S-v-o Sentence Pattern Examples

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! This list of connectors of sequence will improve your and/or your students' writing skills in the English language.     Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!  [Read more]

  As mentioned earlier, our example sentence has used a regular verb 'to play'. With the regular verbs we simply add '-ed'. This spelling pattern changes for words that end with a consonant and a Y: 'cry' goes to 'cried', 'try' to 'tried'. Another spelling pattern we have to be aware of is our consonant plus vowel plus consonant. In these instances, we double the consonant used: 'shop' needs the double P; 'ship' needs the double P. With these spelling patterns, and most spelling patterns in general for the English language, there are always exceptions to the rules. So we have to be aware of those exceptions. We also have to impart those exceptions on to our students. We can do so through various exercises and various activities to end our class. To form the negative sentence here,...  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Your ESL students have to write sentences following the example in the "going to" future tense.   Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!   So what exactly are relative pronouns? Let's take a look at relative pronoun definition, useful grammar rules with examples sentences and an ESL printable infographic below.   A relative pronoun is used to join or relate two different clauses together by referring to the noun in the previous clause using the following pronouns: who, whom, whose, which and that.   "Which" and "that" are generally used for objects; while "who" and "whom" are used for people, and "whose" is used to show possession. Let's take a look at some examples: In this example, "which" joins the two related clauses about choosing a color and a color which would look good on everyone.   In this case, "that" joins the two sentences...  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!   Let's take a look at the six basic types of adverbs in English. Learn useful usage, example words, and example sentences of different adverbs types in English with this printable ESL infographic.   Usage: Describes when or for how long a certain action happened. Example words: Already, ago, before, yet, never, soon, yesterday, soon, lately Example sentences:   Usage: Describes how often something occurs, either indefinite or indefinite terms. Example words: Always, usually, normally, often, sometimes, occasionally, once, seldom, rarely, never Example sentences:   Usage: Tells about where something happens or where something is. Example words: Here, everywhere, near, nearby, down, away,...  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Let's have a look at relative pronouns! Following is a list of common relative pronouns in English with ESL pictures and example sentences to help you master English grammar.     Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Wh question words are a vital part of English grammar. In the image below, we showcase the 8 basic wh question words in English with usage and example sentences to help you master your English grammar.   List of questions words Usage: WHO is used to ask the person who did the action. Examples:  Usage: WHAT is used to ask for information. Examples: Usage: WHEN is used to ask the time of an event/action. Examples: Usage: WHERE is used to ask for the location. Examples: Usage: WHY is used to ask for a reason/cause. Examples: Usage: HOW is used to explain a process. Examples: Usage: WHICH is used when there is a choice. Examples: Usage: WHOSE is used to...  [Read more]

  Our second example sentence 'I am playing football at the moment.' is the present continuous tense. This has a different structure as the subject 'I', the verb 'to be' in the present tense 'am', 'is' or 'are' plus the verb with an '?ing' on the end. So here: 'I am playing football at the moment.' Whereas the present simple tense is used to talk about habits routines and facts, the present continuous tense is used to talk about actions in progress at the time of speaking or around the time of speaking. Our third example sentence is the present perfect: 'I have played football twice this week.' Here, the structure is the subject 'I', auxiliary verb 'have' or 'has' plus the past participle. The past participle is usually formed just by adding '-ed'- on to the end of the base form of...  [Read more]

  Mary from the US took the 120-hour TEFL course with tutor support and videos after being recommended the course by her friends who are already teaching. In this TEFL review video, Mary discusses her experience of taking the course. Mary found the course videos to be helpful in presenting the course materials in a more visual way, which helped her to better absorb the information. She also found the tutors to be very responsive to her questions often replying within 24 hours. One of the main benefits of the course was that Mary was able to study in her own time enabling her to fit study around her job. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that...  [Read more]

