Cuyo District Hospital

CSE Review 2022

mdkianne@aol.com

Adjectives and adverbs

Make sure you use adjectives and adverbs correctly. Adjectives describe, identify and quantify people or
things and usually go in front of a noun. They don’t change if the noun is plural. Adverbs modify verbs,
adjectives and other adverbs and usually come after the verb. For example:

• Mang Kanor is a slow driver. (_____)

• Mang Kanor drives slowly. (_____)
Most adverbs are created by adding -ly to an adjective as in the example, but a few adverbs are irregular, such
as:

fast (adjective) – fast (adverb)

hard (adjective) – hard (adverb)

good (adjective) – well (adverb)

For example, Your Tagalog is good. You speak Tagalog well.

Pay attention to homophones

Homophonic words are words that are pronounced in the same way as other words but have different
meanings, even if they are spelt differently. This can obviously create confusion and unfortunately there are
many of these words in English. For example:

• they’re – their – there

• you’re – your
• it’s – its
• I – eye
• here – hear
• break – brake
• flower – flour
• our – hour
So when you’re writing, be careful to choose the right spelling. And when you listen, remember that a word
you think you understood may have another meaning. Try to understand that meaning from the context.

Use the correct conjugation of the verb

Remember to change the verb to agree with the subject. The main subjects you need to be careful with are he,
she and it because they often have a different form to the others. For example:

She has two dogs, Mino and Saula. RIGHT? Or Wrong?

 Cuyo District Hospital
CSE Review 2022
mdkianne@aol.com

She have two dogs, Mino and Saula. ?

This seems like a small mistake to make but unfortunately it’s a very noticeable one. So if you can avoid it,
it’ll make a big difference to how accurate you sound.

Remember also that when you describe something using ‘There is/are’, the verb must agree with the first
item you mention. For example:

There is a sofa, some chairs and a table.

There are some chairs, a table and a sofa.

Connect your ideas with conjunctions

If you want to connect two ideas or short phrases, you can do so by using a conjunction. For example,

I’m studying the Cuyonon language. Cuyonon language is important.

becomes:

I’m studying the Cuyonon language because it’s important.

The most common conjunctions are:

and – addition

because – to give the reason

but – to express contrast

so – to describe a consequence

or – to describe an alternative

Here are some examples:

• He likes basketball and he plays in a team.

• We’re going out to Capusan beach because we’re bored.
• Dr. Jamandre wants to study more but she doesn’t have time.
• Dr. Osabel is coming round so I’m cleaning the dormitory.
• Would you like Classique Taste or Sip n Savor?
 Cuyo District Hospital
CSE Review 2022
mdkianne@aol.com

Sentence construction

Generally speaking, sentences in written English are not particularly long. This is good news for English
learners because it means you don’t need to worry about writing long, complex sentences. A sentence usually
has two, or possibly three, clauses (subject + verb + object), linked by a conjunction (see above).

A good way to make your sentences even clearer is to add commas. Commas help the reader understand
where one phrase finishes and another begins. The most common occasions where it’s recommended to put
a comma are:

• between two clauses. For example, If the weather in Tenga-Tenga is nice tomorrow, we’re going
to the park.
• to separate items in a list. For example, Our kids like swimming in Capusan, skiing, ice-skating
in Catadman and cycling.
• after some conjunctions. For example, Our Chinese New Year holiday was great and the Doctor’s
dorm was wonderful. However, the weather was awful.
• for extra information in the middle of a sentence (a non-defining clause). For example, My
neighbor, who’s from Magsaysay, is really good at cooking.

And don’t forget to start every sentence with a capital letter!

Remember the word order for questions

In English, the structure of questions is different to the affirmative form. So make sure you remember to
change the order of the words or add the auxiliary ‘do’. There are four ways to make questions in English:

• ‘to be’ – for questions using the verb ‘to be’, invert the subject and verb. For example, Are you
a nurse?
• all other verbs – to make questions for all other verbs, add the auxiliary ‘do’. For example, Do
they work here in CuDH?
• modal verbs – to make questions with modal verbs, invert the modal verb and the subject. For
example, Can he play the piano?
• auxiliary verbs – for sentences containing an auxiliary verb, like ‘’have’ in the present perfect,
invert the auxiliary verb and the subject. For example, Have you seen lola Grace Terrado?

These rules still apply when you add a question word like what, how, why. For example:

Where are you from?

When can we meet?

 Cuyo District Hospital
CSE Review 2022
mdkianne@aol.com

Why have they left?

Use the right past form of verbs

Speaking about the past in English is not particularly difficult. Every subject uses the same word to express
the past, so you don’t have to worry about learning six different words as in some languages. However, many
verbs are irregular and don’t follow the regular form of adding -ed. You don’t need to know all of these, but
try to learn the most common ones (approximately 20). For example,

Go – went

Have – had

Make – made

For example,

• We went to SM Cuyo cinema last Saturday.

• They had a party to celebrate Exekiel’s birthday.
• I made a cake this morning.

Get familiar with the main English verb tenses

If you’re just starting to learn English, you won’t know all the tenses yet. And that’s fine. Just focus on
becoming familiar with the four or five that are used most often. Aim to be able to use these:

• Present simple – to describe habits and permanent situations. For example, We live in Cuyo,
Island Palawan.
• Present continuous – to describe current situations and future plans. For example, I’m meeting
with Ma’m Banjo.
• Past simple – to describe finished past actions. For example, Shin arrived in Cuyo at 3 p.m. via
Blessed Journey.
• Present perfect – to describe past actions connected to now. For example, We’ve finished the
IPCR and DTR reports.
• Will – to describe future actions. For example, I’ll meet you in front of the OPD besides the ER
station.

Never use a double negative

In English there are often two ways to express a negative concept. For example, if you want to say the room
is empty, you can say:
 Cuyo District Hospital
CSE Review 2022
mdkianne@aol.com

There is nothing in the Operating Room. OR There isn’t anything in the Operating Room.

The words ‘nothing’ and ‘anything’ have the same meaning, but ‘nothing’ is used with an affirmative verb,
and ‘anything’ is used with a negative verb.

This rule applies to other words like:

nobody – anybody

none – any

This is also true of the word ‘never’ when you talk about the experience. You can say:

He’s never been to the Amanpolo OR He hasn’t ever been to the Amanpolo.

The meaning is the same but in the second sentence the use of ‘ever’ means you need to make the verb
negative.