Decide, Decision, Decisive, Indecisive, I May, I Might...

Week 20^th- 22^nd April

Hello! How’s your weekend going?

I don’t really like rainy days. Oh, this reminds me of a sentence from an old song. It is called ‘I like Chopin’. You can listen to it in here. It’s also practice 
for ‘use to +infinitive’ referring to past repetitive actions that are no longer true.

Last week we finished talking abot conditionals zero, first and second. Here’s the summary:

   Zero conditional. (Real situation/ facts)

 if + present simple >>>>>present simple

 If you begin the sentence with “if”, you have to use a comma.

·First conditional.

·  Possible and very probable situation
 if + present simple >>>>will / won’t + infinitive

If it doesn’t rain on Saturday, we’ll go for a walk.

·  Instructions

 if + present simple >>>>>>>> imperative

 If you can’t attend to the meeting, email us in advance.

·        Second conditional.

·Unreal situation
If + past simple >>>>>>would / wouldn’t + infinitive (Present conditional)
If I were you, I wouldn’t wear these shoes with that suit.
(You can use ‘were’ with all person of verb ‘to be’ in 2^nd conditional clauses)

·  Possible but very improbable situation
If + past simple>>>>>> would / wouldn’t + infinitive (present conditional)
If I won £5,000,000 on the lottery, 
I wouldn’t tell anyone, except my family.
 Second Conditional 
More exercises on second conditional 

Then, Mónica asked about the differences among these connectors: although, though, even though, despite, in spite of.

There’s no difference in meaning because they add contrast. Their meaning is the same as ‘but’. The difference is grammatical.

·      We use although, though, even though with a clause, that is S + V. Though is more informal and usually goes at the end of the sentence. It’s more frequent in speaking than in writing. Even though is more emphatic.

Although it was raining, we went out. We went out although it was raining.

We went out even though it was raining.

It was raining. We went out, though.

·      After despite and in spite of, you can use a noun, pronoun or verb +ing never a clause. If you want to use a clause after them, you’ll have to add despite/in spite of the fact.

We went out in spite of/despite the rain.

We went out in spite of/despite being raining.

It was raining; we went out in spite of/despite it.

We went out in spite of/despite the fact that it was raining.
We finished the week talking about decisions.

Are you indecisive?                                                                 

Do you find difficult to make decisions?

Do you have problems deciding…

… what to wear when you go out?

…what to eat in a restaurant?

…where to go on holiday?

Do you often change your mind about something?

We use may, might, could to express possibility.

·         I may wear (it’s possible that I wear) the long black dress to the party.

·         She might not go (it’s possible that she doesn’t go) if she doesn’t know everybody.

·         Take the umbrella. It could rain (it’s possible that it rains) late this afternoon

And we finished with a ‘word building’ exercise. We built nouns from verbs.

VERB	NOUN	VERB	NOUN
Invite	invitation	educate	education
Organize	organization	communicate	communication
Imagine	imagination	Elect	election
inform	information	Confuse	confusion
translate	translation	Decide	decision

And that was all! See you tomorrow

Survival!!!

Week 13^th – 15^th April

Hello everybody! How’s it going?

What did we do last week?

We started talking about how technology has changed…or not….?

Why did we start talking about this? I have no idea. I know that we started discussing a topic and we ended up (end up: have as a result) talking about something completely different from what we had started talking about! But, we know that every topic it was brought in (introduced) in our discussion, is related to the initial statement.

I sometimes think that technology is going backwards (to the past, previous stage) instead of forwards (future) and I feel that nothing new is created. Remember the 80s or 90s? We already had these cameras that developed (produced) the photos immediately! It’s true that the cameras were really big and expensive. And the quality wasn’t that great! But…they had already been invented!!!

We carried on (continued) with conditional clauses.

We did an oral exercise so as to practise the real conditional, which refers to a real situation or a fact.

We learnt that:

·         If a waiter forgets to put some expensive drinks onDani’s bill, he reminds him / her to add them to the bill. (Or at least, that’s what he told us! And we trust (confide) him! He looks like (seems to be) an honest guy)

·         If Mónica hits another car when she’s parking and the damage is rather big (considerable), she leaves a note. (Quite honest, too. Same asDani)

·         If people push into a queue in front ofMónica, she sends them to the back of the queue.(Sensible behaviour! People should learn to wait their turn!)

·         If a friend asks Dani to borrow some money to buy a lottery ticket, he lends him/her the money with her. (That’s a right thing to do! You never know where luck lies!)

Real situation: If + present------------------------  present (Zero Conditional)

So, we began the class ending the sentences starting with the first conditional:

If you are single (not married) and you meet somebody you really like…

…you’ll become friends / you’ll fall in love with him /he’ll be married

(as you can see, we have a bit of everything! Optimistic, pessimistic and realistic opinions!)

If you arrive early to catch a plane, it’ll be delay / the flight will be cancelled / you’ll get bored at the airport…

If you get to work late, your boss will be at work / you’ll have an unexpected meeting / you’ll be fired (lose your job) …

And so on…(etc.)

We continued practising the first conditional. This time with Murphy’s law.

Murphy’s Law says, ‘if something bad can happen, it will happen’. Murphy was a captain and an American engineer from the 1940s. He was investigating why planes crashed and he got a reputation for always thinking of the worst thing that could happen in every situation.

And we found out (discovered) why the Italian man that met an American on the train didn’t want to lend him his newspaper. It’s quite simple, ‘If I lend you my newspaper, I’ll kill you!’

