Holidays and festivals

RIO DE JANEIRO’S CARNIVAL

The anual carnaval in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, started around 1840. They celebrate this famous carnival at the beginning of February. They offer prizes for both, costume and music; the competition results in varied and imaginative entries in both categories.

THE DAY OF THE DEAD

The day of the dead is celebrated in Mexico on November 2^nd. It is a time when Mexican families spend time at the cemetery, visiting the graves of their relatives, cleaning and painting the headstones. They specially arrange flowers to the dead and light candles. They offer food to their dead and then they have lunch together there. 

Verbs are subdivided into two groups, regular verbs and irregular verbs, on the basis of how their past tense and past participles are formed. See below for tips on how to distinguish between them.

Regular Verbs

Most verbs are regular verbs. Regular verbs are those whose past tense and past participles are formed by adding a -d or an -ed to the end of the verb.

"To roll" is a good example of a regular verb:

• roll, rolled, rolled

Sometimes the last consonant must be doubled before adding the -ed ending. For example:

• plan, planned, planned

Irregular Verbs

There is no formula to predict how an irregular verb will form its past-tense and past-participle forms. There are over 250 irregular verbs in English. Although they do not follow a formula, there are some fairly common irregular forms. Some of these forms are:

• break, broke, broken
• cut, cut, cut
• run, ran, run
• meet, met, met
• come, came, come
• repay, repaid, repaid
• swim, swam, swum
• be was/were been

Distinguishing Regular and Irregular Verbs

Dictionaries are perhaps the most valuable tool one can use in distinguishing between regular and irregular verbs. If only one form of the verb is listed, the verb is regular. If the verb is irregular, the dictionary will list the principal parts of the other forms.

HOMEWORK

WRITE DOWN THE FOLLOWING EXERCISES IN YOUR NOTEBOOK.. 

MATCH THE CORRECT PRESENT FORM WITH ITS PAST FORM.