Test your knowledge of what has been presented.

1. Provide an original example sentence illustrating each of the following concepts. Underline the pertinent word(s) in your example.
a. Copula be
b. A copular verb other than be
c. An auxiliary function of be

d. Collective non subject

e. Noncount noun subject

f. 3rd person singular present inflection

g. The proximity principle

h. the nonintervention principle

i. Subject-verb agreement witha causal subject

2. What are two structural reasons for distinguishing the copula be from other verbs in English?

3. In what instances should your ESL/EFL students be aware that verbs must agree with subjects in person and number?

4. In what instances does subject-verb agreement not apply?

 5. Name and illustrate two cases where a traditional subject-verb agreement rule is not supported by current usage.

6. If your students produce the following, and they want to speak and write Standard English, what would you tell them?

a. *Is you from Mexico?

b. *Felix go to school every day.

c. *I tired.

d. *Nora wills read the book.

e. They sings in a choir. c. I tired. =

 f. *I don’t be angry anymore.

7. What will you say-to a high-intermediate ESL/EFL student who complains to you that you correct mistakes in his compositions when he writes sentences like this one, but that he hears native speakers say things like this all the time?

 Either my roommates or my friend Bill are going to buy the refreshments.

8. How would you present the rules for fractions and percentages to an intermediate-level high school ESL/EFL class? What contexts would you provide to help them have meaningful practice?

9. Some noun plurals are irregular (men, mice), and some have a change from -f (sg.) to -ves (pl.), such as wife/wives. How would you review irregular noun plurals with a low-intermediate ESL/EFL class?

10. If a student asks you which is correct in the following pair of sentences, how would you answer?

 (The students are disappointed that the football team is no longer undefeated.)

- The majority is upset at the loss.

 -The majority are upset at the loss.