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.
EXAMS, EXAMS....
What can we do with an exam?I though that we can pass or fail it. But I was wrong because:
- We can take an exam.
- We can do an exam.
- We can sit an exam.
But please, study for the exam.
JAY WALKER ON THE WORD'S ENGLISH MANIA
Amazing video and new vocabulary:
+ pandemonium: chaos, anarchy, apocalipsis.
+ to be a returning point: ser un punto sin retorno. Ojo parece lo contrario.
+ Lingua Franca: again with latin, means that a language is spoken over big piece of the world, that just everyone can talk it.
+ Don't let me down: means dejar tirado.
+ Mother tongue: The language you speak when you are a child, at home...
+ Harness: can be a noum : arnés or can be a verb with two menaning: to put an harness to a horme or to use something. The harness of electricity: the use of electricity.
+ By law: It's compulsory to do.
WHAT CAN WE DO ON THE WEB?
Be carefull:- You can search ON the internet. That means that you know what are you looking for. By the way ON the internet, ON the web.
- You can browse on the web when you don't kwon what are you looking for. To browse means: cursiosear, echar un vistazo... In a shop, to a book or on the web. Just watching.
- You can surf the web. We don't sail the web.
- We can watch a video on the web.
- We can pay by credit card over the Internet.
- We can look at a page or at pages.
LATIN OR ENGLISH?
Both. You know that some languages take words from other languages, and English did it too. I'm ending a big book about all the English History and there appears that chester means roman camp. So the places called ....chester had long time ago a roman village. Manchester, Lancaster, Chester... I'll explain more of this historical adventures widely in the entry of the book.But, what is the meaning of?
- e. g. : Everyone know that means for example but it is written in latin: In latin it means: Exempli Gratia.
- i. e. : Means "that is," but it is written in latin too and the meaning is : id est.
So, although I enjoyed latin just a bit in the High School I have to say that I agree completely with Obelix.
RENT OR HIRE
There are two different verbs with similar meaning in Spanish but not in English:- To rent: (from wordreference.com): that means that if I am the owner of a flat I can let you living there if you pay me an amount of money monthly. (alquilar) So you can rent a flat, an apartment...
- To hire: (from wordreference.com): means that you are paing to have the posibility to use a machine or a person. For example: If you go to London, you can hire a car to make some trips. If I have a farm, in harvest time I can hire a person to help me just during the harvest.
The problem is that in Spanish we use alquilar for both verbs, but I think that to hire is a shortter period of time.
FAMILY MATTERS
We can have problems when we are trying to introduce ourselves just translating from Spanish.
Here there are some new vocabulary that can hepls us:
- If I have the same name that my father's, I can say: I WAS NAMED (NAME) AFTER MY FATHER.
- And when my parents give me a name...: THEY NAMED (NAME) ME. But be carefull never: They named -to- me.
- If I have not brothers or sisters: I'M AN ONLY CHILD.
NEW LANGUAGE SCHOOL YEAR
The new school year in the Language School of Barakaldo has been started. Again, many people walk trough the corridors looking for their new classrooms. The classmates have been changed. Thanks God I met many of them before but I think I'll miss my old classroom we have good moments and good memories.
But, life is life, or life is hard, say as you prefer, and LET'S START AGAIN IMPROVING OUR ENGLISH.
B2 be carefull, here we are.
And I want to end that entry writting a joke. I think it will be the first joke of the blog:
Why pirates are pirates?
Because they arrrrrrr.
So don't walk the blank (pasarela) and make your best.
TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES
What can I say about that marbellous novel? It is awesome. It is fantastic and I'm really in love with it.I don't really know how Thomas Hardy wrote about the Victorian country society so perfect. He describes the country facts perfectly, the harvest, the moral, the differences between being the master or just a maid.
The BBC mini serie is just a piece of heaven, a very well done master piece. And although I don't know the main character of Tess I know Eddy Redmayne from the perfect adaptation of The Earth Pillars.
I have just recently bought "The mayor of Casterbridge" book. It is Thomas's too.
I have written about Thomas Hardy Novels first. "Far from the madding crowd" wencouraged me reading more classic novels. And "Tess the D'urbervilles" was my best choice and I have discovered a big world of country side stories that Thomas Hardy described perfectly.
I have not already seem the Bertolucci's "Tess" film. I hope I will enjoy it. But I have to recognise that a big novel can't fit properly in one hour 20 minutes film. Thats the reason why BBC's mini serie lenght is of 270 minutes. And when you are watching the film is like if you were reading again the book. It suits prefectly.
Just a master piece.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
It is a classic novel written by Jane Austen. It is about love. It talks about the moment when a sister must find a good husband to marry with. Although sometimes appear different difficulties to get te aim as social differences, powers, prides and prejudices.Will the love win that fight? Or will the money do it?
It is supposed that love is the only ingredient to join two lovers but is that quote true?
THE SIGN OF FOUR
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novel where Sherlock Holmes and His unseparate partner Watson have to discover the secret of the location of an old treasure.I think that the novel is not as famous as the Hound of the Baskervilles, but if you enjoy reading mistery novel you 'd enjoy it. Miss Morstan father is dissapeared, but year by year a pearl is sent to Miss Morstan. What is happening? Is it all in his head? Do you want to discover the truth of the Agra Treasure? Are you ready to do it?
