Using conditional sentences

There are several ways of the conditionals in English. Here you have a diagram:

TYPE	MEANING	IF-CLAUSE	MAIN CLAUSE
Type 0 or REAL	General truth; you can substitute if for when	Present If you boil water	Present it evaporates
Type 1 or  REAL	Possible condition; it is likely to happen	Present If I have time	Future I’ll go to the cinema
Type 2 or UNREAL	Improbable condition; it is very hypothetical this could happen	Simple past If I could buy a new car	Simple conditional I’d take a van
Type 3 (not included)	Impossible conditional; this is referred to the past and it is more connected with regrets	Past perfect If I’d known you were coming	Perfect conditional I would have made your favourite dish
Mixed conditional (not included)	The condition is a regret but the results are in the present	Past perfect If I’d thought about that twice	Simple conditional I wouldn’t have so many problems

When we talk about using present or future, it means that they might be in the simple, continuous, perfect or perfect continuous form, depending on the message.

Now you can do these exercises to practise:

• http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises_list/if.htm
• http://eslgamesworld.com/members/games/ClassroomGames/Billionaire/Conditionals%20Billionaire%20Game/index.html : a funny video to use conditionals. Be careful with the 3rd type or impossible conditional.

You can have a lot of examples of conditional in songs; here you have some:

• UNREAL CONDITIONAL: "If I Were a Rich Man" with susbtitles; click here
•  Another exaqmple: "What if You " click here

Carnival is wonderful celebration, full of musicand fun. Here you have some activities to enjoy this festival.

Dictionary Activity – CARNIVAL - working with words

(taken from OUP: http://promo.oupe.es/carnival/activities/eoi/CARNIVAL_EOI_DICTIONARY_basic.pdf )

1. What are the main ingredients of a pancake?

2. When is Shrove Tuesday?

3. What is another name for Pancake Day?

4. What do people use to throw their pancakes, in a pancake race?

5. A float is a special carnival vehicle. It has other meanings. Which of these people does not use a float:

a. a swimmer                    b. a fisherman                   c. a farmer

6. How do people move in a procession? (an adverb)

7. People wear masks in a carnival. Which of these collocations does not exist?

a. party mask                    b. death mask                   c. oxygen mask                d. face mask

8. How many days does Lent last?

9. What is Ash Wednesday?

10. Is the word carnival pronounced the same in both US English and British English?

A LISTENING ACTIVITY

Go to this video which talks about British Pancake race and fill in the gaps of the activity (intermediate):

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlnAx05v1zo&feature=related

Activity:

1. Lent is a time for _________________ things.

2. Shrove Tuesdays is the day for cleaning out the _________________________.

3. Pancake races appeal to people’s ___________________ nature!

4. Everyone’s got ‘a ___________________ tooth’!

5. People in Britain have been celebrating Pancake Day for __________________ years.

6. The tradition started in ____________________ when a woman ran to church holding a  _________________!

7. Donald O’Kelly is planning to give up __________________________ for Lent.

8. Pancake Day is a time to _________________________.

The answers for these exercises are below these other exercises of listening

Here you have other listening about Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago: http://www.elllo.org/english/0300/347CleAnnCarnival01.htm http://www.elllo.org/english/0300/Q348CleAnnCarnival.htm

Here you have a listening about Venice; there are a couple of exercises to do with it: http://www.elllo.org/yeartwo/Jan10th/venice.htm

ANSWER KEY

Dictionary Activity – CARNIVAL

1. Flour, eggs and milk. Go to this video to make a pancake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayIuoNCaD7I (easy)

Pancakes are thin cakes made from a batter of milk (or milk and water), eggs and flour which is then cooked in a frying pan or on a griddle until golden brown on both sides. You can buy special pancake pans which are shallow and non-stick with curved sides. French pancakes are made slightly thinner and are called crêpes. Scotch pancakes are small and thick, usually cooked on a griddle and sometimes flavoured with sultanas or raisins. American pancakes are normally served at breakfast. They tend to be light and fluffy, served in generous stacks with bacon and maple syrup. There is also the Russian blini, Chinese pancakes served with Peking duck, Italian crespelle and so on. Pancakes are traditionally eaten in the UK on Shrove Tuesday.  ( taken from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/pancake )

2. The day before the beginning of Lent.

3. Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras.

