Hello,

and welcome to Study English, IELTS Preparation. I'm Margot Politis.

Today we'll look at some aspects of grammar and spelling that often cause problems. Concentrating

on these areas will help reduce the number of mistakes you might make and improve your

score. First, let's listen to this man:

I'm Andrew Mac. I'm the director of City Lights project. It's an arts project that focuses

on art in public spaces. We're here in Hosier lane. It's right in the middle of Melbourne

city.

One of the areas to be aware of is agreement. The noun has to agree with the verb in number

and person.

He said: 'It's an arts project which focuses on art in public spaces'.

The arts project is singular - it's one thing. It's also in the third person. So you have

to use the third person singular form of the verb 'focus' - focuses. Listen:

It's an arts project that focuses on art in public spaces.

Now let's look at subject-verb agreement. When you use the first person - I - you don't

add an 's' to the verb. He says 'I think'. Listen:

I think what's great about these lanes is that it's, it actually makes the lanes intimate

and it invites you in.

'It' is third person singular, so he adds an 's' to invite and says 'invites':

I think what's great about these lanes is that it's, it actually makes the lanes intimate

and it invites you in.

In the next clip, listen for the form of the verb used with the second person - 'you' and

the third person plural - 'they':

You see a lot of really interesting uses of the street. Strangely enough people come to

shoot weddings here on the weekends. Sometimes there will be up to 5 or 6 weddings. They

line up for a particular spot. School groups come here. They go to the national gallery

and then for contrast the teachers bring them to this street.

He says 'you see'. You is the second person, which, like the first person, agrees with

the base form of the verb in the present tense - see. Listen:

You see a lot of really interesting uses of the street.

You use the base form of the verb with a third person plural as well, so he says 'they line

up' and 'they go': Sometimes there will be up to 5 or 6 weddings.

They line up for a particular spot. School groups come here. They go to the national

gallery and then for contrast the teachers bring them to this street.

What form of the verb 'to be' - is or are - is used in the next examples?

It's important because there are so few avenues for free speech and increasingly we're clamped

down on - there are so many rules and regulations about what you can and can't do in a city.

there are so few avenues there are so many rules

You use 'are' with plural subjects and 'is' with singular subjects.

There are many rules. There is one rule.

What about have or has? Listen:

A lot of cities have chosen a zero tolerance approach to graffiti. Sydney has the opposite

approach to Melbourne where there is some tolerance here for what happens. There are

at least 8 streets here in the CBD that are like this one and they've all grown organically.

Usually they have somebody like me involved in the street who helps to kind of facilitate

what goes on. Melbourne has grown to really love the graffiti.

Cities is plural, so he uses have - 'cities have'. But Sydney is singular, so he uses

'has' - 'Sydney has'. Listen again:

A lot of cities have chosen a zero tolerance approach to graffiti. Sydney has the opposite

approach to Melbourne.

Take a look at this sentence:

After 'The graffiti', do you use have or has? And what about after 'businesses'? Listen:

The graffiti has grown with the light boxes and then businesses have been attracted to

this street and other streets.

A subject such as 'the graffiti' is treated as singular even though it refers to more

than one piece of work. So you say 'the graffiti has grown'. And 'businesses' is clearly a

plural subject, so you use have - 'businesses have been attracted'.

Another area that is useful to review is countable and uncountable nouns.

Uncountable nouns are words like pollution that don't have a plural with an 's' on the

end and are treated as singular subjects. We say pollution is, not pollution are.

Countable nouns have the plural form with the final 's' when they refer to more than

one or things in general, such as the word laneways in this clip:

In the mid-90s when I started the City Lights project, Melbourne city was a lot quieter

and actually people didn't use these laneways. The city is on a grid structure which is state

of the art city design in the 1850s. Over years the laneways became misused and unused

and so people didn't come down here.

Uncountable nouns refer to things that can't be counted or are referred to as a general

mass, such as water or pollution or graffiti. Listen for graffiti and another uncountable

noun in this clip:

A lot of cities have chosen a zero tolerance approach to graffiti. Sydney has the opposite

approach to Melbourne where there is some tolerance here for what happens.

'Some tolerance'. Tolerance is an uncountable noun. It doesn't take an 's' ending.

It's a good idea to memorise the uncountable nouns that are frequently used in essays such

as education, equipment, experience, health, information, knowledge, pollution, technology,

traffic, transport and work. Practise using them in sentences.

It's important to check your spelling in the IELTS Test.

There are some features of English spelling that can be troublesome. Many words have double

consonants such as 'pollution' and need to be memorised. Which words in the next clip

have double consonants?

We're here in Hosier lane. It's right in the middle of Melbourne city. We devised this

project to be in public so that we could reach a very wide audience. Inside a gallery you

might get 30 to 50 people a day but in the street and in this street in particular thousands

of people come down here every day so it's primarily about reaching a big audience.

Middle and gallery. Middle has 2 'd's and gallery has 2 'l's.

Here are some other words with double consonants that are frequently used in IELTS and you

should be careful to spell correctly:

accommodation - Notice that there are 2 'c's and 2 'm's.

recommend - Only one double consonant this time - the 'm's in the middle.

opportunity - a double 'p' at the start different - a double 'f'

support tennis

success - a double 'c' and a double 's' and possibility - another double 's'

Misspellings can also occur when a letter is silent in the word. You should learn how

to spell:

doubt - notice the silent 'b'. foreign - a 'g' that you don't hear.

Wednesday - don't forget the 'd-n-e' and that it needs a capital letter.

autumn - a silent 'n' on the end. through - one of the awkward 'o-u-g-h' words.

business - people don't pronounce the 'i' - bus'ness.

Sometime misspellings occur because some letters in the word aren't clearly heard.

Look out for the 'n' in environment and government and the 'c-h' in technology, ache and technical.

That's all for today.

In the test, try to use your time efficiently and wisely. Leave 2 to 3 minutes to check

your writing. Using these few minutes to correct some errors can make a difference to your

score.

Don't forget spelling. It counts too!

See you next time.