VERBS

What is verbs? The part of speech (or word class) that describes an action or occurrence or indicates a state of being. It tells what the subject does

These are Action Verbs: clap coughed swallowed awake sang ride ran

The verb is shines, it’s what the lighthouse does. Let’s Practice: The lighthouse shines brightly. What? lighthouse “What does the lighthouse do?” shines The verb is shines, it’s what the lighthouse does.

The verb is flies, it’s what time is doing. Let’s Practice: Time flies when you’re having fun. What? time “What does time do?” flies The verb is flies, it’s what time is doing.

There are two main classes of verbs: the large open class of lexical verbs (also known as main verbs or full verbs--that is, verbs that aren't dependent on other verbs); (2) the small closed class of auxiliary verbs (also called helping verbs). The two subtypes of auxiliaries are the primary auxiliaries (be, have, and do), which can also act as lexical verbs, and the modal auxiliaries (can, could, may, might, must, ought, shall, should, will, and would)

Can you find the action verb in each sentence? The girls danced in the recital. Our mailman drove a funny car last week. His teacher wrote the answers on the board. Alice worked on her homework last night.

COMMON IRREGULAR VERBS blow Present Past Past Participle blow blew blown

break Present Past Past Participle ? Can you list these verb forms?

break Present Past Past Participle break broke broken

Let’s use the inner-eye. Thinking about the past. Thinking about the future. The Past The Future The Present

We talk a lot in these lessons about V1, V2, and V3 We talk a lot in these lessons about V1, V2, and V3. What in the world are V1, V2, and V3?

Does this look familiar? eat ate eaten fall fell fallen fly flew flown This is the table of irregular verbs that we know and love! V1 is the first column (“eat”, ,(צורת המקור V2 is the second column (“ate”, past simple form), V3 is the third column (“eaten”, called—oh well, V3)

Lots of people forget that a verb that ends in “d” or “ed” doesn’t have to be a verb in the simple past. Maybe it’s a regular verb in V3 DISGUISED as a simple past verb. For example: love loved loved hate hated hated worry worried worried

5 Verb Formulas be + ing (progressive)--He was crying. be + V3 (passive)--He was beaten. Four men were killed. have + V3 (perfect)--I have already eaten. do + V1 (simple)-- Do you love me? I don’t hate you. modal + V1 (modal)--I can wait. © Rachel Bar Yosef, 1997

© Rachel Bar Yosef, 1997

ADJECTIVES Modifies Nouns Modifies Pronouns

DEFINITION OF AN ADJECTIVE: It tells what kind of person, place, or thing. A noun or a pronoun is. It may also point out which one or how many.

AN ADVERB: Modifies an active verb or a verb phrase by expressing manner, place, time, degree, or number.

TYPES OF ADVERBS: Simple Interrogative Negative

EXAMPLES: SIMPLE: She moved quietly. (Manner and tell how) I waited there for an hour. (Place and tell where) You may leave soon. (Time, tells when) I called you once. (Number, tells how many) He sat very still. (Degree, tells how much)

Interrogative Adverb Introduces a sentence that asks a question where, when, why and how

EXAMPLES: Interrogative: When will you return? How is the trunk being sent?

Negative Adverb Denies or contradicts a statement no, not , never, only, scarcely and hardly Note: two negative adverbs should not be used together.

EXAMPLES: Negative - I can scarcely believe my eyes. ( correct) - I haven’t no more sea shells. (incorrect)

Familiar Adverbs to Know almost finally seldom unusually certainly hardly quite so usually just rather very rather fairly nearly too scarcely well

WHAT ARE NOUNS? Nouns are naming words. They name people, places and objects. They can also name ideas, emotions, qualities and activities. Here are some examples of nouns: Peter, Elizabeth, driver, sister, friend. Bristol, Severn, Brazil, pen, dog, money. Love, beauty, industry, nature, greed, pain.

Types of noun All nouns can be divided into common and proper nouns. Common nouns can then be divided into countable and uncountable nouns. Both countable and uncountable nouns can then be further divided into concrete and abstract nouns. We’ll look at each type in turn.

First, look again at those types and how they relate. proper abstract nouns countable concrete common abstract uncountable concrete

Proper nouns Proper nouns start with capital letters. They are the names of people, places, times, organisations etc. They refer to unique individuals. Most are not found in the dictionary. They often occur in pairs or groups. Here are some examples.

