Special Occasions

Week 19^th - 21^st January

Hello! How are you?

Mónica I hope you are Ok. We haven’t seen you this week.

We finished reading about ‘The London Eye’.

 

Remember that we use ‘how+ adjective’ to ask about distance, age, speed, number, quantity etc.

      ·            How high is the London Eye? (height: metres, centimetres etc.)

      ·            How far can you see on a clear day? (distance)

      ·            How many capsules are there? (number)

      ·            How long is the trip? (time)

      ·            How fast does it move? (speed)

You can practise with some exercises in here: http://www.tolearnenglish.com/english_lessons/questions-with-how-far

After that, we listened to a song: ‘Waterloo Sunset’

The singer complains about the speed everything moves in a city like London; but he admits he likes living there.

Then, we talked about festivals and celebrations.

Don’t forget that we use ordinal numbers to refer to dates in English.

 Ordinal numbers

Try this listening exercise!

We revised prepositions ‘in, on, at’ for time. Remember:

In/on/at for time. Exercise:  In, On, At ...

I was born on Saturday on25th in December in 1991 in winter in the morning at /on (American English) the weekend at 9p.m

·         On New Year’s Eve we stay up until midnight.

·         We send cards to family at Christmas and on birthdays.

·         They are sweet and we often eat them on special occasions, like Christmas. What are they?

·         Pumpkins are popular at Halloween.

·         People often put up special decorations around the house at Christmas

Let's learn vocabulary on weddings!

And we finished the week learning ‘Present perfect’.

We use it to talk about experiences in our life.

We use“Have you ever…?” because they are general experiences and we don’t ask or say “when” we had them.

The structure of present perfect is the same as in Spanish, but its use is different, so don’t translate from Spanish into English!!!!

·           Have you ever found any money in the street?

·           Have you ever won a prize?

·           Have you ever asked anybody famous for their autograph?

·           Have you ever forgotten an important date?

We use have + participle because we are asking in general.

·           How much did you find?

·           What did you do with the money?

·           What prize was it?

·           When did you win the prize?

·           How did you feel?

·           We used did (past simple) because now we are asking about the details of a past event or situation.

To sum up: Use “Have you ever…” to talk about general experiences. Use “Did (past simple)” to ask about the details, (follow – up questions).

Use of the prepositions, for, since, ago with present perfect or past simple.

 ·          Since is only used with perfect tenses.

He’s lived in Madrid since 2006.

 ·          Ago is only used with past simple.

He moved to Madrid 8 years ago.

 ·          For can be used with both tenses but the meaning of the sentences is different.

He lived in Santander for six years.         He doesn’t live in Santander.

He’s lived in Santander for six years.      He’s probably living in Santander                          

                                                                  now.

How to greet someone you haven't seen for ages

This is all! See you next Monday! Have a good weekend!