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Topic: Verb

Verbs are a very important word class, including words for actions (he walked home) and states (she is at home). They can be marked for present or past tense (walks, walked).

Nouning verbs

A quick activity looking at how some words can be both nouns and verbs

This is a simple starter activity that will help your students see how some words can function as both nouns and verbs. The activity is designed to be carried out in pairs around the class. One student be the noun and the other will be the verb. Each will need the same word list (which you can download and print below) or you can just use the word list on the screen.

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Politeness and directness

This task is about using verbs and modal verbs in different ways. We all know that people can be direct or indirect in the ways they phrase things. We often use commands to give instructions, but sometimes these might be seen as too direct and blunt. We sometimes soften them with modal verbs, among other tools.

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Politeness and directness: Activity

Try to make the following expressions less direct. Compose alternative sentences for each one.

  1. Shut the window.
  2. Tell me your name.
  3. Stop talking.

What changes did you make to render the expressions less direct? 

Now, make the following expressions more direct. Compose an alternative sentence for each example.

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03: Verbs

Year 2 Guided Grammar Lessons #3

This is Lesson #3 of a unit of 10.

Go to the Start

Teacher Slide

Objective: grammar

To understand what verbs are, how they are formed, and their grammatical characteristics.

Objective: writing

To explore what role verbs play in writing, and to apply this to the pupils' own writing.

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05: Present tense

Year 2 Guided Grammar Lessons #5

This is Lesson #5 of a unit of 10.

Go to the Start

Teacher Slide

Objective: grammar

To understand, identify and apply the present tense, including the present progressive form of the verb.

Objective: writing

To explore when the present tense is used in writing and apply this to the pupils’ own writing.

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06: Past tense

Year 2 Guided Grammar Lessons #6

This is Lesson #6 of a unit of 10.

Go to the Start

Teacher Slide

Objective: grammar

To understand, identify and apply the past tense, including the past progressive form of the verb.

Objective: writing

To explore when the past tense is used in writing and apply this to the pupils’ own writing.

Terminology for pupils:

tense, past tense

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Analysing representation in romantic fiction

Lesson plan for Mills and Boon exercise

Goal

  • Use linguistic tools to analyse representation in romantic fiction

    Lesson plan

    Gathering the noun phrases and verbs relating to particular topics in a text can be a good first step in analysing the representation of those topics. This lesson uses blurbs from the Mills & Boon website to discuss how those texts represent gender and how that might suit its readers.

    Give students the blurbs and have them read out.

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    Antonymy 3

    Plan

    Activity 1

    Explain that this lesson will continue to focus on antonyms and prefixes, but this time by looking at verbs.

    Check to make sure your learners know the meaning of these key terms. Use the two example sentences to help. 

    Show the learners the list of six verbs. Ask them to add a prefix to each one to form its antonym. Use the next mix-and-match activity to check answers as a whole class. Bring the cards together to connect and double click to separate. 

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    Antonymy 3

    Lesson

    Objective

    To examine verb antonyms, and how they are formed and used.

    Activity 1

    Antonyms are also very common with verbs.

    Just like adjectives and nouns, they can be formed by adding a prefix.

    1. I tied my shoes.

    2. I untied my shoes.

    Activity 1

    Look at this list of six verbs.

    What is the antonym for each one? Which prefix do we use to change it? 

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    Derived nouns and composition

    In this activity we will look at suffixes that can change adjectives and verbs into nouns.

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    Derived nouns and composition: Activity 1

    Complete the examples with nouns which are derived from the highlighted adjectives. The first answer is provided for you.

    Anna was late. It annoyed me. → Anna's lateness annoyed me.

    Jeff is shy. I didn’t notice this until the party. → I didn’t notice Jeff’s ___ until the party. I didn’t notice Jeff’s shyness until the party.

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    Derived nouns and composition: Activity 2

    Complete the examples with nouns which are derived from the highlighted adjectives. The first answer is provided.

    The peacekeeping forces withdrew. It led to civil war. → The withdrawal of the peacekeeping forces led to civil war.

