1. BUILDING TEACHERS’ SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE: VERB FORMS

2. If you were writing about a memory, what tense would you use?
Verb forms
There are only two tenses in English: present and past (the future is an aspect of the present tense)
Verb forms establish time relations in a text.
Verb forms express shades of possibility and certainty.
Try explaining the difference in meaning between the following statements, imagining a context/scenario for each:
I remember.
I am remembering.
I should have remembered.
I might have been remembering.
I will remember.
If you were writing about a memory, what tense would you use?

3. In Private Peaceful, the narrative switches between past and present tense. In this description of a gas attack in the trenches, why do you think the writer has chosen to use the present tense? How differently might we respond if it was narrated in the past tense? (Try changing the verbs to see the effect)
The gas is only feet away now. Through a yellow mist I see the trench filling up with it. It drifts into the dugouts, snaking into every nook and cranny, looking for me. It wants to see us all out, to kill us all, every one of us. Still I do not breathe. I see men running, staggering, falling. I hear Pete shouting out for me. Then he’s grabbing me and we run. Half-blinded by my mask I trip and fall, crashing my head against the trench wall, knocking myself half-senseless. My eyes are stinging. My lungs are burning. I am coughing, choking, retching. Private Peaceful, Michael Morpurgo
Y2 content: Correct choice and consistent use of present tense and past tense throughout writing.
Use of the progressive form of verbs in the past or present tense to mark actions in progress (my eyes are stinging; he was shouting orders) Progressive tense is formed using the present participle of the verb, preceded by the present or past tense of the verb ‘have’ – ‘he is grabbing me’; ‘I am coughing’; ‘Men were staggering’; ‘The trench was filling up with gas’.
NB Progressive and continuous are the same thing
Y3 content: Use of the perfect form of verbs to mark actions that have been completed eg ‘The gas has filled the trench’; ‘My eyes had been stung by the gas’. The perfect is formed using the past participle of the verb, preceded by the present or past tense of the verb ‘have’.
Verb forms establish time relations in a text.

4. Michael Morpurgo could have used the simple present tense for all the verbs (snakes, looks, run, grabs etc.). But he uses a high number of present participles (-ing verbs), in non-finite clauses or with an auxiliary verb to form the present progressive. Can you verbalise (make explicit) for students the purpose and impact of these choices?
The gas is only feet away now. Through a yellow mist I see the trench filling up with it. It drifts into the dugouts, snaking into every nook and cranny, looking for me. It wants to see us all out, to kill us all, every one of us. Still I do not breathe. I see men running, staggering, falling. I hear Pete shouting out for me. Then he’s grabbing me and we run. Half-blinded by my mask I trip and fall, crashing my head against the trench wall, knocking myself half-senseless. My eyes are stinging. My lungs are burning. I am coughing, choking, retching.
Verb forms establish time relations in a text. Here, use of present progressive gives the impression of actions happening all at once, underlining the panic felt, but also a sense of actions being continuous, unending, so that time seems slowed down. What happens in a matter of seconds seems to take much longer, and this is especially highlighted where three –ing verbs are used in succession.
You could encourage students to experiment with patterns like this in their own narrative writing, to speed up and slow down narrative pace eg in important plot moments.

5. Verb forms chart Verb forms establish time relations in a text.
Non-finite
Present tense
Past tense
Infinitive
Present simple
Present progressive
be+ -ing
Present perfect
have+ -ed
Present simple passive
be+ -ed
Past simple
Past progressive
be + -ing
Past perfect
have + -ed
Past simple passive
be + -ed
Present participle
-ing
Past participle
-ed
to work
works
is working
has worked
is worked
worked
was working
had worked
was worked
working
to spend
spends
is spending
has spent
is spent
spent
was spending
had spent
spending
to go
goes
is going
has gone
is gone
went
was going
had gone
was gone
going
gone
to see
sees
is seeing
has seen
is seen
saw
was seeing
had seen
was seen
seeing
seen
Verb forms establish time relations in a text.
Verb forms express shades of possibility and certainty.
Consolidate understanding by generating more examples with a new infinitive e.g to dream; to take; to speak

6. In this extract from Kensuke’s Kingdom, the narrator is remembering his childhood. Look at the highlighted verbs. What information do they give you about the timescale of the events being remembered? How true is this to the way that memory works?
Every weekend I did a paper round from Mr Patel’s shop on the corner. I was saving up for a mountain bike. I wanted to go mountain biking up on the moors with Eddie. The trouble was, I would keep spending what I’d saved. I’m still the same that way. Sundays were always special, I remember. We’d go dinghy sailing, all of us, on the reservoir, Stella Artois barking her head off at the other boats as if they’d no right to be there. My father loved it, he said, because the air was clear and clean, no brick dust – he worked down at the brickworks. We had some great days on the water. We’d go out when it was rough, when no one else would, and we’d go skimming over the waves, exhilarating in the speed of it, the sheer joy of it. (From Kensuke’s Kingdom, Michael Morpurgo)