What is Mardi Gras?   :   Mardi Gras, also known as Shrove Tuesday, Carnival, and even Pancake Day in the UK, is an annual festival which will be celebrated on 21st February in 2012. Falling just before Lent, it traditionally marks the last opportunity for fun and feasting before 40 days of "self-denial". Mardi Gras means "Fat Tuesday" in French (Remember that meat is forbidden during Lent, at least on Friday).
Festivities begin at the beginning of February, leading up to Mardi Gras day, and consist of parades, dancing in the street, costumes and masked balls. The modern Carnival tradition developed in Europe in the Middle ages, and is celebrated mainly in Roman Catholic communities in Europe and the Americas today. Some of the most famous celebrations are held in Nice (France), Cologne (Germany), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and New Orleans (USA)

Mardi Gras Video  :   Here's our latest video for little kids, with a Mardi Gras mask theme. Can the kids work out who's behind the mask?      Who's Behind The Mask?

4. A frying pan. Here you have a Pancake race : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlo3yuhOSlI

5. (c) a farmer

6. slowly; instead of “procession” it is more usual the word “parade” (desfile)

7. party mask

8. 40 days; Lent means “Cuaresma”

9. The first day of Lent

10. No   /ˈkɑːrnəvəl / (American English);   /ˈkɑːnɪvəl/ (British English) But none of them is in plural.

A LISTENING ACTIVITY

1. giving up           2. fridge                 3. quirky                4. sweet                5. five hundred          6. 1445 / frying pan              

7. pancakes          8. Indulge   (Loolk up the words in a dictionary if necessary)

The difference between BEEN TO and GONE TO

Here you have a useful presentation on powerpoint about the difference between BEEN TO and GONE TO when you use present perfect. I think it's quite clear and you can  have some practise as well. Click on the link

Hope it helps you!

Preparing certificate exams

Some people are looking for exams to practise with in order to prepare your final exam to get the certificate of "nivel básico". Here you have the links to take the sample exam in Euskadi. Remember it's not the same as the one we have in the Community of Madrid but it helps to practise.

·        

1.      Text of the exam: http://www.eoieuskadi.net/datos/gestion_modelos/fichero36/INGLES_NIVEL_BASICO_EJEMPLOS_DE_%20TAREAS.pdf

2.      Listening task 1: http://www.eoieuskadi.net/datos/gestion_modelos/fichero37/Tarea_1_CAR_CHAOS.mp3

3.      Listening task 2: http://www.eoieuskadi.net/datos/gestion_modelos/fichero38/Tarea_2_UNCLE_BEN.mp3

4.      Listening task 3: http://www.eoieuskadi.net/datos/gestion_modelos/fichero38/Tarea_2_UNCLE_BEN.mp3

5.      Answer key: http://www.eoieuskadi.net/datos/gestion_modelos/fichero13/INGLES_NIVEL_BASICO_(A_2)_CLAVE_RESPUESTAS.pdf 

New Seminars

Today there has been published some news about seminars in English on the noticeboard of the class (you have a copy below). They are partly paid by the European Union and if you want to know more about it you must go to the links or ask at Vicedirección:

TALLERES Y SEMINARIOS EN EL EXTRANJERO SUBVENCIONADOS POR EL PROGRAMA EUROPEO DE ACCIÓN PERMANENTE GRUNDTVIG ( 2011-12) PARA PERSONAS ADULTAS.

PARA QUIÉN	NOMBRE DEL PROGRAMA	FECHA INSCRIPCIÓN	DURACIÓN	FINANCIACIÓN
Personas adultas ( * 18 años) *Consultad bases.	Seminarios Grundtvig sobre cualquier tema: arte, salud, lenguas, etc.	Fecha límite propuesta por el organizador.	Entre 5 y 10 días. Fechas según organizador, entre el 1/09/12 y el 31/08/13	La ayuda se ingresa a la institución organizadora, y cubre viajes, alojamiento, manutención y costes del seminario.

 No hay límite en cuanto a número de seminarios o talleres a solicitar.

 No hay que solicitar subvención. Los interesados presentan solicitudes directamente a la institución organizadora.

Prioridad a personas de grupos sociales desfavorecidos.

