When teaching grammar, always use charts and other visuals so students can see representations of grammar rules. Provide students with lots of examples. Vary your teaching between the two approaches for teaching grammar, the deductive and the inductive. The deductive approach provides students with the grammar rules first, then examples, and is usually used with lower levels. The inductive approach encourages students to discover the rules on their own from examples provided by the teacher, and is usually reserved for higher levels. Whenever possible teach grammar in context. For example, if you want to teach the past tense, provide a reading that uses the past tense. Review the -ed form using verbs that occur in the reading as examples. Review any irregular verbs that might also occur in the reading. –(updated weekly)-Previous ––––– –––. Nouns In general, nouns are used for the names of persons, places and things in English. There are specific categories of nouns. The following aresome examples. Proper Nouns Proper nouns are the names of people, and titles. The names of the months, days of the week, and places are all examples of proper nouns. Proper nouns always begin with a capital letter. names of people: John, Anna months of the year: July, June, April names of places: the United States, Japan, Germany titles of people: President Obama, Dr. Oz, Ms. Mary Benet, Mr. Oak titles of books and newspapers: The History of Spain, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal (Note that these proper nouns are italicized in regular text.) Count Nouns A count noun is a common noun that can change in quantity from singular to plural form and can co-occur with determiners such as every, several, and many. Example: chair There is a chair in the room. There are three chairs in the room. There are several chairs in the room. Non-count (or Mass) Nouns A non-count (or mass) noun cannot change quantity from singular to plural form. They can co-occur with pronouns. Example:furniture There is furniture in the room. There is a lot of furniture in the room. There is some furniture in the room. Note: Some nouns can be countable and uncountable depending on the context of the sentence: Life (uncountable) is hard for poverty-stricken people. She lived a hard life on the streets. Abstract Nouns Abstract nouns refer to things that cannot be touched, tasted, smelled, or seen: love, outrage, exertion, wrath, cheerfulness, kindness. Exercise Directions: Identify the proper nouns in the following paragraph *”Five miles out, nearly to the center of the Dead Sea, an international team of scientists has been drilling beneath the seabed to extract a record of climate change and earthquake history stretching back half a million years. Professor Ben-Avraham, a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities and chief of the Minerva Dead Sea Research Center at Tel Aviv University, had been pushing for such a drilling operation for 10 years. Answers: Proper Nouns:the Dead Sea, Professor Ben-Avraham, Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the Minerva Dead Sea Research Center, Tel Aviv University. Source NYT Pronouns Pronouns are substitutes for nouns. Be sure that when your students use pronouns, you (the reader) will know what it refers to. The referent should be close to the pronoun within the sentence. There are categories of pronouns. Subject singular: I, you, he, she, it plural: we, you, they Object singular: me, you, him, her, it plural: us, you, them Reflexive singular: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself plural: ourselves, yourselves, themselves Possessive singular: my, our, your, their plural: ours, yours, theirs Exercise Directions: In the following sentences, identify the pronouns and their referents. Harry bought a car yesterday and he took it to the country. The father and his son went fishing together. The company hired a new CEO. She was a great addition. Children love to play. Usually they’ll play all day long.Answers: pronoun: he; referent: Harry pronoun: his; referent: father pronoun: she; referent: CEO pronoun: they; referent: children pronoun: she; referent: CEO pronoun: they; referent: children English Verbs Verbs are the part of speech that describes an action, an event, or a state. While there are many irregular verbs in English, the regular ones are fairly easy to learn. Verb Tenses The Simple Forms The simple present tense expresses events or situations that exist now, have existed in the past, and will exist in the future. The simple present expresses that an activity is occurring now. The form is (Form = base -s/-es) Example: She always studies after dinner. The simple past expresses an event that has occurred at one specific time in the past. It began in the past and it ended in the past. (Form = base past ending) Example: He studied yesterday. The simple future expresses an event or situation that will occur at a specific time in the future. (Form = be going to / will base) Example: He will study after dinner tomorrow. He is