Grade 6 English speaking and listening activities

Some commonly made mistakes in English that should be avoided:

It’s vs. its

“its” is a possessive noun whereas “it’s” is a contraction of the words “it is”.

Use “its” as in these sentences:

• The box and its contents are safe.
• The cat and its kittens are drinking milk.

Use “it’s” as in these sentences:

• It’s very cold in the month of December.
• It’s raining outside, take your umbrella along.

“It’s” can be replaced with “it is” any time whereas “its” cannot.

There vs. their

“There” is an adverb or sometimes used for denoting at that place.

Use “there” as in these examples:

• There are no sweets left with me.
• Did you go there?
• There can be a better way than this.

“Their” is a possessive pronoun just like “its”.

Use their as in these examples:

• Their cats are very annoying.
• Their house is very beautiful

Gone vs. went

“Gone” and “went” are to different things. “Went” denotes the past tense whereas “gone” denotes the past participle.

Example:

Correct: He went to the private clinic. He should have gone to a public hospital instead.

Incorrect: I should’ve went somewhere else.

“Went” is the past tense of the verb to go whereas “gone” is the past participle. Use them correctly.

Correct: I went to the store. I should have gone to the open market instead.
Incorrect: I should’ve went somewhere!

Affect vs. Effect

“Effect” is a noun which is produced by a result or cause. On the other hand, “affect” is a verb which means producing a change.

Examples:
1) Do you expect this change to have any effect?
2) There would be no effect of what you taught.

Whereas use affect like this

Examples:
1) The book affected me deeply.
2) The cold weather affected my newly sown saplings adversely.

Me and I:

Learn the difference in the simple way and you will never make any mistake. “I” is a subject and “Me” is an object.

Examples:

Mohan and me are going to dine. (it should be I)

The best pictures where sent to Ashley and I (it should be me)

Worksheet:

Point out mistakes in the following sentences:

• I got effected by the movie I saw yesterday.
• Its high time for you to study.
• There relatives are really annoying.
• Let I guide you.
• The adverse weather effected us badly.
• The chair and it’s legs are in a bad shape.
• Accept one all others were present.

Answers:

• I got affected by the movie I saw yesterday.
• It’s high time for you to study.
• Their relatives are really annoying.
• Let me guide you.
• The adverse weather affected us badly.
• The chair and its legs are in a bad shape.
• Except one all others were present.