  Whereas stress is typically concerned with one individual word, intonation is generally concerned with the variation in volume and pitch throughout an entire sentence. Intonation carries the message of a sentence. It's particularly important when questioning or agreeing, disagreeing and confirming statements. It's also very important when expressing emotions and feelings. The normal pattern for intonation is the rise-fall. Few examples would be ?I haven't seen him for a week,? or a simple word as ?okay?. With the falling intonation, we?re indicating that we're finished speaking. Again, ?I haven't seen him for a week? and ?okay?. A few more examples would be ?I'll see you at six then,? or a question of information ?How do you spell rough?? These are straightforward statements that...  [Read more]

  It also helps us form our tenses. Many of the tenses will use these auxiliary verbs; particularly we have our continuous tense and our perfect tense. There are additional tenses that use auxiliary verbs. We'll get into that when we talk about our individual tenses. Another important aspect of our verbs is that they generally tell us what tense the sentence has been formed in. Take for instance the verb "to live." We could use it as live, lives, living or lived. "I live" or "she lives in Bangkok," meaning the present. "I am living in Bangkok," still the present or "I lived in Bangkok," meaning the past. Another difference with our verbs has to do with whether or not the verb is regular or irregular. With the regular verbs, in order to conjugate the verb into the past, we simply add...  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Punctuation in English often differs in many ways from punctuation in other languages. This can be an issue, especially for non-native English learners all across the world. What is punctuation? Check out these useful punctuation rules in English below.   Here is our complete guide on punctuation rules and punctuation marks in the English language. Fnd out how and when to use different punctuation marks with useful examples. This is the most popular punctuation mark because you simply cannot write a single sentence without using it. There are two main uses of a full stop: to indicate the end of a sentence, or to follow an abbreviation. A comma is often used to separate different ideas in a sentence. However, it has many...  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Adverbs of frequency are used to show how often something happens. Below you will see some examples of how different adverbs can be used to show varying levels of frequency.   Adverbs of frequency are used to show how often something happens either in definite or indefinite terms. Examples of definite frequency include daily, weekly, and yearly. Adverbs of indefinite frequency don’t specify an exact time frame, for example usually, occasionally, and seldom. The following rules for adverbs of frequency will help you to use them in the correct way: Adverbs of frequency are used to discuss how often something happens. Adverbs of frequency are often used to indicate routine or repeated activities. Because if this they are...  [Read more]

  Student Jeff describes his experience during his TESOL/TEFL course in Hangzhou, China. In his TEFL review he speaks about the challenging but rewarding course. In addition to its 120 hour in-class TEFL/TESOL course ITTT also offers a number of online courses as well as a combined course. To find out more about our training courses follow the links above. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! I learned...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas When you teach English as a foreign language it's important to pay attention to details that we sometimes ignore when communicating with other native level speakers, either in spoken or written English. Some people have got into the habit of writing in uppercase/capital letters, use abbreviations, and don't think much about punctuation. We also tend not to be too critical of people's spoken English as long as we get the point across. 'There's a lot of cars on the road today' is grammatically incorrect for example. 1. Punctuation 2. Upper and Lowercase 3. Abbreviations 4. Use of Colour on the Board 5. Avoid Boring Gap-Fills 6. Avoid Changing What Students Say 7. Maximizing Student Talk Time 8. Calling on Individuals 9. Pronunciation Drilling Are you ready to...  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Past perfect tense indicates the finished or completed actions of the past. For example, I had taken eaten two pieces of cake before my friend finally showed up.   Past perfect tense indicates the finished or completed actions of the past. For example, I had taken eaten two pieces of cake before my friend finally showed up.     Subject + had + Past participle (v3) To make the positive sentences, we use the following structure: Subject + had + Past participle (V3) Examples of positive sentences We add ‘not’ after auxiliary verb to make the sentence negative. Subject + had + not + Past participle (V3) Examples of negative sentences. To make the question, ‘had’ come at the start of the sentence and...  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad!   Let's take a look at the different types of Articles in English! Learn article definitions and how to use definite and indefinite articles in sentences with the ESL infographic below.   An article is defined as a word that modifies or describes a noun. Adjectives are used before the noun to show whether it refers to something specific or not. So, in a way, articles can also be described as a type of adjective as they also tell us something about the noun, just like adjectives. There are two types of articles in the English language, they are indefinite articles (a, an) and definite article (the).   Definite means to be clear, exact or obvious about something. It is called definite because it is used in relation...  [Read more]

