TOPIC 1
THE ALPHABET AND THE NUMBERS
Sometimes we need to go back to the basics and see whether the foundations are strong. That is crucial for developing future communication skills.

Talking About The English Alphabet
The English alphabet system has 26 letters which are needed to write all the English words. The following are the English letters with their names in bracket.
Aa (ei), Bb(bii), Cc(sii), Dd(dii), Ee(ii), Ff(ef), Gg(jii), Hh(eich),Ii(ai), Jj(jei), Kk(kei), Ll(el), Mm(em), Nn(en), Oo(ou),Pp(pii),Qq(kyuu),Rr(ar), Ss(es), Tt(tii), Uu(yuu), Vv(vii), Ww(dablyuu), Xx(eks),Yy(wai), Zz(zed).

Their corresponding sounds are such as:
A[a],  B[b],   C[k],   D[d],  E[e],  F[f],  G[g],  H[h],  I[i],  J[j],  K[k],
L[l],   M[m],  N[n],  O[o],  P[p],  Q[k],  R[r],  S[s],   T[t],  U[a],
V[v],   W[w], X[ks], Z[z].

Examples:
(This is for the name: Robert)
A: Can you spell your name?
B: Oh Yes!It is R.O.B.E.R.T. [ar  ou  bii  ii  ar  tii]
A: Can you say your name?
B: Yes it is [robat]

Talking About Cardinal Numbers
Cardinal numbers are numbers which show quantities of things. In my opinion I consider the most important cardinal numbers for an English learner to be 1-20. The rest are easy to learn.

We count cardinal numbers like this:
1=One, 2=two, 3=three, 4=four, 5=five, 6=six, 7=seven, 8=eight, 9=nine, 10=ten

11=Eleven, 12=twelve, 13=thirteen, 14=fourteen, 15=fifteen, 16=sixteen, 17=seventeen, 18=eighteen, 19=nineteen, 20=twenty

Counting tens from 10-100
10=ten; 20=twenty; 30=thirty; 40=forty; 50=fifty; 60=sixty; 70=seventy; 80=eighty; 90=ninty; 100=one hundred


Counting hundreds from 100-1000
100=one hundred; 200=two hundred; 300=three hundred; 400=four hundred; 500=five hundred; 600=six hundred; 700=seven hundred; 800=eight hundred; 900=nine hundred; 1,000=one thousand

Counting thousands from 1,000-10,000
1,000=one thousand; 2,000=two thousand; 3,000=three thousand; 4,000=four thousand; 5,000=five thousand; 6,000=six thousand; 7,000=seven thousand; 8,000=eight thousand; 9,000=nine thousand; 10,000=ten thousand

Other Ordinal numbers:
100,000 =one hundred thousand; 1000, 000= one million (a million)
1,000,000,000 = one billion ( a billion); 1,000,000,000,000 = one trillion ( a trillion)

Sentence examples:
Our football team has twenty players.
There are one hundred people in that village.
Last year, they cut down  a million trees.
Ten million people were killed in an earthquake.
Tens of, hundreds of, millions of, trillions of:
Tens of people have died of hunger this year.
He has hundreds of books.
That house will cost thousands of dollars.
Trillions of money have been stolen from the bank recently.

Talking About Ordinal Numbers
Ordinal numbers are numbers which show the position of something in a series; that is, they show order. Again, I consider the first twenty ordinal numbers to be very important for the learner.
1st= first; 2nd= second; 3rd= third; 4th =fourth; 5th=fifth; 6th=sixth; 7th=seventh; 8th=eighth; 9th=ninth; 10th=tenth; 11th=eleventh;12th=twelfth; 13th= thirteenth; 14th=fourteenth; 15th=fifteenth; 16th=sixteenth; 17th=seventeenth; 18th=eighteenth; 19th=nineteenth;20th=twentieth

Other Ordinal numbers:
30th = thirtieth; 40th =fortieth; 50th =fiftieth; 60th =sixtieth; 70th =seventieth;
80th =eightieth; 90th=ninetieth; 100th =one hundredth (a hundredth)
200th =two hundredth; 300th =three hundredth
1000th = one thousandth; 900th =nine hundredth
101st = one hundred first; 207th =two hundred seventh
Sentence examples:
She became first in her class.
This is our fiftieth independence anniversary.
I was a hundred and second student in the whole country to win that prize.

Talking About Mathematical Operations
Some common mathematical operations may go like this:
One plus two equals three Or  One plus two is three
Ten minus four equals six Or Ten minus four is six
Five times six equals thirty Or Five times six is thirty
Forty divide by four equals ten Or Forty divide by four is ten

Talking About Frequencies
Sometimes we talk about how many times something can be repeated.
Once (one time), twice(two times), thrice(three times), four times, five times, ten times, etc.
Examples:
A: How many times have you eaten today?
B: I have eaten thrice
A: How many times will you visit Tanga?
B: I will visit Tanga twice this year.
A: How many times did she give birth?
B: She gave birth seven times.



TOPIC 2
USING PUNCTUATION MARKS
In speech people change their pitch, volume, stress, pause in between sentences, et cetera,  to create certain impact and clarify their meaning. In writing, we use various symbols that are commonly known as punctuation marks to make reading easier and meaningful. They include full stops, commas, colons, semi-colons, inverted commas, parentheses, dashes, hyphen, question marks, apostrophes,exclamation marks, capitalizations, et cetera. These marks indicate different actions that readers should note so they can follow and understand the information smoothly.

However, the use of these marks is not as straightforward as one would expect. Many times we need to depend on common sense and experience that are gained through much reading and practice. Use the punctuation marks in places where they are needed most and avoid them in places where they are least important.

Here we present just a few punctuation marks with their few basic functions commonly used in writing and reading. Read these examples carefully and find other material to expand your knowledge on these and the other punctuation marks not included here.

The Full Stop (.)
(1).It is used at the end of a complete sentence
e.g. I am studying in one of the best colleges in the country.
       Communication Skills is a new subject to us.

(2).It is used in abbreviations
e.g. U.N.H.C.R.
       U.S.A.

The Upper Case (Capital Letter)
(1).It is used for the first letter in every sentence as well as the first letter in all proper nouns.
e.g. Musa and Jasmin are relatives.
       That house was built by my son.

(2).It is also used in abbreviations
   CCM and CHADEMA are two  strong rival political parties in Tanzania.
   They are being supported by the I.L.O. Office in Dar es Salaam.


The Question Mark (?)
(1).It is used at the end of direct questions
e.g. What is your name?
       Where is the Post Office?

(2).It is also used at the end of requests
e.g. May I see you for a moment please?
      Will you allow me to clean this mess please?

The Comma (,)
(1).It is used for items in a series of three or more words, phrases or clauses that appear together and have the same function in a sentence.
e.g. Are those products imported from France, Spain or Italy?
      Milk, fruit juices, soft drinks, etc., are packaged in plastic containers.

(2).It is also used to questions added to statements
e.g. The announcement surprised everyone, didn't it?
      It was Mr. Kabwe, wasn't it, who proposed those changes?

As pointed out above, there are many punctuation marks and we cannot discuss them all and in detail here in this small book. Please, get other books and expand your knowledge on the correct use of those punctuation marks.