Spelling, Punctuation, Jumbled Words and Sentences | English Olympiad for Class 6 PDF Download

Spelling

English spelling is an intriguing part of learning English. Max Muller went one step further and summed up the dilemma of those learning English. “English spelling is a national misfortune to England and international misfortune to the rest of the world.” Various scholars and linguists have suggested a number of ways to learn to spell such as the Dictionary method, Dictation method, the Playway method, Old drill method, and so on.
Without going into the merits and demerits of any methods we may agree to the sound advice of Tomkinson that ‘Caught rather than taught’ is the best way to learn to spell. In other words, a student can solve the problem just by reading constantly and preparing a list of words that spell danger for a student. There are many reasons for poor spelling. Some of them are poor memory, weak retention power, and less reading activity. Therefore, correct spellings need constant writing practice, usage, and the power of recollection. The more a student recollects a word, the more capability he acquires to avoid errors in spelling words.

Punctuation

Punctuation is a system in which marks are used in writing to indicate pauses and division of sentences. The meaning of written communication is made clear to the readers by the use of these marks. In fact, punctuation is the right use of putting in marks or stops in writing.
The following are the principal marks of punctuation.

1. A comma (,) is used to give a short pause. Example - Yes, I will go there.
2. An Apostrophe (’) is used to express possession. Example - This is Sohan’s pen, This is a boy’s hostel.
3. Semi-Colon (;) is used to connect independent clauses. Example - Kiran was hurt; She knew he only said it to upset her.
4. colon (:) is used to enumerate a list, to mention time & ratio. Example - (a) I have many things: books, pens, one mobile, etc. (b) 6:00 O’clock, etc. 10:25
5. Quotation marks (“  ”) also known as inverted commas are used to mention any statement. Example- He said, “I play hockey”.
6. Dash (–): There are two types of dashes: en dash (–) is used to indicate connections or differentiations. e.g. 1880–1950. Delhi – Kolkata trains. The em dash is twice as long as en dash (—) e.g. Sunaina gave him her an answer — No!
7. The hyphen (-) is used to join the compound terms. Example- part-time, well-known.
8. End marks—
(a) Full stop (.) – At the end of a declarative sentence.
(b) Question Marks (?) – At the end of the questions.
(c) Exclamation marks (!) – At the end of the exclamatory sentence.

Besides punctuation marks the students are required to know the use of :

(a) Capital letters (b) How to write numerals?
A word jumble is a word puzzle that gives you a group of scrambled letters and requires you to unscramble them to make a real word. For example, if you were given the letters "m-o-c-t-e-r-u-p" you could unscramble, or unjumble. If you do, these letters will reveal the word computer.

Tips For Solving a Jumble Word

There are many hints, tips, and tricks that can help you to solve a jumbled word.

• The first trick is to look for any letters that appear frequently together. These include consonants such as "ch," "sh," or "ph." They can also include vowel-consonant combinations like "qu."
• Another trick is to separate the consonants from the vowels and look at them separately. Sometimes looking at them away from one another makes the word become more obvious.
• You can also write the letters down like the numbers on the face of a clock. For some, displaying the letters in this way can help them to see the word clearly.
• Lastly, do a great deal of reading. Reading will help to improve your vocabulary. Therefore, make sure you read anytime you can.

Rearrangement of Jumbled Words

When solving jumbled sentences or "Sequence of Words" type questions, first determine the "Subject" and the "Predicate".
SUBJECT - The part which names the person or thing we are speaking about.
PREDICATE - The part that tells something about the subject. After identifying the subject and predicate, identify the tense and the verbs used. It’s always a good idea to read the answer options to figure out the most correct sentence than to try solving the jumbled sentence yourself.

Para Jumbles

The student has to choose a logical sequence to make a meaningful sentence or paragraph. This form of exercise tests the student’s ability to
(a) figure out the logic of the events.
(b) arrange different parts of a combination according to correct grammatical usage.
In a sentence or paragraph structuring, the student has to check which part follows the other according to the logical theme of the sentence/paragraph.
(a) Phrase arrangement or Jumbled Sentence.
(b) Sentence arrangement or Jumbled Paragraph.
In a jumbled sentence, a sentence is broken into four parts and the student has to figure out, the right sequence to form a logical, sensible sentence. Consider the following example.

Example:
P: by her indulgent parents
Q: the child was so spoiled
R: when she did not receive all of their attention
S: that she pouted and became sullen
(a) RQPS
(b) QRPS
(c) QPSR
(d) QSPR
In this question, a single sentence has been broken into four different parts and the student has to find out the logical sequence of the sentence. In order to do that, consider the following.
The strategy I: Decide on the opening phrase, first. The opening part of the sentence will usually contain the subject of the sentence. So, locate the subject and select that part as the first in the sequence. Now, select all options in the answer that begin with the part you have chosen as the first. In example 1, the subject is the child and the opening part will be Q, thus, we can eliminate option (a). Now, since the subject is passive, the verb form will be followed by ‘by’ and the doer. So, find the second part beginning with by and containing the doer of the action which in this case is P. Thus, we can reach the right answer, option (c).

Strategy II: If the Subject is passive, mostly, the following part will begin with ‘by and contain the doer of the action in the sentence.
Example: Unsurpassed power (P)/the modern society (Q)/in (R)/ women enjoy (S) 
(a) RQPS
(b) SRPQ
(c) SPRQ
(d) PSRQ
The subject of the sentence is ‘women’ so the opening part would be S. Thus, we have to choose between options (a) and (c). The subject in this sentence is active. So, we must find the object which will be the next part. In the given question, the object is unsurpassed power. Thus, the answer is (c).
Strategy III: When the subject is active, follow the sequence- SUBJECT - VERB - OBJECT.
Strategy IV: Preposition is never the last part. If a proposition is given as one of the parts match it with other parts to find out what will follow the preposition.
In Example III ‘in’ could only be followed by Modern society, so the last two parts of the sentence would be (R) and (P).

Example
P: and was at once convinced
Q: he sent a few copies of the book to well-known poets
R: Shaw read the first few lines of the volume
S: and awaited their reaction
T: that what he was reading was real poetry
(a) RPTQS
(b) QSTPR
(c) RSPQT
(d) QPRST
Now, in the given questions, there will appear two subjects ‘shaw’ in (R) and ‘he’ in (Q). But ‘he’ is a pronoun, used to replace the noun, Shaw, and thus, will follow the noun in the sentence.
Strategy V: If there are nouns and pronouns as subjects in the different parts of a sentence, the part with the noun will be the opening part. Thus in example III, the opening part is (R), so we have to choose from Option (a) & (c).
Now, we have to figure out the last part of the sentence. Clearly, the given sentence consists of two parts, one with the subject Shaw and the other with the subject ‘he’. The part with the subject ‘he’ will follow the other so, the predicate of the phrase with the subject ‘he’ will be the last part of the sentence. Thus, the last part of example III will be (s). The correct answer is (a).
Strategy VI: Predicate is the last part of the sentence.
Now, let us consider Jumbled Paragraphs.
In this type of question, a paragraph will be broken into four or more parts and the students will be asked to find out the right sequence.