CORE Unit 2 Course book Language

Section 1: Elementary Grammar

Introduction

Elementary Course books

In general, course books for English language teaching tend to be divided into the following
levels:

 Beginner / Intro
 Elementary
 Pre-Intermediate
 Intermediate
 Upper-Intermediate
 Advanced

Not all sets of course books cover every level, with some of the General English series only
going up to Intermediate (because many learners choose to stop learning beyond that level)
and many Business English series having only the three highest levels.  Also, while course
books for Young Learners tend to divide roughly into similar levels, many of them use more
'catchy' names for their levels.  The good news is that most course books tend to introduce and
practise ‘new’ grammar in a similar order and at similar levels.

Beginner courses tend to focus much more on building up vocabulary and a stock of fixed
expressions and much of the grammar introduced is soon repeated at Elementary level. At
Upper-Intermediate and Advanced few, if any, grammar points are introduced as ‘new’. At
these levels it is often more about expanding on and contrasting grammar points that were
introduced in earlier levels. Therefore the following three Sections on Grammar will focus on
some of the most common Elementary, Pre-Intermediate and Intermediate grammar points.   

At Elementary level many course books focus on some of the following grammar points and
often in roughly the following order:

 am/is/are - “I’m a teacher.”

 Present Simple - “I walk to work.”
 like/don’t like + 'ing' or infinitive - “I like playing badminton.”
 can/can’t to talk about ability - “She can’t swim”
 Past Simple with regular verbs - “We watched a movie.”
 Past Simple with irregular verbs - “They drove to New York.”
 Comparative Adjectives - “He is taller than his sister.”
 Superlative Adjectives - “The white dog is the cutest one”
 Present Continuous - “He’s doing his homework.”
 can/can’t/have to/don’t have to talk about permission and obligation - “You can’t
smoke in here.”
 ‘be going to’ Future - “We’re going to see a movie.”
 Present Perfect - “Have you ever eaten frogs’ legs?”
* Course books vary as to whether they introduce ‘be going to’ or ‘will’ for the Future in
Elementary, with the other point being introduced at Pre-Intermediate. We look at ‘be going
to’ here and ‘will’ in Section 2.

Present Simple is a sentence structure that is commonly used to talk about the following
things:

 A routine or habit: I get up at 7 o’clock. He drives to work.

 How often we do something: I often meet friends for coffee. He plays cards all the
time.
 Permanent states: I am Australian. My parents live in Sydney. It rains in winter.

We often assume that Present Simple refers to ‘the present’, and in some ways that is true for
most of its uses. However, if we think about it a bit more carefully, it’s something more than
that. Right now, in ‘the present’ I am writing on a computer but if anyone asks me how I get
to work I can honestly say I take the subway.  I took the subway this morning, which is in the
past, and I will take subway tomorrow and the day after that, both of which are in the future.
Likewise, I have always been and always will be Australian. 

So in the examples we’ve looked at so far, the Present Simple doesn’t describe any single
action or event as occurring right now, rather it describes a regular or permanent routine,
habit or state that is generally true now. 

Further to this, there are uses of Present Simple to talk about actions that are clearly in the
past or the future:

 When telling friends about something unbelievable or surprising that happened to us

in the past, “So, anyway, she walks right up to our table and drops the cake, upside-
down, on Ed’s lap!”
 With actions or events that are scheduled to happen at a specific time in the future,
“The conference starts at 8.30am and finishes at 6pm”; “Our flight leaves at nine”. 

At Elementary level, course books usually introduce the three most common uses that we
mentioned first. As for the form and pronunciation, they remain the same regardless of the
use, and we will look at these now.

If we want to break down or codify the grammatical structure of a normal Present Simple
sentence, you can do so like this:

N + V(s)

This shows a learner that the first word/phrase in the sentence is a noun (usually a person or a
thing), that the second word is a verb (a ‘doing’ word; an action or a state), and that the verb
can have an -s (if the noun is third person singular he/she/it). 

Note:  We don’t usually need to break down the whole sentence because what comes after the
verb can vary widely. As long as all the components up to and including the verb are clear it
should help the students a lot.
This kind of breakdown is particularly important when we want to show learners how to make
sentences in the question (?) or negative (-) forms, and how to make more complicated
sentences like the ones with like and can in the last task. It lets us make it clear to learners
when the verb can have an -s and when it can’t.

Consider the sentence with its breakdown:  

He lives in England. N + V(s).

Here, N represents the word He and V(s) represents the word lives. 

Core Unit 2 Section 1 Page 8

Grammar and Pronunciation

So is pronunciation important when it comes to grammar? If so, why and how?

Say the following sentences out loud, slowly, one word at a time.

a)    I am a teacher.

b)    I cannot swim.

c)    What do you do at the weekend?

d)    Tom drives to work.

e)    Mary looks like her father.

It doesn’t sound natural, but there’s more to it than that. Which word or words in each
sentence contain the main meaning that the speaker wants to express? What are the ‘content’
words in each one?

Answer

a)    I am a teacher.

b)    I cannot swim.

c)    What do you do at the weekend?

d)    Tom drives to work.

e)    Mary looks like her father.

Features of what is known as connected speech (speaking quickly, linking words together,

etc.) do not happen "just because", nor are   they signs of a lazy or incorrect speaker. In fact,
to the native-speaker's ear, it groups the words meaningfully and emphasises the content, and
this makes it much easier on the listener.
In the sentences above the words that aren’t in bold are normally linked together, weakened
and spoken quite quickly. The words that are in bold are pronounced with slightly more
emphasis than usual. This can partly be demonstrated in writing through the use of
contractions:  I am => I’m; can not => cannot => can’t, etc. More informally we see written
expressions like ‘wanna’, ‘gonna’, and ‘cuppa’ for want to, going to and cup of, respectively. 

While these look particularly informal in written English, these kinds of expressions can be
used in informal, neutral and even formal situations in spoken English. In extremely formal
situations they might not be appropriate, but those situations are very rare. Most importantly,
as mentioned above, it actually makes our speaking clearer and easier to process for the
English-speaking listener.

So is pronunciation important when it comes to grammar? If so, why and how?

In natural speech between friends and workmates, the examples we’ve looked at above might
sound something like this (note that it is impossible to truly represent spoken English with the
Roman alphabet, so we have simply tried to demonstrate approximately how we speak in
natural conversation):

a)    I’m-a teacher.

b)    I can’t swim.

c)    Whatcha do 't the weekend?

d)    Tom drives t' work.

e)    Mary looks like-’er father.

You will note that contractions are particularly relevant when it comes to teaching the
grammar points we discussed earlier, with am/is/are and the negative sentences
with don’t, doesn’t and can’t. You need to model and drill the pronunciation for these orally,
as well as use other techniques to draw attention to how the contractions are formed (one
common method is to hold up two fingers with a gap between, say each word out loud while
pointing to one finger at a time ‘I am’, then join the two fingers together and say the
contraction ‘I’m’).

Past Simple and Present Perfect

Past Simple is commonly used to talk about the following things:

 An action completed/finished in a finished time period in the past: I had lunch an hour
ago. I grew up in Melbourne.
 Repeated actions in a finished time period in the past: We went out on a couple of
dates. They often visited us.
 States that were true in a finished time period in the past: We knew the local doctor
quite well. I was a Maths student.
 Story-telling: Once upon a time there was a fairy princess. She lived in the woods.

Present Perfect is commonly used to talk about the following things:

  An action seen as an ‘experience’: I’ve been to Korea. Have you ever had frogs’ legs?
 Repeated actions seen as an ‘experience’: I’ve been there several times.
 A finished action in a period leading up to now: I’ve just finished the report. Have you
eaten yet?
 An action in the past with a present result: He’s broken his leg.
 Actions or states that started in the past and are still true: I’ve lived here for 5 years.

Both structures are used to talk about actions and events in the past, and in some cases either
one can be used with just a subtle change in meaning. Generally, we use Present Perfect when
we see a connection between the past and the present. In the examples of Present Perfect
introduced above the relationship to now might seem a bit abstract, but when we compare the
following sentences the difference becomes clearer:

1. We went on a couple of dates. = We aren’t seeing each other anymore.

We’ve been on a couple of dates.  =  Perhaps we are still dating.
2. He broke his leg.  = Simply stating what happened.
He’s broken his leg.  = e.g. That is why his leg is now in a cast.
3. He wrote several comedies.  = Perhaps he is no longer alive.
He has written several comedies.  = He is still alive.

One practical difference (perhaps resulting from this conceptual difference) is that
there are a lot of time phrases that we can’t use with the Present Perfect, and some
time phrases which are much more common with the Present Perfect.  Compare the
following:

4. I’ve been to New Zealand this year. vs I went last year.

5. I’ve seen Star Wars three times. vs I saw Star Wars when I was a kid.
6. I started teaching in 2002. vs I’ve been a teacher since I left University.

Another useful guide for Elementary level learners is that when talking about experiences we
often introduce the experience with Present Perfect but add additional information using Past
Simple, for example,

 I’ve been to New Zealand.  [Present Perfect].

 My wife and I went there a couple of years ago.  [Past Simple].
 We had a great time.  [Past Simple].
 We even saw a kiwi.  [Past Simple].

Elementary level course books generally, and for good reason, introduce (and spend a lot of
exposure and practice time on) the Past Simple before contrasting it with the Present Perfect.
If you try to introduce both at the same time, students are very likely to end up more confused
than anything else. We have introduced them together here because the contrast in meaning
can help teachers to become more aware of the subtleties.

Comparative and Superlative Adjectives

Comparative adjectives are used to:

  Compare one person/thing with another in relation to one quality that they share, for
example how fast one is in relation to the other:  Anne is faster than Susan. 
  (NB Comparatives are not usually used to compare things when the difference is
obvious: The elephant is bigger than the mouse.  This is unlikely because a more
accurate comparison can be made by saying:  The elephant is big but the mouse is
small. )

Superlative adjectives are used to:

 Compare one person/thing with a group of similar people/things in relation to one

quality they share:  Anne is the fastest (in her class).

We also use Comparative Adverbs, which are used in a similar way to compare actions or
states.  For example, we could say, “Anne runs faster than Susan” in which fast describes the
action run.  This structure is usually introduced at a later stage, however.

Present Continuous

Present Continuous is most commonly used for one of four main reasons:

 To talk about an action or event that is in progress at the time of speaking:  A: Where
are the kids?  B:  They are doing their homework.

 To talk about an action or event that is repeated over a temporary period of time: I’m
studying language teaching with Language Link.

 To talk about a state that is seen as temporary:  I’m living in Beijing.

