Somehow, I managed to teach ESL for over 10 years before I learned what this is. The expression “is supposed to” is called a semi-auxiliary verb. In the sentence in the title, “study” is the main verb.
The expressions below are all called semi-auxiliary verbs. They are followed by the main verb.
(This posting includes a handout which you are welcome to use with your students.)*
One of the most common grammar questions I’ve been asked by students or tutors whom I’ve trained or new teachers whom I’ve mentored concerns sentences like:
“While eating our dinner, we enjoyed the sunset.” [Subordinator (While) + Verb-ing (eating).]
Question: Grammatically speaking, what is “eating”?
It’s called a reduced form. The writer is reducing an adverb clause to a phrase.
Original sentence: While we were eating our dinner, we enjoyed the sunset.
Reduced form: While eating our dinner, we enjoyed the sunset.
We can use these with subordinators like before, after, while and since.
This phrase can come at the beginning of a sentence as in the example above and in the title of this post or in the middle of a sentence:
She bumped into a chair while she was looking at her smartphone.
She bumped into a chair while looking at her smartphone.
Engaging group work
(This posting includes a handout which you are welcome to use with your students.)*
Group work in a grammar class can be a powerful learning tool if it is carefully structured. The format for the activities that I’ll present here has been effectively used with students from lower level to advanced levels. And the structure of these activities makes it easy for even the most passive students to be active; in fact, many times, the normally quiet students seem to shine while doing these. Another positive aspect of these is that they are non-threatening for students to engage in.
(This posting includes a handout which you are welcome to use with your students.)*
A tutor recently told me about her student who was confused by “where” and “which.” She was wondering how I would approach this student’s question. He had two sentences:
Shanghai is a city which has a population of eight million people.
Shanghai is a city where eight million people live.
Common Sense Teaching ESL 