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    Genre of Argument and Discussion 2

    Lesson Plan

    Goals:

    • Identify and analsye how nominalisations are used in essays
    • Identify and analsye how the passiv voice is used in essays
    • Apply these features in a writing task

    Lesson Plan

    This is Part 2 of the lesson on Argument and Discussion. 

    Make sure you have the handout from Part 1. 

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    Genre of Argument and Discussion 2

    Activities

    This is Part 2 of the lesson on Argument and Discussion. 

    Make sure you have the handout from Part 1. 

    In the first lesson, you looked at how information is organised through discourse structure. In this lesson, you will examine choices of language and register.  

    Activity 1

    Re-read paragraph 3. Can you find an example of the same word being used in different grammatical roles?

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    Genre of Encyclopaedia Entries

    Lesson Plan

    Goals:

    • Identify the purpose and tone of encyclopaedia entries
    • Analyse the discourse structure and register features
    • Produce an encyclopaedia entry using the same techniques

    Lesson Plan

    Before this lesson, you may want to complete the lesson An Introduction to Genre, so that learners are familiar with the key terms discourse structure and register

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    Genre of Encyclopaedia Entries

    Activities

    Warm up

    What kind of text is an encyclopaedia?

    What is its purpose?

    What makes it different from other texts?

    Activity 1

    Read the Tiger encyclopaedia entry.

    1. What are three facts you learn about tigers?
    2. How is this text written? What is the tone? Why is it written in this way?

    What three words best describe the tone and style of this text?

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    Genre of Narratives and Recounts

    Lesson Plan

    Goals:

    • Distinguish recounts from narratives
    • Identify the discourse structure and features of register used in narratives
    • Re-order a narrative by following the appropriate features

    Lesson Plan

    Before this lesson, you may want to complete the lesson An Introduction to Genre, so that learners are familiar with the key terms discourse structure and register

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    Genre of Narratives and Recounts

    Activities

    Activity 1

    Today, we're looking at the genre of storytelling. Narratives and recounts are two ways of describing events.

    What do you think is the difference between narratives and recounts?

    Narratives and recounts both relate events that took place in the past and which occur in a logical order.

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    Genre of Newspaper Articles

    Lesson Plan

    Goals:

    • Identify and analsye the discourse features of newspaper articles
    • Identify and analsye the register features of newspaper articles
    • Apply these features in writing 

    Lesson Plan

    Before this lesson, you may want to complete the lesson An Introduction to Genre, so that learners are familiar with the key terms discourse structure and register

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    Genre of Newspaper Articles

    Activities

    Warmer 

    Discuss with a partner: 

    • What was the last newspaper article you read? What was it about? 
    • Why do people read newspapers and news websites?  
    • What features do we expect to see in a newspaper article? Why are they used? 

    Activity 1

    Read Article A. Discuss the following questions: 

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    Homonyms

    Plan

    Please note: there are two pages of activities for this lesson.

    Activity 1

    Show the learners the two example words. Ask them to discuss with a partner how many different meanings they can think of. In the next two slides, show possible solutions. 

    Next, explain that words with multiple unrelated meanings are called homonyms. Ask learners to identify the word class of the two example words.  

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    Homonyms 1

    Lesson

    Objective

    To identify the different meanings of homonyms of various word classes. 

    Activity 1

    Look at these two words. How many meanings can you think of for each? 

    • bank 
    • pupil

  • bank 
    1. an organization or a building that handles money and provides financial services. 
    2. the land on the side of a river or a lake

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    Homonyms 2

    Lesson

    Activity 3

    This lesson continues our look at homonyms. 

    Take for example the word fast

    How many different meanings and word classes can you think of?

    Look at these two sentences: 

    1. Katie works very fast
    2. Katie is a fast worker.

    They have very similar meanings, but in one sentence fast is an adverb and in the other an adjective.

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    Noun endings

    Exploring suffixes and how they affect word class

    In this activity we will look at suffixes which change verbs and adjectives into nouns. This process is a part of derivational morphology. 

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    Subject-Verb Agreement

    In this lesson, students select the correct verb to compose an acceptable sentence.

    Goals

    • Practise composing sentences with appropriate Subject-Verb agreement.
    • Identify acceptable patterns in Standard English.

