Grammar 1 : VERB-TO-BE

It consists of am, is, are, was and were.

The base form is be; the progressive form is being; and
the participle form is been.
Functions :
The verb to be has two main functions: as the main verb
and as the helping verb.
As a helping verb, it functions to indicate progressive tenses
and passive sentences.

1. Verb to be as main verb.

Depending on the subject and the tense, the verb to be changes

its form into am, is, are, was were or been.

Thus, we have:

1. I am a teacher. 2. He was our guest speaker last year. 3. He is

good at English. 4. They are in the room now.

In this case, the verb to be functions as the main verb.

2. Verb to be as helping verb.

i. Verb to be indicates progressive tense (continuous tense). Thus

we have:

1. He is learning English. 2. She is being childish now! 3. They

are cooking for the party tonight.

4. She was sleeping when I dropped by yesterday.

VERB-TO-BE Subject Present Tense Past Tense

Singular is Was
 He
She
It
Salleh
I am Was
Plural are Were
You
We
They
The girls
EXERCISE 1

Fill in the blanks with am, is and are.

1.Neither she nor I ______ going to the concert.

2.Either she or they ________to take the things to your house

afterwards.

3.Too much salt _______ bad for you for it will give you high blood
pressure.

4.The town council ________ proposing a law to make every house

owner pay extra tax. I think everyone will object.

5.The children _________ going to get the best opportunities in life.

6.Every man and every woman __________ to help to make this

scheme a success.

7.He can never give up politics because politics _________ in his

blood.

8.The policemen ________ setting up road blocks everywhere to

catch the robbers.

9.There ________ a number of chairs in the canteen. You can take

one of them.

10.The owner of the three houses ___________ not here today.

EXERCISE 2

Fill in the blanks with was or were.

1. The prices of the things he bought _________ very high.

2. Every boy and every girl in the school __________ asked to help in
the concert last month.

3. Neither he nor I __________ wrong in this matter. So, do not blame

either of us.
4. Not only his friends but also his enemies __________ praising him
for his honesty at a ceremony two years ago.

5. There __________ very little variety in the food they served in the
canteen.

6. The crew and passengers ____________ treated to dinner when

they landed on the island.

7. His family ___________ always eating durians when they visited

their grandparents in the village.

8. The class ___________ quietly doing their work when the teacher
went to the office.

9. The Beautiful Garden ____________ written by a Malaysian author

three years ago.

10. The people ___________ busy selling keropok.

Grammar 2 : SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE

The Simple Present Tense is used to show a truth or a fact

Study the examples below:

o Susan brushes her teeth every morning.

o My mother cooks fish curry every week.

o The boys play football in the evening.

 The Simple Present Tense is also used for actions which are
done habitually or which happens regularly.
SINGULAR
Adverbs like every
morning, once a
PLURAL
month, usually,
He plays They play
always, never , often
Susan sings We sing
can be used with the
The cat writes I write
Simple Present Tense.
runs You run
Susan brushes her teeth every morning.

My mother cooks fish curry every week.

The boys play football in the evening.

REMEMBER:

Singular nouns take the singular form of the verb in the

simple present tense.

Plural nouns take the plural form of the verb in the simple
present tense.

We use the Simple Present when we talk about something which

happens repeatedly.

Eg: Ali walks to school everyday.

We use the Simple Present to describe a series of actions in the

present.

Eg: Every morning, Ali wakes up, brushes his teeth and takes a
bath.
EXERCISE 1

Underline the correct forms of the verbs in brackets to complete the

sentences.

1. The earth [ moves / move ] round the sun.

2. Lions and tigers [ hunt / hunts] for food in the jungle.

3. Anna and Ben [ practises / practise ] playing the piano an hour

everyday.

4. Mosquitoes [ is / are] harmful insects.

5. Latif often [ watch / watches] television at night.

6. Cocks [ crow / crows] ; a hen [ cackle / cackles].

7. Mona usually [ exercises / exercise ] in the morning.

8. Sometimes the children [ walk / walks ] to school but usually their

father [ drive / drives] them.

