Your two against the log
Read out your two errors. Your teacher will say whether each one is in the log, and how many times something like it happened.
One question before we open the log.
1. You said goed in Lesson 5, and you know perfectly well it is went. Why did it happen?
The log
From Lesson 5 — verbatim
1. We goed there every summer.
2. I stayed for six weeks.
3. Did you went back?
4. My grandmother didn't spoke for a week.
5. The river flood-ed in 1994. — three syllables
6. He taked the bus.
7. I was nine and I thought it was wonderful.
8. We walk-id up the hill every evening.
Read all eight before answering.
1. How many are completely correct?
2. Sentences 1 and 6 fail for the same reason. Which?
3. Sentences 3 and 4 fail for a different reason. Which?
4. Sentences 5 and 8 are not grammar errors at all. What are they?
Four families, four fixes
What went wrong, and the one-line rule that fixes it
| Family | What it sounds like | The rule |
|---|---|---|
| Regularised irregular | Thirty verbs refuse -ed. Learn them in the six groups, not as a list. | |
| Double-marked past | Marked once per clause. If did has it, the verb goes bare. | |
| Extra syllable | /ɪd/ only after /t/ or /d/. Everywhere else it is one syllable. | |
| Missing syllable | After /t/ or /d/ the syllable is compulsory. |
Families 2 and 3 are Unit 1 again. "Marked once per clause" is the third-person -s rule; "voiced or voiceless decides the ending" is the /s/ /z/ /ɪz/ rule. You are not learning four new things. You are applying two old ones to a new tense.
Match each log sentence to its family. One of them is not an error at all.
Repair, then produce
The log errors plus four more of the same families. Rewrite each one in full.
1. We goed there every summer.
2. He taked the bus at six.
3. Did you went back?
4. My grandmother didn't spoke for a week.
5. I bringed my camera.
6. She didn't wanted to leave.
7. They buyed the house in 2006.
8. Where did you grew up?
No visible errors this time. One word per gap — write the past simple of the verb in brackets.
We (go) back to the village last spring. Nobody (recognise) us. The shop (close) in 2009 and the school (become) a holiday flat. We (walk) up to the house and my mother (not / want) to knock. We (stand) at the gate for ten minutes and then we (leave).
The same three minutes, clean
Task card · Speaking
The same place, the same four sections, the same three minutes.
Fewer than three errors from the four families. Your teacher logs again, so the two logs compare directly.
- Do not slow down to be accurate. Accuracy at normal speed is the target — slowing down proves nothing.
- Keep the same four sections. This is a repair, not a rewrite.
- Ask for the number before you hear the sentences.
Stop at ninety seconds.
1. Which family is still slipping?
2. Compared with Lesson 5?
Two logs
Compare the counts your teacher just read.
1. Did the number go down?
2. Which one error will you watch for when you write next lesson?
One sentence to keep
Rebuild the sentence that holds both halves of the once-per-clause rule.
Before Lesson 7. Next lesson you write 120 words: "A Place That Matters to Me". Tonight, decide your four sections and write nothing else.
Four section headings, four words each at most. If you write sentences tonight you will copy them out tomorrow, and copying is not writing.