March 2010

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

 

Podcast Transcription

 

Hi and welcome to another Mansión Inglés podcast from mansióninglés.com, recorded for March 2010.

And a big thank you to everyone who sent us suggestions and ideas to improve our monthly newsletter, our cuaderno mensual.

One of the things you asked for was more grammar, especially verbs.

Listen to these 8 verbs in Spanish and try to say the English translation before I do. Then repeat the verb and the sentences to practise pronunciation. Escucha y repite:

 

ser/estar – to be – I am, you are, we are, he, she and it is, they are.

En el pasado - I was, you were, we were, he, she and it was, they were

 

hablar ¿Qué es hablar en ingles? = to speak – it’s an irregular verb - es un verbo irregular - speak, spoke, spoken – I spoke to him, he spoke to me. Have you spoken to her? No? Haven’t you spoken to her yet? My God! Are you speaking to me? I’m speaking to you.

 

tener – tener means to have – it’s an irregular verb, listen - have, had, had – I have, he, she, it has, we have, they have - I had a dream, he had a great idea. Have you had lunch yet? I haven’t had a hamburger for ages. Repeat: a hamburger – had a hamburger – haven’t had a hamburger - I haven’t had a hamburger for ages. - I haven’t had a hamburger for ages.

 

escuchar - to listen – a regular verb – es un verbo regular – I listen, you listen, we listen  he, she, it listens, they listen. I listened to the mansión Inglés podcast last month. It was fantastic! Have you listened to this podcast yet? My sister always listens to the podcast.

 

levanter(se) - to get up – get up is a phrasal verb – to get up – el pasado es - got up. I always get up early, My mum gets up late. What time did you get up this morning? Yesterday I got up at 7.

 

leer - to read - an irregular verb – read, read, read. – I love reading - I’m reading a great book at the moment, How often do you read? Have you read any good books lately? I read your email this morning.

 

ir(se) - to go – go is an irregular verb – go – went – gone, I go to work by train. She goes on holiday once a year. I went to the cinema last night. My neighbour’s gone to Italy for a week. Have you gone mad?

 

Conducir - to drive – another irregular verb – another means uno más. - another irregular verb - drive, drove, driven. Repeat: drive, drove, driven.  I don’t like driving in traffic. She drove to France last summer. Have you ever driven on the left?

 

Ok, let’s practise some phrasal verbs. Listen to the Spanish and try to say the English translation before I do. Then repeat the verb and the sentences to practise pronunciation. Escucha y repite:

 

dejar - give up – you should give up smoking.

darse prisa - hurry up! – Hurry up or we’ll be late.

fregar - wash up – I’ll wash up

crecer - grow up – I grew up in London

continuar, aguantar - carry on – Don’t stop, carry on.

esperar - hold on – please hold on a minute.

tener ganas de algo/de hacer algo - look forward to – I’m really looking forward to the weekend.

tirar algo a la basura - throw away – Did you throw away my red T-shirt?

encender/apagar - turn on/off, switch on/off – Can you turn off the light?

hablar - talk about – What are you talking about?

buscar - look for – I’m looking for my other sock. 

estropearse - break down – My car’s never broken down.

 

Recuerdas que cuando el phrasal verb tiene un objeto, se va entre el verbo y la partícula, o después.

 

For example: I threw away the chicken.  or  I threw the chicken away.

El objeto tambien puedo ser un pronombre.

For example: I threw it away. (‘it’ is the chicken)

 

Por lo cual, existe phrasal verbs que no se puede insertar el objecto entre el verbo y su partículo.

For example I’m looking for a flat.  No se dice: XI’m looking a flat for.X

Give up smoking. Can we say “give smoking up”? yes.

Wash up the dishes. Can we say “wash the dishes up? Yes

Talk about the weather. Can we say “Talk the weather about?” No

I’m looking forward to the weekend. Can we say “I’m looking the weekend forward”? No.   

 

Collocations – las colocaciones – some words like to go together. We say do business not Xmake businessX, for example and we say make money not Xdo moneyX. Let’s practise some.

To have a feeling - I had a feeling that she was trying to trick me into lending her money.

To pay attention - prestar atención – Please pay attention and listen to what I’m saying.

To pay someone a compliment – I can’t remember the last time someone paid me a compliment.

To take action – We must do something now. Take action immediately.

To have a drink – Do you fancy having a coffee after class? Do you fancy? means ¿Tienes ganas? o ¿Te apetece? -  Do you fancy having a beer? We can say “Do you fancy drinking a beer? But it’s more common to use have for food and drink than the verbs to eat and to drink. For example: I had a pizza. I’m having chicken for dinner. Shall we have a cocktail? What will you have? I’ll have a vodka and coke.

To pay your respects to someone – After the funeral we paid our respects to her family.

To take a liking to someone - I took a liking to our new boss as soon as he introduced himself.

To take a chance – I won’t marry her. I can’t take that chance.

 

Business Vocabulary

If you’ve read the newsletter, the cuaderno, you should know these business expressions. Try to say them after the description.

 

When two companies decide to join together, this is called a merger.

If a company employs more workers, we can say that it has taken on more staff.

The organisation that negotiates with the management for the workers is the union            

If a company "cuts jobs" it has fewer workers                  

Extra money for doing extra work is called overtime

Until a company needs something, it stores it in a depot 

A company that has a specialised product or service has a market niche

When one company takes control of another it’s called a takeover      

A company which has a lot of money in the bank has a cash pile           

One way for a company to raise a lot of money is to issue shares

Well, that’s it for this month. Thanks for listening and take care.

 

That was a mansion Ingles podcast from mansioningles.com.