Monthly Archives: March 2008

12 most frequent verbs in English

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According to the Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English (1999) the list of the top 10 verbs of the English language is:

  • Number 10.Want (voler). Just a normal, regular verb.
  • Number 9.Take (agafar). The first irregular verb in the list!
  • Number 8. Come (venir). Irregular!
  • Number 7. Make (fer). Irregular too!
  • Number 6. See (veure). Erm… irregular again? Yes!!
  • Number 5. Think (pensar). Irregular, yes!
  • Number 4.  Know (conèixer) Yet another irregular verb.
  • Number 3. …
  • Number 2. …
  • Number 1. …

Can you guess these three verbs? Send me your comments and see if you win this little competition. Oh, one clue: it’s not ‘to be’ nor ‘to have’ and they are all irregular verbs!

Past simple or present perfect?

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Past simple or present perfect? That’s a difficult situation in some sentences. In the introduction to unit 7 I gave you a list of words that can immdediately tell you if you need a past simple or a present perfect. They are the following:

PAST SIMPLE
 PRESENT PERFECT
AGO (… 5 years ago = fa cinc anys) FOR (… for two months = durant dues setmanes)
IN + time reference (… in August, in 2004, in winter) SINCE (… since 2005 = des del 2005)
YESTERDAY (ahir) YET (encara no)
LAST (… last week = la setmana passada) JUST (tot just, acabar de)
  ALREADY (ja)
  EVER? (algun cop?)
  0 (cap paraula)

However, as you learn more and more English, you might find examples of sentences that contradict this rule. Don’t worry. Languages are complex and full of exceptions.

Practice what you know with these activities:

Results for 3rd ESO A grade

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Unfortunately, results haven’t been as good as expected. Out of 22 students, there are:

  • 10 failed students.
  • 6 students with a 5 (phew!)
  • 5 students with a 6.
  • Only 1 student with a 7, the highest result in the class.

The class average is 4,6 and it can be subdivided in:

  • 3,5 exams.
  • 4,5 dossiers and projects.
  • 5,8 class attitude.

However, these results include those from students who do not come to the classroom, something which distorts the average results of the students who do come to school every day.

3rd ESO C Grade results

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The results for the second term are very similar to those from the first term.

  • There have been 5 people out of 24 who have failed English language. These 5 people are the same people who failed the first term except for one boy, who had a 5 and now only a 4,
  • 9 people got a 5,
  • 5 people got a ,
  • Only 4 students got a 7.

The class average is 5,51 and it can be subdivided in:

  • Exams: 4,7
  • Dossiers and projects: 6,1
  • Class attitude: 6,4

These results  show that, whereas students are working very hard this year and their dossiers are complete and correct, the exams are still under 5 and should improve.