 To talk about a planned or fixed arrangement in the future:  We’re leaving for Spain
next week. 

The first three are closely related and can be grouped together as ‘something that is temporary
and in some way in progress at the time of speaking’.  The first example is the one most often
introduced in course books at Elementary level, but seeing as all three are closely related and
can be similarly contrasted with Present Simple, we will look at these three.  We will look at
the fourth use in Section 2: Pre-Intermediate.

Compare these pairs of sentences.  What is the difference in meaning for each?

1. They do their homework.                     They are doing their homework.

2. I teach English.                                   I’m teaching English.

Answer

In the first pair of sentences: the first sentence suggests that it is a regular and consistent
action. Most likely they did it yesterday and the day before that, and they will do it tomorrow
and the day after that. There is also no indication that this routine will end in the near future.
In the second sentence it is an action that is in progress at the moment of speaking. There is
no indication that it is done regularly, only that it is in progress now. The action is also seen as
ongoing, as it clearly started some time in the (recent) past and will likely continue for some
time into the (near) future.  But it is also clearly temporary. We assume that it will end in the
relatively near future (homework is generally done in minutes or hours, so we assume it will
end in a matter of minutes or hours).

In the second pair of sentences: the first sentence again suggests a regular and consistent
action and again there is no indication that the routine will end in the near future. In this
particular case we assume that it is the speaker’s long-term career. This time the second
sentence doesn’t represent an action in progress now (e.g. at the time of speaking the person
could be in a cafe chatting with an old friend). As with the first sentence in 2 it suggests a
repeated action. The difference here is that the action is seen as around the time of now and as
something temporary. We assume that it will end in the relatively near future (work is
generally done in years, so we assume it will end in a matter of years, perhaps). In contrast
with the first sentence, we do not see this as the speaker’s long term career; we see it as a
temporary job.

Can, Can’t (modal verbs), Have to and Don’t Have to (semi-modal verbs)

These modal (and semi-modal) verbs are often used:

 To talk about permission, obligation and necessity:  I have to go home.  You can’t
smoke in here.  You don’t have to do the optional exercises.

 Have to and can’t are similar in that they both represent a lack of choice: (Note that 'can' is
also used to express ability, but here we are focusing on its use to express
obligation/prohibition)

 If a person has to do something, it is necessary that he/she does it. 

 If a person can’t do something, it is necessary that he/she does not do it.

Can and don’t have to are similar in that they both represent a choice:

 If a person can do something, they may choose to do or not do it.

Can is used either neutrally or to reassure someone who wanted to do something but
thought that it might be not allowed. 
 If a person doesn’t have to do something, they may choose to do or not do it.
Don’t have to is often used to reassure someone who didn’t want to do something but
thought that it might be necessary.

The way that these modal and semi-modal verbs are used in negative sentences can make
them particularly confusing for learners.  Compare the following:

1. I don’t like football.  (= it is true that football is something that I do not like).
2. I don’t have to go to work today.  (= it is not true that work is somewhere that I have
to  go)

To make a negative statement with modal verbs, the word "not" usually goes between the
modal verb and the main verb. For example, in the sentence 'I can not drive the car.' Where
"can" is the modal verb and "drive" is the main verb.
However to make a negative statement with the semi-modal verb "have to" then the sentence
becomes 'I don't have to drive the car.'  Where the negative word "don't" goes before the
modal verb.

Compare the following: (Note, 'do' is an auxiliary verb.  'can' is a modal verb and 'have to' is a
semi-modal verb)

Positive statements.

N aux/modal V V
I do like football.
I can drive to work.
You have to go to work.
You can smoke here.

Negative statements.

N not aux/modal V not V

I   do not like football.
I   can not drive to work.
You do not have to   go to work.
You   can not smoke here.

Have to is often taught along with modal verbs because its meaning/use is often closely
related.  However, it is not actually a modal verb (which is apparent in that it is always
followed by ‘to’ whereas can, can’t, and other modals like must and should, are never
followed by ‘to’).  As such this kind of pattern is more obvious in words that share a similar
structure to have to:   I don’t want to go.  I want to not go.  I don’t plan to go.  I plan to not
go.

Remember that typical modal verbs act differently to other verbs in the following ways:

 They do not take an ‘s’ when used with he/she/it (e.g. I like and I can; he likes but
NOT he cans)
 In question forms the modal verb moves to the front of the sentence, rather than
adding the word do/does at the beginning (e.g. I like and I can; Do you like but NOT
Do you can). The only non-modal verb that can do this is be (e.g. I am, you were; Am
I, Are you).
 Modal verbs are always followed by another verb (e.g. Can you drive? but NOT Can
you car?  Compare:  I like driving and I like cars.)

Be Going to’ Future

‘Be going to’ is often used to talk about:

 Future intentions - something that you decided: I’m going to spend more time with my
family. We’re going to rent a movie tonight.
 Predictions about the future based on some evidence you have now: It looks like it’s
going to rain. It’s going to be a lot busier at lunchtime.
The first use is often introduced near the end of Elementary level course books. The Present
Continuous is often also used in this way, and the lines become blurry when the main verb is
‘go’ - do we say, “We’re going to the movies tonight” or “We’re going to go to the movies
tonight?” As a result, some course books will introduce ‘be going to’ with several different
main verbs, but will add this one use of Present Continuous. A sample list could be something
like this:

1. We’re going to  visit  some old friends.

2. I’m going to   finish  my homework before I go out.
3. He’s going to  take  the bus.
4. They’re going to  spend a year in France.
5. I’m going  to the gym tonight.

Although they are all used to talk about future intentions or arrangements the first 4 are ‘Be
Going to’ Future and the last one is Present Continuous (‘go’ is the main verb and just
happens to be in the -ing form, whereas in the others the main verb comes after ‘going to’).

 G.   For each of the following decide whether it is:

a.     A positive statement using ‘Be Going to’ Future

b.     A negative statement using ‘Be Going to’ Future
c.     A question using ‘Be Going to’ Future
d.   A statement NOT using ‘Be Going to’ Future, but using a different structure.

Introducing and Practising a Structure

So far we have been looking at the various changes in verb form and sentence patterns for
teachers. That is, this section, so far has been intended to help you personally to gain a better
understanding of Elementary level grammar in relation to the meaning and use, the form (verb
forms and sentence structure), and the pronunciation.

What we have not yet looked at is how much a student needs to know about each, what the
student needs to do with each, and what role a teacher should play in introducing them.

Typically it can be said that a language learner benefits best from a balance of three things:

 Exposure
That is, they need to see, hear, read and listen to a lot of examples of the language.
Natural language that is in a realistic context is particularly important here (i.e.
listening to a teacher repeat a sentence several times is not exposure, but listening to a
6-line conversation in which the sentence pattern/structure is used twice, is useful
exposure). It is also important that this exposure is meaningful and as realistic and
natural as possible (i.e. read and underline all the -ing words is not particularly
effective exposure - they need to be reading for enjoyment, to find real information,
etc.).
 Focus on Form
That is, it helps for their attention to be focused on the patterns involved. In this case,
listening to a teacher repeat a sentence several times may be helpful - more so if the
teacher repeats several different sentences that have the same pattern/structure. Other
things that draw attention to form include using boxes like the ones we have used
 throughout this section highlighting patterns, or even simply writing ‘n + am/is/are +
going to + V’ underneath an example sentence.  When we do this, we must of course,
focus on the meaning first so that students understand what the structure is actually
for.
 Practise
This means actually using the language.  Parroting the teacher and filling in gaps are
not useful practice activities, however.  While they are useful, they are only useful in
that they help students to focus on form.  When we talk about Practise, we mean the
students produce whole chunks of language and whole texts and conversations
themselves.  They need practise in safe, controlled ways (e.g. write 5 sentences about
your weekend), and they need practise in realistic, free, and interactive ways (e.g.
interview 3 people to find out who had the most interesting weekend). 

Traditionally, teachers thought focus on form was the most important. From the early 1900s
until the late 70s focus on form was increasingly rejected, with some Applied Linguists even
saying that focus on form was actually of no use to the language learner.  Indeed, people can
and did learn language entirely through exposure alone. As we moved into the 90s, however,
it was found that while exposure is enough, practice was equally important, and focus on
form, while not essential, made learning more effective.

Nowadays, most people agree that learners need a great amount of exposure and a great
amount of practice with a bit of focus on form. What this means is that a language teacher will
want to have a variety of different types of lessons, and within lessons, have a variety of
different stages with different aims. 

A course will often, then, include:

1. Reading and listening lessons in which the emphasis is on practising those skills.
2. Speaking lessons in which the emphasis is only practising using all their language in
fluent and natural, interactive, communication.
3. Writing lessons that develop writing skills ranging from communicative ability to
grammatical accuracy to useful letter formats, etc.
4. Integrated skills lessons that combine reading, writing, listening and speaking in
different ways.
5. Language lessons (vocabulary or grammar lessons) in which language is introduced
and practised.

At Elementary level there will necessarily be a big focus on quickly building vocabulary and
familiarity with some basic language.  This usually means extra emphasis on exposure, and a
fair amount of emphasis on focus on form, especially vocabulary building.  For those lessons
that do focus on grammatical structures like those introduced in this section, however, a
lesson will usually include:

1. Some context building.

Establish a situation or other clear context in which the structure is very likely to be
used.
2. Clarification of the meaning and use.
A bit of explanation and/or just seeing the language in context. Not overly long
explanations, though.
 3. Attention to the verb forms and sentence structures.
A quick ‘n + V-ed’ or some boxes is often enough. For many structures you will want
to highlight positive, negative and question forms. Again, not too much explanation,
and very brief highlighting here.
4. Attention to the pronunciation.
Model the language both as an isolated piece (e.g. “fixed, fixed, fixed”) and have
students repeat after you, but also model and drill it in a chunk with other language
(e.g. “He fixed the bike, he fixed the bike”).
5. Some safe, guided, initial practice.
Students can speak or write a few simple sentences using that particular structure (and
no other language). Depending on how confident they are and how quickly they pick it
up, they may need quite a bit of time here.
6. Freer, more realistic and communicative practice.
Students need to interact in pairs and groups, using language for a real purpose. This is
an opportunity to experiment with the new language, to incorporate new and old
language and choose the right structures to express their intended meaning (i.e. they
are not restricted to just the structure introduced, as they were in 5). Ideally, they need
lots and lots of time here.

Overall, a good language lesson should have at least 50% of the time spent on points 5 and 6.

 Practice makes perfect! 

Certainly no-one ever said, “Listening to lectures and theoretical explanations makes perfect”,
and for good reason.

