Literacy homework help

[Puggit]

Puggit Jnr has the following task: "find some verbs in each passage. Record the action in each verb and who or what is performing the action (the subject)"

The sentence in question is:" the dogs started to eat"

Puggit Jnr selected the verb as 'eat' and the subject as 'dogs'. The teacher has corrected his work and said that 'started' is the verb. As they are both verbs, which is correct?

[anonymous-user]

I think the "to eat" bit is described as a very short 'infinitive phrase'.

Maybe

[Chris GB]

Agreed. Started is the verb.
To eat is an infinitive phrase and would mean the same if it said "eating" or "their dinner".

[Bluebarge]

"To eat" is still a verb, whether it is in the infinitive, conditional or past tense.

[Hugo a Gogo]

it's an infinitive, but yes, still a verb form

was the lesson about infinitives and gerunds? that would make sense, why they were supposed to know the difference

[Puggit]

Hugo a Gogo said:

it's an infinitive, but yes, still a verb form

was the lesson about infinitives and gerunds? that would make sense, why they were supposed to know the difference

This is year 5 - they certainly don't know about infinitives and gerunds.

[FredClogs]

They've made a dog's dinner of this.

Thank feck mines still year 4, I knew she'd out smart me at some point but wasn't aware it would be so soon...

[jonny996]

I am pinning my hope on they still do woodwork at school, otherwise I will be dunce of the family.

[Ekona]

Puggit said:

This is year 5 - they certainly don't know about infinitives and gerunds.

I'm 35, and I don't know about infinitives and gerunds either!

[5potTurbo]

Ekona said:

Puggit said:

This is year 5 - they certainly don't know about infinitives and gerunds.

I'm 35, and I don't know about infinitives and gerunds either!

I'm 45, and, err, yeah - the same!

[bertie]

The stuff they do as school now is stupid.

They skim over umpteen different things without ever embedding any of them, maths is particularly bad.

[Monkeylegend]

5potTurbo said:

Ekona said:

Puggit said:

This is year 5 - they certainly don't know about infinitives and gerunds.

I'm 35, and I don't know about infinitives and gerunds either!

I'm 45, and, err, yeah - the same!

Try 62

[spud989]

Easier to think of replacing the main verb in the sentence with something which demonstrates it more clearly: the dogs moved.

[Doobs too]

bertie said:

The stuff they do as school now is stupid.

They skim over umpteen different things without ever embedding any of them, maths is particularly bad.

The stuff they do at school now is brilliant. I'm not stupid and I did well-ish at school but I can see my daughter, now in year 3, is far ahead of where I was when I was 7. And she's started learning programming (OK, Scratch). From the little I've seen the education system is much better now than it was 30 years ago.

She'd never start a sentence with a conjunctive like wot I did.

[TedMaul]

bertie said:

The stuff they do as school now is stupid.

They skim over umpteen different things without ever embedding any of them, maths is particularly bad.

This is the truth sadly

[xRIEx]

Hugo a Gogo said:

it's an infinitive, but yes, still a verb form

was the lesson about infinitives and gerunds? that would make sense, why they were supposed to know the difference

Except there's no gerund in the sentence.

[Hugo a Gogo]

xRIEx said:

Hugo a Gogo said:

it's an infinitive, but yes, still a verb form

was the lesson about infinitives and gerunds? that would make sense, why they were supposed to know the difference

Except there's no gerund in the sentence.

I was assuming a lesson would cover more than that one sentence...

they're often taught at the same time

[xRIEx]

Hugo a Gogo said:

xRIEx said:

Hugo a Gogo said:

it's an infinitive, but yes, still a verb form

was the lesson about infinitives and gerunds? that would make sense, why they were supposed to know the difference

Except there's no gerund in the sentence.

I was assuming a lesson would cover more than that one sentence...

they're often taught at the same time

Fair point.

[0000]

I hope you've asked the teacher what part of speech they think "to eat" falls into?

[redrabbit]

Ask Molesworth