verb "to be" being dropped

[annem]

Hi

My chinese student tends to drop the verb "to be" when followed by an adjective. I've read about this problem in Learner English by Michael Swan, but I can't find any activities which I could use to help this student.

Has anyone got any ideas?

Anne

[ian2]

Originally Posted by annem

Hi

My chinese student tends to drop the verb "to be" when followed by an adjective. I've read about this problem in Learner English by Michael Swan, but I can't find any activities which I could use to help this student.

Has anyone got any ideas?

Anne

But you need to give a sentence to show how the student drop "to be". Without an exmample, people cannot know what you really want to know.

[annem]

Hi

Yes, I agree an example always helps. Here are a few examples:

I will 35 years old
I think Leeds too small
I wasn't a noisy person and quite shy

Hope these explain the problem.

[WindDancer1]

Originally Posted by annem

Hi

Yes, I agree an example always helps. Here are a few examples:

I will 35 years old
I think Leeds too small
I wasn't a noisy person and quite shy

Hope these explain the problem.

I will be 35 years old. I think Leeds is too small. I hope this helps you.

[annem]

Thanks, but it's my student who has the problem. I know how the sentences should have been formed.

What I am looking for are some activities to improve my student's ability to remember and also realise she must use the verb "to be" with predicative adjectives.

[WindDancer1]

Originally Posted by annem

Hi

My chinese student tends to drop the verb "to be" when followed by an adjective. I've read about this problem in Learner English by Michael Swan, but I can't find any activities which I could use to help this student.

Has anyone got any ideas?

Anne

Shouldn't it read," Does anyone have any ideas?"

[ian2]

Originally Posted by WindDancer1

I will be 35 years old. I think Leeds is too small. I hope this helps you.

This could be that in Chinese people don't use "be" before adjectives. For example, Chinese would say I sixteen, I very glad, I very tired. But if it is a noun, they have to use "be", like I am John, or I am a student. Since prepositional phrases function like an adjective, we can predict that Chinese students may make mistakes such as I in school instead of I am in school or he under the table instead of he is under the table. So probably you can just stress that in English "be" in the situation is necessary.