There will be more on types of lessons in other Modules on the course. For now, though, it
might help to know that many teachers vary their use of the following staging:

1. Lead in: Warm the students up to the topic and introduce the situation (through visuals
or through a reading or listening activity)
2. Language Focus: Draw attention to the language (elicit it from the situation or
underline it in the text or audio script), briefly clarify the meaning, the structure, and
do some pronunciation work.
3. Controlled Practice: Students do guided practice, producing full sentences, using only
the new structure.
4. Freer Practice: Students do role-plays, interview each other, or have discussions, etc,
based on the topic/context that was introduced in the Lead In. They choose whether to
use the new structure, or whether to use other language that they already know (the
activity and context should encourage the use of the new structure, but not force it).

Feedback: The teacher comments on good language use and highlights and corrects Match the
example sentences with the name of the tense and its use:

1) Have you ever had meatballs before?

Present Perfect: experiences
2) He’s speaking with another customer.
Present Continuous: temporary actions in progress now
3) I can’t play any musical instruments.
Modal Verbs: abilities
4) I drive to work.
Present Simple: routines and habits
5) I’ve been a teacher for about 10 years.
Present Perfect: states that started in the past and are still true
6) Vicky is more beautiful than Tina.
Comparatives: comparing two people in relation to a quality they share
7) We saw a great movie last night.
Past Simple: actions completed in the past
8) We went fishing every weekend.
Past Simple: repeated actions (routines) in the past
9) We’re going to rent a movie tonight.
‘Be going to’ Future: future intentions
10) You can’t smoke in here.
Modal Verbs: permission, obligation and necessity

Introduction

Pre-Intermediate Course books

At Pre-Intermediate level there is a lot of revision of grammar points from Elementary level
course books, and the grammar points that are expected to be new are often closely related to
points that were introduced earlier. 

For example, most Elementary level course books introduce the use of ‘be going to’ for
talking about future intention. Then at Pre-Intermediate they introduce ‘will’ for various
future uses and Present Continuous for future plans and arrangements (some course books
introduce ‘will’ in Elementary, rather than ‘be going to’, but either way all three structures are
usually compared and contrasted at Pre-Intermediate). 

Many Pre-Intermediate course books focus on, in varying orders, the following grammar
points:

1. Present Continuous for future arrangements - “We’re meeting them next Monday.”
2. will/won’t/hope to/plan to - “I’ll come with you.”
3. ‘used to’ for past habits/states - “He used to call twice a week .”
4. Past Continuous - “I was driving at the time.”
5. Past Perfect - “He had stayed with us a couple of times before that, too.”
6. Present Perfect Continuous - “I’ve been working on this all night.”
7. Passive Voice - “Paper was invented in China.”
8. Conditional ‘would’ - “Short hair would look better on you.”

The Future

Having already been introduced to ‘be going to’ for talking about future intentions, at Pre-
Intermediate level learners are often introduced to other structures which are also commonly
used for talking about the future.
‘Be Going to’ is commonly used to:

 make a prediction about the future based on present evidence: It looks like it’s going
to rain.
 talk about future plans/intentions: I’m going to take an online course.
 talk about an action that is just about to happen: Watch out - it’s going to fall.

Present Continuous is commonly used to:

 talk about future arrangements: We’re leaving next Friday.

 ‘Will’ is commonly used to:

 express a prediction about the future based on the speaker's knowledge: It’ll be a lot
busier during the holidays.
 express a decision as it is made:  A: We’re out of milk.  B: Okay, I’ll buy some more.
 make an offers or promise:  I’ll hold the door for you. I’ll let you know as soon as we
decide.
 give further details about a plan or arrangement:  I’m going to Spain - I’ll be there all
week.

As well as these, we use quite a variety of expressions to talk about the future - hope to and
plan to, and also  want/have to; am/is/are about/due/ready to; have/has arranged/decided to;
can/may/might.

Some of the uses overlap to some degree. Where this happens, at times we use them
interchangeably, but at other times the choice of one over the other can add to or change the
meaning or implication. 

Will and be going to can both be used to express predictions. Be going to suggests more
present evidence behind the prediction, and will is used when the speaker is relying on his
prior knowledge. When the speaker says "Smith is going to win this election" he might well
be looking at the most recent poll results. When he says "Smith will win this election" he may
be thinking about what has happened in previous years - this kind of candidate always wins
when the economy is bad for example.

Present Continuous and be going to are both used to talk about future intentions, plans and
arrangements. Be going to suggests the decision was made at an earlier stage but no further
arrangements have been involved, and Present Continuous suggests arrangements have been
made (tickets bought, appointments set, etc.). For example: David and a client have agreed to
meet next week, but haven’t finalised the exact day and time yet: “I’m going to meet him next
week”.  At a later stage, the appointment has been added to his diary with an exact day and
time: “I’m meeting him on Tuesday at two”. 

We do not use will to talk about intentions, plans or arrangements that have already been
made except when giving further details. In these cases the conversation starts off with the use
of be going to or Present Continuous and some of the follow-up uses will. For example:

A:  What are you doing on the weekend? [ Present Continuous]

B:  My wife and I are driving up to Sydney. [Present Continuous]
     Actually, we’re taking a few days off work next week... [Present Continuous]
     ...and we’ll be in Sydney until Thursday. We'll see Andy's Mum and we'll have a couple of
nights out.  [‘Will’ Future]

‘Used to’ - Past Habits and Past States

We use ‘used to’ to talk about:

 Past Habits: Tom used to ride to school.

 Past States: The Parsons used to live in the countryside.

It indicates that the action was repeated in the past and then discontinued - Tom regularly rode
to school in the past; now he doesn’t ride to school. Or that the state was true in the past but
isn’t true anymore - The Parsons lived in the countryside in the past, but they don’t live in the
countryside now.

For Past Habits we can also use ‘would’:  Tom’s dad would drive him once a week.

 ‘Used to’ is more common in informal English.

 ‘Would’ is more common in formal English.
 We often use a combination of the two.

For Past Habits and Past States we can sometimes use ‘used to’ and Past Simple
interchangeably:  A group of us lived on campus and we played cards every weekend. 

 In some cases ‘used to’ is necessary, and in most cases makes it clearer, to convey that
the action/state was repeated, &/or that the situation has changed.  Compare:  I drank
beer; I used to drink beer.  The first might refer to a repeated action, but it might also
refer to a single occasion.  It also gives us no indication as to whether the speaker still
does this.
 Past Simple is used if we want to mention the time or duration in which it was true. 
For example, we can’t say, “They used to live in France for three years”, and “In 1993
we lived in France” is more likely than “We used to live in France in 1993”.

We cannot use ‘used to’ or ‘use to’ to talk about the present or the future. (Some learners may
have difficulty with this if they have an L1 equivalent which is applied in a different way to
English. Learners often think that if 'used to' refers to past situations, then 'use to' refers to
present situations. We need to remind them that 'usually' is used in this case instead. )

 “I liked football” and “I used to ride to school”.  (past)

 “I like football” but not “I use to ride to school”. (present. The sentence: I usually ride
to school is what is intended)
 “I will like football” but not “I will use to ride to school.”
There are two common mistakes with the form - one written and one spoken:

 The negative and question forms are misspelled.  Many learners, and even many
native speakers, put the past ‘-d’ on the verb ‘use’ (e.g. “I didn’t used to like red
wine.”)
 The positive form is mispronounced.  Many learners, on knowing the different
spelling, attempt to pronounce the ‘-d’ on the verb ‘used’, or vocalise the whole of the
'-ed' making 'used' two syllables.

Both of these mistakes are due to the fact that the positive form is spelled differently from the
negative and question forms, but the pronunciation is exactly the same in all three.

Compare:

1. I worked hard.           I used to work hard.

2. I didn’t work hard.     I didn’t use to work hard.
3. Did you work hard?   Did you use to work hard?

Talking about the Past

Having looked at Past Simple, Present Perfect, and ‘Used to’, Pre-Intermediate level learners
are then often introduced to the following structures, which help them to understand and
express some additional meanings when talking about the past.

Past Continuous is commonly used to:

 talk about an action that was in progress at a certain time in the past:  At 6.30pm we
were having dinner.   
 talk about an action that continued over a whole period of time:  The baby was crying
all night.   

Past Perfect is commonly used to:

 talk about an action that happened before a past time, or before another action in the
past: They had met several times before. 

talk about a state that was true before a past time, or before an action in the past: They When
Past Continuous is used to talk about an action that was in progress, it is often used in relation
to another verb or verbs in Past Simple. It might be used to:

 Indicate the time and/or the reason that a particular time was significant:
1. A:  You didn’t answer the phone?
B:  Oh, that was you? Sorry, I was having a shower.
2. A:  Did you see the news last night?
B:  Yeah, it was awful. We were having dinner but we couldn’t eat after that!
 Express that one action interrupted another (often linked with ‘when’):
 o I was calmly driving along the road when a kangaroo suddenly jumped out in
front of me.
o They were watching Friends when the power went out.

When Past Continuous is used to talk about an action that continued over a whole period, we
can often use either Past Continuous or Past Simple:

 It was raining all day.

 It rained all day.

Because Past Perfect is used to indicate an earlier action, choosing between Past Perfect and
Past Simple often results in a different meaning:

 The meeting started when Tom arrived.  = The meeting started just after he arrived.
 The meeting had (already) started when Tom arrived.  = The meeting started before he
arrived.

For a sequence of events that happen one after the other in the past we do not usually use Past
Perfect, we use Past Simple:

 I woke up, got dressed, brushed my teeth and went downstairs. Then I made breakfast.
 NOT  I had woken up…

 had previously lived in a much smaller city. 

Present Perfect Continuous

Present Perfect Continuous is also used for talking about the past. In particular, it connects the
past with the present. When we looked at Present Perfect we saw that it is used to talk about:
an action in the period leading up to now; an action in the past with a present result; actions or
states that started in the past and are still true. Present Perfect Continuous also has these three
uses, and in some, but not all cases, either structure can be used with no change in meaning. It
is also used for actions repeated up until now.

Look at the following examples:

1. An action in the period leading up to now:

 Present Perfect:  I’ve  just eaten thanks.

 Present Perfect Continuous:  He’s been sleeping all day.

2. An action in the past with a present result:

 Present Perfect:  He’s broken his leg.  (His leg in a cast).

 Present Perfect Continuous:  He’s been painting the house.  (There is paint on his
clothes).

3. An action/state that started in the past and is still true:

  Present Perfect:   I’ve lived in Beijing for years.
 Present Perfect Continuous:  I’ve been living in Beijing for years.