9. Sheila and her cousins often [ participate / participates] in essay

writing competitions.

10. My friend [ speak / speaks ] Chinese fluently but he [ do not

know / does not know how to write it.

EXERCISE 2

Complete these sentences by underlining the correct verb form.

Sarah ( 1) ( is / are ) a policewoman. Her day (2) ( begin / begins )

early. She (3) (leave / leaves ) for work at 6 a.m. each day. She
( arrives / arrive ) at the police station at 7.45 a.m. At 8 a.m. she
and the other officers (5) (attend / attends) a meeting. Their police
chief Captain Costa (6) ( talk / talks) to them about their duties for
the day. Sarah and her partner Bill usually (7) (patrols / patrol ) a
certain part of the city each day. They ( 8 ) (make / makes ) sure
that the streets and back alley ( 9 ) (is / are) safe for the public.
They visit shopping and video arcades to look for students who (10)
(play / plays) truant. Sarahs day often ( 11 ) ( end / ends ) at 6.30
p.m.

EXERCISE 3

Complete the sentences with the simple present tense of the

verbs in the box.

breathe have hurry love

play

put demonstrate snow weave

write
1. Mum, we ____________your cakes. They are delicious.

2. Dareen ______________ articles for a famous magazine.

3. The cook usually ___________________ new recipes every Tuesday.

4. My little brother ____________ home from school every afternoon

to watch cartoons.

5. During winter it _________, so we have to put on our boots.

6. Dolphins _____________ underwater through their blowholes.

7. Danny ___________tennis at the club every weekend.

8. We usually _________ recyclable things in special bins.

9. Dogs __________ a well-developed sense of smell.

10. The women ___________mats out of screw-pine leaves for a

living.

Grammar 3 : THE SIMPLE PAST TENSE

The Simple Past Tense is used to talk about actions, states, and
situations in the past.

We use the Simple Past when we talk about something which

started and finished in the past.
Eg: Yesterday, Ali walked to school.

We use the Simple Past to describe a series of actions in the past.

Eg: Yesterday, Ali woke up, brushed his teeth and took a bath.

We can use the Simple Past together with the Past Continuous .

Eg: Yesterday, while Ali was walking to school, he saw a cat.

Example:

Emily Dickinson lived in the nineteenth century. She was a poet.

She wrote more than a thousand poems 40 | M o d u l T r i u m p h

RedongVol.1MiaAntasha

You can use the simple past tense with time expressions that
refer to the past.

Some examples of past time expressions are:

i. last

Examples:

She was here last Sunday.

They were in London last year.

ii. ago

Examples:

He went shopping in the new mall a week ago.

We saw the Director eating in the caf a while ago.

iii) yesterday
Examples:

Joe was at the cinema when their parents came back from Tokyo
yesterday.

Ali and Zai were doing their assignments yesterday afternoon.

REGULAR VERBS

You will notice that the word look does not change when
we add the suffix -ed and the main verb look is the
same. Therefore LOOK is a regular verb.

PRESENT I look through the window

PAST I looked through the window

EXERCISE 1

Past Tense Regular Verbs

Give the answers for the following in past tense.

1. walk ____________________

2. play ____________________

3. boil ____________________

4. wash ____________________
5. kick ____________________

6. lock ____________________

7. watch ____________________

8. clean ____________________

9. sew ____________________

10. dust ____________________

11. paint ____________________

12. fry ____________________

13. study ____________________

14. pray ____________________

15. try ____________________

16. cry ____________________

17. dry ____________________

EXERCISE 2

Fill in the blanks by changing the verb in the brackets into

past tense form. The first sentence has been done for you.

