Learn tips on how to teach grammar and usage from our editors and grammar experts. 

Grammar & Usage

<blockquote>
Help students figure out the correct subject&ndash;verb agreement for these confusing expressions!
</blockquote>

A few weeks ago, someone emailed us at <a href="https://ellii.com/">ESL&nbsp;Library</a> to ask if the grammar on our home page was correct. In the featured lesson about protests in the Middle East, this sentence caused some confusion: &ldquo;Over the past few years, there have been a growing number of both peaceful and violent protests.&rdquo; The person wanted to know if &ldquo;&hellip;there have been a growing number of&hellip;&rdquo; was correct. Shouldn&rsquo;t it be &ldquo;&hellip;there has been a growing number of&hellip;&rdquo;?

This is a question that commonly confuses our students! The problem is that the subject&ndash;verb agreement is different for the expressions &ldquo;a number of&rdquo; and &ldquo;the number of.&rdquo; Here&rsquo;s how I usually explain it to my&nbsp;students:

<h2>1. &ldquo;A number of&rdquo; takes a plural&nbsp;verb</h2>

Tell your students to think of it this way: a number of means many. Becaus &ldquo;many + plural noun&rdquo; takes a plural verb, you would say &ldquo;Many cars are on the freeway during rush hour.&rdquo; Likewise, you would say &ldquo;A number of cars are on the freeway during rush&nbsp;hour.&rdquo;

The important thing to remember is that this expressions is acting like a quantifier. So even though it involves a singular noun &ldquo;number,&rdquo; it is serving the same role in the sentence as a quantifier such as &ldquo;many,&rdquo; &ldquo;a lot of,&rdquo; &ldquo;lots of,&rdquo; &ldquo;hundreds of,&rdquo; etc. You would say &ldquo;A number of people have started the test&rdquo; just like you would say &ldquo;A lot of people have started the&nbsp;test.&rdquo;

<h2>2. &ldquo;The number of&rdquo; takes a singular&nbsp;verb</h2>

Here&rsquo;s where it gets even more confusing. In English, &ldquo;the number of&rdquo; doesn&rsquo;t mean &ldquo;many.&rdquo; Tell your students to think of it as one number. So even though that number might be large, the purpose of this expression is to compare this one number/amount with another number/amount. For example, we would say &ldquo;The number of crimes in New York has increased this year.&rdquo; There might be 56 more crimes committed this year compared to last year. Another example is &ldquo;The number of people who are writing the test today is larger than yesterday.&rdquo; There might be 20 more people writing the test&nbsp;today.

For more practice, see if your students can pick out these expressions on the internet, in newspapers, or in magazines. Also, this is a very common grammar question in Part&nbsp;5 of the TOEIC test, so make sure that any students you have who are preparing to write this test memorize the correct subject-verb agreement for these&nbsp;expressions.

I hope that clears things up for you and your students! I hope that the number of questions they have about these expressions is now&nbsp;zero.&nbsp;:)

Tanya

<h2>Source</h2>

&ldquo;The number of x&rdquo; takes a singular verb; &ldquo;a number of x,&rdquo; a plural verb.&rdquo; (Einsohn, A., The Copyeditor&rsquo;s Handbook, p.&nbsp;344)

<h2>Examples in Use</h2>

<ul>
	<li>
	&ldquo;Even in regular prose, a number of expressions are almost always abbreviated and may be used without first spelling them out.&rdquo; (The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th&nbsp;ed., p.&nbsp;488)
	</li>
	<li>&ldquo;The article that precedes the mass noun signals whether the mass noun or the number of the noun in the prepositional phrase controls the number of the verb.&rdquo; (The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th&nbsp;ed., p.&nbsp;&nbsp;205)</li>
</ul>

What’s the Difference between “a Number of” and “the Number of”?

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Teaching with Ellii

<blockquote>
Practice makes perfect&mdash;reviewing new vocabulary can be&nbsp;fun!
</blockquote>

Teaching new vocabulary is all well and good, but without review and practice, it&rsquo;s almost impossible for students to remember all those new words. Simply studying and memorizing the words and definitions can be pretty boring, which makes the new vocab harder to remember. By making vocab review as fun as possible, you will help your students stay interested, and they will retain the new words far more effectively. If you missed my post on <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/4-ways-to-teach-new-vocabulary">teaching new vocabulary</a>, check it out first, then use the following techniques to review the vocab on subsequent&nbsp;days.

<h1>1. Hotseat</h1>

This is a classic! If you know a variation different from the one I&rsquo;ll list here, feel free to leave a comment explaining the changes you make below. We&rsquo;d love to hear your&nbsp;version!

<ul>
	<li>First, divide the students into two&nbsp;teams.</li>
	<li>Have one student from each team sit at the front of the class, in two chairs that face their classmates (with their backs to the board).</li>
	<li>Tell the two students that they&rsquo;re in the &ldquo;hotseat.&rdquo; You will write a word on the board, and students from their team can yell out descriptions of the word. They must not use gestures, give the first letter, or say the actual&nbsp;word.</li>
	<li>Write one word on the board and let the chaos begin! The first student to guess the word correctly gets a point for their&nbsp;team.</li>
	<li>Choose another member from each team, and repeat. Once all the students have had one or two turns (or you&rsquo;ve run out of words), add up the scores. The team with the most points&nbsp;wins!</li>
	<li>If neither student in the hotseat can guess the word, you can give them a hint such as the first letter or a clear&nbsp;description.</li>
</ul>

Warning: This game can get very loud, but it is guaranteed&nbsp;fun!

<div class="whiteBox">
<h5>Teaching Tip</h5>

When students know that this game will be played the following day, they are really motivated to study so that they don&rsquo;t let their team&nbsp;down.
</div>

<h1>2. Matchup</h1>

If you used this technique for <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/4-ways-to-teach-new-vocabulary">teaching vocab</a>, this is a great way to reuse the slips of paper that you cut&nbsp;up.

<ul>
	<li>If you haven&rsquo;t already done so, print out a list of words and definitions (one list per small group or pair), and then cut all of the words and definitions into slips of paper and mix them up. Don&rsquo;t forget to keep a master list for yourself for easy&nbsp;reference.</li>
	<li>Distribute the words and definitions to the groups/pairs. For lower levels, separate the word slips and the definition slips into two piles to make it a bit&nbsp;easier.</li>
	<li>Tell students to match up the words and definitions. To make it more competitive, the first group/pair to correctly match everything up&nbsp;wins!</li>
</ul>

<div class="whiteBox">
<h5>Teaching Tip</h5>

While this activity takes a long time when students are initially learning the words (and guessing), it is very quick as a review activity, and may not be worth all the time you spend cutting up the slips of paper if you didn&rsquo;t use them to teach the vocab&nbsp;too. Note that you can also use these slips for activities 3 and 4 below!
</div>

