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Lecciones para aprender y mejorar tú inglés. English lessons to improve your grammar, vocabulary and listening skills.

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 mansioningles.com, recorded for September 2010.

For most of you, September means back to work, back to school and back to the routine. That’s what it means for us here at La Mansión del Inglés. We hope you’ve had a good summer. Esperamos que hubieras pasado muy bien el verano y que estéis listos para practicar ingles de nuevo con nosotros.

 The first exercise in this month’s Newsletter – el primero ejercicio en el cuaderno este mes – was about the difference between job and work. – la diferencia entre el nombre contable job –I have 2 jobs”, y el nombre incontable work .” I have a lot of work”. Work puede ser contable en el caso de una obra de arte. The works of William Shakespeare o the works of Pablo Picasso. Listen and repeat some example sentences. Escucha y repite algunas frases de ejemplo.

I’ve got a new job.

The mechanic did a fantastic job.

He’s got a lot of work this weekend. Nota la pronunciación de a lot of - /e/ /lot/ /ev/ repeat: a lot of – a lot of work – got a lot of work – he’s got a lot of work.

Learning English is hard work.

Do a good job. Work well. He’s a good worker – es buen trabajador – He works well.- trabaja bien.

You’ve never done a hard day’s work in your life! Es lo dice mi padre. Hard work? Hard work? You don’t know what hard work is! You’ve never done a day’s work in your life!

She’s always changing jobs.

Does your new computer work with Windows 7? – Does it work? Yes, it works. It works very well. - Is it working now?

How long does it take you to get to work?

Let’s move on to our list of irregular verbs. Vamos a seguir con la lista de verbos irregulares.

 ¿Qué es el verbo leer en inglés? To read Escucha y repite: read – read – read. The spelling is the same. Se escribe las tres formas igual, pero no se pronuncia igual. Escucha y repite:  read – read – read. How often do you read the newspaper? I read a good book last week. Have you read the report yet?

Next is the verb montar – to ride repeat: ride – rode – ridden. Have you ever ridden a horse? Can you ride a motorbike? I rode home in the rain. Repeat: ride – rode – ridden.

Llamar is to ring. Listen; ring – rang – rung. Hay algunos verbos irregulars que siguen estas mismas sonido vocals en las tres formas del verbo. Repite: /I/ /a/ /u/ - ring – rang – rung. El sonido /a/ puede ser difícil por hablantes españoles /a/ - cat – hat – sat. Comparar el sonido con /u/ up – cup / cat – cut – my cat is black – cut (cortar) cut and paste / hat – (sombrero) – hut – cabaña – Pizza Hut. Repite: ring – rang – rung / drink – drank – drunk / swim – swam – swum

El verbo leventarse in English is to rise. Repeat: rise – rose – risen. The sun always rises. Rise es un verbo intransitivo - no va con un objecto directo. No se puede decir: “Rise the sun” o “Rise the table”. The sun rises in the morning. What time did it rise yesterday? It rose at 6:38. How much has the dollar risen this month? It hasn’t risen, it’s fallen.

Next is the verb to run or correr in Spanish. Repeat: run – ran – run. I run marathons. I ran the New York marathon in 3 hours and 14 minutes. I’ve run 13 marathons. Repeat: run – ran – run

How do you say decir in English? ¿Como se dice to say? – That’s it! Say – said – said S-A-I-D said. Repeat: say – said – said. What did you say? I said “hello”. I’ve said all I want to say. What did she say to you? - She said she loves me!

El verbo ver is to see. See – saw – seen. Repeat: see – saw – seen.  Have you seen Brad Pitt’s new film? Yes, I saw it last weekend. I see you. Do you see me?

Next is the verb venderto sell. Sell – sold – sold. Repeat: sell –sold – sold. What does he sell? ¿Qué vende él? I sold my car yesterday. How many have you sold?

The verb to send means enviar. Repeat: send – sent – sent. Please send the email today. I sent it yesterday. Have you sent mum a birthday card?

And finally, the verb dispararto shoot. Repeat: Shoot – shot – shot. Who shot John F. Kennedy? También se dice to shoot a film – rodar una pelicula. – How many films have you shot? John Lennon was shot in New York.

¡Muy bien! Ahora escucha de nuevo y intenta decir la segunda y tercera forma del verbo antes que lo digo yo. Ready? ¿Listo?

 read                  read – read

ride                   rode – ridden

ring                   rang – rung

rise                   rose – risen

run                   ran – run

say                   said – said

see                   saw – seen

sell                   sold – sold

send                 sent – sent

shoot                shot – shot

We also studied Time expressions this month– Los expresiones del tiempo

Listen and repeat – escucha y repite:

This month is September.

Last month was August.

Next month is October

Today’s Thursday.

Yesterday was Wednesday.

What day is tomorrow?

Tomorrow’s Friday.

I saw her yesterday morning.

I sent the email yesterday afternoon.

two weeks ago – I rang you two weeks ago – hace dos semanas

last Friday – el viernes pasado – I saw the film last Friday.

last weekend – I didn’t go out last weekend.

the day before yesterday – anteayer – I read the report the day before yesterday.

the day after tomorrow – pasado mañana – I’ll see you the day after tomorrow.

next weekend

next Wednesday – el proximo miercoles – see you next Wednesday!

in three weeks time – dentro de 3 semanas - We’re gong on holiday in three weeks time.

In the intermediate section this month we looked at countable and uncountable nouns. Countable nouns are nouns you can count. Hmm that’s obvious; people, dogs, mountains, hamburgers etc.. Of course, uncountable nouns are impossible, or at least really difficult, to count. Liquids like, water, beer, oil, petrol. Salt, sand, rice etc., are all uncountable nouns.

So, using the examples of peanuts (for countable nouns) and beer (for uncountable nouns), repeat the following sentences and practise expressions of quantity.

There’s a lot of peanuts – There’s a lot of beer

There aren’t many peanuts - There isn’t much beer

Are there many peanuts? - Is there much beer?

There are too many peanuts – There’s too much beer

There are far too many peanuts – There’s far too much beer

There are few peanuts - There is little beer

There are a few peanuts – There’s a little beer

There are very few peanuts - There is very little beer

There are too few peanuts - There is too little beer

There are far too few peanuts - There is far too little beer

There are many more peanuts - There is much more beer

There are fewer peanuts - There is less beer

We also looked at more common uncountable nouns, such as information - I’d like some information. Pasta – Don’t give me too much pasta. Travel – Travel is a wonderful way to meet new people. News – I’ve got some bad news for you. Furniture – I don’t have much furniture in my flat. Advice – Can you give me some advice? and luggage – Why did you bring so much luggage?

In the advanced section this month, we studied some idioms. Listen and repeat:

To beat about the bush. Stop beating about the bush and tell me what you think.

It’s a blessing in disguise. I didn’t want to go anyway.

Do you think you can get your hands on a free mobile phone for me?

I don’t like be the centre of attention. I generally keep myself to myself

We need to clarify the situation. We have no idea where we stand at the moment.

I don’t believe you. You’re pulling my leg.

We need to put all these problems behind us darling.

What’s on your mind?

In the business section we looked at 10 more common collocations that are typically found in business English. Listen and repeat:

To interview an applicant – we interviewed many applicants for the job. You were the most suitable. If you set up a business you start a business. La Mansión del Inglés was set up about 9 years ago. Another phrasal verb that collocates often with business is to take off. We usually speak about planes taking off - going up. Similarly, if a business takes off it becomes successful. The business took off very soon after we had set it up. Now we employ 12 employees and we’re thinking of taking on more staff.

To attend a conference means to go to a conference. He attended a conference on climate change. I’m afraid I can’t meet with you next week, I’m attending a conference.

To hold a meeting means tener una reunion – We hold staff meetings once a month. The union is going to hold a meeting to discuss the annual pay increase.

To provide a service – ofrecer algo – They provide an excellent catering service.

To hire a new employee – to take on a new employee. – to employ a new person – We’ve hired a new secretary.

If you ask for a raise you ask for more money. A raise in salary - Una subida/aumento de sueldo – I’m going to ask for a raise at the end of the year. I think I deserve it. – to deserve – merecer

develop a product - To develop is desarrollar. He’s a  software devoloper - Es un desarrollador de software. Apple are developing a new product. 

To deal with a problem resolver/ocuparse de/hacer frente a/abordar  – Can you deal with this problem, please. I’m very busy. I’ll deal with this problem as soon as possible.- How should we deal with this problem? - ¿Qué hemos de hacer con este promlema?

To run a business – is to manage a business. – dirigir a una empresa – Who runs the business? Who runs the marketing side? I’ve been running this company for 47 years.

Next month we’ll look at 10 more common business collocations.

Well, that’s it for this month. Thanks for listening. Remember to visit our online shop where you can find our business English cd, our First Certificate cd for the Cambridge FCE exam, our audio cds and many more. Just go to the mansioningles.com webpage and click on the cds on the right side of the home page. You can also follow us on Twitter, just search for MansionTwit, and don’t forget to join our growing community of students and teachers on our Facebook fan page.

See you next time!

