English Language and Grammar - Verbs

1. Introduction to verbs: Hello, and welcome to this skill share costs on verbs. But in this course, we'll be looking at various aspects of verbs, different types of verbs, verb categories will look at regular verbs or irregular verbs. What makes irregular verbs irregular? How irregular verbs are treated, how regular verbs are treated. We also look at the active and passive voice and how that changes verbs. And related to that. We also look at transitive and intransitive verbs. You'll see all the lessons on all of these and everything will be explained with plenty of examples. And then the last thing we look at the so-called auxiliary verbs. And then the final lesson in this is a large lesson on modal verbs, which are very important part of the English language. As with all skill share courses, there is a project with this course, so feel free to try out the new knowledge and if you upload your answers, I'll check them for you and give you feedback on your answers. Hoping joy that course. 2. Verb categories: This lesson is all about verb categories. But verbs can be sorted into several different categories. And some verbs can be found in more than one category depending on how we use them. The common ones that we'll look at in this lecture are action verbs, stative verbs, light verbs, phrasal verbs, conditional verbs, causative verbs, fact stative verbs, and reflexive verbs. We'll look at examples of all of those individually now, to action verbs, or sometimes known as dynamic verbs, describe an active process. Now in all of these examples, the verbs that we're talking about there being put in italics to make them easier to spot. That the boy talked with his parents about school options. To jogged for over an hour. Peta is driving to work this week. Mary read a book about time travel. The drummer performed a fantastic solo during the concert. Peter swore when he hit his thumb with a hammer. Now this has got to action verbs in it says two that have been italicized. And you also know that they're not tense dependent. There can be past tense, present tense. Future tense is really the verb, not the detonation of a that is important thing. And stative verbs describe a subject state of being. A Tony looked pleased with himself. Debbie sounds annoyed. And I can also express emotions, possessions, or qualities. Lucy adores her dog. He owns five houses. The sunset was spectacular. Light verbs have very little meaning on their own, and they require other word or words to become meaningful. And common examples include do, have, get, make, and take. You need to do your homework first. Grandad is having his afternoons snooze now. I get a lot of emails every day. Can you make an exception this time? Please take off your dirty shoes. And you'll see all of these examples. We need the extra information to give meaning to. The verbs are in italics on their own. They, they tell us nothing. Phrasal verbs. Combine the verb with other things, such as prepositions to make a unique meaning phrase. And often used in an idiomatic way. For the plane took off on time. Are you going to give up so easily? Jane now looks after her mother. Slow down, I can't keep up with you. And in all these examples, the preposition has also been put in italics to make it easier to spot. So conditional verbs are used in conditional sentences to describe a result that depends on a condition. And if you heat ice, it will melt. I will do the dishes if you cook the meal. If I had studied harder, I would've passed the exam. Now we have a whole section on conditionals where we look at all the different conditional types individually. So please refer to that section if you need more information on conditionals. The causative verbs show that something is causing something else to happen. And they usually followed by a noun or a pronoun and an infinitive verb. And this infinitive verb is the action that was caused. And common causative verbs are make, let, and have. And my parents are making me take violin lessons. My uncle, let me taste HIS whiskey. Peter had the house painted last week. In fact, stative verbs indicate the condition or state that results from the action of the verb. And they help us to answer the question of how something was changed or how something happened. Last year, the members elected him president of the club. The jury, judge, the defendant, not guilty. But for him. The coach may Tom, the team captain, committee appointed Jane, club treasurer. And reflexive verbs are those where the subject is also their own direct object. So the action is both committed by and received by the same person. And we often use reflexive pronouns here. And the accidentally burned himself while cooking. So the reflexive pronoun hears himself. And this shows us that he was the one who got burned and not somebody else. If it wasn't the reflexive pronoun, it would be andy accidentally burned him while cooking. And the hymn would refer to somebody else. June pointed to herself in the mirror, and again herself as the reflexive pronoun. And it was June. June pointed to and not somebody else. I usually shave in the bathroom. Now here the Myself is in brackets because it's fairly clear that I mean, myself and so it can be admitted. And in a similar way, I wish the children would come down a bit, calm themselves down as implied, and therefore not necessary. 