<h1>3. Concentration &ndash; Activity&nbsp;A</h1>

<ul>
	<li>Use the slips of paper from activity&nbsp;#2, and arrange them face down on the table for each pair or small group of&nbsp;students.</li>
	<li>Students take turns turning over any two of the cards. If students choose correctly (they turn over a word that matches the definition or vice versa), they can keep the pair of paper slips. If they choose incorrectly, they must turn the slips over again and place them back in the same&nbsp;place.</li>
	<li>Once all the slips have been matched up, students should add up how many pairs they have. The student with the most matches&nbsp;wins!</li>
</ul>

<div class="whiteBox">
<h5>Teaching Tip</h5>

This popular game is also known as &ldquo;Memory.&rdquo;
</div>

<h1>4. Concentration &ndash; Activity&nbsp;B</h1>

<ul>
	<li>Draw a grid on the board with 20 squares (5&nbsp;&times;&nbsp;4). Write the numbers 1&ndash;20 in the top left hand corner of each square. Have a master list for yourself that you can refer to with ten words and ten corresponding definitions filled into the grid (one word or definition per square, with the order mixed&nbsp;up).</li>
	<li>Divide the students into two teams. Ask one student from team&nbsp;A to choose one box. Write the word or definition in the center of the box. Have that same student choose another box. Fill in that box&nbsp;too.</li>
	<li>If the two boxes create a match (word + definition), leave the words written in the boxes and give that team a point. If they don&rsquo;t match, erase both boxes and repeat the process with a student from team&nbsp;B.</li>
	<li>Continue until all the boxes are filled in. For the last pair of boxes, make it more challenging by having that team member guess the last box (i.e., if the word is chosen, write the word in the box, but then the student must tell you the definition without seeing the last box, and vice versa). The team with the most points&nbsp;wins!</li>
</ul>

<div class="whiteBox">
<h5>Teaching Tip</h5>

Most boards will clearly show which spots have been erased, thus making it easier for students to remember which numbers have already been chosen. To make it more challenging, when setting up the board, run the eraser over the center of each box before starting the&nbsp;game.
</div>

I hope these activities will make it easier for your students to remember new words. Have&nbsp;fun!

Tanya

4 Activities for Reviewing Vocabulary

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<blockquote>
Mix things up by introducing new vocabulary with these fun&nbsp;techniques!
</blockquote>

Vocabulary&hellip;it&rsquo;s a double‑edged sword. Students universally recognize the need to expand their vocabulary in order to improve their fluency, but it&rsquo;s difficult&mdash;and often boring&mdash;to memorize word after word. Varying the types of vocabulary exercises used will engage your students and enable them to retain the new words more effectively. Remember: your goal as a teacher is to get the students to be able to use the new words when they speak or write. As such, repetition is key&mdash;but using the same technique over and over will cause students to lose interest. Using a combination of the following methods will hopefully get your students excited about vocabulary&nbsp;again!

<h1>1. Vocabulary Board Game</h1>

<ul>
	<li>Write all of the new words in a long list on the left side of the&nbsp;board.</li>
	<li>Divide students into two teams, and explain that you&rsquo;ll be reading out a definition to one team at a&nbsp;time.</li>
	<li>If that team can correctly guess the corresponding word, they get $100 (pretend money, of course!). If they guess the wrong word, the other team can &ldquo;steal&rdquo; the money by guessing the correct word for $50. If the second team still can&rsquo;t guess correctly, it goes back to the first team for $50, and so on until one team gets it right. Play then resumes with the next definition getting read to the second team, for $100 if&nbsp;correct.</li>
	<li>You can provide students with a copy of a word-definition list after the game to save them from having to stop and write down the definitions as you go. Or, to save trees, write the definitions next to the words as they are guessed correctly, and students can copy them&nbsp;down.</li>
	<li>The winning team is the one who has the most money once all the definitions are filled in! For the last definition (since it will obviously correspond to the only word left on the board), I often make it more challenging by making the team tell me what they think the definition is. If correct, they get $100; if not, the other team can try for $50, and so&nbsp;on.</li>
</ul>

<h1>2. Matchup</h1>

<ul>
	<li>Have one page of words and definitions for each pair or small group of students. Cut each word and definition from that page into strips (a paper cutter works wonders here). Repeat for each page (paper clips help to keep the piles separated). Don&rsquo;t forget that you can keep the strips for vocabulary review later, or for review for a&nbsp;test.</li>
	<li>Give a mixed-up pile of strips (words and definition) to each group. Get students to match&nbsp;up the words with the correct definitions.</li>
	<li>Circulate, pointing out where students have made an incorrect guess so that they can make another attempt with that particular word. Don&rsquo;t forget to keep a master list for yourself; it helps to refer to it as you&nbsp;circulate.</li>
	<li>When all the students are finished, you can go over the answers as a class. To make it more exciting, you can turn it into a competition by naming the first group to correctly match everything up as the&nbsp;winner.</li>
</ul>

<h1>3. Mini-Presentations</h1>

<ul>
	<li>Assign one new word to each student. Have them look up the definition in their dictionaries (preferably English&ndash;English).</li>
	<li>Tell them to write down the definition in their own words. They can ask you for help, if necessary. Circulate to check that their definitions are&nbsp;clear.</li>
	<li>Also, get them to write down an example sentence, so that their classmates will be able to better understand the meaning of the new word. Circulate to check that the example sentences make&nbsp;sense.</li>
	<li>When all of the students are done, have them come up to the front of the class one by one. Get each student to write the word and definition on the board, and while the other students are copying it down, have that student read the example sentence. You can add additional clarification at this time, if need&nbsp;be.</li>
</ul>

<h1>4. Context</h1>

Being able to use the context (the sentences or paragraphs that surround the word) to figure out the meanings of new words is an essential skill that you want all of your students to be able to master one day. Because it is difficult to do, try it as a class activity once in a while to get students used to&nbsp;it.

<ul>
	<li>Have students read through the text first. You can have them do it silently or out loud. Reading out loud enables you to correct their pronunciation and intonation, which is a good use of time since you&rsquo;re practicing several skills at&nbsp;once.</li>
	<li>Once you&rsquo;ve gone through the text, point out the new words one by one, and have students guess at each word&rsquo;s possible meaning as a class. After a few guesses, you can give students the answer if they are unable to come up with it. Point out the contextual clues that could help them figure out the meaning for next&nbsp;time.</li>
	<li>This exercise is especially helpful in preparing for examinations like TOEIC, TOEFL, IELTS,&nbsp;etc.</li>
</ul>

It&rsquo;s important to note that going over vocabulary only once will rarely result in retention. In my next post, I&rsquo;m writing about <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/4-activities-for-reviewing-vocabulary">fun vocabulary review activities</a>, so check back soon! You can also check out <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/10-ways-to-use-flashcards-in-class">10 Ways to Use Flashcards in Class</a> for ideas on using flashcards for vocabulary practice and review. Our <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/91/lessons">Simple Sentences</a> and <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/113/lessons">Word Bank</a> lessons have lots of vocabulary activities for lower levels&nbsp;too.

I hope your students will find learning vocabulary to be more engaging after employing these&nbsp;techniques!