El Catálogo de talleres y seminarios está por publicar (Catálogo´12) no obstante se puede consultar el del año pasado porque todavía hay talleres que se pueden realizar en el 2012. En el enlace: http://ec.europa.eu/education/grundtvig/doc/catalogue11_en.pdf 

Consultar todas las bases en: http://www.oapee.es/dctm/weboapee/documentacion/2012/parte-iii.pdf?documentId=0901e72b81091ae7

Para más información dirigirse a Vicedirección en esta Escuela Oficial de Idiomas en horario de tarde Miércoles de 18.00 a 18.30 y de mañana Jueves de 11.30 a 12.00 h o al personal de Programas Europeos en la DAT ESTE (Calle Alalpardo s/n).

Food and cooking - lesson 3

Hi everybody! Here we are again. Let me give you some sites where you can practise the vocabulary and the dialogues of the restaurant:

• exercise 1: a page with vocabulary and exercises about both topics, that is, food and ordering food in a restaurant; quite easy
• exercise 2: this site is about vocabulary in a restaurant; very easy
• exercise 3: a listening about ordering a meal
• exercise 4: this is taken from the BBC page to learn English; with listening practice

For food and recipes, here you have some examples:

• exercise 1: a typical recipe taken from the BBC
• exercise 2: recipes for English/American children; sometimes difficult vocabulary and the ingrediants

Just to finish with, here you have a site with a lot of information about food and eating for English students. I wish I had such a blog! You have a lot of activities and links. Click here

Enjoy your food... See you in class!

Comparative Forms

Here you have a summary of what we have seen in class. Remember that although this grammar point is not in this lesson of aour text book, we have alredy seen it in class. At the end you have links with exercises to do. I hope this will be helpful.

COMPARATIVE AND SUPERLATIVE FORMS

The comparative (and superlative) is formed depending on how many syllables the adjectives or adverbs have. Look at the chart below:

·         The comparative form:   -ER THAN     or     MORE + adjective+ THAN

She is taller than me                           He isn’t more handsome than Peter                               That dog was funnier

The box is more beautiful than mine                              My car is more expensive than yours

1 syllable	2 syllables	3 syllables
Old  -- older (than me) Fat  --- fatter (than Susan) Nice  ---nicer (than Tony)	Adjectives ending in-Y Funny  ---  funnier than TV Lovely  ---  lovelier than mine	Expensive  ---  more expensive than this one Beautiful  ---  more beautiful than yours Easily done  ---  more easily done than hers
	The rest of 2-syllable adjectives handsome --- more handsome Boring  ---  more boring than TV

·         The superlative form:   -EST IN     or     THE MOST + adjective+ IN

They are the most important people in the room                         This is the easiest exercise in the test

1 syllable	2 syllables	3 syllables
Old  --- the oldest Fat  --- the fattest Nice  --- the nicest	Adjectives ending in-Y Funny  ---  the funniest in TV Lovely  ---  the loveliest	Expensive  ---  the most expensive in the shop Beautiful  ---  the most beautiful in my house Easily done  ---  the most easily done in my job
	The rest of 2-syllable adjectives handsome --- the most handsome Boring  --- the most boring

Spelling rules

1)  If the adjective ends in CONSONANT + STRESSED VOWEL + CONSONANT = you double the consonant. For example:  

big  ---  bigger ; the biggest     or     thin  ---  thinner ; the thinnest

2)  If the adjective ends in –E, you drop the –E and add –ER or –EST .E. g :  white  ---  whiter ; the whitest

3)  If the adjective ends in –Y and you add –ER you have to change it into –IER, or –IEST like in the following examples: 

pretty  ---  prettier ; the prettiest                       easy  ---  easier; the easiest

Inferiority form: LESS and THE LEAST

This form is not very frequent but you can use it in certain occasions; the forms LESS and THE LEAST is the same for all the adjectives and adverbs because it doesn’t change. For example:

My car is bigger but less expensive and less fast than my father’s           She’s the least shy of all my children

Comparison with AS ..... AS

You use this form to say that two things or people have the same quality; e.g.: Susan is as tall as Mary

Exercises

·         http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/single/compare1.htm

·         http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/330/grammar/regcom.htm : an explanation with exercises

·         http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/grammar/adjektive_steig.htm :  a large explanation and some pages for exercises 

·         http://www.better-english.com/grammar/comparatives.htm

·         http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fleok757P90 : a video explaining comparatives

·         http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pwwrF0UBQQ&feature=player_embedded#at=40 : a simple video with comparatives

·         http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/adjectives-adverbs/adjectives/exercises : an easy exercise to practise

·         http://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/45.html : a bit longer but still easy to do

·         http://www.saberingles.com.ar/curso/lesson12/05.html : this page is in Spanish and at the end you can go to the following exercise with superlative adjectives or click this: http://www.saberingles.com.ar/curso/lesson12/06.html

·         http://www.autoenglish.org/gr.comp.i.htm : it has the three forms of comparative

Cooking at Christmas

Last coursse we published this post about cooking for Christmas with these recipes of very traditional dishes. If you can have a try, here you have the links again.

