Prevent... from

Eg. The barrier was put up to prevent people from falling over.

You can prevent the sun from shinning into the house by pulling down the curtain.

Amiable Vs Amicable

Amiable – pleasant and easy to get along

Amicable – People show friendliness towards one another and do not want to quarrel

Eg. Susan is amiable and everyone likes her.

Tricia is amicable and does not want to quarrel with the unreasonable boy.

Consist of = comprise

The ingredients of the soup consist of mushroom, cream and water.

The ingredients of the soup comprise mushroom, cream and water.

Alphabet Vs Letters

A-Z are letters of the English Alphabet.

The whole set of A-Z letters makes up the alphabet.

Cynical Vs Skeptical

Cynical person – assumes and expects the worst of others.

Eg. The cynical manager thinks that we will not be able to anything without him.

Skeptical person – hard to convince

Eg. My mother was skeptical when I told her that I was the first in class.

Prepositions

Prepositions are words that link the person or thing with the rest of the sentences. They also express time, show position or indicate direction.

Examples:

I am going to the zoo today.

There’s a butterfly on my back. Can you get it off me?

I am born in Singapore.

The ruler is made of wood.

Humpty Dumpty has fallen off the wall.

My puppy was missing since 2 weeks ago.

I waited until my parents got home before I go to bed.

We have to think out of the box.

Between… and

The word ‘between’ is used with ‘and’.

Eg. I am sitting between John and Sally.

The temperature is between 24 and 32 degree Celsius.

Come to my house between 1pm and 3pm.

Lose…lost…lost

‘Lost’ is the past tense and past participle of ‘lose’.

Eg. I often lose my things because I am forgetful.

I lost my pencil case yesterday.

My pencil case was lost yesterday.

Stay Vs Live

Stay – remain in a place, to live at a place for a short period of time

Live – to have your home there

There is a feel of permanence to the word ‘live’ that ‘stay does not have.

Eg. I stay at my grandmother’s place during the weekends.

I live in Woodlands with my parents.

Reported Speech

Rules to follow:

1. Do not change the tense if the introductory verb is in the present tense.

eg. He says," I am tired."
He says that he is tired.

2. Change the tense if the introductory verb is in the past tense.

eg. He said," I am sick."
He said that he was sick.

3. Do not change the tense if the statement expresses a general truth or when the action is still on-going.

eg. Tim explained, "Water is in the liquid state."
Tim explained that water is in the liquid state.

4. Change the following words:

now - then
today - on that day
tomorrow - the next day
yesterday - the previous day
next week - the following week
last week - the previous week
ago - before
here - there
this/ these - that/ those

Passive Voice

Passive Voice is used when we want to show that the action is more important than the person doing it.

eg. The victims were taken care to the hospital.

It is also used when we do not know who did it.

eg. My handphone was stolen last night.

Each Other vs. One Other

Each other is used to refer to two persons.

eg. Tom and Jane love each other very much.

One another is used to refer to more than two person.

eg. The group members blamed one another for the mistake.

Unless

'Unless' has the same meaning as 'if...not'.

eg. I will not buy you a Bakugan if you do not do your work.

I will not buy you a Bakugan unless you do your work.
Unless you do your work, I will not buy you a Bakugan.

We use 'unless' to warn about the result of NOT doing something.

eg. Unless you are sick, you have to got o school.
You have to go to school unless you are sick.

We use present tense in the sentence.