Tip 32: Common Mistakes in Usage of Similar-looking Words & Punctuations

1. Lose and Loose
Kids, and even adults make the mistake of using these two words interchangably. They must remember "You can lose your keys if you put them in your very loose pants!"

2. Affect and Effect
"Affect" is a verb while "effect" is a noun. Use them in the correct way. For instance, "If this incident affects your mood, it has an effect on you."

3. Semi-colons
Semi-colons are not commas, neither are they colons. A semi-colon is used between closely related independent clauses not conjoined with any coordinating conjunction.

For example,
"I went to visit John at the hospital; I was told that no visits are allowed."

Or between items in a series that has its own punctuation:
"I have three good buddies, Jackie, who is sister; Lea, who is my cousin; and Liming, who is my classmate.

4. It's and Its
The two are not interchangeable. "It's" is short for "it is". "Its" is the possessive form of "It." Thus, "It's a great day for roller-blading at East Coast Park." and "Leave the dog alone. Its tail was crushed by roller-blades at East Coast Park and it needs rest now."

5. Let's and Lets
The two are not interchangeable. "Let's" is short for "Let us". "Lets" is singular verb for "let". Thus, "Let's go swimming together." and "Mum lets me go swimming with my friends."

6. Then and Than
"Then" describes what happens next. "Than" is used in comparing two items. Hence, "I love painting more than drawing." and " I am going to draw first, then paint later.

Tip 31: Collective Nouns

Tip 30: Similes

1. as easy as ABC
2. as clear as crystal
3. as tinmid as a mouse
4. as blind as a bat
5. as busy as an ant/a bee
6. as clumsy as a bear
7. as a fast/swift as a dear
8. as gentle as a dove/lamb
9. as graceful as a swan
10. as happy as a lark/king
11. as obstinate as a mule
12. as proud as a peacok
13. as quiet as a mouse
14. as strong as a horse/an ox
15. as sick as a dog
16. as slippery as an eel
17. as sober as a judge
18. as good as gold
19. as like as two peas
20. as deaf as a doorpost
21. as cool as cucumber
22. as quick as lightning
23. as white as a sheet
24. as steady as a rock

Tip 29: Gender

Masculine & Feminine Words

Tip 28: Plural Nouns

A list of irregular plural nouns to take note in P2:

1) box-boxes
2) sandwich-sandwiches
3) lunch-lunches
4) volcano-volcanoes
5) buffalo-buffaloes
6) mosquito-mosquitoes
7) tornado-tornadoes
8) city-cities
9) scarf-scarves
10) hoof-hooves
11) hero-heroes
12) tomato-tomatoes
13) potato- potatoes
14) man-men
15) child-children
16) woman-women
17) mouse-mice
18) tooth-teeth
19) goose-geese
20) foot-feet
21) ox-oxen
22) shelf-shelves
23) thief-thieves
24) wife-wives
25) deer-deer
26) fish-fish
27) bus-buses
28) calf-calves
29) yourself-yourselves
30) echo-echoes
31) sheep-sheep
32) knife-knives
33) dwarf-dwarves
34) leaf-leaves
35) penny-pennies
36) baby-babies
37) story-stories
38) life-lives
39) kiss-kisses
40) quiz-quizzes
41) half-halves
42) spy-spies
43) stitch-stitches
44) fly-flies
45) copy-copies
46) beach-beaches
47) party-parties
48) church-churches

Tip 27: Present and Past Tense

When tackling present/past tense multiple choice questions, such as:

1) "Everyone always_____something to say about the canteen food last year.
- has
- had
- having
- have

2) May ___ to eat ice-cream, so her mum buys her a tub.
- love
- loves
- loving
- loved

Get your primary 1 or 2 child to follow these rules:

- always finish reading the whole sentence (because it's important not to miss any clues if the event in in present or past, or any other information)

- decide if the event is in the present or past (and this would help determine if the verb will be in present or past tense.)

- if verb is in present tense, ensure subject-verb agreement. (Examine if subject is singular or plural, e.g Nobody likes him)

- if verb is in past tense, use it regardless of plural or singular subject, unless it's was/were whereby subject-verb agreement has to be ensured.