3. Regular verbs: This lesson is all about regular verbs. And irregular verbs are known as regular verbs because they all have the same way of forming the present participle, the past tense, and the past participle. And these are formed from the base of the verb. And you get to the base of the verb by taking the verb and subtracting the word two from it to give you the base. And the base form is also used when forming the present tense. But we'll see examples of all of these. For the present participle is formed by adding I-N-G to the base form. And depending on how the base form ends, it might be necessary to make a minor modification. The past tense is formed by adding D or E, d to the base form. And if the base form engine and E, we only added d to it. And the past participle is formed in the same way as the past tense. Let's take the word to play as our first example. Though, from the verb to play, the bass form is then play. The present participle is therefore playing. I, the boy is playing in the garden. The past tense is then played. So the base form plus ED, the boy played in the garden. And as we said earlier, the past participle is the same as the past tense. So it has also played. The boy had played in the garden. And we look at the verb to dance as our second example, the base form is then Dance. Present participle is dancing. And because it ends in an E, We take the E away before adding I-N-G. The girl is dancing in her room. To the past tense is danced. A girl danced in her room. And here we only added the d because the base form already ends in e. The past participle is also dance the same as the past tense for regular verbs. The girl had danced in her room. When we form the present tense, we use the same as the base form except for third person singular, which is he, she and it. And in those cases we add an S to the base form. For i. We, you, they play B s0, it plays. Or I, we, you, or they dance. He, she, or it dances. And this is basically all we have to say for regular verbs. The good news is, is that regular verbs are regular. So that always behave as we've seen. The bad news is it's not always easy to tell when a verb is regular or irregular. It is one of those cases where you have to see it, learn it, and use it, and then everything will be fine and you'll understand it. 4. Irregular verbs: This lesson is on irregular verbs. Even though the verbs are irregular, the present participle of irregular verbs, acyl, usually formed by adding I-N-G hits the past tense and past participle that make these verbs irregular. So as this is the case, we will just concentrate on the past tense and past participle here. There are many irregular verbs have the same form for both and others have different forms for each. And even some irregular verbs have the same base name, past tense and past participle. And irregular verbs can also differ in the first person singular present tense, and we will see examples of all of these. So many irregular verbs have the same form for both the past tense and past participle. These are just some examples, there are more. So I won't go through and read all of these. Pause the video if you want to check them out. But we'll see that, for instance, bend as the past tense and past participle of bent. And usually when you're doing verbs, you will give them in this audience a bent, bent, bent, greed bread, bread to show base form, past tense, past participle. And other irregular verbs have different forms for the past tense and past participle. And again, these are just some examples. There are many more to eat, ate, and eaten, saw, sought and so on. And again, you might want to pause the video if you want to just have a look all of them. And other irregular verbs have the same form for the base past tense and past participle. And again, just some examples of this. There are others. So here we see the base form of the past tense and past participle for these verbs as examples, where they're all the same. And most irregular verbs still obey this. Add S rule to the third person singular when forming the present tense. I, we you, they bend, he bends. I we you, they seek, he seeks IOU. They eat. She eats. And I we you or they throw free-throws. Ii, we, they let, it lets. And I we, you or they cut, it cuts. And all of these six examples are ones that we saw in the irregular verb blog, but they still behave regularly in the present tense and this is usually the case. Now of course, we have some verbs that do not obey this rule, and it will fail for the third person singular, the he, she or it part. And these are the verbs to have, to do and to go far to have. We have I, we, you and they have fats as it expect. But he has not he halves or I, we, you, they do. She does or not, does Without the E. And similarly with the verb to go, again, we have, it goes with E, S and not just GOMS. And this also applies to variations of these verbs. So to forego to undo, undo, it will be I, we, you, they undo, she undoes. And then we have the mother of all irregular verbs to be. And it's