Games for English Language Learning & Teaching

Word Prompts (Team A Team B) Students from Team (B) have to guess the words on your LIST. Before each guess, say a word which will help Team (B) to guess correctly. Students from Team (A) have to guess the words on your LIST. Before each guess, say a word which will help Team (A) to guess correctly.

YOUR LIST (Team B must guess) YOUR LIST (Team A must guess)

A1 horse

B1 car

A2 window

B2 Big Ben

A3 elephant

B3 cup

A4 England

B4 floor

A5 teacher

B5 kangaroo

A6 London

B6 lemon

A7 river

B7 Russia

A8 book

B8 ice cream

A9 Bill Clinton

B9 Micky Mouse

A10 karate

B10 bath

02 Kim's game (longer & longer lists)

In my [pocket] [shopping bag] [house] [garden] [country] [dream],

there is / are / was /were

The teacher imposes the necessary restrictions according to the vocabulary area)

I packed my bag and in it I put:

an X (longer & longer list)

an X and some Ys.

an X, some Ys, a Z, an ___ and some _____s

(As you go round the class each student has to recite the existing list and add an item in the same category).

03 Guessing nouns via "Is it + adjective" questions Guessing Games: Vocabulary. Questions with ADJECTIVES

Group A Questions to ask opposing team(s)

1. chair Ask YES/NO questions:

2. bus Is it big / round /square / rectangular?

3. head Is there one in this room?

4. bicycle Can we eat it?

5. computer Is it made of wood / plastic / metal?

6. chocolate Ask your own questions

Group B Questions to ask opposing team(s)

1. tree Ask YES/NO questions:

2. shoe Is it small/yellow/light/dark/circular?

3. tea Have you one in your house / country?

4. knife Do you like it?

5. finger Is it used every day?

6. button Ask your own questions

Group C Questions to ask opposing team(s)

1. bra Ask YES/NO questions:

2. pen Is it larger than a chair?

3. mouse Can I see one now?

4. coffee Do you find it indoors or outdoors?

5. jumbo jet Are there a lot of them in this school?

6. mobile phone Ask your own questions:

Group D Questions to ask opposing team(s)

1. cat Ask YES/NO questions:

2. house Is it hard / soft / high / tall / low ?

3. gate Is it liquid or solid?

4. guitar Do I see one every day?

5. sugar Have you got one in your house / with you?

6. washing machine Ask your own questions:

04 Spanish merchant: guess the connection (I can sell + LIST)

Ss: I'm a Spanish merchant and I can sell (camcorders) (compact disks) (televisions).

T: That's right. You can.

Ss: I'm a Spanish merchant and I can sell (steam engines) (saucepans) (guitars)

T: No you can't.

CONNECTION: Invented after 1900.

Other possible restrictions

1. objects must begin with the same letter as the S's first name.

2. objects must begin with the same letter as the first name of S on the right of speaker.

3. must be in the room

4. must be made of special material / must include wood or metal

5. must be objects you can grow.

Instructions Each student has a turn of saying "I'm a Spanish merchant and I can sell...."

The person who knows the connection (T or S) gives feedback (Yes, you can or No, you can't.

The students must guess the connection. Either call it out or write it down after a reasonable number of examples have been given.

05 Comparisons: How is XXX like YYY? Finding Connections (Word Fields and Adjective Comparisons

Group A How is XXX like YYY? How does XXX differ from YYY? X Y X Y

1. milk cheese 2. computer television 3. café restaurant 4. umbrella sunshade

Group B How is XXX like YYY? How does XXX differ from YYY? X Y X Y

1. kettle teapot 2. moustache beard 3. doctor dentist 4. cooker fridge

Group C How is XXX like YYY? How does XXX differ from YYY? X Y X Y

1. horse dog 2. sock stocking 3. beer whisky 4. wristwatch egg-timer

Group D How is XXX like YYY? How does XXX differ from YYY? X Y X Y

1. ice snow 2. chemist pharmacist 3. dictionary encyclopaedia 4. record compact disk

06 BLIP (sometimes known as COFFEE POT) Guess the verb

Each student is given a VERB. (See that it is suitable for the level of the class).

In pairs or as a whole class, discover the VERB through QUESTIONS.

The nonsense word "BLIP" should be substituted for the target VERB.

