Revision Past Simple

 Let's review past simple and  the first thing we should take into account is the fact that there are 2 big groups of verbs:

• REGULAR: verbs in which you add -ED to the infinitive; e.g. work - worked - worked
• IRREGULAR: you have different forms in past and past participle; e.g. find - found -found

If you want more information, click on these links: here

The problem with regular verbs is the pronunciation as there are 3 possible endings:

• / -d / : the most usual one; e.g. played, studied, preferred (ending in vowel sound+-ED); listened, changed, travelled, lived  (ending in voiced consonants) 
• / -t / : with voiceless consonants; e.g. asked, washed, stopped (remember the trick: PetaKaSh; -t is in the following group.
• / -id / : ending in /-d/ or /-t/; you have an extra syllable; e.g. end - ended, fit - fitted

For irregular verbs, look at the list following the pattern (A-A-A, A-B-B, A-B-C or A-B-A) : clikc here

How to learn irregular verbs? There are many activities, but try to do it orally better than writing:

• the alphabet: day as many verbs as you can starting with... (choose a letter:B/H/S...)
• by topics: irregular verbs related to senses; habitual actions; money; learning, etc.
• by pattern: tell me 5 verbs A-A-A, A-B-B, A-B-C, etc.
• by groups of pronunciation: /i:/  /e/  /e/ (read, read, read; feel, felt, felt)  or --- /ot/  /ot/ (buy, bought, bought; catch, caught, caught) 
• by mimic: you show your partner the action by mimic (e.g. swim, eat, write, read, think...)
• What did you do yesterday? (in the morning, in the afternoon, in the evening): most of fuese verbos are irregular (wake up/have/leave/buy

If you want to work with written exercises, go to these links:

• exercise 1      exercise 2     exercise 3 (a list of exercises)

To help you with the pronunciation you can go to this link where there are videos to know how to say the most common irregular verbs.

Unit 2A: Present perfect simple and continuous + to have something done

To start with, let's see the difference between past simple and present perfect and then we'l work on present perfect simple and contiunous.

Past simple and present perfect

• Past simple: it's an action with a clear referencence to the past (last month, 3 weeks ago, yesterday, when I was a child...)
• Present perfect: the reference of time is vague (before, recently, lately..). and you refer to an action which starts in the past but it finishes or continues in the present (you may say: UP TO NOW)

Look at the examples to see the difference:

• I've lived/I've been living in Alcalá since 1996 / for more than 30 years (UP TO NOW)
• I started living in Alcalá in 1996 (this is a memory so it's with a past tense)

If you need some practise, these exercises may help you: exercise 1    exercise 2  (this includes past continuous as well)

Present perfect simple and continuous

• Present perfect simple: it is related to the consequences of the action, on the result and it's usually used with adverbs such as JUST, EVER/NEVER, ALREADY and YET, as well as the question Have you ever...? , How many times have you...?.  Use this exercise to focus on the use of adverbs (except for "ever/never").
• Present perfect continuous: it's used to referred to the duration of the action so it's usual in questions like How long have you...? and the typical adverbs used with this tense are SINCE (when you mention the starting of the action) and FOR (with periods of time). It's also used with emphatic expressions such as all morning, all day, etc. This other exercise is about the use of  for/since/during/while but not specifically with present perfect.

If you want to practise with these tenses, go to these exercises and pay attention to the use of adverbs and the reference of time:  exercise 1     exercise 2   exercise 3

Remember we've also seen in class a very specific form of present perfect that we usually use in Spanish as present simple, as you can see in these examples:

• Tengo este reloj desde pequeña  ------   I've had this watch since I was a girl
• ¿Desde hace cuánto que llevas gafas?  ------    How long have you been wearing glasses?

TO HAVE/GET SOMETHING DONE

Remember it's not in this lesson but we introduced this structure because it's usual when you speak about health problems like these examples:

• I had my blood pressure checked   or    I got my arm x-rayed

Although I explained this in class maybe you'd like to see another explanation of this grammar point by watching this video: click here

If you want to go further with this construction, have a look at this entry of Perfect English: click here

How to Write Emails

 In unit 2A you have to practise how to write informal emails, but we'll see both formal and informal in order to understand the differences between them.

There is an interesting link to see this; let's see it: click here

Halloween is coming! (31st October)

 This is a very well-known festivity in Anglo-saxon countries, especially in the USA. If you want to know something about this you could do some exercises:

• a listening comprehension: click here to do it
• some activities in this page of British Council: click here
• vocabulary: try to fill in this crossword exercise
• Comparing British and American Halloween: 10 differences
• By the way, if you want to know differences between British and American English, click here.
• If you want to read a scary short story, this is a sample as a fill-in-the-blank exercise: click here
• Why don't you try to write a spooky story? You can do it in Classroom.

For more activities connected to our textbook, go to Classroom to check what you have for homework. There are some days without class but we need to go on with our lessons.

Unit 1B: Use of Auxiliaries, Double Compartive and Compound Adjectives

 This lesson has a lot of grammar so let's try to see it as something useful and not as dull as you may think.

The Use of Auxiliaries

This part of the lesson is connected to how to use auxiliaries in tag questions, echo questions, by using "so" and "neither" or as an emphatic form of the verb.

• I took this document from a really good blog (Mey English Class B2): go to this link
• You can use this exercise to practise the use of auxiliaries: click here

Double Comparative

As I've already told you in class you should review the rules for compartive forms and its spelling.  If you want, you can use this video: click here. Remember double compartive form is quite common and you can also find it in usual idioms such as: The sooner, the better  or   The more, the merrier. Once you've seen in your text book how to use them you can do this exercise to practise more: click here.

