Objectives & Sequence: This lesson is intended to be used as a preview of Grammar - Participial Adjectives.

Part One

Work with a partner and practice the following conversations. Use the recordings to help you with the pronunciation and intonation of the words. Try to mimic the style of the speakers.

A: Have you heard that the city’s banned the use of plastic bags in grocery stores?

B: Seriously? What do they expect us to use instead?

A: I guess paper or reusable ones.

B: Don’t they have bigger problems to worry about?

A: This isn’t a small issue. A lot of pollution comes from plastic. I’ve even heard that if we don’t do anything, there’ll be more plastic than fish in the oceans by the year 2050.

B: Hmmm. I didn’t know that.

A: Yeah, trust me. It’s a good thing plastic bags are banned. The planet will be much better without them.

A: Do you do anything to save power?

B: Um, I guess the only thing I do is try to unplug things when I’m not using them.

A: You mean like your toaster or something?

B: Yeah, like this morning, after I finished breakfast, I unplugged all the appliances that I used in the kitchen, like the toaster, blender, coffee machine… you know.

A: Wow. So everything in your place is unplugged because you aren’t at home. What about your lights? Do you make sure to turn them off too?

B: Yeah, of course. All my lights are turned off when I’m out.

A: Errghhh.

B: Woah. What’s wrong?

A: Oh, I’m just super frustrated.

B: Why? What’s frustrating you so much?

A: People.

B: Could you be more specific?

A: Well, I try really hard to be kind to our planet, but it doesn’t matter what I do if everyone else doesn’t care. It seems like everyone drives their cars when they could be taking a bus or bicycle, nobody recycles, and it’s almost impossible going to a restaurant in this city if you choose to be a vegetarian.

B: Yeah, that is frustrating, but relax, the world is changing. It’s just going to take time.

A: Yeah, I guess.

A: Man, that movie was amazing!

B: Amazing? Are you serious?

A: Absolutely? What? You don’t think so?

B: Not at all. I was pretty bored for most of it.

A: Oh, come on! The action was incredible.

B: Incredible? No way. It was all CGI. None of it was real.

A: I don’t care if it was real or not - it still amazed me when he jumped from car to car on the highway. There’s no way that part bored you.

B: Yeah, that part was cool, but the movie certainly didn’t amaze me.

A: Okay, whatever. You can choose the next one.


Part Two

All of the words in blue and orange are either past participles or the "~ing" form of a verb. How are the blue words used differently than the ones in orange? Which ones are verbs? Which ones are adjectives?

keyboard_arrow_up