Finally, we did a quiz to show if we could survive animals attack!

 I’m afraid, Dani wouldn’t go through(survive) if he were attacked by different animals!

Anyway, despite the results of the test, I seriously doubt any of us could survive a crocodile, bear or even bull attack.

 This was the perfect way to introduce the unreal,( second) conditional.

 Unreal or imaginary situation.

If a bear attacked you, would you climb up a tree?

What would you do if you were in the country and a bull came towards you?

Unreal situation: If + past simple ------------------ would / wouldn’t + infinitive

                                                                                (present conditional)

And that was all, folks!!!

 See you tomorrow! Monday 20^th April

Conditionals. 'What if...?'

Wednesday 6^th- 8^th April

Welcome back! We are starting the last term of this course!

I can see you enjoyed your holidays but …they are over!

What did we do last week? We started reading and listening about “The friendliest City in the World.”

A journalist conducted an experiment so as to find out which city this was.He did three tests: the photo test- he asked people to take a photo of him, the shopping test- he bought something and paid more than it really was, so as to check if he’d get the right change; and finally, the accident test- he pretended (it wasn’t true) to fall over and check, in that way if people would help.

He tried his experiment in Paris, Rome, New York and London.

It seems that London is the most unfriendly city in the world. On the other hand, New York is the friendliest one. –Was the journalist American, I wonder!

 Then, we talked about “The Best and the Worst.”

It seems to me that we agree on some of the topics.

The worst programme on TV is “Sálvame”.

The best film I’ve ever seen is “Captain Phillips”.

The coldest place she’s ever been is Burgos.

The worst TV presenter on TV is Jorge Javier.

The Five Coldest and Hottest Places on Earth!

After that, we started with a new topic: conditionals.Yes¸we worked on the first conditional.

We used
if + present simple/ will / won’t +infinitive                    

If it doesn’t rain on Saturday, we’ll go for a walk.

We won’t buy milk if there’s some in the cupboard.

We continued the class with an important piece of advice:

“Don’t lose your pen!” If you lose your pen, you’ll die.

If you lose your pen, you won’t be able to take notes.

If you aren’t able to take notes, you won’t pass your exams.

If you don’t pass your exams, you won’t get a degree.

If you don’t get a degree, you won’t find a job.

If you don’t find a job, you won’t earn any money.

If you don’t earn any money, you won’t be able to buy any food.

If you can’t buy any food, you’ll die.

So, if you lose your pen, you’ll die! Don’t lose your pen!!!

You can begin with the “if” clause or not. When you begin with “if” you need to use a comma.

And this is an example of Zero conditional.

We use
if + present simple / present simple                              
If you begin the sentence with “if”, you have to use a comma.

And that was it! We’ll continue talking about real situations this week. Remember we changed our class for Tuesday instead of Monday. Thank you very much for the favour!!!

A Geography Lesson- Faster, Faster!

Week 23^rd- 25^th March

Happy Easter! I hope you are enjoying your holidays!

What did we do the week before Easter in class?

We worked on comparative and superlative adjectives and adverbs.

Remember:		ADJECTIVE	COMPARATIVE	SUPERLATIVE
1-Syllable		hot long	hotter longer	the hottest  the longest
2 -syllable ended in “y”		dirty	dirtier	the dirtiest
	REST OF ADJECTIVES
1-syllable not ended in “y”		violent	more violent	the most violent
More than  2- syllable adj.		expensive	more expensive	the most expensive
		IRREGULAR
		good	better	the best
		bad	worse	the worst

And the same rule applies to adverbs.

		ADVERB	COMPARATIVE	SUPERLATIVE
1-Syllable		fast near	faster nearer	the fastest  the nearest
	REST OF ADJECTIVES
More than  2- syllable		slowly	more slowly	the most slowly
		IRREGULAR
		much / many	more	the most
		little/few	less	the least
		far	further/farther	the furthest /the farthest

You can also intensify your comparisons:

£22   

£20

£40

• The T-shirt with the star is a bit cheaper than the yellow T-shirt.
• The yellow T-shirt is a bit more expensive than the  T-shirt with the star.
•  The grey Bugs Bunny  T-shirt is much more expensive than the yellow one.
• The orange T-shirt with the star is much more cheaper than the grey Bugs Bunny T-shirt.                                                                                                                                

We also had a ‘Geography’ competition.
Our two teams had to guess the right answer

·         Which country’s population is bigger, Brazil or Bangladesh?

·         Which mountain is lower, Annapurna or Makalu?

·         Which city is more crowded, Mexico City or Brazil?

·         Which is smaller, North America or South America?

·         Which river is longer, the Yangtze or the Nile?

Can you remember the words which match these definitions?

·           It’s a body of water narrower than a river.

·           It’s higher than a hill and has a pointed end.

·           It’s bigger than the sea.

·           It’s like a mountain but the temperature is much hotter because it’s got fire inside.

·           It’s a shallow place between two or more mountains.

·           It’s a place hotter than a valley or a mountain and with no vegetation.

And we finished the week reading a text and commenting on it “We are living faster, but are we living better?”

We don’t have enough time to read articles, only the headlines! Bedtimes stories are shorter for the parents who want to save time! We can’t waste time listening to people speaking at normal speed! Baseball is not so popular as before because it’s a slow game and matches take a long time! We spend more time sitting in our cars, feeling stressed because we are worried that we won’t arrive on time.

 And that was our week!

See you after Easter! Tuesday 7^th April! Have fun!