Question tags

Questions tags are used to agree or confirm what is said. A questions tag with rising intonation invites verification whereas a question tag with falling intonation invites confirmation. 

Homophones

Homophones are words which are pronounced in the same way but written differently. In oral English you should distinguish them by the context. Here you are some pairs of homophones.

SAY, TELL, TALK and SPEAK

I'm sure you'vesometimes been unsure of when to use one of these verbs. Everybody knows what they mean, but, when it comes to using them, students are sometimes unsure. Here are a few tips and an explanation.

SAY­

Say means to speak words. The most common use of the word say is in reported speech. Reported speech is when you are repeating what someone has said. When speaking in reported speech, we often make statements and it is not necessary to add the object. The object is what’s receiving the action in the phrase, for example:

“He said he was going to be late.”

“What did he say?”

“When he said he was leaving, we all got really sad.”

In these examples you’ll notice that I haven’t used an object. When we use “say” generally the recipient of the action is not as important as what we have to say.

If we are going to use an object, we always use the preposition “to,” for example:

“He said to Steve that that he was going to be late.

“I said to him that I couldn’t go.”

We use “to” to show who we are directing our words at and “that” to say the information.

TELL

In comparison to “say,” when we use tell we need to use the object. This is because when using tell, who received the information is more important that the information itself. For example:

“I told you about the party.”

“Have you told him the news?”

“She always tells me that.”

I often hear people saying, *“She tell what to do.” This would be incorrect because we need to use the object. The correct form would be, “she tells me what to do.”

Tell is used with certain prepositions:

To-When we use to with tell we are giving someone an order or making a strong request.

  “I told you to buy me a drink,”

   “Didn’t I tell you to mind your own business?”

About– To tell someone about something is used to pass information about an event or a series of events which happened to a person.

“Let me tell you about a girl I know, she had a drink about an hour ago,”

“Did I tell you about my party?”

Now let's move on to the other pair of verbs.

Speak and talk are synonyms and in most cases interchangeable. The main difference between the 2 would be that “speak” is used in more formal situations and “talk” is for more informal conversations.

When used as a noun, “to give a speech,” it would be a formal presentation as appose to “give a talk” sounds more casual.

Talk

Did you all recognize the famous line from the movie Taxi Driver? “Are you talking to me?”

Talk would be the same as saying converse. 

In spoken English, we commonly use the word talk in the continuous form, for example:

“I was talking to him about the Real Life English event.”

“The movie was really good but people kept talking during the best parts.”

“This guy talks forever.”

There is an English idiom: Talk the hind leg off a donkey. This means that the person talks a lot. Another intersting idiom with talk is "To talk someone's ear off", which also means to talk a lot.

Talk is followed by certain prepositions: 

To/ About– We use “to” to show who we are directing our words at and “about” to give the information.

“I need to talk to you about last night.”

“Did he talk to you about his trip?”

Speak

Speak is also used when we are referring to languages or when conversations are more of a monologue.

“How many languages do you speak?”

“Can you speak English fluently?”

“He was speaking to his employees about the new services.”

“I have to speak to you about the next Real Life event.”

As you can see, “speak” sounds more formal than talk. If someone said that they wanted to speak to me I would consider it more important than if they had said they wanted to talk to me.

Once again, Speak is also followed by certain prepositions:

To… about…– Just like tell, we use “to” and “about” to direct our words and give information.

“Did you speak to him about our new project?”

With– We use “with” to say who we are speaking to or how that person speaks, usually in reference to their accent.

“Have you ever spoken English with an Australian?”

“They speak with a really strange accent.”

To is the more natural prepositon, as we have seen in the examples above.

Now, here you are some fixed expressions used with these verbs. Remember that a fixed expression does not necessarily have to follow the rules.

To tell you the truth

Tell the time

Money talks

Look who’s talking– You’re guitly of the same thing

Talk shop– to talk about professional things with colleages

Actions speak louder than words– Doing means more than talking about it. Sometimes you can omit the second part: Actions speak louder than...

Speak your mind– Say what you really think

Can you speak up?– Can you speak louder?

So to speak

SHOPPING

X-mas is round the corner and I am positive some of you have already started thinking about shopping for friends and for yourself. Find below some words and expressions used when shoping. Enjoy!!

Wanna use phrasal verbs? You may want to look below, then.

Doing favours!

Do you know what expressions to use when you want to ask for a favour or when you want to do someone a favour? Here you will find some expressions that might be useful.

At the doctor!