The music in this month’s podcast was by Revolution Void, the album was The Politics of Desire and the track was Outer Orbit. Also by Azhrak, the track was Below the Arctic Circle. Creative Commons licence from Jamendo.com


 

 

 

 

 

 

Direct download: 2010_September_Podcast.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 2:36pm CET

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 mansioningles.com, recorded for August 2010.

Most of you are probably on holiday now. Sitting on the beach listening to this podcast, watching the palm trees sway (balancearse, mecerse) from side to side in a gentle breeze. Maybe drinking a cold beer or a cool vodka and tonic with ice and lemon. Ahh! - Where ever you are and whatever you’re doing, I hope you’re well and happy, and ready to practise some more English with La Mansión del Inglés.

Hola. ¿Qué tal? Espero que todo va bien. No me gusta hablar en español porque mi español es muy malo, y tengo muchas faltas. Pero debo hacerlo y tú tienes que hablar en inglés. OK? Come on! ¿Animo!

 Because it’s holiday time, we practised a lot of holiday vocabulary in this month’s Newsletter (cuaderno). Empezamos, como siempre, con el nivel básico. Voy a decir algunas palabras en español y tú tienes que decirlas el inglés antes que yo. Luego, repite las palabras para practicar la pronunciación. ¿Listos?

ola – No ‘Hola’ – hello, ola sin la ‘h’ – wave – el sonido vocal es /ai/ repeat: wave

costa – coast – sonido vocal /ow/ coast - repeat: coastnadar - to swim

puesta de sol - sunset

isla – island – la ‘s’ no se pronuncia escucha: island - repeat: island     

puerto – port – sonido vocal /aw/ - port - repeat: port

arena - sand

playa – beach vowel sound – sonido vocal – /I:/ repeat: beach. No olvides hacer el sonido vocal largo /i:/ - beach. Si no, suena como bitch que es una perra- or worse!. So repeat with me: /i:/  ‘beach’ – beach. I’m looking for the beach.

piscina - swimming pool

mar - sea

pelota de playa - beach ball 

sombrilla - beach umbrella

gafas de sol - sunglasses

toalla - towel – difficult pronunciation. Listen: towel - repeat: towel

crema solar - suncream  

quemado por el sol - sunburned – suncream, sunburn – hay muchas palabras con sun en la playa. Tomar el sol is to sunbathe – repeat: sunbathe. Be careful – ten cuidado – when you’re sunbathing. The sun is very hot. Put suncream on your body. If you don’t you might get sunburnedquemado por el sol. But if you’re careful, you’ll get a nice suntan bonceado, moreno – Repeat: suntan - to get a suntan - oh and it’s a good idea to wear sunglassesgafas de sol. Take sunglasses to the beach.

 Let’s move on to our list of irregular verbs. Vamos a seguir con la lista de verbos irregulares.

 ¿Qué es el verbo dejar en inglés? To leave Escucha y repite: leave– left - left. What time did you leave? I left at 3:30. I’ve left you some chocolate cake in the fridge. Don’t leave me. Please don’t go!

Next is the verb prestar – to lend repeat lend – lent - lent. Can you lend me your pen? Los verbos lend y borrow se confunden mucho. Lend es prestar (you lend something to someone) y borrow es tomar prestado (you borrow something from someone). Los dos términos se puede confundir ya que en español se habla de forma diferente "Me prestas tu coche?" = "Can you lend your car to me?" ... nunca se dice "Can you borrow your car to me?"...

"Tomé prestado tu coche " = I borrowed your car. So, you borrow money from the bank - The bank lends money to you (er..sometimes!). Repeat: lend – lent – lent. Can you lend me $10? I lent you 10 yesterday!

Los verbos permitir, dejar se traducen en ingles a let – Repeat: let – let - let. Easy. No se cambia let – let -let – Let me see! - ¡Déjame ver! Her father lets her smoke – Su padre le déjà fumar.

Encender o iluminar is to light – L-I-G-H-T – light – lit – lit. Did you light the fire? – I lit a cigarette. Come on baby light my fire! – ¡enciende mi fuego!

El verbo perder en inglés is to lose – repeat: lose – lost – lost. The vowel sound is /oo/ lose. I often lose my keys – mis llaves. Valencia usually loses to Barcelona. Chelsea lost against Manchester United. I want to lose weight. To lose weight – perder peso.– I’ve lost 3 kilos. What’s the opposite of lose weight? – put on weight. That’s easy for Spanish speakers to remember ‘put on’ – I’ve put on weight.

To make means hacer repeat: make – made – made. It’s made of wood – Es de madera. - It makes me happy. Me hace feliz. I made a cake yesterday.

El verbo significar is to mean. Repeat – mean – meant - meant Repite el sonido vocal /I:/ mean. What does this mean? ¿Qué significa esto? What do you mean? ¿qué quieres decir (con eso)? A student once asked me “Craig, what does mean mean?” ¿Craig, Qué significa mean?

To meet is conocer o encontrar. Repeat – meet – met – met - "pleased to meet you" or “nice to meet you” - encantado de conocerte. We met the verb meet last month with the verb to know. Do you remember? To know can also mean conocer. La primera vez que coneces a alguien you meet them. “Nice to meet you.” After you meet them, you know them. I met her at a party. Where did you meet your wife? I met her at a wedding. Have you ever met anyone famous?

Pagar in English is to pay. Repeat: pay – paid – paid. Did you pay for the beers? – I paid you last week. Has your boss paid you yet? How much did he pay you?

Finally, the verb poner. In English to put. La forma es la misma. Put – put – put. El vocal /u/ repeat: /u/ put –put –put. Put my coffee on the table. Where did you put your jacket? Have you put the air conditioning on? You've put on weight.

Ahora escucha de nuevo y intenta decir la segunda y tercera forma del verbo antes que lo digo yo. Ready? ¿Listo?

leave                left – left

lend                  lent – lent

let                    let – let

light                  lit – lit

lose                  lost – lost

make                made – made

mean                meant – meant

meet                 met – met

pay                   paid – paid

put                   put - put

 

We also studied some holiday vocabulary at intermediate level this month. Let’s see what you remember. I’ll say the Spanish words and expressions, and you say the English translation before I do. Then, repeat the vocabulary to practise pronunciation.

 

 el balneario What’s that in English? El balneario. I can’t even say it in Spanish! Help! How do I say this? El balneario — It’s a spa, or resort

bahía - bay – B – A - Y

traje de baño, bañador  - swimsuit or swimming trunks  

buceo, bucear - diving, to dive

esnorkel, buceo con tubo de respiración - snorkeling – to go snorkeling

bloque del sol, crema solar, bronceador - sunscreen, sunblock or suntan lotion

vista al mar - sea view

océano - ocean

tomar el sol - to sunbathe

bañista - sunbather

salvavidas - lifeguard

concha marina - sea shell. That’s difficult. Repeat: sea shell – sea shell

nevera - cooler

marea alta - high tide

marea baja - low tide

And now some useful phrases - Frases útiles say them in English and Repeat them.

¿Dónde está la playa? - Where’s the beach? La entonación es muy importante en la preguntas. Listen and repeat: Where’s the beach? – Excuse me, where’s the beach?

¿Hay algún salvavidas? - Is there a lifeguard?

¿Es seguro para niños? - Is it safe for children?

¿Es seguro nadar aquí? Is it safe to swim here?  

¿Es seguro bucear aquí? Is it safe to dive here? 

¿Podemos nadar aquí? - Can we swim here?

¿Hay que pagar? - Do we have to pay? -

¿Cuánto cuesta alquilar una sombrilla? - How much to rent an umbrella?

¿Cuánto cuesta alquilar una silla? - How much to rent a chair?

¿Cuánto cuesta alquilar una bici? - How much to rent a bicycle?

Más frases:

Don’t forget to book a hotel.

Have you packed your suitcase.

My friend is a travel agent.

I got a great deal on hotel in London

Travelling during peak season can be expensive.

We like to stay at bed and breakfast places

We had to get a connecting flight.

I’m here on business

I went sightseeing in Liverpool

Is the room air-conditioned?

Does the room have a safe?

I’d like to make a reservation. Please.

Did you buy any souvenirs?

In the advanced section this month we practised some sentence transformations. This kind of exercise is typical of the type of exercise found in the Cambridge Advanced English exam. We are developing an advanced English cd at the moment, and we hope to have it finished before the end of the year.

Listen and repeat:

I wish to express my dissatisfaction with the poor service at your hotel.

There is little chance of us going to Italy on holiday this year.

Pepito asked if I would give him a lift to the airport.

Are you being attended to , madam?

Customers are required to give two weeks notice if they intend to change their booking.

On no account should your luggage be left unattended.

 In our Business English section this month there were two more short exercises on business collocations. Listen and repeat:

To make a profit. – What’s the opposite of make a profit? – make a loss. If your company is doing well and makes money, it makes a profit. If it loses money, it makes a loss.

If your company employs more workers, it takes on staff. To take on staff. My school took on 6 new teachers last month. – They employed 6 new teachers. Do you remember the expression for despedir from last months podcast? Despedir is to lay off staff. To take on new staff and the opposite to lay off staff.

Lanzar in English is to launch. So lanzar un producto nuevo is to launch a new product.

