English 3
Unit 11 Impressions By the end of this lesson you will be able to:•
Use the modal verbs must, may, might, could and can’t to speculate.•
Use adjectives ending in –ing and –ed to describe people, things and situations.•
Speculate and talk about your impressions, feelings and reactions.Learning Objectives
Enseñanza e Investigación Superior A. C. Todos los Derechos Reservados© 2011
Introduction
Wow! In this picture your dog looks huge; he may be eating a lot of food. And you must be really happy since your parents celebrated your birthday party in a very nice hotel. You must be 18 by now, and your dog might be around 4 years old for what I remember. As you can see in the example, in this unit we will talk about impressions. An impression is an opinion, you can make when you look a picture or you are in front of a person, perhaps a situation; you can guess how is the person feeling and describe what she/he is like. In order for you to express your opinion you will learn to use modal verbs, which you will need talk about what you guess. Also in this unit you will learn about the adjectives ending with “ed and ing” to describe how you feel, you will be able to describe as well someone else’s feelings and describe things. These grammatical structures are very important because you will be able to answer to the people when they ask for your impressions of certain things and describe what you feel.Enseñanza e Investigación Superior A. C. Todos los Derechos Reservados© 2011
Modal verbs
Use the modal verbs to speculate about, what you thinks is happening with the people, things and events. An speculation means you do not for sure what is happening, but you are guessing about it. “Paul must be sick, because he didn’t come to class”Modal verbs
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Form to make affirmative statements. Subject + modal verb + verb in base form + complement. Your boyfriend must do a lot of exercise. Sandra could be with her boyfriend. The soldiers might be worried all the time. The plane may be delayed, there is a storm. “Peter must be tired, he has been here sinceEnseñanza e Investigación Superior A. C. Todos los Derechos Reservados© 2011
Modal verbs
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Form to make affirmative statements with continuous verbs. Subject + modal verb + be + verb in –ing.+ complement. He must be working out. I called him and he didn’t answer. You could be having a panic attack, try to relax. Alicia might be studying today, she has an exam tomorrow. “The doctor may be taking care of another patient”.Modal verbs
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Form to make negative statements with must not, can’t and might not. Subject + modal verb + not + verb in base form + complement. George must not work a lot, he is never tired. They might not be asleep, you should call them. “Miriam can’t be older than us, she looks so young”.Enseñanza e Investigación Superior A. C. Todos los Derechos Reservados© 2011 Learning Notes:
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Must indicates you are fairly certain about your guess, on the contrary must not indicates you are certain about what you say.•
Might, may and could indicate you aren’t certain at all about a guess. Could shows more certainty than might or may, and may is even a little more certain than might.•
Can’t is used to express something isn’t possible or logical. It is more common than must not.Adjectives ending with –ed and –ing.
Adjectives ending with –ed. The spelling rules for these adjectives are the same as the verbs in past participle:•
If it ends with “e”, add “d”: scare scared•
If it ends with “y” preceded by a consonant, the y is changed to “i” and then we add “ed”: gratify gratified Use these adjectives to describe feelings and the characteristics of a person or thing.Enseñanza e Investigación Superior A. C. Todos los Derechos Reservados© 2011
Adjectives ending with –ed and –ing.
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The rest of the adjectives that don’t follow this rules just add –ed: Relax relaxed. Examples: The painter was inspired by the nature. You can see it in his painting. I am annoyed with you, because you didn’t help me. Danny was bored during the movie. You didn’t sound convinced, when he told you about the proposal. .Adjectives ending with –ed and –ing.
Adjectives ending with –ing. The spelling rules for these adjectives are the same as the present participle of verbs:•
If the it ends with “e”, eliminate the “e” and add “ing”: Surprise surprising•
For the rest just add ing. Tempt tempting Learning notes: There are other spelling rules for the present participle of verbs, but they do not apply to this topic.Enseñanza e Investigación Superior A. C. Todos los Derechos Reservados© 2011
Adjectives ending with –ed and –ing.
Examples: My new zumba class is so tiring. Today’s news were shocking, I can’t believe it. Frida Kahlo was a fascinating woman. A competition is always encouraging for the kids. “My boss is so charming, he always has something good to say”. Learning Notes:•
The adjectives ending with –ed. are used to describe your feelings or how to do you feel about something or someone. I am tired of working so much.•
The adjectives ending with –ing. are used to describe someone’s qualities or the characteristics of something. The book is boring, so I didn’t read it. My boss is scaring, every time we have a meeting heEnseñanza e Investigación Superior A. C. Todos los Derechos Reservados© 2011 The movie was so boring and I got tired after watching it. I guess you like it, because you didn’t say anything, you must love comedy movies. Personally I hate them, they are so childish. I am more interested in action and scifi movies, they are more entertaining. Next time let’s choose a more interesting movie, don’t you think so? In this unit you learned to use the modal verbs to express your impressions about a person or situations. This is not a difficult topic; you just need to remember the spelling rules and the context in which you have to use these modal verbs, since they don’t have the same meaning.
Closing
Also you learned about the “adjectives ending with ed and ing”. These adjectives are very common and we use them to express our feelings and describe people and things. Perhaps you have already used them before but you didn’t know the differences between them. As you could see, this topic is very interesting, because giving our opinion and guessing what we see, is very common in any language; it is something we tend to do when we are with our friends and family.Enseñanza e Investigación Superior A. C. Todos los Derechos Reservados© 2011 McCarthy, Michael. Et al. (2008) Touchstone Full Contact 3.Cambridge University Press. Murphy, R., et al. (2009): Grammar in Use Intermediate Student's Book with answers. Cambridge University Press. Heacock, P. (2008): Cambridge Dictionary of American English. Cambridge University Press.
