Irregular Verbs Grouped by Pattern

Recently I posted a link to a list of the 50 most common irregular verbs in the English language. Here is another list of the 50 irregular verbs used most often (I didn't bother to check whether the same 50 verbs were on both lists--maybe one of you will compare the lists and let me know!). It only lists the first two parts (base form and simple past form) of the 50 verbs, but it is in alphabetical order, and practice exercises follow the list:

LINK: Top 50 Irregular Verbs and Practice Exercises

Some people find it helpful to learn the principal parts of irregular verbs by the patterns they follow rather than by learning a list of the most common. The same website (www.englishhints.com) also has a page that groups irregular verbs by the patterns they follow. Best of all, it has advice on ways to study these lists, depending on whether you learn best by seeing, hearing, or moving (writing).

My Suggestion: Click on the link below to go to the 12 lists. Read the sections on How to Study Irregular Verbs and Using the Lists. Then make your own copies of the lists. If you like to have something handy to study when you're riding the bus, waiting for class to start, or taking a break, copy the lists onto 12 or more note cards that you can easily carry in a pocket, wallet, or purse. You can buy lined or unlined cards in various sizes, or you can make your own. Try some of the suggested ways of studying the principal parts such as writing them 10 times, or having someone quiz you, or reciting them over and over.

 LINK: 12 Lists to Help You Learn Common Irregular Verbs

Ways to Learn the Principal Parts of Irregular Verbs

Here is the Oxford Advanced Learner Dictionary definition for "principal parts": the forms of a verb from which all the other forms can be made. In English these are the infinitive (for example swim), the past tense (swam) and the past participle (swum). We also call the infinitive form (to swim) the base form of the verb.

What is the best way to learn the principal parts of irregular verbs? Some people like to study with lists on paper. Others like to make flashcards or have a friend quiz them. One of the best ways to learn the parts of irregular verbs is to write sentences using them. For example:

Manuel woke up and got out of bed. He put on clothes, went to the grocery store, and bought some milk. The milk cost $3.29. He brought the carton of milk home, put it in the refrigerator, and wrote down how much money he spent at the store. He sat at his desk and taught himself some new English vocabulary words. Later he took the milk out of the refrigerator, poured some on his cereal, and ate it for breakfast. He also drank coffee with a little milk in it. Then he put his dirty dishes in the sink, left the house, and drove to work. He got gasoline on the way to work and kept track of how much he spent in a little notebook he always left in the car.

All of the verbs in the above paragraph are simple past tense. They are all irregular verbs except for one. The one regular verb is the only verb NOT written in darker italic letters. Can you find the only verb in the paragraph that forms the past tense in the regular way (by adding -ed or -d to the base form)? Here is a hint: Pablo opened up really enormous doors.

Another way to learn the principal parts of irregular verbs is to play the Listen and Repeat videos at manythings.org. Listen to and repeat the three parts of each verb.

My suggestion: Click on one of the first two links to practice principal parts with Listen and Repeat videos. Click on the third link to take four quizzes (in the blue box area)--fill in the blank with the simple past form of the irregular verb shown at right.

LINK: Listen and Repeat Irregular Verbs 

LINK: Fill in the blank with the simple past of these irregular verbs

Quizzes on Comparative and Superlative Adjectives

Click the first link below to take a quiz on comparative adjectives. The second link will take you to a similar quiz on the superlative form of adjectives.

For each quiz, you will see an empty box with a sentence underneath. Choose the adjective from the box at the right of the page and put it in the proper form (comparative for the first quiz and superlative for the second) to complete the sentence.

LINK: Comparative adjectives quiz

LINK: Superlative adjectives quiz

REALLY NICE Explanation of Possessive Adjectives & Pronouns, Chart Showing the Different Kinds of Pronouns

Oh, I like this post at myenglishpages.com!

• There is a lesson that explains the difference between possessive adjectives and possessive pronouns.
• There are links to lessons on the different types of pronouns (subject, object, possessive, reflexive).
• There's a lovely chart that lists these different types of pronouns for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person, singular and plural.
• There are links to quizzes and related topics.
• There's a link to a silly poem that uses possessive adjectives. You can click on the link and read the poem, but BEWARE! If you then click on the link to the YouTube video, you'll be watching big purple Barney the Dinosaur and his friends sing the song. Some of us watched plenty of Barney on tv when our children were little--no more, please!