Write sample QUESTIONS on the board

When / Where / Why / How do you blip?

Can you blip someone / something / somewhere?

Do you often blip?

Did you blip yesterday?

Are you blipping now?

Are you going to blip this weekend?

Have you blipped since you arrived in England?

Do you like blipping?

Do you blip with your hands?

If I saw you blipping, would you be embarrassed?

The aim of the game is not to guess the meaning of the word "Blip" straight away. When you think you know the meaning of the word "Blip", you could ask further questions which make the meaning of the word "Blip" clear to the rest of the class or which amuse the student who is answering the questions.

Sample Verbs

cook / live / cry / love / dance

read / draw / run / dream / shout

drink / sing / drive / sleep / eat

swim / fight / talk / fish / think

fly / undress / jump / worry / kiss

argue / paint / bathe / plan / complain

rest / diet / scream / explore / sew

fidget / smile / translate / hesitate / understand

iron / vacuum / joke / whisper / knit

win / move / yell / oversleep / zigzag

07 Guess the ADVERB

One student goes out of the room. The rest of the class think of an adverb or the teacher selects one and writes it on the board for everybody to see. It is rubbed off the board before the student outside returns.

The returned student asks a variety of questions to different students. They all answer in the manner suggested by the adverb.

Alternatively, the returned student can ask members of the class to do things. They then have to perform the actions in the manner suggested by the adverb.

After hearing a sample of answers or observing a sample of actions performed by different students, the student who originally left the classroom is then asked to guess the adverb.

quickly slowly noisily quietly angrily

politely sadly happily sleepily shyly

loudly rudely drunkenly nervously romantically

confidently anxiously hesitantly calmly lovingly

doubtfully ungrammatically warmly coldly timidly

08 The Preposition Game

The teacher thinks of a room of a house and a hiding-place in which to hide an object.

(1) I've hidden YOUR BIRTHDAY PRESENT and today is YOUR BIRTHDAY!

Ss: Have you put it __________________________?

(2) I hid my mother's Christmas present LAST CHRISTMAS!

Ss: Did you put it ____________________________?

(3) I'm going to hide my brother's Christmas present NEXT CHRISTMAS!

Ss: Are you going to put it ________________________?

(4) EVERY CHRISTMAS, my uncle hides my present!

Ss: Does he put it ________________________________?

Practise different tenses. A student can choose a hiding-place and the rest of the class can ask the questions. Alternatively, students can work in pairs.

09 Observing the classroom

Seat TWO students at the front of the class facing the white/black board with the other students looking on. The two students are both given a chance to answer each question and they are awarded points for correct answers.

Sample Questions

1. How many windows / tables / chairs / students are there?

2. What are their names?

3. Who is sitting next to Z / between X and Y / opposite X / on the left / on the right?

4. What is (s)he wearing? / What colour is Z's shirt.

Alternatively, seat students in pairs back to back and issue them with a checklist of vocabulary for describing physical appearance and clothing:

Height tall/short Build well-built Age middle-aged Hair style curly

Hair length long Eyes large-eyed Shape of head oval Complexion fresh

Article of clothing Material Pattern Colour

shirt / skirt etc dark green plain /checked light blue

Ask them to describe each other using suitable words from each category.

I spy with my little eye - something beginning with + letter ABC

The objects sighted must be in view of all the students in the classroom.

10 Simon says (Action verbs + Parts of the body)

Students should only obey the commands if you preface each one with Simon says. If you omit the preface Simon says any student who obeys the command can no longer participate in the game. The last student to remain in the game is the winner.

imon says: "hands up", "hands down", "thumbs up", "thunbs down", "fingers up", "fingers down".

Simon says: "touch your eyes / ears / nose / mouth with the forefinger / middle finger / ring finger / little finger / of your (right)(left) hand.

Simon says: "put your right hand / left hand / both hands on your right / left knee."

Simon says: "shut / open your eyes", "stand up / sit down", "stand on your right / left leg".

Simon says: "bend your knees / body", "straighten your knees / body".

Simon says: "fold your arms", "put your arms by your side".

Simon says: "wave your right hand", "STOP", "jump up and down", "STOP".

Simon says: "point at the ceiling / floor with the forefinger/ middle finger / ring finger / little finger / of your right / left hand.