almost irregular in every single aspect of the verb. But fortunately, this is the first verb you learn, and so you tend to get it right from the start, which is a good idea. For the present tense I am. And the past tense II was he she it is, or he, she it was. We, you, they, are. We you, they were in the past tense, all very irregular. Strangely enough, the present participle is being that's regular, That's it. Past participle is bin. 5. Active and passive verbs: This lesson is about the active and passive voice. And we can use verbs with either the active voice or passive voice. And the active voice is when the person or thing performing the verb is also the subject of the sentence. And the passive voice is when the subject is acted upon by the verb. And intransitive verbs cannot be used in the passive voice. But the active voice is generally considered to be the normal voice. And over use of the passive voice is considered to be paused style. And you may not notice this now, but you certainly will by the end of the lesson, that those two last sentences were in the passive voice. Love the irony. To the active voice is when the person or thing performing the verb is also the subject of the sentence. Sounds horribly complicated, but it'll be clear when you see it. And the subject always comes before the verb. So by using the active voice, we make the subject the focus of the sentence. Peter is reading a book, and Peter is a subject. Reading is the verb, and the object is a book. That Peter is performing the action reading. Or Jane ate a healthy salad yesterday. That the subject is Jane, the verb is eight. And it was a salad that she had. A Jain is performing the action eight. I will meet your brother in town tomorrow. The iron, the subject verb is to meet and the object is your brother. But I am performing the action of meeting. And we do sometimes have a situation where the active voice axon itself and is therefore both subject and object. And we sometimes call this the middle voice. And these types of sentences usually have reflexive pronouns. The singer hurt himself on the radio. So the singer is the subject and himself is the object. So he's, he's both ends of the verb if you like. So the Himself is used as the reflexive way. You wouldn't say the singer heard he or him on the radio. If it means Himself. I accidentally bit myself on the inside of my mouth. And again, I am the subject and myself being the object. So it's the middle voice. Or the model checked herself one last time before going on to the catwalk. Again, model is both subject and object. And this is why we use reflexive pronouns here. Now when we form the passive voice, we need a helper verb. We need the verb to be. And we take the past participle form of the verb. To the receiver of the action comes before the verb and the agent comes after the verb. So we sort of swap around subject and object. So the agent, either personal thing, performing the action is preceded by the preposition by. And by using the passive voice, we make the object the focus of the sentence. Or the passive voice, as we said, is when a subject is acted upon by the verb. And the subject would be the direct object in an active voice sentence. And we use the passive voice to make the object the focus of the sentence. If we take this active voice example is parents are always praising him. So the focus is more on his parents. Where if we wish to put the focus on their child, we would say is always being praised by his parents. And that's the passive version. Or a classic example in the active voice. Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated John F Kennedy. But the important thing here is the president, not the guy who did it. So we put this in a passive voice by saying John F Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald. Another time we use the passive voice is when the agent is either unknown, unimportant, or implied. And you'll notice in these examples that the agents are not even mentioned. And we can only do this in the passive device. As a first example of an unknown agent, my wallet was handed into the police station. Now, the thing that's missing is by somebody. We don't know if that if somebody is and we don't even need to know, it's just enough to say my wallet was handed into the police station. We have an unimportant agent. A musical concert was performed at the town hall. Now in this particular case, we're not really concerned with the musicians and who exactly was playing. Obviously the musicians care. But for this sentence, we are not bothered about who played. It's just enough to say that a musical concert was performed at the town hall. We can have an implied agent. So ski equipment is usually sold in the winter months. If you wanted to make it complete, you would say by people working in the shop. But this is kind of implied that this people working in the shop, so we don't need to use it all. As we said at the start, overuse of the passive voice is considered to be paused style. So hopefully now you'll recognize this as a passive voice sentence implied by people who know about these things. So there's no real numbers. A guideline is about, say, about 10% of the sentences in passive voice