The notes above provide an in depth summary of the English Home Language Syllabus required by the IEB. This summary is one without the Matric Poetry and is extracted from the English Handbook and Study guide.
These notes have been used in the completion of the Final Matric Exams with confidence a...
● Common: Naming words, Words for ordinary things. (Desk, chair…)
● Proper: Names of people and places (Erin, England)
● Collective: Names of groups or collectives. (Herd of lions)
● Abstract: Something that is not visible or tangible. (Intelligence)
Pronouns:
● Personal: Refer to people or things. (She does her work)
● Possessive: Indicate ownership. (This is my house)
● Reflexive: Reflect back to the noun or the pronoun. (Jack cut himself)
● Interrogative: Interrogate or ask a question. (Who came to tea?) (What)
● Demonstrative: Point out a specific person or thing. (This or that)
● Indefinite: Refers to people or things in a general way. (You, they, someone, no-
one)
● Relative: Performs the functions of conjunctions by joining or connecting one
part of the sentence to another. (Who, whom, whose- refers to people) (that,
which, what- refers to animals or inanimate objects)
Articles:
● Denfinate: Refers to something specific or definite. (The)
● Indefinite: Referring to something indefinite or non-specific. (A & An)
Verbs:
● Finite: Can stand on its own/ doesn't need an auxiliary verb. (Plays, Argues)
● Auxiliary: Helping verbs (Can, is, may, were, shall)
, ● Non-Finite: Do not change their form even when the person and number of the
subjects change. (I want to eat something nice)
○ Gerund: Verbal noun. The -ing form of a verb. (Taking, Running)
○ Infinite: Is the base form of the verb. Often used with ‘to’ or without ‘to’.
(David and I agreed to meet at 4)
○ Participle: There are two kinds:
■ Present: Formed by adding -ing to a base verb (I have been
reading)
■ Past: Formed by adding -d, -ed, -en, -t or -n to the base verb (I have
worked)
● Transitive: There is an object in the sentence and it can be written in the passive
voice.
● Intransitive: There is no object in the sentence.
Adjective:
● Compound: Adjectives joined by hyphens
○ Eg. well-deserved.
● Degrees of comparison
○ Positive: Refers to one thing. (Eg. Flat)
○ Comparative: Compares two things. (Eg. Flatter)
○ Superlative: Compares more than two things and describes the best or
the most. (Eg. Flattest)
Adverb:
● Describes the verb. (He ran fast)
Conjunction:
● Joining words. (Although)
Preposition:
● Small words that usually relate two words or phrases to one another. (The
teacher sat on the chair behind her table)
Figures Of Speech
Comparisons
Similes
○ A direct comparison using like or as.
, Metaphor
○ A direct comparison without the use of like or as.
➔ Extended: Recurring metaphors or analogies throughout a poem or
passage.
➔ Mixed: Incongruous terms used to describe the same object or event.
(Mountains of strawberries). Should be avoided due to contradiction.
Personification
○ Giving human qualities to inanimate objects.
Apostrophe
○ Directly addressing an inanimate object or person is no longer living.
Allusion
○ A direct or indirect referral to a particular aspect. (Allude the bible in
poems)
Sound Devices
Alliteration
○ The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of a word.
Assonance
○ The repetition of vowel sounds.
■ Short vowel sounds can speed up and create joy.
■ Long vowel sounds slow down the pace and dampen the mood.
Onomatopoeia
○ Use of words that imitate real sounds.
Rhyme
○ Depends on sound, rather than written word.
Consonance
○ The same consonant sound repeats within a group of words
○ Eg. Traffic figures, on July Fourth, will be tough.
Contradictions
Antithesis
○ Compares and contradicts ideas or statements in a sentence.
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