NI1 - The use of simple past

In lesson 2 we are working with simple past. We have already seen the difference between regular and irregualr forms and we worked with the pronunciation in both. Then we saw different ways of learning/reviewing irregular past:

• using the first letter: "Irregular verbs starting with... L" (much better if you do it as a competition with your partner or a friend)
• using topics: verbs conneted with money (spend / buy / get / steal / lose / pay); with schooling (learn, teach, read, write, speak, do...); with ordenary actions (eat, drink, sleep, have, take, go, wear...) or senses (hear, see, other topics: verbs of senses / schooling and learning verbs / daily activities / movement...
• according to the pattern: A-A-A, A-B-B, A-B-C or A-B-A (remember the photocopy I gave you in class) Here you are a video which explains the groups and it gives you the principal verbs as examples, and then this link with a list of verbs grouped by pattern.

Another problem is the rules of spelling. To review them, click here.

Just in case you lose the photocopy I gave you in class, here you are a traditional list (in alphabetical order) with the neaning in Spanish: click here or here (mind the phonetics in this last link!)

To finish with, here you are the typical questions you'll find in an oral exam to practise past tenses orally. If you do it alone, say it aloud and record your performance with your movile:

• What did you do last weekend / yesterday? Try to be precise so tell us what you did on Friday night, on Saturday morning/evening and on Sunday. To speak about yesterday explain what you did in the morning, in the afternoon and at night.

• Where did you go to last holiday? How did you get there? How long? Where did you stay?What did you do there? Did you do anything special?

• Tell me an anecdote that happened to you and try to cover these questions: What happened? When? Where? What happened in the end? How did you feel? Why?

NA2 - How to learn idioms

This week we've been dealing with idioms and we've seen some of them. One of the most difficult things by using them is to do it in a natural, proper way. My recommendation is to start with those which are familiar to you because either they are in your mother tongue or because you use them a lot. Here you are some examples:

• You can't judge a book by its cover  -  Hit the nail on the head  -  Give the benefit of the doubt  -  Taste of your own medicine  -  Curiosity killed the cat  -  Miss the boat  -  Kill two birds with one stone  -  A hot potato  -  A white lie  -  It's a losing battle  -  Flesh and bone
• Out of the blue  -  Costs an arm and a leg  -  To hear it frm the horse's mouth  -  To make ends meet  -  Filling a bit under the weather  -  The last straw  -  Once in a blue moon

Here you are a couple of links to see more idioms: this is one and this is another

I include a listening exercise of filling the gaps to practise a little: click here

NI1 - Present simple versus present continuous

In these first lessons of our book we are dealing with present tenses. Here you are some explanation and exercises to practise.

PRESENT SIMPLE or habitual present is used to speak about ordinary actions, something you usually do (habitual actions). That's the reason why this tense is normally related to frequency adverbs (usually, hardly ever, never, often, sometimes...) or similar expressions of time (once a week, from time to time, every Monday, every other week...)

PRESENT CONTINUOUS or present progressive is used for actions which are being performed at that moment or for a period of time (actions in progress). It also has a sense of future when you are very sure that the action is going to take place in a short time (dates, arrangements...)

Let's see some examples:

• I always go to work by car but today I'm going by bus.
• I usually play tennis with my friend Tom but tomorrow I'm playing with Susan.

Here you have some links to work with:  

• this web page has a long but clear explanation and many exercises at the end: click here
• this link has grammar points and some exercises: click here
• try these exercises: exercise 1     exercise 2       exercise 3 

Hope this heps you. See you in class!

NI1 - The difference between HAVE and HAVE GOT

Some students asked me about this confusing point. Here you are some explanations and a couple of exercises to help you.

The main difference between them is that HAVE is a simple form and HAVE GOT is a compound or perfect form. This means that with HAVE you need an auxiliary, like any other verb, but with HAVE GOT the auxiliary is have.
Let's see these examples:

• I have a dog  ----  I've got a dog
• She DOESN'T have a car  ----  She HASN'T got a car  (a different auxiliary)
• DO they have any children?  ----  HAVE they got any children?
• No, they DON'T  ----  No, they HAVEN'T

The other difference is about meaning. HAVE is used for possession and as a sinonym of take, especially in American English but HAVE GOT is used only for possession in British English:

• I've got a big house   but   I have a shower every morning (British English)
• I have a big house    and   I have a shower every morning (American English: no difference)

But this works only in present simple because in the rest of the tenses this doesn't happen like that:

TENSE	AFFIRMATIVE	NEGATIVE	INTERROGATIVE
PRESENT CONTINUOUS	She is having a lot of problems	She isn't having many problems	Is she having any problem?
PRESENT PERFECT	He has had a problem	He hasn't had any problem up to now	Has he had any problem up to now?
PAST SIMPLE	I had a car	I didn't have a bike	Did you have a car?
With modals	I can have a pet	I shouldn't have a dog	May I have a cat?

So if you check in the list of irregular verbs, you'll see that the three columns are like this:

HAVE / HAVE GOT           HAD         HAD        Tener, tomar, tener que

Here you are some links to practise with this grammar point:

exercise 1     exercise 2

Welcome to the school year 2017-2018!

Hi to everybody!

Here we are another year with this fantastic adventure: learning English at EOI. I'm delighted to be with you again for either those students I already know or those I've just met.

This blog is just a tool to help you in your learning, especially with grammar and vocabulary, but also with extra activities. If I find something interesting, I'd like to share it with you.

As you can see, every post will be targeted to the groups of students I'm teaching to but everybody is welcome to go to a higher or lower level if you like or you need it.

Hope to be useful and see you in class!

Preparing the final exams: Correcting Mistakes

I 've found these pages for correcting mistakes so I think you could use them to practise for the exam, especially for the writing part. You have to write the right answer and then you have the explanation when you clik on Answer:

• Intermediate level: click here and here
• For a higher level, click here

For the oral exam the typical difficulty is to do it fluently and with few mistakes. Let's focus on the main problems:

• fluentcy and entonation: try to say full sentences and mark a rhythm in your performance; don't rush, say a couple of sentences qhen you speak and try to sound natural
• accuracy and avoiding mistakes: learn some structures which are useful, mind tenses and use a good vocabulary, especially with the topics of the book

To practise on your own, use your mobile to record your performance, especially the individual part, and try to practise with other students by Skype or by phone.

Reading is not very difficult but if you wnat to practise with cloze tests you can go to this link  and this one for multiple choice for intermediate level. Forn higher levels, you can use this other link by choosing advance level. For advanced level, you can use this other link as well.

If you want to practise with listening comprenhension, you can go to this page for intermediate level and this other for advanced level.

I hope this post will be useful for you all.

NI1 - Passive voice

Let's see the 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... Me han dicho... Se habla inglés
• 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!