A2.1 - The end of the term

This is a summary of the things we've already seen in class in these three months:

• the verb TO BE and presentations: What's your name? How old are you? Where are you from?
• habitual present and routines: I live in Alcalá, I usually go to work by car, I never play golf
• my hobbies and what I like: I love cinema, I often go out with friends, I hate going shopping
• to speak about people (3rd person in singular with -s): Peter has breakfast at home
• to tell the time: What time is it? It's quarter to nine (it's 9.45)
• your family and friends: My sister is a nurse and she works in a hospital in Madrid
• the food you eat: vocabulary and principal meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner)
• to describe things: A glass is something I use to drink water, wine, milk...
• prepositions of time: IN - a period of time (in July, in the morning...); ON - with days (on Monday, on holyday...) AT - festivities or times (at Christmas, at half past seven...)
• prepostions of place: in - on - under - near - next to - far from - behind - in front of - over ...
• different vocabularies: colours, food, numbers, characteristics (adjectives: big-small), family members, countries, professions, objects in the class and in a shop...

You have learnt a lot! Here you are my presents for you:

• the song A big, big world: click here
• a "difficult" grammar course of 4 minutes: click here
• Another song that I like for you (My name is Luca): click here
• Some Christmas carol: (Silent Night) click here (We Wish You a Merry Christmas) click here
• This easy video is about Christmas in the UK: click here

If you want to check your level, go to this link to see what level you have: click here

There is / there are

This is a lesson in your book (10A) but it's something we're going to do now as a review of the verb TO BE and to start (or continue) with the use of prepositions.

Here you are a very good link to a blog with a drawing and some exercises to practise: click here.

Remember that:

• THERE IS: singular, so you use A when it's necessary --- there's a car in the street but also you say there's (some) milk in the glass. You can say some to indicate the quantity
• THERE ARE: plural, so we say the number or a quantity --- there are some chairs or there are 3 children in the room.

About prepositions (taken from this link)

To practise you have some exercises here:

• there is/there are: exercise 1  exercise 2 (a list of exercises)
• prepositions of place: exercise 1 (a list of exercises)

Habitual actions - present simple (1)

The typical or habitual actions are with present simple. You need the auxiliary DO/DOES for negative or interrogative sentences. These are some examples:

• I study English  ---   I don't study Japanese   ---  Do you study French? No, I don't / Yes, I do

On the Internet you can find some videos with some verbs about daily routines: 

• these are videos for children and they are very easy: click here, here or here
• this video is with the 1st person in singular and the 3rd person in singular: click here
• This is the video we'll see in class in which Fred talks about his routine: click here

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

• The Queen's routine: click here
• A video with grammar explanation: click here
• a video to practise pronunciation: click here

Grammar exercises:     exercise 1    exercise 2    exercise 3    exercise 4    exercise 5    exercise 6

See you in class!

Adjectives - A2

Adjectives are words to describe charcteristics. Let's see the most typical ones:

• Colours: here you are a link and watch this video with the pronunciation
• Opposites: exercise 1       exercise 2        exercise 3        exercise 4       exercise 5       exercise 6    exercise 7     exercise 8
• Opposite adjectives: this video is very easy. Here you are a video and here you are another video .
• There are very useful adjectives: nice, lovely, good, awful

How to learn vocabulary:

• Think of one thing to describe and try to say its characteristics: a Mercedes (big, expensive, fast, strong, luxury, German, good...) Do the same with a ring, an elephant, a coffee table, a pencil, a computer...
• Write a chart with different adjectives: in green the positive and in red the negative or the opposite.
• Think of an adjective and use it in different contexts: lovely; e.g. a lovely story, a lovely baby, a lovely picture, a lovely sandwich...

Possessive Adjectives - A2

On unit 4A we have possessive adjetives. This is a poem and a chart using them: click here.

Here you have an easy video about possessive adjectives: click here

If you like, you can practise with the Simpsons' family tree: click here

Some practice:

• Possessive adjectives: exercise 1   exercise 2   exercise 3
• Saxon genitive: exercise 1   exercise 2

See you!

Halloween: October 31st

I found this information about Halloween, which is on the 31st of October.  I hope you'll enjoy these links:

• this is a video about the history of Halloween: click here
• an easy video for kids with useful vocabulary and sentences: click here
• this video also has subtitles so it's easy to understand: click here
• here you are some children's jokes for Halloween: click here
• if you want to read short scary stories, go to this link

Happy Halloween!

Plural nouns

In our book we have plural for nouns. Here you are some pages to help you:

• this is a summary of grammar: click here
• JenniferESL for pronunciation: very easy and pedagogical video - click here

Starting the school year 2018-2019 (A2.1) and First Lessons

Hello!
Here we are. This is our blog to learn English. You're going to find grammar, vocabulary, videos, exercises and comments about our course. Remember this is a complement to the class.

