Welcome to this blog! It's for you, my students! Feel at ease, work at your own pace and learning will be fun, more pleasant and more effective. You will pick up English in a casual way as if you were chatting with your friends over a cup of coffee... or tea!
Watch the video again and choose the correct alternative when you are given two, fill in the blanks with the missing words ( verbs or adverbs ) or fill in the charts as instructed. Then check the key below.
A BRITISH POLICEMAN
There are
nearly 1,700 /
170,000police officers in The United Kingdom.
They work
for 62/
52 separate police forces.
The Metropolitan
Police in London is very big and has over 31,000 / 71,000
police officers.
Most police
forces are more than 150 / 1,050 years
old.
People …………………
call British policemen Bobbies after
Sir Robert Peel, the man who started the Metropolitan Police. Bobby is short
for Robert.
Markus is a
police officer in Oxford. His police force has 750
/ 7,500 officers.
Markus …………………
works during the day, but ………………… he
works at night. He ………………. works at the weekend, too.
On a day shift, he works from ……………….. a. m. to ………………. p.m.
On a night shift, he works from …………….. p. m. to ……………… a. m.
HIS UNIFORM
Write Yes or No in the boxes
In summer
In winter
Black boots
Black trousers
Black T-shirt
Safety vest
Yellow jacket
Warmer jacket
HIS EQUIPMENT
Write Yes if he carries or No he
doesn’t carry the following:
A gun
A radio
A baton
A gas spray
A pair of handcuffs
Every day
he ……………….. the police station and ……………… on
patrol ………………. on foot but ………………….
by car.
He ………………..
to different people every day.
He ………………..
to many different emergencies.
He ………………..
Oxford safe.
KEY
There are
nearly 170,000police officers in The United Kingdom.
They work
for 52 separate police forces.
The
Metropolitan Police in London is very big and has over31,000 police
officers.
Most police
forces are more than 150 years old.
People sometimes call British policemen Bobbies after Sir Robert Peel, the man
who started the Metropolitan Police. Bobby is short for Robert.
Markus is a
police officer in Oxford. His police force has 7,500
officers.
Markus usually works during the day, but sometimes he
works at night. He often works at the weekend, too.
On a day shift, he works from 8 a. m. to 6p.m.
On a night shift, he works from 8
p. m. to 4 a. m.
HIS UNIFORM: Write Yes
or No in the boxes
In summer
In winter
Black boots
Yes
Yes
Black trousers
Yes
Yes
Black T-shirt
Yes
Yes
Safety vest
Yes
Yes
Yellow jacket
Yes
Yes
Warmer jacket
No
yes
HIS EQUIPMENT: Write Yes
if he carries or No if he doesn’t carry the
following:
A gun
No
A radio
Yes
A baton
Yes
A gas spray
Yes
A pair of handcuffs
Yes
Every day
he leaves the police station and goeson
patrolusuallyon foot but sometimesby car.
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas Just like the ones I used to know Where the treetops glisten and children listen To hear sleigh bells in the snow
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas Just like the ones I used to know Where the treetops glisten and children listen To hear sleigh bells in the snow
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas With every Christmas card I write May your days be merry and bright And may all your Christmases be white
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, Just like the ones I used to know May your days be merry and bright And may all your Christmases be white
I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, With every Christmas card I write May your days be merry and bright And may all your Christmases be white
May your days be merry and bright And may all your Christmases be white
And may all your Christmases be white (all your Christmases be white) And may all your Christmases be white (all your Christmases be white) And may all your Christmases be (All your Christmases be white) (All your Christmases be white)
There is not a rule you can rely on to know when to use these verbs properly so, the advice is to learn the cases separately.
Here you have a list with the most common cases:
MAKE
DO
Progress
A
speech
A
mistake
A
law
A
journey, a trip, a tour, a voyage
An
impression
An
agreement
An
appointment
Plans
Love
War
A
noise
Friends
An
arrangement
A
fire
A
decision
An
excuse
Money,
a fortune
An
offer
An
effort
A
proposal
An announcement
A
choice
A
contribution
A
phone call
A
suggestion
A
promise
Work
Homework
Housework
(an)
exercise
A
task
A
course
The
shopping
The
cleaning
The
washing
The
ironing…
A job
A
favour
Justice
Good
Evil
Well
Badly
Damage
Research
Business
Something
Nothing
One´s
duty
One´s
hair
One´s
best
Military
service
"Go into the world and do well but more importantly, do good" Minor Myers For a good explanation,an extensive list with examples and exercises click HERE
These are some of the Christmas traditions in the Anglo-saxon world:
FATHER
CHRISTMAS
Father
Christmas is another way of referring to Santa Claus. This last name, Santa
Claus comes from Saint Nicholas, who was a bishop in the 4th century
and his gift-giving tradition originally had nothing to do with Christmas.
