WINTER HOLIDAY

Hi there! Are you enjoying your winter holidays? I'm sure you are.

Anyhow, remember to update your English from time to time.

So, especially for YOU, here you are ... a festival of ESL fun.

ENJOY!

Click HERE to start playing!

WINTER HOLIDAY

Finally, winter holidays have arrived! Time to rest and recover but also, time to practise not to forget things we have done.

But... Let's practise with fun!! 












Click HERE and solve the riddles. You will find a lot of activities to enjoy while you are learning English.

I hope you will enjoy them!! Miss Liliana

 

SOME & ANY

SOME: for affirmative statements and offers. We use SOME for both countable and uncountable nouns.

ANY: for negative statements and questions. We use SOME for both countable and uncountable nouns.

Examples:

• I've got SOME English books. (AFFIRMATIVE STATEMENT)
• Would you like SOME tea?  (OFFER)
• Have you got ANY money? (QUESTION)
• Are there ANY dictionaries in this class? (QUESTION)
• There isn't ANY homework to do. (NEGATIVE STATEMENT)
• I haven't got ANY stamps left. (NEGATIVE STATEMENT) 

SOME	We use "some" in positive sentences. We use some for both countable and uncountable nouns.	Example: I have some friends.
ANY	We use "any" in negative sentences or questions. We use any for both countable and uncountable nouns.	Example: Do you have any cheese? - He doesn't have any friends in Chicago.
EXCEPTION!	We use "some" in questions when offering something.	Example: Would you like some bread? (offer)

 Now watch this video to clarify SOME & ANY



Some / Any by learnamericanenglish on Youtube

Click on the exercises below to practise SOME & ANY

EXERCISE 1

EXERCISE 2

EXERCISE 3

EXERCISE 4

THERE IS - THERE ARE

There is/are

There is/There are are common phrases in English, used to indicate that something exists - or does not exist - or it is in a certain location. 

The real subject usually comes after there is or there are.

There is is used for singular nouns or things you cannot count.

Examples: 

• There is an apple on the table.
• There is a toilet upstairs.
• There is a cinema in my town.
• There is oil on the pavement.

There are is used for plural nouns; that is to say we use there are with a plural subject.

Examples:

• There are two parks in my neighbourhood.
• There are 600 students in this school.
• There are four windows in my room.
• There are a lot of flowers in this park.

To say the opposite - the negative form of this structure - we use there isn't  (is + not) or there aren't (are + not).

Examples:

• There isn't a telephone in the kitchen.
• There isn't a balcony in this house.
• There isn't ice on the lake.
• There aren't two pictures on the wall. Just one.
• There aren't chairs in my room.

 To make questions - to aks if something exists or it doesn't - just change the order of there is and there are.

Examples:

• Is there a balcony in the flat?                         Yes, there is - No, there isn't.
• Is there a post office near here?                     Yes, there is - No, there isn't.
•  Are there two telephone lines here?           Yes, there are - No, there aren't.
•  Are there cafés in this neighbourhood?         Yes, there are - No, there aren't.

To express the idea of quantity, we usually use some and any with there is and there are. This happens when we have to mention an unspecified amount of something, for example, when we are using uncountable nouns. 

Examples: 

• There is some water in the bottle.
• There are some Spanish students in this class.
• There are ten windows in this house.
• There are two school in this neighbourhood.

 We use SOME for affirmative forms and ANY for negations or questions.  

Examples:

• There is SOME egg in the pasta.
• There are SOME immigrants in our nation.
• Is there ANY cool water in the fridge?
• Are there ANY ideas for this project?
• There isn't ANY fruit.
• There aren't ANY restaurants open at this time. 

To enlarge this explanation click HERE and you will find some useful extended explanatory notes.


And now... watch the video that will clarify your doubts!

Clink on the exercises below to practise there is & there are

EXERCISE 1

EXERCISE 2

EXERCISE 3

EXERCISE 4

EXERCISE 5

EXERCISE 6

EXERCISE 7

JOKE OF THE WEEK

THE JOKE - Can I get a second opinion?

Doctor: “You are very sick.”
Patient: “Can I get a second opinion?” 
Doctor: “Yes, you are very ugly, too…”

☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺
 

VOCABULARY
 

Second opinion = a diagnosis from another doctor to ensure that the first diagnosis was correct. Literally, it means two opinions.
Get in this question means (to) obtain.

WHY IS IT FUNNY?
Because the patient doesn’t believe that the doctor is correct in his diagnosis and asks the doctor for another diagnosis from a different doctor, to ensure the first one is correct. Instead, the doctor gives the patient another opinion about him – that he is very ugly.

 

QUESTION:  
Have you ever needed to get a second opinion about something?

Retrieved from Woodward English

☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺

WHERE DOES THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE COME FROM?

Where does the English language come from?