7. Look at the highlighted verbs
Look at the highlighted verbs. What information do they give you about the possibility or certainty of the events being remembered? How true is this to the way that memory works?
Every weekend I did a paper round from Mr Patel’s shop on the corner. I was saving up for a mountain bike. I wanted to go mountain biking up on the moors with Eddie. The trouble was, I would keep spending what I’d saved. I’m still the same that way. Sundays were always special, I remember. We’d go dinghy sailing, all of us, on the reservoir, Stella Artois barking her head off at the other boats as if they’d no right to be there. My father loved it, he said, because the air was clear and clean, no brick dust – he worked down at the brickworks. We had some great days on the water. We’d go out when it was rough, when no one else would, and we’d go skimming over the waves, exhilarating in the speed of it, the sheer joy of it. (From Kensuke’s Kingdom, Michael Morpurgo)

8. Building verb phrases: consolidation
We remember the First World War. Modal Auxiliary Lexical/Main may are remember might were remembered can have remembering could had will have been would must
Remember negatives too, eg: We might not have remembered; We couldn’t remember etc.
Play with different combinations, noting different nuances of meaning

9. Recap The verb ‘slot’ in a clause can be filled with one or more words
Auxiliary and modal verbs work with lexical verbs to form different aspects of the present and past
Be, have and do are Primary Verbs – they can act as either the lexical/main verb in a clause OR as an auxiliary eg We were at war; we were remembering the war
The choice of verb form, including the tense and aspect, enables the writer to express subtle shades of meaning

10. may might must shall should can could will would
Modal verbs
Type of auxiliary verb and help form verb phrases: I would keep spending
Always placed first in a verb phrase, before other auxiliaries: It might have been and before lexical verbs: we would go
Express degrees of possibility and certainty
Do not have an ‘s’ form or non-finite forms (-ing, -ed, to - )
Can have a negative form (may not, might not) when they are often contracted (couldn’t; won’t; shan’t)
may might must shall should can could will would
(ought/need to)
Fourth point:
Can’t say musts, mights etc or coulding etc

11. Modal verbs in Private Peaceful
They’ve gone now, and I’m alone at last. I have the whole night
ahead of me, and I won’t waste a single moment of it. I shan’t sleep it
away. I won’t dream it away either. I mustn’t, because every moment
of it will be far too precious. I’ve had nearly eighteen years of
yesterdays and tomorrows and tonight I must remember as many of
them as I can.
I must remember them.
Try substituting other modal choices to see the effect:
may might shall should can could will would (ought/need to)
Which choices make Tommo sound most determined to stay awake
and remember the last eighteen years with his brother? Which choices
sound more tentative?

12. Teaching for progression
‘Using modal verbs to indicate degrees of possibility’ is Y5 content in NC though they may well have been taught before this; likely to be taught at KS3; important for GCSE critical analysis
What might characterise progression in teaching and learning about modal verbs?
What might be the ‘layers’ of difficulty or challenge?
How might understanding of modal verbs be revisited and built on over time, not just repeated?

13. Teaching for progression ?
Need to consolidate younger/weaker students’ understanding of role of verb in a sentence – fact that modals go with other verbs to modify them
Widening range of contexts – eg moving beyond modals in simple instructions to use in evaluations; as a rhetorical device for persuasion; in formal style needed for critical responses to texts
Widening understanding of modality as a concept and other ways of expressing degrees of possibility eg through carefully placed adverbs (including more sophisticated ones eg ‘fundamentally’, ‘crucially’, ‘undoubtedly’) or through more sophisticated sentence structures that emphasise one idea over another eg ‘not only...but also...’; ‘Perhaps X...whereas Y...’; ‘If X….then Y….’
What else might you add?

14. The passive voice
Form
Auxiliary verb ‘be’ + past participle of the main verb.
The past is remembered.
The dead are honoured.
They will not be forgotten.
Uses:
To minimise the importance of the subject or agent of the verb, or to hide it
To create a ‘distancing’ effect from the topic or greater objectivity
To create a more formal tone

15. Children are separated from their parents.
Modal
may
might
can
could
will
would
must
should
shall
(ought/need to)
Auxiliary
are
were
have been
had been
are being
were being be
Lexical/Main
separated
Practise building verb phrases in the passive voice to create different shades of meaning
Imagine context/scenario e.g.
Children should not be separated from their parents, family experts say.
In concentration camps, children would have been separated from their parents.
Children have been separated from their parents at the US border, despite worldwide condemnation.

16. Grammar in context
Read the extract from ‘The Day of Ahmed’s Secret’ by Florence Parry Heide.
Discuss first impressions:
What do we learn about Ahmed’s daily life?
What do we learn about his relationship with his father?
Using the verb chart to help, look closely at the author’s choices of verb forms. What do they show us about Ahmed’s daily life and his relationship with his father? What more can we say?

17. Picture book set in Cairo; Ahmed’s job is to sell butane gas to customers all over the city.
You may have noticed:
The first few lines are written in the present simple (I make/I look/I find/I buy) – reinforces sense of daily routines and habitual actions; like an internal monologue, spoken as events happen.
There is a contrast between present simple (I make/I look etc) describing Ahmed’s daily routines and the present perfect (has told/has shown/has taken) used about his father’s actions – suggests experience that started in the past (and happened often) but now has relevance in the present. Implication is that his father has passed on the wisdom that Ahmed now puts into practice on his own.
Read the extract from The Day of Ahmed’s Secret by Florence Parry Heide & Judith Heide Gilliland (1997). What can we say about the relationship between Ahmed and his father? How do the verbs tell us about this relationship?