SMALL WORDS WITH BIG TROUBLE

SMALL WORDS WITH BIG TROUBLE

1. Pronouns (106)                                                                            What – watt

2. Auxiliary verbs / Modal / Helping verbs                                   Would – wood

3. Prepositions                                                                                 Said – set

4. Conjunction                                                                                  Been – bean

• different pronunciation                                                       can – Two meanings                                                                                                           cane
• used in Grammar                                                                 Which – witch
• not used in NM / Telegram                                                 Him – hymn
• unstressed in speech                                                         Some – sum

I – eye – aye                                                                                      Its – it’s

Eyes – ice                                                                                          Her / here

We – wee                                                                                          Our – hour

Mine (two meanings)                                                                      Where – were

Knot – not                                                                                          Than – then

Will (two meanings)                                                                         I’m – am

The – thee                                                                                         Here – hear

The – Two types of pro                                                                    Old - world

Of – off

To – too, do

In – inn

For – far

As – ass / us

Be – bee

But – butt

His – hiss

Are – or

By / bye – buy

An – Ann

We – wee

One – won / own

There – their

Words for correct Pronunciation

Words for correct Pronunciation

Aesthetic                                                                               Woman / women

Cleanliness                                                                          Reservoir

Risen                                                                                     Cliché

Depot                                                                                     Guinea

Coup                                                                                      Nostalgia

Coupe                                                                                                Etiquette

Corps                                                                                     Entrepreneur

Corpse                                                                                   Psyche

Suit                                                                                         Mnemonics

Suite                                                                                       Physique

Goal                                                                                        Quote

Gaol / jail                                                                                Quotient

Debut                                                                                     Able

Blitz / quartz                                                                          Wrinkle

Desert                                                                                                Write

Bourgeois                                                                              Writ

Bouquet                                                                                 Paper

Bureau                                                                                   Table

Ache                                                                                       Plea / please

Rendevous                                                                           Engineer

Hop / hope                                                                            Machine

Hoping / hopping                                                                 Aeroplane

Key / quay (construction)                                                   Psychology

Wag / wage                                                                           Resume

Waging / wagging                                                                Curriculum vitae

Class / clause                                                                       Recipe

Lose / loose                                                                           Spinach

Once / ones                                                                          Plateau

Police                                                                                     Naught

Raging / ragging                                                                  Hiccough

Practice / practise                                                                 Neighbour

Advice / advise                                                                     Queue

Haphazard                                                                            Questionnaire

Bath / bathe                                                                          Personal

Cloth / clothe                                                                                    Quote

Unique                                                                                   Hoax

Rescue                                                                                  Zero

Colleague                                                                             Xerox

Genuine                                                                                Read-read

Hitchhike                                                                               Gesture

                                                                                                savvy

Words from known to unknown

Word power

Last – lost                                                                team – teem

Canon – cannon                                                      shot –shod

Canvas – canvass                                                    cast – caste

Cot – caught                                                            doctor – daughter 

Are – or                                                                   die – dye

Soar – shore                                                            hire – higher   

Heaven- haven                                                        bag – back

All right – alright                                                    anger – anchor

Peace – piece                                                          opposite – apposite

Yeast – east                                                             oma – comma

Compliment – complement                                     conform – confirm

Counsel -council                                                     death – dearth

Down – dawn                                                          dairy – diary

Duel – dual                                                              ensure – insure

Envelop – envelope                                                 fare – fair

Grave – crave                                                          greet – great

Kit – kid                                                                  skid – skit

Hello – halo                                                            heal – heel

Whole – hole                                                          lion – line

Miner – minor                                                        knight – night

None – nun                                                            aught- (anything)

Petty- pretty                                                           ought – (should)

Son – sun                                                               story –storey

Stationary – stationery                                           personal – personnel

Stand – strand                                                        college – collage          

Done – don                                                            your – you’re

Weight – wait                                                        yearn – earn

Year – ear                                                              for – far      

Farm – form                                                          farmer – former

Shop – sop                                                            soul -  sole

Flower – flour                                                       route – root

Grand – grant                                                        many – money

Meet – mete                                                          can – cane

Know – no                                                            draught-drought

Vain – vein                                                           lock – log

Seen – scene                                                         here – hear

Hope – hop                                                           rage – rag

Wage - wag                                                          main – mane

Mat – mate                                                           tense – dense

Ten – den                                                             chief – cheap

Hose – home                                                       check – cheque

Farther – further                                                  later - latter

Hell – he’ll                                                          ill – I’ll

Hour – our                                                           tale – tail

Human – humane                                                        sell – cell

Dead – debt                                                                 false – falls

Data – date                                                                  steal – steel

Pay – bay                                                                     patent – patient

