Verb Patterns — Fun Communicative Practice

There are no general grammar rules to follow to know which form of a verb follows other verbs, for example to know that it is “intend to go” not “intend going”. However, there are useful patterns such as similar verbs usually taking the same form (“plan to do” and “intend to do” both taking “to + verb”, etc), and these can be both studied and naturally absorbed with lots of practice. This article gives seven different entertaining spoken practice activities to get students used to such patterns and to help them memorise the different forms.

See also: Fun Controlled Practice of Verb Patterns

Verb patterns bluffing games

Students use verbs or sentence stems that you have given them to make a mix of true and imaginary statements like “My doctor told me to quit smoking” and “When I stopped to tie my shoelaces this morning, a bicycle crashed into me”. Perhaps after follow-up questions, their partners guess if the statements are true or not. Weaker classes will need to be given time to write a mix of true and false sentences, but the game is more fun if they pick a verb or sentence stem for their partner to use as quickly as possible, using their imagination if they can’t think of anything true.

See below for how to use a coin in bluffing games and more on using sentence stems.

Verb patterns guessing games

Guessing can be used to practise verb patterns in several ways:

• students try to make true sentences about their partners using verbs that need verbs after them (“(I guess that) you support banning smoking”, etc)
• students give hints with verb patterns about what they are thinking of until their partner guesses the topic (e.g. the hints “Some parents force kids to do it” and “Most people hate doing it, but I don’t mind doing it” for “Washing up”)
• students say how they would continue one of the sentence stems on the worksheet without saying which, and their partner guesses which sentence they completed (guessing “You would love to have grandchildren” for the hint “to have grandchildren”, etc)

See below for more on how to use sentence stems in a guessing game.

Verb patterns sentence completion guessing game

Give students around twenty sentences that need to be completed with verb patterns to make personal statements such as “I fully support…” and “I disapprove of…” Give students five to ten minutes to complete at least ten of the sentences with true personal information, without showing anyone else. One student reads out just the part they have written (not the original stem on the worksheet), and their partners try to guess which sentence they wrote that in. For example, one student says “To smoke less when I go out” and the other students eventually guess that it is true if it is put after “I try”.

Verb patterns dice games

Write a verb pattern next to the six numbers of a dice. If you want to practise fewer than six different verb patterns, repeat a verb pattern and/ or have numbers which are “free choice”. For example, the whiteboard or worksheet could say:

1. verb + verb+ing
2. verb + to + verb
3. verb + someone + to + verb
4. verb + someone + verb
5. verb + to + verb
6. free choice

Students roll the dice then try to use a verb with that verb pattern to continue a story, to make a true statement about their partner, to find something in common, etc. To make them use a range of different verbs with each pattern, you should probably say that they can’t use the same verb more than once during the game (can’t repeat “want to”, etc).

Verb patterns coin games

Although a dice is usually better, the activities above can also be done with a coin. The two sides of the coin could divide the verb patterns into two groups, as in:

• heads = verb + someone +…, tails = verb +… (without someone)
• heads = verb (+ someone) + to…, tails = other verb patterns.

You could also divide the verb patterns into more specific groups by flipping the coin more than once, as in the first flip deciding heads = verb + someone +…, tails = verb +… (without someone), and the second flip decides heads = + to, tails = + verb (without to)

For bluffing games, a (secret) flip of the coin can also decide if the next statement will be true (heads) or should be false (tails).

Verb patterns storytelling

Give students at least twenty verbs which take other verbs and which can be used to tell a story, e.g. “wanted” and “hated”. Students take turns adding a line to their story that includes one of the verbs, continuing until the story comes to a natural end or until the teacher stops them. They can then listen to other stories, retell other people’s stories and/ or vote for the best.

The verbs can be given on a worksheet or on cards, and storytelling can be combined with a dice or coin in the ways described above.

Verb patterns things in common

Students use the verbs or sentence stems that they are given to make sentences which are true for both/ all people in their group like “We failed to pass our last English test” and “We loathe hearing our neighbours arguing”. As mentioned above, this can be combined with a dice or a coin for more fun and to make sure that there is a good mix of verb patterns.

Verb patterns discuss and agree

This is similar to Things in Common above, but with students writing opinions that they both/ all agree with like “We think that politicians should avoid giving themselves big pay rises”. These opinions can be based on verbs that they are given, sentence stems they are given, statements that they can change to match their opinions, and/ or what comes up on a coin or dice.