Teach English in Qilian Zhen - Wuwei Shi

This unit is an introduction to modal verbs, Passive voice relative clauses and phrasal verbs, with a highlight on some teaching ideas and common errors/mistake with aforementioned areas. The basic principle of the language area covered could be summarized as follows: MODAL VERBS: Examples may include: must, may, might, would, can, could, have to, have got to, be able to, need (to), should etc They are used to express a number of ideas including; obligation, perission, possibility/probability, ability, request, prediction, advice and maybe more. For example: can I borrow your pen. In this sentence, the subject is asking for permission and the modal, 'can' has been used Modals are also used to express degrees of formality within the context of the same idea. For example: 'can I borrow your pen' and 'may I borrow your pen' express the same idea, asking for permission, but the latter is the polite and formal version of the former They do not generally change form with subject pronouns, but however can change when used to in a past and sometimes future contexts, often by adding 'have' or by using different constructions. For example: Ability Can play the piano (present) I could play the piano when I was a child (past ability) I was able to play the piano when I was a child (again past ability, different structure) By the end of my music course, I will be able to play the piano (future) PASSIVE VOICE The passive voice one of the two voices in English, the other is active voice. Passive voices place emphasis on the action and its consequence rather than the doer of the action. Often doer is left out and not included in the sentence. This often so because the doer is either unknown or unimportant. My car will be fixed tomorrow (by whom is unimportant) My car has been stolen (I don't know who stole it) 'By' is used to express the doer - 'My car was stolen by two men from the neighborhooh'. The general structive of the passive voice uses the verb 'be' + past participle verb, thus: My car is stolen My is being stolen My car was stolen My car was being stolen My car has been stolen My had been stolen My car will be stolen RELATIVE CLAUSES They are used to emphasis a noun. They can be referred to as adjective clause. Relative pronouns such as who, which, whats, that, whom etc are often used to introduce relative clauses. Two main types are known in the English language; defining and non-defining relative clauses. Defining relative clause - the man who raised the child is his father. In the example, no comma has been used before the relative clause 'who', and this is a defining relative clause. The sentence suggests that there is either a dispute or confusion which man is the boy's real father. Without the defining relative pronoun, the man would still be unknown and the sentence may not make sense. Non-defining - This man, who raised the boy, is his father. Here the man is already known and even without the relative clause the sentence will not part much from its fundamental meaning. Non-defining relative clauses can be identified by the commas before the reltive pronoun and at the end of the relative clause. PHRASAL VERBS They are verbs consisting of more than word, often a base verb plus one or two particles ( a particle could be a preposition or an adverb or an adverb plus a prepostion. The function in the same way as verbs An example would be, I slept off while reading the book (slept off is a phrasal verb) Three main types are: -Intransitive phrasal verbs Intransitive eans they cannot be followed by a direct object - I slept off last night on the sofa. -Transitive seperable: The subject pronoun could come in between but not after the particle. She brought him up on her own (correct); she brought up him on her own (wrong) However, the subject noun can take either positions She brought the boy up on her won or she brought up the boy on her won (both are correct) -Transitive inseperable: These type phrasal verbs have all their object elements (both the noun and pronoun) after the particle. Phrasal verbs with two particles also fall under this category. Examples may include: Could you look after the children/them for me, please? (correct) ; could you look the children/them after for me, please? (incorrect)