The Ball Exercise Was Highly Irregular!

We used at least four irregular verbs today in class during our silly "before and after" exercise with the two red balls. I didn't plan to have a lesson on irregular verbs, but by chance I gave directions to throw a ball, shake your head, bend your knees, and stand on one leg. Each of the verbs in bold type has an irregular past tense form: threw, shook, bent, stood. Of course, I also used regular verbs that form the past tense by adding -ed or just -d: jump-jumped, wave-waved, pat-patted (notice the final t of pat is doubled before adding -ed--do you know why?).

My Suggestions: A few weeks ago we studied rules for spelling changes when adding -ed to make the base form of regular verbs past tense. Click on the link to review a nice summary of these rules (but I wish I could remove the annoying advertisements).

 Spelling Rules for Adding -ed to Regular Verbs

Then click on the link below to go to "12 Lists to Help You Learn Common Irregular Verbs." These lists group irregular verbs that follow similar patterns when they change from present to past tense (for example, throw-threw, grow-grew, know-knew). Find each irregular verb we used in class today (those in bold type above) on one of the lists. Try to memorize all the verbs on at least one of the 12 lists this week. Can you memorize a list every week? You might as well memorize all three forms of the verbs, even though we have not studied the third part (past participle) yet.

12 Lists to Help You Learn Irregular Verbs

Have an Idiom with Your Breakfast

"English in a Minute" videos on the VOA Learning English website are a fun way to learn American idioms. An idiom is an expression whose meaning is different than the meaning of the individual words. For example, to "get a grip" means to get control of your emotions when you're anxious or upset. It can also mean to understand something. Each video lasts one minute. You will hear an explanation of the idiom, then watch and listen to people use it in everyday conversation.

My Suggestion: Click on the English in a Minute link every morning for a one-minute idiom lesson. The link is below, but I have also put it in the "Favorite Links" list in the right-hand column of this blog to make it easier to find each day.

LINK: English in a Minute (Idiom of the Day)

Too Tired to Study? Refresh Your Brain with an Easy Game!

Have you had a frustrating day? Do you feel you aren't learning fast enough, but you are too tired to study? Relax! You don't always have to push yourself to learn new or difficult things.

My Suggestion: Boost your confidence by playing an easy game for beginners. It will remind you of how much you already know!

Easy Things for Beginners (games, puzzles)

Practice Listening to Conversational English

Today in class we went to websites that allow you to listen to English sentences or news items. On one website, a speaker reads an English sentence and repeats it. Try to write down what you hear as the speaker repeats the sentence. When the written sentence appears on the video, check to see if you wrote the sentence correctly.
Listening Practice--Common Daily Expressions

Here is a link to a video where you can see and listen to 1000 common English phrases. You can practice saying the phrases yourself (pause the video if you need more time to practice saying a phrase).
Listening Practice--1000 Common English Phrases

My Suggestions: Once each day, visit the Daily Page for ESL Students at manythings.org. This page has links to a daily quiz, daily listening and pronunciation practices, and dictionaries in other languages.

Daily Page for ESL at manythings.org 

On the Daily Page, you will find a link for listening to daily Voice of America (VOA) newscast items. The text of each newscast is printed so that you can read along as you listen. You can click on any word and immediately see its definition. If you go to the top of the news page and click on Level One, the person reading the news speaks more slowly than in Level Two or Three. You can also click on the link below to go directly to the VOA website:

Voice of America--Listen to English newscasts and follow printed version

Another link on the Daily Page takes you to the "Listen and Repeat Machine." Click on the link below, then click on the "play" button. A voice reads English sentences several times. It pauses in between so that you can repeat the sentence yourself.  Click on the number button to change the number of times you hear the sentence from 0 to 4. Slide the control buttons to control the volume or to make the pauses in between readings longer, to give you more time to repeat the sentence yourself. 

Daily Pronunciation Practice 
 
You can also go directly to manythings.org for links to other listen and repeat or listen and read along videos. There are also links for listening to vocabulary, slang, and bilingual sentence pairs. Check it out by clicking the link below:

Interesting Listening Practice for ESL Students at manythings.org

Past Continuous Tense, Celsa Practice

The present continuous tense is formed by using a PRESENT form of the verb to be as a helping verb, then adding another verb ending in -ing. We use it to talk about an ongoing action or state at the present time.

I am singing my favorite song. Why are you covering your ears? Are you feeling sick?

Today we briefly discussed the past continuous tense. The past continuous tense is formed by using a PAST form of the verb to be as a helping verb and adding another verb that ends in -ing:

I was singing my favorite song when the phone rang.