11 TELEGRAMS / MESSAGES / ANAGRAMS

TELEGRAMS / MESSAGES

Each student tries to write a telegram (or short e-mail message!) using the letters of their name as the initial letters of the words e.g. TED = Treasure Every Day.

Place-names can also be used:

LONDON: Living On Nothing Drives One Nuts.

ENGLAND: Every Nice Girl Loves A Non-alcoholic Drink.

TOKYO: Thinking Of Kissing Yoko Ono.

JAPAN: Jokes About Politicians Are Normal.

STOCKHOLM: Sexy Toyoto Owners Can Kiss Happily On London Motorways

SWEDEN: Sociable Women Eat Doughnuts Every Night

ANAGRAMS

As an alternative to a straight spelling test, the words can be given with jumbled letters:

CESANSYRE IRDAO VITLSEENOI OOCKRE TNEHCKI STTE

HANGMAN This is a popular game. It is very useful at low levels and the words which students have to guess can be restricted to areas of vocabulary (i.e. themes or semantic sets) or new words introduced in a particular lesson.

12 Find your partner (Stick self adhesive labels to Ss' backs)

The teacher prepares SELF-ADHESIVE TYPEWRITER ADDRESS LABELS ( which can be purchased in rolls to stick on the backs of all the students in the class.

Each label contains a real person's name or the name of a character from fiction or television cartoons. Each named person should have a natural partner, for example if you write a label with the name ROMEO, there should also be a label with the name JULIET stuck on somebody's back. If you have an odd number of students in your class, stick a label on your own back, but let the students do the questioning.

Questions must be of the type that can either be answered with YES or No:

Am I man or a woman? Alive or dead? European or American? Real or fictitious?

Am I a character from a cartoon or a book? Am I rich? Am I famous?

Have I been in the news recently? Am I someone from your country? Britain?

Do I work in sport / music / entertainment / the cinema / the theatre?

ROMEO JULIET TOM the cat JERRY the mouse

POPEYE OLIVE OIL Prince Philip Queen Elizabeth II

Micky Mouse Minnie Mouse Stan Laurel Oliver Hardy

King Juan Carlos Queen Sofia André Agassi Steffi Graff

Nelson Mandella Winnie Mandella John Lennon Yoko Ono

Richard Burton Elizabeth Taylor Bonnie (gangster) Clyde (gangster)

Tarzan Jane (jungle girl) The Lone Ranger Tonto (cowboy)

Prince Charles Princess Diana Cindarella Prince Charming

13 What's my nationality? Who am I?

Student (A) thinks of a nationality Student (B) asks: "Do you wear______________?" "Do you drink / eat _________ ?"

"Do you play (sport) or (game)?" "Do you play the (musical instrument)?" "Does it rain / snow a lot there?"

"Is it very hot / very cold there?" "Do the people like ______ there?"

"Are the people there tall / short / romantic / hard-working / rich / poor?

Student (A) thinks of a famous person, fictitious character or cartoon character?

Student (B) asks YES/NO questions as in 12. Find Your Partner.

14 What's my job? (from open lists) Guessing games (closed lists)

Questions for those guessing

Do you work indoors or outdoors? / in a trade or profession? / in a factory or an office?

Do you work with your hands? Do you wear a uniform? Do you work long hours?

Do you work from 9-5? Do you work regular hours? Do you work at weekends?

Do you work with people or machines? Are you in a service industry?

Do you sell something? Do you earn a lot of money? Must you have good qualifications to do your job?

Jobs GROUP 1

1. police officer 2. nurse 3. farmer 4. shopkeeper 5. scientist 6. artist

7. princess 8. dressmaker 9. civil engineer 10. bricklayer 11. caretaker 12. accountant

GROUP 2

1. singer 2. cook 3. secretary 4. student 5. driver 6. engineer

7. president 8. painter 9. chiropodist 10. fishmonger 11. receptionist 12. mathematician

GROUP 3

1. actor 2. teacher 3. manager 4. soldier 5. gardener 6. musician

7. writer 8. chemist 9. social worker 10. surgeon 11. bee-keeper 12. newsagent

GROUP 4

1. doctor 2. housewife 3. baker 4. pilot 5. factory worker 6. cowboy

7. builder 8. dentist 9. solicitor 10. secret agent 11. dustman 12. air-hostess

Miming lists of jobs: A & B teams Student A chooses ONE of the jobs in Groups 1 and 2 above. Student B chooses ONE of the jops in Groups 3 and 4 above. The students have to mime their jobs so their partners can guess what they are.