4. An action repeated up until now:

 Present Perfect Continuous:  I’ve been trying to call John all morning.

For #1 & #2 above, there is a definite difference in meaning between the two sentences. In the
first sentence (I’ve  just eaten thanks/He’s broken his leg) the action is clearly completed. In
the second sentence (He’s been sleeping all day/He’s been painting the house) we do not
know whether the action has been completed or not. Here is a third example:

 Present Perfect:  I’ve written the report you asked for.

 Present Perfect Continuous:  I’ve been writing the report you asked for.

For states (e.g. be, like, know) that started in the past and are still true, it is rare to use Present
Perfect Continuous. In some cases (e.g. live) Present Perfect Continuous can indicate that the
speaker sees the state as somewhat temporary: 

 Present Perfect:  We’ve known each other for years.

 NOT  We’ve been knowing each other for years.
 Present Perfect:  I’ve lived here since 2005.
 Present Perfect Continuous:  I’ve been living here since 2005.

 Passive Voice

Compare the following pairs of sentences:

1. a)  The police arrested Jones.

b)  Jones was arrested.
2. a)   Mary saved my life.
b)  My life was saved by Mary.
3. a)  His great, great grandfather planted the tree.
b)  The tree was planted by his great, great grandfather.

In each case, (b) is in the Passive Voice.  In normal sentences (Active Voice) the subject (the
main noun or noun phrase before the verb) is the person or thing that caused the action - this
person or thing is the agent.  In number 1 it was the police who did the arresting.  In 2 it was
Mary who did the saving.  In 3 his great, great grandfather did the planting.  In Passive
Voice the subject is the person or thing that the action is directed at.  The arresting was of
Jones, the saving was of my life and the planting was of the tree.

In English we usually place the topic at the beginning of the sentence and the new information
at the end.  Changing between Passive Voice and Active Voice allows us to emphasise
different bits of information as the ‘news’.  In 1a the news is who was arrested; in 1b the news
is what happened to Jones.  In 2a the news is what Mary did; in 2b it is who did it.  In 3a the
news is what his grandfather did; in 3b the news is who planted the tree.

More often than not the agent is not mentioned at all.  Note how both 1a (The police arrested
Jones) and  Jones was arrested by the police, are very unlikely sentences because, a) it is
obvious that the police did it, so it doesn’t add any new information and, b) it is the arrest that
is the main ‘news’ in any case.  If the important information is who did the action, however,
we can add it at the end of the sentence using the preposition ‘by’.  Note that we can do the
same with other kinds of information using prepositions too: The tree was planted directly
under the house.  He was arrested for  stealing. 

The Passive Voice is also often used in official writing, for example to present scientific
findings, as it gives the writing a more impersonal feel.

H.    Decide which of the following sentences sound natural and which do not. 

1. A team of scientists have discovered evidence of alien life.

2. Evidence of alien life has been discovered.
3. Evidence of alien life has been discovered by a team of scientists.
4. A teacher put the fire out.
5. The fire was put out.
6. The fire was put out by a teacher.
7. You found my keys.
8. My keys were found.
9. My keys were found by you.
10. I’m going to hit Dave.
11. Dave is going to be hit.
12. Dave is going to be hit by me.
13. Something injured me in a car accident.
14. I was injured in a car accident.
15. I was injured by something in a car accident.
16. My mother bore me in 1978.
17. I was born in 1978.
18. I was born by my mother in 1978.

Suggested Answers

1-3  All three sound okay.  In official reports 2 or 3 are very likely.

 
4-6  All three sound okay. "A fireman put the fire out" or " The fire was put out by a fireman"
might sound odd, but the fact that it was put out by a teacher is unusual, so this may well be
important new information.

7-9  The first one sounds fine as an exclamation.  The second would sound okay in some
situations, for example recounting a story in which many people helped looked for the keys
and you can’t remember exactly who found them -  although ‘someone found my keys’ might
still be more likely.  The last one is extremely unlikely because if the listener is ‘you’ it is
unlikely to be news to yourself.

10-12  Only the first would be used.  The background information or ‘topic’ is that the
speaker is going to do something; the ‘news’ is what he’s going to do and who he’s going to
do it to.    

13-15  What exactly caused the injury is both unclear and irrelevant; the ‘news’ is the injury
and the situation, so only the second (number 14)  would be used.

16-18  Who gave birth to you is both obvious and irrelevant, the ‘news’ is clearly when you
were born, (not who your mother is), so only the second would be used.

Conditional ‘Would’

‘Would’ is often used talk about ‘unreal’ situations:

 A couple of days by the sea would be nice.

 You would make a great chef.
 If I won the lottery, I’d get a beach house.
 They would have given you a discount if you had bargained harder.

At some point Pre-Intermediate course books often introduce students to either the use of
‘would’ alone, or to the 2nd Conditional which is made up of ‘would’ and an ‘if’ clause (as in
the lottery example above), to talk about unreal situations. In both cases we use the
conditional ‘would’ to talk about an action or state true only in a hypothetical or imagined
situation. 

Consider these two examples from above:

 You would make a great chef.

            = In that situation he is ‘a great chef’.

                = In reality he is not a chef at all.

  If I won the lottery, I’d get a beach house.

            = In that situation he ‘buys a beach house’.

                = In reality he has not won the lottery, and is very unlikely to win it. 

The first sentence (You would make a great chef) is not a full 2nd conditional sentence as it
does not include a clause containing the word if. The second sentence (If I won the lottery,
I’d get a beach house) is a full conditional sentence as it contains a clause containing if and
a clause containing would. 

Preparation for task

The task below includes representations of various grammar structures. This representation
can also be referred to as the ‘form’ of a grammar structure. It is important for students to be
able to interpret this representation/form as it will enable them to apply ‘real words’ in the
correct place. This may seem very obvious, but for a learner, this grammatical code is very
helpful. Consider the difference between the following structures (or forms):

a) have + sth + pp     (sth, or something, refers to the object of the verb and pp refers to the
past participle)

b) have + pp + sth

In a) this form could represent the following:

 Jim has his house cleaned. (This means that somebody else cleans Jim’s house, not
Jim. In this example, sth is his house and pp is the word cleaned)
 The boys have their clothes ironed. (Here, the boys don’t iron their clothes; somebody
else does it. In this example, sth is their clothes and pp is the word ironed)
 Bob has just had his photo taken. (Did Bob take a photo of himself? No, somebody
else did. In this example, sth is his photo and pp is the word taken)

Alternatively, the form of b) could represent the following.

 Jim has cleaned his house. (Has Jim done it, or somebody else? Jim.)
 The boys have ironed their clothes. (Have the boys ironed their own clothes? Yes.)
 Bob has just taken a photo. (Has Bob taken the photo, or has someone else taken it?
Bob)
 

We can see how the form/structure of something can alter the meaning quite significantly. It
is therefore important that learners (and teachers!) are familiar with such representation.

Decide if the following represent the Past Perfect Simple Tense, Present Perfect Simple
Tense, or Present Perfect Continuous Tense. They may also represent a passive
construction.

Remember that here, pp stands for the Past Participle of a verb. The past participle of the
verb look is looked because this verb is regular, but the past participles of the verbs take,
see, swim and sing are taken, seen, swum and sung respectively because these verbs are
irregular.

N refers to the subject (or noun in this case) of a sentence and V refers to the verb.
1 N + was/were + V-ing

2 N + have/has + been + V-ing

3 N + was/were + pp

4 N + had + pp

5 N + am/is/are + pp

6 N + have/has + not + pp

7 N + was/were + not + V-ing

8 Have/has + N + been + V-ing?

Introduction

Intermediate Course books

Intermediate and Upper-Intermediate level course books feature a continuing review and
expansion of previously introduced points, as well as a few new areas,  such as
reported/indirect speech and relative clauses. 

The first several units of most Intermediate books review all the past, present and future
forms, often grouped as follows: 

 Present Simple and Present Continuous

 Narrative Tenses: Past Simple, Past Continuous, Past Perfect
 The Future: ‘will’, ‘be going to’, Present Continuous, Present Simple

Regarding The Passive Voice, at Pre-Intermediate course books often introduce just one form,
either Past Simple Passive or Present Simple Passive. At Intermediate many other forms as
covered as well. As we have already looked at the Passive in some detail, we won’t look at it
again here.

The structures that are likely to be ‘new’ in Intermediate course books include the following
grammar points:

1. Question tags
2. Indirect questions
3. Future clauses with ‘if’ and ‘when’.
4. The first conditional
5. The second conditional
6. The third conditional
7. The zero conditional
8. Relative clauses
9. Reported/Indirect speech

Question Tags

There are three main types of question tags, covering several different meanings/uses:

1. Positive Statement + Negative Tag

 Seeking agreement to a comment: That was fun, wasn’t it?  It’s a nice day, isn’t it?
 Seeking confirmation: [Having noticed a British accent] You’re from the UK, aren’t
you?
 Requesting information: You have a car, don’t you?

2. Negative Statement + Positive Tag

 Seeking agreement / making a comment: It’s not a very nice day, is it?
 A polite, or tentative, request: I couldn’t borrow a couple of dollars, could I?

3. Positive Statement + Positive Tag

 Seeking agreement about information you have just learned or remembered: He’s
online?  Ah, so he’s finally bought that laptop, has he?
Intonation plays a key role in expressing and recognising some of the different meanings/uses.
Falling intonation suggests that the speaker already believes something is true, i.e. seeking
confirmation (double-checking) or seeking agreement. Rising intonation suggests that the
speaker really isn’t sure about the answer - it is a genuine query or request (for information or
otherwise).

*Notice how the tags match the first verb in the main clause but are in the opposite form
(except in the third use mentioned on Page 3):

 are => aren’t  

 is => isn’t 
 can => can’t 
 will => won’t 
 (do) have => don’t 
 (do) drive => don’t 
 aren’t => are 
 isn’t => is 
 can’t => can 
 won’t => will 
 don’t have => do 
 don’t drive => do 

Similarly the pronoun in the tag matches the first noun phrase in the clause:

 You => you  

 Whales => they 
 It => it 
 I => I
 Sue => she
 Alice and James = they

It is also important to draw students’ attention to the comma before the tag in the written
form, but the biggest difficulties will be with the intonation (rising or falling), using the
opposite type of tag in the two most common forms (positive -> negative and vice-versa), and
using the appropriate verb in the tag (students will often say things like, “You like swimming,
are you?”).

