Q&A - PSLE English

[ridcully]

hashroop:

Synthesis/Transformation


Need help in this:
Q: Miss Lim must raise her voice. Otherwise, the class will not hear her.
A: Unless Miss Lim raises her voice, the class will not be able to hear her.
Note: why can't we use would iso will?
Extracted from past year paper.

Q: \"Joy, I will celebrate my birthday next weekend,\" said David.
A: David told Joy that he would celebrate his birthday the following weekend.
Here would celebrate is used.
Can someone pls explain when to use will and when to use would .

Hi Jessy. There are several different uses for 'will' and 'would'. In the two questions you pose, we can think of 'will' as being the present tense and 'would' as being the past tense [of 'will'].

Your first question is an example of the first conditional. For first conditionals, the condition clause is written in the present tense so we use 'will' + base form of verb in the result clause.

Your second question is an example of rewriting from direct speech to indirect speech. We usually change the verbs from the present tense to the past tense; thus, 'will' becomes 'would'.

Hope that helps.
R

[Mdm Koh]

anneshirleygilbert:

Hello everyone,


Need help on this question, please.

1. \"This problem concerns you and me.\" or
2. \"This problem concerns you and I.

My daughter's teacher says (2) is correct. What do you say?

Tks.

This video will answer your question. http://www.engvid.com/common-english-errors-i-or-me-she-or-her/

This link will explain why your child's teacher thought that the answer was (2). http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/myself.html

[ridcully]

anneshirleygilbert:

1. \"This problem concerns you and me.\" or

2. \"This problem concerns you and I.

My daughter's teacher says (2) is correct. What do you say?

The teacher is wrong.

The verb 'concern' is transitive, that is it takes an object. In the sentence, the subject is 'problem' and the objects are 'you' and 'me'. You cannot use 'I' as it is a subject pronoun.

Rgds
R

[ridcully]

smileplease:

The sentence must have the word \"between\".

Hi smileplease. That's a different sentence structure employing a preposition. You are right though that prepositions as well as transitive verbs take object pronouns.


Rgds
R

[hashroop]

ridcully:

hashroop:

Synthesis/Transformation


Need help in this:
Q: Miss Lim must raise her voice. Otherwise, the class will not hear her.
A: Unless Miss Lim raises her voice, the class will not be able to hear her.
Note: why can't we use would iso will?
Extracted from past year paper.

Q: \"Joy, I will celebrate my birthday next weekend,\" said David.
A: David told Joy that he would celebrate his birthday the following weekend.
Here would celebrate is used.
Can someone pls explain when to use will and when to use would .

Hi Jessy. There are several different uses for 'will' and 'would'. In the two questions you pose, we can think of 'will' as being the present tense
and 'would' as being the past tense [of 'will'].


Thanks R for your help, really appreciate it.
Regards

Your first question is an example of the first conditional. For first conditionals, the condition clause is written in the present tense so we use 'will' + base form of verb in the result clause.

Your second question is an example of rewriting from direct speech to indirect speech. We usually change the verbs from the present tense to the past tense; thus, 'will' becomes 'would'.

Hope that helps.
R

[languagelab]

I think it is just that PSLE English has evolved over the years. (For that matter, other subjects too but we are talking about English here)


Like this question from a PSLE’s Reading Comprehension Passage:

Why did the girl climb the tree when she saw the tiger?
Ans1: She wanted to save her own life.
Ans2: She wanted to save her own life by climbing the tree.
Ans3: She wanted to save her own life by climbing the tree as she knew that tigers cannot climb trees.

No prizes there for guessing the correct answer. : )

Besides purely learning the subject matter itself, that is, the knowledge base of grammar (tenses, singular, plural, etc.) and vocabulary (root, prefixes, suffixes, etc.), we cannot overlook the importance of skills to train the students in; an example is to handle the ‘Why’ questions in Reading Comprehension Passages.

Training in skills and strategies in English is key. Once trained, the student, with a good knowledge base in English, can apply them in any context.

[anneshirleygilbert]

Thank you, everyone. Appreciate all your answers.


Now comes the task of letting the teacher know. Pray she would be receptive so the other 39 kids in the class can be taught proper grammar.

Many thanks.

[htn]

Hi, what is the answer for this question?


His brillance set him _________ from the other children and he went on to accomplish great things.
1) out
2) forth
3) apart
4) aside

Thanks

[sssdarlings]

htn:

Hi, what is the answer for this question?


His brillance set him _________ from the other children and he went on to accomplish great things.
1) out
2) forth
3) apart
4) aside

Thanks

3) apart

[htn]

sssdarlings:

htn:

Hi, what is the answer for this question?


His brillance set him _________ from the other children and he went on to accomplish great things.
1) out
2) forth
3) apart
4) aside

Thanks

3) apart

Thanks