English Language JSS 1
Week 5
Contents:
Phonemes II : Diphthong
Part of Speech : Verb
Diphthong
A diphthong is a combination of two vowel sounds, one after the other. There is movement or “glide” between the two parts of the sound. For example, to say the /eɪ/ diphthong, like in the word “cake” (/keɪk/) first say /e/, then say /ɪ/ without stopping. Your mouth will move from the /e/ shape to the /ɪ/ shape. This is the “glide”.
Diphthongs of English
/ɪə/ as in beer
/eɪ/ as in same
/ʊə/ as in tour
/ɔɪ/ as in coin, boy
/əʊ/ as in nose
/eə/ as in hair
/aɪ/ as in fly
/aʊ/ as in mouse
Part of Speech: Verb
A Verb is an action or a doing word. More exactly, it tells us what someone or something is, does or experiences.
Examples:
Uche opens bottles with his teeth – Opens (verb) : It explains what Uche is doing.
Shade likes gospel music – Likes (verb) : It is saying something about Shade
The dog bit the girl – Bit (verb): It answers the question – What did the dog do?
The Plural forms of Verbs
– Most verbs just add s:
work – works, drive – drives, play – plays, talk – talks.
– Verbs ending in o add es:
go – goes, do -does
– Verbs ending in s, ch or sh also add es:
miss – misses, watch – watches, wash – washes
– Verbs ending in consonants followed by y change to ies:
cry – cries, bury – buries, try – tries
Note: Not all will change to ies.
Examples: buy – buys, say – says, obey – obeys.
Auxiliary Verbs and Lexical Verbs
An auxiliary verb (also known as a helping verb) determines the mood or tense of another verb in a phrase: “It will rain tonight.” The primary auxiliaries are be, have, and do. The modal auxiliaries include can, could, may, must, should, will, and would.
A lexical verb (also known as a full or main verb) is any verb in English that isn’t an auxiliary verb: it conveys a real meaning and doesn’t depend on another verb: “It rained all night.”
Finite Verbs and Non-finite Verbs
A finite verb expresses tense and can occur on its own in a main clause: “She walked to school.”
A non-finite verb (an infinitive or participle) doesn’t show a distinction in tense and can occur on its own only in a dependent phrase or clause: “While walking to school, she spotted a blue jay.”
Regular Verbs and Irregular Verbs
A regular verb (also known as a weak verb) forms its past tense and past participle by adding -d or -ed (or in some cases -t) to the base form: “We finished the project.” (See Forming the Past Tense of Regular Verbs.)
An irregular verb (also known as a strong verb) doesn’t form the past tense by adding -d or -ed: “Hanifa ate the wrapper on her candy bar.” (See Introduction to Irregular Verbs in English.)
Exercise
Identify the verbs in the sentences below
1. Where did Tony go?
2. My hair loosened a while ago.
3. Please can I leave ?
4. The rain drenched me.
5. Who let the cat out of the bag?
Give the plural forms of these verbs
1. walk
