Spot it in the wild
Tell your teacher about one thing a character in Friends always does. One sentence, out loud, now.
Listen to your own sentence as you say it. Did you put an -s on the verb?
Three sentences from real A2 students. Each one is missing the same thing. Fix it.
1. My sister work in a bank.
2. He never eat breakfast.
3. The train leave at seven.
Same routine, two people
Two versions of one text. Read them side by side and find every single difference.
Version A — Bea talking about herself
I finish work at five. I catch the 5.20 train and I get home at six. I cook, I watch one episode of something, and I go to bed early. I do not go out during the week. I miss my friends, but I need the sleep.
Version B — her flatmate talking about Bea
She finishes work at five. She catches the 5.20 train and she gets home at six. She cooks, she watches one episode of something, and she goes to bed early. She does not go out during the week. She misses her friends, but she needs the sleep.
Compare the two versions carefully before you answer. Every answer is visible on the page.
1. Most verbs in Version B just add -s. But three add -es. Which three?
2. What do finish, catch and miss have in common at the end?
3. Version A has I do not go out. Version B has She does not go out. Where is the -s?
4. Say cooks, needs and watches out loud. How many different sounds does the final -s have?
One letter, two rules, three sounds
Spelling first, because it is finite. Then pronunciation, because it is physical.
Spelling
| If the verb ends in… | Add | Example |
|---|---|---|
| most sounds | -s | work → works · get → gets · live → lives |
-s -sh -ch -x -z | -es | miss → misses · finish → finishes · watch → watches |
consonant + -y | -ies | study → studies · carry → carries |
vowel + -y | -s only | play → plays · buy → buys (not |
go · do | -es | goes · does |
have | irregular | has |
Write the third-person form of the verb in brackets. Spelling counts here — this is the one activity in the unit where it does.
My neighbour (teach) at the university. She (study) Japanese in the evenings and she (play) the cello badly. Her husband (do) all the cooking, because she (have) no interest in it at all. He (try) new recipes every weekend. She (go) to the gym instead, and she (finish) at nine.
Pronunciation — three endings, decided by the sound before
| Sound before | You say | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| voiceless: /p t k f θ/ | /s/ | stops · gets · cooks · laughs |
| voiced: vowels, /b d g v m n l r/ | /z/ | plays · needs · lives · runs |
| hissing/hushing: /s z ʃ tʃ dʒ/ | /ɪz/ — a whole extra syllable | misses · watches · finishes · changes |
Test it with your hand. Put two fingers on your throat and say cooks, then needs. Needs buzzes; cooks does not. That buzz is the whole rule — you do not have to memorise the sound lists, you have to feel them.
Brazilian speakers, note: Portuguese has no word-final consonant cluster like -sks or -nds, so asks and needs want to become askis and needis. Say them short. No vowel at the end.
Say each verb aloud — with your fingers on your throat — and match it to the sound its ending actually makes.
/s/ — no buzz, no extra syllable/z/ — buzzes, no extra syllable/ɪz/ — a whole extra syllable/s/ — after a /p//z/ — after an /n//ɪz/ — after an /s/Under pressure
Six sentences, six errors, all of them about the third person. Rewrite each sentence in full.
1. She study medicine in Porto.
2. My father have two brothers.
3. He doesn't works on Fridays.
4. The bus arrive at ten past.
5. My mother watch the news every night.
6. Does she lives near you?
One word per gap. Some gaps need an auxiliary, some need a verb form — decide which before you write.
My flatmate (get) up before me every day. She not eat breakfast — she just (have) coffee. your flatmate do that too? Mine (leave) at seven, and she never (make) any noise. I do not know how she (do) it.
Someone else's day
Task card · Speaking
Describe one person you live with, or lived with, for ninety seconds.
Every sentence in the third person. Your teacher counts the -s endings you drop — the target is fewer than three.
- Say what they do for work, what time they get up, what they eat, what they never do.
- Include one negative: She doesn't… — and remember which word carries the -s there.
- Include one question to your teacher at the end: Does your… ?
Before you speak, build one model sentence. Put the parts in order.
Your number
Your teacher has the count. Answer before you hear it.
1. How many -s endings do you think you dropped in ninety seconds?
2. When you did drop one, what was happening?
One sound to carry
Last thirty seconds. Match the verb to its ending sound.
/z//ɪz//s/Informal input, before Lesson 4. One more Easy Stories in English episode. This time count how many times the narrator uses a third-person verb in the first five minutes. Write the number down — that is the whole homework.