Subject and verb agreement.

It is sometimes difficult for younger students to understand what is that thing called Subject and verb agreement, especially because at schools, we do not have enough time to practice on this. The ideal way would be to practise orally many times until they internalize it. Fortunately, we still have internet to practise on their own at home.
First, a brief explanation:

• The person who speaks is the first person, singular (I) or plural (we, my sister and I, the students and I...)
• The second person is the one who listens, it can be singular or plural (you, your friends and you, your brother and you...)
• The third person is the one the first and second speak about: it can be singular male (he, Pete, my father...) or singular female (she, your sister, my mother...) or a thing or an animal, that is, singular neutral (it, my dog, the table...); it can also be plural ( they, my friends, Mary and Peter, my dogs, the chairs...

It is important that students understand well the relationships that are established in any conversation and their changing nature. The second step is to really learn how verbs work, we are going to focus on the two most usual verbs and the present simple this year in 1st of ESO, basically they will have to learn this chart:

V. to be	V. to have got	Present simple
I am	I have got	I (verb)
You are	You have got	You (verb)
He/she/it  is	He/she/it has got	He/she/it (verb)+s/es
We are	We have got	We (verb)
You are	You have got	You (verb)
They are	They have got	They (verb)

I am leaving some links to exercises so that you can practice:

• Anglomaniacy, very easy exercises in which you have to move the subject or the verb to the one it agrees with.
• This one to start with: http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/sv_agr_quiz.htm
• Towson University includes more present simple exercises.

I will work this with my class. I hope it helps. Do you master this?

Adverbs of degree

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These adverbs are normally used to add some degree of emphasis to the adjectives, adverbs or verbs they accompany. They are usually placed before the main verb (and after the auxiliary verbs in complex tenses); however, some of them can be placed at the end of the sentence (you will find them underlined in the chart):

Small emphasis	A Little A bit Slightly
Medium emphasis	Rather(+ negative) Quite (+positive) Pretty (informal) Fairly (formal)
Greater emphasis	Extremely Completely Absolutely Really Very Totally

If you want to practise some exercises go to The Grammar Aquarium or AutoEnglish.org
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