Wednesday 3 February 2021

Have something done (causative have)

Watch this video if you need help to understand the "Causative have" (or "have something done"). Explanations are given in Spanish.

Tuesday 17 September 2019

Friday 22 March 2019

Passive Voice & Causative Passive. (Bachillerato)


Hello, everyone!
These are some exercises that will help you get some extra practise on the passive voice and the passive causative.
Passive Voice.
  • Transforming the active into the passive voice, here.
  • Transforming the passive into the active voice, here.
  • Transforming the passive into the passive, start with the suggested word, here.
  • Questions in the passive voice - 1, here.
  • Questions in the passive voice - 2, here.
  • Different tenses for the passive voice, here.
  • Double object: active into passive (start with the suggested word), here.
  • Double object: active into passive (start with Indirect object), here.
  • Passive voice, different tenses, here. (difficult)
Causative Passive.
  • Causative have / get, here. (easy)
  • Causative have / get, here. (medium)
  • Causative have / get, here. (easy)

Sunday 27 May 2018

Past Simple for Beginners.

USE

Usamos el Past Simple para hablar del pasado. En español se puede traducir por el pretérito indefinido (I danced – Yo bailé) o el pretérito imperfecto (I danced – yo bailaba) Lo más importante es que es el tiempo en el que contamos las cosas que nos sucedieron, es decir, las narraciones.

FORM

Para construir el Past Simple debes saber dos cosas, una buena (good news) y otra mala (bad news):

Good News :)

El Past Simple es muy fácil de construir, fíjate bien:
Affirmative*
Negative**
Interrogative***
I danced.
I didn't dance.
Did I dance?
You danced.
You didn't dance.
Did you dance?
He/She/It danced.
He/She/It didn't dance.
Did he/she/it dance?
We danced.
We didn't dance.
Did we dance?
You danced.
You didn't dance.
Did you dance?
They danced.
They didn't dance.
Did they dance?
* Como ves sólo tienes que añadir -ed al final del verbo regular para la forma afirmativa
** La forma negativa se forma con el auxiliar didn't + infinitive
*** La forma interrogativa se hace con el auxiliar did delante del sujeto

Bad News :|

Además de los verbos regulares existen otros que son irregulares. Se llaman así porque su forma del Past Simple en afirmativa es diferente.
Estas formas debes aprenderlas de oído, y cuando digo de oído quiero decir que es mejor aprendarlas escuchándola. Mucha gente se las aprende de memoria leyendo listas de verbos irregulares... y al final no se familiarizan con su pronunciación y no son capaces de entender cuando las escuchan.
To Do es un verbo irregular, y su Past Simple es Did. Pero solo para la forma afirmativa (Don't panic!), fíjate bien:
Affirmative*
Negative**
Interrogative***
I did some homework.
I didn't do any homework.
Did I do any homework?
You did some homework.
You didn't do any homework.
Did you do any homework?
He/She/It did some homework.
He/She/It didn't do any homework.
Did he/she/it do any homework?
We did some homework.
We didn't do any homework.
Did we do any homework?
You did some homework.
You didn't do any homework.
Did you do any homework?
They did some homework.
They didn't do any homework.
Did they do any homework?

LET'S PRACTICE

Puedes aprender pronunciación de verbos regulares e irregulares rapeando con Fluency MC:
IRREGULAR VERBS RAP:
Y en este otro Fluency MC te dice la Base Form y tú tienes que decir el Past Simple y el Past Participle:

-ED Pronunciation
Con éste aprenderás las a pronunciar bien todos los verbos regulares en past simple cuando acaban en -ED.

Wednesday 4 April 2018

Modal Verbs: Ability. Advice, Necessity and Obligation. Possibility and Certainty.


Hi, everyone! We're going to revise the form and use of modal verbs.

Form.

The first thing we have to know is the type of modal verbs there are:
Pure modals
Semi-modals
can
be able to
could
may
have better
might
must
have to
shall

should

ought to

will

would

need ***
need to
*** need is a special verb since as a modal it is almost always negative such as you needn't come to work tomorrow
The pure modals are used just exactly as the auxiliary verbs in the sentence word order.
Subject
Modal / Auxiliary
Verb
Object
Manner, place and time
You
shouldn't
be
so stressed
for driving
You
needn't
drive

to school
I
can
give
you
a lift


Their main difference is that pure modals are invariable forms, that is, we can't use them in the past or future forms.
Instead, the semi-modals can be used in the past, future and the rest of tenses too.

Use.

For understanding the meaning and use of the modal verbs we can establish different uses: ability; advice, necessity, and obligation; possibility and certainty.

Ability

We express ability by means of the modals can and could and the semi-modal be able to.
Here a presentation to learn more about the modals of ability:

Exercises:

Advice, necessity, and obligation

For expressing advice we have the modals:
  • should and ought to (ought to isn't usually used in the negative and interrogative form) to express advice.
  • need to to express necessity (only in the affirmative form).
  • needn't (without to) and the don't/doesn't have to are used to make clear there's no need to do something.
  • must and have to express obligation.
  • mustn't for expressing prohibition (obligation of not doing)
For more information, you can watch these presentations
  • Advice

Exercises:
  • Necessity

Exercises:


  • Obligation


Exercises.

Possibility and certainty

The modal verbs we use to express possibility and certainty are may, might, can, could, must
  • to express possibility in the present or the future we may (may not), might (mightn't) and could.
  • To express logical deduction we use must (in the affirmative form) or can't (in the negative form).
  • When we are sure something is true we use must.
  • When we are sure something is impossible we use can't.

Exercises:









Thursday 25 January 2018

Reported Speech (Revision and Exercises)

Hi, there!
It's time to revise "Reported speech". The basic idea is that you use 'Reported Speech' (or estilo indirecto in Spanish) for telling what other people told.

Here is a video you should watch because it offers many examples of tense shift.


You could practise the reported speech with the following exercises.
Here's a bunch of exercises to practise reporting verbs.

Tuesday 9 May 2017

Obligation and Advice in the song “Should I Stay or Should I go?: Have (got) to / Should


With this activity you can learn the use of the modal verbs HAVE (GOT) TO and SHOULD:
  • We use SHOULD to express ADVICE.
  • We use HAVE TO to express OBLIGATION in written and oral communication. But we usually use HAVE GOT TO in oral communication, for example in song.
    So it's very common to find HAVE GOT TO in many different versions, as they appear above:
    • have got to = 've got to = got to = gotta
Can you find more examples of SHOULD and HAVE (GOT) TO in the song's lyrics?
Remember that have got to can appear in different versions.


Here is the official video by band who sings it: The Clash.

These are the answers for the activity.