15 The hotel receptionist - miming (from Maley & Duff CUP)

Write a role card for each student in the class giving them a problem which could occur while they are staying in a hotel. Buy Maley & Duff's book on Drama in ELT for a list of suitable problems. Each student has to mime their problem. The class try to guess the problem by asking questions, but the student with the problem is not permitted to speak. They can only signal YES or NO. This is a good game for teaching vocabulary in a memorable context. The stranger the problem, the more probable it is that the words will become part of the class's active vocabulary.

Example of a problem:

My wife's wig has fallen down the lift shaft. Can anybody help?

The game is also good for supplying the right formulae for difficult situations:

I've locked myself out of my room. Have you got a spare key?

The receptionist can be moved to another environment e.g. a language school, a hospital or an airport. The TV soap entitled "Airport" shows a good range of the problems that can occur:

A pigeon has flown into the Food Hall and is eating the fruit cake.

16 The Yes/No Game (from Michael Miles: "Take Your Pick")

Different students volunteer to be asked questions. They must avoid saying the words "YES" or "NO" for a given period of time e.g. 1-2 minutes.

This is done by using expressions like: "I do", "I am", "that's true", "that isn't true", "that's not correct", "exactly", "precisely", that's right", "that's correct", "I think so", "probably", "possibly", "usually".

The questioners can try to trap them through deliberate misunderstanding and echo questions: "Did you say usually? So you said you live in Stuttgart? Perhaps?

Questions

Do you come from Australia? Are you sure you don't?

Are you single or married? So you're divorced. You're not interested in marriage?

Do you like English food? So you LOVE English food. You think it's the best in the world?

Have you been to Florence? So you haven't been to Italy?

Which is more important - health or money? You said "health"?

How many brothers and sisters do you have? Fifteen?

Would you like a million pounds? So you're not interested in money?

Are you more intelligent than your parents? So you're less intelligent?

Did you say you were stupid?

Do you like your teacher? Is he / she the best teacher you've ever had?

The best in the world?

What are your hobbies? So you like listening to folk music?

Can you use a computer / play the piano? You can?

17 Getting a word in (Conversation game) Students work in pairs. Each partner is given a strip of paper with an unusual sentence written on it. They keep this concealed. If possible they try to learn the sentence off by heart.

Then they start conversing about any subject, but their real object is to get their given sentence into the conversation without their partner realising and before their partner is able to do the same. To do this successfully they have to move the topic of conversation towards a context in which their sentence could naturally occur. Sample sentences for strips:

1. The farmer was carrying a yellow guitar.

2. Elvis Presley was waiting on Brighton Station

3.The bottles were full of green milk.

4. She kissed him on the nose and went to bed.

5. The French student wrote twenty love letters.

6. The policeman was dressed in pink shoes and a bow-tie

7. The plane landed on the roof of Buckingham Palace.

8. The beauty queen made me a cup of tea.

9. The fly took off again and landed on my pillow.

10 The dog slipped on the banana skin and broke its leg.

11. The water was so deep that the child had to call for help.

12. The king was glad that nobody wanted his autograph.

13. He filled the bath with coca cola and started to undress.

14. He drank two bottles of vodka and sang "the red flag".

15. The elephant attacked the gunman and knocked him flat.

16. She pushed the driving-instructor out of the car and laughed.

To win the game, you have to continue speaking for a while after getting your sentence into the conversation without being correctly challenged. You can also win by correctly challenging your partner as soon as you think they are reciting their sentence. If your challenge s wrong, you lose the game. It is therefore good strategy to set traps for your partner by including strange sentences in the conversation which differ from your given sentence.

18 Consequences (Paper & Pencil game)

Each student is given an A4 sheet of paper with some fields to fill in. They only fill in ONE field in order (from the top to the bottom) and fold the sheet over to the next continuous line _____________________________________________________ to hide what they have written. They then pass the paper on to the next student who fills in the next field and fold the paper over to the next line before handing the sheet to the third student. This continues until all the fields are hidden. The paper is then passed on once again. Each paper will contain an amusing story (sequence of events). This is read aloud by the student. If the student's reading is poor, then the teacher should read the story out again using correct intonation and stress to bring out the humour.

