Unit 4.

Exercises

1. Pronunciation of noun and verb inflections. Classify the following nouns and verbs according to
the pronunciation of the inflection and transcribe the final sound in the base.

Lizards, flashes, pots, ants, papers, houses, plants, printers, students, lions, spares, illustrates, drawers, solutions,
dashes, peoples, boards, strains, polishes, forgets, smoothens, teachers, churches, George’s, shelves, puzzles, bottles,
marriages, discusses, kisses, sheets, tops, eyelashes, lies, vases.

/s/ /z/ /ɪz/

2. Pronunciation of verb endings. Classify the following verbs according to the pronunciation of the
inflection and transcribe the final sound in the base.

Boycotted, confirmed, published, deemed, faced, estimated, paved, rejected, formalised, wanted, soared, blocked,
benefited, stretched, incorporated, enforced, reported, walked, worded, bombarded.

/t/ /d/ /ɪd/

3. Plural nouns, Close (1974). Give the pronunciation and spelling of the plural of the following nouns.
If the plural inflection is irregular, indicate its origin and morphology:

Album Ovum

Appendix Tooth

Basis Ultimatum

Branch Village

Breakdown Volcano

Bureau Wife

Chorus Wolf

Concerto Woman

Country Passer-by

Diagnosis Penny

Diploma Photo

Leaf Potato

Fish Sheep

Foot Shelf

Formula Sister-in-law

Fox Spoonful

Gentleman Stimulus

Goose Month

Half Mouse

Handkerchief Mouth

House Niece

Index Onlooker

Key Lady

Knee Larva

Knife Lay-by

Lens Loaf
4. Partitive constructions. Fill in the gap with the correct noun.

colony bunch loaf bit atom / grain

rasher speck blade grain joint
bar spell slice heard skulk
pride cut pane lump crowd
pack piece drop head item
flock stroke school /shoal

1. A(n) ………………………. of chocolate / soap / gold / iron

2. A(n) ………………………. of fun /chalk
3. A(n) ………………………. of grass
4. A(n) ………………………. of flowers
5. A(n) ………………………. of ants / caterpillars
6. A(n) ………………………. of people
7. A(n) ………………………. of water/oil/ whisky
8. A(n) ………………………. of sheep / birds
9. A(n) ………………………. of salt/ sand/ rice/corn
10. A(n) ………………………. of cabbage / lettuce / cauliflower
11. A(n) ………………………. of cattle
12. A(n) ………………………. of meat
13. A(n) ………………………. of lamb/meat
14. A(n) ………………………. of bread
15. A(n) ………………………. of coal / lead / sugar
16. A(n) ………………………. of dogs /wolves
17. A(n) ………………………. of glass
18. A(n) ………………………. of advice / cake / furniture
19. A(n) ………………………. of lions
20. A(n) ………………………. of bacon
21. A(n) ………………………. of fish
22. A(n) ………………………. of foxes
23. A(n) ………………………. of bread/cake/cheese/chicken breast
24. A(n) ………………………. of dirt / dust
25. A(n) ………………………. of bad weather
26. A(n) ………………………. of luck
27. A(n) ………………………. of truth
28. A(n) ………………………. of news / information / furniture
5. Irregular verbs, Close (1974). Identify the morphological form of the ed1 and ed2 forms of the
irregular verbs below and classify the verbs in four groups as follows:
1. V, V-ed1, Ved2 all alike 3. V = V-ed2, but not V-ed1 5. V=V-ed1, but not V-ed2
2. V-ed1 = V-ed2, but not V 4. V, V-ed1, V-ed2 all different

V V-ed1 V-ed2 Group

Beat
Begin
Build
Buy
Break
Come
Dig
Drive
Fall
Feel
Find
Fight
Go
Hold
Hurt
Learn
Let
Make
Sell
Send
Shine
Show
Sit
Slide
Spell
Spread
Stand
Stride
6. Adjectives and adverbs, Close (1974). Indicate if the final word of the sentence is an adjective or
an adverb.

1. The sun burnt the grass quickly.

2. It burnt the grass black.
3. He drove his employees hard.
4. He drove some of them mad.
5. I find this very unlikely.
6. We found the people friendly.
7. This made everyone late.
8. I have made his acquaintance lately.
9. The doctor soon made the patient well.
10. We can make breakfast early.
11. What made my bed so hard?
12. We shall leave the house early.
13. We shall leave the room empty.
14. I can paint your hall pink.
15. I can paint this wall fast.
16. Pull the rope hard.
17. Pull the rope tight.
18. He turned the corner well.
19. The heat turned the milk sour.
20. You must wipe the windscreen clear.

7. Adjectives and gradability (Leech et al. 20062). Which of the following adjectives are gradable?

A kind thought a male pig

Dirty water a chauvinist pig

A major success an absolute pig

Criminal law careful speech

A Japanese wrestler a whole pizza

8. Function of adverb phrases. Close (1974). Identify the adverbs (Adverb phrases) in each of the
following sentences. Then classify them as A, B, C, etc. below. Where there are two adverbs in a
sentence, refer to the first as a, and the second as b:

Shut the door quickly I haven’t met him yet

You are quite right Yet I feel I know him

He plays surprisingly well I hope to meet him soon, though

Hardly anyone came We left home so early

It is rather a pity We are almost at the station

I am right for once That cost almost a pound

His room is right at the end It’s about double the normal price

Wait until afterwards I didn’t say anything, naturally

Answer me honesty He is really very kind

Honestly, I don’t know In fact, he is quite a nice man

A. Adjunct
B. Modifying an adj.
C. Modifying an adv.
D. Modifying a preposition a phrase
E. Modifying a determiner
F. Modifying a noun phrase
G. Complement of a preposition
H. Disjunct
I. Conjunct

References

Close, R.A. 1974. A University Grammar of English Workbook. London: Longman.

Leech, G., Deuchar, M & Hoogenraad, R. 20062. English Grammar for Today. London: Palgrave.