Tanya

4 Ways to Teach New Vocabulary

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<blockquote>
Which is correct: all of the people, all the people, or all people? Give your students this simple&nbsp;explanation.
</blockquote>

Not only do students have to contend with the articles a, an, and the, but they also have to learn to use many other quantifiers. Words like all, some, and none seem simple enough to learn, but when students have to use them with the, confusion abounds. If you follow the steps below, you will be able to clearly convey the three different quantifier sentence patterns to your&nbsp;students.

<h1>Step #1</h1>

First, explain the terms &ldquo;specific&rdquo; and&nbsp;&ldquo;general.&rdquo;

In English, a specific noun is one that you can see, that there&rsquo;s only one of, or that you&rsquo;ve already mentioned&nbsp;before.

<ul>
	<li>Please pass me the pen that is in front of&nbsp;you.</li>
</ul>

A general noun is one that you can&rsquo;t see or that there are many&nbsp;of.

<ul>
	<li>I&rsquo;m hungry. I wish I had a&nbsp;sandwich.</li>
</ul>

<h1>Step #2</h1>

Next, give the three main sentence patterns and explanations for&nbsp;quantifiers.

<div class="whiteBox">
Note: In the three patterns below,&nbsp;Ns refers to either a plural noun or a non‑count&nbsp;noun.
</div>

<h2>all of the + Ns</h2>

Use this pattern when you want to talk about specific&nbsp;nouns.

<ul>
	<li>
	All of the students in my class studied hard for the test. (plural count&nbsp;noun)
	</li>
	<li>I used all of the paper in my notebook to write my essay. (non‑count&nbsp;noun)</li>
</ul>

<h2>all the + Ns</h2>

Explain to students that this pattern is the casual form of the &ldquo;all of the + Ns&rdquo; pattern, where &ldquo;of&rdquo; is simply dropped to shorten the phrase. Most textbooks don&rsquo;t mention it, but shortening phrases is very common in English, especially spoken English, and should be taught to your&nbsp;students.

<ul>
	<li>All the students in my class studied hard for the test. (plural count&nbsp;noun)</li>
	<li>I used all the paper in my notebook to write my essay. (non‑count&nbsp;noun)</li>
</ul>

<h2>all + Ns</h2>

Use this pattern when you want to talk about general&nbsp;nouns.

<ul>
	<li>All students (in the world) have to take exams. (plural count&nbsp;noun)</li>
	<li>Not all water (in the world) is drinkable. (non‑count&nbsp;noun)</li>
</ul>

<h1>Step #3</h1>

Finally, you can mention that these three patterns also apply to other quantifiers in&nbsp;English.

Alternatively, you could repeat these rules using different quantifiers on other days&nbsp;as a review. I find it helps to give students approximate percentages of amounts, to help them understand the meaning of each&nbsp;quantifier.

<ul>
	<li>100% =&nbsp;All</li>
	<li>95% =&nbsp;Almost all</li>
	<li>80% =&nbsp;Many (count nouns), much (non‑count&nbsp;nouns)</li>
	<li>50% =&nbsp;Some</li>
	<li>20% =&nbsp;A few (count nouns), a&nbsp;little (non-count&nbsp;nouns)</li>
	<li>5% =&nbsp;Almost none</li>
	<li>0% =&nbsp;None</li>
</ul>

<div class="whiteBox">
Note: Make sure you point out that &ldquo;almost all&rdquo; isn&rsquo;t possible without the &ldquo;all.&rdquo;&nbsp;I often hear students mistakenly saying, &ldquo;Almost people&rdquo; or &ldquo;Almost of the people.&rdquo;&nbsp;This is also a very common question in the grammar section of the TOEIC&nbsp;test.
</div>

I hope all students benefit from all (of) the info&nbsp;here!&nbsp;:)

&mdash;Tanya

When Do We Use "All of the," "All the," or "All"?

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<blockquote>
Two ‑ING verbs in the same clause, gerunds vs. infinitives&hellip;there&rsquo;s a lot going on with the common expression &ldquo;looking forward&nbsp;to&rdquo;!
</blockquote>

Many, many times I&rsquo;ve heard my students say things like &ldquo;I&rsquo;m look forward to sleeping in&rdquo; or &ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking forward to sleep in&rdquo; instead of the correct &ldquo;I&rsquo;m looking forward to sleeping in.&rdquo; Their confusion is understandable when you look at all of the usual grammar rules that they&rsquo;re trying to apply, albeit incorrectly, to the expression &ldquo;looking forward&nbsp;to.&rdquo;

<h1>Question #1</h1>

<h4>Can we use two ‑ING verbs in the same&nbsp;sentence?</h4>

Yes, we can! In fact, the expression &ldquo;looking forward to&rdquo; is most often used with the present progressive (aka present continuous) verb tense to express a future&nbsp;meaning.

<ul>
	<li>I&rsquo;m looking forward to sleeping in on&nbsp;Saturday.</li>
</ul>

Note that this expression can be used with other tenses, but still mainly with those that use ‑ING&nbsp;verbs.

<ul>
	<li>She has been looking forward to going on vacation for months. (Present Perfect&nbsp;Progressive)</li>
	<li>He was looking forward to/had been looking forward to going on vacation before he found out that he couldn&rsquo;t get the time off. (Past Progressive or Past Perfect&nbsp;Progressive)</li>
	<li>I look forward to seeing you every day. (Simple&nbsp;Present)</li>
</ul>

<h1>Question #2</h1>

<h4>Doesn&rsquo;t the base form of the verb follow&nbsp;&ldquo;to&rdquo;?</h4>

Usually, yes. The construction to + base verb forms the infinitive verb. Infinitive verbs have many uses in English; for example, they are used after certain main verbs (I want to buy a new shirt), after nouns (I asked my friend to help me),&nbsp;etc.

However, don&rsquo;t forget that &ldquo;to&rdquo; is also a preposition (I went to the store) and that prepositions are almost always followed by a gerund (‑ING verb&nbsp;form).

<ul>
	<li>This tool is used for&nbsp;cutting.</li>
	<li>We got here by taking the&nbsp;bus.</li>
	<li>They are looking forward to doing their&nbsp;presentations.</li>
</ul>

So the &ldquo;to&rdquo; in &ldquo;looking forward to&rdquo; is a preposition that is part of an expression. Remember the rule preposition + gerund&hellip;it is usually applicable, even if the preposition is &ldquo;to.&rdquo; Try to determine, in each case, whether &ldquo;to&rdquo; is a preposition that is part of an expression, or if &ldquo;to&rdquo; is part of an infinitive verb.&nbsp;

<h1>Question #3</h1>

<h4>Can we use three ‑ING verbs in the same&nbsp;sentence?</h4>

Yes, and we commonly do so with the expression &ldquo;looking forward to&rdquo; because of the go + gerund&nbsp;construction.

