7/28/2019 Ie3 m1aa1l2 Word

1/7

Word groups punctual review Comparativeand superlative adjectives and correct tense

1. Electrician Working. Wikimedia (2005). 2. Baker's wife. Kertesz 3. FEMA - 33709 FEMA 4. USAF pilot. Watson (2007).(2005). and contractors inspect mobile

homes in California. Bicknell (2007).

Read these sentences

A person that works with electricity is an electrician.

A person that bakes bread or cakes is a baker.

A person that contracts jobs or work is a contractor A person that navigates an airplane or a ship is a pilot

You probably know a good number of professions already so we will just review a few showing the suffixes.

Type of work Profession/Job (noun)

a person that works with accounts Accountanta person that bakes bread or cakes Baker

a person that works in a bank Banker

a person that works with plumbing Plumber

a person that works in carpentry Carpenter

a person that sells things Vendor

a person that contracts jobs or work Contractor

a person that dances for a living Dancer

a person that sings for a living Singer

a person that acts for a living Actor

a person that drives for a living Driver

a person that works in the beauty industry Beauticiana person that works with electricity Electrician

a person that constructs things Construction worker

a person that navigates Navigator

a person that navigates planes or ships Pilot

a person that heals people Doctor

a person that looks after sick people Nurse

a person that teaches people Teacher

a person that surveys things Surveyor

7/28/2019 Ie3 m1aa1l2 Word

2/7

We know that nouns are the names of people, places or things. But if we dont use verbs in our sentences,then the person, place or thing is stagnant. It has no movement. It is doing nothing. Look at this sentence.

Maria is.

Actually this is not a complete sentence because there is no predicate. The predicate tells us something

about the subject of the sentence, Maria. We either need another verb to make a complete sentence or anadjective to make a complete sentence because is is the verb to be.

Maria is., by itself means nothing. It leaves the listener or reader with the question Maria is. WHAT? Whatis Maria? Is she talking? Is she working? Is she big? Is she slow? You must make a complete sentenceso that the listener or reader has a picture of what you are talking about.

Although the verb to be is included in the sentence there is no action verb. Lets add the verb work to this

sentence. Because we have used the verb to be we must use the verb work in the gerund

(continuous/progressive) form.

Maria is working.

Now it makes sense. You know what Maria is doing. You now have a picture (useful for description texts).We could use an adjective too. This would also complete the sentence because the verb is is in theoriginal sentence.

Maria is big.

Every simple sentence must have a subject and a predicate. Complex sentences may have more than one

subject and more than one predicate. The subject is who or what the sentence is about and the predicate

tells us something about that.

To find the subject and predicate in a simple sentence you just look for the first verb. If you cover the wordor words that precede the first verb and then ask the question who or what, the answer is the subject.

Lets look at this example.

5. Beach boy summer time 2009. Wikimedia(2009).

Johnis going to the beach.

This is a complete sentence. It has both a subject and a predicate.

What is the subject? Lets find the first verb in the sentence. Thefirst verb is is. So if you read, is going to the beach and ask the

question Who or What, your answer, John, is the subject of thissentence.

How we use verbs determines the tense of what we are trying to say and how or what you are saying is

7/28/2019 Ie3 m1aa1l2 Word

3/7

interpreted.

Lets look at different forms of verbs. There are two types of verbs, as Im sure you all know: Regular verbs

and Irregular verbs.

Regular verbs change their tense by adding the letters ed. Irregular verbs are the tricky ones. There areno rules for changing the tense of Irregular verbs. You just have to remember them. We need to focus on

how the verbs change and in what tense you use them.

Base Verb Infinitive Simple Past Past Participle Gerund

1 play to play played played playing

2 walk to walk walked walked walking

3 cook to cook cooked cooked cooking

4 listen to listen listened listened listening

5 talk to talk talked Talked talking

6 write to write wrote written writing

7 drive to drive drove driven driving8 go to go went gone going

9 make to make made made making

10 take to take took Taken taking

The verb in its base form is used in the present simple or simple present. It is the original form of the verb.All other forms of the verb come from this base form. Remember too, that the base verbs change for third

person. Here are some examples of a base verb with subject/personal pronouns.

Subject/Personal

Pronoun

Base form of the

verb

I playYou walk

He cooks

She listens

It talks

We write

You drive

They go

Infinitives are normally used after the main verb in the sentence. To use the infinitive form of the verb youmust use the preposition to. Look at these examples. The main verb is in green and the infinitive verb is inblue.

I wantto play soccer.You liketo walk in the park.He likesto cook Italian dishes.She wantsto listen to the news.It askedto talk.

We haveto write an essay.You planto drive a long way.They wantto go home.

The Simple Past or Past Simple is used to show actions that have happened in the past. The base verb

7/28/2019 Ie3 m1aa1l2 Word

4/7

changes in form. For Regular verbs it is just a matter of adding ed to the base verb. For Irregular verbs,as was stated earlier, there are no rules. You must memorize them. Look at these examples.

Present Past

I play soccer. I played soccer.

You walk in the park. You walked in the park.

He cooks Italian dishes. He cooked Italian dishes.

She listens to the news. She listened to the news.

It talks to me. It talked to me.

We write essays. We wrote essays.

You drive a long way. You drove a long way.

They go home. They went home.

Past Participles are used with the Perfect tense form. You use the Past Participle with the modal verb

have. To make the Perfect tense past, you simply change the modal verb have to had. Look at these

examples.

Present Present Perfect (PastParticiple Use)

Past Perfect (Past ParticipleUse)

I play soccer. I have played soccer. I had played soccer.

