Verbs for Project Pitches: B2 review

English For Branding

Spelling & Verbs for Writing Briefs,

Word Order

Typical Verbs

        

Base Form

Simple Past

Past Participle

Gerund Form

1	Promote	Promoted	Promoted	Promoting
2	Ask	Asked	Asked	Asking
3	Organize	Organized	Organized	Organizing
4	Be (is, am, are)	Was, were	Been	Being
5	Hold	Held	Held	Holding
6	Help	Helped	Helped	Helping
7	Come	Came	Came	Coming
8	Modify	Modified	Modified	Modifying
9	Energize	Energized	Energized	Energizing
10	Propose	Proposed	Proposed	Proposing
11	Call	Called	Called	Calling
12	Represent	Represented	Represented	Representing
13	Write	Wrote	Written	Writing
14	Make up of (consist of)	Made up of	Made up of	Making up of
15	Explain	Explained	Explained	Explaining
16	Wait	Waited	Waited	Waiting
17	Increase	Increased	Increased	Increasing
18	See	Saw	Seen	Seeing
19	Work	Worked	Worked	Working
20	Know	Knew	Known	Knowing
21	Exist	Existed	Existed	Existing
22	Last (duration)	Lasted	Lasted	Lasting
23	Commit to	Committed to	Committed to	Committing to
24	Extract	Extracted	Extracted	Extracting
25	Convince	Convinced	Convinced	Convincing
26	Buy	Bought	Bought	Buying
27	Suffer	Suffered	Suffered	Suffering
28	Would like to…	Would have liked to	Would have liked to	Would like to…
29	Appear	Appeared	Appeared	Appearing
30	Expect	Expected	Expected	Expecting
31	Offer	Offered	Offered	Offering
32	Staff	Staffed	Staffed	Staffing
33	Vary (differ)	Varied Differed	Varied differed	Varying Differing
34	Clarify	Clarified	Clarified	Clarifying
35	Provide	Provided	Provided	Providing
36	Scout	Scouted	Scouted	Scouting
37	Locate	Located	Located	Locating
38	Track	Tracked	Tracked	Tracking
39	Handle	Handled	Handled	Handling
40	Manage	Managed	Managed	Managing
41	Source	Sourced	Sourced	Sourcing
42	Liaise with	Liaised with	Liaised with	Liaising with
43	Launch	Launched	Launched	launching

Here are some typical Collocations when using these verbs to talk about events.  Can you complete the list? Use the brief sample to help you.

1.     Promote a product, brand, service with an event

2.     Ask someone to do something (The client asked us to help promote their new brand image)

3.     Help someone do something (help promote a new book)

4.     Organize and coordinate teams

5.     The client’s new products are going to come on market next September.

6.     Our client would like to modify their annual event and make it more entertaining: they would like us to energize it.

7.     We propose to have online contests through social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

8.     The creative team is currently investigating possible strategies.

9.     They will call the event: Energize your classroom.

10. Our agency is represented by Mr Johan Smith, Ms Kathleen Turner, and Ms Carla Harrington.

11. They are currently writing a brief to explain the situation.

12. Our agency is made up of three main departments: Public Relations, Accounts, and Creative.

13.  

           

Word Order:  Remember that in English there is usually a rigid word order:

1)  S   .      V.        O.         M.         P.       T.

[Subject,+ verb, + object ]  [Manner (how?), +Place (where?), + Time (when?)]

         For example:

 Our agency will organize a special event for Nike tennis shoes at the Olympic stadium next June. It will be great and a lot of fun.

It is ALSO POSSIBLE to place the Time phrase at the beginning of the sentence:

  Next June, our agency will organize a special event for Nike tennis shoes at the Olympic stadium.  It will be great and a lot of fun.

2)  How can I include ADJECTIVES (ADJ) AND ADVERBS (ADV)?     

·      S. + V (BE). + ADJ /ADV + COMPLEMENT =

o  I am always late on Monday mornings.  / She is serious in the office, but funny outside work.

·      S + V + ADV + COMPLEMENT =

o  He drives crazily, even on Sundays.

Practice with word order: 

A) Read these mixed up words (from the brief sample), and put them in order to make grammatically correct sentences.

