1
Choose in, on or at from the time word
A clock time, night and a festival take at; a day takes on; a month, a year, a season and a morning take in. The rule is right on 103 of 109 printed lines.
Course · English
Small Words and Comparisons
In, on or at? Bigger or more big? Happily or happyly? Give it up or give up it? This course states the rule for each, counts how often it is right on printed lines, and shows you the lines it gets wrong.
small words, counted on printed lines
in, on or at 103 of 109 lines
-er or more 337 of 367 forms
-ly with changes 126 of 126 words
pronoun between 34 of 42 lines
What this course is about
- Subject
- English
- Lessons
- 4
- Format
- Interactive
Overview
What you will be able to do
By the end you can choose the preposition, the small word such as in that stands before a noun, for a time word; choose the comparison form of an adjective (adjectives are words such as big that say what a thing is like); make the adverb, the word that says how; and place the pronoun, a word such as it that stands for a noun. Each is a rule you can state, and each page says how often that rule holds.
2
Choose -er or more by counting the parts
One part takes -er; two parts ending in -y take -ier; the rest take more. Right on 337 of the novel's 367 forms.
3
Name the comparisons an old text uses and a modern one does not
Of the 30 forms the rule gets wrong in the novel, 22 put -er or -est on a word of two parts, such as handsomer and pleasanter.
4
Make an -ly adverb from an adjective
Adding -ly alone is right for 98 of 126 adjectives; the five spelling changes are right for all 126.
5
Name the adjectives that have no -ly adverb
27 of the 153 adjectives in the list, among them afraid, alive and sorry.
6
Place a pronoun with a phrasal verb
Between the verb and the particle, the small word of a phrasal verb such as the up of give up: find it out. After a preposition: look at it. Read off 473 novel lines.
Lessons
4 lessons
Time words first, because the rule is a table you can learn in a minute. Then the two lessons that build a new word from an old one, the comparison and the adverb. The last lesson is about a small word that moves.
In, On or At: TimeThree small words, and the kind of time word after them picks which one.Not marked
Bigger or More BigCount the parts in the adjective, and one rule picks the form on nine lines in ten.Not marked
Happily, Simply, Truly: Making an AdverbAdd -ly, and the rule is right on four words in five; five spelling changes fix the rest.Not marked
Give It Up, Not Give Up ItWhere a pronoun goes tells you whether the small word is a particle or a preposition.Not marked
Recommended background
Nouns and Articles, whose lessons count words in the same way, and Word Stress, which counts the parts of a word. The comparison lesson explains what a part is where it first needs one, so you can read this course first and come back to Word Stress later.
Practice suggestions
Say your own choice before you open the score. If you would say in the evening, say why. The lab prints the kind of time word beside every line, so you can check the reason as well as the answer.
Read the lines the rule gets wrong before you read the lines it gets right. Each list of misses is short, and each one comes in a few kinds. Learning the kinds is quicker than learning the lines.
Notice the age of the text. The novel is from 1813 and the play from 1895, and some of what they do, such as handsomer, is not what a writer does now. The modern documents show the other side.
What it does not cover
In, on and at for places. At Netherfield and in London depend on what kind of place it is, and a count cannot sort a house from a town without a person to do it. Only time words are scored here.
Which of two adjectives comes first, and pairs such as much and many. The first is a matter of the ear and the second is too mixed to count well on the lines this course has.
What a phrasal verb means. The lab finds the verb and the small word and says where a pronoun goes; it cannot say that give up means stop. That is the work of a dictionary and of reading.
How a form sounds. Whether handsomer sounds old, or more handsome sounds plain, is a judgement. The lab shows what the novel did and what the modern documents did, and leaves the judgement to you.