Name of a man famous or one in your class _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________________________________________________________

met

Name of a woman famous or one in your class _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______________________________________________________________________________

at / in / on

Name of a Place _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_______________________________________________________

He said to her

"_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ "

________________________________________________________

She said to him

" _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _"

_________________________________________________________

Consequence _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_____________________________________________________________________________

19 CHARADES: book / play / song / film / musical

One or two students agree on the title of a song, a book, a play, a musical, a TV programme or a film (Note that films are often given different titles in different countries). They then tell the class how many words there are in the title. If any definite or indefinite articles occur in the title, the students must tell the class where they occur in the title. They must also say whether the title is from a song, a book, a play, a musical, a TV programme or a film. They must not say the name of the title.

EXAMPLES (If the students are at a lower level, you can give them the titles)

Fatal Attraction (2 words) (The title is from a film)

Cats (1 word) (The title is from a musical)

Gone With The Wind (4 words: the 3rd word is the definite article) (It's from a film)

Red is the colour (4 words: 3rd word is the definite article - a song)

Starlight Express (2 words) (It's from a musical)

Chess (1 word) (It's from a musical)

I wanna hold you hand (5 words. 2nd word is slang made up from 2 words: a song)

Blowing in the Wind (4 words: the 3rd word is the definite article) (It's from a song)

My Bonnie lies over the ocean (6 words: the 5th word is the definite article - a song)

Imagine (1 word) (It's from a song)

Les Miserables (2 words including the French definite article) (It's from a musical)

Octopussy (1 word) (It's from a film)

From Russia with Love (4 words. It's from a film)

Oliver Twist (2 words) (It's from a book)

Paperback writer (2 words - a song)

EastEnders (1 word with a capital letter in the middle) (It's from a TV program)

Tom and Jerry (3 words - a TV programme)

Popeye the Sailorman (3 words: 2nd word is the definite article - a TV programme)

Neighbours (1 word) (It's from a TV program)

Romeo and Juliet (3 words) (It's from a play)

A Midsummer Night's Dream (4 words: the 1st word is the indefinite article) (a play)

The students who have thought up the title then have to mime it. They can point to any REALIA (e.g. maps on the wall) in the classroom. If the game is proving too difficult for everybody, allow the mimers to sketch on the board or make animal noises, but THEY MUST NOT WRITE or give away any of the words in the title.

The other members of the class have to guess the title. You can set a time limit or limit the number of guesses. The game is one of co-operation between the students who are miming and those who are guessing. A quick result points either to an easy title to mime or good paralinguistic communication skills.

Some students like to mime every word in the title in consecutive order; others mime whole situations which point to the full title.

20 20 Questions: Animal, Vegetable or Mineral (Abstract with V connections)

A student thinks of any object, substance, animal, person or abstract noun and declares whether it is animal, vegetable, mineral or abstract ("love" would be declared as abstract with animal connections) (People count as animal!)

Phrases which identify a well-known object such as uncle Tom's cabin are permitted.

The other students are limited to 20 questions. If they cannot guess the word(s) within the allotted number of questions, then they lose the game. This is a competitive game. The class can compete against the teacher, taking equal numbers of turns at selecting the object or asking the questions, and the TEACHER and STUDENT scores can be recorded on the board. Teachers should adjust the level of difficulty when it is their turn to select objects to make a fairly equal contest.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Maley & Duff CUP 1978 repr 1980 Drama Techniques in Language Learning

Lee,WR OUP Language Teaching Games & Contests

• John threw the ball.

Here threw is a transitive verb with John as its subject and the ball as its direct object. If we recast the verb in the passive voice (was thrown), then the ball becomes the subject (it is promoted to the subject position) and John disappears:

• The ball was thrown.

The original subject can typically be re-inserted using the preposition by:

• The ball was thrown by John.

One non-canonical use of English's passive is to promote an object other than a direct object. It is usually possible in English to promote indirect objects as well. For example:

• John gave Mary a book. → Mary was given a book.

In the active form, gave is the verb; John is its subject, Mary its indirect object, and a book its direct object. In the passive form, the indirect object has been promoted and the direct object has been left in place. (In "A book was given to Mary," the direct object is promoted and the indirect object left in place. In this respect, English resembles dechticaetiative languages.)

