Introduction
This page brings together the important grammar topics prescribed for Class XII Term 1. The notes are arranged according to their textbook page numbers so that teachers can quickly identify each topic, plan classroom instruction and guide students to the correct section. The explanations, examples and tables are presented in a simple and compact form for easy teaching, revision and reference.
📑 Index
| No. | Grammar Topic | Textbook Page |
|---|---|---|
| 🔵1 | Adjective | 30 |
| 🔵2 | Adjective Clauses | 31 |
| 🔵3 | Adjectival Phrase | 31 |
| 🔵4 | Homonyms | 49 |
| 🔵5 | Tenses | 68 |
| 🔵6 | Reported Speech | 69 |
| 🔵7 | Active Voice and Passive Voice | 71 |
Adjectives, Adjective Clauses & Adjectival Phrases
📚1.📘 ADJECTIVE (Page 30) Click Here for Adjective Detailed Notes
🌟 Adjective – Detailed Notes
Adjectives are words that describe or modify other words, making our writing and speaking more specific and interesting. They give additional information about a person, place, animal or thing.
Words like small, blue and sharp are examples of adjectives because they describe nouns.
Adjectives are used to identify, describe or quantify individual people and things. They are usually placed before the noun or pronoun they modify.
📌 Examples:
🌸 She has a beautiful dress.
🔵 The boy has a blue bag.
✏️ He bought a sharp pencil.
Some sentences contain more than one adjective.
Example: ✨ She wore a beautiful red silk dress.
📚2.📗 ADJECTIVE CLAUSES (Page 31) Click Here for Adjectival Clauses Detailed Notes
An adjective clause is a group of words that works like an adjective. It describes or gives more information about a noun or pronoun.
Adjective clauses usually begin with words such as:
Adjective clauses do not change the basic meaning of a sentence. Sometimes, when they provide extra information, they are separated by commas.
📝 Examples:
🍕 Pizza, which most people love, is not very healthy.
👥 The people whose names are on the list will go.
📺 Grandpa remembers the old days when there was no television.
🍎 Fruit that is grown organically is expensive.
🎓 Students who are intelligent get good grades.
🚗 Eco-friendly cars that run on electricity save gas.
👨👩👧 I know someone whose father served in World War II.
🏫 The kids who were called first will have the best chance of getting a seat.
📚 I enjoy telling people about Janet Evanovich whose latest book was fantastic.
🛒 The people waiting all night outside the Apple store are trying to purchase a new iPhone.
💡 "He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe is as good as dead." — Albert Einstein
📚3.📙 ADJECTIVAL PHRASE (Page 31) Click Here for Adjectival Phrases Detailed Notes
An adjective phrase is a group of words that describes a noun or pronoun. The main word in an adjective phrase is called the head word. The head word is always an adjective.
✨ Examples:
👟 These are unbelievably expensive shoes.
😐 Sarah was fairly bored with you.
👀 She had extremely menacing eyes.
🦁 The extremely tired lioness is losing patience with her overly enthusiastic cub.
😊 My mother was fairly unhappy with the service.
💡 Remember
Adjectives add details to nouns and make our language clearer, richer and more interesting. Adjective clauses and adjectival phrases help us provide extra information in a sentence.
📚4.🔤 HOMONYMS
Grammar Notes – Page 49
📘 What are Homonyms?
Homonyms are words that have the same spelling and the same pronunciation, but they have different meanings.
Although these words look and sound alike, their meanings change according to the context in which they are used.
🌟 Example:
Bark can mean the outer covering of a tree or the sound made by a dog.
🌳 The bark of the tree is rough. 🐕 The dog began to bark loudly.
📚 Common Examples of Homonyms
| Word | Meaning 1 | Meaning 2 |
|---|---|---|
| 📍 Address | To speak to someone | Location or place |
| 🌬️ Air | Oxygen around us | A tune or melody |
| 🎵 Band | A musical group | A ring or strip |
| 🌳 Bark | Outer layer of a tree | Sound made by a dog |
| 🌊 Current | Present or up-to-date | Flow of water |
| 🎲 Die | To stop living | A cube marked with numbers |
| ⚖️ Fair | Equitable or just | Beautiful or light-coloured |
| ❤️ Kind | A type or category | Caring and helpful |
| 🛌 Lie | To recline or rest | To tell something false |
| 🔥 Match | To pair similar things | A stick used to make fire |
| 📊 Mean | Average value | Unkind or unpleasant |
| 🇵🇱 Pole | A person from Poland | A long piece of metal or wood |
| ⚖️ Pound | A unit of weight | To beat or hit repeatedly |
| 📄 Ream | A pile of paper | To squeeze juice from fruit |
| 🌹 Rose | Past form of rise | A flower |
| 🌸 Spring | A season of the year | A coiled metal object |
💡 Why are Homonyms Important?
Homonyms make the English language interesting and challenging. Understanding the meaning of a homonym depends on the context in which it appears.
For example, the word "spring" may refer to a season or a mechanical object. The surrounding words help us understand the correct meaning.
✨ Learn the context, understand the meaning! ✨
📘 What are Tenses?
Tenses show the time of an action or event. They tell us whether an action happened in the past, is happening in the present, or will happen in the future.
Verbs have three main tenses:
🟢 Present Tense: It describes actions happening now or actions that happen regularly.
