(L318) “He’s” and “She’s” – Contractible Copula and Auxiliary Verbs Mega Workout

Description

‘He’s swimming. He’s happy. She’s building. She’s noisy!’ Viv the Punctuation Pirate presents a language convention workout – contractible copula and auxiliary verbs workout.

Between the ages of 4 and 5 years, most children start to shorten some two word statements containing the word ‘is’ into one word contractions using an apostrophe. This can involve the word ‘is’ as either:

• the main ‘copula’ verb, e.g. ‘He is happy’ becoming ‘He’s happy’ or ‘The girl is upset’ becoming ‘The girl’s upset’; or
• an auxiliary verb, e.g. ‘She is dancing’ becoming ‘She’s dancing’.

The technical name for saying ‘he is’ as ‘he’s’ and ‘she is’ as ‘she’s’ is to say that you are using the ‘contractible copula’ or ‘contractible auxiliary’.

Some children have difficulty using ‘he’s’ and ‘she’s’ in these ways. For example, some children confuse ‘he’s’ (meaning ‘he is’) with the determiner and pronoun ‘his’.

This 72-page no-preparation pack is designed to provide people with focused, scaffolded practice of the form. This pack uses both pictures and orthography, making it suitable for children or adults.