We started with these topics:

• The Alphabet: here you have a site with the alphabet, its pronunciation and some words to practise spelling- click here
• Numbers: here you are a video for the pronunciation or this one. There are 3 groups:
• from 1 to 12
• from 13 to 20
• from 21 to 100 and so on
• Vocabulary of the class: things you can find in your class. To practise with this vocabulary, click here or here
• Days of the week: Monday, Tuesday, Wenesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday
• The verb TO BE: remember the 3 forms  AM - IS - ARE   You can see this page
• At the hotel: this video is a bit more difficult but you can use it, especially the first part; clikc here

• SONGS:
• I say yes, you say no: click here
• All toguether now: click here   

• EXTRA: If you have a higher level of English, here you are a video about how to book a room, just in case you like to see how to do it. 

Reported Speech and Conditionals

Reported speech is when you explain what other people say so there are some typical changes, related to pronouns, verbs and time/place references. I think it's much more natural than what you could expect and that's the reason why you should use it in your own speech. Let's see an example:
"Yesterday I phoned my mother and she told me she didn't feel well and she asked me to go with her the following day to visit the doctor. I told her I had an important meeting at 9,30 but I was free after that time and I said I was picking her up at 10. She said she was going to make the appointment at that moment to be sure we could have the right time".
You must pay attention to the difference between TELL and SAY: the first one is used with personal complement while the second goes without it as you can see in these examples:

• Tom told her/Susan he had to work until late
• Tom said he had to work until late

Here you are some exercises to work with this: exercise 1   exercise 2    exercise 3
Remember the exception with TELL without personal pronoun: to tell the truth, to tell a lie, to tell a story/a tale, to tell a joke.

Indirect speech is related to conditionals: let's see these examples:

• she asked: Do you smoke?  ----  she asked me if I smoked
• he said: If you need money, I'll lend you some  --- he told me if I needed money he would lend some  (first conditional into second conditional)

Using First and Second Conditioal Sentences

There are several ways of conditional sentences 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  POSSIBLE/ PROBABLE	Possible condition; it is likely to happen	Present If I have time if you have finished your homework	Future I’ll go to the cinema I`ll give you a present/you can play with the computer
Type 2 or UNPROBABLE	Improbable condition; it is very hypothetical that this could happen	Simple past If I could buy a new car If I had the money	Simple conditional I’d take a van I wouldn't buy a Ferrari

Let's work with some exercises:

• exercise 1     exercise 2     exercise 3     exercise 4

There is another link which is not explained in the book but it's imortant to know: UNLESS

This form is the same as if...not; for example: I won't go unless you invite me or You'll have problems unless you do it carefully. If you want to practise, you can use this exercise; click here

Although the second conditional (hypothetical) is mentioned above, we are not going to use them now but in a higher level unless you use it in this way: If I were you, I'd stay at home or If I were Peter, I wouldn't tell her the truth. 

To finish with, here you have the song When a Man Loves a Woman to see examples of what it's been explainded here; click here

Using ALREADY, YET and JUST with present perfect.

We've ALREADY seen present perfect this course but we haven't practised with some adverbs YET. I've JUST explained the use of these adverbs in class and I think we're ready to use them. Generally speaking, we use these adverbs in this way:

• JUST: the action has been done short time ago. I've just seen Peter downstairs; he looks great.
• ALREADY: it indicates the action is finished, and before than expected. My teacher has already corrected the exams.
• YET: this shows that the action is not finished or you don't know if it's finished. I haven't seen Susan yet. Has she called you yet?

For a further explanation you can go to these links: the British Council; this one is with "ever" and "never" included, click here. Nevertheless, if you have problems to understand the difference you can use this webpage in Spanish; click here
As usual, the best way it to do some exercises to practise:

• exercise 1     exercise 2      exercise 3     exercise 4

I hope this will be helpful.

Coming back form Finland!

Hi! I've just come back from Finland and I'm delighted. It's a wonderful country, with a lot of things to see, to learn and to enjoy; but the most surprising thing has been the people. They were extremely kind to us and we had a great time there thanks to them. I really recommend you to visit that country... but avoid going there in winter!
Here you are a very interesting link about facts in Finland, the one we saw in class; click here

Preparing the final exam

We are nearly finishing the course and we should think of the final exam. Remember you must pass an exam for every skill: reading, listening, writing and speaking. Let's practice with this type of exams. There are some sample (examples) on the internet and we must start with the one given by Madrid. Here you are the exams of Comunidad de Madrid; clikc here
If you want to see more examples, here you are the one from Valencia; click here and then choose English. And this site has a lot of information about this type of exams; clikc here
See you next week!

The use of article

Although I've already talked about this many times, I'd rather explain it one more time. Apart from the explanation in your text book (p.91) you can use these simple rules.

We use the article in this way:

• A / AN = one (1)    meaning one in a general way, like in these examples:

                                 I'm a student; I saw a cat; Can I have a biscuit?

