- - - - - - HAVING A MEMORY LIKE A SIEVE: octubre 2011

PRONUNCIATION 3: REGULAR VERBS IN PAST /-ED/

THE FINAL SOUND IS LIKE A /T/ IF THE LAST CONSONANT IS:

/K/: LIKE: WALKED OR TALKED.

/TS/ (ch): LIKE: WATCHED

/S/: LIKE: WASHED

/s/: LIKE: PASTED

/KS/ (x) LIKE: FAXED

/P/ LIKE: STOPPED

/F/ (gh) LIKE: LAUGHED

IF THE LAST LETTER IS A T/D/ OR AN OTHER CONSONAT, THE SOUND IS LIKE A /D/ LIKE: IMPROVED, CLEANED, OR REMOVED.

HERE, YOU CAN READ MORE INFORMATION. REMEBER YOU CAN TRY THE PRONUNCIATION BOX.

PRONUNCIATION 2: -AGE

WHEN WE HAVE ONLY A SILABE NEXT TO THE WORD "AGE" LIKE: PAGE, RAGE... WE SAY /EICH/, SO /EICH/, /PEICH/ AND /REICH/...

WHEN THE WORD IS BIGGER LIKE: VINTAGE, MASSAGE, GARAGE, VILLAGE... WE SAY /ICH/ SO WE HAVE /VINTICH/, /MESSICH/, /GAREICH/, /VILLICH/...

IT IS A GOOD MOOMENTO TO TRY THE PRONUNCIATION BOX. TRY WRITING THOSE ALL WORDS AND LISTEN CAREFULLY TO GRAHAM.

SAY VS TELL

SAY:

You can say an informaiton. You can say something. Say=give out information. So say + a piece of information. Be carefull: They say it TO me. (He said me: wrong)

TELL:

To distinguish: tell time, ...

To give instructions: Please, tell me...

To order something: I told you not to...

For further information you can visit this web, which explanation is in Spanish.

NEWS VS NEW

NEWS: Always plural, some bad NEWS, a piece of NEWS...

NEW:It is an adjective. This car is NEW. Only in singular.

That year we have to improve our pronunciation too. So we have to work harder. I have just added a gadget which can reproduce perfectly and accurately the pronunciation of the text you write into.

We saw the difference between:

Watch: The /t/ sound disappears. /wach/

Talk: is like /tok/without /l/

Walk: is like /wok/ without /l/ too.

If you want to understand better, you can try writing in the Pronunciation Box those three verbs.

STEVE JOBS: "STAY HUNGRY, STAY FOOLISH".

WAYS TO COMMUNICATE.

Those are the verbs appearing on the book. Page 10 exercise 2.

SUBMIT AND DEADLINES

Submit: it can be a synonymous of to give. It can be to sent by email, or it can be to hand something out. If the teacher said that we have to give her our workbooks done before Christmas, I have to hand my workbook out for the date she said.

The last day when the teacher is going to take our workbooks is called the deadline. It is a time limit.

But be carefull with the prepositions. Imagine that the picture shows October's calendar. We can say that the deadline is the 5th of October but we have two posibilities:

You have to hand your workbook out ON the October 5th. It means that you have to submit your book only in that day, you have not other posibilities.

You have to hand your workbook out BY the October 5th. It means that you can submit the work the 4th of October or even in September but the last day will be October 5th.

SAFE / SECURE / SURE

Poor mouse....
Let's see:

Safe and secure are synonymous, so safety and security too. There is a risk and if you are not in danger, that means that you are safe. The mouse takes security a tool like the helmet. It wants to be safe when it takes the cheese. Not to be killed. Estara salvo, sin peligro, seguro (de seguridad, de riesgo).

Sure, certain: when you are certain about something, you are sure. It is coming from the word certainty. You are sure that it is going to rain when the sky darkens and lightenings appear in the sky. So I'm sure that the mouse is going to be killed although the security protection.

ALIEN / LOCAL/ PACE (VOCABULARY)

An alien person: It is not an ET. An alien person is a strange person, a foreign one.

Local: In Spain we can say: I'm going to our local. But not in English. Local means that something is from the area surroinding us. It is coming from location. And if you are speaking about people, locals are the people living in that particular area.

Pace: It means SPEED. It is like the film of Keanu Reeves. I'm writing on my blog AT my own PACE.

A TALE OF TWO BRAINS.

I have just received that video and I liked a lot. It's too funny, you can watch it and if you like you can buy the dvd at www.laughyourway.com. Enjoy it.

GIVE WAY

Give way: Be careful, you have to look the road before crossing it with your car. If someone is coming, you have to stop your car and after the road is free, then, you can cross it. In Spanish we say: ceder el paso. But it is not a phrasal verb.

AT YOUR OWN RISK

When we were walking through the old streets of Haworth, the birthplace of lovely sisters Brönte, we could read that curious text.

I liked it because of the location and the gramatic level which they explain the risky situation: relative clause, two prepositions for the two actions you could do and a final expression: To do at your own risk.

HOLIDAYS VS HOLIDAY + PREP

Sometimes we have problems with the prepositions. There is a trick: If the word contains the word "day" or a piece of day like "Eve" it is with the preposition ON.
Let's see:

On Mon"day". On Tues"day"...

On my birth"day".

On holi"day".

On Christmas's "Day". (In December 25th)

On Boxing "Day". (In December 26th)

On Christmas's Eve.

On New Year's Eve.

On Fool's "Day". (In April 1st)

On Good Fri"day".

But AT Christmas, and AT Easter.

Holidays means a long holiday like summer holidays. In Spanish we say "dia de fiesta o festivo", in English we have to say a public holiday or a bank holiday.

TO THINK + PREP

Remember, to think verb only admits two prepositions:

I was thinking about what to eat when my son arrived with a pizza.

I was thinking of my son because it was too late.

So, I can think about a thing or about an action, I can think about what to do with you. But if I'm in love I will be thinking of you all the day.

THE SOONER... AND BILLIONS

Its meaning is "cuanto antes mejor" but you can cut the sentence and add what you want. For example: The sooner you faced your problem, the better.
"The sooner we earn our first billion, the better."
But be carefull. In Spain a Billion is: 1.000.000.000.000 but in England or US a Billion is 1.000.000.000 . So, as you can see, it is not the same.