Adjective to Describe Personality and Appearance – Two Activities and a Matching Game

Previously I shared several ideas for speaking activities on fashion and appearance which can be found here.

In this post I want to concetrate on the vocabulary to describe appearance and personality. All three activities have been desined for B2 students and have been successfully used in my classroom.

Adjectives to describe clothes activity

Adjectives to describe appearance activity

The first activity is picture based and is aimed at introducing or reviewing adjectives to describe clothes. Check it out in a slideshow below.

Students need to choose the correct adjectives to describe the clothes in each of the pictures. Sometimes more than one adjective can be used to describe a picture.

The next activity is aimed at reviewing the adjectives to describe appearance, the task of the students is to complete the sentences with the correct adjective from the box.

And finally a matching game with compound adjectives.

You can read the description below or download it here together with the cards: Compound Adjectives To Describe personality and Appearance – Matching Game

Cmpound Adjectives To Describe personality and Appearance  – Matching Game
Aim:	To practice compound adjectives related to personality and appearance
Interaction:	Individually or in groups of up to 3 students
Exercise type:	Matching
Language:	B2
Time:	7-12 minutes
Materials:	A set of cut up cards for a person or for a group
Procedure:	Cut up the cards along the dotted lines. Give each student a set of cards (for an individual activity) or hand out one set of cards for a group of students (for a group activity). Set a time limit for the students to match the cards to make compound adjectives (see the answers). An online stopwatch can be of help to keep track of the time: www.online–stopwatch.com Award extra points to the student or the group of students who are the first to complete the puzzle. Have Fun!

Have fun learning and leading in the classroom! 🙂

Grammar with comics and jokes: Comparative and superlative degrees of adjectives + comic-strip style exercise

In this post we will learn comparative and superlative degrees of adjectives.

And before we start let’s meet Josh. He is very young. He is only three years old.

Josh has a baby sister who is even smaller. Her name is Betty and she is only 11 months old. She is almost 2 years younger than Josh.

Betty and Josh have a baby cousin. Her name is Lina and she is only 1 month old. She is the youngest of all.   When we compare two things we add  ER to the adjective.

When we want to describe something that has the highest degree of a quality among three or more things, we use the superlative degree.

Try to do this one. Can you form a comparative and superlative degree of COLD?

Easy, isn’t it?

So what would be the comparative degree of smart?

Can you form the superlative?

When an adjective is short, we add ER and the EST to it, but do we do the same if an adjective is long? Can we say “comfortabler”? What a mouthful! It is too hard to say. That’s why if an adjective has two or more syllables, don’t use ER and EST.

We use MORE + adj to compare two things.

And THE MOST + adj in the superlative degree.

Can you form the comparative degree of difficult?

More difficult! And the superlative degree is “the most difficult”. Easy, isn’t it?

And how about famous? This word has two syllables: “Fa-mous”. The majority of two syllable words form their comparative and superlative degrees with more and the most. So what is the comparative degree of Famous?

More famous! Can you form the superlative as well? Of course, it is the most famous!

So when we want to compare 2 things, we use the comparative degree of adjectives.When we have 3 or more things and we want to highlight one particular thing in this group which has the highest degree of a certain characteristic, we use the superlative degree.If an adjective is short and has only one syllable, we add ER to the adjective in the comparative form and the EST in the superlative. Some two-syllable adjectives also form comparatives and superlatives with ER and EST. However, if the word is long and has two or more syllables, we add MORE in front of the adjective in the comparative and THE MOST in the superlative degree. We can also use LESS and THE LEAST. They are the opposites of more and the most.

Now some adjectives can be tricky when it comes to spelling.For example, try to form the comparative and the superlative degree of BIG. Since it is a very short one-syllable word we will use ER and the EST.

And we will get BIGGER. But notice that the final G is doubled. This always happens when the word ends in a Consonant – vowel – consonant sequence (CVC adjectives). We double the final consonant in order to keep the pronunciation.

