Random lesson - Non-assertive words plus a purposeful and

On his blog, Literal Minded, linguist Neal Whitman recently discussed something he had said earlier that day, which was:

Oh crap! I forgot to go the store and buy any club soda.

Not everyone who commented on his blog accepted this as being a natural sentence, and I have a bit of doubt about it myself. But as this sentence throws up a couple of interesting language points, I thought I'd make a lesson from it.

Learn a bit about non-assertive words plus purposeful and with five exercises.

Exploring nominal relative clauses, interrogative wh-clauses and the like

One of the more esoteric areas of grammar

The term nominal relative clause is not used very much in TEFL materials, even at advanced level. Nominal relatives and interrogative wh-clauses are usually simply treated together as wh-clauses.

But as one of my favourite student grammar books, Grammar and Vocabulary for Cambridge Advanced and Proficiency, by Side and Wellman (Longman), has one section on Nominal relative clauses, and another on (interrogative) wh-clauses, I thought it might be interesting to compare them.

I'd also noticed that a couple of learners had written to English language forums asking about the difference, so the question had obviously come up, at least for some people.

Explore nominal wh-clauses with lots of exercises and a bit of discussion

Reduced relative clauses - lesson and exercises

Reduced relative clauses are participle clauses which follow a noun. They are like relative clauses, but with the relative pronoun and auxiliary verb (if there is one) left out.

Because they modify nouns, (reduced) relative clauses are occasionally referred to as adjective clauses.

Reduced relative clauses are used most often instead of defining relative clauses, which are what we'll be mainly looking at.

This post is an expanded version of part of a longer post on participles and participle clauses.

Lesson on cause and effect, reason and result

As very similar expressions are used to talk about cause and effect, they can sometimes be a bit confusing.

This lesson tries to deal with most aspects of cause and effect, reason and result, using lots of exercises.

• Using because (of), since so and as
• Using more formal expressions such as consequently
• Different expressions to use with clauses and nouns
• Getting to grips with result from / in etc
• Getting those prepositions right
• Participle clauses of cause and result
• Using so and such to talk about cause and result

I wish and if only - Lesson and exercises

Revise I wish and if only - Lesson and exercises

Future in the Past - Lesson and exercises

Future in the Past is sometimes described as 'the future seen from the past'. But it's really more like 'the future seen from the past which is in turn seen from now':

• Somebody thinks about the future:
  - I will be meeting her later on.
• Sometime later we look back at him thinking about the future:
  - He knew he would be meeting her later on.
• I think about the future:
  - I'm going to buy a new computer today
• The next day I remember:
  I was going to buy a computer yesterday, but then I realised I couldn't afford it.
• The newspapers announce something that's going to happen:
  - There is to be a tax cut.
• Sometime later I remember reading about it:
  - I read that there was to be a tax cut.

That's just about the the basis of it. Learn more by doing these exercises, and at the same time brush up your knowledge of future forms, future expressions with the verb to be and future time clauses.

Lesson on prepositional verbs

What is a prepositional verb?

Good question! It depends on who you ask, as the definition of prepositional verb seems to be somewhat elastic.

They are sometimes seen as corresponding to one of the four classic categories of phrasal verb, and that is how I'm interpreting them here. But see note below for other theories.

In these examples the underlined particles are prepositions, the rest are adverbs.

1. Intransitive. get up
2. Seperable transitive. give up sth or give sth up
3. Non-separable transitive. Prepositional verbs look for sb / sth
4. Three part verbs put up with sth

I'm not totally convinced about doing exercises based on only one type of phrasal verb, but then the subject of phrasal verbs is such a huge one, that it's probably as good a way as any of breaking them down into manageable chunks. In any case I have a funny feeling that prepositional verbs are going to be a trending topic (metaphorically), so we might as well get used to them.

Lesson on intensifiers

I've noticed that a few people who have googled "intensifiers" have landed up on a post I wrote some time ago about "ridiculously". And I imagine they've felt rather disappointed, as it didn't say much about other intensifiers, just defended the use of ridiculously.

So here, to make amends, is the real McCoy, a lesson on intensifiers.

• The basics - gradable and non-gradable adjectives
• Collocations - adverbs with adjectives
• Collocations - adverbs with verbs
• Collocations - adjectives with nouns
• Intensifying with so and such
• Intensifying with well

Song lesson - 'A Boy Named Sue' by Johnny Cash

"A Boy Named Sue" was first recorded live at California's San Quentin State Prison at a concert on 24 February 1969. The song became Cash's biggest hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and his only Top 10 single there, spending three weeks at #2 in 1969. (Wikipedia)

1. Pre-listening vocabulary exercise
2. Pre-listening grammar exercise
3. Find the 'non-standard' grammar
4. Vocabulary exercise - different meanings of mean
5. Grammar exercise - different uses of would

Song lesson - 'She's got issues' by the Offspring

This song is rich in contemporary expressions to do with relationships and personal psychology, such as: to have issues, baggage, closure, validation, as well as alluding to possible past incest. It also has some interesting verb phrases and a couple of grammar points.