To go into partnership is how La Mansión del Inglés got started almost ten years ago. I went into partnership with my friend, and now business partner, and we started a business together. – To go into partnership with someone

Llegar a una conclusion can be to come to a conclusion or to draw a conclusion. What conclusions did you draw from the meeting?

To bear in mind means to consider, to take into account – considerar, tener en cuenta, tener presente. Bear in mind that we have an enormous amount of money invested in this project.

dismiss an offer. – dismiss here means rechazar. The union dismissed the offer of a 3% pay rise. – to dismiss an offer.

Next month we’ll look at 10 more common business collocations.

Well, that’s it for this month. Thanks for listening. Remember to visit our online shop where you can find our business English cd, our First Certificate cd for the Cambridge FCE exam, our audio cds and many more. Just go to the mansioningles.com webpage and click on the cds on the right side of the home page. You can also follow us on Twitter, just search for MansionTwit, and don’t forget to join our growing community of students and teachers on our Facebook fan page.

See you next time!

The music in this month’s podcast was by Revolution Void, the album was The Politics of Desire and the track was Outer Orbit. Also by Azhrak, the track was Below the Arctic Circle. Creative Commons licence from Jamendo.com


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Direct download: 2010_august_podcast_AudacityMix.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 10:03am CET

 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 mansioningles.com, recorded for July 2010.

Are you hot? It’s really hot here in Valencia. I’m boiling! ¡Estoy asado! How are you? I hope you’ll be having a holiday soon and I hope you’ll be practising your English, even of you’re not going to an English speaking country. Maybe you can find an English speaking tourist to practise your English with. Intenta, si puedes, practicar inglés este verano con un nativo. Si vas a viajar o hay turistas donde vives, habla con ellos. Speak English!

OK, let’s start the podcast with our list of irregular verbs. Vamos a empezarar con la lista de verbos irregulares.

¿Qué es el verbo dar en inglés? To give Escucha y repite: give – gave - given. What did you give your mum for Christmas? I gave her a new sweater. I’ve already given you the money.
Next is the verb irto go repeat go – went - gone. Again – otra vez: go – went – gone. I go, you go, he goes- G-O-E-S – she goes – it goes. Did you go to work yesterday? I went home at 8 o’clock. My secretary’s gone to lunch.
El verbo crecer en ingles is to grow – Repeat: grow – grew – grow. I grew up in London. Where did you grow up? Look how you’ve grown. It’s unbelievable! – Mira como has credido. ¡No lo puedo creer! Repeat: Look how you’ve grown. It’s unbelievable!
haber o tener is to have – have or has – had – had. I have, you have, he has, she has, it has. El verbo have es un verbo principal I have an iPhone – Yo tengo un iPhone, y también un verbo auxiliar – I have had a lovely time. Me ha pasado muy bien – Cuando el have tiene función del verbo auxiliar normalmente esta con contración. I’ve had a lovely time. I have – I’ve. He has – he’s, it has – it’s etc.
El verbo oìr en inglés is to hear – repeat: hear – heard - heard. The vowel sounds are /ie/ - hear – and /er/ - heard. Repeat: hear – heard – heard. I’m sorry, I can’t hear you. Yes, I heard what you said. Have you heard about Samantha?
To hide means ocultar repeat: hide – hid - hidden. Again: hide – hid - hidden. Where did you hide the chocolate? I hid the money under the bed.
El verbo golpear is to hit. Repeat – hit – hit – hit. Easy – así de fácil. Repeat the vowel sound. Repite el sonido vocal /I/ hit – hit – hit- Don’t hit the dog!
Agarrar o celebrar is to hold. Repeat – hold – held – held. Hold my hand. The meetings are usually held in Simon’s office. Where are the Olympics being held next year?
To hurt in Spanish is herir – The vowel sound (el sonido vocal) es /er/. Repeat /er/ - hurt. Como el verbo ‘hit’, el verbo hurt no cambia. Los tres formas son iguales. Repeat: hurt – hurt – hurt. Did you hurt yourself? - ¿te has hecho daño? - Yes, I hurt my leg. I’m sorry if I hurt you.
The verb to keep is conservar, guardar o quedarse con. Repeat: keep – kept – kept. Keep the change  - quédese con el cambio. Shhhh.. Can you keep a secret? I’ve kept a diary (un diario) since I was eleven..
And finally the verb to know - saber o conocer. Es raro que lleva una ‘k’, porque no se pronuncia - know - K-N-O-W - to know. Repeat: know – knew – known. Do you know this word in Spanish? I knew you when you were a child. How long have you known him? El verbo conocer puede ser to meet or to know. La primera vez que coneces a alguien you meet them. “Nice to meet you”. After you meet them, you know them. Listen: I’ve known him for 5 years. I met him in Madrid. I met him 5 years ago. I’ve known him for a long time. So, to know is conocer a alguien, tenerlo por conocido , but to meet means conocer a alguien por primera vez.
Would you rather meet new people or spend time with the ones you already know?
Ahora escucha de nuevo y intenta decir el segundo y tercero forma del verbo antes que lo digo yo. Ready? ¿Listo?

give gave – given
go went – gone
grow grew – grown
have had - had
hear heard – heard
hide  hid – hidden
hit hit – hit
hold held – held
hurt hurt - hurt
keep kept – kept
know knew – known

The next exercise in the newsletter (el cuaderno) practised some irregular verbs in the past tense. Vamos a practicar algunas frases que llevan los verbos irregulares en el pasado. Escucha y repite:

1. We got home late. - We got home late.
2. The shop was closed. - The shop was closed.
3. We drove to France last summer. - We drove to France last summer.
4. I went to a Chinese restaurant yesterday. - I went to a Chinese restaurant yesterday.
5. I forgot to phone the doctor. - I forgot to phone the doctor. 
6. They told us to wait. -  They told us to wait.
7. I gave you 20 Euros. -  I gave you 20 Euros.
8. I had a fantastic time. - I had a fantastic time.
9. I grew up in Buenos Aires. - I grew up in Buenos Aires.
10. I heard about your problem. - I heard about your problem.
11. We had pizza for lunch. - We had pizza for lunch.
12. She died in 2003. - She died in 2003.
13. How long have you known him? - How long have you known him?
14. He’s caught a cold. - He’s caught a cold.
15. I've eaten too much. - I've eaten too much.
16. We flew to New York. - We flew to New York.

The verb GET was the subject in the intermediate section this month. Get tiene muchos significados. Por ejemplo, volverse, recibir, empezar, obtener, llegar, traer y también con adjetivos para expresar estados: get tired, get angry, get drunk etc.
Listen and repeat:
Where did you get that computer?
We get our cheese from the local market.
Can you get the phone, please?
Your coffee’s getting cold.
It is getting late. I should go.
What time’s dinner? I’m getting hungry.
I’ve just got a text message.
When did you get married?
What time did you get home?
Where can I get a taxi?
Have you got a pen? Have you got..? - ¿tienes...? Is more common in British English. Do you have..? Is more common in American English. The meaning is the same. Do you have a pen? Have you got a pen?

Let’s practise some adjectives with get. I’ll say the Spanish verb and you say to get and the adjective before I do. Please excuse my bad Spanish pronunciation. Disculpa mi pronunciación tan mala en español. Ready? ¿Listo?


mejorar - to get better
empeorar - to get worse
enfermarse - to get sick
enfadarse - to get angry
engordar - to get fat
oscurecer – to get dark
envejecer - to get old
enriquecerse - to get rich
ponerse frío, enfriarse - to get cold
mojarse - to get wet
ponerse nervioso - to get nervous
mejorar, ponerse bien - to get well
disgustarse - to get upset – U-P-S-E-T – to get upset
quedarse calvo - to get bald – B-A-L-D bald - calvo
ponerse contento - to get happy
agarrar sueño – to get sleepy
agarrar hambre - to get hungry
agarrar sed - to get thirsty
llenarse - to get full
ponerse caluroso - to get hot
hacerse tarde – to get late
enojarse - to get mad

There are also many expressions using get and a past participle. For example aburrirse is to get bored. Let’s practise some. I’ll say the Spanish verb and you say to get and the past participle before I do. OK?
 
vestirse - to get dressed
preocuparse - to get worried
prepararse - to get ready
comprometerse - to get engaged
casarse - to get married
llenarse de gente - to get crowded
cansarse - to get tired
confundirse - to get confused
emocionarse - to get excited
deprimirse - to get depressed
asustarse - to get scared
terminar - to get finished
emborracharse - to get drunk
perderse - to get lost
aburrirse - to get bored

Moving on to the advanced section, we looked at prefixes (prefijos). Tell me the opposites of the following verbs using prefixes. For example, the opposite of agree is disagree. Ready?
dress - undress
like -  dislike
credit – discredit – to discredit someone
connect – disconnect – disconnect your mobile phone during the flight
lock (cerrar) - unlock
zip - unzip
prove (probar) - disprove
qualify - disqualify
believe - disbelieve
fold - unfold
bend - unbend

