Professional Documents
Culture Documents
htm
SHORT ARTICLES
http://www.hltmag.co.uk/may05/sart05.htm
http://www.hltmag.co.uk/may05/sart05.htm
'break the law'. So, you can put them in different 'prisons' according to how
much they break the law. Low-level offenders are words which double a
consonant e.g. 'stop-stopped'. Medium offenders have two different forms
e.g. 'hold-held-held'. Maximum security is needed for those with 3 forms
e.g. 'eat-ate-eaten', as they cause a lot of trouble. Of course the completely
unpredictable, e.g. 'be-was/were-been', need a special psychiatric unit to
themselves! This has a serious purpose; it shows that although past forms
are usually only classified as regular and irregular, there are degrees of
irregularity. You could draw a 'prison' as follows:
Class of prisoner
Danger to learners.
Example
Example
low risk
Regular but double final consonant.
stop stopped stopped
stab stabbed stabbed
medium risk
Irregular with two different forms.
hold held held
get got got
serious offenders
Three different forms. Habitual irregularity!
see saw seen
swim swam swum
psychiatric unit
Warning- very unpredictable behaviour
go went gone
come came come
Non-offenders, just visiting prison!
Completely harmless!
visit visited visited
walk walked walked
Action and state verbs and opening bottles.
The way we open wine and beer bottles can be used as a metaphor for
action and state verbs. Opening a wine bottle is a process that you can see.
You push the corkscrew into the cork then pull it out. It takes time. On the
other hand, a beer bottle is opened in a very short time. The bottle is either
in the open or unopened state, there is nothing in between. Similary some
verbs are processes or actions, e.g. walk, sit, write, while others are states,
e.g. think, love, know.
http://www.hltmag.co.uk/may05/sart05.htm