Another way of using double compartive is by saying both comparatives with AND, as you can see in the example: You need more and more  practice if you want to speak better  or  There were more and more people around the street artist.

Compound Adjectives

To explain this grammar point we should know what a "false participle" is. We form new adjectives by adding -ED to the end of a noun like in  this example: an aged woman. But the most common ones are those which are formed by two words: bad-tempered, left-handed or big-headed . Besides, there are some other endings for these compound adjectives, like real past/present participles: well-behaved, well-known or good-looking. If you think it's clear, do this exercise: click here. Once you finish with it, use the dictionary if you have any doubt about the exact meaning ot hese adjectives.

Unit 1A (2nd part): Job Interviews

 Apart from grammar, in this lesson they deal with job interviews, which is something very important for your own future. Let's see some videos related with this:

• How to Prepare a Job Interview: a short but really interesting video about your performance in a job interview. We'll work with this video in class but if you want to review it you can click here.
• Top 10 Job Interview Questions: quite easy and a bit repetitive but useful as well. Pay attention to the vocabulary connected to job interviews such as weaknesses and strengths, detail-oriented, to overcome a challenge, career goals,, etc. Click here for the video.

Another useful thing we should do is to review the vocbulary related to work and job-seeking so you can go to this link to start with and then you have this one, which is longer and with translation into Spanish; the problem is they don't distinguish between formal and informal English and the translations are rather scarce. If you want to improve your vocabulary and your spelling, do to this exercise.

We'll practise in class with these questions and we'll simulate a job interview by playing the roles of interviewer and interviwee and swapping roles. Nevertheless, if you want to practise more, you could do it with another mate by using the MEET link in Classroom or just by recording yourself while answering the typical questions in an interview. Remember that the more you practise, the better you'll do it. 

This other exercise is a listening comprehension but I'm afraid is not very natural as a model but it's worth a try in the end: click here. If you want to have a higher level of listening comprenhension, go to this video in which you'll learn how to face the typical trick questions or problems in a job interview: click here.

Just to finish awith, remember you can find many examples and tips for job interviews, so surf on the Internet and you'll find very good ones like this one: it's not  for learning English but it gives you clues about what to say: click here

See you in class!

Unit 1A: Questions and Answers

 Let's start with the textbook but as some of the students are still trying to get it, I'll introduce the main grammar point of this lesson: how to make questions in English.

I'm absolutley sure you know how to make questions but let's check there are no doubts, especially in those cases which are a bit different. This is a summary of the kind of questions you can find:

• YES/NO questions: as they have this kind of answer, they are also called "total" questions. The structures is AUXILIARY+SUBJECT+MAIN VERB. These are some examples:
• Is he attending our class?  ---  Yes, he is    Can you drive?  -----  No, I can't
• "Partial" questions: when you only ask something in particular, that is, a "part" of the sentence; these questions start with WH-words but you also need the inversion, as you can see in these examples:
• WHERE was he born?  -----  He was born in Murcia.
• HOW MANY children have you got?  -----  I've got 2, a boy and a girl.
• HOW MUCH sugar do you need?  -----  Just a little.
• WHY did you phone Susan yesterday?  ------  Because I wanted to meet her.
• Exceptions: when the WH-word has the function of the subject in the questionyou don't have to use the inversion; have a look at the examples to see how they work:
• WHO is coming tonight?  -----   A few friends (THEY are coming)
• HOW MANY friends are coming?  -----  Just 3 or 4 close friends.
• HOW MUCH sugar is needed?  -----  Not much (Not much sugar is needed)
• WHAT happened to you?  -----  Nothing (nothing happened to me).
• Negative questions: if you use the negative form contracted, there's no change; however, if you use it as a normal adverb, it'll take that position. Look at the examples:
• Aren't they coming?    BUT    Are they not coming?
• Indirect questions: as you only have one question mark in a single question, you can't use two inversions, just one. Let's see the examples:
• Can you tell me where the car is?
• Do you know what the answer is in this item?
• Questions with prepositions: when the main verb of the question or an adjective go with preposition this should be kept in their natural position, as you can see in the examples below:
• How many people do you work with at work?   ---   I work with 2 people
• What are you listening to?  ----   I'm listening to classical music
• What sort of music are you fond of?  ----   I'm fond of salsa

If you have time, visit this link with examples of questions; it'll be pretty useful, I think. At the end you have some exercises but you'd better practise orally, paying attention to grammar and entonation. These are suggestions to review questions:

• A goog exercise is to take a sentence and to ask about different parts of it:
• Yesterday Peter came to school by car  because he was late  --- Who came by car?  How did he come to school?  When did he come by car?  Why did he do that? etc.
• Another good way to practise questions is by asking about a story or a fairy tale, like in the example:
• Cinderella: Who was she? How many sisters did she have? Why was she so unhappy? What happened to her during the ball?  What did the prince do? etc.
• You can do something similar but with a real anecdote. Try to ask the questions below and you'll realise you have the way to write about that. These are some examples:
• A trip: When? Who with? How? How long? Where? What was it like? Why? etc.
• An embarrassing moment in your life
• What I used to do as a child

Hope this entry will be useful. See you in class and remember to do the reading comprehension and the exercises of vocabulary on pages10 and 11 of your textbook..