Notice that I practiced using "There is," "There are," and the contraction "There's" in the above list. But I did not use "There're" as a contraction for "There are," because that contraction does not exist in English--BEWARE!


My suggestion: Read the lesson on possessive adjectives  and review the pronoun charts by clicking the first link below. 

LINK: Lesson on Possessive Adjectives

Then try this quiz on possessive adjectives and check your answers:

LINK: Grammar Exercises--Possessive Adjectives

To review possessive pronouns, click this link:

LINK: Lesson on Possessive Pronouns

Then try the exercises at this link:

LINK: Grammar Exercises--Possessive Pronouns
 

Summary and Quiz on Subject and Object Pronouns

Click on the link below to see a summary of the difference between subject and object pronouns. Then test your ability to use them correctly by taking the quiz that follows the explanation.

LINK: Subject and Object Pronouns at efl.net

Here is the Unit 12 end of unit test!

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Remember, we have an online Zoom meeting tomorrow (Wednesday, 4/22/20) at 10:00 a.m. Use the same link and meeting information I already texted you. If you have problems connecting tomorrow, please call or text me at 309-948-9615. We will discuss Monday’s homework assignment from Unit 8, Staying Healthy, and also the Burlington English assignment on gerunds. See the post from yesterday (Monday, 4/20/20) for instructions, if you haven’t done this work yet.

Unit 12 Test Instructions

• Use a piece of notebook paper to make an answer sheet.
• Put your name in the upper right corner of the answer sheet.
• Put the title Unit 12 Test on the top line, and number the paper 7 to 33* (see an example below).
• Print the letter of the correct answer  (A, B, C, or D) beside each number. Write clearly.
• Send me your answers by next Monday, 4/27/20. You can send a picture of your completed answer sheet by text or email, or you can copy your answers into an email (not a text) and send them to me.

* I left out questions 1 to 6 because they required listening to recorded conversations, which is hard to do in this situation.

This test has seven pages, but each page has only a few questions. You may use your textbook to help you as you answer the questions. Below is a guide to what each page of the test covers. I have listed pages in the textbook that cover the same material, to help you as you take the test.







UNIT 12 TEST GUIDE--with Future English 3 Textbook review pages

TEST PAGE	QUESTIONS	SUBJECT	TEXTBOOK PAGES
pages 80 and 81	7 to 10	Read a subway map	pp. 232-233
page   82	11 to 15	Superlative adjectives	pp. 230-231
page   83	16 to 20	Present passive verbs	pp. 236-237
page   84	21 to 25	Past passive verbs	p.   242
page   85	26 to 29	Vocabulary—places in Washington, DC	pp. 226-227
page   86	30 to 33	Reading skills—George Washington	None

Below are the seven pages (pp. 80-86) of the test. Write the answers on the answer sheet you made (see above instructions). Take your time, and do well!

Practice Past Tense and Time Clauses

 Click on the link below and scroll down to #1 to practice using past time clauses in sentences such as this:

1. Kate was skatedskatedwas skatingI don't know when she fell and broke her leg.    (You will click on the arrow in the box to show more choices, then click on verb form you think is correct) LINK: Practice past time clauses

Lessons and Exercises on Past Progressive/Continuous Tense

I am behind on posting what we've been doing in class, so I'm going to catch up with the most recent lessons and work my way backwards. Last week we studied the past progressive and simple past tenses and using them in time clauses. For instance, while is usually used with the past progressive tense: While I was watching television, while they were sleeping, etc. When, on the other hand, likes the simple past tense: The little boy was happy when his father came home.

My suggestion: Click on the links below for lessons and exercises on the past progressive/continuous tense and using it in time clauses:

LINK: Lesson on Uses and Forms of the Past Progressive Tense at myenglishpages.com 

LINK: Exercise on Forming the Past Progressive at myenglishpages.com

LINK: Lesson on Past Progressive Tense and Time Clauses at grammarbank.com

LINK: Exercise on Past Progressive Tense (scroll down to sentences 1-10)



Then click on these links to practice choosing between the simple past and past progressive tenses:

LINK: Simple Past or Past Progressive at ego4u.com

LINK: Simple Past or Past Progressive at Englishpage.com

LINK: Simple Past or Past Progressive at Perfect-English-Grammar.com

LINK: Simple Past or Past Progressive at a4esl.org

Subject-Verb Agreement

Click the link below to practice subject-verb agreement:

LINK: Subject-Verb Practice

LINK 2: Correct or Incorrect

LINK: What's the Correct Verb Form?

