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Vocabulary Lists

Grammar Lessons

The Present Tense

The present tense describes events are happening now, events that happen regularly, or a state that something is in. Verbs in the present tense changes forms based on the subject of the sentence. The general rule is if the subject is 'I', 'You', 'We', 'They', or a plural noun, then the verb is singular. If the subject is singular, then the verb is plural.

Normal Verbs

For normal verbs, add 's' for the plural form of the verb.

Examples:

I play

You play

He, She, It, John, Jenny, The dog, etc. plays

We play

They play

The dogs, Children, Teachers, etc. play

Verbs Ending in 'o', 'sh', 'ch', 'x', 'z', and 'ss'

For these verbs, add 'es' for the plural form.

Examples:

I wish

You wish

He, She, It, John, Jenny, The dog, etc. wishes

We wish

They wish

The dogs, Children, Teachers, etc. wish

Verbs Ending in a consonant and 'y'

For these verbs, remove the 'y' and add 'ies'.

Examples:

I study

You study

He, She, It, John, Jenny, The dog, etc. studies

We study

They study

The dogs, Children, Teachers, etc. study

To Be

To be has a different form, 'am', that is only used when the subject is I. The 'is' form is used with singular subjects and 'are' form is used with 'You', 'We', 'They', 'The cats', etc.

Examples:

I am

You are

He, She, It, John, Jenny, The dog, etc. is

We are

They are

The dogs, Children, Teachers, etc. are

The Past Tense

The past tense describes events that have already finished before now. To change verbs into the past tense, follow the rules depending on which group the verb is in. You just have to remember which group each verb is in from practice and experience.

Normal Verbs

To change verbs the normal group into the past tense, just add 'ed' to the end of the verb.

Examples:

jump jumped

watch watched

clean cleaned

play played

help helped

Verbs Ending in 'e'

To change verbs ending in 'e' into the past tense, just add 'd' to the end of the verb.

Examples:

race raced

bake baked

trade traded

type typed

share shared

Doubled End Consonants

Certain verbs that end in a consonant-vowel-consonant, you should double the final consonant and add 'ed'. Don't double when the final consonant is 'y' or 'w'. When there is more than one syllable, double the final consonant when the final syllable is stressed.

Examples (doubled):

stop stopped

plan planned

prefer preferred

wrap wrapped

slam slammed

Examples (not doubled):

visit visited

travel traveled

listen listened

cancel canceled

happen happened

Irregular Verbs

Irregular verbs don't follow any rules to change them to the past tense form and should to be memorized.

Examples:

go went

do did

think thought

ride rode

make made

The Future Tense

The future tense describes events will happen later from now. The future tense is made from adding "will" before the verb, OR adding the correct subject matching present tense form of "to be" (EX: I am, He is, They are, etc.) with "going to" before the verb.

Examples: (will)

  • I will play
  • You will play
  • He, She, It, John, Jenny, The dog, etc. will play
  • We will play
  • They will play
  • The dogs, Children, Teachers, etc. will play
  • Examples: (going to)

  • I am going to play
  • You are going to play
  • He, She, It, John, Jenny, The dog, etc. is going to play
  • We are going to play
  • They are going to play
  • The dogs, Children, Teachers, etc. are going to play
  • Antonyms

    Antonyms are words that have the opposite meaning of a word.

    Examples:

    big small

    tall short

    light heavy

    fast slow

    strong weak

    expensive cheap

    good bad

    neat sloppy

    clean dirty

    hard soft

    high low

    Synonyms

    Synonyms are words that have the same or similar meaning of a word.

    Examples:

    big large

    tall high

    short low

    fast quick

    strong powerful

    jump hop

    pretty beautiful cute

    messy sloppy unorganized

    clean neat organized

    Plurals

    The plural form of a noun is used when you have two or more or none of something. Normally, you add 's' or 'es' to the end.

    Normal Nouns

    For normal nouns, add 's' to get the plural form.

    Examples:

    book books

    name names

    chair chairs

    toy toys

    dog dogs

    Nouns Ending in 'o', 'sh', 'ch', 'x', 'z', 's', and 'ss'

    For these nouns, add 'es' to get the plural form.

    Examples:

    dish dishes

    witch witches

    tomato tomatoes

    box boxes

    kiss kisses

    bus buses

    Nouns Ending in a consonant and 'y'

    For these nouns, remove the 'y' and add 'ies'.

    Examples:

    berry berries

    activity activities

    library libraries

    story stories

    daisy daisies

    Nouns Ending with 'f' or 'fe'

    For these nouns, remove the 'f' or 'fe' and add 'ves'.

    Examples:

    wolf wolves

    knife knives

    life lives

    shelf shelves

    theif theives

    Irregular Nouns

    For these nouns, there are no rules to follow and you just have to memorize how to change them to the plural form.

    Examples:

    mouse mice

    tooth teeth

    man men

    child children

    person people

    foot feet

    die dice

    fish fish

    cactus cacti