  And now we'll take a look at a few teaching ideas for the present continuous tense. The present continuous tense is quite a visual tense. We use it to describe actions that are happening at the present moment. So, we could give our students a picture, such as the one seen here. It is important that in the picture there are many activities going on. The teacher can give a time limit to pairs or small groups. In that time limit, the pairs or small groups will make various sentences based upon what they see in the picture. These sentences may include 'He is taking a picture,' 'He is throwing a boomerang,' 'They are playing with the ball,' 'He is digging a hole.' At the end of the time limit, the teacher will ask for some feedback and get feedback from the pairs and the groupings to...  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Conditionals are sentences which are also known as ‘if clauses.’ These types of sentences are an important concept for anyone learning the language to understand. Let's take a look at the different conditionals in the infographic below.   Conditionals are sentences with two clauses, an “if” clause and a main clause. Generally, conditional sentences are often divided into different types. Let's take a look at each of them. (Present Real Conditional) In general, “zero conditional” refers to conditional sentences that express a fact, rather than describing a hypothetical situation or potential future circumstance. The grammar term is typically used in the present tense, however such sentences can be formulated with...  [Read more]

  And now we'll have a look at both the infinitive and the gerund. Infinitive is the word "to", followed by the base form of the verb. We"ll typically use it after a verb, specifically verbs like "want" or "hope". We can make statements like "I want to go to the beach." We also have our gerund. Our gerund is a verb followed by "-ing", but specifically used as a noun within the sentence. We have a verb plus a gerund: "I enjoy playing poker." The main verb is "enjoy" and, although "playing" looks as if it's a verb, it's actually used as the noun within the sentence. We also can use it with a preposition followed by a gerund: "How about going to the beach?" We could also put it in the front of a sentence: "Smoking is bad for you." Again, the verb plus "-ing" can act as two things within...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Speech has been used to communicate and express many things since the dawn of man. When we look at wildlife, we can see a pattern in a speech similar to human communication. To truly understand science speech, we must look deeper at the concept of communication. Why Speech is Important? Word Stress Speech and Communication Do you want to teach English abroad? Take a TEFL course today! Related Articles: This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Dan S. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. World leaders, actors, entertainers, successful businessmen and other professionals all have one major thing in common, their speech. We look at presidential talks and product release conferences...  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Verbs are one of the most important parts of speech in English and incredibly important for learners of English. The below infographic showcases all types of verbs in the English language.   Generally speaking, a verb is a word that shows an action, state or an event. It is an essential part of a sentence and is known as the soul of language. For example: "They study English grammar." (Action) "We celebrate independence day." (Event) "I sleep at night." (State)    Following are the different types of verbs:   When a verb's past tense (2nd form) and past participle (3rd form) is created by adding ‘d’ or ‘ed’, it is called a regular verb. Some examples of a regular verb include: Walk Walked ...  [Read more]

  Moving further down our list of parts of speech, we have our adjectives. Adjectives modify or describe nouns. Basically, they give more information about the noun. Here, we've used a noun such as chair. It could be any old chair. It's only the noun. If we want to describe the noun, we need to use an adjective before it. So, I could say "I have an old black leather chair". Here, we have to be concerned about the adjective order. In this instance, I started with age, as age typically goes before color and then I use the color to go before the material. This is a certain pattern. Depending on the adjectives you want to use, you always have to use certain patterns to which you'll need to be aware of when teaching your class. Another way to describe a noun is by showing possession. We...  [Read more]

