Vocabulary Development: Registers of Judiciary. Essay Writing: Informal letter- “A letter to the sister who plans to divorce her husband advising her against the decision”. Structure: Definite and Indefinite Articles. Speech Work: More on Consonants.

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In today’s class, we will be talking about definite and indefinite articles, etc. Enjoy the class!

Vocabulary Development: Registers of Judiciary.

Essay Writing: Informal letter – “A letter to the sister who plans to divorce her husband advising her against the decision”.

Structure: Definite and Indefinite Articles.

Speech Work: More on Consonants.

• Essay writing: informal letter

Informal letters are private or personal letters. They are letters we write to people who are very familiar to us such as our parents, relatives, friends, classmates and other people with whom we have a close relationship.

Features of an informal letter

• Writer’s address
• Salutation e.g. first name as in

1. ‘Dear Peter’, Dear Chike’,
2. ‘Dear Kemi’, Dear Father or you include “My”
3. “d” must be small when “My” is included e.g., My dear Mother

• Introduction: It is best to start with acknowledging the receipt of a letter written to you by the person. You may also start by asking after the person’s health or any other way you like.

• Body of the letter: Do exactly what the questions says you should do to earn more marks.
• Subscript: Informal letters close with “Yours sincerely”. However, a few other forms are accepted such as “Yours affectionately”, “Your loving daughter, “With love from” e.t.c. These are usually written at the bottom right hand of the page. No signature is required. Write your first name and put a full stop like this:

Yours sincerely,

Audu.

Yours ever,

Lizzy

or

Yours affectionately,

Andrew Scott

Evaluation

Write a letter to your sister who plans to divorce her husband advising her against the decision.

 

• Structure: definite and indefinite articles

Types of articles

Articles can be definite or indefinite

Indefinite articles:

“A” and “AN” are indefinite articles and are used to indicate indefinite references to a noun. While ”a”  is used before a word starting with consonant sound such as boy, goat, house, hoe, elephant, aeroplane etc. NOTE that the following words begin in consonant sound despite having vowel letters starting them. They must, therefore, attract the article ‘A’, e.g. Europe as in A European man, University as in A university. Others include Eucharist, Eunuch, unit, union, uniform etc.

“an” is used before words that start with vowel sounds.

Examples: an egg, an apple, an orange.

NOTE that the following words have silent ‘h’ and they must attract the article ‘an’. e.g. an hour, an honest, an honour. But words like house, home, hoe, etc attract article ‘a’ because they do not have silent sound ‘h’, e.g.,  a house, a hoe, etc.

The definite article “the”:

This refers to a particular person or thing (i.e. a definite reference)

How definite and indefinite articles are used:

Noun type	Indefinite reference	Definite reference
Singular count noun	A desk	The – the desk
Plural count noun Non-count noun	Some – some books Some water Water	The – the books The – the water

All nouns use “the as the word that makes definite reference. So, “the” is a definite article making reference.

Uses of the definite article “the”

When there is only one of the things being referred to- the sun, the moon, the wind, the rainfall.

When the hearer or the reader is able to know which particular thing or things are being referred to:

1. Give me the bag under the bed.

(Both the bag and the bed are already known to the speaker and the listener)

1.  The letter in the envelope.
2. ‘The’ is also used before the title of a newspaper. E.g The Punch, The Nation etc.

(Both the letter and the envelope are also known)

Descriptive use

Here the definite article describes a noun.

1. The accused was acquitted for want of evidence.
2. She has the courage of Esther.

Generic use

Here, the definite article is used to refer to what is normal or typical for a member of a class.

1. The tiger is a very ferocious animal.

It is used before the noun that indicates that there can be only one such thing or group of things.

1. The Soviet Union
2. The Principal
3. The Minister of Education

Evaluation

Fill in the gap with the correct article

1. ________ European woman was here before
2. I know that _______rich also cry.
3. I desire to become _______ heir of God’s kingdom.
4. Joseph dreamt that ______ sun, ____ moon and ____ star bowed to him.