Here are some more examples of prefixes:
The prefix micro means small – in Spanish you say micro; micro-computer is a small computer, microscopes look at small things.
auto means of or by oneself, so if you write an autobiography, it’s about your life. If you write a biography, it’s about someone else’s life.
pro means in favour of. If you are pro-abortion, you are in favour of abortion. If you are a pro-revolutionary, you are in favour of revolution. Pro is the opposite of anti. If you are against the war you’re anti-war. Against abortion – anti-abortion etc.
The prefix post means after. So, if you’re doing post-graduate studies, you are studying something after you have graduated. Post is the opposite of pre. Post-war, pre-war, pre-natal is before birth, before the baby. Post-natal is after birth. Some women suffer from post-natal depression after they have a baby.
bi means two or twice, bisexual for example, or bicycle – a bicycle has two wheels. Twice a month is bi-monthly, twice a week is bi-weekly. I subscribe to a bi-monthly podcast. I get one podcast every two weeks.
ex means former - ex-president, ex-wife, ex-boyfriend etc.
The prefix mis - M-I-S - means badly or wrongly. So if I misunderstand you, I understand you badly or wrongly. To misspell something is to spell it incorrectly.
mono is one or single. A monologue has only one person talking. A dialogue has two or more people.
over is too much. If you oversleep, you sleep to much. If something is overcooked it is cooked too much. The opposite is under. Underpaid – not paid enough. Overpaid – paid too much. Teachers are often overworked and underpaid. Overcook – undercook. My steak is overcooked. It’s completely black!
multi means many. A multi-national company does business in many different countries. A multi-function device does many different things. I recently bought a multi-function device for my computer. It’s a printer and a scanner and a photocopier all in one. It’s a multi-purpose machine.
sub means under. A submarine goes under the water. If something is substandard it is below an acceptable level or standard. And sub-zero temperatures are below zero. Notice that we say below zero and not under zero. In Alaska, it’s 16 degrees below zero.
semi is half. My car is semi-automatic. I can change gears automatically and manually if I want. A semi-detached house is attached on one side to another house and detached on the other side. So it’s half attached – attached on one side only.
The prefix re means again or back. If you read something a second time, you reread it. If you charge batteries again, you recharge them. George W Bush was elected president more than once, so he was re-elected. Well, we can’t have everything.

In our Business English section this month there were two short exercises on Business Collocations. Listen and repeat: to lay off despedir por reducciòn de plantilla. It’s similar to the expression to make s.o. redundant – repeat: to lay off – to lay off staff – Ford laid off 2,000 workers yesterday.
To close a deal llegar a un acuerdo o hacer un trato con alguien. Microsoft closed a deal with Apple last week. To close a deal.
To come to the pointir al grano -  Please come to the point. Would you mind coming to the point.
To break off negotiations – to stop talking, stop negotiating. The two companies broke off negotiations.
To go bankrupt – I think in Spanish this means quebrar, ir a la quiebra, bancarrota. They went bankrupt last year. They went out of business. They owed millions of dollars. To owe is deber
The annual turnover is the amount of business a company does in a year. It is usually measured in income or sales. What was your annual turnover for 2009?
To cease trading is to stop trading. Stop doing business. To cease means to stop. They ceased trading when they went bankrupt.
A person who chairs a meeting is the person who is in charge of and who controls the meeting.
If you draw someone’s attention to something you bring it to their attention so that they notice it. Let me draw your attention to last year’s turnover. I’d like to draw your attention to my last email (I want you to look at or think about my last email)
The sales figures are the numbers (las cifras) that represent the products that have been sold. – repeat: sales figures. Last month’s sales figures.
OK, next month we’ll look at 10 more common business collocations.

Well, that’s it for this month. Thanks for listening. Remember to visit our online shop where you can find our business English cd, our First Certificate cd for the Cambridge FCE exam, our audio cds and many more. Just go to the mansioningles.com webpage and click on the cds on the right side of the home page. You can also follow us on Twitter, just search for MansionTwit, and don’t forget to join our growing community of nearly 5,000 students and teachers on our Facebook fan page.

See you next time!

The music in this month’s podcast was by Revolution Void, the album was The Politics of Desire and the track was Outer Orbit. Also by Adult Only, the track was Overlove. And also by Azhrak, the track was Below the Arctic Circle. Creative Commons licence from Jamendo.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Direct download: 2010_July_Podcast_audacity.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 3:06pm CET

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 mansioningles.com, recorded for June 2010.

 

Thank you for all your support on Facebook. We hope you like the competitions and the Skype calls. ¡Bienvenido!Gracias a todos vosotros ya tenemos más que 4,000 fans en nuestra página de Facebook. Espero que os gusten los concursos que hacemos y las llamadas de Skype. A mi me pasa muy bien hablando con vosotros.

 

Let’s continue with the list of irregular verbs. Vamos a continuar con la lista de verbos irregulares.

 

¿Qué es el verbo comer en inglés? To eat Escucha y repite: eat – ate – eaten. What did you eat for lunch? Have you eaten yet? ¿Ya has comido?

Next is the verb caer – to fall repeat fall – fell – fallen. Again – otra vez: fall – fell – fallen

El verbo sentir en ingles is to feel – Repeat: feel –felt – felt

luchar is to fight – F-I-G-H-T – fight – fought – fought We had the same vowel sound last month. Hemos tenido 2 verbos el mes pasado con el mismo sonido vocal /au/ repeat: /au/ buy – bought / catch – caught / fight – fought. A great film with Brad Pitt is Fightclub – El club de la lucha. Have you seen it?

encontrar is to find – repeat: find – found – found. The vowel sound is /ow/ - found – found. I’m so happy I found you. I’m so happy I found La Mansión del Inglés!

Volar means to fly repeat: fly – flew - flown. Again: fly – flew – flown. I flew to Paris. Have you ever flown business class?

El verbo olvidar is to forgetrepeat – forget – forgot – forgotten otra vez - forget – forgot – forgotten

El verb perdonar is to forgive repeat – forgive – forgave – forgiven. Another wonderful film by Clint Eastwood. Sin Perdon – Unforgiven.

Helar o congelar is to freeze – If it’s very cold you say. “It’s freezing!” repeat “It’s freezing!” freeze – froze – frozen. Comida congelada is frozen food. I froze the pizza yesterday. It’s in the freezer. The freezer – el congelador

And finally the verb obtener. En inglés to get. Uno de los verbos más comunes en ingles. Listen/escucha get – got – got. Repeat: get – got – got. Easy! - I got drunk last night. Did you get any milk? I’ve got a new car. I got it last month. How much money have you got? You may hear get – got – gotten. A veces se dice gotten. Es más usado en el inglés Americano.

 

Ahora escucha de nuevo y intenta decir el segundo y tercero forma del verbo antes que lo digo yo. Ready? ¿Listo?

 

eat                         ate - eaten

fall                         fell - fallen

feel                        felt - felt

fight                       fought - fought

find                        found - found

fly                         flew - flown

forget                     forgot - forgotten

forgive                             forgave - forgiven

freeze                    froze - frozen

get                         got - got / gotten

 

The next exercise in the newsletter (el proximo ejecicio en el cuaderno) practised the difference between past simple and past continuous. Listen and repeat the sentences to practise pronunciation. Escucha y repite:

I saw your mum yesterday. yesterday. - mum yesterday. - your mum yesterday. - I saw your mum yesterday.

It wasn’t raining when we got to the city centre. -  city centre  - the city centre. - got to - got to the city centre. - when we got to the city centre. - It wasn’t raining - It wasn’t raining when we got to the city centre.

I met your brother when I was walking the dog. - walking the dog. - when I was - when I was walking - when I was walking the dog - your brother - I met your brother - I met your brother when I was walking the dog. I met your brother when I was walking the dog.

He didn’t go to the beach with me yesterday. - with me yesterday. - go to the beach - go to - go to the beach - He didn’t - He didn’t go to the beach - He didn’t go to the beach with me yesterday.

Was Pepito wearing his new sunglasses when you saw him? - Saw him -when you saw him? - his new sunglasses - wearing his new sunglasses - Was Pepito wearing his new sunglasses when you saw him? Was Pepito wearing his new sunglasses when you saw him?

Last year I ran in the New York marathon. marathon - the New York marathon. - I ran in the New York marathon. - Last year I ran in the New York marathon. - Last year I ran in the New York marathon.

I wasn’t watching TV when you rang, I was having dinner. - having dinner. - I was having dinner - when you rang - when you rang, I was having dinner. - I wasn’t - I wasn’t watching - I wasn’t watching TV when you rang, I wasn’t watching TV when you rang, I was having dinner.

I wasn’t watching TV when you rang, I was having dinner.

 

In the intermediate section this month we practised some vocabulary connected with cars and driving. For example gearstickpalanca de cambio and seatbeltcinturón de seguridad. Gearstick and seatbelt are compound nouns. A compound noun (un nombre compuesto) is when two nouns combine to form a single noun. Like bedroom or bookcase or seafood - marisco. The first noun acts like an adjective and gives information about the second noun. In Spanish you say the door of the car – la puerta del coche. In English we say cardoor. In Spanish you say the champion of tennis – el campionato de tennis  - in English tennis champion. In Spanish you say a card of credit – una tarjecta de credito, in English we say credit card. Compound nouns are sometimes written as one word, sometimes as two separate words and sometimes with a hyphen – guíon.