<ul>
	<li>I&rsquo;m looking forward to going skiing next&nbsp;weekend.</li>
</ul>

Explain to your students that there are three separate things happening here. First, &ldquo;am looking&rdquo; uses ‑ING because of the present progressive (with a future meaning) verb tense. Second, we use &ldquo;going&rdquo; because of the preposition + gerund rule (see the second Q&amp;A). And third, we use &ldquo;skiing&rdquo; because of the go + gerund construction (used for many activities, such as go shopping, go dancing, go surfing, go hiking,&nbsp;etc.).

<h1>Question #4</h1>

<h4>Can we use &ldquo;looking forward to&rdquo; with just a&nbsp;noun?</h4>

Yes. Because prepositions are also commonly followed by nouns, the &ldquo;to&rdquo; in this expression can be followed by a&nbsp;noun.

<ul>
	<li>I&rsquo;m looking forward to&nbsp;dinner.</li>
	<li>She&rsquo;s looking forward to the&nbsp;class.</li>
	<li>He&rsquo;s looking forward to&nbsp;Friday.</li>
</ul>

You can find more examples of &ldquo;looking forward to&rdquo; in <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/79/lessons/1801">Detective Series&nbsp;1, Episode&nbsp;6</a>.

I&rsquo;m looking forward to hearing that your students aren&rsquo;t having any more trouble with this&nbsp;expression! ;)

Tanya

Why Do We Use “Looking Forward To” with a Second ‑ING Verb?

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How many times have you heard students say &ldquo;I am exciting&rdquo; or &ldquo;I am boring&rdquo;? Grasping when to use ‑ED and ‑ING endings with participial adjectives is very confusing. That is, the adjectives are confusing, and the students are confused!

Even after countless written exercises, students often make mistakes with these &ldquo;feeling&rdquo; adjective endings while speaking. Here are some teaching tips to help clarify the situation for your&nbsp;students.

<h1>1. Sentence Patterns</h1>

Start by reminding students of the two adjective patterns used in English&nbsp;sentences:

<h2>Be + Adj</h2>

<ul>
	<li>The book is&nbsp;interesting.</li>
</ul>

In this example, the adjective interesting describes the noun&nbsp;book.

<h2>Adj + N</h2>

<ul>
	<li>This is an interesting&nbsp;book.</li>
</ul>

In this example, the adjective interesting describes the noun&nbsp;book.

<h1>2. Feelings</h1>

Now you can remind your students that ‑ED/‑ING adjectives are used to describe&nbsp;feelings.

Give some examples, such as interested/interesting, bored/boring, excited/exciting, tired/tiring,&nbsp;etc.

<h1>3. -ING Adjectives: Be +&nbsp;Adj</h1>

You use the ‑ING ending when the noun is the REASON or CAUSE of the &ldquo;feeling&rdquo; adjective. In other words, -ING adjectives show why a person is feeling a certain way. -ING adjectives are used primarily with nouns that are&nbsp;THINGS.:

<ul>
	<li>This movie is boring. (The noun movie is the REASON/CAUSE of my feeling of&nbsp;boredom.)</li>
	<li>My life is exciting. (The noun life is the REASON/CAUSE of my feeling of&nbsp;excitement.)</li>
</ul>

<h1>4. -ING&nbsp;Adjectives: Adj +&nbsp;N</h1>

<ul>
	<li>This is a boring movie. (The noun movie is the REASON/CAUSE of my feeling of&nbsp;boredom.)</li>
	<li>I have an exciting life. (The noun life is the REASON/CAUSE of my feeling of&nbsp;excitement.)</li>
</ul>

<h1>5. -ED Adjectives: Be + Adj</h1>

You use the ‑ED ending to show the RESULT or EFFECT. In other words, ‑ED adjectives describe how a person is feeling. -ED adjectives are used primarily with nouns that are&nbsp;PEOPLE.

<ul>
	<li>She is bored. (The adjective bored describes how she is&nbsp;feeling.)</li>
	<li>My friend is excited. (The adjective excited describes how my friend is&nbsp;feeling.)</li>
</ul>

<h1>6. -ED Adjectives: Adj +&nbsp;N</h1>

You can mention to students that this pattern is possible, but not often used with ‑ED&nbsp;adjectives.

<ul>
	<li>A bored girl fell asleep on the bus. (The adjective bored describes how the girl is&nbsp;feeling.)</li>
	<li>My excited friend can&rsquo;t wait to go on vacation. (The adjective excited describes how my friend is&nbsp;feeling.)</li>
</ul>

<h1>7. Cause &amp; Effect</h1>

For further clarification, you can give some examples of CAUSE and EFFECT (i.e., the REASON and RESULT) in sentence pairs. It really helps students to see the adjectives side by side like&nbsp;this.

<ul>
	<li>This is a boring movie. I am bored. (The movie CAUSES my feeling; the EFFECT is that I feel&nbsp;bored.)</li>
	<li>I have an exciting life. I am excited. (My life is the REASON for my feeling; the RESULT is that I feel&nbsp;excited.)</li>
</ul>

<h1>8. Exceptions</h1>

Here&rsquo;s where it gets tricky for students! Can you use ‑ING with a PERSON instead of a THING? Unfortunately, yes, if the person is the CAUSE of the&nbsp;feeling.

<ul>
	<li>The teacher is confusing. The students are confused. (The teacher CAUSES the confusion, perhaps by not explaining something clearly, so the EFFECT is that the students feel&nbsp;confused.)</li>
	<li>The artist is interesting. We are interested in him. (The artist, because of his talent, is the REASON for our interest; we are interested in him and his art as a&nbsp;RESULT).</li>
</ul>

Make sure you explain to students that when they say &ldquo;I am boring,&rdquo; it actually means that they are uninteresting people, not that they are feeling&nbsp;bored!

<h1>9. Advanced</h1>

If you have higher-level students, you may wish to point out that we have several verbs in English besides &ldquo;Be&rdquo; that you can use to indicate how you&rsquo;re feeling. Some examples include: feel, seem, look, appear,&nbsp;etc.

<ul>
	<li>I am confused.</li>
	<li>She feels confused.</li>
	<li>He seems confused.</li>
	<li>They appear confused.</li>
</ul>

Here&rsquo;s hoping your students are both interested and interesting!

Tanya

<h1>Related</h1>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/116/lessons/2496">Adjectives</a> &ndash; Fun Grammar&nbsp;Lessons</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/116/lessons/2531">Comparative Adjectives</a> &ndash; Fun Grammar&nbsp;Lessons</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/116/lessons/2532">Superlative Adjectives</a> &ndash; Fun Grammar&nbsp;Lessons</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/2093">Adjectives</a> &ndash; Grammar Practice&nbsp;Worksheets</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1600">Comparatives &amp; Superlatives &ndash; Adjectives &amp; Adverbs</a> &ndash; Grammar Practice&nbsp;Worksheets</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1607">Equative, Comparative &amp; Superlative Adjectives</a> &ndash; Grammar Practice&nbsp;Worksheets</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1612">Adjective Clauses</a> &ndash; Grammar Practice&nbsp;Worksheets</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1611">Adjective Phrases</a> &ndash; Grammar Practice&nbsp;Worksheets</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/90/lessons/1631">Comparative &amp; Superlative Adjective Stories</a> &ndash; Grammar&nbsp;Stories</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/90/lessons/1647">Adjective Clause &amp; Phrase Stories</a> &ndash; Grammar&nbsp;Stories</li>
</ul>

How to Teach -ED/-ING Adjectives: 9 Simple Steps

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<blockquote>
Should we say &ldquo;the Olympics is&rdquo; or &ldquo;the Olympics are&rdquo;?
</blockquote>

It&rsquo;s safe to say that the Olympics is on everybody&rsquo;s mind these days. I remember the excitement of living in Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympics. The city was alive and vibrant, full of excitement, hope, and team spirit. I also love how each Olympics seems to bring the world&nbsp;together.