• THE = this / these , that is, to express this person, animal or thing is determinate, specific:

                                I took the book back to the library   (the book=that book)

• NO ARTICLE = when it's used in a general plural or uncountable; let's see the examples:

                                I love animals   Sam doesn't like sugar very much

As I've told you this is a brief summary of all the rules connected to the use of articles; if you want to know more about this and do some practice go to these links:

• a good but long explanation is here or this shorter one with exercises; click here
• exercise 0 (very simple)    exercise 1    exercise 2     exercise 3    and if you want a list of exercises click here
• as you have problems with the last/last and the next/next, go to this exercise to parctise.

The day of the Earth

Today it's the day to think about environment and what to do to protect our planet. This is a topic which is present in our book, in lesson 9.2. Let's work with this topic using some links:

• this link is the one we've just used in class, with vocabulary and listening; click here
• this link is about vocabulary but you have some other links at the end; click here
• this is a blog with an entry on enviromental issues; there are exercises at the end and it's quite interesting; click here

Exercises about environment, especially about vocabulary: exercise 1    exercise 2    exercise 3

Comparative and Superlative forms

There is an old post from 2011 about this grammar topic so click here if you want to see it and do exercises. Nevertheless, this is a short summary of what we saw in class. try to use comparatives to express preferences, give reasons, explain something or your opinion.

Comparing qualities

This is waht you do when you compare 2 things or people; you use an adjective and you should use the comparative form. Look at this chart:

1 syllable	2 syllable	3 or more syllable
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: bored = more bored than	Ending in consonat = MORE --- THAN careful = more careful than boring = more boring than	Adverbs ending in -LY = MORE --- THAN easily = more easily than

Comparing quantities

Uncountable (singular)	Countable (plural)
There is more water than ice	There are more people than I thought
There is less sugar than the amount I need	There are more places to visit than expected

Subordinate sentences:

• SO + adjective + THAT = she's so nice that everybody likes her
• SUCH + (modifier) noun + THAT = she's such a nice person that everybody likes her
  • Notice the changes for singular/plural and countable/uncountable: they are such nice boys; he is such a nice boy; it's such nice bread a = 1 (not 2,3,4...)

The meaning is very similar in both sentences, but the grammar form changes. 

If you want to practise eith this grammar point, go to these exercises:

• exercise 1      exercise 2      exercise 3      exercise 4: this is a huge page with a lot of links

Using intensifiers

An intensifier is an adverb which you use to give more emphasis to adjectives or other parts of speech. When we use a noun is called quantifier. Have a look to the examples:

• Bill Gates is extremely rich (intenisfier: EXTREMELY)
• Bill Gates has so much money that he can buy whatever he wants (quantifier: MUCH)

If you want to know more about intensifiers you can go to this link
Remember we have worked in class with the problem with TOO + adjective and TOO MUCH + singular  and TOO MANY + plural, as you can see in the example:

• There were TOO MANY people, TOO MUCH noise and the music was TOO loud.

The other problem is the use of ENOUGH: you must use adjective + ENOUGH but ENOUGH + noun. Let's see the example:

• There aren't ENOUGH books for everybody but there is ENOUGH time to find them if we are fast ENOUGH to bring them from the library.

I hope you won't have no more problems with these similar words. See you in class!

Multi-word verbs

MULTI-WORD VERBS are those verbs formed by 2 or more words. Here you have some examples:

• I look forward to seeing you (3 words)

We should distinguish between two different verbs:

• PREPOSITIONAL verbs: verbs followed by a preposition
  • Look at Peter! ---- Look at HIM!
• PHRASAL verbs: verbs followed by an adverb
  • Look up the word in the dictionary ---- Look IT up in a dictionary

But what is important to know is the way they function, that is, if you must split the verb and the particle to introduce the pronoun, as you can see in the second example. The best way to learn them is in context and then keep in mind the verb used with a pronoun as you have seen above.

There are plenty of lists of multi-word verbs but I think it's better to learn by heart all those that you need in your daily life and increase your own list little by little. Then you should go through them from time to time to revise. This kind of verbs are really frequent in English and they mark the difference in your level of English.

If you want to start practise you can use the ones in the student's book or you can go to some links on the internet like these ones:

• exercise 1      exercise 2      exercise 3     exercise 4: this is a list and it's a document for teachers but you can use it to know the main phrasal verbs.

April's Fool Day

Today it's April's Fool so let's know something about it. It's the time for pranks and prankster. Go to this link to know something about this day, specially its history, click here.
But you should know some vocabulary about this day so you could go to this link; click here
I hope there aren't many prankters in my class...

What to do this week

As I told you in class, this week you should work on the blog in order to prepare the final exam. Here you have a link to practise with the exam of NB2 in Durango; click here. Notice that the writing part is shorter than in Comunidad de Madrid; the composition should be longer: 80 words for the first writing and 125 for the second.
The other model you can do is the one from Comunidad de Canarias; the link is here
Try to work on your own and remember to organise your writing before starting it.
See you soon!