September 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 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 vender – to 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 disparar – to 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