THE PASSIVE VOICE

The Passive voice from Maria Hidalgo

REPORTED SPEECH

Reported speech from Maria Hidalgo

GRAMMAR VIDEO LESSONS

THE PASSIVE VOICE



REPORTED SPEECH



RELATIVE CLAUSES

Hilary Duff "I am"

SK8ER BOI by AVRIL LAVIGNE

WORLD POETRY DAY

Last Thursday, March 21st, we celebrated The World Poetry Day. I would like to share with you some of the Cinquain poems that you wrote down.

Ronaldo 

amazing, strong

dribbling, shooting, playing

he has no limits

the best!

By Fabio (GES 2) mmmm, I'm not sure with that, you know! hahahhaha ;)

Flower,

fragile, beautiful

smelling, swaying, fading

colour the environment

SPRING!

By Mayte García (Group Elementary)

COKE

cool, sweet

refreshing, runny, brown

I love sparkling drinks

tasty

By Belén Martínez (Group Elementary)

Dogs

funny, naughty

playing, sleeping, barking

always ready to play

playful

By David Avia (Group GES 2)

QUANTIFIERS

Click here to open the document and do the activities, good luck!

QUANTIFIERS AND PRONUNCIATION, by Angela Gonçalves
Find this and other quantifiers exercises in English Exercises .org

Real English series: How long does it take? and where do you live?

Last Tuesday my that's english blog published this post. I find it very useful and interesting so, take a look at it and practise. 

In the first video, passers-by answer a difficult question for students in lower levels: How long does it take you to get to work?

It is an impersonal question with the subject "it", so we'll be using auxiliary"does" for the 3rd person singular in the question.

The answers is also a bit funny: TAKE + PERSONAL OBJECT + TIME +TO-Infinitive.
It takes me 20 minutes to get to work.



You can watch the same video with subtitles on the Real English site here, where you can also do an interactive exercise here.

You can also practise this complicated structure with the following questions, most of which are related to household chores:
How long does it take you/your wife to make your bed?
How long does it take you to have breakfast?
How long does it take you to have a shower?
How long does it take you to read the newspaper?
How long does it take you to do the washing-up?
How long does it take you to cook dinner?
How long does it take you to get ready for work/school?
How long does it take you to do your English homework?

The second video is far less complicated, as passers-by answer the question Where do you live?, which also came up indirectly in the previous video. The difficulty here lies in identifying the place names speakers give, which might make it advisable to watch the video with subtitles on the Real English site here.



You can do an interactive exercise on the Real English site here.

Use fillers to avoid hesitation

From ieltsspeaking website comes this video that can help you in your speaking test.

Watch this ’5-Minute Functions’ video below to find out the various fillers you can use to give yourself a split second thinking time.

FILLERS:

• Well let me see
• That's a good question
• Well to be honest
• It's difficult to say
• That's a tricky one
• To cut a long story short
• It's funny you should ask

and now ... practise, practise and practise ;)

GOTYE - SOMEBODY THAT I USED TO KNOW

DANCING QUEEN BY ABBA

You can 1_____, you can jive, having the time of your life
See that 2______, 3_______ that scene, dig in the Dancing Queen.


4_______ night and the lights are 5_______
Looking out for the 6______ to go
Where they play the right 7______, getting in the swing.
You come in to look for a 8_______
Anybody could be that guy
Night is young and the music's 9_______
With a bit of rock music, everything is fine.
You're in the mood for a 10_______
And when you get the chance...


You are the Dancing Queen, young and sweet, only 11_________
Dancing Queen, feel the beat from the tambourine.
You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your 12______.
See that girl, watch that scene, dig in the Dancing Queen.


You're a teaser, you turn them 13_____
Leave them burning and then you're gone.
Looking out for another, anyone will do
You're in the mood for a 14_______
And when you get the chance...


You are the Dancing Queen, young and sweet, only seventeen.
Dancing Queen, feel the beat from the tambourine
You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life
See that girl, watch that scene, dig in the Dancing Queen.


Key lyrics:


1.dance 2.girl 3.watch 4.friday 5.low 6.place 7.music 8.king 9.high 10.dance 11.seventeen 12.life 13.on 14.dance

6 minute English - Listening Activity

Have you ever wondered why the news is full of death and destruction?

Kaz and Finn decide to take a look at some good news in this week's 6 Minute English.

Click here to go through the BBC Learning English website and listen to the podcast. You can download the audio file, and also the transcript. In order to do that take a look on the right hand corner on that page.  

Present perfect

St George International School published new series on their blog to tackle basic grammar points. 

In order to revise the present perfect, go through this poster and read the explanations given.

It is an engaging fun way of learning and revising the present perfect. 

So, what do these sentences really mean…?

1. I haven’t bought lemonade since 2003.
2.I haven’t tasted sweet lemonade for almost 10 years!

There is a continuing period of time from 2003 up to now, where he did not drink any lemonade. He is thinking about the past and the present together.

If he was only thinking about the past (and NOT THINKING ABOUT THE PRESENT AT THE SAME TIME) he would say…

PAST SIMPLE: I drank lemonade in 2003

(This is a finished action that is not connected to the present time. He drank that lemonade and it exists no more)

Compare with….

PRESENT PERFECT: I haven’t bought lemonade since 2003. (He is thinking aboutall the time from 2003 until now, 2012)

Now, watch this Video story The Queen and her butler where the differences between the present perfect and the past simple are dealt with.

Transcript

Q = Queen
J = Jeeves

Q: Jeeves, have you polished my crown today?

J: No, Madam. I’m afraid that I haven’t had time to do that yet.

Q: WHy not? Then please tell me what have you done this morning?

J: Well, let me see. I got up at 5am and then the first thing I did was to iron your newspaper.

Q: Good.

J: Then at half past five I took your corgis for a walk. Then at 6 o’clock I took Prince Philip to the bathroom.

Q: Quite right.

J: From 8 until 10, I was cutting out pictures of Prince Harry from the newspapers… for the family album, of course.

Q: Oooh.

J: But then I discovered something in the palace.

Q: Yes, yes. What was it?

J: Well, Madam it is a rather delicate matter. I’m afraid to say that your beloved doggies have done their “toilet business” all over the royal throne.

Q: Oh no!

J: So, Madam, that is why I haven’t cleaned your crown yet. And may I ask your Highness, what have you done this morning? Did you meet the Prime Minister?

Q: No, Jeeves, no. I left the palace at quarter to eleven to go and open a supermarket… and I’ve just arrived back.

J: Well, Madam, you have definitely had an extremely difficult morning.

Q: Indeed, indeed.

PRESENT PERFECT

From The Machine Goes on blog comes this glogster (interactive poster) to explain the differences of usage between present perfect and past simple, while providing some activitities for students to practise this grammar point.

Click here to open the glogster.

CONDITIONALS

Here's a great explanation.