Indirect Questions

Common mistakes learners make using questions include “How to spell that?” for “How do
you spell that?” and “Where she is?” for “Where is she?”.   While there are certainly many
possible reasons for this kind of mistake, one thing that reinforces the problem is how native
speakers use ‘Indirect Questions’. 

We form indirect questions by putting a 'stem' before the question. Often we do this to make a
request (for help, information, etc.) sound more polite:
  Could you tell me where the nearest bank is?
 Do you know what time the meeting is?
 Can I ask you how old you are?
 I was wondering if you can help me fix my car.

There are other kinds of 'stem', too, including those which lead to the question being
embedded within a statement:

 I was wondering how this works.

 We need to know what time he left.
 I’m trying to find out where the leak is coming from.

In all cases, the structure of the question clause itself is different from normal questions.  In a
standard question we say, “Where is the nearest bank?” but in an indirect question the word
’is’ comes at the end “Could you tell me… where the nearest bank is?”  Compare the
following to see why students might make the mistakes mentioned above:

 How do you spell ‘kangaroo’?

 Could you tell me how to spell ‘kangaroo’?
 Where is she?
 I demand to know where she is!

Conversely, learners can produce incorrect Indirect Questions which use the syntax they have
learned for Direct Questions, such as: “Could you tell me how do you spell ‘kangaroo’?” and
“I demand to know where is she!”

There are two main differences between the question clause in an Indirect Question and a
Direct Question:

The subject and the auxiliary verb don’t change places in Indirect Questions, but they do
change in Direct Questions:

 Statement:  Tom has seen a doctor.

 Direct Question:  Has Tom seen a doctor.
 Indirect Question:  I want to know if Tom has seen a doctor.

This is also true when there is a question word (e.g. what, when, where, how, etc).

 Statement:  Tom went to Paris.

 Direct Question:   Where did Tom go?
 Indirect Question:  I want to know where Tom went? 
We use ‘to + V’ in Indirect Questions but use ‘do you + V’ or ‘do we +V’ in normal
questions. This happens with a few ‘wh’ questions when ‘you’ and ‘we’ aren’t being used to
talk about a specific person:

 Question:   Where do we go from here? 

 Indirect Question:  I want to know where to go from here.  
 Question:   How do you use this programme? 
 Indirect Question:  Could you tell me how to use this programme?

Conditional Clauses

A ‘conditional’ sentence is made up of two clauses, one that expresses a situation (the
condition), often using the word ‘if’; another that expresses what happens/would happen if
that condition is/was fulfilled, (the result). Many combinations of verb forms are possible
across the two clauses, but 4 combinations are particularly common:

The First Conditional is used to talk about something that might or might not happen in the
near or distant future:

 If it rains, I’ll catch a taxi home.

 If we aren't more careful, it’ll fall.
 I’ll be thrilled if I get the job.

 This pattern is often used to make offers, threats, and promises:

 I’ll carry those if you like.

 If you don’t do your homework, I’ll tell your mother.
 If I get the job, I’ll take you all for dinner.

The Second Conditional is used to talk about an unreal, impossible or imaginary situation;
something that is not true, is not going to be true in the future, or is very unlikely to be true in
the future:

 If I won the lottery, I’d buy a big house by the sea.

 If you were the CEO, the whole company would go bust.
 If she ate meat, she wouldn’t get sick so often.

This (the second conditional) is crucial for a couple of reasons - firstly, that it is essential for
any discussion of the abstract (which itself, many would argue, is a key part of human
communication), and secondly, that past tenses are used to talk about the present and future, a
grammatical quirk of English that many learners find problematic.

The Third Conditional is used to talk about an unreal past condition; something different
from what really happened in the past:

 If I had been more careful, I wouldn’t have lost it.

 If we’d known it was your birthday, we would’ve paid for dinner.
 If you hadn’t suggested going back to University, I would’ve ended up working in the
supermarket forever!
The third conditional is often used to express regrets (as in the first example, and arguably the
second).

The Zero Conditional is used to two actions that normally follow on from each other, for
example in expressing facts about the world:

 If you heat water to 100 degrees, it boils.

 If I don’t leave it plugged in, the battery goes flat by the next morning.

Relative Clauses

Relative Clauses are used to add extra information about someone or something, in a similar
way to adjectives. Compare the following:

 The man finished his drink.

 The tall man finished his drink.  (tall = adjective).
 The man, who was tall, finished his drink.  (who was tall = relative clause).

A relative clause is a part of a sentence that cannot stand alone. In a sentence, the relative
clause describes the preceding noun of the main sentence. In the sentence above, who was
tall describes the preceding noun man.

Relative clauses are usually introduced by a relative pronoun (such as which, who or that) and
contain a verb.

They are often divided into two categories:

A Defining Relative Clause is usually used to:

1) Identify someone or something. For example, in a room with 10 other boys “The boy who
sat in the corner isn’t here” identifies exactly which boy the speaker is talking about. The
sentence “The boy isn’t here” wouldn’t make sense alone in this context - the information in
the Defining Relative Clause is essential in understanding which boy I am talking about. A
Defining Relative Clause is not separated from the rest of the sentence by commas.

Non-Defining Relative Clauses are usually used to:

1 )Add more information about someone or something.  For example, in: “The bag, which we
had bought just a few days earlier, fell apart ” the main content is simply “The bag fell
apart”, which makes sense on its own - we can assume that it is clear which bag is being
referred to from the context. The speaker (or, more likely in this case, writer) is telling us
something important about the bag, but is not telling us which bag he is referring to. A Non-
Defining Relative Clause is separated from the rest of the sentence by commas.

Often Defining Relative Clauses are introduced at Intermediate level and Non-Defining
Relative Clauses are introduced at Upper-Intermediate; some course books introduce both
around the same time, however.

 
Think about whether the relative clauses (in italics) are defining or non-defining in the
following sentences:

1) Bananas, which contain potassium, are yellow.

2) Bananas which are not ripe are green.

3) Hamburgers which do not contain meat are suitable for vegetarians. 

4) Hamburgers, which are usually made with a meat patty and a bread roll, are sold at
MacDonald's.

Discussion: In sentence number 1 the relative clause (which contain potassium) is non-
defining because it does not perform the function of identifying which bananas are yellow,
because generally speaking, all bananas are yellow. The relative clause here simply adds
additional information much like information in parenthesis. However, in sentence number 2
the relative clause (which are not ripe) serves to identify which bananas are green. If we
removed the relative clause (which are not ripe) then the sentence would read, Bananas are
green. Thus, we need the relative clause (which are not ripe) in order to identify, or define,
which bananas are green. 

Similarly, in sentence 3 the relative clause is defining, because it is identifying which

hamburgers are suitable for vegetarians because not all hamburgers are suitable for
vegetarians, but those which do not contain meat are. In sentence 4 the relative clause is
simply extra information; it does not define which hamburgers are sold at MacDonald's. It is
therefore non-defining.

Points to consider regarding Relative Clauses:

A. Does the relative pronoun refer to a person or a thing? 

1. A classmate  who was really good at maths helped me.

2. A website  which had some very useful articles helped me.

In number one the relative clause refers to a person, and in number two it refers to a thing.

For people we use:  who, whom (very formal), that (particularly in speaking) or whose (for
possessives).

For things we use:  which, that or whose (for possessives, especially for countries or
organisations).

B. Does the relative pronoun refer to the subject or object of the relative clause?

Sometimes, we need to know if the relative pronoun (who, which, that, whom) is a subject
relative pronoun or an object relative pronoun. Consider this sentence:

                The man who phoned me lives in London. (i.e. The man phoned me.)
Here, the relative clause is who phoned me. In this relative clause, the pronoun (who) refers to
the subject (the man) of the verb in the relative clause (phoned). So here, the relative pronoun
is a subject relative pronoun.

Now, consider this sentence:

           The man who I phoned lives in New York. (i.e. I phoned the man.)

Here, the relative clause is who I phoned. In this relative clause, the pronoun (who) refers to
the object (the man) of the verb in the relative clause (phoned). So here, the relative pronoun
in an object relative pronoun, and is therefore not necessary. So, both of these sentences are
correct:

                            The man who I phoned lives in New York.

                            The man I phoned lives in New York.

For subject relative pronouns  we can use:  which, who or that

For object relative pronouns we can use:  which, who, whom, that or nothing

C. Is the relative clause Defining or Non-Defining?

For defining clauses we might use any of the pronouns, or in certain cases, such as above,
nothing.

For non-defining clauses we can only use:  who, whom or which (i.e. we cannot use that or

nothing). It is also worth noting that non-defining relative clauses are more usually a feature
of written than spoken English.

Reported Speech

Reported Speech, also known as Indirect Speech (not to be confused with Indirect Questions),
is used when we want to use our own words to report what someone says:

 Direct Speech:  Tom said, “I don’t want to go.”

 Reported Speech:  Tom said he didn’t want to go.

We can use Reported Speech to repeat all of the information or we can summarise the
information using our own words and our own point of view, using a reporting verb:

 Tom said, “There’s no way I’m going.”

 Tom said there’s no way he was going.
 Tom refused to go.

We often use a combination of direct speech and reported speech. This is particularly
common in newspaper articles, for example:
  Dr Allen Hult says, “This is an amazing discovery and it will change the way people
think about household lighting”.  He expects there to be one in every American home
within 10 years.

We often use common verbs like ‘tell’, ‘say’ and ‘ask’, but there are many more. Here is a
very small sample: add, agree, beg, claim, complain, demand, explain, guarantee, hear,
inquire, mention, offer, predict, refuse, remind, scream, suggest, thank, threaten, ‘want to
know’, etc.

It is usually more useful and expressive to use the appropriate verb and summarise the
information in your own words than to produce an accurate report. For example, “He
apologised”, “The students complained again”, “I decided not to go”, etc., is more common
than a full report; and choosing which verb to use, for example, “They said Tom did it”, “They
think Tom did it”, “They swore Tom did it”, “They blamed Tom”, allows us to express our
views more accurately.

The way the words and sentence structure change in indirect speech can be very complicated.
The three main changes we make relate to person, place and time. Compare the following:

Andy and a few friends are at a bar together in a pub on Friday evening. 

Ellis arrives, and Andy says to him: 

This pub is great.  We are going to meet here at 7pm tomorrow night too.

 Ten minutes later, Ellis talks to another friend who has just arrived at the pub:
Andy said this pub is great.  He said they are going to meet here at 7pm tomorrow
night too.

 The next morning, at home, Andy, not Ellis, tells his wife:
I said that pub was great.  I said we are going to meet there at 7pm tonight too.

 The next evening, at the pub at 7.30pm, Ellis and a few friends are waiting but Andy
isn’t there.  Ellis says:
Andy said this pub was great.  He said they were going to meet here at 7pm tonight
too.