Have you ever wondered what to say when going to the doctor?? Have a look at the picture!

Here you are some other expressions!

The date in English

Some students, even in the higher levels, still have difficulties saying the date in English. So, find below an illustrative picture.

Learning English!

TIME FOR A LAUGH!! XD

It's this time of year again, so how about a bit of a laugh??!!

😆😆😆😆😁😁😁😁😁

Phrasal verbs

As you all know, phrasal verbs are an integral and very important part of the English language. Yet, they are also one of the most difficult parts for foreign students. Here I will be posting some phrasal verbs starting from the most basic ones and progressing towards some more sophisticated phrasal verbs. 

Take into account that a native speaker uses a lot of phrasal verbs, so it is important that you recognise them. You can start using them later on, but it is essential that at least you know what they mean. 

So, let's start with some basic ones:

To come in means to enter, to welcome someone into a room. You can also say "Come on in", which is even more friendly. The difference can be in whether the door is closed or open. If the door is closed and you open it, you say: "Come in". If the door is already open it is better to say "Come on in".

Get in: used for private cars and taxis. For public transport we usually say "get on", as in "Get on the bus".

Get out: is exaclty the opposite of "get in". For public transport you say: "get off".

Pick up means to lift from the floor or from a lower surface.

Put down retains the meaning of its parts separately. If you put something down you place it somewhere lower.

Put on can mean to clothe yourself or to place somethinjg on a surface, as in "My mum put the flowers on the table".

Take out means to remove something from a place.

Put away can have many different meanings, as happens with many phrasal verbs. It can mean to save for later use, or to put in the correct place for storage.

Run away retains the meaning of its particles separately. I'm sure you can deduce what it means... ;)

Put in retains the nmeaning of its particles in this context, which is to place something inside something.

Come out has different meanings, In this context it means to become covered with something, in this case, with the liquid from the washing machine.

Turn over is to rotate something, to move it around to see its other half.

Let's continue now with another block of phrasal verbs:

Remember that sometimes the particle of the phrasal verb (down, up, off, out) only indicates movement, and does not change the meaning of the main verb. Ex: She fell down the stairs. Here the particle "down", only indicates movement towards a lower part. 

Now we are going to continue with a series of phrasal verbs that share the same main lexical verb. 

We're going to start with the verb "Fall".

As you can observe, if we except "Fall in" (which is usuaally followed by "love" and means "starting to love someone"), the rest of the phrasal verbs in the picture retain the meaning of the main verb but add movement or direction with the particle. So, "fall down", means to drop suddenly or collapse, "fall off", means to fall from a surface onto the floor, and so on and so forth.

The next block of phrasal verbs have "get" as main verb.

There are infinitie combinations to form a phrasal verb with "Get". But take into account that you are not required to use ALL OF THEM. Some of them you will only have to recognised if used by a native speaker. So, let's get down to business. 

Another group of phrasal verbs have as lexical verb "Hand" (which, remember, can also be a noun):

"Run" is another lexical verb that can be combined with lots of particles to form lots of phrasal verbs. Have a look at the picture and try to write a sentence with each one of them.

Another group of phrasal verbs has "sit" as main lexical verb, as the picture below suggests:

Let's get to grips now with some phrsal verbs with "Take".

Now this is great. Did you know that you could also have some phrasal verbs with "wash"?

Let's go on! Here you are more phrasal verbs to use when travelling.

You can also find some phrasal verbs to use "Around the House".

Animals can also be used to form phrasal vebrs. You may want to have a look at the ones below!

Let's speak English!

Speaking English is still the most difficult skill for most students, who usually feel embarrassed and at a loss for words. They can be very goopd at grammar, writing or even pronunciation, but when it comes to speaking, they feel they lack the competence to express themselves in English correctly and fluently.

In all exams, you will be required to speak alone and to some partners. You may be asked to express your opinion on a current issue or on a controversial topic. Here you are some guidelines as to how to express opinion in English. 

Remember that it is essential you use a variety of structures. Do not repeat vocabulary. Do not use "I think..." all the time, that will take points out of your performance. With these expressions, you have a variety of construction you can employ.

Describing pictures

As some of you still have difficulties describing pictures or any kind of image, here you are a little indication of how to describe the different parts.

Take into account that it is convenient not to repeat structures, so try to be imaginative. Ex.: At the top we can see... And there are also... We can also find...

Welcome!!

Hello, everybody!! And welcome to a new year of English!!

I hope you have practiced during the summer and so you start the course full of energy and motivation!!!