Example:    event / three / there / venue / for / choices / this/ are =  

There are three venue choices for this event.

OR…

For this event, there are three venue choices.

1.     annual / asked / they / to / their / us / organize / party ___________________________________________________________________________________________

2.     day / usually / this / half / lasts / a / event __________________________________________________________________________________________

3.     annual / always / event / they / main / hold / train / the / station / the / near __________________________________________________________________________________________

4.     products  / is / purpose / promote / the / to / book / for / new / of / event / the / teachers  __________________________________________________________________________________________________

5.     writing / team / brief / creative / currently / the / is / separate / a _________________________________________________________________________________________________

B) Choose the best ending ( a or b) for the sentence beginnings.

1.     The client would like   a)  to modify the theme   b) modifying the theme.

2.     We propose  a) to call it ‘Energize Your Classroom’   b) to calling it ‘Energize Your Classroom.’

3.     The Account team is made up   a) in three people    b) of three people.

4.     At the moment,  a) there is        b) there are      a budget of 10,000 Euros.

5.     The client hopes   a) increased sales by 7%   b) to increase sales by 7%.

6.     Our client is known  a) for their innovation     b) to their innovation.

7.     With this event, our client’s objective is  a) to increase brand recognition  b) increasing brand recognition.

8.     Attendees   a) will came from surrounding areas   b) will come from surrounding areas.

9.     The venues   a) should to provide a list of menus    b) should provide a list of menus.

10.   We a) will negotiate to   b) negotiate with     the venues for the rental price.

C)  Use the verb list and create descriptions of what your role in a potential communications agency could be.  What is your future job in events?  Describe it in a minimum of three sentences:

1

2

3

Definite or Indefinite Article?

Indefinite = a / an (singular, speaking about someone or something IN GENERAL)

·      My mother is a high-school teacher. (not your or my high school teacher – her job is as a teacher, in a high school)

·      Could you please bring me an apple?  (just one out of the group of apples in our kitchen

·      Would you like to consider using a sponsor?  (no specific sponsor is identified)

·      I read a history book about Rome.  (You don’t know which one)

Definite = the (‘specific’)  Use the + singular or plural Noun when both you and the speaker (s)  know what you are talking about.

·      Could you please bring me the book in the kitchen? (we are at in the same house and you know which book I  am talking about).

·      What is the budget for the Nike event?  (I named the event specifically)

·      Later, I’m going to the bank, supermarket, cinema, post office, library. (luoghi comuni)

·      The students in the courtyard often smoke during breaks.

Definite = the ‘in a general sense’.  When you speak about things in general, we usually eliminate ‘the’ and put nouns into the plural form.

1.     I like the music = I like music.

2.     The nature is beautiful = Nature is beautiful.

3.     The books are expensive = Books are expensive.

Sometimes ‘the’ can be used in generalizations with singular countable nouns to talk about a whole class of things.

1.     The telescope is useful for looking at stars and planets.

2.     The tiger is in danger of becoming extinct.

3.     I can play the piano.

4.     I hate the telephone.  (BUT  I hate email.)

5.     The man who invented the ball point pen was Belgian.

Some expressions associated with geography use ‘the’:

1.     I’m going to the mountains at Christmas.

2.     Joann usually goes to the sea in August.

3.     Do you like living in the city or the country?

4.     The Grand Canyon is an incredible site to see.

5.     The Tiber is the river that runs through Rome; The Arno goes through Florence.

6.     The United States is a very big country, geographically. BUT….Italy is smaller.

7.     The Italians are famous for good cuisine, art, and opera.

8.     The Istituto Europeo di Design has functioned for 40 years.

There are places (luoghi) with NO article after a preposition:

1.    I take my son to school every morning.  We leave at 7:25 so we can arrive by 8:00 a.m.

2.    I went to university in Madison, Wisconsin, in the U.S.

3.    Joe goes to work at 7 p.m. He works in a bar.

4.    Most people in the city center travel by bus or underground.  BUT If you are in Manhattan, you should take the subway (NO preposition)

5.    I went by subway to get downtown.

SUGGESTION:  Keep a temporary notebook where you can write examples of the CONTEXTS where a / an / the are used, or not used.

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