Pronunciation & Synonyms

Week 19^{th -} 21^st November

We started with pronunciation. It was interesting identifying the international phonetic symbols, don’t you think?

It wasn’t less interesting, although more difficult, trying to reproduce the sounds and to pronounce  some words properly!

The teacher is rather “wicked” and made you listen to a poem entitled “Hints on English Pronunciation.” It was good practice, wasn’t it?

The poem was based on the different pronunciation of similar groups of syllables. And to round up the subject, we studied some homophones: words with the same pronunciation but different meanings.

To make the week even harder, we saw some synonyms.

Remember:

Little girls giggle when they think something is funny, with their hands in front of their mouths.

Little boys snigger, laugh unpleasantly, when they are laughing at someone who has done something they think is stupid.

To chuckle is a nice way of laughter.

You burst out laughing when you suddenly laugh very loudly.

When you laugh so much that it starts to hurt, you are in stitches.

And also:

If you really hate something, you loathe it or detest it.

Abhor is quite formal.

When you despise someone, you dislike them strongly because you have absolutely no respect for them.

And we finished with a multiple choice exercise, but we’ll continue talking about that next week.

Ready to work hard?

Islands, islands.

Week 12^th – 19^th November

Hi! How was your weekend?

As we did the theory on verb tenses last week, we’re going to start putting it into practice. How? With a listening.

So we did! Paola understood most of it. Álvaro not as much as she did. Maybe it was because the listening was an  extract from a book called “Fair Game,” which is an example of “chicks lit.” ( = chicken's  literature = books directed to young women)

Do you remember the meaning of these words? Why don’t you write some sentences with them?

manky (old combats), in tow, drizzle, bloke, stop to do, stop doing

You also told me about your studies and your choice of subjects. and these words came up :

classic / classical   economic / economical

Can you remember the difference in meaning?

On Thursday we had some guests.

We read about three islands : “The largest island in the world: Greenland, the remotest island in the world: Tristan da Acunha and the most exotic island in the world: Zanzibar.”

Some vocabulary to remember: thriving economy, untapped market, earmarked, burgeoning  & tomb.

Bear in mind that this level is specially (or especially)? focused on vocabulary, so it’d

be a good idea to do the exercises on p.6 (the photocopy I handed you out).

(Homework)

As my laptop went dead, you can enjoy “An Englishman in New York” in here.

 An Englishman in New York

5th - 7th November. QI Answers at Last!!!

Week 5^th -7^th November

Álvaro, welcome to our class!

Last Thursday Álvaro was finally able to have the answers to the questions from the QI quiz, which the teacher had refused to give him before. Were they “Quite Interesting” as in the name of the quiz?

QI stands for “Quite Interesting” according to its creators.

Then we moved onto “more interesting” grammar points, didn’t we?

We focused on tense review.

English tenses have two elements of meaning: Time and Aspect.

Time: present, past or future.

Bear in mind that “tense” isn’t the same as “time”.

I wish I had Sue’s telephone number. So, I could tell her about the lecture.

“Had” is past simple tense but the time it refers to is present. It refers to a present situation.

Aspect: simple, continuous or perfect.

The simple aspect describes an action that is viewed as a whole unit.

The sun rises in the east. (all the time)

I’ve read the book and seen the movie.(complete)

The shop will close at 9.00. (simple fact)

The continuous aspect describes a series of activities viewed at some point between their beginning and end. It focuses on the duration of the activity, the passing of time.

I’ve been painting the kitchen. (We don’t know if it’s finished)

Who’s been drinking my beer? (There’s some left)

I’m staying in a rented flat until they finish painting mine.(Temporary)

The perfect aspect  expresses two ideas:

·        An action completed before another time.

I’ve seen his latest film. (some time before now)

I’ll have learnt my lines before the play starts.(some time before then)

·        An action producing a result or state of affairs relevant to a later situation.

I’ve seen his latest film. (I know the story now)

I’ll have learnt my lines before the play starts.(I’ll know them in time for the play)

Voice: active or passive.

The passive is frequently used in English to express ideas that require a reflexive or impersonal construction in other languages.

Passive sentences move the focus of attention from the subject of an active sentence to the object.

In informal language, we often use you or they to refer to people in general or to no person in particular.

Interesting or boring? Quite exhausting, I should think. Thanks God we had the weekend to relax!

In the Last Week of October ...

QI Show


In the last week of October, we ...

... practised intonation in exclamations. Remember that it goes up and down.

We listened to someone talking about the QI Quiz show and books. We discussed their points of view either agreeing or disagreeing with them.

As for vocabulary, we focused on word formation: prefixes.

Do you remember the meaning that the following prefixes add to words:

outnumber / outlaw / anti-smoking /overrated/ reawakening/misrepresented/ underestimated /prosocially / prematurely /devalued

And now, make a sentence with each one of the words to help you remember them.

Don’t forget to use reduced infinitives so as to avoid repetition:

- “Haven’t you done the washing up yet?” “No, I’m just going to.”

- “Are you coming for a walk?” “No, I don’t want to.”

“To be” is not reduced to “to”.

- She’s less moody than she used to be. She’s less moody than she used to.

- I wasn’t as impressed as I expected to be. I wasn’t as impressed as I expected to.