Lecture Extras:Past & Past Participle Forms for Irregular Verbs

As their names implies, eslcafe.com notes, irregular verbs are those verbs ''that fall outside the standard patterns of conjugation [ie. the creation of derived forms of verbs from their original form due to such factors as number, gender and tense – eg. ski, skis, skied, skiing].''

The past forms of irregular verbs are challenging because there are no easy rules for forming them.

* some are the same as the base form, * some change their vowels and/or endings, and * a few are completely different from the base forms.

While the past participles for regular verbs are the same as their past forms:

* e.g. look-looked-looked and study-studied-studied,

... for irregular verbs, the past and past participle forms are different:

* e.g. be-was/were-been and go-went-gone

To learn more about the past and past participle forms of irregular verbs see the links below to a n article on irregular verbs from eslcafe.com and some quizzes from manythings.org and esldesk.com.

Links:
1. Verb Forms and Tenses [eslcafe.com]
2. What is the past particple form of the verb? [manythings.org]
3. 168 Irregular Verbs Test [esldesk.com]

Lecture Extra:Past Indefinite Tense

As the MBA Aspirants Zone site of India’s International Management Institute notes, the Past Indefinite Tense denotes actions or happenings that took place in the past.

For example:

* My friend has lived in the USA since 1974.
* My friend lived in the USA.

While, however, in the first sentence shows that my friend is still in the USA, the second sentence shows that my friend is not in the USA.

The site also notes that while:

* in the Active Voice, the second form of the verb
(educated, worshiped, won, lived, constructed, etc.)
is always used;

* in the Passive Voice, be (was, were) + the third form of the verb is used.

Find below links to the International Management Institute's MBA Aspirants Zone page on the Past Indefinite Tense; and, the EnglishWizo.com page on the tense

1. Lessons in Past Indefinite Tense [coolavenues.com]
2. Past Indefinite Tense [EnglishWizo.com]

Lecture Extras:Video:The Kidneys

Please find below a link to a video on The Kidneys

Link:
1. Video: The Kidneys

Lecture Extra:Prepositions

As The Writing Center site University of Ottowa website notes, the preposition links nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in a sentence. The word or phrase that the preposition introduces is called the object of the preposition.

UA preposition usually indicates the temporal, spatial or logical relationship of its object to the rest of the sentence as in the following examples:

- The book is on the table.
- The book is beneath the table.
- The book is leaning against the table.
- The book is beside the table.
- She held the book over the table.
- She read the book during class.

As the UO's Writing Center Site notes, in each of the preceding sentences, a preposition locates the noun "book" in space or in time.

Find below links to the The Writing Center site; and, some Preposition exercises from world-english.org and better-english.com.


Links:
1. What is a Preposition [writingcentre.uottawa.ca]
2. English Prepositions Exercises [world-english.org]
3. Prepositions [better-english.com]

Lecture Extras:The Final 'S'

Following on from today's class, here are some general rules from factmonster.com for spelling plural nouns.

For most words in the English language, all you have to do to make a plural is to add an 's' to the end of the word. So:

a table one cake a planet

becomes becomes becomes

two tables three cakes many planets

If the word has a consonant before the final 'y' then the plural ends with 'ies':

bully pony canary

becomes becomes becomes

bullies ponies canaries

If the word has a vowel before the final y then you just add an 's':

day delay survey

becomes becomes becomes

days delays surveys

That said, factmonster.com notes:

• that certain English nouns change a vowel sound when they become plural. [eg. goose, geese; man, men; mouse, mice; and tooth, teeth].
  
• some nouns don't change at all when they become plural [eg. deer, fish, sheep, and species]; and,
  
• A few nouns have plural forms that are left from Old English. e.g. child, children and ox, oxen].

Find below links to some information on the spelling of plural nouns from factmonster.com and spelling.hemscott.net; and some quizzes from grammar-quizzes.com and usingenglish.com.

Links:
1. Spelling Plural Nouns [factmonster.com]
2. The Spelling of Plural Words [spelling.hemscott.net]
3. Editing Nouns and Verbs for Final -S / -ES [grammar-quizzes.com]
4. Spelling Plural Nouns [usingenglish.com]

Lecture Extra:Frequency Adverbs

Frequency adverbs are adverbs that state how often something happens or someone does something. The most common frequency adverbs in English are [roughly]:

Always – about100% of the time
Frequently - about 90% of the time
Usually - about 80% of the time
Often - about 70% of the time
Sometimes - about 50% of the time
Occasionally - about 40% of the time
Seldom - about 20% of the time
Rarely - about 10% of the time
Never - about 00% of the time

Find below links to the eslgold.com site on 'frequency adverbs' quoted in the Powerpoint; two sets of 'frequency adverb' exercises each from englisch-hilfen.de and the British Councils' learnenglish.org.uk site; and, a Frequency Adverbs Multiple Choice from esl.lbcc.ca.us

Links:
1. Frequency Adverbs [eslgold.com]
2. Position of Adverbs of Frequency Exercies [englisch-hilfen.de] 1 2
3. Frequency Adverbs Game [learnenglish.org.uk] 1 2
4. Frequency Adverbs Multiple Choice [esl.lbcc.cc.ca.us]

Lecture Extras: Unit 4Video: The Liver

Find below a link to a short Video on the The Liver.

p.s. for those of you worried about such things, there are no representations of living people in the video.

Links:
Video: The Liver

Lecture Extras: Unit 4Main Verbs

As noted in this week's lecture, the main verb expresses the main action or state of being of the subject in the sentence and changes form according to the subject: singular, plural, 1st person, 2nd person, 3rd person.