and all the rest in active voice. It makes the text more dynamic, more interesting to read. There are, of course, cases such as scientific reports and things like that, which relies heavily on the passive voice. Because the thing being done is the important thing, not who did it. So you would say the reagents were mixed? Now, I mix the reagents. It doesn't matter who did it. So you'll see a lot of passive voice and things like technical reports. But for normal texts to try and keep it to at most 10% 6. Transitive and intransitive verbs: This lesson is on transitive and intransitive verbs. Transitive verbs are those that require an object. An intransitive verbs are they do not require or do not have an object. And of course, we have some verbs that can be transitive and intransitive. And we have implications here for the passive voice. That the object answers the question, what or whom did the verb happened to? Look at the example, Peter is reading a book. The book is the, what that Peter is reading. Or Jane ate a healthy salad yesterday. The salad is the what that Jane ate. Or I met your brother in town today. Your brother is the whom I met today. And these are sensible questions and have sensible answers. So that's why it's an, a transitive, because it has an object. If we look at intransitive verbs, the same question doesn't really make sense. Because the action did not happen to anyone or anything. The baby is sleeping. The baby is a subject. The action or verb is sleeping and there is no object. So this question about what or whom is the baby sleeping really doesn't make sense. Similarly, our hamster escaped. The hamsters, a subject escaped Is the action or verb, no object in a sentence. So this question again really makes no sense. And these verbs are then intransitive because they have no object. Now you gotta be a little bit careful because sometimes a verb might seem to be transitive. But instead of a direct object, it has a prepositional phrase that the baby is sleeping in his room. Does that make in his room and object? The baby's a subject is the same, the verb is the same. But it's not an object because his room is the object of the preposition in, and in his room is a prepositional phrase, not an object. Our hamster escaped from its cage. Again, subject hamster. Escape is the action or verb. But does that make from its cage an object? No. It's cage is the object of the preposition from and from its cage is a prepositional phrase, not an object. So some verbs, depending on how we use them, can be seen to be transitive or intransitive, and is sometimes called ambit transitive verbs. Peter read a book. That's transitive is it has an object. Peter read all day is intransitive because all day is not an object, it's an adverb. So here the verb is intransitive. So we can take active voice sentences and rewrite them to put the sentence in the passive voice. But we can only do this with transitive verbs. So here's an example. Peter read the book to put this in a passive voice. The book was read by Peter. Jane ate a healthy salad yesterday. As the active voice. The salad was eaten by Jane yesterday is the passive version of that. Or I will meet your brother in town today. We wanted to put that in the passive voice. Your brother will be met by me in town today. And this is all fine for transitive verbs. And when we come to intransitive verbs, because they have no object, we cannot write them in the passive voice. If we take the example that baby slept for 12 hours. And we've seen here that the 412 hours is not an object. Within say, 12 hours were slept by the baby. Very strange. Or our hamster escaped from its cage. We wouldn't say the cage was escaped by the hamster. And there is a lesson on active and passive voice. And if this is a bit confusing in any way, please check that lesson for more information. 7. Auxiliary verbs: This lesson is all about auxiliary verbs. Auxiliary verbs are sometimes called helper verbs are helping verbs. The main auxiliary verbs are looking at in this lesson, I'll be do and have. Now there are also modal auxiliary verbs, or they have their own lessons, so please refer to that lesson for all information on modal auxiliary verbs. Auxiliary verbs also function as the main verb in a sentence, which sometimes makes them difficult to understand and use. B is used to form the passive voice. Be and have are used as auxiliaries for verb aspects. Do is used to negate main verbs or to ask questions. We look at the passive formation. We use the verb to be John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald. The sharp is usually opened by the manager. Generous donations are being sent to the charity fund. Now for more information on active and passive voice, please see that lesson for more details. I would like to point out though, that in using the passive voice, the verb to be has to be conjugated correctly for the subject. And you can see that in these examples. To be in, to have our users auxiliaries for verb aspects. To B's used to form the continuous aspect is used to form the perfect aspect. And both are used together to form perfect continuous aspects. And again, the verbs must be correctly conjugated. Here. There is a whole