    Lesson Plan

    The teacher explains that today, we will select the correct verb on the smart board, to construct acceptable sentences.

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    Subject-Verb Agreement: 'Be' verbs

    Telephones
    are
    is
    am
    really weird.

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    Synonymy

    Plan

    Please note: there are two pages of activities for this lesson.

    Activity 1

    Start by explaining the meaning of the term synonym. For an example, ask learners to think of some synonyms for the word 'argument'. 

    In the next slide, show the two possible examples. Ask learners if these two words have the exact same meaning or if there are any subtle differences. Try asking learners in what situations they would/would not use each word.

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    Synonymy 1

    Lesson

    Activity 1

    A synonym is a words that has the same, or a very similar, meaning to another. 

    Take for example the word argument.

    How many words can you think of that have the same or a very similar meaning? 

    For the word argument, some synonyms are quarrel or row.

    The words quarrel and row have the same general meaning.

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    Synonymy 2

    Lesson

    Activity 5

    Just like with nouns, there are also many synonyms which are adjectives. These have the same, or very similar, meanings to each other, and are used in different contexts.

    What does the term adjective mean? What examples can you think of? Can you think of any synonyms?

    Find the synonymous adjective in these two sentences:

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    Tense and aspect in fiction

    Exploring the use of tense and aspect in a range of literary texts

    In this activity we will examine some short extracts from novels. The idea is to look at the tense and aspect forms used, and think about how they are used to unfold the action of the story.

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    Tense and aspect in fiction: Activity

    It was after supper, and I was reading and smoking at the table. Algie was playing patience and drumming a tattoo with his fingers, and Gus was outside checking on the dogs. Suddenly he burst in. 'Chaps! Outside, quick!'

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    The use of tense in sports commentaries

    This activity looks at the use of tense in two descriptions of the same event: a football match. Students are asked to think about why different tenses used, and what kind of role they play in creating the meaning of the text.

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    Verb endings

    In this activity we will look at suffixes which change adjectives and nouns into verbs. This process is a part of derivational morphology. 

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    Verb identification

    In this activity, students work through the criteria for identifying verbs.

    Goals

    • Practise identifying verbs.
    • Recognise linguistic criteria for identifying verbs.
    • Remember the list of verb criteria for use and application later on.

    Lesson Plan

    In this lesson, students move beyond what is called the notional or semantic way of identifying verbs as 'doing words' to explore grammatical ways of identifying verbs. (You can listen to Bas Aarts discuss this.)

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    Verb identification: Activity 1

    Which words do you think are verbs?

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    Verb identification: Activity 2

    He played cricket with Charlie.

    Is played a verb?

    • Is it a doing word?
    • Can it show tense? Can you say Yesterday, I ____ed, for example?
    • Does it add -s to agree with a Subject like he or she, as in He ___s.
    • Can it take an -ing ending?

    He played cricket with Charlie.

    Is cricket a verb?

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    Verb images

    This lesson asks students to think about tense and aspect, what they mean, and how else we can communicate those meanings.

    Goals

    • Identify verb tense and aspect. 
    • Explain the meaning of verb tense and aspect. 
    • Use multimodal literacy skills to present information from words as pictures. 

    Lesson Plan

    The teacher explains that today, we will be describing some pictures using language, and then drawing some pictures to describe language.

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    Verb images: Activity

    The girls are rehearsing a song.

    Several boys were playing football.

    Sally has studied French for three years.

    John has been studying French for one hour.

     

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    Verbs in fiction

    Exploring verb choices in different literary texts

    In this lesson, students identify verbs in fictional extracts and discuss the reasons why authors may have chosen particular verbs in their writing.

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    Verbs in fiction: Activity

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    Words

    Plan

    Activity 1

    Show learners the image in the first slide. Ask them to work with a partner and write down as many words as they can see. Share back with the whole class and accept any valid answers. 

    Activity 2

    Show learners the list of actions. Ask them to put the letters a-f in the appropriate order. Circulate and accept any reasonable answers. On the next slide, disucss possible solutions as a whole class. 

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    Words

    Lesson

    Objective

    To explore the meaning of simple, everyday words and how they relate to your experience of the world.