Most European languages and many others from southern and western parts of Asia belong to the Indo-European group of languages, which includes languages spoken by almost three billion native speakers all around the world. Two of these are the most widely spoken languages in the world: Spanish and English, which come from different branches of the common Indo-European trunk. This picture portrays the main languages that supposedly derive from a common tongue that has disappeared. 

 

The Indo-European Branches of the Language Tree
From: Antropology.net

 As you can see, English is a Germanic tongue, but it has been largely influenced by Latin and French, and more than half its vocabulary comes from these two languages, making it as much a Germanic as a  Romance language.

The origin of English words. From Wikipedia Commons

But why has it received such a large influence of these two languages? The reason can be found in History. 

Around the 5th century AD some Germanic tribes invaded Britain. They were mostly Angles and Saxons coming from what is now Germany. They brought with them their language and did not mix with the older inhabitants of the British Isles, the Celts, who were mostly pushed towards the westernmost part of the country, a more mountainous and unassailable area where they settled and maintained their culture and language to this day: Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh are still alive and kicking, however, they have not influenced English, and very few words remain in it, many of them being place names.

Celtic languages today: green: Irish, red: Manx, blue: Scottish Gaelic, yellow: Welsh, orange: Cornish, pink: Breton

The Romans had conquered the British Isles some centuries before the Anglo-Saxons arrived, but, unlike in other parts of Europe, their language, Latin, was not widely spoken by the original inhabitants and so, once the Roman Empire fell in the 5th century, all influence of Latin died with it. However, it was much later, when the new inhabitants of the Isles became Christians when Latin became important, as it was the language of the church. Many English words such as bishop (from Latin episcopus) entered the language at this early stage. 

Latin kept on exerting some influence on the English language up to the 17th century, because it was the language of culture as teachers and students at universities used it for their studies and spoke and wrote in it. The period of the Renaissance was especially fruitful, with hundreds of words entering the language at the time and many writers, including Shakespeare, are responsible for coining new words of Latin origin.

The Anglo-Saxons suffered invasions from other Germanic tribes such as the Vikings, but the one that brought greater influence on the language was that of the Normans, a Germanic tribe that had previously settled on the north of France and had made French their language. So, when they conquered Britain in the 11th century, after the famous Battle of Hastings (1066), French became the language of the court and the nobility, and English was consigned to the popular classes and mainly spoken at home. 

The Battle of Hastings From Flemish Tapestries 

For 200 years at least French remained the language of ordinary intercourse among the upper classes in England but, eventually, it was English that became widely spoken and the use of French was restricted to some legal terms only. However, this Old English was so much influenced already by French that it is known by a different name: Middle English. That is, the original Germanic language had changed enormously in the course of two centuries losing most of the inflection and adding hundreds of new words which sound perfectly English to us, even though they are originally French. One example is the word table.

Apart from Latin and French, other languages have influenced English to a smaller extent, but that will be dealt with in another blog post!

SIMPLE PRESENT NEGATIVE & INTERROGATIVE FORMS

SIMPLE PRESENT - NEGATIVE & INTERROGATIVE

 

Introduction

In the simple present tense, negative forms and question forms are made using the auxiliary verb DO. This page explains the rules.

 

1. Forming a negative

Negatives in the simple present are formed by adding don't or doesn't before the simple form of the verb: 

Subject	Auxiliary	Example
I	don't	I don't sing
You	don't	You don't sing
He	doesn't	He doesn't sing
She	doesn't	She doesn't sing
It	doesn't	It doesn't sing
We	don't	We don't sing
They	don't	They don't sing

In other words, only third person singular subjects (he, she and it) have doesn't — the rest have don't.

 

2. Forming a yes/no question

Yes/no questions are also created using the auxiliary DO. This time, the auxiliary is placed before the subject. Here are the rules:

Auxiliary	Subject	Example
Do	I	Do I sing?
Do	you	Do you sing?
Does	he	Does he sing?
Does	she	Does she sing?
Does	it	Does it sing?
Do	we	Do we sing?
Do	they	Do they sing?

 

3. Forming a WH- question

WH- questions (using words such as WHAT, WHEN, or WHERE) are also created by putting the auxiliary DO before the subject. So, you add the WH- word at the beginning; then the auxiliary and the subject. Here are some examples:

Statement	Yes/no question	WH- question
I sing	Do I sing?	What do I sing?
You fight.	Do you fight?	Why do you fight?
He lives	Does he live?	Where does he live?

Watch the following Power Point Presentation about Simple Present Tense to understand this tense better

THE SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE

And now... As one of my teachers used to tell me 'PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT'... Let's practise!!

Click on the exercises below to practise simple present tense

EXERCISE 1

EXERCISE 2

EXERCISE 3

EXERCISE 4 

EXERCISE 5

EXERCISE 6

AND FINALLY, TRY THIS GAME!!