Tess of the D'urbervilles
I'm in love with this novel and so with the BBC adaptation. If you can, watch the film or read the book. It's amazing. The writer is Thomas Hardy. He wrote "Far from the madding crowd" too.
Both of the novels are interesting becouse they describe Victorian life in the English countryside.
I like them.
THE SCARLET LETTER
I like black cat books. There is many information inside the book about many facts appeared on it but saddly, they have not the complete audio.I have learnt a lot about the Salem trials, about the witches, about reverenders, about religion in America, about how they settled , abou pagans, about puritans...
I would like to watch the film, but the book is quite good.
The end of the book is a sentence with the inscription of a tombstone: "ON A FIELD, SABLE, THE LETTER A, GULES."
Sable means: black
Gules means: red
I have found two explanations on the web for these words: first of it just talk about a description of a coat of arms: the coat of arms is a red letter (letter gules) appearing against a black background (sable field).
The other explanation is about an eternal punishment because it describes the judgment that still remains even after death. Awesome.
EMERGENCY MURDER
Maxine is a woman that works in a Hospital in Milwakee near the Michigan Lake. One night the wife of a famous surgeon appears and dies in her arms.Maxine was doing a rersearch for the cure of a skin disease and police discovered that the woman was killed by the drug of her research. Maxine is pointed as the killer. She must find the truth.
Great thriller, I have been hooked till the end of the book.
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Ram Mohammad Thomas didn't go to the school and he has just won one billion rupees in the Tv Quiz Show "Want to be a millionaire?"I watches time ago the film and when I bought the book I decided that I would watch it again after reading the book.
Unfortunately, although it is an interesting film, the book is better. The romantic plot of the book is lost in the film.
Thomas has to explain to a lawyer how he knows the answers...
IN THE HOUSE
We are in a program. That TV program is ending. The name Big Eye. It is like Big Brother. It is only a woman and 5 men. One of the secretly in love with the woman. They have to sort some tasks out to continue having some privileges. No tricks, cameras are on all the day.Only one winner, the last person in the House. The woman in the house tells are her story.
It is an amazing book with an actual vision of a romance watched all around the world.
LIVE AND LET DIE
At first I thought that something sounded wrong in the title then I realized that James Bond was coming again.After reading Dr No book and watching nearly nobne of Bond's films I'm becoming a Ian Fleming's fan. I have bought Goldfinger book but it must wait.
Live and let die is a good adventure book with Mr Big as the evil man and The Solitaire as the woman that falls in love with James Bond.
Did you know that Solitaire has got telephatic powers?
Did you know what a barracuda fish eat?
Did you know what a limpet mine is for? And by the way, have you ever eatten limpets? I did.
All the answers in the book.
TO DO
- TO DO THE IRONING
- TO DO YOUR BEST
- TO DO SOME WORK
- TO DO THE CLEANING
- TO DO THE DRIVING
- TO DO SOME DAMAGE
- TO DO NOTHING
- TO DO ME A FAVOUR
- TO DO THE COOKING
- TO DO THE SHOPPING
- TO DO YOUR HOMEWORK
- TO DO THE WASHING
- TO DO YOGA
- THE SOUP DONE ME WELL.
- THERE IS NOTHING TO DO HERE.
- I NEVER DO THE DISHES.
- TO DO BUSINESS
- TO DO MAGIC TRICKS
- TO DO HARM
- TO DO THE ACCOUNTS
- TO DO SOME SPORTS
TO MAKE:
- TO MAKE A MISTAKE
- TO MAKE MONEY
- TO MAKE THE BED
- TO MAKE A FUSS
- TO MAKE A MESS
- TO MAKE A PHONE CALL
- TO MAKE DINNER
- TO MAKE A NOISE
- TO MAKE AN EFFORT
- TO MAKE FRIENDS
- TO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT
- TO MAKE A COFFE
- TO MAKE UP YOUR MIND
- TO MAKE A SANDWICH
- TO MAKE A SPEECH.
- TO MAKE SURE
- TO MAKE FUN OF ME
- TO MAKE THE ROOM
- TO MAKE THE MOST OF IT
- TO MAKE PEACE
- TO MAKE A DONATION
EUROVISION 2011: BLUE: I CAN
Here we have a song with a modal verb in its title. I had the possibility to add to the blog another different video but I prefered this one because the sights of London: Saint Paul Cathedral...
I don't know who the winner is going to be. Obviously, I prefer if Spain wins the competition but unfortunately I don't think it'll hapen. So, my 5 personal points are for Blue.
Here in Spain there is a well-known man who has presentated Eurovision since I was a child, so we can say that he knows all the tricks of the trade. I love watching Eurovision and checking how the points that Jose Luis Uribarri preticts to be given by a country, are given as he firstly said. Even in the same order...
This evening some people will watch eurovision 2011. I think we will rent a film. Although that I have to recognize that this year's title is quite beautiful: Feel your heat beat!
KING'S RAMSOM
Wonderful book written by Ed McBain that shows what hapens when some kidnappers take the wrong boy. Crime and mystery mixed in a properly way. But the problem got bigger when King decided not to pay the ransom.I have learnt the always wanted to say sentence: Look him up!
By the way, in the text sometimes appear "puzzled". "He look at him puzzled", "He stared at him puzzled". It is when you are more than surprised. More than astonished. You are nearly confused.
Suscribirse a:
Entradas (Atom)