We use the past continuous tense when two past actions happened at the same time, but one interrupted the other, or one action was longer than the other. The simple past tense is used for the shorter action, and the past continuous is used for the longer, ongoing action.

I tripped as I was running to answer the phone.

My suggestion: Read Dennis Oliver's lesson about how to form this tense at the esl cafe:

Past Continuous Tense #1

Then read about how to use the past continuous tense:
 
Past Continuous Tense #2

Try this quiz at www.a4esl.org to test your ability to judge when to use the simple past tense and when to use past continuous. You have to think of the correct form of the verb (using the negative form if it says to) and then click on the box to see whether you got it right. This is also good practice for the Celsa grammar test.

Simple Past or Past Continuous--A Dialog

Three Adjectives Describe One Noun--What Order Do I Put Them In?

We usually do not use more than three adjectives in front of one noun. I bought a new pink silk dress. We can add more, but then the reader or listener begins to lose track of all the descriptive words: My expensive new pink silk dress is gorgeous. The adjectives begin to pile up and run into each other like race cars on a greased track (Note: I just used a simile--do you remember what that is from our lesson a couple of weeks ago?).

When more than one adjective describes a noun, the adjectives must follow a pattern (order). The pattern is based on the category of each adjective. The website www.esl.about.com lists the order by dividing adjectives into seven categories (kinds).

1. Opinion (interesting, boring, fascinating)
2. Size or dimension (big, thin, tiny)
3. Age (new, modern, ancient)
4. Shape (round, square, oval)
5. Color (red, blue, greenish)
6. Origin (Spanish, Canadian, Indian)
7. Material (wooden, metal, plastic)

Look at our sentence from above: I bought a new pink silk dress. The three adjectives that describe the noun dress belong to these categories: New describes its age, pink describes its color, and silk is the material out of which the dress is made.

• Age--category 3
• Color--category 5
• Material--category 7

Are the numbers of the categories in numerical order (like when we count from 1 to 7)? YES! But if I say, I bought a pink new silk dress,the category numbers are in this order: 5, 3, 7. Is that the order in which we count? Nope! So we have to shift the adjectives around to get them into numerical order: I bought a new pink silk dress.

This is advanced, challenging grammar for people who are learning English. Don't even TRY to bring commas into the discussion yet! When we follow this order for putting adjectives in front of a noun, we usually don't need commas--unless (oh, no!) there is more than one adjective from the same category. But knowing how and when to separate adjectives with commas is a topic for another day.

My suggestion: Click on the link below and review the placement order for adjectives and the examples (you can watch the video if you like; if not, stop it or mute the sound). 

Adjective Placement Patterns for English Learners 

Then try putting a series of adjectives in the right order here:

Adjective Placement Quiz

Word Lists for Growing Your Vocabulary--Adjectives

Today in class we reviewed adjectives--words that modify (describe or limit) nouns. In the English language, many words can be used as more than one part of speech. You can use some words as either a noun or an adjective, depending on what the word does in a sentence. In the following sentences, the word in red is a noun when its job (its task) is to name a person, place, or thing. It is an adjective when its job is to describe a noun--to tell us what kind, how many, which one, etc.--so that we know more about that person, place, or thing.

I am studying grammar. (grammar is a noun that names the thing that I am studying)

I am reading a grammar book. (grammar is an adjective that tells what kind of book I am reading)

John loves to play soccer. (soccer is a noun that names an activity--a thing--that John loves to do)

John watches a soccer game on TV every weekend. (soccer is an adjective that tells what kind of game John watches--not a baseball game, not a basketball game, but a soccer game)


Many adjectives turn into nouns by referring to persons that have a certain quality. For example, The rich has the job of a noun in the following sentence, because it means rich people or rich ones: "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer." Other examples: the poor, the famous, the young.


My suggestion: Click on the link below for a list of 58 adjectives you can use to describe people. Under the "Things You Can Do with This Word List" menu, select "Dictionary Flashcards." If you don't know what the first word means, click on one of the dictionary link buttons to look it up. English dictionary links are on the right and links to dictionaries in a few other languages are on the left (note: not all of the links work!). If you already know what the word means, click the "Get a Word" button to bring up another word from the list. You can also type in your own word and click a dictionary link to get a definition.

58 Adjectives to Describe People

Then test your knowledge of opposite pairs of words. Review the list of opposite words at the link below (most are adjectives, but there are a couple of pairs of prepositions in the list--can you find them?). From the "Things You Can Do with This Word List" menu, select "Speedwords." After you select your speed you will see a word in blue. You have to click on the yellow letters underneath to spell out the opposite of the word in blue (only letters that are actually part of the answer are listed).

Opposite Words (38 pairs)