 

• Speech work: more on consonants

Consonants /b/, /d/, /f/, /g/, /dz/, /h/, /k/

• /b/voiced bilabial plosive

Spelling variants and word examples are

“b” –baby, bank, break, barber, lab, embark,

“bb” – rubber, robber, babble, e.t.c.

• /p/- voiceless bilabial plosive

Spelling variants and words examples:

“p” – pain, people, leap, leper, emperor

“gh” – hiccough

• /f/ -voiceless labiodental fricative:

Spelling variants and words examples are:

“f” – form, frog, faith, fruit, proof, soft

“ff” – cliff, stuff, sniff, cuff, huff,

“gh” – rough, tough, cough, enough,

“ph” – physics, physical, Philip, phantom

“v” – Gorbachev, Volkswagen

• /g/– voiced velar plosive

Spelling variants and words examples are:

“g” – goat, gun, bag, vogue, vigour, garnish, goose, gamble, group,

“gg” – haggle, baggage, baggy, struggle, bigger, shaggy

“gh” – ghost, aghast, getto, ghoul

• /dz/

Spelling variants and words examples are:

“j” – jug, junior, Jew

“ge”- germinate, damage, badge, germ

“gi”- ginger, giant, giraffe, gigantic

“gy” – technology, archaeology, gym

“du” – educate, graduate, gradual, due

• /h/ -voiceless glottal fricative

Spelling variants and word examples are

“h” – hope, horse, holy, perhaps, hunger

“wh” – whole, wholly, who, whose,

Evaluation

Pick out the odd items from the list of words from options A-D

(a) gentle (b) educate (c) jug (d) gear

(a) hope (b) whole (c) perhaps (d) honour

(a) gift (b) beggar (c) ghetto (d) germ

(a) barber (b) blood (c) blue (d) plumber

(a) junior (b) geography (c) government (d) gradual

 

General evaluation

From the words lettered A to D, choose the word that best completes each of the following sentences.

1. The patient has been ———— for several years. (a) bed-ridden  (b) detained (c) diagnosed  (d) examined  (e) recommended
2. The trader ——- his income by repairing sewing machines. (a) added  (b) integrated  (c) replenished  (d) supplemented  (e)terminated
3. Dauda is said to be serving a two year ——– for rape. (a) conviction  (b) penalty  (c) punishment  sentence  e. verdict
4. He won the election by a ——- of 500 votes. (a) consensus (b) gap  (c) majority  (d) margin  (e) surplus
5. The Governor paid a ——– call on the Oba. (a) courtesy (b) crank  (c) farewell  (d)

roll  (e) wake up

Weekend assignment

• Choose the right option

1. I stayed with my cousin, the one ____husband is an engineer (a) who’s (b) whose (c) which
2. You can’t give alms ____ you have something to give (a) unless (b) while (c) if
3. I asked him how his promotion had come ____ (a) around (b) about (c) to
4. It isn’t easy to succeed in becoming an airline pilot, but I am sure you will ___ in the end. (a) make best (b) make do (c) make it
5. You fill the application form so that ____ there is a vacancy, they will let you know (a) if and when (b) although (c) only when

• Choose the alternative nearest in meaning

1. Her parents have endorsed her marriage to the widower (a) criticized (b) refused (c) approval
2. Corporal punishment is still used in some schools as a deterrent to undisciplined students (a) discouragement (b) prevention (c) measure
3. A reasonable man will never refuse to review his actions if it becomes necessary (a) re-examine (b) recapitulate (c) inspect

• Choose one of the following each expression to fill the blank provided:

1. I will send a _____ to you (letter, mail)
2. The girl was given a ____ for her attitude (blame, rebuke)
3. She asked me to come for a (meal, lunch)
4. We experienced a terrible ___ this season (harvest, weather)
5. She played a _____on me (fun, joke)

 

We hope you enjoyed the class.

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