With everyone talking about the Olympics, it is rather important to determine if a singular or plural verb should follow this subject. This very question came up a few days ago, when we were&nbsp;getting ready to rerecord the audio for&nbsp;an updated&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons/1890">lesson on the Olympics</a>, which I was about to edit. She asked me if the lesson should use a singular or a plural verb with &ldquo;the Olympics,&rdquo; and likewise with &ldquo;the Olympic Games.&rdquo; I was stumped, and set about doing some research. It&rsquo;s funny how we commonly hear both singular and plural verbs used with &ldquo;the Olympics,&rdquo; and most of us, including me, probably haven&rsquo;t given it much&nbsp;thought!

Unfortunately, my dictionaries and style guides didn&rsquo;t have any direct references to the Olympics. I did some internet research instead. Right away, I noticed multiple uses of both singular and plural verbs following &ldquo;the Olympics.&rdquo; Most examples of &ldquo;the Olympic Games&rdquo; used a plural verb, although I did see some examples of singular verbs used,&nbsp;too.

<h1>Decision Time</h1>

We at ESL&nbsp;Library decided to go with &ldquo;the Olympics&rdquo; + singular verb and &ldquo;the Olympic Games&rdquo; + plural verb. Basically, &ldquo;the Olympics&rdquo; is a collective noun like team or United States, and usually takes a singular verb. &ldquo;Games,&rdquo; on the other hand, is a plural noun that should take a plural verb. It&rsquo;s possible to consider &ldquo;the Olympic Games&rdquo; as a collective noun, but &ldquo;the Olympic Games is&hellip;&rdquo; just doesn&rsquo;t sound right to me. &ldquo;The Olympic Games are&hellip;&rdquo; sounds much&nbsp;better!

<h1>Examples</h1>

<h2>Example #1</h2>

<blockquote>
&ldquo;The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially the XXII Olympic Winter Games, or the 22nd Winter Olympics, is scheduled to take place from 7 to 23 February 2014, in Sochi, Russia, with some events held in the resort town of Krasnaya&nbsp;Polyana.&rdquo;

Source: Wikipedia, &ldquo;2014 Winter Olympics,&rdquo; accessed July&nbsp;29,&nbsp;2012, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Winter_Olympics" target="_blank">www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Winter_Olympics</a>.
</blockquote>

<h2>Example #2</h2>

<blockquote>
&ldquo;In a speech watched around the world, Games chief Jacques Rogge said: &lsquo;The Olympic Games are coming home&nbsp;tonight.&rsquo;&rdquo;

Source: BBC News UK, &ldquo;Young athletes light London 2012 Olympic flame,&rdquo; accessed July&nbsp;29,&nbsp;2012, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19008471" target="_blank">www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19008471</a>.
</blockquote>

I&rsquo;d love to know what you think, too! Do you agree with our decision? Why or why&nbsp;not?

Go for the&nbsp;gold, 
Tanya

<h1>Related</h1>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/113/lessons/2612">Winter Olympics</a> (Word Bank)</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons/1890">Winter Olympics</a> (Holidays &amp; Events)</li>
	<li class="flashcards"><a href="https://ellii.com/flashcard_genres/7/flashcard_categories/114">Winter Olympics Flashcards</a></li>
	<li class="collection"><a href="https://ellii.com/collections/20/lessons">The Olympics Lesson Collection</a></li>
</ul>

Olympics: Singular or Plural?

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<blockquote>
To &ldquo;They&rdquo; or not to &ldquo;They,&rdquo; that is the&nbsp;question!
</blockquote>

Why oh why doesn&rsquo;t English have a gender-neutral third person singular pronoun? Life as an editor, and as any kind of writer, would be so much easier. French has on, Spanish has usted, and English has&hellip;one, which is so darn formal that we rarely use it. So what do we do? Do we dare use &ldquo;they&rdquo;?

<h1>If you know the gender</h1>

Obviously, if the gender of the referent is known, this isn&rsquo;t even an issue because we can use &ldquo;he&rdquo; or &ldquo;she.&rdquo; For example, if &ldquo;Angelina Jolie&rdquo; is mentioned in the previous sentence, we can use &ldquo;she&rdquo; in the following sentences. If only it were always this&nbsp;easy!

<h1>If you don&rsquo;t know the&nbsp;gender</h1>

What happens when, as is commonly the case, the gender of the referent is unknown? Newspaper articles deal with this situation all the time. For example, if &ldquo;a teacher&rdquo; is mentioned in the previous sentence, we don&rsquo;t know if it&rsquo;s a &ldquo;he&rdquo; or a&nbsp;&ldquo;she.&rdquo;

Also, sometimes we want to refer to a person in general, so we wouldn&rsquo;t want to specify the&nbsp;gender.

In these two cases, we have several&nbsp;options:

<ul>
	<li>We can use &ldquo;he or she&rdquo; or &ldquo;he/she&rdquo; or &ldquo;s/he,&rdquo; or alternate between &ldquo;he&rdquo; and &ldquo;she,&rdquo; but all of these choices are awkward and&nbsp;cumbersome.</li>
	<li>We can use &ldquo;one,&rdquo; but this is very&nbsp;formal.</li>
	<li>We can rewrite the sentence, but this can involve a lot of&nbsp;work.</li>
	<li>We can use &ldquo;they,&rdquo; but this is quite&nbsp;controversial.</li>
</ul>

<h1>What do the style guides&nbsp;recommend?</h1>

My two style guides both recommend using &ldquo;they&rdquo; for a singular referent in most cases. The Chicago Manual of Style (16th&nbsp;ed.) states the&nbsp;following:

<blockquote>
&ldquo;A singular antecedent requires a singular referent pronoun. Because he is no longer accepted as a generic pronoun referring to a person of either sex, it has become common in speech and in informal writing to substitute the third-person plural pronouns they, them, their, and themselves, and the nonstandard singular themself. While this usage is accepted in casual contexts, it is still considered ungrammatical in formal writing&hellip;&rdquo;

(2010, 215&ndash;6)
</blockquote>

The Copyeditor&rsquo;s Handbook agrees:

<blockquote>
&ldquo;&hellip;the newer grammar books recommend using the plural pronoun after an indefinite subject&hellip;&rdquo;

(Einsohn 2011, 361)
</blockquote>

<h1>What do I recommend?</h1>

Until I became an editor, I happily used &ldquo;they&rdquo; for all my singular, gender-neutral needs. I was taught to do it and I don&rsquo;t really have a problem with it. I even encouraged my own students to do it (though I usually advised using the general plural rather than the singular where possible). But once I started taking editing courses, I realized what a contentious issue it really is. Now, I will still use &ldquo;they,&rdquo; but not with a clear conscience! My obsessive, perfectionist side doesn&rsquo;t like using something that many consider&nbsp;&ldquo;wrong.&rdquo;

Nowadays, I try to rewrite sentences as much as possible to avoid this problem altogether. I find the easiest way to accomplish this is by making the referent plural. Then I can use &ldquo;they&rdquo; all I want, guilt&nbsp;free!