going to eat before he studies. The Progressive Forms The progressive tense shows continuous or repeated action. (Form = base -ing) The present progressive (present continuous) expresses an event or situation that began in the past, is in progress at the present time, and will continue until some point in the future. (Form = present tense of be verb -ing) Example: She is reading right now. The past progressive expresses a past activity that was in progress while another activity occurred. (Form = past tense of be verb -ing) Example: He was eating while the radio played. The future progressive (future continuous) expresses an activity that will be in progress in the future. (Form = simple future of be verb present participle) Example: She will be studying for the exam tomorrow. The Perfect Forms The perfect tenses are used to express an action that occurred at an unspecified time before the present. The exact timeis not important. You cannot use specific time expressions such as yesterday, last week, and long ago with this tense, but you can use unspecified time expressions such as once, before, so far, ever, and many times. The present perfect expresses action that has finished some time before the present. (Form = auxiliary have/has verb past participle ) Example: I have seen that picture several times. The past perfect expresses one action that was completed in the past, before a second action was completed. (Form = past form of the auxiliary have past participle) Example: After I had eaten my lunch, I went to see a show. The future perfect expresses an action that will have been completed by a specific time in the future. (Form = will/ be going to have verb past participle) Example: They will have eaten dinner by 6:30. They are going to have played almost the whole game by the time we get there. The Perfect Progressive Forms The present perfect progressive expresses continuousaction that has been completed at some point in the past or that began in the past and continues to occur in the present. (Form = have / has been verb -ing) Example: I have been studying for two hours. The past perfect progressive expresses two actions that occurred in the past, but not simultaneously. (Formed = had been verb -ing) Example: He had been waiting for two hours before they finally arrived. The future perfect progressive expresses a continuous action that will be completed at some point in the future. (Form= will have been verb -ing) Example: I will have been studying for two hours. Transitive and Intransitive Verbs Transitive verbs are verbs that need a direct object; that is, someone or something receives the action of the verb. Example: John broke the window. He took the train. broke = transitive verb took = transitive verb. Intransitive verbs are verbs that do not need a direct object. Example: It was late when we finally arrived. If you smell“believed”!-that it would soon be over. Yes, “soon.” In most of the rest of the statement, one not only heard the aggrieved passive voice but felt the hand of a lawyer: ”To the best of my recollection, my fraud began in the early nineteen-nineties.”>> If there is an example of the passive voice in Madoff’s quoted statements, it has escaped my attention. Unlike the blog Liberman cites, The New Yorker reportedly has professionally edited text. The “passive voice” spotted in the first Madoff quote is apparently the phrase “it would end shortly”, which is technically an active-voice intransitive, but one where (as Franklin observes) Madoff is evading the fact that the scheme could end if and only if he himself took steps to end it — or, on the most charitable interpretation, if his investment strategy miraculously began to work as he falsely claimed it did. But there’s an interesting twist towards the end of the paragraph. In recording the mutation of the term “passive voice”, I’ve beenfocusing on the way that the word passive has gradually lost its technical grammatical meaning, and taken on a sense crystallizing around notions of passive as “unassertive”, “lacking in force”, “failing to take responsibility for what happens”, “submissive”. But Franklin’s reference to “the aggrieved passive voice” made me realize that the word voice has undergone a similar change in popular usage, losing its technical grammatical meaning in favor of the ordinary-language sense “mode or style of expression”. It would be nice to know what the historical trajectory of these changes has been. Presumably the grammatical meaning of “passive voice” became unstable in popular usage when grammatical analysis stopped being taught. I believe that with respect to English, this started happening early in the 20th century, though perhaps people continued to pick up some grammatical terminology for a while longer in learning foreign languages, until grammatical analysis was no longer taught in thatcontext either. The knowledge probably lingered longest in Latin courses, but increasingly smaller portions of the population were involved. Despite the lack of any basis for understanding