1. The result was so unexpected that it shocked everyone.

(shock)

2. My mother ____________ chicken curry for dinner last

night.(cook)

3. Sam ____________ us to lock the doors.(remind)

4. My sister __________ my hand so tightly that it hurt. (grip)

5. Who ____________ my new shoes?(borrow)

6. My mother ________ her clothes while watching television.

(iron)

7. We had to stop the game yesterday because it __________

heavily. (rain)

8. His sister _______ cakes for him yesterday. (bake)

9. The headmaster _______ his teachers about the new

programme. (inform)

10. The plumber _____ the broken pipe in just ten minutes.
(fix)

EXERCISE 3

Use the words in the brackets to fill in the blanks.

1. Kamal ______________ his grandfather in the village . (visit,

visited)

2. They __________ fruits at the orchard.( plucking, plucked)

3. Siti ______________ after he sisters when her mother was

away. (look, looked)

4. My mother _______________ chicken rice last night.

(cooking, cooked)

5. Sarimah and Karina ______________ the clothes and dried

them outside. (washing, washed)

6. Kamal ______________ to school yesterday because his

bicycle broke down. (walked, walk) a

7. David was bored, so he ______________ a movie last night.

(watch, watched)

8. Lim and Shini ___________________ the desks and chairs

just now. (arrange, arranged)

9. Jokun __________________ a few books from the library just

now. (borrowing, borrowed)

10. She ___________________ with the headmaster an hour

ago. (talk, talked)

11. The boys __________________ in the river yesterday

evening.( playing, played)
12. When they _________________ the zoo, they bought the
tickets at the counter. ( reach, reached)

13. My grandmother ________________ some chilli seeds in

the garden. (plants, planted)

14. My father and my uncle _____________________ the house

last Sunday.( paint, painted)

15. Puan Minah __________________ a hammer to hit the nail

into the wall. (using, used)

IRREGULAR VERBS

A verb is a doing or an action word.

The tense tells when the action takes place.

Present ( today ) verb I paint a picture.

Past (yesterday ) verb + ed I painted a picture.

Future ( tomorrow ) will / shall + verb I shall paint a

 picture.

Irregular verbs do not follow this pattern. Their past tense is

different.

These are the most commonly used irregular verbs.

PRESENT PAST PRESENT PAST

Today Yesterday Today Yesterday
I. I . I .. I..

am was Cry cried

awake awoke deal dealt
bear bore dig dug
begin began do did
bite bit draw drew
bleed bled dream dreamt
blow blew drink drank
break broke drive drove
bring brought dry dried
build built eat ate
buy bought fall fell
catch caught feed fed
choose chose feel felt
come came fight
creep crept fought
fly flew find found
forget forgot see saw
freeze froze sell sold
fry fried send sent
give gave shake shook
go went shine
shone
sing sang

EXERCISE 1

Fill in the blanks with the correct irregular verbs.

1 The man (drive) _________________his car to work

yesterday.

2 The boys (swim) ________________in the swimming pool the

whole morning.
3 Siti Nurhaliza (sing) ______________ a melodious song at
the concert.

4 Mariah (write) _______________on the exercise book.

5 The boy (run) ______________towards his father.

6 The Mathematics teacher (teach) _______________the

students algebra last week.

7 My mother (go) _____________to the market this morning.

8 Cik Zarina Bi (pay) ____________the shopkeeper for the

goods.

9 The Prime Minister (shake) ____________hands with the

teachers at the parade.

10 The aeroplane (fly) ____________over the tall building.

EXERCISE 2

Fill in the blanks with the correct irregular verbs.

1 The man (drive) _________________his car to work

yesterday.

2 The boys (swim) ________________in the swimming pool the

whole morning.

3 Siti Nurhaliza (sing) ______________ a melodious song at

the concert.

4 Mariah (write) _______________on the exercise book.

5 The boy (run) ______________towards his father.

6 The Mathematics teacher (teach) _______________the

students algebra last week.

7 My mother (go) _____________to the market this morning.

8 Cik Zarina Bi (pay) ____________the shopkeeper for the goods.

9 The Prime Minister (shake) ____________hands with the teachers at

the parade.

10 The aeroplane (fly) ____________over the tall building.