section on tensors and aspects, so please refer to that for more information. Look at some examples in this lesson though. To be is used to form the continuous aspect. We need to conjugate the verb correctly for the tensor is being used. Paul was working the night shift last week. That's a past tense sentence. James was not working nights. That's a past tense with a negative. My parents are visiting us now. Present tense, future tense, I will be leaving early tomorrow. Please see the appropriate lessons and the tensors and aspects section. For more information. We use the verb to have to form perfect aspects. We have to correct the conjugate to have for the tens being used. I had worked as a programmer before moving to sales. The past perfect form. Jane has lived in London all her life. That's the present perfect and future perfect example. Don will have finished his report by Thursday. Or if we negate that, Eddie won't have finished his report by then where it won't is the concatenated form of a will not. We used to be into half together. To form the perfect continuous aspects. We need to correct a conjugate these as well. Look at a past perfect continuous. We had been working 14 hours a day. Present. Perfect continuous. Tom has been trying to get in touch with you all week. If we negate the present perfect continuous. Bill hasn't been looking for a new job. Where hasn't is the concatenation of has not been a future perfect continuous example. Next year, Joe will have been working here for 25 years. We use the verb to do, to negate two main verbs. Main verb hasn't already gotten auxiliary verb with it. As we've seen in some of the previous examples, we use to do to negate it. We conjugate the verb to do at a naught and then add the main verb in its base form. So we don't conjugate the main verb anymore. And the verb to be as not a surprise to you isn't exception and can just simply be negated with not. Let's look at some examples of negation. We use to do conjugated plus not, and then the main verb and its base form, unconjugated form. A pizza works in a restaurant. Now if we've said this ad, not Peter works and not in a restaurant, that's just incorrect. And we don't say that. Say Peter does not work in a restaurant, or here the abbreviated form of doesn't work in a restaurant. Another example, penny lived in the city. We just try to add a simple naught. We get penny lived not in the city, which is incorrect. We don't say that to a penny, didn't live in the city. And this is a past tense example. Two, we need Didn't. As we've seen in other places, the verb to be is an exception, or we can simply negate it with a not. A poly is late for work. Poly isn't. Late for work isn't as the concatenation of is a naught. That's the present tense. Look at the past tense. Joan was first in her class. Joan wasn't first in her class, wasn't his was not. The future tense is shown here really just for completeness. The future tenses are formed in a different way. We have done will be here soon, or done won't be here soon. Where won't is the concatenation of will not. We also use due to ask questions. If the main verb hasn't already got an auxiliary verb, as we've seen in previous examples. We use do for the question form. Conjugate and invert the verb to do, and then add the main verb in its base form so we don't conjugate the main verb anymore. And the verb to be is of course an exception. We can simply invert it to make the question we do to ask questions. Peter works in a restaurant. Now if we just try and invert it, I switch around the verb and the subject. We would have Works Peter, in a restaurant and that's just wrong. We don't say that. So we strike through that. I will use, does Peter work in a restaurant? That's a present tense example. A penny lived in the city. If we just try a simple inversion, we get lived penny in the city, which is not correct. We don't say that. I say Did Penny live in the city? And because it's a past tense, we have to make do a did. And of course the verb to be is an exception, and we can simply invert subject and verb to make a question. So past tense example of a statement would be you were here yesterday. And as a question, were you here yesterday? We just swap the first two words around, and that's the inversion. Present example. You are happy. And as a question, Are you happy? Again, a future tense, just for completeness. You will be fine on the day. Will you be fine on the day? 8. Modal verbs: This lesson is all about modal verbs. And just as a warning, it will be a slightly longer lesson. To modal auxiliary verbs to give them their full title. I usually simplified to either modal verbs or sometimes even just modals. And they used to modify the main verb by expressing modality. Some examples of what we mean by modality, our ability and device, desires. Intent, likelihood, obligation offers, permission, possibility, requests, suggestions, or willingness. Again, not an exhaustive list. The modal verbs that will have full modal verbs. These are the complete list and it can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, and wood. And these modal verbs cannot be used in an infinitive form. To would never say, to, could, or too must or to