Word Cards with Three Extra Cards
A visiting ALT, Ms Parker, comes to your school on Friday. Each group must ask her one question, and the teacher hands out word cards - one card per word or phrase, plus extra cards that belong to no sentence. You may not add, change or repeat a word, and a sentence that leaves the wrong card unused earns zero.
Set A cards: how / long / have / you / in / Japan / lived / did / ? Set B (the first two words are already printed on the paper as 'Could you tell me'): where / the / bus / stop / is / does / ? Set C cards: This / is / the / book / that / I / bought / in / Sendai / . / what
Your group finishes in five minutes. Two members disagree about Set A: one wants 'How long did you live in Japan?', which is real English; the other says the cards themselves forbid it.
1. Build Set A and Set B, name the unused card in each, and state the one rule that decides Set B.
Read the worked answer
Set A: How long have you lived in Japan? Unused card: did. Cards used: how, long, have, you, lived, in, Japan, ? - eight cards, eight words.
Set B: Could you tell me where the bus stop is? Unused card: does. Cards used: where, the, bus, stop, is, ?
The rule for Set B: when a question is packed inside another sentence (Could you tell me …), the inside part keeps statement order - subject before verb - and no do/does/did appears. Could you tell me where is the bus stop? imports the question inversion from the direct question Where is the bus stop? and is exactly the error the does card is there to test. The printed tell also tells you the register: this is a polite request to a stranger, not a quiz question to a friend.
2. Build Set C and explain why the *what* card cannot be used, even though students hear 'what' in sentences with a similar meaning.
Read the worked answer
Set C: This is the book that I bought in Sendai. Unused card: what.
What already contains 'the thing that', so it cannot follow a noun. This is the book what I bought fails for the same reason This is the what I bought fails - the noun and what are competing for the same slot.
Alternatives that are also correct English: This is the book I bought in Sendai (no relative word at all, when the noun is the object) and This is the book which I bought in Sendai. Since only one that/which card is provided and the rule is 'no adding', the card on the desk decides the answer.
Why the error survives: what is extremely common in listening and in song titles, so it 'sounds right'. Sound is not a test here - position after a noun is.
3. A student produces 'How long did you live in Japan?' for Set A. It is grammatical English. Give the two separate reasons it still fails this task.
Read the worked answer
Reason 1 - the cards. Lived cannot follow did: in a past question the main verb returns to its base form (did you live), and you are not allowed to change or add a card. Using did leaves have unused, and the rule says the wrong leftover card scores zero. So the sentence fails on mechanics before meaning is even discussed. Correct build with did available would be How long did you live in Japan? using live, not lived - which the cards do not offer.
Reason 2 - the meaning. How long did you live in Japan? asks about a stay that is finished. Ms Parker is standing in your classroom, so the stay is still going: present perfect (have lived) is the form that carries 'up to now'. A listener would answer the did version with 'I still do', which is a repair, not an answer.
Lesson: a sentence can be perfect English and still be the wrong answer. Check (i) the constraints, (ii) the situation.