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!

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.