Plait – (hair)                                                                pupil - people

plight – (condition)                                                     quote – quota

rational – (reasoning)                                                  ant – aunt

rationale – ( reasonable )                                             birth – berth

lice – lies                                                                     sour – shower

roll – role                                                                     poll – pole

riot – ryot                                                                    salon – ( reception room)

see – sea                                                                      saloon –

self – shelf                                                                  seer – sheer

so – show                                                                    some - sum

sign – shine                                                                cease – seize

wine – vine                                                                 wet – wed

wrote – rote                                                                seal – zeal

through – threw                                                          past – paste

disease – decease                                                       loath – (hatred)

naught – nought                                                         loathe – (verb)

tri – try                                                                       compeer – (equal)

plays – place                                                              compere – (radio organizer)

might – mite                                                              dam – damn

boy – bouy                                                                weight – wait

career – carrier                                                          sign – shine

principle - principal               

        

I – eye – aye

Flower – flour – floor

Write -  rite -  right

Quite – quiet – quit

Sight – site – cite

Knot – not - naught – nought

Meet – mete – meat

To – two – too

Rain – rein – reign

Done – don- ton

Where – ware – were

Snack – snake – snag

Lack – lakh – lag

Man – main – mane

Mad – made – maid

Price – prize – praise

Die – dye – tie

See – sea – she

 As – ass – us

Confident – feeling sure

Confidant – man confided to

Confidante – woman confided to

Key – quay – ghee

Sort – sought – short

Idle – ideal – idol

  

ARTICLES

                             ARTICLE ON ENGLISH ARTICLES

                                                 (a,an,the)

Articles in English (a, an, the) are the small words with big trouble in all the four basic communicative skills (LSRW) of English. According to a native speaker of English the secret of learning English lies in “learning to use the small words in a big way”. These articles car to be pronounced without stress in connected speech. Whereas Indian learners always mispronounce these small words with stress as in their mother tongues. Thus their English becomes unintelligible.

Articles are sometimes included under the heading “Parts of Speech” and making it ‘nine’ instead of eight.  Some grammar books describe these words as ‘determiners’ or adjectives’.

Grammarians have identified five types of articles as mentioned below.

·         Definite Article ‘the’

·         Indefinite Article ‘a, and an’

·         Partitive Article ‘some’

·         Negative Article

·         Zero article or no article

1. Definite Article ‘the’:

The definite article ‘the’ is always when an object is mentioned for the second time and when it is stressed for its importance.

           E.g. This is the dog that bit me yesterday

                   I live in a house. The house is beautiful                                                              

                  The car over there is mine

The definite article is used before any unique objects, mountains, oceans, rivers and before a collection of states. E.g. The United States of America

The indefinite article is pronounced in two different ways according to the first sound of the word. If the first letter of the word is pronounced like consonant, it is pronounced as

 / / and in places before vowel sounds, it is pronounced as / /.

            E.g. The doctor

                   The Engineer

2. Indefinite Articles:

Indefinite articles are used before singular nouns. If the nouns begin with consonant sound, the article ‘a’ is used before it.

  

           E.g. A book

                

                  A University

The article ‘a’ is used before the nouns beginning with the following consonant letters.

            B, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l m n ,q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y, and z 

Anyhow as mentioned above, when these consonant letters become silent and the nouns are pronounced with the initial vowel sound, the article ‘an’ is used before it.

             E.g. An hour

                   

                    An historian

                   An MLA, an MP, an NCC student

The article ‘an’ is used before nouns with vowel sounds. i.e. a, e, i, o, u. In the same way, nouns beginning with vowel letters are not pronounced with vowel sounds, the article ‘a’ is used before the nouns. 

                E.g. A University

                     

                       A union

3. Partitive  article;

A partitive article is a type of indefinite article uses with a mass noun such as water to indicate a non-specific quantity of it. The word ‘some’ is used in this way and it is considered to be a determiner.

              E.g. Some water

                      Some sugar

4. Negative Article:

A negative article specifies ‘none’ and can thus be regarded as neither definite nor indefinite. Some linguists consider it as a determiner rather than an article. In English, this function is fulfilled by the word ‘no’ which can appear before a singular or plural noun.

           E.g. No man is an island

                  No dogs are allowed here

5. Zero Article:

The zero article is the absence of an article before a particular kind of nouns. In English, the zero article rather thae indefinite article is used with plurals and mass nouns. 

   

ENGLISH FOR EXCELLENCE

ENGLISH FOR EXCELLENCE IN MANAGEMENT

               “We govern men by words” – Benjamin Disraeli

The management of English has become mandatory for management of excellence in Management. The English language has emerged as the multi-trillion dollar language.  It is the language of the Nobel Laureates and scientists but also the world’s chief executives and the great entrepreneurs.  It remains as the driving and motivating force behind the best business leaders.