We are now
used to Santa Claus, a jolly fat man with rosy red cheeks, a fluffy white beard
and a red suit. Santa comes down the chimney, eats the snack left by children (typically
a mince pie and a glass of wine) and leaves presents in stockings and around
the Christmas tree.
CHRISTMAS
PUDDING
It is an extraordinarilyheavy
pudding which is usually aged for a month or even longer. It contains raisins (pasas),
dried fruits, cinnamon and other spices and it should be covered with brandy
and set on fire before eating.
CRHISTMAS
CRACKERS
They are
paper-covered tubes which produce a loud crack when pulled apart. They contain
a small tinket (baratija), a joke and a paper hat, which people wear during the
lunch.
KISSING
UNDER THE MISTLETOE
Many people
at Christmas hang a bunch or just a sprig of mistletoe in their home and if you
meet someone underneath, you have to give them a kiss!!!
Don't confuse mistletoe with holly: The mistletoe is a plant that grows on the branches of other plants and has leathery evergreen leaves and waxy white berries
The holly is an evergreen shrub with glossy spiky leaves and red berries
BOXING DAY
December 26th
is called Boxing Day and it is a public holiday in the UK. Poor people used to
receive a box of gifts from their masters or employers on this day mainly
because they have worked for them on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day. Rich
people used to go fox-hunting but nowadays many go to the Boxing Day sales.
HOGMANAY
Hogmanay is the Scotish name for New Year's celebrations. The origin of the word is not clear but Scotch people celebrate it with fireworks and fire shows and everybody sings Auld Lang Syne, which is a Scots-language poem written by Robert Burns in 1788 though now is sung everywhere in modern English except for the words Auld lang Syne, which mean something like for old times' sake. Watch this video and you'll certainly recognize the song.
There are
two types of relative clauses: Defining and Non-defining
Defining
relative clauses are essential to “define” which person or thing the speaker
means.
Non-defining relative clauses give “extra information” about the person or thing
the speaker refers to but we already know which person or thing the speaker
means.
Examples:
-I
have two cars. One of them keeps breaking down and the other doesn`t.
The car
that keeps breaking down is in the garage. (This sentence has a defining
relative clause because I need to specify which car)
-I
have just one car and it keeps breaking down.
The car,
which keeps breaking down, is in the garage. (This sentence has a non-defining
relative clause because although I don’t need to specify which car, I want to
give extra information)
Here is a chart
DEFINING
People
Things
Subject
WHO
THAT
WHICH
THAT
Object
WHO
WHOM
THAT
No relative
WHICH
THAT
No relative
Possessive
WHOSE
WHOSE
OF WHICH
Prepositional
WHO …+ preposition
WHOM…+ preposition
THAT …+ preposition
No relative …+ preposition
Preposition+ WHOM
WHICH …+ preposition
THAT…+preposition
No relative…+ preposition
Preposition + WHICH
NON-DEFINING
(NO omissions! NO that! ALWAYS
between COMMAS!)
People
Things
Subject
WHO
WHICH
Object
WHO
WHOM
WHICH
Possessive
WHOSE
WHOSE
OF WHICH
Prepositional
WHO…+ preposition
WHOM … + preposition
Preposition + WHOM
WHICH… +preposition
Preposition + WHICH
WHAT includes a relative pronoun and its antecedent
WHICH
refers to the whole previous sentence or idea
EXAMPLES
DEFINING
The man who/that robbed the bank is called
Smith.
The man who/whom/that/----- I saw is called
Smith.
The papers which/that are on my desk are not mine
The report which/that/----- you sent me is not
good enough.
The man whose car I was driving is my boss.
The woman to whom you talked/that you talked to/you
talked to is the manager.
The pen with which you’re writing/that you’re
writing with/you’re writing with is mine. The relative pronoun can be omitted when it is NOT the subject of the relative clause
NON DEFINING
Jack, who used to live next door, went to
live abroad.
Jack, whom/who you met yesterday, went to
live abroad.
The strike, which lasted 10 days, is now over.
We’re
staying at the Grand Hotel, which Ann
recommended to us.
My boss, whose husband also works for the
company, is very strict.
Jack, to whom you talked yesterday, has been
promoted.
My home
town, in which I’m still living, has
a very important fishing port.
WHAT & WHICH
Did you
hear what they said?