Now can you form the superlative form?

The BIGGEST. We will need to double the G once again.

Now try this one. Once again it is a short one-syllable word and we need to add ER and the EST, but like in the previous example here we have a consonant followed by a vowel and another consonant.

So we need to double the T and we will get WETTER. And what will be the superlative degree?

The WETTEST with double T once again.

CVC adjectives are not the only adjectives with a little bit tricky spelling in comparative and superlative degrees.For example, take a look at EASY. It is also a short adjective that forms its comparative and superlative forms with ER and the EST. Can you notice the pattern? What has changed in the comparative degree? The “Y” has changed to “I”. Can you form the superlative degree? How will you spell it?

It will be “THE EASIEST” with an “I” instead of the “Y”.

What about friendly? What are its comparative and superlative degrees?It is one of those two-syllable adjectives that form comparative degrees with ER and the EST but be careful with spelling.

One-syllable and some two-syllable adjectives ending in “E” add only “-R” or “-ST”.For example, look at “SAFE”. Can you form the superlative degree?

It will be “THE SAFEST” with only one “E”.

So, remember that one-syllable and some two-syllable adjectives ending in “E” add only “-R” or the     “-ST” in the comparative and in the superlative.Adjectives ending in “Y” drop “Y” and add “I” before -ER and the -EST.CVC-adjectives double the final consonant.

There are also several adjectives that form their comparative degrees differently. You need to memorize these forms.For example, “GOOD” in its comparative form becomes “BETTER”.

And in the superlative it is “THE BEST”.

“BAD” also changes differently in the comparative and in the superlative degree. Do you know its forms? In the comparative form it becomes “WORSE”. And in the superlative it becomes “THE WORST”. “FAR” also has irregular comparative and superlative forms. There are several more adjectives in this group. For now try to remember these three irregular forms and we will learn more as we go.       This is also available as a grammar slideshow from Slideshare. Please, like, comment and share if you enjoyed this post, so that I can create more of what you like and find of use. Smiles 🙂

You can also hear me going through the slideshow in a video that was made for the university I am currently teaching at.

Relative Pronouns with comics and jokes: who, which, that, when and where

We use relative clauses to provide more information about a person, a thing or a place.

We use WHO to give more information about people.

We use WHICH when we want to provide more information about a thing.

We can use THAT instead of WHO  or WHICH.

We use WHERE for places.

And WHEN for time.

NB! When we add more information about something by using a relative clause, we use the article THE, not a/an

Also notice that we put the relative pronouns immediaty after the noun about which we are giving more information.

If you want to see all this gathered together and more, then check the  grammar s-show below that I created for my B1 students. I used comic strips and jokes to explain and to illustrate  the use of relative clauses and relative pronouns. As always, at the end of the slideshow there is an exercise to practice the skills and to check understanding.

You can also hear me going through the slideshow in a video that was made for the university I am currently teaching at.

To Like and To Be Like

“What does she like?” and “What is she like?”

These two questions can be very confusing for learners. This slideshow will  bring some clarity to the use of “To Like” and “To Be Like”.

The slideshow also includes an exercise to practice the skills and to check the understanding.

You can also hear me going through the slideshow in the video that was made for the university where I am currently teaching:

USED TO for past habits and routines

I made this slideshow to explain the use of USED TO to my B1 students, it seemed to help them quite a bit.

The slideshow also includes a gap-fill exercise to practise the skills.

You can also hear me going through the slideshow in the video that was made for the university where I am currently teaching:

Using too much/too many, (not) enough and very

Being able to express the reason, cause and result of actions is essential in any language. In English we use too, (not) enough, very, too many and too much for this purpose and they can be pretty confusing for learners. The following slideshow clearly explains the difference between them and includes a gap-filling exercise to practice the use of each in real context.