The Jam Tony Blair Oxfam Coronation Street Carly Christmas Keynsham John President Bush Thames Sony China Coca Cola Bridget Jones Portugal The Ford Motor Company King Henry Macbeth Saturn

Common nouns All nouns which are not proper nouns are common nouns. A few examples: cup, art, paper, work, frog, bicycle, atom, family, mind. Common nouns are either countable or uncountable.

Countable nouns Use these tests for countable nouns: Countable (or just “count”) nouns can be made plural: a tree… two trees; a man… men; a pony… ponies. In the singular, they may have the determiner a or an: a sausage; an asterisk. We ask: How many words/pages/chairs? We say: A few minutes/friends/chips?

Uncountable nouns Use these tests for uncountable nouns: Uncountable (or non-count) nouns cannot be made plural. We cannot say: two funs, three advices We never use a or an with them. We ask: How much money/time/milk? (Not How many?) We say: A little help/effort. (Not A few.)

Dual category nouns Some nouns may be countable or uncountable, depending on how we use them. We buy a box of chocolates (countable) or chocolate (uncountable). We ask: How much time? but How many times? (where times = occasions). We sit in front of a television (set) to watch television (broadcasting).

Remember that both countable and uncountable nouns can be divided into concrete and abstract nouns. The distinction between concrete and abstract nouns is the most important one of all when you are analysing linguistic data. A lot of abstract nouns in a text will have a big impact on its register. The Plain English Campaign has an excellent website which will tell you more about the stylistic impact of abstract nouns.

Concrete nouns Concrete nouns are the words that most people think of as nouns. They are mostly the names of objects and animals (countable) and substances or materials (uncountable). Cake, oxygen, iron, boy, dog, pen, glass, pomegranate, earthworm and door are all concrete nouns.

Abstract nouns Abstract nouns name ideas, feelings and qualities. Most, though not all, are uncountable. Many are derived from adjectives and verbs and have characteristic endings such as –ity, -ness, -ence, and -tion. They are harder to recognise as nouns than the concrete variety.

Abstract noun or adjective You won’t confuse abstract nouns with adjectives, as long as you apply a few tests. Happy is an adjective. It behaves like one: very happy; so happy; happier; as happy as Happiness behaves like a noun: The happiness I feel; her happiness; great happiness.

A few more examples Verb or adjective Abstract noun We were different from each other. The difference between us. My work is precise. I work with precision. The air is pure. The purity of the air. I composed this tune. This tune is my composition. It is so beautiful. It has such beauty. You support me. The support you give me.

The morphology of nouns Nouns change their form for only two grammatical reasons: Countable nouns have a plural form. This is usually formed by adding –s, of course, but there are some irregular forms. The possessive form of a noun is created by adding –’s (Henry’s cat) or just an apostrophe (all our students’ results).

Irregular plurals Some nouns retain plural endings from Old English: Men, geese, mice, oxen, feet, teeth, knives. Loan words from Latin, Greek, French and Italian sometimes keep their native ending: Media, bacteria, formulae, larvae, criteria, phenomena, gateaux. Graffiti, an Italian plural, is now an uncountable noun in English.

Noun phrases When we see a noun as performing a role in a sentence, we think of it as a noun phrase. A noun phrase may function as the subject or object of a clause. A noun phrase may consist of a single word (a noun or pronoun) or a group of words. The most important noun in a noun phrase is called the headword.

Examples of noun phrases (headword in brackets) (She) always bought the same (newspaper). A young (man) in a suit was admiring the (view) from the window. Concentrated sulphuric (acid) must be handled carefully. My old maths (teacher) was Austrian.

The syntax of noun phrases The headword of a noun phrase may be pre-modified by determiners, adjectives or other nouns. For example, a large, dinner (plate). It may be post-modified by a prepositional phrase. This is simply a noun phrase with a preposition at the beginning. For example, a (painting) by Rembrandt. Can you spot the modifiers in the last slide? (Left arrow key takes you back)

Clauses modifying nouns We can use a clause (a group of words containing a verb) to post-modify a noun. A clause which post-modifies a noun is called a relative clause or adjectival clause. Here are some examples: This is the (house) that Jack built. (People) who live in glass houses should not throw stones.