Shaoul. They're not used outweigh. Negative sentence are formed just by adding not after the verb. And the good news is, is it questions can be formed by simple inversion of subject and verb. And we form negative sentences with modal verbs by adding not after the verb. Mary can swim. Peter can't swim. By Kant is the short form of cannot. And please note, cannot. Here is one word. John will help with the housework. Paul won't help with the housework and won't is a short form of will not. I might be late home this evening or putting it another way round. I might not beyond time this evening. And we can form questions with modal verbs by simple inversion. And by inversion we just swapped subject and verb. But Bob can swim. Or as a question, can Bob swim? You should brush your teeth at least twice a day. And this is the answer to the question, how often should I brush my teeth? Or I will help you with your homework. Well, the question, Will you help me with my homework? We use can to express or question and ability. Most modern smartphones can connect to the Internet. Can you swim a length of the pool yet? I can't run very fast. We also use could to indicate or question of past stability. When I was younger, I could eat whatever I wanted and stay slim. Jim couldn't read until he was ten years old and couldn't is could and not together. Could you still keep in touch without social media? There's probably a question, a young child or my ask her grandmother what it was like before the days of social media. And we look at some advice examples. We use should to give advice and also to ask for advice. You should brush your teeth at least twice a day. Should I tell my boss about the missing money? Was asking someone for advice about what to do. We use wood, politely offer advice about something. I would apologize to her if I were you is really suggesting you should apologize, but he's phrasing and a polite way. I think it would be wise to think about your pension now. Again, it's wrapping it in a slightly more polite form, saying to the person, you really should think about your pension now. And we shall to politely asked for advice about a future decision. As in, where shall we begin or Who shall I invite to the party? And we look at desires. We use wood to express or ask about desires. What would you like to do on our anniversary? I would love to go to that new restaurant. And while they're there, I would like my steak medium-rare, please. And we'll use may to express wishes and future wishes in a formal way. May our success continue in the year ahead? May you both have a happy and healthy life together? On RC? May the force be with you? And please notice when we use ME like this, we sort of inverted, although it's not a question. You sort of rhetorically and giving speeches and, and making bold statements. But the fact that it's inverted doesn't make it a question. And if you look at intend, we use must to make intense stronger. I must get my car repaired this week. I must remember my wife's birthday. I must make an appointment with the accountant. Turn all of these examples. I have an intention to do something by saying I must do I wanted to do it kind of strengthens the intent. We have likelihood to use will to express the likelihood of something in the immediate present. So for example, the door bell rings. Oh, that would be Jim. He said Your pop around today. Now it might not be Jim, but you think it probably is. Who is that in the car? Now? That would be Peter's new girlfriend, picking him up from work. And we use wood to express the likelihood of something in the immediate past. Your shoes have been chewed up again? That would be our dog. Sorry about that. That might not be the dog, but they think it probably is. You answered the door and there's no one there? No. That would be the neighbor's kids ringing the bell and running away. Or you should, to express a likely or expected outcome. The results should be back in a week and we expect them to be backed by then. This book should be interesting for you expected to be interested in. Maybe you've heard about it or read other books by the author. To ease can, to describe likely situations and occurrences. You can be sure that this is probably a bad idea. You can safely place a bet on that horse. Worse advice ever. We use could to indicate a possibility or a likelihood. This could cause you a lot of problems. It looks like it could start raining at any time. And we use might to indicate a weak possibility. Take an umbrella, it might rain, probably won't. And it might. If we leave now, we might not arrive on time. Again. I think we're beyond time, but we better make sure. And we use must to indicate a strong likelihood. I must have left my keys at home is I hope I did. I haven't lost them on the way. You must be exhausted after running that race. Were the obligation we use must indicate obligation that the fire door must be closed at all times. You must not tell anyone about this. Forbidden. And we use should to express polite obligation. I think you should pay for half the damages. Why should she have to pay for her brother? And both cases, they're expressing an obligation or questioning and obligation, but in a polite