 

OK, I’ll say the Spanish noun or expression and you say the compound noun before I do. Remember all the words are connected to cars and driving. Ready?

 

volante - steering wheel

bolsa de aire - airbag

freno de mano - handbrake

parabrisas – windscreen (in British English), windshield (in American English)

palanca de cambio - gearstick

cinturón de seguridad – seatbelt

faros – headlights

aparcamiento - carpark (in British English), parking lot (in American English)

asiento de coche – carseat

teléfono de automóvil – carphone

túnel de lavado – Carwash

 

 Here are some more car words and expressions.

motor – engine

ruedas – wheels

maletero - boot (boot – in British English) / trunk (in American English)

neumático – tyre – a car has four tyres and a spare tyre. Where is the spare tyre usually kept? In the boot (or in the trunk).

 

One on the first things you do when you get into a car is you turn on the engine – arrancar el coche

You do up or put on your seatbelt and you take off the handbrake. Some cars are automatic. They have an automatic gearbox, especially American cars. European cars tend to have manual gearboxes, so you have to change gears using the gearstick and the clutchel embrague. We say to put the car in gear.

When you are low on petrol (or gas as the Americans say) you fill up with petrol. That was one of the first Spanish expressions I learned here in Spain. “llenalo por favour” Fill it up, please.

When it gets dark you turn on the headlights, and when you park the car, you turn the headlights off.

Frenar is to brake and if you want to go faster you accelerate. To accelerate – acelerar.

You usually accelerate when you overtake - to overtake – adelantar (I think in México they say rebasar)

to indicate means indicar, señalizar poner el intermitente. That’s something that Spanish drivers don’t do very often here in Valencia. I often have to guess which way the car in front of me is going to turn.

Aparcar (or in Latin America parquear) is to park, and a bend in the road is una curva and to swerve is dar un viraje brusco. To swerve to the right – virar bruscamente a la derecha.

to pick (someone) up in your car is buscar, recoger: I'll pick you up at the airport - te iré a recoger al aeropuerto. What’s the opposite of pick someone up? to drop off - dejar: I'll drop you off at your house - te dejaré en casa. Repeat: I’ll pick you up – I’ll pick you up at your hotel. Can you pick me up at the airport? Where does the coach drop us off? Can you drop me off at the nearest restaurant?

Llevar a alguien en coche is to give somebody a lift – Repeat: I'll give you a lift. Can you give me a lift to the airport?

Listen and repeat: Did you come by car? - Let’s go for a drive - Did you bring the car? - Yes, I drove here.  - Drive – drove – driven. When was the last time you drove? Please slow down – Would you mind slowing down? Could you drive more slowly?

Speed up – go faster - Put your foot down – ¡Más rápido!

 

In the advanced part of the newsletter we practised talking about habits. Listen and repeat the sentences.

 

A good friend is someone who keeps phoning you even when there’s no real news.  

A bore is someone who is always talking about their boring hobbies.

A bore is someone who tends not to notice when other people aren’t interested.

When I was 11, my best friend and I used to walk home from school together.

When I was 11, my best friend would always take my side if there was a problem.

My least favourite teacher at school always criticised me in front of the other students. 

My least favourite teacher at school tended to treat the girls better than the boys.

My least favourite teacher at school kept losing his temper with the class.

 

In the Business English section there were some useful expressions for telephone English. Listen and repeat the expressions and say your name when you hear the tone.

 

Good morning, (tone) speaking. Who's calling, please?

Good afternoon, (tone)  speaking. How can I help you?

 

This is (tone) speaking.

Hello, this is (tone)

 

Could I speak to _______ please?

I'd like to speak to _______, please.

Could you put me through to _______ , please?

 

I'm afraid he isn't in at the moment.

I'm sorry, she’s in a meeting at the moment.

I'm afraid he’s on another line at the moment.

 

Just a moment, please.

Could you hold the line, please?

Hold the line, please.

 

I'm sorry, I don't understand. Could you repeat that, please?

I'm sorry, I can't hear you very well. Could you speak up a little, please?

Could you spell that, please?

 

One moment, please. I'll see if she’s available.

I'll put you through.

I'll connect you.

I'm connecting you now.

 

Can I take a message?

Would you like to leave a message?

Can I give him a message?

I'll tell her that you called

I'll ask him to call you as soon as possible

 

Well, that’s it for this month. Thanks for listening. Remember to visit our online shop where you can find our business English cd, our First Certificate cd for the Cambridge FCE exam, our audio cds and many more. Just go to the mansioningles.com webpage and click on the cds on the right side of the home page. You can also follow us on Twitter, just search for MansionTwit, and don’t forget to join our growing community off more than 4,000 students and teachers on our Facebook fan page.

 

See you next time!

 

The music in this month’s podcast was by Revolution Void, the album was The Politics of Desire and the track was Outer Orbit. Also by Adult Only, the track was Overlove. And also by Azhrak, the track was Below the Arctic Circle. Creative Commons licence from Jamendo.com

 

 

 

 

Direct download: Podcast_June_2010.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:54pm CET

 

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 mansioningles.com, recorded for May 2010.


Thank you for all your support on Facebook. We really enjoy reading your comments. It’s a lot of fun for me to have students from so many different countries. Gracias por sus amables palabras sobre el cuaderno del mes pasado. Especialmente en nuestra página de Facebook. Si quieres seguirnos y participar en la página, busca La Mansión del Inglés desde tu cuenta de Facebook.

 

Let’s continue with the list of irregular verbs that we started last month. Vamos a continuar con la lista de verbos irregulares en inglés que hemos empezado el mas pasado.

 

¿Qué es el verbo comprar en inglés? To buy Escucha y repite: buy – bought – bought

Next is the verb to catch repeat catch –caught– caught escucha el sonido vocal /au/ caught - caught

El verbo venir en ingles is  to come - come – came – come

costar is to cost the verb to cost doesn’t change in the past or past participle. La forma no cambia escucha: cost – cost – cost

Morder is to bite – bite - bit – bitten

Otro verbo que no cambia es el verbo cortar – to cut repeat: cut – cut – cut. cortar y pegar = cut and paste.

El verbo elegir is to choose – repeat – choose – chose – chosen –again – otra vez -  choose – chose – chosen

Hacer is to do repeat – do or does I do, you do, they do, we do – he does, she does, it does. Repeat: do/does – did - done

Soñar is to dream – There are two possible forms for the past and participle of dream. Hay dos formas posibles  – dream - dreamt DREAMT dreamt or dreamed DREAMED dreamed– dreamt or dreamed Repeat: dream – dreamt – dreamt or dream – dreamed - dreamed

Do you know the verb beber en inglés? ¿Sabes como decir el verbo beber en inglés? It’s to drink repeat: to drink – drink – drank - drunk.

And finally the verb conducir. En inglés to drive. Listen/escucha drive – drove – driven. Repeat: drive – drove - driven

 

Ahora escucha de nuevo y intenta decir el segundo y tercero forma del verbo antes que lo digo yo.

 

buy -                bought - bought        

catch -             caught - caught        

come -              came - come             

cost -               cost - cost               

cut -                 cut - cut                  

choose -            chose - chosen         

do -                  did - done                

dream -             dreamt - dreamt        

drink -               drank - drunk            

drive -               drove – driven

 

Now let’s talk about some verbs we can use to talk about the body and things you do with your body. 

 

To cough in Spanish is toser. The spelling is really strange: COUGH cough. Yeah I know – English spelling is crazy. It’s mad. No tiene sentido – it makes no sense. Anyway, the pronunciation is cough. It’s also a noun – a cough. I’ve got a bad cough. Repeat. I’ve got a bad cough. People who smoke a lot may have a smoker’s cough. Repeat a smoker’s cough. Have you got a smoker’s cough?

To breathe- BREATHE -  is respirar. Repeat: to breathe. I can’t breathe in here. The noun is breath – BREATH (sin la E). She’s got bad breath.

To yawn is bostezar. If you’re tired and bored during this podcast, you’ll probably be yawning. – to yawn.

Atchooo! - Estornudar – is to sneeze. If you have a cold you’ll probably be sneezing. We can say to catch a cold. Repeat: to catch a cold. What’s the past form of catch?.....caught. Very good! I caught a cold last week. Actually, that’s true. When I went on holiday at Easter I caught a cold. I caught a cold in Navarra.

To sigh – SIGH - suspirar – It’s also a noun. He gave a deep sigh when he saw her.

To snore is – roncar – SNORE. My dad snores really loudly.

 

OK, I’ll say the Spanish verb and you say the translation before I do. Ready?

 

toser  - to cough

respirar  - to breathe

bostezar  - to yawn

estornudar – to sneeze

suspirar  - to sigh

roncar - to snore

 

The following verbs are often used when we talk about food and eating.

 

Masticar in English is to chew. Chew your food well. Chicle in English is chewing gum.

eructar in English is to burp. In some countries it’s polite to burp after eating. It shows appreciation. Not in the UK though. It’s considered rude (mal educado). That doesn’t stop my sister. She’s always burping.

