The oldest of them
Four questions on the two verbs everybody already has.
1. Which is correct?
2. Which is correct?
3. You want to name the listener after say. How?
4. Which of these can take a person directly after it?
Eight sentences, eight verdicts
From a single week of coverage
The company denied misleading customers, and apologised for what it called "an unclear description".
The regulator accused the company of misleading customers, and criticised it for the delay in responding.
A former director admitted to signing the document, but insisted on being described as a witness rather than a participant.
The chair urged the board to publish the review in full, and warned them that a summary would not satisfy anybody.
Two employees confessed to deleting files, and blamed a manager for instructing them to.
The report recommended publishing the correspondence, and suggested that the board should meet weekly until it was done.
The company promised to respond within a fortnight, and offered to fund an independent audit.
Nobody has yet explained to the customers why the description was there in the first place.
Eight verbs from those sentences. Match each to the shape it demands.
Six patterns, and which verbs live in them
The patterns
| Pattern | Verbs | Example |
|---|---|---|
| V + that | say, claim, argue, admit, deny, insist, reveal, confirm, add, note, concede, maintain, allege, point out, explain | The trust confirmed that the unit would close. |
| V + somebody + that | tell, warn, remind, assure, inform, convince, promise | She warned them that a summary would not be enough. |
| V + to + infinitive | promise, offer, refuse, threaten, agree, claim, decide | The company offered to fund an audit. |
| V + somebody + to + infinitive | advise, ask, tell, urge, warn, remind, persuade, encourage, order, invite | The chair urged the board to publish it. |
| V + -ing | deny, suggest, recommend, propose, mention, report, admit | The company denied misleading customers. |
| V (+ somebody) + preposition + -ing | accuse sb of, blame sb for, congratulate sb on, criticise sb for, thank sb for; apologise for, insist on, object to, confess to, admit to | The regulator accused the company of misleading customers. |
Three traps worth naming.
1 · say and explain never take a person directly. Say to me, explain to me. say me, explain me.
2 · suggest and recommend never take a person directly either. He suggested me to apply. Say He suggested that I apply or He suggested applying. That is Unit 20, still true.
3 · some verbs sit in two patterns with a meaning shift. Admit doing is an act; admit that is a proposition. Insist on doing is about your own behaviour; insist that is about a claim.
Rewrite each sentence using the word given, keeping the meaning. Between three and six words.
"You misled your customers," the regulator told the company. ACCUSED
"I didn’t sign anything," she said. DENIED
"You should publish it in full," the chair said to the board. URGED
"I’m sorry the reply took so long," he said. APOLOGISED
"It was the manager who told us to do it," they said. BLAMED
"We will respond within a fortnight," the company said. PROMISED
Five questions.
1. Which is correct?
2. Which is correct?
3. Which is correct?
4. She admitted ___ the email.
5. They insisted ___ the meeting themselves.
Verb and shape together
Eight gaps. Some are the verb; some are the shape it demands.
The regulator accused the company its customers, and criticised it slowly. The company denied anybody, and apologised an unclear description. A former director admitted the document but insisted described as a witness. The board the chief executive to publish the review, and she to do so within a fortnight.
Eight sentences. Seven contain an error; one is correct.
1. She suggested me to speak to the regulator.
2. They accused the company to hide the report.
3. He apologised the delay.
4. The chair urged the board to publish it in full. — correct as written
5. She explained me why the figures had changed.
6. The company denied to have misled anybody.
7. They blamed the manager to instruct them.
8. He said me that the review was finished.
Verb bank relay
Task card · Speaking · Pairs · 8 minutes, fast
A describes a situation in one line. B reports it in one sentence, using a verb from the bank, within five seconds.
Twenty exchanges. Swap roles every five.
- Bank: claim · admit · deny · insist · accuse · blame · urge · warn · apologise · promise · concede · allege · recommend · confirm · reveal.
- B must get the shape right as well as the verb. Five seconds.
- A may challenge the verb once per round: "why that one?" B answers in a sentence or downgrades to said.
- Keep a note of which verbs stalled. They are the ones whose pattern you have not stored.
Why five seconds. With longer, you assemble the pattern from the table, which you can already do. Five seconds only lets through a verb whose shape is stored with it — which is the same argument as Unit 20, in a field where the stakes are higher, because here the wrong verb also asserts something about a person.
Which verbs stalled
Two questions.
1. Which pattern produced most of the stalls?
2. Why is that pattern the hardest?
The verb brings its shape
Two questions. Twenty seconds.
1. Which three verbs never take a person directly after them?
2. Can you work out a reporting verb’s pattern from its meaning?
Next. Backshift with modals — which ones move, which ones cannot, and the question of whether to shift at all.