Grammar and Mechanics - Use of English (Senior Secondary)
Clear communication requires flawless grammar. This course explains the mechanics of the English language. You will study clause and sentence patterns, mood, tense, aspect, and number. It covers subject-verb agreement and concord, degrees of comparison, and question tags. It also treats the rules of punctuation, capitalisation, and spelling. The course uses sentence construction and mechanical accuracy as a single framework for correct writing.
Accurate English ensures people understand you in every setting. You will apply these skills to write university admission essays, draft formal emails, and present ideas clearly. Schools and employers judge your competence by the quality of your writing. Mastering these rules prevents basic errors in your daily communication. It keeps your message clear when you apply for jobs, sit for exams, or pitch personal projects.
After completing this course, you will construct sentences without grammatical errors. You will apply the rules of concord so your subjects and verbs always agree. You will use correct punctuation and capitalisation to structure your thoughts on paper. You will also form appropriate question tags, use correct degrees of comparison, and apply the proper mood and tense for any context. Finally, you will identify and correct common spelling errors instantly.
This course targets senior secondary school students preparing for university entrance examinations in Nigeria and globally. University students who need a refresher on academic writing will also find it useful. Working professionals who want to remove basic errors from their daily writing can take this course. It helps anyone who needs a direct and practical review of the mechanics of English.
$ 9.99
Enrolment valid for 12 months
This course is also part of the following learning track. You may join the track to gain comprehensive knowledge across related courses.
Use of English
Academic success requires a flawless command of the English language. This programme breaks down the core mechanics of English to ensure you pass the JAMB UTME and communicate clearly in any future career. We cover everything from basic grammar and vocabulary expansion to critical reading, phonetics, and literary analysis.
We built this curriculum primarily for senior secondary school students preparing for university entrance examinations in Nigeria. However, university freshers who struggle with academic writing and working professionals who need to fix persistent errors in their daily communication will also find these lessons highly practical.
Upon completion, you will construct grammatically correct sentences, decode unfamiliar words, and extract facts from complex texts quickly. You will apply the rules of phonetics to speak clearly and use literary analysis to understand the exact message of the author. These skills give you a direct advantage for university admission, job interviews, and writing professional reports.
Use of English
Academic success requires a flawless command of the English language. This programme breaks down the core mechanics of English to ensure you pass the JAMB UTME and communicate clearly in any future career. We cover everything from basic grammar and vocabulary expansion to critical reading, phonetics, and literary analysis.
We built this curriculum primarily for senior secondary school students preparing for university entrance examinations in Nigeria. However, university freshers who struggle with academic writing and working professionals who need to fix persistent errors in their daily communication will also find these lessons highly practical.
Upon completion, you will construct grammatically correct sentences, decode unfamiliar words, and extract facts from complex texts quickly. You will apply the rules of phonetics to speak clearly and use literary analysis to understand the exact message of the author. These skills give you a direct advantage for university admission, job interviews, and writing professional reports.
Academic success requires a flawless command of the English language. This programme breaks down the core mechanics of English to ensure you pass the JAMB UTME and communicate clearly in any future career. We cover everything from basic grammar and vocabulary expansion to critical reading, phonetics, and literary analysis. We built this curriculum primarily for senior secondary school students preparing for university entrance examinations in Nigeria. However, university freshers who struggle with academic writing and working professionals who need to fix persistent errors in their daily communication will also find these lessons highly practical. Upon completion, you will construct grammatically correct sentences, decode unfamiliar words, and extract facts from complex texts quickly. You will apply the rules of phonetics to speak clearly and use literary analysis to understand the exact message of the author. These skills give you a direct advantage for university admission, job interviews, and writing professional reports.
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Course Chapters
1. Introduction57
1. Introduction
5
7
You will begin by understanding how English sentences are built from the ground up. This chapter introduces the four core elements of clause structure and shows you how words combine to form meaningful utterances.
You will master the identification of subject, predicator, complement and adjunct; recognise the five basic verb patterns at the predicator level; and apply these patterns to construct grammatically sound clauses from scratch.
Concept Overviews
5 Lessons
Problem Walkthroughs
7 Lessons
2. Subject-Verb Concord55
2. Subject-Verb Concord
5
5
You will learn the foundational rules that ensure your subjects and verbs always agree in number. This chapter covers the basic concord principles that examiners test most frequently in Use of English.