Jim passed
his driving test, which surprised
everybody. WHAT includes the antecedent and the relative. It means the thing/things that WHICH refers to the whole idea expressed before. In other words, its antecedent is the previous sentence. For a good explanation of the difference between DEFINING and NON-DEFINING relative clauses click HERE
You can also watch this video, which has a simple but clear explanation of these relative clauses:
For an exercise to see if you understand the difference between these two types of relative clauses click HERE
Phonology is the study of the patterns of sounds in a language, it is the study of the categorical organisation of speech sounds in languages: how speech sounds are organised in the mind and used to convey meaning.
Phonology can be related to many linguistic disciplines, including psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, etc. Principles of phonology can also be applied to treatments of speech pathologies and innovations in technology. In terms of speech recognition, systems can be designed to translate spoken data into text. In this way, computers process the language like our brains do. The same processes that occur in the mind of a human when producing and receiving language occur in machines. One example of machines decoding language is the popular intelligence system, Siri.
HOMOPHONES
A homophone is a word that sounds the same as another word but has a different meaning and spelling. Flower and flour arehomophones because they are pronounced the same.
This is a list of useful homophones for elementary or beginner level learners.
Two words are homographs if they are spelled the same way but differ in meaning and pronunciation. The verb lead (guide) and the noun lead (a kind of metal) are homographs as they have different meanings and pronunciations.
A) Bow as in arrow vs bow as in bending or taking a bow at the end of a performance
B) Desert as in dry climate vs desert as in leaving alone
C) I need to wind the alarm clock so I can fly my kite in the early morning wind.
D) Please record the program when they try to beat the worldrecord for high jump.
Read – /riːd/ (the same as “reed”) means to perceive information provided in a written form; /red/ (the same as “red”) is the past tense of the verb “to read”.
Live – to /lɪv/ (rhyming with “give”) is a verb meaning “to be alive” /əˈlaɪv/; /laɪv/(rhyming with “dive”) is an adjective meaning “being alive”.
Wind – /wɪnd/ is a movement of air; to /waɪnd/ (rhyming with “kind”) is a verb meaning “to turn, especially something around something else”. For example, a river or a way can wind/waɪnd/, or you can wind a watch.
Wound – a /wuːnd/ is an injury; /waʊnd/ (rhyming with “sound”) is the past tense of the verb “wind” (/waɪnd/, see above).
Tear – to /teə/ (rhyming with “fair”) means to rip a solid material; a/tɪə/(rhyming with “dear”) is a water drop coming from someone’s eyes.
Bow – a /bəʊ/ (rhyming with “snow”) is a medieval weapon or a device used to play the violin; to /baʊ/ (rhyming with “cow”, pronounced the same as “bough”) is a verb meaning “to bend oneself in a gesture of showing respect”.
Row – /rəʊ/ (rhyming with “low”) is a line of objects (or a verb meaning “to propel a boat in water by using oars”); a /raʊ/(rhyming with “cow”) is a noisy argument (to /raʊ/ means “to argue noisily”).
Close – to /kləʊz/ is the opposite of the verb “open”; /kləʊs/(notice the “s” at the end) is an adjective meaning “near”.
Excuse – to /ɪkˈskjuːz/ (rhyming with “lose”) means to forgive somebody for something that they have done; an /ɪkˈskjuːs/(notice the “s” at the end) is an explanation designed to avoid negative judgement.
Lead – to /liːd/ means to guide or conduct ;/led/ (rhyming with “red”) is a chemical element with the symbol.
Graduate – a /ˈɡrædʒuət/ is a person holding an academic degree; to /ˈɡrædʒueɪt/ (rhyming with “late”) means to obtain an academic degree. Notice that although the pronunciation is different, there is no difference in stress position.
Bass – a /beɪs/ is the lowest voice in a harmony; a /bæs/ is a member of a certain species of fish.
House – a /haʊs/ (rhymes with mouse) is a building; to /haʊz/(rhyming with cows) means “to provide a place for somebody to live”.
