July 2012

Aprender ingles gratis con La Mansion del Ingles. Un podcast para mejorar la gramatica, el vocabulario y la pronunciacion del ingles. Una leccion del ingles con ejemplos y ejercicios.

Learn English free with podcasts from La Mansion del Ingles. Improve your grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. This English lesson contains examples and exercises.

Hello again. Welcome,  and thank you for downloading this Mansión Inglés podcast. This is podcast number 51 recorded for July 2012.

Este mes, en el nivel básico practicamos las formas básicas de los verbos y la formación de las preguntas en inglés.

In the intermediate section, the superlative (el superlativo) y expresiones con GET.

In the advanced section, some more idioms and some words which have multiple meanings.

As usual there's a business English exercise and many more ways to improve your English and take it to the next level. 

En los podcasts mensuales hablamos de los temas, vocabulario y ejercicios que salen en nuestro cuaderno mensual. Así podáis practicar la pronunciación y repasar el material del cuaderno. Si quieres recibir gratis el cuaderno cada mes, ver la trascripción de este podcast o leer los anteriores, vete a mansioningles.com y sigue los enlaces en la página principal.

So, let's get started - vamos a empezar con el nivel básico.     

Escucha y repite las frases correctas conmigo.

Escucha: My sister wears glasses. - Mi hermana lleva gafas - No olvides la 's' de la tercera persona. - she wears - I wear, you wear,  she wears - repite: she wears - she wears glasses.

Alejandro studies law. -  he studies - repite: he studies - he studies law. (derecho) law - he's a lawyer - he studies law.

My brother has two children. Mi hermano tiene 2 hijos - I have. you have, he has, she has -  Repite: My brother has two children.

The shops close at 5.30. - las tiendas cierran a las cinco y media - Repite: five thirty - close - close at five thirty - The shops - The shops close at five thirty - They close at five thirty. ¿Es pronto no? En ingleterra, the shops close at five thirty. When do they close in Spain. At 8 o'clock? More or less - más o menos - more or less. In Spain, the shops close at 8 o'clock.

I don't do the housework. No hago yo la tareas domésticas - the housework (work es trabajo, house es casa - the housework - Las tareas domésticas) I Repite: housework - do the housework - I don't - I don't do the housework.

She loves computers. - Repite: computers - She loves - She loves computers.

In Spain people drive on the right. - Conducen a la derecha - ¡A la derecha! ¿Por que? Why? Why do you drive on the right in Spain? Why? In the UK we drive on the left. Repite: left - on the left - they drive on the left. In the UK they drive on the left - on the right - we drive on the right. In Spain, we drive on the right.

Pepito doesn't have coffee for breakfast.  Es el negativo del presente - se forma con doesn't en la tercera persona. He doesn't - He doesn't have - repite: He doesn't have - he doesn't have coffee - He doesn't have coffee for breakfast - He doesn't have coffee, he has tea.

Martin and Maria study with La Mansión del Inglés. - They study - Ellos estudian. Repite; they study - they study with us - they study with La Mansión del Inglés.

Good! - ¡Bien!

También en el nivel básico hemos praticado la formación de las preguntas.

Escucha y repite: 

What time do you get up?

When do they do the shopping?

When does the film start?

Where does she work?

How many hours does hework?

What food does she like?

How do you go to work?

Very good!  - ¡Muy bien!

In the intermediate section this month, we looked at some superlatives.

Listen and repeat:

It's the most expensive car in the world.

It's the most beautiful place I’ve ever visited.

It's the season I like the least.

It's the best website on the internet.

It's the longest distance I’ve ever travelled.

She's the most intelligent person I know.

It's the worst day of the week.

We studied vocabulary this month by focusing on expressions with GET. For example; get fit, get married, get dressed etc.

One use of GET is to become. If you get fit you become fit - en forma - I'm going to the gym because I want to get fit. I want to be fit, to become fit. I'm not fit now, but I want to get fit. to get in shape. Repeat: I want to get fit - I want to get in shape.

When the sun goes down it gets dark - it becomes dark. Repeat - to get dark - I turned the lights off and it suddenly got dark - Well yes......er...of course. If you turn off the lights of course it's going to get dark.

