LINGUISTIC

COMPETENCE
What makes effective
communication?
 Three important concerns of effective
communication: content, format and
the precise appropriate adherence to
the conventions of grammar and
usage.
 One needs practice in building and
combining basic sentence structures.
The Basic Sentence Structures

A sentence contains the basic parts: the

subject (noun or pronoun) and the predicate
(verb).
 Defined as a complete unit of thought.

 Does any of the following:

 Expresses a relationship
 Conveys a command
 Asks a question
 Describes someone or something
 Conveys a strong emotion
Basic Sentence Structures

 S-TV-DO (subject-transitive verb-direct

object)
 The object receives the action and usually
follows the verb.
 Answers the questions who or what after the
verb.
Examples:
4. Our professor wrote books in English.

5. He received an award for being an author.

Exercise: Identifying subjects and objects
Directions: For each of the sentences below, encircle
the subject, underline the verb and box the object.
2. Financial managers actively manage the financial
affairs of a business.
3. They perform varied tasks: planning, extending
credit to customers and raising money to fund the
firm’s operation.
4. The owners of a corporation are its stockholders.
5. You will learn the career opportunities in
managerial finance.
6. Managerial finance and accounting are not often
easily distinguishable.
Sentence Combining Technique
 Combining sentences with adjectives and
adverbs
Study how the following sentences may be
combined:
Personal selling is a tool at certain stages of
the buying process.
Personal selling is the most effective tool.

**Personal selling is the most effective tool at

certain stages of the buying process.
Sentence Combining Technique

 Combining details from three or more

sentences
The agent explained clearly in the BOM
(Business Opportunity Meeting).
The agent explained the marketing scheme.
The BOM was jampacked.
How do you decide which is the best
combination?
 Six
considerations offered by Richard
Nordquist (1991):
 Meaning:
 Clarity
 Coherence
 Emphasis
 Conciseness
 Rhythm
Expanding and Building Sentences
with Prepositional Phrases
 Prepositional acting phrases like adjectives
and adverbs add meaning to nouns and
verbs in a sentence.
Example:

The proprietor from Laguna arrived in the

business meeting.
Study these examples:

Before breakfast every morning, the

proprietor reads the newspaper’s Business
Section.

The proprietor reads the Business Section

before breakfast in the lawn.
Rules on Subject-Verb Agreement
 Be verbs change form from singular to the plural.
 In a sentence with compound subjects joined by and,
the verb is plural unless the subjects are considered
a unit.
 In a sentence with compound subjects joined by or,
nor, either….or, neither….nor, the verb usually
agrees with the closest subject.
 A singular subject followed by a phrase introduced by
as well as, together with, along with, in addition to
ordinarily takes a singular verb.
 Collective nouns (committee, jury, crowd, team, etc)
usually take a singular verb.
Rules on Subject-Verb Agreement
 When a collective noun refers to members of the
group individually, a plural is used.
 Expressions signifying quantity or extent (kilometers,
years, etc.) take singular verbs when the amount is
considered as a unit.
 A singular subject followed by a phrase or clause
containing plural nouns is still singular.
 When a sentence begins with there is or there are,
the verb is determined by the subject which follows.
 A verb agrees with its subject and not with its
complement.
Rules on Pronoun Agreement
 A pronoun must agree in number with the word for
which it stands, its antecedent.
 When a pronoun’s antecedent is a collective noun,
the pronoun may either be singular or plural,
depending on the meaning of the noun.
 For nouns joined by or or nor, the pronoun agrees
with the nearer noun.
 When an antecedent is a common-gender noun
(customer, manager, instructor, supervisor,
employee, etc.), the traditional practice has been to
use he and his.
 Those who are sensitive to sexist elements of
language are more prone to use both his or her if
the gender of the antecedent is not known.
Rules on Pronoun Agreement
 “His” or “her” repeated many times can be
cumbersome, so to avoid this, use a plural
construction.
 Some indefinite pronouns (some, all, none, any,
etc.), used as antecedent require singular or plural
pronouns, depending on the meaning of the
statement.
 All, any, some or most are either singular or plural,
depending on the meaning of the statement.
 In standard English usage, “none” is usually singular
unless the meaning is clearly plural.
 A pronoun when used must always have a clearly
identified antecedent.
Irregular Verbs

 Irregular verbs do not end in –d or –ed in the past

tense. Their ending may be different from those of
regular verbs, but they rely on the same helping
verbs that indicate present, past and future time.
 Irregular verbs work the same way as regular verbs
do; the only difference is their endings.
Examples:
The meeting was supposed to begin at nine. It
actually (begin) at nine.
The meeting began at nine. I wished it had (begin)
earlier.