For example, instead of writing &ldquo;Tell the student to read his or her paragraph out loud,&rdquo; I&rsquo;ll write &ldquo;Tell the students to read their paragraphs out loud.&rdquo; Usually the meaning remains the same with a switch from singular to plural, especially in general cases like&nbsp;this.

I would encourage you to teach your students to use the general plural when writing their essays as well. For example, if the topic was &ldquo;stress,&rdquo; students could start their essays by saying something like &ldquo;People have a lot of stress in their lives these days&rdquo; instead of &ldquo;Each person has a lot of stress in his or her life these&nbsp;days.&rdquo;

When there is a specific singular referent but the gender is unknown, I would advise rewriting the sentence to avoid pronoun use if at all possible. Failing that, the choice is yours! Personally, I would use &ldquo;they,&rdquo; but you can choose any one of the four ways mentioned in the bulleted list above. Then cross your fingers and hope it doesn&rsquo;t come back to bite you in the you‑know‑what!

Have a nice &ldquo;they,&rdquo; 
Tanya

The Great Debate over the Third Person Singular Pronoun: He, She, or They?

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<div class="white-box">
<h5>Note</h5>

We updated this blog post in November&nbsp;2016. See <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/present-perfect-two-uses/">Present Perfect: Two Uses</a> and <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/present-perfect-vs-present-perfect-progressive/">Present Perfect Vs. Present Progressive</a> for new charts and&nbsp;tips.
</div>

What do you do when textbook grammar presentations just don&rsquo;t cut it? The present perfect is a confusing verb tense for ESL learners. Students get confused about when to use it versus when to use the simple past, and also when to use it versus the present perfect progressive (also known as the present perfect&nbsp;continuous).

Unfortunately, most of the textbooks I&rsquo;ve come across don&rsquo;t explain all the uses clearly. The result is that students can conjugate verbs into the blanks provided in textbook exercises, but they flounder in real life when they have to choose which tense to&nbsp;use.

In other words, when it comes time to choose between the simple past, present perfect, and present perfect progressive (for example, when speaking, writing, or doing a test like the TOEIC), students struggle. That&rsquo;s why I started to present all three tenses at once in my TOEIC classes, and gradually started to use this method for other general classes, too, with successful results. I hope it will help your students as&nbsp;well!

<h1>Step #1</h1>

<h3>Present Perfect</h3>

Start by telling your students that there are two uses of the present perfect (most students are not even aware of this). Point out that diagram&nbsp;A indicates a finished past action. Diagram&nbsp;B shows an action that started in the past, continued to the present, and may continue into the&nbsp;future.

<img alt="Diagrams A and B" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/31/content_Tanya_5-Easy-Steps-for-Teaching-PP-and-PPP_Diagrams-A-B.png" />

A) I have been to&nbsp;Paris.

B) I have lived in Vancouver for two&nbsp;years.

<h1>Step #2</h1>

<h3>Present Perfect Vs. Simple&nbsp;Past</h3>

Next, focus on the first use of the present perfect (from diagram&nbsp;A). Help your students understand when they can use this finished past action by comparing it to the simple past&rsquo;s finished past action. Explain that we use the simple past tense when we want to communicate when we did something, as in diagram&nbsp;C. We use the present perfect tense when we don&rsquo;t want to indicate the time, either because we don&rsquo;t know it or it isn&rsquo;t important, as in diagram&nbsp;D.

<img alt="Diagrams C and D" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/32/content_Tanya_5-Easy-Steps-for-Teaching-PP-and-PPP_Diagrams-C-D.png" />

C) I went to Paris last&nbsp;month.

D) I have been to&nbsp;Paris.

<h1>Step #3</h1>

<h3>Time Markers for the Present Perfect &amp; Simple Past</h3>

At this point, I find it useful to point out the time markers that are associated with these verb tenses. Time markers are words that indicate the time when an action is performed, and they will help students both to recognize which verbs to use in exercises and to produce natural language. I usually get the students to brainstorm these words as a class. Here are the most common time markers for these&nbsp;tenses:

<ul>
	<li>Time markers for the simple past: yesterday, the day before yesterday, last, ago, when (for joining two past&nbsp;sentences)</li>
</ul>

<ul>
	<li>Time markers for the present perfect (as in diagrams A and D): usually, no time marker is used, but for emphasis, it is possible to use already*, yet*, still*, ever, never</li>
</ul>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>*Note</h5>

Here is a quick note about already, yet, and still. These three adverbs are very common, so it&rsquo;s a good idea to teach them along with the present perfect, though you could teach them in a separate lesson if you think your students&rsquo; heads will explode from all this&nbsp;information.

Already (used to emphasize that an action has been accomplished in the past) follows the normal pattern of Verb + Adverb + Verb, as in I have already read that&nbsp;book.

Yet (used to signify the intention to do something) follows an unusual pattern. You use yet at the end of a sentence, and the verb must be negative, as in I haven&rsquo;t read that book&nbsp;yet.

Still (like yet, it is used to signify the intention to do something) also follows an unusual pattern. You use still before both parts of the verb, and the verb must be negative, as in I still haven&rsquo;t read that&nbsp;book.

Be careful that students don&rsquo;t get confused with the other use of still (used to emphasize an ongoing action), which is commonly used with a positive verb and the present progressive tense, as in I am still waiting for your call. No wonder English is difficult to&nbsp;learn!
</div>

<h1>Step #4</h1>

<h3>Present Perfect Vs. Present Perfect&nbsp;Progressive</h3>

Finally, focus on the second use of the present perfect (from diagram&nbsp;B). Explain to students that for this use, the present perfect and the present perfect progressive are pretty much interchangeable. Basically, the present perfect shows an action that starts in the past, continues to the present, and may continue into the&nbsp;future.

For example, in diagram&nbsp;E, the emphasis is on the two months I have lived in Vancouver. I might be moving to another city tomorrow, or I might continue living in Vancouver for many more years. The future is not really important in this case; if it is important, that&rsquo;s when the present perfect progressive should be used&nbsp;instead.

The present perfect progressive shows an action that starts in the past, continues to the present, and will definitely continue into the future. In diagram&nbsp;F, it is clear that I have lived in Vancouver for two months, but also that I am not leaving and will continue to live here for an unspecified amount of&nbsp;time.

