Jan 19, 2009

Legally Blonde: Verb Patterns - Verb + Gerund or Infinitive





This is one of the best scenes from comic movies I have seen. I like how far fetched, but appealing it is. The answers are on the worksheet. Make sure you pre-teach court vocabulary (judge, attorney, lawyer, court, defendant, prosecutor, witness, etc).


Watch the video segment and circle the best verb for each sentence, according to the information presented in the segment. Then decide which form (gerund / infinitive / obj + gerunds or infinitive) of the words in parentheses is best.


1) The attorney refused/ wanted/ planned _____________ (accept) being replaced on the case by a Law student.

2) The defendant decided/ imagined/ claimed __________ (fire) her attorney on trial day.

3) Elle hates/loves/ avoids ___________ (wear) extravagant clothes .

4) The judge finally refused/ denied/ resolved ___________ (proceed) with the trial.

5) Elle's friends couldn't help / pretended / finished __________ (talk) about the court room in front of everyone.

6) The judge told/ asked/ begged ___________ (the ladies - take) a seat.

7) The witness explained/ urged / swore ______________ (tell ) the truth.

8) The witness claimed / showed / intended _________ (be) in the shower during the murder.

9) The witness denied / insisted/ warned __________ (hear) the gunshot.

10) The judge forbid/ prohibited/ let ______________ (Elle - make ) her final point.

11) The witness admitted / proved/ avoided ___________ (kill) her father by mistake.

12) Finally, the judge prohibited / allowed / pretended _________ (the witness - go) free.

How to develop your own video activity:
- Select a scene in which several people have to defend their arguments - like a trial, for example.

- Prepare sentences with the characters' argumentation, offering the choices of different verbs so you can check listening comprehension too.

- The students choose the correct verb and decide if the following verb is in the infinitive or gerund form.





WORKSHEET

MOVIE SEGMENT DOWNLOAD - LEGALLY BLONDE


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I_GYgGjxFM
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23 comments:

  1. JuliaAugust 23, 2009 at 11:40 PM

    thanks a lot!!!! it really helped me!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Claudio AzevedoAugust 24, 2009 at 8:32 AM

    You're welcome, Jules. I'm glad you like it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Private English classesOctober 22, 2009 at 9:11 PM

    Hey, it's awesome. I've surfed on American blogs, English blogs, but I just found the best one here in my country.....I was looking for games about verb +ing or to and then I found your blog. Thank God I haven't given up searching! Now you're my favourite. I hope to be like you someday. All the best.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Claudio AzevedoOctober 23, 2009 at 10:25 AM

    Thanks for your really motivating comment! It's so rewarding to hear that. Come back often. See you.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousMarch 23, 2011 at 4:52 PM

    Congratulations Cláudio!

    I don't often leave comments here, but I do come here a lot to get your activities.
    This activity is awesome, just as the other ones! Thank you a bunch for sharing it with us!
    I wish I could be useful somehow.. as I don't know how I could do it right now, I think I could at least leave this message to congratulate you for the wonderful job!

    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousMarch 23, 2011 at 4:52 PM

    Congratulations Cláudio!

    I don't often leave comments here, but I do come here a lot to get your activities.
    This activity is awesome, just as the other ones! Thank you a bunch for sharing it with us!
    I wish I could be useful somehow.. as I don't know how I could do it right now, I think I could at least leave this message to congratulate you for the wonderful job!

    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Claudio AzevedoMarch 23, 2011 at 5:55 PM

    Thanks, Flavia, for your kind words. Make use of the activities with no guilt! Enjoy them. See you around.

    ReplyDelete
  8. UnknownJuly 29, 2011 at 5:32 PM

    Hi. Thanks very much. Great lesson plan and a great idea for teaching verb patterns. The film was very popular amongst my students and it certainly motivated them to learn verb patterns.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Claudio AzevedoJuly 29, 2011 at 9:53 PM

    Dear Jami,
    Thanks for your comment. My students also enjoyed both the segment and the activity. This grammar point is so barren and this post's activity certainly enlightened my lesson plan. Great to hear you.

    ReplyDelete
  10. UnknownFebruary 18, 2012 at 12:45 AM

    Its just what I needed. Thank you very much and congrats on your awesome blog!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. JaneMarch 8, 2012 at 12:16 PM

    Well structured, easy to use and a great way to break the pace in a class. Thank you so much for sharing these activities. I'll certainly come back and use some more. I have some exercises to use with songs if you're interested?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Claudio AzevedoMarch 8, 2012 at 3:01 PM

    Thanks, Jane. Sure I would like that. I'm not an expert in songs.

    ReplyDelete
  13. AlexMarch 31, 2012 at 12:28 AM

    Evening everyone, does anybody know how to download the video clips?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Claudio AzevedoMarch 31, 2012 at 12:35 AM

    Dear Alex,
    Check out this post. It is very easy wth real player but there are other options.

    http://moviesegmentstoassessgrammargoals.blogspot.com/2008/11/downloading-movie-segments.html

    Let me know if you managed.

    ReplyDelete
  15. La TeacherApril 17, 2012 at 10:26 AM

    Thank you! Very useful!

    ReplyDelete
  16. GardeniaJune 5, 2012 at 1:02 PM

    Excelente site, Cláudio! Parabéns!

    ReplyDelete
  17. UnknownApril 2, 2014 at 5:28 PM

    can i have the answers?

    ReplyDelete
  18. Claudio AzevedoApril 2, 2014 at 7:18 PM

    The answers are on the worksheet. You can download it from the link at the end of the post. Here they are, anyway:

    1. REFUSED TO ACCEPT
    2. DECIDED TO FIRE
    3. LOVES WEARING
    4. RESOLVED TO PROCEED
    5. COULDN’T HELP TALKING
    6. TOLD THE LADIES TO TAKE
    7. SWORE TO TELL
    8. CLAIMED TO BE (HAVE BEEN)
    9. DENIED HEARING (HAVING HEARD)
    10. LET ELLE MAKE
    11. ADMITTED KILLING (HAVING KILLED)
    12. ALLOWED THE DEFENDANT TO GO

    ReplyDelete
  19. GeorgeAugust 27, 2014 at 11:01 AM

    Dear Claudio,

    Thank you for your generous offerings.

    I think I've found inconsistency in the Legally Blonde worksheet. All the verbs in square brackets are in the past form, except 'forbid'. Maybe you should put it in the past as well.

    Best,
    George

    ReplyDelete
  20. Claudio AzevedoSeptember 4, 2014 at 5:54 PM

    Dear George,
    Thanks for the feedback. I have changed that. See you.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Peternak HebatAugust 2, 2015 at 10:06 AM

    nice film

    ReplyDelete
  22. UnknownSeptember 26, 2017 at 8:19 AM

    Unfortunately, the link to download the worksheet isn't working :/

    ReplyDelete
  23. Claudio AzevedoSeptember 26, 2017 at 1:57 PM

    It has been fixed, Luisa.

    ReplyDelete