That's English! Module 6 - lesson 8: The Art World

Art is a topic that many people don't find so interesting but it's true that when you go on holiday or get away to a town you always try to visit museums, art galleries, sculptures in the street or parks, music and so on.
If you go to a museum it's very common to have a guide talking about the works of art you have in front of you so you need the vocabulary to understand as much as possible. If you want to practise, here you are some sites:

• the Prado Museum: click here
• British Museum for children: click here
• 15 different curious works of art: click here

Activity 1

Discuss with your partner about modern art. Do you like it? Give reasons for your answer.

Activity 2

Have you ever been to a museum? and to an art gallery? what kind of works of art do you prefer? Why?

Activity 3

You have been given a photocopy with blanks about art. Do this activity with as a listening comprenhension. If you want to hear it at home this is the link.

Activity 4

Turn the page and write about modern art. Then correct yourself with another colour.

In this lesson you also have two quite important grammar points: the position of adverbs and passive forms. Let's work with them.

Position of adverbs
Depending on the adverb, you should put it in one place or another of the sentence. The frequency adverbs are always in front of the principal verb; if you use it with a compound verbal form, the adverb is between the first auxiliary and the principal verb. Let's see some examples:

• I usually go to work on foot; however, you are always taking the car to go to work.

The other common adverbs are manner, place and time, and they usually go in this order. For Spanish speakers I usually give this memory aid: MaLeTa, that is, Modo-Lugar-Tiempo. But let's see some exceptions you should take into account:

• Verbs of movement need first the place you are going to and then how and when. Look at the example: I went to the shop very quickly but it was close.
• When you use an adverb which is just ONE word, this can be placed as a frequency adverb, that is, in front of the principal verb or after the first auxiliary: I immediately realised she was sick. 
• When the adverbial form is not just one word but a phrase, this should be in the beginning or at the end of the sentence: I saw Pete last Saturday morning.

If you want to know something else about the position of the adverbs, go to these links:

• a simple explanation with exercises; click here
• the 4 types of adverbs, their position and exercises to practise; click here
• here you are another link with exercises at the end; click here

Let's see the other grammar point: passive voice. There are plenty of links about this but the general rules are these:

• Passive voice is much more used in English than in Spanish; it's a way of solving the impersonal form in Spanish: Se dice que... Se ha inaugurado... Se descubrió que...
• The verbal form is quite simple: TO BE + PAST PARTICIPLE; the auxiliary takes the tense and the past participle takes the meaning: The exhibition was inaugurated yesterday
• We use passive voice for 4 main reasons:
• when you don't know the subject of the action: A bank was robbed yesterday
• the subject is not important but the action: English is spoken here
• if the subject is hidden on purpose: I've been told you're engaged, is that true?
• when the subject is too general: It is said that English are cold but it's not so.

Remember it's much more used in English than in Spanish as this is a way to avoid "impersonal" sentences such as: "América se descubrió en 1492", "se dice que es muy importante" , "se habla alemán en esta tienda" o "me dieron esto para tí":

• America was discovered in 1492
• It is said that it is really important
• German is spoken (in this shop)
• I was given this for you.

If you go to the news you'll see many examples of passive voice. Let's see some of them: BBC news

If you want to work on this grammar point, here you are some links:

• quite long explanation with exercises on the different tenses of this form; click here
• a traditional way of practising: active into passive and so on; click here
• it's also quite traditional form of explanation with examples; click here and here for transformations.

If you want to read a further explanation, you can go to this post about passive voice or go to a previous post in my blog by clicking here.

To sum up you should take into account that passive voice functions as the impersonal form in Spanish and it's much more frequent and natural in English than in our language.

See you in class!