The English language has become the greatest job generating language and owing to its global use foreign job opportunities are available in India itself. English, innovation, entrepreneurship and management are inseparable.

                                            English   

                                                                                      

                                                                           Innovation

                   Management                                                    

                         

                                                 

                                                  Entrepreneurship

‘Innovate or stagnate; Innovate or die’ are the latest slogans used by employers and CEOs of various companies. ‘Publish or perish’ is also related to the above concept. English is the mother of most of the innovations and publications in the world. The concept of MNCS (Multi-national companies), off-shoring   and outsourcing are the modern innovative ideas in management.

Excellence in management can be obtained by quality control, quality assurance, Total Quality Management (TQM) and ISO certification. All these quality assurances and practices heavily depend upon the following activities which are promoted by the excellent use of English.

                                                                                                                                 

·         Communication

·         Advertisement

·         Training

·         Research

·         Promotion and

·         Professional skills

Training in all these activities are routinely provided in the companies as soon as recruiting new employees.  Yet every corporate thinks in different ways to provide  new training to create efficiency and competency among their workers.

The pre-service training of employees consists of excellent communication skills in English.  New communicative competencies like the following are taught to the employees.        

·         Non-verbal communication

·         Body language

·         Computer Language

·         E-mail language

·         SMS language

·         Listening

·         Speaking

·         Reading

·         Writing and

·         Technical English

A sense of humour  and smiling face are the wonderful non-verbal communication and are called the universal language. “Use of soft words turneth away wrath”, says Bible. Nonetheless most of the people lack these basic skills and need a lot of training. Computer language, e-mail, and SMS are spreading fast among the workers.

The next four basic language skills, listening, speaking, Reading and Writing  (LSRW) need intensive training and special attention. Today the skill of listening is totally neglected and it plays a vital role in comprehending the message of the presentation, speech, and announcement of the Chairman, CEO, or the other trainers. Seventy percent of our time is spent in listening and seventy percent of learning occurs through listening. In spite of its significance, sufficient training is not provided and as a result only ten percent of what the employers hear reach their ears. Hence the ensuing essential sub-skills of listening are to be taught to the workers carefully.

·         Silence

·         Active

·         Interest

·         attention

·         concentration

·         Note-making

·         Memorizing

·         Repeating

·         Recalling and

·         thinking

The skills of listening and speaking go together and the skill of listening strengthens the skill of speaking. Study in linguistics suggests a minimum of 200 hours of listening in learning  a foreign language.

Speaking in English remains a challenging task for other tongue learners. Mother tongue plays a crucial role in mastering Spoken English. Speaking alone will not be considered as communication. Excellent communication involves correct use of words, fluency, accuracy, error- free sentences, and correct pronunciation. Further the other two linguistic skills, reading and writing require a of practice.

Training in the basic language skills alone would do no good to the company. Motivation, time management, cognitive abilities, creativity, originality, innovation and invention are the other basic skills identified by the researchers to maintain quality in the company.

Indian students and teachers mistake Spoken English for real communication and consider it as the soft skill. For technical students, Technical English is of prime importance and its use and need are more urgent than Spoken English and it is a life long process. Poor learning and teaching of Technical English has made our students well-paid clerks and under-water volcanoes. It affects their employment opportunities and also their thinking abilities. Poor technical English has made them dull in creation, innovation and invention.                

The new industry which all industries depend upon is the industry of Advertisement. Billions of dollars are spent in advertisements and it depends on the use of language.

In seventy percent of the advertisements English is employed as medium. Effective use of English reduces the cost of advertisements. “Brevity is the soul of wit”, is true in the preparation of an advertisement.

The next utility of English in companies is the area of research. All the employees should possess the following bent of mind.

                   

• Scientific Bent of Mind - SBM

• Research Bent of Mind - RBM

• Innovative Bent of Mind – IBM

Rigorous training in these areas would make the employees to think in a different way. This will result in change of mind, change of behaviour, and ultimately in change of work.  Multi-national companies (MNCS), off-shoring, and outsourcing are the latest innovations in management. Thus the new ideas like Liberalization, Privatization, and Globalization (LPG) came into existence. The English language is the backbone for all these activities.   

The presentation occupies a major place in companies by trainers as well as speakers and here again the language finds its major role.  LCD presentation with slides, animation, pictures, music etc. attracts the audience and it helps to make a lasting impression.

The higher order skills like independent thinking, innovation, problem-solving, self-learning, self-training and Life Long Learning (LLL) are identified as most relevant

to manage excellence in management.  These skills can be acquired and sustained by mastering the English language. Hence English is essential for excellence in management.