Aug 26
English Assignment #3
I’m teaching English online. If you’re a native speaker, you can help out by listening/reading the passage below and answering the questions that come after it. If you’re learning, I invite you to do the same. You might find the explanation helpful.
- I didn’t have a good day today. I went to a party last night, and drank a lot. I stayed out until late. I woke up later than usual, and ran to work in my pajamas. I arrived at work late, and my boss told me off for being in my pajamas. I was so tired that I fell asleep at my desk, and didn’t write the report that I was supposed to.
- As you can see, I did a lot of things wrong. (I went to a party. I drank a lot. I got up late. And a lot of other things.)
- What should I have done differently?
Put your answers in a reply to this post! Thanks! And if you’re not sure how to answer, I’ll give a short explanation in a moment.
My answers: You shouldn’t have gotten up late. You should have used an alarm clock. You should have written the report earlier.
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Need help? Look at this:
To answer these questions, you’ll need to use this sentence pattern:
- You shouldn’t have (verb). You should have (verb).
The (verb) in each case must be a past participle. Most past participles are the same as simple past, but there are some exceptions.
Verb – Past – Past Participle
drink – drank – drunk
do – did – done
go -went – gone
write – wrote – written
get – got – gotten* (see below for more on this verb)
Thanks for listening. And if you have problems with past participles, don’t worry, they’re quite difficult. I’ve heard non- native English speakers from all over the world who can pass for natives, if not for their incorrect use of past participles. So if you have trouble, you’re not alone.
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*I always teach my students that the past participle of “got” is “gotten”. But in this very video I used “got” as the past participle of “got”. More and more “gotten” has gone out of use… or was it just me?
Which sounds correct:
I shouldn’t have gotten that, it was too expensive.
I shouldn’t have got that, it was too expensive.
August 27th, 2008 at 6:41 am
Max, you even confused me. But, let’s see if I can do this.
1.) You shouldn’t have had so much to drink. You should have limited yourself.
2.) You should have gone to bed earlier.
3.) Since you woke up late and in a frazzle, you should have called in to let them know you weren’t coming or to tell them you were late.
4.) You should have prepared better for your report.
5.) You should have drank some coffee to wake yourself up.
Hope that helped. If you needed something else, let me know and I’ll correct it ^^
August 27th, 2008 at 6:42 am
Oh yeah, forgot this. “Gotten” sounds better.