Aug 26, 2008

English Assignment 3

I’m teaching English online. If you’re a native speaker, you can help out by listening/reading the passage below and answering the questions that come after it. If you’re learning, I invite you to do the same. You might find the explanation helpful.

* I didn’t have a good day today. I went to a party last night, and drank a lot. I stayed out until late. I woke up later than usual, and ran to work in my pajamas. I arrived at work late, and my boss told me off for being in my pajamas. I was so tired that I fell asleep at my desk, and didn’t write the report that I was supposed to.

* As you can see, I did a lot of things wrong. (I went to a party. I drank a lot. I got up late. And a lot of other things.)

* What should I have done differently?

Put your answers in a reply to this post! Thanks! And if you’re not sure how to answer, I’ll give a short explanation in a moment.

My answers: You shouldn’t have gotten up late. You should have used an alarm clock. You should have written the report earlier.

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Need help? Look at this:

To answer these questions, you’ll need to use this sentence pattern:

* You shouldn’t have (verb). You should have (verb).

The (verb) in each case must be a past participle. Most past participles are the same as simple past, but there are some exceptions.

Verb - Past - Past Participle

drink - drank - drunk
do - did - done
go -went - gone
write - wrote - written
get - got - gotten* (see below for more on this verb)

Thanks for listening. And if you have problems with past participles, don’t worry, they’re quite difficult. I’ve heard non- native English speakers from all over the world who can pass for natives, if not for their incorrect use of past participles. So if you have trouble, you’re not alone.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You should have called your workplace and told them you were sick. You should also try not to make a habit of being hungover and going to work.

Unknown said...

Here's my try:

You should have drunk less, but it is very difficult to control how much you drink, so you should have at least paid more attention to what you were wearing when you went to work. That way you might have saved yourself one trouble.