I also point out to students that when in doubt, use the present perfect since it is more commonly&nbsp;used.

<img alt="Diagrams E and F" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/33/content_Tanya_5-Easy-Steps-for-Teaching-PP-and-PPP_Diagrams-E-F.png" />

E) I have lived in Vancouver for two&nbsp;months.

F) I have been living in Vancouver for two&nbsp;months.

<h1>Step #5</h1>

<h3>Time Markers for the Present Perfect &amp; Present Perfect Progressive</h3>

Now, you can point out the time markers for these two&nbsp;tenses:

<ul>
	<li>Time markers for the present perfect (as in diagrams B and E): for**,&nbsp;since**</li>
</ul>

<ul>
	<li>Time markers for the present perfect progressive: for**, since**, all (as in all morning, all week,&nbsp;etc.)</li>
</ul>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>**Note</h5>

I also explain to my students that for is used to show the duration of the continuing action, while since is used to show the starting point of the continuing&nbsp;action.
</div>

Of course, there are other cases and exceptions to these basic rules (for example, It has been raining can indicate that the rain recently stopped, which is technically a finished past action), but I believe there&rsquo;s no need to completely overwhelm your students. I suggest dealing with exceptions on a case‑by‑case basis if they come up in the&nbsp;lesson.

For lessons on the present perfect and the present perfect progressive, check out ESL&nbsp;Library&rsquo;s <a href="http://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons">Grammar Practice Worksheets</a> section. Check out our <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/90/lessons/">Grammar Stories</a> section&nbsp;too.

Enjoy presenting and&nbsp;perfecting!

Tanya

5 Easy Steps for Teaching the Present Perfect & the Present Perfect Progressive

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<h1>Answering the Tough Questions</h1>

We&#39;ve all been there. A student asks a question that stumps us, and our natural inclination is to say &quot;just because&quot;&nbsp;or &quot;that&#39;s just the way it is.&quot;&nbsp;Those of us who are native speakers may have never thought about the grammatical explanation&hellip;we just know what sounds right and wrong.

One of the most challenging aspects of being an English teacher is to learn why we speak and write the way we do. In fact, I think my next blog post may be about how to handle these types of questions&hellip;what are our options? As a specific example, I remember several instances of students getting confused over the adjective &quot;fun&quot;&nbsp;when using it in the <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1600">comparative or superlative </a>forms. And, to be honest, I&#39;ve been guilty of using the classic excuse: &quot;It&#39;s an exception.&quot;&nbsp;It&#39;s about time I did some research into the why.

<h2>Big = bigger, so fun = funner?</h2>

In English, we have clear rules about forming the comparative (-er or more) forms of adjectives:

<ul>
	<li>If the adjective has one syllable, add -er. For example, big becomes bigger.</li>
	<li>If the adjective has two syllables and ends in -y, change -y to -i and add -er. For example, funny becomes funnier.</li>
	<li>If the adjective has two (and doesn&#39;t end in -y) or more syllables, add more. For example, beautiful becomes more beautiful.</li>
</ul>

The superlative (-est or the most) forms of adjectives follow the same rules:

<ul>
	<li>If the adjective has one syllable, add the + -est. For example, big becomes the biggest.</li>
	<li>If the adjective has two syllables and ends in -y, change -y to -i and add the + -est. For example, funny becomes the funniest.</li>
	<li>If the adjective has two (and doesn&#39;t end in -y)&nbsp; or more syllables, add the + most. For example, beautiful becomes the most beautiful.</li>
</ul>

Following these rules, then, &quot;fun&quot;&nbsp;should take the forms &quot;funner&quot; and &quot;the funnest.&quot;&nbsp;This is logical to students, but makes native speakers shudder. We know instinctively that these forms sound wrong. But why? And how do we explain it?

<h2>The History&#39;s the Thing</h2>

Unfortunately, none of the three style guides I have on my desk address this issue. I&#39;ve heard it is addressed in the Merriam-Webster&#39;s Dictionary of English Usage, but I don&#39;t own that one yet. So my research led me to the internet, and, once again, <a href="http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/is-funnest-a-word.aspx" target="_blank">Grammar Girl</a> came up with a clear explanation. I love Grammar Girl! It turns out that &quot;fun&quot; was originally only used as a noun. In fact, some grammar gurus would argue that it should still only be used as a noun, thus making the whole funner/more fun debate moot. But language is constantly evolving, and I for one would say that it&#39;s perfectly natural to accept &quot;fun&quot;&nbsp;as an adjective&hellip;I&#39;ve been using it that way my whole life. So if we accept that &quot;fun&quot;&nbsp;can be used as an adjective, then the reason for the lack of comparative and superlative forms becomes clear: it was not always so. Because &quot;fun&quot;&nbsp;was only a noun at one point, it hasn&#39;t taken on all the usual adjectival forms. We can say &quot;more fun&quot; or &quot;the most fun&quot;&nbsp;because it is possible to use &quot;more&quot; and &quot;the most&quot;&nbsp;with nouns (think of &quot;more money&quot; and &quot;the most money,&quot;&nbsp;for example).

<h2>So What&#39;s the Verdict?</h2>

Perhaps one day, &quot;funner&quot; and &quot;funnest&quot;&nbsp;will be part of our everyday language. In fact, much to my surprise, my copy of&nbsp;Merriam-Webster&#39;s Collegiate Dictionary&nbsp;has the following entry: &nbsp;fun adj,&nbsp;sometimes funner sometimes funnest (ca. 1846). My copy of the&nbsp;Oxford Canadian Dictionary of Current English&nbsp;doesn&#39;t mention &quot;funner&quot;&nbsp;or &quot;funnest&quot;&nbsp;at all. For now, the next time students ask us why they can&#39;t say &quot;funner,&quot;&nbsp;I suggest telling them it&#39;s because &quot;fun&quot; was originally only a noun and the -er and -est forms are not commonly accepted. Stick to &quot;more fun&quot;&nbsp;and &quot;the most fun&quot;! 
 
Have fun with this! 
&mdash;Tanya

<h3>Related</h3>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/88/lessons/1607">Equative, Comparative, and Superlative Adjectives</a> &ndash; Grammar Practice Worksheets</li>
	<li class="lesson"><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/90/lessons/1631">Comparative and Superlative Adjectives</a> &ndash; Grammar Stories</li>
	<li class="blog-post"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/how-unique-is-unique">How Unique is &quot;Unique&quot;?</a></li>
</ul>

Why Can't We Say "Funner"? 

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How do you deal with reading lessons in your ELT classroom? Do you have your students read silently in class? Do you assign the reading for homework?

Many ESL Library lessons have a reading component to them. How can teachers make reading lessons more interactive, communicative, and fun? I wanted to share three methods that have always worked well for&nbsp;me.

<h1>1.&nbsp;Summarize</h1>

This method incorporates many skills: reading, listening, speaking, vocabulary, and writing. Students must thoroughly analyze and understand a section of the reading, and only by working together can they understand the entire reading.