You walk in the park. You have walked in the park. You had walked in the park.

He cooks Italian dishes. He has cooked Italian dishes. He had cooked Italian dishes.

She listens to the news. She has listened to the news. She had listened to thenews.

It talks to me. It has talked to me. It had talked to me.

We write essays. We have written essays. We had written essays.

You drive a long way. You have driven a long way. You had driven a long way.They go home. They have gone home. They had gone home.

The Gerund form is used in the continuous/progressive tense. It is used with the verb to be. This form of

the verb may be used with Present Continuous/Progressive or Past Continuous/Progressive. Someschools use the word Continuous while others use Progressive. Both are correct.

To change sentences in the Gerund form (Continuous/Progressive) you simply change the tense of theverb to be.

Present Past

I am I wasYou are You were

He is He was

She is She was

It is It was

We are We were

You are You were

They are They were

7/28/2019 Ie3 m1aa1l2 Word

5/7

Present Gerund Use Present Gerund Use Past

I play soccer. I am playing soccer. I was playing soccer.

You walk in the park. You are walking in the park. You were walking in the park.

He cooks Italian dishes. He is cooking Italian dishes. He was cooking Italian dishes.

She listens to the news. She is listening to the news. She was listening to the news.

It talks to me. It is talking to me. It was talking to me.

We write essays. We are writing essays. We were writing essays.

You drive a long way. You are driving a long way. You were driving a long way.

They go home. They are going home. They were going home.

As indicated, you will be studying the sentence tenses at a later date. For now, it is important that you

know how to change the verbs and when to change them. Remember, there are no rules for Irregular

Verbs. YOU MUST REMEMBER THEM!

Adjectives

What are adjectives? Theyre description words. They describe things. Using adjectives provides yourlistener or reader with a mental picture of the picture that you are trying paint.

Lets look at this sentence without adjectives.

The lake had a beach and was surrounded by trees.

You can visualize a picture because a description of the lake has been provided. However, this is not thepicture that you really wanted to present.

Now, read this sentence and your picture will change.

The lake had a long white sandy beach and was surrounded bybeautiful lush greentrees.By using adjectives we have changed the picture that other people will mentally see.

Comparative and superlative

There are three forms of adjectives. Adjectives, in English, normally come before the noun that they aredescribing. We will touch on the three forms here.

The base form of the adjective is used to describe things.

Example: A beautiful flower. A tall building. A happy baby.

The comparative form of the adjective is used to compare things.

7/28/2019 Ie3 m1aa1l2 Word

6/7

Example: My cat is bigger than your cat. (comparing two cats)

Susan is more intelligent than Karen. (comparing two people)

Canada is larger than Mexico. (comparing two countries)

Here are the rules for changing adjectives to comparatives and superlatives.

How to use comparatives and superlatives

Comparatives

Comparatives are used to compare two things. You can use sentences

with than, or you can use a conjunction like but.

Jose is tallerthan Pedro.Pedro is tall, but Jose is taller.

Superlatives

Superlatives are used to compare more than two things. Superlativesentences usually use the, because there is only one superlative.

Adriana is the tallest in the class.Francisco is tall and Pedro is taller but Adriana is the tallest.

We are going to explore the final word group in this module. That is prepositions. Prepositons can be

7/28/2019 Ie3 m1aa1l2 Word

7/7

difficult to learn to use properly but with practice they will become second nature.

What are prepositions? They are location words. They tell the reader or the listener where something is in

space. Without prepositions the reader or the listener doesnt know where the thing your are referring to isor in what direction to turn, etc. etc. etc. Prepositions also link nouns, pronouns and phrases to other wordsin a sentence.

Read this sentence:

I will meet you 4:00 p.m. the bank.

This sentence makes no sense at all. The nouns

and pronouns and verbs are there but without theprepositions it will make no sense to the reader or

the listener.

With the correct prepositions the reader willunderstand exactly what you are saying. Now readthe sentence with the use of prepositions.

I will meet you at 4:00 p.m. in front ofthe bank. 6. OCBC Bank. Wikimedia (2006).

Note that the preposition at is a normal preposition. The group of words in front ofis a prepositional

phrase. A prepositional phrase, like phrasal verbs, are groups of words that are used together to have

special meanings.

There are about 150 prepositions so remembering them will not be difficult. Many of them are used

frequently but most of them are used infrequently. The prepositions of, to, and in are among the 10 mostfrequently used words in English.

Image Reference

References

1. Bicknell, A. (2007). FEMA_-_33709_-_FEMA_and_contractors_inspect_mobile_homes_in_California [digital picture]. Retrieved on October 25th

from

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FEMA_-_33709_-_FEMA_and_contractors_inspect_mobile_homes_in_California.jpg underPublic domain license.

2. Kertesz, J. (2005). Baker's wife [digital picture]. Retrieved on October 25th

from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Baker%27s_wife.jpg under Creative CommonsGeneric Attribution 2.0 Free cultural Approved for Works.

3. Watson, J. (2007). USAF pilot[digital picture]. Retrieved on October 25th

from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USAF_pilot.jpg underPublic domain license.

4. Wikimedia Commons. (2009). Beach boy summer time 2009 [digital picture]. Retrieved on October 25th

from

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beach_boy_summer_time_2009.jpg underCreative Commons Free Cultural Approved for Works.

5. Wikimedia Commons. (2005). Electrician Working[digital picture]. Retrieved on October 25th

from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Electrician_Working.jpgunder Creative Commons Generic Attribution 2.5 Free cultural Approved for Works.