The Basic Teacher

 

STEP 1

 

---

Important points

I                   The word I is always spelled with a capital letter.
It                  Root from he
Is / Are         Root from Be

 

 

 

Vocabulary

 

     Read and memorize these nouns and adjectives.

 

Nouns

bed
building
door
flower
house
pot
room
table
window

 

 

 

 

Adjectives

  

 

 

 

 

Opposites

 

 

 

 

Structure

 

     A noun is a word used to name a person, animal, place, thing, and an abstract idea.
     The only form-change in English nouns is the change from singular to plural. The regular plural is formed by adding an “s”.

 

 

• Adjectives

 

An adjective is a word that describes or modifies a noun or a pronoun.
Descriptive adjectives are used:

(a) Immediately before a noun.

 

(b) After some form of BE (or SEEM, see Step 7) to qualify its subject.

 

English adjectives are invariable, with some exceptions that will be learned in the next steps.

 

 

• A and The

 

     “A” becomes “An” before a word starting with a vowel sound, but apart from this, “A” and “The” are invariable.

     “A“ is used with a singular noun (in cases where the more emphatic numeral one (1) is not required) when talking of one of the group of things or persons so named. It simply indicates that we are speaking of a single thing, without, like the, pointing to it as any special one. Any noun referring to a single distinct object, such as pot, must have “A” before it, if it is not qualified by the, one, or some other non-descriptive adjective.

 

 

     Because it is unselective, it may be used with the force of 'any' or 'all' for making general statements.

 

 

     “A” is naturally never used with a plural noun. When the reference is unselectively to an unspecified number of things named, or to all of them in general, the plural noun may sand by itself.

 

 

     “The” is used before either a singular or a plural noun when what is being talked of has been singled out by previous reference or is the only thing, person, or group to which the description appliers.

 

 

     Note: As will be seen from these examples, when a noun is qualified directly by a descriptive adjective in addition to “A” or “The”; “A” or “The” precedes the other adjective.

 

 

• Pronouns

 

     This Table gives the form changes of the personal pronouns. In this Step and the next you will meet on I, its possessive adjective my, and it.

     As you will see, there are not many pronoun forms. The changes of form indicate whether the pronoun is singular or plural, the part it plays in the sentence and, in the case of the third Person Singular only, whether what the pronoun stands for is a male, a female, or a thing. ¹ The possessive adjectives corresponding to the different pronouns are used only preceding a noun and are invariable like other English adjectives.

 

 

 

 

• I put a bed in the room.
• I take a pot off the table.
• This is my house.
• That is my room.
• That is my bed.
• This is a door. It is a wide door.
• A pot is on the table. I put flowers in it.
• The table is by the door. I put it by the window.

 

 

 

 

Singular	Plural
THIS	THESE
THAT	THOSE

 

 

“This” and “that" are pointing pronouns.

 

     The pointing need not be a physical act.

 

This is a building	These are buildings.
That is a bed.	Those are beds.
I put this on that.	I put these on those.

 

     They are also used as pointing adjectives, taking their plural forms before a plural noun. These are the only adjectives which have any change of form.

 

This window is wide.	These windows are wide.
That window is narrow.	Those windows are narrow

 

     In accordance with the rule at the end of Section 3, this, that, and the possessive adjective my preceded any descriptive adjective before a noun.

 

 

 

  

 

   The 'operators' of Basic English are a special selection of the verbs of ordinary English. They are called operators because most of them name simple physical operations.

 

Many English verbs express complete ideas combining the senses of several parts of speech. For example, disembark = 'get off the ship’; that is to say, it may be broken down into the operator get with a preposition and a noun. Most languages have verbs of this complex kind. In Basic they are expressed by putting together simpler units. The operators are key words in the Basic system. Complete familiarity with their senses, their form changes, and the ways in which they combine with other words is an important step towards becoming fluent with the limited vocabulary of Basic.

 

      The chief tenses of the three operators to be learned in this Step are listed in the above Table. In this Step and the next, only the Present Forms of the operators are used and, except in the case of be, you will not meet the Third Person Singular. You will notice that be is irregular. In this Step you have to learn only the Third Person Singular and the Plural.

 

      As the opposite of put, take, like put, has to be followed by a preposition, etc. ; but take may also be used by itself (see p. 13).

 

     Almost all prepositions in Basic are names of directions or positions in space. These 'names of directions', as they are called in the Basic system to emphasize their nature, are the chief group that combine with the operators to form verbs. Get the simple physical senses of the operators and the simple spatial senses of this group into your head for a start. You will find that all the other uses which you meet later are based on these.

 

 

     A phrase starting with a preposition may be put after a noun to identify the thing in question more exactly.

 

 

     “And” can join words, phrases, or statements complete in themselves (that is, independent statements).

 

 

     Two nouns joined by and are treated as a plural.

 

 

I put a pot on the round table.

     Look carefully the characteristic word order of a simple English sentence.

 
     They are, of course, many alternative types of sentence, but this word order is the primary pattern, and it is used throughout the first two Steps. “Is” and “are” do not name an operation which is done to any thing or person or in any direction. They merely link the subject with a noun, adjective, or preposition, etc. qualifying it.

 

 

Exercises

 

 

1. Write four sentences in basic describing what you see in this picture. Use one of the following prepositions in each sentence: between, by, in, on. 

A:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Name the opposites:

 

3. Fill in the blanks with the words is, are, a, the.

1.-   _____ window in this room _____ round.
2.-   This _____ _____ room in my house.
3.-   The pot _____ on the table.
4.-   I take _____ pot off the table.
5.-   That _____ my flower.
6.-   _____ flower _____ in a pot.

 

 

4. Change this into a statement about more than one bed:

 

A:

 

 

This site is provided by The Goodwill Company Ltd. Registered Office: 29 Old Farm Road, Guildford, Surrey, GU1 1QN, United Kingdom. Registered in England with number 4070363. UK and worldwide patents pending. Powered by