Almost every semester one of my students asks about the difference between a crocodile and an alligator. The answer to this question is not really very simple. The fastest way to figure out if something is a crocodile or an alligator is to ask yourself where you are. If you are not at the zoo, and you are in Florida, it’s an alligator. If you are in Australia, it’s a crocodile. Unfortunately this method of determination didn’t help me at all with the lesson on comparatives that I was planning to write. Luckily I was able to find a few differences that fit nicely into the grammatical points I was hoping to teach.
The presentation can be found at
http://online.morainevalley.edu/websupported/PatriciaGalien/documents/ComparativeBlog.ppsx
Sources for the photos:
http://www.floridanature.org/photos/Alligator_mississippiensis_9,_St._Marks_NWR,_20041016.jpg
Hello
I am on an RSS feed for your blog and just got your comparatives pps. Showed it to our staff and they are all enthusiastic with positive comments – I said I sent it to you as an inspiration to create your own! but they just want to borrow your product! Thanks
Anyway it also caused great debate concerning “tired” on Slide 12. Is it a one syllable word with a tripthong for you? We wondered where you are from in the States? For us (in Australia) definitely a 2-syllable /tai/ /əd/
Thanks for the share!
Philip N
Hi Patricia
Awesome slide show. Just one point. I think tired has 2 syllables (slide 12). Thank you so much for sharing.
Hi Philip and Colleen. Well your questions about tired were very interesting. They resulted in some good discussion here as well. After finishing the discussion, consulting the dictionary, and asking various people to pronounce the word, I’ve come to the conclusion that the pronunciation of tired, like the question about whether something is an alligator and a crocodile, is dependent on location. What do you think of this theory – if you are in the States, it has one syllable, and if you are in Australia, is has two. One dictionary says that (in the States) tired has one syllable even though many people (including myself) incorrectly pronounce it as if it has two. Now I AM ti-er-red. LOL Thanks for the interesting question!