way. We also use shell to indicate obligation in formal situations or especially in legal documents. For the supplier, shall not be held liable for damages if the product has been used incorrectly. The customer shall supply all necessary hardware. And these are typical sentences you will see in contracts. But they really say expressing the liability for each party or the lack of liability in the first case. And in normal everyday speech, you don't usually see shallow being used, but you do see a lot in legal documents in contracts. And we use the offers can and could to make an offer to do something for someone who's a can I help you with the gardening or could I help you with the gardening? Can I give you a lift back to your flat or could I give you a lift back to your flat? Now, cannon could are similar. Can is slightly more direct in code is slightly more indirect, but they both have a similar meaning. That's why we put them both together. And we use will to make polite offers. Will you have a cup of coffee? What will your friend be joining us for dinner? If you are being less polite, you say, is your friend going to be joining us for dinner? But because we're all polite here, we use this construction. Will your friend be joining us for dinner? We use May to make polite offers. May I be of assistance? May I help you with your bags? We also use shelter. Make polite offers. Shall I mode alone? Shall I get you anything while I'm in town? And again, all very polite ways of asking if you can help somebody. When we think about permissions, we use can for permissions, especially in questions. On an escape, a lack of permission. You can't have any ice cream until you finished your meal. Can I leave early today? And we use could to ask for permission to do something. And could is a little bit more polite than can. Could I take next week off, please. Do you think you could approve the project budget? Now for being more polite, we use May to ask for something and to formally deny permission as well. May I borrow your black tie, Please? Students may not leave the hole during the exam. And we use might to add a little bit of extra politeness. I wonder if I might bring a friend to the party, which is the polite way of saying, can I bring a friend to the party? But we wrap it up in this way to make it more, more polite and more indirect. Might I be excused from the table, please? Very, very polite and slightly old-fashioned way of asking if they can leave the table. When we think of possibilities, we use can to describe possible actions. You can ask the librarian for a book recommendation. People can easily lose track of time when accessing social media on their phone. Now here we're looking at can not as an ability. It's not like you have the ability to ask the librarian that you have a mouth and a tongue, and you can speak the language that's not meant here. But you can ask or you have the possibility to ask her for help. We use may and might to express uncertain possibility that we may or might run into problems if we don't think ahead. I am worried that it may start snowing soon, or I'm worried that it might start snowing soon. And may and might there sort of similar in this case, may is perhaps a little bit more polite and formal. And mites is probably what people we use in everyday speech. We also use might to suggest the possibility to another person. I thought you might like this band. So I bought you their latest CD. I was wondering if you might like to see a film with me. And we're making requests, we use can to make a direct request. Can you turn the music down? I can't reach that. Can you get it for me? Now, In this sentence, the first Kant hasn't been put in italics because that's not the one we mean. The first current is an ability type usage that I'm too short, it's up too high. I can't reach it. But can you get it for me is a way of requesting the help. And we use could, would and will to make polite requests. Could you help me with my homework or would you help me or will you help me? Oh, polite ways of asking. As, as could, would or will you put your dog on its lead place? Ofer suggestions? We use shell to politely ask for suggestions. Shall we invite your parents over for dinner? And of course, that song, what shall we do with the drunken sailor? Don't worry, I won't sing, I'll spare you that pain. And we use wood to ask for somebody's opinion or suggestion. What would you suggest we do tomorrow? Where would be a good place for camping holiday? And we use should to give or ask for recommendations. What should I see when I visit London next month? We should go and see the new film. I'm sure you are like it. And we use could to suggest an option. We could all go for a drink after work. Very civilized idea. I'm not sure if your boss will agree to this, but you could try. And we use might to make polite suggestions. You might want to have that checked by your doctor. And obviously a friend is seen, something, is worried by it and they're suggesting it's a good idea to go and see a doctor, but is wrapped it up in a polite way. You might try rebooting the computer and see if that helps. Which is as again, a polite way of saying, restart the computer and see if it helps. We use must to emphasize suggestions. Or you must come and spend the weekend with us. You must try that new restaurant in town. So you are making a suggestion to try the new restaurant by using must to really emphasize it. And we use will to indicate an immediate willingness or unwillingness. If you cook the meal, I'll wash the dishes. And IL is the short version of Iwill. Mr. won't come out of the bathroom. And here won't is the concatenation of will not choose unwilling to come out of the bathroom. And we use wood in a similar way. But for things in the past, pull wouldn't come out of his room all day. The car wouldn't start this morning. So annoying. 