A Rainy Day
It is raining.
Everybody is chatting.
The cat is eating.
Outside there is lightning.
The sun is hiding.
In every kitchen khichuri is cooking .
Khichuri. Photo by Shamsi Ara Huda.
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Learning Activities
Vocabulary
- These words come from the second 1000 high frequency General Service Word List. They are the words you should learn first.
cat cooking hiding kitchen raining
2. These words are less common in English. Use a dictionary to check the meaning.
chatting lightning
Grammar
What is the same about these words?
cooking hiding raining chatting lightning
Yes, they all end with ‘ing’. But be careful! One of these words is quite different. Do you know which one it is? Why is it different?
That’s right. In this poem, ‘cooking’, ‘hiding’, ‘raining’ and ‘chatting’ are all verbs. They tell us about what someone or something is doing. We use this verb form when the action takes place at the same time as the speaker says it. We also use this verb form to show that the action will continue for a short time, then it will stop.
However, as I said, be careful! ‘Lightning’ is not a verb. It is a noun. It is the name of something, so we do not say “It is lightning”. Instead we say “There is lightning (outside)”, or “The lightning is flashing”, or “The lightning is bright”, or “I saw lightning coming down from the sky.”
Can you find any more examples of verbs that end with ‘ing’? Try reading one of the other stories on this website, and make a list of the ‘ing’ verbs that you find. Can you find 10 ‘ing’ verbs from another story? Do you know the meaning of all of them?
Writing: Now use some of your ‘ing’ verbs to make a poem like “A Rainy Day” poem. Your poem should be about activities that are taking place right now, but will stop soon. Add a drawing, and then share your poem with a classmate.
Speaking and Listening: Do you know how to make Khichuri? Explain to a partner, in English, how to cook this dish. What are the ingredients you need? What cooking steps do you need to take? If you do not know how to cook this dish, describe a different Bangladeshi dish that you like to eat and explain how to make it.
Listen carefully to your partner’s description. As your partner describes their recipe, make some notes, in English, about what they need to use and how they would cook the dish they chose. Let your partner check your notes when you have finished. Were you able to write down everything correctly?