Unit 1: English language fundamentals
Communication-I notes · PTU syllabus (BSIT101/BSBC101)
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Unit summary
Clear English is the base of every professional skill. This unit covers sentence structure, parts of speech, tenses, active and passive voice, direct and indirect speech, creative writing and vocabulary, comprehension passages, and reading biographies of IT business personalities.
After this unit you can
- Build correct sentences using parts of speech and tenses
- Convert between active and passive voice and direct and indirect speech
- Develop vocabulary and creative writing skills
- Read comprehension passages and biographies with understanding
PTU syllabus topics
- Sentence structure
- parts of speech
- tenses
- active-passive voice
- direct-indirect speech
- creative writing and vocabulary
- comprehension passages
- reading biographies of IT business personalities
Focus
The doer
The action or receiver
Example
The team built the app
The app was built by the team
Use in IT writing
Clear instructions
Formal reports, when the doer is unimportant
Topic 1
Sentence structure
- Sentence: a group of words expressing a complete thought, with a subject and a predicate.
By function
Declarative, interrogative, imperative, exclamatory
By structure
Simple (one clause), compound (two independent clauses joined by and, but, or), complex (independent + dependent clause), compound-complex
- Basic patterns: subject + verb (She codes); subject + verb + object (He wrote a program); subject + verb + complement (The app is fast).
- Subject–verb agreement: singular subjects take singular verbs (The list of files is long).
Topic 2
Parts of speech
| Part of speech | Function | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | Names a person, place, thing or idea | computer, Bengaluru, honesty |
| Pronoun | Replaces a noun | he, it, they, which |
| Verb | Shows action or state | run, compile, is |
| Adjective | Describes a noun | fast, reliable |
| Adverb | Describes a verb, adjective or adverb | quickly, very |
| Preposition | Shows relation | in, on, under, between |
| Conjunction | Joins words or clauses | and, but, because |
| Interjection | Expresses emotion | Wow!, Oh! |
Topic 3
Tenses
Present
Simple (writes), continuous (is writing), perfect (has written), perfect continuous (has been writing)
Past
Simple (wrote), continuous (was writing), perfect (had written), perfect continuous (had been writing)
Future
Simple (will write), continuous (will be writing), perfect (will have written), perfect continuous (will have been writing)
- Use the simple present for facts and habits ("The server restarts every night") and the present perfect for past actions with present relevance ("I have fixed the bug").
Topic 4
Active and passive voice
- Active: the subject does the action — "The team developed the app."
- Passive: the subject receives the action — "The app was developed by the team."
- 1Make the object the new subject
- 2Use the correct form of "be" for the tense
- 3Use the past participle of the main verb
- 4Add "by + doer" if needed
Example
Active: "The manager will approve the budget." Passive: "The budget will be approved by the manager."
- Passive voice suits reports and technical writing when the doer is unknown or unimportant.
Topic 5
Direct and indirect speech
- Direct: exact words in quotation marks — He said, "I am working on the project."
- Indirect: reported without quotation marks — He said that he was working on the project.
- Rules: change pronouns, shift tenses back (present → past, past → past perfect, will → would), change time and place words (now → then, today → that day, here → there), use "asked whether" for questions and "told/ordered" for commands.
Topic 6
Creative writing and vocabulary
- Creative writing: short stories, descriptive paragraphs, blog posts — use vivid details, clear structure (beginning, middle, end), varied sentences.
- Vocabulary building: reading widely, keeping a word log, learning roots, prefixes and suffixes (pre-, re-, -able), synonyms and antonyms, one-word substitutes, idioms and phrases, commonly confused words (affect/effect, its/it's, principal/principle).
Topic 7
Comprehension passages
- 1Skim the passage for the main idea
- 2Read the questions
- 3Scan for specific details
- 4Answer in your own words
- 5Check grammar and relevance
- Identify the main idea, supporting details, the writer's tone, word meanings from context, and give a suitable title.
Topic 8
Reading biographies of IT business personalities
- N. R. Narayana Murthy: co-founded Infosys in 1981 with ₹10,000; built a values-driven global IT firm — lessons in ethics and governance.
- Azim Premji: transformed Wipro from a vegetable-oil company into an IT services leader; leading philanthropist (Azim Premji Foundation).
- Shiv Nadar: co-founded HCL (1976); pioneer of Indian computer hardware and IT services.
- Sundar Pichai and Satya Nadella: Indian-born CEOs of Google (Alphabet) and Microsoft — growth through education, product focus and leadership.
- Steve Jobs and Bill Gates: founders of Apple and Microsoft who shaped personal computing.
- Reading approach: note early life, challenges, key decisions, values and lessons for your own career.
Key terms
- Clause
- Group of words with a subject and verb
- Tense
- Form of the verb showing time
- Passive voice
- Sentence where the subject receives the action
- Indirect speech
- Reporting words without quoting them
- Comprehension
- Understanding a written passage
Quick revision
- Sentence types by function and structure; agreement.
- Eight parts of speech.
- Twelve tenses.
- Active–passive conversion; direct–indirect rules.
- Vocabulary, creative writing, comprehension; biographies of IT leaders.
Important exam questions
Practice questions written to the PTU exam pattern for this unit's syllabus: short answers (Section A style) and long answers (Sections B and C style).
Short-answer questions
- Q1.Distinguish simple and complex sentences.
- Q2.Name the eight parts of speech.
- Q3.Change into passive: "She writes the code."
- Q4.Change into indirect speech: He said, "I will come tomorrow."
- Q5.Give two ways to build vocabulary.
- Q6.Name two Indian IT business personalities and their companies.
Long-answer questions
- Q1.Explain sentence structure and the parts of speech with examples.
- Q2.Explain tenses with examples.
- Q3.Explain the rules for converting active to passive voice and direct to indirect speech.
- Q4.Write about the life and lessons of any one IT business personality.
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