🟠 Past Tense: It describes actions that have already happened.
🔵 Future Tense: It describes actions that will happen later.
📊 Forms of Tenses
| Tense Form | Present | Past | Future |
|---|---|---|---|
| Simple | Simple Present I read nearly every day. | Simple Past Last night, I read an entire novel. | Simple Future I will read as much as I can this year. |
| Continuous | Present Continuous I am reading Shakespeare at the moment. | Past Continuous I was reading Edgar Allan Poe last night. | Future Continuous I will be reading Nathaniel Hawthorne soon. |
| Perfect | Present Perfect I have read so many books that I can’t keep count. | Past Perfect I had read at least 100 books by the time I was twelve. | Future Perfect I will have read at least 500 books by the end of the year. |
| Perfect Continuous | Present Perfect Continuous I have been reading since I was four years old. | Past Perfect Continuous I had been reading for at least a year before my sister learned to read. | Future Perfect Continuous I will have been reading for at least two hours before dinner tonight. |
🧠 Quick Memory Trick
🌱 Present → Action happening now or regularly.
⏮️ Past → Action completed before now.
🔮 Future → Action expected to happen later.
The form of the verb changes according to the time of the action.
✨ Examples of Tense Changes
📖 Present: She reads a book every day.
📖 Past: She read a book yesterday.
📖 Future: She will read a book tomorrow.
⭐ Correct use of tenses makes our communication clear and meaningful. ⭐
📘 What is Reported Speech?
Reported speech is used when we tell someone what another person said earlier. It helps us report a statement, question or information without using the exact words of the speaker.
When direct speech is changed into reported speech, changes may occur in:
🔹 Verb tense
🔹 Pronouns
🔹 Time expressions
📊 Direct Speech and Reported Speech
| Tense / Modal | Direct Speech | Reported Speech |
|---|---|---|
| Present Simple | “I like ice cream.” | She said that she liked ice cream. |
| Present Continuous | “I am living in London.” | She said that she was living in London. |
| Past Simple | “I bought a car.” | She said that she had bought a car. OR She said that she bought a car. |
| Past Continuous | “I was walking along the street.” | She said that she had been walking along the street. |
| Present Perfect | “I haven’t seen Julie.” | She said that she hadn’t seen Julie. |
| Past Perfect | “I had taken English lessons before.” | She said that she had taken English lessons before. |
| Will | “I’ll see you later.” | She said that she would see me later. |
| Would | “I would help, but…” | She said that she would help, but… |
| Can | “I can speak perfect English.” | She said that she could speak perfect English. |
| Could | “I could swim when I was four.” | She said that she could swim when she was four. |
| Shall | “I shall come later.” | She said that she would come later. |
| Should | “I should call my mother.” | She said that she should call her mother. |
| Might | “I might be late.” | She said that she might be late. |
| Must | “I must study at the weekend.” | She said that she must study at the weekend. OR She said that she had to study at the weekend. |
🧠 Important Rules to Remember
✨ When reporting someone's words, the reporting verb is usually followed by that.
✨ Present tense verbs usually change into past tense when the reporting verb is in the past.
✨ Pronouns may change according to the speaker and listener.
✨ Some modal verbs like could, should, might remain unchanged.
✨ Example
Direct Speech: Ravi said, “I am happy.”
Reported Speech: Ravi said that he was happy.
👤 Active Voice
In active voice, the sentence focuses on the person or thing doing the action.
🎯 Passive Voice
In passive voice, the sentence focuses on the action or the receiver of the action.
💡 When Do We Use Passive Voice?
Passive voice is used when the action is more important than the person who does it.
- The doer is not known.
- The doer is not important.
- We do not want to mention the doer.
- We want to make the sentence sound more polite.
🤝 Passive Voice Can Sound More Polite
🧩 Form of Passive Voice
Past participle means the third form of the verb.
✅ How to Change Active into Passive
- The object becomes the new subject.
- Use the correct form of be.
- Change the main verb into its past participle.
- Add by + doer, only when needed.
- Do not change the tense or meaning.
🔁 Example
Active Pattern
Meera sang the song.
Passive Pattern
The song was sung by Meera.
📚 Common Tense Changes in Passive Voice
| Tense | Active Voice | Passive Voice |
|---|---|---|
| Simple Present | She writes a letter. | A letter is written by her. |
| Simple Past | She wrote a letter. | A letter was written by her. |
| Simple Future | She will write a letter. | A letter will be written by her. |
| Present Continuous | She is writing a letter. | A letter is being written by her. |
| Present Perfect | She has written a letter. | A letter has been written by her. |
| Modal Verb | She can write a letter. | A letter can be written by her. |
↩️ How to Change Passive into Active
- Find the doer after by.
- Make the doer the new subject.
- Change the verb into the correct active form.
- Move the passive subject to the object position.
🌟 Remember
- Active voice focuses on the doer.
- Passive voice focuses on the action or receiver.
- Only sentences with an object can normally be changed into passive voice.
- Always use the third form of the verb.
- Do not change the tense or meaning.
- Use by only when the doer is important.
[XII NOTES XII DISCOURSE NOTES TERM 1 XII CAPSULE NOTES XII PRESENTATIONS XII RESOURCES XII GRAMMAR TERM 1 ]
Prepared by: Sindhu P., HSST English, GGHSS Kallai, Kozhikode
HSE English 4 U