 Several years later, the friends are recalling the day that Andy didn’t show up and
laughing about it:
Andy said that pub was great.  He said they were going to meet there at 7pm the
following night too.

Note the differences for person, place and time:

Person

 Andy always uses ‘we’.

Ellis uses ‘they’.

Place
  While in the pub mentioned they use ‘this pub’ and ‘here’. 
From elsewhere they use ‘that pub’ and ‘there’.

Time

 Just after the comment they use ‘is great’.

Later they use ‘was great’.
 The day before the day in question they use ‘tomorrow night’.
On the day in question they use ‘today’.
Years later than the day in question they use ‘the following night’.
 Before the time in question they use ‘are going to meet’.
After the time in question they use ‘were going to meet’.

With regard to reported speech, two particularly tricky areas for learners are:

 Reporting questions:
“Where is the bank?” => “He asked where the bank was.”
“Is the bank near here?” => “He asked if the bank was near here.”

 Verb patterns with reporting verbs:

“He warned us that the restaurant wasn’t very good.” (warn + somebody + that +
something)
“He insisted that we go to the restaurant.” (insist + that + somebody + do +
something)
“He asked us to go to the restaurant.” (ask + somebody + to + do + something)

The syntax for reporting questions is very reminiscent of (in fact, could be said to be identical
to) that for Indirect Questions -

Compare:

 “Where is the bank?” => “Could you tell me where the bank is?”  (Indirect Question)
 “Where is the bank?” => “He asked where the bank was.”  (Reported Speech)
 “Is the bank near here?” => “I wonder if the bank is near here.”  (Indirect Question)
 “Is the bank near here?” => “He asked if the bank was near here.”  (Reported Speech)

Regarding verb patterns, it is a matter of learning the patterns for each verb separately.  A
verb that is followed by another verb 'requires' a particular form, e.g. I want to go home, not I
want going home.  This is true in general, and it is especially common in reporting verbs - see
the above examples.

A good learners’ dictionary will tell the learner (and the teacher!) what the pattern is for a
particular verb, either by giving the pattern explicitly, or by giving example sentences.  Also,
a good grammar book will have a list of common patterns for reporting verbs under the
section on Reported Speech (or Indirect Speech).
Introduction

Lexis (Vocabulary)

Here are two questions that are often used to highlight the importance of lexis:

Question 1

You’re stuck in a foreign country, alone, and you’re walking along the streets, when all of
sudden there’s an uncomfortable rumble in your stomach. Whether it was the food that you’re
not used to yet, the tap water, or just the jet-lag affecting your health - it’s urgent. You ask a
local in the street for help.  Which is more likely to save you:

  “Would you mind telling me where the ………. is?”

 “Bathroom!!!”

Question 2

Read the following story. How much sense does it make to you?  Who was involved? Where
did they go?  Why?

Was a. He the of the and them the. The the. They there all. Then the back the and back.  It
was a.

How about the next story?

Peter shepherd. One day, let sheep out pen. Take up hill.  Sheep eat grass. Stay all day, eat.
Peter bring sheep down hill.  Back home. Nice day.

Obviously a good command of grammar and lexis makes language the most effective, but
clearly lexis conveys much more meaning than grammar, and the more developed a student’s
vocabulary is the more effectively they will be able to communicate.  From Elementary level
to Advanced, learners need to learn lots of words and phrases* quickly and effectively.

* Lexis, or vocabulary, means words (individual words) and phrases (combinations of words)

Conveying Concepts

For a huge number of words, especially concrete nouns and simple action verbs, there are four
simple techniques that teachers can use to quickly and effectively convey meaning:

 Visuals - drawings on the board, flashcards, photos, magazine clippings, etc.

 Realia - displaying actual real life objects.
 Mime - acting out activities and actions.
 Gesture - using facial expressions, pointing at things and people, etc.

Note that it can also help to divide visuals into two categories: quick drawings and
pictures/photos.  That’s because doing a quick drawing can save a lot of time (there’s no point
searching Google for a photo of a car and printing it out when you can simply scribble a car
on the board), but professionally made pictures or photos can much more clearly convey more
specific concepts (for example, unless you’re particularly good at drawing, clarifying the
difference between a sedan, a hatchback, a station wagon, and a sports car, is going to be very
difficult).

Often it is obvious which technique would be most effective:

 a mountain - a quick drawing on the board

 a paper cup - most schools and offices have them available, so actually take one in
 a harbour - safest to take in a professionally made picture (or two - a photo and a map
view)
 run - actually run from one side of the room to the other
 drive - sit on a chair and mime moving a steering wheel and beeping a horn
 greet someone - gesture waving or shaking hands; or actually shake hands with
someone
 you, me, him, her, etc - use gestures to indicate each person with your hands

Of course, sometimes a combination is more effective, and sometimes the concept is too
abstract (like ‘politics’, ‘creativity’, ‘independent’), or is too easily confused with other
similar words (like ‘sprint’, ‘dash’ and ‘run’), to get across in 30 seconds, so a more
sophisticated approach will be needed.

For more complicated or abstract concepts one of the best methods is to describe a situation.
This will often involve using visuals and mime as well, but will probably involve some
spoken explanation and/or will build up towards the concept in steps.

For example, what word is the teacher trying to convey here:

 I like football.  Do you like football? (Getting a few responses from the students).
My favourite team is Manchester United. (Holding up a picture of the team).
Last night, they played a game. 
Near the end, the score was 1 - 1. (Writing ‘1 - 1’ on the board).
In the last minute… they got the ball.  (Miming running with the ball toward goal).
I sat in the chair like this. (Miming sitting forward, on the edge of the chair).
How can I describe the game?  It was very...

The teacher is trying to convey the concept for the word ‘exciting’. There are several possible
problems with this approach, and the teacher needs to be careful how he/she uses it, but it can
get some otherwise very tricky concepts across very effectively when it is done well.  Here
are some things to be careful about:

 If the language the teacher is using is more complicated than the word he/she is trying
to convey, the students won’t understand it.  In the example above, which is more
likely to be known by the students:  exciting or favourite?  exciting or team?  exciting
or score?  The teacher needs to think about this carefully, either avoiding more
 difficult words altogether or using other techniques to ensure it is clear (a picture of
the team, writing the score on the board, etc.).

 The above situation has a lot of words and a lot of set up.  It can be done fairly quickly
and is easy enough to do in less than a minute, but represents quite a lot of time and
effort for the sake of explaining one word.  You might like to get some more out of the
situation you've created by using it to introduce some more words.  For example, the
above situation could extend to, “And I felt…” to convey ‘excited’ followed by, “Then
they kicked the ball… and missed.  At the end, I was…” to convey ‘disappointed’.

 At first it can be quite difficult to make the situations specific enough.  For example,
to convey ‘exciting’ a lot of teachers might go for something simpler like, “I like
football.  Last night, I watched my favourite team play.  How did I feel?”  This would
present two problems:  firstly, it is too general - the answer could be ‘exciting’, but it
could also be ‘happy’, ‘relaxed’, ‘interested’, etc.  Secondly, even if students did get
the narrower meaning, their answer would be ‘excited’ not ‘exciting’.  To elicit
'exciting' you need  to make it clear you are describing the game, not describing your
feelings. 

It can help to try out your 'situation' on a colleague - if they don’t get the word you are trying
to convey, the students certainly won’t!

So far we’ve looked at 5 techniques that are useful for a very wide range of vocabulary. But
there are other methods that, although they can be used for fewer words, are often more
effective or more efficient. Some of these other common techniques include:

Giving a definition.

 If you need to explain "left-handed", telling a long story which ends with someone
using their left-hand to write something might be unnecessarily time-consuming when
you can just say, “it's an adjective to describe a person who writes with their left
hand”. 
 A situation can sometimes make a stronger impression, though, so it’s something to
think about carefully.  Would a definition be more appropriate for the words on the
previous page, ‘inherit’, ‘afford’ and ‘stamina’ for example?

Using synonyms and antonyms.

 Synonyms and antonyms can be extremely efficient and can help learners build up a
network of related vocabulary in their memories.  Sometimes they will need a bit of
definition as well, to accurately convey words like ‘sprint’ versus ‘run’.  Other times it
can be fairly straightforward: over the moon  is the same as  very, very happy ;
dangerous is the opposite of safe.
 Categories of related words and parts of a whole work in a similar way: a beret is a
type of or kind of hat; a lapel is a part of a shirt or jacket.

Using a cline.
A cline is a sliding scale with words that fit in at different points. One common example is

with temperatures:  

The gap at the bottom of the cline is for ‘freezing’ and the gap at the top is for ‘boiling’.

Use a combination of ways. Use your imagination. Use what it takes to get your meaning
across!

 ‘Thunder’ can’t be conveyed through a picture alone - a picture can convey ‘storm’ or
‘lightning’, but to convey ‘thunder’ making a deep rumbling sound, along with the
picture, could be very effective.
 One way to convey ‘the day after tomorrow’ is by circling days on a calendar.
 To convey ‘reggae’ the only real option might be to actually play a piece of reggae
music.

Clarifying Meaning

Once we have established the meaning there are two things to consider:

 Is the concept narrow enough?

1. Is it clearly distinguished from other words that are similar in meaning? 
2. Are any connotations clear?
3. Are any restrictions on meaning or use clear?
4. Is it clear in when it is appropriate to use it?  (e.g. Is it formal, informal,
technical, literary, slang, etc. ?)
 Do the students understand it?

One very effective tool to use is the ‘concept checking question’.

Concept check questions are questions asked by teachers to check that students have
understood a new language point, be it grammar or vocabulary.

For example, let’s revisit the grammar structure of the third conditional.

 If Sarah had studied, she would have passed.

Students need to know that this means that Sarah didn’t study. This can be confusing for
students as there is no negative in the first part of our sentence, nor the second. To check this
we can ask, ‘Did Sarah study?’ and ‘Did she pass?’

These very simple questions are a far more effective way to check understanding than simply
asking students if they understand.

For vocabulary, the idea is the same. Consider the word ‘sprint’. Once you have taught the
meaning, you can check students’ understanding by asking questions like,

 ‘Is it a fast or very fast action?’(very fast)

 ‘Does it normally last for a long time or a short time’ (short)
 ‘Can you do it with your hands?‘ (no)

If you speak more than one language you will already know, but for those of you who don’t –
languages can be very different. 

In English we have 5 different words for the following:

 pen
 whiteboard marker
 pencil
 chalk
 paint brush

In other languages, however, it is perfectly possible for any of the following to be true:

 There is just 1 word – because they’re all ‘writing instruments’.