Instructions:

<ul>
	<li>First, assign a paragraph of the reading to each student. If you have a lot of students, assign the paragraph to a pair of students instead.</li>
	<li>Explain that each student (or pair) will be responsible for relating the information from their paragraph in their own words.</li>
	<li>Have students silently read through their paragraphs.</li>
	<li>If you want, get them to write out their summaries, but I usually prefer to have them give an oral, and more natural, summary.</li>
	<li>To help them and their classmates understand the reading well, have each student (or pair) choose 3&ndash;5 vocabulary words that they are unfamiliar with.</li>
	<li>Have each student (or pair) define their vocabulary words (via a dictionary: English-to-English is best) and write out each definition in their own words.</li>
	<li>Get each student to write down an example sentence for each word; this will ensure that they&#39;ve truly understood the word.</li>
	<li>Once all the students are finished their reading and vocabulary, have each student (or pair) present their vocabulary and their summaries (in the order of the original reading).</li>
	<li>Then, in pairs or as a class, answer the comprehension questions and correct them before you let the students see the entire reading.</li>
</ul>

Many ESL Library lessons are formatted in short paragraphs that are ideal for using this method (for example, in <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/80/lessons">Famous People</a>, <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/81/lessons">Famous Places</a>, <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/82/lessons">Famous Things</a>, <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/98/lessons">Historic Events</a>, <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons">Holidays &amp; Events</a>, etc.).

I usually have students write their words and definitions on the board for their classmates to see and copy down, but I get students to read their example sentences out loud as it usually takes too long to have them write those out, too.

<h1>2.&nbsp;Cut Up &amp; Rearrange</h1>

This works best for short readings or dialogues. This method ensures that students think very carefully about the meaning of each sentence.

Instructions:

<ul>
	<li>Divide students into small groups or pairs.</li>
	<li>Hand out a cut-up version of the story or dialogue.</li>
	<li>Have students try to arrange the sentences in order. It helps to tell them which sentence is first.</li>
	<li>Encourage them to tell each other why they think a particular sentence comes next.</li>
	<li>Circle through the groups, pointing out sentences that are not in the correct position. (It helps if you bring the original around with you for easy reference.)</li>
	<li>To make it fun, you could have a prize for the team or pair that finishes first.</li>
</ul>

ESL Library has a few&nbsp;sections with dialogues that are all ready formatted to be easily cut up in the PDF versions! For example, check out our <a href="https://ellii.com/courses/122/lessons">Travel&nbsp;English</a> section.

<h1>3.&nbsp;Read Out Loud</h1>

This technique easily turns a reading exercise into a listening exercise for a bit of variety. Students listen to you, the teacher, read aloud as a class activity.

Instructions:

<ul>
	<li>First, read through the comprehension questions as a class.</li>
	<li>Read the story out loud.</li>
	<li>Give students a few minutes to answer what questions they can.</li>
	<li>Read the story out loud a second time.</li>
	<li>Give students a bit more time to answer the questions. Then correct them as a class (and hand out the reading for reference or self-study, if desired).</li>
</ul>

Alternatively, read the story out loud twice in a row, and have students try to answer questions in pairs before correcting in order to incorporate some speaking.

To make it even more communicative, higher-level students can pair up and each read half the story aloud to the other, then try to answer the questions together.

If students are reading out loud, you can circulate and correct their pronunciation as needed, or note some common pronunciation errors to go over as a class at the end of the activity.

What are some other ways to make reading lessons interactive that work well for you? It would be great if we could share our preferred methods in the comment section below.

3 Ways to Make Reading Lessons More Interactive  

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<h3>Can you compare or modify a word like &ldquo;unique&rdquo;?</h3>

It was brought to my attention recently that a teacher using our site disagreed with the use of &ldquo;the most unique&rdquo; within one of our lessons. This led me to do a bit of research regarding this &ldquo;unique&rdquo; dilemma.

<h3>What do the style guides think?</h3>

The Chicago Manual of Style (16th ed.) agrees with our subscriber. It states the following:

<blockquote>&ldquo;An adjective that, by definition, describes an absolute state or condition is called incomparable. It cannot take a comparative suffix and cannot be coupled with the comparative terms more, most, less, or least. Nor can it be intensified by words like very, largely, or quite&rdquo; (2010, 226).</blockquote>

On the other hand, the Copyeditor&#39;s Handbook argues that it depends on how you interpret the meaning. It explains this difference in the following way: 

<blockquote>&ldquo;There are also disputes about whether certain adjectives and adverbs are absolute (that is, they cannot be used in the comparative or the superlative and cannot be modified by the intensifier very). As Merriam-Webster&#39;s Dictionary of English Usage points out, each generation of usage experts proposes its list based on its notions of semantics and logic&hellip;Unique also means &lsquo;distinctive&rsquo; or &lsquo;unusual,&rsquo; and these meanings certainly admit comparison and intensification&rdquo; (Einsohn 2011, 370-1).</blockquote>

Both the Merriam-Webster&rsquo;s Collegiate Dictionary and the Oxford Canadian Dictionary agree that &ldquo;unique&rdquo; has two meanings:

<blockquote>1) only one (and therefore can&rsquo;t be modified or compared) 
2) unusual (and therefore can be modified or compared)</blockquote>

So does it all depend on how you interpret the meaning of &ldquo;unique&rdquo;?

<h3>What do others think?</h3>

I recently came across two examples where &ldquo;unique&rdquo; had been modified. I saw a post on my Facebook newsfeed from SfEP (the Society for Editors and Proofreaders in the UK), who posted an article from flavorwire.com entitled &ldquo;Incredibly Unique Bookmobiles around the World.&rdquo; Also, when I was watching American Idol (my guilty pleasure) on April 25, I heard Jimmy Iovine say that the way Freddy Mercury used to sing was &ldquo;so, so unique.&rdquo; Like it or not, modifying and comparing absolute adjectives like &ldquo;unique&rdquo; seems to be commonplace.

<h3>What do I think?</h3>

Personally, I don&#39;t have a problem with using &ldquo;very unique&rdquo; or &ldquo;more/most unique.&rdquo; For example, I would be fine with the following sentence:

<blockquote>&ldquo;Gotye and Kimbra are two artists with very unique singing styles, but I think that Gotye&#39;s style is more unique than Kimbra&rsquo;s.&rdquo;</blockquote>

I fall into the category of people who use &ldquo;unique&rdquo; to mean &ldquo;unusual,&rdquo; so I don&#39;t see anything wrong with emphasizing &ldquo;unique&rdquo; or using it comparatively or superlatively. But since I follow the Chicago Manual of Style when editing for ESL Library, I do feel a bit at odds with this situation.

<h3>What do you think?</h3>

I&#39;d love to hear your thoughts. Would you have a problem using &ldquo;very unique,&rdquo; &ldquo;more unique,&rdquo; or &ldquo;the most unique&rdquo;? Or, if it&#39;s your first time considering this dilly of a pickle, what do you think now? May your days be filled with rainbows and unique-orns,

<h3>&nbsp;</h3>