NI1 - 5A: Sports

In this lesson we are working with sports. Let's revise some things which are important:
DO - PLAY - GO +---ing - PRACTISE
Look at the examples:

• you do exercise: do yoga, do aerobics, do judo, do karate, etc.
• you play games: play football, tennis, basketball, etc.
• you go + an activity, and you usually go to a place to do it: go cycling, go jogging, go running, go skating, go swimming  or  I go for a ride, for a swim...
• you practice to be better, to be sucessful: I practise running to win a medal 

A grammar point I would like to revise is the use of verbs inicating likes and dislikes, which are usually followed by -ing form. Let's see the most usual ones:        

LOVE ENJOY FEEL LIKE FANCY LIKE PREFER DON'T MIND DISLIKE DETEST CAN'T BEAR HATE

-ING form

If you want to revise and/or enlarge vocabulary about sports, click here 

NA1 - Preparing the Exam

We've worked in class on how to prepare oral part. Here we are some clues about what we've learnt in these lessons (1A-4B):

• short stories
• anecdotes: about my childhood, about weird events, about the weather, about travelling, etc.
• talking about future: short and long term plans, by 2020, expectations, predictions, etc.
• describing: people (vocabulary and adverbs), places, books, etc.
• expressing your point of view about several topics: elderly people, favourite books, being ecofriendly,favourite clothes, working and jobs (extreme job interviews), etc.

About writing skills, you should revise how to write these (click here to see models):

• a short story, an anecdote, something that happened to you
• a description of a person (even yourself) or a place
• an e-mail to a friend to explain something
• a covering letter
• expressing your opinion about a topic: elderly people, favourite books, clothed, ecology and global worming, to be ecofriendly, working and employment, health problems, etc.

As there was a problem with how to use especially and specially, here you are an explanation or a kind of translation .This other link has the explanation and an exercise. I hope it helps.

Revise these lessons for the exam but don't get panic; it's not so difficult.

See you!

NI1 - lesson 4B

In this lesson we have modals of obligation (for this gammar point have a look at the post of That's English! module 5, unit 8) but we also have SHOULD HAVE + past participle. This form is not exactly a recomendation but a regret. The main difference between simple and perfect should is the reference:

• SHOULD: it's referred to future and it means a piece of advice; you should go to the doctor's
• SHOULD HAVE: it's referred to past events and it means a regret or a complaint; you should have gone to the doctor's.

Apart from the grammar use and the meaning, we`ve seen how to pronounce it, especially with trird conditionals as you can see in this video and this is an example with songs: The Beatles or this song by Kate Winslet
Here you are a video about good manners in English; click here
Just to finish with, here you are the song of the book: You Can't Hurry Love

NA1 - unit 4B: Zero and First conditional

We've been working in class with Zero and First Type of conditionals, also called Real or Possible conditionals. Here you have a link which includes Unreal conditionals (type II) but it could be interesting to visit this page; cick here
Apart from if-clauses, we've alredy seen other connectors; here you are a link for some difficult points, although some of them are not included in the list of the book:

• IN CASE versus IN CASE OF; click here
• WHILE versus WHERE: click here
• DESPITE versus IN SPITE OF and ALTHOUGH versus EVEN THOUGH; cick here

There is an exercise in this lesson which deals with TAKE. This word has a lot of meanings in English and it is in many expressions. Here you are some links to see those meanings: click here for a list of expressions or a similar one here
Apart from the topics of the book, I'v found this page with two people preparing a visit. They use a lot of typical expressions and I hope you'll like it; click here

NA1: future perfect and future continuous

We'd already revised some futere tenses such as  WILL, GOING TO or present tenses for future.These new future tenses are not very frequent either in English or in Spanish as they are quite specific. Maybe you should revise all the future tenses and try to see the differences so click here to read about future tenses. But if this page is too complicated, maybe you could use this one.
To finish with, here you are the song at the very end of this lesson: Heatwave
Hope this is helpful!

NI1 - unit 4A

This lesson has a grammar point about reflexive pronouns so here you are the page I showed you in class in which they explain they are used as a reflexive form or as an intensive form; click here. Remember there is a very common form which is by+reflexive pronoun. Here you have examples of all these uses:

• I cut myself yesterday (an ordinary reflexive form).
• I myself saw you doing that (emphatic form).
• I did it by myself, without any help (this means "lo hice yo solo")
• I did it myself (this means "lo hice yo mismo" or "lo hice yo")

The use is not very difficult in written English; I think it's more difficult when you use it in spoke English. Nevertheless, here you have some exercises to practise: exercise 1  and  exercise 2 (a list of exercises to practise).

When we spoke about the tips to learn or improve English, I told you that songs are very useful; here you are a couple of examples:

• The Hall of Fame: use of can/could , superlative and vocabulary; click here
• Wake Me Up: phrasals, some fixed structures, tenses; click here

Can, Can't and To Be Able to

In NI1 (Englihs File-unit 4A)  we've been working with this modal and we've seen that as CAN is a defective verb we should use TO BE ABLE TO + infinitive if we want to use it in some verbal forms such as the following ones:

• I haven't been able to finish my homework yet
• I'd like to be able to do it soon
• I love being able to do my homework on time
• I'll be able to do it next time

Although it is possible to use TO BE ABLE TO in present and past simple, it sounds a bit formal and it's more frequent (and easier) to use CAN and COULD. But whenever we need infinitive, gerund or past participle forms, we must use the forms of to be able to because CAN doesn't have those forms. If you need some more information about this point, you can click here

If you want to practise with this modal and to be able to you have these exercises:

• exercise 1        exercise 2        exercise 3

We've also worked with pronunciation in class and here you are a video which helps you to pronounce CAN and CAN'T properly; click here or here

New Year's Resolutions

This is the time for changing your life... or at least we try it. Here you are some documents to work about this topic:

• a video about New Year's Resolutions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH9gmmOkZV8
• this other BBC video is connected to the vocabulary and typical structures used: clich here
• an article about the topic: click here
• there are some songs about the topic, and here you are one as an example: Grahan Colton

About shopping and sales, here you have two videos which are interesting: the easy one is this and the other is here

To finish with, this is the page I showed in class about "doctor, doctor jokes": click here