Find below links to: the article from the LEO Network the main verb referenced in the lecture; another article on main verbs from EnglishClub.com; and, two quizzes on Main verbs from Argo217 & EnglishClub.com.

Links:
1. The Main Verb [learnenglish.de]
2. Main Verbs [englishclub.com]
3. Main Verb Quizzes: Argo217; EnglishClub,

Lecture Extras:Present Indefinite Tense - Wh - questions

To follow up on today's discussion of 'wh' questions you may wish to visit the 'wh' exercises at angelfire.com. A usual, you might find it of some value to look at other pages on the site. If you want to look at the source for the material in the Powerpoint on 'wh' questions visit elfnet.com here.

Link: angelfire.com: 'wh' questions

Lecture Extra:Comparative and Superlative Forms of Adjectives

As a follow up to today's discussion of the rules regarding the comparative and superlative forms of adjectives, check out the link below to the Study Zone page on the topic set up by English Language Center of the University of Victoria in Canada and try their online exercises at the bottom of the page.
p.s. The Study Zone actually has lots of information and exercises for students of all levels. Check it out if you have the time.
p.p.s. The material for the lecture came from the eflnet.com web pages. To have a look at this material and their exercises, go here.

Link:
University of Victoria: Comparatives & Superlatives

Lecture Extra:Video: The Lungs

Find below a link to the video I attempted to play in class on Wednesday. Please be warned that there is an image of a woman speaking on the video. I will try and remember in future to let you know if I am about to show a video with a similar image. The point of showing you the video is to let you practice the progress you have made with lung related vocabulary and listening during the last couple of days. If you like the dieo you can download an AVI version of it by following the second link.

Link:
Youtube Video: The Lungs
AVI Video: The Lungs

Lecture Extra:Video: The Human Skin

Please find below links to a Youtube video on the structure of the human skin and an AVI file of the same video. If you have any problems accessing either, please let me know.

Links:
Youtube Video: The Skin
AVI Video: The Skin

Lecture Extra:Video: The Ear

Please find below a link to a a short video on Youtube entitled "Journey Into The Ear". As with the Video on the lungs posted earlier this week, you can use this video to check out your ear related listening comprehension with a voice other than mine. If you'd like to download an avi of the video there is a link for that as well.
p.s. I will try and post an AVI the lungs video ASAP.
p.p.s watch out for a video on the skin as well.

Links:
Youtube Video: The Ear
AVI Video: The Ear

Lecture Extras:Tag Questions

As a follow up to a Grammar issue raised in the Unit Lecture/Theory classes, check out the following links to Tag related activities.

For general introductions to Tag questions go here and here.

Links:
EnglishZone.com
a4esl.org 1 2
eflnet.com

Lecture Extras:File Unziping

As mentioned in class today, it is possible that some of you are having problems getting the audio from the blog because you do not know how to 'unzip' the files you download. The ZIP file format allows me to both compress and archive my files.

To read more about zipping and unzipping files see here. To choose from a variety of unzipping options go to filehippo.com and scole down to the Compression and Backup options. My preferred program is 7-Zip, but many prefer WinZip.

Lecture Extra:The International Phonetic Alphabet

To prepare for this week's discussion of the sounds of English and the International Phonetic Alphabet have a look at the table on antimoon.com's site.

The table contains all the sounds (phonemes) used in the English language. For each sound, it gives the symbol from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), as used in phonetic transcriptions in modern dictionaries for English learners — that is, in A. C. Gimson's phonemic system with a few additional symbols. Sound files are included.

Link:
The International Phonetic Alphabet

Lecture Extra:Hearing and the Ears

How about trying to utilize your newly acquired ear and hearing related vocabulary by visiting the BBC's Science & Nature: Human Body and the Mind website and looking at their information on the Nervous System and Hearing. Check out the interesting little animation while you are there and see how sound travels through the ear.

p.s. click on the 'OPEN NEW GAME' link on the animation image for and interesting and hopefully educationally instructive experience!!

Link:
Science & Nature: Hearing

Lecture Extra:Passive Voice

To read more about the Passive Voice covered in today's lecture check out the information on the englisch-hilfen.de/en (Learning English Online) site.

Among the topics covered on the site are:
Active and passive forms in the most common tenses
Active sentence - Passive sentence (two objects)
How to form the passive and
Personal Passive - Impersonal Passive

While there, check out the 'Passive Tense' online exercises here.

Link:
Passive Tense: englisch-hilfen.de

Lecture Extras:Pronunction Rules 's' & 'ed'

For the last two weeks we have tried to work out the 'correct' pronunciation of words ending with 'ed' and 's'. As some of you know, there are in fact rules with can help guide us in determining which particular pronunciation to use. To see a [fairly] simple summary of these rules see the posting on the Net Grammar site here.

To find out more about this you can check out the postings on the pronunciation of the 'd' ending on:

- Pronuncian podcast here.
- e Learning English Language website here.

To give yourself an online test on the 'd' ending, check out the test on the English Zone site here

Lecture Extra:Medical Roots, Suffixes and Prefixes

For those of you interested in following up on the discussion on the [mostly Latin and Greek] 'roots', 'suffixes and 'prefixes' of medical terms, check out the list to be obtained on the link below to the List of medical roots, suffixes and prefixes located on the free internet encyclopedia Wikipedia. Please tell me [gently!] if you find any errors on my part in today's class!

Link:
Medical Roots, Suffixes and Prefixes