Get rich quick with this fantastic new system. Send me $20 euros and I'll tell you all about it. Get rich quick.

GET can also mean to obtain - obtener, conseguir o comprar. - I'm going into town to get a new dvd. I need to get a new credit card. Can you get some milk on your way home. Repeat: get some milk - get a new phone - I need to get anew office chair.

to get worse means empeorar - to deteriorate - the weather's getting worse. Repeat: the weather's getting worse. How's your dad? Is he still in hospital? - Yes, he's getting worse. What's the opposite of get worse? - get better. Repeat:  I'm getting better - I'm getting better at English. My English is getting better. How's your leg? - It's getting better thanks.

You can GET MARRIED and you can GET DIVORCED - you can use the verbs to marry and to divorce, but in spoken English, it's more common to use GET - Repeat: I'm getting married - When are you getting married? She got married last week. - Are they getting divorced? - They got divorced last year. ¡OJO! Remember that you get married TO someone (not 'with') and divorced FROM someone.

If you like these podcasts, if you are learning more English with these podcasts, you can buy full lessons for only 1 euro and 40 centimos from our online shop - nuestra tienda online. Estas lecciones están diseñados como una continuación del curso de audio Mansión Auto 2, y están basados en nuestro curso básico interactivo que ha ayudado a más de 25 millones de personas a aprender inglés desde el año 2001. Los lecciones están a nivel intermedio (B1) y estamos poniendo nuevos lecciones constantemente en mansioninglesdescargas.wazala.com (mansioninglesdescargas - todo junto - punto . wazala.com). Cada leccion vale 1.40 euros y dura approx. 1 hora 15 minutos y cada leccion en formato mp3 lleva su trascripcion en formato PDF.

There were more idioms this month in the advanced section. Let's see if you can remember the idioms if I say the Spanish equivalent.

For example, what's the English idiom for El infierno esta llenado de buenos propositos, y el cielo de buenas obras? - Something to do with hell and good intentions...The road to hell is paved with good intentions. - The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

What about: Donde hay humo, hay calor. - There's no smoke without fire. - There's no smoke without fire.

and Mas sabe el diablo por viejo que por diablo. - There's nothing about the devil in the English translation, but there is the word experience - There's no substitute for experience. (That's true!) There's no substitute for experience.

The next idiom is Hay mucho más peces en el mar - That's an easy direct translation - There are plenty more fish in the sea. Repeat: There are plenty more fish in the sea.

El tiempo pasa inexorablemente. - You can't stop the passage of time. In the words of Pink Floyd on their Dark Side of the Moon album - "You run and you run to catch up with the sun, but it's sinking. - In English the idiom is - Time and tide wait for no man. - tide is la marea. Time and tide wait for no man.

And finally, Cada quien tiene su manera de matar pulgas. - The translation isn't about fleas (pulgas) but about taking the skin off of a cat. There's more than one way to skin a cat. - There's more than one way to skin a cat.

Now listen and repeat the idioms:

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

“There's no smoke without fire.”

“There's no substitute for experience.”

“There are plenty more fish in the sea.”

“Time and tide wait for no man.”

“There's more than one way to skin a cat.”

Also in the advanced section of this month's newsletter we looked at some words with multiple meanings. For example fine can translate as fino and a common collocation is a fine line. For example, there's a fine line between love and hate. But fine can also be bien. Ok. Parking fine - has aparcado muy bien. And also una multa. the verb multar is to fine. I was fined for parking on a zebra crossing, and that explains my bad joke. If you have parking fine on the windscreen (parabrisas) of your car is it a multa or a compliment?

The weather can also be fine. It was a fine day. It rained in the morning, but the afternoon turned out fine.

Our second word was pinch - a pinch of salt - a pinch of salt is a small quantity of salt. I think you say pizca in Spanish. If you feel the pinch you notice the difference in a negative way. At the moment we're feeling the pinch of the recession.

In British English slang to pinch something means to steal it. Steal is a strong word with very negative connotations. "You stole the money!" To pinch makes it sound softer, not such a crime. Another slang verb for steal is to nick - N-I-C-K- We nicked a car when we were drunk. There was a wallet inside, so we pinched that too!