    Activity 1

    There are many kinds of words.

    Do you know the words for what you see in the picture? Talk to a partner and write down as many words as you can.

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    Finite or nonfinite?

    In each of the following sentences, indicate whether the highlighted verb is finite or nonfinite.

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    Identify the verbs

    Click on the words that you think are verbs to select or deselect them.

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    Main verb or auxiliary verb?

    Is the highlighted verb a main verb or an auxiliary verb?

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    Y2 GPaS Test: Identify the verbs

    Find the main verbs in a range of examples

    Identify the main verb in each of the following examples. Click on the word (or words) to select or deselect them.

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    Y2 GPaS Test: Present or past tense?

    In each of the following examples, indicate whether the highlighted verb is in present or past tense:

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    Y6 GPaS Test: Identify the modal verbs

    Find the modal verbs in a range of examples

    Identify the modal verbs in each of the following examples. Click on the word (or words) to select or deselect them.

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    Y6 GPaS Test: Identify the verbs

    Find the verbs in a range of examples

    Identify the verbs in each of the following examples. Click on the word (or words) to select or deselect them.

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    Y6 GPaS Test: Modal verbs and adverbs expressing modal meaning

    Read each of the following examples carefully. Which kind of word indicates modal meaning (e.g. 'obligation', 'necessity', 'possibility', etc.)? A modal verb or an adverb?

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    Y6 GPaS Test: Noun or verb?

    In each of the following examples, indicate whether the highlighted word is a noun or a verb:

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    Y6 GPaS Test: Present or past tense?

    In each of the following examples, indicate whether the highlighted verb is in present or past tense:

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    Y6 GPaS Test: Select the verb form

    Select the correct verb form for each example.

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    Phrasal verbs

    What is a phrasal verb? Phrasal verbs consist of a combination of a verb and another word, which we’ll call a preposition. Some examples are come over, look (something) up. The first word in a verb-preposition combination can be just about any verb. The verbs that most commonly appear in such combinations are listed below:

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    Phrasal verbs: New phrasal verbs

    There are many phrasal verbs that you won’t find in any dictionary. This is because we commonly create new phrasal verbs based on the meanings of existing phrasal verbs. Usually, new phrasal verbs are either transparent or aspectual – new idiomatic phrasal verbs would usually be too difficult for listeners to decode. Perhaps you’ve heard examples like the following:

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    Phrasal verbs: Three categories

    Non-native speakers are often told that their only option is to memorise each phrasal verb individually. Is it really necessary to do all that work? No. Not only is it unnecessary, it’s inefficient. And it’s inefficient for three reasons:

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    Verbs

    Verbs have traditionally been described as ‘doing words’ or ‘action words’. This works well for some verbs, like sprint, chatter, eat. Here are some sentence examples with verbs which describe actions:

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    Verbs: Auxiliary verbs

    A key distinction in the word class of verbs is between main verbs (also called lexical verbs) and auxiliary verbs:

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    Verbs: Modal verbs

    Modal auxiliary verbs (or modals for short), as the name suggests, are a kind of auxiliary verb. They have most of the attributes of auxiliary verbs. They are a closed class that is identifiable as a short list, and they convey particular types of meaning.

    Here is a table which lists the most important modal verbs (also called the core modals). It shows most of them in pairs as present and past tense forms, which makes them easier to remember.

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    Verbs: Nonfinite and finite

    Verbs can be divided into finite and nonfinite forms. Finite verbs carry tense. So, past and present tense verb forms are finite. Nonfinite verbs do not carry tense, and do not show agreement with a Subject. Put differently, they are not 'limited' by tense or agreement.

    The infinitive form of a verb is nonfinite. It is the form which follows to:

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    Verbs: Tense

    Tense is a grammatical notion that refers to the way in which a language encodes the real world notion of time. Typically this is done through endings on verbs called inflections. Verbs are the only word class that can carry tense inflections (though they don't always do so). Verbs that carry a tense ending are called finite verbs.

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    Verbs

    What is a verb? Is it right to call them 'doing words'?

    In this short film, Professor Aarts shows the problems with defining verbs as 'doing words' and explains that English has no future tense.

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