English Grammar: Past Tense of Regular and Irregular Verbs

Forming Simple Past Tense Verbs

• To form simple past tense verbs from simple present tense verbs, add '-d' or '-ed' to the verb (e.g., shock + ed = shocked, call + ed = called)
• Verbs that follow this rule are called regular verbs

Irregular Verbs

• Not all verbs follow the '-d' or '-ed' rule to form the past tense
• Some verbs have a change in spellings in the past tense form (e.g., take -> took, throw -> threw, catch -> caught)
• Examples of irregular verbs:
  • run -> ran
  • hear -> heard
  • bring -> brought
  • buy -> bought
  • deal -> dealt
  • bind -> bound

Verbs that Remain the Same in the Past Tense

• Some verbs remain the same in the past tense as they are in the present tense
• Examples: put (simple present tense) -> put (simple past tense)

Adverbs

• Adverbs are words that tell us something more about verbs (action words)
• Adverbs are usually formed by adding '-ly' to adjectives (e.g., loud + ly = loudly, slow + ly = slowly)
• Exceptions to this rule exist (e.g., 'I walk fast', not 'I walk fastly')
• Examples of adverbs: loudly, slowly, beautifully, fast, neatly, nicely, softly, clearly, elegantly, carefully, regularly, gracefully

Understanding the Story

• The story revolves around a young boy named Raja who is adventurous and likes to meddle with creatures like snakes and bees.
• Raja's grandparents are concerned about his safety and well-being.

Raja and the Snake

• Raja catches a snake in a coconut shell and takes it to his grandmother.
• The grandmother is shocked and alerts the grandfather, who throws the shell away.
• The grandfather warns Raja not to go near snakes as they are very dangerous.

The Bee Sting

• Later, Raja tries to catch a bee and gets stung on his finger.
• He runs to his grandmother, showing her the sting, but she thinks it's a snake bite.
• The grandfather believes the same and takes Raja to a man who he thinks can cure snake bites.

The Medicine Man

• The medicine man makes Raja's grandparents believe that Raja's life is in danger due to the snake bite.
• The medicine man convinces them that he can cure Raja, but Raja knows that the old man is a liar and has fooled everybody.

Objectives

• Discuss the theme of the story.
• Relate to the feelings and behavior of reptiles and other living creatures.
• Think critically about people's superstitions and blind faith in untrained medicine men.
• Realize the importance of timely and effective communication.

Grammar

• Regular verbs: add '-d' or '-ed' to form the simple past tense (e.g., shock + ed = shocked).
• Irregular verbs: do not follow the '-d' or '-ed' pattern to form the past tense (e.g., take + = took).

Vocabulary

• Crawl: moving slowly, pulling the body along the ground.
• In alarm: in anxiety or fear.
• Shell: hard outer covering of a coconut or nuts.
• Cure: treatment.
• Recite: say something aloud.
• Vessel: a container to hold liquid.
• Mantras: words or phrases with mystical or spiritual significance.

Fun Facts

• There are about 2000 species of snakes in the world, and only 70 are poisonous in India.

• Snakes have good vision but are all colorblind.

• The biggest snake in the world is the Anaconda, found in the jungles of South America, and can grow to the size of a full-grown man.

• Bees live in colonies or hives of 50,000 bees on average.

• Bees have an inborn ability to communicate, and their language is a language of smells and dancing.### Irregular Verbs

• Examples of irregular verbs:

  • take -> took
  • throw -> threw
  • catch -> caught
  • run -> ran
  • hear -> heard
  • bring -> brought
  • buy -> bought
  • deal -> dealt
  • bind -> bound

• Some verbs remain the same in the past tense as they are in the present tense.

Adverbs

• Adverbs are words that tell us something more about verbs.
• Adverbs can be formed by adding 'ly' to adjectives, but there are exceptions to this rule.
• Examples:
  • loud -> loudly
  • slow -> slowly
  • beautiful -> beautifully
• Some adverbs do not follow this rule, e.g. "I walk fast" rather than "I walk fastly".

Traditional Medicine in India

• There are several branches of Traditional Medicine in India, including Ayurveda, Homeopathy, and Unani.
• Western Medicine (Allopathy) is different from Traditional Medicine.

Describing People

• Age: old
• Physical features: tall, stout, white beard, grey hair, shrewd looks
• Dress: long white robe and a skull-cap
• Behaviour: polite and gentle
• Special points: intelligent
• Exercise: write a description of a person in about 6 or 7 simple sentences using hints about their age, physical features, nature, hobbies, and profession.

What You Have Learnt

• In an emergency, it is important to find out what happened before reacting to avoid making mistakes.
• Sometimes, our wrong beliefs, lack of knowledge, and fear of even harmless things can complicate situations.

Grammar Exercises

• Simple past tense verbs:
  • Regular verbs: shocked, snatched, warned, wanted, happened
  • Irregular verbs: hid, went, thought, held, gave
• Adverbs:
  • neatly, nicely, softly, clearly, elegantly, carefully, regularly, gracefully

Identify and practice forming simple past tense of regular and irregular verbs in English grammar.