How to talk about advantages and disadvantages.

Conversation Fillers

Do you want to sound more natural where you're having a conversation? Do you need help to think, to reinforce what you want to say?

Click below and learn some natural ways and words to fill those moments in conversations.

Conversation Fillers

Useful tips to describe a photo or a picture

You will find some useful tips here to describe a photo or a picture.


Please remember:
- The Present Continuous.
- The Prepositions.
- Some modals for suppositions and speculation.

Easy News in English

Easy news, adapted, in 3 levels. Who could ask for anything more? 😉

News in Levels

Language: Words in the News

24th June, 2016. The United Kindom decides to leave the UK.

Feeling a  bit lost with the difficult vocabulary in the news. Here you a have a little help:

http://www.macmillandictionaryblog.com/language-and-words-in-the-news-24th-june-2016

PAU English Andalucia 2016

Here you have a link to the PAU English Test 2016


http://melophea.blogspot.com.es/2016/06/pau-andalucia-2016-are-you-phubber.html#axzz4CUPArISg


In my humble and personal opinion, ONE OF THE EASIEST in recent years.

Clothes Vocabulary

Travel Vocabulary

Ads for positive purposes : TED TALK

 

“In my lifetime, I have never lived one day of peace in my country,” says Jose Miguel Sokoloff. This ad executive from Colombia saw a chance to help guerrilla fighters choose to come home — with smart marketing. He shares how some creative, welcoming messages have helped thousands of guerrillas decide to put down their weapons — and the key insights behind these surprising tactics. 

This interesting TED Talk shows us an extraordinarily positive use of publicity and its techniques: demobilizing guerrilas in Colombia. Advertising as a tool of change.

Click on 'subtitles' and enjoy this really touching video.

 Jose Miguel Sokoloff: How Christmas lights helped guerrillas put down their guns

Another - Other - Others

Another - Other - Others

My pupils often ask me about these three words. It seems to be a tricky topic. Let's see if we can understand it! Take it easy, read carefully and do the exercise at the end. 

ANOTHER is a determiner or a pronoun.



Determiner:

It goes with countable SINGULAR nouns.

It means 'one more'.

Examples:
Can I have another cup of coffee?
I want another glass of water.
Would you like another piece of cake?

It also can mean 'alternative' or 'different'.

I would prefer another colour. (I would prefer a different colour)

Pronoun:
It takes the place of a SINGULAR noun, but with the same meaning: 'one more' or 'different'.

Examples:
Can I have another? (Can I have one more?)
I want another. (I want one more.)
Would you like another? (Would you like one more?)
I would prefer another.

OTHER is a determiner or a pronoun.
It can go with SINGULAR and PLURAL nouns.

It means 'alternative', 'different'.

Examples:
I don't want this one. I want the other one.
He can do other things.
Are there any other alternatives?
No other man can do what he does.

Pronoun:
It takes the place of a SINGULAR noun, but with the same meaning: ‘alternative’ or ‘different’. Usually with ‘the’.

Examples:
I don’t want this one. I want the other.
No other can do what he does.

OTHERS is a pronoun.

It takes the place of a PLURAL noun, but with the same meaning: ‘alternative’ or ‘different’.

Examples:
He can do others. (He can do other things)
Are there any others? (Are there any other alternatives?)

Exercise: fill in the blanks with another, other or others.

1. I want _______________ cup of coffee.

2. Would you like ________________ piece of cake?

3. I think we should make __________________ plans just in case.

4. We need some chairs. I’ll take these ones and you can take the ___________.

5. Do you have ______________ types available?
6. A: Have ____________________ sausage.
    B: No, thanks. I’ve had enough.

7. You take one bag and I’ll take the ________________ one.

8. I really hope there are ___________________ alternatives.

9. This bike might be slow but ______________ are much faster.

10. We really need to buy ________________ car, so that we can have two cars at home.

11. I’m going to sell this car and get ______________ one.

12. She had an umbrella in one hand and her purse in the _________________.

13. This is just __________________ day in my life.

14. How many _________________ people are coming?

15. Would you like this one or the _______________ one?

16. I’d like __________________ vacation right now. It’s not enough!

17. They’re not for you., they’re for ___________________.

18. This is my sister Mary. I have _______________ three sisters too.

19. I don’t want these shoes, I want the _________________ because they go with my dress.

20. Are there any __________________ questions?

KEY: another/ another/ other/ others/ other/ another/ other/ other/ others/ another/ other/ other/ another/ other/ other/ another/ others (or 'another' or 'the other')/ other/ others/ other

Listening- March Test

Click on the links below to listen and read the script:

Pruebas EOI Huesca

(click on 'nivel básico e intermedio')

How to prepare the speaking test- Telling a personal anecdote

Watch the video and read the transcript. Both students make mistakes. Notice them reading the transcript. Scroll down the activites and do the exercises.


Tell a story or personal anecdote.

Tell a story or personal anecdote

Tell a story or personal anecdote

Tell a story or personal anecdote

Exercises with 'so/such'

Click on the link below to practise with 'so' and 'such'.


English Page: 'So' vs 'Such' 


'So' and 'such'

Two funny dicitionaries

Looking for a simple and easy definitions dictionary, with a pronunciation tool? This one can be of great help. Click on the link below:

Vocabulary. com


Sometimes word meanings and definitions are a bit hard to find. Especially when we are talking about slang, street language, constantly changing. Here you have a good help to make you understand and learn those words that are not in a standard dictionary:

Urban Dictionary

Listening Exercise- Pope says World War III pretty much here

Click here for the listening exercise. (Medium British English)

Confusing Words and Common Mistakes/ Palabras que nos pueden llevar a confusión y los errores más frecuentes

Confusing Words


Common Mistakes


Advice and Advise

'What' or 'That' - Grammar explanation and exercises

Grammar explanation (in Spanish) Easily explained and very useful.

Exercises.

Modals

Modal verbs: An explanation

Jamie Oliver's talk at TED

A wonderful talk about food and health problems in USA and the rest of the world. How we should change our food habits and teach our children how to eat better.

Remember to use the subtitles tool (on the screen's bottom) or just print the transcript and read it while you are listening.

Jamie Oliver: Teach every child about food.

Can I start a sentence with a conjunction?

Grammar myths #2: please miss, can I start a sentence with a conjunction?