Do you like cooking? Are you good at cooking?
Here you are some recipes to try to make delicious things to eat at Christmas.

• Peanut butter cookies: very easy to make.
• shortbread: a very traditional biscuit
• Christmas bread pudding: as easy as delicious

But if you have difficulties to understand the directions of these recipes, try to see these videos to practise your English... and your cooking!

• American apple pie: step-by-step recipe
• Muffins: one of the most traditional recipes

Enjoy your cooking with your family and have nice holidays.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Present Perfect

We have started studying this tense in class. Present perfect is formed by:

HAVE / HAS + _______-ED or 3rd column of irregular verbs

The verb TO HAVE is in present and it is the auxiliary for this tense such as in these examples:

• She has studied English for three years or She's studied English for three years
  
• He hasn't met her parents up to now
  
• Have they finished yet?

The problem with this tense is to distinguish it from the past tense. The best way is to focus on the reference of time:

• PRESENT PERFECT: anything indiating UP TO NOW such as ever, ust, already, yet, since, for and so on.
• PAST SIMPLE: there is an explicit reference to past such as yesterday, last ___, ___ ago, in ____ and so on. (Check the fotocopy about past simple I gave you in class)

If you need more details and you want to pratise, here you have some good links to do it so:

1. grammar summary with exercises at the end
2. grammar and exercises
   
3. grammar : a bit long but quite complete; exercises at the end
4. an exercise on line
5. in Spanish, just in case you need any help

There is a previous post in this blog about present perfect versus past simple (published in February 2010); click here to see it.

How to practise reading skills

Reading is very useful to enlarge your vocabulary, to fix grammar structures and to improve your English in general. As the library is not available, here you have some links to practise reading on the internet. There are a lot of levels but from my point of view these are the most suitable for you:

• http://www.cdlponline.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=stories&topicID=11: very easy short readings connected to nature and environment. The good point is the audio and the exercises to improve vocabulary. For low-intermediate level.

• http://www.saberingles.com.ar/stories/index.html : Argentinean page with short stories. There is a function to translate the text into Spanish for help. Short variety but useful.

• http://www.rong-chang.com/qa2/: short stories adapted for children, with audio.Not interesting but useful.
  

• http://www.eslfast.com/#A: here you have a larger list of stories (including most of the previous ones) with video. For intermediate students. American English.

• http://www.cuentoseningles.com.ar/: some practice on reading with audio and some of them with activities.

• http://esl.about.com/od/readingintermediate/English_Reading_Comprehension_Skills_for_Intermediate_Level_Learners.htm: a lot of topics. Readings with exercises.

I hope you'll find something to read. See you in class!

Using Podcasts to Learn English

A podcast is a digital audio file (it can be a video as well) that you can download as an mp3 audio so you can listen to it on your portable device (mp3, mp4, mp5 or iPod) or by using your own computer.
It usually has a topic and the ones I've chosen are related to Learning English. Here you have some of them (click on the link directly) :

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/sixminute/: this is the most traditional one. It’s included in the web page of BBC Learning English.

• http://a4esl.org/podcasts/: a list of podcasts with the text (click on Read the Web Page) but without exercises, as usual; however, they are quite easy to understand. Some are longer than others and some are more difficult.

• http://www.podcastsinenglish.com/index.shtml : this is a good site with a lot of podcasts divided in levels and with activities but to use these activities you have to be a member, that is, you must pay for it. However, you can use the podcasts to practise on your own.

• http://www.ivoox.com/podcast-listen-to-english_sq_f12359_1.html : no exercises but you have the tapescript or words.

So here you have a lot of material to practise with listening. Remember there are many more listening comprehensions with proper activities on www.elllo.org, BBC Learning English or in la mansión en inglés. Have a look on the recommended links of this blog ( Useful Links the blue windows on the right).

Have a nice long weekend. See you in class!