How do we say tragar in English? - to swallow – Drink water when you swallow the pill. A pill is una pastilla

lamer in English is to lick. Lick ice cream, lick your lips – tus labios. Whenever I see a good chocolate cake I lick my lips.

morder in English is to bite. I’m not going to bite you. No te voy a morder.

chupar in English is to suck. Here’s a joke that you can tell your English teacher (if you have one). “I had a friend who drowned in a bowl of muesli. A strong current sucked him in.” Ask your teacher to explain that one.

 

 

Let’s see what you remember. I’ll say the Spanish verb and you say the translation before I do. OK, here we go.

 

morder - to bite

chupar – to suck

tragar – to swallow

masticar – to chew

lamer – to lick 

eructar – to burp 

 

Ok, let’s look at some verbs now that are used in connection with the eyes and the face.

 

parpadear means  to blink. I blinked in the sunlight when I came out of the cinema.

guiñar el ojoto wink. I winked at a girl in a bar yesterday, but she ignored me. The story of my life. Do you remember suspirar  - to sigh. I have no luck with girls. Maybe I should stop winking at them.

Ruborizarse in English is to blush. I’m very shy (timido). I blush easily. Girls put blusher on their face to make their cheeks (sus mejillas) red. Blusher is make-up (maquillaje)

sonreír abiertamente is to grin - GRIN. She was so happy to see me that she was grinning from ear to ear.

fruncir means to frown. I frowned when I realised we were going to be late again. Why are you frowning? What’s wrong?

 

Once again, I’m going to say the Spanish verb and I want you to say the English verb before I do. Ready?

 

parpadear – to blink

guiñar el ojo – to wink

ruborizarse – to blush

sonreír abiertamente – to grin

fruncir – to frown

And I apologise for my bad Spanish pronunciation.

 

In the business English section this month, there was an exercise to practise prepositions. Prepositions are difficult in English because they are often different from Spanish, so it doesn’t always help to translate.

Listen and repeat the sentences. All of the sentences start with the expression “I’m afraid…” . I’m afraid means Me temo or “I’m sorry, but….”

 

I'm afraid the manager’s at lunch.

I'm afraid Mr. Smith is in New York all this week.

I'm afraid she's on the other line.

I'm afraid Ms Walker is out of the office at the moment. Can I take a message?

I’m afraid he won’t be able to phone you back until this afternoon.

I'm afraid Ms Samuels is on holiday until next Wednesday.

I'm afraid Mr. Jameson is in a meeting at the moment.

I'm afraid you've been put through to the wrong department.

I'm afraid he's on a business trip until Thursday.

I'm afraid Mrs. Reeves is at our Head Office today.

 

Well, that’s it for this month. Thanks for listening. Remember to visit our online shop where you can find our business English cd, our First Certificate cd for the Cambridge FCE exam, our audio cds and many more. Just go to the mansioningles.com webpage and click on the cds on the right side of the home page. You can also follow us on Twitter, just search for MansionTwit, and don’t forget to join our growing community on our Facebook fan page.

 

See you next time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Direct download: Podcast_May_2010.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 12:51am CET

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 April 2010.

Thank you for all your positive feedback and comments on last month’s newsletter. Gracias por sus amables palabras sobre el cuaderno del mes pasado. Especialmente en nuestra página de Facebook. Si quieres seguirnos y participar en la página, busca La Mansión del Inglés desde tu cuenta de Facebook.

 

OK, let’s practise some irregular verbs. Vamos a practicar algunos verbos irregulares en inglés.

 

Cuando hablo Español, es muy difícil para mi saber cuando hay que decir el verbo ser o estar. En inglés es más fácil porque solo hay un verbo. Es el verbo to be.

Escucha y repite: be – was/were – been

El verbo golpear is to beat – beat – beat – beaten

El verbo llegar a ser is  to become - become – became – became

Empezar to begin – begin - began – begun

Morder bite – bite - bit – bitten

El verbo soplar blow - blow – blew – blown

El verbo romper is to break - break – broke – broken

Traer/llevar is to bring - bring – brought – brought

Edificar is to build - build – built – built

Quemar is to burn. There are two possible forms for the past and participle of burn. Hay dos formas posibles – burnt – BURNT or burned – BURNED. Repeat: to burn – burn - burnt / burned - burnt / burned

 

Ahora escucha de nuevo y intenta decir el segundo y tercero forma del verbo antes que lo digo yo.

 

be –                                 was / were – been

beat –                              beat – beaten

become –                         became – became

begin –                             began – begun

bite –                               bit – bitten

blow –                              blew – blown

break –                            broke – broken

bring –                             brought – brought

build –                              built – built

burn –                              burnt / burned – burnt / burned

 

 

 

Now let’s practise some idioms. Idioms are spoken or written sentences where the meaning is not always obvious from the individual words used.

 

For example,

My hands are tied means I have no choice. I can’t help you my hands are tied. Repeat: I’m sorry, my hands are tied. Tied – atado - to tie. Repeat: I’m sorry, my hands are tied. I’m afraid my hands are tied.

 

Hold your horses means that you are doing something too fast and they would like you to slow down. Hold your horses, will you! Just wait a minute. Repeat: Wait a minute, just hold your horses.

 

If you swallow your pride, you admit that you have been wrong about something or someone. You accept that you have to do something that is embarrassing. Swallow means tragar in Spanish and pride is orgullo. Repeat: Swallow your pride and apologise to her. I had to swallow my pride.

 

People who burn the candle at both ends work all hours of the day and night. They get little sleep or rest because they are busy until late every night and then get up early every morning. Repeat: She's burning the candle at both ends studying for her exams.

 

If something fishy is going on, then something suspicious is happening. If something is going on, algo esta pasando What’s going on? ¿Qué ocurre? Fishy can mean suspicious. For example: There are strange noises coming from David’s bedroom. Something fishy’s going on in there. Repeat: There’s something very fishy going on.

 

If someone is a dark horse, they are secretive and might surprise you. Like a dark horse in a horse race. Repeat: She’s a dark horse that one!

 

If you kill two birds with one stone you do two things at once. To kill is matar and a stone is una piedra.I saw some friends when I was in Madrid visiting my parents. I killed two birds with one stone. Repeat: I killed two birds with one stone.

 

A can of worms is a situation which causes a lot of trouble for you when you start to deal with it. A can is una lata and worms are gusanos. So, if you open up a can of worms, you cause a lot of trouble for yourself. Repeat: If you do that, you open up a can of worms. You’re opening a can of worms, you know.

 

If you let the cat out of the bag, pones en el aire lo que esta escondido. You reveal a secret or a surprise by accident. I was trying to keep the party a secret, but Sarah went and let the cat out of the bag.

Repeat: Don’t say anything. Don’t tell anyone. Don’t let the cat out of the bag.

 

If someone looks like a million dollars, they look fantastic. Wow! I love that dress, you look like a million dollars. Repeat: You look like a million dollars.

It’s officially spring now - estamos ya en la primavera oficialmente - and maybe you’re starting to think about your holidays. I know I am. So, let’s practise some holiday vocabulary.

 

When you travel by ship and stop at different places you go on a cruise. C-R-U-I-S-E. Be careful of the pronunciation. Listen: cruise, like Tom Cruise. Repeat: cruise. I’m going on a cruise. Notice the expression to go on. We go on holiday, we go on a trip, on a business trip. Repeat: I’m going on a trip to Barcelona. When are you going on your Mediterranean cruise? How often do you go on business trips?

 

Going on a trip is when you go somewhere, stay there and come back (on business or on holiday). It’s probably more common to say “go on a trip” than “travel”. Trip is a countable noun, travel is uncountable. “I went on a trip to Paris” – no se dice XI went on a travelX)

 

When you travel by plane you take a flight. Flight is a noun. The verb is to fly. Repeat: What time’s your flight? Did you find a cheap flight? Who are you flying with?

 

A tour is when you visit several places following an organised plan. Last year we went to Egypt on a package tour. A package tour is when the flights, hotels, transportation etc are included in the price.

 

When you travel a long way by sea, or in space, it’s called a voyage. “They embarked on a voyage across the sea.” – se fueron de viaje por mar.

 

When you travel from place to place by road, train etc. you go on a journey. Un viaje en train is a train journey. How long is the journey from Barcelona to Valencia? Repeat: How long is the journey from Barcelona to Valencia? Is it a long journey?

 

Now listen to, and repeat, the following holiday collocations:

 

Sea - deep blue sea, calm sea, cold sea, rough sea (a rough sea is agitado, picado the opposite of a rough sea is a calm sea)

 

tour - coach tour, sightseeing tour, package tour , guided tour (if you go sightseeing, haces turismo. – I went sightseeing in Paris. The sights are the famous and interesting things in a city. What are the sights in Paris? The Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, the Champs-Elysees. To see them is to go sightseeing. Repeat: go sightseeing. I went sightseeing in London. I saw all the sights. What are the sights in London? What’s the name of that big clock? Big Ben. What’s the name of that famous department store where the Queen goes shopping? Harrods. What’s the name of that big house where the Queen lives? Buckingham Palace. Where do David and Victoria Beckham live? Beckingham Palace!

