below. They tell similar stories, but the first one is an active sentence, and the second is a passive sentence.

  • The boy tripped while running.

Step 1: Find the subject.

(In this example, it’s the boy.)

Step 2: Did the subject perform the verb?

(In this example, the verb is to trip, and the boy did perform the action of the verb. Therefore, tripped is a verb in the active voice.)

  • The boy was seen tripping while he ran.

Step 1: Find the subject.

(In this example, it’s the boy.)

Step 2: Did the subject perform the verb?

(In this example, the verb is to see, and the boy did not perform the action of the verb. Therefore, was seen is a verb in the passive voice.)

So, in the second example, the boy is not performing the action of the verb. Some unknown person is performing the action by seeing the boy trip. This is an example of the passive voice because the subject is not acting out the verb.

More examples of active sentences:

  • The kite went high in the air.
  • The children closed their eyes from the bright sun.
  • A squirrel quickly ran across the grass to climb a giant tree.
  • Paul imagined the animal’s different cloud shapes could form.
  • The ants swarmed the picnic with military precision.
  • Suzy chased the butterfly with a net.
  • He is happy.

(Remember, the verb to be is the most common verb in every language.)

  • They are late.

Reading and Comprehension: Reading to identify an appropriate introduction and conclusion for selected topics.

A Successful Cocoa farmer

I grow all my own plant from seed. First of all, I prepare shelter over the nursery beds which are situated near a stream. Too much sun harms cocoa plants. I usually make shelter from branches and palm fronds.

Then I plant my seeds. I usually have a few extra seeds which I sell to other farmers. I water them regularly. After six months when the plants are about 35 centimeters high, I move them from the nursery beds to the main farm. I usually do this about April or may, after the March rain.

Protecting the plant from the sun is a major problem and I usually plant cassava, plantain or cocoa yam around them. We eat most of the food, but some I sell.

Some farmers allow their trees to flower after three years, to get quick harvest. But I find it better to remove the flowers, to allow the trees to grow stronger. I expect my first harvest after five years. I find that most produce fruits for 30 years or more.

From the passage above, we can see that the introduction tells us about a successful farmer, and in conclusion, we are told how he is able to achieve this success, and how he gets a good result. Read the passage again, and carefully identify the introduction and the conclusion of the passage.

Composition: Elements of Writing

Writing can have many different purposes. Here are just a few examples:

Summarizing: Presenting the main points or essence of another text in a condensed form

Arguing/Persuading: Expressing a viewpoint on an issue or topic in an effort to convince others that your viewpoint is correct

Narrating: Telling a story or giving an account of events

Evaluating: Examining something in order to determine its value or worth based on a set of criteria.

Analyzing: Breaking a topic down into its component parts in order to examine the relationships between the parts.

Examining/Investigating: Systematically questioning a topic to discover or uncover facts that are not widely known or accepted, in a way that strives to be as neutral and objective as possible.

Observing: Helping the reader see and understand a person, place, object, image or event that you have directly watched or experienced through detailed sensory descriptions.

What is a paragraph?

A paragraph is a collection of related sentences dealing with a single topic. Learning to write good paragraphs will help you as a writer stay on track during your drafting and revision stages. Good paragraphing also greatly assists your readers in following a piece of writing.

The Basic Rule: Keep One Idea to One Paragraph. Appropriate use of paragraph helps your work to be concise, clear, and coherent.

A topic sentence

A topic sentence is a sentence that indicates in a general way what idea or thesis the paragraph is going to deal with.

Support

The topic (which is introduced by the topic sentence) should be discussed fully and adequately. Again, this varies from paragraph to paragraph, depending on the author’s purpose, but writers should beware of paragraphs that only have two or three sentences.

ASSESSMENT

  1. What is an Active voice
  2. What is a paragraph
  3. Define a topic sentence

ANSWER

  1. Active voice is the quality of a verb that describes when its subject is acting out the verb
  2. A paragraph is a collection of related sentences dealing with a single topic.
  3. A topic sentence is a sentence that indicates in a general way what idea or thesis the paragraph is going to deal with.