Goal: narrate a past trip in clean past simple, describe what is
happening using passive voice, build new words with suffixes. Examined in
Test 1 (travel vocab), Test 2 (verb forms), Test 4 (spot the mistake),
Test 12 (verb-form passage) and the free writing tasks.
๐ Past simple
- Regular: walk โ walked, travel โ travelled, decide โ decided.
- Irregular (memorise): go โ went, see โ saw, take โ took, buy โ bought, eat โ ate, fly โ flew, drive โ drove, ride โ rode, leave โ left, come โ came, begin โ began, tell โ told, have โ had.
- Negative & question: did + bare verb.
She went to Kandy. โ
We didn't go. โ (NOT "didn't went")
Did you see the bridge? โ
๐ Passive (present continuous)
- Formula: is / are + being + V3.
- Use it for hotels, factories, kitchens, events.
Active : The waiter is serving food.
Passive: The food is being served.
Active : The boys are arranging chairs.
Passive: The chairs are being arranged.
๐ค Suffixes that change word class
- -ness: kind โ kindness ยท sad โ sadness ยท happy โ happiness
- -ment: develop โ development ยท agree โ agreement
- -tion / -sion: introduce โ introduction ยท decide โ decision
- -ous: danger โ dangerous ยท fame โ famous
- -ful: care โ careful ยท beauty โ beautiful
- -ly: quick โ quickly ยท beautiful โ beautifully
- un- / in- / im- / dis-: happy โ unhappy ยท possible โ impossible
๐ Three sounds of ch
- / tส / โ chair, chocolate, march past
- / ส / โ chef, parachute, machine, brochure
- / k / โ character, chaos, choir, headache
- Rule: French โ /ส/ ยท Greek โ /k/ ยท everything else โ /tส/.
โ๏ธ Writing โ official word counts
- Notice (Test 6): 40โ50 words. HEADLINE + place + date + time + contact.
- Short paragraph (Test 8): 50โ60 words. Topic โ details โ close.
- Letter / data description (Test 14): ~100 words. Three short paragraphs.
- Story / article / speech (Test 16): ~200 words. Hook โ trouble โ turning point โ close.
- Sequencing words: First ยท Then ยท After that ยท Later ยท Finally.