Odisha BSE Madhyama English cheat sheet

English for Odisha BSE Madhyama

• Parts of speech: noun names a person, place, thing or idea; verb asserts action or state; adjective qualifies a noun; adverb qualifies a verb, adjective or another adverb.

• Sentence types by purpose: declarative states, interrogative asks, imperative commands or requests, exclamatory expresses strong feeling; each ends with its own punctuation mark.

• Subject-verb agreement: a singular subject takes a singular verb, a plural subject a plural verb; in 'one of the boys is present' the verb agrees with 'one', not 'boys'.

• Tense sequence: present indefinite for habitual truth (He goes daily), present continuous for action in progress (He is going now), present perfect for completed action with present relevance (He has gone).

• Articles: 'a' before consonant sounds, 'an' before vowel sounds (an hour, a university), 'the' for something already specified or unique.

• Voice change rule: shift the object to subject position, use the correct form of 'be' plus past participle, and place the old subject after 'by' (or drop it).

• Direct to indirect speech: change the reporting verb, shift tense one step back, and adjust pronouns and time words (now becomes then, today becomes that day).

• Punctuation: a comma separates items in a list and marks a pause; a semicolon joins two related independent clauses; an apostrophe marks possession (Ram's book) or omission (don't).