 There are 2 words – because one needs to be dipped into something to work but the
others work by themselves.
 There are 4 words – because two use ink, one uses lead, one uses chalk and the other
uses paint.
 There are more than 5 words – because there are separate words for coloured pencils
versus grey-lead ones, and there are several different categories of paint brush with
specific words for each one.
 Or even something completely different.

Indeed, the first is true for Chinese to some extent – there is a general word that covers all 5
and they add different adjectives to the general word when they need to distinguish them (a
direct translation of the term used for paint brush is roughly ‘hairy pen’).
Considering that even for such a simple concept there are so many different possibilities
between languages, it is important that teachers consider that things aren’t always as obvious
as we’d like them to be. Holding up a pen and saying ‘this is a pen’ is not necessarily enough,
we need to narrow it down by showing students that pencils, markers, chalk, and paint
brushes are not pens.  And that’s just for simple concepts.

1) Are they usually green? (yes)

plant - flower
2) Can you easily take it to work? (yes)
laptop - computer
3) Do they know each other very well? (no)
acquaintance - friend
4) Is he still in bed? (no)
get up - wake up
5) Is it always made from fruit? (yes)
juice - drink
6) Is it definitely a negative word? (no, it could be seen as positive)
nationalism - chauvinism

Students often assume, or are taught, that formal and literary language is the best. This is far
from true and can often result in inappropriate language use.  Imagine meeting a friend of a
friend for the third or fourth time – what would you think of them if they said, “How do you
do?” or “I wish to express my pleasure at renewing our acquaintance” as an initial greeting? 
Obviously, “Hello” or “Hi” would be much more appropriate.

Many words might be considered to be ‘neutral’, and can be used in many situations. But
even seemingly neutral lexis can have a strong formal or informal bias, e.g. brilliant,
fantastic, great, and marvellous are all pretty informal, whereas excellent could be used in a
formal text. Formal language is generally limited to particular types of written text (e.g. an
academic paper, a letter of complaint) and is very rarely used in speaking, while informal
vocabulary is used in speaking and in types of writing which mimic speaking (e.g. a letter to a
friend, a magazine article).

In addition to questions of formality, learners need to know when words are:

 restricted to technical uses (e.g. medical, legal, and linguistic terms)

 old-fashioned (e.g. words like ‘groovy’)
 literary (e.g. “languish in the maritime sun”)
 slang, regional, or impolite (e.g. Australian slang: dunny = toilet; impolite: bloody =
very)

 So far we have talked about the meaning and use of lexis. There are two other key
areas that learners need to know about – the written form and the spoken form. That is,
what the word looks like, what it sounds like, and in both cases, how it fits in with
other words during normal communication.

 Here we will look at the written form and the grammar that comes with vocabulary.
  Very simply, what the word looks like is how it is spelled. There will be occasional
changes, when abbreviated (e.g. ‘e.g.’ meaning ‘for example’) or in a contraction (e.g.
‘can’t’ for ‘cannot’), but mostly it will be the spelling that needs to be highlighted. 

 Is English spelling relatively straightforward? Most would say, 'No, not at all!' In fact
it follows some noticeable patterns, but these are indeed fairly complex.

Another essential concept that must be referred to when introducing or working on vocabulary
is ‘collocation’. 

Look at the following. Why do they sound ‘wrong’?

1. My wife sweeps the floor and I do the bed.

2. I forgot to make my homework last night.
3. I play exercise twice a week.
4. We often do swimming after work.
5. I bought a new car.  It’s blonde.
6. Do you want black coffee or light brown coffee?
7. A lot of crime is done in this neighbourhood.
8. My dad is a strong smoker.

The issue here is that some words simply ‘go together’. In number 1, the speaker should say
“I make the bed” because ‘make’ and ‘bed’ collocate (they typically occur together). We can
‘do the dishes’, and ‘do the ironing’, but we ‘make the bed’. When talking about cleaning up
the house, it is not enough to teach students that ‘make’ and ‘do’ are verbs that can mean
‘clean, wash or tidy’, we need to teach them in direct connection with the nouns that they
collocate with.

It is also vital to teach the grammar around a word, including what part of speech ("kind of
word") it is, and any patterns that might occur around it.

Importance of part of speech: "What a happy child!" and not "What a happiness child!",
because "happy" is an adjective.

Importance of patterns: "I want to go home now" and not "I want go home" or "I want going
home" because any verb which follows want" takes the infinitive form.

When teaching a new word it is extremely helpful for students if we make it clear what part of
speech it is – is it a countable or uncountable noun, is it a transitive or intransitive verb, is it
an adjective, or an adverb, or a preposition, etc.  An easy way to highlight this is through two
simple steps:

 When planning the lesson, look up the part of speech in a dictionary.

 After teaching the meaning and pronunciation, write the word on the whiteboard and
include the part of speech.  For example:

collocation (n)[C][U]    (these symbols mean: noun, countable or uncountable)

typically (adv)     (adverb)

describe (v)[T]    (verb which is transitive)

common (adj)     (Adjective)

pair (n)[C]          (noun which is countable)

together (adv)     (adverb)

Then it helps to add:

 For nouns:  Is it usually preceded by a, an or the, or is it usually in plural form, or

none of these? 
Compare. the world, a pencil, jeans, water

 For verbs:  Does it usually have one or two objects?

Compare:  He hit me. (hit + somebody)   He gave me the pen.  (give + somebody +
something)

 For verbs:  Can it be followed by another verb?  If so, is it followed by ‘to + V’, or ‘V-
ing’ or just a normal ‘V’.
Compare:  I want to stay home.  We often go swimming.  She can drive.

 For verbs:  Is it usually followed by a preposition?  If so, which one?

Compare:  apply for a job; escape from prison; adhere to the rules; dig up a bone.

 For adjectives:  Is it usually followed by a preposition?  If so, which one?

Compare:  scared of mice; excited about the party; happy with the promotion.

This kind of information can be clarified in a similar way on the board:

(Note:  sb = somebody; sth = something; do = any verb)

the world (n)[C]

 jeans (n)[C](pl)

 hit sb 

 give sb sth

 want (to do sth) 

apply (for sth)

Alternatively, it can be highlighted within an example sentence, for example:

He has travelled all over the world.

I wear jeans at the weekend.

The courier gave me a letter.

Have you applied for a raise yet?

Pronunciation

Attention to pronunciation is extremely important and it helps both with communication and
with memory: poor pronunciation is more likely to cause communication problems than poor
grammar; and attention to pronunciation helps learners build connections and links between
words, meanings, and sounds, making language easier to recognise when listening and easier
to recall when speaking.

Firstly, let’s look at stress patterns.

Take ‘comfortable’ as an example.

 In written form it looks like it has 4 syllables: com-for-ta-ble.

 Most speakers actually pronounce it with 3 syllables so that it sounds like: comf-ter-
ble
 The stress occurs on the first syllable:  COMF-ter-ble

If we stress the second syllable, the sound changes, and people will hear “comf-TAY-ble”
which sounds like it ends in the word ‘table’.  This becomes even more problematic when
words from similar families, for example ‘politics’, ‘political’ and ‘politician’ are all stressed
Now let's return to discrepancies between spelling and pronunciation. We touched on this
above when looking at potential spelling problems, but quite often the problem occurs in the
other direction – learners remember how the word is spelled, but pronounce it incorrectly.

There are a number of connections between spelling and pronunciation in English, but most
have exceptions, and the relationship is much more complicated than in many languages. For 
example, here is an extremely common English word:

women

Take a moment to think about it. Why is that potentially difficult to pronounce for learners of
English?  If you’re still not sure, compare it first with ‘woman’, then with ‘stop’.  Notice
anything unusual now about the letter o?

The letter ‘o’ can be pronounced how it is in ‘stop’, and sometimes how it is in ‘open’. In
‘woman’ it is a little unusual because it is pronounced like the sound in ‘foot’ which is usually
related to double ‘o’.  But in the word ‘women’ the ‘o’ is pronounced like the 'i' in ‘win’.
Quite a difference from the regular pronunciation of ‘o’ isn’t it? Just to confuse matters
further, the 'e' in 'women' is also pronounced like the 'i' in 'mint'!

To enable students to pronounce words correctly, it is advisable they are taught to read
phonetics, or in other words, the written representation of English sounds. If they are able to
read phonetics, they will be perfectly able to pronounce words correctly on their own. This is
a great step toward learner independence, and although students may react rather reluctantly
at first, they very soon realise the benefits of being familiar with these phonetic symbols (or
phonemes).
You, as a new teacher, may also feel a little overwhelmed by this new world of symbols, but
once you are familiar with it, it will make your job far easier.

There will be a great deal more detail on the phonetic script in TKT Unit 1 Section 3
(Phonology), but for now, this task looks at what difficulties students might have with various
sounds, and a little understanding of the phonemic table can be helpful. If you are unable to
identify words or sounds in the task, have a look at page 33 of this unit for a written
representation of the phonetic symbols. Alternatively, you can do an internet search for an
'online phonemic chart' and, there, you'll be able to experiment a little with what these
strange-looking symbols sound like.

on a different syllable (1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively).

hot - /h/ shut - /ʃ/ vet - /v/

sit - /s/ think - /θ/ win - /w/

tell - /t/ other - /ð/ sing - /ŋ/

man - /m/ vision - /ʒ/ zen - /z/

nut - /n/ chat - /tʃ/ but - /b/

dig - /d/ get - /g/ fig - /f/

king - /k/ pet - /p/ yes - /j/

lit - /l/ run - /r/ just - /dʒ/

Vowels
bird - /ɜː/ bought - /ɔː/
bait - /eɪ/
wet - /e/ about - /aʊ/
father - /ɑː/
bite - /aɪ/ boy - /ɔɪ/
bat - /æ/
boat - /əʊ/ hut - /ʌ/
wear - /eə/
food - /uː/ pig - /ɪ/
beer - /ɪə/
foot - /ʊ/ computer - /ə/
feet - /iː/
hot - /ɒ/ pure - /ʊə/

Words and Lexis

Traditionally, people think of vocabulary in terms of single words, i.e. when they are written
there is a space between each:  ‘Hot’ is a word.  ‘Hot air’ is two words.  ‘Hot-air balloon’
consists of three words.  However, the compound noun ‘hot-air balloon’ can actually be
thought of as a single piece of vocabulary because it represents a single and specific meaning. 