You can also hear me going through the slideshow in the video that was made for the university where I am currently teaching:

Conditional sentences, type 0, 1 and 3 – Grammar game

CONDITIONAL BATTLE FIELD
Aim	To practise the use of conditional sentences type 0, 1 and 2
Interaction	Groups of 3, 4 or 5 students
Exercise type:	Filling in the gaps, correcting mistakes
Language:	B1
Time:	15 – 25 minutes
Materials:	A marker and a whiteboard, a set of question cards for the class.
Procedure:	Project on a whiteboard a slide with a 4*5 grid in which each cell is numbered in order from 1 to 20. Alternatively, you can draw a 4*5 grid on a board and number each of its cells. Cut up the questions handout so that each card features one question. Divide the class into teams of three or four. Each team needs to select an easy-to-draw symbol (a circle, a star a triangle, a smiley face) or a letter to represent them. Tell the students that the 20-square board is a piece of land that they  are  trying to conquer. In order to conquer each piece of land the students need to correctly answer a question on the card. The teams decide the order in which they will play the game (for this purpose, the students can roll dice, play rock-paper-scissors game, or draw pieces of paper with numbers corresponding to the number of teams). Each of the teams draws a question card from the pile, collaboratively, the teams decide on an answer. Allow a certain amount of time then, ask each of the teams to read their question card aloud to the class and to suggest an answer. If the question is answered correctly, the team can draw their symbol in the square corresponding to the number of the question. If the answer if incorrect, the teacher collects the question card without giving the correct answer and puts the card at the bottom of the pile, later this card has to be drawn again by one of the teams. The game is over when all question cards have been answered. The team that manages to put their symbol in the greatest number of squares, wins.

The game is available from download from Slideshare and here >>>  CONDITIONAL BATTLE FIELD

Conditional Sentences – Grammar Game

The aim of the game is to practice the use of conditional sentences type 0, 1 , 2, and 3 as well as mixed conditionals.

The game is designed for upper-intermediate students, but you can easily modify the questions.

The game includes three types of questions:

1. Filling in the gaps, where players need to put the verbs in brackets in the correct form (Fill category);

2. Finding and correcting mistakes. Each sentence in this category has a mistake or two in the use of conditional sentences, the task is to find the mistake(s) and to correct it/them (Fix category);

3. Choosing the most suitable option out of two (Choose category).

The game has a main screen with a Jeopardy board, the students select the type of question and its value (more difficult questions value more) and click on a corresponding button.

This will take a student to a question slide. When the students give their answer, click on the question mark button in the bottom righ-hand corner, this will take you to an answer screen.

On the answer screen, click on the house icon to return to the main screen with the jeopady board.

Have fun learning and teaching!

Click here to download the editable Conditional Sentences Grammar Game > Conditional Sentences Jeopardy 1, 2, 3

Conditional Sentences Type 0, type 1 and type 2 + exercises

The slideshow covers the cases of use and the structure of Conditional sentences type 0, type 1 and type 2, it also explains the differences between each type and includes a gap-fill exercise to practice all three types of conditional sentences.

And here is another comics-style exercise to practice the use of conditional sentences type 2 (unreal present, regrets about the present).

And here is a matching exercise to practice the use of conditional sentences type 0, 1 and 2.  You need to  match the phrases on the left with the phrases on the right to make sentences. You also need to put the verbs in brackets into the correct form to make conditional sentences type 0, 1 or 2. 

You can cut it up for bodily-kinesthetic learners so that they can move the parts of the sentences and line them up on the table to make conditionals.

The hand out is available for download from slideshare and from here >>

 

Phrasal verbs with TAKE and GIVE + exercise

The slideshow covers 6 phrasal verbs with TAKE and GIVE and includes exercises to practice them.

The presentation covers the following phrasal verbs:

take over

take up

take back

give back

give in

give up

The phrasal verbs are introduced with the help of comics and the built-in exercises will get the students thinking and applying these phrasal verbs in real context.