 

holiday - summer holiday, package holiday, beach holiday, adventure holiday

 

trip coach trip (what’s the difference between coach and bus? A coach is usually for longer journeys, maybe from one city to another city. A bus is for travelling inside a city, for shorter journeys. A coach is usually more comfortable than a bus.) Repeat: We’re going on a coach trip. It’s cheaper to take a coach than a train, boat trip – a boat trip on the River Thames, day trip, business trip

 

resort (a resort is un centro turístico) - holiday resort, tourist resort, seaside resort, popular resort (seaside means playa, costa. I love going to seaside resorts – but not in England, the weather’s terrible!)

 

beach – a crowded beach (a crowded beach es una playa llena de gente Repeat: It’s crowded. The beach is crowded. It’s a crowded beach.) golden beach, sandy beach (sand is arena, so the adjective sandy means arenoso) repeat: a sandy beach, deserted beach (deserted means desierto o abandanado)

 

 

In the advanced section this month, we practised writing cleft sentences. Listen to the examples and repeat the sentences.

 

It was Bram Stoker who wrote Dracula in 1897.

It was in 1897 that Bram Stoker wrote Dracula.

It was Dracula that Bram Stoker wrote in 1897.

 

What people really love is Baloo the bear.

Baloo the bear is what people really love.

It is Baloo the bear that people really love.

 

What this bear is called is Baloo.

Baloo is what this bear is called.

This bear is called Baloo.

 

Most sightings have been reported in the Indian Jungle.

It is (in) the Indian Jungle where most sightings have been reported.

The Indian Jungle is where most sightings have been reported.

 

Suddenly the bear appeared out of nowhere.

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, the bear appeared.

 

Right there in front of me danced the cuddly bear.

It was the cuddly bear that danced right there in front of me.

 

What I didn’t expect to see in the jungle was a dancing bear.

A dancing bear was the last thing I expected to see in the jungle.

 

In the business English section this month, there was an exercise to practise abbreviations in business English. Listen to the abbreviations and try to say what they stand for before I say them.

 

AGM - Annual General Meeting

CEO - Chief Executive Officer

COB - Chairman Of the Board

a/c account

ASAP - as soon as possible

ATM - automated teller machine (Am. English - cash dispenser, Br. English – cashpoint)

Attn - for the attention of

cc - copy to

Co - company

COD - cash on delivery

dept - department

ETA - estimated time of arrival

GDP - gross domestic product

GNP - gross national product

Inc - incorporated

Jr - junior

Ltd - limited company

N/A - not applicable

NB - Nota Bene (Latin - it is important to note)

PA - personal assistant

p.a. - per annum (Latin - per year)

p.w. - per week

Plc - public limited company

p.p. - per pro (Latin - used before signing in a person's absence)

PR - public relations

p.s. - post scriptum (Latin – in Spanish posdata P.D.)

pto - please turn over

qty - quantity

R & D - research and development

re - with reference to

RSVP - repondez s'il vous plait (French - please reply)

VAT - value added tax

VIP - very important person

 

Well, that’s it for this month. Thanks for listening. Remember to visit our online shop where you can find our business English cd, our First Certificate cd for the Cambridge FCE exam, our audio cds and many more. Just go to mansioningles.com and click on the cds on the right side of the home page. You can also follow us on Twitter, just search for MansionTwit, and visit us on our Facebook fan page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Direct download: Podcast_April_2010.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:42pm CET

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.

 

tenertener 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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Direct download: 2010_March_Podcast.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 7:36pm CET

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

Good morning and welcome to another Mansión Inglés podcast from mansióninglés.com, recorded for February 2010. Is it two thousand and ten or twenty ten? I don’t know. Twenty ten has fewer syllables and it’s easier to say, but two thousand and ten seems more natural to me. I think we’ll have to wait and see what the majority of English speakers decide to say. Why not “two zero, one zero” just to be different?

Anyway, here’s where we talk about English. English vocabulary, English grammar, English expressions, pronunciation; “pronunciation” British English, American English, Spanglish English. All hopefully, to improve your English a little.

This month in our monthly newsletter – el cuaderno mensual, you probably saw a few general expressions in the basic section of the newsletter – la parte básico. If you did the exercise (and even if you didn’t) I want to test you. So I’m going to say the Spanish with my really bad Spanish pronunciation, and I want you to say the English translation before I do. So speak after you hear the tone. Di la traducción de las siguientes frases antes que las digo yo y después del tono. OK are you ready? ¿Listo?

  1. Gracias – Thank you.
  2. De nada - You’re welcome.
  3. ¿Qué tal? - How are you?
  4. No entiendo - I don’t understand.
  5. Tengo una reserva - I have a reservation
  6. ¿Cuánto cuesta? - How much is it?
  7. Quisiera un café - I’d like a coffee.
  8. ¿Cuál es tu número de teléfono? - What’s your phone number?
  9. ¿Te puedo dar un beso? - Can I kiss you? - Can I kiss you? 
  10. Tomaré lo mismo que ellos - I’ll have what they’re having.

Now listen to the English again and repeat. Escucha y repite.

 Thank you

You’re welcome

How are you?

I don’t understand

I have a reservation

How much is it?

I’d like a coffee

What’s your phone number?

Can I kiss you?

I’ll have what they’re having

Good. Now let’s move on to the intermediate and advanced part of the newsletter where you saw vocabulary connected to the five senses – los cinco sentidos. Do you remember what the five senses are in English?

oído - hearing

vista - sight

tacto - touch

gusto - taste

olor - smell

We can use five basic verbs to talk about the five senses. Listen and repeat:

to sound ; to look ; to feel ; to taste ; to smell

These verbs are usually modified by an adjective, not an adverb. For example:

My new iPod sounds fantastic. Repeat: My new iPod sounds fantastic.

She looks really sexy. Repeat: She looks really sexy

It felt weird (weird means raro o extraño). Repeat: It felt weird

This chicken tastes wonderful. Repeat: This chicken tastes wonderful.

The cake smelt delicious. Repeat: The cake smelt delicious.

In the hearing exercise there were six adjectives to describe sound. Listen and repeat: 

noiseless – a noiseless environment.

silent – a silent prayer. A prayer, P-R-A-Y-E-R is oración in Spanish. Repeat- a silent prayer.

quiet – a quiet person

noisy -.  A noisy bar

loud – loud music

deafening – a deafening noise. Sordo is deaf, so we say a deaf person. “Can you hear me? Are you deaf?” - The verb is to deafen. And the adjective is deafening. Repeat: a deafening noise.

Do you remember the sight vocabulary? Maybe there are some words here that you haven’t heard before. For example:

to glimpse – vislumbrar. Glimpse is a verb and a noun. The noun glimpse likes to go together with the verb to catch. To catch a glimpse of something. What’s the past of the verb to catch? …….caught. ¡OJO! - Be careful of the pronunciation of caught C-A U-G-H-T. I caught a glimpse. Repeat..I caught a glimpse. I caught of glimpse of Penelope Cruz - I caught of glimpse of Penelope Cruz in a restaurant in Madrid last week. To catch a glimpse of someone or something.

Then we had the verb to gaze - mirar fijamente I can gaze out of the window for hours just thinking of nothing. Actually I’m lucky to have a flat with a view of the sea, so I do gaze out of the window quite often. Just gazing out to sea and daydreaming – when I should be working! To daydream is soñar despierto/a.

to stare also means mirar fijamente, but I think it is with more intensity - más intensidad - than to gaze. “Who are you staring at?” ¿A quién estás mirando?

It’s staring you right in the face – Salta a la vista. “She was staring into the distance” - tenía la vista fija en la distancia o miraba fijamente a lo lejos.

The verb to peer P-E-E-R means tratar de ver, esforzarse por ver. To look at something with difficulty.”He peered into the fog, but he couldn’t see anything.” “My grandmother peered at me over the top of her glasses.”

to glance means to look quickly - echarle una ojeada o un vistazo a algo. She glanced at me as I walked past her desk.” “We glanced at each other discreetly.”

to notice is notar, o darse cuenta, o fijarse – “I didn't notice what he was wearing that day.” no me fijé en lo que llevaba ese día – “I noticed some words painted on the wall.” Me fijé en algunas palabras pintadas en la pared.

Sight verbs often have the preposition at. To look at, to gaze at, to stare at, to glance at etc.

The next group of words was connected to the verb to touch. Listen and repeat:

to snatcharrebater, arrancar – A thief snatched her handbag.

to pressapretar – press the button to turn it on

to grabagarrar – Can you grab that box for me?

to strokeacariciar – My cat loves to be stroked.

to tapdar un golpecito a – The screen is touch-sensitive. Just tap on an icon to open an application.

Next we had the verb to taste with some taste adjectives. How does a lemon taste? A lemon tastes sour.

And sugar? Sugar tastes sweet

Black coffee? Black coffee tastes bitter.

Crisps are papas. In British English, we say crisps for papas. In American English, papas are chips or potato chips. Of course, chips in British English are patatas fritas. How do you say patatas fritas in American English? Fries or French fries. Well they used to say French fries before the Gulf War, and when France refused to support America against Iraq, French fries became Freedom Fries. So I don’t know what they are called in America now. Probably just fries.

