Modals, Phrasal verbs and passive voice

(TEFL worksheet)

MODAL AUXILIARY VERBS

Task 1 - Identify the usage of each of the following modal verbs and give two
activate stage teaching ideas for each, making sure that each teaching idea matches
the usage of the example sentence. None of the teaching ideas should be the same:
a) May I use your toilet?
Usage- asking for permission
Teaching ideas
- How a boy/girl is asking permission to do 3 things from his father/mother.
- You went to hotel and ask the manager in a polite way to have different things to
eat and drink.
b) Mathew might come to see you later.
Usage- Future possibility
Teaching ideas
- Try to forecast weather for next 3 days.
- Your friend promised you to come to your home in the evening, but he did not
come on the mentioned time. Now you think on different reasons why your friend
did not come.

c) You really should stop smoking.

Usage- Saying whats right or correct or Recommending action.
Teaching ideas
- As an expert car driver what you will tell a learner not to do during driving a car.
- Your friend is visiting India. As you are familiar with India, so he asks you what
should/shouldn't take with him. Tell him what to take and what not to take.

d) I must do my homework.
Usage- Necessity / Obligation
Teaching ideas
- What someone have to do 3 most important things to achieve his/her goal.
- As an elder brother/sister give 3 important advices to your younger brother/sister
to win the race.
e) Monkeys cant swim
Usage- Inability / Impossibility
Teaching ideas
i- Write five things that you can do and five things that you cant do.
ii- Bring in mystery objects for the students and ask them what it can/can't be, eg a
wrapped up bottle of shampoo or a wrapped up juice bottle.

PASSIVE VOICE
Task 2 - How do we form the passive voice?
When rewriting active sentences in passive voice, we do the following:
- the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence
- the finite form of the verb is changed (to be + past participle)
- the subject of the active sentence becomes the object of the passive sentence (or
is dropped)
For example:
Simple Present Active: Rita writes a letter. Passive: A letter is written by Rita.
Simple Past Active: Rita wrote a letter. Passive: A letter was written by Rita.
Present Perfect Active: Rita has written a letter. Passive: A letter has been
written by Rita.
Future Simple Active: Rita will write a letter. Passive: A letter will be written by

Rita.
Task 3 - Change the following from the active into the passive
(the first one has been done as an example):
A crocodile eats Henry - Henry is eaten by a crocodile.
A crocodile is eating Henry - Henry is being eaten by a crocodile.
A crocodile has eaten Henry - Henry has been eaten by a crocodile.
A crocodile ate Henry - Henry was eaten by a crocodile.
A crocodile was eating Henry - Henry was being eaten by a crocodile.
A crocodile had eaten Henry - Henry had been eaten by a crocodile.
A crocodile will eat Henry - Henry will be eaten by a crocodile.
A crocodile is going to eat Henry - Henry will be being eaten by a crocodile.
A crocodile will have eaten Henry - Henry will have been eaten by a crocodile.
They have buried Henry (note that the agent isnt important) - Henry has been
buried.
Task 4 - Change these active voice sentences into the passive voice. Only include
the agent/doer if you think it is important or relevant to the meaning:
a) Farmers grow rice in India.
Rice are grown in India.
b) I will finish the report later.
The report will be finished later by me.
c) Scotland has never won the World Cup.
The World Cup has never been won by Scotland.
d) The American people elected George W. Bush.

George W. Bush was elected.

e) Agatha Christie wrote Murder on the Orient Express.
'Murder on the Orient Express' was written by Agatha Christie
Task 5 - State which tense the passive sentences below use and change them into
the active voice (Bear in mind that even though the form is different for active and
passive voice, the tense is the same).
a) I will be questioned by the police tomorrow.
Tense used: Future simple
Active voice version: The police will question me tomorrow.
b) E.T. was directed by Spielberg.
Tense used: Past simple
Active voice version: Spielberg directed 'E.T'.
c) The Bands new song hasnt been released yet.
Tense used: Present perfect
Active voice version: The company has not yet released the Band's new song.

d) The report is being prepared by Mrs. Smith.

Tense used: Present continuous
Active voice version: Mrs. Smith is preparing the report.

e) 1,000,000 pints of beer are consumed daily in Germany.

Tense used: Present simple

Active voice version: People in Germany consume 1,000,000 pints of beer daily.