Review of Subject and Object Pronouns

You should know how to use all the types of personal pronouns--they do different jobs in a sentence. Here is a brief review of subject and object pronouns.

My suggestion: Click on the link below. Read the summary of subject and object pronouns and where you use them in a sentence. Then try the fill-in-the-blank quiz at the bottom of the page.

LINK: Subject and Object Pronouns--Review and Quiz

More Future Tense--Should I Use "Will" or "Going To"?

Why are there two different ways to form the simple future tense in English? What is the difference, and how do you know which to use? Englishpage.com has a very good explanation.

Use will to talk about a voluntary action (something you freely offer to do for someone else). Also use will to ask for help or to respond to a request for help, or to a complaint:

Joe: "This table is too heavy for me to carry by myself."
Tom: "OK, I will help you move it." Will you help me move my bed tomorrow?
Joe: "OK, I will. (this is a short answer using will)

Use be + going to + base form of verb to talk about something you plan or intend to do:

Tom: "After we move the furniture, I am going to finish my homework."

My Suggestion: Click on the link below and read the entire lesson on the simple future tense. Be sure to read the section titled No Future in Time Clauses (you can't use the future tense  when you're making a statement that includes a time clause introduced by a word like when, while, before, after, as soon as, etc.). Then try Verb Tense Exercises 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22. Each exercise has a "hint" button at the bottom of the page. If you click it, you will get the next letter of the answer (for instance, if the answer is will travel the first hint will be the letter w). You lose one point every time you ask for a hint. When you finish the exercise, click the "check" button to check your answers.

LINK: Simple Future Tense Lesson and Exercises

Future Tense of Verbs

This week in class we have started to learn about the future tense. The English language has a few different ways to talk about the future tense--something that has not happened yet. If you missed class this week, or if you want to read a good explanation of the future tense, the link below will take you a page at Englishhints.com that has a good overview.

My Suggestion: Click on the link below and read about the two main ways to form the future tense--

1. will  + base form of verb--Example: I will write the report tomorrow.
2. be + going to + base form of verb--Example: I am going to write the report tomorrow. ***

Then try the practice exercise where it says Practice forming the future tense. After sentence #10, click on the blue link to check your answers.

How to Make the Future Tense of Verbs

***Remember that to + the base form of the verb is called the infinitive of the verb. So another way to think of the "going to" form of the future tense is:

be + going+ infinite form of verb--Example: I am going to write the report tomorrow.

Do Yourself a Favor--Check Out These Lessons on Simple Present Vs. Present Progressive Tense

If you follow my suggestion below, you will get lots of instruction and practice in correctly using the simple present and present progressive tenses. Just beware of clicking on anything that says "Download" or anything listed under "Ad Choice" (which is in tiny print)--doing that will waste your time by taking you to advertisements.

My suggestion: Click on the link below and explore the explanations and exercises listed on the right.

LINK: Simple present and present progressive lessons and exercises at grammarbank.com

Forming Questions--Read More Than One Explanation

Learning how to ask questions in English is confusing. Sometimes you change the word order of subject and verb:  
Bob is tall. (statement word order is subject + verb)  
Is Bob tall? (question word order is verb + subject).
When the verb is a form of "to be" in simple present tense (am, is, are) or simple past tense (was, were), subject and verb change places to make a question.

In other types of questions, you leave the word order the same and put a question word such as where or why, plus a helping verb such as do, does (present tense) or did (past tense) at the beginning:  
Bob walked to work yesterday. Why did Bob walk to work yesterday? Where did Bob walk today?  
For questions in the simple past tense, the main verb changes from past tense (walked) to the base form (walk), and the helping verb did takes on the job of showing past tense.

However, if the subject of the sentence is the same as the answer to the question, you don't need a helping verb and the main verb stays in the past tense:
Who walked to work yesterday? Bob. Bob walked to work yesterday.
What made that squeaking noise? A mouse. A mouse made that squeaking noise. 

A different person's way of explaining how to ask questions might make more sense to you. Try reading several explanations of how to form questions in English.

My suggestion: Click on the three links below to read different explanations of how to ask questions. (these lessons may include types of questions we have not studied yet in class). Each link has exercises you can try after you read the lesson. 