1. Pre-listening vocabulary matching exercises
2. Lyrics gapfill exercises
3. Grammar exercises 1 - if type questions
   Grammar exercises 2 - constructions with I wish and if only

Modals plus - talking about ability (can, could, be able to etc.)

This lesson includes:

• talking about ability in the present and future.
• talking about general ability in the past and ability on specific occasions in the past.
• the different uses of can, could and be able to
• the difference between could never and never could
• using the verbs manage and succeed for past ability

Mostly causatives - a look at have, get, make, let and lots more

The term causative verb is not used very much in EFL teaching. The term doesn't even appear in the index of Swan, the grammar bible of TEFL, although Murphy does have causative have (have something done). But it does starts to appear when you get to certificate exam levels, when it refers almost exclusively to that same 'have something done' construction. I thought there must be more to it than that, and started to investigate - what, for example constitutes a causative verb, how many of them are there? It was easier said than done!

Practise (mostly) causative verbs with these quizzes / exercises.

1. Causative verbs - basic sentence structure
2. The three exceptions - have, let and make
3. The verb that likes to swing both ways - help
4. Two special verbs - get and have
5. The construction - have something done
6. Certain verbs that can also take the ...-ing form without an object.
7. Verbs of permission - let, allow and permit
8. Verbs of compulsion - tell, order, make and force
9. The construction - something needs doing
10. Non-causative use

 

More on conditionals - third and mixed

In a recent post I looked at conditionals being used in popular songs. This mainly involved 1st and 2nd Conditionals, so I thought it might be a good idea to brush up on 3rd and Mixed Conditionals.

• Explore the grammar by doing a few exercises
• Practise with 3rd Conditional quizzes / exercises
• Practise with Mixed Conditional quizzes / exercises

Making sense of negative inversion. Hopefully!

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.

Winston Churchill, in tribute to the fighter-pilots of the Battle of Britain

This is one of the best-known examples of negative inversion in the English Language. And if you're into effective speaking, you'll also notice an example of tripling.

Certificate exams often have a question concerning inversion with negative adverbials, often simply referred to as negative inversion. Students can have problems with these constructions, and for this reason at least one teacher (see link at the end) has publicly wondered if it's worth all the bother, especially as you can speak perfect English without ever using a negative inversion.

But we all like a challenge, don't we? Both you as a student and me as a teacher, so let's have a shot at mastering the little bugger, by taking it nice and slowly. It's only a technique after all; there's no interpretation involved, it's not like choosing verb tenses for example. If you can ask a question, you can do negative inversion. Well, more or less.

There's quite a lot to get through, so get yourself a nice cup of coffee, and when you're sitting comfortably, we'll begin.

If you just want some practice without a lesson, you can try these practice exercises.

The do’s and don'ts of apostrophe use

No area of punctuation seems to give native speakers more problems than the apostrophe; a 2008 survey found that nearly half of the UK adults polled were unable to use it correctly. And no area of punctuation seems to cause people to get so hot under the collar at what they see as its ‘abuse’. There are even societies and websites devoted to to protecting it, and exposing the dastardly attacks on this fine and noble (but rather unimportant) little punctuation mark.

Some shops, such as Tescos, have just given up completely and consigned the apostrophe to the dustbin.

Yet the rules for using it are remarkably simple and (mainly) uncontroversial.

Nearly everything you want to know, and some things you probably don't want to hear, about apostrophes

• Contractions quiz
• Possessives quiz
• Possessive determiners and pronouns quiz
• Confusing words quiz
• Apostrophes quiz
• Annotated rant
• 2 Vocabulary quizzes
• Lots of links

Confusing verbs - lie, lay, lie

Two intransitive, one transitive
One regular, one slightly irregular, one very irregular
But which is which?

Even native speakers have problems with this one. But you can master these tricky little verbs, and at the same time practise your prepositions and phrasal verbs, by doing these quizzes.

Video lesson - Mr Mann's disappointed horse

I sometimes use short comedy videos in class and I find that students usually really like this particular one, a clip from the BBC series Little Britain. I've gone off the show a bit now, but I still think this one of the classic sketches of British comedy.

The vocabulary in this clip is not easy, but I've found that when students do these exercises first, they can 'get' most of the jokes.