If you are having trouble figuring out when to use “less” and when to use “fewer,” here is a very good article which you may find helpful:
Less Versus Fewer by Grammar Girl
At the top of the article, just below the title, is an audio player. You can read the article and listen to Grammar Girl at the same time.
Here is the poem I showed in class, courtesy of Alan. Homophones are words that have the same pronunciation, but different and meanings sometimes different spellings. (Homo- is a Greek prefix that means “the same” and -phone, also Greek, has to do with sound.)
How many homophones can you find in this poem? Can you re-write the poem so that all the words are correct?
Homophones
by George E. Coon
Wood you believe that I didn’t no
About homophones until too daze ago?
That day in hour class in groups of for,
We had to come up with won or more.
Mary new six; enough to pass,
But my ate homophones lead the class.
Then a thought ran threw my head,
“Urn a living from homophones,” it said.
I guess I just sat and staired into space.
My hole life seamed to fall into place.
Our school’s principle happened to come buy,
And asked about the look in my I.
“Sir,” said I as bowled as could bee,
“My future roll I clearly sea.”
“Sun,” said he, “move write ahead,
Set sail on your coarse. Don’t be mislead.”
I herd that gnus with grate delight.
I will study homophones both day and knight.
For weaks and months, through thick oar thin,
I’ll pursue my goal. Eye no aisle win.
If you would like some more practice for the grammar that will be on our test Friday, here are some additional resources:
Past perfect verbs
Englishpage.com – Past Perfect. This page has some good diagrams and descriptions of when and how to use the past perfect tense. It also has many example sentences. Try to identify the context clues that show why the past perfect is used.
UVic English Language Center – Forming and Using the Past Perfect Tense. This page has a very simple and clear explanation. At the bottom of the page, click “First exercise” to go to some practice exercises.
Speakspeak.com – Exercise on past simple or past perfect.
Adjective clauses
UVic English Language Center – Adjective Clauses. This page has a very simple and clear explanation. At the bottom of the page, click “First exercise” to go to some practice exercises.
Other pages with practice exercises:
You might also be interested in these resources on definite and indefinite articles (a, an, the).
Participle: a verb form which is used as an adjective. These can be…
Participial phrase: a participle used in a group of words (phrase) which modifies a noun or pronoun.
A participial phrase usually modifies the subject of the sentence. If your participial phrase is meant to describe a noun that is not the subject, you may have a confusing sentence with a “dangling participle.”
Example:
Trying to answer the doorbell, my dog barked at me.
Who is answering the doorbell, you or your dog? Rewrite the sentence so that it is clearer. You may need to use an adverb clause, or change the participial phrase.
While I tried to answer the doorbell, my dog barked at me.
Barking at me, my dog prevented me from answering the doorbell.
Resources and practice:
Watch one of the following videos. After you watch, write sentences about the video. Be sure to use past tense. Turn in your sentences in class on Friday, October 10.
Examples:
Video 1 (direct link)
Video 2 (direct link)
For extra practice with articles:
From Purdue’s OWL: The Use and Non-Use of Articles – including countable vs. noncountable, first vs. subsequent mention, and general vs. specific. This page has a very good overview of everything about article use in English.
From Biotext: Using the Articles a, an, some, and the before Nouns. This page has a checklist of links about article usage, including a quiz.
About.com: Definite and Indefinite Articles – including a short quiz.
Quiz on definite and indefinite article use
Three more quizzes about articles (graded by level)
Explanation and examples of phrasal verbs on englishpage.com
Phrasal verb dictionary: on the left of that page, click on a letter of the alphabet to look up phrasal verbs beginning with that letter.
In class we talked about the order in which adjectives usually appear in a list. This order is instinctive for most native English speakers but can be trouble for learners. There are also different opinions on exactly what order should be used, because it is more of a guideline than a “hard” rule.
Here is one example of the adjective order ranking:
Lessons, examples, and quizzes:
“Reported speech” is when Person A says something and Person B tells Person C the thing Person A said.
A: “The winter weather is horrible in Chicago.”
B to C: “She said the winter weather was horrible in Chicago.”
For a very thorough list of rules and examples of reported speech, check out
Professor Rick Shur’s handout page
Scroll down to Grammar & Vocabulary Information & Exercises and choose Reported Speech Rules. This will allow you to download the .doc handout. You can also find practice exercises and answers there.
In Chapter 7, we are talking about inventions. Before inventions are made and used by many people, they have to be imagined. Scientists, fiction writers, and other people have been imagining inventions for hundreds of years. Some of the technology we use today was imagined a very long time ago. For example, in the 1800s, the writer Jules Verne predicted inventions we use today, like air conditioning, television, helicopters, and submarines.
What inventions do you think we will see in our future? Write a paragraph describing a future invention.
The invention can be…
Your paragraph should…
If you need ideas, here are some resources:
Post your paragraph on the Wiki page (Wiki Work > Future Inventions).
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