Task 6 - How would you explain the passive voice to a low level student using
language they would understand? Give as much detail as possible of the study
phase of this lesson.
Engage- The teacher can ask one of the student named Tom to drop his pencil on
the floor. The teacher ask the students to write a sentence what Tom did. The
students may say " Tom dropped the pencil on the floor". The teacher may ask
again Tom to drop the pencil and now he may ask the students to write a sentence
starting with the subject pencil. This takes longer, several tries, but eventually
someone says "The pencil was dropped by Tom".
The teacher can ask students to write the following sentences as they did above:
For example:
- They are playing football.
- John eats burger.
- Tom was driving the car.
- Sarah has written a letter.
- Mathew helped Karen.
There are possibilities of making mistakes by the students. Some may make
mistakes in the using of correct form of verb. Some students might change the
meaning of sentence etc.
Study- In this phase the teacher should teach all the aspects of forming passive
voice from active voice.
The teacher can take 2 simple sentences (active and passive voice) having the same
meaning to explain the major difference between active and passive voice.
For example:
-Tom eats mangoes. (active voice)
- Mangoes are eaten by Tom. (Passive voice)
In the first sentence the subject is doing what the verb describes. The subject is
active, therefore it is called active voice. In the second sentence the subject is not
doing what the verb describes. Here the subject is passive, therefore it is called
passive voice.

The teacher may also explain the rules to change active sentences in passive voice.
The rules are:
- the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence
- the finite form of the verb is changed (to be + past participle)
- the subject of the active sentence becomes the object of the passive sentence (or
is dropped)
For example:
Simple Present Active: Rita writes a letter. Passive: A letter is written by Rita.
Simple Past Active: Rita wrote a letter. Passive: A letter was written by Rita.
Present Perfect Active: Rita has written a letter. Passive: A letter has been written
by Rita.
Future Simple Active: Rita will write a letter. Passive: A letter will be written by
Rita.
In the active voice the focus is on the agent (the doer), whereas in passive voice the
agent (the doer) is less important and sometimes it does not appear as in the
following example:
Active voice- The thief stole the car.
stolen.

Passive voice- The car was

Passive formation
The teacher should also explain the formation of passive voice in different tenses.
Tenses
- Present simple
- Present contiuous
- Present perfect
- Past simple
- Past continuous
- Past perfect
- Future simple
- Future continuous
- Future perfect
- 'Going to' future

Passive Formation
is/are + past participle
is/are being + past participle
has/have been + past participle
was/were + past participle
was/were being + past participle
had been + past participle
will be + past participle
will be being + past participle
will have been + past participle
going to be + past participle

The teacher can also ask the students to change active sentences into passive
sentences.
For example:
1. People speak Japanese in Japan.
2. Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet.
3. He is driving the car.
4. John had eaten the lunch.
5. They are playing football.
The teacher can also ask the students to do matching exercise
For example: Match sentences in List A with sentences in List B
List A
- Rita is writing a letter.
- Rita was writing a letter.
Rita.

List B
A letter was being written by Rita
A letter will have been written by

- Rita had written a letter

A letter is being written by Rita.

- Rita will have written a letter

A letter will be written by Rita.

- Rita will write a letter.

A letter had been written by Rita.

Activate- students may work in groups to examine sample paragraphs from

a science lab report,
a history paper,
a political speech, and
a newspaper article.
Students must analyse the verbs in the paragraph. Are they mostly active or mostly
passive? Why do you think this is so?
Students must also
choose 5 passive voice sentences from each document,

 why the passive was used, and

decide if the sentence would have been better as an active one.
In the end students share general results and patterns with the class and discuss.

PHRASAL VERBS
Task 7 - State the three types of phrasal verbs, explaining how they are different
from each other. Give two example sentences of your own for each one.
Three types of phrasal verbs are mentioned below:
i- Type 1
Intransitive i.e. they cannot be followed by a direct object.
For example:
- Back up(move backward; move in reverse)- We won't be able to open it unless they
back up.
- Blow up(suddenly become very angry)- When I told Jerry that I'd had an accident with
his car, he blew up.
ii- Type 2
Transitive separable- with type 2 phrasal verbs an object pronoun can only come
between the verb and the particle. An object noun can come either between the
verb and particle or after the particle.
For example:
- Burn up (cause someone to become very angry)- Did you hear how rudely Fred talked
to me? That really burned me up!
- Call off (cancel something that has been scheduled)- The mayor called classes off

because of the snow.

iii- Type 3
Transitive inseparable- In this type of phrasal verb, the object phrase or object
pronoun both come after the particle. This type also include phrasal verb that have
two particles.
For example:

- Care for (take care of; attend / watch)- The family is caring for him at home.
- Dropped out of (stop attending)- He dropped out of school.

RELATIVE CLAUSES
Task 10 - State the difference between defining and non-defining relative clauses
and give an example of each:
Defining relative clause
- The information given in a defining relative clause is essential to the meaning of
the sentence.
- A defining relative clause makes clear which person or thing we are talking
about.
For example: The man who called yesterday left no address.
Non-defining relative clause
- The information given in a non-defining relative clause is not essential to the
meaning of the sentnece.
- Punctuation is important in non-defining relative clause. A comma is put before
the relative pronoun and at the end of the clause.
For example: At the first meeting, which was held yesterday, the chairman
announced bonus for all employees.