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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).

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

Lesson

Objective

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

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.

Can you describe what you do in the morning before you go to school? Here is a list of what you might do, but the order in which you do things has been mixed up:

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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 activities. 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. 

Activity 3

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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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