Use – to /juːz/ means to utilize; a /juːs/ is a way in which something is used.
a) In the first syllable of money, company, other, etc and in the monosyllabic words month, glove, luck, dove, etc you find the same vowel sound as in the verb run. Now watch a video about this vowel sound and the vowel sound you find in the word ran; in the video the speaker contrasts the two different vowel sounds in words such as cat – cut; cup – cap; hat – hut …
b) A very common sound in the English language is found in words such as work, world, worth, word, bird, birth, heard, learn, prefer, etc. In the following video you can see how the vowel sound in all the previous words /3:/ is
c) The letter < t > in the words picture, future, fortune, congratulations (noun / the verb is congratulate someone on something), question, actually (= really // nowadays or currently for Spanish actualmente), furniture (uncountable noun) is pronounced like in check.
d) The letter < x > is pronounced in two different ways depending on the stressed syllable of the word. If the letter < x > is followed by a stressed vowel such as in exam the right pronunciation is/g’z/ : exam /ɪg’zæm/, example /ɪg’za:mpl/, exist / ɪg’zɪst/, exact/ ɪg’zækt/.In all the other cases, the pronunciation of < x > is /ks/ : exit /’eksɪt/, exercise /’eksəsaɪz/, explain/ɪk’spleɪn/, excellent/’eksələnt/, extreme/ɪk’stri:m/
Note that if the letters EX are stressed, they are pronounced/’eks/but if unstressed the pronunciation is/ɪks/
There are very few words in English beginning with < x > and here we will only mention three of them: xenophobia /zenə’fəʊbɪə/, xylophone /’zaɪləfəʊn/, x-ray /’eksreɪ/.
e) The combination of letters < sce > or < sci > at the beginning or in the middle of a word, is pronounced /s/ :
f) The pronounciation of the final suffix-ATE varies depending on the grammatical category of the word: nouns and adjectives are pronounced /ɪt/ or /ət/ (intimate – adj /’ɪntɪmɪt/ or /ɪntɪmət/whereas verbs ending -ate are pronounced /eɪt/(celebrate /’selɪbreɪt/)
1.Adjectives: delicate /’delɪkət/, accurate /’ækjərət/, illiterate / ɪ’lɪtərət/, adequate/’ædɪkwət/, considerate /kən’sɪdərət/,deliberate/dɪ’lɪberət/, desperate /despərət/, private /praɪvət/, and similarly adverbs immediately /ɪ’mi:dɪətlɪ/, approximately /ə’proksɪmətlɪ/.
g) One of the most common mistakes students of English as a foreign language often make is the mispronunciation of the adjective suffix - ABLE,
used in English as a highly productive suffix to form adjectives by addition to stems of any origin: teachable, photographable, sociable…
The only words ending in -able pronounced /eɪbl/ are the noun table and the adjectives able/unable (to be able to). In the other cases the suffix -able is pronounced /əbl/ : suitable /’su:təbl/,available /ə’veɪləbl/, capable /’keɪpəbl/, regrettable /rɪ’gretəbl/,preferable /’prefərəbl/, reliable /rɪ’laɪəbl/, acceptable /ək’septəbl/, separable /’sepərəbl/ ...
In the following two video you will find additional information about this suffix and the allomorph -ible (incredible /ɪn’kredəbl/,admissible /ad’mɪsəbl/, visible /’vɪzəbl/, permissible /pa’mɪsəbl/,flexible
h) In order to learn how to pronounce the final suffix - OUS/əs/ that you find
in adjectives such as disastrous /dɪ’za:strəs/, nervous /’n3:vəs/,previous /’pri:vɪəs/, glamorous /’glæmərəs/, mysterious/mɪ’stɪərɪəs/, synonymous /sɪ’nonɪməs/, tedious /’ti:dɪəs/, ;watch this video:
i)The Linking R sound in English is an extra sound that we use between two words when we are connecting these two words together. If we pronounce the two words separately, we do not use an R sound between them but if we pronounce them together, we say an R sound between the words because it makes the words easier to pronounce quickly.
The letter r in syllable final position is not pronounced, e.g. car/kɑ:/which means that we will not find this sound /r/ at the end of words. The linking /r/ sound appears when the syllable ends with one of these vowel sounds /ɑ:/, /ɔ:/, /ɜ:/, /ə/, /eə/, /ɪə/ and /ʊə/ and the next syllable starts with a vowel sound.
It's near enough/ɪts nɪər ɪˈnʌf/
It's quite far away/ɪts kwaɪt fɑ:r əˈweɪ/
The doctor agrees/ðə dɒktər əˈgri:z/
There are three places /ðər ə ˈθri: ˈpleɪsɪz/
I can't hear anything/aɪ kɑ:n hɪər enɪθɪŋ/
The actor and playwright/ðɪ ˈæktər ən ˈpleɪraɪt/
There's a tour along the river /ðəz ə tʊər əlɒŋ ðə ˈrɪvə/
It's made of fur and leather/ɪts meɪd əv ˈfɜ:r ən ˈleðə/
The following video will help you clearly understand how native speakers use the linking /r/sound in English.
