Representing thinking, perceiving, liking and desiring

Students' problems

page 6 of  8

Problems with the order of participants

Students sometimes have problems with the order of participants , especially with verbs associated with likes and dislikes:

You may annoy when you go shopping because the robbers, murderers and thieves will try to steal your money or kill you. (TeleNex Students)

Quite apart from whether annoy is a strong enough verb to use in this context, it is likely that the student is confusing this verb with a "like type". Here are some possible rewordings (note the use of passive voice in the first rewording):

You may be annoyed when you go shopping because the robbers, murderers and thieves will try to steal your money or kill you.

You may hate it when you go shopping because the robbers, murderers and thieves will try to steal your money or kill you.

For information about one of the problems that students have with the use of passive voice with emotion verbs, see Using passive voice: Students’ problems (p 5).

For one of the teaching implications related to the order of participants, see  Representing thinking, perceiving, liking and desiring: Teaching implications (p 6).

Introduction
Patterns associated with report structures
Problems associated with the that clause
Choosing between to-infinitive and the -ing form
Inappropriate use of distancing devices
Problems with the order of participants
Metaphorical meanings
Problems with wish and hope