This is why we often now use the term lexical item. A lexical item can be any piece of
language, made up of any number of words, that refers to a single concept. Here are just a few
examples of types of phrases and expressions that often have separate entries in a dictionary:

 compound nouns (e.g. distance learning, tower block)

 phrasal verbs (e.g. carry on, get by, rip off)

 idiomatic expressions (e.g. ball-park figure, by the way, raining cats and dogs)

Fixed and semi-fixed expressions are also significant lexical items,  for example, I beg your
pardon, How do you do?, Could you pass the …  please?

Occasionally the meaning is clear from the words that make up the phrase. For instance, a bus
stop is a place where buses stop. These can be easier to remember, but they can also lead to
mistakes:  a 'taxi stop' instead of a taxi rank, or even 'car stop' instead of car park. 

On top of that, a lot of lexical items either cannot be understood from the separate words, or
can only be understood as metaphors.  Consider the following two examples:

1. He’s a great employee.  He’ll do whatever you ask at the drop of a hat.
2. I think she stood me up on purpose.

The first one means he will agree to do things immediately without hesitation.  It doesn’t
actually involve dropping anything, it doesn’t involve hats, and it doesn’t involve location
(‘at’).  Once you know the meaning you can perhaps make sense of the metaphor (a dropped
hat will fall to the ground quickly), but it's extremely unlikely that a language learner would
deduce the meaning from the separate words in the phrase.  The second example is even more
opaque. 

It is far more effective to treat them as phrases or expressions that have a single meaning:

 at the drop of a hat = quickly (especially when agreeing to do something for someone)
 stand someone up = not turn up for a meeting (especially a date)

It's also worth noting that both of these phrases are used in rather specific contexts (in other
words, to describe particular situations).

Phrasal verbs are a matter of some fascination to many learners, and perhaps they should be,
as they are a central feature of English, especially spoken English. But they are extremely
challenging.

Phrasal verbs are verbs made up of more than one word, typically formed of: verb +
preposition; verb + adverb; verb + adverb + preposition.  Here are some examples:
  go over sth= read and/or review something carefully
 look sth up  = find something in a dictionary, encyclopaedia, etc.
 make sth out = be able to see under conditions that make it difficult
 check in = to let a hotel, etc., know that you have arrived
 make up for sth= do something to make a bad situation (usually that you caused)
better
 look down on sb= to think you are better than someone else

There are a few patterns that can help learners to make predictions about the meaning of new
phrasal verbs.  For example, phrasal verbs ending in ‘down’ are often negative in meaning
(e.g. look down on someone), whereas phrasal verbs ending in ‘up’ are often positive (e.g.
make up for something).  These can be useful but they are not rules (e.g. ‘stand someone up’
might be seen as negative, while ‘look something up’ is pretty much neutral).

In general, a phrasal verb needs to be learned as a whole piece with a single and unique
meaning, and a set of useful collocations and contexts, the same as any other lexical item.

Students often have difficulty with phrasal verbs for numerous reasons. One of these reasons
is that they often try to translate each word of the phrasal verb in question. Consider the
phrasal verb to put sb through (to sb else). We understand that this has one clear meaning,
which is to connect somebody by telephone. Students, however, may interpret this
combination of words to mean literally picking someone up and putting that person through a
window or a door, for example. Other phrasal verbs that cause confusion when translated
word for word include the following:

 to bring sb up (to raise a child). Students may interpret this as carrying sb in an

upward direction, perhaps from the floor.
 to lay sb off (terminate employment). Students may interpret this as an action as being
related to lying down or worse still, laying an egg!  

Other phrasal verbs can indeed be translated literally, such as to put sth away. It is the ones
that cannot be translated in a literal sense that we really need to help our learners with. 

When teaching phrasal verbs, it is also important that students are aware of how to use each
phrasal verb. (i) Is the verb transitive or intransitive (does it take a direct object or not?) (ii) If
it is transitive, is it separable or inseparable (can the object go between the two parts of the
phrasal verb or does it have to come after the complete phrasal verb?)

Let’s go through this in a little more detail as it can be rather a lot to take in. First we’ll look
at normal verbs and then phrasal verbs.

A transitive verb is a verb which needs a direct object. For example 'take' and 'bring' and
'send' are transitive verbs. If we use these words in a sentence, they must be followed by a
direct object. For example,

Every day he takes the bus to school. (the direct object is the bus)
Every day he takes time to get ready. (the direct object is time)
Every day he takes notes in class. (the direct object is the notes)
Consider the following sentences, which include the transitive verb 'send'

Every day he sends letters.

Every day they send flowers.
Every day they send emails.

It is not possible to say Every day he takes. It is neither possible to say He sends. These verbs
must be followed by an object; they are transitive. 

Intransitive verbs, on the other hand, do not take a direct object. For example 'arrive' and
'sneeze' and 'lie'. If we used these words in a sentence they are not followed by a direct object.
For example:

Every day he lies.

When people have a cold, they sneeze.
Finally, he arrived. (These verbs could be followed by an adverb or a preposition, but not a
direct object.)

Note, some verbs can be both transitive and intransitive. For example 'to play'

     -Every day the children play.  (no direct object - intransitive)
     -Every day the children play football.  (the direct object is football - transitive)

Okay, so now let´s look at phrasal verbs.

Consider the following:

a)  Some people get scared when airplanes take off. (Here the phrasal verb is 'to take off')

b) When I get home I always take my shoes off. (Here the phrasal verb is 'to take something
off')

In sentence  a) the phrasal verb does not have a direct object. It is therefore intransitive.
However, in sentence b) the phrasal verb has a direct object (my shoes). It is therefore
transitive.

The difference between transitive and intransitive should be clear now. Now, we can address
the issue of whether or not a phrasal verb is separable or inseparable.

Consider the following:

a) Every afternoon I take my shoes off.

b) Every afternoon I take off my shoes.

Both a) and b) are correct because the object (my shoes) can go at the end or in the middle of
the phrasal verb. Hence, this phrasal verb is separable.

Now, consider the following:

a) He looks after his daughter.
b) He looks his daughter after.

Here, sentence a) is correct, but b) is incorrect because this phrasal verb (to look after
somebody/something) is inseparable.

When we are thinking about separable or inseparable phrasal verbs, we are obviously only
talking about the ones that have a direct object (transitive ones) because we are interested in
the position of this direct object, so of course there has to BE a direct object.

Other separable phrasal verbs include: (Note, here, sb is an abbreviation for somebody and sth
is an abbreviation for something)

to look sth up (find in a dictionary)

to bring sb up (raise)
to throw sth away (discard)
to give sth up (note: this can also be intransitive -to give up-  as in "I was tired, so I gave up.)

Other inseparable phrasal verbs include:

to look into sth (investigate). We cannot look sth into.

to stand for sth (PE stands for Physical Education. We cannot say PE stands Physical
Education for.)
to take after sb (e.g. He takes after his father in personality. We cannot say He takes his father
after.)

These phrasal verbs are intransitive (they do not take a direct object). As there is no object, we
do not need to worry about whether they are separable or not.

to grow up
to back off
to die down

Now consider the following summary:

  Intransitive Transitive – Inseparable Transitive - Separable

The car crashed into the He turned on the light.
Possible She passed out. van. He turned the light on.
The car crashed into it. He turned it on.
The car crashed the van
She passed out herself. into. He turned on.
Not possible
The beer passed her out. The car crashed it into. He turned on it.
The car crashed into.

 ‘Pass out’ is intransitive.  It can’t have an object.

 ‘Crash into’ is transitive &  inseparable. It takes an object (in this case ‘the van’),
which goes after the phrasal verb.
  ‘Turn on’ is transitive and separable.  It takes an object (in this case ‘the light'), which
goes either between the verb and preposition or after the phrasal verb.

Note that with separable phrasal verbs pronouns (e.g. he, she, you, me, it, they, etc.) go
between the verb and the preposition – they do not go after the phrasal verb.  So ‘he turned it
on’ is correct, not ‘he turned on it’.

Also note that 3-part phrasal verbs are always transitive and inseparable. e.g. 'I'm looking
forward to the party.'

An idiom is similar to a phrasal verb in that it is a phrase in which the meaning is not clear
from the individual words which make it up.  Unlike the term phrasal verb, which refers to a
specific grammatical construction, an idiom can be formed in a wide variety of ways.
For example:

1. out of it
2. in the red
3. in on something
4. spill the beans
5. going out with someone
6. a pain in the neck
7. above and beyond
8. hit the spot

A lot of day-to-day language is made up of formulaic phrases and expressions that are
routinely used to perform specific functions.
These expressions tend to come in two kinds: fixed or semi-fixed. Fixed expressions are ones
in which none of the words can be changed in any way and they are usually stand-alone
sentences. Consider the following:

1. I beg your pardon.  (correct) 

2. She begs your pardon.  (incorrect)
3. I plead your pardon.  (incorrect)
4. I beg Tom’s pardon.  (incorrect) 
5. I beg your reprieve.  (incorrect)
6. I’d like to beg your pardon.  (incorrect)
7. Your pardon has been begged.  (incorrect)
8. I beg your forgiveness.  (correct, but different meaning) 

“I beg your pardon” is a fixed expression meaning “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear that. Could you
repeat that please?” All 8 sentences are grammatically accurate, and yet only the first and last
are acceptable, and the last one suggests a completely different meaning.

Semi-fixed expressions are very similar, but can have a couple of similar variations or a ‘slot’
that can be filled. Here are examples of both.

1. I’m not sure. 

2. I’m not too sure. 
 3. I’m not sure about that. 
4. I’m not too sure about that. 
5. Have a nice day.
6. Have a nice trip.
7. Have a nice weekend.
8. Have a nice meal.

The first four are different possible variations of an expression that can be used to express
disagreement. The latter four are variations of a routine expression usually used when parting
or saying goodbye. This expression has both a ‘slot’ (the last word can be replaced with quite
a few things, typically things involving food, travel or time) and allows for a small number of
variations (e.g. “Have a great day”).
Language like this is best treated as a ‘chunk’ and taught as vocabulary - in other words, teach
the phrase as a complete utterance with its own meaning, appropriateness, etc. as a whole.
Breaking them down completely, into all their grammatical components, might not be all that
helpful.
It can also be useful to teach typical responses  these expressions, perhaps the single most
typical response or one positive and one negative. In general, it's a good idea to encourage the
learner to put any new vocabulary into some kind of meaningful context. For example:

1. “How are you?”  “Good thanks.”

2.  “That’ll be ($2.50), please.”  “Here you are.”
3. “Would you like a coffee while you wait?”  “Yes, please.”/”No, thanks.”
4. “Could you give me a hand (with the reports)?”  “Sure”/”I wish I could, but ... ”