WH Questions            Asking Questions              An Easy Way to Form Questions

 

Third Person Singular Present Tense Verbs--That Pesky "S"

Last week we reviewed spelling rules for adding the final -s to 3rd person singular verbs in the present tense. English language learners have a lot of trouble with that final -s. Grammarbank.com has some good exercises on the 3rd person singular of simple present tense verbs. Again, beware of clicking on buttons which are actually links to downloads or advertisements, not grammar lessons or quizzes. Instead, scroll down to the numbered questions.

My suggestion: Click on the links below to practice using the correct person and number of present tense verbs. You'll also get a little practice with questions and negative statements in the present tense.

NOTE: If the sentence is a negative statement or question, type in the complete verb, including what is in parentheses, not just do or does, or your answer will be marked incorrect. Also, use a capital letter if the blank is at the beginning of the sentence. 

Example: ______ (Mark/like) cookies?
Correct answer: Does Mark like
Incorrect answers: Does, does, does Mark like, Do, do, Do Mark like

LINK: Practice simple present tense, 3rd person singular

LINK: More practice with simple present tense

Remember, simple present tense is used to give information (facts) or to talk about usual habits or activities. If you need to review the grammar of the simple present tense, click this link:

LINK: Review of simple present tense with frequency adverbs

Work at Your Own Speed

Learnamericanenglishonline.com is a website where you can learn at your own pace (speed). It's also a good place to practice skills and to find out how much you know.

This website is organized in levels of learning. The beginning level is Blue. Here is the beginning of the list of topics to study at the blue level (there are 31 skills and a Review):

There are seven levels in all, plus other topics for learning and many quizzes for testing yourself. At the right is the website menu:


My suggestion: Clink on the link below to explore this website and practice whatever skills you want to work on (don't worry--you don't have to go as fast as this little hedgehog):



LINK: Self-Paced Learning at Learn American English Online

     

"The Lady Or the Tiger" Reading Quiz

Now that you have read Frank Stockton's story, "The Lady Or the Tiger," try taking a quiz. It is a timed reading quiz based on a section of the story (a different version from the one we read in class), but words are missing. It is similar to a Celsa grammar test, but it is also similar to using context to decide the meaning of an unknown word. Where a word is missing, you have to decide which word best fits both the grammar and the meaning of the story at that point. You will have 10 minutes to complete the quiz.

My suggestion: Click on the LINK below to take the quiz. Below the link is a sample--the first two questions from the quiz.

LINK: Reading Quiz--"The Lady Or the Tiger"

Sample Questions:

When all the people had assembled, the king, surrounded by his court, xx1xx a signal. Then a door beneath him opened, and the accused man stepped out into the arena. Directly opposite him were two doors, exactly xx2xx and side by side.

1. xx1xx
a)	give
b)	gives
c)	gave
d)	given
2. xx2xx
a)	alike
b)	different
c)	big
d)	closed

Quiz on Past Passive

Click the link below and try this quiz from learningamericanenglishonline.com (see Favorite Links to go to the main website). You will practice the past tense, passive voice. After you try the quiz (I have printed copies for you), click the link at the bottom of the page and check your answers.

LINK: Green Level Quiz #2--Passive Voice, Past

Game--Identify Parts of Speech at Grammar Gorillas Website

Do you need to review what a noun is, what a verb is, what an adjective is, etc.? Can you identify these parts of speech in a sentence? Try playing this short game at Grammar Gorillas. You can choose beginning level (identify the noun or verb only) or advanced level (identifying all 8 parts of speech).

My suggestion: Click on the link below. Click "Play Now," then choose either beginner or advanced level and play the game. Each question tells you to click on a specific part of speech (noun, verb, etc.).

LINK: Parts of Speech Game at Grammar Gorillas

Non-Action Verbs Practice

Here is a nice explanation of non-action verbs at ESLGold.com:

(This website has a lot of ads, so you have to scroll down to look for the grammar lesson)

"Some verbs cannot be used in the progressive tenses. They are called non-action verbs. Non-action verbs indicate state, sense, desire, possession, or opinion."

This explanation is followed by a list of non-action verbs and examples of how to use these verbs in sentences.There is also a list of verbs that have both action and non-action meanings, such as have, look, and think. Often these verbs require a preposition when they are used as action verbs in the present progressive tense:

John is thinking about his girlfriend.
I am looking at a beautiful sunset.

My Suggestion: Read the short explanation of non-action verbs at the first link below, then click on the second link to try some exercises at a different website:

LINK: Non-Action Verbs Explanation at ESLGold 

LINK: Non-Action Verbs Practice Exercise