its meaning, I conjecture that the term “passive voice” continued in popular use due to the many stylistic injunctions to avoid it, so that a complex of more-or-less incoherent ideas were evoked to characterize what it is that writers are supposed to avoid. I wonder what Eleanor Gould Packard, the New Yorker’s “Grammarian” for 54 years, would have written in the margins of Franklin’s submission. According to David Remnick’s obituary for her, “she could find a solecism in a Stop sign”, and “once found what she believed were four grammatical errors in a three-word sentence”. But I haven’t been able to find any information about whether or not she knew what “passive voice” meant.” Related Articles About the Passive / Active Voices The Passive Voice [ Why It is Evil and How to recognize it ] by Dr. L.Kip Wheeler Baron, Dennis. “The Passive Voice Can Be Your Friend,” Declining Grammar and Other Essays On the English Vocabulary (Urbana: NCTE, 1989), pages 17-22. “Passive Voice” — 1397-2009 — R.I.P., Mark Lieberman Three Letters on the Passive Voice from the Journal Nature The Passive voice is Redeemed for Web Headings by Jakob Nielson Additional Information for the Active Passive Voices Handout and Links for the Passive Voice The Writer’s Handbook Active vs. Passive Voice The Use of By Agent in the Passive Voice Literacy weblog Active and Passive Verbs The Passive and Active Voices in Other Languages Using the Passive and Active Voices in Spanish The Impersonal and Passive se in Spanish SpanishDict-(Sentence Practice ) Passive and Active Voices Forum: Using the Passive and Active Voices in German Japanese Passive and Active Voices: On The Meaning of the Japanese Passive, by Frederik Kortlandt The Passive and Active Voices in Portuguese The Passive and Active Voices inBrazilian Portuguese, by Fernanda L. Ferreira, Ph.D. Forum: The Korean Passive Voice Forum: The Passive Voice in Chinese Latin Verbs I for the Passive Voice Latin Verbs II for the Passive Voice Books Written About the Passive and Active Voices The Passive Voice: An Approach to Modern Fiction by Harold Kaplan (Sep 1979) How to Swat the KILLER BEs Out of Your Writing: A Writing Skills Handbook on How to Write in Active Voice by Nancy Owens Barnes (Jul 1, 2009) – Kindle eBook- Diachronic Change in the English Passive, by Junichi Toyota (Nov 11, 2008) Deconstructing the English Passive (Topics in English Linguistics) by Anja Wanner (Jul 15, 2009 Adjectives Adjectives modify nouns or pronouns by describing or identifying these parts of speech. (Below, adjectives are in italics.) Example: Antonio is a man. Antonio is an intelligent man. He is intelligent. noun = man; adjective = intelligent; pronoun = he Adjectives are neither singular or plural. When adjectives modify plural nouns they donot take the plural suffix. E.g., The dog is fierce. The dogs are fierce. Example: I’m very happy. The flowers are beautiful. Comparative and Superlative Adjectives The comparative and superlative forms are used in English to compare and contrast people, and objects. The comparative is used when there are two people or objects. Example: Jack is tall, but Joe is taller. The superlative is used when there three or more people or objects. Example: All of the children in the class are tall, but Jim is the tallest. One-Syllable Adjectives To form the comparative with one-syllable adjectives add -er. Example: tall er = taller short er = shorter To form the superlative with one-syllable adjectives add -est. Example: tall est = tallest short est = shortest One-Syllable Adjectives ending with a Consonant and a Vowel before the consonant Comparative: double the consonant and add -er. Superlative: double the consonant and add -est. Example: Comparative: thin n -er =thinner Superlative: thin n est = thinnest Two-Syllable Adjectives Form the comparative of a two-syllable adjective by preceding it with more; form the superlative by preceding it with the most. Example: more+ careful = more careful Example: the most careful = the most careful EXCEPTIONS: Two-Syllable Adjective ending with -y Comparative: change the -y to -i and add –er. Example: happy i er = happier Superlative: change the -y to -i and add –est. Example: happy -i -est = happiest Two-Syllable Adjectives ending in -er, -le, and -ow Comparative: add -er Example: narrow er = narrower Superlative: add -est Example: narrow -est = narrowest Some irregular adjectives Comparative: good → better; bad → worse Superlative: good → best; bad → worst Exercise 1 Directions: Write the comparative and superlative forms for each of the words below. Example: old c: older s: the oldest 1. expensive 2. yellow 3. reasonable 4. hungry 5. good 6. cooperative 7. beautiful 8. shallow9. far 10. passive Answers 1. more expensive most expensive 2. more yellow yellowest 3. more reasonable most reasonable 4. hungrier hungriest 5. better best: 6. more cooperative most cooperative 7. more beautiful most beautiful 8. shallower shallowest 9. further furthest 10. more passive most passive Exercise 2 Directions: Complete the following sentences using either the comparative or superlative form of the verbs in parentheses. Example: Who is the tallest student in the class? (tall) 1. Which country is ____________________ to you? (interesting) 2. Who’s ____________________ teacher you know? (strict) 3. Who’s ____________________, Joe or Jack? (handsome) 4. Which language is ____________________ to learn, French or Spanish? (easy) 5. Are Mary and Jim ____________________ than Sue and John? (smart) 6. Which language is ____________________, Arabic or Chinese? (difficult tomaster) 7. What’s the ____________________ river in the world? (long) 8. Which do you like ____________________, reading or writing English? (good) 9. When is ____________________ time to study for an exam? (good) 10. Which sport is ____________________ in your country, soccer or tennis? (popular) Answers 1. most interesting 2. the strictest 3. more handsome 4. easier 5. smarter 6. more difficult to master 7. longest 8. better 9. the best 10. more popular Lesson Plan for Adjectives Level: low-intermediate to high-intermediate Materials: Handout on adjectives, a copy of the description essay, and a copy of the excerpt from Bruce Canton’s Essay, Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts. Objectives: Students will learn how to identify and use adjectives properly, they will review the description style of writing. Procedure: Review handout on adjectives (see above), and have students complete exercises 1 and 2 (the answers are provided). Next, review the Description mode of writing withstudents. Then place students in groups, and write a list of items on the board they can describe. For example, the classroom, a room in their homes, their family members, a friend. Students should have a list of adjectives at the end of the activity. After this, give students some background information on the Civil War (see source below) and information about the two generals Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee. Give each group a copy of the excerpt and have them high-light all of the adjectives they find. Review the information as a class. For homework have students write a descriptive paragraph, of each general, using the adjectives from the excerpt and additional adjectives from their group activity. Everyone reads their descriptions at the next class meeting. Bruce Catton, Adverbs Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. (Below, adverbs are highlighted in green.) Adverbs can be categorized into the following: Frequency (How often?) Example: She rarely takes the trainto work. Time (when?) Example: I have not played chess recently. Place (where?) Example: Have you ever been there? Manner (How?) Example: He plays well. Degree (How much?) Example: She lost the game badly. Exercise Directions: Write the correct form of the word in brackets (adjective or adverb). 1. (slow) John is _______. He works________. 2. (easy) The students learn English ________. They think English is an ______ language. 3. (angry) The man was _________. He shouted ________. 4. (quick) Mary ate her lunch ________. (important) She knew the meeting was ___________. 5. (fluent) Maria lived in Japan for six years; she speaks Japanese _________. 6. (extreme) The entrance examination is _________ challenging. (prestigious) Very few students make it into the ____________ medical school. 7. (tired) Anna grew _____ from all the work. (obvious) It became ________ to everyone that she needed a vacation. 8. (frequent) One ________ sees many students in the early morning classes. Answers 1.the listener: Examples: I heard a bird sing this morning. She had an apple for lunch. When speaking of one’s profession: Examples: He’s an accountant. She’s a teacher. If the subject is not already known by the listener or reader, use the indefinite article to first introduce the noun in question: Examples: John bought a new car yesterday. He’s driving the car this week. Indefinite Articles and Quantities When speaking about quantities and to express amounts, the indefinite articles are applied: a few books, a little sugar, a lot of coffee. Pronunciation There is also a rule pertaining to articles that has to do with pronunciation. The sound, not the spelling, dictates which indefinite article to use: Examples: an EMT, an SKU, a TV commercial, a USC graduate. Use a when the noun referred to begins with a consonant: a factory, a street, a hotel. Use an when the noun being referred to begins with a vowel (or vowel sound): an hour, an opera. Interjections They are sounds of exclamations.These exclamations may reflect surprise, anger, or happiness. They are also used when the speaker wishes to take a moment to think before responding. Used mainly in speaking, written interjections are usually followed by an exclamation mark (!). Here are a few examples of interjections. Surprise: “Oh my! They chose me! Sadness: ” Oh no! He died yesterday?” Happiness: “Wow! Is this party for me?” Exasperation: “Augh! She said it again!” Additional Activities and Lesson Plans