It is also possible, in some cases, to promote the object of a preposition:

• They talked about the problem. → The problem was talked about.

In the passive form here, the preposition is "stranded"; that is, it is not followed by an object. (See Preposition stranding.) Indeed, in some sense it doesn't have an object, since "the problem" is actually the subject of the sentence.

dechticaetiative language is a language in which the indirect objects of ditransitive verbs are treated like the direct objects of monotransitive verbs. Etymologically, the first morpheme of the term comes from Greek dekhomai "to take, receive"; the second is obscure, but it is remotely possible it derives from kaitoi "further, indeed". The term was first introduced by Dr. Edward L. Blansitt, Jr.

Ditransitive verbs have two arguments other than the subject: a patient that undergoes the action and a recipient or beneficiary that receives the patient (see thematic role). In a dechticaetiative language, the recipient of a ditransitive verb is treated in the same way as the single object of a monotransitive verb, and this syntactic category is called primary object. The patient of a ditransitive verb is treated separately and called secondary object.

In dechticaetiative languages with passive constructions, passivation promotes the primary object to subject.

Most dechticaetiative languages are found in Africa, but English arguably contains dechticaetiative constructions, traditionally referred to as dative shift. For example, the passive of the sentence John gave Mary the ball is Mary was given the ball by John, in which the recipient rather than the patient is promoted to subject. This is complicated by the fact that some dialects of English may promote either the recipient (Mary) or the patient (the ball) argument to subject status, and for these dialects The ball was given Mary by John (meaning that the ball was given to Mary) is also well-formed.

An object in grammar is a sentence element and part of the sentence predicate. It denotes somebody or something involved in the subject's "performance" of the verb. As an example, the following sentence is given:

In the sentence "Bobby kicked the ball", "ball" is the object.

"Bobby" is the subject, the doer or performer, while "kick" is the action, and "ball" is the object involved in the action.

The main verb in the sentence determines whether there can or must be objects in the sentence, and if so how many and of what type. (See also Valency (linguistics).) In many languages, however, including English, the same verb can allow multiple different structures; for example, "Bobby kicked", "Bobby kicked the ball", and "Bobby kicked me the ball" are all valid English sentences.

A syntactic verb argument, in linguistics, is a phrase that appears in a relationship with the verb in a clause. Typical syntactic arguments are the subject and the direct object, which are usually termed "core arguments".

Arguments can be optional or compulsory. The core arguments are compulsory. If a verb has one core argument (the subject), it is intransitive; if it has two, it is transitive. Some verbs (like English give) have three core arguments (the third is an indirect object). The number of compulsory arguments of a verb is called its valency.

Non-core arguments are also called "oblique arguments" or "complements". They are usually adpositional phrases showing time ("in the morning"), location ("at home"), beneficiaries ("for her"), etc.

Core arguments can be suppressed, added, or exchanged in different ways, using voice operations like passivization, antipassivization, application, incorporation, etc. Oblique arguments, however, can simply be omitted without any grammatical adjustment.

Nearly all languages mark the core arguments of verbs using case (e.g. Latin), word order (e.g. English) or a mixture of both, though some rely heavily on context for disambiguation (e.g. the Chinese languages, Japanese, Korean).

[edit] Semantic verb arguments

Verb arguments are presented above from the syntactic point of view. However, verbs have semantic arguments, which may or may not correspond to the syntactic ones. In actual utterances only the syntactic arguments are realized, but the semantic arguments can be inferred from the meaning of the proposition.

Typical semantic arguments are the agent and the patient. Many verbs have other semantic arguments. Languages differ regarding which semantic arguments must surface as compulsory syntactic arguments.

For example, in English, the verb put requires three syntactic arguments: subject, object, locative (e. g. He put the book in the box). It also has 3 semantic arguments: agent, theme, goal. On the other hand, the Japanese verb oku "put" has the same semantic arguments, but the syntactic arguments differ, since Japanese does not require three syntactic arguments, so it is correct to say Kare ga hon o oita ("He put the book"). The equivalent sentence in English is ungrammatical without the required locative argument.

The English verb eat has two semantic arguments, the agent (the eater) and the patient (what is eaten), but only one required syntactic argument (the subject) and only optionally a second syntactic argument (the object).