9. Phrasal verbs: The topic of phrasal verbs came up recently in a question. And I realize I haven't addressed that here, which I'd like to correct. Now, phrasal verbs are an interesting aspect as more of an advanced topic, but it's still something that all levels should really be aware of. A phrasal verb is a verb plus another bit. The other bit we call the particle, this is very often preposition. If we take an example take off, that would be the phrasal verb. And the only good news about phrasal verbs, they are still verbs. Everything we know about verbs applies to phrasal verbs. For instance, if we say that taken and then we take off, it's take, took, taken off. All the rules of verbs apply to phrasal verbs. But that's about all the good news there is, I'm afraid now there's three main areas where phrasal verbs cause difficulties. That's the so called separableness or separability. The numbers of different meanings, and of course, logic. If we look at what separability or what we mean by this, is if we take the take off. One of the meanings of takeoff is when the plane leaves the ground, say the plane takes off on time or the plane took off on time. The plane will take off at 04:00 Take off, have to go together. Okay. You can't put anything in between. You wouldn't say that it would be wrong to say the plane took at 04:00 off, even though there are languages where that would be correct. In English, it's not in this instance. So we have the plane took off. And this case we would say that this is non separable. And that's a very sort of strong condition. By being non separable mean they have to be together. Now, the opposite of non separable is separable. And another meaning of take off is to remove clothing. You could say, oh, it's quite hot. And here I'll take my jumper off. There we see between the take and the off, we have the jumper take my jumper off. Now, just because it's separable doesn't mean it has to be separated. And you could equally as accurately or correctly say it's warm and here I'll take off my jumper. Whether a phrasal verb is separable is a much weaker condition. Because it can be separated but doesn't have to be. Whereas the non separable is a much stronger condition. Now I think you can see the problem here, That we have the same phrasal verb that is in one usage separable and another usage non separable, which makes it very difficult to learn. One use is separable, One non separable. How you're supposed to tell the answer is you can't. You just have to learn it. We touched on the other problem with phrase or verbs is a number of meanings. Now we've seen two already. For take off, we have the plane leaving the ground. We have remove an item of clothing. Now you can also use take off. There's actually seven different meanings of takeoff, which I won't go into all of them. Another one is to give a discount to encourage somebody to buy. You might say, okay, buy the kitchen today, I'll take 10% off the price. So you're armed with these three meanings of take off. Then you're reading a book and you see the text. Although he was a guy, he could take off Margaret Thatcher very well. You think that's not a plane. He wouldn't be wearing a Margaret Thatcher and certainly wouldn't give a disc what the Earthes this mean. Then you realize, if you really look into it, that another meaning of take off is to impersonate somebody. Just these four are wildly different meanings, they have nothing to do with each other, it's very confusing. Then we come on to the topic of logic, although On is the opposite of off the phrasal verb take on, which has five different meanings. But none of the take on meanings are the opposite of any of the take off meanings. There are a few cases where this sometimes works, but it's really more luck than anything else. For instance, clock in and clock out in an outer opposites. And clock in and clock out like to start and stop work that matches. But that's really more by accident than by design. When we have phrasal verbs, we have the non separability or separability aspect. We have the differences in meanings, and we have the fact that you can just throw logic out of the window when you're thinking of phrasal verbs. For this reason, we tend to put this as a more advanced topic, but I think you should still be aware of it. If you see anything, look them up in the dictionary. Look them up online, you'll find information about them. Obviously. Ask a question if you're not sure, but please be aware of phrase or verbs. They're quite the mind field for the English language learner.