Tip 26: Past Tense

A list of verbs in past tense for P2. An observation can be easily made here - English is irregular. For instance, some irregular verbs like "cut", "beat", "hit" do not change when they are in past tense. Not all past tense verbs end with "ed".

Tip 25: Lower Primary Oral

A list of Do's and Don'ts for Primary 2 Oral Exam (Picture-based):

Do’s

1) Greet Teacher.
2) Start well – this is a picture of a (adjective) …..(topic), this picture shows a (adjective)… (topic), this picture depicts a scene from a…(topic).
3) Tell story with clear articulation and with expression (appropriate intonation and pitch).
4) Show a rich vocabulary.(e.g use adjectives to describe the characters).
5) Use present tense.
6) Use a variety of ways to start the sentences by e.g indicating position of picture (the left hand side of the picture…, the right side of the picture..), using numbers (there are 3 young ladies…, 2 boys are…, etc), adjectives (an elderly man, a blind girl, many children, several girls, etc), or position of the subject (sitting beside the young girl is…, standing next to the boy is…, resting under the shady tree is a girl…).
7) Discuss about the characters (e.g I think the girl is very kind-hearted, I think the boy is very thoughtful and considerate...), make suggestions/share opinions/feelings (e.g this is not right…(consequence), she should...), they seem to be very close friends…, the boys seem to be having a fun time building sandcastle).
8) Thank Teacher.


Don’ts

1) Do not point to pictures.
2) Do not say “this is…..”, “that is…” when referring to the characters in the pictures.
3) Do not say “I see…”, “I saw...”.

Tip 24: Composition Writing

For the Primary 2's, writing composition for the very first time is like learning to walk on a tightrope, or at least I feel this way.

I made a list of items for my daughter so that she could use it to check against her own writing each time she has to do a composition.

1) Start(setting), body(problem-solution), ending. Do some upfront planning (5 minutes).

2) Start - make it interesting (descriptions, speech, feelings).

3) End - make it impactful/ memorable (e.g use of proverbs, saying, incorporate feelings).

4) Check tense, tense consistency, spelling, and ensure complete sentences.

5) Check punctuations marks - capital letters, comma, full-stop, inverted commas, exclamation marks, and question marks.

6) Show a rich/colourful vocabulary. (Find substitutes for common words such as "good", “bad”, "nice", "happy", "like", “sad”, “walk”, “run”, etc).

7) Read the story again after finishing, ensure flow is smooth and coherent.

Tip 23: The Comma Debate

Except in sentences where there are only two items (e.g I eat fruit and vegetables), I have always assumed that a comma is obligatory before "and", as in:

1) She ate an apple, two pears, and a bunch of grapes.
2) I take fish, beef, and mutton.
3) The flood last week devastated the whole village, and many people were left homeless.

However, yesterday Jerrie’s English teacher taught them that comma is only necessary in cases where confusion is likely to happen. Thus, no comma is required in:

- I take fish, beef and mutton.
- I have red, pink and blue pencils.

And a comma is recommended in:
- I like a drink, an egg, and a ham and cheese sandwich.
- The restaurant served fish and chips, bacon and egg, and carrot and mushroom soup.

Tip 22: Some Commonly Mispelt Words

A list of English words which I notice Singaporeans, (including me) tend to falter when spelling them. Sometimes, we rely so much on spell check tools which allow us to conveniently choose and click on to the right spelling that we don't even know that we can't spell them correctly anymore without those tools!

Tip 21: Interested in Phonetics?

My name is pronounced as ru:ˈθ.

I love phonetics. For me, it's one of those things that you learn once and it's hard to forget. Jason said that I should start a class teaching parents that. I gave him a strange look and told him that nobody would find it useful and that the schools would be teaching phonetics to the children if it was really beneficial. Children learn words by uttering them, don't they? Then why do I like it so much? Purely for the fun and vanity of it! It's like knowing a new language.

If you understand phonetics, there is a very cool website that translates English words into phonetics. For any English word that you are not sure of its pronunciation, you can check it out there. Nevermind that it's a Japanese website, it really doesn't really. It's intuitive enough to know where you should key in the word and you just click the first left button to submit. This is good stuff; I think you can't find any free tool like this else where. (But let me know if you know of any....:) )

Here you go: http://www.manabo.net/