A2-B1: Present Perfect and Past Simple

This is a difficult grammar point for Spanish speakers because we think that present perfect is a kind of past in Spanish (we called it pretérito perfecto simple). Let's see the main differences between these two tenses:

Present Perfect

• it focuses on the result of the action and this result happens in the present time: I've already eaten, thank you.
• the reference of time is not precised and it usually means up to now: I've seen that fillm many times; I think I've seen you before.
• this tense usually goes with expressions like: 
• EVER/NEVER: Have you ever eaten Thai food? No, never
• ALREADY: I've alredy finished my sandwich
• YET: She hasn't finised yet. What about your? Have you finished yet? 
• JUST: Yes, I've just finished
• FOR and SINCE: I've had it since I was a child/for a long time

Past Simple

• it focuses on the past action; it's usually referred to memories or past events. The reference of time is clearly in past so it goes with expressions such as : 
• ___ AGO: I saw her 3 weeks ago
•  LAST ____ : They went on holiday last month
• IN ___  : I was born in 1990
• WHEN ____ : I could swim when I was 7
• YESTERDAY: She called me yesterday

If you need more help with this grammar point, you can visit these useful links:

• A short explanation with a diagram to explain the difference: click here
• This link from the British Council gives you the explanation of present perfect and then it is compared with past simple: click here

You also have these useful links to practise but the best way is to do it speaking:

• exercise 1       exercise 2  (explanation and exercise)     exercise 3       exercise 4      exercise 5   exercise 6      exercise 7

The difference between LIKE and AS

 They have the same translation in English but they work differently according to the meaning and to the grammar used.

• LIKE:
• it means "similar to" so it's a comparison: she works like a doctor (similar to a doctor but that person is not a doctor)
• it's used with nouns, pronouns or -ing form: my father is like me
• AS:
• it means "in that position or situation" and it's NOT a comparison but it's REALLY that: she works as a doctor (she's a doctor; it's her job)
• it's followed by noun/pronoun or -ing, but it's very usual to have a sentence (Subject+Verb+Complements): I am a teacher as my father was in his time

If you need more information go to this link: click here or this other link . In both cases you have exercises at the end of the explanation.

Irregular verbs

We have started with past simple and we have seen there are 2 big groups:

• REGULAR: verbs in which you add -ED to the infinitive; e.g. work - worked - worked
• IRREGULAR: you have different forms in past and past participle; e.g. find - found -found

If you want more information, click on these links: here

The problem with regular verbs is the pronunciation because it's a bit difficult:

• / d / : the most usual one; e.g. played, studied, preferred (ending in vowel sound+-ED);listened, changed, travelled, lived  (ending in voiced the consonants) 
• / t / : with voiceless consonants; e.g. asked, washed, stopped (remember the trick: PeTaKaSh)
• / id / : ending in /d/ or /t/; you have an extra syllable; e.g. end - ended

For irregular verbs, look at the list with the pattern (A-A-A, A-B-B, A-B-C, A-B-A) : clikc here

How to learn irregular verbs? There are many activities, but try to do it orally better than writing:

• the alphabet: verbs starting with...
• by topics: senses; habitual actions; money; learning, etc.
• by pattern: tell me 5 verbs A-A-A, A-B-B, A-B-C, etc.
• by groups of pronunciation: /i:/  /e/  /e/ (read, read, read; feel, felt, felt)  or --- /ot/  /ot/ (buy, bought, bought; catch, caught, caught) 
• by mimic: you show your partner the action by mimic (e.g. swim, eat, write, read, think...)
• What did you do yesterday? (in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening) 

If you want to work with written exercises, go to these links:

• exercise 1      exercise 2     exercise 3 (a list of exercises)

To help you with the pronunciation you can go to this link where there are videos to know how to say the most common irregular verbs.

1B: Present Simple (A2)

This lesson is about Present Simple but I prefer to call it "habitual present" because it gives you a clue (pista) about how to use it. The verb is formed with the infinitive verb (except the verb to be) and it takes an -S for the 3rd person in singular. In many ocassions we use a frequency adverb wtih this tense (tiempo verbal). You need to use the auxiliary DO/DOES for negative or interrogative sentences. These are some examples:

• I study English  ---   I don't study Japanese   ---  Does she usually eat meat? No, she doesn't . She never eats meat because she's a vegan.

On the Internet you can find some videos about habitual present and daily routines:

• this video is with the 1st person in singular and the 3rd person in singular: click here
• A video with grammar explanation: click here

In class I explained the 3 pronunciations of -S and -ES (which are usually used in 3rd person in singular of present, plurals and some contractions or saxon genitive) . This video can help you to remember what I said about it: click here. You can use the mnemotechnique rule (PeTaKaSh) for voiceless consonants and also remember that any vowel sound (-y, -er, -o) is always voiced. The extra syllable is after a "sybillant" sound (sonido silbante).

Now do these exercises to practise with present simple or habitual present:

• The Queen's routine: click here
• As a curiosity, this is the routine of a Canadian teacher: click here (more difficult than the others!)

Grammar exercises:     exercise 1 (this is the exercise we saw in class)     exercise 2  (this is a link with exercises)     exercise 3  (this is a test to check you've understood present simple)

To finish with, this is the video woth the song Eternal Flame

See you in class!

Unit 1B: One World (Nationalities) (A1)

 This lesson is about nationalities and you can work with them in many ways, but first keep in mind (ten en cuenta) they always start with a capital letter, as you can see in these examples:

• Peter is British; he's from London. He speaks English, German and French. He lives in France.

