tailieunhanh - The grammar book teacher course part 10

Students less experienced with English grammar may require more guidance in determining what should be covered in the allotted time. It is our feeling that for these students, in addition to working on Chapters 1-6, a minimal core syllabus would include a thorough grounding in the following. | Chapter 4 The Copula and Subject-Verb Agreement 57 level since they may have a tendency to omit it. For those students whose native language has no copula this initial tendency will be even more pronounced. The other problem of course involves use of the wrong form of be. Sufficient opportunity for meaningful practice can overcome both of these problems. Subject-Verb Agreement Form Third Person Singular Present Standard grammatical treatments state that for verbs other than be number agreement between the subject and verb sometimes referred to as subject-verb concord poses a problem only in the present tense where third person singular forms arc explicitly inflected while other forms are not NUMBER Person Singular Plural 1st 1 speak French. We speak French. 2nd You speak French. You speak French. 3rd He she it the parrot speak-s French. They speak French. Some Typical Errors Given the complexity of the choice the beginning ESL EFL learner tends to simplify and leave off altogether the third person singular inflection Sharon live in Seattle. Harry say he will come. Occasionally however some learners will overgeneralize the inflection and apply it to uninflected forms such as modal auxiliaries or to verbs following modals see Chapter 8 Jack cans dance disco. or Jack can dances disco. They also may overuse it as an agreement marker with subjects of inappropriate person and or number 1 They f goes to Stanford. You J Yet another reason why some learners overuse this form is that they interpret the -s ending as a plural marker on the verb to be used in agreement with plural subjects They 1 goes movjes often The boys J Finally it has also been observed that some Spanish speakers lend to initially overuse the verb -J inflection with the second person singular pronoun because a similar form is used in their language when the subject noun reflects this person 58 The Grammar Book Spanish Tu habla sj inglés. English You speak sj English. By far the most common error in .