Anyway, how do crisps usually taste? Crisps or chips in the USA taste salty.

Indian food, Mexican food, some Thai food taste very spicy. Repeat Spicy. I love spicy food, especially curry. One of the best things in the world is to go to the pub, drink 6 or 7 pints of good English beer and then go for a Curry in a good Indian restaurant. You should try that sometime. It’s good for your English.

And finally, we had four adjectives connected to the sense of smell. Listen and repeat:

scented – perfumado - repeat: scented – a scented candle

fragrant – fragante - repeat: - a fragrant perfume

smelly – que huele mal, maloliente - repeat: smelly feet

stinking – apestoso/a, pestilente - repeat: stinking rubbish

Listen and repeat:

I feel great

It tastes delicious

That smells fantastic

It sounds brilliant

Hey, you look great

He smells disgusting

I never put vinegar on salads. It tastes too sour for me.

She smiled at me, gazed into my eyes and I fell in completely in love with her.

Strong cheese gets really smelly if you leave it out of the fridge too long in the summer.

If I’m too noisy while my dad’s reading the newspaper, he peers over his glasses at me and stares at me until I’m quiet.

To turn on the computer, press the silver button until you see a green light.

You forgot to put the milk back in the fridge. It tastes sour. It must have gone off.

Get your smelly feet off the table immediately!

Would you mind if we went to a different pub? This one’s too noisy. I can’t hear myself think.

Here’s some more vocabulary with the word ‘sense’. Listen to the Spanish and try to say the English word or expression before I do, then repeat to practise pronunciation.

un sentido del oído - a SENSE of hearing

un sentido del olfato - a SENSE of smell

un sentido del gusto - a SENSE of taste

un sentido del tacto - a SENSE of touch

entrar en razón - to come to one's SENSES

un sentido de la orientación – a SENSE of direction

un sentido del humor – a SENSE of humour

no tiene el más mínimo sentido del humor - He's got absolutely no sense of humour.

perdí completamente la noción del tiempo - I lost all SENSE of time

sentido común - common SENSE

Tuvo la sensatez de dejar su número de contacto - She had the SENSE to leave her contact number

no puedo hacerlo entrar en razón - I can't make him see SENSE

ser comprensible, tener sentido - To make sense

en cierto modo ambos tienen razón - In a SENSE they're both correct" -

Esto no tiene sentido - That doesn't make SENSE

lo que dijo era muy razonable - What he said made a lot of SENSE

un sentido de la justicia - A SENSE of justice 

un sentido del ritmo - A SENSE of rhythm 

un sentido de la orientación - A SENSE of direction 

un sentido de satisfacción - A SENSE of satisfaction 

no tiene sentido ser violento - There is no SENSE in being violent

dar un sentido de responsabilidad - to give a sense of responsibility 

buen juicio - good sense 

de cierto modo  - in a sense   

dar sentido – to make sense  

sentido metafórico - metaphorical sense

buen sentido al conducir  - road sense  

sentido del deber - sense of duty 

sentido del bien y el mal - sense of right and wrong  

sexto sentido - sixth sense  

That was a podcast from mansioningles.com. Thanks for listening and see you next month.

 

 

Direct download: February_2010_Vocabulary_The_5_Senses.mp3
Category:podcasts -- posted at: 8:54pm CET

 

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

You’re going to listen to a text about the Simpsons. Before you listen, here is some vocabulary from the text.

careless = descuidado, despreocupado

precocious = precoz

to suck = chupar

pacifier (US) / dummy (UK) = chupete

role = papel

Now listen to the text

The Simpsons are a typical family who live in the fictional "Mid-American" town of Springfield. Homer, the father, works as a safety inspector at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant - a job which doesn’t really fit his careless, clown-like personality. He’s married to Marge Simpson, a typical American housewife and mother. They have three children: Bart, who is ten years old; Lisa, who is eight years old; and Maggie, a baby who rarely speaks, but communicates by sucking on a pacifier. The family has a dog, Santa's Little Helper, and a cat, Snowball II. Both pets have had starring roles in several episodes. The first Simpsons episode was shown in 1987. Despite the passing of the years and celebrations such as holidays or birthdays, the Simpsons do not physically age and still look the same as they did at the end of the 1980s.

Listen to some answers to questions about the text. Try to ask the questions BEFORE you hear them. Ask the questions after the tone.

1. Springfield             

Where do the Simpsons live?

2. Homer      

What’s the father’s name?

3. At the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant

Where does Homer work?

4. He’s a safety inspector

What does he do?

5. Marge Simpson

Who is he married to?

What’s his wife’s name?

6. Three

How many children do they have?

How many children have they got?

7. Bart, Lisa and Maggie.

What are the children’s names?

8. He’s 10.

How old is Bart?

9. Yes, A dog and a cat.

Do they have any pets?

10. Snowball II

What’s the cat’s name?

11. In 1987

When was the first Simpsons episode?

12. No, they look the same as they did at the end of the 1980’s.

Do the Simpsons physically age?

Listen and repeat the questions. Copy the intonation.

1. Where do the Simpsons live?

2. What’s the father’s name?

3. Where does Homer work?

4. What does he do?

5. Who’s he  married to? /What’s his wife’s name?

6. How many children do they have? / How many children have they got?

7. What are the children’s names?

8. How old is Bart?

9. Do they have any pets?

10. What’s the cat’s name?

11. When was the first Simpsons episode?

12. Do the Simpsons physically age?

During the interviews on last month’s podcast you heard some adjectives that are used to describe people (nice, lovely, kind, friendly etc.)

What are the English adjectives for these Spanish ones? Say the English translation before I do. They are all similar translations.

tolerante - tolerant

paciente - patient

sociable - sociable

aventurero/a - adventurous

maduro/a - mature

sincero/a - sincere

decidido/a, resuelto/a -  decisive

práctico/a practical

Listen and repeat the adjectives.

tolerant

patient

sociable

adventurous

mature

sincere

decisive

practical

Here are some more adjectives for you to translate. Say the English translation before I do.

educado/a - polite                         

tacaño/a, malo/a  -  mean

egoísta  - selfish

perezoso/a - lazy

sensible - sensitive

sensato/a - sensible

malhumorado/a, de humor variable - moody  

de fiar, de confianza - reliable 

de mal humor, mal genio - bad-tempered

alegre - cheerful

Listen and repeat:

polite

mean

selfish

lazy

sensitive

sensible

moody

reliable

bad-tempered

cheerful

Do you know the opposites of the following adjectives? Some have the prefix un- (u-n), for example selfish – unselfish. Some have the prefix in- (i-n), for example intolerant.  Some have the prefix im- (i-m), for example impolite, and some have a different word to make the opposite, for example lazy and hard-working.

Try to say the opposite before I do, and then repeat the word to practise pronunciation.

reliable - unreliable – repeat - unreliable

mature – immature repeat - immature

lazy – hard working repeat - hard working

sincere - insincere repeat - insincere

practical - impractical repeat - impractical

selfish - unselfish repeat - unselfish

sensitive - insensitive repeat - insensitive

patient - impatient – repeat - impatient

sociable - unsociable repeat - unsociable

sensible – foolish / silly repeat - foolish / silly

polite - impolite / rude repeat - impolite / rude

decisive - indecisive repeat - indecisive

adventurous - unadventurous repeat - unadventurous

mean – generous repeat - generous

moody – even-tempered repeat - even-tempered

practical - impractical repeat - impractical

tolerant - intolerant – repeat - intolerant

cheerful – miserable repeat - miserable

bad-tempered – sweet-tempered, calm repeat - sweet-tempered, calm

Now listen to some sentences and guess the missing adjective from the previous list. Say the adjective after the tone.

  1. Thank you so much for lunch in this lovely restaurant. It was very (tone) of you. generous
  2. A person who doesn’t like to meet and spend time with other people is (tone) unsociable
  3. He’s 43 years old and he behaves like a child. He’s so (tone)  immature
  4. I like trekking, skiing, climbing and exploring different countries, but my wife only wants to sit next to a swimming pool all day. She’s so (tone) unadventurous / lazy
  5. The opposite of selfish is (tone)  unselfish
  6. My sister is always smiling, laughing and in a good mood. I don’t know what makes her so (tone) all the time. cheerful
  7. The waiter will bring your dessert in a moment, darling. Don’t be so (tone) impatient
  8. It takes me such a long time to make up my mind whenever I go shopping. I’m so (tone) indecisive
  9. Don’t believe a word he says. He never tells the truth and he cannot be trusted. He’s so (tone) insincere
  10. You left your wallet on the table outside, and went inside the café to go to the toilet! That wasn’t very (tone) was it? I’m not surprised it was stolen. sensible

Listen and repeat

  1. That’s very generous of you.  
  2. Don’t be so unsociable. 
  3. He behaves like a child. He’s so immature. 
  4. My wife’s so lazy and unadventurous
  5. The opposite of selfish is unselfish 
  6. My sister is always so cheerful. 
  7. Don’t be so impatient darling.
  8. I’m so indecisive, I think. No I’m not. Yes, I am!
  9. Don’t believe him he’s so insincere. 
  10. That wasn’t very sensible was it? That was bloody stupid!