  This ITTT video is the second part of a lesson looking at the structure of the Present Perfect tense. It reviews an example of the structure with a regular verb -- played. I/you/we/they have played. She/He/It has played. The video then examines some of the spelling patterns that are used with irregular verbs. For example, verbs ending with a consonant + y. cry changes to cried, try changes to tried. Another spelling pattern with irregular verbs ending with a consonant + a vowel + a consonant Shop changes to shopped, ship changes to shipped. When teaching this particular point, as with other grammar points, it is important to explain to students that there are exceptions to most rules in the English language. Where specific patterns exist we need to introduce them to our students. A...  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! Conditionals are an important part of English grammar. Take a look at the following explanation to learn how to use the third conditional correctly.   What Is the Third Conditional? The third conditional is used to talk about things which did not happen in the past. If your native language does not have a similar construction, you may find this a little strange, but it can be very useful. It is often used to express criticism or regret. For example: Third Conditional Structure Like the other conditionals, a third conditional sentence consists of two clauses, an ‘if‘ clause and a main clause. We use different verb forms in each part of a third conditional sentence. If the ‘if‘ clause comes first, a...  [Read more]

  In this episode, we cover the pronunciation of the word whodunit. This word describes a mystery or detective story that can either be a movie, a book, a play or anything to that extend. It is basically a short form of the words Who has done it?, meaning who is the criminal / murder in the story. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! This unit was a good review of the the past tense. I especially liked...  [Read more]

  Let's begin our examination of parts of speech with nouns. Nouns are our naming words. They name a person or people, such as Jack, Jill, brother, Prime Minister. We have a place or places such as kitchen, Tokyo. Things or the things around us: pen, light, camera. We have our concepts and ideas: beauty, democracy. These people, things, places and concepts fall into two basic subcategories. Those subcategories are countable and uncountable. As their name suggests, the differentiation here is whether or not we can count our nouns or if we cannot count them. We have our countable nouns: dogs, pens, are two examples. The very nature of the words means that we can count these nouns one dog or 5, 10. Then, we have our uncountable nouns. The nouns that cannot be separated: music, bread....  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences English as a spoken language has become the international standard for people as a first or second language, whether it be for business, science, or just recreationally. This, of course, means that a lot of people are learning the language as a second language. For anyone who knows English as a native language, you know that it has many difficult learning curves along the way to the true understanding that make for many difficulties in how new learners communicate. This essay will touch on a few examples that people undoubtedly run into when learning English, and why it's so difficult to master. Reasons to Confusion Spoken English Written English Cultural Issues Do you want to teach English abroad? Related Articles: Listen to this blog post: This...  [Read more]

Register now & get certified to teach english abroad! When writing in a formal manner for work reports, essays, or emails, you can improve the quality of your content by using a range of linking words that can highlight similarities, contrasts, and contradictions.   By using linking words such as those listed above you can add extra weight to formal writing when you want to impress native or non-native English speakers alike. The following examples should give you some ideas on how to spice up your English essays or work emails by linking sentence clauses or separate sentences. Example Sentences: Not all inner city residents are poor; equally, there are many poor people living in rural areas.   Eight out of the ten new recruits passed their driving test. Therefore, they...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Teaching Ideas In a previous post, we looked at various teaching ideas for future simple and here we're going to describe some fun ideas for teaching three other future tenses. There are a wide variety of usages for future tenses and it's always important to make sure your activities focus on the usages that you've taught in your lesson. For example, future continuous can be used to talk about an ongoing action at a point in the future, a fixed future event, polite enquiries or to predict the future or the present. Predicting the present is one that students often have trouble conceptualizing, so we might as well start from there. Listen to this blog post: Predicting the present Ongoing action at a point in the future Expected achievements at a point in the future...  [Read more]