Preparing final exams

 This entry is to help you with the final exams, especially for A2. But if you want, you can use it to practise with A1 as well.

You can use the 2020 exams from different CCAA; some of them don't have the A2 level as there wasn't that exam in some places like Madrid or Cataluña, but you can go to these links:

A2 level:

• Asturias

• Baleares 

• Extremadura

These other links are from other CCAA but you need to check the level you're looking for, taht is, A2, among all the levels given:

• Andalucía
• Euskadi
• La Rioja
• Murcia

There are some differences between Autonomous Communities and you can find more samples or models than these, but the exams are a bit older and maybe with more different tahn the ones we have now. Nevertheless, go to this link about Madrid for A2: click HERE.

If you want to see more examples of exams at EEOOII, go to this link.

I hope this is useful for you and I wish you the best for your exams.

Comparatives and Superlatives

This is what I usually explain in class: the comparative/superlative form depends on the length (la longitud) of the adjective or the number of syllables; I hope you'll see this chart as useful as I tried to do it for you.

Comparing qualities

This is what you do when you compare 2 things or people; you use an adjective and you should have the comparative form according to the number of syllables of the adjective, but the general rule is that you shouldn't have more than 2 syllables after adding the particle. Keep in mind that the adverbs are a bit different when they end in -LY. As a reminder (recordatorio)  an adjective is a characteristic of something or someone (with nouns) and an adverb is a characteristic of an action (with verbs)

Look at this chart: 

1 syllable	2 syllables	3 or more syllables
You add -ER THAN clean = cleaner than big = bigger than yours dry = drier than	Ending in -y = -IER THAN easy = easier friendly = friendlier lovely = lovelier	You use MORE --- THAN expensive = more expensive than beautiful = more beautiful than
Exceptions: more bored than (boreder ???)	Ending in consonant =  MORE --- THAN careful = more careful than boring = more boring than	Adverbs ending in -LY = MORE --- THAN easily = more easily than

The superlative form is very similar:

1 syllable	2 syllables	3 or more syllables
You add  THE  -EST clean = the cleanest big = the biggest dry = the driest	Ending in -y = THE  -IEST  easy = the easiest friendly = the friendliest lovely = the loveliest	You use THE MOST --- in ... the most expensive car in the market the most beautiful picture in the museum
Exceptions: the most bored child	Ending in consonant =  THE MOST --- in the ... careful = the most careful person boring = the most boring film	Adverbs ending in -LY = THE MOST --- in ... easily = the most easily built

Apart from these, remember there are irregular comparatives and superlatives:

ADJECTIVE/ADVERB	COMPARATIVE	SUPERLATIVE
good / well	better (than)	the best
bad / badly	worse	the worst
far	farther / further	the farthest / furthest
little (for quantities/qualities)	less	the least
much / many (plural) (for quantities/qualities)	more	the most

If you want to practise I really recommend doing comparisons orally. You can start with:

• a dog, a cat and a canary
• a Mercedes, a Fiat and a Ferrari
• a car, a bicycle and a bus
• a house, a flat and a caravan

Example: I prefer a dog because it's nicer than a cat but a cat is more independant. A canary is the dirtiest pet but it's the easiest to have in a flat. A dog needs more room and more care than a cat.

If you need more practice with exercises, you can do it if you visit these webpages:

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

To finish with, there is a comparison of equality and it's formed with  AS + adjective/adverb + AS like in the following examples:

• My brother is as tall as my father
• A caravan may be as confortable as a small flat

Hope it's clear and you can use it!

Learning English with Songs

Everybody loves music and when you sing you feel better, don't you? But singing a song in another language can help you in many ways: improving vocabulary, fixing grammar structures and having better pronunciation. Apart from having fun!

But not everybody likes the same kind of music and maybe the songs you love are not the best for starting learning English. That's the reason why I've taken a selection based on the simplicity rather than kind of music. If you want to practise with a song, first try to find it with LYRICS (la letra) on the internet; then, try to choose ballads or slow music to be able to follow it as a karaoke, and finally try to sing it without looking at the lyrics. When you've done this, you'll see you've learnt new words, some structures and you'll be able to pronounce those words much better. 

So let's start with these simple ones and little by little you can add as many songs as you fancy to your own list.

Old classic ones

• Love Me Tender by Elvis Presley : very slow and good for starting with pronunciation
• Father and Son by Cat Stevens : imperative and some typical expressions ("take it easy")
• What a Wonderful World by Louis Amstrong :  use of adjectives
• My Heart by Celine Dion : just Titanic!

 Modern singers

• What about Us? by Pink : present tense 
• Wake Me Up by Aviici : a bit more rhythm
• 7 Years Old by Lukas Graham : past and future tenses, comparatives 
• Someone like You by Adele : beautiful song, isn't it?
• The Lazy Song by Bruno Mars : with typical forms such as "wanna" (want to) or gonna (going to)
• Roar by Katty Perry : past tenses
• Perfect by Ed Sheeran : different tenses (past, present and future)

If you practise listening skills with songs you can go to these links: 

• Learn English with Songs : filling the gaps exercises
• This blog has a lot of exercises: click here
• ESL Video : with different videos and exercises

Improving Your Skills

 If you want to improve your skills, this is a summary with good links to help you:

LISTENING

• Elllo.org
• Test English
• British Council

WRITING

• Cambridge: Write and Improve
• Another tool for writing: Grammarly
• Hemingway app
• British Council

READING

• You can use graded readings (with different levels of difficulty):  English E-reader
• Read different kinds of texts: news in English, and this site with 3 levels
• To prepare exams: British Council
• Reading exercises: Test English A2 (go to A1 or B1 if necessary)

SPEAKING

• Topics and typical phrases: click here
• Prepare and record your speech using WhatsApp or any other device and listent ot it later.
• Use Google oral messages or even MEET with subtitles: you say a message orally and the programme turns it into words; if you're not understood, you'll see the words are wrong so try it again until you see what you wanted to say. You can use an online dictionary to check the pronunciation of difficult words.

Coming back to class after Christmas holidays

Welcome to the blog! Happy New Year! I suppose everybody thinks 2021 will be much better than the previous one so let's try to make it true. This is also the time for New Year's Resolutions and one of them can be to improve your English, why not?

To start with, let's do some exercises to refresh your English:

• Listening comprehension: 
• go to this link with different levels and start from the most simple and then continue with the other levels: click here.
• This is a very funny exercise with the use of "gonna" instead of "going to" (this is common in informal speaking) about how easy it's to fail your resolutions: click here.

So remember that the aim of new year's resolutions is not to get everything immediately, but to be able to work and to be better.

I'll try to go on with the blog regularly. Keep in touch!