Passive voice

Passive voice is a grammar point which is a bit difficult for Spanish speakers when it's not used in the same way as Spanish; let's see some examples:

• America was discovered by Columbus  --- América fue descubierta por Colón
• A new road is being built near here  --- ¿Una carretera nueva está siendo construida cerca de aquí?  ---  Se está construyendo una nueva carretera cerca de aquí.

we use passive voice when we don't know the subject of that action, we don't want to say it or it's not necessary. Look at these examples:

• The bank was robbed yesterday --- we don't know who did it --- Robaron el banco ayer
• I've been told you have a new boyfriend  --- I don't want to say who told me that --- Me han dicho que tienes un nuevo novio
• The book was published in 1998 --- there's no need to know who published the book --- El libro se publicó en 1998

There are plenty of examples in our daily life: made in China; the last film directed by Ridley Scott and starred by Barden is really good; credit cards are accepted; the thieves were caught; guests are requested to leave their room before 11 a.m.; smoking is forbidden in this area, etc. Notice that most of these sentences are used with impersonal forms in Spanish so an "exact" translation doesn't work.

The other important point is to have clear that passive voice must be used in a natural way, that is, in a context but not as a transformation from active to passive voice and vice versa. Use it when you need it but not only for the sake of grammar.

Nevertheless, here you are some links to work with but you should work on it in spoken English:

http://www.agendaweb.org/verbs/passive-exercises.html : a page with a lot of exercises

http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/passive/menu.php : explanation of the passive voice and exercises at the end

http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-exercise-passive.php more exercises

http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/esl-passive-voice-exercise2.html and some more
If you want to read the story we started in class, here you have the link:
http://www.english-test.net/lessons/3/index.html

See you, guys!

Listening practice - level B1 or PET

There are many pages on the internet to practice listening skills. Here you are some of them taken from a page which gives you examples of two types of exams: PET and IELTS. The ones we need to prepare our exams are these but maybe the level is a bit low:

• http://www.examenglish.com/IELTS/cbIELTS_listening.htm --- multiple choice
• http://www.examenglish.com/IELTS/IELTS_listening_part1.htm --- fill in the gaps+business
• http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_listening_part3.htm --- taking notes
• http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_listening_part4.htm ---T/F or yes/no questions
• http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_listening_test2_part4.htm --- T/F or Y/N
• http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_listening_test2_part3.htm --- taking notes
• http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_listening_test2_part2.htm --- multiple choice

That's English! Module 6 - lesson 3

This lesson deals with a large amount of words and a good way of learning is to use the words in the context. If you want to revise or increase you vocabulary about housing you may go to this link, for example: click here

Those who came to class have revised the use of quantifiers; if you want to practise with this you should go to this page and you should do some exercises: exercise 1  exercise 2   exercise 3  exercise 4

Another topic of this lesson is how to say large numbers; you can click this link. But 0 is one of the most peculiar figure in English; if you want to know how to say it, click here

Here you are a listening exercise about buying a house, so click here. This  other listening is about renting a house; click here. This is a video with a boy showing us his house; find it here

Just to finish with, you can read this post about the difference between amount, quantity and number; click here

See you in class!
 

A message in a phone

In unit 5B we've worked with social networks and how things have changed since we use moviles. Here you have a sort or dictionary of the most usual symbols or abbreviations used in moviles, taken by wikipedia.

Words in full	Abbreviations or SMS language
As far as I know	AFAIK
Away from keyboard	AFK
Love	LUV
Thanks	THNX or THX
Today	2day
Before	B4
Have a nice day	HAND
See you	C U
So what’s your problem?	SWYP
At	@
Tears in my eyes	TIME
Sealed with a kiss	SWAK
Haha	hh
Chicks	CHX
Great	GR8
Keep it simple, stupid	KISS
Such a laugh	SAL
At the moment	ATM
What Are You Doing	WYD
Where Are You At	WYA
Stop What You're Doing	SWYD
By The Way	BTW
You’re on your own	YOYO
As soon as possible	ASAP
Oh My God	OMG
Hugs and Kisses	HAK or XOXO
Laughing out Loud	LOL
Rolling On The Floor Laughing	ROFL or ROTFL
Secretly We Are Gay	SWAG
What Do You Mean By That	WDYMBT
Loving the weather today	LTWT or LWT or LW

A mini SMS dictionary/glossary by Vodacom

That's English! Module 6 - unit 2: lyfestyle choices

This unit deals with ways of life and big changes. About grammar you’re going to work with the use of the definite article and with both … and …; neither… nor …; either … or …

The definite article

As a very general rule, whe use the article as a determiner THE = THIS/THESE like in I saw a child in the street; the (that) child was small.

If you want to see other uses go to these links; click here or here. Notice you have the grammar explanation and exercises. You shouldn't learn the uses by heart but with the practice. If you want to practise  with more exercises, you can do these:

• exercise 1       exercise 2      exercise 3 this has both articles

Both

It is used for dual subjects or objects in this way: We both went to the party; Both Peter and Mandy went to the party; I saw both of them in the party.

Either … or … / Neither … nor …

These forms are like both sides of the same coin. On the one hand we have either… or … It’s used to indicate two alternatives: Either you or your brother is the responsible of this. The verb goes with the last subject. It’s also possible to use it as a complement: she lives either in Madrid or in Lisbon.

Neither … nor … is the opposite in the sense that both alternatives are not possible: Neither you nor your brother is responsible of this. As you can see, it’s the same form as the previous one but the opposite meaning.

There is still another possibility for this negative meaning and it’s the use of either with a negative verb. Let’s see the examples: I haven’t seen either George or Susan yet.

If you want to work with these forms, go to these links:

Exercise 1     exercise 2 : explanation and an exercise    exercise 3

See you in class!

Carnivals

What Carnival means:

It is an annual celebration of life found in many countries of the world. Its origin is hundreds and hundreds of years ago, when Italian started the tradition of holding a wild costume festival right before the first day of Lent (Cuaresma). Catholics are not supposed to eat meat during Lent, so they called the festival carnevale (a blend between carne and festivale). As time passed, carnivals in Italy became quite famous and this practice spread to France, Spain, Portugal and many other countries in Europe. When these countries went to America and other parts of the world, they brought with them their tradition of celebrating carnival.

Although its origin is Catholic, little by little it was accepted or adapted to other societies, cultures and places.When African people and American Indian took contact with the Europeans they melted their own traditions with the Catholic ones, especially about music, dancing and colourful costumes, using beads, feathers, glitters and so on. 

Now it's a festival where people feel free to express happines and madness so it has became one of the most popular feasts in many places. It is sometimes associated to the idea of freedom and criticism so sometimes this celebration was forbidden.

Vocabulary you should know:

Lent - Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday - Ash Wednesday - Parade with carriages - Costumes, Fancy Dress - 

Some curious videos which are relared to Carnivals:

•  Mardi Gras in New Orleans: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mo5ClQDKnqk
• The Pancake Race: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlo3yuhOSlI and this is another example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRunuhmmwsg
• The Carnivals in Venice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z766I4d6oK8
• Winter Carnival in Quebec: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSNLydguFl8

Hope you enjoy it!

Saint Valentine's Day

I can't help giving you some pages to know something about this special day. Let me remind you that in English speaking countries this is not just a day for lovers but for anyone who loves anybody in one way or another. Here you have some links to read about this day:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valentine's_Day: general info from wikipeida
• http://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day: a page with a lot of topics connected to this day
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/saints/valentine.shtml: this is an article with many details; the language is a bit difficult but it's quite interesting

Happy Saint Valentin's day!