This rule is for nationalities and languages and there are NO exceptions.

Let's start with some activities to practise with this vocabulary:

• How to pronounce different countries and nationalities: click here.
• If you want to know the rules for nationalities, go to this link
• If your country and nationality aren't in the exercises before, this list will help you.
• And this last exercise is to check where to stress nationalities: click here

We're also working with the TO BE. Let's practise with it becaus it's a very important verb:

• It's an AUXILIARY verb so you use it for questions and negative forms:
• Is he Egyptian?    No, he isn't. He's Moroccan
• It has more meanings than in Spanish; sometimes it means tener /hacer as you can see in these examples:
• I'm 27 (years old)     it's cold today        she's sleepy        the baby's hungry

As we're going to celebrate Erasmus Day next week (15th, 16th and 17th of October), can you try to do this exercise about the countries which form the European Union? Go to this link.

Welcome to the School Year 2020-2021! (A-2)

Welcome to the new school year 2020-2021. Here are we to start with English after a very hard time without practising it but we are ready to start again.. This year has some changes because of the pandemia the pandemia but we'll solve any problem we could have, you'll see.

Our class is Nivel Básico 2 (A2-F) so most of the activities will be oriented to this level. Nevertheless, I'll include other levels if necessary and if you want to review something, in this very blog there are entries for A1 as well son you can have a look. Last Thursday we saw the alphabet and the numbers in class and you can use the previous entry for revision.

We also started with the textbook but we only worked with QUESTIONS. This is some useful information if you don't have the book yet or if you want to refresh this grammar point :

• Questions: The general characteristic of English questions is the use of an auxiliary verb in the inversion at the beginning of the sentence. Let's see how this auxiliary works depending on the type of question you're using:
• YES/NO questions: they need this kind of answer so they are also called "total" questions. The structures is AUXILIARY+SUBJECT+VERB. These are some examples:
• Is he in our class?  -----  Yes, he is.
• Do they speak German?   -----  No, they don't
• Did you study English here last school year?  -----  Yes, I did
• Can you understand me?  -----  Yes, we can.
• Are you coming home early today?  -----  Yes, I am.
• "Partial" questions:  also called wh-questions, when you only ask something in particular, that is, a "part" of the sentence; these questions start with WH-words but you also have the inversion, as you can see in these examples:
• WHERE was he born?  -----  He was born in Murcia.
• HOW MANY children have you got?  -----  I've got 2, a boy and a girl.
• HOW MUCH sugar do you need?  -----  Just a little.
• WHY did you phone her yesterday?  ------  Because I wanted to meet her.
• Exceptions: when the WH-word has the function of the subject you don't have to use the inversion; have a look at the examples to see how they work:
• WHO is coming tonight?  -----   A few friends (THEY are coming)
• HOW MANY friends are coming?  -----  Just 3 or 4 close friends.
• WHAT happened to you?  -----  Nothing (nothing happened to me).

If you need some more information about questions you can use this link  and this other link is very useful as well. After reviewing the grammar, let's practise with some exercises:

• exercise 1 (very easy)       
• exercise 2 (to practise with HAVE and HAVE GOT as we saw in class)      
• exercise 3 (using WH-word in questions)    
• exercise 4 (do this exercise just for fun!)

If you want to practise in a different way, to listen to Are you lonely tonight? by Elvis Presley (half of the song is just the singer reciting the lyrics!)  : click here

See you in class!

Starting a New School Year 2020-2021 (A-1)

Welcome to the new school year 2020-2021. Here are we to start with English. This year has some changes due to the pandemia but we'll solve any problem we could have, you'll see.

Our class is Nivel Básico 1 (A1) so most of the activities will be oriented to this level. Nevertheless, I'll include other levels if necessary.

To start with, let's see what level you have because maybe there are students with some knowledge (conocimientos) of English but remember we're going to start from the beginning.

To check your real level, you try to do these tests:

• This is a test to know your level by Cambridge
• Another test: click here
• Or this one
• In this link you'll see other links for a placement test and for the different levels you can have. 

Remember all these placement tests are for ALL the levels so you can't do it very well because it's not just for beginners or elementary students. Besides (además) they are only based on grammar and vocabulary, but they don't include productive parts such as oral and writing skills. 

Before starting with our virtual class, let's use the blog as a guide for your homework. For next week, I'd like you to do these exercises:

• The Alphabet: here you have a link with the alphabet, its pronunciation and some words to practise spelling- click here. But let's see some difficulties:
• The pronunciation of vowels: this is a long video but very practical so click here and try to practise with it saying the words after the teacher.
• In class, we saw this chart:

The Alphabet

VOWELS	A /eɪ/	E/i:/	/e/	I/aɪ/	O/əʊ/	U/ju:/
CONSONANTS	A H J K	B C D E G P T V Z/zi :/ (USA)	F L M N S X Z/zed/ (UK)	I Y/waɪ/	O	Q U W	R /ɑ:/(UK) /ɑ:r/ (USA)

TH  /θ/ or /ð/ SH /ʃ/ CH /tʃ/

• Numbers: here you are a video for the pronunciation or this one. There are 3 groups:
• from 1 to 12  click here
• how to distinguish between 13 and 30: click here
• from 1 to 100 (American accent): click here
• Vocabulary of the class: things you can find in your class. To practise with this vocabulary, click here or here. Use the words for practising spelling.

• Unisn songs to learn English: to listen to songs in English is very useful. You can start with easy ones and then go on with more difficult ones, especially if they are your favourite ones!
• All toguether now: click here   

See you in class!