You will master singular and plural subject-verb agreement, the principle of proximity, accompaniment markers, parenthetic statements, and the treatment of indefinite pronouns and collective nouns in concord.
Concept Overviews
5 Lessons
Problem Walkthroughs
5 Lessons
3. Advanced Concord Rules55
3. Advanced Concord Rules
5
5
You will tackle the more intricate concord rules that separate average candidates from top scorers. This chapter covers the tricky structures examiners use to trap unwary students.
You will master concord with many a, more than, each of, one of, relative pronouns, pluralia tantums, uncountable nouns, mathematical facts, categorisation nouns, and the mandative subjunctive.
Concept Overviews
5 Lessons
Problem Walkthroughs
5 Lessons
4. Tense and Aspect511
4. Tense and Aspect
5
11
You will learn how English verbs change form to show when an action occurs and whether it is completed or ongoing. This chapter covers all major tenses and the rules that govern their correct use.
You will master the simple, continuous and perfect tenses; apply tense-balancing rules across clauses; use conditional clause patterns; and handle the tricky structures involving has, have and had.
Concept Overviews
5 Lessons
Problem Walkthroughs
11 Lessons
5. Mood and Modality57
5. Mood and Modality
5
7
You will understand how English verbs express attitude, possibility, necessity and hypothetical situations through mood and modal auxiliaries. This chapter clarifies the structures that signal whether a statement is factual, commanded, wished or imagined.
You will master the indicative, imperative and subjunctive moods; use modal auxiliaries correctly; apply rules for verbs after wish, as if, would rather and had better; and handle stative verbs that resist continuous forms.
Concept Overviews
5 Lessons
Problem Walkthroughs
7 Lessons
6. Comparison of Adjectives45
6. Comparison of Adjectives
4
5
You will learn how adjectives and adverbs change form to compare people, things and actions. This chapter covers the positive, comparative and superlative degrees and the rules that govern their correct use.
You will master the formation of comparative and superlative forms; apply the rules for monosyllabic, bisyllabic and polysyllabic adjectives; handle irregular comparison forms; and avoid common errors such as double comparatives and the misuse of superlatives with two items.
Concept Overviews
4 Lessons
Problem Walkthroughs
5 Lessons
7. Question Tags47
7. Question Tags
4
7
You will learn how to form and respond to question tags — the short questions added to the end of statements to seek confirmation. This chapter covers the rules that link statement polarity to tag polarity.
You will master the use of operators in tag formation; handle tags with lexical verbs using do, does and did; apply special rules for let us, used to, must and there is; and respond correctly to positive and negative tags in yes/no questions.
Concept Overviews
4 Lessons
Problem Walkthroughs
7 Lessons
8. Punctuation and Capitalisation46
8. Punctuation and Capitalisation
4
6
You will learn the mechanical rules that make your writing clear and professionally presented. This chapter covers the correct use of the apostrophe, capital letters and other punctuation marks in formal English.
You will master the possession, contraction and pluralisation functions of the apostrophe; apply capitalisation rules for names, titles, geographical features and organisations; and avoid the most common mechanical errors tested in examinations.
Concept Overviews
4 Lessons
Problem Walkthroughs
6 Lessons
9. Spelling and Word Forms45
9. Spelling and Word Forms
4
5
You will master the spelling rules and word-form distinctions that examiners test directly. This chapter covers commonly misspelt words, homophones, and the correct forms of frequently confused expressions.
You will master the spelling of high-frequency examination words; distinguish between commonly confused homophones; apply British English spelling conventions; and select the correct word form in contexts involving advice/advise, affect/effect and similar pairs.
Concept Overviews
4 Lessons
Problem Walkthroughs
5 Lessons
10. Conclusion1
10. Conclusion
1
You will consolidate everything you have learned across the course into a single, integrated framework for accurate English. This chapter reviews the major rules of grammar, concord, tense, comparison, tags, punctuation and spelling.
You will review the key principles of clause structure and concord; revisit tense and conditional patterns; consolidate the rules of comparison, question tags and mechanical accuracy; and apply all rules together to identify and correct errors in connected writing.
Concept Overviews
1 Lesson