English resources/Sentence starters/Verbs
Verbs
Instead of "shows". Instead of "says". Pick one. Put it in the margin when you mark the text.
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Ban "shows" for one paragraph. They have to pick from this page. Then lift the ban. Some of them will keep the new verb.
Instead of "shows"
17 verbs. Each one with a line from the books.
undercuts
Takes the power out of a claim.
Ozymandias undercuts the king's boast with sand. Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
inflates
Makes a thing bigger than it is.
Lady Macbeth inflates murder into a test of manhood. When you durst do it, then you were a man
isolates
Leaves a character alone.
Dickens isolates Scrooge before he changes him. Hard and sharp as flint
binds
Ties two things together.
Marley's chain binds every greedy act to his body. I wear the chain I forged in life
delays
Puts off the thing we already know is coming.
Macbeth delays the murder for one scene. Then he does it.
repeats
Says it again so we cannot miss it.
"Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" repeats a day that means nothing.
withholds
Does not tell us.
The witches withhold how the prophecies will come true.
mirrors
Copies an earlier moment.
Out, damned spot, out, I say! mirrors A little water clears us of this deed.
splits
Makes two out of one.
Jekyll splits himself, then cannot put himself back. man is not truly one, but truly two
hardens
Makes a person cruel.
Lady Macbeth tries to harden herself. It works. Then it breaks.
excuses
Gives a reason that is not a reason.
Macbeth has "no spur" except wanting more. Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself
names
Calls a thing what it is.
Malcolm names them butcher and devil queen. this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen
tests
Checks if someone will do it.
Lady Macbeth tests him with When you durst do it, then you were a man.
damns
Judges without appeal.
The witches damn Macbeth as one of them: Something wicked this way comes.
Instead of "says"
The speech itself is doing something.
asks
Instead of "says".
Puts a question on the page. Juliet asks why he has to be Romeo. ${Q.wherefore}
answers
Instead of "says".
A reply that does work. Macduff answers Malcolm: ${Q.feel}
orders
Instead of "says".
Tells someone to do it. Lady Macbeth orders the night to hide the murder.
begs
Instead of "says".
Asks from underneath. Macbeth begs the stars to go dark.
jokes
Instead of "says".
Makes light of a thing that is not light. The businessmen joke about the dead man in stave four.
threatens
Instead of "says".
Names a cost. The Friar threatens the marriage with ${Q.violent}
lists
Instead of "says".
Piles items. Marley lists the chain. Dickens lists Scrooge: squeezing, wrenching, grasping.
shortens
Instead of "says".
Cuts the sentence. "Out, damned spot." Three beats. No grammar left.
understates
Instead of "says".
Says less than the fact. "She should have died hereafter" is a whole marriage in six words.
repeats
Instead of "says".
Same as the other list. If they say it twice, write that they repeat it.
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