You've probably heard of a baseball bat and a cricket bat, but what about to bat an eyelid. Eyelids are párpados and to bat an eyelid is not to react in response to something surprising or shocking - Nobody even batted an eyelid = Nadie siquiera se inmuta - When I told her I was thinking of having a sex change operation she didn't even bat an eyelid.

A bat is of course un murciélago which is on the flag of Valencia, where I live.

A tip is una propina - you leave a tip in a restaurant if the service was good. TIP is an abbreviation of To Insure Promptness - T-I-P. To make sure you are served well and in good time. Repeat: How much tip should I leave? A tip is also un consejo. If you want some tips on how to improve your English, watch the latest videos on our YouTube channel. There are some very good tips there.

Do you know what it's like to know something, but you just can't quite say it. You know it, an actor's name or someone you met at a party or a place you visited during your last holiday. You KNOW it but you just can't remember it. So it's on the tip of your tongue. - Repeat: It's on the tip of my tongue.

A spell is un encanto - Witches (las brujas) cast spells - She'll cast a spell on you.

Spell can also be a period of time. Repeat:  I'm going out for a spell. We also typically use spell to talk about the weather. Repeat: We're having a cold spell at the moment. It's a spell of bad weather.

The verb to spell is deletrear - Repeat: Can you spell it for me, please? - Can you spell it for me, please?

In the Business English section, we looked at some more business English vocabulary.

to be late - Repeat: I'm late - he's late - Why are you late? - He was 15 minutes late.

The verb to handle, when you're speaking about a situation means manejar. If it refers to people it means tratar. Repeat: She can handle the situation. He can't handle so much work. How are you handling the project? He's a difficult person to handle.

to turn around means darse la vuelta, but if a situation turns around it usually improves. Things are not looking good, but if we all work hard I'm sure we can turn things around. Repeat: to turn around. We can turn this situation around.

Another phrasal verb with turn is to turn down which means to refuse rechazar. Repeat: I turned the job down - I turned it down. He made me a good offer, but I turned it down.

Continuing with phrasal verbs, if you get behind something you support it. We need more people to get behind our proposal. Repeat: get behind. If you get behind me on this, I'm sure we can make it work.

The minimum wage is the lest amount of money an employer can legally pay an employee. The minimum wage in Spain is 633 euros per month, but in Chile it's the equivalent of 267 euros per month. That's the minimum wage in Chile. Unfortunately, many employers pay workers less than the minimum wage.

If you outsource work you pay someone outside your company or business to do the work instead of doing it inside the company. source is fuente and out=fuera - outsource - un fuente de fuera. Outsourcing work and services is often a better option and can save companies a lot of money. Repeat: outsource - We outsourced the web design.

A dispute is polémica in Spanish, controversia. - The matter is still in or under dispute -  aún no se ha llegado a un acuerdo sobre el asunto

The verb to dispute means discutir o cuestionar. - I don't dispute the fact that we need to cut back on expenditure. Repeat: to dispute - I dispute the fact. It's under dispute - the decision is under dispute.

Well, that's just about all we have time for, for now. Remember you can listen to all our previous podcasts at mansioningles.com and on iTunes. Thank you very much for listening to this podcast, and for being part of the community of La Mansión del Inglés.

 

Remember, If you want to contact us you can find us on Facebook. Just search Facebook for La Mansión del Inglés and join our growing community of fans. Or send us an email at: [e-mail]. You can also follow us on Twitter. Our Twitter name is MansionTwit.

Puedes ver el cuaderno mensual de este mes, y todos los cuadernos anteriores en cuadernodeingles.com

También tenemos dos aplicaciones para el nivel principiante y el nivel básico a la venta en la tienda de iTunes. Para encontrarlas, busca imansionauto. El precio de cada aplicación es de 2,39 euros.

Until next month then, take care, keep practising and taking your English to the next level! Bye for now!

 

The music in this month’s podcast is by Revolution Void, the album is The Politics of Desire and the track is called Outer Orbit.