Most languages allow for impersonal propositions, where the verb can have no syntactic arguments (cf Spanish llueve "it rains"). English verbs always require at least one syntactic argument (even if it is a dummy it, as in it rains). (See also pro-drop language).

Voice operations, such as passivization, can change the syntactic argument valency or exchange one syntactic argument with another, but the semantic arguments remain as they were. Compare the following sentences:

• She ate a cake.

• A cake was eaten by her.

In both cases the semantic arguments are she (the agent) and a cake (the patient), but the first sentence has the syntactic arguments subject and object, while the second has subject and (optional) agentive complement.

The passive voice does exist for a reason, however, and its presence is not always to be despised. The passive is particularly useful (even recommended) in two situations:

• When it is more important to draw our attention to the person or thing acted upon: The unidentified victim was apparently struck during the early morning hours.

• When the actor in the situation is not important: The aurora borealis can be observed in the early morning hours.

The passive voice is especially helpful (and even regarded as mandatory) in scientific or technical writing or lab reports, where the actor is not really important but the process or principle being described is of ultimate importance. Instead of writing "I poured 20 cc of acid into the beaker," we would write "Twenty cc of acid is/was poured into the beaker." The passive voice is also useful when describing, say, a mechanical process in which the details of process are much more important than anyone's taking responsibility for the action: "The first coat of primer paint is applied immediately after the acid rinse."

We use the passive voice to good effect in a paragraph in which we wish to shift emphasis from what was the object in a first sentence to what becomes the subject in subsequent sentences.

The executive committee approved an entirely new policy for dealing with academic suspension and withdrawal. The policy had been written by a subcommittee on student behavior. If students withdraw from course work before suspension can take effect, the policy states, a mark of "IW" . . . .

The paragraph is clearly about this new policy so it is appropriate that policy move from being the object in the first sentence to being the subject of the second sentence. The passive voice allows for this transition.†

Passive Verb Formation

The passive forms of a verb are created by combining a form of the "to be verb" with the past participle of the main verb. Other helping verbs are also sometimes present: "The measure could have been killed in committee." The passive can be used, also, in various tenses. Let's take a look at the passive forms of "design."

Tense	Subject	Auxiliary		Past Participle
					Singular	Plural
Present	The car/cars	is	are	designed.
Present perfect	The car/cars	has been	have been	designed.
Past	The car/cars	was	were	designed.
Past perfect	The car/cars	had been	had been	designed.
Future	The car/cars	will be	will be	designed.
Future perfect	The car/cars	will have been	will have been	designed.
Present progressive	The car/cars	is being	are being	designed.
Past progressive	The car/cars	was being	were being	designed.

A sentence cast in the passive voice will not always include an agent of the action. For instance if a gorilla crushes a tin can, we could say "The tin can was crushed by the gorilla." But a perfectly good sentence would leave out the gorilla: "The tin can was crushed." Also, when an active sentence with an indirect object is recast in the passive, the indirect object can take on the role of subject in the passive sentence:

Active	Professor Villa gave Jorge an A.
Passive	An A was given to Jorge by Professor Villa.
Passive	Jorge was given an A.

Only transitive verbs (those that take objects) can be transformed into passive constructions. Furthermore, active sentences containing certain verbs cannot be transformed into passive structures. To have is the most important of these verbs. We can say "He has a new car," but we cannot say "A new car is had by him." We can say "Josefina lacked finesse," but we cannot say "Finesse was lacked." Here is a brief list of such verbs*:

resemble	look like	equal	agree with
mean	contain	hold	comprise
lack	suit	fit	become

Verbals in Passive Structures

Verbals or verb forms can also take on features of the passive voice. An infinitive phrase in the passive voice, for instance, can perform various functions within a sentence (just like the active forms of the infinitive).

• Subject: To be elected by my peers is a great honor.

• Object: That child really likes to be read to by her mother.

• Modifier: Grasso was the first woman to be elected governor in her own right.

The same is true of passive gerunds.

• Subject: Being elected by my peers was a great thrill.

• Object: I really don't like being lectured to by my boss.

• Object of preposition: I am so tired of being lectured to by my boss.

With passive participles, part of the passive construction is often omitted, the result being a simple modifying participial phrase.

• [Having been] designed for off-road performance, the Pathseeker does not always behave well on paved highways.

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