Niaz English Language Academy

Elements of a Short Story:- 😉

1)Characters:-
Characters are the people who are involved in the story. Characters can be major or minor, and static or dynamic.

2)Plot:-
The order of events that make up a story. The plot usually begins with an exposition, which introduces us to the characters and background information of the story.Next comes the rising action, which involves complications that lead to conflicts between characters. After the rising action we reach the climax, which is a turning point in the story. After the climax there is a falling action which leads to the resolution of the conflict.

3)Point of View:-
This refers to who tells the story, and how they tell it. The narrator can tell the story from the third-person point of view, meaning that they can tell us what the characters think and do, but they are not part of the story. Third-person narrators use the pronouns he, she or it. If the narrator is telling the story from a first-person point of view, then they are part of the story and are telling it the way that they see it. First-person narrators use the pronoun I.

4)Setting:-
The setting of a story gives us important information such as: 1)When the story is taking place, 2) Where the story is taking place, and 3) What environment the story is occuring in. It sets the mood and helps us guess what might happen in the story.

5)Theme:-
The central meaning or idea of the story; the moral lesson the story is trying to teach. It is a message that gives an opinion about life, humanity or society.
Examples of theme include: love, friendship, good vs. evil,the importance of family, crime is bad, etc.

PASSIVE VOICE🙆🏾‍♂️🙀
(EXAMPLES FOR ALL 12 TENSES)🤩

We usually use passive voice when
•we don't know who
•we don't care who
•we don't want to say who
•TO FOCUS ON THE RESULT/ACTION (NOT ON THE ACTOR)

You always need to add some form of GET or BE followed by VERB 3 (the past participle).

You can use GET or BE. One might be used more often with a certain verb, but the meaning is the same.

BELOW ARE EXAMPLES FOR ALL 12 TENSES. (However, I am not going to explain why we use each tense in this post. That is a separate topic.)

PRESENT SIMPLE
•Rice is eaten every day in Thailand.
PRESENT CONTINUOUS
•You are being taught.
PRESENT PERFECT
•You have been warned.
PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS
I have been being watched.
PAST SIMPLE
•My bag got stolen.
PAST CONTINUOUS
•The tickets were being distributed.
PAST PERFECT
•The home had gotten burglarized.
PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS
•We had been being lied to for years.
FUTURE SIMPLE
•You will get hurt.
•You're going to get hurt.
FUTURE CONTINUOUS
•You will be getting helped.
•You're going to be getting helped.
FUTURE PERFECT
•You will have already been seen.
•You're going to have already been seen.
FUTURE PERFECT CONTINUOUS
•You will have been being taught by me for 3 years.
•You're going to have been being taught by me for 3 years.

**Airport Vocabulary**

> Here is a list of vocabulary associated with airports:

- Taking off: The action of a plane leaving the ground.

- Landing: The action of a plane returning to the ground.

- Board: To get onto a plane.

- Boarding pass: The document you need to get onto a plane.

- Check in: To exchange your ticket for a boarding pass.

- Lounge: Waiting area.

- Departures: Area where you go to catch a plane.

- Arrivals: Area where you go to meet visitors.

- Customs: Area where your bags are examined.

- Immigration Area where your passport and visa are examined.

- Luggage: Bags and suitcases.

- Gate: Place where you wait immediately before boarding the plane.

-Economy class: Cheaper class of ticket.

- Airline: Company that runs flights.

- Budget airline: Company that runs extremely cheap flights.

- Passenger: Person who flies on a plane (or travels in any vehicle).

- Flight attendant: Person who helps passengers on a plane.

- Turbulence: Rough air that causes a plane to shake.

- Altitude: Height

- Terminal: A section of an airport.

- Aisle: The space between two rows of seats.

- Transit: To pass through an airport without leaving it.

Have you ever wondered how you could describe and share your opinions more clearly? A great way to do so is by using intensifiers! 💥

WHAT ARE INTENSIFIERS?
Intensifiers are one important tool in your vocabulary toolbox that should not be overlooked!

That movie was great.
That movie was really great!

Marcus is late.
Marcus is super late!

Intensifiers are modifiers in a sentence that add more emotion to the word they are modifying. They give emphasis and extra strength to your sentence. Intensifiers are effective at getting your point across in a clear way.

HOW DO I USE INTENSIFIERS?
Intensifiers can be adverbs, adjectives, or adverbial phrases. We’ve learned that they strengthen the meaning of other expressions and show emphasis. Therefore, you would use them in instances where you’d like to emphasize an emotion in a phrase or a sentence.

Here are some more examples:

Today’s lesson was interesting.
Today’s lesson was incredibly interesting!
That handbag is expensive.
That handbag is very expensive.
Today was a cold day.
Today was such a cold day.

Simple and effective tips to improve your English:

1 Jot down new words. Sometimes you may learn so many words in one day, but of course you will not be able to remember all of them. Your memory will certainly fail you at some point. When you write down those words, you have a note to make use of later in case you forget any of those new words. However, jotting down individual words that are deprived from context is not enough because individual words are difficult to remember. That's why I advise you to make some sentences of your own with any new word you learn and write them down in a notebook. This process of writing down new vocabulary items along with examples of your own will help you to remember them better. Even if you happen to forget those words, once you look at the examples, you will remember their meanings right away.

2 Listen to or watch a motivational speech. Doing so has actually two great benefits. First of all, it can serve as a listening practice material. This means that by listening to this kind of speeches you are actually working on your listening skills. As you listen, you should pay attention to a couple of things: how the words are pronounced and how the speaker is putting those words together in sentences to communicate his or her idea. The other benefit is that motivational speeches can change your mood from a sad and negative person to a happier and more optimistic one. By listening to the words of hope, motivation, and inspiration, you develop an optimistic personality that focuses on opportunities and how to get things done, not problems and why things are not working out. This can be more effective if you do it in the morning because starting your day with a positive energy is always a good thing.
By Niaz

4 simple tips you can apply today to improve your English:

1 Get yourself a good dictionary. By a good dictionary I mean an English-English dictionary. Every day, you will encounter new words. To explain and know their meaning you need a dictionary. Dictionaries also include the phonetic transcription of words. This phonetic transcription, if you know the IPA, shows you exactly how to pronounce any word. So, a dictionary will not only help you find the meaning of new words, but also it will help you learn the correct pronunciation of those words.

2 Make sure that you learn something new every day. If you want to have a good level in English, you have to be consistent in learning. This means that you have to make sure that you are getting new input every day because learning a language is a lifelong process. If you stop learning, you will plateau. One way you can avoid that is to try to learn something new every day. It can be new words, a grammar point, an idiom or expression...etc.

3 Watch at least one video per a day. If you find learning English through reading textbooks boring, videos are another alternative to improve your English. This points out to the importance of recognizing your learning style. This basically means that when you don't learn much through a certain a method, then it is not for you and it doesn't suit your learning style. Thus, you need to change it and find a better one. Watching videos, however, seems to work and suit almost everyone, especially now that we are living in a digital world.

4 Speak a little English every day and focus on your pronunciation. Consider attending an English class or a discussion group. Listen to English on the radio or TV, and be sure to read and write as well. Train yourself to think in English and don't be afraid of making mistakes. You know, as it is always said: from mistakes we learn. Practice, practice, and practice. If you don't practice, don't expect to speak English well.
By Niaz